Latest reviews from Ventura
| 80 /100 76 S. OAK ST “Nice brewery in beautiful downtown Ventura. 16 beers on tap. Some barrels. $15 for a flight of 5. Very nice to drop by on your way down the coast.“ |
| 76 /100 585 E THOMPSON BLVD “Came here on 19.10.2023. L-shaped building. Brewery is very visible from the outside patio. About 15 beers on tap, most are organic and some gluten free. Very good music, seems they have frequent live events. Very friendly and attentive service.“ |
| 76 /100 76 S. OAK ST “We came here on 19.10.2023. Was our first stop during our 2023 USA vacation. Around 15 beers on tap. The 2 West Coast IPA‘s we had were excellent. Modern bar with a separate barrel storage room also used for special events. Liked the way how their beers are explained on the board listing the hops used and tasting notes.“ |
| 80 /100 76 S. OAK ST “Nice looking bright industrial space. Large open area in the middle of the tap room with some tables around the edge. Friendly bar staff and a fairly large number of styles on at any one time. It leaned heavily to pale ales and stouts when I was in, but I get the sense they kind of do everything. I stopped in a few times and enjoyed most of the stuff I tried.“ |
| 78 /100 104 E THOMPSON BLVD “Super chill spot a bit out of the center of town. There's a couple of food trucks parked in the lot. There's a decent selection of stuff here and the staff were very friendly. There was an open mike the night I was in. The beer were well made and covered a pretty broad range of styles. Worth a stop.“ |
| 60 /100 585 E THOMPSON BLVD “This place is brand new so they only have 4 on tap. This place is an organic and gluten reduced brewery which is unique. Great location and building. I will give them another try in a few months when they should have more of a selection.“ |
| 90 /100 104 E THOMPSON BLVD “Don’t let the 101-adjacent location fool you, this place is all-chill. The beer is terrific, the bartenders are helpful and knowledgeable and the beer is the best in Ventura. Big fan.“ |
| 68 /100 104 E THOMPSON BLVD “Visited on a Thursday evening. It sits along a busy street in a semi-sketchy edge of downtown Ventura. It’s not a big space, either, even with the walled-in outside area. We stumbled onto some kind of amateur art exhibition, which was something out of a reality TV show. Again, like most new neighborhood brewers, you gotta line up at a counter and order. Decent lineup, decent beers, friendly people all around. Brewery #757.“ |
| 72 /100 1744 DONLON ST “Kind of an impromptu opportunity visit on a Thursday afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a relatively upscale, glitzy, yet industrial setting, with welcoming seating both in and outdoors. New biz model ... go to the counter and order from a list of 9 beers or so. We had 1/2 pints of three, all of which were pretty good if indistinctive. I’d like to revisit. Brewery #756.“ |
| 74 /100 1744 DONLON ST “Next stop in Ventura on my way back to LA/OC. Actually quite close to Surf, but a little more off the freeway and back in an industrial/business park maze.
Pretty amble parking, a decent sized patio area, and an enormous, cavernous brewery and tasting room. Design is very modern with some classic feel to it (like the signage above the taps indicating what beers are on tap and pricing straight out of a drive-in movie theater). Ample seating and standing space throughout. They had a half dozen beers on tap during my visit. I opted for a flight of four. The only one I didn’t care for really was the "Standard". Nothing really blew me away, but all the others were fine. Their pale ale was the favorite. it’s a decent enough brewery and another fine addition to the circuit here in the Ventura/Santa Barbara area.“ |
| 84 /100 104 E THOMPSON BLVD “Stopped in just about as they opened on a Friday afternoon on my way to Southern California. It was POURING rain that day, so nobody taking advantage of the small patio area that is out front in the scenic parking lot. The tasting room is very modern in terms of the decor, which I quite liked, maybe a little bit of a surfer vibe too. Nice sized bar to sit at.
They have a solid set of beers here, which is what really impressed me, since I usually expect every new brewery I go to will be meh (only half serious). Some good hoppy beers, a nice stout, barrel aged stout sample from the brewer was pretty nice as well. Doing good things with a variety of styles. Cool people hanging at the bar, friendly bartender and staff. Definitely recommend coming here. It’s also a short walk from the downtown Ventura spots like Anacapa or Barrel House 101.“ |
| 78 /100 Barrelhouse 101 (Restaurant) 545 E THOMPSON BLVD “Checked it out after a day at the Ventura beach. The place has a nice pub interieur, the service is fast, nice and still laidback - I have the feeling this is normal for California. I did not check on their beer knowledge, but it might be true that they don’t know too much: most places I’ve been to around here always commented my choices and you could talk to the waitresses about beer. 101 taps, they have a nice range with a little bit of everything - mostly Californians and IPAs though (just right for me as a California tourist). The food value is surprisingly good, the beer value is average for this region. They also have a bottle cellar, but these bottles can get quite expensive. Definitely a recommendation if you’re in Ventura!“ |
| 74 /100 5777 OLIVAS PARK DR, UNIT Q “Despite the fact that it’s not very far off the freeway, it took me awhile to get here because I trusted my GPS which took me some dumb way. Just exit Victoria and go from there. It’s also hard to figure out where exactly you need to go once you arrive at the address, but the tasting room is pretty close to the main road (Olivas Park Dr).
The tasting room itself is pretty nice for a business park brewery. Wooden decor and nautical decorations everywhere. Neat. There’s a number of small tables and a small bar as well. They had a pretty good selection during my stop, 9 beers, though one or two of them were on nitro as well as CO2. They do flights, but if you’re trying everything it’s a lot of beer. I bargained with them to do half-tasters of each of the beers, which they thought was really weird and admittedly it is. Overall beer quality was not great, though their Grapefruit IPA was pretty decent. Really good service, though. And the place is clean and nice to hang out in.“ |
| 78 /100 Barrelhouse 101 (Restaurant) 545 E THOMPSON BLVD “Third time here. Mondays are nice because they have happy hour all day ($1 off all beers with some appetizer specials). Comfortable. Music is probably too loud. Very chill on a Monday afternoon (busier Sunday afternoon). 100 beers on tap, tasters available. Hard to beat this kind of diversity!“ |
| 74 /100 5777 OLIVAS PARK DR, UNIT Q “Visited December 14, 2014.
I heard about this on my last trip up 101 while at brewLAB in Carpenteria. There was a guy there with a short bus parked out back that does brewery tours and he said that he had just come from Poseidon. This makes three breweries in Ventura now, with three more in the works (Sessions, Topa Topa, and another one that I can’t remember). This brewery is hidden all the way in the back of a long industrial business park No signs out front so check the map / GPS. Inside is a smallish tasting room with a couple of windows to the brewing area; one looking into the cooler where they serve from tanks and cold crash, and the other where the brewing and fermentation happens. The furniture is all wood. They have a small dog that runs around but I’m not sure if they allow other dogs. Naturally everything is nautical themed. Turns out that the owner/brewer is or was a sailor in the navy. They had about a dozen beers on during my visit. I tried a taster of all of them, for $2 a piece. Not really possible to finish 50 oz of beer but they didn’t seem to mind the fact that I only had about half of each taster. My three favorites were the grapefruit IPA, the Belgian IPA, and the pale ale. My least favorite was the porter or the marzen. They seem to rotate beers quite often, so they’re definitely good for ticks if you’re passing through. I’ll stop in again eventually when I check out some of the new breweries in the area as they open. Oh, and they’re next door to a coffee place so you can check that out if you’re into the whole cold pressed coffee thing.“ |
| 74 /100 Barrelhouse 101 (Restaurant) 545 E THOMPSON BLVD “Visited September 14, 2014.
Once again I failed to get to Santa Barbara before 7 pm to visit New Order Brewing. What kind of brewery closes at 7pm? I understand that there isn’t much incentive to be open on a Sunday night but they close early on Fridays and Saturdays too. One of these days (Alice), one of these days. Anyway, this was the consolation prize. Not sure how I never stopped here because it’s RIGHT next to the freeway entrance and it’s a couple blocks from Anacapa. Better late than never I guess. First off they really do have 101 taps. They have about a dozen IPAs, several DIPAs, some pales, and some other hoppy stuff. All combined it makes up probably 20-25% of the tap list. I tried a Drakes beer that I hadn’t heard of before that wasn’t very good so I went with the Schneider Hopfenweise that may not have been all that fresh. Not bad but a little strange. Just based on the location and beer selection I’d give this about an 80 or so overall but parking was not easy and for some reason it took 20 minutes to get a cup of soup (that came out lukewarm). Beyond that everything was good. The soup wasn’t bad. They were going for the Mexican thing. They even had a side dish with some radish and lemon. The guy next to me at the bar had a burger with some crumbled cheese on it. I’d probably stop in again for a bite if Anacapa wasn’t open. Prices were kind of high. $4 for a small cup of soup and $9 for a "pint" of Hopfenweisse. Add in tax and my total pre-tip was $16 for a cup of soup and a beer. Hmm.“ |
| 76 /100 Barrelhouse 101 (Restaurant) 545 E THOMPSON BLVD “Pretty decent food at reasonable rpices for Ventura. 101 taps is no lie! I had a grilled chicken Cesar sandwich with a salad that was very good. Lots of local drafts as well as more well know ones.“ |
| 100 /100 Sams Saticoy Liquor & Delivery Service (Beer Store) 1500 LOS ANGELES AVE “Best Liquor store in Ventura County!!! Huge craft beer selection and they deliver!!!“ |
| 72 /100 Barrelhouse 101 (Restaurant) 545 E THOMPSON BLVD “Was the first person in the door, so hard to judge it. Pretty large and open place. Kind of reminded me of a place like the Yardhouse or T. Phillips. Service was good, but the bartender didn’t seem to know much about beer. They offer flights of 3 with adding special beers adding an extra buck on to the base price of $8. Prices on other beers can be a bit excessive ($8-$9 range for a pour). Selection was pretty good overall. Would probably come back here if I was hanging out in Ventura.“ |
| 66 /100 The Wine Castle (Beer Store) 4711 TELEPHONE RD “Located just off the freeway, so this is a pretty convenient location. In a large shopping center, plenty of parking. This is mostly a wine store, but there is a pretty sizable selection of beer, too. Pretty cramped setup. It’s certainly on the upper end of what I would consider acceptable in terms of pricing. Lots of central coast offerings (Island, Figueroa Mountain, Firestone, etc.). Not much in the way of service, but the guy working was friendly enough.“ |
| 66 /100 The Wine Castle (Beer Store) 4711 TELEPHONE RD “Visited November 3, 2013.
Located in a large shopping center on a main street. There is a Ross and a Starbucks in the same shopping center in case you drive by and not see the sign (like I did). The selection isn’t bad but it’s expensive as all hell. No way I was going to pay $15 for a Rodenbach Grand Cru. They have a lot of the big names in California present like Anchor, Sierra, Stone, Firestone, Drakes, Green Flash, and now also Knee Deep, Figueroa Mountain, and Heretic. The clerk was nice and asked twice if I needed any help. I didn’t have the heart to tell him his prices suck ass and I won’t be spending any money there. At least parking is easy, even if getting back to the freeway isn’t entirely obvious.“ |
| 68 /100 Mandell’s (Beer Store) 3915 TELEGRAPH RD “Standard liquor store with easy to find micros, mainly central California stuff and brews from some other west coast breweries. Nothing to go out of your way for. Prices are quite reasonable.“ |
| 72 /100 Barrelhouse 101 (Restaurant) 545 E THOMPSON BLVD “Have been a few times and just getting around to reviewing it. As the name suggests there are 101 beers on tap, mostly IPAs and pale ales, and some Belgians as well. There are a handful of stouts,porters and sours, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The servers are very attentive, but their beer knowledge is non-existent. Fun place and good food.“ |
| 76 /100 Barrelhouse 101 (Restaurant) 545 E THOMPSON BLVD “Stopped in yesterday to talk work with a colleague over beer. It has that chainy Yardhouse-esqe feel to it, but there is plenty of room to spread out. 101 beers on tap, arranged by style on the menu and all numbered. Our server had no clue about beer and was happy when you ordered by number rather than name. Some pretty good locals on tap, as well as a smattering of beers from around the country and world. Nothing Earth shattering, but you are going to find something to enjoy. Prices a bit on the high side.“ |
| 64 /100 The Wine Castle (Beer Store) 4711 TELEPHONE RD “Better selection than Mandell’s, but higher prices as well. Nothing really special here either, but a decent selection of shelf locals and imports.“ |
| 56 /100 Mandell’s (Beer Store) 3915 TELEGRAPH RD “Pretty small, standard liquor store feel. Decent selection of locals and easy to find Belgians. Nothing special. Process are better than the competition“ |
| 74 /100 Mandell’s (Beer Store) 3915 TELEGRAPH RD “This place is a must for good beer. It has a much better selection of good beers than Bevmo.“ |
| 48 /100 The Wine Castle (Beer Store) 4711 TELEPHONE RD “Decent strip mall bottle shop if you are in the area and need a decent variety of brews. But it is jammed and their microbrews are not very complete with for example only three Alesmiths on the shelf when I visited.“ |
| 66 /100 The Wine Castle (Beer Store) 4711 TELEPHONE RD “A buddy of mine needed to stop by the ATM, and as we pulled near, I saw this little shop nearby, so I ran in for a look-see. Really cramped quarters upon entering. Narrow aisles run the length of the store. The right wall of the place is dedicated to beer. A nice cooler section filled with a good number of CA-offerings. Decent amount of bombers, and the Belgian section was above average. From what I saw of the prices, they seemed reasonable for the area. Nice little shop that were I staying in the area, I would get my bottle-fix for sure.“ |
