10 Best Beer Bars In Los Angeles
With craft beer L.A.'s current unyielding obsession, it seems crazier than a 55% ABV beer that four short years ago that we were celebrating, along with dozens of tube sock-clad homebrew club sorts, the first local bars to land coveted cask-conditioned ales on tap. My how that fedora-topped draft beer crowd has changed L.A.'s IPA game. Since then, the surge in local craft beer bars, gastropubs, breweries and brewpubs has been so swift and topographically democratic, you'd have to be a Metropolitan Transit Authority employee with a great bus token credit report to hit them all. 
Elina Shatkin Beer Sampler At Beer Belly
So many that that today, separate top ten lists for local craft beer bars/gastropubs and another for breweries/brewpubs in L.A. would make the most logical sense. You could even divide both those categories in pre and post cask-conditioned ale era -- our beloved dark, dank, Frito-filled pubs with a handful of loyal weathered taps on one side, the pretty picture chalkboard menu types with bubbly IPA atmospheres and enough short rib slider variations to keep you going all night on the other. But as we like to make our draft beer decisions exceedingly difficult, we've combined every single one of those bar, brewery, gastropub and brewpub categories into one for the 10 Best Beer Bars In L.A.
And yeah, please do add your neighborhood favorites (Simmzy's, Lucky Baldwins, Angel City Brewing, City Tavern, Blue Palms, 38 Degrees, Library Alehouse, Ye Olde King's Head... we could go on) that didn't make it on this list in the comments below. We only wish we could have, too.
10. Golden Road 
Amy Scattergood Golden Road's IPA In Cans On The Bottling Line
The first locally made craft beer in a can? That would get on the consideration list on its own. But this is really good craft beer in a can. And no, you don't have to drink it in the can at the brewery's onsite pub, but you *can* if you feel like it (sorry). Nothing against Dale's Pale Ale, which was the canned craft beer inspiration here, but in Southern California, we have IPA loyalties. There's also the Tony Yanow factor, which yes, does seem to have become a local craft beer business factor (see our #3 pick). 5410 W. San Fernando Road, Los Angeles, 213-373-4677.
9. Beachwood BBQ & Brewing
Daniel Drennon Beachwood BBQ & Brewing
There's a high tech (in beer terms, at least) system that keeps each beer at its ideal temperature (ales at 38 degrees, imperial stouts at 48 degrees), a digital camera so you can monitor what beers are available on tap at any given iPhone moment, and an ever-changing assortment of two dozen beers from other breweries (read: competitors) on tap alongside those brewed in house here. Beachwood BBQ & Brewing epitomizes modern brewpub democracy at its finest. Although keep in mind that something-for-everyone mentality works best with the beer, as the menu here is overflowing in a few too many Cobb salads. But stick to chef-owner Gabe Gordon's creative takes on increasing your cholesterol (buffalo sloppy joes, habanero-sauced lamb corn dogs), and you'll be more than happy to stay for another beer -- yes, even if it means driving out to Long Beach. 210 E. 3rd St., Long Beach, 562-436-4020.
8. Eagle Rock Brewery
J Garbee A Black And Tan In The Making At Eagle Rock's Tap Room
Two years ago, Eagle Rock Brewery was our (brand new) local favorite brewery (though in all fairness, we'd probably give the The Bruery that best-of hat if it weren't in Orange County). Several great new breweries have opened up in the greater L.A. area since father-son homebrewers Steve and Jeremy Raub took the retail plunge, but we're still partial to the Integrity and Solidarity that sure, you can taste here.
Even still, as sipping a pint at a brewery is as much about the atmosphere as about that black IPA on tap, no other local brewery has mastered that laid-back, Portland vibe L.A. previously lacked in its pints better than Eagle Rock. It's the sort of place where mottos like "beer for the people," brew names like Revolution and Manifesto, and a women's beer forum come off as genuine efforts (because they are), not something dreamed up in an investment firm tower to appeal to the beer masses. This is the sort of bare-bones tap room that temps you stay for a caffeine-spiked black and tan and a game of scrabble, even though you really just came by to fill up your growler. 3056 Roswell St., Glassell Park, 323-257-7866.
Turn the page for #7, etc...
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