This husband and wife operation have taken Monkish Brewing from humble beginnings to one of the hottest new(ish) breweries in Los Angeles. A program which kicked off with a few random Belgian ales back in 2012 has expanded to produce some of the best hazy IPA’s and stouts and then on to a respectable barrel/souring program. It’s funny as the latter was actually what they wanted to focus on originally! Henry Nguyen, the pastor turned head brewer now focuses mainly on the microbial bacteria….more commonly known now as Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus – the 3 main players that create that funky, tart and acetic aroma and flavour in your sour beer.
The brewery bar has a relatively small but stellar range of beers. They offer 12 taps but no paddles so we slowly worked our way through from lightest to darkest starting with the Belgians – Tape Deck and Feminist – both were OK but somewhat forgettable. We moved on to the sours next. Silent Language and Invert The Sun were both absolutely delicious and a huge step up from the Belgians. We hit the crescendo with their IPA’s which were all in the NEIPA style, super cloudy, juicy and ultra smashy. We finished on their Russian Imperial Stout (Matrimonium) which was big, roasty and aggressive…a lovely way to finish off.
We really enjoyed visiting this joint. It had a great atmosphere out the back where you can literally sit amongst the barrels and tanks while you tuck in to whatever mobile food truck is attending on the day. Certainly wouldn’t mind having this place around the corner!