18 Best California Craft Beers

Sometimes there's nothing better than a nice, cold beer. That blend of carbonation and hops was made for football parties, backyard barbecues, and hot summer days on the beach. Of course we could go with the big names like Coors and Budweiser, but every so often we like to try something  different. Something with more flavor, made using all natural or local ingredients. Something created right in our own backyard. These are the craft beers and they're not as hard to find as they used to be. 

According to the Brewer's Association there are over nine thousand craft breweries in the United States, and in California alone there are more than 900, making it the state with the largest number of craft breweries. While we definitely have our favorites in the Golden State, we have yet to try every single California expression. So, since we don't have the time (or tolerance) to hit all 939 breweries, we reached out to several bartenders who specialize in craft beers to get their favorite California brews. Read on to see if they match your top picks or if there's something new you should try for yourself.

If you're looking for an old-fashioned West Coast IPA style, James Sinclair, a bartender at Select Beer in Redondo Beach, recommends ISM Brewing in Long Beach. "The beer [ISM] makes is light, crisp, extremely flavorful, refreshing, and thoroughly drinkable," he says. That's not a big surprise since Ian McCall, the man behind ISM, has been brewing beer since 2013, collecting more experience as the years have gone on. 

ISM, however, has only been around for two years. But since its opening in November of 2023, the Long Beach brewery has made headlines and produced several award winning brews, one of which is Sinclair's favorite — Chepedelic which recently won gold at the Great American Beer Fest. He likes the West Coast IPA, because he says it "feels like it's on the cutting edge of what the modern West Coast IPA can be."

"Malt-forward beers have been taking a backseat to straight hop delivery vehicles for at least 15 years," Kendell Worden explains. (How many more variants of IPA will they conjure?) "But," she says, "the charms of a well-brewed amber or brown are undeniable." Enter AleSmith. It's a San Diego brewery that Worden, general manager of Hop City Beer & Wine, believes is a god-tier creator or malted masterpieces.

The masters at AleSmith are Skip Virgilio and Ted Newcomb, two men who brewed beer at home, and joined forces to open up AleSmith in 1995. Since opening, the brewery has created several award winning beers from pale ales to stouts, making it a brewery that a lot of people consider to be the best in the U.S. But it's the brewery's amber ales that Worden really enjoys. AleSmith's "My Bloody Valentine is a hoppy red ale guaranteed to make you fall in love," Worden declares. "It pours mahogany with garnet highlights, and it drinks with so much layered complexity."

"For strong, barrel aged stout beers, Bottle Logic out of Anaheim are still the reigning kings of the style," asserts bartender James Sinclair. Created in 2014, the brewery has a futuristic aesthetic reminiscent of psychedelic science fiction posters. That fun, fantastical look isn't just all over the brewery, it extends to the beers' labels as well. You can find brews with names like Burn for the Moon, Fuzzy Logic, Order of Combat, and Space Trace on tap or available in cans to go. 

But if you're looking for a strong stout, Sinclair says the Darkstar November is "the gold standard." He describes the barrel aged stout that started it all as being "very delicious, with depth of flavor while not being overly sweet (like many [barrel aged] stouts) and have the perfect viscosity. Like syrup for adults."

Darkstar November isn't the only barrel aged stout from Bottle Logic that James Sinclair, bartender at Select Beer in Redondo Beach, raves about. He really likes Red Eye November as well. It's true both are barrel aged stouts and both have that same syrupy mouthfeel. But what sets these two bottles apart are the ingredients. 

Darkstar was Bottle Logic's first foray into barrel aged stouts. Once that bottle did well, the brewers followed the same recipe, brewing the stout with molasses and rye and then aging it in bourbon barrels. But they added one extra ingredient to Red Eye: coffee. Now in it's seventh bottling, each version of Red Eye November has used a different blend of coffee beans. The original 2017 bottle used a blend of Brazil Oberon and Sumatran coffee beans from Mostra Coffee. The 2024 used El Salvador Las Lomas coffee beans from supervising Bottle Logic brewer, Bryan Barron's, own Long Beach-based coffee roasting company called Black Ring Coffee.

Before Korbel Champagne decided to get into the beer business and hired Vinnie Cilurzo to be its brewmaster, he had his own brewery: Blind Pig Brewing Company. It was there that Cilurzo first created his Blind Pig Inaugural Ale, a double IPA that's made with Amarillo, Citra, Cascade, Tangier,  and Nectaron hops.

Now 22 years and two breweries later, Russian River Brewing Company is still brewing this West Coast IPA, a beer the owners of The Silver Stamp in Las Vegas believe is "just insanely drinkable." But what Rose Signor and Andrew Smith really appreciate about Russian River, a brewery considered to be one of the best in the United States, is its devotion to using fresh ingredients. 

"When you're drinking Blind Pig, you know you're drinking the beer the way it was intended to be consumed," the couple say. Signor and Smith believe that this IPA "is everything you want from the style without overdoing anything." 

Back in 2012, Ryan Nosek, Sam Carr-Prindle, Jason Gehman, and Adam Hill were looking for place in which their metal band could practice. Every place they found was too expensive. So, they thought brewing beer would help offset the rent of their practice space. But instead of becoming a side hustle, Ghost Town Brewing turned into the foursome's main focus. A focus that has served them well and why James Sinclair believes the Oakland brewery "is making some of the most hop intensive and delicious beer in the world right now."

While the brewery has a variety of beers ranging from lagers to porters, Ghost Town is known for its IPA's, one of which Sinclair especially appreciates. "The fresh hop aroma coming off beers like Butchery is dank to the point of funk — a very pleasant funk," he explains. It will keep you coming back for more.

James Sinclair wasn't the only beermonger to recommend Ghost Town Brewing. Barry Smyth, the owner of San Francisco's The Crafty Fox Ale House thinks highly of them as well. "These guys kill it with their WC IPA & Pale Ale game," he says, adding that the beers of Ghost Town "never disappoint and [are] not shy with the hops." 

Smyth has two beers he prefers from Ghost Town. The first is a brew always hits right: The Hymn of Nelson. Crafty Fox's owner believes this West Coast IPA "has an awesome Nelson hop character."  Named after a sauvignon blanc, the Nelson Sauvin hop is known for having characters similar to that of the white wine for which it was named. Unlike other brews that might use more than one hop during their fermentation, Hymn of Nelson is made of 100% Nelson Sauvin hops. 

A little brewery that got its start in the heart of Santa Cruz county, Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, or SARA for short, brews ales inspired by the beers of Belgium. A lot of SARA's beers are aged in wine barrels using various types of yeast. While the cans range from pilsners to IPA's, it's the Saison bottles that caught the attention of Rose Signor and Andrew Smith. 

A saison (which means "season" in French) is a beer that originated in Wallonia, Belgium. Originally brewed toward the end of winter with the intent to last through the summer months, it was designed to be a refreshing alternative to some of those other heavier, stronger beers of the time. The saison that The Silver Stamp owners prefer is SARA's West Ashley, a beer that's barrel-aged with apricots. "This beer is just incredibly elegant. You get beautiful apricot character without it becoming overly fruity or sweet, and the acidity stays really soft and balanced," Signor and Smith explain.

Wondrous Brewing was a passion project for owner Wynn Whisenhunt who discovered his love for beer at a commercial brewery at the tender age of 17. After getting his degree in Brewing Technology at Germany's World Brewing Academy and then further honing his craft at several breweries in Northern California, Whisenhunt opened Wondrous Brewing in 2021. 

Specializing in lagerbiers as well as barrel-aged and hoppy beers, Barry Smyth believes Wondrous' beers "are always super dialed in usually clear beers—not flashy, but super drinkable." Similar to Ghost Town, the owner of The Crafty Fox Ale House has two brews he says "we love to drink and serve here." 2 Ten Euros, a Czech-style pilsner, is one of Smyth's "favorites because it's soft, bright, and really easy to drink." He says he especially "loves to serve" this particular beer by using his Lukr side pull Czech pilsner tap, a beer faucet that creates thick heads of foam and a creamy texture often associated Czech pilsners.

Since Barry Smyth believes that Wondrous Brewing is "best known for brewing traditional European-style lagers & West Coast hoppy beers particularly IPA's and pilsners," it makes sense that his other favorite beer from the Northern California brewery is a West Coast IPA. Logging an alcohol by volume of 6.6%, Smyth says the Single Cuff "is a big crowd pleaser here at The Crafty Fox." 

The beer's fame is probably due to the fact that the brewers use a popular IPA hops combination frequently used to make IPA's: Citra and Mosaic, two hops that go so well together, they're often referred to as the power couple of hops. The Citra provides a big hit of citrus flavor while the Mosaic has more earthy, berry, and floral notes.  That combination creates a beer that Smyth describes as "super clean and balanced with great hop flavor." He even admits that it's very "easy to put a few away."

The beer that put Firestone Walker on the map also happens to be a favorite for the owners of Las Vegas' Silver Stamp. It's the Double Barrel Ale, an English-style pale ale that's affectionately known as DBA and was created when brothers-in-law, Adam Firestone and David Walker's desire to find a great local ale proved unsuccessful. Unable to locate a tasty brew, Firestone and Walker decided to create their own. After several fruitless attempts, the two mixed up the recipe for DBA. 30 years later Firestone and Walker are still at it, having created more than 30 different brews ranging from pilsners to lagers.

"DBA is kind of a desert island beer for us," says Rose Signor and Andrew Smith. "The amount of flavor Firestone Walker is able to pull out of such a low ABV beer is pretty incredible," they continue. "DBA is balanced, flavorful, easy to drink, and just one of those beers we never get tired of." While they adore the classic, Signor and Smith "especially love the unfiltered version," insisting that it's a very special find. 

If you're a fan of dark beers and coffee then the co-owner of Harlem Hops suggests tasting Oakland United Beerworks' East Bay Nights. It's "their tribute to the classic German Schwarzbier," Kevin Bradford explains, describing the black lager as having coffee and bittersweet chocolate notes. But it's the German Noble hops that he says round out the beer and take the edge off the roasted malt. 

While some of the beers on this list might be harder to find, East Bay Nights is "a flagship beer" at the Oakland taproom. So, all you need to do is walk into the waterfront brewery located in the Jack London district of Oakland to taste it, and Bradford definitely believes it's worth tasting. "This baby was the Silver Medal winner at the 2022 Great American Beer Festival in the German Dark Lager category. I can taste why," he exclaims. 

"One important little brewery worth mentioning is Cellador in Torrance," says James Sinclair. A small brewery in the South Bay, Cellador is run by a team Sinclair describes as "hardcore enthusiasts of the wild ale style, more colloquially know as sour beer." These enthusiastic brewers make their beer a little differently. Every single brew is fermented in oak barrels using fruit solely from California farmers up and down the coast. 

While Sinclair recommends trying any of Cellador's beers, he insists "the ones where Cellador uses its red ale or amber base are particularly delicious." One of his favorites is Lou, a beer that was created in honor of Cellador owner, Alex Ourieff's, grandfather using lemons from a tree that his grandfather planted several years ago. Unlike some other breweries, Cellador doesn't have a taproom where you can sit and enjoy a beer on the patio. But that doesn't mean you can't still buy a bottle or two. Sinclair says that you can buy the bottles directly from Ourieff right in Cellador's parking lot.

Henry Nguyen, the owner and brewer behind Monkish, discovered his love for beer while living in Scotland. He tried his hand at homebrewing and eventually opened Monkish in Torrance in 2012. Although Nguyen swore he'd never brew an IPA because he didn't want to copy other craft breweries, James Sinclair says it's the brewery's hazy IPA's that Monkish is best known for. 

While Monkish has over a dozen IPA's available, it's the barrel-aged Little Twin Stars that Sinclair says is worth searching out as it's a "phenomenal stout." Comparing it to Bottle Logic's stouts, the Select Beer bartender feels that Barrel Aged Little Twin Stars has "the perfect viscosity [and] feels like a smaller, more boutique improvement on the classic Bottle Logic formula." Unfortunately, he can't guarantee its availability. So, if you're lucky enough to see it on tap or out in the wild, grab it.

"Beer can certainly be the result of straight-down-the-line science and engineering," explains Kendall Worden, a man who believes that most beers fall into that category. But then there are those brews that Hop City's general manager believes "hew closer to alchemy and artistry." Those are the kinds of brews Worden says you'll find at Cellador Ales, a Southern California brewery that he believes has "been manifesting beverages that hang out in that "magic" end of the pool for a little over a decade." 

While he thinks that every beer Cellador releases is noteworthy, it's the Chapter & Verse for which he has a special affinity. Made from nectarines plucked from the orchards at Masumoto Family Farm, Chapter & Verse uses the first and last nectarines of the season to achieve a flavor Worden describes as "bright acidity, tons of stone fruit, and a rustic grainy edge."

The Co-owner of Harlem Hops recently tasted Super Secret Sauce and says he "was blown away with this 8.5% West Coast Banger!" This Double IPA comes from Shred Beer Company, a brewery that was started by Zack Frasher and Amy Heller, two brewers who have over 20 years of brewing experience combined and have produced numerous award winning beers.

Although Super Secret Sauce has yet to medal, Bradford believes it's definitely worth a sip. Made from a combination of Mosaic, Citra, and Amarillo Cryo hops, Super Secret Sauce brings "explosive flavors of peach rings, candied oranges, and a touch of dank mischief," declares Bradford. "It pours loud and proud with a crisp West Coast bite, bold bitterness, and a clean, dry finish that keeps things dangerously crushable for a double [IPA]," he continues. "It's bright, sticky, and mega hoppy—like someone spilled the recipe and decided to roll with it." 

Barry Smyth truly believes that Ghost Town Brewing is "all around a really great brewery that [you] can't go wrong with." While the owner of The Crafty Fox believes that the brewery's West Coast IPA's and Pale Ales are top notch, he thinks its pilsners and lagers are underrated. But Nose Goblin isn't a pale ale or a lager. It's another IPA that Smyth thinks "is a classic."

This West Coast Double IPA made with Nelson, Strata, and Mosaic hops hits hard at 9.2% ABV, making it a beer that Smyth calls "dank, resinous and zesty." In the past six years it's also won multiple gold and bronze medals from both the American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup. "This is such a great beer," Smyth continues. "It's up there with Pliny The Elder [from Russian River Brewing Company] for me."

Narrative Fermentations' founders and former homebrewers, John Phelan and Jon Berkland, like to tell stories. And Kevin Bradford's pick from the San Jose brewery tells a story of coffee. "Narrative Fermentation are huge fans of Ryan's coffee and are stoked with what it did to their beer," explains the co-owner of Harlem Hops. Ryan is Ryan Morris, Vertigo Coffee's "roaster extraordinaire" and the man who worked with Phelan and Berkland to select his Mission blend, a coffee made with beans from Guatemala, that Morris says has notes of "dark chocolate and roasted almond mellowed by a zesty citrus and honey sweetness." 

Narrative's founders then took this rich coffee and expanded on its tale by using a beer recipe they created back in their homebrewing days. The final result is an Imperial Milk Porter with an 8% ABV that Bradford calls "straight fire."