A local go-getter named Hal Mooney is launching a craft beer tasting tour in L.A. this weekend to highlight the recent proliferation of local breweries. Called the L.A. Beer Hop, Mooney’s crew makes the exploration of regional breweries, beer stores, and brew bars fairly hassle-free, picking guests up in a fifteen-seat van at a city metro stop, procuring all tastings (which he says you can even drink anything you buy before or during the tour while they do the driving, e.g. growlers or bottles), then dropping your drunk dupa back on the street where they first met you. “All you have to worry about is the hangover,” Mooney tells Grub Street.
Right now there are both four-hour public and private tours, the former currently charting two paths: One on Saturday afternoons in central L.A. where three-included visits may include Eagle Rock Brewery, Golden Road Brewery, Angel City Brewery, and Tony’s Dart’s Away, and a Sunday “beach cities” tour where stops could include Strand Brewing Co., El Segundo Brewing, and Beachwood BBQ and Brewery. Pick-ups for the Central L.A. tour take place at the Hollywood Metro and at El Segundo’s Metro stop for the Sunday tours.
Each tour takes guests to three places (“because any more than that tends to get a little sloppy,” Mooney says), typically including at least one brewery walk-though, with five tastings included at each stop and according to the man who built this idea with his brother, a good time. “We talk about it, laugh about it, drink more, and generally have a good time,” Mooney says.
The private tours can be tailor-made to fit guests’ demands, with one recent example a trip to some coastal breweries followed by a trip to Five Guys Burgers, with possibilities including a “drunken kickball game in the park” or a trip to a Dodger game, where Firestone still happens to be a craft beer fiends’ only savior.
Tickets for the weekend’s public tours are priced at $65 and available online.
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