The Neighborhood Brewery: Three Weavers Brewing Co.

The Neighborhood Brewery By Bruce L. Brode I've been a homebrewer for more than 30 years. In that time, I have seen a revolution in beer continuing in many areas and ways, most recently in the area of craft breweries opening in the Los Angeles area. There were previous efforts – in the mid-1980s I remember the City of Angels brewpub in Santa Monica in the space long since occupied by Border Grill, which was funded by those who had made some good bucks in the “go-go” days of the stock market of the early-to-mid 1980s employed at the defunct Drexel Burnham Lambert investment house. I remember Angeles Brewing Company in Chatsworth, a small contract brewery that the Falcons actually visited in the late 1980s. I remember Eureka Brewing, the impressive Wolfgang Puck-sponsored restaurant and brewery in West Los Angeles in the early 1990s with state-of-the-art German brewing technology that the Falcons also visited. All are long gone. All are testament to my continuing interest in homebrewing, as a means of guaranteeing my source of quality beer, because the craft side of things was so uncertain for so long, though obviously not for lack of trying. So, when I moved to the eastern passel of Westchester in December of 2014, it took quite awhile for it to dawn on me that I had a local brewery right in my neighborhood. It's within walking distance of my home, and has been open now for more than a year. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve 2015, I decided to give it a long-overdue visit.

Three Weavers Brewing Company is the enterprise of two women and opened in October 2014. Lynne Weaver is a former homebrewer with a professional background in tax accounting and financial planning, and is clearly the business side of the enterprise. Alexandra Nowell finagled a one-year paid internship at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, moving thence to Moylan's and Drake's before relocating to Southern California and garnering some awards while brewing at Kinetic Brewing in Lancaster, before opening Three Weavers with Lynne as the brewing side of the partnership. The brewery is located in an industrial sector near Los Angeles International Airport, a typical siting for many recent breweries seeking to find affordable digs in appropriate zoning for their breweries – in Los Angeles county, there are growing clusters of breweries in an industrial section of Torrance in the South Bay and also east of downtown Los Angeles city in the so-called Arts District where artists (another opportunistic community) have taken over loft space in former industrial warehouse space. Three Weavers has identified yet another suitable area, with the potential benefit of a coming Green Line MTA light-rail station to be situated nearby. While its address is on Manchester Boulevard, it is actually accessed north of Manchester off of a side street, Isis, which is just east of where Florence Avenue joins Manchester. You can spot the large white grain silo in front of the place at the northern end of a block of industrial buildings, to find your way there. Visitors to the tap room, which is open afternoons and evenings on Tuesday through Sunday, encounter an airy industrial space, casual and relaxing, with plenty of table-and-bench sets for seating, also a nice adjoining outdoor redwood deck area on the other side of a large roll-up door. Southern California means you can enjoy beer outdoors, right?

The bar staff was welcoming and knowledgeable when I was there. I commenced to evaluate the first of two five-beer taster sets, the “core five” beers that are regular offerings: Keller Dweller, 4.8% Alcohol By Volume (ABV). Brewery's description: “An unfiltered version of our Kolsch. Keller Sweller is made with German Pilsner malt and noble hop varieties. My tasting notes: Grain-fruity aroma, touch of herbs. Hazy straw color, fair head. Crisp flavor and body with drying hop bitterness against a touch of sweetness. Some lingering tannic astringency in the aftertaste from the hops, but it fades cleanly. Bit of green apple character. Refreshing. The unfiltered nature of the brew likely preserves many of the delicate flavors and aromas that might otherwise be stripped out. Stateside Session IPA, 4.5% ABV. Brewery's description: “Our deceptively full-bodied, citrus forward session IPA.” My tasting notes: Resiny hop aroma in abundance lends a clue to its style. Pale gold color, quite clear. Hop bitterness is prominent but well-set for the style, just enough malt structure to support it. Crisp hop bite that lingers. Expatriate IPA, 6.9% ABV. Brewery's description: “Inspired by the Three Weavers community, Expatriate is our bright, tropical fruit forward West Coast IPA.” My tasting notes: Fruity and complex aroma shows tropical fruit essences as advertised. Light amber color, very clear, fairly low head (possibly a side-effect of the small tasting glass). Rich flavor of malt and tropical-fruity hops is well-balanced and handles the alcohol level well. Deep Roots ESB, 5.2% ABV. Brewery's description: “Our ESB is a malt driven offering that is incredibly complex yet easy to drink and surprisingly un-bitter.” My tasting notes: Toasty-biscuit malt/grain complex with touch of vanilla in the aroma. Rich honey-amber color, nicely clear. Smooth malt flavor with toasty edges and some fruity esters. Bitterness lends dryness to the finish for some good balance. Midnight Flight, 9.5% ABV. Brewery's description: “This Imperial Stout delivers rich cocoa, dark fruit, and a smoky essence.” My tasting notes: Burnt roast, esters, and a touch of hops aromatically. Thoroughly black color is expected. Nice complex of palate flavors including malt, cream, and edges of burnt roast. Handles the alcohol load nicely. My favorites from this preliminary flight were the Keller Dweller and the Midnight Flight, with honorable mention made to the Expatriate and the Deep Roots. Frankly, I don't know if I have quite adapted yet to the phenomenon of “session” IPA, despite its current popularity (at least among craft brewers).

The second taster flight featured seasonal beers: Knotty DIPA, 9.3% ABV. Brewery's description: “Our Double IPA packed full of Galaxy and Simcoe hops.” My tasting notes: “Richly herbaceous hop aroma, bit of malt behind. Pale gold-orange color. Rich flavor has spicy hop edges and a nice caramel-toffee malt body to handle both the hop and alcohol load. Kill the Lights Black Lager, 5.0% ABV. Brewery's description: A black lager that offers up notes of cocoa, roasted and toasted malts, in a smooth, light-bodied package.” My tasting notes: Nice creamy-roasty/burnt-malty aromatic complex! Very dark garnet color. Smooth but complex malt flavor very reminiscent of Schwarzbier. Well-executed! Hounslow Porter. 5.3% ABV. Brewery's description: “A traditional London dry porter. A malty, quaffable homage to a style from across the pond.” My tasting notes: Nice esters and coffee-roast in the aroma. Black color is expected. Rich body, overall dry finish to the flavor from both malt complex and hop bitterness. Touch of creaminess on the palate is a plus. Billed as London-style, and it largely hits the mark! Blood Junkie, 8.7% ABV. Brewery's description: “A distinctly west coast spin on an imperial red ale. In collaboration with our friends at Prosthetic Records.” My tasting notes: Big fruity hop aroma, touch of mint. Beautiful deep red color. Rich and complex flavor and mouthfeel mixes malt, hops and a slight edge of roast. Southbounder, 7.0% ABV. Brewery's description: “We used Northbound Coffee Roasters' Mainline Blend in the dark chocolately version of our coffee stout.” My tasting notes: Bigtime lovely coffee aroma! (A beer to wake up to). Herbs, vanilla, burnt smoke, green coffee bean, it goes on and on – high quality coffee, expertly roasted, was clearly used here. Color is totally black, just like coffee. Flavor is nicely balanced, with a coffee approach and a beer finish. One of the best coffee beers I've ever had! My favorites from the second flight included Kill the Lights, Blood Junkie, and Southbounder, with honorable mention to the other two, Knotty DIPA and Hounslow Porter.

To top things off, I was offered tastes of two special projects: Ripple: A Saison with Hisbiscus. In the name, I get the hilarious reference to the mass-market wine cooler product of many years ago. This definitely has some of the unique fruity-phenolic Saison yeast quality aromatically, with some cranberry fruitiness. It has an enticing reflective ruby-red color and clarity. The crisply acidic flavor is well managed, refreshing but complex at the same time. Amburana: An Imperial Porter aged on the wood of this name that imparts spicy flavors, from a tree that is a legume native to South America. Here there is a big, rich and complex spicy-woody aroma with some indescribable essences (I'll try anyway): anise, cherry, vanilla, coconut, WOW! Deep garnet-red color is great. The flavor largely follows the incredible aroma, with a touch of astringency that is interesting as a late acidic extension.

As you can garner from my notes, there is very good work being done here. I'm now on the brewery's email list for announcements about special releases, etc. The growler policy is quite enlightened: You provide the growler, with any and all identifying information such as labels or molded text obscured by some means such as electrical tape or duct tape; they fill it, put an identifying tag of their own on it, and charge you.

Three Weavers Brewing Company

1031 W. Manchester Boulevard, Unit A-B
Inglewood, CA 90301
(310) 400-5830
info@threeweavers.la
www.threeweavers.la
Tap room hours:
Tuesday – Thursday 4PMti 10PM
Friday 3 PM to Midnight
Saturday Noon to Midnight
Sunday Noon to 6 PM