Popped in for a quick flight at Old Orange Brewing Co before their official grand opening. Just a few quick notes.

Lovely Friday evening around six I drove the Death-Star (aka Scion xB) into the typical brewery set up in an industrial park on the weird part of town. I found a business nearby called “BJ Machine“. Seriously, how weird is that? If I worked in a surrounding business, taste buds would be tingling with delight when I found a brewery is a neighbor. As it is, my liver is pretty unlucky to have a fifth brewery within a ten mile radius of my house. Drinking local is now extremely viable in north OC thanks to the good folks at OOB.

Walking into the long and skinny warehouse, the brewery is set up nicely with a tasting area that fits around a dozen fitness-minded types around the bar area. The tasting room itself is large enough to fit a few elephants, or maybe even a Chinese Tour Bus, heck even the ego of Russell Crowe could fit in this place. Prince could drive his little red Corvette in here without any lubricant. If you brought a hotdog in here, it would be like a hotdog in hallway! It’s pretty loose is what I’m getting at, if you catch my drift. It’s a pretty clean set up with nicely painted walls, shiny taps and fermenting beer.

Socks! Bonus points for having a woman with a Hess shirt! I actually ran into this couple at Bootleggers the night before. Very nice!

They had 3 beers on tap:

• Street Fair: Kölsh 4.5%
• Old Dummy: American Strong Ale 9.3% – My favorite of the three. Malty/fruity aroma. Nutty carmely malt complexity. Smooth scotch ale type mouth feel.
• Cannonball: IPA had a slight diacetyl quality. Very different from other Socal IPA, perhaps reminiscent of English IPA which I’m not that familiar with.

The guys behind the bar were extremely nice and helpful. I really look forward to the other beers they have in the tank. I will definitely be back for the grand opening!

http://oldorangebrewing.com/ 1444 N. Batavia Street Orange, CA 92867

Update: Squeeze My Orange has a nice interview giving some background on how they started and the stories behind the beers.