A guide to craft breweries on the greater Eastside of Los Angeles

Back then, there was a huge gap on the region’s brewery map: the greater Eastside of L.A. That gap has been filled.

Today, the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild counts 95 members, a boom of nearly 70 new craft breweries in seven years. That’s not counting the brewpubs, craft beer bars and gastropubs that populate the map and add to a growing list of tap offerings around town. Since 2015, a proliferation of breweries opening in places like San Gabriel, Montebello and Whittier has closed the gaps and put the greater Eastside on L.A.’s craft beer map.

In defining this beer region “east of East L.A.,” I draw from two sets of scholarly works. In the 2000 book “Latino Metropolis,” professors Rodolfo D. Torres and Victor M. Valle use the term “Greater Eastside” to describe the “industrial landscape” and network of the primarily Latino and Asian working- and middle-class suburbs and cities of eastern Los Angeles County. The essay collection “East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte” (2020) draws on this articulation of the “Greater Eastside” to designate the “east of East L.A.” cities of South El Monte and El Monte. We can extend “east of East L.A.” to include all of the San Gabriel Valley, a region “defined by [its] majority-minority status and ambivalent relationship to Greater Los Angeles.”

In brewery terms, we can use “Greater Eastside” to describe those neighborhoods and cities that span roughly east of the Los Angeles River to the 57, bordered by the 10 to the north and Imperial Highway to the south. This includes “Greater El Monte” and other parts of the San Gabriel Valley down to Southeast L.A. and along Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino county lines.

Unlike some of the more established breweries in the South Bay or downtown L.A., most of the breweries in the greater East L.A. region have been open for less than five years. Many opened for business during or after the 2020 pandemic closures, which saw new or fledgling local craft breweries turn to canning and to-go sales to stay afloat until customers could be welcomed back into taprooms.

These new breweries reflect a growing diversity in the groups that make, drink and enjoy craft beer. Many have already enmeshed themselves in local communities, often supporting nonprofit organizations, local artists, fundraising causes and collective efforts through special brewery collaborations. Nearly all of them are small, independent, family-run breweries that depend on steady business from neighborhood locals and new visitors alike.

As a relatively new craft beer region led predominantly by women, Latinas/os/x and Asian Americans, the Greater Eastside is on the rise, home to award-winning and innovative beers ranging from classic styles to experimental brews and trendy seltzers.

While many craft beer fans have their favorite “away” brands, there’s nothing like the beers that say “home.” For those of us who make home in greater East L.A., we don’t have far to go to find a brewery and a fresh pint with our name on it. With at least a dozen breweries and a few more slated to open this year in Covina and La Puente, along with breweries in surrounding regions like Pasadena and the foothills, craft beer drinkers on the Greater Eastside have many breweries to choose from for their fresh beer fix.

Here’s a guide to the local breweries of the emerging craft beer scene in Greater East L.A., alphabetically by city.