Latest reviews from Carpinteria
| 74 /100 5065 CARPINTERIA AVE “Actually a quite small place inside, but with a nice patio area in front. Very mordern decoration, a bit industrial. The service seemed very focused on serving food, but I got away with just getting 3 flights getting thru the 11 different beers they offered. Quite swift and good service. Definately worth a stop if you are passing by Carpenteria on your way to Santa Barbara or elsewhere.“ |
| 76 /100 5049 6TH STREET “A bit off the beaten track on a Monday night, closing at 9, so I had to hurry to get thru the 12 draft beers - they must have expanded since the last rating. Warehouse like feel right next to a train track, not really me, but the service was super, inspite of the near closing hour when I walked in. 12 draft plus loads of bottles to take away. I had some really nice beers.“ |
| 74 /100 4191 CARPINTERIA AVE, STE 8 “Visited November 23, 2014.
This is a very new place, only open a few months. I heard about them while looking up Rincon and finding out about the pub crawl. It’s your typical warehouse brewery in an industrial park. I feel like this is where Island Brewing used to be but maybe I’m just dreaming that. Anyway, these guys are brewing on a very small system (1 bbl?) which they just upgraded to from their original 1/2 bbl system. No idea how something like that is sustainable but alright. The beer is alright, so maybe there is hope. They have 8 taps going covering an interesting range of styles. Mostly acceptable, not amazing. They had three saisons, an Amarillo IPA, a rye porter, a ginger red ale, and a chocolate oatmeal stout. They were just recovering from the pub crawl that more or less cleared them out. I suspect that they don’t have any kind of regular lineup. A few weeks before my visit they had an entirely different lineup (including a coffee saison, a jasmine saison, a gruit, a strong Belgian golden ale, and a honey IPA) and now their website shows yet another different lineup (which includes a hoppy dunkelweizen, a different gruit, and a loquat ginger ale). So yeah, this is a great source of ticks if you stop in often enough. While here I met a guy who runs a beer tour company. He had his newest bus out back (the bathrooms are shared by the units and you have to go out the back to get there) and it’s funny looking. It’s a short bus painted black with his logo on it. He told me about another new brewery that I hadn’t heard of (Poseidon in Ventura) and made the stop more entertaining. Sounds like the beer scene is really starting to blow up on the coast here so I’ll most likely put brewLAB on the list of places to check in on every so often. Other tidbits of info: the servers are the brewers so they can answer your questions, the prices are high ($2.50-$3 per 3oz taster), they do offer half pints, and there isn’t a lot of seating (4 seats at the bar and a couple tables). Oh, and they have free snacks.“ |
| 80 /100 5065 CARPINTERIA AVE “Visited November 23, 2014.
I visited this place back in November on the way up the coast for Thanksgiving. This is a pretty nice place, and right up the street from Island Brewing as well as another brand new brewery in Carpenteria. A brewery pub crawl is now possible here, kind of neat. Rincon is a brewpub that is very open letting in lots of light from the street. The furniture is all very light colored wood and there is a large window that allows you to look into the brewery area. The door to that area is presumably from a bank. It’s a very heavy door that looks like the one you’d see at the safety deposit boxes. There is also some patio seating. The whole place (minus the vault door) has a surfer feel to it. Actually, looking back on the pictures, the bar was made of thin strips of wood and of course heavily shellac’d. Guessing it’s supposed to look like a surf board. The beers all hover in the decent/alright range. Nothing spectacular but nothing bad either. They have some guest beers too, including (during my visit) something from Libertine, Almanac, Julian, and Barrelhouse. The house IPA was probably my favorite, but again, not amazing. The server was friendly, as were the locals sitting next to me (who hadn’t heard of brewLAB yet). I didn’t try the food though it looked pretty good. Prices are a touch high but not out of control. $6 for a flight of four, with eight house beers on tap total. I’ll stop back in for sure at some point, just not sure yet when.“ |
| 78 /100 5065 CARPINTERIA AVE “Nice little brewpub not far from the freeway and not too far from Island Brewing, either. They have a small patio out front which people seemed to be enjoying on a sunny November afternoon. Some tables inside and a decent amount of seating at the bar. Very bright and definitely a beach city vibe to it.
During my stop, there were 8 house beers offered. I was pleasantly surprised that most of them were pretty decent. I didn’t really care for the amber lager or the brown ale, but everything else was at least something I could finish a glass of. There were also a few guest beers on tap, which was sort of neat. A nice addition to the US101 Tick Trail.“ |
| 74 /100 5049 6TH STREET “Visited several times over the years. Despite having 8-10 house beers on the lineup never seems to change. Occasionally they’ll do a barrel aged version of one of their beers that they send to GABF and sell a few bottles of in the tasting room but that’s about it (well that and a Christmas beer). So from a ticking perspective there isn’t much need to go more than once, however, the area is nice. It’s very close to the water and there are some shops around. The employees are friendly and they allow dogs. There is a patio outside and some indoor seating. The last time I was there (while en route to Firestone’s Oaktoberfest) I had a conversation with the brewer about all the up and coming breweries on the central coast.
The beer is alright all around. Not great by any means but nothing offensive either. I dont stop in much anymore but one of these days maybe I will need to see if anything has changed.“ |
| 56 /100 5049 6TH STREET “We visited this place 2007. Great location, very close to the beach. Beers were above average, service was not impressive.“ |
| 88 /100 5049 6TH STREET “Three of the beers were very clean and hard not to drink too much of, especially the paradise pale, harvest pale, and the island pale ale (IPA), they were all right on. Some of the others mehhh. Amazing location, I can pass out on the beach afterwards.“ |
| 66 /100 5049 6TH STREET “It was kind of hard to find this place as Google Maps led me into a residential part of town and to what is the back of the building. The entrance is along a walkway adjacent to the railroad tracks. A nice little patio area and small tasting room and bar. The woman working the bar was decently friendly. Mostly locals inside the bar area. The beers were below average, but the price was decent. They had 6 house beers on. Not really a place I’d care to go again. But I’d never been to Carpinteria before and found it to be quite nice, which I sort of expected..“ |
| 72 /100 5049 6TH STREET “Stopped by on a Sunday. Industrial area of Carpinteria. Crowded place. Owners at the bar. The crowd seemed like an older, beach going crowd. A few bikers, lots of sleeveless shirts. Was kind of in a rush, so I had one sample (which was ho-hum) and took some bottles to go. We will see how the beer is. Pricing was nice. Didn’t get any growlers, and their cask had blown yesterday.“ |
| 60 /100 5049 6TH STREET “Nice little tasting room that is actually pretty spacious with a nice sunny patio a couple blocks from the beach on the railroad tracks in Carp. Service is friendly and accommodating, though they really don’t do much. You can get all their bottled beers on tap, plus a few tap only things and occasional casks. Island are nice people from what I have seen, but I honestly just don’t care for most of their beer, either infected bottled stuff, or just awkward draught products. Their water profile is my main suspect for their weird house flavor, but it could be a number of things. I’ll keep giving them chances if it’s convenient, but I would say save it for the brewpubs fifteen minutes up the road in SB if you are driving through the area. If you’re staying in Carpinteria though, you might as well give them a shot and see what you think. They’ll probably have something that you like.“ |
| 62 /100 5049 6TH STREET “Good prices on a sampler of their beers, all in all they were pretty good, very relaxed place, I felt that it was a hidden gem for regulars, it was off the road and kinda hard to find without an address. Service was friendly and the guy pouring definitely knew his stuff. Definitely worth going to considering the fact that I haven’t seen any of their beers elsewhere on my travels.“ |
| 62 /100 5049 6TH STREET “I didn’t experience much of this place. I came in through a breezy back entrance, arriving upon a casual open air beer cafe. I tried the sampler, which was reasonably priced, and allowed you to select 5 of the six taps to try. All were interesting and very drinkable. What I liked: the accessibility (the owner was very friendly!) What I didn’t like: the darkest beer they had on tap was a (light) brown ale. I would go again if in the area.“ |
| 66 /100 5049 6TH STREET “Visited on Monday afternoon, 02/18/08. A little hard to find in an industrial/warehouse area, the Island Brewing Company is a small-ish operation (15 barrles) with a modest tap room. They had six of their taps available when we stopped in. There’s no music or TV in this place (a welcome change), but there’s no lack of ambiance. Locals with their dogs, couples hanging out, dudes who look like hackeysack champions: all hang out and mingle in the friendly low stress environment. Paul, the owner/brewmaster, came to our table and chatted us up at length about beer and the industry in general. They don’t serve food, but they have a notebook of menus from local places that will deliver to the tap room. Very thoughtful! I have to weigh the overall coolness of this place, against their reason to exist: their beer. Despite all the positives, I just wasn’t into any of their beers!“ |
| 68 /100 5049 6TH STREET “Brewery located in the small town of Carpinteria. They have a tasting room attached. Although they weren’t open, the owner came outside to greet me when he saw my Pizza Port shirt. Got a quick tour and talk about what they were up to and future plans. Sat down at the bar and got a 5 beer taster (will be 6). They just moved to this location a couple of days before my visit. Very friendly and personable, worth stopping by for a chat and to get a better understanding of a small brewer. Jubilee and IPA were very good, blonde had a nice yeasty fruitiness to it.“ |
