LETS GO VISIT LA BREWERIES TODAY OK FINE: Cosmic Brewing is yet another Torrance brewery that shares the unique problem of being equidistant between two of LA’s best breweries: Smog City and Monkish. The taproom is festive and unassuming, filled with beercasual patrons who seem to genuinely enjoy the beers and the taco truck without focusing too intently on the fermented wares themselves.

The taproom reminds me of an afterschool program where latch key kids can hang with a youth pastor. It has a free arcade cabinet that is legitimately bad ass with old school beatemups and probably a Raspberry Pi emulator with a bazillion games on it. They also have a touch Jukebox which proudly welcomed me with HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVICI and my ducts began to well up.

There are murals with astronauts and robots, laser lights and a second room which despite looking like a lasertag arena, disallowed children. I was stoked for this until I realized kids weren’t allowed only because it was a serve yourself tap station. This is a novel spin for a tasting room and sharply contrasts the ONE POUR PER PERSON culture of monkish, presumably because rival hop gangs have never fought in this Astronomy driven taproom. Heavy is the head that wears the rhizome crown.

The beer has a huge focus on saving dogs in every way: charity drives, cages for people to adopt dogs, fundraisers. They got me in the feels and it shows intent and this mom and pop flair to a business that could otherwise get sucked under the Torrance vorlauf. You may have noticed that I have been pussyfooting and burying the lede about their actual beers: they are a touch below mediocre. I didn’t want to strike them with an orbital strike, but here we are. The blondes were both lightly fruited and forgettable. The brown had a fine roastiness and a strange acidity to the swallow which gave me PTSD reminding me of another Torrance problem child, Dude’s Brewing. Cosmonaut was pretty fine. The porter was probably my favorite offering but it was miles away from something like Smog City coffee porter, which sadly was only hundreds of feet away. I applaud them for sticking to it for two years, but the type of degenerate who is already reading DDB really doesn’t have any business here unless it is for completionist goals. They have ALIENS VS PREDATOR IN AN ARCADE CABINET COME ON.

 

Ranking this one is like pushing a three of clubs into a deck:

So where do they rank in the LGVLABTOKF hierarchy?

1. Verdugo West Brewing

2. Dry River Brewing

3. Strand Brewing

4. Boomtown Brewery

5. Scholb Brewing

6. Cosmic Brewing

7. Brewyard Beer Company

8. Indie Brewing Company

The mission continues, I am told I have a mere 76 more Los Angeles breweries to go.

Great.