These photos were taken last Saturday at Stereo Brewing Company, a production brewery with a tasting room, located in Placentia, California. Stereo Brewing opened in October 2016 and has a 30 bbl brewhouse.

I remember the afternoon in October 2017 that I first met Stereo’s founder/brewer, Rick Smets; it was on the patio of Great Divide Brewing in Denver the day before GABF.

I was there with Buddy chatting with two lads, one from the Netherlands, the other from London, Rick was sitting at a table close to us and the three tables began conversing. I am sure we exchanged cards, and when we separated I said I would stop by sometime. Three days later I heard Stereo Brewing being called onstage as a gold medal winner for their Wall of Sound oatmeal stout.

Well, it took 18 months but I finally made it out. As I had a family event to attend in Brea and my son was there with his family, we decided to meet at Stereo Brewing after the shindig.

They have a nice medium-sized tasting room with comfortable tables and benches. There were plenty of board games that will keep children and adults occupied. They do not typically offer any food beyond snacks, although they did have Country Caviar (boiled peanuts) courtesy of Piedmont Brewery from Macon, Georgia; Piedmont’s Head Brewer and co-owner Brian Whitley was there doing a collaboration with Stereo and boiling peanuts for the rest of us. They do have a food truck once in a while, but you can always have food delivered, or bring it in yourself.

On Saturday they had 10 beers to choose from including a couple kolsch varieties, a Scottish Ale, Pale Ale, a few IPAs and an imperial red. I set up a flight consisting of Death of a Ladies Man DIPA, Perfect Day IPA, Emotional Rescue Pale Ale, and their GABF gold medal Wall of Sound. All four were solid; if I had to choose a favorite it may be Emotional Rescue.

Stereo Brewing Company is located at 950 S Vía Rodeo in Placentia. They are open seven days a week, are dog friendly and will fill legal growlers and crowlers to go; they also sell their own glassware. Looking through their website, it looks like they have can releases once in a while also, so check it out if interested. Cheers!