I’m a guy who waits in beer lines, enters raffles, and acquires beers that cost $50 or $100 at a brewery. Beer that can later be sold for hundreds more (I don’t do this; I like to drink and share my rare beer). These are usually barrel-aged beers, but in the world of IPAs, Monkish and Treehouse are the beers people like me seek out for trades and secondary prices.
I love Monkish hazy IPAs, and being able to end a West Coast road trip—which had taken us in a campervan from Seattle to Los Angeles—at Monkish Brewing Co. was fulfillment of a must-visit beer spot. We had an early flight the next day. But I still tried every single beer on tap.
The night was warm, and Monkish owner Henry Nguyen seemed to be in the production area, working on a new batch of beer. I didn’t finish every beer, as I wanted to wake up fresh. A bartender noticed this and gave me a few free pours. And happily, I bought some packs to bring home, excited not to pay secondary prices, but knowing I would when the itch for upper-echelon hazies wormed into my brain. After all of the hiking, wildlife, camping, and West Coast adventure, it was a more chill end to the journey.
Words + Photoby Louis Livingston-Garcia