Thursday 2nd of February 2012 06:44:13 PM

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The Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing tasting room and adjacent brewery is at the back of a complex of buildings and parking lots and is alongside two winery tasting rooms. The tasting room is a clean, neat, yet funky space: a witches broom supports the sign outside, and inside, most stunningly, an elaborate copper “tree” trunk extends up the wall behind the bar and a couple “branches” drop from the ceiling. Other decorations include old farm implements on one wall and a stuffed duck in flight hanging from a light fixture.The bar is a uniquely sculpted concrete shape, lined by tall black padded chairs. A long wooden bench with a few small wooden tables and stools constitutes the rest of the inside seating. Outdoors is a fenced patio in the parking lot with a tree and outdoor heaters. A large roll-up garage door opens to the brewery.

There are eleven house-brewed beers (seven regulars and four specials; one was off on our visit). The lineup was standard for craft beer but the specials were more in the push-the-envelope category. On our visit, there were two wet hop beers (one a black IPA and the other a pale ale), an olalieberry beer, and a red California common ale. The quality was quite good.

Simple, but good sounding food (salads, sandwiches, and burgers), is available from a neighboring place, we didn’t taste anything on this visit.

Saturday 23rd of April 2011 08:10:28 PM

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I love the feel of Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing. They're a bit out of the way and only packed on Friday evenings. You definitely get the feeling that they're a recently started small business, and the service can be pretty slow when there are 3 or 4 people waiting and only one bartender. Still, it isn't generally crowded even during happy hour. They have a great happy hour: $3 pints from 5-6 every day and all day Mondays and Tuesdays. They're beer selection covers all the bases--stout, porter, pale ale, ipa, amber, wheat, hefeweizen, brown--and they usually have 2 rotating specialty beers, my favorite of which is the Daddy's Little Helper IPA. Basically, this is a laid back joint and a great spot to grab a beer after class or work.

Monday 28th of June 2010 02:03:30 PM

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I really enjoyed this quaint little brewery. It has a small taproom with about 5 stools at the bar and some outside seating as well. The staff was knowledgeable and helpful in selecting from their large variety of beer on tap. I found the filtered weizens to be good and even the cherry berlinerweiss was a treat. Not to sour and not too sweet. The brown ale as well as the basic stout and porter that they poured were a little heavy on the coffee, but otherwise good if you like that flavor to overwhelm your beer. The IPA was an excellent versoin while the Pale Ale was a classic American hoppy variety. Overall, I really enjoyed this place and would visit again.

Monday 4th of August 2008 11:46:49 AM

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Our first visit was several years ago, shortly after they opened and there have been quite a few changes since then. The tasting area is now a separate room with a good size bar and table seating. You get pretzel sticks with tastings but they also offer food service from a nearby bakery restaurant. The entrance is on the end of the building so it’s not easy to see from the street but the fence surrounding the patio is visible. There is a decent size lot out front for parking. There were nine brews on tap when we visited so I purchased a sample flight that included all of them. Didn’t get a lot of info from the bartender about the various brews (she was busy with another taster and the owner) and the chalkboard had been cleaned prior to updating the taplist so I don’t have all the colorful names. I do remember enjoying several of the darker styles and will definitely drop by again on our next trip to the beach.