Draughtsmen Aleworks Overview
Draughtsmen Aleworks is a craft brewer located in Southern California. The Brewery was founded in 2015 and has taprooms in Goleta, Santa Barbara and Solvang. They also brew hopped teas and make wine. I have been to the Goleta location twice, which has a nice outdoor patio and an eclectic bar filled with knick knacks, memorabilia and other decorations. Despite being located in an industrial park, it is a pleasant place to stop by, have a beer or two. and maybe watch a ballgame. I was recently there for a group beer tasting.
Draughtsmen Aleworks Beers
This is the board showing beers that they were pouring the day of the tasting. The five I tasted in order (with descriptions) were the following:
Irish Red: 6% ABV 28 IBU “Ruby hue. English crystal & roasted malts. Malty. Dry. Strawberry. Cherry. Chocolate. California Beer Award winner!”
Mas Macho Mexico Amber Lager: 5.8% ABV 32 IBU “Lightly toasted malt & caramel aroma. Mild herbaceous hop flavor. Honeysuckle. Almonds. Smooth. Balanced. Full flavored. Drink with or without the lime!”
Czech, Please: 5.5% ABV 40 IBU “A Czech-style old-school bohemian pilsner. Brewed with Saaz hops. Floral. Clean. Crisp. Dry lingering finish. Easy drinking. Na zdravi!”
Blonde Ale: 4.8% ABV 23 IBU “Crisp. Dry. Refreshing. Orange Blossoms. Comfortingly Toasty.”
Tipsy Trappist Belgian Tripel: 8% ABV 20 IBU “Honey. Clove. Persimmon. Cantaloupe. Nectarine. Collaboration with our friends at the Brewhouse.”
Update from Second Tasting
I attended a second tasting a few weeks later. All four beers were different from the first tasting:
Dancing Dingo Aussie Pale Ale: 5.2% ABV 30 IBU “Passion fruit. Papaya. Nectarine. Lightly hopped. Fun. Easy drinking.”
Church Beer Light Lager: 3.5% ABV 10 IBU “Clean. Easy drinking. Sessionable. Thirst Quenching. The perfect Sunday afternoon beer.”
Hazy Swayze Hazy Session IPA: 4.5% ABV 52 IBU “This hazy session IPA will dirty dance its way into your life. It Point Breaks your taste buds with notes of apricot, tangerine, star fruit, and mango. Like a Ghost, it’s aromas seduce you 80’s style, like only P-Swaze could. Roadhouse!!!”
Nama Biru Japanese Rice Lager: 6.0% ABV 30 IBU “Japanese Rice Lager. Clean. Flavorful. Floral. Simple yet refined.”
There are few reviews of any Draughtsmen Alehouse beers on Beer Advocate. I do not believe that they have much distribution outside of their own taprooms and some bars and restaurants nearby.
Our Review of Draughtsmen Aleworks Beers
I had been to Draughtsmen Aleworks once before and remembered it as an exceptional brewery, much better than the other Santa Barbara area taprooms I had visited. This visit was a mixed bag. This may partly be my fault, as I maybe tasted the beers in the wrong order.
The First Three Beers
I started with the Irish Red because of how much I like Figueroa Mountain’s Danish Red Lager. It was a big disappointment. Whereas the Danish Red Lager was very smooth and drinkable, this Irish Red had a strange aftertaste. I’ll stick with the Danish Red Lager.
I then moved on to the Mas Macho Mexican Amber Lager. I did not enjoy this one either, but it could be my fault for not cleansing my palate after the Irish Red, as I still had the aftertaste of the Irish Red while drinking the Mas Macho. The Dos Topas Lager from Topa Topa Brewing was much better.
Next I tried the Czech, Please pilsner. This one was better, more drinkable and smoother despite the 40 IBU. It was better than the Figueroa Mountain Paradise Road Pilsner I had the day before. I would drink this one again.
The Last Two Beers
My fourth taste was the Blonde Ale. This one I liked a lot, but that may have lot to do with my taste in beers. It had the lowest ABV and IBU of any of the four beers and was “Crisp, Dry, Refreshing” as Draughtsmen describes it.
As they were trying to rush us out the door, I hustled up to the bar to sneak in one last taste and went with the Tipsy Trappist Belgian Tripel. This beer violates my t-shirt (that we also sell) wanting beer that “tastes like beer” with no fruit. Look at the description: “Honey. Clove. Persimmon. Cantaloupe. Nectarine.” However, one has to keep an open mind. This was easily the best beer of the day. I don’t think I had ever had a beer with such a non-correlating high ABV and low IBU before, and it was simultaneously very full flavored, smooth and drinkable. I would absolutely drink this again.
Update from Second Tasting
I started with the Dancing Dingo Aussie Pale Ale. I liked this a lot more than the Amber Lager and Czech Pilsner from the first tasting. The “easy drinking” description was accurate and the taste was very clean.
Next I tried the Church Street Light Lager. Once again Draughtsmen gave a very accurate description, as it was indeed “Clean. Easy drinking. Sessionable. Thirst Quenching. The perfect Sunday afternoon beer.” This beer is a good compromise if you want to reduce alcohol intake but not switch to non alcoholic beers. It was much better than any light beer even with the 3.5% ABV and 10 IBU.
Having tried and liked what one may call a “session lager,” I decided to move on to the Hazy Swayze session IPA. I liked this a lot, but mainly because it did not taste like an IPA. So if you like IPAs, even session IPAs, you may want to stay away from this one.
I was running our of beers to try, so I took a chance on the Japanese Rice Lager. I did not like this at all. Maybe it tasted like a rice lager should, but I could not get into the strange taste which I cannot describe. It was most definitely not clean. I couldn’t finish it.
So the second visit was much better than the first, with three good tastings out of four. Maybe I should push the rating up to “four beers out of five.”
For beer nutritional information of all beers we have reviewed see Beer Nutritional Information.
