Brett Keating
April 27, 2022
La Jara Brewing is opening this weekend, the first brewery ever to open in Norwalk. La Jara is a product of partners and co-owners Jason Sullivan, co-head brewer Derek Johnstone, and Derek’s dad, Randy Johnstone. They first applied for permitting back in 2019, and were finally approved late last year to start brewing on-site.
The brewery is located just off the 5, about halfway between Anaheim and Downtown LA. The space holds a large tasting room, with giant glass windows looking out onto the production facility, where you’ll see their 10-bbl. brewing system. And if you notice a little extra space, there’s good reason for that extra room – they hope to soon expand into barrel-aging beers.
They have 16 taps behind the bar, but the beer list is limited to start, with a tight list of six crowd-pleasing styles: a blonde ale, an unfiltered IPA, a dark lager, a cold IPA, an American lager, a dubbel, and an amber.
The tasting room prominently features murals painted by team member and Norwalk native, Danny Velazquez, tables welded by Randy, and wooden benches fabricated by Sullivan. The concrete bar – hand-poured by the team – was made with some of the leftover materials from the space’s previous life as a granite warehouse.
This Saturday, April 30, will mark their opening celebration, which will feature limited beer releases, live music, and food vendors. Follow their Instagram for all upcoming news and releases.
