Caesar Cervisia: Our (Admittedly Biased) Beer Expert Says the State of the Local Craft Beer Scene Is … Troubled, but Tentatively Promising

Another year has come and gone, and that means it’s time for my yearly summary of the state of the local beer scene.

What makes me an authority on such a thing? I’ve lived here for a long time; I’m a Certified Cicerone; and I still have the belief that the Coachella Valley can have a good craft-beer scene if there are enough people who care and work for it. (I will continue to point to a time when it had the start of a promising beer scene via a column I wrote about the late and beloved Schmidy’s Tavern.)

We’ll start with what’s new: Coachella Valley Brewing Co. has opened a taproom in Palm Springs. Full disclosure No. 1: I’m a former CVB employee, and my time there ended less than amicably. My friend Mikki is working at the new taproom, and she’s awesome and knowledgeable about beer, so if you go and visit, say hello. This is separate from the beer, so judge for yourself.

Full disclosure No. 2: I had been an employee since late 2021 at Babe’s Bar-B-Que & Brewhouse before it died this summer. Before it became a mess at the end, the food was great, and the beer was better than it had been for a long time (when it was allowed to be), but what was the longest-running brewery in the desert is now gone. Babe’s is being resurrected in Indio, but not with a brewhouse (as far as I know). For now, add it to the pile of disappointments in the area of beer in the valley.

Another thing that is new, in a sense, is La Quinta Brewing Co.’s beers—and they’re good now. That’s not to say there were never any good beers there, but the current beers are good and relevant to the craft-beer landscape as it is today. They hired a fine brewer from the Los Angeles area, Lloyd Johnson, who is passionate and knowledgeable about brewing and beer in general, and let him do his thing on their very nice, relatively new brew system. My former colleague, Juan Higuera, once the head brewer at Babe’s, is now also working there. I first met Lloyd at the Palm Desert location before a Firebirds hockey game when I went in for a pint of one of their guest taps. I saw Juan in the back, met Lloyd, and was told they made a hoppy lager with Nelson Sauvin hops, apparently a first for LQBC. Even more amazingly, their festbier was clean and delicious. I’ve since tried the Koffi Porter (which was excellent), and I happen to know there is some of it maturing in Heaven Hill barrels. I’m finally optimistic about LQBC’s future. 

The past year saw a positive sign with the Ace Hotel’s beer festival. It’s the area’s best beer festival, even though it’s held in the dead of summer (and this last summer’s “dead” was extra dead). Despite that, I hope the Ace doesn’t rest on its laurels. There is plenty of room to improve; they could trim some breweries that probably shouldn’t have been there, if sheer craft beer excellence is the goal. 

Las Palmas Brewing is a bright spot, as always. I’ve rained praise down upon them here before, so if you haven’t gone, please go. Their saison and grisette are both great, and the people there are cool. 

As far as beer bars go, I don’t know what to tell you; I honestly don’t go out for beers much here. Spotlight 29’s 29 Brews seems to be doing its thing well. Ed Heethuis, their former head brewer, has moved on, and from what I can tell, his assistant brewer, Jacob Jimenez, now brews, and the beers seem to be in order. I had a great Nelson-hopped lager at the casino’s new restaurant, Red Falcon. The charcuterie plate looked great, but there’s a catch: The lounge is located next to their dispensary, and you can smoke what you bought there inside the lounge. I’m not adverse to weed, but smoke does not mix well with food and drink for me. I’m old enough to remember the joke that was “smoking sections” in restaurants and on airplanes, and those memories are not fond ones—but to each their own.

After my meeting with the guys in the local homebrew club in November, they invited me to their Christmas party, which took place at Desert Beer Company. I was happy to see a number of people who remember me and miss me from my days at CVB. The boys from the club brought some fun homebrews to sample. I was happy to see a smaller, tight-knit group when it came to the club, because when I left, it had become more of a drinking club, with many members not even bothering to bring homebrew to club meetings. I’m pleased it resembles something like the club I joined long ago.

In conclusion, the state of the union is … tentatively promising. That said, I want our collective standards to be higher. Don’t shoot to make the best beer in the Coachella Valley; shoot to make the best beer, period—and if you fall a little short, you’re still doing damn fine work.