L.A.’s got plenty of beer breweries, especially Downtown, but when it comes to taprooms dedicated to kombucha? Well, that’s another story—but not if Flying Embers can help it.
The Ojai-founded, Ventura-based brewer’s been making hard kombucha since 2017 and this year it added a slew of seltzers to its lineup. Now it’s expanding even further with a new flagship in the Arts District that serves as a brewery, a bar and a restaurant outpost from one of the city’s best soul-food spots, Comfort LA.
Consider the new Flying Embers Brewery & Social Club a tasting room to dive into the world of kombucha, the fermented and—in this case—alcoholic tea-like drink that’s lightly bubbly. Kombucha often contains trace amounts of alcohol due to the fermentation process, but Flying Embers makes six different flavors of hard kombucha, ranging from 4.5% to 7.2% ABV, or about as much alcohol as you’d find in beer.
At their new Arts District outpost, which sports a patio and retail, you’ll be able to try all six varieties—grapefruit, lemon, berry, ginger, pineapple-and-chili, and black cherry—all brewed without any sugar, and all including live probiotics and an adaptogens. On weekends? There’s a hard-kombucha take on the michelada, and you can always order kombucha flights if you want to taste your way around.
“The thing is there are so many magical and potent plants on our beautiful Earth,” Speciality Brewing and Innovation lead Margaux Moses says in a news release. “And as wonderful as hops are, there is so much more to explore, and I plan to do it! At Flying Embers DTLA I will continue to play and push the envelope, and offer events, experiences, and resources the community to dive into this plant world with us.”
The space also serves “Booch-tails,” a liquor-free spin on a cocktail, plus hard selzters in flavors like guava jalapeño and pineapple cayenne, which hover around 5% ABV. For all their non-beer brewing, Flying Embers does dabble in hops every now and then, and you’ll be able to find a handful of their experimental beers, too.
Not into alcohol at all? There’s a menu of nonalcoholic drinks, too, which involve house-made shrubs, and of course there’s that Comfort LA partnership for bites like their fan-favorite chicken wings, their flawless mac and cheese, and even “Comfort Cones,” where savory stacks of chicken, candied yams and other sides get built into a waffle cone.
What’s more, there’s a philanthropic bent to it all. Flying Embers was founded during the 2017 Thomas Fire, after the wildfires threatened the brewery’s predecessor facilities, Fermented Sciences. The fires not only inspired the company’s new name, but also a charitable direction: Flying Embers always pledges at least 1% of its revenue to firefighters and first-responder–focused organizations, so you can always know you’re drinking for a cause (aside from, you know, the cause of your own enjoyment).
Flying Embers Brewery & Social Club is now open at 1581 Industrial St in the Arts District, with hours of 4 to 10pm Thursday to Monday.
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