Barley Forge Brewing Co.

By Amy Estrada

Because this past Monday was 4/20 and is considered to be a “holiday” for some people, I decided to join in the celebration by visiting a local brewery to enjoy some craft beers instead of commemorating the traditional way. Feeling adventurous and in the mood for someplace new, I browsed on Yelp to see if there were any high ranking, unfamiliar breweries in my location and found “Barley Forge Brewing Co”. Established in 2014, it ranks a whopping 4.5 out of 5 stars in customer reviews (impressive for it being open less than a year ago) and is located in Costa Mesa, CA, which happens to be a short drive from where I live. Intrigued, I grabbed my belongings and made my way into the night to see this hot new place for myself. At first it was a bit difficult to find because it was dark out (also having a poor sense of direction doesn’t help) but I eventually found my way to the parking lot.

 

Before going inside, I stood in front of the building and looked around, feeling displeased with the location of the brewery. It was somewhat hidden and didn’t seem right being surrounded by business looking warehouses. Looking in however, a wide, door-less entrance was before me practically yelling to “come right in” and a delicious light popcorn aroma greeted me from the doorway. The warm, dim lights easily seen from the outside was more of an incentive to go in and so I did because curiosity got the best of me.

Immediately walking in, my eyes zeroed in on the bar area because the back wall of it was painted a yellow and orange color that popped with the logo “Barley Brewing Co.” stenciled in huge letters unlike the other walls that was painted a muted light blue color. Custom artwork hung around the light blue walls with chocolate brown base molding to complement the chocolate colored wooden frames surrounding the pictures except for one wall that had four horizontal glass insets displaying the stainless steel beer factory inside.  I looked down at the floor and saw that it was concrete throughout with a semi-gloss seal applied to it. Aluminum armless chairs with a black leather cushion was used to sit the guests at wooden tables that were high gloss, epoxy coated (the wooden stools were coated too) and the benches that ran across the wall with glass insets, had an excellent contrast of a light orange tweed fabric color with red-orange tweed fabric colored pillows with a light wooden frame.  

 

At this point, I’ve made my way to the bar, still analyzing, still trying to give a name to everything they’ve used in this interior when a lovely and kind voice greeted me, interrupting my thought process. I looked up to see a female bartender with a big warm smile asking me if wanted anything to eat or drink and I took the opportunity to order the first beer I saw. She carded me and began to pour my beer when she asked if I had any questions or concerns about the brewery because she saw me looking around and writing things down. Turns out that luck was with me because the woman pouring my beer was Mary Ann Frericks, the owner and designer of Barley Brewing Co. Stunned, I introduced myself and let her know what my business was and she and her husband Greg (who was the other owner of this place) was kind enough to give me further information on other materials and products I couldn’t identify and more. We sat down and they gave me a brief history of this building before it became their brewery and the background information of all the products used.
 

For example, all the wood used for the tables and stools is repurposed, the aluminum chairs came from navy ships, the benches belonged to churches, the concrete floor and the ceiling were the only things that were original (from 1955) and everything else was salvaged from all different kinds of places.  The bar’s countertop, which I had trouble identifying, was made entirely of metal that was welded down and coated in epoxy also. The face of the bar (and the L-shaped wall table behind the bar) was made of gym boards from an old gym. Near the front were chairs lined up and they used to belong to an old bowling alley.

 

Overall this place definitely met my expectations and went above and beyond it. Getting to meet both owners and their son, having the chance to sit down and talk to both of them, hearing about how it came to be and where everything came from was the cherry on top. Seeing how this is a family run business (the son helps deliver the food) truly made me feel like I was home there and welcomed. If it wasn’t the people who owned the place, then the light, mellow music that played in the background, the way they used accent, mood, dim, warm lighting to set the mood or the horizontal layout of this place for this feeling of relaxation definitely hit the spot and I couldn’t have been happier to spend 4/20 the way I did.