The northward spread of craft beer across these fair orange acres continues with the opening of Noble Ale Works in Anaheim. Noble is a name that's been seen around town on taps for a year or so–you can find their beers at the Anthill Pub, the Monkey House, Valhalla Table and Hollingshead's–but they finally have a home right in Orange County's most-visited city.
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Noble is a project of Jerry Kolbly, who ran the Newport Beach Brewing Company, and Steve Miles, an attorney with a beer bent who helped Jerry with some legal issues while he was at NBBC. It started as Jerry's project to get NBBC brewer Kirk Roberts the recognition he deserved; Kirk decided to stay with NBBC, but Noble Ale Works lives on with the expertise of Tracy Simmons, formely of Omaha Jack's in Rancho Cucamonga.
The brewery and tasting room, which are easy walking distance from both the Honda Center and Angel Stadium, aren't done yet (the beers are still being brewed off-site), but they have their type 23 license and they have a tasting room up and running with, of course, the required food trucks there (Nom Nom showed up on Saturday; the Lime Truck was there Thursday).
All the beers on tap have either been brewed by Jerry or by Tracy. There are two IPAs, which are nicely balanced between alcohol and hops; of the two, the Dark Sybian IPA (6.5% ABV) is the better beer, with a more herbal, floral note. They serve a double-hopped red called Alpha Red, and a very good Pale Ale (not IPA).
The Noble Ale Works website is a work in progress (and, I suspect, secondary to actually finishing the brewery itself); you're more likely to get information from their Facebook page (hint, guys: make a fan page rather than a personal page, or you'll hit that 5,000 friend limit too soon) or their Twitter feed. Hours at the tasting room don't seem to be officially established yet, but they do tweet the hours on Twitter; go during normal OC tasting room hours (Thursday and Friday evenings, Saturday from about 2, Sunday afternoons) for the best bet.
Now, if you don't mind, I have a brewery that's walking distance from my house. There's beer to be drinking.
Noble Ale Works, 1621 S. Sinclair #B, Anaheim; (714) 634-BREW (2738).
