While we wait for Modern Times to open Leisuretown sometime next year in Anaheim, near Leisure World in Laguna Hills, a new brewery is scheduled to open this week. GameCraft, a Scott Cebula project, has set its sights on millennials who like to drink beer and play adult-friendly games.
“I really wanted to build something for the community, and beer was the perfect solution with my experience. Beer is so much fun,” says Cebula, a homebrewer for more than 20 years.
GameCraft’s brewer, Andrew Moy, is no stranger to Orange County’s beer scene, having won a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2016 for an American IPA produced by Riip Beer Co.—no small feat among almost 300 entries. Later that same year, he took a bit of money from his granddad and completed the Siebel Master Brewer Program, then went off to brewing school in Germany. “The Germans weren’t too impressed with my medal over there. . . . They drink helles [a traditional German pale lager] and don’t really care about IPA too much,” Moy says.
Pointing at GameCraft’s long and slender brewhouse, he notes, “We’ll make mostly IPA and German-style lagers.” The half-dozen horizontal lagering tanks will produce 50 percent ales and 50 percent lagers.
Although the brewhouse will still be under construction during the soft opening on Friday and Saturday, Cebula plans to release a set of collaboration and guest beers for the first month. Thus far, GameCraft has worked with Riip, Belmont Brewing and HopSaint.
Its first location will feature a kitchen serving up international-style tapas—everything from beer pretzels, fries and tots to a crispy chicken karaage, flatbreads, empanadas, even bánh mì. There will also be guest wines and ciders on tap. Check GameCraft’s Facebook page for more details on its grand opening.
GameCraft, 23301 Avenida de la Carlota, Ste. C, Laguna Hills, (949) 734-0910; www.gamecraftbrewing.com.
Greg Nagel has been writing about beer since 2011, is an avid homebrewer of wine, cider, and beer, is a certified Cicerone Beer Server, level 1 WSET in Wine, a podcaster with the Four Brewers Show, and runs a yearly beer festival called Firkfest happening on June 29th in Anaheim!