Ambitious Ales, the Bixby Knolls hopped-out gem that churns out some of the region’s best beer, is turning six. And to celebrate, the brewery’s charismatic, humble, and talented crew—head brewer Garrette Carroll, lead brewer Jon Cuthbert, operations man Jerome De Leon, general manager Russell Feldt, and its two other owners, Danny Karpinski and Juan Carrillo—are encouraging Long Beach to come out today and across the next year to help them blow out some candles.
And what better way to celebrate than having a Jurassic Park theme?
What does Ambitious Ales have planned for their annual celebration this year?
The brewery has already released two special beers. One, Exceptional Human Being, is a nod to their Great American Beer Fest gold medal-snatching hazy IPA, Professional Human Being. (More on the importance of that in a bit.) Hitting the double-digits with this 10.5% ABV triple hazy, it’s for the boozy lovers who want dangerously poundable heavy hitters.
Another is the wittily named Pink Polo Club is a double-nod. One to the little known fact that Jurassic Park employees wore pink polos in the film. (It’s true.) The other from the hit song from Chappell Roan. A delightfully citrus-forward shandy that melds calamansi and lemon with the tart and, well, pinkness of hibiscus, it’s a perfect welcome to spring.
On the release docket for this weekend will be the brewery’s two stubbies that make that triple IPA look like a light beer. There’s “6 Ft. Turkey” (a playful tip of the hat toward the annoying kid who mocked the dangerousness of veolciraptors in “Jurassic Park”). It;s a 12% barleywine that will easily allow you to catch up should you arrive late to a party.
This is followed by the Sunday release of an even boozier imperial stout called “Clever Girl” (hunter Muldoon calls a raptor after being outsmarted by it and before getting killed, well, by that raptor). 13%. Blanton’s Gold Barrel-aged to give it a definitively whiskey character. Plenty of vanilla. Everything you want in an imperial stout before you forget where you put your fourth one.
And yes, they have an amaro. And yes, it is as sexy as you would expect it to be.
Ambitious Ales is, first and foremost, Bixby Knolls-centric—but it deserves to be a properly recognized Long Beach brewery.
“There’s a lotta people who still don’t know who we are in Long Beach,” Garrett said. “We will always be thankful to Bixby Knolls because, firstly, that’s who we are. Without Bixby Knolls, Ambitious Ales wouldn’t be here. But we also want to be known beyond just our neighborhood.”
Rightfully so. And there is some understanding to his pronouncement: There is a bit of Manhattanitis running amongst Long Beach neighborhoods, with denizens below the 405 rarely going above it, let alone to the Westside or North Long Beach. Neighborhoods tend to, well, stick to their island. This isn’t to say that their beer isn’t being bought or sold in Long Beach. Or even beyond.
“I have a personal relationship with all our buyers because we don’t have a marketing person and we don’t have a sales person,” Garrett said. “It’s us. We’re truly a family-ran business with a handful of people. And I know they enjoy our beer because they buy the same kegs over and over, which means their customers are buying it. But the accounts outside Long Beach is where it gets intereting.”
By interesting, Garrett means they explore beyond the Professional Human Being. The Central Perk. The berry sour. It is likely here where Ambitious’s name will become larger than its ever dreamed: parts of L.A. and SoCal are not just enjoying their beers but personally inviting the Ambitious crew to personally sample their products so more can be bought.
Ambitious Ales is not just recognized by Bixby Knolls, but the beer peers across the nation.
And even more? The brewery is now distributing in Japan thanks to a partnership with Nagano Trading Company. Ambitious is, well, getting big—in everywhere but Long Beach. There’s the accounts. There’s the medals. And there is even Forbes, giving them arguably the coolest headline a brewery can score with a publication of that size.
The blunt reality is that, like all talented creators who are humble, the Ambitious Boys don’t meld in the dramatic, excessively negative, or just outright wrong. They harbor community, connection, and creativity in a way that few breweries do without it feeling trite or performative. With just one year of normal operation before the pandemic pandemicked us, they showcase a breadth of humility and respect that is worthy of applause.
“We’ve all aged, there’s no question about that,” Garret said, laughing. “Some of our first customers have kids. Or the younger kids are older and they’re going on dates here. It’s like an incubator—the exact thing you want from a brewery. We’re not just looking for six more years, man. We’re looking to be a lifelong part of Long Beach culture and beer.”
Cheers to that, friends.
Ambitious Ales is located at 4019 Atlantic Ave.
