Brewyard Beer Co. puts its own craft brews on tap in Glendale

The first craft-beer brewery in Glendale opened last week and started serving up pours of what began as homemade recipes.

Like many craft-beer operations in Southern California, Brewyard Beer Co. is situated in an industrial park warehouse that allows room for massive brewing equipment and a seating area for patrons.

At the helm are Sherwin Antonio and Kirk Nishikawa, friends since high school who started brewing out of Antonio’s garage in Mission Hills more than a decade ago.

Brewyard’s lineup specializes in hybrid lager ales, a blend of two of the most common beer styles. The approach calls for a lager yeast with a twist.

“We ferment at a slightly higher temperature to achieve ale profiles with a crisp lager finish,” Antonio said.

Behind the bar counter is a 10-handle tap system the owners hope to fully stock with their own recipes someday. For now, however, there are four original offerings: the Tropico Saison with passion fruit; the Split Shift India Pale Lager; the Soul Cal, a hoppy California Common; and Black Sunrise, a black lager.

In addition to pours, to-go growlers are also available.

Antonio said the Soul Cal is one of his first recipes.

“I kept tweaking them and then pretty much transferred the beers from my home to Brewyard,” he said.

In one corner of the brewery, located at 906 Western Ave., sit four, 500-gallon fermentation tanks with an adjacent seating area immediately nearby with wooden tables and board games.

There’s no kitchen, but customers can bring in food from restaurants.

The centerpiece decoration is a 1930s-era Ford flatbed truck restored by Nishikawa and Antonio, a hobby they developed back in high school.

The brewery’s logo includes the truck’s front grill.

“We specifically chose that era because it’s right after prohibition, it’s this boom after prohibition, and good beer is back,” Nishikawa said.

While the truck’s engine and battery had to be removed for safety reasons, guests are welcome to make use of the flatbed by placing their beers on it, he added.

Craft-beer breweries started popping up in the area in recent years with Eagle Rock Brewing in Eagle Rock in 2010 followed by nearby Golden Road Brewing along San Fernando Road in Los Angeles, near the Glendale border.

Being the first one to set up shop within Glendale, the brewers hope more craft-beer establishments will start popping up locally, and the city will eventually develop its own craft-beer scene like those in San Diego or Torrance.

“Craft breweries do better in clusters,” Antonio said. “It’s not competition … there’s a good amount of camaraderie between brewers.”

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Arin Mikailian, arin.mikailian@latimes.com

Twitter: @ArinMikailian