Nepenthia Beer Garden

Thanks to Unilocal OC my boyfriend and I were able to enjoy a fun Saturday afternoon here at the Nepenthia Beer Garden. We originally just wanted to check out the place for an hour and sample 4 or 5 beers… but we ended up staying for the entire event and almost sampled all the beers offered (maybe around 20? we don’t remember! We had a good buzz going :))
It was held at the garden adjacent to the Anaheim Packing District. We first went for the food offered, which were pork belly sliders, chicken and waffles, lobster rolls, and tacos. Out of all the food offered, the tacos were my favorite! I must have had each item 4 times… we were so full. The selection of beers available was outstanding. They had almost all the local breweries come out and play from SD to OC to the IE. They had Karl Strauss, Hangar 24, Ballast Point, The Bruery, Stone. just to name a few. With our complimentary beer glass, we were walking all around the garden trying out almost all the beers… and even there were some event staff going around with beer making sure our glasses weren’t empty! How sweet. lol
They also showcased art, and there was a DJ who played some tunes. My boyfriend and I decided to dance a little in the middle of the garden. If anyone remembers that weird couple with the weird dance moves, that was us!
Overall, we had such a fun time beer tasting, eating good food, meeting some new friends, and overall having fun at Nepenthia Beer Garden on the super spontaneous Saturday we had. Thanks again to Unilocal OC and the organizers of this great event!

Thank you Ryan C. for such a fun event for a Saturday! All you can Drink Beer, art and some yummies for your tummies!
The Unilocal table was hard to miss with the Big Stack Jenga, i played a couple and had a close call to what could of been a terrible toe injury .but all is well =P !
The endless amount of beers flowing really made this event extra fun.
I love that it was literally walking distance to the Packing House as I would never have wonder my booty to this side of the town just for it.
Perfect day ! thank you Ryan once more!

Thanks to my friend Trina D. for getting me into this event. She happened to get some free tickets from Ryan C/​Yelp OC so we were able to enjoy the festivities.
They hand you a little glass to get beer in. If you really like beer, this is a great event. I did see that the price to get into the event was over $ 50 so if you were paying for this event, you probably need to really like beer. They had quite a few vendors, and people walking around to make sure your glass was not empty. There weren’t very many food options though (obviously you are here for the beer after all), one was already packing up and leaving and I think the even was only open for a couple of hours when I got there.
The Packing District is now open so you could grab a bite there and come back and still enjoy more beer.
Parking is a PAIN! If you get lucky enough you can find street parking otherwise you will be going around and around trying to find parking.

Thank you Unilocal & Ryan C for allowing me to participate in this amazing event!
Parking was easy peasy as there were street parking, structure parking (within reasonable walking distances), and parking lots. I was afraid lines were going to be long for samples but to my surprise, there was hardly any lines for beer. Food line was a bit of a wait but nothing unbearable, especially when you have your glass always filled with a nice cold brew. Not really an IPA kinda gal so was glad there was always a pale or blonde of to try as well. The food was delicious thanks to participating vendors that were there. Can’t wait to go to the actual restaurants and try their menus.
Had an awesome time enjoying good music and great food while trying out awesome brews.

Scored two free tickets at the very last minute, so was desperately trying to find someone to accompany me in this event. You’d think it wouldn’t be so hard finding someone to go to an all-​free-​all-​you-​can-​sample-​beer-​and-​food event but… it was harder than getting these tickets! Because it was so last minute, I ended up going solo, but HEY! I still had a great time enjoying beer (beer+me=always a great time) and sampling all the different food (although it seemed like I only ate duck/​pork fat in all of the samples… which I am not complaining about).
There were so many different local breweries, and the beers were all so delicious and strong. The empty calories and the strong alcohol content kept this 5’2″ 106lb girl from trying all of the different beers that were there. Plus, I drove there by myself so I did not want to have tooo much fun and not remember how to get back to my car…
I will definitely find someone in advance (already asked someone a few days ago to go with me next year), to make sure that I have a DD and a beer drinking partner to experience this with me next time!

100 Eats never disappoints with their special events and this was no exception. Situated in a park conveniently across form the new Anaheim Packing District, this event was just the right amount of crowded with cold, tasty beer available all around you. All of the pours were very generous and there was something for every beer palate. I was especially happy with all the citrus and honey beer available.
Tasty snacks could be found all around: Lobster Sliders from Slapfish, Pork Belly Sliders from Stonefire Grill, Al Pastor Tacos from Hopscotch and chicken waffle mini sandwiches from Iron Press.
There was no dessert so we ambled over to the Packing District to stuff ourself silly with ice cream.

Great day out!
My husband and I aren’t huge beer drinkers (we looove a hard cider though) and I have a fear of commitment with food and drink so this event was absolutely perfect for a newb beer drinker like me.
Parking was a verifiable (and expected) nightmare but we were warned. We drove by the event on all sides 2 – 3 times, parked in the alley next to the event entrance, noticed each car around us had parking tickets on their wind shields and then moved the car across the street to the not-​so-​visible parking structure. The whole thing annoyed my already hangry dezi (aka husband) but the promise of unlimited food and drink after a 200yrd walk brought some calming.
We approached the entrance, got carded, received our bracelets, got overexcited about the adorable glassware, and walked in. It was a beautifully warm day and there were beer stands everywhere — how could a girl not be excited?!
Here’s my most concise review of the beers:
Nobel Ale Works — tried their Nepenthia — it was light, smooth and refreshing
Blue House IPA — It was nice and citrusy, perfect for summer!
Stone Brewery — Can’t remember really… but I know I drank it so it couldn’t have been too offensive.
Beach City Brewery — The beach cruiser is AWESOME! I love champagne and the beach cruiser is almost like a champagne-​beer hybrid! It was nice a bubbly and refreshing. love!
Ritual — Funner was a little too IPA-​like for me — I’m a noob remember?
Bootleg Brewery — Really nice summer beer.
Coronado Brewery — LOVED this beer! Light and delicious! And they win for coolest pint puller!
Hangar 24 — My favorite of them all — Belgian Summer Ale! Orange Wheat was good too but for lightweight pineapple flavor — Belgian summer ale wins!
Did that sound like fun? Cuz oh man, trying all these amazingly cold craft brews while enjoying the sunshiney June day was!
Of the 4 bite-​sized eats available:
pork belly slider. It was tasty but not bind-​blowing.
Slapfish’s mini lobster roll… was not incredibly flavorful but filled a small hole.
Tacos — Hot and tasty… the best thing on offer. Wish we could have ordered about 10 more.
Chicken & Waffle — unappetizing and not even close to worth the 10 min wait.
The reason this event doesn’t get 5 stars is credit to the lack of food vendors… I mean, I usually like to choose one or the other (food or drink) but my husband suffers from hangry-​itus and being that he was designated driver, I really sold him on this event with the promise of eats… The food lines were so long and the food that was available was so halfheartedly prepared because of the demand it all was just a sad, unappetizing display.
The saving grace was the fact that this event shared the same block as the newly opened Anaheim Packing House and with our wristbands we were allowed re-​entry for the length of the event.
At about 4:30p we emptied our glasses and went over got some real food. We marveled at the beauty of the place and explored both floors and noted probably 10 different cuisines to choose from — loved having them all in one place! …but that’s another review.
Anyway, after that we returned to the beer garden and enjoyed the beer, DJ and sunshine for an hour or two more.
The good:
~20+ breweries present with generous, ice-​cold pours and smiling faces.
~Great location next to the Anaheim Packing House.
~Cute glassware gift
~DJ played some classics
~Sunshiney June Day
~Re-​entry allowed
The bad:
~The lack of food present
~The trinket vendors were just meh
~The art wasn’t anything to write home about
~The parking was bad…
As you can see, the good outweighed the bad and the event was actually really great as a whole! I am so happy I got to try so many local brews and will be better equipped to order future pints! I also loved the outdoor setting and being able to explore the newly opened Anaheim Packing House.
Bottomline, I just would have liked to see more food offered at future events. I really wish we would have eaten first, gone straight to the parking structure and actually, taken an über there instead so we both could have enjoyed all the brews available.
I think the price of admission is really the equivalent to 8 or so beers on a day out but you could drink way more than that with the generous pours given over the course of the 4hr event so its great. PLUS the variety and access to those that brew the beer it is well worth the ticket!
So much beer passion in one place, so little time!
Its a great deal for a great day drinking event.

What an amazing event!!! Thanks Ryan C for the wonderful opportunity to experience this very cool event!!! So many breweries, it was hard to chose which one was my favorite but I think I feel in love with the sour beer from the Huntington beach brewery. We really enjoyed all the yummy food that was there but I have to admit my boyfriend and I were very impressed with the alpastor tacos from hopscotch they were legit. They were worthy of comparison to the ones we love in Mexico. I cant wait to use my $ 10 coupon for that place. Slapfish was amazing as well and the carnitas sliders from Fireside hit the spot.
I have never been to this area before so it was nice to explore the newly opened Packing house as well as the garden where I hear is the place where they have a local farmers market. It was pretty impressive with some restaurants we cant wait to try. We enjoyed looking at all the art from the talented artist and I even bought a shirt from Anna Hansen, I really loved her intricate heart sketch. She pressed the design on my shirt right there!
It was a very fun event on a beautiful sunny day. When we got full of food, we lounged on the grass and beer came to us! Our mini wine glasses were always full! We also really enjoyed the DJ, he had some awesome moves!

This was my first time attending an elite event, and this one was right up my alley. Not only am I a big fan of supporting local breweries, the packing house is walking distance from my buddies house, which made for a great opportunity to drink some good beers without the risk of a dui.
I was impressed with the number of beer vendors there, each offering 2 – 4 different selections. My favorite tho was probably the douple IPA offered by Bottle Logic Brewing Company. This was the only one I went back for seconds. The event was pretty empty when we arrived at 3pm, allowing us to sample all the breweries without having to wait in line. And although there were only a handful of food vendors there, each one was pretty solid. But I think it’s fair to say that the al pastor tacos from Hopscotch and the lobster toast from Slapfish were the clear favorites, judging by the lines that started to quickly form.
The two things that I am always wary of when attending any kind of event, are the lines and the crowds. So I was pretty excited to see that we could drink as much as we wanted without having to deal with any of that. This was really a well planned event in a great setting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just hope there are more events like this in the future. Because really, daytime drinking is always a good idea.

Yes I was a little dissappointed that Hans Ice Cream and The Bruery (at least it was stated on the Unilocal event page), not here:
But I didn’t walk away dissapointed. I had enough to drink.
Ok, I had too much to drink. I never made it to Bootleggers for their Lemongrass nor did I make it to Beach City Brewing for their sour. I was so full because those damn beer fairies will not let you have an empty cup!
Thank you fireside for the pork belly sliders, they were great! I had 2 of them
Thank you Hopscotch for the Tacos
Thank you Slapfish for your lobster sliders. I had more shrimp on one of them
Thank you IronPress for your chicken and waffles. I did wish you had some maple syrup though.
Ok, as for the beers, I got to go to Ballast Point for the Sculpin of course. Kevin the OC sales guy was there. The special beer there, that was good too.
Bottle Logic-I’ve had many of their beers, I tried one of the beers that went through the hose that went through some mangos was interesting. It was quite good.
Yes Valiant had a Quadruple IPA that had a 14% ABV, that was quite good. It was really filling though. I’m going back for that one day.
Stone’s had my favorite for the day, their Ruination IPA and a Black Rye Kolsch. Both were balanced and just tasty. Total standout.
Beachwood, I love your beers. I got to meet the distribution manager. Yes, you really need to give your Seal Beach location more beers! Tell Gabe to step it up!
El Segundo Citra, really refreshing beer. Probably the best in terms of quinching your thirst!
I had lots of fun seeing some friends and of course thank you Bobby of 100eats for hosting this great event. The grounds were beautiful and it was nice and relaxing. I think the DJ made me dance everytime I passed by him. Parking was okay since I came early.
I actually worked this event last year in Costa Mesa and I had a great time as well. (I delivered about $ 200 worth of ice to the vendors)
Oh, and a big thanks to UnilocalOC for the tix. My beer belly thanks you.

What an awesome event for Beer + Food. I really like the glassware we were given. It was a nice little Snifter with Nepenthia Beer Garden etched on it. The event was just outside the Packing District at the park. Overall it was a nice sunny day but not too hot.
Thanks to all the local breweries. Bottle Logic Brewing had a pretty cool set up for their white IPA. Valiant Brewing Co. tapped their 14.3% quad at 4pm. Most of the beers were IPAs. I think I pretty much tried all the breweries here.
My favorite food item goes to Fireside Tavern’s pork belly sliders. There were awesome. The slice of pork was thick! I just kept coming back for more. They ran out pretty early but they offered coupons for a free appetizer when you visit.
Iron Press had fried chicken waffles. Slapfish had lobster/​shrimp grinders. Hopscotch had Al Pastor tacos.
The event wasn’t too packed. The lines were pretty short for the breweries. The only long lines were for the food. It wasn’t too bad after getting a beer then waiting. It was great how some of the breweries went around filling our empty glasses when we were waiting in line. I think the $ 55 price tag for the event was a little steep but it hit the spot where it was not over crowded.
Thank you again Ryan C and the Unilocal team.

Many, many, I repeat, many local breweries! Matching that with the food vendors (lobster rolls, mini tacos, mini waffle and chicken) and my favorite: pork belly sliders (if you arrived late, SORRY but they were gone by around 4:30pm)…
Parking wasn’t that hard, just need to walk a little, and I tried the 14.3% quadruple IPA which was… very heavy. My fav of the day was from TAPS. Both of what they brought with them were very good. We also walked around the place (packing house) just to get some more fresh air, and then Umami. This is as good as it gets! If there were a few more food vendors it would be even better!

This was by far one of the coolest events I’ve been to! Thanks Ryan for giving me the opportunity to go!
My plus one and I arrived a little after three. Parking was already a mess, but luckily we found street parking right by the Packing House. Phew! We squeezed into a tight spot and got out of the car. We couldn’t find the entrance to the event at first (we almost walked into the exit) but the person standing there was SO nice and told us really politely that the entrance to the event was down and around the corner. We walked that direction and it was kind of difficult at first because several people had parked their cars in the alley. We squeezed through and got in line. After receiving our wrist bands and checking in, we received two sampling glasses with «Nepenthia Beer Garden» engraved. I’m a super weird freak for cute glassware, so I was really excited when the lady said we could keep the glasses! Yay!!!
There was already music booming and a good crowd walking about when we entered. I felt like there were so many choices of beer. Now, I’ll be honest: I don’t drink a lot of beer: I spent a lot of time cleaning up beer from the floor after messy beer pong games, so I equate the taste of beer to mopping floors which just isn’t fun at all. Luckily, all the local breweries that were present at this event, had well-​crafted and tasty beers. I didn’t try too many because I’m rather light weight, but my plus-​one really enjoyed everything. I think he tried around 10 out of the 15 that were available. My favorite one was the honey-​beer! I can’t recall at the moment which beer that was, but it was really smooth and deep and honey-​ish. Not too alcoholic for light-​weight Rose!
There was also plenty of food to sample. The pork tacos were BOMB as well as the lobster rolls. This event was really elevated and awesome. The Unilocal Booth had a huge jenga tower going on, and everyone was so friendly. The DJ played good music and even got some crowd interaction. I even saw an old friend from HIgh School who was volunteering at the event. What are the odds? I’m so glad I got to go. It was my first time visiting the Anaheim Packing House, so that was a good experience as well. Everything here was so organized and it wasn’t overly packed. There were still places to sit. I’m also so glad Ryan told us in the email that we could bring lawn chairs, because it was well worth it to sit in the shade and have awesome beer runners come and fill up glasses. Yay! Can’t wait for what else Unilocal OC has up its sleeve.

So many breweries! Thanks to Ryan C. and Unilocal OC for the tickets to the Nepenthia Beer Garden. I arrived after 4 pm to find long lines for food. The pork belly sliders from Fireside were fantastic. I should have grabbed more since the second time around, they ran out of buns and only had pork belly left. The lobster rolls from Slapfish were great as well. I also tried the al pastor tacos from Hopscotch and the chicken & waffle bites from Iron Press. It was a pity that there were only four places that had food for all the beer that was available. It was great to have the ‘beer fairies’ fill my glass while I was waiting in line. It was also really cook to check out the Anaheim Packing District while there. The parking was horrendous as always but I was lucky to find street parking. It was great to see all of the Unilocalers that I know. Cheers!

My FIFTH YEE of the year and I think it has been the best, yet! My +1 and I checked in to the event around 4 PM and we got our adorable little cup to start our beer tasting.
The first thing we saw when we entered were the yummy Fireside pork belly sliders (they ran out hellaaaaa early). I think I was about to grab like 3 of these. They were very efficient in mass producing this delicious melt-​in-​your-​mouth sliders that there was never a line for it.
Then, with some food in my tummy, I started sampling all the beer at the event. I am not a beer fan but my 3 friends were beer fanatics so I just went along with whatever they got. I learned that I really don’t like IPA, but there were a lot of IPA at the event. I am not an expert on beer so I’ll js skip to the rest of the food.
The 3 other vendors were Slapfish (mini lobster rolls), Ironpress (chicken waffle sandwiches), and Hopscotch (pork tacos). The longest line would have to be the Hopscotch. I loved the lobster rolls, there was literally no line for this one, too and they were putting out food til the very end of the event!
It was a great venue and a beautiful day! Thank you Unilocal OC and Ryan for allowing me to enjoy this awesome event!

Such a cool event! Lots of breweries to choose from which meant lots of samples! I’m a lightweight so I wasn’t able to take full advantage of all of the libations but took plenty of food samples. The lobster rolls and waffles+chicken were bomb! I just wish there were more food vendors.
It was so chill and the location was nice (right next to packing district!), but parking kinda sucked. A big thanks to our CM, Ryan, for hooking it up!

What a great event! There were so many great beer breweries at the event. There was no better way to spend Saturday evening then with a cold beer in hand and some great food. There were 3 foods we got to try. First off was the tacos, sooo good! We also tried to pork belly sliders and waffle sandwich from Iron Press. It was a beautiful day and an amazing event!
I would like to thank Ryan C. for the tickets and all the breweries and food for holding such a great event!

First and foremost a thanks must go out to the Unilocal Community for the free tickets to this event!
This was an awesome event we had a great OPEN BAR time trying all the different craft beers from the numerous breweries that were here. Some of my favorites were here and I discovered some new ones.
A few of the awesome breweries here that stood out to me.
Stone Brewing Co.
Hangar 24
Cismontane
Valiant Brewing Co.
Bootleggers Brewery
Karl Strauss Brewing Co.
Noble Ale Works
Wile all the beers I tried weren’t bad some just stood out to me more then others from all the ones that I had. There was a lot of breweries here many of which I’ve never herd of and a lot of smaller guys trying out there stuff which was super cool.
Did I mention that they gave us as much free beer as we could drink!
The location was mellow it was pretty much a park that’s next door to the crazy cool establishment known as The Packing House. The park we were in had a garden with all kinda of radical veggies growing, some small trees, and a few grass areas to kick it on and enjoy your beer.
One of the coolest things here was Unilocal’s Jumbo Jenga Game I’ve never seen one that big and it was rad to watch it fall to the ground.
Now that you’ve read my review have a brew and ill have one too!

Thanks Ryan C and Unilocal OC for the opportunity to check out the Nepenthia Beer Garden event! Lots of great local breweries and restaurants and the event isn’t overly packed! Really easy to get beer samples and even though there are lines for food, it seems to be moving fast! Such a nice afternoon to be outdoors drinking beer! Also love the beer fairies with their carafes of beer to save me a trip from the nice grassy area ;)

I loved this event to the utmost. Grabbed my Unilocal swag and bag; said my hello to Ryan C, which by the way thank you so much for the tickets, and got right to it. The little taster glasses were a cool touch, filled that little guy plenty of times, but were good enough size to get a good taste on, but small enough if you didn’t care for something to not feel bad about ditching your last bit.
All the Breweries there from local spots to some of the «bigger chains» of crafts brews were super friendly. I dive into some pork sliders, and tacos, but that wasn’t my money food. The Lobster rolls, oh man those lobster rolls from Slap Fish down in Huntington Beach; I think myself and fiend downed like 10 I then, so so good. I could eat those all the time.
Overall, a great event with live music, good people, good friend and a great event. I’ll be back to the area again and the packing house next door for sure.