Prepare for your holiday flight with some craft beers at LAX

The holidays -- and the travel they necessitate -- are looming, but at least area airports are becoming a little more bearable for craft beer drinkers as craft options are finding their way into more terminal watering holes.

There’s something about the interstitial nature of airports that dissolves the usual social norms, and sitting down at a bar doesn’t cause a second glance, even if it is 11 in the morning. While airport bars are usually a hub of anxiety, stress and terrible Bloody Marys, you can at least get some locally brewed suds at Los Angeles International Airport now -- if you know where to look.

L.A.’s monolithic craft brewery Golden Road is all over the airport with its flagship brews Point the Way and Get Up Offa That Brown pouring in various restaurants throughout Terminal 2, Terminal 6, Terminal 7 and the new Tom Bradley International Terminal. Golden Road is also adding two draught kiosks in the airport that will feature rotating selections of the brewery’s India Pale Ales and seasonal beers.

Angel City Brewery is another L.A. craft brand pouring at LAX, and its flagship Angeleno India Pale Ale and Gold Line Pilsner are available at a dedicated kiosk in Terminal 4. You can also find Eureka! Wit on tap at 8 oz. Burger Bar, also in Terminal 4.

Long an airport staple, Starbucks brings a new twist to the international terminal at LAX with Starbucks Evenings -- a concept that brings booze into the cafe. In addition to tapas and small plates, you’ll be able to order from a selection of wines and local craft beers (including, we’re told, bottles of Angel City Brewery’s Angeleno India Pale Ale and cans of Golden Road’s Point the Way) in the “casual, comfortable and refined,” yet still food-court-esque, lounge.

LAX may have respectable craft beer offerings, but the airport that craft lovers really want to fly through is the San Diego International Airport, where Stone Brewing Co. recently opened a full-blown bistro and beer bar in Terminal 2. Twelve taps, a menu heavy on local and organic produce -- including items grown on Stone Farms -- and a bottle list of local San Diego favorites are available to ease your holiday-travel-weary psyche.

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