Slater’s 50/50’s Fact Finding Mission

Slater’s 50/50 is known for its bacon burgers, but that’s not all the growing chainlet offers. Slater’s also has the best local and craft beers on tap in Southern California- all 101 of them.

The Reader’s Choice winners of Best Beer Selection and Best Sports Bar, Slater’s obviously knows its beers, yet, that doesn’t stop Mark Schultz, the Slater’s 50/50 Beermonger, from going on a beer fact-finding mission to Germany.

“I was over there, just kind of exploring the wonderful world of German beer,” says Shultz of his recent trip.

Schultz traveled across Germany discovering ales and spirits along the way. He says, “I started in Munich, then to Garmisch and Trier and then on to Frankfurt.”

Schultz is the restaurant company’s beermonger. When asked about the term, he says, “think back to the older days when there were fishmongers, warmongers and cheesemongers. I’m a beermonger. Someone who is considered knowledgeable about beer and who helps others learn about beer.”

And the best thing about being a beermonger? “I do truly taste every beer that we put on tap, and so that’s a lot of fun. But I really enjoy sharing that with people. I communicate with people on Twitter (@5050beermonger) and I tell them what the latest, greatest and newest is. It’s a lot of fun to educate people on beer,” says Schultz.

As for the beer he deals, the number of beers Slaters 50/50 offers its guests overwhelms even the beermonger himself. Shultz says, “I don’t know how many types there are. I don’t have the exact number of types. We break them in to categories to make it easy for the guest to find what they’re looking for. Be it a wheat beer or Weisse beer, those kinds are in one category for them. There are ten different official styles. Brown Ales and IPAs, Double IPAs, we run the gamut, top to bottom.”

We asked Schultz which among the hundreds of beers is the most famous, he says, “definitely Ballast Point Sculpin. That beer seems to be a favorite at all site locations because we do quite well with it.”

Ballast Point Sculpin is “an India Pale Ale”. The official style is American India Pale Ale and it’s a west coast style that has a lot of hops, citrus and pine notes, a bit bitter and floral and not too malty and sweet,” says Schultz.

Unlike other bars where you can order a beer, Slater’s 50/50 has “425 draft lines between the five restaurants in Southern California. All rotate on a regular basis, so we change the lines in each location every week. We rotate about 40 or 50 different beers through each month in each location,” explains Schultz.

Schultz concludes by telling us “there is a huge line-up of rotating local and craft beers, so you will definitely find the newest and the most recent releases each time you visit.” Slater’s 50/50 Burgers By Design is located at 61 North Raymond Ave. For more information, call (626) 765-9700.

To find out more about Slater’s 50/50, visit slaters5050.com or find them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.