Located at 7337 E Shea Blvd, Ste 105, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
Open Mon-Thurs 3p-1p; Fri & Sat 11a-11p; Sun 11a-10p
http://www.fatebrewing.com

Note that as of June 2016 Fate Brewing Co. has officially changed it’s name to McFate Brewing Co. after a legal battle with another brewery, also named Fate from Colorado or some shit. The original name is still used in this review as this was posted long before the name change.

I know I give the greater Phoenix area a lot of shit. I’ve complained about the heat, the abundance of chain restaurants and stores, the cold, uninviting feeling of the city that makes you feel like a burden for even existing and the deep, dark despair  you feel after hours stuck in rush hour traffic. Like your own car is an oven and it’s slowly getting smaller and the constant stop-and-go on the highway starts to almost make you feel seasick while the brake lights of the car in front of you start blink on and off and start to mesmerize you, as if they’re blinking a secret message directly to you and you start to wonder if the Hyundai Sonata is trying to tell you that your life is meaningless and the job you’ll commute to every single day for the rest of your life is slowly eating away at your soul-

But then traffic starts to pick up and you realize the delay was only because the right lane ended and nobody knows how to fucking merge on a highway.

But this blog is ultimately intended to be a positive endeavor so I will say that the greater Phoenix area is home to over 20 microbreweries and that a place like Fate Brewing Co. makes trekking through Phoenix seem like less of a chore.

Today we’re in Scottsdale, specifically. The town I often make fun of for still having signs calling itself the “Most Livable City,” even though it was named that way back in 1993. Get over it, Scottsdale. You’re like the middle-aged guy who constantly brings up the fact that he scored four touchdowns in one game back in high school.

Fate’s tap room was a little hard to pin down for a first-timer like me. It’s in an area full of a bunch of other businesses and I definitely turned into the wrong shopping center and drown around for a few minutes like an idiot. The place has a little outside patio and the inside has a fancy, modern look to it. There’s a wood-fired oven where they make genuinely damn good pizzas. The pizza makes up the bulk of the menu along with salads and a few snacky items.

They have 8 beers on tap and they’ll pour as many of them as you’d like in a flight. They also have a few rotating guest beers on tap (mostly from outside of Arizona) and even wine if you’re in the mood. I definitely appreciate microbreweries that also carry wine. My ex-girlfriend Corrine didn’t like beer but loved wine. So any time I wanted to go to a brewery that only served beer she just opted to stay home and drink a bottle of Chardonnay in the bathtub while texting her personal trainer, Demetrius all night. I know you might think it sounds weird that she texted her trainer late at night but I paid that dude tons of money so he’d be available for one-on-one lessons any time she wanted. Even after hours. Corrine and I broke up four months ago but I assume she’s still taking lessons with the guy because I keep getting automatic charges from him on my credit card that I don’t know how to stop. Maybe I signed a contract or something?

Anyway, the beers at Fate rotate pretty often so I won’t go through every single one since a few might not be available by the time you get there. I will say that this place loves the hops and they know how to use it. They had a golden ale that was slightly creamy and strong on the hops flavor. Their Brown Ale and Wheat beer also had very strong, hoppy characters to them and it was evident in the aroma as well. They all had a strong hop kick to them without being anywhere near overwhelming.

Fate also had a beer they called a “Session Rye Wine” that was a collaboration with another Scottsdale-based brewery that we’ll talk about in the future. It had a great spicy flavor to it and is pretty strong at 9.4 ABV.

Since this blog is newbie friendly I’ll take a second to explain ABVs. The abbreviation means “Alcohol By Volume” and it’s pretty self-explanatory, I think. It’s just how much actual alcohol is in your drink. Beer normally hovers between 4% and 6%.  Some beers get up to 9% which I considered to be high. The highest ABV I think I’ve seen in Arizona beers so far is 11%. All the wine bottles I have in my rack are around the 14% range and hard liquor will usually be 40% or higher.  That’s good knowledge to have if you’re looking for drinks that’ll most efficiently offset the sadness you feel after you scroll through your ex-girlfriend Corrine’s Instagram feed and see pictures of her hanging out with her hot personal trainer in Vegas. You know how the saying goes: “The higher the ABV, the less it makes my eyes want to pee.”

So if you’re in the Scottsdale area be sure to visit Fate Brewing Co. The definitely know what they’re doing and even if they rotate their beers pretty often I’m sure they’ll always be pouring something you love.

Salud!