Beer

Mother Bunch Brewing – Phoenix, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Greater Phoenix Area, Liquor, Microbrewery, Phoenix, Wine

Located at 825 N 7th St, Phoenix, AZ 85006
Open Mon-Thurs 11a-10p; Fri 11a-12a; Sat 10a-12a; Sun 10a-10p
motherbunchbrew.com

Thanks to the overwhelming popularity of my last review which was in the form of an epic, Oscar-worthy screenplay, I can proudly inform y’all that The Classy Alcoholic scored a meeting with a high-powered Hollywood executive who called me up and told me that he was interested in adapting my blog into a feature film. He said he would come to Phoenix because that was the only town in Arizona he had ever heard of and suggested we meet at Mother Bunch Brewing which is located off of North 7th St just south of the I-10.

I was impressed that this guy from California knew about any Arizona microbreweries but I figured my blog must be getting enough traction outside of the state to bring real awareness of our craft beer scene. I told him I’d meet him right where he wanted.

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Huss Brewing Company – Tempe, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Greater Phoenix Area, Microbrewery, Tempe

Located at 1520 W Mineral Rd, Tempe, AZ 85283
Open Mon-Thurs 3p-8p; Fri 3p-10p; Sat 12p-8p; Su 11a-2p
http://www.hussbrewing.com

Huss (1)

Hey, everybody! Today we’re visiting the southern region of Tempe, which is petty far removed from the part of town full of ASU college kids and Bro Bars. In fact, we’re in an area that looks more like an industrial park on our way to a place called Huss Brewing. The Arizona summer heat can seem pretty oppressive at times but today wasn’t too bad. I embraced the desert sun by shedding my suit jacket and wearing a blue dress shirt with a bright pink necktie. The outfit managed to represent my good mood this day.

Huss (3)

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THAT Brewery – Pine, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Brewpub, Liquor, Microbrewery, Mogollon Rim, Northern Arizona, Pine, The Rural Brewer, Wine

Located at 3270 N Arizona Highway 87, Mile Marker 267, Pine, AZ 85544
Open Sun-Thurs 11a-8p; Fri-Sat 11a-9p
http://thatbrewery.com/

THAT (3)

The Classy Alcoholic has been through many adventures since the start of this blog and has already traveled through most of Arizona’s major cities. But there is another area that lies just between two of the more prominent regions. This area is called the Mogollon Rim and it’s pretty much equidistant between Phoenix and Flagstaff. This region starts in Yavapi County around I-17 on the west and extends about 200 miles to the east to nearly reach the New Mexico border. If you’re driving around this area you’ll start to discover a lot of long, rural roads with green landscapes that don’t feel like most people’s typical idea of Arizona.

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Owl’s Orchard Brewery – Queen Creek, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Greater Phoenix Area, Microbrewery, Queen Creek

Unfortunately Owl’s Orchard Brewery has closed as of July 2016. This post will remain here in honor of the awesome brewery that once was and will never be again.

Owl's Orchard (7)

Owl’s Orchard is a brewery that’s literally run out of a guy’s garage. I know what you’re thinking: It sounds super shady. Just like my parents’ “businesses” that they used to run out of our home when I was a kid. I remember what a pain in the ass it was having to help my dad in the garage, bagging and packing all those slabs of delicious zebra meat.

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Borderlands Brewing Company – Tucson, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Microbrewery, Southern Arizona, Tucson, Uncategorized

Located at 119 E Toole Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701
Open Mon 4p-10p; Tues 12a-10p; Weds & Thurs 12p-9p; Fri & Sat 12p-10p; Sun 12p-5p
http://borderlandsbrewing.com

Borderlands (1)

At some point around the Fall of 2014 I got the stupid idea to visit every single microbrewery in the state of Arizona and write about my experiences. This blog was born out of a deep-seated desire to explore the state that I’ve now called home for over a decade and mapping every single brewery seemed like a great starting point for planning my travels.

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McFate Brewing Co. – Scottsdale, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Brewpub, Greater Phoenix Area, Microbrewery, Scottsdale, Wine

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.

Fate (2)

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-

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Mother Road Brewing Co. – Flagstaff, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Flagstaff, Microbrewery, Northern Arizona

Located at 7 S. Mikes Pike St, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Open Mon-Thurs 3p-8p; Fri 3p-9p; Sat 12p-9p; Sun 12p-8p
http://www.motherroadbeer.com

The term “Mother Road” is a nickname given to U.S. Route 66, the famous highway that stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles. Route 66 is historically significant because it ran through several rural towns which gave farmers in the early 1900s an easier way to distribute their produce. Plus the road was a huge boon to the U.S. trucking industry in the 30s, right around the time it started being a popular alternative to transporting goods via railroads. And if that wasn’t enough the highway was also the route taken by hundreds of thousands of people heading west to escape the U.S. Dust Bowl in the 30s.

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Desert Eagle Brewing Company – Mesa, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Brewpub, Greater Phoenix Area, Mesa, Microbrewery

Located at 150 W Main St, Mesa, AZ 85201
Open Mon 3p-10p, Tue-Fri 3p-12a, Sat 11a-12p, Sun 11a-9p
www.deserteaglebrewing.com

Desert Eagle (2)

Arizona has a rich history and I try to learn a little bit about it each time I visit a new town while working on this blog. Today we’re in Historic Downtown Mesa, a suburb east of Phoenix and Tempe, visiting a place called Desert Eagle Brewing. I had with me my trusty pamphlet, issued by a group called the Mesa Preservation Foundation, that mapped Mesa’s Downtown Walking Tour.

Mesa (1)

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Gentle Ben’s Brewing Co. & Barrio Brewing Co. – Tucson, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Brewpub, Liquor, Microbrewery, Southern Arizona, Tucson

Gentle Ben’s located at 865 E University Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85719
Open Mon-Sat 11a-10p; Sun 12p-10p
http://www.gentlebens.com

Barrio located at 800 E 16th St, Tucson, AZ 85719
Open Mon-Weds 11a-10p; Thurs-Sat 11a-12a; Sun 11a-9p
http://www.barriobrewing.com

Mining isn’t the only major industry in Arizona’s history. Ranching has also been a big part of the state’s economy for the past few hundred years. Today we’re back in Tucson. The town is located in Pima County which was home to a huge ranching boom in the late 1800s. It was such a big deal at the time that a law enforcement agency called the Arizona Rangers was created in 1901 primarily to deal with cattle thieves…and also to suppress striking Mexican miners but let’s not worry about that right now.

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Prescott Brewing Company – Prescott, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Brewpub, Liquor, Microbrewery, Prescott, Southern Arizona

Located at 130 W Gurley St, Prescott, AZ 86301
Open Sun-Thurs 11a-9p; Fri & Sat 11a-10p
https://www.prescottbrewingcompany.com

Prescott  Brewing Company is probably the polar opposite of the last brewery I visited in this town: Black Hole Beer Company. Prescott Brewing has a traditional sports bar feel and the place gets packed when there’s a big football game happening and has hostesses that tell you it’ll be twenty minutes before a table is available on a busy day. If Black Hole is the hip, young, new Indie band amassing cult appeal then Prescott Brewing is Coldplay. Shut up, I love Coldplay.

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