Beer

SanTan Brewing Company – Chandler, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Brewpub, Chandler, Greater Phoenix Area, Liquor, Microbrewery, Strippers

Located at 8 S San Marcos Pl, Chandler, AZ 85225
Open Sun-Thurs 8a-11p; Fri & Sat 8a-12a
http://www.santanbrewing.com

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The town of Chandler is a suburb of Phoenix with a long history of cotton farming. A few places in town have the word “historic” attached to them but I have to say that the term seems like a misnomer. I’ve written about other “historic” places like Bisbee, Prescott and Jerome. Chandler has a more modern, fabricated feel to it. Its cookie-cutter houses and major-chain-businesses make the place pretty much indistinguishable from the surrounding suburbs like Mesa and Gilbert. I don’t mean to shit on the town but I doubt I’d ever be making a trip to Chandler at all if I wasn’t visiting today’s microbrewery. Especially considering that the only strip club in town was closed for Easter Sunday, which totally screwed up my holiday plans something fierce.

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Historic Brewing Company – Flagstaff, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Flagstaff, Microbrewery, Strippers

Located at 4366 E Huntington Dr, Flagstaff, AZ 86004
Open Wed-Fri 4p-9p; Sat & Sun 2p-7p
http://www.historicbrewingcompany.com

The last time we talked about Flagstaff we didn’t stray far from downtown and the two places I visited were just a few minutes walking distance away from each other. Today we’re taking Route 66 and heading about ten-to-fifteen minutes east of downtown to find a place called Historic Brewing Company. Don’t be afraid when the activity starts to die down and you find yourself crossing train tracks and wandering into an industrial park. You’re in the right place.

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Caduceus Cellars & Merkin Vineyards – Jerome, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Jerome, Northern Arizona, Verde Valley, Verde Valley Wine Trail, Vineyard, Wine, Winery

Located at 158 Main Street, Jerome, AZ 86331
Open Sun-Thurs 11a-6p, Fri-Sat 11a-8p, 365 days a year
https://caduceus.org

Caduceus (1)

Northern Arizona is home to a region called Verde Valley, which itself is home to what’s known as a “Wine Trail.” I haven’t brought this up in any of my previous posts about vineyards so far because they were all preoccupied with some bullshit short story or whatever but a Wine Trail is a region that’s conducive to growing grapes for wine production due to its elevation. Arizona has three main Wine Trails and each one has its own handful of vineyards/wineries/tasting rooms.

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Papago Brewing Co. – Scottsdale, AZ

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

Located at 7107 E McDowell Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85257
Open Sun-Thurs 12p-12a; Fri-Sat 12p-2a.
http://papagobrewing.com

Papago (1)

This project has allowed me to travel to a lot of new places in Arizona, visit lots of wonderful breweries and drink lots and lots of fantastic beers. But after a while my travels can kinda blend together into a haze of half-remembered brews and leftover shame from all the times I’ve woken up pantsless in the backseat of a taxi cab that I probably tried to hijack, Collateral style.

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Oak Creek Brewing Co. – Sedona, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Northern Arizona, Sedona, Wine

Located at 2050 Yavapi Dr, Sedona, AZ 86336
Open Mon-Thurs 4p-Close; Friday-Sun 12p-Close
http://oakcreekbrew.com

Oak Creek (1)

I know that a lot of people equate Arizona with sadness, racism, regressive politics and sadness. And I can’t deny that any of those things are valid. Even someone as devoted to this state as I am can sometimes wonder what the hell he’s still doing here. Walk into most bars in Phoenix wearing a suit, tie and matching pocket square and just say the word, “Obama,” out loud and you’ll quickly start going online to figure out how much it costs to move to southern California. Like, you know it’s crazy expensive to live there but maybe you can live in the areas where the Mexicans without papers live? That can’t be too expensive, right?

Wrong! You’re too poor to live anywhere else, you loser. So you’re stuck here crying over your Fine Arts degree and wondering what you did to deserve such a torturous existence!

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Beast Brewing Company – Bisbee, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Bisbee, Brewpub, Microbrewery, Southern Arizona

Located at 1326 W Highway 92 – #8, Bisbee, AZ 85603
Open Wed-Sat 12p-8p; Sun 12p-6p
http://beastbrewingcompany.com

Bisbee (1)

Before starting this blog my trips to Bisbee were spent entirely in what’s called “Old Bisbee.” This is the pedestrian-friendly hub where one can find restaurants, art galleries, bars, charming Victorian-style homes and tons of dirty hippies. It’s a wonderful place to spend a relaxing weekend and if you haven’t been you should absolutely make it a point to visit.

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Beaver Street Brewery & Lumberyard Brewing Co. – Flagstaff, AZ

The Classy Alcoholic Beer, Brewpub, Flagstaff, Liquor, Microbrewery, Northern Arizona

Beaver Street is open Sun-Wed 11a -1a and Thurs-Sat 11a-2a
Located at 11 South Beaver Street #1, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
http://www.beaverstreetbrewery.com

Lumberyard is open Sun-Tues 11a-11p and Weds-Sat 11a-2a
5 South San Francisco Street, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
http://www.lumberyardbrewingcompany.com

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Flagstaff is the most un-Arizona place in Arizona that we’ve been to so far. The drive in to town is accentuated by pine trees, and if you don’t think it’s weird to see green trees in the Arizona desert then you’ll definitely be blown away by the sight of snowy mountains off in the distance. Historic downtown Flagstaff is home to four breweries and two more can be found by driving 10 to 15 minutes east on Route 66. We’ll talk about those two some other time though because today we’re sticking to downtown. For the first time in the blog’s history we’re talking about two locations in one post. I know that seems like cheating but like I’ve told many an ex-girlfriend before: it’s not cheating because they’re related, baby.

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Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. – Gilbert, AZ

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

Located at 721 N Arizona Ave #103, Gilbert, AZ 85233
Open Mon-Thurs 11a-11p; Fri-Sat 11a-1a; Sun 11a-10p
http://www.azwbeer.com

AZWilderness2

I’ll be honest, I hate the outdoors. I’ve mentioned before that Arizona is a great place for people who like hiking and camping and mountain biking. But I’m a total city slicker and my sole experience with the outdoors in this state is the time I was told to hike through the Sonoran desert carrying only a compass, one gallon of water and a handgun with a single bullet in the chamber courtesy of a bunch of guys who told me that if I made it back to the city alive they would forgive my astronomical gambling debt to them.

But even I get a little frustrated with urban living when we’re discussing the greater Phoenix area. I’ve given you my fair share of complaints about this place before but I haven’t mentioned how I especially hate having to distinguish the half-a-dozen or so suburban cities surrounding Phoenix when they could all just really be collectively known as “Phoenix” and then we can just call it a day and go drink. Hey, Scottsdale and Tempe and Glendale and Mesa and Gilbert and all these other towns, all of you are just fucking Phoenix.

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O.H.S.O. Eatery + nanoBrewery – Phoenix, AZ

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

Located at 4900 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix AZ 85018
Open Mon-Thu 11a to 12a; Fri 11a-1:30a; Sat 9a-1:30a; Sun 9a to 12a
http://ohsobrewery.com

I was very interested in going to this joint called O.H.S.O. mainly because they refer to themselves as a “nanobrewery.” That term basically amounts to large-scale homebrewers, like the Schraderbrau Brewing Company in New Mexico.

schraderbrau

I was excited to learn about the operation because it’s been a personal goal of mine to start a nanobrewery after running a successful picobrewery out of my toilet for the past year. Mapping the location of Original Horse Stable Odyssey (or whatever) was a bit confusing when I realized the place was pretty close to downtown Scottsdale. I say confusing because Scottsdale is a pretty tony suburb and I imagined a nanobrewery would be such a small, upstart operation that it would be based out of a toolshed in the backyard of a South Phoenix house where Coyotes stash all their illegals.

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Sentinel Peak Brewing Company – Tucson, AZ

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

Located at 4746 East Grant Road, Tucson, AZ 85712
Open Tues-Thurs 11a-9p; Fri-Sat 11a-10:30p; Sun 11a-8p
http://www.sentinelpeakbrewing.com

Tucson is a cool place. It’s a town that, in terms of size, is in between the huge metropolis that is Phoenix and the tiny towns like the ones in Southeastern Arizona. It’s seemingly the perfect place for people who can’t handle a giant city like LA or Phoenix but also need a little more activity than can be found in a Sonoita or a Douglas. Getting around Tucson can be pretty sweet if the traffic is light as you can pretty much be anywhere in town in twenty to thirty minutes. You can’t say that about Phoenix.

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