I just moved to Arizona. Help.

TommyLiam,

Welcome to the valley...as the AZ Market Manager for Odell, I am saddened to hear of your issues with Papago. Give them another shot and ask for Mark or Zack next trip in. There are quite a few small places, check out AZ Wine on Scottsdale Rd, just south of Thomas. A little farther south is Tops Liquor, a little east of there is Sun Devil, or if you want to make the drive to Gilbert check out GCM. Some of the AJ's have good selections as well. Facebook is huge in the valley, especially with shops posting "just arrived" selections. You also won't go wrong with Whole Foods, especially Tempe, Chandler, or N. Scottsdale. I am certain I am missing 2-3 dozen more places, so enjoy hunting.

 

I'm moving out there by the end of the month, so this thread helps me also!
Anybody want some New Glarus when I get there?

 

Mmm, New Glarus... Tommy, Papago actually gets in as much/more of the rarities than most places in the valley. Downside is that people know that and bogart all the good stuff whenever it comes in.

Junior, thanks. I'm glad to see a brewer's rep on BA, at least Arizona BA.

 

I visit the Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale area regularly due to in laws. People will probably suggest Sun Devil as an independent bottle shop but I will buy elsewhere forever and ever from now on. Their beer is old and dusty, their prices are high, and their staff have been rude at best/total dickwads at worst.

 

Yes! Bring lots of Rhubarb, Thumbprint BW, Serendipity, and some wild sour!

 

Rhubarb and Serendipity are all that's available out of those,

 

Some good advice so far - Whole Foods & AJ's for bottle shops, Papago for a bit of on-premise/take-out/brewpub (love their concept). As far as local AZ beer, Four Peaks is miles above everything else IMO. Frankly there's alot of mediocre to bad beer being brewed in AZ. Don't really care for the SanTan packaged beers but the stuff at the Chandler brewpub is fine.

I don't like SunDevil Liquors or Tops (tons of stale overpriced beer & d-bags working there) but the Taste of Tops bar located next to the Tempe Tops location is a cool place. Usually hit that, the Gordon Biersch brewpub in downtown Tempe & Four Peaks brewpub whenever I visit. Seems like more beer-centric places opening all the time in the valley...

Perhaps the "Dean" of the PHX beer scene (Yemenmocha) can chime in with more suggestions?

 

I also feel like its a struggle to get anything rare, but then again I'm not on facebook so that might be part of the problem. Although not a bottleshop, I'd suggest trying to hit up Fate Brewing Company. You're more likely to find something unique on tap (last time they had a candybar stout fermenting).

 

I would suggest you get on facebook as well if you want a chance at rare-limited release beers that fly off the shelves. Papago and Gilbert Convenient Mart and sometimes Tops and SunDevil post the day that they receive new beers. Papago and Tops seem to get the lions share of most beers as most of these beers are allocated by the distributors to all the beer places and they seem to be in the good graces of the distributors because of their volume. And I would join the Arizona Craft Beers Lovers FB page to keep track of everything beer related going on everywhere in Arizona. It is 100 times more active than the BA forum. Being from the northwest if you are into hops try Sun Up Brewing. Uwe makes some of the best under the radar IPA's around.

 

Sorry your first experience at Papago wasn't stellar but glad your last visit was better. Don't let the girls appearance fool ya, they know more about beer than most people but as to upcoming new bottles they are in the dark as we often are, we place our orders on Monday for Tuesday delivery and it isn't until late in the day on Friday or Monday that the distributors tell us what they have in stock. Sometimes when it comes to allocated beers they don't even tell us, they just show up with them. As Bigbelcher said, we do post on Facebook when we get in new bottles and yes, because of our volume we do get a large share of special beers. If you come in for Hoppegeddon tomorrow say hi. You will be very happy with the line up and the special beers we have on tap and mark November 8th on your calender, we will have the only cask of unfiltered unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell in the country at Papago. It doesn't get much rarer than that.

 

I like your advice about the Arizona Craft Beer Lovers page but it is an invite only. I have requested several times to be a member and even messaged some of their admins but so far no response or invite. You got an inside guy that can hook me up?

 

Hopageddon was awesome! Some really great beers on tap and a great atmosphere to enjoy them in. Sorry you missed it.

 

Send me a PM with your name and I will request you be added.

 

Since you are now living here, plan at least a trip down to Tuscon when you can. There are some pretty good breweries down there who's beers don't make it up here to Phoenix very often. Pretty much the only thing good in Tuscon......I kid I kid. :-)

Here are a few my favorite ones:

-Dragoon
-Borderlands
-Ten Fifty-Five
-Barrio

 

Sorry to hear about your difficulty getting into AZCBL. I founded the group and I am one of the Admins. The group's size has attracted a lot of marketing bots and the like, so we have been very careful to only accept person's with profiles that don't look like they have been created that day. Please, post here or message me your name and I will be sure to get you into the group. Cheers