My gf is visting Arizona next week. I'm looking for recomendations for great AZ brewed beers to request. Any help is appreciated. Bill
Achocolypse by Prescott Brewing is pretty interesting. Its a very chocolate porter. What styles do you like?
She'd be doing you a favor if she can get a growler fill of Sun Up's White Russian while in town. One of the best AZ brewed beers and it's available around town for the time being. Message me if you need help finding it.
Agreed that White Russian is a great beer. Unfortunately, that and the other best AZ beers aren't available in a bottle or can, which makes taking things home a bit more challenging. As far as the packaged stuff that can be easily found: I concur with the comment above about Achocolypse, which is available in cans...it's a very decent chocolate porter. Papago's Orange Blossom, one of the most popular beers in PHX it seems, is quite good for what it is (a refreshing summer beer with orange and vanilla notes). And while I know it's not a universally loved beer here, Sonoran's White Chocolate Ale is unique enough to grab a bottle or two (and actually quite nice when mixed with a good stout - helps cut the sweetness and richness). My personal favorite IPA that's available in cans is Four Peaks' Hop Knot (although if your wife is going to be in Tuscon, then the Dragoon IPA would be worth picking up...I don't think they have PHX distribution yet for cans, but I could be wrong). Borderlands Noche Dulce (a vanilla porter) is decent as well.
If you are into fruit beers The Big Blue Van by College Street is decent. It kind of tastes like Booberry cereal.
If she's down in Tucson at all, most things from Dragoon and Iron John's are great and well made. I would like to post my dissent about some of the earlier described beers. The Orange Blossom is made with chemical flavoring and doesn't taste as good as it could if they used the real thing, it reminded me of a vanilla milkshake of sorts which was odd. The White Chocolate is very sweet and doesn't have much else to balance it out with, so mixing it with a stout may help it. In Phoenix, stuff from Santan, Az Wilderness, Four Peaks, and a couple others that I can't thing of tend to be good. In Flagstaff, Mother Road and Wanderlust are good as well.
I agree with this list and for more traditional beers I would add some of Lumberyards beers as well as Four Peaks and Huss. These three places have the cleanest beers of any of the packaging breweries in Arizona and are pretty spot on from a style stand point. While the White Chocolate and Orange Blossom are not what a beer geek would normally drink the masses sure do seem to like them and they are very popular at many places, one bartender at OHSO said that those two beers outsell the OHSO beers by 3 to 1 most of the time.
Sun Up White Russian is one of my top 5 Russian imperial stouts I have ever drank and certainly my favorite local stout and probably favorite overall local beer right now as well. Get it and thank me later.
Try some beers by Historic if you can. Most of their regular lineup is really well done, I enjoy their pils and schwarzbier. I also enjoyed their cucumber lager about a month ago. Pueblo Vida is probably my other go to around Tucson, especially the Nelson IPA.
My GF happens to be driving from So. CA to Sedona for a weekend conference right now. Can anyone recommend some good AZ BA stouts or Barleywines she could pick up, and a good bottle shop or two in Sedona or I'd guess Kingman? Thanks!
Arizona Wilderness has a double IPA worth getting (DC Mountain), growler only for transport. Santan Heavy D (imperial brown) is still on shelves along with Mad Czar (imperial stout) and both are pretty good. Orange Blossom (mentioned above) is a good wheat beer. One of my favorite off the shelf locals is Santan Devil's Ale.
Although most of out best beers are indeed, not package-ready (growlers only, if that; many are DONG) there are some worth picking up. If she is willing to do growlers the FATE, AZ Wilderness, Dragoon, Cartel, Sun Up all make some excellent beers. If not here are some things that do get bottles/canned: Brother Dewey's date night is a really nice date-infused strong ale by College Street: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/27266/149995/ Lost Highway is an oft overlooked black IPA made by Mother Road. I prefer it to many BIPAs made by well known breweries http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28391/94740/ Knotty pine pale by Lumberyard is a very good beer I think. It won a Gold medal at GABF a few years back (for whatever that's worth) http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23675/111705/ Magic in The Ivy from Huss is now in cans and i haven't met anybody who doesn't like it http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33412/120633/ Inner Basin is a nice BA Barelywine made few years by by Lumberyard http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23675/85766/ Fireside from the same series is a BA Red ale which works surprisingly well http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23675/78386/ I also like very beer from Wanderlust but they aren't easy to find http://www.wanderlustbrewing.com/shakedown-series-farmhouse-rouge/ Also we have what is consistently ranked at the third or fourth best meadery in America here in Arizona and many of the (very expensive) bottles are on shelves at better liquor/beer/wine stores http://www.superstitionmeadery.com If you like meads and melomels you will not be disappointed as their offerings are world class. Of course AZ gets a pretty good distribution of breweries fro CA, AK, CO, NV, OR, WA that you may not get in Rhode Island. Seekabrew comparison page is mostly up to date about this. http://www.seekabrew.com/distro/compare.html If you have specific questions feel free to ask
