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Tap That AZ - The Arizona Craft Beer Podcast

Arizona has one of the best craft beer communities in the country. But with so many amazing options, where do you even begin your journey to find your favorite spots and brews? That's where this podcast comes in. By talking with the folks who make it all happen, host Eric Walters helps you find the best local places to find a great Arizona-made beer. Weekly episodes include on-location interviews, news from the Arizona beer scene, and some great Arizona beer reviews by Marcus Piña. If you love Arizona and you love beer, this show is for you!
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Tap That AZ - The Arizona Craft Beer Podcast
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Now displaying: November, 2017
Nov 27, 2017

Anyone who has even met Brian Helton knows that he is a huge advocate for education in the craft beer world. He has done many types of classes including pairings food with beer as well as sensory classes to help you become a better beer taster. This also includes Beer School which is basically a handful of breweries getting together to put on mini crash to help educate people in different areas of craft beer.  Plus you get some sweet swag, get to taste awesome beers and meet some of the best people in the world. In case you haven't heard, craft beer people are the most awesome people in the world.

We were lucky enough to be invited to cover this event and there was no way we were going to turn that down. It was great talking with everyone from people within the Arizona craft beer industry to home brewers looking to improve their craft to straight up beer enthusiasts. 

All but the first four pic compliments of Virginia from Virgin Adventures

Big thanks to the participating breweries:

Video Production and most specialist  shout out goes to Aaron Markus from 8 AM Films for just being awesome and creating amazing work.

Special shout out to Marc Semler for being the man to put all this together and pretty much playing cat rustler during the whole event. Nice work buddy.

Another shout out to Chris Dodson for his awesome production/editing work to help put the audio side of the episodes together.

Intro/Outro music is "La Negra Tomasa" by the awesome local Arizona band Fayuca

Want to show your support and help this show grow? Simply click here, give the show a rating and share some feedback!

Nov 20, 2017

From day one Gabo Fayuca and Helio Basin Brewing Company has been great supports of this podcast. So awesome to see them putting together this awesome event of November 22nd to benefit Phoenix Childrens Hospital. Great beer, great music, and all for a great cause. In this episode I sit down with Dustin from Helio and Gabo to discuss the festival. Always a blast hanging out with these guys. Free admission so make sure you get there.

Fayuca Rizing Xtra Pale Ale's first Beer Fest

Presented by Bravo - Tip or PayStir It Up Records & Productions and Helio Basin Brewing Co. Festival de Beer y Musica is a free music and beer fest hosting 9 bands on 2 stages, food, vendors, family activities and ice cold beer!!Wednesday, November 22 at 4 PM - 10 PM

FREE - All Ages

Helio Basin Brewing Company - 3935 E. Thomas Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85018

Ticket Information BAND SCHEDULE:  BEN ANDERSON 4:00PM FAIRY BONES 4:30PM A.C RIGZ 5:00PM JAM NOW 5:30 HALEY GREEN 6:00PM THE BANTER 6:30PM BEAR GHOST 7:15PM FAYUCA 8:15PM info:  www.fayucabeer.com

Nov 13, 2017

I have a secret to tell you. I’ve never told anyone this before. I really enjoy beer. I know. Shocking. But I wasn’t always a beer drinker. In my early years I was surrounded by the likes of Genesee and Natural Light so on nights out I would usually opt for a Jack and Coke even though I wasn’t a huge fan of pop (as we called soda in the Midwest). But hey, I had to drink SOMETHING. Then I moved to Arizona and my life changed. In many positive ways. But in the category of alcohol consumption for the purpose of this article. I was first turned on to craft beer which I quickly feel in love with. My love affair with quality spirits was a much longer courtship.

The first taste of Scotch I even had was a 15 year Highland Park that my father in law bought to share with a group of us for Christmas. There were about 8 of us and we each got a pour to taste, contemplate and discuss. The first sip immediately triggered my inner dialogue to respond with “Spit it out! Now! You have just ingested some sort of handcrafted black-market Mongolian cleaning solvent!”. Luckily I had the self-control to NOT spit it out on the table and avoid embarrassment despite my strong desire to do exactly that. Now my mind was racing (“This sip was less than 10% of the total volume of liquid still left in my glass. I can’t keep this up. What do I do?!?!” So I did what I have done for years to get out of anything that I HAD to do: I closed my eyes, said 3 Hail Mary’s and threw it back like an old-school Slick Rick album. Damn, that wasn’t so bad. And now it’s over. But then they get to me in the roundtable discussion. 

Them: “So what do you think?”

Me: “Of what?”

Them: “Of the Scotch”

Me: “Oh. Yeah. It was good. REAL good”

Them: “WAS?!? You drank it already?!?!”

At this point I had no choice but to confess I drank my portion of this $90/bottle Scotch in less than 2 seconds like it was a $3 Flaming Dr. Pepper to get amped up for the Limp Bizkit concern. Needless to say they gave me flack for that for a long time. But they also never gave up on me. Every time we all got together someone would buy a bottle of good whiskey and we’d all taste it. And my palate developed quite nicely. Now there are times where I enjoy a good whiskey more than a beer. Not often. But occasionally. Why? You got some of the good stuff?

So anyways, since starting this podcast I have ventured off the beer path a few times to check out some of the awesome spirits being made in this great state with my visit to Hamilton Distillers and Arizona Distilling Company. Not too long ago Chase from Adventurous Stills reached out and invited us over to check out their place in Tempe. I had heard some great things about their products before going there so was excited to check it out but was even more blown away once we go there. The fact that pretty much everything they use is hand made is amazing in itself but their spirits were REALLY good.

In this episode I sit down with 2 of the 3 owners, Chase and Kelly, to talk about the challenges they face selling top-shelf spirits and how the water is Tempe is perfect for making spirits. Enjoy the show!

Adventurous Stills is located at 31 S Robson Suite 103, Mesa, AZ 85210

Adventurous Stills on Facebook

Adventurous Stills on Instagram

Video Production done by Aaron Markus from 8 AM Films

Intro/Outro music is "La Negra Tomasa" by the awesome local Arizona band Fayuca

Want to show your support and help this show grow? Simply click here, give the show a rating and share some feedback!

Nov 11, 2017

For most of my beer drinkers out there when we hear “cider” we respond with “Oh yeah, my wife loves those”. For many of us cider is just too sweet or tart and usually just too weak. We want a little kick with our drinks especially for us hop heads whose smiles get bigger as the ABV’s go up. So when my buddy Stefan, aka AZ Beer Jedi, said “hey, there is a cider house opening in Mesa soon” I was like “cool” but also secretly thinking “ok, I’ll probably never go there”. But also in the back of my mind I know that Stefan is a man of good taste so I hadn’t TOTALLY eliminated all chances of ever going. There was still a small thread of interest. Then I read the story behind Cider Corps. Jason Duren had been stationed in Afghanistan and suffered 2 traumatic brain injuries caused by 2 separate IED explosions in late 2012. When he returned home the adjustment was very difficult and a doctor recommended that he take up a hobby to help in the rehabilitation process. His brother Josh also wanted to do what he could to help his brother. The two decided to make cider. At first it didn’t go well. At all. The first batch went right down the drain. But over time they dug so deep into this that they started to understand just more than adding ingredients together. They understood the science behind what was happening. This in-depth understanding helped to catapult them to a level where now there is a waiting list for restaurants around the state to have their cider on tap. Ok Stefan, I GUESS I’ll check it out.

I was super stoked to meet these guys and try this cider. And it did not disappointment. They had 6 different kinds including a pumpkin pie cider, a cold brew coffee cider and my favorite, Dead End Kettle Sour IPA. Yeah, you heard that all right. And all of them were amazing. And to hear the story straight from them? Even better. Just a couple of awesome guys doing great things. Their slogan is “Enjoy Great Cider, Honor Great Sacrifice” and they live by that. The taproom is full of military-related items including a HUGE flag that hangs and hand grenade tap handles. Even the bar top that are putting in will be made out of purple heart wood as a homage to Jason’s Purple Heart which they plan to embed into the bar top as well. Overall, one of my favorite interviews so far. Looking forward to seeing what these guys do.

Intro/Outro music is "La Negra Tomasa" by the awesome local Arizona band Fayuca

Want to show your support and help this show grow? Simply click here, give the show a rating and share some feedback!

Nov 6, 2017

My very first experience with Arizona craft beer was Railhead Red at Beaver Street Brewery. It changed my life. For better and worse. I now know what good beer tastes like. But I also gained a few pounds. Well worth it. After hitting up Beaver Street periodically over the next year or so II was super excited when word came out that they were expanding and opening a new bigger brewery and restaurant which became what is now Lumberyard Brewing Company. Owners of what is quite possibly the best patio view in downtown Flagstaff Lumberyard has become an oasis of freshly made craft beer and amazing food. 

In fact, another life-changing experience happened to me right on that very patio. I’m a huge fan of BBQ pulled pork. Hands down one of my favorite foods of all time. I also love mac n cheese because I’m an American. Seriously, you show me an American who doesn’t like mac n cheese and I’ll show you a terrorist. Well anyways, I’m looking over the menu and suddenly a single  beam of light shone from the heavens with the sound of angels singing their heavenly tune filled my ears. I followed the shining heaven beam directly to the bottom corner of the menu and quickly realized the purpose of this beam: baked mac n cheese. Ok, you have my attention. But what fell slightly below is what really blew me away: “Don’t forget to include one of our add-ons” and on THAT list I quickly shuffled past everything and saw BBQ pulled pork. Done. Deal. I didn’t even look at the rest of the menu which is rare. My normal process is to narrow it down to about 4 things and then experience self-induced anxiety before making a decision that I immediately regret and dwell on for days. Not this time. I nailed it. And to top it off it was even better than I imagined it would be. So good that I think about that dish at least once a week and that was over 6 years ago! I have also not been able to eat mac n cheese without BBQ sauce ever since. 

Oh yeah, guess what?! They have beer too. Really good beer.The Knotty Pine Pale is one of my go-to Arizona pale ales and their Red Ale is stellar as well. I’m a sucker for reds and Lumberyards red is fantastic. They even started a single hop series which I love. I want to know what each hop tastes like so that I know what to look for when making future selections. These guys have won awards. Like, the big kind. Not the “Most Shotgunned Beer at Glenns Bachelor Party” kind of awards. I’m talking Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal type of stuff. They know what they’re doing.

In this episode I sit down with Ken Wilson the sales manager at Lumberyard and an overall beer expert. Ken is also the president of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild. Needless to say Ken knows his beer. We recorded this episode during the can release of “This Side Up”, the collaboration between The Shop, Dark Sky, and Helton so things escalated from a sound perspective really quickly. This was a misjudgment on my part but hey, you live and learn right. Anyways, Ken and I have a plan of doing a mini-series about the business of beer so you’ll be hearing more from him in the future. Enjoy the show! 

Intro/Outro music is "La Negra Tomasa" by the awesome local Arizona band Fayuca

Want to show your support and help this show grow? Simply click here, give the show a rating and share some feedback!

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