For this episode, I head down to Gilbert to hang out with Rob the owner of Flying Basset Brewing. These guys are one of the new kids on the block but with a handful of well known Arizona beer mentors he’s worked with it makes sense why they hit the ground running. Enjoy the show!
Welcome back. In this episode, I get to hang out with some of the best chefs in the country. All of these badass chefs have been on the Food Network hit show Chopped and all are based here in Arizona. A few weeks ago Brian Helton reached out and said “Hey, you gotta get in on this. I am working with Itule Produce and a bunch of awesome chefs to make a one of a kind beer.” If Brian is involved, I’m in. And what Willie Itule Produce is doing to innovate in the produce industry is so great to see. I am really excited to see where this project goes. Stay tuned for future episodes as this project progresses. Enjoy the show!
To some, they are the guys who "sold out to the enemy". But to many more, they are the pioneers who paved the way for the success of craft beer here in the state of Arizona. In this episode, I sit down with a few of the people responsible for making Four Peaks Brewing Company the industry leader it is today including founder Andy Ingram. We talk about how your flagship beer can often come out of left field as well as the benefits of being owned by the largest beer company in the world. Enjoy the show!
In this episode, I hang out with Jon Buford and Patrick Ware from Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. These guys have blown up since coming onto the scene just a few years ago. From being featured on the Travel Channel hit show Booze Traveler to collaborating with some of the best breweries in the world these guys are just getting started. This episode barely skimmed the surface of their story so we'll be having them back on very soon to hear more. In the meantime, enjoy the show!
*This episode is sponsored by the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild*
In this episode, I head over to the newest brewery in Phoenix to have a beer with Walter Station Brewery founder/brewer Jim Erickson. If you haven’t been to this place make sure you put it on your immediate must-do list. Not only are the beers kick ass but the taproom, an old fire station, is very cool. Enjoy the show!
AZ Brewcon tickets HERE
Real Wild & Woody tickets HERE
Extra special thanks 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!
In this episode, we head over to Mesa to check out AZ Pro Prints. If you’ve had an Arizona beer served in a glass, chances are AZ Pro Prints created that glass. We hang out with the owner Scott and talk about the importance of quality glassware when enjoying an amazing handcrafted beer. Enjoy the show!
This episode is sponsored by the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild. I sit down with Rob Fullmer from The Guild as well as Alex Phillips from Grand Canyon Brewing + Distilling and Sarah Ritchie from 12 West Brewing. We chat about the current state of Arizona beer as well as two huge events coming up at the end of the month: AZ Brewcon and Real Wild & Woody. Get your tickets and listen today!
AZ Brewcon tickets HERE
Real Wild & Woody tickets HERE
Extra special thanks 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!
In this episode I have to, I mean I GET to hang out with 2 of Arizona's most notorious alcohol experts, The Classy Alcoholic and The Arizona Wine Monk. We hang out and sample some tasty beverages from 12 West and Garage East. These two dudes are awesome and the conversation is anything but predictable. Or normal. Or appropriate. Enjoy the show!
Extra special thanks 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!
In this episode guest host Liz Limberg heads out to Rhiba Farms to hang out at the Old School Farm Picnic. As is the norm at Rhiba she talks to a wide range of amazing people and gets to enjoy many amazing flavors of both food and drink. Enjoy the show!
In this episode I head down to Marana, just north of Tucson, to hang out with Todd and Erika Button, owners of Button Brew House. We chat about how their combined personal and professional skills created a killer team to open the brewery. Oh yeah, they make awesome beer as well. Enjoy the show!
In this "News & Reviews" episode we highlight events at Cider Corps, Copper Brothel Brewery, 1912 Brewing, Scale & Feather Meadery, and The Sleepy Whale. Marcus Pina, aka Brewery 602, also reviews a beer from Bone Haus Brewing. Enjoy the show!
In this episode, we travel up to Flagstaff to hang out with John, Kaitlyn, and Zack from Historic Brewing Company. We hear about the tedious process of brewing one of Arizona's favorites beer as well as the fine balance of growth while maintaining high quality. Enjoy the show!
Maybe its because I'm getting older but I feel like customer service is slowly dying. However, for those who still make it a focus, I believe it helps them to stand out in the crowd. And what if I told you a company who makes customer service also has the best quality AND prices? No brainer, right? Well, let me introduce you to my friends at Goodfellas Merch in Glendale. In this episode, I sit down with founder Joe to talk about how his love of craft beer and homebrewing translates into the passion he puts into his own craft as a screen printer. Enjoy the show!
Events from this episode:
June 12th - Grand Canyon Brewery Tap Takeover at Richter Aleworks
June 13th - Design Your Own Beer Can Pint Class at The Shop Beer Co.
June 14th - Double Can Release & Tapping at Goldwater Brewing
June 16th - Fathers Day at Beer Research Institute
June 22nd - Downtown Chandler Brewery Crawl
This week's beer review:
Flagstaff IPA from Lumberyard Brewing Co
Reviewed by Marcus Pina (@brewery602 on Instagram) and follow his page on YouTube
Extra special thanks to Chris Dodson for his awesome production/editing work to help put the audio side of the episodes together
Intro/Outro music is “La Veganza” 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!
In this episode, I hang out with Kinsey and Neal owners of Tap Truck AZ. Their truck is a 1966 Chevy C-10 Panel Truck with 5 tap handles protruding from the side of the truck. The tap handles have poured everything from Morning Sex Milk Stout from Beer Research Institute to root beer. Founders of the liquid catering company "Couple of Bartenders" Kinsey and Neal were looking to diversify their offerings to their clients and discovered the awesomeness that pouring straight from a badass truck could bring. Enjoy the show!
In this episode, we head down to Queen Creek to hang out with Travis Tolmachoff from Grain R&D. Located at the 100-year-old Sossoman Farm Grain R&D is doing amazing things to provide Arizona breweries and restaurants with the highest quality local grains with a sustainable approach. Some of the best in Arizona food and beer proudly use their products including Old Ellsworth Brewing, Chris Bianco, Wren House Brewing, and Arizona Wilderness Brewing. Luckily we all get to then enjoy a true taste of Arizona. Enjoy the show!
Since opening less than 2 years ago Cider Corps in Mesa has made a huge splash in the Arizona craft beverage scene. When they were originally on the podcast they had a concern of how their cider would be received by the public. Well, they now have a new concern: making enough cider to meet the demand. These guys create some of the best most unique beverages in the state and are making the right moves to ensure more people get to try them.
Myke Olsen is quickly making a name for himself in the Arizona food scene. Olsen was recently compared to Arizona's own world-renowned pizza guru Chris Bianco and some feel Myke makes the best pizza in Arizona. A humble man who is focused on making the best product that he can was a natural fit to pair up with the Duren brothers and their Cider Corps team.
In this episode, I hang out with Myke and the Duren brothers to talk about their individual paths to lead up to this remarkable partnership. Enjoy the show!
Extra special thanks 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!
This episode is the second part of the conversations I had during Camp Coolship. Sharing some beers and talking with some of the most highly respected beer people in the country was an incredible experience. The level of knowledge, passion and commitment to creating something unique all these guests possess while staying completely humble and down-to-earth fully encapsulates what I love so much about craft beer. It was an honor to have every one of them on the show. Enjoy!
This week's "News & Reviews" features a handful of events including Beer School 9. Listen to the episode to see how you can win a ticket to Beer School 9 happening this Saturday at Beer Research Institute. Plus, we get schooled on Pilsners by Preston from Wren House and Chris Dodson reviews a new Huss beer. Enjoy the show!
A tad bit west of 32nd Street, off of Cactus, you will find a bar that at least from the outside may not strike you as…well…a bar.
But make no mistake, Lovecraft is not only a bar, but one where you will find a delicious selection of beers on draft and in the fridge.
Rebecca Golden, you might remember from the popular 32 Shea, told TapThatAZ that after a little less than 7 years there, she realized it was time to move on.
“I literally gave it all that I had to give, and it was a good time to sell,” she said. “So I sold it and cried from joy.
“That’s crazy because a lot of people don’t know why I sold it.”
Golden said she needed a break, but she could not mentally or emotionally get away. So, 32 Shea got to a point where it was rolling and a highlight of the neighborhood, she knew it was time to move on.
The business sold, she took a break. Nothing was on the docket, which for someone who worked as hard as she did was a well-earned vacation. Golden said she never really planned on getting back into the industry, but at the same time always wanted to open a beer bar.
That was always in the back of her mind, which meant she was never quite done. Finding the place for her new venture was a challenge, especially since she couldn’t put a bar in one of the nice locations near her old stomping grounds.
Then one day when she was on her way to Home Depot she saw a “For Lease” sign on a building that used to be home to a struggling BBQ joint. The owners of 32 Shea weren’t interest in teaming up, so with some assistance from her boyfriend, Golden went ahead and created a beer bar in a part of town that she would like to help improve in part because it’s where she lives.
“At the end of the day I’m a creative and I’m an optimistic pessimist,” Golden said of putting a beer bar in a part of town that many believe cannot – or will not – support one. “I always see opportunity in things and it’s really hard for me to see things that I think can work...and not at least try.”
That’s not to say she is sure Lovecraft will be a hit – after all, nothing is guaranteed. Having more than 100 craft beers available, 31 of which come courtesy of rotating taps, should help.
Then, there’s the food.
“Originally even though we were going to have a beer bar – we were a beer bar, first and foremost – I knew we needed to have food,” she said.
That realization came from visiting other beer bars who were missing out due to not offering food. Given that Lovecraft was moving into a former BBQ restaurant and it made sense to offer something.
Given that Golden grew up in New Mexico, BBQ was not exactly something she was familiar with. About a week and half before Lovecraft opened, a chef friend of hers suggested making New Mexico fare.
After sleeping on it, a menu was born.
“I wake up and I’m like, ‘this is genius,’” she said. “New Mexican food, I know, it’s amazing. It goes well with smoked meats and nobody else is doing this.”
At least, she said, you couldn’t find the BBQ/New Mexican fusion, and once that epiphany came the rest of it came together pretty quickly. Stop in and you will get to enjoy appetizers like Green Chile Blanco Queso Dip, Creamy Green Chile Mac-N-Cheese or Frijoles. You also have a choice of customized tapas.
Delicious beer and a unique menu? That makes sense for a place called Lovecraft.
You can be forgiven if you think that would be the name for a sex shop. In fact, at one point the sign out front made sure to point out that it’s not a place for that.
“I didn’t come up with it,” Golden said, before with a chuckle calling out her boyfriend Ryan as being the responsible party. Of course, she admitted she was fond of the name “High Jolly” which you’ll probably need to Google to understand.
At any rate, she was outvoted and now says she likes the name Lovecraft because the point of the place is that “we get to support everything craft.”
The food, beer, wine, mead and cider. Everything.
“This, I get to support all those people who took the leap, who took the jump, who did something that was scary or whatever and decided to open whatever that thing was,” she said, likening it to her own risk in opening the bar. “And I get to be the person who supports that.
“And I think that’s super rad. I love being a craft beer bar, or a craft bar. So for the love of everything craft.”
This is the first of a two-part series recorded at Camp Coolship 2019 from Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company. In this episode, I get to chat with the people behind this amazing project and why it means so much to them. In a couple of weeks, part two will be released which features the guest breweries on this project. Enjoy the show!
In this episode, we travel up to Williams to hang out with the crew from Grand Canyon Brewing + Distilling along with longtime friend of the show Justin from Earn Your Booze and Brian from Baptiste Power Yoga. We talk about the epic EYB event (which involves a gameshow-style bartending event) going down this Sunday, April 28th at Copper Blues Phoenix as well as catch up on all the awesome things our friends up north at GCBC are up to. Enjoy the show!
In this episode, guest hosts Tamara Stanger and Sean Traynor from Cotton & Copper join in to hang out with Vlad and Rebecca, owners of Town Under Black Distillery in Tucson. A focus on native ingredients and traditional techniques they are setting the table for wait it going to be the game-changing distillery in the Southwest. Enjoy the show!
This week's events:
4/20 - Old School Spring Farm To Table Picnic at Rhiba Farms
4/20 - Arizona Craft Beer Festival at Westgate
4/25 - Elevated Beer Dinner at Ten55
4/27 - Goldwater Brewing Co. Four Year Anniversary
4/28 - Earn Your Grand Canyon | Copper Blues PHX
This week's beer review:
Deep In The Green DIPA by Grand Canyon Brewing Company
Reviewed by Marcus Pina (@brewery602 on Instagram) and follow his page on YouTube
Extra special thanks to Chris Dodson for his awesome production/editing work to help put the audio side of the episodes together
Intro/Outro music is “La Veganza” 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!
If you are a part of the Arizona craft beer scene, you know Justin Evans. And if you somehow don’t know Justin, you know his bar, The Wandering Tortoise.
Oh, and if you don’t know the Tortoise, you may have heard of The Sleepy Whale, which Justin and some others are opening in Chandler in April. If none of that rings a bell, then Hops on Birch, a craft beer institution in the pines of Flagstaff, should.
Recently, Justin and his group purchased that spot, too. Not bad for a guy who at one time thought he would go into law after attending Anthem College.
“I got a paralegal degree from there,” Evans told TapThatAZ. “That’s when I thought my career path was going to be being a lawyer.
“Then I got through two years of school and I realized that’s not what I wanted to do.”
Evans went on to say he had been in the food and beverage industry before, and the idea of sitting behind a desk just didn’t appeal to him.
He said the “freeness” of the food and beverage industry did, but across various stops in that field came to the realization that he wanted to one day have his own spot.
Following stops at OHSO Arcadia and the Pig’s Meow (now The Whining Pig Arcadia), Evans – along with Shay Gau, whom he met at the Pig’s Meow – looked to open what became the Tortoise. Many people have at one time considered the idea of starting a business, but Evans, Gau and the other partners, put up their own money, took out the loans and started looking for a place.
They found one in the Sprouts parking lot, but that fell apart due to the grocery chain not wanting another beer seller in their area.
“So we wasted about three months trying to negotiate that deal, we were really drug around on that,” Evans said of the Sprouts lot. “And we rushed to find something else with a couple of stipulations: We wanted to be on Indian School, we wanted to be west on Indian School.
“And somewhere still appealing to my customer base at Pig.”
Eventually, Gau found on a location off of 24th Street and Indian School with about 1,200 square feet of space. Evans was uneasy at first because of its lack of parking, but after about three days the lease was signed.
Within a year they expanded even more, and since then they added a parking lot. All of it proved to be necessary because of not only the atmosphere created in the space but the amazing beer list that has been consistently provided.
That, of course, does not happen by accident, with Evans and his team building relationships not only across the Valley but throughout all of Arizona and even into other markets.
“You know, the first time we got Pueblo Vida in there…it still blows my mind to this day,” Evans said.
If Evans is amazed by the beers he can get, imagine what everyone else thinks. Much of that success is directly due to the relationships Evans and his team have built. Be it Pueblo Vida, Arizona Wilderness or Dark Sky, or others like Modern Times, Pure Project or Bottle Logic, if it’s highly thought of, there’s a good chance you’ll see it at the Tortoise.
And lately you are even starting to see beers named after the Tortoise’s pets, such as King Koda, Super Duper King Mr. and Good Girl Pearl, which are named after Evans’ and Gau’s dogs and made by The Shop and Wren House, respectively.
Those are not the only collaborations the Tortoise has been a part of. They even had one with Modern Times, Technodrome, which was the first collaboration the brewery had ever done with a beer bar.
“We did it on the L.A. system,” Evans said.
Indeed, it’s not just about Central Phoenix. As noted, the Tortoise will soon be joined by the Sleepy Whale and Hops on Birch, with the former being in the East Valley and the latter in Flagstaff.
“That was a space that I was approached about,” Evans said of the Whale. “I looked at it and was like, ‘this is just fantastic.’ I couldn’t say no to that.”
Evans said he wasn’t in any rush to open another place, but instead this was just a matter of something seeming right.
As for Hops on Birch, Evans said that was a “dream come true” but one he said he took advantage of only after he got his wife’s approval. That last line came with a laugh, but Evans – who also has a new baby daughter -- admitted there is plenty on his plate these days.
But if history is any indication, while it may mean a lot of work for Evans, it will also mean plenty of good beer for even more people who live in the 48th state.