The sad state of beer in Phoenix

I've been reading some of Stan Hieronymus' blogs lately (if you have not you should do so) and I came across this post about the Phoenix beer scene.

http://www.beertravelers.com/indexes/wateringholes/phoenix_pubcrawl.html

It was written in 1999, at a time in my life where I obviously took much too much for granted when it comes to craft beer and the beer culture that is enjoyed by many of you on the east coast and the Pac NW.

To my utter dismay only 3 of the top 10 things to do in Phoenix are no longer.

Gone Dead Gone
1) The Bandersnatch Brewpub was squeezed out of Tempe by ASU and the city going on 5 years now. There are plans to re-open a brew pub by the owner but that seems destined to be in the 2-3 year time frame. The new location will be in Buckeye, some 45 miles from central Phoenix or an hours drive from the original location.
2) Hops Bistro closed not too long after Stan's review.
3) Uptown Brewery stopped making beer within the last year.
5) Coyote Springs closed before 2000 with beer in the tanks.
6) The Leinenkugel's Ballyard Brewery is no longer lasting only 5 years.
8) Alcatraz Brewing closed at the end of 2003.
10) The Timberwolf Pub is now an ASU parking lot.

Honorable Mention: Rio Salado- as dry as its riverbed namesake.

Oh Bury Me Not
4) Four Peaks is a thriving Brew Pub with a second location.
7) Seamus McCaffrey's is still operating and his wife has a place on Camelback called Rosie McCaffrey's.
9) Gordon Biersch Brewing Co is still in the prime Mill Avenue location, but as we all know this is a national chain of brewpubs.

Yes I know there are some bright points not mentioned. For every Sonora, Roosevelt or Papago we also hurtle towards adding a vanilla chain shopping mall entity such as the Yardhouse.

We are a metro area rivaling LA in size and surpassing Philadelphia in population....

I want my Beer Culture!



I will most probably be referring to many of Stan's posts in my future posts, so if you want to keep up with me, here is where to read more of Stan's stuff.
http://appellationbeer.com/
http://www.beertravelers.com - Beer Travelers is co-written by Stan an his wife Daria Labinski.

We have one local brewpub here in State College. There used to be a few more locally, but they all went by the wayside. I am surprised in an area like yours there are so many struggling brewpubs. Thing is, it's more than the beer when you get into that realm. In places like England, Ireland, etc., the pub is a daily social event. Here, in many cases they are beer-centric. I mean people sit there staring at the tube .

Something's better than nothing. We don't have any brewpubs or microbreweries here. The closest thing to a brewery here is an AB brewery in Fargo, ND and that's 4 hours away from Bismarck.

Homebrew is what's keeping me alive.

EinGutesBier said:

Something's better than nothing. We don't have any brewpubs or microbreweries here. The closest thing to a brewery here is an AB brewery in Fargo, ND and that's 4 hours away from Bismarck.

Homebrew is what's keeping me alive.

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I don't mean to split (rather enormous and unprecidented in size) hairs about Phoenix and Fargo, but a town like Durango, CO (pop 20,000) has 4 well known brewpubs.

Did I mention (well not actually) 5 million inhabitants here!

you forgot to add McFarlane's brewery to the went out of business list. Back in the day they were bigger than 4 Peaks. They had something like 120 tap handles around Phx.

I have been wanting to open either a brewery or brewpub for years. My supervisor and his father are looking into it.

Cregar said:

I have been wanting to open either a brewery or brewpub for years. My supervisor and his father are looking into it.

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Well I'd like to give you an amen on that, but there's something about the attitude here. I mean many of those places were OK, but not world beaters.

I don't blame them. I'm sure they wanted to succeed.

Phoenix has this inferiority complex that's really hard to describe.

People here just don't seem to want it enough.

olllllo said:

People here just don't seem to want it enough.

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That's what I was getting at before, the market is not necessarily the beer but the environment that goes along with it. A lot of people (and I think it is common in a lot of areas in the US) don't value the Brewpub scene.

olllllo said:

People here just don't seem to want it enough.

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Its that, and well most of the places you go to act the role of the EAC.This will turn alot of people away who are just getting into the craft scene.

What about Rock Bottom?

http://www.rockbottom.com/RockBottomWeb/RBR/Home.aspx

Soperbrew said:

What about Rock Bottom?

http://www.rockbottom.com/RockBottomWeb/RBR/Home.aspx

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Oh yes, I'll acknowledge that there have been some new entries into the market since 1999, but let's be honest. There is a hugh difference between say a district full of artists and the opening of a Thomas Kinkade store.

But consider Denver - a different attitude of the population perhaps but a growing metropolis as well .. I think I read there were 78 breweries w/in 100 miles of Denver .. they have the beer trail etc. and I guess it doesn't hurt that the GABF is there as well... I read that one of the breweries (Wynkoop) was started by the current Denver mayor..

After reading your first post, I see why you loved McNeill's so much !

Soperbrew reminded me of Copper Canyon in the chat...

Here is their scrapped/sold equipment:

olllllo said:

I don't mean to split (rather enormous and unprecidented in size) hairs about Phoenix and Fargo, but a town like Durango, CO (pop 20,000) has 4 well known brewpubs.

Did I mention (well not actually) 5 million inhabitants here!

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I did some talking around today and found out why North Dakota has no microbreweries whatsoever. Apparently the distributor/retailer cartel has arranged it so that it's unfeasible for a brewery to open and make a profit, much less keep their doors open. So I have those bastards and their pandering friends in the gov't to thank for the lack of options here in the Rough Rider state.

There's a special place in hell reserved for guys like them, I tell ya.

A microbrewery in North Dakota would scare people up there. Farmers don't drink beer with flavor.

Soperbrew said:

A microbrewery in North Dakota would scare people up there. Farmers don't drink beer with flavor.

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Sad, but true. For most farmers, practicality is the word of the day. Luckily, there are some metro areas in the state, but it doesn't matter in the end.