Beer Week, Baby

February 22, 2014 — beer, craft brew, Sentinel Peak Brewery, Tucson

Tucson has rapidly developed a bevy of micro breweries and beer emporiums. Downtown is awash in beer, and this week is Arizona Beer Week. I am less of a beer fan these days, but I like to support local businesses and taste new flavors. Sentinel Peak Brewery was holding a launch party yesterday for two new beers.  I have been wanting to visit this new nano (teenier than micro) gastro brew pub close to my home.  In a shopping center in the middle of town, between Petsmart and Trader Joe’s, these smart entrepreneurial firefighters have opened a bar for fans of high quality, hand crafted beer.  They hit the mark so well that the very first problem they had after opening was running out of beer much faster than they had anticipated.  They are trending…and they still have jobs as firefighters, so they are in the process of dealing with their sudden popularity.

They maintain a very friendly atmosphere and welcoming service.  Sara was serving me from behind the bar with enthusiasm and lots of knowledge.  I learned that she sings sometimes with her guitar to entertain the guests.  The lady sitting next to me at the bar was a friendly beer lover who had also come for the party.  She had much more experience than I in beer world/Tucson, so I learned a lot from her as we enjoyed our beers.  She let me know about a Sunday brunch wrapping up the festivities this week, hosted by a group known as Girls’ Pints Out.  Just a few years ago I attended beer festival in Tucson that consisted of spending a few hours inside the baseball stadium with a few beer vendors and a small cup.  Now we are not exactly Denver, but we are well on our way to serving the needs of the most discriminating local craft beer lovers.  Life is good.

They are open now on weekends, and next week plan to expand to Thursday, and lunch.  We must be patient while they brew enough beer to meet the demand.  I bought a growler of the Dunkle Monsoon  to bring beer week home to my partner Bob, who is a giant beer fan.  We both enjoyed the growler with some rich oyster mushroom chowder I had made before I went out afternoon beer drinking.  The creamy soup went well with the dark complex brew, and now we have an empty growler!!! To stay current with hours and new beers on tap like them on Facebook.

Flight of Firefighter Craft Beer