Flagstaff is Arizona’s Craft Beer Capital
Flagstaff has been dubbed the Craft Beer Capital of Arizona. With eight breweries in ten locations, many of them easily walkable around downtown, it may be time to go and check the evidence for that claim.
All Photos (c) Mike Gerrard for Arizona Travel Guide
Here’s the Flagstaff brewery flight, in strictly alphabetical order.
Beaver Street Brewery
11 S. Beaver St.
This is literally the grandaddy of Flagstaff breweries, as it was the first brewpub to open there in 1994, and it was the grandfather of present owner Kelly Hanseth who opened it. Hanseth is also now the Vice President of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild. Back in 1994 there were only 250 microbreweries and brewpubs across the entire USA, but the success of Beaver Street soon led to others following, and to the Beaver Street founders opening another brewery in Flagstaff, Lumberyard. Beaver Street today is a busy and smart bar and restaurant, though behind the scenes the brewery still uses the original equipment and has that makeshift look that many small breweries have. They make seasonal brews like an Oktoberfest Marzen, made with German hops, and their mainstays include a couple of tasty fruit beers: Red Rock Raspberry and Black ‘n’ Raz.
For more information visit beaverstreetbrewery.com.
Dark Sky Brewing Company
117 N. Beaver St.
It’s hard to pick a favorite Flagstaff brewery as they’re all so different, but Dark Sky is definitely up there as probably the most creative. Since they opened in 2014 they’ve produced over 500 different beers, with at least one new beer launched every Wednesday, which is New Beer Release Day. One example, while it lasts, is their Buffalo Trace BA Flag 7, which is aged for 12 months in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels and then brewed with cinnamon-roasted walnuts, vanilla, and maple syrup. Their Country Roads fruited sour beer uses blueberry, blackberry, red currant, black currant, and cassia bark, and is not surprisingly packed with flavors. This is one place where you should definitely consider a flight. In Tucson you can usually find their beers at The Tucson Hop Shop, Tap and Bottle Downtown, and Caps and Corks.
For more information visit darkskybrewing.com.
Flagstaff Brewing Company
52 S San Francisco St.
Also opened in 1994, not long after Beaver Street, the Flagstaff Brewing Company is sticking to its tap roots and is still very much an unfussy neighborhood bar, clearly with a bunch of regulars propping it up. A brewery tour doesn’t take long as it’s probably one of the smallest you can imagine. Get half a dozen people in there and there’s scarcely room to move, but from this ramshackle-looking place brewer Stu Howe produces some magnificent beers. He uses the small scale as an opportunity to experiment, as if things go wrong he’s not lost much. Among the regular brews, a Sasquatch Stout stands out for its creamy-chocolate richness, and the Weisspread Wheat is packed with banana and spice flavors. They also have an impressive whiskey collection, if you fancy a $2,000 bottle of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle.
For more information visit flagbrew.com.
Grand Canyon Brewing Co.
1800 S. Milton Rd.
Grand Canyon is so new in Flagstaff that at the time of our visit they hadn’t even started brewing yet, thanks to some bureaucratic hold-ups. In the meantime they’re bringing in beer from their Williams main base, including spirits from the distillery there too. They have some barrel-aged ales including Dire Wolf, a complex-tasting fruit sour beer partly aged in bourbon barrels and using fresh plums and blackberries. Seasonal brews include a Sacred Saguaro summer lager, and their year-round beers are available throughout Tucson.
For more information visit grandcanyonbrewery.com.
Historic Barrel + Bottle House
110 San Francisco St.
Historic has had a quick and impressive success. Only founded in 2013, they now have two locations in Flagstaff and another in Williams. The downtown original combines quirky bar with casual dining, and has 20 of its own beers on tap. Their Salt River is a light and refreshing lager-style beer but also has salt and lime in it, and if you try it you won’t be surprised that it won a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival. In contrast, their long-established Piehole Porter is a rich, thick, and luscious cherry-vanilla pie of a pint, and their Get Juiced Blonde uses apple, carrot, lemon, and ginger.
For more information visit historicbrewingcompany.com.
Historic Brewing Company Taproom
4366 E. Huntington Dr
Historic’s expansion means that their main brewing operation is now a few miles out of town in a bigger new industrial facility, where they also have a taproom. This serves the same ales as downtown, and like other breweries in Flagstaff, Historic works to raise money for good causes. Buy their Trout Unlimited pale ale and some of the money goes towards Land and Water Conservation.
For more information visit historicbrewingcompany.com.
Lumberyard Brewing Company
5 S. San Francisco St.
When the Beaver Street founders decided they wanted a new adventure, they simply chose to open another brewery, this time in an old lumberyard. They used the lumber to build the brewery and an enormous bar/restaurant area. They do super-good bar food (the Flash-Fried Brussels Sprouts with bacon chunks and jalapeño rings are amazing), and some similar beers to Beaver Street: in fact a little mutual brewing goes on between the sister companies. Their Red Rock Raspberry underplays the raspberry to good effect, and Humphrey’s Hefe is likewise a sour beer that’s not too sour and with some banana-sweetness and spiciness to contrast. Look for them all over Tucson.
For more information visit lumberyardbrewingcompany.com.
Mother Road Brewing Company Downtown
7 South Mikes Pike
Mother Road opened in 2011 in this former laundry on the original Route 66 (before they moved it). It keeps its small-scale industrial look, though the brewing facilities here are now kept for experimental and small-batch beers. It’s both family-friendly (games and books you can borrow) and dog-friendly too, with water bowls on the usually-packed outside patio. Their Kölsch-Style Ale is light and has a zesty zing to it, and part of the proceeds goes to Arizona Game and Fish for wildlife conservation projects. Mother Road definitely wins the prize for best packaging with their cool retro-style cans, and Route 66 names like Lost Highway and Sunday Drive. Fortunately the contents are as good as the artwork.
For more information visit motherroadbeer.com/downtownbrewery.
A Brew with a View
Mother Road Brewing Company Butler
1300 Butler Ave.
Mother Road outgrew its original location and so shifted its main brewery operation to an industrial complex a few miles away. Once you’re inside, though, the location becomes irrelevant as the bar is stylish, with lampshades made by a local artist hanging from the high ceiling, every one of them different. The brewery is off the bar through an archway, and their Lost Highway Double Black Porter was so coffee-chocolate-hops delicious that it converted this non-porter fan with one sip.
For more information visit motherroadbeer.com.
Wanderlust Brewing Company
1519 N. Main St.
On an industrial estate out of town next to an AutoZone is one of the city’s smallest and most charming breweries. It owes its name to the wanderlust of founder and brewer Nathan Friedman, who has been to almost every state in the nation and traveled much of the world before finally putting down roots in Flagstaff and opening a brewery. For him it’s a passion, as he still keeps his other day-job, which is designing medical instruments. Here bar and brewery merge into one, and Nathan can give you a tour without you having to leave your bar stool. His curiosity about the world spills over into his beers, with German and Belgian styles, though his long-time best-seller is as local as it gets. 928 Local (928 is the Flagstaff area code) is a farmhouse ale made using local honey and a yeast that Nathan also found in Flagstaff. “There is only one place in the world that you can get a beer that tastes like that and it’s right here,” he says proudly, and that’s what craft beer is all about. You’re definitely going to have to go to Flagstaff to taste that one.
For more information visit wanderlustbrewing.com.
Frommer’s Arizona and the Grand Canyon
This is our recommended guide for Arizona and the Grand Canyon, if you’re thinking of planning a visit. The two authors both live full-time in Arizona and the book is therefore based on lifetime experiences of the state. It has 86% 5- and 4-star ratings on Amazon.
