Tucson’s new wave of craft breweries are poised and ready to tap into the Tucson market.
At least six are slated to open in the metro area within the next year.
The push starts with the Pueblo Vida Brewing Company, which will tentatively launch downtown by Halloween.
Owner Kyle Jefferson has spent the last 10 months making the building that houses Pueblo Vida on East Broadway look the way it did when it was constructed nearly 100 years ago.
The walls, covered in plaster over time, have been stripped away, exposing the original, aged bricks underneath.
Layers of paint have been sanded down, bringing the hard wood flooring back to its former glory.
Up above, the dropped ceiling has been torn out, allowing patrons a view of the 1918 wooden trusses.
“I love the old architecture,” Jefferson said. “Those trusses are made from pine milled on Mount Lemmon. You can’t get that type of history in an industrial area.”
Toward the rear of the building is where the magic happens.
Clustered against the back wall is the brewery’s seven-barrel system, large silvery tanks, fabricated in Portland, Oregon, that are there to transform sacks of malted barley and wheat into golden glasses of beer.
Pueblo Vida will offer four flagships: its India Pale Ale, a breakfast stout, a Bavarian hefeweizen and a hybrid amber lager, as well as two specialty beers per season.
Jefferson said the momentum has been building.
“People stop as they walk by and ask when we are opening,” he added. “The whole thing has been exciting.”
The popularity of craft beer in Tucson, with established producers such as Ten Fifty-Five, Dragoon and Borderlands and tasting rooms like Tap & Bottle opening shop, have inspired others to follow suit.
Brewing hopefuls have been scouting locations from Marana to Tucson’s east side, in an effort to join the nine breweries already actively producing in Pima County.
The ongoing expansion of craft beer in Southern Arizona reflects a trend throughout the state, according to Steve Tracy, who owns Tucson’s two Thunder Canyon Brewery locations and is president of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild.
The guild represents more than 50 breweries in Arizona.
“The number has definitely picked up,” Tracy said. “It is not limited to the metro areas either. We are seeing breweries pop up in the White Mountains, the Havasu region, Kingman, Yuma. They are corner to corner.”
On Saturday, the guild hosted its inaugural Baja Oktoberfest at the Kino Sports Complex, one of three major craft beer festivals that it sponsors during the year.
Breweries from as far as Flagstaff set up taps made from converted coolers along the outer edges of the stadium.
They doled out their best brews to 1,200 attendees as vinyl banners flapped in the desert winds to the sounds of a local “oom-pah-pah” band.
In the center of it all sat the new brewer area, a row of tables reserved for breweries in their infancy.
Among a group of newbies that included the forthcoming Catalina Brewing Company and BlackRock Brewers, were Todd and Erika Button, owners of the Button Brew House name.
As craft beer enthusiasts, the couple hope to have a physical location for their brewery on the northwest side of town by the end of 2015.
They are in negotiations for a property across the street from the future home of the Tucson Premium Outlets center on Twin Peaks Road in Marana.
“I grew up in Phoenix,” said Todd, a 20-year veteran of the printing industry. “We wanted access to that market as well as the Tucson market.”
The Buttons are proponents of the social aspects of brewing.
Erika likens the community feel of today’s craft breweries to the coffee shop experience in the 1990s.
Her goal is to make the Button Brew House a social spot, with local art showcased on the walls and a regular rotation of musicians performing.
“It is not about binge drinking,” Todd said. “It is about building a better community.”
Jefferson’s Pueblo Vida tap room, with its pushed-together tables made of salvaged wood from the build-out, is also meant to have that community spirit.
Jefferson is a fourth-generation Tucsonan, but was raised in Seattle, where craft beer and craft coffee have become commonplace.
“We had those things before they were trendy,” he said.
He came to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona, where he earned a degree in finance in 2009. He was soon lured back to Washington to apprentice at the Lazy Boy Brewing Co. in the Seattle suburb of Everett.
When he left Tucson, there were only three breweries; Nimbus, Barrio and Thunder Canyon.
He has been impressed with the growth of craft beer culture in town over the last few years.
“I hope 25 more open in the next two to three years,” he said. “We are a small community. We can all be supported by the craft beer drinkers in Tucson.”
