Test-drive 30 breweries at this year's Tucson Craft Beer Crawl

Half of the 30 craft breweries participating in the fourth annual Tucson Craft Beer Crawl are from Tucson, which means a lot of folks attending the daylong event on Saturday, Feb. 24, will have at least a passing familiarity with their brews.

If not, the organizers of the festival have your back.

They’ve created beer trails that will lead you to the styles of beer you like, from the tongue curling sours to high voltage IPAs or soft and mellow lagers.

The IPA and Sour trails are among the new features of the festival, produced by Tucson Foodie and Ranch House Media, whose credits include putting on StartUp Tucson’s TenWest fest and the Tucson City of Gastronomy’s Pueblos del Maíz events. This year’s signature sponsors are Rio Nuevo and the restaurant platform Toast.

This is the second year that Tucson Foodie, the food-centric website, has produced the event. The crawl comes at the tail end of Arizona Beer Week, which kicked off Feb. 15 and included the behemoth Arizona Strong Beer Festival Feb. 17 in Scottsdale. That event featured 174 breweries, including several from Tucson.

“Last year, we ran it as a team and the experience was OK,” said Tucson Foodie CEO Shane Reiser. “This year, we’re bringing in the professionals with Ranch House Media. It’s going to be a lot more professional.”

That means no more lines or clunky check-in processes involving digital apps. Drink tickets will look like old school raffle tickets, each good for a 2-ounce pour. There also will be more live entertainment and more food options including Borderlands’ newly launched food truck; Reiser said he recommends the salmon burger. There will be food offered at every venue except Corbett Brewing Company, with food trucks and tents, as well as some breweries offering their own menus, Reiser said.

Organizers are setting up at Borderlands, where “crawlers” can go at the end of their journey and get a badge for completing the trails.

Fifteen Tucson breweries will participate in the Tucson event alongside a pair of Southern Arizona breweries — Sonoita’s Copper Brothel Brewery, the Jesser family‘s women-centric brewery whose offerings include a Mexican style lager, their American-style Pearl de Bier and the super hoppy Hazel, with a motto of “Happy wife, happy life;” and Tombstone Brewing Company, with its Little Baby Wyatt IPA that they introduced during Tombstone’s signature Wyatt Earp Days, and their Tombstone IPA that boasts an aggressive hoppy burst and tropical, citrusy taste.

Among the Tucson breweries is the city’s only cidery, Bawker Bawker Cider House on North Fourth Avenue; and the lone meadery, Brillé Mead Company, where David Woods recreates Ethiopian-style meads.

This year’s event also features a half-dozen statewide breweries, including Flagstaff’s Mother Road Brewing, and one international brewery, Mexico’s Buqui Bichi Brewing, which had a presence in last year’s Tucson event. Several national brands also are in the mix, including Athletic Brewing, one of only a few craft brewers in the country specializing in non-alcoholic beers.

This year’s festival will be centered at 10 downtown venues:

Borderlands, 119 E. Toole Ave.

Bawker Bawker, 400 N. Fourth Ave.

Corbett Brewing, 309 E. Seventh St.

Crooked Tooth, 228 E. Sixth St.

HighWire, 30 S. Arizona Ave.

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Playground, 278 E. Congress St.

R Bar, 350 E. Congress St.

Thunder Canyon, 220 E. Broadway Blvd.

The Monica, 40 E. Congress St.

TraXide, 402 E. Ninth St.

New to this year’s festival

Going old school: No more mobile app for your drink tickets. They will be attached to your badge, which you get with your entry ticket.

Free for the DD: If you’re the appointed designated driver among your group, you get in free and you get free non-alcoholic beer so you won’t feel like you’re totally missing out.

Everyone’s a VIP: Instead of offering a VIP experience with a VIP price tag, the organizers have created an elevated experience for everyone that includes more food options and special collaborations including Tucson’s Dragoon Brewing teaming up with Hermosillo-based Buqui Bichi to create a celebratory beer called La Tucson Beer, which debuted in Hermosillo, Sonora, in early February to mark 200 years of diplomacy between Mexico and the U.S. and will be poured at the beer crawl.

Participating breweries

From Tucson: Barrio Brewing (barriobrewing.com), Bawker Bawker Cider House (bawkerbawker.com), BlackRock Brewers (blackrockbrewers.com), Borderlands Brewing Company (borderlandsbrewing.com), Brillé Mead Company (brillemead.com), Button Brew House (buttonbrewhouse.com), Catalina Brewing Company (catalinabrewingco.com), Corbett Brewing Company (facebook.com/corbettbrewingcompany), Crooked Tooth Brewing (crooked-tooth-brewing-co.square.sit), Dragoon Brewing (dragoonbrewing.com), Harbottle Brewing Co. (harbottlebrewingco.com), Iron John’s Brewing (ironjohnsbrewing.com), Pueblo Vida Brewing Company (pueblovidabrewing.com), Ray Ray’s Sonoran Ice Tea (cocktaillabaz.com), Screwbean Brewing (tucne.ws/1pe1); and Thunder Canyon Brewery (thundercanyonbrewery.com).

From Southern Arizona: Sonoita’s Copper Brothel Brewery (copperbrothelbrewery.com) and Tombstone Brewing Co. (tombstone.beer) from Tombstone.

From around the state: Scottsdale-based Arizona Brewing Company (arizonabrewingco.com); Gilbert’s Huss Brewing (hussbrewing.com) and Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. (azwbeer.com); Flagstaff’s Mother Road Brewing (motherroadbeer.com); Phoenix’s Wren House Brewing Company (wrenhousebrewing.com); Chandler’s San Tan Brewing (santanbrewing.com); and Eloy’s Ranch Hand Brewing (ranchhandbrewing.com).

From out of state: New Mexico’s La Cumbre Brewing (lacumbrebrewing.com).

National brands: Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic craft beer (athleticbrewing.com), BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse (bjsrestaurants.com), and Lagunitas Brewing (lagunitas.com).

International brands: Buqui Bichi Brewing (en.buquibichi.com/home).

The Tucson Craft Beer Crawl runs from 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24. Tickets are $50 — $25 for Tucson Foodies insiders — which includes 30 tickets for 2-ounce pours and a commemorative tasting glass, through tucsoncraftbeercrawl.com. In addition to food and beer, there will be live entertainment and music throughout the crawl.