The Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff, Ariz., is a family-friendly restaurant reminiscent of Chama River and Turtle Mountain.  The staff at Beaver  Street was very nice and the food was delicious.  I had the grilled chicken oven-cooked pizza while Stoutmeister had a giant hamburger. (Editor’s note: Half-pound of beef with bacon and cheese. It shortened my life expectancy but I do not care. — Stoutmeister)  We both started our beer tastings with pints of the Bristlecone Brown, one of the brewery’s current seasonal offerings.  The Brown was tasty with a hint of hops.  We soon found that most of the beers that we would try in Arizona were made to be very drinkable.  This is in stark contrast to the hoppy bite that is found in most Albuquerque brews.

After the first pint, I ordered samplers of Beaver Street’s remaining six beers on tap.  These included the Lumberyard Red Ale, the Lumberyard Raspberry Ale, the Lumberyard IPA, and the R&R Oatmeal Stout, which are on tap year-round, and the seasonal “Code 4” Cream Ale and the Big Rapid Red imperial red ale.

The Raspberry Ale was advertised as having “a hint of raspberry flavor.”  I found it to be mostly raspberry with no trace of beer flavor.  It still tasted great, but it was a little disappointing as a beer fan.  Both the IPA and the Red were medal winners in the GABF.  The IPA was very

drinkable and not very overpowered by hops.  The same could be said about the Red, which is the brewery’s most popular style.  The Cream Ale was basically a pilsner with only a slight hint of cream.  The two gems of the brewery happened to be the last two that I tasted. The Oatmeal Stout and the Big Rapid Red were both very tasty.  In the end, I opted to finish with a pint of the Oatmeal Stout since it was hard to only drink three ounces of something that tastes so good.

(Editor’s longer note: I had to chime in on the R&R, since I am the Stoutmeister, after all. It is an outstanding stout, smooth and strong but minus any burnt or overly bitter flavors. It is good enough to get you through a frigid Flagstaff winter or still seem appropriate in the warm summer. Outstanding work, Beaver Street. Now if only you had the Cascadian Dark Lager back on tap this year. — Stoutmeister)

That should cover our first stop in Flagstaff. I will have posts coming up for Dave’s Electric Brew Pub (Tempe), O.H.S.O. nano-brewery (Phoenix), and SunUp Brewing (Phoenix). After that, Stoutmeister takes over as he heads south to Tucson.

Cheers!

— E-Rock