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Everything Old Is New Again.
Welcome to the New Year! I hope you found everything exactly as you left it, I know I did. Let's see... all my favorite TV programs starting at their regular times, CHECK. Car keys on the same counter as last year, CHECK. Israel and Palestine fighting over the rights to the promised land, CHECK. The Minnesota Vikings eliminated from post season play, CHECK. An Illinois Governor in some sort of ethics dilemma, aaannnnd CHECK. Everything is accounted for, I love this hope and change thing!
As I mentioned last year, we are working on a whole slew of new and interesting things for '09. First and foremost, we would like to begin with an old stalwart, The Four Peaks Beer Dinner! It will be held on Tuesday, February 3rd at 7 pm and is explained in greater detail below.
We also plan on riding the light rail system to visit our friends along the line who serve up some of the tastiest beer in town (Kilt Lifter, 8th Street, Sunbru, Hop Knot, and Hefeweizen come to mind). Our own Ted Golden will be spearheading an "Ales On The Rails" promotion Friday, January 16th with the slogan "Hop" on Board (we're clever that way). This should become a semi regular excursion throughout the year, more details on this next week my friends.
Filed in the "It's Not Too Soon To Start Thinking About..." column, preperations are soon to begin on a St. Patrick's Day extravaganza that will blow you away (sure it falls on a Tuesday, but that never stopped you before, admit it)! I also learned how to use, I think the kids call it, a "cam-er-a," over the holiday season, so I will attempt to provide some updated photography herein. That's how we plan on starting the first quarter of the year! What do the other 9 months have in store? Just you wait!
Alright on with the Brewsletter! This week we cover all aspects of New Year's resolutions, reflections and random musings with both The Grill and Tap and our Brewers. We take some time to talk to Miss Tabitha Perez who has worked like a pinball bouncing between stores over the years... she's quite a faithful little pixie. We will also discuss the signs you may or may not have seen posted along the north side of 8th Street earlier this week.
Gauw tot ziens("See you soon" in Dutch)
Your Friends at The Four Peaks Brewery and Four Peaks Grill & Tap |
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1st 2009 Four Peaks Beer Dinner Announced!
All of us at your friendly neighborhood brew pub are proud to announce the, uh... announcement of our latest beer dinner! Already less than a month away, the excitement is building and the kitchen is awash in anticipation. Now sit back, get comfortable and take in the mouth watering delights that will be tickling your palate in the beginning of February! Please feel free to click on the highlighted items in the menu to expand your culinary lexicon in the event you need some assistance.
editors note:You may want to grab a bib, napkin or other paper product because Four Peaks Brewing Co. and all subsidiaries will not be held responsible for any uncontrolled drooling on your keyboard. Don't say you haven't been warned!
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Gourmet Beer Dinner
7:00
p.m. February 3, 2009
Reception
Hop Knot IPA
First Course
* Halibut Cheeks *
Pan
seared Alaskan Halibut cheeks served in a lemon hefeweizen beurre blanc over
squid ink pappardelle pasta, garnished with fava beans, roasted cippolini onions & chanterelles.
Hefeweizen
Second Course
* Soup Deux *
A creamy habanero & butternut
squash soup garnished with Dungeness crab & crispy leeks, served
with roasted red pepper soup with a kolsch crème fraiche & desert sweet shrimp.
Sunbru
Third Course
* Caribou Wellington
*
Alaskan
Caribou tenderloin rolled in a chopped liver mousse, wrapped in a puff pastry and baked golden brown, topped with a barleywine
wild game reduction, served with purple
potato & ricotta salata croquettes and grilled autumn vegetables.
Hopsquatch
Barleywine
Fourth Course
* Peanut Butter & Chipotle Chocolate Mousse *
Layered peanut butter &
chipotle chocolate mousse served in a chocolate shell with almond tuiles and caramel
popcorn, topped with Oatmeal Stout chocolate sauce.
Cask-Conditioned Ancho Chili Stout----------------------------------------------------------------
Are you done salivating? Unfortunately, tickets for this event are not yet available. But feel free to make reservations with our own personal International Man of Mystery, Steve Lynch at:
steve@fourpeaks.com Yup, this is your guy: 
Our operators are standing by and plenty of space is available!
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CASK-CONDITIONED AND SEASONALS
IN SCOTTSDALE THIS WEEK
Raj I.P.A.: You can't spell "incomparable" with I.P.A.! IN TEMPE THIS WEEKDry Hopped Kilt Lifter: Your old friend with a new twist! SEASONAL DU JOUR
Currently in between seasons, check back for updates!
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The Grill & Tap Dispatch
with Mike Kruchko
The one inevitable thing that comes
with each New Year is the numerous lists reviewing the previous 12 months or
giving the obligatory predictions for the upcoming year. These are usually written by people that are less
than qualified to babble about such topics, so lucky for all of you that I just
happen to be enjoying a few Kiltlifters while watching my Celtics tank against
the Charlotte Bobcats (yes, I said the Bobcats) so what better time to put
together my own "completely useless" list of 2008 and 2009!
Due to the
fact that my brain is basically wired to think nothing but sports and beer as
most men in the U.S.
are, my first thought brings me to the Playoffs and all you weeping Vikings
fans out there. You may think that due
to your early exit, your season was a failure.
Well, coming from a guy that predicted 6 wins tops for this purple Minnesota team, most
would have to consider a 10 win season a rousing success (and I'm sure most of
you would agree). And just think, Adrian
Peterson will only be 32 by the time you actually get a quarterback to take you
to the promise land.
Wasn't this
supposed to resemble a list of some sort though....let's try this again. Who had a memorable '08?
I'm going
to skip some of the obvious ones, like say The President Elect (I don't like to
talk politics when I've been drinking), Michael Phelps (we get that he's good)
and say maybe Roger Clemens (he's to much of a #@*% to write about).
How about Matt McCormack's favorite
gun toting/club going WR, Plaxico Burress.
What a year for that bone head!
Have fun trying to earn that street cred back Plax.
My Boston Celtics...once again,
making the NBA relevant.
The Red
Wings...once again, proving that the NHL is only relevant in Detroit.
And the Detroit Lions proving that even
the highest paid athletes know how to quit.
So who's in
for a memorable '09?
That's an easy
one...Brett Favre should enjoy his 12th retirement this year and I bet
no one will care quite so much this time around, especially his Jets teammates.
The Yankees
are set to be the Titanic of the sports world this year; the most expensive,
unsinkable entity ever created that has disaster written all over it. They will run away with the World Series or
fall flat on their faces in '09 (I vote for the latter / remember, I am a Red
Sox fan!), but either way they'll be making headlines this year.
The local
Suns and Card's are both up for big years as well, although maybe for different
reasons. Who would have thought that the
Cardinals are on the rise while the Suns may be setting on the Valley of the
ex-Dantoni's?
Here's my
first reach for this year. Coach
Erickson will get it together and ASU Football will rebound to once again grace
the Holiday Bowl with its presence. Why
not the Rose Bowl you ask? I may be
alumni, but I'm not crazy.
Well as I make one last trip to the
fridge and realize I'm fresh out of beer, it brings me back to my original
thought that I had before this nonsensical rambling began. 2008 was an amazing year for all of us here
at the Brewery and Grill & Tap and we have no one
to thank more than each of you. That
being said we're looking forward to 2009 in a big way. Not only will we keep doing what we do best,
but we'll be rolling out the new Kiltlifter and Sunbru cans, keeping the Hop Knot coming in
bottles and bringing you exciting seasonals to look forward to! Although this year may be starting off on the
tough side for some, we see big things on the horizon and thank you in advance
for our best year yet!
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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Wednesday, January 14th: Your monthly Cheese Puff Day has arrived, come in hungary!
Sunday, January 18th: The P.F. Chang's Rock N' Roll Marathon is underway, get your running shoes on.
Tuesday, January 20th: Classes resume and we inaugurate a new Head Executive.
Tuesday, February 3rd: Our First Beer Dinner of the year. Details below, get your reservations in by contacting steve@fourpeaks.com.
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The Brewers Blog
There's been a common question going around this New Year;
what are you going to miss about 2008 and what are you looking forward to in
2009? I guess people aren't interested
in resolutions these days. We never
were. So we guess this is the new
"resolution" substitute.
So, OK, here it goes:
We'll miss high hop prices.
Mainly because it taught some of our brewing brethren that there are
other ingredients in beer. To a person
with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
You lose the hammer and you find another way.
We'll miss the Endless Summer Ale. This was arguably our best seasonal of
2008. It had everything we love; a
malt-forward flavor, a drinkable alcohol content, and balanced floral hop
flavors with a dry-hopped nose that we can only hope to replicate.
We'll miss 2008's production numbers. In retrospect they seem very manageable. 2009 should be like pulling a rabbit out of a
hat; a big rabbit and a small hat.
We'll miss some of the carefree attitude of the beginning of
the year. The days are over where, "just
buy a new one" will fix the problem.
This is actually a good thing.
We'll miss high malt prices.
It looks like they're coming down.
We'll miss some of the beer festivals and the
conferences. We'll try to travel less
this year (we won't miss the travel).
We'll miss everyone who helped us to get where we are that
has moved on. You know who you are, and
thank you.
We could go on but we'll leave it there.
What will we look forward to in 2009? Well, nothing, really in the sense that we
"can't wait" for certain things. That
doesn't mean we aren't eternally optimistic, we are. We're just
pragmatists. To get giddy for the future
seems like a great way to get let down when it actually comes. Balance, it's the Eeyore to our Pooh
We will look forward to learning more about patience; we
think we're all going to need a little extra this year.
We'll look forward to being luckier this year. That is luck in the way that Thomas Jefferson
saw it when he said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder
I work the luckier I am".
And, of course, we'll look forward to seeing and hearing
from you all again. We're not much
without you.
We hope you have a very prosperous 2009.
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5 Questions With Tabitha Perez...
In the annals of Four Peaks history there have only been a handful of folks that have worked at both the Tempe and Scottsdale locations. One  of the few would be the irrepressible Tabitha Perez. To be quite honest, she started up in Scottsdale came to Tempe and then returned to Scottsdale when they needed a bartender, I believe that is a first! A lot could be said about Tabby but most wouldn't do her justice. For one thing, all of her answers for the five questions ended with smiley faces (I don't think I can utilize emoticons in this medium, so just imagine cute little smiley faces at the end of each of these answers)! Always upbeat and sasssy (yes, she earns the extra "s"), I give you the one person who can always make ME blush... Ms Tabitha Perez! 1. Which Four Peaks beer is
the one you choose when you are finally able to sit on the other side of the
bar? Why?
I would have to go with the Hop Knot, it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
2. You've worked at both the Scottsdale
and Tempe locations, what is your
favorite aspect of working in Scottsdale? In Tempe?
Well, in Tempe I would go with the obvious choice of frisking Neuman behind the bar when no one was looking! That or those Vikings fans (wink, wink)! Hmmm, I know when it comes to Scottsdale the drive can  be tedious every once in a while, but the air conditioning during the summer makes it worthwhile. Coming in a close second is working with Mike Kruchko, it warms my heart to work under such a kind and caring manager (can I get my raise now?)!
3. Your choices are "Biggest Loser 7" or the game show "Hole
In The Wall," which program would most likely lead to an addiction to pain
killers? Please explain. (extra credit for
using "vapid" and "kills more brain cells than a frat boy during Rush Week")
What's Hole In The Wall? I guess that would mean I would have to go with "Biggest Loser" then. I confess, it does make me cry, so that would probably lead me to take pain killers!
4. If you could build
your dream beer bread sandwich, what would you put in it?
Well, I would start by putting on a base of hummus then add some blackened chicken. I would have to add some lettuce and tomato for  pretty colors, some avocado for extra flavor and top it off with cheddar cheese! Yum, Yum!!!
5. Speaking of addiction to pain killers, Elvis Presley
would celebrate his 74th birthday tomorrow (January 8th)
if he were still alive (unless you still think he's alive and living on that
island with Jim Morrison and John Belushi). Which Elvis song is your favorite? There are so many, how could I pick just one... I do like Hound Dog a lot though. I just think it's cool he died on the crapper! Well Tabitha, I thank you for your participation and divulging how much you enjoyed harassing me in the work place. The mental scars that remain from our time together in Tempe will not be going away soon. I just want you to know that I am a human being and NOT a piece of meat for you to toy with. Until you come to that realization, there will be no equality in the workplace for attractive fellas like myself. For shame!
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A Few Parting Words... Well, to break in the year
2009 I stopped at the Four Peaks Grill and Tap yesterday for a bite
and a beer. It had been a while since I dropped in and said "hi" to
our friends up on the north side. Although the temperature was a bit
chilly the reception was quite the opposite. I don't know if any of
you have ever had the equivalent of a chicken roll in the style of a personal pizza, but it was outstanding. I hadn't been privy to this before in Tempe
and found myself consuming the entire thing without coming up for air.
They really are a class act up there. You should pay them a visit when you hit
the Barrett-Jackson auction, The FBR Open or if you just find yourself
on the corner of Frank Lloyd Wright and Hayden.  On a final note, as of Tuesday, January 6th, the City of Tempe posted new "90 Minute Parking" signs down the length of 8th Street. This is only effective Monday through Friday between 8 am and 4 pm. This should not be a problem for the brunt of our clientele, mostly it is to prevent folks from utilizing our street as a parking lot. This should allow more parking in the front of our Tempe location for all you lunch enthusiasts out there! Take heed, they will begin enforcing this on Monday, January 12th!! Don't get caught off guard! That's it for this week, tune in next Wednesday as I break down the intricacies of riding the rails and drinking some ales and other ponderings about the meaning of life in a local brewery. Until that time, come on in and have yourself a beer! Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.- George Bernard Shaw
...What If Elvis Had Lived? Pretty Disturbing, Eh?
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