The Four Peaks Brewsletter
You Should Probably Call Kenny Loggins Because You Just Entered The Danger Zone!
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New Beer Dinner Announced!
Get ready for the latest Four Peaks Beer Dinner experience! This one will be the 36th installment and don't worry, you won't need to have been present for the previous 35 to know what's going on! It being the summer months, this dining event will be taking place at the Scottsdale Grill & Tap location. Please join us for yet another excursion into the world of exotic culinary delights and hand crafted brews. As always we pride ourselves on mixing things up to offer you a once in a lifetime dining adventure and, as you can see, this one will be no different:
Four Peaks
Grill & Tap
Gourmet Beer Dinner
7:00
p.m. August
24, 2010
Reception
*Cask Conditioned 8th
Street Ale*
First Course
* Ceviche Trio *
Octopus
& Bay Scallops Octopus and bay scallop ceviche with Aji Amarillo
sauce, red onion, tomato, cilantro, scallions and toasted guajillo
Prosciutto
Wrapped Hamachi Prosciutto wrapped Hamachi with a sweet red onion and yuzu sauce, served over a mango and orange salad with lemon oil.
Watermelon
& Ahi Rocotto pepper, diced watermelon & sriracha sauce with pumpkin seeds, thai basil, red onion and chili oil.
* Collaboration Patriot Pilsner * Second Course * Tacos de Venado * Shredded
venison shank in a spicy cascabel chili sauce with farmer's cheese, yellow
tomato pico de gallo and shredded cabbage rolled in a home made tortilla, served
with a three bean casserole. * Hop Knot * Third Course * Red River Stuffed
Pheasant * Red
River Pheasant breast stuffed with house pulled mozzarella, pesto, and
escarole, wrapped in prosciutto & caul fat, oven roasted and served with
spicy carrot
quinoa and creamed corn. * Kilt Lifter* Fourth Course * Homemade Smores * Homemade
ginger graham crackers layered with Belgian chocolate and house
made gooey marshmallows, topped with chocolate hazelnut
ganache.
* Oatmeal Stout with Kriek* For more information and to make reservations feel free to contact our Scottsdale location at (489) 991-1795 or email them at scottsdale@fourpeaks.com. Our phone lines are open, the price is $65 per person and air conditioning will be included free of charge! Space is extremely limited so make sure you reserve your spot today! Who likes this heat and humidity thing we have going on? Just thought I'd ask. The new Blue 32 Sports Grill in Scottsdale is now open on Indian Bend and Scottsdale Road. If you find yourself in the neighborhood we encourage you to check them out. They have a full 5 of your favorite Four Peaks beers on tap as well as our Sunbru Kolsch in cans! This is the closest you can get to a full on Four Peaks beer drinking experience without actually going to either Four Peaks location! They are open from 11 am until 2 am daily and offer some fantastic food (they still hand cut their own steaks people!) and drink specials. Our Four Peaks Summer Merchandise is now in and ready to be purchased! Shirts sporting all of your Four Peaks favorites (Hefeweizen shirts are back too!), can koozies, tank tops, you name it we've got it. Stop in and get some new stuff today! Kilt Lifter and Sunbru cans are now available at Bevmo and Whole Foods around the Valley!
If there isn't one nearby, make sure you ask your local retailer to carry some, we would be more than happy to accommodate your wishes!! This week issue finds our Brewers Blog taking a well deserved vacation, a return to the Grill & Tap Dispatch and the latest adventure in the James "Wildcard" Scussel adventure saga. See you later and enjoy the weather! Sunbru, bra? The Four Peaks Brewery and The Four Peaks Grill & Tap
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"Wildcard" Scussel
And The River of Constant Intoxication
The following piece is part of a manuscript that was found washed up on a beach several miles down from Pearce Ferry on the Colorado River. After 4 whole minutes of research I can honestly say that it appears to be a primarily fact based account of what transpired on the Great Four Peaks River Trip 2010. Upon questioning various participants of this great water adventure, absolutely no one could corroborate that any of the events actually happened, but that's mostly because no one could remember. Chapter 1 begins with our man, James "Wildcard" Scussel, struggling to come to terms with the bus ride to the Grand Canyon and what the next few days would have in store...
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All this happened,
more or less.
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
(1969)
Chapter One:
"I don't even want to talk about the drive to the Canyon,"
Wildcard Scussel proclaimed in an exasperated tone to no one in particular. "Imagine some 20 odd booze soaked reprobates on a bus with
no bathroom, an a/c unit that doesn't work while being supplied with enough
beer to keep a small European nation inebriated for a month. How do you think the end result would turn
out?" Wildcard further postulated to himself. It was a sad truth. Wildcard
thought back to the previous day which began as a pleasant little drive between
Tempe and the Grand
Canyon Village on
the morning of Thursday, July 1st, but one that quickly escalated into
chaos. There were repeated stops at
various underpasses so the passengers could "relieve" Hell-bus '010
 | themselves, several
unscheduled stops at random bars and breweries to further the fun factor,
blackouts, some vomiting and the mild involvement of park rangers due to an
unfortunate "tree watering" experiment. It was now 6am that next morning and Wildcard found himself hiking down the 9 mile stretch of Bright
Angel Trail
on the way to Pipe Creek
Beach to start the real adventure. Most of the
aforementioned reprobates had already begun the trek down and Wildcard found
himself towards the rear of the group to make sure that everyone was on the right trail. About a mile into the hike he
started a discussion about what was to transpire over the next few days with Anthony
Nocifera, one of the few individuals on the trip not employed by The Four
Peaks Brewing Company. "Is last night going to be indicative of what I should
expect for the next 8 days?" asked Anthony. "To be honest, I'm not really sure what to expect," Wildcard
replied. "Not really sure?" Anthony incredulously remarked, "I
was under the impression that you regularly hang around these guys and that they've all been
employed by Four Peaks
for several years. I thought you knew
them?"
"Oh, I do, only too well. You know how the old saying goes, 'Keep
your friends close, your enemies closer and the drunks employed in an incentive based managerial position as a means to more easily keep track of their
drinking habits'...it's a credo that has successfully kept me alive, and in business, for all Wildcard once again cheats death...
 | these
years!" "I would say last night only ranked a 4 on the Murphy
Scale," Wildcard added. "The Murphy Scale?
I'm sorry; I'm unfamiliar with the Murphy Scale, what's that?" "Just as tornadoes are measured on the Fujita Scale or
earthquakes on the Richter Scale, A Four Peaks
Party S**t Storm is measured on the Murphy Scale. It's a simple 1 to 10 scale; a 1
represents calmly waking up out of a coma to answer Trivial Pursuit questions whereas a 10 represents the need to be wearing a life jacket while strapped to a folding chair to prevent catastrophic injury and at the same time still be able to sing "Turn The Page" by Bob Seger in perfect cadence. It's actually quite awe inspiring to witness either end of the spectrum. As you may have guessed that leaves quite a bit of middle ground." Wildcard explained. After contemplating this for a few moments, Anthony finally asked,
"Why the hell are we doing this again?" "Team building my friend, team building!"
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Tune in next week for Chapter 2 of "Wildcard" Scussel and the River of Constant Intoxication - "Fireworks Display!"
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Upcoming Events
July - 10 more days of this $# !+ left to go
Sunday, August 8th - The NFL HOF Game with Cincy playing Dallas at 5pm
Wednesday, August 11th - Our latest
monthly Cheese Puff Day
Saturday, August 14th - First Preseason Football Games for both the Cardinals and the Vikings
Tuesday, August 24th - Four Peaks Beer Dinner at The Grill & Tap. Call (480) 991-1795 for reservations
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Cask, Seasonals and Guest Beers
SCOTTSDALE: Hop Knot IPA
TEMPE: 8th Street Ale
Seasonal: Double Knot Double IPA
Guest Beer: Saison du BUFF (a collaboration beer between Stone Brewing, Dogfish Head and Victory Brewing
Special Early Week Cask:
On Monday, July 26th stop by our Tempe location and get a Double Knot Double IPA on Cask, It'll be worth it!
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The Grill & Tap Dispatch
by Dave Tanzi
I have a confession to make. I am a talk radio junkie. The invention of the podcast (a downloadable digital audio recording), which is essentially talk radio On Demand has changed my life perhaps more than any invention since the cellular phone became affordable. It is a mobile audio package of news and entertainment that can make bearable even the most mundane tasks. Yard work, bike rides, house chores, 5 mile runs, and driving home from Vegas while my passengers sleep are all challenges I wouldn't dare attempt without a fully charged iPod loaded with Adam Carolla, Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, NPR, and Fantasy Focus. On occasion my podcast idols will appear as guests on each other's shows, causing me to enter an orgasmic state not unlike what the Double Rainbow guy experiences in the latest You Tube sensation. And it's all free of charge, and mostly without commercials. The only downside is that podcasts, by definition, are not live. Many of them are available mere minutes after they are canned, but you are still listening to a production at least two hours old. Most days this delay is entirely inconsequential; Thursday July 8th was not such a day.
Two weeks ago Thursday every media outlet, including CNN and NPR were discussing the impending 'Decision' of the reigning NBA MVP and unrestricted free agent, LeBron James. The 2010 free agent pool has been a subject of incredible speculation for almost two full years. I remember where I was when I first heard the urban legend that USA Basketball teammates LeBron, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh all made a pact after winning Olympic Gold in the summer of '08, that if it were possible, if they could find a team with the cap space to take them all, they would be willing to leave a few million on the table to merge into a super team and rule the Association for a decade in their prime. I laughed out loud, which was a little embarrassing because I was on a weight bench at the gym, by myself, and of course listening to a podcast (I suspect it is assumed that headphones imply you are listening to music, because this has happened to me before, and I often receive strange looks). Athletes taking less money to be on a winner? Who are these guys, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots? And how could any one team have enough cap room to sign all three of them, even if they took a few million less? It all seemed like pie in the sky, and yet a part of me marveled at the possibility.
Over the next two years various scenarios for the futures of the 2010 draft class were offered and analyzed, and I listened to all of them with a keen ear through my iPod mostly. LeBron was the key player, of course, and every team from the Lakers to the Wizards were proposed as possible destinations by very respectable and knowledgeable NBA insiders. By July 1st the field had been narrowed to only four possibilities. If he wanted to win, he would go to Chicago to play with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. If he wanted to be a global icon, and attempt to return prominence to a crumbling NBA franchise, he would become a Knick. The Russian billionaire and his cohort Jay-Z(1% owner) of the soon to be Brooklyn Nets were the wild card. And being an Ohio native, having failed to bring a championship home, not to mention being in the midst of building a monstrous palace in nearby Bath, Ohio; staying in Cleveland seemed likely.
As late as Saturday evening, bets could be placed on King James's final destination, and Miami was +1000 (meaning betting $100 would pay out $1000)! On Monday A'Mare announced his marriage with the Knicks, Cleveland revealed that Bosh had declined a max deal sign and trade that would've made him a Cav, and Tuesday Wade and Bosh told PTI's Michael Wilbon that they would both sign with the Heat. Then, after four days of being rolled out the red carpet by every team with available cap space, The King told the world on Tuesday afternoon that he would announce his decision during a 1 hour special to air Thursday night on ESPN, all proceeds going to charity. I was leaning towards the Knicks, but upon hearing this news, I was among the camp inclined to think he would be staying in Cleveland.
Suddenly the production details of "The Decision" became forensic evidence to be dissected for any possible clue. Why would LeBron fly from his summer basketball camp in Ohio to Greenwich, Connecticut to announce his decision? The Knicks home of Madison Square Garden was only a 30 minute drive away, and MSG stock rose 6 points as a result of that news. But if the purpose of this display was a charity fundraiser, why did he choose the Greenwich Boys and Girls Club, not exactly a destitute community, when there are an abundance of poverty-stricken cities with Boys and Girls Clubs all around the Tri-State area?
Thursday morning all the nation's media was on full-time LeBron watch, and covering the story from every conceivable angle. I was attempting to run a few errands and I found myself arriving at my destinations incapable of leaving my car, lest I miss the breakdown of the financial impact LeBron's presence (and absence) would have on all the possible franchises (New Jersey came out #1 with an estimated $55 million increase in profits from ticket, concession, and parking revenue). Then the rumors from Miami started to hit the airwaves. Wade, Bosh, and Pat Riley were holed up in a prominent South Beach hotel with a security detail; LeBron had reserved a slew of cabinas at the W South Beach. By the time I had arrived at work, the Miami ticket office had sold out it's 2010 season packages, and private sales of every Heat game, home or away had ceased entirely or were only being offered at astronomical rates. No one with any real inside NBA knowledge dared to garner that LeBron was going anywhere but Miami. And yet there was a playoff atmosphere at the bar; it became clear almost immediately that we were putting just about every screen on "The Decision" and that our patrons wanted the audio as loud as possible. The rest is history.
"The Decision" not withstanding, while most people seemed oversaturated and tired with the endless outside media coverage, I soaked up every minute of it. It may turn out to be the biggest sports story of our decade, and while we may all be in collective disgust at LeBron's delivery method, you have to admit, this is going to be one damned exciting basketball team to watch. If their storyline turns out to be any bit as dramatic as the sausage factory that produced them, I will be glued to my seat, and I'm already nostalgic for the first week of July 2010. My Facebook status update from Friday the 8th sums it up:
"Yesterday I entirely forgot all about the oil spoil, the economic meltdown, the immigration law, Van der Sloot and Glen Beck. LeBronAthon, I miss you already..."
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