Four Peaks Brewsletter
Home of the Terry Pepper Fan Club, Now Almost 12 People Strong!
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What Do You Mean You Don't Have Your Tickets Yet???
We at The Four Peaks Brewing Company totally understand that times are tough as we pull ourselves out of this recession (or depression depending on whom you ask). Maybe you're not making as much money as you did 2 years ago, perhaps you're not making any money at all. Fear not, this little nugget was recently released on the Newsweek website for anyone seeking some supplemental income (read: beer money). That's right, Tupperware parties and Mary Kay salespeople are once again the rage... and anyone, and I mean anyone, can do it! You don't believe me? Check this guy out! Understand that I know a good portion of the readership out there and I can think of about 10-15% of you that would have NO problem doing something like this regardless of their current monetary position. Just something to think about. Anyways... There is a whole slew of things going on, especially this week, next week AND the week after that. Just take a look around, Spring Training has officially begun, Spring Break begins in less than 2 weeks, St.Patrick's Day follows on that Wednesday and then it segues right into March Madness; how are you supposed to juggle all of these things? Well let me tell what Terry Pepper would do...ALL OF IT, and he'd definitely start with "One Taste At A Time" going on at the Pera Club in Tempe this Sunday the 7th. What exactly is "One Taste At A Time", you ask? It is a yearly little hootenanny put on to support the Arc of Tempe that is part culinary festival, part wine/beer tasting AND part Silent Auction ( items!)! More than 75 different wines will be available for you to sample as well as over 60 different beers (examples!). Several well known and celebrated local chef's from around the area will also be participating by providing  complimentary samples of their creations. Tickets for this event are only $30 and can be purchased by asking any one of our cordial managers, bartenders or waitstaff at The Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe. Some of the Other Participating Businesses:Spinato's PIzza California Pizza Kitchen BJ's Sushi 101 El Penasco Green New American Vegetarian Four Peaks Brewing Pyramid Brewing Guiness Kona Brewing Deschutes Sierra Nevada ...and many, many more! For more information please check out the Arc website HERE. The Pera Club is located at 1 East Continental Drive just east of Papago Park ( map). This event goes from 4pm until 7pm (conveniently placed right in between a Spring Training Baseball game and the Animation Domination Sunday line-up on FOX) so stop by our Tempe location and pick up your tickets today! |
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The Brewers Blog
Due to problems with the Brewers Office computer not being able to converse with the Brewsletter Head Office computer (although only about 30 yards away), no Brewers Blog communique was received. It is our hope that the situation can be rectified by next week so we can continue to bring you all of the current happenings from the heart of The Four Peaks World.
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The Grill & Tap Dispatch
with Dave Tanzi
The Oscars
are this Sunday (5pm, ABC), and this year the Academy is rolling out an
expanded field of Best Picture nominees; doubled in fact, from five to
ten. I'm not sure I've met anyone
outside of ABC and the Academy that likes this idea; the collective emotion
seems to be somewhere between ambivalence and mild disdain, perfectly
reasonable reactions to a mostly benign award show. I'm a little more disgusted, however, and
it's not only because this new format allowed The Blind Side to garner a
nomination. It is symptomatic of a phenomenon Neil Gabler of the LA Times has
dubbed: "cultural inflation": a growing number of opportunities for
the less deserving to get a taste of ultimate victory, as part of a growing
aversion to disappointing anyone. This
is perhaps evidenced best by the recent prevalence of participation trophies in
youth athletics (by the way, I'm not a parent, but is that really the best
way to prepare a child for life's many adversities?).
There's
another debilitating effect of the "bigger is better" mentality, though;
inclusion and expansion, while being noble ideas on many levels, are in fact a
hidden cancer. The Academy will tell you that deserving films were getting
"squeezed" out of the race. The obvious
truth is pure capitalism; as a wise man once said, "the answer to all your
questions is money." More nominees means
more fans of more films will tune in to watch, and don't expect the studios to
oppose this because it also means more films get to put "Academy Award Nominee"
on their posters and DVD sleeves. The things we know and love are becoming
slowly watered down in the name of profit, and eventually we're all left
drinking mass quantities of Keystone Light.
It's the Great Dilution.
Nowhere is
this epidemic more prevalent than in the world of sports. This may very well be the last year of the 65
team NCAA Men's basketball tournament.
ESPN and the NCAA in their infinite wisdom want to expand the field to
96. More games, equals more advertising
dollars, and more teams means more coaches get to keep their job another year
for barely making the tournament, and of course more money for more schools as
well. Once again, no reason for any of
the decision makers to oppose this idea. Save for the NFL, all of the major
professional sports leagues have too many teams - the NHL has nearly expanded
itself to extinction - and increasingly bloated playoffs systems to accommodate
them. The results are not all negative;
most fans seem to enjoy the wild card formats in both MLB and the NFL, for
example, but eventually expansion will always cheapen the product (and
exponentially increase the amount of preparatory research necessary for fantasy
drafts). There is simply not enough
talent to support truly elite play - especially behind center and on the
mound. And of course, the more games you
play, and the more playoffs slots you create, the more you devalue the
significance of both.
Fortunately
for beer drinkers the Dilution movement afoot poses little threat beyond
further metaphor. There may be more
ultra-light choices, but there has never been a wider selection of craft-brewed
barelywines or imperial IPAs, and never a better time to savor something not so
watered down. Enjoy another Double Knot
while it lasts - the #1 beer of the Great Dilution Opposition Party!
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Show
Us Your Cans is back!
This week's entry
comes from Jim Hornaday, his Kiltlifter (seen here) arrived via helicopter to
enjoy some of Canada's
finest deep-powder CAT skiing and snowboarding from Baldface Lodge in British
Columbia. I bet he wore his wrist guards.
You can contact us in
Scottsdale at 480-991-1795 or at Scottsdale@fourpeaks.com
Send all "Show Us Your Cans" submissions to:
mike@fourpeaks.com |
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Upcoming Events
Wednesday, March 10th: Cheese Puff Day!
Sunday, March 14th: Daylight Saving Time, let the rest of the U.S. worry about it
Wednesday, March 17th: Join us for St. Patrick's Day (no relation to our own Patrick Murphy)
Thursday, March 18th: NCAA March Madness begins. We will have the NCAA Basketball Package, so watch all your favorites all day long!!
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Cask Conditioned and Seasonals
IN SCOTTSDALE THIS WEEK: Hop Knot IPAIN TEMPE THIS WEEK: Hop Knot IPA: Currently Pouring! 8th Street Ale: Your weekend selection after the Hop Knot gets exhausted SEASONAL: In production |
Spring Training Preview Part 4
This week our rundown of places that serve Four Peaks beer around the Valley's Spring Training Facilities takes us to 2 locations in the West Valley. The Peoria Sports Complex ( map) and Surprise Stadium ( map) are the homes of two Major League teams each so doing a profile of both of them at once made some strange sort of sense. Both of these facilities are located just south of Bell Road only a scant 11 miles apart, a baseball enthusiasts dream! Let's start with the one closest to Phoenix, The Peoria Sports Complex (as always, to get further  information on any of the following locations just click on the highlighted text). The Peoria Sports Complex is the home of the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres. It was the first two-team facility built in the U.S. and is touted as being one of the premier baseball facilities in the country. Be that as it may, a sports complex is only as good as the accoutrements that surround it, and in the case of the PSC you are fortunate to have many within walking distance. Working from north to south we shall begin with: The Tilted Kilt: Sure, a lot could be made of the fact that the female waitstaff tend to wear a certain European garment that is part of the establishments name, but the extensive food menu speaks almost as loudly. Wraps, burgers, pizza, wings and much more all go well with a delicious pint of Four Peaks Kilt Lifter, once again this writes itself. Lis Doon Varna Peoria Irish Pub: Literally located just down the street; if an authentic Irish Pub is what you're looking for this is a great place to stop. Sure they have burgers and wings, but sometimes don't you secretly want corned beef and cabbage or lamb stew before the first pitch? The perfect place to stop before the Texas/Seattle Night Game on St. Patrick's Day (provided you last that long)! McDuffy's Peoria: Admit it, you have a problem. Going to a baseball game is fun but you also want to bet on the ponies. Well take a load off little slugger and stop by McDuffy's for a little Off Track Betting to get you in the mood for a day in the sun. With food and drink specials every day, you may find yourself returning after the game. Heading west on Bell Road on your way to Surprise Stadium I would be remiss if I didn't mention Hurricane Grill & Wings halfway between the two Stadium complexes. Wildly popular in Florida (hence the name) they recently opened their first location in Arizona. Renown for their " 35 flowingwithflavor" award winning  sauces, this may truly be the buffalo wing lovers heaven...it's almost like they're daring you! Just a little further down the road you come across Surprise Stadium just off Bell on Bullard Ave. Home of the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals, this facility opened in 2002 and still has that new field smell about it (insert poorly orchestrated athletics based joke here). Here are a few places worthy of note: The Irish Wolfhound Restaurant: Having just opened their doors in September of 2009 definitely try this place out. What says "we're an authentic Irish bar" better than Happy Hour from open until 7 pm daily? Offering a menu of both traditional Irish food as well as new spins on Irish/American favorites (Reuben Sliders anyone?) your pregame hunger pangs should be well taken care of. Streets of New York: Upon looking at all of the previous locations listed, the lack of a decent pizza place appears to be noticeably absent. Of course they also offer pasta dishes as well as sub sandwiches, Streets of New York is the perfect option when you're taking the kids to the game but still want to partake in a Kilt Lifter! A little out of the way on Grand Avenue: The Kokopelli Bistro always has great daily specials and on Wednesday's they offer Happy Hour all day which includes $1 off all beers. Fuzzy's Southwest Sports Grill on the corner of Reems and Grand opens at 8 am weekdays and 7 am on Saturday and Sunday for anyone who wants to get a serious head start before the game! Hope that opens up a few options for you in the Northwest Valley, have a great day at the park! |
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Auf Wiedersehen
As I discussed at length in an earlier segment of the Brewsletter, Spring Training
has officially begun! Make sure you take some time to "hit" a few of
the games in and around the valley this year. We will have the MLB
package at both locations again this year, but be aware that this does
not guarantee all the spring training games will be televised. I
cannot stress this enough, NOT ALL SPRING TRAINING GAMES WILL BE
TELEVISED! As always, we will do our best to accommodate the games
that are televised, but the only way to guarantee that you see the game
you want is to actually go to it (after which you can stop by Four
Peaks and tell Murph all about it)!
Cheese Puff Day
is coming up this Wednesday so make sure you mark your calendar. From
11am until 11pm get ready to take the Highway to the Cheese Puff Zone,
a realm that has no place for the weak of heart and the sated of
stomach. A full six of these delightfully crafted culinary concoctions
will be presented on a bed of lactuca sativa and augmented with a side
of marinara sauce. Many will order, ALL will be satisfied. Hmmm... I
like those odds!
Also mentioned earlier, the week of Spring Break, strangely enough, coincides with both St. Patrick's Day and the beginning of March Madness!
We begin the week of the 14th - 20th innocently enough by ignoring
Daylight Saving Time for the 43rd straight year with things quickly
spiraling out of control after that. A relatively normal Monday and
Tuesday will give rise to one of the biggest days of the bar/restaraunt
season, March 17th (otherwise known as the most popular of all the
popular alcoholidays)! We will be opening our doors at 7 am this year with lots of food, beer and other surprises going on all day long (including shot specials because what's St. Patty's without carbombs, right?). With a healthy majority of the American
populace not even really knowing what this holiday even commemorates,
it's no wonder so many people drink until they can't remember damn near anything. It
seems rather obvious when you think about it...
Incidentally, if you had the patience to read the entire Brewsletter to get to this point, here is the 2010 Four Peaks St. Patrick's Day Shirt Logo, some of the colors (including the shirt) are still pending but we hope you like it. We are planning on ordering quite a few extra for purchase this year if you can't be one of the lucky few to get a free one when we open!!
The day after St. Patrick's begins our long journey through what is referred to as March Madness!!!
Of course we'll have the "NCAA Mega March Hoops Super Awesome
Buzzer-Beater Package" (or something like that) which will allow us to
bring you coverage of every game in real time (sorry 2010 Winter
Olympics)! Are you salivating yet? The 18th - 21st are going to be
filled with so many college basketball games it'll make you wonder how
we survived way back in the '90's only being able to watch one game at
a time!
Cheers!
Your Friends at the Four Peaks Brewery and The Four Peaks Grill & Tap
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