Tragic news in the world of Brewsletter-dom.

Jim Norman is no longer with us.  He is an unfortunate casualty of one-too-many KFC Double Down Sandwiches.  For those of you unfamiliar, KFC's Double Down is essentially a sandwich with two chicken filets taking the place of a bun. In between are two pieces of delicious bacon, melted slices of mouth-watering Monterey and pepper jack cheeses and a zesty sauce.  After consuming a full six of these sandwiches, he washed it down with a 16 oz. cup of the Colonel's famous gravy (brown, of course).  With each Double Down alone consisting of roughly 540 calories - 290 of these calories coming directly from fat - his body just never had a chance.  According to eyewitnesses, as Jim clutched what remained of a Double Down his dying words were, "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee... For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee...". It is still unclear as to which character he was referencing; Ahab from Moby Dick or Khan from Star Trek II.  Despite our mourning, we know that if James were with us right now he would want the Brewsletter to carry on, so on that note...

American Craft Beer Week is in currently in full swing!!  Hundreds of brew pubs around this great nation are in the midst of celebrating a full week that recognizes the rise of local and small breweries in the United States.  Did you know that in a year of stationary or declining sales for domestic "premium" beers (i.e. the "Big 3"), the craft beer market showed a sharp increase?  Sales of craft beer rose more than 9% from March of '09 through March of this year.  At the same time the larger domestic premium styles dropped about 6% (similarly, premium light beers dropped 2%).  Meanwhile, the total number of U.S. craft brewers continues to rise, more and more people are purchasing locally produced beer and these same locally produced breweries have been touted as one of the "Top 5 Trends to Watch in 2010" by The National Restaurant Association Chef Survey.  This is in no small part due to folks like you who pride themselves on having a palate that demands more.  In honor of American Craft Beer Week, the Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe will be offering our Hopsquatch Barley Wine from now through Sunday.  Please, stop in and enjoy one with us throughout the remainder of this week!

Stats on the Craft Beer Explosion from The Brewers Association

Even more stats from beernews.org

Another Craft Beer article for anyone who might be doing a school project


Speaking of local, there is a new destination in downtown Phoenix that is the very epitome of local and original.  It's called The duce and it's located on the corner of Central and Lincoln in a converted warehouse from the 1920's.  Part restaurant, part bar, part coffee shop, part clothing store; it's all that and so much more.  They're planning on having an "orange crush" party and 2 for 1 cocktail choices for the Suns playoff home game this Sunday.  Check them out!

Check out their 12 News video


The Arizona Peach Ale

For a very, VERY long time our Arizona Peach Ale was considered the "girlie" beer amongst a legion of "big boy beers" that wore their hops on their sleeve like a badge of honor.  This is no longer the case.  The rising interest in the craft beer market that began in the '80's coincided at roughly the same time our latest generation of beer drinkers was being born.  Consequently, a lot of the stigmas that were initially associated with beers having fruit or an otherwise uncharacteristic flavor no longer apply.  In several emails and Yelp reviews that I've read, it appears our Arizona Peach Ale has built up quite a reputation over the past couple of years and is quickly becoming one of our more popular varieties.  This is a popularity that will only intensify as the summer progresses. 

Here are some quick stats supplied to us from our Brewers:


A light fruit beer with strong peach aroma but not an overpowering peach flavor.  We chose peach because believe it or not, peaches can thrive in Arizona and the flavor is very compatible with beer.