Day 3: Beaver St. Brewery, Flagstaff Brewing Co. (Flagstaff, AZ)

After getting our act together and getting on the road, we finally made it to Flagstaff, Arizona.  As my one-time residence, I can personally attest to the delight and enthusiasm that Flagstaff shares for beer, both in quality and in quantity of consumption.  And sitting at a comfortable 7,000 feet above sea level, it certainly doesn’t take much to inebriate your traveling beer snob.

Our first stop would be Beaver St. Brewery.  Beaver St. had always been a favorite amongst Flagstaffers, brewing a variety of craft beers like Brambleberry ale, Railhead Red, and the occasional American Strong Ale that boasted 10% abv.  However, Beaver St. was recently purchased by Lumberyard brewery, which pretty much took Beaver St.’s beer and put their Lumberyard label on it.  Now, what was once good beer has become sub-par, Wal-Mart brand garbage.

The Beer:

            Lumberyard Raspberry Ale:  I hate berry-flavored beers.  Hate.  Hate’s a strong word, but in this case, it’s not strong enough.  But what was once a passable berry-flavored beer, the Brambleberry ale, has been reduced to a monstrosity.  The Lumberyard version is a mix between Shlitz beer and grape flavored Dymatapp.  Really, you’d be better off just getting drunk on cough syrup.  I’m pretty sure that when they brew this beer, they dump a five gallon bucket of Grape #5 flavoring into the vats.  This beer tastes like it should come with a complimentary Ashton Kutchner and Jennifer Aniston DVD.  Did I mention this beer sucks?

            Golden Ale:  Unlike its baseborn companion, the Golden ale here wasn’t too bad.  Too bad.  The quality of golden ales is always tricky to judge because they’re usually so neutral and indifferent about having any characteristics other than being “golden” in hue that it falls on the brewer to actually make their golden ales distinguishable without being some other type of beer.  In this case, the brewer just brewed a yellow colored beer.  Good job, buddy.  Real show of effort.

            Oktoberfest:  Again, another pretty good beer.  But only ok.  Failed to stand out amongst others.  Failed in general.  Who am I kidding, this beer deserves no further luke-warm treatment.  BORRING!

            I.P.A:  Gross.  Tastes like hops and batteries. 

            Lumberyard Red:  Formerly the Railhead Red, this is yet another crooked bastardization of beer by Lumberyard where they took yet more Shlitz and just added red food coloring.  Maybe it isn’t even Lumberyard’s fault and really Beaver St. is entirely to blame.  Eitherway, they’d better serve their brewing vats by mixing their refuse food waste into compost instead of producing the garbage that comes out of them now.

So, after wasting our time at Beaver St. we headed to the reliable Flagstaff Brewing Co. 

Flagbrew not only has better burgers, better ambiance, and better live music than Beaver St., it also has way better beer.

            Babaganouche IPA:  Does it taste like fermented eggplant?  Does it matter?  This beer delivers such a clean and potent taste that you’d scarcely think it an IPA, but that doesn’t stop it from selling itself out within weeks of its completion.  My favorite Flagbrew beer.

            Weispread Wheat:  This beer tastes like a cornucopia of deliciousness sending my tongue Christmas cards.

            Bitter root ESB:  Tasty.  Beaver St. sucks.

Rating:  Beaver St.:  -69327%

               Flagbrew:  48 out of 51 power sucks.