Inspired by the growing popularity of the Arizona craft brewing industry, a Chandler family has launched Arizona Brewery Tours, offering tours four days a week.
“The idea came to me when my son and I were in San Diego at one of its breweries and saw a tour come through,” says John Alvarado (pictured below). “We were just talking about how much the Arizona beer scene has been improving.”
With a little research, Alvarado, a former project manager for Banner Health, discovered no one currently was offering such tours in Arizona. So together with his wife, Julie, and son, John Jr., he bought a 14-person party bus and formed Arizona Brewery Tours.
After a couple trial runs with friends and family, the official public tours began Wednesday.
The Alvarados offer a Wednesday tour that includes two brewery stops (with a emphasis on barrel-aged beers) plus lunch, a Friday tour of three breweries with dinner, and Saturday and Sunday tours of three breweries with lunch.
Tour members enjoy numerous beer samples at each brewery, behind-the-scenes tours, and Q&As with brewers.
The tours are $75 (two breweries) or $89 (three breweries) per person, which covers all costs – beer, food, transportation, tips, etc. Participants also receive bottled water during the tour and a commemorative pint glass at the end.
Unlike many brewery tours in other cities, which require a nearly full bus, Arizona Brewery Tours requires a minimum of just two people.
“Around the country, I’ve seen a lot of canceled tours,” Alvarado says. “We’re not going to do that. We just need two people to sign up for any given tour and we’re going. We’re committed to making this work.”
So far, Alvarado says, the response has been overwhelming – so much so that he’s ordered a second bus, which will arrive next week.
“We were going to wait for 12 months (to add a second bus),” he says. “But interest has been so great we’ve been gearing up.”
Alvarado has worked out agreements with every Valley brewery, so tour stops will rotate regularly. (Look for the schedule posted on the website). In addition, Arizona Brewery Tours plans to add trips from the Valley to Flagstaff and Tucson breweries in late March or April.
Alvarado also has scheduled shuttle trips to next weekend’s Arizona Strong Beer Festival in Phoenix for those who don’t want to drive or put up with the hassles of parking.
He plans to do the same for next month’s Great Arizona Beer Festival and the Ameri-CAN Canned Beer Festival in May.
Besides the four public tours each week, Arizona Brewery Tours also offers private bookings for birthday parties, bachelor parties, etc. This weekend, a private party even has booked a tour of San Diego breweries.
“The reaction from the breweries has been all positive, very supportive,” Alvarado says. “The beer community is all about sharing beer and sharing good times.”
