Mesa’s 1st brewpub – The Beer Research Institute – scheduled to open in April at Stapley & Baseline

Looks like Mesa finally is getting its first brewpub. The Beer Research Institute is moving into the former Rotolo’s Pizza space in front of the AMC Grand 24 theaters on the northeast corner of Stapley and Baseline.

The brewpub is the brainchild of Greg Sorrels (pictured on left) and Matt Trethewey (right), who have been homebrewing for eight years. They plan to focus on Belgian-style ales and West Coast American ales.

“There is a pretty big hole to fill east of Country Club (Drive),” Tretheway says. “There’s 750,000 to a million people living east of Country Club with zero breweries. We live in the East Valley and anytime we want to visit our favorite breweries we have to drive half an hour to get to there.”

Tretheway, whose corporate business experience includes a combined 17 years with Cheba Hut and Cold Stone Creamery, will focus on the food and business side of things. He says the pub’s scratch menu will be centered around barbecue and Southwest fare.

“I’ve wanted to get out of the corporate scene for a while now,” Tretheway says. “My plan has always been to open my own local restaurant. When Greg and I started brewing together and realized how passionate we both were about craft beer and brewing, it just made sense to shift the focus to a brewpub rather than just a restaurant.”

Sorrels, whose background is in construction and custom woodworking, will help build the interior and focus on the brewpub’s 5-barrel brewing system.

“We named the brewery The Beer Research Institute in a playful way,” Tretheway says. “We’ve been conducting ‘research’ for this project one pint at a time for several years now. We like to experiment and change it up pretty frequently.

“We will have a small core lineup that will always be available for our guests but the rest of the handles will be continually rotating experimental beers.”

The brewpub is approximately 3,000 square feet and has an 800-square-foot patio facing the theater courtyard. Tretheway and Sorrels are shooting for an April opening.

Mesa’s first brewery, Desert Eagle, opened in October 2012 near Country Club and Main in downtown. It has a tasting room, but does not serve food.