After months of anticipation, Valley craft beer fans on Tuesday finally will be able to indulge in the first beers brewed at The Perch Pub & Brewery just south of downtown Chandler.
The house-turned-pub with garden and rooftop patios opened on Valentine’s Day, but it took another three months for brewer Andrew Bauman (pictured filling a keg) to install the five-barrel brewing system and pass final inspections.
For the past month, however, Baumann has been a-brewing like a mad man, and has five beers ready to debut tomorrow:
- Calibration Pale Ale (see story)
- Rosemary IPA
- Ginger Mofo
- Grilled Lemon Cream Ale
- Cinnamon Honey Nut Porter
Bauman describes the ginger beer as “a blonde with so much ginger you’ll wonder if that much existed in the world.”
He isn’t sure whether any of the five make The Perch’s every-day lineup. (The plan is to have five or six of their own beers on The Perch’s 35 taps, with the rest of the taps featuring “guest” craft beers.)
“That’s not up to me,” Bauman says. “That’s up to the people drinking it. If they like it, I’ll make more of it. If it takes a while to go through, I’ll put it in a lower rotation.”
Unlike most brewpubs, The Perch doesn’t have lines running from holding tanks to taps, so Bauman has to put all his beers in kegs.
“I did so much brewing for two weeks, then so much transferring and so much kegging for the tapping,” he says. “I just had to go, go, go. Now I can start thinking about what’s next.”
Those plans include a cherry-flavored English pale ale Bauman alternately calls Very Cherry or Cherry Bomb. It should be on tap later this week.
And sometime this week he’ll brew a strawberry beer. “It’s gonna be, like, half strawberry puree!” he says.
Tuesday’s debut tapping event will take place at 5 p.m.
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