Arizona Beer Class: Papago Orange Blossom Ale

(Every Thursday, MXSW reveals the story behind one of Arizona’s top craft beers.)

Orange Blossom Ale at a glance

After debuting in 2005, this vanilla Mandarin orange wheat beer (5% ABV) quickly became the flagship beer for Papago Brewing Company, a 30-tap Scottsdale craft beer bar that has contracted with various breweries over the years to make its six year-round beers.

Orange Blossom accounts for 75% to 80% of Papago’s total production volume. It’s currently brewed at Huss Brewing in south Tempe.

How Orange Blossom got its start

“We used to sell a lot of Bert Grant’s Mandarin Orange, which was an orange wheat beer, and they went out of business,” Papago co-founder Ron Kloth says. “One of my partners, Johnny Miller, said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do our own?’ So I did an old home-brewing trick of mine. I took a basic wheat beer and I got Torani syrups — Mandarin orange and vanilla — and just started adding extracts until we got a beer we liked. We brewed it commercially and it took off.”

Was Orange Blossom intended to be a flagship?

“No, I was surprised,” Kloth says. “Me being a beer geek, it’s not the kind of beer I would rush out and normally drink because it’s a fruit beer and I’m an IPA kind of guy. At the time, we were just making beers that other people weren’t making — the first double IPA in the state, a grisette. Technically we made the first black IPA in the state even though at the time the style ‘black IPA’ didn’t exist.

“Look at Four Peaks. They never expected Kilt Lifter to become their flagship. It wasn’t even one of the first beers they made. The same with Orange Blossom. We never expected it to be our flagship. It’s just what customers liked.”

How Orange Blossom has changed

“We no longer use the Torani syrups,” Kloth says. “We now use a commercial extract. The main reason is we have plans to can it, and to get label approval from the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) we needed to get a breakdown of ingredients from Torani. But they (Torani) wouldn’t work with us.

“Also, when we first started making it, it was unfiltered. We had it cloudy. Then when we were brewing at Sonoran, they started having some yeast issues and the kegs weren’t lasting as long as they should, so we started filtering it and drawing the yeast out of it. When we got to Oak Creek, we just kept filtering it because people liked it clear.”

Who’s the typical Orange Blossom drinker?

“It’s surprising,” Kloth says. “Orange Blossom is a beer that the beer geeks may consider a ‘chick beer,’ but it isn’t. It’s about a 50-50 split between men and women who drink it. It’s such a good, easily-drinkable beer that a lot of people drink it.

“You don’t get the beer geek crowd drinking it, but the beer geek crowd is a very small percentage of the beer-drinking population. … It’s the general masses that are keeping Four Peaks and Papago and all other places like them in business.”

Favorite Orange Blossom anecdote

“You asked what type of person drinks it,” Kloth says. “There was this one time, the Mesa SWAT team was in here drinking. It’s all these big, strong, burly police officers. I mean, these guys were built. And they were all sitting around drinking Orange Blossom. I was, like, ‘OK…’ (laughing). It’s hard to imagine, but it was a funny picture.”

Final thoughts on Orange Blossom

“Our production of Orange Blossom has more than doubled since we went to Huss (last summer),” Kloth says. “When we start canning, which should be late August or September, we’ll see even bigger increases.

“We’ve had a hard time keeping pace with it from a cooperage issue – having kegs to put it in, especially sixth-barrel kegs. At the growler stations around town – the gas stations and all that – it’s their No. 1-selling beer, according to the distributor.”

Where to find Orange Blossom

You’ll find Orange Blossom throughout Arizona on draft. Once canning starts, cans also will be available statewide.