For millenia, beer has been associated with bread. Mill some grain, add some water, pitch some yeast, and you’ve got the basic recipe for beer. Or bread.
In fact, beer sometimes is referred to as “liquid bread.”
So it only seems appropriate a cluster of small buildings in Phoenix that once housed an artisan breadmaker soon will be producing craft beer.
After eight months of hard work, Westward Brewing, located on 24th Street about halfway between McDowell and Thomas (map), is getting close to opening.
“We’re aiming for the end of May,” head brewer Preston Thoeny says. “It could be June, but we’re really pushing.”
Westward’s other partners are Drew Pool and Bill Hammond, who worked together at Intel. Theony, a childhood friend of Pool’s wife, was brewing at Montana’s Big Sky Brewing.
“They asked if I knew any brewers down here and I said, ‘I’ll move back.'”
The brewery
The three looked at potential locations in downtown Phoenix, including the one now occupied by recently opened Mother Bunch Brewing.
“We had plans drawn up and everything, but it just wasn’t feasible,” Theony says. “There wasn’t enough room for us.”
Instead they settled on three small buildings in a six-structure complex that formerly was the home of Simply Bread, a well-known Valley bakery that unexpectedly closed in 2011.
A 1922 bungalow will serve as Westward’s taproom and office. Behind it, a two-story structure was opened up to create a high-ceiling brewhouse for their 10-barrel system and six fermenters.
The third building is basically a giant refrigerated room for storage and barrel-aging.
The beer
European lagers are a personal favorite of Theony, and he says Westward always will be brewing a lager, a somewhat rare style for craft breweries.
“They take a little bit longer to make – you can turn four ales in the time it takes to make a lager – but we really like lagers,” Theony says.
At the opening, also look for a rye IPA, a ginger pale ale, a porter, and a coffee stout.
Theony will spend a lot of time filling kegs. Westward’s taproom has no cold room, and there are no lines from the brewhouse.
He says kegs also will be self-distributed to “key accounts” – certain craft beer bars and well-known restaurants – as part of an early branding campaign.
The taproom
The taproom has the cozy atmosphere of the small home it once was, but the century-old building has required a lot of work.
The bar will have 12 taps – eight eventually dedicated to Westward beers – and seat 10 people. The rest of the interior will accommodate another 20.
Unfortunately, one of the room’s best features – an indoor/outdoor fireplace (the former patio is now part of the interior) – is not operable.
Out back, a large patio won’t be installed until this fall.
There’s no kitchen, but Westward will sell snacks like beef jerky and pretzels.
The timetable
The name Westward, Theony says, epitomizes the drive of the three partners.
“We threw out a lot of names and kept coming back to that one,” he says. “We just liked the idea of westward expansion, the principle of always moving forward.”
With Theony ready to start brewing, Pool handling marketing and management, and Hammond doing “everything else,” the trio are eager to open the doors.
“We had a bunch of really good (names for beers),” Theony says. “We checked and no one had them. But in the time we’ve been delayed opening, two of the four have been taken.”
