Oro Brewing, a small craft brewery and taproom, has opened in Mesa, becoming the second brewery downtown and third overall in Arizona’s third-largest city.
It’s located on Main Street, just west of Robson – and just a block from Desert Eagle Brewing, which in 2012 became Mesa’s first brewery.
Oro’s 14 taps feature guest beers for now, since the small 3-barrel brewing system isn’t quite ready.
‘‘Hopefully in about a week,’’ co-owner Dave Valencia says. ‘‘We’re getting the system up and running right now.’’
It’ll be another three weeks after that – around the first weekend in November – that the first Oro beers will be ready to drink.
Look for a rye pale ale, an IPA, and an ESB (extra special bitter) to be the first out of the fermenters.
Valencia says he’d eventually like to see about eight year-round beers from Oro, which is Spanish for gold.
Oro Brewing is the culmination of several years of work by longtime home-brewing partners Valencia, who lives in south Scottsdale, and Chuck Wennerlund, who lives in Phoenix.
After the pair looked all over the East Valley for months, Wennerlund just happened to pass a former dance studio in downtown Mesa as its ‘‘For Sale’’ sign went up.
‘‘I was out of town at the time,’’ Valencia says. ‘‘He called me and said, ‘I’ve found our spot.’ We signed the lease two or three days later. That was last October.’’
Renovations of the historic structure, as well as completing the typical maze of the craft brewery permits, took a full year.
In recent years, the 3,000-square-foot building had been home to a dance studio, a karate school, an academic academy, and a seamstress.
The original brick building – a section of the front facade is still visible (shown above) from the taproom – dates back to the 1890s, Valencia says.
Much of the building’s contents have been adapted for re-use and retain a sense of its past. Tables, for example, are made from floorboards of the former dance studio.
A long wood cabinet of storage drawers (shown above on left) found in the attic is now used in the brewhouse.
Wood removed from the attic has been recycled into the frame for the glass door and window separating the brewhouse from the taproom.
Oro doesn’t have a kitchen of its own, but it has worked out a deal with the artisan sandwich shop Worth Takeaway next door.
Customers can order sandwiches at the bar, and the food is brought to them.
The original plan, back when MXSW broke the news of the brewery last February, was for Valencia and Wennerlund to do all the brewing and kegging.
That has proven overwhelming time-wise, so the pair recently hired Jeff Dicus to be Oro’s brewer.
Oro Brewing is open 3-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 3-11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
