Ex-Prescott brewery founders launch Catalyst Crafted Ales in Tempe

🍺 Catalyst Crafted Ales, a new brewery from the co-founders of the recently closed Ad Astra Brewing in Prescott, has opened on the southeast corner of McClintock and Broadway in Tempe.

Rex Williamson and brewer Will Walthereson, who launched Ad Astra in 2019, have partnered with Kreg Bahm, who opened Pour Wine & Taproom in southeast Mesa in 2019.

Catalyst has 27 taps and plans to specialize in IPAs, stouts, and sours. Its barleywine Mobility Scooter won a gold medal in the specialty beer category at last month’s Arizona Craft Beer Awards.

But the brewery’s most popular pour may be Purple Rain, a hard seltzer made with zinfandel and syrah grapes and aged in oak barrels.

Catalyst has its own in-house eatery called SALT, which stands for Sea and Land Tacos, helmed by Enrique Uresti, whose food truck was a regular at Pour.