Craft Beer

🍺🥇 Call it one last hurrah for Flying Basset Brewing.

The 5-year-old Gilbert brewery, which is closing permanently next Saturday, won Arizona’s only gold medal at this weekend’s prestigious Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Its Citrus Snack, a Gose-style ale packed with tangerine, grapefruit, and blood orange with a hint of Himalayan pink sea salt on the finish, took the Contemporary Gose category.

Other Arizona breweries that won medals:

• 🥈 In Bloom from Basin+Range in Tucson won the silver in Contemporary Gose.
• 🥈 Railhead Red from Lumberyard in Flagstaff won the silver in Extra Special Bitter.
• 🥉 Fate Single Hop Sour from Fate in Scottsdale won the bronze in American Sour.
• 🥉 Hooks & Dun from Wren House in Phoenix won the bronze in Extra Special Bitter.
• 🥉 Blue Quad Roller Skates from Wren House won the bronze in Juicy or Hazy Imperial IPA.

GABF is the world’s largest professional beer competition. A panel of 250 judges from 10 countries evaluated 9,298 beers.

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🍺 Thanks to the resurrection of Papago Brewing earlier this year, Hopageddon is back! The one-day event will feature more than 30 rare and specialty IPAs from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday.

Admission is free.

Hopageddon was one of the most popular annual events at Papago, one of Arizona’s most influential craft beer taprooms until its closure in 2017.

Huss Brewing bought Papago in 2016 and reopened its taproom in February, relocating it from south Scottsdale to Mesa Riverview.

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🍺 Tempe-based Huss Brewing is partnering with the Phoenix Zoo to produce a line of limited-time beers to benefit the conservation of endangered native species.

The first beer, Black-Footed Ferret IPA, will debut Oct. 1 and be sold on draft and in cans exclusively at the zoo. In addition, six-packs to go will be available at the zoo’s gift shop.

The Phoenix Zoo is one of only six black-footed ferret breeding facilities in the world.

The series’ second beer, Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy Owl Lager, will be released Feb. 1, 2024, with other beers to follow every four months.

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🍺 Tickets are now on sale for the 23rd annual Arizona Strong Beer Festival, the state’s premier craft beer event, which will take place 12:30-5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale.

The fest draws nearly 10,000 people who can sample 500-plus ales from craft breweries nationwide.

Early-bird prices (through Nov. 24) are $50 for general admission and $70 for VIP, which includes early entrance at 11:30 a.m.

New this year: VIP ticketholders also get free tickets to a college baseball game at Salt River Fields from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, featuring free beer samples and $4 cans of Arizona craft beer.

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🍺 Helton Brewing, a central Phoenix craft brewery that’s been up for sale for months, has been sold to OHSO Brewery, which has four Valley locations.

OHSO owner Jon Lane says the new location on the northwest corner of Indian School and 21st Street will carry OHSO’s branding, but not be called OHSO Brewery. The new name has yet to determined.

‘‘The hard part is owning two locations within 3.4 miles,’’ Lane explains, referring to OHSO’s original location at Indian School and 49th Street since 2011.

The front of the house will be ‘‘redecorated,’’ according to Lane, and the limitations of the small kitchen will necessitate a different menu than other OHSO locations.

Goodbye, Helton Brewing

Brian Helton opened his namesake brewery in 2016 after 16 years with Colorado-based chain Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery. Helton’s popular beers included Valley Venom Pilsner, Boysenberry Sour, and Northeast IPA.

In July, Helton reportedly was near a deal to sell to Head Right Brewing. When that stalled, Lane jumped at the chance to triple OHSO’s beer production.

OHSO currently produces about 4,500 barrels per year at its Paradise Valley location and around 3,000 at its Gilbert one. The original location only has a nano-brewery, and north Scottsdale hosts its distillery.

Lane estimates the new location, after the installation of some brewing equipment from the crowded Paradise Valley site, will produce 15,000 to 20,000 barrels in its first year. It also inherits two canning lines from Helton.

Award-winning beers

OHSO’s numerous award-winning beers include Te Quiero imperial stout, Bob’s Your Dunkel dark lager, Sudoku rice lager, 89Ale amber lager, and Knights of Windsor wee heavy.

In preparation of becoming one of Arizona’s largest craft breweries – it likely will rank No. 3 or No. 4 next year – OHSO has switched distributors, signing with Phoenix-based wholesaler Hensley on Monday.

OHSO has spun off a line of smaller taprooms and markets known as Little O’s. (There’s also a licensed mini version of OHSO in Terminal 2 at Sky Harbor Airport, but it’s not run by OHSO.)

Lane says he expects OHSO’s newest location to be open no later than Jan. 1.

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🍺 Flying Basset Brewing, the second craft brewery to open in Gilbert, will close Sept. 30 after five-plus years in business on the northeast corner of Cooper and Ray.

The announcement: ‘‘We look forward to serving you all during this final month of operations. We will continue to run specials on our beer and merch up until the end of operations,’’ the brewery posted on social media.

The background: Rob Gagnon. a commercial pilot, and wife Sara Cotton, a nurse, opened Flying Basset, named after their basset hounds Lieutenant Dan and Angela Basset, in January 2018.

The beers: Flying Basset’s Alchemist Breakfast won the bronze medal in the coffee beer category at the World Beer Cup in May. Its flagship El Capitan Cerveza won the gold medal for best lager at the inaugural Arizona Craft Beer Awards last October.

The food: Philadelphia Sandwich Company, which took over the brewery’s kitchen operation last year, will remain open for to-go sales only beginning in October.

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🍺 Arizona Wilderness Brewing, which was named the “Top New Brewers In The World” by RateBeer.com in 2013, celebrates its 10-year anniversary with 10 special beer releases Thursday through Sunday.

Throwback Thursday: AZW brings back three of its most legendary beers out of retirement: 

• Baboquivari Blonde Ale: A Belgian-style blonde ale brewed with Rango Honey.
• Big Guy Rye: A double rye IPA with Centennial, Nelson Sauvin, and Amarillo hops.
• Suit-N-Tie: A hazy IPA with Cascade, Simcoe, and Mosaic hops, fermented with Sacc. Trois yeast.

Black Friday: The release of three imperial stouts:

• Battle Axe: A brutal imperial stout aged in Scotch barrels for smooth, peaty smokiness. 
• Evening Hymn: A draft-only release of a beer packaged exclusively for AZW’s Cellar Co-op members.
• German Chocolate American Presidential Stout: A contest-winning variant of AZW’s annual President’s Day imperial stout.

Triple Dreamsicle Saturday: A triple IPA version (10.2% ABV) of AZW’s limited Dreamsicle IPA made with Agritopia oranges (pictured).

Woody Sunday: Two releases from AZW’s Woodnotes Cellar:

• Counoise Piquette: A mixed-culture sour ale rested on second-use Counoise grapes from Page Springs Cellars’ Colibri Vineyard.
• Through Endless Ages: A Franco-Belgian inspired mixed-culture saison dry-hopped with whole-cone Cascade hops that were aged four years.

Thursday through Saturday releases will be available at AWZW’s flagship Gilbert brewpub and downtown Phoenix beer garden. Sunday’s releases will be at Woodnotes Cellar across the street from the Gilbert brewpub.

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

The owners: Rex Williamson and brewer Will Walthereson (pictured), who launched Ad Astra in 2019, are partnering with Kreg Bahm, who opened Pour Wine & Taproom in southeast Mesa in 2019.

The beers: Catalyst will specialize in  IPAs, stouts, and sours, as well as seltzers, according to Walthereson, who’s brewed at The Bruery in Placentia, Calif.; Wren House Brewing in Phoenix; and The Shop Beer Co. in Tempe.

The food: Catalyst will have its own in-house eatery called S.A.L.T., which stands for Sea and Land Tacos, helmed by Enrique Uresti, whose food truck is a regular at Pour.

The timetable: Look for Catalyst to open in October.

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