Arizona Wilderness Brewing

Craft Beer

Fulfilling The Call of the Arizona Wilderness

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Beer Connoisseur      Issue 25

Co-founders Jonathan Buford and Patrick Ware sit together on one of the few unfilled patio tables, pondering Arizona Wilderness’ next move. They think about the brewery that has come so far so fast, with a future as bright as the Arizona sun. What’s next? It’s hard to say, but chances are Ware and Buford will choose the right path, as they have serendipitously done so many times before.

Growing up in Arizona, Patrick Ware developed a love for the outdoors – hiking camping with his Dad. While studying at Arizona State University, he split time between his studies and homebrewing, eventually taking an internship at Gordon Biersch under the tutelage of Dieter Foerstner, who would soon help him land his first professional brewing position with SanTan Brewing in Chandler, Arizona.

Meanwhile Jonathan Buford was living in Ohio, though he longed to return west, where he first fell in love with the Arizona landscape. Ultimately, he decided to follow his heart. Armed with only his 1988 Chevy Nova and $300 ($100 of which went toward gas), he struck forth to the Copper State.

Buford’s entrepreneurial spirit initially led him to open a window-cleaning company, which he helmed for six years. All the while, though, Buford’s passion for craft beer was brewing. Listening to audiobooks about beer and brewing while washing windows, he was determined to one day open a brewery of his own. Once more, his true calling bubbled over.

A regular at local watering holes, Buford was often mistaken for some guy named “Pat.” When this became a regular occurrence, he determined to track down his doppelganger and get to the bottom of the situation.

Buford soon figured out that the mysterious “Pat” was none other than Ware, who had become the head brewer at SanTan Brewing Company. He introduced himself, and the two shared stories of their love of the Arizona countryside. After telling Ware of his goal to open a brewery focused on local terroir, Buford offered to make Ware head brewer of the venture, and Ware accepted.


Jonathan Buford and Patrick Ware founded Arizona Wilderness on a shared vision of a brewery that embodied the land it was built upon, such as the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, shown here.

It took Buford’s life savings, a highly successful Kickstarter campaign and an outside investment to fund the brewery before Buford could set everything in motion. Unfortunately, things weren’t so peachy. Without warning, the investor got cold feet, and Buford was left scrambling to find a way to come up with the funds to complete the project.

Originally, Ware was to be an employee, not an owner, but the only way Buford could pay Ware was in shares of ownership. Now partners, they scrounged together every last penny to get the doors open.

When the doors did open on September 2, 2013, the pair still owed their contractor $36,000. Buford had 60 days to come up with the money or the contractor threatened to take possession of the brewery. It took until the final day before the contractor was paid and Ware and Buford were brewery owners.

A traditional brewpub, with one main dining room, a small bar and modest patio, Arizona Wilderness opened in Gilbert, Arizona, a growing, thriving town southeast of Phoenix. The 17 employees were settling in and business was good.  Not even six months into their existence, a nationally known beer publication announced that Arizona Wilderness had been voted the “2014 Best New Brewery in the World” which changed their fortunes overnight.  Local Phoenix news stations appeared wanting interviews.  Craft aficionados from all over wanted to experience the wunderkind brewery.  They doubled, then tripled, the workforce to keep up with demand.  Two hour waits at the door were the norm.  Full serving tanks of beer became a pipe dream; at one precarious point their stock dwindled down to their final two beers.  Only through hard work and the divinity of the yeast would enough beer be produced for the thirsty public.

“Arizona Wilderness” is a way of life for both Ware and Buford.  Hiking, camping and enjoying nature is what they live for.  Photographing nature is one of Buford’s biggest passions and might have been his profession had the brewery not panned out.  Buford’s amazing photos are looped on the brewpub’s TV screens.  Most of the beers have names that reflect the Arizona landscape.  DC Mountain Imperial IPA, a highly hopped double IPA and their second biggest seller, Superstition Coffee Stout, are both named after a local Arizona mountain ranges.  Refuge IPA remains their best selling beer and is arguably the best IPA produced in Arizona.

Everything at the brewery centers around Arizona, including building relationships with local farmers and businesses.  Sourcing local is always a priority including trading spent grain to farmers who provide beef for the brewpub’s extensive menu.  Their incredible Blood Orange Gose is made from Arizona grown blood oranges, Sonoran white wheat and locally sourced salt.

Because of the continued success of the brewpub Arizona Wilderness recently opened an additional tasting room onsite. Within this room resides Ware’s baby; a new, humidity controlled barrel aging room to satisfy the pair’s fondness for Belgian-inspired brewing.

In an unending quest for brewing knowledge, Ware and Buford have traveled extensively to learn from and collaborate with some of the world’s best brewers.  Travels have produced collaborations with Almanac of San Francisco, Way Brewing of Brazil, Lervig in Norway, among others. None match the “star factor” of collaborating with Logan Plant, the owner of North London’s well known Beavertown Brewery who also happens to be the son of Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant.  After collaborating in England, Plant came to Phoenix, the group traveled north to Sedona, picked local pine cones which they later smoked and added to a collaborative smoked gratzer.

Arizona Wilderness has brought to life what their souls envisioned. There is an “it” factor there; an infectious energy that draws people back again and again to the brewery.  Nature, artisanal craft beer and a passion for both; a recipe for success in Arizona.

Craft Beer

Connecting With the Arizona Wilderness

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Connection Saison at Arizona Wilderness Brewery Is An Entirely “Arizona Born” Ale

DAVE CLARK | OCTOBER 17, 2016 | PHOENIX NEW TIMES

The Beer: Connection Saison
The Brewery: Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company
The Stats: 5.9% ABV

Since opening about three years ago, Arizona Wilderness Brewery has established itself as one of the best, most interesting breweries in the state. Often known for using nontraditional and locally grown ingredients, the Gilbert brewery has been called the “World’s Best New Brewery” and has worked with everyone from top local chefs to a world-renowned gypsy brewer.

All of which is to say, it should come as little surprise that the innovative brewhouse has now produced an entirely “Arizona-born” ale. Called Connection Saison, this beer features both malt and hops grown right here in the Grand Canyon State. The Belgian-style beer was made with a malt grown in the Verde Valley and hops harvested in Elgin, which have been brought to create a Farmhouse Saison ale.

The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental agency, led the charge to find a way to grow malt in Arizona that would require less water than a traditional crop. The classic Harrington varietal of malt was picked for production in the Verde Valley, and according to Nature Conservancy Transactions Director Kimberly Schonek, the malt didn’t need to be irrigated at all in the month of June, “which was extremely beneficial to the Verde River.” Schonek tells us a similar corn crop may require at least a foot of water during the same time period, so growing this crop was not only beneficial to the brewers, but also to the Verde River, where preserving the water is vitally important.

The hops, meanwhile, were grown in southern Arizona at the Copper Hop Ranch in Elgin. Four different hops were used in the Connection Saison including traditional varieties such as Cascade, Columbus, and Nugget, as well as a nontraditional varietal known as Arizona Neomexicanus.

At the kick-off event for the beer, we were able to smell and taste the grain and hops used in the beer. The malt had a very pronounced and pleasant aromatic quality, and when tasted, it provided a level of sweetness that was more intense than traditional brewing malts. More flavors in the malt means more flavors in the resulting beer and that was definitely the case with Connection Saison.

Lemon citrus fruit with hints of tangerine and light black pepper were all present in the beer’s flavor, though all flavors were subtle and balanced and nothing stood out as dominant. A traditional saison tends to be very highly carbonated, containing a “bite,” but this beer does not possess that quality.

Zero hops were used for bittering, with all of the bitterness instead being extracted from the hops used in the whirlpool, which happens at the end of the brewing process. This provided a subtle, soft bitterness and allowed the malt flavors to shine and be in the forefront. And since the hops were added only at the end of the brewing process, traditional methods of measuring international bitterness units don’t apply and the actual IBUs for this beer are unknown. It’s not a bitter beer by any means, instead possessing a pleasant sweetness from the malt and, at the same time, a slight tartness from the yeast.

The beer was well-attenuated, though less so than some traditional farmhouse saisons, which created a more rounded mouthfeel and flavor profile due to the malt’s pleasant sugars. The body was medium-light, typical for a saison, and the mouthfeel was creamy. Saisons are known for producing a lot of yeast-derived flavors and aromas, and this beer was no exception. Connection provided citrus, black pepper, and other spicy yeast phenolics and esters of pear and apricot to go along with the flavorful bread-y malt flavors.

In a sentence, Connection is a subtle, elegant, and fresh beer with flowing flavors that work harmoniously together. The fact that it was made with ingredients grown and harvested in Arizona, using environmentally conscious methods, is an added bonus.

For more information, check the Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company website.

 
Dave is a Certified Cicerone and former professional brewer. When he’s not doing something beer-related, Dave enjoys writing, listening to, and performing music, hiking, skiing, and watching baseball.
This article first appeared in the Phoenix New Times October 17, 2016.
Craft Beer

Best Spring Beers in Phoenix, AZ

by admin
5 Local Spring Beers to Try Right Now
DAVE CLARK | MARCH 21, 2017 | PHOENIX NEW TIMES

It’s an annual rite of passage. Spring signals the end of the season for bigger, stronger, more robust beers and opens the proverbial door for the lighter, easier-drinking beers to take over. Since Arizonans don’t want their beers to weigh them down, they seek lighter options as the weather warms. Sometimes that means less alcohol or lighter-bodied beers, while other times it’s about lighter color or even beers with fruit. To that end, we are showcasing five locally made beers that are perfect for the spring season.

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