Funny. . .It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas???

But it is at Papago.  We just put on all your favorite Christmas beers for our annual Christmas in July celebration. 

Congrats C. B. McConnell!!!

Of Little Guy and Crescent Crown Distributing for getting your first hole-in-one during the 6th Annual Papago Open.

Don't Drink and Drive. . .

For those that have occupied their bar stool longer then they intended, they will pick you and your car up and deliver you both safely home.  They will deliver you to anywhere in the valley metro area for the whopping price of $25 which is cheaper than a cab in most instances.  The number to call for this wonderful service is 480.586.6586.

Papago Golf Tourney Deadline!!!

The deadline for sign-up for our annual 18 hole tournament has come and gone.  We have arranged with the course a new deadline of Friday July 7th.  If you don't sign up by that date, you'll be out of luck.   

Redstone Meadery Promotion!!!

Sample some fine meads from Boulder, CO on Wednesday the 12th.  

New Hours!!!

We're expanding our hours.  The kitchen is now open from 4 PM to 11 PM seven days a week.  Papago no longer closes early on Sundays.  Our stated hours are 

Mon - Wed  2 PM - Midnight
Thur - Fri     2 PM - 2 AM
Sat               Noon - 2 AM
Sun              Noon - Midnight

When we say Midnight, it means "till 2 AM" if we have enough customers in-house.  

Intergalactic Bocce!!!

Our friends at Dogfish Head are sponsoring a West Coast swing of their annual Intergalactic Bocce Tournament.  The winning team goes to the Dogfish Head Brewery to participate in the East Coast version.  You can find all the details here.  Dogfish Head West Coast Intergalactic Bocce

Papago Brewing Again One of the Top Ten Places to Have a Pint!!!

http://beeradvocate.com/acbw/2006/places

Papago in the Press

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=66837

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dining/articles/0609papago.html

The 5th Annual Papago Golf Tourney!!!

The date is set for Saturday, July 15th.  Join us for nine holes at day, and nine holes at night with a BBQ wedged in between.  Team Whippit took the award for having the most fun last year.  The cost is $60.    

Don't Drink and Drive. . .

For those that have occupied their bar stool longer then they intended, they will pick you and your car up and deliver you both safely home.  They will deliver you to anywhere in the valley metro area for the whopping price of $25 which is cheaper than a cab in most instances.  The number to call for this wonderful service is 480.586.6586.

Quote of the Week

"Come, Sir, you must mend a bad supper with a glass of good ale."

-- Robert Dodsle 

T-Shirt of the Week

Beer Story of the Week

http://www.pressdemocrat.com//temp/news/15brewery_b1.html

Beer Recipe of the Week

Guinness Brownies

8 ozs dark chocolate        4 ozs white chocolate          6 Tbs unsalted butter
4 eggs                               3/4 cup suger                        3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder     1 1/4 cup Guinness Stout    powdered sugar

• Melt chocolates and butter in a double boiler
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add melted chocolate mixture to eggs and mix to combine
• Sift together flour and cocoa and add to chocolate mixture; mix until smooth
• Stir in Guinness.  Pour into buttered and floured 9X9 cake pan
• Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve

Beer News

Check out http://www.bartowel.com/industry.phtml for the latest beer news.  

Other Beer Related Events

Check out http://www.beeradvocate.com/events/calendar.php for other beer events across this great country.

This past month has been a busy one for me.  I've really racked up some road miles and have had more than a few good brews along the way.  My first destination was the land of enchantment, New Mexico.  I journeyed to New Mexico for the Radical Beer Open and the Enchanted Brewing challenge.  The Radical Beer Open was for commercial breweries and was a really unique contest as beers were matched up not by their style but by their alcohol content or unique (wild) character. There were some really top notch beers entered, just the kind I love, all considered extreme beers in one form or another.  Papago Brewing won a silver medal for our Orange Blossom in the low alcohol category.  I was able to judge the wild beers category, where Tomme Arthur from Pizza Port took the gold for his Woody beer.  Some of his beer (but not the woody) will be sent here to Arizona finally this Wednesday so it should be available next week.  On the homebrew side I had to judge the 'specialty' beers,  'Specialty' in homebrew terms can be very unique to say the least, and the ones I had to judge were definitely unique, such as the Smoked Cicada's Barleywine.  Why anyone would deliberately add insects to your beer is beyond me.    

 

Aside from the competitions I did get a chance to visit a number of breweries.  The New Mexico beer scene is really pretty similar to Arizona's in a lot of ways both in the amount of breweries, their type and their size.  Chama River in Albuquerque was a nice upscale brewpub with some great beer and where Ted Rice the brewer isn't afraid to try new things.  I also visited Il Vicino, both the taphouse and the brewery and would recommend the brewery for beer and a 'locals' type atmosphere and the taphouse more for a good restaurant with good beer.  The size of the calzones they had was mind boggling.  Another unique place was Kelly's.  Kelly's is a brew on premise establishment where you can make your own beer, but they also had 19 beers available to drink, and choice is good.  It had a really unique atmosphere also as it is in a converted car dealership.  Turtle Mountain in Rio Rancho is about to undergo some significant changes.  They are getting ready to move the brewery about a half a mile up the road and move into a brand new facility that they hope to have open this summer that will be more upscale and they will convert their existing brewery location into a sports bar taphouse.  In Santa Fe I visited two places, Second Street Brewery which had a really good Strong Belgian Ale (and Green Chili) and Santa Fe Brewing.  Many of you are now familiar with Santa Fe as they just started distribution here in Arizona.  In addition to having the largest brewery in New Mexico, Santa Fe Brewing has a great looking pub also.

 

My second road trip was to Las Vegas.  Didn't really find to much there beer wise this trip except for a place in the Mandalay Bay called the Burger Bar that had a good selection of beers including a couple of Belgians.  They also had one of the most expensive hamburgers on a menu I have ever seen.  $60 for a Kobe Beer burger with truffles and pate de foie gras on it.  O. K. pass the Smoked Cicada beer to wash that one down.   The scenery at the Burger Bar was quite good as there were contestants from the International Body Doubles competition there enjoying a few good brews.  Be sure and tune in on June 24th to see me in the VIP section (unless I get edited out) rooting on my longtime family friends, Nicole and Brianna Garcia.  They'll make it worth watching times two. I think it will be on Fox reality television.

 

This past weekend I was in San Diego for the San Diego Real Ale fest.  Of course we stopped off in Alpine at Alpine Brewing to load up on some supplies.  They had just bottled some of their award winning double IPA, Pure Hoppiness.  We were also able to snag a couple of bottles of oak barrel aged barleywine unpretentiously named Great.  At the fest there were 45 different Real Ales.  A special supper hopped up cask of Hopfather was off the Richter scale and was by far the hoppiest beer there.  Believe it or not but it I even thought is was out of control, but people liked it and quaffed it down pretty fast.  There were quite a few good beers and a really good crowd, so good a crowd that every single cask of beer was drained.  One of the beers that I thought was excellent was from Green Flash, a Double IPA that will soon be making its way to Papago.  I also left two empty casks for Tomme at Pizza Port to fill up and send out our way.  Besides the fest, the Captain and myself managed to make our way to the Liar's Club in Mission Beach and O'Briens in San Diego for some good brews.  Both places had pretty similar lineups, such as Alpines Pure Hoppiness, Russian River's Pliney the Elder, etc etc, so it was a hoppy good time there.  If you make it out there this summer be sure and stop in, trust me, they know people from Papago and will treat you right.  The last stop on our trip was at Stone Brewing for a special party they were having called the Wall party.  It was in their new brewery in Escondido.  The facility is one of the best looking craft breweries I have seen and it isn't even done yet.  They hope to have the restaurant opened in late July.  The Wall beer that they were serving at the party will not be released, it was a limited edition 12.4% barleywine that you had to donate at least $100 to their charity cause to get.  For those wanting it, I will imagine that E-Bay might have a bottle or two for sale at some point in time but it could be pretty pricey as it is really rare.

 

Prost, Ron   

 

 

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