Four Peaks starts off the list and has two entries they are both very solid beers and I have no complaints being list on a survey of the best of Arizona breweries.
Next up Oak Creeks' Amber is a good beer, but if I were going to mentioned only one from this World Class brewery it would be the Nut Brown which is arguably the breweries flagship beer or their Pale ale which is a great new comer to the roster. If you stretch the listing to their more interesting offers that don't get out of the brewery you get offerings like great Scottish Ales, Saison, and barrel aged beers.
Sonoran is up next and while they have great offerings frankly I am more of a fan of the hand pump cask conditioned offering, they are usually the best in the house and often over looked by your average visitor.
Papago Brewing has their stuff brewed on contract off site, but that doesn't in anyway impact the quality. They also have one of the best beer menus in the Valley, maybe the state and you can get them all to go. Jennifer listed what I have heard is a good beer, but never seen when I have been there. That said their Baltic Porter is really quite outstanding I can attest.
Nimbus is a great brewery and you can get their beers statewide so it's a definite try. Getting the Old Monkeyshine is a bit easier I have seen it in six packs lately so it seems that part of the post should be updated.
Mogollon has stopped selling in the bottle a while ago, in fact I have been meaning to post this separately, the brewery has been sold to move the distilling operation offsite, continue as a bar, but will no longer be a brewery. I have been doing research but still haven't heard any answers back. So soon I hope to tell you more about the latest at the brewery, but for now I wouldn't expect to see Hefevenom anywhere.
Last the breweries she missed which are some big ones. She mentioned Oak Creek but the other Arizona big award winning brewery at Great American Beer Festival is Prescott Brewing Company. Jan has been doing great beers consistently for a while now. Their
Second, Gene has really stepped up the beers at Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff. Their beers were always good, but a bit rote with little experimentation or growth. Gene has shaken things up lately with some more bold offerings but the same great quality. Even the beer industry has noticed their growth and awarded the brewery a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival this last year for their Hefeweizen. Achievement like that should be highlighted.
Overall it's a good list, but it could have been just a bit better.
PS - 4/2/08 The Arizona Republic did a site update that broke the original post and comments paging me to comment. So I fixed the bad links.
