Tucson’s Best Beer

We tried beer at 15 different breweries and bottle shops in Tucson, here were our favorites:

Best Overall - 1912 Brewing. 1912 had several outstanding beers on tap. Their sour selection was awesome, and I’m sure a welcomed style in the summer heat. The Sangra De La Cabra was full bodied and delicious, so I snagged a four pack to go. Zero Foxtrots Given is the best milk stout I’ve ever had. This thing was packed full of coffee flavor at 7.8% ABV. This beer is a must try!

The venue was loaded with American and marine flags, and they made sure to ask me if I was in the service or a veteran as they give a discount to all police, firefighters and military men and women. I would highly recommend 1912 to anyone looking for amazing beers in Tucson.

Best Beer - Pueblo Vida is located downtown and had the best beer across styles that we tried in Tucson. Their IPAs were all top notch and their Check, Please imperial breakfast stout was so good, we shipped a four pack home. Other cans that we brought home were Key Lime Pie Shortcut, Albatross Double IPA and an extremely tasty triple IPA, Cinder. Parking was a bit busy, but Pueblo Vida was well worth the stop.

Best Venue - Crooked Tooth’s 6th anniversary happened to be the weekend I was in Tucson. They’re located within a quick walking distance to 3-4 breweries and bottle shops, but they had some amazing stuff on tap for their anniversary. Beers of note were the Peach and Marigold Sour and Into Equilibrium Hazy IPA. They had a lot of stuff canned and bottled, so we decided to ship a few four packs home to share with our friends. Their staff was really welcoming and parking was easy and made it convenient to walk to several different spots from here.

Best Staff - Harbottle is located near the airport in Tucson. Upon walking in, their staff was extremely pleasant and gave us a history of the brewery. They had a wonderful IPL - Hazy Rider which is a Tucson colab that benefited a member of the Tucson brewing community injured in a motorcycle accident. They also gave me an early tasting of Amurkin Gerkin, their pickle sour that was one of the best pickle beers I’ve ever tasted. Make this your first stop when landing in Tucson and the folks at Harbottle will give you a good lay of the Tucson brewery land.

Best Stout - Barrel-Aged The Diez from Dragoon Brewing was a delicious stout. Dragoon can be found pretty much anywhere in Tucson, however, The Diez and barrel-aged The Diez were only available in the brewery. This was on the northwest side of town, so make this stop before or after visiting 1912.

Best Bottle Shop - Tap and Bottle Downtown had several beers not in distribution in North Carolina. They were also loaded with bottles from Jester King, Bottle Logic and Tres Fontaine. I saw Parish Ghost in the Machine on tap and had it, along with a hazy IPA from Bottle Logic. I grabbed to-go food from El Charro a few blocks away, avoided the wait for a table, and crushed a killer chimichanga with the awesome tap selections at Tap and Bottle.

Best Beer Selection - Arizona Beer House had roughly 30 beers on tap and an amazing can and bottle selection that you could open at the bar. They had offerings from across the country and had a really good cold brew coffee on nitro that we had before imbibing in a Formless Reflections IPA from Pure Project and Pineapple Papaya Fandango from Toppling Goliath. Arizona beer house is certainly worth the stop if you’re looking to ship beer home from Tucson.