Touchdown Brewery Tours
This is the Touchdown Brewery Tour Blog. As I visit breweries, I will post comments and photos detailing my experience. I lean towards Hoppy beers, but love all beer (American Premium Lagers are not beer) and will try to give actual comments rather then just a numeric scale. An ideal brewery is one where I feel comforatble in a jersey and jeans, from this sweet spot all establishments will be reviewed. I hope you enjoy - Jeff
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Gentle Ben's Tucson

Tucson blonde. Training wheel beer. Sweet and light. Almost a honey charcter
taylor janes raspberry aleLight raspberry beer. Very fruity, raspberry is all you taste. Almost a raspberry juice drink.
Red cat amber traditional american amber. Finish hops bites back on the way down. Dry finish, malty sweet, not overly hoppy.
IPA. Hops is barley present in the aroma. Lots of hops in the flavor. A little whimpy for an IPA. But a good beer.
Macblane.s oatmeal Stout. Coffee and chocholate, roasty good ness.A really good stout. Dry finish, hops present but not dominant.

NCDouble ale. Chocholate, hoppy malty. Very complex yummy. defies style classifacation.
Beer down nut brown. Malty, sweet. Good roast flavors a little thin. A little like the NC-Double-A but lighter and less complex.


Four Peaks
Arizona Peach – Peach present, but not dominant. Little else here, very light and pale.
Kolsch – Pale Blonde with a slight hop presence. Smooth, good hot day AZ beer.
Kiltlifter – Malty, but not a huge beer. Slight hop finish. This beer is easily drink able. Perfect for the malty beer lover who is afraid of too much hops. Additionally, a beer called kilt lifter should have enough alcohol to knock you on your butt.
Hefeweizen – yeasty sweet and citrus-y. Not big in banana or clove, but a spicy undertone completes this beer.
Oatmeal Stout – Probably a little thin for style. Lacks mouthfeel. Has a very clean flavor. Chocolate and toffee flavors.
Hop Knot – pale brew, straw color. Very Hoppy (yea). Malt adds a subtle sweetness to balance the beer, but takes the passenger seat fro the drive.
Raj IPA – Copper hued big malty beer. Like the hop presence through out, but could use a bigger slap-you-in-the-face hop nose. Easily drinkable, but not the beer for those looking for the hop-shiver.
8th street ale. Probally best described as an amber ale (though a little light for the amber distinction). Most complete beer on the sampler. Great malts good hops great flavors. Excellent brew.
HOPSQUATCH – Barley Wine. This is a 12% beer, but the alcohol burn you expect from such a beer is gone. Very smooth. Great malty sweetness and a great beer overall. Only knock (small one) is a beer with HOPs in the name should have killer hops and this one is simply well balanced.
Kolsch – Pale Blonde with a slight hop presence. Smooth, good hot day AZ beer.
Kiltlifter – Malty, but not a huge beer. Slight hop finish. This beer is easily drink able. Perfect for the malty beer lover who is afraid of too much hops. Additionally, a beer called kilt lifter should have enough alcohol to knock you on your butt.
Hefeweizen – yeasty sweet and citrus-y. Not big in banana or clove, but a spicy undertone completes this beer.
Oatmeal Stout – Probably a little thin for style. Lacks mouthfeel. Has a very clean flavor. Chocolate and toffee flavors.
Hop Knot – pale brew, straw color. Very Hoppy (yea). Malt adds a subtle sweetness to balance the beer, but takes the passenger seat fro the drive.
Raj IPA – Copper hued big malty beer. Like the hop presence through out, but could use a bigger slap-you-in-the-face hop nose. Easily drinkable, but not the beer for those looking for the hop-shiver.
8th street ale. Probally best described as an amber ale (though a little light for the amber distinction). Most complete beer on the sampler. Great malts good hops great flavors. Excellent brew.
HOPSQUATCH – Barley Wine. This is a 12% beer, but the alcohol burn you expect from such a beer is gone. Very smooth. Great malty sweetness and a great beer overall. Only knock (small one) is a beer with HOPs in the name should have killer hops and this one is simply well balanced.
Nimbus Brewing

Dirty guera blonde aleHoney has a interesting charcter, most likely due to the mesquite. Great beer on a 100+ az day, little else.
Pale ale nice hoppy body, great hop charcter through out beer. Very pale. Cascade and columbus hops. Easy to drink several of these.
Red ale. Great mouth feel. Lots of malty wonderfulness going on in this beer.hops is present, but not dominant. finishes clean.
Nut brown ale, roasted malts great body dark brunette color, what more can you ask for? czech sazz finishes it off, but the hop is a great ballencer for all the flavors contributed by malt.
Oatmeal stout - co2; coffee and toffey flavors permiate from this stout. Finishes softly, the oatmeal does the trick in mellowing the potential harshness of the roast mats.
Oatmeal stout nitro. While i typlically feel a nitro stout is superior to its co2 counterpart. This one looses some of its ballance in the nitro and the hops almost disappear, the beer is much more chocholatey then its twin brother.

Monkey shine. English strong ale. The gorilla of the nimbus beers. The huge alchol is masked by excellent ballance. I am sure the moothness of this beer makes it one that sneaks up on you. Very malty, hops present but takes a back seat to complex fruit flavors like rasin and prune.
IPA. Perfect copper color. Great citrusy flavors, very crisp. No hop shiver, a good beer but it is almost just a dark version of the pale ale. Caramel malts are present and sweetness is a key contributor to the overall beer. Simply needs more hops to be ipa, both in body and aroma.
Smoked porter. This beer is faintly smoked, not like some of the liquid ash tray filtered beers I often see. The smoke enchances the malt profile, it does not dominate it. Lots of chocholate. Coats the tounge with liquid perfection.
