SunUp Brewery

It seems like Arizona has no end to local and regional breweries. There's Four Peaks in Tempe, Sonoran Brewing Company and Rock Bottom in Scottsdale, Oak Creek up in Sedona, Mudshark out in Lake Havasu, the list goes on. And the list, which is real friggin' long, can be found through the handy search feature at Beerme.com. There's a lot of beer facts that can be found at Beer Me, of which I've only taken the briefest of peeks. One more item for the "to-do" list, for another time. Today I'll be reviewing the selection offered by the SunUp Brewery in Phoenix, located at 322 E Camelback Road.

Now, there's a little bit of confusion about the name. There was a time not too long ago when SunUp was called the Sonora Brewhouse, in fact I remember seeing the sign that way as recently as early 2009. However, there was conflict with the Sonoran Brewing Company claiming the names were too similiar, and there being a lot of confusion between customers of one going to the other, so the name was changed to SunUp. The brews are the same, however, which is really the important thing.

I sampled six of their year-round beers, a diverse selection from the taps. The first was their Horizon Hefeweizen, their wheat beer. It had a bright, unusually clear yellow color; the clarity is more typical of a kristallweizen than a hefeweizen, where the yeast is filtered out to remove the hefe's cloudy appearance. It was also milder in taste than a typical hefeweizen, very light finish and hardly any hop to it. There was a hint of sweetness, but really overall it was a modest taste that lingered on the roof of the mouth. In fact, it was so mild that it didn't need the citrus from the lemon wedge garnishing the top. I've never run into that before with a hefeweizen.

The Light Rail Cream Ale (named for the fact that the brewery is quite close to the Phoenix light rail) was also a mild taste, but it had more body than the hefeweizen of course. It's a dark yellow, like good whiskey. It starts out somewhat bold, and there's a hint of sweetness to this as well. It's also very smooth. I couldn't detect the creaminess of the name except at the finish, where it balanced out the boldness of the taste for easy drinking.

The Stinger Pale Ale starts out bold like the Light Rail, but stays bold and strong because of the hops for a well balanced taste. It's a bright, clean, clear amber color, and it feels oddly warm as it goes down. There is some bite to the Pale Ale, and you can clearly smell the hops and detect the malt in the flavor. The balance and strength of the Pale Ale made this a personal favorite.

Now, the Sun Up Amber stars out stronger, much stronger, than the Pale Ale, but the taste mellows out as it reaches the back of the tongue. The bouquet is very faint, I could barely detect the hints of the malt. A dark reddish amber color, it put me in mind of a less overpowering Killian's, especially in the finish. Now I do like Killians, but I'd take this Amber over the Killian's any day.

The Trooper IPA was intimidating, because of my last experience with the Abita Jockamo, but this brew renewed my interest in IPA's. It's a very dark amber, and the bouquet was surprising, it was harder to detect the hoppiness than I'd expected in this type of beer. But the taste, oh yes you will know how strong the hops are in this, and it will linger on the tongue. For a beer as bitter as this IPA was, it was exceptionally light on the bite, far more smooth than sharp on the palette. It has to be the malt. That to me made this IPA more than just a damn good beer, it was a friggin' revelation.

Then there's the Vanilla Porter, and I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, how good this was. A deep ruddy black, the red showing in the head around the edges, the bouquet had the most enjoyable aroma of chocolate. The chocolate was the strongest ingredient in this brew, but there are layers of flavor, I could detect traces of cherry and nuts, with subtle hints of vanilla all throughout. Very full bodied, to be expected from a dessert beer, and so smooth and warming. This porter was an absolute joy to drink. My waitress suggested trying it as an ice cream float. Oooooh cheezburgers fries and shake what a good idea. She also suggested I sample a couple of the seasonals they had on tap, the Double and Triple IPAs.

Now both of these IPAs were a deep rich amber, with the Triple being just a shade darker than the Double, I mean you really have to look. They're both heavy on the hops, so much so to me that the Triple's bouquet seemed just a little stronger. The Double IPA was very sharp, very strong at the start with a hard bite to it, but sweet at the back of the tongue. And yet in spite of that bite it still had a smooth finish! The Triple on the other hand, was very malty, with less bite to it than the Double if that makes any sense. It was almost syrupy in consistency, and sweeter all throughout and not just at the end. They were both also much stronger in alcohol content than your typical IPA. Oh yes, these two make me want to try more IPAs.

SunUp is a small microbrew compared to others like Four Peaks, and their beers are only available on tap or in kegs, but they are absolutely worth the effort. The beers are easy to drink, either light on the palette or smooth all the way down, without any disappointment to be had. As far as food goes, I only had a cobbler with my beer flight, but it was delicious. I'm thirsty for the next occasion to stop by SunUp, maybe I'll give that porter float a try.

Addendum - It wasn't till two years after I wrote and posted this article that I gave that porter float a try. Honestly, it was a bit of a letdown. The stout was too chalky, and didn't balance with the ice cream as evenly as would regular root beer.