San Tan Brewing Company - Part 1: On The Market

Hello my friends, it's your humble beer blogger Daver again, and today on tap we've got a, shall we say, reprint of a review? You see, for several months I was contributing content to an Arizona web-zine, but the site has since changed its focus from local events and reviews to a blog about the editor's friends' parties. Can't say I agree with the new direction, but it's not my webspace or my problem. But that means that everything I contributed? HOSED. Now, I just can't be having with informative beer reviews being lost, so I'm importing what I've backed up, starting with the San Tan Brewing Company.

Based in Chandler, AZ, San Tan opened in 2007 and has since earned name recognition around the Valley as one of the top breweries in Arizona. This brewery has created a diverse range of craft brews to offer at their microbrewery restaurant in Chandler's historic district, at bars around Arizona, and in grocery stores and liquor stores. They're popular enough that they've been working towards expanding their distribution to neighboring states for almost a year now. San Tan offers their four most popular brews in six packs of aluminum cans, and a rotating seasonal at their respective time of year.  

Wait, aluminum cans? Oh dear... as a beer snob, I'm prejudiced against anything aluminum smaller than a keg jacketing my beer. It just doesn't taste right to me! Nobody should have to drink from the can. But in the spirit of fairness, let's see how these cans stack up. We'll start with two of their year-round offerings, and one of their seasonals.

First we've got the Devil's Ale, their pale ale offering.  On first pour, the head is thin and fades out fast. It clings to the glass unevenly, and doesn't linger for long either. It's a clear amber colour. The bouquet is surprisingly strong with the malted hops, an almost pungent sweetness if you tilt the glass back a bit to increase the surface area of the top of the brew in the glass. OK, that might be a little more complicated than you should have to go for drinking any craft brew, but it works that way. Taste-wise, oh yes. Strong with the hops, it is. But not that strong. You really have to drink this in a glass to get the full experience. Straight out of the can (dear god I hate cans) it's almost watery with the body. Poured properly, you get the effervescence of the carbonation and a bit of bite. The carbonation fades out faster than usual, and the brew mellows out as it does to the point the hops become the finish instead of the body. There's almost none of the caramel-y sweetness you'd expect from a brew with malted hops. Seriously, drinking this out of the can and out of a glass is like night and day. Night. And. DAY. At first I thought it was a let-down even with an ABV of 5.5 because of the can, but I'm glad I went a little further.


Next is the Hop Shock IPA, and boy howdy the hops are strong with this one. On first pour, it's a clear amber with a porous head. The foam doesn't cling to the sides of the glass, but rather hangs and slips slowly into oblivion. I can taste the malt, and I can smell it in the bouquet, a sweet and slightly citrus-y aroma. The but the hops are extraordinarily bitter. The body feels a little syrup-y in the finish, and notes of tangerines come through. Carbonation seems to be a thing, San Tan brews lose their fizz fairly quickly. This doesn't hurt the brew, it's just interesting. And with an ABV of 7.1 that's a lot of interest. Again, pouring this in a glass makes a vast difference over drinking it out of the can.

Now, the seasonal selection for today is the Mr. Pineapple, a Pineapple Wheat Beer. Oh man, that would probably pair well with a krabby patty. How did they come up with this? That's not to say it's bad, it's quite refreshing, as expected from a spring wheat beer. On first pour you get a head of foam that pops and sizzles, and fades out completely with no lacing or drizzling along the glass. The color is a cloudy dark yellow, like the syrup from a can of sliced pineapples. It has similar notes of banana in the taste and bouquet as you'd find in the Hefeweizen, and floral notes and some coriander, even a hint of oregano if you can believe that, that pleases the nose. And with an ABV of 5.0, the alcohol content doesn't overpower the overall quality. You can easily taste the real pineapple juice balanced out with the banana, that citrus-y tang all the way to the finish. Unlike most of the others, the San Tan carbonation was modest and subtle, fading into the background with each sip without going flat. All told, for a funny concept, it works really damn well.


Check back in a little bit for Part 2, I'll be covering an amber, a wheat beer, and their seasonal porter. Fun times, my friends.