good-times-rollin: Barrio Brewing Co.

Sunday, July 2, 2023

It's Hot !

Corona de Tucson

July 2, 2023

Sunrise on Monday (6-26) was a beautiful start to the week.

It was hot last week. I would say it's because we live in the desert, but that isn't exactly accurate as there have been quite a few hot spots across the country lately. At least we can say there hasn't been any humidity. Monsoon season has officially begun with no chance of rain/storms in the forecast. If this summer is like the past two summers, we won't have any storms until mid to end July. Fingers stay crossed as we sure do need some rain in southern Arizona.

It's been a while since we had seen Jamie and Andra so yesterday we met them for lunch at Barrio Brewing Co. Its a good mid-point and a fun spot to catch up in person. It was too hot to enjoy patio sitting, but the huge taproom is spacious, colorful and cool...literally.

The small restaurant with a dream to change the landscape of Arizona brewing quickly gained in popularity. As the years passed, the brewery expanded...in products and in a larger warehouse. Today, it currently houses 12 fermenting vessels and puts out 85 cases of canned beer each hour while also offering brew tours, running a bar and restaurant and hosting special events. Barrio brews can be found in both can and draft across Arizona and beyond. Their flagship beer, Barrio Blonde, is Arizona's best selling craft beer and claims to be the oldest Arizona beer recipe to be consistently brewed on a commercial scale. The first batch was made in May 1991 which also makes Barrio Brewing Co the oldest brewery in Arizona.

The service was excellent, the food was yummy, and the brews were frosty, but the best part of the day was spending time with the kiddos for a couple of hours!

With the temps turned up a few notches, staying home was a no brainer. It's the first week in a long while we actually had no appointments or big errands to do.

On one of our morning walks, we saw four coyotes (two on our side of the fairway and two on the other side) and that same walk we saw a javelina in a neighbors front yard.

Javelina eat a variety of native desert plants such as agave and prickly pear. They can be quite destructive too as they dig for roots and tubers so I'm thinking the neighbor might have had a not so nice surprise.

This is the reason we have very few plants/pots in our front yard.

There is an interesting cacti along the path on the other side of the fairway. It is every bit as tall as me (just under 5') with lots of wavy arms. On the mornings we go that way, we always comment how unusual it is. This week it is blooming.