Thursday 17th May 2012

Bob Thompson

It took less than five minutes to walk from Flagstaff Brewing on Route 66 to Lumberyard Brewing on the other side of the tracks using the eastern railroad crossing passing by the rather pretty railroad station. Luckily there were no trains this time.

Lumberyard is in the same style as Beaver Street. A very large building with a massive restaurant area, obviously that is where the money is.

But please don't be put off, as drinkers are well catered for. I just told the lady at the "meeting and greeting" desk that I wanted to drink at the bar and I was welcomed and pointed towards it.

The first part of the building was built in 1890 as processing plant (saw mill) for the extensive lumber industry that existed in the hills around Flagstaff. I will spare you from the photograph of the preserved steam locomotive that hauled the logs, now "stuffed and mounted" on a plinth by the side of Route 66.

The building was extended to its present size in 1926 and eventually closed in the 1990s. It was opened in its present guise in 2010 by the founders of Beaver Street Brewing.

I suspect that the brewing plant at this location is bigger than that at Beaver Street, it looks large and the range of beers is certainly greater.

The regular range is Red Ale (5.8%), IPA (6.1%), Gold Ale (4.4%), Hefeweizen (5.6%), Raspberry Ale (4.4%), Imperial Red (9.5%) and Trippel (10.8%). Of these only Gold Ale wasn't available. Yet there were four specials: Cream Ale (4.8%), American Brown (7.5%), Porter (6.7%) and Barley Wine (10%!)

It was possible to have individual tasters so I had Red Ale (well balanced and bitter), Cream Ale (smooth with hardly any bitterness, true to the American Style), American Brown (definitely a brown ale, medium bitterness, yet no great taste), Porter (full on, the real deal), Gold Ale (not as bitter as I expected, not a lot of taste, innocuous) and IPA (I could smell the hops before tasting, really good but much better after it had warmed up a bit!).

So, in summary, this is yet another good pub on Flagstaff's compact pub-crawl offering a great selection of beers.

Important Information:

Lumberyard Brewing, 5, South San Francisco Street, Flagstaff, Arizona

Open: Sunday to Tuesday 11.00-24.00; Wednesday to Saturday 11.00-02.00

The pub is five minutes from local buses, long distance buses and the Amtrak Rail station.