Over the weekend my wife and I took a day trip to Bisbee to escape the heat. I had read about Old Bisbee Brewing Company, which is new from the last time I had been there two years ago or so. It may seem like an odd name for a new brewery, but Bisbee has two sections, the old town, or Old Bisbee, and the newer part of town which is over by the big open pit mine. The brewery is located in the old touristy part of town.
The strange thing about the brewery for being located in Old Bisbee is that it is located in a brand new building a block up from where the historic old brewery was located. This doesn't really fit the feel of the town in any way, which is full of hundred year old multi-story buildings along rolling streets and steep hills.
From what I could see the brewing setup was very small, maybe 5, 7 or 10 barrels. This is probably sized right for the amount of production they need in a small tourist town with, I assume, very little distribution. None the less, they offered 7 beers on tap.
We ordered a flight to try them all out. Lime Lager, Belgian Wit, Pale Ale, "Copper City Ale", Apricot Peach Ale, "Double Hopped" IPA, and Stout. The Pale, Stout, and IPA were all very English in their style. Pretty classic across the board, not too strong, not too thick, the stout being a bit flat, but I don't know if that was because of the end of the keg or not. The Copper City Ale is supposedly, if you are to believe brewery paragraph descriptions, Bisbee's old ale recipe that has been resurrected after 121 years of not brewing beer. It was also very English in style, a darker amber color with very heavy roasted notes (they use Crystal 120L) and a dry finish. Not my cup of tea, but easily their most notable brew.
The lime lager and the peach apricot were unbelievably fruit flavored. All you could taste in the lime lager was lime, and it was very low in alcohol. Essentially like drinking a lime-aide with a splash of pilsner. The peach apricot was the equivalent to drinking a cup of unsweetened iced apricot tea.
I finished off the visit with a pint of the IPA because I'm a sucker for them. The whole pint went down well, had a slightly dry finish, not a lot of head and left me satisfied.
The downsides to the visit were mostly about atmosphere. It's the only new building in town and looks like it's (and probably is) built out of vinyl siding and corrugated metal. It has a nice (no smoking) patio but BLASTING out of the speakers is the worst top 40 music you'll ever hear. If 11 and 12 year olds could drink they'd love it... Last but not least I and my wife were disappointed by the claim to have artisan soda. On their website it makes it seem like they have house brewed sodas available as well as beer. In fact, the website mentions the price of Root Beer growler refills. When we asked about soda, the bartender explained they had four types of "Artisan Sodas", but they turned out to be 12 oz bottles of Virgil's, a good soda brand, but one you can pick up anywhere if you try looking around.
In the end, if I'm in Bisbee, I'll stop by for a good brew. It's always fun to see breweries evolve over the years, and hopefully these guys have a good run.
