Owl's Orchard Brewery

Owl's Orchard Brewery is HILARIOUS!

OK, that sounds mean, but it was not intended to be.

Last week Friday I was really really bored at work.  It was 117 degrees out, I was the only one at the office, and the phones were doing absolutely nothing.

The catering company I am working for, is opening a restaurant which will serve liquor.  Therefore, I am getting a liquor license application going.  It's quite a process.

Naturally, this led me to the DLLC (ABC, Liquor Board, whatever...) and my mind wandered to beer.

There are 58 Microbrewery licenses in Arizona, which is pretty awesome.  I looked at the list and found a couple which I had never heard of, including Owl's Orchard which is a 20 minute drive from my house.  I live  pretty far south, but this was further.

Owl's Orchard has been open for several months, but I haven't really heard much about it.

SOOOO... I left work.  Because I mean really, why not.

I grabbed my POSSE (I'm a bawler, y'all) and we headed out.

GPS was not incredibly helpful in finding Owl's Orchard, but I did have a phone number and Martin answered the phone:

Martin: "Hello?"
Me: "Hi, um... I was calling for Owl's Orchard?"
Martin: "Oh, cool!  Yeah, that's me"
Me: "I wanted to visit the brewery, do you have hours you're open?"
Martin: "I'm pretty much always here.  What we do is people call me and let me know they are coming over and I fill growlers"
Me: "Oh, cool!  I'm heading over there in like an hour, so will you be around?"
Martin: "Yeah, if you're coming over, I'll hang out and wait for you"
Me: "Great, thanks!  See you shortly!"

It was a bit odd- I mean, call when you want to come get beer. Ok then.

So it's in the guy's garage.

I'm not kidding.  He has a "designated area" caged off with a fence inside his garage, where he brews. The fence is a Federal requirement.

Martin took about... an hour and a half talking with me and my buddies.

He lives on a County Island so there are no city zoning issues, and his neighbors are cool.  The State issued his license, then he got his Federal license.  He has his own septic system for waste water, so that's not a problem.  He is feeding the spent grains to his chickens and horses.

Martin brews 10 gallon batches on a Sabco system.  He has a 14 gallon jacketed fermenter. He has 2, kitchen refrigerators for keg storage, and 10 corny kegs.

This is commercial homebrewing at its finest.  Seriously.

Every 2 weeks, he is required to send in the tax forms to the state and feds.  Typically, that amounts to reporting 10 gallons of beer being brewed and a check for less than $3 in taxes.

The Beer:

Available beers when we were there included a Rye Pale (though he only had 16 oz left- half of a half growler, which he gave me as a "sample"...), a Stout (nice, easy drinking stout) and a Wheat which I liked very much.  I'm typically not a fan of wheats, but this was light and not full of hef flavors.

Martin has also planted some hop bines around his property, as an experiment to find where the sun is the best, with hopes of growing an increased amount next year.

Overall- what an inspiring guy.  He gave us over an hour of his time, showed us all around the brewery, the yard, and really bent over backwards to welcome us.

find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/OwlsOrchardBrewery

My friend Whitney went there and has a better story than I do.  She used her "camera" while there.  What a concept! http://suburbansudsbeertography.blogspot.com/2013/04/new-brewery.html