Brewing Wild Ale in the Wilderness
Tagging along for the best brewery in metro Phoenix's biggest project.
07Phoenix New TimesTravel & Adventure2019
The opening
Chase Saraiva has to drive like a desert turtle. Hitched to his truck are twin 350-gallon tanks sloshing cooked-grain liquid. He woke up at 3:45 in the morning to make the grain liquid, called wort, from 400 pounds of Arizona malt and 300 pounds of White Sonora Wheat. Too abrupt a movement could spill a tank, cutting short the long night coming.
A scene
Gnats arc through the sunlight, bobbing and flitting erratically, randomly. Invisibly, so do tiny yeasts. Wort steadily climbs the sides of the 130-gallon coolship, bubbling madly and soapily, wisping steam.
Stars punch through the inky veil. Voices grow louder. Yeasts float onto cooling wort.
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