In case you missed it, Tucson's craft beer scene is still on a seemingly unstoppable trajectory. Arizona Beer House is opening on July 24, bringing craft beer to the east side, and it seems locally brewed beer is cropping up in every Tucson neighborhood. If you're in the Ironhorse neighborhood, for instance, you might have noticed something new coming in on Hoff Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets and that something new is Public Brewhouse. 

For the bar's soft opening, co-owners and brewers Mike Gura, Cody Van Haren and Don Rubino are offering six of their own beers on tap, as well as their house nitro coffee and Sarsaparilla. Although craft beer can definitely get pricy, Public is offering all pints for $5, half pints for $3 and tasting flights for $6. The opening line-up, which kicked off on July 22, includes a Saison (6.8 percent), Saison Noir (7 percent), Dino the Dog Nitro Chocolate Stout (6.3 percent), Public IPA (7.6 percent), Pale Ale (5.8 percent) and Slumlord English Pale Ale (3.9 percent).

The Saison, which Van Haren says is his favorite to brew, is a great place to start sampling what the brewery can really do. It's flavorful  but not overtly flavored and Gura says that's just he brews. 

"My brewing style is yeast forward," he adds, explaining that rather than adding flavoring elements and spices, he manipulates the yeast's natural qualities in the fermentation process to achieve that effect. 

Gura comes from a science background with a degree in physics and two masters degrees. However, it wasn't until he had trouble buying good craft beer while living in the booze-restrictive Utah that he began homebrewing. Once moving to Tucson, Gura met Van  Haren while both men worked as EMTs.

"Cody and I just work well together," Gura says. 

It was a long road to open and begin serving their locally-brewed beer at 209 N. Hoff Ave. in the courtyard behind the also recently opened craft beer and wine bar Ermanos. A crowdfunding campaign wrapped in 2013 to fund what became Public Brewhouse, and, after about three years of changing locations, working through zoning issues and more, Gura says the brewery has finally cleared all of the hurdles. 

"The mayor is interested in working with grassroots businesses but  there is this entrenched bureaucracy," Gura says.

Cutting through the red tape, Public Brewhouse will celebrate their  grand opening on Saturday, August 1. The event will feature beer specials, a food truck, live music and, of course, the Public brews from noon until 2 a.m.

After that, the crew at Public are planning to stay focused on brewing. The bar itself has large wooden community tables, shuffleboard and a Centipede arcade game to keep guests entertained and the space is zoned for live acoustic music, which Van Haren says will be incorporated down the road. 

Van Haren says the bar has the capability to fill up 20 taps eventually and and each of the men have plans for how to fill them. In the future, Rubino will expand his soda offerings and even include homemade kombucha on tap. Van Haren and Gura already are looking to dive into the increasingly popular sour beer category and make use of the large barrels in the brewery to begin aging beers. 

"We'll be making a whiskey cream ale that uses mesquite flour and a Belgian abbey ale—it's the kind of beer monks drank regularly," Gura says, adding, "They'd drink the Quads when they wanted to see God."

Gura is also planning on making fresh hopped brews using hops from Yakima Valley, Washington. He compares this brewing style to young wines like beaujolais nouveau or vinho verde. 

Overall, Public Brewhouse simply seeks to be a neighborhood bar with a strong line-up of one-of-a-kind beers. The planned hours, at this time, are Wednesday through Friday from 4 until 10 p.m. and Saturday from noon until 10 p.m. 

Obscure and historical boozes are having more than a moment in the international booze consciousness which means mead isn't just for the vikings of yesteryear anymore. In fact, up in Prescott, the brewers behind Superstition Meadery are making modern fermentations from local honey—resulting in some seriously delicious mead.

If you're curious just what mead might taste like, know that a typical five-gallon batch uses 15 pounds of honey in its production. Is it sweet? Yeah. Is it summery? Totally. Should you try it yourself? Obviously, and you can by heading to Tap & Bottle on Wednesday, July 22 from 5 until 7 p.m. for a mead tasting event. 

The complimentary tasting of four different Superstition meads will include Tahitian Honeymoon, Lagrimas de Oro, Sweet Mesquite and Arizona State 69 Route Honey Highway. If you like one (or all) of the meads in particular, the event will include special bottle pricing at 10 percent off for Superstition meads. 

Just keep in mind mead might drink kind of like a beer but it has the booze content of a wine, so imbibe responsibly. 

Gone are the days of cheap drinks and a packed dance floor at the Wildcat House. Since it closed in 2012, the former college bar staple has sat vacant, but brothers and third generation Tucsonans John and David Aldecoa are seeking to preserve its legacy while building something new in the space at Stone Avenue between Grant Road and Speedway Boulevard.

While keeping some of the building's key features like the large bar, cedar planks and some of the large decorative medallions on the wall, the building itself is in the middle of a massive overhaul. Switching from swamp cooling to air conditioning, installing a new roof and repaving the parking lot are some of the more basic changes, but the future of the space will be completely different from any of those fuzzy memories you might still have from its old days. John Aldecoa, who the bar and restaurant is named after, admits he has a few of those from his own days at UA.

He also says his idea for Brother John's is really at least three concepts in one. First, there's the barbecue, which will be overseen by chef Nate Eckhaus. Aldecoa assures that Eckhaus will bring a love of every barbecueing region in the states. That's because Eckhaus spent nine months touring and training in the ways of different barbecue styles all over the country, including at Texas' The Salt Lick, before helping open Blue Smoke in New York City with prominent restauranteur Danny Meyer.

The serious barbecue operation will focus on the cook of the meat to provide flavor because taking "great care" and spending the necessary time are they keys to good barbecue for Aldecoa. He says they will have barbecue sauce, but he's hoping guests won't even use it. The two large smokers will be able to produce up to 6,000 pounds of smoked meats per day, which is good because the restaurant itself will be able to seat about 300 at any given time. The restaurant will also have a private dining area called the Wildcat Room where many of the former bar's memorabilia will be displayed.

If you're looking to take indulgence to the next level, you should head to Agustin Kitchen on Tuesday, July 14 for a special Dinner with Chefs event that's all about pork and scotch. Agustin's chef Ryan Clark will display a range of techniques with nine different tastes of pork prepared in cuisine styles from all around the world. The nose-to-tail pig dishes will come from an entire pig bought from the local pork purveyors at E & R Pork, who specialize in 100 percent locally raised, grain fed, hormone and antibiotic free pork products.

On the scotch side of things, "America’s Spirited Speaker" Russ Kempton will lead tasting through six different single malt scotches, featuring American white oak barrel and sherry barrel aged varieties. Kempton will also answer guests' questions and cap off the night with cigars to take home.


The Pork:

• Pork and miso broth with wonton and kombu
  
• Head cheese with apricot and fennel
  
• Trotter rillette with pickled mustard and balsamic onions
  
• Shoulder and shank sausage with whipped fig cheese and red wine
  
• Brined loin banh mi
  
• Smoked pork cheek mac & cheese
  
• Pig and duck liver pate with pistachio and cherry
  
• House bacon lardons with chocolate cookies
  
• Korean BBQ pork ribs with kimchi
  

The Scotch:

• Glenfiddich 18yr
  
• Bruichladdich Islay Barley
  
• Balvenie 15yr Single Barrel – Sherry
  
• Macallan 10yr Fine Oak
  
• Balvenie 12yr Single Barrel – American Oak
  
• Highland Park 12yr

The dinner will kick off at Agustin Kitchen (100 S. Avenida del Convento) at 6:30 p.m. on July 14. Cost per person is $75 plus tax and gratuity. You can reserve your spot for this decadent dinner event by calling 398-5382.

I wasn't super pumped to have my browser window land on the Playboy page this morning, especially after widespread accusations from former live-in bunnies the ol' Hef treats his myriad of girlfriends like pets (or worse). However, like a newly married man who just can't quit the boob magazine, my defense is that I'm just reading it for the articles.

One article, specifically, gave a little bit of love to Tucson's very own distillery, Hamilton Distillers. The list of each of the 50 states' top distillers called out the locally-made mesquite-smoked to represent the Grand Canyon state:

Whiskey Del Bac Dorado
After years of building furniture out of native mesquite wood, Stephen Paul became obsessed with creating a single malt whisky using barley smoked with mesquite instead of Scotch’s traditional peat. So he taught himself distilling, bought a still and some local barley, and created Whiskey Del Bac. The Dorado version tempers the campfire-smoke flavor with a bit of barrel aging.

You can buy a bottle of your own at the distillery (2106 N. Forbes Blvd., Suite #103) or over at Plaza Liquors (2642 N. Campbell Ave.).

Last year there was a lot of buzz surrounding the new Phoenix-area Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. A piece in Esquire and a best new brewery recognition from the online community of beer geeks over at RateBeer.com proved the Kickstarter-funded brewery was churning out some of the tastiest and most inventive brews in the world. 

With a focus on using local grain and more, the brewery continues to put out unique brews with new, limited quantity offerings coming out of the fermenter all of the time. The quantities are so limited, in fact, that you can't really get their beer outside of their restaurant and taproom location in Gilbert for much longer than a week or two, unless, of course, it's a special tasting event. That's why when the brewing team hits up Tap & Bottle (403 N. Sixth Ave. Ste. 135) on Thursday, June 25, you'll want to make sure you get there in time to sample each beer they're bringing to town.

Here's what you can expect:

• Refuge IPA (6.8%) - West Coast IPA brewed with Centennial, Simcoe, Cascade, and Columbus hops. 
  
• Petting Feral Cats (3.7%) - This collaboration with Sun King Brewing Company has a light sweet note from Indiana hickory syrup and pleasant pine aromatics with Sun King's propietary saison yeast.
  
• Santa Teresa (5.2%) - Our Belgian Single or Enkel brewed in a true Monastic Styl. with Westmalle yeast. 

As well as a yet-to-be-released Chocolate Bunny Imperial Milk Porter, which is a collaboration with Stillwater Artisanal Ales of Baltimore. 

Now, there's two reasons you'll want to head to the event early, which kicks off at 5 p.m. First, once those four kegs are tapped, they're gone, and it'd be a shame to miss them. However, T&B owner Rebecca Safford says an extra incentive for the first 15 people to arrive and pet the beard of either Jonathan Buford, Patrick Ware or Brett Dettler (a.k.a. the trio behind Arizona Wilderness) will get a free "Petting Feral Cats" Wilderness shirt.

If you're not in the petting mood, though, just head to the bar and get yourself a tasty brew. No pressure.

On Saturday, June 27, Splash is hitting La Encantada to present a night full of fashion designers, community art projects and a grip of food and drink samples for attendees. This year, the Southern Arizona Arts and Culture Alliance will be featuring 20 local restaurants that will offer up tastes of many different cuisines, some offering colorful cocktail pairings. There will also be eight different brewers serving up drinks to keep attendees interested while browsing the many different pieces of art on auction at the event.

Here are some of the dishes you can look forward to:

The first of the new Gibson Court businesses is almost ready to open. On Friday, June 12 at 3 p.m., Highwire Lounge give away first glimpses of the intimate, upscale cocktail bar's interior, as well as modest patio to the public. 

Owners Nick Eggman and Jacob Hise aren't looking to quietly enter Tucson's cocktail scene, either. With a ten-drink menu that utilizes popular liquors like El Jimador tequila, Smirnoff vodka and Bulleit whiskey, the pair say they're looking to impress their guests with their inventive take on "molecular mixology."

Much like their circus theme would suggest, the cocktails at Highwire definitely have a trick or two to show. That means you can expect drinks to change colors, make noises, change flavors and look unlike the cocktails you're used to seeing at local watering holes. 

If you're looking for a night of beer, barbecue and bluegrass, Loews Ventana Canyon Resort is ready to oblige with a special cookout event. Casks and Cooks will team up chefs Ken Harvey, Jose Salas and Mike Behan with brewers from Dragoon, Ten Fifty-Five and Pueblo Vida to offer smoky, meaty eats paired with local brews.

With grilled-to-order offerings like IPA-brined baby back ribs grilled on mesquite and an all beef Sonoran dog wrapped in jalapeno-crusted bacon, the menu will offer up some spicy treats in an open air cookout setting. Along with pairing beer with the dishes, the breweries will also be releasing a special collaborative brew called the Blanche de Ventana. The beer, which is a Leuven Wit, utilizes coriander blossoms and cumquats picked at the resort. 

The Casks and Cooks cookout event will take over the Coyote Corral with food, brews and live bluegrass performances at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort (7000 N. Resort Drive) on Saturday, June 13. The 21 and over dinner runs from 6 until 9 p.m. Tickets are $55 and can be reserved by calling 615-5496.

For 22 years, Kingfisher has given local food lovers the opportunity to take a culinary vacation with their summer road trip dinner series and this year is no exception.

While the events have already made their Southwestern stop with eats curated by sous chef Richard de la Cruz, diners can head to the seafood spot from Thursday, June 4 until Wednesday, June 17 for the Pacific Northwest leg of the food tour. This time around, the menu was dreamt up by executive chef Fred Harris.

Here's the full Pac-NW menu to be served at Kingfisher: