It's time to put on your most embarrassingly festive seasonal garb and hit the streets of downtown for a beer lover's pub crawl sponsored by Dragoon Brewing Co. Beginning at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 24, you can join other merry drinkers on a trek around the city for beer. 

The planned stops and brews are as follows:
1) Tap & Bottle: Dragoon's Stonghold Session Ale
2) R Bar: Dragoon's Bicas Brown Ale
3) The Tap Room at Hotel Congress: Dragoon's Scout Porter
4) Playground: Dragoon's Biere del Bal Belgian-Style Quad

You can get a wristband to join in on the crawl for $10 at any of the participating bars, as well as Dragoon's Tap Room located at 1859 W. Grant Road Suite #111. The wristband also gets you $1 off each special Dragoon beer at the crawl stops and all of the proceeds go to the Southern Arizona Disabled Firefighter Foundation. 

Last night Tucson’s chapter of the United States Bartenders’ Guild awarded bars and bartenders based on an industry vote. Categories like best dive bartender, best volume bartender, and best rookie bartender recognized those behind the stick for their specialties.

The big awards—best bar and best bartender—actually went to the same establishment this year. Hotel Congress was chosen by the food and beverage industry voters as the best bar with Congress’ Keith Caywood voted to be the best overall bartender. Congress’ David Clark was also recognized as the best craft bartender that evening.

We’d have to agree somewhat over here at the Tucson Weekly, seeing as Barb Trujillo of Congress won as our best bartender for the 2014 Best of Tucson awards. The bar and club also won best club for live music, best nightclub, best place to dance, and best signature cocktail (the Ghost Orchid).

It seems like every week is a good week to be a beer geek in Tucson, but I have to say that this week is shaping up to be a particularly good one.

First off, Dragoon Brewing Company is expanding today and they’re inviting fans of their craft brews to drop in from 3 until 10 p.m. to celebrate. Attendees can check out tours of the expanded brewery at 1859 W. Grant Road, Suite 111, along with plenty of new and old Dragoon beers and food from Zany Beaver and Black Top Grill.

If you can’t make it out to that tonight, the tap room will be open thereafter Wednesday through Friday from 3 until 10 p.m., Saturday from 12 p.m. until 10 p.m., and Sunday from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m.

On Friday, Dec. 12 at 5 p.m., San Diego-based brewer Greg Hess will be bringing ten different Mike Hess Brewing Co. beers to the Tap & Bottle at 403 N. Sixth Avenue, Suite 135. With a little bit of every style, you’ll likely find a new favorite or two among Hess’ offerings, which include:

Habitus Rye IPA on Serrano Chiles
Grazias Vienna Cream
Coffee Grazias
Ficus Belgian Dark
Magna Cucurbita Pumpkin
Pershing Pilsner
Solis Occasus IPA on Nitro
Umbrix Rye Imperial Stout
Restauro Rye Weizen
North Park IPA

Both events are free to attend, which means you’ll have more money to spend on beer and food trucks. 

You might not need an excuse to drink, but in case you’re looking for one, Rialto Theatre has you covered this week. Between the Bon Vivant Club on Thursday, December 4 and the AZ Beerd Fest on Sunday, December 7, you’ll have your wine sipping and beer guzzling plans locked in.

The Bon Vivant Club, presented by R Bar, will feature tastings of “natural, organic and biodynamic wines” beginning at 5:30 p.m. The monthly series focuses on one specific region, showcasing wine’s ability to showcase that region’s story with five or six different wines. The 21 and over event is $20 and tickets are available through the Rialto Theatre website.

However, if you’re more of a hop head, you can sample brews from Borderlands, Pueblo Vida, Oskar Blues, San Tan, and Ska Brewing at the AZ Beerd Fest. Brews are just part of the equation for this event, though, as there is also a facial hair competition and live music courtesy of Hey, Bucko!, The Modeens, and more. The all ages event begins at 4 p.m. (you still have to be 21 or over to drink, obviously) and you can buy tickets for $12 through the Rialto Theatre website.

If you’re looking for a liquor-forward drink for late fall nights, Agustin Kitchen’s Gaelic Gravity is a clever blend of scotch, apples, cinnamon, and smoky flavors that is both drinkable and well-balanced, while still maintaining its edge.



Bartender Ciaran Wiese starts the process of making his Gaelic Gravity cocktail about a month in advance. Wiese infuses Teacher’s blended scotch with Granny Smith apples and lets the flavors blend until the whiskey is sufficiently, well, appley. At the same time, the cocktail’s tobacco tincture is made in house by infusing pipe tobacco and Everclear.



From there, the two infusions are mixed with cinnamon simple syrup, Angostura bitters, and Connemara, a peated Irish whisky. Rather than masking the spirit with cinnamon, the cocktail builds on the spirit’s flavors first, resulting in a well-rounded cider-like drink with a nice mix of sweet and smoky flavors.



While I can only wonder what it might be like if the apples were infused into and Islay scotch to begin with, the subtle earthy, peatiness of the Connemara is a nice introduction for non-Islay drinkers who aren’t ready to go full Laphroaig Project— a (kind of intense) cocktail which blends Islay scotch, bitters, and Chartruese.



You can try the smooth Gaelic Gravity for $11 at Agustin Kitchen, located at 100 South Avenida del Convento in the Mercado San Agustín.

There's a lot going on this weekend surrounding All Souls Procession (have you read Mari Herreras' cover story yet?...you should!), but I might personally choose to celebrate the event by saying "to hell with you" to a rough last twelve months with the aproned-cocktail-wizards at Scott & Co.

They'll open early (5 p.m.) this Sunday, Nov. 9 if you need a pre-procession beverage and stay open until midnight, serving two new All-Souls-themed cocktails and "raising from the dead" three beverages from previous long-departed Scott and Co. menus. The Buddy Punch (Pisco, Blanco tequila, grapefruit, Meletti Amaro, nopales syrup and allspice) sounds delicious and I'd like one nowish.

More info at Scott and Co.'s Facebook page.

Tonight's one year anniversary celebration for the Tucson branch of Girl's Pint Out, a membership-free organization intended to promote craft beer among women, would be a worthwhile event on its own, especially considering they'll be offering the group's collaboration with 1055 Brewing - a delicious Apple Pie Saison. The fun kicks off at 5 p.m. at (Best of Tucson winner) Tap & Bottle, but in the case, you can also help someone from the beer community in need:

100% of sales from the OHSO Brewing, Fate Brewing, and Arizona Wilderness Brewing beers on tap tomorrow night are being donated to a very special family. Baby Gavin Hillman was born in July with serious health complications, and has already braved two surgeries. The funds raised from these kegs at the Tucson Girls Pint Out anniversary party will go towards little Gavin's treatments.

We wrote about another benefit for Gavin in September, but as you might imagine, the costs involved with a seriously ill child can be absurd. Try out the Apple Pie Saison and follow it up with something from the benefit kegs, meet some cool people and have a great time. What more could you ask for? 

For a love of all things lowbrow and dark places that offer cold beverages and respite from the bright, bright sun, we bring you Day Drinking. This is the first in a regular series, and lucky us, Tucson artist Melo Dominguez agreed to be our guinea pig. So last week, we grabbed some drinks at The Shelter, a local retro spot at 4155 E. Grant Rd., known for its martinis and Rat Pack-era interior. On this day, the staff were putting up the Halloween decorations to some good music on its jukebox, and somehow we persevered to find out what cool projects Dominguez is up to lately.

Deschutes brought their keg-shaped bar to town for the Baja Oktoberfest Saturday, but gosh, why not stick around Tucson for awhile? I'm almost certain that this was more of a planned extended PR event than the lark I'm personally imagining, but hey, delicious beer, right?

Apparently, the bar-on-wheels will be around town Tuesday through Friday from noon to 3 p.m. giving away free stuff and seemingly offering opportunities to do some drinking (follow @DBWoody on Twitter for updates), in addition to events happening at night.

Below the cut, the list of events, including a cheese pairing event at Tap & Bottle, a beer-themed burlesque show at Congress and a bunch of other fun stuff.

First, the bad news: 1055 Brewing was embarking on a bold experiment, aiming to brew a beer entirely sourced within Arizona, but had to announce yesterday on Facebook that it didn't pan out, describing the process as smelling like "a sweaty goat farm." The good news: 1055 isn't giving up, aiming to try again in July of 2015.

If you're looking to warm up ahead of Saturday's Baja Oktoberfest, exercising your palate with Arizona beers, Tap & Bottle has the perfect event on Friday: an all Grand Canyon State tap takeover, with all of the craft beer bar's taps dedicated to Arizona breweries starting at 5 p.m. Breweries to be featured include Mother Road, Perch, Fate, Huss, Four Peaks, as well as many of your Tucson favorites. More info at T&B's Facebook page.

Speaking of Baja Oktoberfest, the list of beers that will be available for your drinking pleasure at the event benefitting Tu Nidito is (mostly) out now and it's impressive, mixing local favorites, one-offs and beers both from Germany and inspired by their brewing styles.

More info on the festival at bajaoktoberfest.com. Tickets (for a bunch of great beer and a good time, all going to a really good cause) are $45 in advance.

The list of breweries and beers (as it stands, last we heard) is below the cut.