I was on my way back to Phoenix from Tucson and decided to break the law and look at my phone while driving to see the closest brewery. Helluva won. I was just stopping in for lunch and figured I'd throw a quick post out here about my visit.
The brewery is in a strip mall, which normally I have a built-in bias against. It seems the strip mall breweries are more about making money on food than the beer. They are the more commercialized and chain pubs. I was happy to discover that Helluva is not like that. From the sounds of it, the owner and inspiration, a guy named Shawn Shepard, is just a regular guy who wanted to make great beer and smoked meats. Two great passions, by the way. I happened to be sitting pretty close to the bar and heard Shawn talking to another patron, who I gathered was either a restaurant owner or a brewer and they talked about beer and their approach and number of tries it took to get a beer right.
That had my mind wandering to the process of making the beer just right and how the scale of making a small batch into a large scale beer would work and how I'd probably forget to write down exactly what I changed to get the taste just right. In the meantime, I asked my waitress, is that even an acceptable term anymore? You know, like stewardess is now flight attendant. Anyway, I asked what the flagship beer was. The Juice is Loose New England IPA, was the answer. I tried it despite my misgivings on citrusy and hoppy beers lately. It was pretty good on first sip. Though pretty hazy I found it refreshing. It had a hoppy finish. If you like IPA's I think you'd consider this one to be quite acceptable, if not down-right good.
I then ordered Lisa's Chicken Sandwich, not knowing at the time that they specialize in smoked meats. Which was pretty good. I then found out Lisa was sitting at the bar. I guessed she was the daughter, but I didn't probe any further on that. Then it was time for my staple, the Red Headed Step Child, which you might be able to guess is an Irish Red. Now this was good and very drinkable. I had had a beer called Kiltdifter the night before, thinking it would be similar to the last Irish Red I had and was saddened by its extreme maltiness. It was almost too harsh at the finish for a red and maybe under other circumstances I would like it, but was hoping for something else. That something else was the Red Headed Step Child. Easily making it into my top 5 reds, I would drink this beer again for sure. A lot of people who brew beer think they are good and some are not. Helluva seems to have turned their passion into a success. I think they are worth checking out if in Chandler. Damn, I forgot to get a t-shirt again too.
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