TUCSON, ARIZONA
Just outside the main gate to University of Arizona, popular campus pub GENTLE BEN’S BREWING (operating since 1970) boasted “Best College Bar” status, but the red-bricked adobe-styled tavern had mostly soapy brews, January ‘05. Antique beer trays lined dining walls; upstairs patio area supported collegiate patrons; and menu featured finger foods, burgers, sandwiches, plus specialty drinks such as T. Rex Cosmo and Rum Bomb.
Unique metal-tiered candleholder sampler held dry-honeyed grassy-hopped Tucson Blonde, metallic yellow-fruited sedation Copperhead Pale Ale, blandly caramel-chocolatey Red Cat Amber, fizzy seltzer-like raspberry-soured lemon-candied Taylor Jayne’s Raspberry Ale, minor berry-fruited whiskey-tinged Ben’s India Pale Ale and sticky perfume-spiced macadamia-bottomed Beer Down Nut Brown.
Peerless alternative, Mocha Java Stout, piled bittersweet coffee-roasted dark chocolate creaming atop toasted oats, a top notch dark ale.