SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

Ranch-styled cowboy steakhouse PINNACLE PEAK, with its sawdust floors, home-style dining hall, ceiling-hung neckties, and business card-decorated walls drew hearty meat eaters, January ’05. But its pedestrain lighter-bodied brews were plain and ill defined.

Sedately diacetyl Blonde, bitter-hopped grapefruit-lemon-smitten Pale, mellow lemony-spiced Amber, dull-spiced gourd-charmed Pumpkin, and unassumingly citrus-y Hefeweizen paled next to excellent coffee-deep black chocolate-aided licorice-prune-accented Porter.

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SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

Visited beautiful village of Scottsdale January ’05, stopping in plaza strip sited ZONA BREWING COMPANY (formerly Cowboy Brewing) and northerly Old West outpost PINNACLE PEAK. Zona, one of the Canyon State’s finest brewpubs, featured outdoor picnic area, spacious indoor dining, centralized bar, and plush billiards room. But the brewery ceased operations a few years hence.

Brewer Ryan Ashley’s antique beer can collection lined shelves at bar and pool room with brew tanks stationed at the rear. Soft-watered fig-soured Bavarian Dark, politely malt-stricken grain-based Helles Lager, wheat-dried grapefruit-rimmed Kolsch, and spiced yellow-fruited banana-clove-endowed Hefe-Weizen suited lighter palates. Better fare for experienced tastes included honey-dipped sugar-candied orange-bruised Dubbel Trouble and tangy orange-ripened malt-spruced hop-deepened India Pale Ale.