HoppinBreweryTour.com

Tour Stop 121 - Ranch House Grill & Brewery 2/12/2022

Ranch House Grill & Brewery, 31143 S. E. Amenity Drive, Oracle, AZ 85632
website: www.robson.com/ranch-house-brewery
Hours: Closed - Sunday | Monday 11am - 2pm kitchen closes, bar closes at 3pm | Tuesday 11am - 3pm | Wednesday - Saturday 11am - 8pm

Experience before you go . . .

Well the A-Team is back together!! Beer Drinking Buddy Brad and wife Lynda flew into Tucson for a visit and even though I thought we'd toured every Tucson brewery to date I was mistaken. I was on a routine online search and up popped Ranch House Brewery! Located up in the Saddlebrooke 55 or older community which is every bit of a 50 minute drive but the tour must go on. 'Tis the season in Tucson when all the snowbirds come down to roost and combine that with all the 80+ year olds who still have their drivers license and what you have is a mess!! Driving around town is always an adventure and all you can do is relax, be smart, give everyone the right of way and just assume no one sees you!! That right there is the recipe for no incident driving here in Tucson.

So Brad and I eased our way down the road towards SB with not a care in the world and after about 50 minutes Siri said, "Turn left and arrive at your destination". Once on the main road leading into Saddlebrooke you quickly realize that this is the Mecca for retired individuals. There's was golfing on the right and bocce ball courts on the left, custom golf carts and Harley motorcycles lined up everywhere.....something for everyone!! We parked and moseyed up to the front door looking for a brewery sign and discovered we had to go in before we could do the patented front sign selfie.

Pic taken and we shuffled up to the bar only to discover all the stools were taken except for two onesies 6-7 stools apart. We tried to talk a couple folks into moving down so the two were together but these folks didn't want anything to do with it. Finally at the other end of the bar on the corner a couple folks were paying their bill and once they realized we wanted their stools they were having some fun thinking they could charge us an up front fee. Well, that didn't work so we talked them down to no charge and just letting us have the free stools. They left and Bing Bang Boom, the Hoppin Brewery Tour strikes again for the 121st time!! If I had a dime for every tour we've had I'd have $12.10!

Alright, time to get busy!! Earlier when I was walking around taking pictures I talked with one of the wait staff and she passed my HBT card to Conner the Master Brewer and before we could order our cold craft beers Conner was standing behind us with a big smile and a firm handshake. A real nice guy that kinda reminded me of Shaggy in the Scooby-Do cartoon!! He told us to enjoy our beers and to come back behind the curtain for a VIP tour when we were ready.....way cool!!!

I ordered the Ranch Hand IPA - West Coast IPA (6.8%, 77 IBU) dry hopped with Citra and Amarillo hops for grapefruit, tangerine, and orange, Pale, Vienna, and crystal malts balance hop-derived flavors of grapefruit, orange, and pine for hop head easy drinker; Brad jumped on the Ranch House Microburst Hazy IPA (6.4%) hazy hoppy and yummy!! A couple more of Ranch House's stables are the Boo Boo Blonde - Ale (5.25%, 23 IBU) and the Atwell's Amber - American Amber Ale (37.4%, 14.2 IBU).

On Brad's left we have a retired resident from Bloomington MN named Bruce and he's talking up the three softball leagues that Saddlebrooke has. The C-team is carefree and fun, the B-Team is not as carefree or as fun and of course the A-Team is all bidness and carefree and fun isn't even in their vocabulary. Weekly, players are hurt because when your body is 60's, 70's or 80's but your mind still thinks your 20's, 30's or 40's and you're trying to relive the good ole days it's a recipe for disaster!! Bruce said that he loves the beer and everyone that works here! After grabbing his to-go food, he said he was heading to the Valentine's dance with his sweetie. On my right we have Sam and Carol who are around upper 70's and I got a couple laughs and strange looks out of them so it was a success.

Brad and I split the wings and nachos which were fab and when we finished we thought a tour of the brewery was right up our alley. Conner came up and took us back. We walked through an enormous commercial kitchen and tucked back in the corner was the beer production Nirvana! Micro brewery all shinny and sharp! Conner explained the whole process from the mash to the boil to the spin to the cooling to the fermentation to the conditioning to the cold crash to the kegging! Very nice set up and Conner was cleaning a tank as we talked!! Keep on keeping on Conner you're doing a good job!! Brad's note on Connor - "I like his style. He showed up for an interview for his first brewing job with a Growler instead of a Resume'!"

Saddlebrooke is a build it and they will come community! Little bit of a drive from Tucson but it's self sustaining and has everything now since the Ranch House Brewery opened its doors back in 2018. Drive out, check out the facilities, go to an open house and get'cha a seat at the bar at the RH and enjoy some great craft beer and tell'em Brad & Clyde sent'cha!!

Until next time and remember.....

Go get'cha one!!!

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