12/26/2017 Nimbus Brewing Company, 3850 E. 44th St., unit 138, Tucson, AZ 85713 phone: (520) 745-9175   website: NimbusBeer.com
Hours: Monday - Thursday 11:00AM - 11:00PM | Friday & Saturday 11:00AM - 1:00 AM | Sunday 11:00AM - 9:00 PM

Experience before you go . . .

Well Christmas was over and the Christmas stocking were being put away. Smoked turkey from brother Lar/Con was half eaten and both our wives Sara & Kat had the dreaded flu and were wearing germ masks......time for Guy and I to vacate the premises and go on a Hoppin Brewery Tour, yeah buddy!!

"Where we going"? "I've got an idea but we'll figure it out on the way". As we jump in the 1988 Mercedes 560SL and fire her up. This little convertible has had quite a life and has really made the rounds in the family. My mother-in-law bought the slightly used car in 1993 from a Mercedes dealer in Naperville, IL and enjoyed driving it for 14 years. During this time she would let nieces and nephews and other family members borrow it for a joy ride or special occasion. Then in 2007 she sold it to Guy & Sara, my wife's older sister and her husband, who drove it down to Hammond, Louisiana. Now Guy, being the car guy that he is, went through the entire car.....new rag top, beautified the original wheels, new radiator, cleaned up the underside and painted, basically a lot of TLC only the way Guy can do it. Now after a year or two they realized they weren't driving the car that much and they called us to see if we wanted to buy it and bring it back to Naperville. So of course we bought it and stored it during the winter months and drove it very little during the summers. Now after 7 years of this with the car not being driven that much it started slowly declining.....gaskets shrinking, bad gas in the tank, just not getting the love she needed. So the plan was to eventually have her down in Tucson full time...perfect place for a car like this. So in early 2016 I found a Mercedes repair shop, other than the normally expensive dealer and started going through anything that needed to be brought up to snuff....new a/c, new brakes, new fuel pump, complete tune up, etc, etc, etc. It was kinda funny but sad when I first drove the car over to be repaired. After a quick once over the mechanic said, "This car needs to be driven, it's like a wild mustang running the wide open plains of Wyoming". Then in October 2016, I put on the hard top and we jam-packed the trunk, our 35 pound dog Darby jumped in the small space behind the seats, we came to the end of our Naperville driveway, gave each other a thumbs up, said "Alright here we go", and started our 1750 mile trek to Tucson, Arizona. I don't think I've ever named one of my cars and I've owned hundreds (whole other story for another time...whew, thought he was going for it). Well "Blue Lighting" made the trip in style and has become my Tucson daily driver...vroom, vroom!!

Okay back to the brewery tour! Nimbus Brewing was on our radar and Blue for short, got us there in no time. Out front selfie and in we went. Big, dark with the smell of beer...go figure! Once our eyes adjusted, we walked straight ahead past tables with some folks on the right and shuffled up to the bar on the left. Allison greeted us, I gave her an HBT card with a short intro and Bing, Bang, Boom the Hoppin Brewery Tour strikes for the 49th time! Nimbus is not a new kid on the block, opened its doors back in 1996 when people didn't even know what a Nutty Brown Ale even was. Allison set us up with a Nimbus flight starting with the Dirty Guera - Blonde Ale (3.2%, 26 IBU) easy drinking southwestern ale with subtle sweet undertones created by killer bee honey harvested down in Bisbee, Arizona. Next up we have the Old Monkeyshine Ale - English Ale (8.2%, 39 IBU) dark roasted with 7 different varieties of malts and a touch of brown sugar, Sugar! Oatmeal Stout (5%, 36 IBU) goes down next also dark roasted, almost black in color with a slight burnt favor....bring it on! Next on the dockets and bringing up the rear we have Nimbus Nut Brown Ale - American Style Brown Ale (5%, 28 IBU) exceptional character with a light nutty favor.

"Look over there", as I point to a collection of t-shirts for sale. The graphics for the Blonde Ale or The Nimbus version, Dirty Guera was looking pretty cool. "Will you look at that very cool black sedan, now that's a cruiser, and check out those wheels"! "I'm buying us a couple t-shirts"!!

Well with t-shirts in hand and a adios to Allison we head for the door! "Do you think our wives will like that black sedan as much as we do"?

Carry on Nimbus, there's rough waters out there. Straight ahead and easy does it!!

Until next time and remember.........

Go get'cha one!!