Arizona Beer Week & Arizona Cocktail Week once again ask imbibers to choose – and their organizers are OK with that.
Barb Harris was among the first to buy VIP tickets for this year’s Arizona Strong Beer Festival. Every February, she and her husband, Scott, meet a group of “beer buddies” at Steele Indian School Park in Phoenix for the kickoff event of Arizona Beer Week.
“We had such a great time last year,” says Harris, a Tempe resident who owns a firm that specializes in nonprofit communications. “We haven’t planned anything else out (for Beer Week) yet, but there probably will be a tapping at Flanny’s we’ll go to.”
Where you’re unlikely to find Harris that week is any of the events for Arizona Cocktail Week, which runs concurrently. She wishes it were otherwise. “The first year of Cocktail Week, I went to several events, including a bourbon school and some events at various restaurants,” she says. “I just found it was too hard to fit both (weeks) in. There’s only so much drinking one can do in a week.”
For the fourth straight year, the state’s two biggest alcohol-themed celebrations will butt heads during the third week of February. While local imbibers may bemoan the ultimatum foisted on them for those seven days, there’s a reason neither group of organizers has budged: They believe they can coexist.
If you’re a proponent of the quasi-legal principle known as “dibs,” Arizona Beer Week made first claim on the week. SanTan Brewing founder Anthony Canecchia proposed the idea of a November week focusing on craft beer to the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild in 2009. “Andy (Ingram, one of the founders of Four Beaks Brewing) made a really great point, which was: ‘Guys, we have an established Strong Beer Festival every February that’s really representative of Arizona craft beer,’” Canecchia says. “It was sort of like one of those ‘duh!’ moments.”
The Strong Beer Fest, which began in 2001 and is considered the state’s premier beer festival, ushered in the first Arizona Beer Week in February 2010. The week grew quickly and now includes hundreds of beer tastings, dinners and activities across Arizona.
About the time Beer Week made its debut, Ross Simon and Jason Girard from distributor Southern Wine & Spirits approached Valley hospitality consultant Damon Scott with the idea of starting a cocktail-centric week modeled after New Orleans’ famed Tales of the Cocktail.
“Forgive me, but sometimes Phoenix can be a year to two years behind trends,” Scott says. “So we didn’t want to wait. We
were like, ‘Let’s just do it.’” Arizona Cocktail Week debuted in February 2011. Both weeks hold their showcase events, the Strong Beer Fest and the Cocktail Carnival, on the opening Saturday.
“The media has made a big deal about Cocktail Week and Beer Week being the same calendar week,” says Scott, now director of operations for The Vig. “It was truly unintentional. The main reason we picked that week was because that’s when the Hotel Valley Ho could accommodate us.”
Like Beer Week, Cocktail Week has been very successful, drawing many of bartending’s biggest names from across the country and selling out most of its events, although its geographical footprint remains heavily set in Scottsdale and Phoenix.
Asked whether the two weeks might at least find ways to collaborate, SanTan’s Canecchia points out each has a different mission. “Arizona Beer Week is a celebration of things that are handcrafted by artisans either locally or in other parts of the country,” he says. Distributors can participate “as long as it’s about craft beer and not about trying to jam Pabst Blue Ribbon down everybody’s (expletive) throat.” Cocktail Week, on the other hand, is underwritten by major liquor producers, such as Stoli and Campari, which understandably expect a high-profile presence in return. The goal, Scott says, is a festival “important not only to Phoenix and the state of Arizona, but to the entire region.”
But there are indications the two fests can find common ground. Four Peaks’ Ingram says his Tempe brewpub is hosting a yet-to-be-announced “crossover” dinner that week. Five courses will be paired with both craft beers and cocktails. “It looks amazing,” he says.
Double-Fist the Fests
Highlights of Arizona’s biggest alcohol-themed events.
AZ BEER WEEK (Feb. 12-21)
Strong Beer Festival: More than 100 craft breweries pour samples of their bestsellers as well as unique specialty ales. Feb. 14 at Steele Indian School Park in Phoenix.
AZ Firkin Night: Cask-conditioned (non-pasteurized and naturally carbonated) ales brewed throughout the state. Feb. 16 at Angels Trumpet Ale House in Phoenix.
Info: arizonabeerweek.com
AZ COCKTAIL WEEK (Feb. 14-21)
Cocktail Carnival: An all-day, all-night shindig with carnival games, circus performers, live music and cocktail tastings. Feb. 14 at Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale.
Last Slinger Standing: Arizona’s best bartenders compete against their counterparts from Nevada and Colorado. Feb. 15 at Hotel Valley Ho.
Top Bars of America: Some of the nation’s top cocktail destinations create pop-up bars for one night only. Feb. 16 at Hotel Valley Ho.
Info: arizonacocktailweek.com
