Session 7: The Brew Zoo - Saints, Monkeys and Beer in the desert
This time around it was Rick Lyke’s of Lyke 2 Drink turn to pick the subject for beer blogging Friday. A hat tip to him for making “The Brew Zoo” the topic.
Molly and I just sent our oldest off to college at the University of Arizona a couple of week’s ago. The UA is in Tucson, Arizona’s second largest city, a six hour drive east of San Diego. It is also home to the state’s largest microbrewery, Nimbus Brewing Company, who’s monkey mascot makes it the subject of our post.
Located in a non-descript industrial park pushed up against railroad tracks south of downtown, Nimbus’ building frontage is adorned with eye-popping art featuring wild beer labels and dancing apes in top hats. A giant orange and yellow grain tank emblazoned with the brewery’s signature monkey head stands out front as well.
Inside the brewery the walls are painted purple, yellow and orange and adorned with paintings and decor in a sort of weird mash-up of Mexican folk art, religious iconography and monkey heads.
Side Note:: I asked about the origins of the brewery’s atmosphere, but nobody really seems to know how it came about. A Nimbus is the halo disc you see above a saint’s/holy person’s head in early European art. The folk art stuff may be from their first beer, Dirty Güera (sort of Spanish slang for “blond girl”) Ale, and the Mexican influence in Tucson. And the monkey seems to be from their old slogan “people should be more like monkeys.” (Add plenty of beer and see what you get.)
The taproom is in the front portion of the building, gated off from the brewery proper, but still with a clear view of the brewing operation. There’s also a patio area at the front where you can sit outside when it’s not too hot and watch the trains go by.
We were there mid-week around 1pm and the taproom was populated by an eclectic collection of businessmen, college students, hippies and bikers enjoying a cold pint on a hot desert afternoon.
We ordered a flight of testers and were served up a tray with ten glasses arranged on a tray with a sheet describing each beer. Here’s the regulars:
- Dirty Güera — Southwestern-style Blond Ale
- Pale Ale — Northwestern-style Pale Ale
- Red Ale — Classic American Amber Ale
- Brown Ale — American Brown Ale
- Oatmeal Stout — Specialty Stout
- Old Monkeyshine — English Strong Ale
Also in the flight were four seasonals, India Pale Ale, Belgian Gold, Smoked Porter, and Hefeweizten. (Sadly, there are no links to these on the website.)
While none of these beers pushed the limits of their style (which is often the case with the breweries here in San Diego), I have to admit, all were very refreshing and drinkable — a nice attribute given the 104 degree temperature outside. My favorites turned out to be the Dirty Güera and Belgian Gold. Molly (naturally) enjoyed the Smoked Ported the most.
Nimbus head brewer Scott Schwartz was kind enough to come out, give us a tour and chat even though a malfunctioning bottling line was giving him trouble. (I think we cheered him up with a bottle of Judgment Day from Lost Abbey.)
Afterwords we picked up a couple of mixed cases to take home (Nimbus isn’t available in San Diego), said goodbye to Scott and the other Nimbus folks, and headed back out into the mid-afternoon heat of the Sonoran desert. We plan on dropping by again though. We’ll be back for the Great Tucson Beer Festival in late September.
If you’re ever in Arizona, make sure to drop by Nimbus Brewing (Tucson is only 90 miles from Phoenix). It’s may be one of the most enjoyable breweries you’ve never heard of. You’ll find it at:
-
Nimbus Brewing Company
3850 E. 44th Street
Suite 138
Tucson, Arizona 85713
Nimbus Couzin founded the brewery, thus the name.
The equipment was scavenged from a variety of places, much of it Vermont.
The taproom was an after thought and decorated with stuff found at the Salvation Army. Not exactly designer-planned decor.
September 7th, 2007 | #
Ah — that explains “Nimbus”. (Got a beer question? Ask Stan!)
I hear the taproom used to have old couches and stuff in it, but not anymore. The tables and chairs now all match and the bar looks pretty nice. The walls and guy behind the bar are still pretty funky though.
September 7th, 2007 | #
Nuimbus six-packs are available in San Diego. I have seen them at the La Mesa BevMo.
September 12th, 2007 | #
I hope you will publish this posting completely to correct misconceptions previously posted by Stan.
Well maybe you shouldn’t “ask Stan” because “Stan” is wrong about almost everything he wrote.
Indeed Nimbus Couzin was the original brewer… but that is about as far as Stan had it right! The fact is, it was a group of several guys that founded the brewery pooling their money, time and effort… TOGETHER!
The fact is Nimbus Couzin use to love to run around Tucson and act as if it was only he that “founded the brewery” was a joke and is still today as it always was… simply not the case. This delusional behavior is somewhat typical of a great number of brewers that just work at a brewery and get paid for their work… I guess it’s an effort to build their egos and all… who really knows?
Anyway, Nimbus Couzin put no money at all into the project and worked there 3 years to give himself a job and something to do that he liked doing. He was simply hired to brew and was later brought in as a very junior partner to the ownership group as a 5% share owner (which he lost when he was released from his employment at the brewery). At that level of ownership, I hardly believe that makes Nimbus Couzin the “Founder” of the company or the “owner” for that matter.
As for the origins of the name, Nimbus Brewery, the actual owners got together in Portland where you find the word “Nimbus” on businesses almost everywhere… because of the RAIN… Stan… and rain is water and water is the prime ingredient in beer… Stan.
I don’t believe Nimbus Cousin founded and owned all those businesses in Portland using “Nimbus” in their names either.
The name “Nimbus” was far more chosen as the name for the brewery by far due to the word’s definition rather than Nimbus Cousin’s name. It was in the original planned marketing of the brewery that the word “Nimbus” was ultimately to be selected. When it was finally decided that “Nimbus” was going to be the name of the Brewery, all the owners chuckled because the irony of it also being the first name of the initial brewer selected to brew for the brewery… by sheer random chance and that’s it.
The article’s assertion is absolutely correct… the word “Nimbus” is defined as “the glow seen behind religious figures in paintings by artist prior to advent of photography and symbolizing their “divinity”, It’s also “halo”, a “Nimbus” is an “aura of splendor”. it is also a “rain cloud” which for those at Nimbus Brewery, it symbolizes fresh, clean, pure water which is the basis of Nimbus Beers and the brewery’s name… Capiche?
Additionally, the equipment currently in the brewery today did not come from Vermont nor was it “scavenged”. Obviously Stan has not been to the brewery in over 8 to 10 years because all the original equipment purchased from Otter Creek Brewery in Vermont has been long gone for at least 8 years with the single exception of the bottling line. The current systems in use are totally engineered systems built by JV Northwest and Newlands… just about the best equipment manufacturers in North America.
And as for the Taproom’s decor, the brewery had never intended to operate a taproom or a kitchen. The brewery was only intended to be a brewery with no serving area. It was simply not in the plans nor was it something that was wanted by the real owner. It was the lovers of the Nimbus Brewery products that continued to come to the brewery in mass and finally forced the brewery to open up and allow people to sit around and drink some beer at the brewery.
They brought their own furniture and left it at the brewery to sit on when they were there, hence, the appearance of Salvation Army Furniture in the beginning. Originally there was available room so it was allowed to happen and quickly gained the original reputation for its look.
By 2000, so many people were coming, something had to be done which was in the plans. This was about the same time as Nimbus Couzin was released from the business for reasons that affected the company’s profits. Shortly after that, disgruntled Nimbus Cousin went to the County Building Department claiming the brewery was unsafe because of the number of people that were going there to drink beer. County inspector’s came in and forced the acceleration of the brewerys plans for a complete remodel and upgrades to the brewery’s taproom as it exist today.
As for the colors that were used in the painting of the place, they were selected by the brewery’s advertising and marketing company. The mosaics on the walls were placed by a previous bartender that wanted something to do creative in her spare time. The bar is an antique 1920’s art deco style long bar (30′) removed from a bar in downtown Chicago when the building was getting torn down.
As for the food served in the bar, Nimbus is one of the most highly ranked places to eat in Tucson which can be verified on MSN’s Citysearch website. The beer has won major top beer awards from all over America as well as Best of Tucson for nine years in a row.
As for the nimbus monkey, it came about by a mistake during the printing of the first version of the brewery’s six pack packaging which was so ugly a joke in passing was made to the printer that it would look better if they were to put a monkey on it or something. They did… and put an ugly mean looking monkey’s head about the size of a quarter on the handle of the six pack package. It stuck… in the customer’s heads. They loved that monkey so much that when money came available for new packaging design, it was originally designed without a monkey. Everyone was upset about it and let Nimbus Brewery know about it too. So, the brewery went back to redesign the packaging and made the Nimbus Monkey as we see today as its focal point… and its mascot.
This is why you see the monkey everywhere in the brewery today. I trust this places into light the true answers to the article writer’s questions and hopefully gets Stan to understand that he shouldn’t write about things he learns as hearsay or brewery lore. It is simply not factual what he wrote in any way.
Prost! Out!
March 15th, 2008 | #
Haha…that is a humorous reply.
Stan had it right. Nimbus Couzin was one of the original founders. The other partners stayed out east and contributed initial capital, Nimbus brought his brewing experience, recipes, and turned an empty warehouse into Nimbus Brewing Company. Only a total idiot would buy the above version of the story about it being a coincidence that the brewer’s name happens to be the same one chosen. How many guys named Nimbus do you know?
Word has it that Nimbus left, disgusted by the behavior of the newest partner brought into the group. Many longtime employees also left. I don’t blame them. The new owner, Counts, treats everyone badly, and nobody likes him. I mean why would anyone want to stick around with someone like him? Well, they still make good beer, but not as good as the super hoppy early days when the REAL Nimbus was brewing.
Oh, and Nimbus was always into monkeys. The original six packs had a monkey philosophy written on the bottom. I stilll have one of them.
So good luck in trying to re-write history, but Scott Schwartz and Nimbus Couzin are the reason Nimbus Brewing kept going in the first few years.
March 29th, 2008 | #
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April 7th, 2008 | #