image by Titus Castanza
Thunder Canyon Brewery, with a steady increase in its business at the Foothills Mall since opening in 1997, will expand to a second location in Downtown’s east end by mid-year.
“Our production has really spiked up over the last couple of years,” said owner and brewmaster Steve Tracy. “We need more brewing space. I’ve got quite a few recipes, about 65 or so, and it’s hard to get to all of them every year. This will help us do that, but really it will help increase the capacity.”
Tracy said he selected the Downtown location for the new Thunder Canyon after looking into various neighborhoods and buildings across the city for the last couple years.
“We looked all over and this is the spot that’s going to work really well for us. We’re really excited to get Downtown,” he said. “I think Downtown has turned the corner finally for numerous reasons and I think we can really contribute to the rejuvenation and do our part to get things going down there.”
Peach Properties purchased the building at 210 E. Broadway Blvd. (the southeast corner of Broadway and Fifth Street) for just under $1.1 million and is selling a portion to Thunder Canyon. The building will include space for two other businesses as well and Peach Properties will handle the facade restoration, said CEO Ron Schwabe.
The building was built in the 1940s as the first Safeway in Arizona, said Schwabe, and was the longtime home of Benjamin Plumbing Supply. Most recently, it housed the charter school Tucson Academy of Leadership & Arts.
Renovation on the building will take about six months and will focus on bringing back the original look of the high-ceiling brick structure.
“We’ll pretty much leave it as is, so it’ll have a different look than here at the mall. It’s a beautiful old building so it really doesn’t need anything else,” Tracy said.
The food menu Downtown will be similar to what Thunder Canyon serves at the Foothills Mall – freshly made pub fare including burgers, pizza, sandwiches and fish ‘n’ chips.
The brewing operation will open up more possibilities for Tracy, who keeps 12 of his beers on tap at all times. The big sellers are the flagship ales – Deep Canyon Amber, Sandstone Cream Ale and Thunder Canyon IPA – which will be mostly produced in the bigger tanks at the original location. The Downtown Thunder Canyon will brew the specialty and seasonal beers, with the different varieties shared between the two locations.
Over the years, Thunder Canyon brews have won numerous awards from both the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup.
In 2011, Thunder Canyon produced about 1,800 barrels (or 3,600 kegs), capping a big spike from just a few years ago, when the brewery produced about 1,000 barrels a year.
“Some of it was due to increasing our distribution in Tucson and Phoenix, but also just the popularity of craft beer in general,” Tracy said. “Craft beer – that’s what’s popular and I don’t see that changing, ever. If you’re going to drink beer you might as well drink beer with flavor.”
Thunder Canyon will be the third brewery to open Downtown since 2007, when the brewing operation of Gentle Ben’s became the Barrio Brewing Co. in an old warehouse near the railroad tracks on 16th Street and Toole Avenue. Borderlands Brewing Co. opened late last year in the Warehouse District on Toole Avenue at 7th Street.
“Tucson has been under-served for breweries for ages,” Tracy said. “You look at places like Portland or Seattle or Denver and there are quite a few brewpubs around. I don’t know why it’s been that way in Tucson, but it’s changing rapidly.”
Schwabe agreed, saying that’s what made the agreement so attractive. “In this population there should be 15 to 18 medium- to large-size brewers. So it has a lot of room to grow for people who do it right.”
Visit the brewery online at ThunderCanyonBrewery.com.
