Credit: 1912 Brewing
After home brewing for eleven years, Allan Conger and his wife Alicia are about ready to open the doors to Tucson’s eleventh brewery, 1912 Brewing Co. at 2045 N Forbes Blvd, Suite 105 in May.
The brewery, located near Dragoon Brewing Co. and Hamilton Distillers, will feature Arizona brewery guest taps as well as local wines.
1912 plans to offer a blonde, amber, porter (Conger’s favorite style), a local wheat, black and light IPA, Irish whiskey red ale, white wine barrel aged saison, and a wasabi ginger pilsner designed to pair perfectly with sushi. Plans are in the works to begin a cider and mead program after getting the core beers brewing. The brewery will not serve food, but will feature various food trucks throughout the week.
Conger, along with the support and labor of his wife, their five children, extended family, friends, and coworkers, appears just as excited, exhausted, and nervous as an expectant father.
Opening a brewery is certainly a labor of love and the Congers have a family of coworkers at their current jobs anxiously awaiting the grand opening. While Allan works at Raytheon and his wife Alicia at Intuit, both have been touched by the support and encouragement of their work families.
“Besides being Irish? It’s like getting a chemistry set where you get to drink the product of your experiments,” said Conger, describing how his interest in beer began. “I would visit family back East and bring back beers from Brooklyn Brewing and try to clone them.”
Ten Fifty-Five Brewing Co. co-owner Chris Squires, who Conger served with in the Marines, has been a great source of inspiration and advice. The Congers opted to invest in the 3.5 barrel, steam jacketed, brewing system from Portland Kettle Works after talking to Ten Fifty-Five owners Squires and JP Vyborny. The first three tanks are in place and connected while a fourth is on it’s way.
When asked about the pressure to make the successful transition from home brewer to commercial brewer, Allan stated that this was exactly why attending the Master Brewers Association Engineering course in Portland was so important to him. He said it helped improve his home brewing considerably, as well as played a role in designing a well-planned and sanitary brewing system.
The Congers, as Arizona natives, feel a strong tie to Arizona and the local Tucson community and have plans to partner with area non-profits to give back to the community they love with fundraisers in the taproom.
“We’re both born and raised in Arizona and wanted to pay homage to the year Arizona became a state.”
For more information, visit 1912 Brewing Co. on Facebook.
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