About Old Bisbee Brewing Company
The history of Brewery Avenue and Brewery Gulch
Not long after the small town of Bisbee official became a town in 1880 with the establishment of a post office, German-Swiss immigrants to the town founded the first breweries on what became known as Brewery Gulch on Brewery Avenue.
With the richest combination copper and gold deposits ever found in the United States, Bisbee quickly grew to become the biggest and richest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. The combination of thousands of miners and ranch hands ignited a boom of “beer and brothels” in Brewery Gulch lasting until prohibition (and some say much longer). In 1889 the terminus of the railroad was finally extended to Bisbee allowing for the importation of cheaper beer from St. Louis and San Francisco forcing the closure of the last brewery on Gulch in that year.
The Old Bisbee Brewing Company - After a 121 year absence beer is brewing again in Brewery Gulch.
Both Dale and Vic have maintained homes in Bisbee for many years. Other business activities precluded either from spending much time in what each calls Bisbee… “The base for their friends and themselves.”
One night sitting at the bar in their favorite restaurant in Bisbee, Roka’s this Spring they concurred it was time to commence building the finest micro brewery possible to return brewing to Brewers Gulch and return by brewing and serving the best beer possible. That night they placed a call to Mindy to ask if she would like to return to Britain to take courses in Sunderland (Brew Lab) on establishing a new brewery. “My bags can be packed by tomorrow” was the reply.
Off and running, an architect was hired and after much discussion with other breweries here and in Europe, Stromberg International was contracted with to design, manufacture and install what Dale, Mindy and Vic desired to be a state-of-the art, highest quality micro brewery.
From the initial drawing to completion spanned over half a year including digging up the street to install underground access to transfer beer from the brew house to the holding tank and tap room area. Governing “rules” in the creation were creating a system to have the freshest beer possible at the taps in our tap room. From the fermentors in the brew house to the taps it is a closed system and all refrigerated. No casks, no bottles. Old Bisbee Brewing Company is also committed to using the best ingredients including grinding our own barley just before beginning the process and using only whole hopes for flavoring and aroma. As Mindy says, “This is cooking. The best, freshest ingredients are need to produce the best product.” We even go as far as to use our yeast only once to optimized quality.
Our commitment to quality is already gaining rave reviews for our beer. Our “extreme perfectionist” brew master, Mindy is happy.
