Thursday, December 21, 2017

Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company

(There will be no blog post on Christmas, 12/25. Happy Holidays to all!) 

Arizona Wilderness Brewing is located on N Arizona Avenue in Gilbert, Arizona.



It didn't take long for the panda to find a brewery. A friend who lives in the area recommended Wilderness, which has about 24 beers on tap. Various styles, so there should be something for all beer fans.

Frankly, I was sold on coming here after seeing an awesome food menu. Many breweries have good beer, but fewer spots have a premium food menu with those brews.

The menu here has everything from sliders to fries to salads. There are also larger burgers if the sliders aren't enough food for you. Consider ordering a few items and flights of beer, then sharing everything.



When on a trip, go for broke. Wilderness has duck fat fries on the menu (yup, fries cooked in duck fat oil), but I wanted to go bigger. Enter Poutine Fries ($9.99). That's the duck fat fries with Wilderness Wort gravy and AZ Farms Cheese Curds. While you're better off going to Canada if you want an excess amount of curds in your poutine, the Poutine Fries here are panda approved. Lovely flavor from the gravy and the fries.


You'll get your fair share of New Mexico green chile even in Arizona. I had to get the Green Chili Pulled Pork Sliders ($8.99). Juicy and tender pulled pork, pepperjack, and generous amounts of roasted Hatch chile, all in a pretzel bun. Three sliders total. The extra salt from the pretzel buns made it even better. The chiles are rather mild but should still have noticeable heat for non-chileheads.


You better believe I got a flight of beer here. Five beers total, roughly 4-5 oz each. They keep their taplist updated regularly on their website.





  • Big Guy Rye: Their 8% Double IPA has more earthy, resiny/dank notes on the nose and tongue. Picked up a citrus aftertaste which was nice.
  • Dirty Hop Water #11: Their take on a New England-style IPA, apparently. Appears hazy light orange with top-notch tropical on aroma and taste. Aftertaste has an extra wave of tropical burst. Right in my sweet spot at 7.5% ABV.
  • Fresh n Squeezy: An excellent 7.5% IPA hazy burnt orange in color, with a lovely tropical tangerine-like flavor/aftertaste.
  • Refuge IPA: Their flagship 6.8% IPA. A good IPA here that presented hazy golden. It had a malty/floral aroma and taste.
  • Superstition Coffee Stout: To change it up, I got their awesome coffee stout. Just 6.5% here and pleasing coffee throughout. Very straightforward and solid.

We got there around 11:30 AM, with just a handful of people there. People kept filing in consistently throughout. By the time we left, there were just a few tables empty. It appears to be a very popular spot, especially on weekends.


If you're in Gilbert, head to Arizona Wilderness! 9/10

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