Hoppy Travels & Cider Sightings

Saddle Mountain Brewing Company was started by Jacob & Lauren Hansen. Jacob was born in Arlington, Arizona (Nope not Texas) where his parents and brother still live with a beautiful view of Saddle Mountain.

As a kid, he developed a love for the Goodyear Blimp so much to the point that he kept writing letters to Goodyear asking about this fascinating ship. Goodyear responded by inviting Jacob and his family to go for a ride on the blimp and that is where Jacob’s passion of flying began. So then he took flying lessons and got his pilot license when he was very young. He wanted to be in the Air Force, but unfortunately an injury that happened when he was a child prevented him from pursuing that. However, he still owns his own plane to this day and has worked around airplanes for multiple companies.

Now Laura was born in New Mexico but was raised in Tonopah, Arizona. Laura lived just Southwest of Saddle Mountain though little did she know that her future husband was growing up just on the other side of the mountain. Before Laura went off to college her parents bought a business called the Red Quail in Wintersburg, Arizona and renamed it Wintersburg General Store.

Whenever Laura would go home from college she would help with her parents successful business until they sold it in 1996. After graduating from Northern Arizona University (NAU), she taught elementary school for several years which is where Jacob’s mom (who was working with her at the time) introduced Laura to Jacob and they quickly fell in love.

After marying Jacob and being pregnant with their first child Laura’s parents took over the general store again after the couple that were owning it went bankrupt. That is when Laura quit her job to help her parents bring the general store back to life again. During that time, she and her parents founded several more businesses including a salon, a used car dealership, and Tin Top Bar & Grill.

Shortly after the wedding, Laura gave Jacob a home brew kit. After homebrewing for 15 years and three more children Jacob decided to open up a brewery. After many hours of perfecting his recipes, winning awards, and drinking his creations with friends, Jacob created his Taildragger line. A Taildragger was an aircraft used in World War II and is still flown today.

Saddle Mountain Brewing was then born after Laura suggested to Jacob that they needed to invest in something (a brewery possibly) so that their children could have a legacy. When him and Laura weren’t looking for a location to build a brewery, Jacob was making a business plan. They decided that the West Valley needed more craft beer and that is why they decided that Goodyear, Arizona would be the perfect location. However, Goodyear did not allow for production breweries.

It took nine months and a lot of collaboration with Goodyear Planning and Development to rewrite the city ordinance so that they could allow production breweries. So of course, Saddle Mountain was the first ever production brewery in Goodyear.

Now that you know a little history about the brewery lets get into the beer:

Taildragger ‘Ello Cheeky

This English Pale Ale sitting at an easy 5.2% ABV is made with 100% English ingredients. It gets it’s amazing copper color from the Maris Otter malt as well as crystal malt (Yes I mean malt).

Taildragger Moo-N Landing

This Nitro Milk Stout sits at a very easy 4.7% ABV uses a Special Perla Negra malted barley from Chile which gives it a smooth dark chocolate taste. Now what does Moo-N mean? Many things the most obvious being the cow reference, but it also means landing a plane on a full moon and I just had to mention the sexual inuendo of butts touching for the landing.

Taildragger Otter Hop

This S.M.A.S.H IPA sits at 6.9% ABV now what is that? S.M.A.S.H simply just stands for Single Malt and Single Hop. This brew in particular uses El dorado hops and U.K.’s finest Marris Otter malted barley which gives this beer a very crisp and smooth flavor. The barley gives it a bready and sweet profile while the hops bring it a tropical fruit flavor and aroma.

Taildragger Chasing Tail

This Amber Ale sitting at 6.1% ABV is a true Amber with that malty and toasty flavor you would expect out of an Amber.

Taildragger 5G

This Belgian Wit sitting at 5.2% ABV has a spicy but complex flavor. It is also blended with coriander and citrus flavoring.

Come join me at Janey’s this Thursday at 7 PM to try some of these delcious brews! Until Next time Hoppy Travels![tp_hotels_selections_discount_shortcodes city=”16798″ title=”Cheap Hotels in Goodyear” paginate=true off_title=false type_selections=”popularity” number_results=”20″ subid=”” city_label=”Goodyear” type_selections_label=”Popularity” link_without_dates=false]