Yes, Prescott is a beer town. 
Locally brewed craft beers have gained ground on the old-timey choices of Budweiser, Coors and A1 beer from Prescott’s Arizona Brewing Co., going back as far as 1903. Yes, Prescott is a beer town.
Looking back nearly 150 years, the Territorial Capital had the Arizona Brewery, City Brewery and Pacific Brewery. “The beer made by them cannot be excelled anywhere,” the Weekly Journal Miner noted in an 1878 edition.
Nowadays, Lazy G Brewhouse and Wren House Brewing Co. lead the craft brewing scene in Prescott after other brewers faltered. Lazy G is a local favorite along Granite Creek, three blocks south of the Courthouse Plaza. It takes its name from the 70-year-old Lazy G trailer park the brew pub replaced.
On a recent Friday, a lunchtime crowd filled the restaurant with just a few groups eating on the partially shaded patio. Lazy G serves beer at times on the patio out of a 1958 Cardinal travel trailer that is shaped like a giant canned ham tin.
Wren House has its brewery near Prescott Regional Airport with a small beer garden catering to local craft beer enthusiasts. The Prairie Patio includes picnic tables, awnings and beer served from a vintage travel trailer. Hours are from noon to
5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Wren House’s Prescott brewery serves three locations in metro Phoenix, including a new one at the redeveloped Paradise Valley Mall. Its total production was just over 834,000 gallons in the past five years, according to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.
By comparison, Mother Road in Flagstaff, one of the state’s largest craft brewers, produced 2.73 million gallons of beer in that same time period.
Meanwhile, Lazy G brews and sells all its beer in-house by the pint glass or take-home growlers. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., daily except Tuesday and open until 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
Business has been good since Lazy G opened in September 2019, said Jim Bellington, co-owner of the brew pub with his wife of 42 years, Jean-Marie. They met in a bar – Lunt Avenue Marble Club – in Paradise Valley.
“We’re creeping up on our sixth anniversary on Labor Day,” Bellington said of the Lazy G.
Lazy G has brewed an average of 18,847 gallons of beer annually for the past five years, the state liquor agency reported. That’s the equivalent of more than 150,000 pints of craft beer per year.
Both Lazy G and Wren House are doing well, said Andrew Bauman, Arizona Craft Brewers Guild executive director.
“Jim [Bellington], the owner of Lazy G, is just amazing in his hospitality, his care for the community,” Bauman said. “And they make great beer.”
Lazy G’s signature Sunshine Blonde Golden Ale won a World Beer Cup Gold Medal in 2022 and a Bronze Medal in 2023. The brewmaster is Travis Smith, an experienced brewer from California.
Bellington said he would welcome more craft brewers to the Prescott market. “I would like to see Prescott become a bit more of a craft beer destination,” he said. “It certainly wouldn’t be a big one, but we’d like to catch up to Flagstaff,” which has eight craft breweries.
The Quad Cities area has lost four breweries in the past few years. That includes Prescott Brewing and Granite Mountain Brewing in Prescott, Lonesome Valley Brewing in Prescott Valley and Insurgent Brewing in Chino Valley.
John Allen, a longtime local brewer who taught brewing at Yavapai College, said the market could support two or three more breweries.
He’s working to open Mile High Brewery in a 1930s building at 219 N. Cortez St. The brewery would be adjacent to Peregrine Books, in the same building.
Allen said he has his federal license but still needs a state liquor license. He has also run into a snag with the fire marshal, which could require the brewery to have costly fire-suppression sprinklers installed in the building.
“We’ll see if it’s doable in this space or another space,” said Allen. “If we could be open by Labor Day that would be great.”
Other Yavapai County craft brewers include Smelter Town in Clarkdale, Verde Brewing Co. in Camp Verde, Oak Creek Brewing Co. in Sedona, Sedona Beer Company Basecamp in West Sedona, and The Public Taproom and Belfry Brewery, both in Cottonwood.
Prescott is also home to Malt House Brewing Co. at Bashford Courts indoor mall across from the historic Yavapai County Courthouse. Malt House is a distribution only brewery with no taproom.
Founding Fathers Collective, 218 N. Granite St., also has craft beers on tap at its City Tavern. QCBN
By Peter Corbett, QCBN
Photos by Peter Corbett: Lazy G Brewhouse on a busy Friday at lunch, serves sandwiches and its awarding-winning craft beers.
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