Brewery Review: 8 Bit

Huzzah!  It’s open!

As I noted on the blog a few weeks back (this entry about cruiser bikes), we are lucky to have Dubina Brewing just a few miles from our house and another new brewery, Richter Aleworks, building a location a few miles in the other direction (Richter’s upcoming location is on my morning running route, so that tells you how close it really is to our house).  We also found out last week that the outstanding Peoria Artisan Brewery will be opening a second location this fall, also only a few miles from our house.  Truly, we’re blessed with an abundance of good beer around our house, not even counting the gallons that come out of our spare upstairs bedroom.

In addition to these guys, but a bit further away, there is another set of newer breweries opening on the west side of Phoenix, and we’ve been venturing out to try them as we hear about them.  We attended the grand opening of Freak’NBrewing Company last year, and they seem to continue to improve their offerings.  Although we haven’t hit Saddle Mountain Brewing Company yet, we have plans to do so, particularly since it’s right on the way home from Estrella Mountain Regional Park, where a lot of our trail races are held.

The tap handles at 8 Bit.

Super cool, right?

Earlier today, we headed out to the grand opening celebration at 8 Bit Brewery, which is right off the I-10 around Avondale Boulevard.  8 Bit has been selling swag and generating word of mouth for awhile now, but the brewery just started actually serving patrons within the past month or so.  The brewery seems to have a core set of four beers, but they also brew two special releases for each season.  Since the brewery is gaming-themed (in case you hadn’t noticed), the seasonals are classified as “miniboss” and “boss” beers, depending on the alcohol by volume of each. 

Taking out plumbers.

Like a boss.

The brewery also has a few taps given over to beta test beers, which are odd combinations and one-off attempts at brewing greatness.

I called ahead to 8 Bit the Tuesday before the grand opening to see if food was being offered, hours of operation, and whatnot, and talked to a great employee named Ryan who was patient and answered all of my endless questions.  As it turns out, Ryan is one of the owners of 8 Bit (with his wife Krystina) and the head brewer, as well as being exceptionally friendly on the phone.  Score!  He let me know that while the brewery doesn’t serve food on its own, a food truck would be on hand for dinner on grand opening night, and if we wanted to come earlier than that (or any other day/evening a food truck wasn’t there), we could feel free to bring our own food or order from any of the local pizza companies, as they were happily delivering right to the brewery.  Truly, I was impressed with the depth of information he gave me in an attempt to really make me feel as though my chow needs would be covered at the brewery (I don’t believe we’ve met before, but it’s like he knows me).

When we visited 8 Bit, we tried a sampler of everything currently on tap.  From left to right in the picture below are the four core offerings:  White Mage (a wit), Black Mage (stout), Hopssassin's Creed (session IPA), and Legund of Zymur (double IPA).  A boss wasn't currently on tap, nor were any betas, but we tried their miniboss at the time, Offensive Tanooki (IPA brewed with lime leaves).

Offensive Tanooki, on the far right

The brewery started serving patrons about a week or two before the grand opening, and it seems like they worked through whatever kinks may have existed in this process, as our time there was quite enjoyable.  Both Ryan and Krystina had time to stop by our spot at the bar multiple times to have a quick chat (it helped that we were next to the cash registers and their own drinks.  Also, the popcorn machine), and subsequent rounds of brews were offered and filled quickly.  The taproom is on the smaller side, but the bar itself had room for around 10-15 patrons, and standard tables could hold another 20-25; most seats were filled by the time we headed out, and Ryan and Krystina, the only employees there (the only employees, period) seemed to be covering the room pretty well.

The tap room chalkboard

After our taster, I tried out a blend of the White and Black Mage brews (something 8 Bit designed the beers to do), and Chris enjoyed a full pint of the Hopssassin's Creed.  All of the beers were solid, but quite a few of them I'd consider actively great.  The White Mage had a slightly drier finish than most wits, and it gave the beer a crispness that's lacking from some of the wits/hefes on the market that can sometimes be a bit too sweet.  The Black Mage seemed a bit smoky, although Ryan assured us smoked malt didn't go into the recipe; instead, the grain used was roasted rather heavily.  Krystina mentioned the newer batch of Black Mage (we were helping finish off a keg from the first batch) was even richer, with more chocolate notes; they both also mentioned they hope to nitro the stout in the future, and that should be outstanding (I'm a sucker for a good nitro stout).

Happy with my blend and my R2D2 shirt

The Hopssassin's Creed was a fantastic session IPA; a great hop nose with a decent amount of flavor throughout the beer.  So many session IPAs lately have seemed really watered down, but this one was closer to Firestone Walker's Easy Jack, which was great.  I wasn't a huge fan of the Legend of Zymur double IPA (it seemed a bit soapy for me), but Chris really enjoyed it.  The Offensive Tanooki had a great lime scent off the brew, and it finished solid as well.

Chris enjoying his brews

The grand opening featured all sorts of shenanigans, including a contest for nerdiest shirt and a cosplay event.  While we didn't expect we'd be staying long enough to participate in either (due to our need to go home and take a nap - yes, really), we still tried to represent with our garb, namely my "My Hero" shirt featuring my favorite droid and Chris' "air speed velocity of an unladen swallow" equation shirt (the latter caused the gentleman next to Chris to inquire if he was an engineer.  Indeed, good sir, indeed).

Overall, our experience at 8 Bit was great, and we'll absolutely visit in the future when we're on that side of town (and/or when new boss and beta beers are tapped).  If you're in the area, check them out!

Later,

Amy