Best Of Tucson®

Best-Tasting Local Brew

Nimbus Brewing Company

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better beer for Tucson's sweltering days than Nimbus Brewing Company's Dirty Guera, a blonde ale made with mesquite honey from hives down in Bisbee. But that's just one of the many fine brews crafted at the warehouse brewery on East 44th Street, which has earned a nearly religious following since opening in 1996. The Oatmeal Stout goes down like a creamy milkshake; the Red Ale sparkles with sweetness and aroma; the Pale Ale keeps the hop-heads happy with a quadruple-hopping process. The Old Monkeyshine is delicious, too, but beware: The alcohol (8.2 percent!) is almost perfectly concealed by brown-sugar sweetness.

Runners up:

2. Barrio Brewing Co.

800 E. 16th St.

791-2739

3. Thunder Canyon Brewery

7401 N. La Cholla Blvd.

797-2652