Beaver Street Brewery

Beaver Street Brewery was founded in 1994 by Evan Hanseth, who opened the brewpub in a substantial historic commercial building on Beaver Street — one block south of Route 66 and three blocks east of Northern Arizona University — at a time when craft brewing was just beginning to expand beyond the early-1980s pioneering operations on the West Coast and in the upper Midwest. The 1994 opening made Beaver Street one of the earliest craft breweries in Arizona, and certainly the first in Flagstaff. The brewery established its core identity in the early years around a small core lineup of recurring house beers (a flagship IPA, a pale ale, a wheat beer, a stout, and seasonal rotating offerings) paired with a wood-fired pizza menu that took advantage of a Forno Bravo oven installed during the original buildout.

The Lumberyard Brewing Company spinoff in 2010 was one of the most consequential developments in Beaver Street's history. By the late 2000s the brewery's beer program had developed beyond what the small downtown brewpub could produce at full capacity, and a substantial commercial-scale brewing operation was needed to meet the demand from Beaver Street's growing reputation and the broader Flagstaff and Arizona craft-beer market. The team established the Lumberyard production facility on the south side of Flagstaff and rebranded the production side as Lumberyard Brewing, while the original Beaver Street downtown location continued operating as the original brewpub.

The two operations remain related but distinct today. Lumberyard handles broader Arizona distribution and operates its own taproom on the south side of Flagstaff, while Beaver Street remains the original downtown brewpub serving its own house beers (some shared with Lumberyard, some Beaver Street-specific) alongside the food menu. The relationship has been a model for how successful craft breweries in mid-sized American cities can grow without losing their original character.

Beaver Street's beer menu typically includes 8 to 12 house beers on draft at any given time, with a rotating mix of flagship beers, seasonal offerings, and occasional small-batch experimental brews. The flagship lineup generally includes Lumberyard IPA (a 7.5% American IPA with substantial citrus and pine hop character that is the most popular beer at both Beaver Street and Lumberyard's broader Arizona distribution), Beaver Street Pale Ale, a wheat beer, a brown ale, and the Bramble Berry Brew (a seasonal raspberry wheat that has become a Beaver Street signature). Seasonal rotators include various stouts and porters in the winter, lighter sessionable beers in the summer, and occasional barrel-aged or specialty offerings.

The brewing program is genuinely respected within the Arizona craft-beer industry. Head brewer Winnie Yeats — who has been involved with the operation since the early 2000s and remains the brewing lead today — has consistently produced beer that has won medals at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup, both of which are the major U.S. industry competitions. The beer quality is the primary reason Beaver Street continues to be recommended over newer Flagstaff brewing operations that have opened in the years since.

Beer-only visitors (without food orders) are genuinely welcome at the bar areas on both floors, and the brewery operates a small tasting-flight program for visitors who want to sample multiple house beers without committing to full pints. Flights typically include 4 to 6 small (4-ounce) pours and run $10 to $15 — a good option for first-time visitors trying to identify which house beer they want as their full-pint selection.

Beaver Street's food menu is anchored by the wood-fired pizza program — a dozen or so individual-portion (10- to 12-inch) pizzas baked in the original 1994 Forno Bravo oven that has remained the kitchen's centerpiece for three decades. The pizzas are typically thin-crust with charred edges, generous toppings, and slightly chewy interiors. The signature Beaver Street pizza is the Enchanted Forest, a vegetarian pizza with portobello mushrooms, roasted garlic, spinach, ricotta, and parmesan that has been on the menu since opening. The Pizza Florentine, the Margherita, the Sausage Italiano, and a build-your-own option round out the most-ordered pizza selections.

Beyond pizzas, the menu includes a substantial pub-food section with burgers (the Brewery Burger is the standard recommendation, with a 1/2-pound house-ground beef patty, cheese, and choice of toppings), several pasta dishes, fish and chips, a few rotating entrees, and a strong sandwich and wrap selection at lunch. The appetizer menu includes Bavarian pretzels (large soft pretzels served with house beer cheese), nachos, beer-battered onion rings, and a substantial wing program.

Salads and vegetarian options are genuinely well-developed for a brewpub — the Northern Arizona Salad (with apples, walnuts, blue cheese, and chicken), several vegetable-forward pizzas, and rotating vegetable-and-grain dishes serve diners who don't want the standard pub-food options. Gluten-free pizza crusts are available for a small upcharge. Dessert offerings are modest but include a house bread pudding and rotating seasonal options.

The Beaver Street building is a substantial two-story brick commercial structure that has been adapted to brewpub use through three decades of incremental renovation. The ground-floor space is the brewpub's center of activity — a substantial bar along one wall with about 20 bar seats, dining tables for an additional 60 or so guests, the wood-fired pizza oven visible from the dining room, and large windows looking out onto Beaver Street. The atmosphere is busy, casual, and genuinely Flagstaff — a mix of NAU students, downtown professionals, Route 66 tourists, locals catching up over beer, and visitors getting their first taste of Flagstaff craft brewing.

The second floor is a quieter dining and bar space with seating for about 40 additional guests, generally used for overflow seating during peak hours and for slightly more relaxed dinner experiences. The second floor includes a smaller bar with about 8 seats and several four-top and six-top tables. The atmosphere upstairs is genuinely calmer than the busy first floor, which makes it a better choice for groups wanting more relaxed conversation.

The outdoor patio along the south side of the building seats about 30 additional guests and operates seasonally — typically from late April or early May through September or October depending on weather. The patio is a particularly pleasant option during summer evenings when downtown Flagstaff is at its best. Patio seating is first-come first-served and can have substantial waits on peak weekend evenings; calling ahead does not generally secure a patio table.

Beaver Street works naturally as either a lunch stop, a casual dinner, or a longer dinner-and-drinks evening anchor. For lunch, a wood-fired pizza or a sandwich-and-beer combination typically runs about an hour and pairs naturally with the rest of a downtown Flagstaff walking exploration. For dinner, the brewery is one of the standard recommendations for first-time visitors looking for a quality casual dinner without having to make reservations weeks in advance.

The brewery pairs naturally with the rest of Flagstaff's downtown craft-beer scene. Many visitors do a multi-stop downtown brewery walk that includes Beaver Street, Mother Road Brewing Company (a few blocks west), and the Historic Brewing taproom — all within a short walking distance of each other. The downtown brewery scene is genuinely strong enough that a 2- or 3-hour brewery tour on foot is a substantive Flagstaff experience in its own right.

For the classic Flagstaff overnight itinerary, Beaver Street typically serves as the dinner anchor. The standard sequence: late-afternoon arrival in Flagstaff after driving from Sedona (45 miles south), Williams (35 miles west), or Winslow (60 miles east), check-in at the Hotel Monte Vista or another downtown hotel, walking exploration of downtown, dinner at Beaver Street around 7pm, and an evening trip to Lowell Observatory for a 9pm stargazing session. This sequence produces one of the most genuinely satisfying single evenings available anywhere on Route 66.