There's an old joke that says the best thing to ever come out of Tucson is the I-10. But, while hilarious, it's only mostly true. The craft beer revolution is sweeping over Tucson in a big way, and several new breweries have popped up recently. Not only is the 10 coming out of Tucson, but so are brews from the Address Brewing Co. (also known as 1702), Dragoon Brewing Co., and Borderlands Brewing Co.

We're focusing on that third one today. Borderlands is located in the Tucson Warehouse Arts District in a century-old building that once housed the Tooley and Sons Produce Company. The brewery was founded by Michael Mallozzi and Myles Stone, two friends who come from careers far outside the beer industry. Mallozzi has a Ph.D. in microbiology and researches disease-causing bacteria at the University of Arizona; Myles is a U of A med student working toward becoming a family physician. The pair started the brewery in 2010 and soon asked Blake Collins, a respected Tucson homebrewer, to helm the mash tuns as head brewer. The conversation, they say, wasn't a long one.

Zach Fowle

Beer names and the stories that inspired them fascinate me. Take Firestone Walker's beers, for example. Was Sticky Monkey named after a pet Capuchin that got into the glue? Did they designate Good Foot as such after tasting and recognizing its resemblance to some flavorsome feet? And what could possibly motivate someone to name a beer Velvet Merkin?

The origins of the name Wookey Jack are equally ambiguous. Some say that it's related to Phish, the favorite band of Firestone's head brewer, Matt Brynildson. Others think it's named for Wookey Hole, a village in England known for its dark caves and resident witch. I prefer to think it was inspired by this scene from Star Wars in which Chewbacca and R2D2 are playing holographic chess:

Chewbacca: Ghaaaaaaaaa!
C-3PO: He made a fair move. Screaming about it can't help you.
Han Solo: Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a Wookiee.
C-3PO: But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.
Han Solo: That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.
Chewbacca: Grrf.

Zach Fowle

Around this time of year, long days of sun and hot weather inspire drinkers to reach for refreshing, quaffable beers, so most breweries choose the summer season to release their lighter, low-ABV brews. Not Stone. April marked the annual release of Imperial Russian Stout -- the good kind of IRS -- which is one of the brewery's most popular ales. Here's why.

Zach Fowle

To get to know many of New Belgium's sour ales, you must first acquaint yourself with Oscar and Felix. An odd couple of beers (see what I did there?), these two act as the base for a majority of the wild ales released under the brewery's Lips of Faith flag.

Though Oscar is a dark ale and Felix is pale, both are rather plain until they spend a year or two inside New Belgium's foudres (large wooden casks used for beer-aging) playing with souring bacteria. When they emerge, nicely tartified, the beers are ready to become the foundation for some of the brewery's most popular ales. Oscar, the dark sour, is blended to become La Folie, while the pale Felix is made into beers like Eric's Ale, Le Terroir, and Tart Lychee.

Last week, I bought a pineapple. It was an impulse buy, driven in part by its alien appearance and by the realization that I rarely eat the fruit. I bet I can make some interesting stuff with that, I thought to myself. Why not? I'll tell you why not: The tropical fruit's rock-hard exoskeleton can basically only be cut with a hacksaw, and once you spend the half hour it takes to chop through it, you're left with about two ounces of actual, edible fruit. Fuck pineapples.

Out for vengeance on the fruit that wronged me, I traveled to SanTan Brewing Co.'s Chandler brewpub for a taste of their new seasonal, Mr. Pineapple Wheat. What better way to punish an ornery fruit than by drinking a beer made from his blood?

Zach Fowle

Beer: It's what's for breakfast. It's also for second breakfast, brunch, lunch, second lunch, first dinner and dessert, but today it's mainly for breakfast. And when a beer is for breakfast, there's only one style that's appropriate: coffee stout.

This is why the appearance of Santa Fe's Imperial Java Stout on Arizona shelves makes me so happy. The brewery's Chicken Killer Barleywine and State Pen Porter have long been available in Arizona, but this stout -- first brewed in 2007 -- only began popping up in local stores this past winter.

Zach Fowle

It usually follows that the most highly rated beers in the world are also the hardest to get. This shouldn't be surprising; as a beer's acclaim grows, demand for its flavor will eventually outstrip the supply. This is less of a problem in breweries whose goal is to turn a profit, as they can use funds from sales to expand and produce more of the beers people are pining for. But what if the brewer of a world-class beer cares nothing for revenue?

Such is the case with Trappist Westvleteren 12. Take a minute to Google "best beer in the world," and you'll find Westy (as it's known among beer lovers) at or near the top of almost every list that pops up. It's a coveted brew among American drinkers.

Zach Fowle

​Beer: Big Sky Kriek
Brewery: Big Sky Brewing Co.
Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 10 percent

As with restaurants and hotels, there's a wealth of consumer-generated review content floating around the interwebs that pertains to beers. From video reviews to expansive rating databases, sites available at your fingertips can tell you whether that beer on the shelf is world-class or should be destroyed in the interest of public safety. It's for this reason I rarely drink bad brews -- for the most part, I trust the taste buds of internet beer nerds, and so avoid beers they've deemed unworthy of my time.

I was thrown off when checking the pedigree of Big Sky Kriek, however. Big Sky Brewing Co. out of Missoula, Montana, makes some delicious beers. Moose Drool is an available, drinkable brown ale; Ivan the Terrible is one of my favorite bourbon-aged stouts. The brewery's never let me down before, yet online reviewers almost unanimously despise this Kriek. Are they wrong in this case?

It turns out: no. No, they are not.