This #Beersaturday I was invited by my brothers father in law to go to Pheonix Raceway for the 2024 NASCAR Championship Races.
Friday morning my brother (Corey), his 16 year old son (Kyle), my brother's father in law (Jim), and I drove 11 hours to Goodyear Arizona. We arrived and after dropping our stuff at an Air B&B we headed to a nearby brewery. The brewery was called Saddle Mountain Brewery located in Goodyear Arizona.
Corey, Jim, and I started with a flight of beers since we had never been to this brewery before.
The flight started with a beer called "Clan-Destine" which was a Scottish Ale with an ABV of 6.5%. For a Scottish ale is was easy drinking but reminded me more of a brown ale.
The second beer on the flight was called "Hop Snob" and was a West Coast IPA with an ABV of 6.9%. This was a good hoppy IPA similar to most West Coast IPA's.
The third was called "Loose Morals" and was a pale ale that had an ABV of 6%. This was a great pale ale and probably my favorite beer in the flight.
The fourth beer was called "Westside IPA" and had an ABV of 7%. It was another West Coast IPA but not as hoppy as the Hop Snob. This beer was closer to the Pale ale rather then an IPA.
The fifth beer was a Nitro Honey Ale called "Show Your Stripes" and had an ABV of 6.1%. This beer was very light tasting and being that it was a nitrogen charged beer with honey it was very creamy and sweet.
The sixth beer was a Nitro Stout called "El Diablo Dulce" and had an ABV of 10.5%. The high level of alcohol was not very noticeable due to the fact they used Mexican Chocolate in the stout, so it was slightly sweet with a little spice. Being that it was nitrogen charged again it was creamy which gave it a chocolate shake feel.
After finishing the flight we decided we would have a pint of the Loose Morals pale ale with dinner. For dinner we all decided on the French dip which was very good.
We finished the night by having another beer. Corey and Jim had another Loose Morals pale ale, but I had the Hop Snob IPA. We enjoy the brewery and here is one last picture of their brewing area.
Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the raceway for the Xfinity series championship. We arrived early enough that we walked the pits taking pictures of our favorite driver's cars before qualifying started.
The Beast car is #45 and driven by Tyler Reddick who was in the Championship race and who we were pulling for.
The Busch Light #1 car is driven by one of my favorite, Ross Chastain.
The Hendrick Cars.com #5 car driven by Kyle Larson is another favorite of mine and he grew up about an hour and a half from my home.
The Bass Pro Shops car #19 driven by Martin Truex is a fan favorite and this was to be his last full time season of racing. Truex had a long career in which he did very well. I always liked him as well becuase he was just getting started racing professionally back when I was still racing in the late 1990's and early 2000's.
We watched some of the qualifying from the pits then went to our seats to finish watching.
We then had a local beer brewed by Huss Brewing located in Phoenix. The beer we had was called Scottsdale Blonde and was a German Kolsch style beer. It was very light but a good drinking beer on a warm day.
After qualifying was finished for both the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series cars we got ready for the Championship race of the Xfinity Series. The following video is the opening lap of the Xfinity Championship race.
The racing started and the driver of the #7 car Justin Allgaier was who I wanted to see win the Championship as he had made it to the Championship numerous times before but never won. Allgaier's race started good by he recieved 2 penalties causing him to go a lap down. Allgaier didn't give up and got his lap back by the end of the race he was leading the Championship driver's and won the Championship. However he finished second in the race to a non Championship driver Riley Herbst.
Sunday was the Cup Series Championship which started with a concert from Nelly.
The following video is the opening lap of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship first lap.
Not wanting to miss any of the racing we had a few Michelob Ultras since there were people going through the stands selling them. Not my favorite beer but it worked for a warm day.
The race and Championship were both won by the Pennzoil #22 car driven by Joey Lagano. Not who I wanted to win but he was deserving of this win. Here is a picture of Lagano doing his victory burnout.
The racing was over then we had to brave the crowds of cars and motorhomes. This last picture is of the sea of motorhomes and I still could not fit them all in.
Overall it was a great weekend trip and a great #Beersaturday.
Thanks for reading and hope you had as great of weekend as we did.