Tap Handle #810: Thunder Canyon

October 25, 2023

Tap Handle #810: Thunder Canyon - Doble Diablo

Tap size: 11"

Rarity: less than 25 seen, tap no longer produced

Mounting: 3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

I first saw this tap at the 2019 Craft Brewers Conference. A few months later I managed to track one down, and I was very happy to acquire it. This is the first of 2 Thunder Canyon taps that made it into the Museum. Doble Diablo is Spanish for "Double Devil" and the tap captures that concept with gusto, featuring 2 devil heads wreathed in flame. Below the heads is the name of the beers in sculpted, raised letters; below that is a medallion-like sign bearing the name and logo of the brewery. Two devil tails wrap around the base to complete the theme. While the beer can still be found on tap - it is not listed on the brewery's website but people appear to be ordering it and drinking it - the tap has been retired probably since before I first saw it. It was originally manufactured around 2015, and less than a dozen have appeared on the secondary market, most of those in 2020 as a distributer cleared out most of their inventory. The last one of these taps to sell was over a year ago. The price? Well over a whopping $300!

Thunder Canyon Brewing Company was founded in Tucson, Arizona in 1997 by Steve Tracy and John and Roxane Nielsen. Tracy was working a steady job as a mining engineer when a mutual friend had introduced him to the Nielsens, who owned Prescott Brewing Company in Prescott, Arizona, and were interested in working as partners to open up a brewpub in Tucson. Tracy loved brewing, as well as the ambiance and interaction with customers offered by the brewpub environment. He was also open to the idea of moving to Tucson. After studying brewing at the Siebel Institute of Technology, Tracy and the Nielsens opened the Thunder Canyon brewpub in the Foothills Mall in Tucson. The 1999 National Brewpub Conference and Trade Show in Chicago (organized and developed by the publishers of Brew-Pub magazine) awarded Thunder Canyon top honors with its 1998 "Fabulous Firsts" award as one of the top three new brewpubs in the nation.

By 2005, the Nielsens had become tired of traveling between Tucson and Prescott to manage both Prescott Brewing and the Thunder Canyon Brewery. Therefore, the couple decided to relinquish full control of Thunder Canyon to Tracy. In 2011, Tracy purchased part of an old charter school in downtown Tucson, where a second Thunder Canyon location was opened after some renovations to the building. The original Foothills Mall location had maxed out its brewing capacity, and after surviving the recession in 2008, the brewery's business had improved enough to support the second location. The downtown location featured poured concrete floors and heavy wood tables. In 2013, Thunder Canyon Brewery chose to memorialize and honor friend and coworker Albert Rich by brewing a specialty beer. Rich had passed away from a biking accident on his way home from the brewery. The proceeds from sales of the beer benefited a scholarship to the University of Arizona, the school Rich was planning on attending. The beer, named “Alebert,” was a medium-bodied summer honey wheat beer that reflected the refreshing, funny, and outgoing nature of its namesake.

In 2015, the brewery began a distilling program at its downtown location, after Arizona lawmakers had approved the craft distilling license, opening the doors for independent distillers to sell directly to customers. In 2016, Thunder Canyon relocated brewing operations to its downtown location. Nearly all of the tenants of the Foothills Mall had left, and though the mall was going scheduled to go through a much needed renovation, there was too much uncertainty involved for Tracy to be comfortable with. Brewing equipment was moved from the Foothills Mall location to downtown. In 2017, the brewery began canning its Thunder Canyon Thunderhead IPA. They also opened a second location in Tucson International Airport, part of a consortium of local businesses taking a stake in the airport’s concessions contract.

In 2019, Thunder Canyon stopped serving food in their brewstillery. This was largely due to higher food and labor costs, but additionally, their longtime head chef had retired the year before and they were struggling with their food service. Tracy reached out to the brewery's longtime bartender, Jim Owens, for his thoughts on how to change course and turn the business around. After Owens gave his insight, Tracy gave him the reins, and Owens began by cutting food service, scaling back the full-service bar, and booking touring acts he'd known over his 20+ years in the music business. It wasn't long before Thunder Canyon's calendars were fully booked with an eclectic mix of shows and off-the-wall events, and business picked up. The brewery was also able to ink deals with Safeway and Albertsons to carry six-packs of their flagship beer. Owens realized the brewstillery still needed food. Without it, customers tended not to stay as long. He reached out to Matty Parsons, who had worked for Thunder Canyon's kitchen before it shut down. Parsons opened his own concept, Shifty's Pizza, in the brewery.

In 2020, as the country battled the coronavirus pandemic, the need for hand sanitizer outweighed the need for vodka and rum. Thunder Canyon Brewery teamed up with Elgin Distillery to turn their high-grade alcohol into hand sanitizer. Within the first week, Tracy had sold 50 gallons to local hospitals, fire departments and the public, by creating an alcohol base that was 180 proof ethanol. The ethanol was diluted to about 160 proof before adding glycerin and hydrogen peroxide to the final product. Thunder Canyon’s partnership with Elgin Distillery increased Tracy’s production capabilities; Elgin had a 500-gallon distillery tank, compared with Thunder Canyon’s 50-gallon tank.

Doble Diablo is an American version of a Belgian Abbey. It is a strong ale with a rich, toasted caramel malt flavor and aroma, and a slightly hoppy finish, and is brewed with malted barley, wheat, and Hawaiian turbinado.