The Beer Research Institute

Nice people. Nice atmosphere. Good service. Good beer. Food was decent. Could be just a hair bigger for the price. Low key.

Food is unique and absolutely delicious! We ordered the pretzel nuggets, cubano sandwich, and burger w/​meat candy and washed it all down with their in-​house beers. All of it was amazing, as was the service. We will definitely be back!

Tried this place for dinner for the first time last night. Great little patio out front and exceptional service. We started with the meat candy (bacon) and a side of sweet potato fries… I opted for the Cobb salad for dinner (gluten free) paired with a cider. Great spot, good food, pretty decent sized menu with options and my craft beer drinking husband was loving all the different beers

I have been here multiple times. I love their food and beer. The service has always been great. I will be honest and say there are a few items on the menu that are lacking but the server was honest in making recommendations. I wish they would bring back the special Pale Ale (it is brewed for a charity but can’t remember the name) permanently.

Huge fan. local product. haven’t had much food but what I have had was ok… My focus is the beer… Not only do they brew great beer in house but they highlight other local brews and bring in amazing other craft from around the country… 480g. squirrel fire. and street cred is my shit!!!

WATCH OUT! Don’t even THINK about eating here unless you’re prepared for the following:
*Knowledgeable and approachable staff
*Unique theme
*Great selection
*Decent Prices
If you’re looking for a run-​of-​the-​mill beer joint that will serve you flat stouts and over-​cooked burgers, THIS PLACE IS NOT FOR YOU.
You’ve been warned.

Bless the beast and Beer Geeks! Love this place… The only thing that will keep me from going back are the irresistible hand cut fries. Emphasis on irresistible. I’ll tell myself I’m gonna order a salad, a chocolate stout and be done. Emphasis on «tell myself.» Then of course, yes I will order a side salad with hand cut fries, bread pudding to go…
The beers — absolutely awesome. So I’m thinking Jason (our waiter) might be the Head Beer Geek (HBG) in charge? So the HBG described the beers, flavors, subtleties, brewing process and so on. He tells us where our food comes from. We were excited just listening, ready to eat his words. We were not disappointed from the first bite to last!
Hand crafted beer, hand cut fries, wonderful staff… what’s not to love? I think this is my first 5 star rating! Woohoo!
The ultimate question is will I go back. YES!!!
Be Peace!

Decent beers in an odd atmosphere. Calling your beers things like «sugar tits» and other sexual innuendo is cool and all, but I feel like this place is trying a bit too hard to be trendy.
The food was OK. The salad was too spicy for my sister, as were the tacos. I love spicy food, but some kind of warning on the menu would be nice.
No real problems with the place, but no real reason for me to return.

There selection of house beers is nice, my boyfriend and I love IPAs which theirs are not to bad. Some are better then others. Our first time here was after the kitchen was closed. our most recent visit we came specifically for dinner and are leaving disappointed.
We had the poutine for an appetizer which we just warm, very bland, and needed salt. I ordered the burrito and thought it came with guacamole. I even asked to make sure it came with guac but no guac inside and I didn’t even get my side of sour cream like it says on the menu. The red chile sauce was subpar again, needed salt and was barley warm. I’m not really sure what was up with the amount of cucumbers that were very large diced that were in my burrito, I would be ok with some but they made up 50% of my burrito. I was disappointed and prob won’t eat there again.

Food was pretty dry and bland for what
we paid :(I enjoyed beer… but I enjoy most beer…
I’ve been here twice for beer only and had a good time with the staff who re great at the bar but then tried a date night and it was a little embarrassing how bad the food was.

A glorious brewery with some of the best beer I have had in the valley. Must try the meat candy!

Simply put, the «best craft brew» in the valley «. Matt and and the staff are awesome. The food is equally great, especially the wings!

NOTE: I received a very condescending response from the owner after my initial review (updated below). I contacted the owner directly and we have reached a better understanding, but it wasn’t the right way to respond to an unhappy customer and I still can’t recommend this place based on my own experiences.
REVIEW:
This was the biggest let-​down I have experienced in a long time!
I was enamored by the crazy number of positive reviews online (mostly employees and friends, I’m guessing?) and convinced my wife and a couple friends to join me for dinner and beers here.

I really loved the idea of the place and I like to support local businesses. The location was close to me, the simple menu was enticing and the beer selection was more than adequate for what turned out to be a fairly small place.
Unfortunately, our experience didn’t live up to the internet hype in the slightest.
I must say that the Steak Chimichurri Tacos were fantastic. Perhaps a tad over seasoned, but with a little sour cream and pico thrown on top, this is the one dish we tried tonight that I might come back for if the rest of the experience wasn’t so bad.
The Carne Asada Tacos, on the other hand, looked similar, but were quite bland and uninspiring.

The beans and rice that accompanied both of the taco dishes were truly a sad affair. I’m not sure what seasoning they use on the rice, but none of the four of us liked it. The beans were nothing more than a scoop of black beans straight from a can… no salt, no seasoning, barely warm.
Another item we ordered was the Not-​chos (get it? Nachos). In my opinion, this was a culinary failure! It’s a bowl filled with chips and topped with crumbles of the most dry and tasteless machaca beef you have ever put in your mouth. There was barely enough cheese to taste on the first layer and no cheese beneath that, just a big bowl of plain, bland tortilla chips. This item should be a free appetizer for the table while you wait, not a $ 10 plate!
The last food item we ordered was the SW Putin. I was most excited for this one and it was easily the second best dish on the table. HOWEVER, the fries were SO salty that the four of us had to take turns eating it. We’re not talking about typical «salted» fries here, we’re talking about «salt encrusted» fries. Too bad.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly: The drinks.
I’m a huge beer fan, so I tried 7 of their beers and ciders, mostly house, but also a few others.
The biggest complaint we had (as noted by everyone at my table) was how warm the beers were. One was nearly room temp! The rest were cool, but certainly not at all cold.
The server checked the lines for us and brought back a sample to confirm the temp was now working properly, but we still got charged for all the warm beers we had been given.
The BRI house beers we tried were generally good, but I hesitate to suggest that any were great. We didn’t try any of the IPA styles since none of us were in an IPA mood.
That said, their house selection is better than most breweries’ and encompassed porters, saisons, dubbels, etc. in addition to the prominent IPA lineup that is popular these days. Yet, while they’re certainly on the right track with many of these styles, most varieties felt like they still needed something «more» to be perfect (i.e. more body on the tongue for the porter, etc). Perhaps things were thrown off by the fact that the beers weren’t served nearly cold enough.
Between exceptionally disappointing food, beers that left us a bit wanting and service that was more minimal than either good or bad, I can’t in my heart of hearts recommend this place to anyone else.
It’s a newer establishment and may still be experiencing some growing pains, but there are too many other really solid brew houses around to waste more time and money at The Beer Research Institute. Sadly, not recommended!

I am a HUGE fan of this place, and with good reason too. I know it’s a bar, and the beer is really good, but the food menu is even better! I like the freedoms that the chef takes with the daily special. Every daily special is different from the next.
One of the draws (maybe a drawBACK for some people) of this place is that they have NO TV’S. The reasoning is that they want you to talk to the people you came with, what a novel idea!

{Update follows)
The food was acceptable and the beer was good, but nothing really special I’m sorry to say other than our waiter was outstanding. He was knowledgeable, friendly and attentive. I would recommend going here based on his service alone. Sadly my sandwich was nothing to write home about which is a shame because this place has a incredible amount of potential. But with Arizona Wilderness, Four Peaks, and San Tan not all that far away they really need to step up their game if they want to compete. This place could be a standout elsewhere but they are just not up to the competition in the Phoenix valley. I do hope that they can improve and get to a level to compete with other offerings in the area. They were good enough that I’ll give them another shot and I will post another review when I do.
Update: After I posted this review I found out that the friend I had dined here with experienced some rather unpleasant gastrointestinal problems. I cannot say if it was related for sure or not but he certainly believes it was. This, combined with the recent report that they received a failing D grade on their most recent inspection is why I have dropped the rating. Unless there is some real improvement I can not recommend going here.

Absolutely incredible place! The food is house prepared! Local vendors, etc! It’s a concept that is off the hook!
Beer is nearly perfect! Nuff said … Flight was grand! Lolli my fav!!!
Food was divine! Meat candy is must! Grilled wings. Yum! And pork salad. Perfect!
480G is bomb. Keep them muther Effin heads ringin’ … Lol took us back to 1994! Yay!
Love the Easy and straight outta Mesa tee idea! Even bought one! Great service by Derek and Jason’s heartfelt story was awesome!
Lifes too short… Nig… We’ll be back soon!

Well geez, on some weekends I might call our backyard and beer fridge, and the shuffling distance in between, a «beer research institute», but it’s good to know there’s also a cool brewery to visit as well. The name alone got us in, but the knowledgeable staff, tasty food, and delicious beers have kept us coming back. We’ve been a few times, tried a few different food items, and sampled all the beers. They really do an excellent job all around. The only thing I would change is to have the server stop back and check on us about 5 minutes after they drop the food. We usually don’t see them again until it’s check time, or unless they notice an empty glass.
Their beers tend to be fairly aggressive on the flavor and the ABV, so we have to be careful and flip a coin for who is going to drive and who is going to have another drink. The last time we were there the Belgian lollis were both superb and the black IPA they had made me moan. It was just that good.
All of the food items we’ve had were great, and next time we plan to finally try a burger, but you’ve got to get the pretzel nuggets to start. Those really go nicely with the beers. Overall, this has become one of our favorite local breweries.

No lab coats or caged frat boys used as test subjects. This is a straight up craft beer scientific discovery.
Located in the back of a strip mall in glorious Mesa, AZ is a very unassuming and even a little plain looking brewery. The lay out here is like any normal craft beer house that also serves food. Minus the glass beaker lights hanging from the ceiling.
I came here with the family and a very friendly server, who not only had the low down on the beer, but the food as well, greeted us. There were so many options I decided to go with a mini flight, four beers of my choice. I went with the Vanilla Porter, The Street Cred, War Paint, and 480G IPA. These all being served in a brass knuckle holder.
Vanilla Porter — Great taste and very mellow on the vanilla. I could only taste it on the finish., and for being such a dark beer this was surprisingly light. I would order this again.
The Street Cred — This beer was good, but it’s what I call a palate destroyer. If you start with this beer, end with this beer. It will alter your taste buds so you can’t get a solid flavor profile from other satisfying suds.
480G IPA — Great classic IPA. This is the beer you should order while looking over either menus, food or beer. Great choice for the craft loving newbie.
War Paint — This was my favorite and I could have had three more pints of this. Super smooth and great flavor. This beer will be my go to next time I’m at BRI.
I also ordered some food on my trip here, the «Spanglish». This mutated breakfast sandwich was the perfect pairing with my beer filled flight. Meat candy, an over easy egg, provolone, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle sauce. All of that on sweet Hawaiian bread. Not sure why it’s called the, «Spanglish», but I didn’t care either. This beast was delicious, the ultimate in breakfast styled food porn. The egg was cooked perfectly and the yolk ran down the sandwich as soon as I cut into it. Pure goodness.
Was I blinded by science? Yes. Craft hoppy science!

It’s school time!
Grab your pens, pencils or hell why not grab a pint glass and take in the professional instructors!
This place is legit, in house craft beer that really leaves you wanting more. A full bar is available if you are not the beer guru, with wine and spirits. The staff here brew onsite really put their heart and soul into what they produce. Guest beer on tap is also available from other brewery’s which mixes it up.
They also offer you some really awesome food options, I highly recommend the SW pontine, a great southern mix of Canadian mex that will leaving you wanting more.
Knowledgeable staff and good food really makes for a wicked brew pub that can rival any other in the area.
Overall:
Food: 5 – 5
Drink: 5 – 5
Service: 5 – 5
Coming back: you know it!

I found this place on Unilocal and I’m always up for trying new breweries but ended up being disappointed.
For entrees I ordered the green chili Mac and cheese and added machata to it. Which is a shredded typed of beef. It was a bit spicy but good. My boyfriend ordered the carne asada tacos and these were extremely disappointing for $ 11. The two tacos were only a little bigger than mini tacos. It came with rice and beans that came in those sauce cups that you use to put your salsa in. That’s it?
For beer I ordered their Christmas ale. It tasted really good in the beginning but I’m a slow drinker. After a while it got really flat and tasted really bitter. I was disappointed that they had such a small selection of beers for a brewery. The only plus for me was our waiter was very friendly and knowledgable of their beers.