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Vernon was in soil and water sciences,
Crooked Tooth’s taproom has a
quirky industrial vibe that pays
homage to the history of the space
as a garage, now spiced up with
taxidermied animal heads, local art,
a pinball machine and hula hoops.
44 ARIZONA ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Of course, Vernon had a little fermentation
a specialty that’s particularly useful when training himself, beginning when his wife gave
wrestling with Tucson’s hard tap water. “Knowing him a home-brewing kit a dozen years ago. “She
the mineralization of water and water chemistry knew what she was doing when she bought it,”
is important — knowing pH control and how to he laughs. “I instantly dove right in. The next
bring it down, for example, if I use phosphoric thing you know, I had an all-grain system, and
acid versus citric acid, and other elements in the four dedicated refrigerators and five beers on tap
brewing the process,” Vernon says. in my house. My dad was talking to my daughter
Without getting into the technical weeds, once, and he told her, ‘Hey, go home and take a
suffice to say these are very heady brews. “There bath.’ She said she couldn’t because her dad’s beer
is a lot of microbiology and chemistry tangled was fermenting in the bathtub.”
up in beer making,” Vernon says. “I’ve noticed After college, he spent a few years working
that a lot of brewers tend to have a background for a hydrogeological company. But what was
like mine. One friend I met in the brewing supposed to be less than half the year spent
community has a degree in microbiology and traveling quickly doubled, and soon he was rarely
another in biology.” seeing his kids. So he and Julie (she’s a former
Pointing to the popularity of brewing, some Wildcat herself, by the way, as is his father and a
universities now offer degrees in fermentation. great-aunt) were sitting in a coffee shop kicking
“I think people with that degree will even have around ideas when the notion of a brewery
one up on those of us with science backgrounds,” popped up. “It was inevitable,” Vernon says, “that
he says. my brewing obsession would eventually take
over.”
They opened the brewery on Nov. 4, 2016, with
an unusual mission statement: “Our mantra is
like a crooked tooth, a mole, a lazy eye,” reads
their Facebook page, “as in ‘be yourself and relish
what makes you different. Don’t alter who you are
to conform to societal standards but stand out.’
We apply this in life and in brewing.”
And with that, they were off. The
brewpub itself is charming and homey, with
a 1,400-square-foot beer garden and big
community tables. Mainstay brews range from
Archmagus Ale, with caramel and roasted nut,
to Lazer Soundwaves — a sour, peppery saison
— and Crooked Light, a crisp, American-style ale
with hints of straw.
Vernon’s exhaustive understanding of
brewing chemistry shines through in each of
these beers, as does his penchant for locally
sourced produce, from kumquats and peaches
to grapefruit. “I’m after weird ingredients,” he
says. “I like it whenever you’re pushing those
boundaries of what people think is OK or
not OK for beer. For instance, we just made a
strawberry-basil sour saison. I put in 300 pounds
of strawberries and four pounds of basil. It’s
fantastic. We took it to the Baja Beer Festival, and
we got great feedback. Our sales rep went out on
his first day and sold eight kegs of it.”