Award-winning Arizona brewery serving coffee and cocktails at its new destination distillery

Grand Canyon Brewing and Distillery is expanding.

Founded in 2007 by Navy veteran John Peasley, four years after he purchased the White Horse Trading Post and Cruisers Route 66 Café in Williams, the aim of the brewery has always been to capture the flavors and adventurous spirit of northern Arizona.

The company now brews craft beer, distills whiskey using 100% Arizona farm-sourced grains and offers a line other spirits and canned cocktails.

The brews have won numerous awards over the years, most recently at the 2023 U.S. Open Beer Championships, where the brewery took home a silver and two bronze medals for their Prickly Pear Wheat, Sacred Saguaro and Kachina Throwback beers.

And the company just got even bigger with the opening of the Grand Canyon Distillery Spirits & Coffee House, which opened in July.

What inspired the Grand Canyon Distillery expansion?

Jacob Newton, the distillery and brewery director of operations, explained that the distillery has grown by about 30% each year since it opened in 2017. They were getting to the point where they couldn’t operate in the small space they were allocated in the brewery — which was also growing rapidly.

They ended up moving to a new location with room for four new stills for the distillery and six new, 120 barrel fermenters (making about 4,000 gallons each) being added to the brewery.

“We just figured, well, hey, since we're going to have this production building, why not make it more of an immersive experience for customers,” Newton said. “Rather than our other locations are very restaurant forward you can see the breweries and all of our craft pubs. But, here you're literally sitting in our main production facility as you're drinking your cocktail or your coffee.”

They are hoping to create a place where locals and tourists alike feel comfortable and can experience Arizona craft products. Newton said it’s a change of pace from some of the other establishments in Williams that are more of a traditional bar or morning coffee shop.

What is the Grand Canyon Distillery Spirits & Coffee House?

The Grand Canyon Distillery Spirits & Coffee House is exactly what the name implies: a distillery and coffee shop.

On the coffee side, the menu includes Americanos, cortados, macchiatos, cappuccinos, lattes, Frappuccino, iced coffee, chai, hot chocolate and cold brew, along with cocktail collaborations like Irish Coffee, whiskey chai and coffee aged in bourbon barrels on site. Drinks, bagged coffee, and on-site distilled spirits including whiskey, vodka, rum, gin, and coffee liqueur are also available to purchase for take-away.

On cocktail menu, everything is made with Grand Canyon spirits and handcrafted liqueurs and syrups.

“We have for each of our spirits, one cocktail that really accentuates that spirit and allows the spirit to kind of speak for itself,” Newton said. “So, we want that to be predominant, right? That you get a taste of our Arizona craft spirits in your cocktail experience and you might even be lucky enough to see it coming off the still at the same point.”

Classics will always be available as well, so if customers want an old fashion or gin and tonic, they just need to ask their bartender, Newton said.

And more coffee cocktail collaborations are on the way.

“Our bar manager and our coffee manager are constantly working with each other to make different cocktails that either can be served in the morning or at night,” Newton said.

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How to visit the Grand Canyon Distillery Spirits & Coffee House

The Grand Canyon Distillery Spirits & Coffee House is located in front of the Williams production facility at Cataract Lake Road and North Seventh Street.

The coffee house and store hours are Wednesday through Sunday 6 a.m. – noon.

The cocktail bars hours are Friday through Saturday from 4 – 10 p.m.

The distillery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and guests are welcome to stop in for a tour at any time during operating hours.

Details: Grand Canyon Distillery Spirits & Coffee House, 301 N. Seventh Street, Suite 102, Williams. grandcanyonbrewery.com.

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Reach the reporter at dina.kaur@arizonarepublic.com. Follow @dina_kaur on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona craft beer and liquor producer opens coffee and cocktail bar