For longtime Tucsonans Corey Shaver and Lawrence Combs, beer has always been a fixture in their lives.
The two met while working at Pueblo Vida Brewing Company in town. From there, they moved to Vermont where Combs began working for Hill Farmstead Brewery and Shaver worked in a “cheese lab.”
They had ambitions for something bigger though. After a stop in California and Shaver receiving her master’s degree, they knew starting their own operation was their next move – which led to opening Slow Body Beer Co. in Tucson nearly eight months ago.
“We were always, like, once we get back home, we’ll be ready to kind of bring this dream to fruition,” Shaver said.
Slow Body, located at 831 E. 17th Street, offers a slew of different beers for guests to choose from at its taproom.
Combs said he wanted to focus on creating beers that he and Shaver enjoyed while providing a relaxed environment for people to grab a pint with friends and family.
“We like being able to have a couple of beers and not feeling, you know, intoxicated but just being able to try something that’s tasty,” Combs said. “And we just wanted to sort of build a space where people can hang out for a long time and drink a couple beers. It’s not about packing the most flavor you possibly can into the beer. It’s more about just spending time with each other and having some good beer.”
Some of Slow Body’s options include its three flagship lagers, Pils, Blue and Helles.
Pils is a German-style pilsner with floral hints that packs a tight flavor profile. Blue is a light and smooth Czech-style lager with a slight twist. Blue is brewed with 10% blue corn masa that is nixtamalized and processed in-house at Slow Body. Combs said it adds to the classic taste of traditional Czech-style lagers.
“It sort of has like a nice, warm, corny flavor, but also has, like. all the characteristics of a regular old school Czech lager,” Combs said.
The final flagship beer is Helles, a German-style helles beer, which Combs said is one of the beer company’s lightest options.
Other selections include the Kind Beer Pale Ale, the Home Body American Stout, the Slow Brow Hazy IPA, the CCF Sour and the Cutie Hard Seltzer.
Combs said developing ideas for new beers is one of his favorite parts of the job.
“It feels sort of like being a chef and you know what ingredients do what and you can sort of play around and come up with new things,” Combs said. “That’s one of the most fun and rewarding parts. And then being able to see people taste it in the taproom and enjoy it. That’s like the whole reason we do it.”
Slow Body’s taproom offers a “cozy” environment for patrons to meet their friends, study, read a book or enjoy live music over a beer.
Shaver said the design of the taproom allows guests to explore and enjoy a relaxing experience.
“We just wanted something that was kind of like your grandma’s house,” Shaver said. “(It’s a place) where you could just go in and relax…Kind of generally cozy feel where it’s somewhere you could kind of put your feet up and hang out for a little bit and not worry about the hustle and bustle of the world outside.”
The taproom is also host to many events such as “Anti-Trivia,” “Pilates & Pints,” and chess nights.
The duo said customers have told them they appreciate the number of events always going on, to the point where people are now reaching out to them with new event ideas.
“The longer we are open now too, we have people just kind of constantly reaching out for different ideas of their own groups and different things people want to do that we would have never thought of too,” Shaver said. “So it feels really cool to let go of some of that and let people pick how they want to see the space used and set up their own events and stuff like that.”
To celebrate Arizona Beer Week, which starts on Thursday, Feb. 13 and ends on Sunday, Feb. 23, Slow Body will participate in a lineup of different events.
Those events include “Anti-Trivia” on Wednesday, Feb. 19, and running a table at the Tucson Craft Beer Crawl on Saturday, Feb. 22.
Combs said Slow Body is looking forward to celebrating Arizona Beer Week in Tucson.
“This is our first one being back and yeah, we’re excited to jump back in,” Combs said.
Slow Body Beer Co.’s selection can be found in its taproom and several different locations locally. For more information about where to find Slow Body Beer, visit slowbodybeer.com/wheretobuy.
Slow Body Beer Co.
WHERE: Slow Body Beer Co., 831 E. 17th Street
HOURS: 3 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Friday through Saturday, noon to 8 p.m. Sunday
INFO: slowbodybeer.com
