BlackRock Brewers to close after nine years on Tucson’s east side

BlackRock Brewers is closing after nine years on Tucson’s east side, ending a brewery that started the same way a lot of backyard beer obsessions do, with two homebrewers, a plan, and a lot of faith in a neighborhood that was still underserved. Tony Williams and Chuck Boyer opened BlackRock at 1664 S. Research Loop, Suite 200, in 2017 after raising money through Kickstarter and private investment, and the brewery said the business was no longer sustainable as sales softened, operating costs climbed, rent went up, and the local economy stayed difficult.

The announcement, posted on May 4, did not set a hard final day of service. What it did make clear was that the end had come for a small, local-first operation that spent nearly a decade trying to be more than a place to drink beer. BlackRock’s original plan called for a 15-barrel production brewery, a tasting room in east Tucson, and beer sold locally and regionally. The founders also said Tucson could support far more breweries than it had at the time, estimating room for about 30 based on per-capita numbers.

That bet came with a real taproom identity. BlackRock opened with an industrial farmhouse look, board games, occasional live acoustic music, food trucks, and a lineup that included a cream ale, pale ale, IPA, vanilla porter and amber ale. Gene Sandoval was hired as head brewer, and the taproom started with four to six taps before adding guest beers. It also leaned into a “foreign exchange” idea that let east-side customers drink beers from other Tucson breweries without driving across town.

BlackRock’s reach went beyond the taproom. Its beer showed up at Beyond Bread, Short Rest Tavern, Three Canyon Beer and Wine Garden, Casa Video, Hotel McCoy and Empire Pizza, a distribution footprint that fit the brewery’s neighborhood-first approach even as the market tightened around it.

For Tucson beer drinkers, the loss is not just another closure on a crowded list. BlackRock was one of the east side’s anchors, the kind of place that made a part of town feel like it belonged in the city’s craft beer map. Its nine-year run traces a familiar arc in modern brewing: the leap from homebrew dream to commercial taproom is possible, but keeping that dream alive against rising costs is a much harder pour.