Gentle Ben's Brewing Company

About

Gentle Ben’s has been on this block since 1971 and has been brewing award winning brews since 1991. The original house was located under what is now the lobby of the Marriott Hotel. Built in 1908 as a private residence for the Hamilton family, over the years it served as the University president’s house, a boarding house and home to several fraternities. The name Gentle Ben’s was chosen through a contest and the winner was a University professor who thought the manager looked like Dan Haggerty from the T.V. show Grizzly Adams whose co-star was a bear named Gentle Ben. That show was based on a man who roamed parts of Northern California in the 1920s and 30s. He had two bears, Benjamin Franklin and Martha Washington. Martha was a mean bear by people standards and had to be kept chained to a stake. The other was gentle and was free to roam, hence Gentle Ben.Gentle Ben’s Brewing Company of Tucson Brewing began in 1991 when I bought the business and installed what, at the time, was the only brewery in Tucson. We started with three beers; Tucson Blonde, Red Cat Amber and Copperhead Pale Ale, all still brewed today and joined by five other styles.