MotoSonora Brewing Company Description for Hensley Beverage Company
The MotoSonora story
The idea for MotoSonora Brewing came during an overland trip by brothers Jeff and Jeremy DeConcini through South Africa and Botswana in 2010. While camping in the bush around the fire, there was no end of the debate over the pros and cons of the types of vehicles they were driving, the countries that they had visited and the beers they preferred for and from these places. Whether it was an IPA, an export stout, or a schwartzbier, they realized rather quickly that the beers inspired just as much passion and were integral to the overland travel and adventure lifestyle, every bit as much as the Alfa Romeos, BMWs, Land Rovers, Jeeps, and motorcycles were. It took several years, many poor vehicular choices and thousands of beers consumed to finally marry the talent, the motivation and the timing together to pursue MotoSonora Brewing Company. Jeff and Jeremy reached out to their old friend Tomme Arthur to help with the world class brewing knowledge that MotoSonora needed. Tomme Arthur is the director of operations for The Lost Abbey in San Diego and is one of the leading brewers in the world. Tucson was the logical choice for the brewery as it is the hometown of Jeremy and Jeff. Tucson is an overland crossroads where one can take the Arizona Trail both directions, is within striking distance of the Camino Del Diablo, the Grand Canyon, Zion, the California Coast as well as Sonora and Baja California. We provide the beers that are inspired and influenced by the worldwide brewing community while using as many local ingredients as possible to create a unique flavor profile found nowhere else in the world. Additionally, our taproom is an adventure unto itself with overland and vintage racing themed art from overland races such as the Mille Miglia, Paris-Dakar, Carrera Panamericana and Baja 1000, not to mention an actual motorcycle in the tasting room and other vehicles rotating through the beer garden.
The Name
When deciding on a name, we wanted something unique and that represented the theme of the brewery and that would also be representative of the quality and flavor of our beers. MotoSonora, chosen as a tribute to the golden age of cross country road racing and to reflect the adventurous beginnings of our brewery in Botswana in 2010. By combining the name Sonora (used in the Sonoran Desert as well as the Mexican state of Sonora) with the Italian prefix “Moto” (which is also a nod to our Italian heritage), we created a new name that symbolizes the speed and elegance of overland racing and adventure. Using an Italian name to take Old World beer styles to the southwest perfectly captured the spirit of our brewery.
One of our thematic inspirations is the Carrera Panamericana road rally. This was a race which ran border to border in Mexico from 1950 to 1954 and was widely considered the most dangerous race in the world at that time, even more so than the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio. The start of the race was not very far from our brewery location in Tucson, AZ. There is a vintage rally still running today under the same name.
MotoSonora Brewing Company has won awards for its beer in every year that it has been in operation.
Motto:
“Driven By Quality”