Huss Brewing Co. carves an indoor-outdoor brewpub into the north face of the Phoenix Convention Center at 225 East Monroe Street, the downtown taproom for a city that drinks its beer local. It is the easiest good pint to find before a game or a show.
The brewpub sits on Monroe between Second and Third Streets, steps from the convention center's north doors and a short walk from the light-rail line that runs down Central Avenue. Huss opened in South Tempe in 2013 and acquired Scottsdale's Papago Brewing in 2016, and this downtown room gives the family-owned brewery a full-service restaurant and a to-go counter in the centre of the city. Craft Brewing Business reported the brewery was later named the official craft beer of Sun Devil Athletics, an Arizona authority signal that few taprooms can match.
This is the bar for a drinker who wants a dependable local pour without hunting for it. Skip it if you want a quiet neighbourhood corner, because the room fills around convention sessions, Suns games at the nearby arena and downtown events. The crowd is a mix of conference badges, office workers and beer regulars who came for the source.
The draw is the house lineup. Scottsdale Blonde, the brewery's flagship Kolsch-style ale, is the smooth, lightly hopped pour to start with, and Papago Orange Blossom layers bright citrus over a creamy wheat finish for the Arizona heat. Drinkers who want something darker or hoppier will find rotating IPAs and seasonals across the taps, and a flight is the right move on a first visit.
The space is carved into the north façade of the convention center on Monroe, an indoor-outdoor brewpub with a long bar, a dining room and patio seating that opens to the street. It reads more like a full restaurant than a back-alley taproom, which suits its job as a pre-event anchor where a group can eat, drink and split for the arena or the convention floor in the same block. The to-go counter handles the crowd that wants cans for later.
Reviewers on Yelp keep returning to a few points. They rate the convenience of a real brewery inside the convention footprint, single out the Scottsdale Blonde and Papago Orange Blossom as the safe and the interesting pours, and note that service moves quickly even when an event empties into the room. The common note is that the space gets loud on event nights, which tracks for a downtown brewpub doing volume.
Expect standard brewpub pricing, with pints and flights well under a craft-cocktail tab and a kitchen of shareable plates and sandwiches to anchor a session. The full menu and the to-go counter make it as much a pre-event stop as a destination, and reviewers on Yelp single out the convenience of a real brewpub inside the convention footprint.
The crowd shifts with the calendar rather than the clock, quiet on an off afternoon and full when downtown has an event. Best time to go is an early pint before a game or a show, when the patio catches the evening and the taps are fresh. Convention-goers should treat it as the reliable first round before the night spreads out across downtown.
Who it is for: a local pint before an event, a flight of Arizona beer, and a brewpub that does the basics right. For more taprooms, our guide to the best craft beer bars in Phoenix ranks Huss against the neighbourhood breweries, and the Phoenix bar guide maps where to drink across the valley. Beer travellers can also browse our pillar on the best craft beer bars worldwide.
Sources: Huss Brewing official site (2026); Yelp Huss Brewing Downtown PHX Brewpub; visitphoenix.com listing; Craft Brewing Business, Sun Devil Athletics sponsorship; Arcadia News interview with Leah Huss