What's the only thing scarier than a haunted brewery? Spilling your beer — something you're likely to do if you dare to get spooked by the ghosts that roam Four Peaks Brewing Company this fall.
The big picture: Four Peaks is again hosting its annual flashlight tours through every corner of the working brewery, which was featured on " Ghost Adventures " last year for its supernatural proclivity.
- "Resident ghost guy" Carter Nacke will lead you on an hour-long journey with ghost-hunting devices and eerie stories about the lingering spirits from 8th Street's early days.
Why it matters: The tour, while perfect for paranormal enthusiasts, also weaves in the fascinating history of one of Tempe's oldest buildings.
Flashback: The Creamery Building was constructed in 1892 by a pioneer ice maker named F. A. Hough who later expanded his business with a creamery to service the expansive farmland in the southeast Valley.
- The facility was later sold to the Borden Milk Company and remained one of Tempe's largest employers until the late 1950s.
Victor Vogel's daughter provided a photo of him for Four Peaks to display. Photo: Jessica Boehm/Axios
Zoom in: Perhaps the most legendary ghost at Four Peaks is Victor, an old man whose spirit is said to hang around their industrial cooler.
- According to Nacke, one of the Four Peaks founders met an old man shortly before the brewery opened in 1996. The man said he used to work at the Creamery building as a superintendent for the Borden Milk Factory and almost died in an accident there.
- Before the Four Peaks founder could ask any more questions, the man disappeared.
Between the lines: Months later, the founder was paging through old photos of the Creamery Building provided by the Tempe Historical Society and saw the mysterious man in one of them. He researched and learned his name was Victor Vogel and discovered he died in the 1970s — over 20 years earlier.
- Victor's daughter still comes to Four Peaks to be near her dad's spirit — and for the fish and chips and Peach Ale, per Nacke.
Zoom out: Four Peaks employees say they regularly see several other ghosts including a little girl, a tall gray-bodied man and a territorial spirit named Anthony.
1 creepy thing: At the end of the tour, Nacke pulled out a spirit box, a device that emits raw radio frequencies that ghosts can allegedly communicate through.
- Nacke encouraged me to direct a question to a spirit through the box so I asked: "What is your name?"
- As the frequencies scanned, you could hear a little girl's voice faintly say what sounded like "Lauren."
- The voice continued to answer a few more questions, noting she'd been sick before she died.
If you go: Tours are offered Sundays-Wednesdays through Halloween at 7pm and 8:30pm.
- The $40 ticket includes a commemorative t-shirt and a special edition crowler of the famous Pumpkin Porter.
The bottom line: Nacke told us the ghosts tend to get more active later in the tour season once they're more comfortable with strangers in their space. So ghost enthusiasts may want to wait until closer to Halloween.
- But if you're a fraidy cat like me, I'd go soon — just hearing Lauren's voice was enough fright for me!
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