Dont Forget About Beer Camp!

In less than a month, @SierraNevada will host #BeerCampTour at its new NC facility. Tickets are still available!

"Beer Camp Across America will feature seven stops—in cities with thriving craft beer cultures—moving geographically west to east, much like the craft movement has historically spread. Each tour stop will feature that city’s local and surrounding regional brewers. The festivals will appropriately begin and end at Sierra Nevada’s two brewing locations, kicking off in Chico where it took root in 1980, and culminating in Mills River, NC for the grand opening of its East Coast brewery."

This festival, the seventh and final on the 2014 Beer Camp tour, will be held on August 3rd, 1-6 pm.  Tickets will be $65, and of course you will have to be over 21.

Sierra Nevada is boasting: "...we’ve invited every craft brewer from these states to serve their beers at the Southeast Edition: NC, SC, GA, AL, MS, FL, LA, AR and TN—more than 300!"  

Right now it looks like over 120 have signed up, including these Georgia & South Carolina breweries.  
 

BLUE RIDGE BREWING COMPANY

Greenville, SC

BLUE TARP BREWING COMPANY, LLC

Decatur, GA

COAST BREWING COMPANY

North Charleston, SC

CONQUEST BREWING COMPANY, INC

Columbia, SC

CREATURE COMFORTS

Athens, GA

EVENTIDE BREWING

Atlanta, GA

HUNTER-GATHERER BREWERY

Columbia, SC

MOON RIVER BREWING COMPANY

Savannah, GA

NEW SOUTH BREWING

Myrtle Beach, SC

PALMETTO BREWERY

Charleston, SC

QUEST BREWING COMPANY

Greenville, SC

RED BRICK BREWING CO.

Atlanta, GA

RIVER RAT BREWERY

Columbia, SC

RJ ROCKERS BREWING COMPANY

Spartanburg, SC

SOUTHBOUND BREWING COMPANY

Savannah, GA

STRAWN BREWING COMPANY

Fairburn, GA

SWEET WATER BREWING COMPANY

Atlanta, GA

TERRAPIN BEER COMPANY

Athens, GA

THOMAS CREEK BREWERY

Greenville, SC

WILD HEAVEN CRAFT BEERS

Decatur, GA

WRECKING BAR BREW PUB

Atlanta, GA

So, if you are looking for a fun break to the summertime doldrums, hop on up to NC!

Coming Soon: 1st Annual Georgia Craft Beer Festival

@GaBrewersGuild and @RedBrickBrewing have announced the 1st Annual Georgia Craft Beer Festival to be held on March 22nd at Red Brick.

Red Brick is hosting an unprecedented festival which aims to gather all currently operational Georgia breweries under one banner for a day of celebrating our local craft beer culture. The VIP area will feature 12 specially crafted beers, each one by a different participating brewery. There will also be food trucks and some of the best local live music that Atlanta has to offer. The event will benefit the Georgia Craft Brewers' Guild (insert anything here that you want to say about the guild).

Tickets will go on sale on Jan 24th.

World Beer Festival - Columbia, SC UPDATE #1

@AllAboutBeer has released the latest brewery line-up for this weekend's World Beer Festival in Columbia, SC.  By my count, 17 entrants fell off and 9 new ones were added. (New additions in italics)

Additionally, they have included the preliminary beer line-ups for each brewer.  Take a gander!

BREWERY	BEER	BEER	BEER	BEER
Abbey de Leffe	Leffe Brune	Leffe Blonde
Abita Brewing	Grapefruit IPA	Strawator	Turbo Dog
Allagash Brewing	White	Black Belgian Stout
Anderson Valley Brewing Co.	Spring Hornin'	El Steinber
Angry Orchard	Crisp Apple	Ginger	Cinful Apple
Avery Brewing	Ellie's Brown	Out of Bounds Stout
Bell's Brewery	Amber	Two Hearted IPA
Benford Brewing Co.	O'SOO Stout	Brown	Irish Honey	Southern Tater
Blue Moon	White	Seasonal
Blue Mountain Brewery	Lager	Steel Wheels ESB	Full Nelson IPA
Boston Beer Co.	Boston Lager	Cold Snap	Rebel IPA
BottleTree Beer Co.	Blonde	Red
Brooklyn Brewery	Lager	Brown
Carolina Brewery	Sky Blue Golden Ale	Copperline Amber Ale	Flagship IPA
Carolina/Cottonwood	Carolina Blonde	Carolina Strawberry Blonde	Cottonwood Frostbite
COAST Brewing Company	HopArt	Smoked Red	32/50 Kolsch
Conquest Brewing	Blonde Ale	Sacret Heart IPA	Medusa Stout	Beer Fest Beer
Crispon	Crispin Cider
Crown Imports	Modelo Especial	Pacifico	Victoria	Negra Modelo
Czechvar	Czechvar	Czechvar Dark
Diageo	Guiness	Harp	Smithwicks
Dogfish Head Brewery	Namaste	My Antonia	India Brown
Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery	Milk Stout	Paul's Holiday
Foothills Brewery	Torch Pilsner	Hoppyum IPA	People's Porter
Founder's Brewing Co.	All Day IPA	Porter	Dirty Bastard
Four Friends Brewing	i77	Uptown Brown
Fox Barrel	Fox Barrel Cider
Freehouse Brewery	Brown	Ashley Farmhouse
Goose Island	312	IPA	Sofie	Matilda
Heineken USA	Amstel	Dos XX	Strongbow
Highland Brewing Co.	Oatmeal Porter	Gaelic Ale
Holy City Brewing	Pluff Mud Porter	Slanted Porch
Laguintas Brewing Co.	IPA	Undercover Shutdown	Little Sumpin
Lazy Magnolia Brewing Co.	Southern Hops'pitality	Jefferson Stout
Leinenkugel	Snow Drift
Lonerider Brewery	Peacemaker Pale Ale	Shotgun Betty	Sweet Josie
Magic Hat Brewing Co.	#9	TBD
Merchant du Vin	Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout	Lindemans Framboise	Orval	Ayinger Brau Weisse
New Belgium Brewing Co.	Yuzu	Spring Blonde	Fat Tire	Ranger
NoDa Brewing Co.	Hop Drop	Coco Loco
Olde Mecklenburg Brewery	Copper	Captain Jack	Dunkel
Oskar Blues Brewery	Dales Pale Ale	Old Chub	Mama's Yellow Pils
Red Hare Brewing Co.	Gangway IPA	Long Day Lager
Redds	Apple Ale	Strawberry Ale
River Dog Brewing Co.	Belgian Quad	India Red Ale	Kolsch
RJ Rockers	Good Boy Stout	Witty Twister
Rogue Brewery	Good Chit	Yellow Snow
Shock Top	Belgian White	Raspberry
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.	Pale Ale	Torpedo Extra IPA	Ruthless Rye
	Bigfoot Barleywine	Ovila Plum	Porter
Smuttynose	Big A IPA	Rye IPA	Scotch Ale
St Killians	Carlsburg	Carbbie's Ginger
Stella Atrois	Stella Atrois
Stone Brewing Co.	Levitation Ale	Vertical Epic
SweetWater Brewing Co.	Whiplash White IPA	IPA	Blue
Terrapin Brewing Co.	Hopsecutioner	Rye Pale Ale
Thomas Creek Brewery	River Fall Red	Coffee Oatmeal Porter
Westbrook Brewing Co.	IPA	One Claw Rye Pale Ale	White Thai
Weyerbacher Brewing	Merry Monks	Blithering Idiot	Double Simcoe Double IPA
Widmer Brothers Brewery	Alchemy IPA	TBD
Windy Hill Cider	Ginger Gold	Gala Peach	Hoppin Johnny
Woodchuck	Amber Cider	Pear Cider	Cellar Series

OK, I will take another look at this on Friday, and check for any more changes.

Hope to see you there!

World Beer Festival - Columbia, SC

@AllAboutBeer's World Beer Festival will be making a return visit to Columbia, SC's convention center on January 18th (Ignore the fact that the banner above from their current website still has last year's date on it, as I am sure that oversight does not reflect how the show will be run.....)

This will be my third year in attendance.  I quite liked the first year and had a lot of fun.  Though I hear that the evening sessions ran into some issue with lack of product (under previous organizers).  Last year's was not bad, though I felt that there were not as many booth's, especially with smaller local and regional craft brewers.  Additionally, there was a mix-up in the VIP section, where tastings of Sam Adam's Utopias were advertised, but never materialized.  Organizers made up for it with later tastings, though many of us could not make the drive up to Columbia for those make-ups.  :-(

That being said, the line up for this years looks like it has rounded into shape, and I must say looks rather promising, especially on the aforementioned local/regional brewer front.  Quite a few of the standouts from NC and SC are on the list, though not as many from GA as I had hoped to see.

Below is the list as of this evening, and I have heard that there may in fact be more regional brewers added to the list.  I have highlighted some of the booths that I am especially looking forward to visiting.   How about you?

Abbaye de Leffe	Belgium
Abita	Abita Springs, LA
Allagash	Portland, MA
Avery	Boulder, CO
Ayinger	Germany
Ballast Point	San Diego, CA
Batch 19	Golden, CO
Bear Republic	Healdsburg, CA
Bell's	Kalamazoo, MI
Benford	Lancaster, SC
Blue Moon	Golden, CO
Boston Beer	Boston, MA
BottleTree Beer	Tryon, NC
Brooklyn	Brooklyn, NY
Carlsburg	Denmark
Carolina	Pittsboro, NC
Chimay	Belgium
Coast	North Charleston, SC
Conquest	Columbia, SC
Cottonwood/Carolina	Mooresville, NC
Crispin Cider	Colfax, CA
Czechvar	Czech Republic
Dogfish Head	Milton, DE
Duck Rabbit	Farmville NC
Foothills	Winston-Salem, NC
Founder’s	Grand Rapids, MI
Four Friends	Charlotte NC
Fox Barrel Ciders	Colfax, CA
Goose Island	Chicago, IL
Highland	Asheville, NC
Holy City	North Charleston, SC
Hunter-Gatherer	Columbia, SC
Lagunitas	Petaluma, CA
Lazy Magnolia	Kiln, MS
Leinenkugel	Chippewa Falls, WI
Lindemans	Belgium
Lonerider	Raleigh, NC
Magic Hat	South Burlington, VT
Modelo	Mexico
New Belgium	Fort Collins, CO
New South	Myrtle Beach, SC
NoDa	Charlotte NC
Olde Mecklenburg	Charlotte NC
Orval	Belgium
Oskar Blues	Brevard, NC
Pacifico	Mexico
Palmetto	Charleston, SC
Railhouse	Aberdeen, NC
Red Hare	Marietta, GA
Redd's Apple	Albany, GA
River Dog	Ridgeland, SC
RJ Rockers	Spartanburg, SC
Rogue	Ashland, OR
Sameul Smith	England
Sierra Nevada	Chico, CA
Smuttynose	Portsmouth, NH
St. Killian Imports	Various
Stella Artois	Belgium
Stone	Escondido, CA
Sweetwater	Atlanta, GA
Terrapin	Athens, GA
Thomas Creek	Greenville, SC
Victoria	Downingtown, PA
Westbrook	Mt. Pleasant, SC
Weyerbacher	Easton, PA
Windy Hill Orchard	York, SC
Woodchuck Cider	Middlebury, VT
Yuengling	Pottsville, PA

SweetWater 420 Fest - 2014

It looks like April is shaping up to be quite a good month for beer lovers in Georgia.

In addition to the 19th Annual Classic City Brew Fest in Athens on April 13th, Atlanta will be hosting the 10th Anniversary SweetWater 420 Fest between April 18-20.


(2013 420 Fest)

This year's rendition will take place in Centennial Olympic Park, with a large line-up of musical talent for entertainment.  Unlike previous years, the 420 Fest will use tickets, rather than $5 wristbands.  New prices will include a 3-Day Weekend Pass for $14, and a 3-Day VIP Pass for $135.  However early-bird tickets are on sale now for $14.20 and $85 respectively.  One day passes will only be sold day-of, for $10.  Buy your tickets here.

“With this year being our 10th anniversary, we really wanted to dig deeper and bring fans more of the SweetWater experience,” said Director of Marketing for SweetWater Brewery Steve Farace. “We’ve worked hard throughout the last decade as the festival has evolved since its inception, and this year we’re continuing to differentiate our lineup as our new home in Centennial Olympic Park gives us a bigger playground to stretch our out legs in.”

Enjoy!

Hat Tip: Brewbound