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!

Gimme a Hi-5!

Beer Street Journal provides us an exclusive look at Terrapin Beer's Hi-5 IPA coming this spring in cans!

Exclusive Look: Terrapin Hi-5 IPA Cans

Terrapin Beer Co (Athens, GA) made a series of announcements at a press meeting last night. One of the bigger announcements was the addition of a can to the brewery’s lineup.

In addition to RecreationALE, Terrapin will be adding a new west-coast style IPA called Hi-5 IPA. The beer, while not officially brewed yet, will be full of Pacific Northwest hops.

I really love that more and more craft brewers are getting into the whole canning thing.  I think there are so many benefits to it from a consumer perspective.  I guess we will see if the hi-end beer drinking world can overcome a long standing (and mostly deserved) bias against beer in cans.  More on this later....

Eventide Rising

Atlanta welcomes @EventideBrewing, and adds to its embarrassment of Craft Brewing riches!

Atlanta brewery launches first beers 

On Jan. 7, Eventide released its first two beers, an a American Pale Ale and a Kölsch Style Ale, at Six Feet Under in Grant Park.

The Atlanta-based craft beer company was formed in 2011 by Nathan Cowan, Haley Cowan and Geoffrey Williams after the three met at Georgia Southern University in 2001. Mathew Sweezey, the company’s vice president of marketing, was introduced to group though a mutual friend of Cowan.The company started with a bank roll of less than $200,000 after the group took out second mortgages on their homes, along with investments from friends and family, to raise the capital, Sweezey said.

“We love and pride ourselves in that the roots of Eventide Brewing stem from a homebrewing project,” Sweezey said. “We aren’t trying to compete with the other breweries in Atlanta because we are more of a neighborhood brewery.”

I can't wait to visit!  My next visit to Atlanta is going to be pretty crammed full of brewery tours...

Decatur Brew Envy

Broderick Smylie (@SavoryExposure) highlights Three Taverns Brewery, Wild Heaven Brewing, and Blue Tarp Brewing in this write-up:

The Booming Brewery Scene in Decatur

Decatur has long been a hotbed of craft beer drinking in the Atlanta area and it’s recently taken it up a notch with the debut of new breweries adding to the mix of top notch beer bars the small city has nurtured in the past several years.

[...]

Deservedly, the craft beer scene in Decatur has risen to national prominence with the only missing element, until now, a craft brewery. There is no better place to be in Atlanta if you are a craft beer lover.”

Alas, like many things, it is two hours away...  But live vicariously and read the whole thing.

Special Release in Columbia SC tonight!

My bud @AUGCraftBeer reports on @allaboutbeer & @conquestbrewing's collaboration release:

"This evening, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm, an advance release will be held at World of Beer in Columbia, South Carolina, for a special collaboration beer brewed up by Conquest Brewing Company and All About Beer Magazine.

It was announced in a media release sent out yesterday that the brew, an English-style Porter, which was brewed at the Columbia brewery specially for the sixth annual World Beer Festival - Columbia, will be unveiled at a special event tonight. According to Drink. Blog. Repeat, tasters will also get to decide on additional flavors to go into the final release of the beer."

 Additional details at the link!

Coming Soon: Secret Stash Bash!

 On Mar 1st, @5SeasonsBrewing and @TacoMacPrado will be hosting the "Secret Stash Bash" at their locations on Atlanta's north side.

What is a "Stash Bash" you ask, since like me you might live in Craft Beer Purgatory?  Imagine a metric buttload of great craft brewers descending on your town (not Augusta of course) with their "stash" of brews that you can't get anywhere else?

What is the opposite of Purgatory?  That's right....Heaven!




Stolen from their website here are the details:

If you are a Craft Beer aficionado, and that description hasn't hooked you already, then check out the list of breweries:

5 Seasons Brewing Company

Allagash

Ass Kisser Ales

Anderson Valley

Artisinal Imports

Avery

Belukus

Bell's Brewing

Blue Point

Brooklyn Brewery

Boulevard

Burnt Hickory

Clown Shoes

Dogfish Head Ales

Duck Rabbit Brewery

Finches Beer Co.

Founders

Green Flash

Highland Brewing Company

Jail House Brewing

Jeckyl Brewing

Lagunitas Brewing

Left Hand Brewing

Merchant du Vin

Monday Night Brewing

Mother Earth Brewing

New Belgium Brewing

New Holland Brewing

Odempsey's Beer to Die For

Oskar Blues

Red Brick Brewery

Red Hare Brewing

Rogue Ales

Sierra Nevada

Stone Brewing

Sweetwater Brewing

Terrapin Beer

Three Taverns

Victory Brewing

Wetten Importers

Wild Haven Beers

Given that these guys will not be serving up their run of the mill distribution, I think my liver has cried Uncle already....

Coming Soon: Southeastern Craft Brewers' Symposium

@GaBrewersGuild annouces that it will be hosting the 1st Annual "Southeastern Craft Brewers' Symposium" in Decatur this coming April.

"The Georgia Craft Brewers Guild is excited to announce our first annual Southeastern Craft Brewers' Symposium. This awesome event is a one-day conference featuring 10, 45 minute seminars from the leaders of the craft brewing industry.  For avid homebrewers there will be seminars on the science of brewing from brewmasters, suppliers, and experts on topics such as yeast, adjunct grains, and recipe development. For the next generation of southeastern brewery owners we're offering a unique series of seminars on the business of brewing. These seminars will cover everything from how to raise money to how to write a business plan."

Below is there current seminar plan:

Tickets go on sale next week for $130, though individual Guild members will get a $25 discount.

I think I need to make room in my schedule!

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

Gettin' Their Brew On

Well, at least someone is brewing in Augusta!

Starbucks facility running but not complete

Though not completed, a Starbucks Coffee Co. plant is already running in south Augusta.

Starbucks officials said Thursday that about 70 employees have been hired and that packaging operations started in October at the Augusta Corporate Park facility.

Starbucks broke ground on the $172 million manufacturing plant in July 2012. Wor­kers will produce Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, the company’s line of instant coffee.

The company still needs to hire another 70 employees. Star­bucks hasn’t identified a date when VIA production will begin and the plant will be complete, other than to say it will be this year.

Starting a Craft Brewery in Augusta

One thing the CSRA needs is a good craft brewery!  This should be no mystery to those of us who live here, or anyone who may have read my earlier posts.

But what would it take for someone in our fair city to open such a venture?  Be it a Brew Pub, Micro-brewery, or even a Nano or Pico-brewery that would sell their beer locally?  As fairly amateur homebrewer, I have no clue!  Though I have read some stuff online....

One interesting item that I just listened to, was Basic Brewing Radio's recent interview with Dick Cantwell of Elysian Brewing Company about his book, The Brewers Association’s Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery.

September 19, 2013 - Starting a Brewery

 

If you don't have time to sit through the extended podcast interview, here is a quick and dirty overview from Cantwell himself:

Now the book itself is a little pricy, so you probably would only want to buy it if you were really serious about going pro.  But it is available on Amazon, as well as directly from the Brewer's Association website.

Hopefully someone in the CSRA has already bought and memorized this book....