Decisions, Decisions....

Hmmm....

Charlotte Beer Envy

I hate @CLTBeercast!  But in a good way!

One of the reasons I decided to start doing this blog was the fact that I found the Charlotte Beercast.  I mean, I knew that Augusta was craft beer Purgatory, but then the fine gents at the Beercast (Josh, Jeff, and Mark) invaded my iTunes line-up with their embarrassment of beer riches and made my life all the more depressing.... Local breweries, great bottle shops, collaborative brewing w/local breweries, light rail!  Make it stop!  My self esteem can't take much more....

But I love the podcast nonetheless, as I can live vicariously through them, and imagine what it would be like to live in a city that had a vibrant craft beer scene.

The cast has changed slightly over their 18 episodes, but he good beer talk and "basckside" humor has not.  They remain just "some drunken idiots talking beer."

In their latest episode, they include in their reviews two Georgia beers, Red Hare Gangway IPA and Red Brick's 20th Anniversary Ale.

Admittedly, reviews are mixed.  But If you want to hear what they are, I encourage you to go listen to the episode.

Episode 18: You did WHAT to the Ice cream? (mp3)

Of course, if you feel the need to start at Episode 1, then by all means do so.

Episode 1: The Drunken Buffoonery Begins!

Additionally you can subscribe to the Beercast at iTunes, and have it magically appear for your listening pleasure every two weeks.  And if you like it, the guys ask that you rate them highly on iTunes as well.

All joking aside, it is this podcast that encouraged me to start this page.  And perhaps sometime in the future, Augusta can have its own Beercast as well....

Will We See It Here? Part II

A few days ago I lamented the lack, outside of Jai Alai, of any Cigar City's various beers here in the CSRA.  I have yet to find their latest product, Hopped on the High Seas Caribbean IPA, at my usual haunts.  But I have one more to try today on the way to watch some football.

For those wondering what a 'Caribbean IPA' might be, here is CCB's video introduction...

Georgia Craft Beer Two-fer!

One of the best things about good craft beer, besides drinking it, is that you can also make great food with it.  For instance, I love putting a bottle of my homebrewed porter (or any porter at hand) into my chili recipe.  Of course legitimate restaurants with inventive streaks can find better ways to put good beer to good use.

One of those restaurants, and one of the few craft beer bright lights here in Augusta, is the Bee's Knees.  Their eclectic Tapas menu is a favorite in my household, and they usually have one of the better variety of craft beer selections in the area (though they can be slightly expensive).

Occasionally they will put the two together to create a special offering.  Just today, they tweeted out that they were offering a "Wild Heaven Winter Soup" made with Wild Heaven Ode to Mercy Special Winter Brown.



I need to get downtown and try this out.... Good on 'em for using a good regional craft beer in their food.  Hopefully, as they have in the past, they will also put on another beer dinner in the near future.

Given their status as an outlier as a restaurant with good craft beer selection, I intend to get back and review Bee's Knees in a more in depth fashion.  Cheers!

Brew Fest Alert! Columbia, SC

Attention CSRA beer lovers! @allaboutbeer is hosting the World Beer Festival in Columbia, SC on Jan 18th.

Two sessions: 12-4pm and 6-10pm
General Admission: $40, and VIP Admission: $85
Buy tickets here.

This will be the WBF's 6th year in Columbia, and my third time attending.  Last year was a little less impressive than the first, as it did not seems they had as many booths/breweries as the previous year, and there were some snafus with the advertised VIP selections.  Additionally, there have been issues in previous years with lack of supplies for the evening session.  Hopefully all of these will be rectified for this event.

You can see the current "as-of-now" line up here.  The only one that actually catches my eye is Foothills.  Red Hare, SweetWater, Terrapin, and Thomas Creek should provide some solid regional representation.  But I am hoping the expanded list will include smaller regionals from GA (Monday Night, Burnt Hickory, Three Taverns, Southbound, Eagle Creek, Wild Heaven), SC (Westbrook, COAST, Holy City), and NC (NoDa, Olde Meck, Wicked Weed).   Columbia's Conquest Brewing is actually doing a collaboration IPA with the @allaboutbeer staff for the event, and I don't know much about smaller brewers like Lonerider and Hunter-Gatherer but it is good to see them in the door.

I hope that over the next couple of weeks we will see a final list, with some of these great regional choices included.

Christmas Libation, Part II

Merry Maker by @SamuelAdamsBeer , with some fillet mignon grilled with Applewood smoke...

Christmas Libation!

Some Festive Ale by @SweetWaterBrew

To be followed by Fillets on the grill, with some homebrewed Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout!!

Will We See It Here?

@CigarCityBeer is one of the more prolific craft breweries in the southeast.  But you can you find its many different products in Augusta?

If you know where to look, you can find some six-packs of their flagship Jai Alai IPA in some bottle shops (Toast, Beverage Outlet, Woody's).  But I have yet to see it on tap anywhere.  There has even been a select amount of their Southern Slice (collaboration with Athen's Terrapin Beer), as well as bombers of its Black Ash lager (collaboration with Atlanta's Max Lager's).

One can only hope that this is a sign of things to come.  Hunahpu, perhaps???

In the mean time, I hope that the recent distribution of Hopped on the High Seas Caribbean IPA might actually send a case or two to the Augusta area.

Pleasepleaseplease...

Merry Christmas, Augusta!

What's for Christmas dinner here at GCBR HQ?

 

I may have to pace myself...

OK, so I have already consumed most of these as part of my 12 Beers of Christmas program.  Reviews to follow...

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

Classic City Brew Fest - 2014

Here in Augusta, the second Sunday in April usually means one thing.  The final round of the Masters.  But this year in Athens, it will mean the return of the Classic City Brew Fest for its 19th iteration.

 

On April 13 from 2:30 to 6:00 PM, enjoy one of the top beer festivals to be found anywhere, which last year featured over 350 different brews, and 21 cask ales.  Tickets are $39.99, and all proceeds benefit the Athens-Area Humane Society.  As the pictures above suggests, it does sell out, so get your tickets now!  Additionally, if you might want to volunteer to work the festival, you can do so here.

Augusta Seriously Needs Suds!

"If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from."
―Luke Skywalker

So here I sit, in Augusta, Georgia.  Not the most metropolitan of areas, but not bad for those of us with families.  But if you are a beer lover like me, you might consider this something akin to Luke Skywalker's wasteland.  A ‘Beer Purgatory’ if you will.

For you see, here in the home of the Masters, there are no local breweries, no brewpubs, no growler fill stations, few good bottle shops, and no homebrew shops.

The closest thing you will find to any “local” craft beer is 30 minutes north at the Aiken Brewpub (which means 45-60 minutes from the western suburbs).  Or perhaps some new breweries like Eagle Creek an equal distance away down in Statesboro.  Of course, Columbia, Athens, and Atlanta are 2-3 times further, and current beer Utopias Charlotte and Asheville are overnight trips.  There are plenty of micro and nano-breweries popping up in smaller locales in Georgia.  Just not here...

And not much has changed over time.  Four years ago, my friend Lonnie Best wrote something eerily similar on his craft beer blog:

"Statistically speaking, most Americans live within 10 miles of a brewery....the nearest brewpub lies nearly twenty miles away from the heart of Augusta, in downtown Aiken, South Carolina -- and even further from those living in the city's suburbs. For being the second largest metropolitan area in the state, it seems odd that in-house craft beer is so difficult to get ahold of, especially when other cities in the state are home to many.."

Are there bars/restaurants with large tap selections?  Sure, but at many places ‘craft beer’ translates to Shock Top, Shiner Bock, and Goose Island.  Most of the bars wouldn’t know what to ask for anyway, thus most distributors don’t see a demand that needs to be filled.  Local pubs will usually know about well established regional brewers like Sweetwater and Terrapin, but don't expect them to know about recent upstarts like Monday Night, Three Taverns, or Burnt Hickory.  And if they don't know about them, they won't ask their distributors for them.

Those relatively few bottle good shops generally have the same selection.  Distribution of smaller regional brewers is spotty, and what little we do get usually ends up at one retailer, as small shipments generally aren’t broken up.  Much like with the bars, if the shop doesn't know enough about emerging options, they will never ask to get it on their shelves.  And there is no guarantee that all the distributor sales reps know everything they have either.

So what is a beer lover to do??  Well, if you live in the CSRA, I think the least we can do is to proselytize to those proprietors and distributors, to help bring better craft beer to the region.  Engage the craft beer reps at shops, and put a bug into bartenders and restaurant managers ears.  If you don't ask for something, you will probably never see it.

Of course, if you are really desperate (like me) you can brew your own.  Like the rest of the country, the Augusta area has a vibrant homebrewing culture.  The Augusta Homebrewers Association was established in 2010, and is always looking to spread the zymergystic word.

So with this website, I hope to discuss all of these issues and more, and help compatriots like Lonnie bring a better beer culture to Augusta.  

"Augusta is in serious need of its own suds. It's time for the city's beer lovers to step up and take charge. Better beer is the goal. Come on, Augusta. Bring brewing back."

I will do my best to actually get as much hands on interaction as I can.  But as a family man, going out even once a week, let alone going on an impromptu road trip for a brewery tour, is a tough thing to do. That is where I will hop to use your feedback as much as possible to help things along.  Hit me up on Twitter at @BeerPurgatory, or on email at gardencitybrewreview -at- gmail.com.

And if you hear that someone is opening a craft brewery, let me know.  I need a job!

Coming Soon: a look at Beer Purgatory