Baseball & Beer in Augusta

When the Augusta Green Jackets open their 2014 A-ball season this spring, they will have a brand new agreement with Sweetwater Brewing to sell Georgia's largest craft brewer at concession stands and in the reservable party desk.

"GreenJackets Announce Major Partnership with SweetWater Brewing Company
SweetWater Brewing Company and Augusta GreenJackets Introduce the SweetWater Draft House to Lake Olmstead Stadium

AUGUSTA, GA - The Augusta GreenJackets are proud to announce a partnership with Atlanta-based SweetWater Brewing Company. The major partnership will not only bring SweetWater Brewery's products to Lake Olmstead Stadium, but will also see a rebranding of the Party Pavilion to the "SweetWater Draft House."

"This major partnership between SweetWater Brewing Company and the GreenJackets demonstrates our ownership's commitment to bringing some of the best products to Lake Olmstead Stadium," says Augusta GreenJackets General Manager Tom Denlinger. "We are excited about giving our fans the ability to have a wonderful product while enjoying the best entertainment in town."

SweetWater Brewery will feature three of its products at Lake Olmstead Stadium; SweetWater 420 Extra Pale Ale, SweetWater Blue and SweetWater India Pale Ale. The beers will be available in cans and on draft throughout ballpark concession stands, as well asexclusively served at the "SweetWater Draft House."

Yet another step forward for the growth of craft beer in the CSRA.

[h/t Kevin Faigle, WRDW Sports Director (
@kevinfaiglewrdw)]

Craft Beer Grows Everywhere...But Here

The Brewers Association has released a cool infographic showing Craft Beer's great growth in 2013.

Unfortunately, none of those 15.6 million BBLs were brewed here in Augusta...

Gravity Growlers Update

When in doubt, GO BIG! The CSRA's soon-to-arrive craft beer hotspot will have 25 taps! 25!!

While the former Rooster's Beak's several taps served exclusively American craft beer, Gravity Growlers will expand the palate to include foreign brews, as well as include some niche tastes like sours.  In a great bonus, the new county regulations now allow for on-premise tastings as well.

During a Columbia County Commission meeting last night, Gravity Growlers was approved to sell alcoholic beverages for off-premise consumption.  So now the owners will work through the maze of remaining regulatory requirements, as well as complete the construction of their storefront.

Hopefully if everything goes smoothly, we will see Gravity Growler open for business in a few weeks.  Rejoice, for real soon we may enjoy something that looks like this picture (minus the 3 taps on the left)!

Cans Are All The Rage In Georgia

@EagleCreekBrew takes it up a notch and becomes the latest small craft brewery in Georgia to add cans to their lineup! 

"We are pleased to announce our canning line has been delivered and we just signed off on our first 2 can designs! CANS coming soon! Very soon!!"

 

I have had both the Spot Tail Blonde and Low Country Pale on tap up here in Augusta, and they were great.  I can't wait to try their Hefeweizen and Dry Stout as well!

Pairing Craft Beer & Glassware

If you only drink your beer out of a frosty mug, then you are missing out on the total beer experience.

Online "unique gift" retailer @RedEnvelope has posted a great infographic on what piece of beer glassware should be used to drink each major type of beer.

Take a look and see if your  bar or kegerator is missing anything essential for your favorite beers!

It's Raining Growlers!

Rejoice Augusta! For you aren't just getting 1 new growler fill station...Whole Foods is coming and later this year when it opens its new location at Washington Ave & I-20, they will have a growler station!

Since this had been a topic of interest amongst craft beer-minded friends, I sent in an inquiry.  The WFM home office promptly replied with: 


"Yes, the Augusta store will have a growler station with 5 taps."

Right now I have not seen any solid estimate for when Whole Foods will open its doors, but I will certainly keep an eye out.

Growlers Are Back In Town!

Long live Rooster's Beak!  Raise a growler in their name!

While the Beak's departure may have left many of us with a empty feeling deep in our soul where great grub and beer reside, fear not!  For the former owners have a new venture on the drawing board that will satiate at least half of that equation.  The need for Craft Beer!

Those owners put out a hint on the former Beak Facebook page, with a picture of a storefront with the caption "Huh..."  An eagle eyed commenter posted an address, so I decided to check it out.  And here is what I found... Gravity Growlers!

Indeed the rumors are true, and it appears that craft beer will be conveniently available to Columbia County in growlers sometime in the near future!!  

If you couldn't tell, I am totally psyched about this.  And if you like good craft beer, you should be too.  First, because there are currently no growler stations in the county.  But more importantly,  if the quality, variety, and price of excellent craft beer formally available at the Beak was any indication, this set of rotating taps should be awesome!

So rejoice y'all!  Growlers are back!

[Edited]

Beer & Politics Can Mix

@BillsandBrews shows us how with an interesting new vodcast. Love @RepPeterDeFazio here despite his political proclivities.

Hopefully future vodcast episodes will focus on state and regional issues when it comes to craft and homebrewing.

Atlanta Beer Envy - Part III

@BeerPurgatory had lunch at beer nirvana - Decatur's @brickstorepub     

This past Monday, in between visiting Red Hare Brewing & Monday Night Brewing, I got the extreme pleasure to score some lunch at the Brickstore Pub.  This was the first time I had ever visited, and despite reading a little about them, I was unprepared for the sheer awesomeness that I encountered.

The regular draft menu alone would leave most bars (even craft beer ones) in the dust.  But what really blew my mind, was the beer cellar list...  But before we get to that, lets take in the rest of the place. 

Downstairs has an cool horseshoe bar, with some close to 20 awesome taps of American craft beer, and many unique bottles in the fridge.  And then "upstairs to the left"....

...is a bar that serves only Belgian beers.  Very, very cool!

Our large party was a bit unexpected at the late lunch hour, but the folks at Brickstore were extremely accommodating, opening the normally closed-during-lunch upstairs bar area, and didn't miss a beat with both food and drink service.  Many kudos to them!

While eating a tasty lunch, I got to browse the 'Beer Cellar List' that was hanging nearby.  I was totally blown away by the number and variety of aged beers they had to offer.  I knew they had a cellar, but this was much larger than I thought.  Unfortunately, since I was between brewery tours, I did not get to delve into the exotic, sticking with the fresh (yet still awesome) draft beer selection.  This was where I actually got to try the Thrice Hopped Imperial IPA, that I had just missed at the Red Hare brewery.

As we were exiting, I was fortunate to talk with Reid (Reed?) at the upstairs bar, and he was kind enough to show me the upstairs "cellar".  An impressive ~10x10 humidor-like space, kept at proper cellar temps, for easy access.  But it was what he told me next that was the mind-blowing event of the day.  In an adjacent store space that used to house a bank, Brickstore rents out the basement vaults, and cellars over 15,000 bottles of beer......damn!


Check out this video for a cool (though somewhat dated) tour of the subterranean utopia....

 
Now, I know I am a noob, and late to the game on how totally cool the Brickstore is for beer geeks.  But give me a break...'cause I will be back for the upgraded cellar experience.  Count on it!

Atlanta Beer Envy: Part II

This past Monday I was fortunate enough to be invited by 'Beer Me Augusta' on a trip to the Atlanta area to visit a couple of up and coming Georgia breweries.  Our second stop after lunch was to the corporate cubicle escapees at Atlanta's Monday Night Brewing.

Situated in an awesome space near downtown Atlanta, Monday Night encourages all it's fans to cast off their ties, and tie one on. And that is just what we did! 

 "We spent almost 5 years perfecting our Eye Patch Ale and Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale before bringing them to market. Years of minor tweaks, arguments over hop profiles, and experiments with different brands of base malts are poured into every glass that we brew. In the summer of 2012 we launched our 3rd offering, Fu Manbrew, which won Bronze in the US Beer Open in its first month.

The appropriately bearded brewmeister, Duck, gave us a quick tour of the generous brewhouse, where they are not yet brewing to capacity, but as they gain wider distribution in Georgia, and perhaps neighboring states, the brewhouse will no doubt become a round-the-clock operation.  (Too many commas?)

Duck working his comedy routine

Black Tie fermenting

Afterwards in the cavernous garage of a tasting room, Josh tended the taps I got to try my first taste of their Fu ManBrew Belgian-style wit.  Along with their regular Blind Pirate DIPA, Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale, and Eye Patch IPA, I got to try their limited "mythical, mysterious" Serrano Eye Patch IPA.  Very nice with just a bit of pepper-bite on the tail end. 

This huge tasting room is also set up for some great outdoor action as well, but the roll-up doors on the bar stayed closed as it was just too darn cold.  I hate this Global Warming!

I am a giant fan of the Monday Night Brewery, and have been following their development online as they built out this space.  So I was excited to finally get to visit and see why they are having so much success.   I am also glad that Monday Night is a growing brand in the Augusta area, as I see more bottles on shelves and tie-shaped tap handles behind many bars.  If you don't have it where you are, ask your bartender to request it.  Let's make these guys brew 7 days a week! ;-)

Just to finish things off, here is a video of the MNB backstory and ethos.  Cheers!

Atlanta Beer Envy: Part I

This past Monday I was fortunate enough to be invited by 'Beer Me Augusta' on a trip to the Atlanta area to visit a couple of up and coming Georgia breweries.  Our first stop was Red Hare Brewing in Marietta...

Red Hare is the first craft brewery in Georgia to actually can its beer, and is starting to spread its wings with distribution into South Carolina, and just this week, Tennessee.   The one thing that struck me was how much brewing, fermenting, canning and serving is packed into such a small space (11k sqft).  And as crowded as it looked, head-brewer Bobby Thomas told me that they have room for expansion in their current facility.

The Red Hare brewhouse features a steam-jacketed brewing system, 3800bbls worth of fermentation capacity, a nice cold room/bright tank area, and lots of cans!

Bobby- Red Headed Head Brewer

 Fermentation goin' on

 Bright Tanks

Canning Line

Lots and lots of cans!

Given that Red Hare is now expanding out of state, and that they are brewing every day of the week, I can see them filling up their remaining space with fermentors real quick.

Of course the real fun of a brewery tour is to try out the proprietor's wares, even if it is still before lunch!  Red Hare's frontage tasting room has a good line up of their regular offerings, as well as some seasonals and 'Rabbit Reserve' series.

We were lucky in that Red Hare had just released their most recent seasonal, Cotton Tail Pale.  Additionally, they had their Rauchbier on tap, as well their 1-year old Bitter Hearts Double Black IPA.  Given that it was that old, it had held up really well.   The only reason we knew about it was that Bobby was drinking one during the tour.

Unfortunately they had just floated the last keg of Thrice Hopped Imperial IPA at their Pale Ale release party, so I missed out (until later....).  Lastly, I tried their Root Beer on tap.  Now I lost my liking for Root Beer a long time ago, but this did hit the spot. Perhaps it was the pure cane sugar and spices.... I do hear you can find it in some stores here in Augusta....

Where will Red Hare go next?  Perhaps they will add another offering to their regular line-up, but don't expect that too soon.  Instead, keep and eye out for their seasonals and  Rabbit's Reserve Series.  In fact, go out of your way to ask your bartenders to request these items of the distributor.  Otherwise we will probably never see them here in Augusta.

Thanks again to Bobby and Bryan for the great tour and tasting, and here's to continued growth and success for that scarlet rabbit....

Sweetwater Cans Arrive Soon

Now you *can* float the mainstream with @SweetWaterBrew... 
 
I, for one, am a great supporter of seeing more craft brew moving to cans from bottles.  Cans are lighter, beach/park/campground friendly, and seem to preserve hop flavor and aroma for longer periods.

So it is nice to see another local Georgia brewery switch to cans, as Sweetwater begins its rollout this month with 12 & 16 once cans for 420 Extra Pale Ale, and India Pale Ale (IPA).

Have fun taking your Sweetwater tubing everyone!

Mega-Flight of Georgia Craft Beer

Leon's Full Service (@LeonsDecatur) is serving a mean flight of local Georgia brews!   Good on 'em!

They could easily double that for a Georgia mega-flight by adding the following: Red Hare, Blue Tarp, O'Dempseys, Wrecking Bar, Macon Beer Co, Wild Heaven, Coastal Empire, Moon River, and Southbound.

That would be quite an offering for a watering hole with gumption.  Order the Georgia Mega-Flight®, and get a free cab ride home...