Augusta Beerfest!

If you haven't heard already, Aug 16th at the Bell Auditorium.  Details below....

"It’s Augusta’s largest celebration of craft beer, Augusta Beerfest 2014 on August, 16! With sampling of over 75+ of some of the region’s most popular craft beers, it is a beer lover’s dream. So, if you consider yourself a beer connoisseur, you won’t want to miss Augusta’s signature beer event, the inaugural Augusta Beer Festival at the Bell Auditorium!

Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door. The Bell Auditorium provides a historic, unique, and intimate atmosphere. Two sessions are available, 12:00pm-3:00pm and 4:00pm-7:00pm. Your ticket includes a souvenir cup and beer samples. Local food trucks will be providing food for purchase.

This is a 21 and up event, rain or shine (mostly inside event, with food trucks outside), no refunds."

Statesboro Beer Envy

@EagleCreekBrew puts AGS to shame with quality #GABeer!

Looking for the closest production brewery to Augusta and the CSRA?  Well, dig out the binocs and look southward.  Then get yourself a DD, and head to Stateboro to try out the fantastic brews of Eagle Creek Brewing Co.


Fronted by the "youngest head brewer in America", Cole Brown, Eagle Creek is producing a line-up of four fantastic beers.

Cole Brown talk beer with the Augusta Homebrewers Association

Both the Low Country Pale Ale, and Spot Tail Light Blonde can be found on tap in the CSRA.  I have not yet seen the interesting sounding, and interesting tasting Grass Roots Lemon LimeHefeweizen, though it may be out there.  The fourth brew was their Puff's Magic Dragon Dry Stout, however I understand they intend to keep this as a winter seasonal.

I enjoyed all of these brews, especially the Pale and Stout.  The Blonde is very good, and very sessionable.  If you have a friend that won't give up their mass-marketed lite beer, have them try this.  And then once they're hooked, start working them into other craft beers!

Right now Eagle Creek is open for tours and tastings on Friday & Saturday evenings from 6:30 - 8:30.  If you are in the CSRA, grab some friends and a DD, and head down to Stateboro to enjoy the, shall we say, "generous" 5-oz tastings, along with live local music.  The Augusta Homebrewers Association finally made it down there, and had a great time!

Then come home and look for Eagle Creek on tap at your favorite watering hole.  And if you don see it....ask for it!

Oh, and before I forget, something else is coming soon as well...

Cans!

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....

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!

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....

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

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...