Get on the Brew Bus Gus!

According to @drinkblogrepeat, @ColumbiaBrewBus hits the streets of SC's capital on Nov. 7th!

"The Capital City’s first brewery tour business gets rolling this Friday, Nov. 7, as the Columbia Brew Bus begins its weekly tours of Columbia’s breweries.

[...]

During a preview tour Sunday, Nov. 2, the Brew Bus staff gave an idea of what each of the weekly trips will be like. The rotation of the breweries will change, but the bus will take riders to Swamp Cabbage, River Rat and Conquest where they’ll have the chance to try 24 oz. of beer at each brewery..."

It will be nice to now have a "Brews Cruise" as it were a little closer to the CSRA than Atlanta.  If we wanted to do one here in Augusta we would have to go to our one main growler outlet, and a number of top homebrewers houses....

For more information on the Columbia Brew Bus, check out their website at columbiabrewbus.com!

A photo posted by Columbia Brew Bus (@columbiabrewbus) on Oct 10, 2014 at 12:06pm PDT

Columbia Beer Envy

@CraftAndDraftSC has opened for business!

Columbia, SC has just added to an impressive and growing list of craft beer offerings with 'Craft & Draft'.  While the city is only an hour or so away, I rarely get up there for a variety of reasons.  I may need to rethink that now that they have yet another beer locale downtown.  

Their initial tap list does look impressive, with an all-Carolina line-up. Now if they can get NoDa Hop, Drop & Roll on tap...

"Check out our draft list! We will sell growlers to go and pints on premise from any of our 12 rotating taps. We will (try to) post a picture of our draft lineup each morning, so stay tuned to our social media pages for the latest info! Thanks again, and see you soon beer lovers! #CraftBeer #DrinkLocal"

 Good luck guys!  Hope to see you soon!

 

T. Mac Daddy

Ever enlightened to beer in the ATL, @alesharpton gives us the 411 on @MondayNight & @tacomac's new brew, T. Mac Daddy Porter!

Alas....no Taco Macs here in the CSRA...

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....

Beercast Shoutouts

I would like to thank the @CLTBeercast 'brahs', for giving me shout-outs in their two most recent podcasts.

The first was a good old fashioned mention, while the second was a multi-multi-Stout infused drunken challenge to get off my ass and visit the upcoming CLT Craft Beer Week.



 As usual, both episodes are great listens, while the second does devolve (matriculate?) into the aforementioned Stout-infused drunkeness.  Entertaining to say the least!

Episode 21 - Brah is the new Backside Guy

 

Episode 22 - Redacted

Unfortunately, I probably will not be able to make it up to enjoy CLT Craft Beer Week's Tap Takeover at Vintner's, as I have two other upcoming beer trips which have depleted my current stockpile of kitchen passes.  Thus I will have to miss out on the warm hospitality of @CLTBeerBlog that everyone keeps mentioning...

Next week I will be heading down on a special trip to some breweries in ATL, and in May the Augusta Homebrewers Association is going to caravan up to Asheville to enjoy the vibrant craft brewery scene.  Both trips should make for some great reviews...

Florida Beer Envy

So it has been a little while since I last posted.  But what with ice storms, Pinewood Derby, and a short vacay to Florida, there wasn't much time.
I was excited to get to Florida, since that meant I could go in search of beer that can't be found here.  In particular, the Cigar City Brewing line-up.  I wasn't quite getting down to Tampa, so I could again visit the brewery, so Total Wine & Beverage would have to do.

I was able to score some of the CCB regular line-up, as well as Invasion Pale and the unique Hopped on the High Seas series.  Unfortunately, outside of their flagship beer, Jai Alai, none of these CCB brews can yet be found here in the Augusta area.

I was also able to find Due South Brewing's 'Category 3 IPA', and two offerings from the BrewBus line, 'Rollin' Dirty Red' and 'Are Wheat There Yet?'

Hopefully we will be able to see some more of the CCB line-up come here to Georgia in the near future...