Happy Birthday Porter Beer Bar!

Yesterday was The Porter Beer Bar's first birthday! This gastropub in Little 5 Points is a welcome addition to Atlanta's growing and dynamic beer culture. 3 delicious special casks were on-hand: Avery IPA dry-hopped with simcoe, Heavy Seas Hang 10 Weizenbock and a pumpkin beer from Terrapin. I went back twice for the Avery IPA, as I am a huge fan of the simcoe hop. Here are my tasting notes. Cheers to The Porter and looking forward to your 2nd birthday party!

Brick Store Hop Harvest Festival

This day will be all about the HOP! Hop vines, fresh hop cones, hop soup, Miss Hop Queen 2009.
Saturday October 10th
18 IPAs tapped downstairs, 8 Belgian-style IPAs upstairs
Here's a sneak peak of the tasties:

Smuttynose Big A
Avery Maharaja
Avery IPA Cask (dry hopped with Simcoe)
Lagunitas Lil Sumpin' Extra!
Atlanta Brewing Pliny The Elder clone
One called Hopgasm
Something from Black Mountain, NC & North Charleston, SC
And a few other biguns...cannot wait for this Festival

Hop Heaven

Yesterday, we had our monthly sales meeting over at Project Open Hand, in which we volunteered for 3 hours packing meals for their Senior Lunch Program. POH just happens to be right across the street from Sweetwater, so I just had to pop in. The Minister of Propaganda, Steve Farace, was plugging away in his office when he asked me, "Have you been in the back yet?" Of course he was referring to the "back of the brewery" and I quickly strolled into the brewery. Seemed to be business as usual, until I poked my head into the keg cooler....

Brewmaster Mark had his head down in one of four 100lb boxes filled with wet, fresh Chinook hops. The boxes were overnighted straight from Washington and the aroma was heavenly. These little green pine cones were a sight to behold and I really wanted to eat one. Smiles all around in the cooler. Mark stuffed them into hop sacks, which were going straight to the tank. This one will be the latest in the Dank Tank series, called Wet Dream. I think this name is perfect, as I almost had a wet dream in the cooler. She will be an Imperial Red, clocking in around 7.5%. To my knowledge, a wet hop beer is a first for Sweetwater and their recent creativity has me excited for their future brews. Here's how it went down:

The Best Little Beerhouse in South Carolina

Many great changes have come to South Carolina since their 6% cap was popped in May 2007. And a big part of the exciting beer culture is tucked away between Bay Street and Charleston Harbor in downtown Charleston- Charleston Beer Exchange. I met co-owner Scott Shor a few years ago @ Ted's Butcherblock where he served as the Beer Manager. It was during that visit that I met Jaime from COAST Brewing Co, who was pouring their HopArt IPA & 32/50 Kolsch. She also graciously poured me a hefty sample of their widely acclaimed Blackbeerd Imperial Stout from an super-secret hidden bottle.

I finally popped in to see CBX on a recent visit. Scott and co-owner Rich Carley were slammed on this busy Saturday, but not busy enough to serve my little group of 5. Manager Brandon Plyler was holding down the growler station, rotating the brown glass jugs among their 9 taps of delicious beer. They call him BigSilky for his cat-like precision. I got a 64oz fill of HopArt IPA, which is the #1 seller @ CBX. Back home a few days later, I shared this delicious growler with Willy T Nasty and decided that there could not be a more perfect name for this wonderful IPA.

In addition to the popular growler filling station, CBX sells lots of Founders Centennial IPA, Allagash White, and cans of Dale's Pale Ale. I saw beer from around 20 different countries, including all of the Trappist beers available in the US. Rich says they sell a good bit Chimay, Delirium, La Chouffe, Saison DuPont, St. Bernardus, and Black Albert

A visit to Charleston would not be complete without a stop at Charleston Beer Exchange. For more on my visit to CBX, check out my review on BeerAdvocate