October Decatur Hopdate

October in Decatur. San Diego-style weather makes for ideal patio beer sessions with good friends. There are 2 beer festivals this month in the Great Decatur Craft Beer Festival & Brick Store's Hop Harvest Festival, but I wanted to highlight the recent offerings from your locally owned Decatur better-beer spot.

Raging Burrito- Best Patio in Decatur, which is delightfully hidden in the back off of Church Street. RB has some killer beer on tap at recession prices- New Belgium Hoptober, Sweetwater Happy Ending '08, Leffe Blond. Sierra Pale, Wet Hop Harvest (13th release) & Anniversary IPA are $3.60 everyday as are Terrapin India Brown Ale and RyePA. Sweetwater pints are now $3.75 Monday through Wednesday (IPA, 420, Road Trip)

The Grange has expanded to 19 taps, now pouring Chimay, Spaten Optimator, French Broad Wee Heavier, Brooklyn Pumpkin, Atlanta Brewing Octoberfes & Terrapin Sunray is now their permanent wheat beer. Grange's front patio is very nice this time of year as well.

Steinbeck's is the little pub in Oakhurst, around the corner from Mojo Pizza on Oakview. Recently, they have stepped it up big time in the beer department. Now pouring- Ayinger Oktoberfest, Avery Kaiser (9% Oktoberfest-style), Loose Cannon Double IPA, Great Divide Hercules DIPA, Coney Island lager, Avery IPA & & St. Bernardus Abt 12 to name just a few.

Jordan @ Twain's has brewed a new IPA called Milkbone. I had two pints last night and the Bone is quite good. ESB-style maltiness with a very clean floral hop profile.

Last but not least, Brick Store Pub has some whoppers on right now including the latest from the Midnight Brewing Project between Terrapin & Left Hand- Depth Charge Espresso Milk Stout. Excellent roasty bitter espresso nose and very smooth body. Nogne O Porter on as well, which is an extremely rare keg from Norway. Oddly enough, this is an American-style porter, go figure. The monday (10/18) after Decatur Craft Beer Festival is one of those beer dinners that is truly "once in a lifetime." Brick Store Mike, take it away!

You read that correctly. Our first Beer Dinner in almost a year and we’re going to bring it back in style my friends. The evening will be hosted by Orval’s own Francois de Harenne
A slightly different format this time in that we will have 6 different chefs (actaully 7) preparing 6 courses paired with the following beers.

Orval (fresh), Westmalle Tripel, Achel Brune, Rochefort 10, Rochefort 8, and Orval (Aged). I mean you gotta be kidding me, right?!!

The line up of Chefs for the evening
Eric Ottensmeyer, Robert Lupo & Rian Tittle - LEONs Full Service & Brick Store Pub
Chris Hall – Local 3
Mel Toledo – 5 Season’s Brewing ( Prado)
Todd Mussman – Muss & Turners
Ryan Smith – Holeman and Finch
Richard Neal – Cakes & Ale (Bon Appetit Top 10 Best New Restaurant of 2009)

If you are interested please email me back with your phone number at: michael@brickstorepub.com
I will call you to confirm your reservation and take payment at that time including tax and gratuity. The price per person for this dinner is $75 pp + tax & gratuity. It will be a 6 course with trappist pairings. We will limit it to the first 55 people. Tickets are still available.

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

Donkey Sighting Today @ Sweetwater

Very glad to see these 22oz bottles rolling! Had a 6oz pour today, and gave it a solid A on BeerAdvocate:

On tap @ the brewery today, 2009 edition. Bright copper appearance with some orange highlights. Head is super creamy & frothy, near white in color. Quite the tangy citrus aroma- tangerine, navel orange. First sip was surprisingly malty, sourdough bread followed by a big citric hop flavor. But not overwhelming at all...very big and very balanced. Good 10.2 vapor to remind you where you are. Noticeable punch of floral, bitterness in the back of the throat. Finishes very nice...some bitterness, some citrus yet not too dry.
All in all, I enjoyed this more than last year's version. Very big, bad, and worthy of the barleywine tag.

Brick Store Pub- Over The Top

Lincoln Hawk would be proud. Starting tomorrow to celebrate their 12 anniversary, Brick Store Pub will be tapping 14 special/unique/XXX kegs at 12pm over 11 days. Saturday June 27th is the Finale- 13 kegs tapped throughout the day starting at Noon.

Looking at this list, I am particularly interested in the Sweetwater oaked IPAs and the Cigar City Brewing's Guava IPA firkin. Folks are raving about this newcomer from Tampa on BeerAdvocate. On the 27th, I am looking forward to the wild ales from Allagash, the Stranahan Whisky beers from Oskar Blues, the Pappy Van Winkle Red Brick Winter and the offering from Ballast Point. BP hails from the craft brewing mecca of San Diego, and simply does not make an average beer.

6/16- 2006 Wooden Pin J.W.Lees Lagavulin cask
6/17- Founders Curmudgeon Old Ale
6/18- 2006 Terrapin Big Sloppy Monster (Jack Daniels barrel for 9 months)
6/19- Victory V-12 (Downstairs) Victory Wild Devil (Upstairs)
6/20- 2007 t'Smisje Kerst Wooden Cask(down) Pisgah Solstice Tripel (up)
6/21- Duck Rabbit Dopplebock
6/22- Ola Dubh 30 yr.
6/23- SweetWater Double IPA (Bordeaux barrel 1st run)
6/24- Avery Maharaja (Firkin)
6/25- Lagunitas Barrel Aged Brown Shugga
6/26- Cigar City Guava IPA (Firkin) (down) Hansens Kriek Lambic (Firkin) (up)

6/27- The Finale
noon- Duck Rabbit "Paul's Day Off"
1:00- SweetWater Oak Aged Creeper Belgian IPA (Bordeaux barrel 2nd run)
2:00- Highland Cattail Wheat (dosed with Trappist yeast)
3:00- Allagash Interlude
4:00- 2008 Red Brick Winter (Pappy Van Winkle barrel 1st run)
5:00- Allagash Confluence
6:00- Ballast Point Victory at Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter
7:00- Allagash Victor
8:00- Oskar Blues Stranahan Whisky Barrel Aged Gordon
9:00- Allagash Victoria
Also at 9:00- Terrapin Substance Abuse! (Wake & Bake Coffee Imperial Stout aged in a Jack Daniels whisky barrel)
10:00- O.B. Stranahan Barrel Aged Ten FIDY
11:00- Allagash Hugh Malone
12:00- O.B. Stranahan Barrel Aged Dale's Pale Ale