Fred's Beer Page

Slightly Uncomfortable, But Whatever

2012-01-26T21:49:00.000-05:00

Ok,so this post is so important that I am sending it from my new phone. I hope it works. This phone is more complicated than I was prepared for, really. Hey phone manufacturers, not everyone is born knowing how to use this shit. Maybe make the manual more "thorough".
But here is the deal: There is a firkin of Bell's HopSlam getting tapped on Wednesday, Feb 1st at Lindbergh. You probably want to be there for that. HopSlam. Cask. February 1st. What else do you want to know?

Who Wants To Be A Winner?

2012-01-23T16:49:00.000-05:00

You can be a winner, and victory is close at hand...a Victory beer dinner that is. You can look at the menu below, and if you are interested in coming, go to www.tacomac.com. Click on the "Events" link, and from there it is pretty self-explanatory. There is a tiny little link that says "View The Menu", so if you want to do that, go for it. But seriously, it is right down there under this paragraph. More importantly, on the web site there will be a link to Pay Pal to pay for the event. If you do that, I strongly suggest that you use the comment function if you want to specify who you sit with if they are paying separately. This event will sell out, and we seat people according to group size and all kinds of factors. If there are 42 people at this event at 7 tables of 6 seats each, and there are groups of 4, 3, 2 and even 1, we need to seat them in order to seat 42 people at exactly 42 seats. We are happy to accommodate your requests for seating, but it is a mess if we wait until everyone shows up to do that. So please use that handy little function, and we will put you with all of your buddies. If you pay together, then duh, I will seat you all together. No need to tell me that the 4 people paid for by Captain D. Obvious, for example, want to sit together. I knew that already, thanks.

Reception
Herb roasted hen and Fontina toasts
Prima Pilsner--
Heaps of hops give this pale lager a bracing, herbal bite over layers of soft and smooth malt flavor. This refreshing combination makes Prima a classy quencher in the tradition of the great pilsners of Europe.

First Course
Winter greens salad with persimmons, crab,
and lemon vinaigrette
Golden Monkey--
Strong and sensual, this golden, Belgian-style ale glows. The richness of German malts and Belgian yeast are tempered by a sparkling approach and light body, with abundant herbal, fruity notes.

Second Course
Ancho chili rubbed duck breast with candied
citrus sweet potato puree
Hop Wallop--
Celebrating the pioneering spirit of old Horace ‘Hop’ Wallop and those who dare mighty, adventurous things, this is a vivid, robust ale. A homage to the hop harvest, expect loads of aromatic splendor and bitter beauty.

Balsamic braised bavette of beef, roasted root vegetables,
stone ground cheese grits
Yakima Glory--
This heavyweight battle between fresh, Yakima Valley hops and dark, roasted malts is resolved harmoniously as the flavors merge to deliver complex satisfaction with a warming edge.

Chocolate stout cake with coffee creme anglaise
Storm King--
With a huge, Pacific Northwest hop aroma and character upfront, Storm King Stout subsides into massive, roast malt complexity. Rich and substantial, this beer will warm your heart.

The dinner is 6:30 pm at the Cumming Taco Mac location. We begin with a casual reception beer and passed hors d' oeuvres, so if you are running late, don't freak out. Dinner is sat at 7:00 pm, so if you get there at 6:50 pm let's say, you are fine.

The other important things that I have for you today involve some fun casks that are waiting to be drank. We have a Heavy Seas Winter Storm at the South Park store in Charlotte this Wednesday. Friday we have a Bell's Double Cream Stout at Lindbergh. This is a first, so if you like great stouts, rare Brewniversity credits or BOTH, you are in luck. I will not be there though, because I will be getting into a cask of Chattanooga Brewing Co.'s Hill City Stout in Chattanooga. Yes, I am going to be in Charlotte and Chattanooga this week, so you may not hear from me the rest of the week.

This Saturday is the Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting. If you have tickets, I will see you there. If you don't have ACAT tickets, then you are SOL. It is sold out. Get ready for next year, because it is always the Saturday before the Super Bowl every year. Bu you can still get tickets for the Brew Your Cask Off event at SweetWater on March 10th. In case you haven't been to that before, it is quite an experience.

Alright folks. That is about all the time I have for today. Have a great week, and get out there and drink some damn beer.

Dale Comes In Off The Bench

2012-01-13T16:19:00.000-05:00

Alicia and the herbed Loose Cannon

I forgot to remind you that we have a last-minute substitution for tonight's cask at Lindbergh. Last week we did Heavy Seas Peg Leg because the Loose Cannon we had scheduled for that day was actually not ours. It was a special cask that the owner of a different bar had helped make while he was at Heavy Seas with me. So we let him have it back, and tapped this week's cask instead. So for tonight, we are tapping next week's cask, which is a dry-hopped Dale's Pale Ale. It should be great. Tap goes in at 6:00 pm. I will be there, if that matters to you at all. It shouldn't. I don't make the beer taste any better or worse.

The rest of the run looks like this: Bell's Double Cream Stout (yes, a firkin of that!) next week, Heavy Seas Below Decks Barley Wine the week after (1/27). If you were wondering how the distributor is going to make it up to us for delivering the wrong cask, then taking it back, I will tell you: A firkin of Bell's Hopslam. Yep. I will let you know when we plan on getting into that. It may go before the Below Decks, but I want to see it before I make any solid commitments to you folks. Expect a stampede of beer lovers when we tap the Hopslam.

That's all I have for you right now. Have a great weekend. Unless you are Tim Tebow. If you are Tim Tebow, I hope you get broken in half tomorrow night. I am sick of seeing you on every TV, everywhere I go. I swear to god that guy was on The Price Is Right this morning. He's everywhere! (And he was not even close to winning the Showcase Showdown round, but somehow...he pulled it off! Won the whole damn thing.) C'mon Patriots, send this guy into the off-season before I smash a television set.

PS--If you missed the Heavy Seas Herbed Loose Cannon cask on Wednesday, I feel bad for you. It was delicious, and trust me, I am my own worst critic. If the one I helped make sucked, I would have said so, but this one was killer. Sucks to be you if you had something more important to do that night. Now go cry yourself to sleep.

New Year's Resolutions?

2012-01-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

Dr. Suess' real name was Theodor Geisel

Well, I am back from a New Year's trip to San Francisco, which was awesome. Anyone who has read this blog for any period of time knows that I love the Bay Area. It has some of the greatest beer, food, music, weather and scenery in the country. I went for the first three on this trip. Some may argue that the weather is not awesome, but those people like to be a lot warmer than I do. Personally, once it gets over 80 degrees, I am pretty unhappy about it. Yes, I live in the south, and I was aware of the warm climate when I moved down here. I came for the economic climate, not the weather. I am from Michigan. People who live in the south think it is way too cold up there, and that anyone who lives there is nuts. Well I got news for you. People up there think that people who live down here are nuts, simply because it is so hot. I just want everyone to keep everything in perspective. Some Sneetches have stars on their bellies, and some don't. Can't we all just get along?

So what did you resolve to do this year? Did you resolve to stop making resolutions? Because that's one of my favorites. If you fail, well, you didn't really set out to accomplish much in the first place. But by failing to keep up your resolution to not make any resolutions, didn't you ultimately resolve to do something? So you can feel good about that, and then go about the new year with a great sense of satisfaction. Just don't think about it too hard.

I used to resolve, in my younger days, not to step in any dog poop in the new year. Not that it happened all that often, but man did it suck when it did. I mean, what a way to ruin your day, not to mention a shoe. But now everyone is so PC about their dog's poop that they pick it up most of the time, so the "opportunity" to step in it has been virtually eliminated. I needed a new resolution. I needed one that was easy enough to attain. I mean, why set yourself up for failure? The new year should be a positive experience, not a bummer. Who wants to get to the end of the year and go, "Well, let's see...I didn't lose any weight. I didn't read 'War And Peace'. I didn't volunteer at the homeless shelter. I didn't even pick up my dog's poop unless I thought someone else was watching. I am a terrible, worthless person."? Nobody wants that at the end of the year. So I finally found a resolution that is not only constructive (more on that later), it is easily attainable. Life is hard enough. Why make yourself miserable? Go for the low-hanging fruit. Set reasonable goals, then feel great when you accomplish them. Read "War And Peace"? Who has time for that? Resolve to take more naps instead. That is a win-win situation. You accomplished an important goal that you established at the beginning of the year, and you feel great after a nap! If someone calls you lazy for sleeping all afternoon, ask them, "How many of your New Year's resolutions did you accomplish today? Uh huh, that's what I thought. Now who's lazy?".

But the best and most constructive resolution you can make, and you can totally steal this from me if you want, is to drink more beer this year. I know what you are thinking, "But Fred, drinking has already cost me my marriage!". OK, so maybe that person doesn't need to drink any more beer. (But on the upside, they do have some extra time on their hands these days....) But the rest of you need to step it up. You have helped fan the flames of the biggest growth period in the history of American craft beer. Now what are you going to do, just expect it to take care of itself. Is that how you would raise a child? "So since you can walk now, and it looks like you can feed yourself, I guess my work here is done. Here's box of those Cheerios you seem to like so much. Have a nice life kid." No, you can't do that. You made this baby, now take care of it. And I am not talking about real children, I am talking about beer. Thanks to your nourishment and encouragement, these great breweries grew up over the last few years. But they still need you, and now more than ever. So that is why I am offering you, free of charge, my fail-safe New Year's resolution. The one I have succeeded in attaining for years and years, which is to drink more beer in the coming year. You can thank me later.

But how can I claim that this resolution is in the least bit "constructive"? Because by getting out and drinking more beer, there are so many things you can learn. For example, you will go out and meet many new people. Some of whom, you will learn, are wonderful people, and they will become new friends. Some of them...well, they help you learn to choose your words carefully, and help you appreciate that you are not that miserable and insufferable of a person. That is some valuable learning right there. They don't teach that in schools. Thank you, beer. Thank you so much.

In addition to the valuable social lessons and personal insights beer provides, it also brings happiness. If I have to explain that to you...well, what in the hell is so hard to understand? Beer tastes great and makes you feel good too. And beer tastes better than ever now. There has never been a better time in history to step it up and drink more beer. This is the golden-est age of brewing that Earth has ever known. If you were going to pick one time where you said: "You know, I really want to put forth a strong effort to drink a lot of beer. More beer. Better beer. More of it and more often.", this would be the time. So what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for someone to tell you when and where you might start the new year off right? Then you came to the right place....

Tomorrow the new Taco Mac in Roswell opens on Holcomb Bridge Rd. This is basically a replacement for the older and smaller Ellard Village location that just closed. The new one (we call it East Roswell, not "new Ellard") is across the street and about one mile closer to GA 400. Stop by and soak up that new store smell. I may have a special beer...but that is a secret.
Friday at Lindbergh we start a trio of Heavy Seas firkins to be tapped on consecutive Fridays. The first one is a Loose Cannon IPA. They always dry-hop their firkins of Loose Cannon, so stop by and see what this one has in store for you. LC is one of the best and most solidly consistent cask beers we ever get.
On Wednesday the 11th (next week!) in Decatur we are tapping the Heavy Seas Loose Cannon cask that I helped make in Baltimore in November. This cask has juniper berries, bay leaves, rosemary and cardamom added to it, plus it was dry-hopped with east coast Cascade and Centennial hops. I am very excited to try it, obviously. I helped make the thing, and have been waiting to taste it for six weeks now. There will be two other Loose Cannon casks in two other bars in Decatur that night. One of them was made at the same time I was at the brewery by my friend Jason. So if you love hops, cask beers, pirates, and life in general, then join us for the mini-pub crawl/Loose Cannon Bonanza next Wednesday. It starts at Taco Mac at 6:00 pm. It ends when you say it ends.
Cask number two in the Friday trio at Lindbergh is Heavy Seas Peg Leg Stout at on the 13th.
Cask three of the trio is Heavy Seas Below Decks Barley Wine at Lindbergh on the 20th.

That is all I have for you right now. If you want to put a special date on your calendar--and you feel like driving to Charlotte--we have the owner and founder of Stone Brewing, Greg Koch, coming to our South park location on Friday, March 23rd. He will be there for a meet and greet/book signing. The beer line-up is going to border on the ridiculous. Make plans and book a room now. This chance will not happen again for a long, long time.

PS-- Beer also teaches us a lot about history, geography, agriculture, economics and science. It's all in there, so in all seriousness, why crack open a book? Just crack open a beer. And another one, and another....

Get Your Heavy On

2011-12-23T15:29:00.000-05:00

Don't forget about the super-special cask of Heavy Seas Below Decks that is getting tapped tonight at 5:00 pm at the Virginia-Highland Taco Mac location. That part of down is sure to be all "decked" out for the holidays, so it will be fun. Some people may take the opportunity to get "lit up" like the proverbial Christmas tree. Hey, it's a free country. Just be safe out there people.

This cask had red oak chips, cocoa nibs, cinnamon bark and dried persimmons thrown into it, plus it was dry-hopped with Brewer's Gold. No frankincense or myrrh though. Nobody really knows what that stuff is anyway. I mean, when was the last time you saw that on sale at Publix? Maybe Kroger has frankincense and myrrh, but I wouldn't know. I don't shop there.

If you can't make it out tonight, still try to enjoy your holidays. That may be difficult for you though, knowing what an awesome beer you could have drank, but didn't. But try anyway.

You may not hear from me next week. I have a busy couple of days before I leave for California for a New Year's Eve blow-out in San Francisco. So I guess I will see you next year. Bye!

I Am Back, And Don't Miss These Casks!

2011-12-19T15:55:00.000-05:00

OK, so I have been out of communication for a while, sorry. I had a short week last week because I had to go to Florida for a few days. Sounds like we may be selling some beer down there next year. And then there was this little matter of a Cowboys/Buccaneers game I had to look into. Cool stadium, but the Cowboys just routed the Bucs, and it wasn't much of a game from a competitive standpoint. But for me to get to two Cowboys games in one year, neither of which were in Atlanta, is a pretty good accomplishment. I still haven't been to the new stadium in Dallas, but next year my birthday is on a Sunday, so...whoever makes the NFL schedule needs to be midful of that. Don't make the Cowboys play in some god-awful place that I won't want to go. I don't want to spend my birthday in Phoenix. Might be a nice place, but in the end of September, it is still about 150 degrees during the daytime. Buffalo might be cooler in temperature, but I am not even sure they have an airport. I think you fly into Pittsburgh and take a bus or canoe or something.

(You may find my opinions about other cities to be offensive to people who live in, or are from, those places. I am from Michigan. Flint, Michigan, so I have heard it all already. If I want to take a shot at some place, I can do that. If you haven't heard of Flint, it makes Detroit look like a pretty decent place.)

But there is only one city you need to be concerned with this week, and it is the good ol' ATL. On Friday there is a special cask of Jail House Misdemeanor at Taco Mac Perimeter. Think black IPA with pink peppercorns and cocoa nibs. It is going to be creamy and spicy all at once. And remember my trip to Baltimore where I got to make two special casks? And that were then en route to Taco Mac's loyal and voracious customers? Well, cask # 1 gets tapped on Friday at Virginia-Highland Taco Mac. This is Heavy Seas Below Decks Barley Wine, and we added cocoa nibs, cinnamon bark, red oak chips and dried persimmons. A persimmon is a fruit (pictured), which along with the barley wine, should provide a sweet background to the spices and oaky dryness. It was then dry-hopped with Brewer's Gold hops grown on the east coast. I am very excited to try it. If you are a credit seeker/accumulator, or just plain love beer, then you really need to come out for this one. It is a special item called Heavy Seas Spiced Below Decks. So if you have already had Below Decks, or a cask of Below Decks, this one is still unique. In fact, it is pretty much a one-time shot.

If you want to plan ahead to try the Loose Cannon cask I did while I was in Baltimore, then put Wednesday, January 11th on your calendar. We will be tapping that one in Decatur, and two other Decatur bars will be featuring unique Loose Cannon casks that same night. Call it a mini-pub crawl. A VIP from thre brewery, Joe Gold, will be in town for the evening. This guy is awesome, and really fun to drink beer with. You'll want to meet him. Trust me on that one.

Alright, that is all I have for you right now. Have a great week, and in case I get too swamped next week and can't post anything, have a great holiday season. Relax, drink alot of beer and enjoy some peace and quiet.

PS-- While in Tampa, I did drop in on Cigar City Brewing and saw their new expansion. What a great bunch of guys, and the beer was unbelievable. Every one of them (and I had "a few"). They are trying to get to the point where they can send some kegs our way, so don't despair. They know where we are, and they want us to have more of their beer as much as you want to have some. They just don't have any extra yet. But, man was that a great stop.

Hand-Made Casks In Charm City

2011-11-28T19:36:00.000-05:00

Wet hop bud in my hand

OK, so I was gone for a while. Sorry. It's what I do. Where did I go and what did I do? Is that really what you want to know, or do you just want to hear about how this all affects you? It's OK, that's natural. Nothing to be ashamed of there. In fact, where I was the week of November 21st could possibly affect you. If you're lucky (more on that later). But last week I was on Thanksgiving break like the rest of the country. But I didn't go anywhere. Family came to me this year. What a beautiful weekend to visit Atlanta, huh? So I am sorry for the long absence, but I am sure that you were busy too.

You will notice: Beer first, reading second

But the week before last, I went to Baltimore to visit Heavy Seas Brewing and make some casks. Their resident cask guru, Steven, was there with a table full of ingredients--many from his personal garden--for us to choose from. More importantly, though, he was there with his expert opinion. Without him, for example, I would have probably killed an IPA with juniper berries. I mean, how many juniper berries would you add to 10.8 gallons of beer? Two? Twenty? I mean, that's a decent amount of beer, and why put anything in the beer if you aren't going to taste it, right? (Turns out the correct answer is five juniper berries.)

Signed, sealed and soon-to-be delivered

So first we made the IPA casks, one for me, one for another bar owner. We were using Loose Cannon that was in the conditioning tank. That beer is great, and I was not interested in hopping it to death. I mean really, can't we just stop trying to act like over-hopped beers are "awesome". It's like nobody want to be the lone dissenter to say, "I don't think there was much artistry in killing this beer with an obscene amount of hops". So I will be that guy. Hey, I can make food so spicy that you will go blind for a few seconds after you eat it, but that doesn't make it good. Same with beer. No one is going to take away your beer-lover credentials if you admit that tongue-curling bitterness that makes it impossible to taste anything else for six hours does not make a beer "great". There, I said it. And if you put too much Simcoe hops in a beer, it tastes like a giant cat just pissed all over your face. I like hoppy beers as much as the next person, but some people out there are making garbage and passing it off--with an incredible price tag!--as liquid gold. So I went the other way with this cask, adding bay leaves, rosemary, cardamom and the juniper berries I mentioned. All were in very small and judicious amount to not completely erase the taste of the Loose Cannon. And then, just in case you thought I had gone soft on you, we dry-hopped it with wet, east coast Cascade and Centennial hops. How did we get wet hops in November? They were frozen. The dry hopping is to compensate for the diminished hop flavor you get in a cask serving as opposed to a standard, gas-driven draft system. I think this beer is going be incredible.

Below Decks in whiskey cask

Cask number two was their Below Decks Barley Wine. I added cocoa nibs, cinnamon chunks, red oak chips and dried persimmons. That cask was dry-hopped with Brewer's Gold, a low-alpha acid hop, also grown on the east coast. The persimmons were from the brewer's own back yard, and the one ingredients he said he hoped we would select. I have very high hopes for this one too. Once these casks are ready, they will be shipped to Atlanta for some special events. Stay tuned. I also brokered a deal with the owner of the brewery to fly this cask guru down here next year for a meet and greet with folks like you. He will make some special casks himself, then come down once they are ready to talk to you about them and, well, drink them of course. You will love this guy. He knows his stuff big time.

Below Deck in wine cask

After the brewery visit, I went to D.C. for a football game. If you watched the Dallas Cowboys win in overtime against the Redskins, I was at that game. It was a friend's gift from his wife, and as his only friend who loves the Cowboys (he is a 'Skins fan), I got to go along. Thanks Stephanie! You rock. The seats were Row 1, 50 yard line, seats 15 and16. Just look at the pictures I took from my seat. Not too shabby. Like I said, she rocks.

Anyway, I am home now and back to my usual tricks. So here are this week's beer events:

50-yard line seats, Row 1

Deckard's is tapping a firkin of Rogue Mogul Madness on Wednesday. This will be the first application of what is called a cask "widge". Want to learn about what that is? Better be at Deckard's on Wednesday. This thing may revolutionize how we pour and enjoy cask beer for the rest of our lives. No, I am not kidding. I learned a lot about the "widge" in Baltimore. Plus, that beer is going to be delicious.
On Friday, there will be a mass assortment of Heavy Seas beers at The Fred Bar. Draft specialties will include Smoke on The Water and Hop Haarvest, plus some of the usual suspects. The bottled beer line-up will see Greater Pumpkin, Hop Haarvest, Davy Jones Lager, Smoke On The Water, Letter Of Marque, Below Decks 2010 and Siren Noir 2010. There also might be a case of Plank One, but I need to check on that to be sure. I will be there, along with Kevin from Heavy Seas. So if you have any questions for me about my cask-making experience, or for him about the brewery in general, this Friday is your chance to ask any and all of those questions. I think that we are going to have a firkin of something too, so expect a full reminder later this week with all of the beers detailed.

Here is a preview of next week:

Cask in Cumming on Tuesday, December 6th. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for details.

I was kind of close to the quarterback....

Also on Tuesday, Deckard's is doing a Sierra Nevada blow-out. There will be some rare Beer Camp beers on draft, the new Ovila Quad, plus tons of other stuff they have been saving for just such an occasion. Again, mark your calendars and stay tuned for more details. This one is going to be killer. You should find a designated driver if you are smart. And judging by your choice in internet reading material, you are a genius.

That's all I can think of for now. Have a great week everyone.

PS--If you have never beer to Baltimore, it is a very cool town. I highly recommend that you check it out. Lots of great food and history and places to drink fresh beer. Next year Heavy Seas is opening their own tap house/restaurant in the city. I think it going to be a huge success. Look into it.

That would be the ingredient table for making special casks, me, and "The Man"

2011-11-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

Biere de Beloeil looks tasty....

You may sense a recurring theme here, but I have more new beer events to tell you about. But I am going to make it brief, so here goes:

The Coast-To-Coast Toast is tomorrow at The Fred Bar. Here are the three new Belgian drafts that we will have pouring: Schelde Hop Ruiter, Scaldis Noel and Dupont Biere de Beloeil. You can click on any one of those for more details. Doors open at 5:00 pm, and if you are a user of the Untappd social networking site, then you will want to know that these will count towards a unique badge. If you don't know or care about Untappd, then just come out for some outstanding beers. Please be advised that these beers are not cheap. But if you have ever been to The Fred before, you already knew that.
On Wednesday you can taste Bell's Two Hearted Ale from a firkin at our Lindbergh Center location. There will be two Bell's employees there: our local gal and close friend of mine, Tina, and national sales manager, Marty. There will be some Bell's Cherry Stout on tap too. If you love IPA and have not had Two Hearted from a cask, then you haven't lived. And if you haven't partied with Tina and a cask of Two Hearted, well, now's your chance.
On Friday at the Decatur and Old Milton Parkway locations, you can get a Peak Organic Maple Oat from a cask, and try the New Belgium Pamela's IPA (PIPA). That is a beer that was brewed for this woman who won a contest. Seriously, I just told you all about it last week. But if your memory retention is that bad, try clicking here for the story. If you are a Brewniversity member, this PIPA is a rare credit for sure.
But the big news of the day is the posting of the menu for ASHE IV. That would be the "All-Star Holiday Extravaganza" beer dinner being held at The Fred Bar on Tuesday, December 13th. Want to see the menu? Click here. Other than our traditional beginning(s), each of the beers are vintage-dated Belgian or American strong ales, some with a holiday theme. This is one dinner where we pulled out all of the stops. And our traditional beginning(s)? Homemade eggnog spiked with Rogue Hazelnut Spiced Rum, followed by a Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome. Not too shabby. This menu went out to all of our Chancellors on Thursday, and there are only about 20 seats left. If you want to go, you better get moving.

Don't look for me this weekend. I will be in Baltimore making special casks at Heavy Seas. After that I am heading south to D.C. for a Cowboys @ Redskins game. Have a great week and weekend. I'll be sure to take some pictures at the brewery on Friday. Stay tuned for those next week. Bye.

Three New Events!

2011-11-10T16:41:00.001-05:00

No, this is not your run-of-the-mill reminder about events that I have already told you about. Oh that's coming later, don't worry. But first, check out some new stuff:

Next Wednesday, November 16th, we have a firkin of Bell's Two Hearted Ale at Lindbergh Center. We are going to get into it at 6:00 pm. And if you like to meet beer people--and I know that you do--we will have Marty Compton in the house. Marty Compton (pictured*) is the national sales director from Bell's. He is an extremely fun and cool guy who only gets to town once or twice a year. It would be fun for you to come out and meet him, tell him how much you love Bell's beer, and how cool it would be if they sent some really crazy beers down here, etc. See, when things like that happen, then people like Marty go back to the brewery and make awesome things happen for people like us. Ever wondered who decides what beers--and how much of them--come into our market? People like Marty do. He is "the guy". Want to see Bell's flex some more muscle down here? Then come out on Wednesday and show Marty why he should make that should happen. Ball is in your court people.
On Friday the 18th we have firkins of Peak Organic Maple Oat to tap at our Old Milton Pkwy and Decatur locations. Riding along with those casks will be a small keg of New Belgium Pam's IPA. Here is the story behind the PIPA: At multiple events (not in the southeast), New Belgium challenged fans to determine which of their beers were blended together in a glass. Not only did they have to say which three beers were in there, but in what percentages. The winner got to go out to the brewery and collaborate with their brewers on a new beer. Some school teacher in St. Louis won the contest. I will give you one guess what her first name is. So now you have two reasons to go out to OMP or Decatur next Friday: cask beer and Pam beer. This Pam beer is in really short supply, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime credit if you are a Brewniversity member. I will not be there unfortunately. More on that next week.

And now for the reminders:

Friday. 11/11/11. Metropolis. Heavy Seas Greater Pumpkin cask. Me. Kevin from Heavy Seas. Eye patches. (HS Greater Pumpkin is a high-gravity pumpkin beer, aged in bourbon barrles. Oh, it's that good. It's better than that good.)
Tuesday the 15th at The Fred Bar, the Coast To Coast Toast takes place. If you love Belgian beers, we will have three drafts that are new to The Fred: DuPont Biere de Belieol, Hop Ruiter and Scaldis Noel. (If you have had Scaldis Noel on draft at Taco Mac or The Fred, it was always a vintage batch. This one is fresh and ready to rock your world.) If you are down with the Untappd thing, then you should already know that these beers will count towards this unique Coast To Coast Toast badge. I will be there for a while myself.

That's it kids. I gotta go. See you around.

*Marty Compton is not pictured. Marty McFly is pictured. Sorry, I don't have stock photos of beer salespeople on file. Michael J. Fox will not--I repeat will NOT--be at Taco Mac next Wednesday. At least as far as I know. Maybe he's a fan.

Taco Mac: Famous For Its Deer

2011-11-07T16:59:00.000-05:00

That's right kids, there are no typos in the title.If you want to see what happens when a wild animal crashes through the window a restaurant during the middle of a Falcons game, click on this link. If it doesn't work for some reason, just Google (All hail the mighty and benevelont ruler! The exhalted master of all that is holy! We bow down to you Google!) "taco mac deer". A deranged--and apparently quite determined--male deer managed to get into our Alpharetta store on Highway 9 and Windward Parkway yesterday afternoon. What ensued was...pandemonium..what'd you expect? One minute you're watching the Falcons mop the floor with Indy, and the next minute a real, honest-to-goodness, large format animal is running around the reataurant. Nobody, except that woman with the baby, acted calm. OK, so by now you've watched it, so let's move on.

But first, it was crazy when this thing made the local news. It spread to Arizona, Hawaii, and every place from here to there in about an hour. I got three phone calls from people in Michigan, California and Pennsylvania. All four local news stations went and interviewed our manager who was "on the scene" when it went down. CNN wants the footage exclusively. Tosh.0 is getting it sent to them today. (If you don't know what Tosh.0 is, it is the funniest thing on TV right now. Get with the times, man.)

But back to the business at hand. Events!

Tomorrow night you can meet the owners of Lazy Magnolia brewery (Kiln, MS--home of Brett Favre) at Taco Mac in Kennesaw. They will be there at 5:00 pm for a few hours, along with three of their beers on draft. If you don't drink in Forsyth, Coweta or Fayette counties, you probably haven't had them at a Taco Mac yet.
WEDNESDAY'S RELEASE OF THE RED BRICK HOPLANTA IPA HAS BEEN CANCELLED! Beer is not ready. Totally sucks, I know. Beer's not ready, what are you going to do? If you just stand there and yell it, it won't get ready any faster. Kind of like your spouse, right? That event was on Wednesday at The Fred, in case you are keeping score.
On Friday, we are tapping a cask of Heavy Seas Greater Pumpkin at Lindbergh. This is their high-gravity pumpkin beer that was aged in bourbon barrels. It is awesome, and the cask delivery treats it right. I expect to tap it around 6:00 pm. The date is 11-11-11, so that's a good reason to get out and drink a fancy beer, right? Secondly, why do you need a reason to get out and drink fancy beer? You read this blog. You like fancy beer. We know this about you. Be there.
The last thing I have for you at this point is the Coast To Coast Toast. This has to do with a Belgian beer importer, their 30th anniversary, and a social networking site called Untappd. (Again, no typo. It's spelled like that.) If you know what Untappd* is, then you will want to know that this event will allow you get a special "badge". If you don't know what Untappd is, then this is an opportunity for you to get some wacky beers that have not been offered on draft to our Brewniversity memebers before. This will be held at The Fred Bar, and it starts when they open at 5:00 pm.

That's all I have today. Watch out for this nasty cold going around these days. It's about to kick my ass any second now. I need to rest up for another week's beer events. Later.

PS-- Mark your calendars for Tuesday, December 13th. In a few days we will be posting the menu for the All-Star Holiday Exrtravagaza IV beer dinner. This will feature a nice Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome to start, then five vintage-dated strong ales from Belgian and U.S. breweries. The list is ridiculous, and you definitely want to be there. I mean, the beer list has been a year in the making, and it is outstanding. See you there.

Cask Your Vote!

2011-10-24T16:50:00.000-04:00

Here is a quick run-down on some upcoming events. Some of these are new. Maybe not "some", but one is definitely new. So pay attention. It's going to be a busy week or two coming up:

Two events are scheduled for Wednesday. At the Taco Mac near Windward Pkwy., we are tapping the second cask of Wells Bombadier. The one we got into on Sunday at Metropolis was great. The beer is typically pretty mild, but the cask presentation allowed a lot of the flavors to come through more fully. Everyone loved it. You should too. Plus, down at The Fred Bar the same evening, you can taste the New Belgium Kick and/or New Belgium Clutch. I gave you folks links to read about those beers last week. If you didn't use them, well, trust me on this one, these beers are special. You want to be there.
On Saturday at 5:00 pm at our location on Lawrenceville-Suwanee Rd., we will be tapping the last cask of Wells Bombadier. We have a customer who will be getting his 1000th beer on his Brewniversity list. I think he's going to be happy with number 1000. Plus I think there's a football game of some sort on that day....
Halloween is next Monday. Don't be afraid of the dark beer! Come to Taco Mac Metropolis for a cask of Left Hand Fade To Black 3 (Chili Porter). If I have said it once, I have said it a dozen times: Left Hand makes great dark beer. Don't miss this one, because I know that it is the only one Taco Mac has. Plus it's Monday. Take the edge off after work, because Mondays usually suck anyway.
Tuesday, Novemeber 1st, be the first kid on the block to try a Left Hand/Heavy Seas Collaboration called Free Spirit. We are tapping it at Crabapple Taco Mac (Crossville Rd., Roswell) at 6:30 pm. The beer is a saison style made with sunflower seeds and elderflower. This beer was made to commemorate the life of someone very close to each brewery, who unfortunately died unexpectedly way, way too early. She grew up very near that location Taco Mac, so it makes perfect sense. Her family still lives nearby. But don't worry, it won't be a gloomy event. There's beer involved, so spirits will be in fine shape. Lots of brewery folks will be around too, if you're into that kind of thing.

And just when you thought that you couldn't stand any more awesome beer events during the week, there is a special cask at Perimeter Taco Mac on Wednesday the 2nd. Just in time to trasition from fall into winter, a cask of Heavy Seas Winter Storm has arrived. This is one of my favorite seasonal beers, and I have never had it from a cask before. Very excited to try it.
Don't forget about The Fred Bar's two-year anniversary on Saturday the 5th. Lots of special beers. Good times, bad craziness, cool people. Like I needed to tell you that.
What? You want MORE beer events? I got 'em, I just don't have time to talk about 'em right now.

Have a great week everyone. Get out there and drink some beer. Say "hi" if you see me. If I look at you like you are a crazy person, then it's not me. Or maybe it is me, and you just happen to be a crazy person, so looking at you that way is natural. But I suppose you'd be used to that by now.

"You Dropped A Bomb On Me"

2011-10-19T16:30:00.000-04:00

"I love beer, beer loves me, we're a happy fam-i-ly"

I hope that everyone is rested up from last week's festivities. If you missed the beer festival in Decatur last weekend, here is a picture from above the crowd. That's right, I can fly. Well, not so much as fly, but hover. It's not a big deal really. I don't really like to brag about it.

If you missed it this year, it sure was a beatiful fall day to get outside and drink tons of delicious craft beer. I know it looks crowded from the photo, but it was very manageable, and the people were all cooperative. Some of these breweries brought special casks, and they tapped them at different intervals. Talk about cooperation. No one brewery wanted to upstage anyone else, and the effect to the attendees was terrific. You knew that every 30 to 45 minutes something special was getting busted out, and if you knew the right people, you knew where you needed to be. The beer selection across the board was very solid. I guess that's why this thing sells out so fast every year.

Enough about the past. Here, friends, is the future:

Tomorrow at The Fred Bar, we have seven different Great Divide beers (not the regular stuff, special ones--duh!) to choose from. They open at 5:00 pm if you're curious. Don't be scared. The place may be a little hard to find, but you'll be glad you took the time once you locate it.
Sunday the Falcons take on the Detriot Lions at 1:00 pm in Detroit. Both teams are sure to be throwing a bomb or two, so Taco Mac Metropolis is tapping a cask of Well's Bombadier at 12:30pm to set the mood. This is an English brown ale that has never appeared in a cask-conditioned format--at least in this region--before. You can be the first kid on the block to have one if you show up on time. It might go quick.
Next Wednesday the 26th at The Fred they are tapping New Belgium Kick and New Belgium Clutch. You can read about these beers by clicking here and here. These beers are very unique, and if you don't take this opportunity to drink them, then I guess you...uh...don't love beer. And after all beer has done for you....Geez.

If you missed the Well's Bombadier at Metropolis on Sunday, you can catch it again at the Windward Parkway store next Wednesday the 26th. They are going to tap it at 6:30 pm, unless a thirsty crowd develops early.
Don't be scared to go out on Halloween! Metropolis has a cask of Left Hand Fade To Black 3 (a high-grav chili porter that is super tasty). This thing is rare, especially on a Monday night. Dress up like a beer lover and get to midtown on Halloween, if you know what's good for you.
Then on Wednesday, November 2nd we are going to get into a cask of Heavy Seas Winter Storm at Taco Mac Perimeter. This is one of my favorite seasonal beers of the year, and Heavy Seas does cask beers as good as anyone. In fact, later in November I am going up there (Baltimore) to make a custom cask, which will then make its way down here for a special event of some sort. Stay tuned for those details.
The last thing on this list is a big one: The Fred Bar's two-year anniversary is Saturday, November 5th. All of the pertinemt info will follow in the next few weeks. I just want you to save the date at this point. Pull out the electronic device that runs your life and put that date in it now. Or else you'll be sooor-rrry!

That's your event update for now. I will be at most/many of these, in case that matters to you. I am not that interesting though, compared to the beer. So if you don't see me, it's not a big deal. Plus, there will be a lot more beer for everyone else if I'm not around. Until we do this all over again, have a good end-of-week and weekend.

PS-For our younger readers, "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" is a classic--if dated--song by The Gap Band that sort of bridges the end of funk with the beginning of disco. At least that's how I see it. I'm no musicologist or anything, but somewhere between James Brown and the Bee-Gees, "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" landed. For better or worse.

They Sang: "You Dropped A Bomb On Me"

No Rest For The Beer-y

2011-10-11T12:08:00.004-04:00

As promised, here is the rest of the Atlanta Beer Week events at Taco Mac. Last week I gave you everything up through Wednesday. So here is the end of the week:

Decatur Taco Mac has some Heavy Seas specialties lined up for Thursday night. They are: Plank One (this is the barley wine aged on Poplar wood--very unique), Great Pumpkin, Greater Pumpkin (that is Great Pumpkin aged in bourbon barrels), and the Hop Haaarvest 2011. That is not a typo. You have to say Haaarvest like a pirate. Serioulsy. Get with the program. The brewery has a pirate theme. Do you live in a cave or something*?

This castle is on top of a mountain in Germany

Thursday also has a serious line-up of Sierra Nevada beers at The Fred Bar. They have some beers from the Beer Camp Series (Double IPA, Juniper Black, and Pitch A Tent--all very rare, the last one is a DIPA with lavender), Life And Limb, Estate Harvest and Northern Hemisphere Harvest. I had the Estate (made with all SN-grown hops and malts) in Denver. Awesome. In attendance will be Terrence Sullivan from the brewery. He is the Assistant Brew Master and Field Educator. So get out into the field and get educated. Terrance's appearance is a real treat. I have met him a few times myself. You can get in The Fred after 6:00 pm. The SN guys are having a meeting down there from 5:00 to 6:00. Sorry.
On Friday at Lindbergh Taco Mac, we have some more Heavy Seas specialties. They have the Great Pumpkin, and the Greater Pumpkin and the Hop Haaarvest, but also a keg of the Greater Pumpkin from 2010. We aged a keg that was bourbon aged, for that extra-mellow pumpkin/whiskey drinking experience you've always wanted. There is also some Heavy Seas Marzon and Peg Leg Stout. That stout is being discontinued temporarily while they get caught up on some other brews. Better get out and try one while you can. Kevin from the brewery will be there too. He's a super-cool dude. You should know him. And ladies...he's single!
Decatur is going to tap a Terrapin Wake And Bake cask at 6:00 pm on Friday as well. This beer was kegged specially for this event, so it is truly a sneak peek at this year's batch of Terrapin's Imperial Coffee Oatmeal Stout.

Ayinger brewery. Now I can die a happy man.

To fully emphasize the "ATL" in Atlanta Beer Week, Taco Mac at The Prado is featuring beers from all eight Georgia-based breweries. If you are unfamiliar with some of the newer or smaller local breweries, well, get with the program. If you spend money on locally brewed beer in locally owned bars and restaurants, your hard-earned dollars go directly to supporting businesses in your area. As if beer didn't make you feel good enough on its own, now you're stimulating the local economy. Prado will have such specialties as: the new Jail House Witness Protection (a black ale), SweetWater Goulash (new Dank Tank release), Red Brick Smoked Vanilla Gorilla (delicious), Wild Heaven Eschaton Quad (also delicious) and Terrapin Oaked Big Hoppy Monster (monsterous of flavor). O'Dempsey's, Red Hare and Monday Night Brewing will all be represented with some of their flagship brands as well. To my knowledge, this night, along with tonight's all-GA Harvest Beer Dinner at Deckard's, are the only events to feature regional breweries exclusively and extensively.

That concludes our coverage of ABW. Satuday is the big beer fest in Decatur, so we aren't doing anything that day. Plus, everyone is watching football, so beer events on Saturdays in the fall are not a big hit for us. The last thing I have for you is tomorrow's Dogfish Head Ancient Ales beer dinner. There are four seats left if anyone is interested. Can't believe that any sane beer lover would miss this, but oh well. Your loss.

* If this tough economy has forced you to live in a cave, I apologize for the insult. If you choose to live in a cave, tent, lean-to, shanty or ramshackle hut of some sort, more power to you. It's your life. Do what you want with it.
PS--I finally located where in my computer this crappy Kodak software sent my pictures from Germany. I will sent out a few as time and space allows. Enjoy.

Oktoberfest Chicken and beers at Hofbrau Haus, Munich

This Good Life Is Killing Me

2011-10-05T21:56:00.001-04:00

Road into Red Rocks, and part of ramp on left

OK, so maybe that title is a bit of an exaggeration, but check this out:

Two days at GABF, including the Denver Rare Beer Tasting. (Wow.) Followed immediately by...
Two days of concerts at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater up in the mountains outside of Denver. Followed by...
A flight back to the ATL, where I un-packed and re-packed in the same evening in order to drive to Charlotte in the morning. I am here to prep the new store for opening on Thursday. I just prep the beer though. It got a serious pep talk today, and it is ready to give its life for you, the customer.
Not too bad so far, right? I mean, I got to sleep at home once in eight days. I'll just drive home early Friday morning after the new store opening party. (Translation: Mega-ouch.)
I better rest up on Saturday, because I am going to the Falcons/Packers game on Sunday night. Let's hope they play better against Green Bay this year than they did in last year's playoff game. That was brutal, in case you have not managed to completely erase that part of your memory by now. So not much sleep that night...

Red Rocks filling up fast....

And our Atlanta Beer Week events get into full gear on Monday. We actually have events on Saturday and Sunday too, but you won't see me at those. Either way, I am coming off a rough week into another rough week followed by a super-rough week. A complete run-down of ABW events will follow.

First of all, I am not crying about my schedule. I mean, it's not like I haven't been training my whole life for this. All I am saying is that if you see me out and I look tired, you'll know why. People my age are not supposed to be tearing it up like this for weeks on end. But like I've said before, I am a professional. And as a wise writer once said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Things got pretty crazy there for a while in my younger days, and here I am now, getting paid to drink beer. So by "professional", I don't mean that I am any better than anyone else. Tennis pros aren't better people than people who play tennis for fun. They just get paid to do it. I'm not better than anybody else (in particular*), I just got lucky that I found a way to get paid for what used to be a destructive lifestyle. The first person to hire me into this business probably should not have done that, but I am glad he did. Thanks Frank, wherever you are.

So the BIG Atlanta Beer Week events are the two beer dinners. Let me elaborate:

Tuesday the 11th at Deckard's is the First Annual Georgia Harvest Beer Dinner. Chef Matt has put together an amazing seven-course menu with locally sourced ingredients. I paired a beer from seven different local breweries with each course. There are still a few seats left, so if you want to get in, click here.

Night settles, and a beach ball in the air

The following day at our Lindbergh Center store there is a very special beer dinner featuring Dogfish Head's Ancient Ales. If you are unfamiliar with the Ancient Ales series, click here. These are the beers that Dogfish Head recreated from remnants of drinking vessels from archaeological digs around the world. The youngest recipe is from Finland from 900 years ago. The oldest is 5000 years old from Turkey, and the series has stops in China and Honduras along the way. Nick from the brewery will be there to teach you all about the different beers, and Chef Peter has made a terrific menu with influences from some of the unexpected ingredients in these beers. You can view the menu and/or buy seats by clicking here. This event will also feature a very rare Dogfish Head draft beer featured only once before in Atlanta. All of these beers were sent down here specifically for this event. You don't want to miss it. There are still a few spots remaining.

That's enough about the big events. From here on out, we're going to move pretty quickly. Take a deep breath and...here we go:

Saturday the 8th Decatur TM is tapping a dry-hopped Duck Rabbit Porter cask at 5:00 pm
Saturday the 9th Decatur TM is tapping a fresh cask-conditioned keg (not a firkin**) of Lagunitas Maximus IPA.
Monday the 10th Kennesaw TM is tapping their Wild Heaven Eschaton Quad. More stores are likely to follow, but we only got enough of these kegs for four locations. Stay tuned for more details as they arise. This beer is really unique in that is was made with all malt, not any of the Belgian candi sugar that is so well know for that style. And it is goooood. If the keg of the new Jail House Witness Protection shows up in time, they will be tapping that too.
Monday the 10th Decatur TM has the following kegs of beer from Stillwater Artisinal Ales, a relative newcomer to the GA market. This is one of those really esoteric breweries that pushes the envelope in every way (Translation: Delicious, but not cheap!). The brands are: Stateside Saison, Autumnal Ale, and Cellar Door.
Tuesday the 11th at The Fred Bar you can get some of these great new Left Hand releases: Beer Week Sauce is a coffee Porter that was described by a Left Hand employee as, "One of the best beers we've ever made"; Fade to Black 3 is a high-gravity chili Porter; and Biere de Garde is an up-and-coming style. If you are not familiar with the style, it's time to get acquainted with it. Expect an Amber Ale with a hint of Belgian-y-ness in there. A person from the brewery will be there in the evening around 8:00 pm. You should meet him. He is awesome. We will start getting into the special beers around 7:00 pm.
Also on the 11th, you can get the same three Left Hand beers at Decatur TM. In addition, they will have some Terrapin/Left Hand collaboration Pea-otch. (Say it like you are referring to a woman you do not like at all. But that word starts with a "b" and rhymes with "itch". Commonly enuncited with emphasis on the first syllable, and further empahsized by elongating the first vowel sound into "eee-yatch". OK, it's "beee-yotch" for anyone out there who needs me to just come right out and say it. You happy now? I probably offended someone. Good job.) They will also be tapping a Terrapin Oaked Big Hoppy Monster and a So Fresh And So Green, Green. Can you feel the Terrapin/Left Hand love in the room?
Next on Wednesday the 12th at Decatur TM there are more wild and wacky beers for you. Heard of Mikkeller? If not, then you are missing out on probably the most avante-garde brewer of the 21st Century. This guy (in Denmark) made just about everyone in the world go, "What the f--k is this guy doing?" And now there a bundle of copy-cats and wannabes. Taste the original freak gypsy brewer's Black Hole Imperial Stout Aged In Cognac Barrels, or the Single Hop Series--Challenger, or the Jackie Brown. The same night at the same store there will be kegs of Emilesse Espresso Stout from one of Belgium's newest "rock-star" breweries, and a keg of Dieu du Ciel Corne du Diable. No clue what that last one is? Check an old blog post from my trip to Montreal last summer. Canadian beer, despite what many people think, isn't just for funneling anymore.

That is as far as I can get right now. Tomorrow I will give you the deets on the rest of the week. (If you don't know what "deets" are, ask the nearest bee-yotch.) But before I go, I need to break down the whole week of tappings at our Suwanee store. They have a different Terrapin beer each day, some of them are unusual, so check this out:

Monday: Practice your urban slang in Gwinnett drinking some Pea-otch! This beer will be gone quick, and Midnight Project beers (the ones made with Left Hand folks) never get re-made.
Tuesday: Oaked Big Hoppy Monster. Terrorize your taste buds, if you can handle it....
Wednesday: PumpkinFest! A fall classic, but in very short supply this year (the brewery is busy, busy, busy these days).
Thursday: Moo-Hoo from 2010. Where did that come from? Yes, Brewniversity credit seekers, this is a new credit. Expect the sweetness to have died down a bit. Also, expect no one else in town to have a vintage dated Moo-Hoo, at least to my knowledge.
Friday: Hoptaneous Combustion. This release came and went so fast, it was on fire. Get it? These guys in Suwanee got a keg. Wow.

The stage is in front of a rock

Saturday: A fresh keg of everyone's favorite, Hopsecutioner IPA. Great job saying "I love you" to local beer, Suwanne folks. Enjoy.

So like I said, that is the list for now. We have some big things planned for Thursday and Friday the 13th and 14th, so don't think that we are done. I apologize that we do not have events all over the metro area. Right now we need to focus energy on less, but bigger events. More is not always better. If you live in Fayette, Coweta or Cherokee counties, we have something big coming both of your ways in March. Much love to all of you in Taco Mac Land. Have a great week, and come say "hi" if you are in Charlotte tomorrow for the new store opening.

* Some people are better than others. I am better than criminals, philanderers, and most other people driving on the road at the same time as me, etc. I am not better than teachers, nurses, volunteers at shelters and elderly care centers. No, those people got me beat.
**Cask-conditioned beer can be served from a firkin, which can quickly compromise the flavor of the beer as it oxidizes. It can also be served from a regular keg, treated specially and served specially, to get the same flavor effect without the spoilage issue. Camps are divided between purists and "others". Both sides have valid arguments. However, I see a death-match between them brewing on the horizon. I see a horrific slap fight between about four to five people, where someone eventually gets bee-yotch slapped into next week, and then cries. Because really people, it's beer. Try to be professional.

PS--I swear that I took a bunch of pictures at GABF, but I can't seem to locate them in my camera right now. These are just from Red Rocks, which is a natural stone aphitheater that was made into a medium-sized concert venue in Colorado. High desert, sedimentary rocks of red limestone (maybe; hey, I'm not a geologist), a stage, and beer vendors and... how did a concert happen way up here? The first pic is the road into the mountains. Look at the ramp on the right that takes you up, up, up into the mountain and into the arena. The next pic is of the left wall of the place, with concert-goers filling in the bleacher-like seats. The third pic is that same rock at night. Another giant rock bordered the other side of the venue, but those pictures came out poorly based on where the sun was setting. The final picture is a daytime shot of the stage in front of a smaller, but still really large, red rock.

For Me? You Shouldn't Have!

2011-09-27T20:46:00.000-04:00

Yes folks, it is another birthday weekend for yours truly. Luckily, there is something going on for my birthday that is...oh, kind of cool: the Great American Beer Festival! That's right, day two of the GABF is on my birthday this year. So if you were wondering if I have any pull in the beer world, well, there you go. Just kidding, it is a total coincidence. Or is it...(cue X-Files music, if you are old enough to know what that is)?

Anyway, I will regale you with stories about that after it all goes down. I leave on Thursday for Denver. Coming back on Monday. But first, you need to know about a few critical events that I know you will be excited about. Atlanta Beer Week is coming up, and we have some doozies on the agenda.

We kick things off with the Harvest Beer Dinner at Deckard's. This is a seven course meal of locally sourced foods and beers. Yes, each course is served with a beer from a different Georgia brewery. You can view the menu in an older post, or go to the Deckard's web site. Do that, because that's where you pay for seats anyway. The date is Tuesday, October 11th. This is chef Deckard's first beer dinner since his triumphant tenure doing beer dinners with me for years. Please do yourself a favor and check out the menu. Just go to http://www.kitchenandkegs.com/ and click on "Food". I know that it hard to think of October events in September, but October starts on Saturday, so get moving. Space is starting to get limited.
On Wednesday, October 12th we have another beer dinner at Lindbergh. This is the Dogfish Head Ancient Ales Beer Dinner. Don't know what Ancient Ales are? These are the beers that DFH has recreated from archaeological evidence from four cultures, dating back 3000 years. This event has been on the "DL" for a while because, well, it is going to be a big hit. If I were you, I would go to http://www.tacomac.com/ before it sells out. Click on "Events". You will be fine from there. It's a web site, not a puzzle. You can do it. There is one special surprise beer too. I can't tell you about it, but you want it. You really, really want it. There will be a DFH guy there too, so if you were always wondering what those wacky dudes look like in person, this is your chance.
On Thursday there is a HUGE event with Sierra Nevada at The Fred Bar. Details will be coming later, but a very inportant Sierra Nevada brewer will be there, plus lots of specialty beers you don't see often/ever. Just be there. Stop screwing around.

I have more things planned, and I will get you all of the info next week. For now, just sign up for these two beer dinners, clear your calendar during beer week, and set aside a lot of money. You will either be drinking a lot all week, or be sorry that you didn't. Time for the pros to clock in, and the amateurs to start getting their Halloween costumes together. Because the real party starts early in October people. Bye...

Event Round-Up!

2011-09-19T15:47:00.004-04:00

Below is the Pay Pal link for the Tequila School this Saturday at The Fred Bar. This thing is a steal at $25.00. That, of course, is on purpose. We like to do some events that are designed to show you folks some new and different things that we can do. We all know that you can get great beer and food and watch the game and all of that stuff at Taco Mac. These little educational classes are just something else fun for you to do, in the comfortable environs of a familiar setting, with other like-minded people.

The class runs from 3:00 to 5:00 pm, and you will get beers paired with four different tequilas (all really good stuff), plus some light apps. The beers are for you to sip on in between tequila tastings, plus, you're a beer person. Beer needs to be involved. Done. But the tequilas will be the star of the show, and tequila expert Francisco will be on hand to walk you through everything you ever needed to know about tequila. If you don't know much about tequila--or distilled liquors in general--this is a great way to learn. His presentation won't last the full two hours. Trust me, this is just called "school". We don't intend to bore you to death like real school.

I think the main benefit to anyone attending this class will, of course, be the education. But the auxiliary benefit will be that this knowledge is not something that many people possess. The next time you have company over, you can serve some quality tequila and also be able to speak intelligently about it. Just think how sophisticated and well-travelled you will appear. Just think how jealous that jerk neighbor will be when everyone is impressed by your superior intellect and charm. And all you single guys...how about showing the ladies that you are the kind of smart and desirable partner that they are looking for to procreate. Because let's face it, attraction is pretty much biological. Why are fit people more attractive? Because they appear to have good genes, capable furthuring your genetic code to an offspring. Why is stupidity unattractive? Because stupid people make stupid babies, who have a lower survival rate. We're going back to caveman times here people. The dumb, deformed, buck-toothed caveman had a much harder time getting a mate than the good-looking cave man. Especially when the good-looking cave man realized that if he got in the lake every now and then and washed off some of that stank, then things were really happenin' when the camp fires went out. Fast-forward to modern times. Do you want to be the dumb guy with the light beer and the funnel, or do you want to be the one who gets to mate? Be smart. Get to mate. You can thank me later. Here's the link:

Also, I mentioned the October Harvest Beer Dinner at Deckard's on Tuesday, October 11th. If you want to find a link for that, use this one. In a nutshell, this is a seven course dinner with dishes paired with seven different beers from seven different Georgia brewers. That link takes you to a place whre you can view the menu and/or just pay for the dinner. For those of you who remember when Matt Deckard did Taco Mac beer dinners, you know he rocked the house. This menu looks outstanding, and it appears that his house-rocking days are not over.

More event details to come as we approach Atlanta Beer Week, but that should give you all a few things to consider this week. Thanks, and talk to ya later.

Georgia Harvest Beer Dinner

2011-09-16T16:19:00.000-04:00

OK everyone....Here comes the menu for the Harvest Dinner at Deckard's that I told you about. If you want to come, CLICK HERE to reserve your seat....and take a look at the menu below. Remember, 7 courses all featuring locally sourced ingredients, and 7 different beers all in GA. Celebrate Harvest season and support your local Breweries!

For those of you that have been around for a while, this is Matt Deckard's triumphant return to beer dinners from which he has been absent for the last year and a half due to the opening of his new restaurant, and he has pulled out all the stops. Take advantage of this opportunity to indulge yourself in Matt's genius cooking as well as check out Deckard's American Tavern if you haven't been there yet. I'm willing to bet you will want to return on a regular basis.

Sweet Grass Goat Cheese Flat Bread, local watercress, roasted Georgia peppers

Wild Heaven Invocation--

Belgian-style golden ale with hints of dried fruit. Noble and West Coast hops lend an earthy spiciness, and a Belgian yest contributes a dry yet fruity finish.

Spotted Trotter Brat Corn Dog, Allison’s Blackberry honey dijon

Terrapin Rye--

The flagship Pale Ale from Athens is nicely hopped, but still well balanced. The rye malt contributes a nutty component that is this classic beer’s signature.

Wild Georgia Shrimp, grilled Spotted Trotter bacon, Georgia squash hash

SweetWater Georgia Brown--

Designed to be a session beer (i.e. you can have a few!), this Brown Ale has a slight nuttiness from its ample dark malts, while still maintaining a smooth, drinkable character.

White Oak Pastures Lamb Meatballs “Swedish style”

Monday Night Drafty Kilt--

A Scotch Ale style from one of Georgia’s newcomers. This full-bodied, ruby-colored beer has malty sweetness, tempered by a hint of smokiness from malts smoked over oak.

Tasso stuffed Georgia Plantation Quail, local field peas, peanuts, natural jus

Jail House Mugshot IPA--

Featuring an “arresting” lineup of Warrior, Chinook, Cascade and Sterling hops, balanced by malty flavors for a nice, dry. finish. This is what American IPA tastes like.

BrassTown Pork Porchetta, braised Georgia kale, Georgia apple pickles

O’Dempsey’s Big Red--

What’s big, delicious and red all over? An Irish-style Red Ale with North American attitude, that’s what. All of the body you want, with just the right amount of hoppy goodness.

Pumpkin - Porter Whoopie pie, candied pecan ice cream

Red Brick Porter--

This beer is determined to let the world know that great dark beer can be brewed in the American Southeast! Dark, rich, and smooth, with hints of cocoa, coffee and roasted malts.

Time to Hit the Books...With your FACE!

2011-09-14T08:38:00.008-04:00

Just kidding, nobody falls asleep in Tequila 101. That's right folks, can you say, "Tequila class!" The date is Saturday, September 24th. Some of you may recall that a year or so ago we did one of these in the evening on a weekday. It was a great turnout and a spectacular event. This time though, we are going to use that Saturday 3-5 pm time slot that has been working so well. You can get some stuff done around the house (or just stay in bed), then spend a few hours learning something (now you're really being productive), enjoy some afternoon libations, and be home in time for dinner. We will be holding this at The Fred Bar. DON'T WORRY! The TV's will be on, and the programming will consist of football.

But here is the deal, for $25.00, you get to try four different tequilas, plus a beer to help wash it down. I will pick Latin American beers of varying degrees of darkeness to compliment the different varieties of tequila you will be tasting. I mean, you can't just sit there and pound tequila all afternoon. Plus, you are beer people. I get that. A guy named Francisco will be there to educate you on the tequlias that you are drinking. This guy is an expert in the field. This folks, is what he does for a living. Me, I do beer stuff for a living. Francisco does tequila stuff for a living.

Now in case you were wondering how you were going to get home after four beers and four shots of tequila, let me explain a few things.

You will have some light apps on the table as well. Chips and salsa, some flautas, that kind of thing.
The beers will be 8oz. portions, so like 2/3 of a beer.
Tequila will be served in 1oz. portions, which is 2/3 of a measured shot.

So as you can see, this event is not only a great value, but your personal safety is a concern. I don't want any of you staggering in the house at 5:30 and getting a fight with the spouse/signigicant other/booty call/voice in your head.

The tequilas will be Don Julio Blanco, Reposado and Anejo, as well as the new Don Julio 70th Anniversary. These are high-end tequilas, on par with the Patron (cough...overpriced....cough, cough) brand that seems like a household name these days. So if you feel like coming to this event, there is a Pay Pal link below. Space is linited to 25 people. This will count as a Brewniversity credit. Because hey, the "--niversity" in "Brewniversity" means you need to learn something, and it doesn't have to be ALL about beer. As long as beer is involved. Hope to see you guys there.

Updates And Clarifications

2011-09-12T19:40:00.000-04:00

Here are the locations serving Red Hare beers on Wednesday, along with the (APPROXIMATE!) times that the guys** from the brewery will be there. I hope you get a chance to get out and continue supporting Georgia brewers. Have a great week.

Suwanee* & Prado @ 6:00 pm
Decatur & Woodstock @ 7:00 pm
Metropolis & Kennesaw @ 8:00 pm

*Lawrenceville-Suwanee Rd., not Peachtree Pkwy.
**One "guy" per location.

Enough with the disclaimers. Now some clarification:

OK, maybe I didn't "look at the calendar" (picture me talking, but making air quotes). In fact, that may have caused me to give you the "wrong information" regarding an October event. I mean, it's not like anything down anyway. "He'll remind us like 5 or 6 times between now and then." That was you talking or thinking, possibly both if you talk to yourself out loud. So the big Harvest Beer Dinner at Deckard's is Tuesday, October 11th. The menu will be posted this week once we make it look pretty. But let me tell you, the food looks incredible just in regular old letters on paper. Seven course, all paired with some of the outstanding beers from seven different local breweries. This will be part of Atlanta Beer Week, but more on that later this month.

Now before I go, I have one last reminder: Mall of Georgia, this Sunday night at 6:30 pm. Get your seats early for the big Eagles/Falcons game and drink some tasty Terrapin Big Hoppy Monster from a cask. OK, I know that Atlanta did not exactly look like a contender yesterday. Well they lost game 1 last year and finished 13-3. So don't freak out. And I watched the Eagles yesterday for a while. Until the Rams' starting running back went out of the game, they were handling the Eagles just fine. Have a great week everyone.

Is It A Six-Pack Or Another Name For A Support Group?

2011-09-09T16:09:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a good week and is ready for the weekend. I have some reminders and some brand new events for you folks. This list is going to take us into October, so you may want to enter these into that hand-held device that has recently taken over your life. Here we go:

Tonight at The Fred Bar you can taste all of those crazy Mikkeller and Stillwater beers I told you about. They open at 5:00pm, so the drinkin' starts immedialtely after that.
On Wednesday we will be releasing Red Hare's Gangway IPA and Long Day Lager at the following Taco Mac locations: Decatur, Kennesaw, Metropolis, Perimeter, Prado, Suwanee and Woodstock. The guys from the brewery will be making their rounds in two groups, so depending on what time you are at where you are at, you might be able to meet them. More details will be coming next week when we have their whereabouts finalized. Feel free to ask them anything. Like, "How in the hell did you guys open a brewery in Marietta with virtually nobody knowing about it until now?" That's a good place to start. I met one of them earlier this week, and he was about as pleasant as he could be. Try to make it out on Wednesday, if you like to support local breweries. More on this later....
Next Saturday the 17th is the big SausageFest at Deckard's American Tavern. Here is the skinny: $15.00 gets you all-you-can-eat sausages from Atlanta's own Spotted Trotter (support your local sausage stuffers!). You can chooses from four different varieties. Beers are served a la carte, and you can chooses from lots of Oktoberfest beers, or any of the great selections Decakrd's has pouring that day. You can also get a super-fresh Terrapin PumpkinFest from a cask. That's going to be delicious, and you can support local breweries by having one--everyone wins! There will be a live band rockin' out on the patio and all of that fun and festive stuff. Come by and see for yourself why the slogan for SausageFest is, "Let it all hang out!" I came up with that one myself. Hey, I never claimed to be mature.
The following Sunday the 18th, the Mall of Georgia Taco Mac is going to tap a firkin of Terrapin Big Hoppy Monster around 6:30 pm. Why Sunday? Why 6:30 pm? Just open up your NFL schedule and see what's happening that night. If that doesn't clear things up, please enroll in "Football 101" by sitting in any Taco Mac this Sunday. You'll figure it out pretty quickly. And hey, this cask is yet another opportunity to--you guessed it!--support local brewers.
Did I say local brewers? Indeed. How about a beer dinner that showcases one beer from all seven GA breweries? What a great idea. Good thing we already thought of it. So you'll want to check out the 2011 Harvest Dinner at Deckard's on Tuesday, October 12th. That menu is being worked on right now, so stay tuned. The seven GA brewers are SweetWater, Red Brick, Terrapin, O'Dempsey's, Wild Heaven, Jail House and Monday Night. OK, so there's eight with Red Hare, but this idea happened before we knew about those guys. And yes, I know that there are some great brew pubs in Georgia, but for legal reasons, we can't offer their beers. If you need a lesson in alcohol laws, just attend one of my events and ask me. I don't want to bore people with that business here. And before anyone goes running around criticizing Georgia for outdated laws, I need you to know that it's like that in every state. Brew pubs are brew pubs, breweries are breweries. A donkey isn't a horse just because it has long ears and a tail.

On the repetitive theme of supporting local breweries, I just have one more thing to say: It is easy to walk around telling everyone that you "support local breweries". But I need you to look at your receipt the next time you go out drinking. Look in your grocery cart the next time you are at the store. Take a peek in your fridge the next time you have company over. If you don't see local beer in any of these places, then shut up. If you support local beer, that means that you buy local beer.

And the last thing I have for you is some (more) reading material. Ever looked at a newspaper and thought, "I wish that was just all about beer, and wasn't made out of paper"? Well think no more, because your prayers have been answered. Check out Beer Street Journal by clicking here. I don't want to go into all of the details right now, but for simplicity's sake, I know these people, and they do good work. I fully authorize you to enjoy a second piece of on-line literature. Enjoy.

Sale Of The Century!

2011-09-02T12:14:00.000-04:00

Look how happy I am!

Let's begin by reviewing a few events. Not "review" like express opinions about events that have already happened. I mean like "preview" events that I already told you about. We are going to review the preview. Everybody with me? Here we go:

Next Friday the 9th there is a Gypsy Beer take-over at The Fred Bar. Go taste some great beers from brewers without breweries. Crazy, I know. These are some out-of-this-world Mikkeller and Stillwater beers. Please be forewarned, these beers are rare and strong (Translation: Expensive!).
Here is a link to a Facebook event that you should know about. I suppose some of you know what "Facebook event" means. I don't really, but that shouldn't stop you form checking it out. I have no beef with Facebook, it's just that at my age, Facebook is not my #1 method of communication and social interaction. I am not saying anything bad about it, just that it isn't my style. But who cares about that, when that link will tell you more about the Deckard's First Annual Anniversary Sausage Fest! That's right, it's September, and if you aren't thinking about giant mugs of beer and tasty sausages, well, you probably should be. The fest will feature four different types of locally made sausages, and it is all-you-can-eat. That's right, for $15.00, you can keep ordering plate after plate until you feel that you have reach the right level of sausage-intake density. There is no prize for winning, so don't hurt yourself people. And when you think about it, who isn't a winner when there are unlimited amounts of sausages to cram into your face? OK, so the pigs and chickens and cows aren't winners, but if I tasted that good, I'd want people to eat me too. But as I've said before, this isn't Fred's Sausage Page, so we should probably talk about the beer. Terrapin PumpkinFest...in a firkin (very rare). Bell's Oktoberfest (rare). Spaten and Ayinger Oktoberfests (two true Bavarian breweries I visited in February--awesome), and many other Oktoberfest beers to choose from. Giant mugs. Live band. What more do you want? Sorry, the beer is not all-you-can-drink because, frankly, people have a hard enough time controlling their alcohol as it is, so why encourage them to be dumber than they already are. Not you. No, clearly based on your choice of internet-based reading material, you are of a superior intellect. Did I mention that all-you-can-drink events are also illegal? Yep, and for a reason. People have to be protected from themselves. If you are still reading, this is where I tell you that the Sausage Fest is Saturday, September 17th in the afternoon. Clear your calendars people. This is going to be cool.

Did I mention giant mugs of beer yet? In case you forgot "Boot Mania 2010" or even last year's installment, "Boot Mania II", that is where you could get a one-liter glass boot filled with Warsteiner beers. And you got to keep the boot. Was it a popular program? It isn't called Boot Mania for nothin'. This year, though, we switched it up a bit. This year we have one-liter dimple mugs, just like the ones they use in Bavaria for Oktoberfest. These, however, can be bought filled with our September beers of the month from Sierra Nevada. OK, so not "traditional" beers for Oktoberfest, but who cares? Trust me, the liter of Torpedo I had yesterday tasted about as good as any beer possibly could have tasted. Here is the kicker: These are available for $16.00--filled with beer ($17.00 at Philips Arena)! These mugs are going for $34.98 on e-Bay (with a Hofbrau Haus logo), and $24.95 on http://www.mybeersteins.com/, and there is no logo on 'em! These have a sweet Sierra Nevada logo on them that looks great. Last night (September 1st) we went through about 1/3 of the nearly 4000 of these we have. Want a giant Sierra mug full of beer? The you better act now folks, because these are bad ass and going fast.

If you are wondering why these are so cheap, it's because we're crazy, and we love our customers.

Have a great weekend everyone.

PS--If you are upset about the September beer dinner selling out, keep Wednesday, October 13th open. I have something for you that is going to cause a stampede.

Mark Your Calendars!

2011-08-26T16:56:00.000-04:00

Terry's 2000th beer was the Reunion 2011 cask

Looks like it is going to be a busy September out there beer drinkers! Get your pencils and pens out and start writing down some key dates to remember. Let's begin:

Newnan is breaking out some cellared beer to wrap up the summer in style. These are all vintage dated beers from 2010, so they are new credits for Brewniversity members if you do not already have the '10 dated ones on your list. Tonight there will be a keg of Allagash Curieux '10, plus bottles of Brooklyn Local 1 '10 and Local 2 '10. Saturday they have a (small) keg of Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Jack and Ken's '10. Then on Sunday there is a keg of SweetWater Happy Ending '10. I guess they want to end the month...happily. That is some great stuff guys. Enjoy.
On Thursday, September 1st, begin a new month with an old ale. More specifically, a firkin of Burton Bridge Thomas Sykes Old Ale at The Fred Bar. Don't act like you know what that is. Nobody does. I don't, but I sure want to drink some. Basically this is a super rare and expensive cask of really strong beer from England. You probably don't want to miss it.
More action at The Fred Bar on Friday, September 9th! This time it is the Gypsy Brewer Take-Over. A "gypsy brewer" is the term for a brewer that doesn't have his or her own brewery, but instead brews their own recipes on other people's brew systems. Most of the time these turn out to be really crazy and exotic brews. What we have for the 9th are 3 beers from Mikkeller, the notorious Danish gypsy brewer, and three more from his American counterpart, Brad Stillwater. And, of course, a collaboration beer brewed by them both. Expect the unexpected, and expect to need a ride home. Drink safe, that's what I always say. I actually don't "say" that in a literal sens, but I advocate safe drinking, so you catch my drift. (In case you were not paying attention, that is 7 different beers for this event).
Starting Sunday, September 11th, Deckard's will be adding a new feature whenever the Falcons have a 1:00 pm kick-off: a Bloody Mary bar. For a mere $6.00 you can get a Ketel One Bloody made with Matt's home-made, proprietary mix. Then you can go doctor up your drink with all kinds of gourmet hot sauces, pickled what-have-yous and all that good stuff. If you have never enjoyed a Bloody Mary bar before, well, you haven't really lived. It's a great way to ease into a lazy Sunday watching football.
Thursday, September 13th there will be a cask of Terrapin Reunion Beer 2011 in Duluth. We need it for the SOLD OUT beer dinner that night, so it isn't getting tapped until about 7:30 pm. This is the 8.5% brown ale made with cocoa nibs, vanilla and chili peppers that I mentioned a week or so ago. Wow was this beer great. I can safely say that this will be your last chance to have it from a cask. Don't miss it.
Deckard's is celebrating its one-year anniversary on September 17th with their first annual Sausage Fest. No, not like your parties in college. This will feature edible sausages in all kinds of iterations. For $15.00 (plus tax), you will have an all-you-can-eat bonanza of stuffed meats. There will be different ones to choose from, and fun side dishes too, so you can try a selection of offerings from Atlanta's own Spotted Trotter sausage makers. This is not a singular sausage event, it's a Sausage Fest! There will be live music, so maybe you can boogie off a little sausage before you gobble down a few more. But wait! There's more. This isn't Fred's Sausage Page, it's Fred's Beer Page, so let's talk about the beer. There will be tons of Oktoberfest beers to chooses from, including the Bell's Octoberfest, which is not that easy to find at all. Ever. Plus you can get liters of Spaten Oktoberfest and Lager. Prost! Tables outside will be set up beer hall style, so be ready to party with some cool folks, elbow to elbow. Did I mention the firkin of Terrapin PumpkinFest? Half pumpkin ale, half Oktoberfest style, 100% delicious, cask-conditioned freshness. All of the beers are a la carte, of course. Look for a Pay Pal link next week once we get final clearance on all of these details. We will pre-sell tickets for the food in anticipation of a sell-out, so if great beer and unlimited sausages sound like your kind of thing, clear this date on your calendar. (Yes, it is a Saturday in the fall, which means football. No, we did not overlook that. In case you have not been to Deckard's, they have TV's. Lots of them. Nice ones too.) How do you like the slogan I came up with: "Deckard's First Annual SausageFest--Let It All Hang Out!"

Okay, that is a lot of stuff for you to consider. I also want you to mark Wednesday, October 13th on your calendars. That is the date for the Dogfish Head Ancient Ales Beer Dinner at Lindbergh. I don't have time to go into the details right now, but it is going to be out of control. You'll want to be there. If you don't know what "ancient ales" are, look it up. Cool stuff. Have great weekend everyone.

Beer Dinner Alert!

2011-08-12T12:10:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, you may want to run over to http://www.tacomac.com/ to check out the menu for the September 13th Terrapin beer dinner in Duluth. I sent it out to our Chancellor level Brewniversity members yesterday, and it is already almost half full. What I can I say, it's an awesome menu. People love Terrapin. This event's a winner.

But wait, there's more....One lucky winner drawn at random will win an extra special prize package that evening. Each attendee will have their name entered into the drawing as many times as the number of tickets purchased. You pay for four people, your name gets entered four times. Buy a single ticket, your name goes in once. Get it? Gotta be fair. The winner gets two tickets to the Terrapin Hop Harvest party at the brewery on Saturday, Sept. 24th. What? You don't want to drive back from Athens after you've been drinking? No problem. You also get a hotel room for the night as well (The Foundry, it's nice). Afraid of getting a DUI in Athens? You won't, because your prize also features transportation from the hotel to the brewery and back. All you have to do is drive to Athens and have a good time. Can you handle that? I knew you could.

If you were wondering what the Hop Harvest party is all about, I will tell you. They will be harvesting their own hops grown at the brewery (duh). There will be live music, beer everywhere, brewery tours, a cask tent, games and a ton of cool, fun-loving people. There is not only the big tasting area inside the brewery, but a huge outdoor area that is fenced in. You can bring your dog if you want! It's also an afternoon event, so you can be safely tucked into bed at a decant hour and back home early on Sunday.

Did I mention that this party will be the first tasting of the 2011 Terrapin So Fresh And So Green, Green? Yep, you'll want to be there for that I imagine.

That's all I have for you folks. Oh wait: Southern Tier 2XIPA cask @ Perimeter on Wednesday of next week. Heavy Seas Red Sky At Night cask @ Decatur next Friday. Bye!

Hooray For Monday Night! On Wednesday....

2011-08-09T14:50:00.000-04:00

That's right folks, this is your reminder about the release of two Monday Night Brewing beers into Taco Mac land tomorrow (that's Wednesday in case you are not an "alert" reader). Stop in to the Perimeter store tomorrow (or today or yesterday, depending on when you are reading this) around 5:00 pm to try Eye Patch IPA and Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale on draft. Some of the guys from the brewing company will be there as well. Got questions? Ask those dudes. Neck ties and defiantly raised fists not required. See you there. Bye.

So...Today Didn't Exactly Suck

2011-08-06T09:04:00.000-04:00

Looks like a Two-Deep, zone defense......

Yep, that's me, taking the snap from a Falcon's player. Well, a dummy in a Falcons jersey at least. That would be in the lobby of the Falcons' training camp in Flowery Branch, GA. I "had" to go up there and record a radio ad with Falcons defensive tackle Kroy Biermann. It's a pretty easy connection to make: He's "Bier-mann", and I'm the beer guy. Taco Mac is the Official Game Day Headquarters of the Atlanta Falcons. For those of you who don't understand the billions of dollars involved in NFL football, or have never heard of what is called an "attorney", let me help you out. You can't just say that you are the official home of an NFL franchise unless you have the expressed, written consent of.....If you watch football, you would get that joke. But it's true. You can't go around claiming to be the "official" anything of a professional sports team without actually having clearance from the team to do so. If you did, you would find out very quickly the meaning of "attorney". And don't event think about using any of the licensed names, images and trademarks of the NFL either. What about the NCAA? Same story. You have to pay to use the words, "March Madness" for example. Why all of this litigious craziness? You. The fan, if you are a fan. (If you aren't, then you probably either stopped reading, or skipped down to the beer events at the bottom ny now anyway.) More specifically, your wallet. See, advertisers want what's in there, so they need to convince you that their beer, cars, pizza, deodorant and athlete's foot medicine are the ones that you identify with, and will therefore purchase

This is you at the store: "Damn, my feet itch."

This is your brain: "Bam! Tough Actin' Tinactin!"

You (ignoring that initial impulse): "Let's look at the different brands and make an educated selection based on the active ingredients and convincing claims of superiority over the competition made on the labels."

Your subconscious brain: "Gee, I love the [insert favorite team here]. I identify with them on an internal level, and therefore I am subject to prefer other people, automobile manufacturers, insurance providers and generally anything else associated with [insert favorite team here]."

You: "Hmmm....Extra Strength....? Prescription Strength..? # 1 In Customer Satisfaction....? I can't decide."

Your brain: "Bam! Tough Actin' Tinactin!"

Your subconscious brain: "I saw that on TV! And it was during the game! I need Tough Actin' Tinactin."

No photos past this point!

And $7.99 later, you are the proud owner of the officially endorsed athlete's foot cream--whether it works worth a damn or not--of the sports team of your liking. But damn it, this is your brand of athlete's foot cream, and all of the other ones can suck it.

That is how our brains work, and the advertisers know it. So the next time you see an especially poignant, touching*, or hilarious advertisement, check your wallet. Someone's trying to get in. Now you may be asking yourself, "Self, why is Fred calling out the entire advertising business, when he himself does ads on the radio?" Good question. But the answer is simple: Because football and Taco Mac are awesome. I don't mind pimping out either one. If you don't like football, that's fine. I am sure that you enjoy spending every weekend afternoon in the fall and winter all by yourself. Whatever floats your boat. But the rest of us are pretty entertained watching giant-sized people collide in a frenzy of violent and exciting action. Frankly, sports has always been about drama, not balls, pucks or nets, and people have always loved drama. Ever heard of a stage play? It's what people watched before movies and TV. Sports is no different. Good guys, bad guys, a quest of some sort. Rings are involved. There are setbacks, redemption, victory snatched from the hands of defeat. All of it. Occasionally the hero loses, further vilifying his enemies, until they meet again in a contest so steeped in history, that it is just dripping with drama. And on and on it goes. Once you can accept the cheerleaders as the "damsels in distress", my analogy is complete. Just go with it.

But like I said, an advertisement featuring Taco Mac and football is not the same as Tough Actin' Tinactin. Taco Mac has 100's of different beers, and that is, in a word, awesome. But I don't need to tell you about all of that. And if you're not on board with the whole football thing, well, that's your business. Plus, I have my suspicions about things like athlete's foot medication and dandruff shampoo. Why, for example, would a dandruff shampoo want to cure your flaky scalp? Then you wouldn't need their product anymore. I suspect that their shampoo cures your dandruff for a very short period of time, then gives it back to you before you could go out and buy another bottle of a different shampoo. Then they get you thinking that you have "problem dandruff", and now you need their "Extra Strength" formula. You know who needs dandruff shampoo and athlete's foot cream? People that don't bathe enough, that's who. Flaky scalp? Take a shower maybe. Fungus on your feet? Try soap.

Sy Sperling

In closing, I have no ethical qualms about selling people on the attributes of Taco Mac, because I'm not just the president of the Brewniversity, I'm also a client.

So you can see that training camp was fun. Kroy Biermann was really cool, and he was a good sport about doing our radio ads. I couldn't get any autographs or anything though. These guys are working hard out in the sun, and this was a closed practice. I had to have credentials to walk around the building and on the practice field (no photos on the field allowed), and that basically means: Don't act like some sort of awe-struck idiot and freak out around the players. From the field we got to watch them run some two-minute drills, which was also very cool. Julio Jones was out there running routes, looking like a beast. We were escorted around by a big-time front office guy, so I got to ask all kinds of questions about the inner working of an NFL franchise. Luckily I am somewhat educated on these things, so I didn't look like a dumb ass. Plus he had a Detroit Red Wings helmet on his desk, so we are both from Michigan, and therefore bros. Did I mention I got to meet team president Rich McKay? Yeah, today didn't exactly suck folks.

I look I need a beer, don't I?

And now, here are some beer events:

Wednesday you can get your hands on two new brews from Georgia's newest brewing outfit. At our Perimeter store we will have Monday Night Brewing Co.'s IPA and Scotch Ale for the first time. The guys from the brewery will be there, and everything kicks off around 5:30 pm. Yes, I said a NEW brewery from Georgia.
This year's Reunion Beer 2011 by Terrapin is starting to arrive. The Fred and Taco Mac Decatur will have firkins of it next Saturday the 13th (3:00 at TFB, 5:00 at Decatur). This is a high-gravity brown ale with some cocoa nibs and chili peppers in it. Crazy. Can't wait to try it. The event at The Fred is also to commemorate the 2,000th beer of Brewniversity student Terry Becker. He's been tip-toeing around the beer selection at 1,999 for a month or so waiting for something special. Here you go Terry.
On Wednesday the 17th we have a firkin of Southern Tier 2XIPA at Perimeter. I have told you at least 3 times how great this beer is in a cask. This is your last chance for a while. I know for a fact that this is the last of a chunk of firkins that came into town for the ST beer dinner in July. If you've been snoozing on the last few, time to wake up.

Have a great weekend everyone. And don't forget to Rise Up!

Where in the hell is Samuel L. Jackson when you need him?

I Tried To Say No To Beer, But It Just Wouldn't Listen

2011-07-28T13:03:00.000-04:00

It may sound like a cruel joke, especially to some of the folks up north during this crazy heat wave, but it is just about to be Oktoberfest time. No, really. Oktoberfest beers will be arriving any day now. Prove it? OK, how about tomorrow. At all metro Atlanta Taco Mac locations. How did we get this beer so soon? It was made in Atlanta, by Red Brick, that's how. I just got a sneak peek, and it tastes great. I dig the slogan, "This Year It's, OK-TO-BEER" for their Okto-Beer-Fest. Get it? That's called a "pun". Unfortunately good puns are far less common than awful ones. And I like that it takes the noun "beer" and gives the ambiguity of a noun or a verb. It's OK to beer? Damn right it is. I beered last night, and unless something drastically unexpected happens today, I am going to beer it up again tonight. I say "OK" to beer all the time. If beer was trying to get in my pants, I would be what is referred to as a "slut". I would be the mot reliable booty call beer ever had. I wouldn't even care if beer didn't tell its friends about me. Hey, I 'm getting what I want of this relationship, why complicate things? I know I can't have beer all to myself. I just need to appreciate the time I have with beer and not smother beer. Now for all the rest of you beer sluts out there, here are some additional beer events coming up:

The Fred Bar is doing a big Southern Tier take-over tomorrow night. Here is the line-up: Farmer's Tan, Hop Sun, Jah'va, Mokah, Iniquity, Oaked Unearthly, 2010 Old Man Winter, and a firkin of 2XIPA. This is the 3rd cask of 2XIPA we have had lately, and that beer is awesome. I will be out of town, but you guys should get down there and check it out. You will be really glad that you did, trust me.
Every Wednesday at Red Brick is now something special. Reward yourself for making it through half of the work week without quitting your job or kidnapping your boss. Go down for a tour and see what special beer/cask/rare something-or-other they are breaking out for you. Careful, you just might learn something about beer while you are there.
There are some more August events at Taco Mac that are in the development stage right now, but I do have a date for you that you should put on your calendar: September 13th. That is the date of our Terrapin beer dinner in Duluth. Lots of special beers are being rounded up for this one. Plus, one lucky attendee will win two passes to the Terrapin Hop Harvest party at the brewery on 9/24. Since we encourage you to be responsible drinkers (...what? Don't laugh...), you will also receive hotel accommodations in Athens, and transportation from the hotel to the brewery and back. Pretty sweet, right? All you need to do is get to Athens. Brewery parties are fun, in case I actually had to tell you that, which I can only hope I did not. If you go to a brewery party that isn't fun, well, maybe it's you. That's gonna be a tough realization for anyone who has to have it. "Wait, this party doesn't suck, I do! Oh no! Mom was right all along!"

That's all I have for now. I hope you guy have a great weekend. And if you see any beer, tell it to call me.

"Do You Fred, Take This Saison...."

2011-07-21T14:49:00.000-04:00

Readers-

I don't normally ramble on and on about a particular beer and how delicious I think it is. There are so many great beers out there, that if I told you about every one that I absolutely loved, we would be here forever. But today is different. Last night, I met a beer that I think I considered proposing marriage to at least once.

I want you to find a way to get your hands on this Ommegang Belgian Independence Day Spiced Saison as soon as possible. Deckard's will be pouring it tonight, along with some other tasty Belgian-style beers. The staff is prepped to help you with some great food pairings too. If I were you, I would think about having dinner down there tonight.

We were drinking this Ommegang B.I.D. last night at The Fred (maybe you were too, I don't know). I am a fan of well-made saisons, and frankly, I don't usually mess with ones made in the U.S. But Ommegang is different. They are a Belgian-owned brewery that happens to be in Cooperstown, New York. They make incredible and traditional Belgian-style beers that tend to rock.

But I am not going to bore you with all of the aspects of this delicious beer. Why would I do that? You can't taste this computer or phone screen. I hate reading some person's attempt to describe--in excruciating detail-- what they tasted in their mouth. I can't think of a more worthless expenditure of time. I had some tasty Corn Chex this morning. Want me to tell you about it? No, that's stupid. Why do people think that anyone wants to hear the minutia of their beer-tasting experience? What I will do, though, is tell you where to get this beer and when:

Deckard's. Tonight. While supplies last
The Fred Bar. Tonight. They poured about one little keg's worth last night, and they had two of them.
The following Taco Mac locations next week: Cumming, Dallas Hwy (Marietta), Decatur, Mall of GA, Peachtree City, Virginia-Highland and Windward Pkwy (Alpharetta).

These TM places get deliveries on different days of the week, and each one will be tapping them when they have some room. So I can't tell you RIGHT NOW when each one is getting tapped. Call the store nearest you to find out when that is going to be. Or better yet, follow the stores nearest you on Twitter. That will get you all of scoop you'll need. If you are a Brewniversity member, this is a pretty rare credit by the way. Basically, Atlanta received less than a third of what we normally get of Ommegang seasonals on this one. But based on how good this beer turned out, I expect to see more next year. You hear me, Ommegang? I'm talking to you!

That is all I have for you this week. I will be in Chattanooga tomorrow to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Chattanooga Brewing Co. They made us a cask of their IPA dry-hopped with Cascade. Finally, we can take a cask event to our loyal customers in Tennessee. Speaking of rare credits, there won't be many Atlanta folks with that one on their list....I'm just saying. It's only two hours form the ATL.

No Crazy Cider--Decatur!

2011-07-15T16:55:00.000-04:00

Sorry guys, the Joan of Arc and Maid of Orleans cider kegs did not make it to Decatur for tonight. I wish I had known this sooner, but I didn't, so I am letting you all know now. Sorry.

I See Two Franz, But No Hans

2011-07-14T16:30:00.003-04:00

There is a slight misconception out there about what I actually do to "get" beers for you to drink, and this might be a good time to clear it up. There seems to be a number of folks who think that I am out there wrangling breweries to send us their beers. In a round-about way, I do sort of do that. For example, if I am at a brewery that does not currently sell beer where there are Taco Macs, I am sure to extol the assets of what we do, and talk about all of the wonderful people that frequent Taco Mac, and your undying love for beer. But for reasons that are too boring to talk about now, it's more complicated than you might think. A brewery's decision start selling beer in a new state are pretty complex. Much more complex than, "Well, I know that Taco Mac wants it." If you really want to know all the ins and outs of the situation, ask me about it some day. But make sure to pack a lunch, because the answer is going to take a while.

The same holds true of specialty beers from some breweries. Sure, they all have some wacky stuff that may never see the beer coolers of Taco Mac-land. And you want them. I know you do. But again, for some boring economic/production/shipping/prioritization reasons, we don't get them. Not the end of the world. I mean, it's not like there aren't a bunch of great beers around here to drink. But for the most part, when I am at breweries--whether we get beer from them or not--I am building relationships with these people, and banking on that to persuade them to do the right thing. On their own terms. When the time is right. So I am not actively "getting" beer for you at those moments. I am getting new beers for you to have at some undetermined later date. Except in this one case...which has now come to fruition, and here is that story.

Before I went to Germany, our local rep for Merchant du Vin asked me to do him a favor when I was at Ayinger. To clear up any confusion, MdV is an importer of specialty beers from Europe. They help you get beers like Samuel Smith's from England, Orval, Rochefort and Westmalle Trappist ales, as well as Lindeman's lambics from Belgium, and of course, Ayinger from Germany. You're right, they do have a kick-ass portfolio. The favor he asked me for was to pester the brewery folks to send some kegs of Kirta-Halbe to Atlanta for us. He had tasted the beer at a trip to the brewery one time and fell in love with it. After many requests to get some stateside had been denied, he had pretty much given up. Why he thought that I had any more clout that he does, I don't know.

From L to R: Ayinger beer sommelier, Franz II, Owen, and Franz III

So when we were at the brewery and being introduced to the people there who were going to show us around, one person there to greet us was named Gertrude. Yes, she looked exactly like you would expect an older German woman named Gertrude to look like. In fact, in case you didn't know, German people who live in rural areas wear traditional German clothes all of the time. Those threads are not just for special occasions and beer drinking holidays (they love those over there), this how they dress. And I have to tell you, it looks sharp. (See photo--Nice!) Not that you or I could pull it off walking around Stone Mountain or going to Chik Fil-A, but in Bavaria, that look is killing it. But back to Gertrude. She is the Export Manager for the brewery. I knew that I was supposed to ask her about this beer, but I didn't want to really bring it up and make a big deal out of anything. I mean, I am a guest at their place, so I might as well just shut up and be appreciative of what I have, right? Wrong. I told this guy back in Atlanta that I would ask about this Kirta beer, and I am a man of my word, so I brought it up. "Well, Gertrude, I promised (guy's name you don't need to know) that I would ask you about sending us some Kirta beer in kegs." The brewery people got a kick out of that, because, as I found out later, this is a beer that is dear to the hearts of the Inselkammer family (father and son pictured) that has operated the brewery for three generations. Everyone was polite, but no one made me any promises of sending us any beer at that point. Then we started drinking....

Up in the tasting room, which is also the top floor of the brew house, I got a one-on-one with Gertrude, and we started talking some numbers. She said that it was pretty unlikely, but that she would think about it. Long story short, we had a great day at the brewery, but still no promises. And then, about two months ago, the phone rings. It's the MdV guy telling me that kegs of Ayinger Kirta-Halbe are on their way to Atlanta. Now they are here. So in this one particular case, I did go somewhere and get you some awesome new beer to drink. Some stores already have it, and the rest of them should be getting it soon. Call your local Taco Mac to see what their deal is.

Donald, Gertrude, and yours truly in the tasting room

So what's up with the beer? First of all, it is pronounced "Keer-Ta Hall-buh", with a very soft ending on the "buh". Here is a description of the beer too. You may need to enable the translation from German to English. If you do, be prepared for it to still sound like a German person is trying, with varying degrees of success, to tell you something in English. Or maybe just get off your ass and go drink one. You could try that. It is basically an Oktoberfest-like seasonal beer for early autumn. Not an Oktoberfest beer for mid-autumn. Who can wait for that? Not the Germans. I told you these people like beer holidays. I think they just make them up whenever they feel like it. And I think that is really cool. So, I hope you people enjoy this beer. If we do a really good job making these kegs disappear, maybe I can get Gertrude to send us some Keller Bier. It's an un-filtered lager, and it's delicious. We got to drink it straight out of the conditioning tank, and lots and lots more in their pub later that night. But that's another story.

On a different note, you have virtually never heard me say anything about cider. This is not Fred's Cider Page. But I will tell you that some cider producers make some extraordinary products. For imports, look for Aspall or Etienne Du Pont. But for domestic ciders, there are two new lines available doing some interesting things. Like what? Oh, fermenting cider with Guinness beer yeast for one. Or with a Japanese sake yeast. Or aging their ciders in Sauvignon Blanc wine barrels. You can now get the Crispin Joan Of Arc and Fox Barrel Maid Of Orleans on tap for a VERY limited time. The Joan Of Arc is made from apples, the Maid Of Orleans from pears, and both are aged in those wine barrels I mentioned. Taco Mac locations in Decatur, Crabapple, Cumming and Kennesaw will be pouring them both on Friday (that's tomorrow!). Each location only has one keg of each, and they are the really small ones, so they should go quickly. Deckard's and The Fred Bar have the last two sets, and they will be pouring them at events in the future. Stay tuned for details.

Lastly, don't forget the Belgian Independence Day events at The Fred and Deckard's. On Wednesday the 20th, The Fred will have special Ommegang beers on draft (two new ones and one out of the cellar), plus bottles of Duvel Triple Hop and Liefman's Cuvee Brut being sold by the glass. Deckard's will have those same new Ommegang drafts, plus some themed food specials to match. It starts next Thursday the 21st and runs through Saturday. Go check it out.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Holy Calendars Beer Man!

2011-07-07T17:28:00.000-04:00

I am not going to spend any time giving you guys any spiffy looking images in today's post. Not because I don't love you, but because I added this GREAT BIG CALENDAR front and center. In case you couldn't tell, this is a list of all of the Christmas In July beers being poured all around town (it tells you that under my picture--pay attention!). I hope that you guys can make some use of this. All of these dated beers will be new credits for Brewniversity members, unless of course you drank one of these vintage dated items recently, which would be very unlikely. To make a long story short, a Rogue Old Crustacean '10 is a different credit than regular, un-aged Rogue Old Crustacean, and the '09 Old Crustacean, etc. Everybody with me? You are going to need to click on these beers to see where they are being poured. Try it, it's fun! All of these beers are available all day, so if drinking strong, cellared and vintage dated beers in the afternoon is your thing, you are all set partner. We are not going to make you wait until 5:00 or anything.

Here comes the disclaimer: You better call ahead if you have you heart set on a beer that you really want before you drive across Georgia to get it. One store sold an entire case of a certain rarity in one night. I am referring, of course, to beers that are past their release date. If the calendar says that you can get something this Friday, you don't need to call if you are heading in there tomorrow night. If you can't make it until Tuesday, maybe you should call. If you have any questions at this point, please ask the nearest person to help you. It isn't that complicated.

The fun with Christmas In July (the reference is basically because these are all winter releases and, in many cases, actual holiday beers) is that these credits are here today, gone tomorrow and gone forever. So if you dig building your list, these are great items for you to make some progress on that.

Now before I go, I just want to let you guys know that the window of opportunity to get seats for next Tuesdays beer dinner is closing. The brew master and co-founder from Southern Tier, Phineas DeMink will be there. Here is the menu. It costs $60.00 plus tax, gratuity is included.

Southern Tier Beer Dinner

Taco Mac Duluth

July 12th, 2011

Reception

Mini Fresh Sweetgrass Goat Cheese Quiches

Hop Sun- Not your average wheat beer, people! Filtered to a golden clarity, then dry-hopped to brighten up the finish. Hints of lemon and sweet malts are balanced by the hops in this highly sessionable summer seasonal.

First

Rare Tuna Nachos - Heirloom Tomato and Pepper Guacamole - Queso Fresco

Phin and Matt’s American Pale Ale-Great beer doesn’t have to be complicated. Just use vast amounts of whole hops, the finest North American malted barley, and filtered artesian water.

Second

BBQ Foie Gras Potato Skins

Big Red- This beer expresses the nobility of Hallertau hops by placing it at the forefront of this Imperial Red Ale. The complex balance between sweet malts and the bitterness of hops play off of each other in this deceptively strong brew.

Third

Seared Salmon - Jalapeno Mayo - Fried Green Tomato and Eggplant Napoleon

2XIPA-If you don’t just like hops, you downright LOVE hops, this cask of Double IPA is for you. Four hop varieties provide a big citrusy flavor, juicy aroma, and an incredible lingering finish.

Fourth

Georgia Peach Whoopie Pies

Mokha-An Imperial Stout brewed with Jamaican coffee & bittersweet Belgian chocolate. This is combination of Southern Tier’s Jah’va and Choklat stouts. Two great tastes that taste great together.

I have a few new things to tell you about as well. Check this stuff out:

Decatur has a firkin of J.W. Lees Manchester Star getting tapped this Friday. That's tomorrow! Sorry for the short notice, but basically July 8th snuck up on me. This beer is super rare, so cancel whatever it was that you were going to do tomorrow.
Next Wednesday the 13th--also in Decatur--we have a special guest from New Belgium in town. Her name is Lauren Salazaar, and she is their Sensory Expert. What that means is that she is deeply involved in quality control, experimental brewing and sour ale blending. The "sensory" aspect of her job is that she is expertly adept at tasting, smelling and generally dissecting a beer using her senses. She will be at the store around 8:00 pm, and will be talking to guests and helping them learn a little more about the beer they love to drink. On tap will be New Belgium Abbey, Abbey Grand Cru, Super Cru and La Folie (her baby I am told). She is from, in case you care, south Georgia originally, so that is pretty cool.
Keep Wednesday the 20th open too. The Fred Bar is celebrating Belgian Independence Day with some super special beers. Two new Ommegang releases will be featured, plus a few big bottles being sold by the glass, and a cellared keg of Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence from last year.
Deckard's is doing Belgian Independence Day stuff too, running from the 21st through the 23rd. There will some of these same killer beers, along with special food features. More details to come as they arise.

That's all for now folks. Enjoy the weekend.

The Horse Represents Strength Maybe, But The...? I Don't Know....

2011-07-04T09:06:00.117-04:00

Happy 4th of July everyone. Hopefully you have the fridge stocked with cold beer and the rest of the house filled with semi-dangerous explosives. What a great holiday. It is one of the great beer drinking days of the year. Plus, think of all of the potential excitement (translation: Danger) you have right at your fingertips. First of all, you have your family around. Many of whom you don't like. So that's a reason to have a few beers. Then there is the heat. Better have a couple more beers to help out with that. Don't forget about the grill. Gotta have a spatula in one hand a beer in the other, right? Hey, it's 3:00 in the afternoon, and you've already had eight beers! No big deal. About six more hours until dark, and then it's time to start blowing stuff up. Better have a few more beers before that, just to keep things interesting. So what you have here is an amazing array of opportunities to accomplish a few things, like:

Telling family members what you really think of them
Burning yourself on a open flame
Listening to your family members' opinions of you and your drinking (you're gonna need couple of beers for that one, because trust me, you are not going to like it...)
Blowing up a part of your hand or house, and possibly needing a fire truck or ambulance to come over

All of this, and you have to go back to work tomorrow. It's pretty stressful, so you better open up another beer....

This all reminds me of a very memorable July 4th cook-out from when I was probably 13 or 14 years old. My aunt is married to a very intelligent and cultured guy, my uncle Dave. Well Dave has a brother who had always been "odd". I don't know what you would call your uncle by marriage's brother, but his name is Bill. My cousins called him Uncle Bill, since he was their dad's bother, but I just called him Bill. Plus I was older than my cousins, and I thought I was pretty down with the adults by that time. I didn't need all of the familial title bull crap. I was on a first name basis with these people.

So Bill was also very artistic. Literally, that is what he did, art. He worked in certain trades for money--wood working, painting, etc.--but was primarily an artist. And, as I would learn from conversations I was probably not supposed to hear, a raging alcoholic. However, this particular time of year he happened to have been sober for a while, and the 4th of July cook-out was at his house. Everyone was happy for Bill and his new-found sobriety, so this was a show of love and support for him. We had never previously held any kind of family function at his house. He had a cool little place on a lake with a big yard that went right down to the water. There were the usual picnic tables and grills and all of that. I would estimate, from very vivid memories, that there were about 30 people there. I have a big family, and at that time, everyone was pretty much living within 100 miles of each other.

Everything was going pretty normal. There was potato salad and hot dogs and cookies and flags and all of that stuff. Good old family fun. Kids running around with squirt guns. An idyllic summertime afternoon next to a glistening lake on a perfectly sunny Michigan day. That is, until Bill decided that he had something to say...to everyone...and he meant it. The peaceful afternoon was suddenly interrupted by a commotion amongst the adults near the house. Imperative words were being half-whispered. Confusion. Anger. Indignation. That's all I could figure out. Something was happening over there, and nobody was happy about it. Sure, most folks were still sitting around the picnic tables talking and having pie, but over by the house, trouble was brewing. Kids stopped playing. Pies stopped getting eaten. Everything got quiet once Bill emerged from the huddle of adults near the house. He had crazy eyes. He wobbled across the yard towards everyone, and it was obvious that he was piss drunk. Who knows what, but something caused him to choose today to fall off the wagon hard. Probably the pressure of having his whole family around, sensing their uneasiness about him, his sobriety teetering on the brink the whole time, their judgemental, sideways glances eroding his self-confidence. Just a hunch. Whatever it was, he came unglued in the biggest way.

What he had on his mind, however, still makes me stop and think from time to time. What was trying to say? What did ne want everyone to understand that was so inmportant, it just could nowait? He said just two words, but he said them over and over, to everyone, until he felt, I guess, that he got his point across. At the top of his lungs, to a small crowd of disappointed and bewildered family, he said, "Horse C~~k!". That's right, "horse", then the word archaically used to refer to a male chicken. He turned around so that everyone could hear him repeat it five or six times, "Horse C~~k! Horse C~~k! Horse C~~k!". He took time to slow it down and say it right into one old lady's face, "Hooorrrssse C~~~~k," which caused him to laugh hysterically. That, in turn, caused me and the rest of the youngsters to start laughing. But he wasn't done. Oh no. As the families started to gather up their people and belongings, Bill go up on the picnic table, despite the admonitions of his closest family members, who had gone from horror to damage control at this point. That's when he started the rapid fire from on top of the picnic table, "Horse c~~k, horse c~~k, horse c~~k", followed by a final, punctuational "HORSE C~~K!". There, he was through. As the yard thinned out and only a few disappointed aunts and uncles hung and shook their heads, he apparently had gotten his point across. To this day I am not sure what that point was, but whatever it was, he got it all out on that sunny 4th of July so many years ago.

I hope you enjoyed that special holiday reminiscence. It is a true story. I don't really know what Bill is doing now. He didn't come around much after that incident. I don't see my uncle, his brother, more than once a year either. When I ask, I always here the same thing, "He's doing really good." Nice to know.

Now that is officially July, I want to remind you about a few special event this month:

The educational whiskey school at Deckard's is July 16th. The cost is $25.00 and you can sign up by clicking here. The event runs from 3:00 to 5:00, and you will get to taste 5 whiskies from 4 countries, plus have an expert tell you all about how they were made, etc. I will pair some beers with them so that you have something to sip on while you learn. Obviously you can sip on the whiskey too, but you're a beer drinker, and I know that.
If you are interested in the Belgian beer and Georgia cheese pairing event or the Southern Tier beer dinner, you can click here. The beer dinner is Tuesday, July 12th in Duluth. In addition to a cask of 2XIPA (one of the best I have had recently), we will have the brew master and co-founder of the brewery there. The cheese event is Saturday the 9th at The Fred Bar from 3:00 to 5:00 pm, and only costs $30.00.

That is all I have for you for now. But before I go, I just want to remind everyone that Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" is not a patriotic anthem. I know that you have heard pieces of it attached to all kinds of flag waving, inculding that women's soccer player singing it after she scored a goal. Ugh, did you hear that? Sure, Brandi Chastain whipped off her shirt one year after scoring a goal, and that's going to be pretty hard to beat. But, geez, this girl sings like a walrus getting beaten with an axe. No wonder she pusued athtletics. Certainly wasn't going to get by in life on her angelic singing voice. And please, next time, choose a song that isn't critical of U.S. domestic policy towards returning vetrans. That's what "Born In The USA" is about. Read the lyrics. Pick a song that exemplifies how awesome America is and sing that one. Try the theme from "Team America: World Police". That one can help people from other countries understand who we really are. And that is what is all about, right, understanding? I don't have a beef with Springsteen or anything, but why give the world another reason to think we're stupid?

You folks have a great 4th, and be careful out there.

What Smells Like A Beer Festival All Of A Sudden?

2011-06-21T16:01:00.000-04:00

My cousin killed Osama Bin Laden

I have some special events coming up that you may want to know about:

It's almost time to cut the cheese! OK, so maybe you think fart jokes are a little immature. That's your opinion, and I can appreciate your high-brow intellect and elitist sense of humor. I really do. But let's ask someone who had a reputation for intellectual humor, Kurt Vonnegut, about the fart joke milieu. In his novel "Galapagos", the only humans to survive a global disease lived on a remote island. Everyone else was rendered infertile by the disease, leading to the near extinction of our species. However, living on a remote island for millions of years, the survivors naturally continued to evolve in ways we would not have evolved otherwise. We become more like a furry version of a seal, with virtually no resemblance to the humans of present day. In fact, one of the only remnants of humanity as we know it today is that everybody still laughs when someone farts. So there you go you elitist, high-brow intellectuals. Kurt Vonnegut made a fart joke. In your face. He didn't make the fart joke actually in your face. That's just a figure of speech. And he's dead, so presumably not farting in anyone's direction at all. Unless of course there is 1.) Heaven, 2.) He is there, 3.) People still fart in heaven. I am going to let you ponder that one on your own.

But back to the cheese. If you attended the last beer & cheese pairing we did last year, then you have been anxiously awaiting the next one. Well here it comes, Saturday, July 9th at The Fred Bar. Last year's event featured some of the best American craft beers we could find, paired with a selection of cheeses from around the country and the world. To outdo that performance, we had to come up with something really special. So this time around we are offering the following beers:

Boon Mariage Parfait
Palm Speciale
Rodenbach
Rodenbach Vintage '08
Steenbruge Dubbel
Steenbruge Tripel

These beers, of course, are from Belgium, and represent some incredible breweries and styles. We are going to be pairing these with cheeses made at Sweet Grass Dairy in south Georgia. Not only are the cheeses going to be featured, but the head "cheese" from the dairy is also going to be at this event. He will be there to help educate you guys about cheese making, Georgia cheeses, cows I suppose, and whatever you want to know. These folks are personal friends of our chef, Peter, so it will be a great opportunity for you to mingle with them if you are curious at all about what they do. Peter is going to feature the cheeses creatively in small bites, not just a piece of cheese on a plate. This is not, I repeat, not a beer dinner. This event is going to run from 3:00-5:00pm and consist of those six beers in 4 oz. pours and the six little bites to feature the cheese and compliment each beer. The cost is $30.00 (cheap!), and there will be guys from the importer of these beers on hand to talk about beer (if you are into that kind of thing, and you are). The structure will be loose, with each pairing at stations located throughout The Fred so that you can move around and taste at your own pace. Will have cool beer stuff to give away? Probably. We usually do. No promises though.

The next event is the first in the Brewniversity Back-To-School program. On July 16th at Deckard's American Tavern, we are going to give you a stiff drink of learnin' with the first annual Whiskey Class. You will get to taste five different whiskeys from 4 different countries. All top-shelf stuff and up. No cheap hooch here! Now since I know that you are beer drinkers, I am going to pair a different beer to compliment each whiskey. You are going to need something to sip on while you are getting educated, and we can't give you that much hard liquor. I've heard about you and hard liquor....Expect lighter bodied beers with lighter whiskey, rye ale with rye whiskey, etc. On hand will be Kevin Mulcahy, an expert on all things related to whiskey. This guy is incredibly knowledgeable and entertaining, so come with questions and be prepared to learn something. This event, like the cheese one, runs from 3:00 to 5:00 pm, and the cost is only $25.00. Chef Deckard is also going to have an affordable, whiskey-themed food special that evening if you want to stick around for dinner. We did this type of event last year as well, but with tequila, and it was a huge success. Frankly, I don't actually have a good reason why it has taken so long to do another one.

So as you can see, we are taking the Brewniversity in a bit of a new direction with some actual "learning". I know that "learning" usually means "boring", but I am here to change all of that. The other event we have coming up is the beer dinner on July 12th with the brew master from Southern Tier in town. Bet you can learn something from that guy. That event, along with the Belgian Beers and GA Cheeses event can be found here. The Deckard's Whiskey class can be accessed by clicking this link. I realize that it is hard to think about July events in June, but these events will sell out, so don't procrastinate if they sound like something you are interested in attending.

I think what we have actually done here is given a new life to the "stay-cation" idea. Why leave Atlanta in July? Just bounce around from one drinking event to another. I have some more things to insert before, after, and in between the three things mentioned here today, so why go anywhere really? Any highly-evolved furry sea creature knows that I have all of your entertainment needs covered.

Have a great week everyone. I will be in Charlotte for a meet & greet with a brewer from Stone on Friday night, so if you are in the area, you should come by. We have a cask of double dry-hopped IPA and a regular keg of Stone Belgo Russian Imperial Stout. You don't see that every day.

One You Are Related To; The Other Is A Pile Of Crap

2011-06-14T18:30:00.000-04:00

Patty and Selma

So does everybody have their Father's Day plans dialed in? Now trust me on this, as much as taking dad to The Cleremont Lounge and setting him up in the corner with a few PBR's and a stack of ones seems like a good idea when you're drinking, I think you should reconsider. Unless he did something to really piss you off, he probably deserves more than that. Anyone recall the post about the Father's Day event at Deckard's? To recap:

There will be tasting stations pouring high-end spirits for you and dad to sample. They will have some really nice whiskey, rum and scotch.
Beer tasting stations will be set up too. One of these beers is something that has been in the cellar since 2009, and Deckard's will have THE LAST BOTTLES ON EARTH. No, you will never see this beer again. As far as I know. At least for a long, long time. "Forever" is a big statement. Tell that to the random idiot bothering me last week in a bar. "The Detroit Lions will never win a Super Bowl!" after overhearing someone I was with say that we were from Michigan. Really, guy? Never? OK, this guy was from Wisconsin, and I realize that Green Bay winning the Super Bowl last year was the biggest thing to happen to him since he found that pile of cow poop that looks just like his Aunt Patty. But "forever"? That's a long time. Oh, and I'm not even a Lions fan. But instead of trying to find out anything meaningful about the people whose conversation he had barged into, he just disparaged where we were from, AND the football team that plays there. Real classy. And it is June. Can we take a break from talking about the NFL for a second? If you or someone you know likes to bother strangers in a bar, please stop. Just because someone is in the same place you are does not mean that they want to talk to you.
But dad wants to talk to you! So let's get back to that. The event at Deckard's will also feature live music out on the patio. Fun!
Cigars? Sure. Highland Cigar is providing some quality smoke-ables if you and dad are so inclined. No smoking inside though. So if you don't partake, you won't be bothered by the smoke in the building.
The grill will be all fired up too. You can munch on brats and ribs and stuff like that.
Here are some details you might need: Make reservations at 404-941-3520. This thing goes from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, and it costs $35.00 per person. Cheap! Sample food, taste top-notch hooch, smoke a stogie and get some of that beer before it becomes extinct, plus hear some live music...sounds like a pretty killer afternoon to me.

The only other pieces of notable news are:

The Fred bar will be open 7 days a week starting this Monday the 20th. We have a great cask to kick this off. Read an older post if you don't know. Come early to beat the crowd. Call in sick or use a vacation day. Do what you gotta do.
Newnan has a cask of dry-hopped French Broad 13 Rebels ESB getting tapped on Wednesday. That sounds good doesn't it? Not every day that you see a French Broad cask....

That's all I have for you right now. For the record, I typically like Wisconsin-ites. They like to drink a ton of beer and wear accessories made of fake cheese. What's wrong with that?

OK, This Really Is The Last Reminder....

2011-06-09T09:56:00.000-04:00

Cherry trees and Grand Traverse Bay, MI

The brewer put some Duck Rabbit Baltic Porter (a high-gravity, extremely rich take on a classic style) in 23 year-old Pappy Van Winkle barrels. The oak provided not only flavor, but a natural souring agent to give it a bit of acidity. That sour aspect then is further enhanced by Montmorency cherries* from Michigan. Then this beer was put in a firkin, sent to Atlanta, and tonight we are going to tap it. To describe this beer as rare would be an understatement. A popular beer rating web site has only 3 reviews for it, one from Denmark, one from Massachusetts and one from Virginia. Comparatively, Duck Rabbit Baltic Porter has nearly 700 reviews. We will be tapping it around 6:00 tonight at The Fred Bar. Don't be stupid and miss it.

*The Montmorency cherry is a variety of sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) grown in the United States, Canada and France, particularly in Michigan and in Door County, Wisconsin. Montmorency cherries are part of the lighter-red amarelle cultivar of sour cherries, rather than the darker-red Morello cultivar.

Down Boy! Down! Bad Beer Geek!

2011-06-06T13:13:00.000-04:00

Isn't it annoying when you tell someone about a movie you liked, and they say, "Oh, well, the book was so much better." They have this smug air about them like they are some sort of superior intellect because they read the book and you didn't. Get a life people. Do you know why the book is always sooo much better? Because if you've already read the book, then you already know what's going to happen. I watched a movie this weekend, and I had previously read the book like a year ago. Great book. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Check it out. Then while I was watching the movie I was like, "OK, this is where he sleeps with that one girl. Now here comes the part when the crazy guy turns out to be really smart event though he's weird as shit. And this is where she has sex with the neighbor in the car. Hmmm, only fifteen minutes until the movie's over? She's gotta die here pretty soon...." So yes, compared to the book, the movie kind of sucked. Not because it was a bad movie, but because I already knew the whole damn story.

Here's the whole damn story about some upcoming events:

Three new Lazy Magnolia beers make their Georgia debut at Taco Mac Cumming on Wednesday. Lazy Magnolia is out of Mississippi. How much can you tell someone about Mississippi beers? Not much I bet. Me either. Let's get educated together.
The super-wacky, sour cherry, Pappy Van Winkle barrel-aged Baltic Porter cask from Duck Rabbit gets its freak on at The Fred Bar on Thursday night.
Get ready for Father's Day! Deckard's is doing a tasting from 2:00 to 5:00 pm on Sunday, June 19th (that's Father's Day....duh!). For $35.00 a person you will get to taste fancy spirits, some rare beers, get a quality cigar to smoke (on the patio--NOT inside), hear some live music and chow down on some brats and ribs and other tasty morsels. So if dad likes beer, whiskey, cigars, rum, music and food off the grill, Deckard's has you covered. This is going to be set up as tasting stations. You and pops can stroll around at your leisure and taste whatever you like, as often as you like. I know for a fact that one of the beers available is so rare, the last bottles ON EARTH will be poured. You know that all dad really wants for Father's Day is to spend some time with you anyway, so this way you can do it in style.
Monday, June 20th marks the first day that The Fred Bar is open seven days a week. We will have a firkin of Stone IPA dry-hopped with Simcoe. Yes, this cask was sent all the way to Stone to be filled for this event, and that is what they sent back. Pretty kick-ass, I know. Now go throw some cold water on the nearest beer geek, because I am sure that he or she is humping the furniture right about now. If you say the words "Stone", "firkin", "IPA" and "Simcoe", you can pretty much guarantee that a beer geek will go into helpless convulsions of uncontrollable humping. Try it some time. There's is no doubt that this cask is going to taste great though. We will be charging extra to hug or kiss it, though. If you want to get to second base (or more!) with this cask, you will have to wait until it is empty.

That's all I got right now. Have a great week.

Reminding You About The Reminder

2011-05-31T14:26:00.000-04:00

Just in case you missed it, I tried to let you all know last week that there has been a change of plans regarding the super-wacky insanely rare Duck Rabbit cask! It is not getting delivered until tomorrow and will not be ready to serve tomorrow evening. If you don't know why cask beer is not ready to serve the day it is delivered, please ask me later. I explained it to you in the last post. I can't help it if you don't pay attention. But the RESCHEDULED DATE to tap a firkin of Duck Rabbit The End Of Reason is now Thursday, June 9th. I suggest that you find your way to The Fred that evening. We will tap it at 6:00 pm.

Here are some more events for you:

There is a cask of Southern Tier 2XIPA getting tapped this Friday night at Woodstock, 6:00 pm. Not next week. June 3rd. June is already here. I know, it's crazy.
Next Wednesday we have those 3 new Lazy Magnolia beers at the Cumming store. They are: Jefferson Stout, Reb Ale (an American Pale Ale) and Indian Summer.
I just posted the Southern Tier beer dinner menu on the Taco Mac web site. Their head brewer will be in town for this event. If you would like to meet him, or tell him that you want to have his baby, then you will want to sign up for this dinner. By "have his baby" I mean "tell him how awesome his beers are". By "sign up" I mean pay. This event will sell out. When the actual people who make beer for a living come out for an event, it pretty much guarantees a big demand. Go figure.
Speaking of beer making people, don't forget about the meet and greet with the brewer from Stone. On June 24th you can meet Jeremy Moynier and help us drink a cask of Stone IPA dry-hopped with Amarillo. He will be at our South Park (Charlotte, NC) store that (Friday) evening from 8-10 pm. If Charlotte is too far for you, then we will have a cask of IPA dry-hopped with Simcoe (3 beer geeks just fainted) in Atlanta at a date TBD. I can't put a date down until we have the beer, so please keep your pants on and stay tuned for more development. PS--The brewer from Stone will not be in Atlanta.

That is all I have for you today. I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend. See you around.

Stop The Presses!

2011-05-27T15:09:00.000-04:00

I am sorry to inform you that the cask of Duck Rabbit The End Of Reason is still sitting at the warehouse and will not be tapped on Wednesday, June 1st.. That means that since Monday is a holiday, there will be no beer deliveries until Wednesday. Cask beers are naturally carbonated, which means that there is dormant yeast inside the keg. That yeast gets shaken up during the transportation and delivery process. Therefore this beer will not be ready to sell on Wednesday. Unless you like really yeasty beer which, trust me, you don't. It WILL be tapped at a date to be named later. Please stay tuned. As soon as we get a date, you will hear it here first. Again, my apologies. We all just got really excited and jumped the gun, so sue me.

I "Dubh" Thee, Sir Loin of Beef!

2011-05-24T15:54:00.001-04:00

OK, so I spent the weekend watching Looney Tunes with my 6 year-old nephew. And it was awesome. Unfortunately I don't think kids get a lot of those jokes, but they love it anyway. I know I sure did when I was that age. He thinks Bugs is mean to people, and I was trying to explain that Bugs in only getting back at people that wronged him first. He's not mean, he's just giving people (or pigs, ducks, etc.) what's coming to them. It doesn't hurt that he happens to be smarter than everyone else. So what if he likes to dress up like a girl ALL THE TIME? What's so wrong about a cross-dressing vigilante rabbit? I think it took a lot of creativity on the part of Mel Blanc to come up with that type of character. What was he smoking, really, when you think about it?

But enough about Bugs Bunny. Let's talk about the Dubh. To be more specific, that would be Harviestoun Ola Dubh 18 Year, on tap at The Fred Bar on Thursday night. Here is the skinny:

Ola Dubh (or "Black Oil") is so named because it is gloopy and viscous. This limited release has been matured in casks from Orkney’s award-winning Highland Park distillery to add complimentary whisky notes to what is already an amazing brew. It is chocolatey with a roasty, bittersweet aftertaste.

So you are basically dealing with a killer Scottish Old Ale (like a barley wine) that has been aged in Highland Park 18 Year Old Scotch barrels. If you have to ask if Highland Park is good scotch, then you can't afford it. Do I actually have to tell you how rare this beer is on draft? Please.

As if that wasn't enough, we will also be pouring a keg of Dogfish Head Hellhound On My Ale that same night. Need info on that beer, here you go (this is from the brewery):

2011 marks the 100th birthday of Mississippi Delta bluesman Robert Johnson who, according to legend, sold his soul down at the crossroads in a midnight bargain and changed music forever. Working again with our friends at Sony Legacy (yup, the same folks we did our Miles Davis-inspired Bitches Brew with), Dogfish Head pays tribute to this blues legend by gettin the hellhounds off his trail and into this finely-crafted ale. Hellhound is a super-hoppy ale that hits 100 IBUs in the brewhouse, 10.0 ABV, 10.0 SRM in color, and dry-hopped with 100% centennial hops at a rate of 100 kilos per 100 barrel brew-length. Can you tell we at Dogfish are stoked for this mighty musical centennial? To accentuate and magnify the citrusy notes of the centennial hops (and as a shout out to Robert Johnsons mentor Blind Lemon Jefferson) we add dried lemon peel and flesh to the whirlpool.

I don't often tell you guys much about what goes on at The Fred Bar, but these kinds of things are relatively common down there. If you like rare beer and you have a few bucks you are ready to part with (Translation: Rare beer ain't cheap pal!), you should pay that place a visit. Jason does a great job making sure that no matter how beer geeky you get, he has something to pique your interest.

In fact, if you are into tequila, he just brought in some wild looking (and tasty) bottles of a brand called KAH. Whoever finishes the bottle gets to take the empty one home. Now before you get too excited, this is not an incitement to get a few friends together and try to drink you way through a bottle. Nobody--and I mean nobody--likes to see you sloppy-assed, tequila-barf drunk. Don't be that guy, because that guy (hopefully) gets his as kicked a lot.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. If you are near Newnan on Friday, I will be down there for a cask of Heavy Seas Holy Sheet! getting tapped at 6:00 pm. I also want to encourage you to put June 1st on your calendar. Why? Well, we have a cask of Duck Rabbit The End Of Reason at The Fred Bar. I know that you are curious, so let me tell you what all of that means: A high-gravity Baltic Porter, turned sour on purpose, aged in whiskey barrel, then cherries are added to it. Duck Rabbit is a brewery in eastern North Carolina. Other than making some crazy beers like this one, there is no relation to Looney Tunes, Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny. June 1st is a Wednesday. Be there. Bye.

What Is Big, Sloppy, And Wants To Get In Your Pants?

2011-05-19T16:34:00.001-04:00

Store # 2 in Charlotte

OK everyone, I'm back. The new store opening in Charlotte this week was a success. In fact, the usual blood, sweat, tears and screaming that usually accompany the birth of a new location were unusually muted this time. Maybe we're getting good at it, or maybe the other shoe just hasn't dropped yet. Who knows....?

The draft system at the new store is totally cool and different than at any other Taco Mac in that it hangs from the ceiling. As opposed to being a wall full of faucets, vertical tubes suspend a horizontal tube that has taps coming out of both sides. From above it looks like a centipede sticking its feet out to the left and right. You following me? Crappy-ass camera was not cooperating last week. Sorry. Anyway, the beer selection is top-notch too. There are plenty of North Carolina breweries up there that we do not get beer from down here, and most of them make pretty damn good beer. I fell in love with Mother Earth Dark Cloud Dunkle. There is also some California stuff (Bear Republic, Green Flash, Ballast Point & more) and even Great Lakes and Ska beers available. Having been there for over a week before opening, I had a list of what I wanted to drink before we even opened. Like Mike Holmgren scripting his first 15 plays when he was a head coach. We got the opening off on the right foot with that last cask of Terrapin Indiana Krunkles too. Tasted great (I had 3). If you have any reason at all to be in the Charlotte area (or maybe you already live there!), then find your way in there for some outstanding beer.

Other than that, I do have some pretty killer events coming up that I will tell you about. First of all, the June beer dinner with the brew master from Belgium is sold out. Thanks to everyone who got in, as well as those who tried but did not succeed. The July 12th dinner in Duluth with the brewers from Southern Tier will be for sale soon, so be sure to get in on that one if you like to meet the brewery folk. These guys are flying in from upstate New York for this event.

On Friday the 27th of May we are tapping a cask of Heavy Seas Holy Sheet! at Newnan. This is a big, giant Belgian-style Abbey Dubbel. If none of that makes sense to you, maybe you should show up and figure it out. Or maybe you can't read. Next there is a firkin of Southern Tier 2XIPA at Woodstock being tapped on Friday, June 3rd. Then we are helping launch some new Lazy Magnolia beers on Wednesday, June 8th at Cumming. This brewery is from Mississippi and is most well-known for their Southern Pecan Brown Ale. But on the 8th we will also be featuring their Indian Summer, Reb Ale and Jefferson Stout. Until they get a little bigger, this brewery is staying with distributors that service some of the outlying counties. You won't find it in Fulton, Gwinnett or DeKalb counties. Coweta? Sure. Forsyth. Bingo. Come check them out if you can be in Cumming on the 8th.

The last thing I have for you is a super-rare cask of Duck Rabbit End Of Reason being tapped at The Fred on a date TBD. This is their Baltic Porter aged in whiskey barrels, turned sour (on purpose), plus with cherries added. This one is going to be wild. So if you like rare and unusual beers, this is the event for you. I also have two firkins being filled at Stone right now. One is going to The Fred and the other is for a special event in Charlotte. If you want to meet a Stone brewer and drink that second cask, then you need to be at our original Charlotte store on 6/24 from 8:00 to 10:00 pm.

Here are some weekend treats down at Deckard's coming up too:

Friday - Terrapin Big Sloppy Monster & Great Divide 17th Anniversary

Saturday - Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere

Sunday - Allagash Tripel (on the beer engine)

For those of you unfamiliar with Big Sloppy Monster, that is not a big fat person trying to get in your pants. That is a Terrapin beer that is definitely trying to get in your pants. It is a Big Hoppy Monster that spent 14 months in a Jack Daniel's barrel getting sloppy. Needless to say, these do not surface very often, so you should make it a point to get one before it's gone. Just drop your pants when you walk in the door and they will know what you are looking for. Or walk up to the bar with your pants around your ankles and shout "Give me the Big Sloppy Monster! Give it to me NOW!" Stop being so stingy with it already. Get out there and live a little. Tell whoever that I said it was OK. You know you want it.

Have a great weekend everyone. If you are going to see the Flaming Lips at The Tabernacle tonight, say hi if you see me. It's going to be a killer show. Over & out.

St. Martin Beer Dinner

2011-05-09T12:57:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, June 7th at The Fred Bar we have a very special beer dinner planned. You can now sign up at www.tacomac.com. Click on "Events and Communications" to find....you guessed it, events, which this clearly qualifies as. What is so special about it? Well for one, St. Martin beers are great, and not exactly common. But we will have the brew master, Marc-Antoine de Mees, here from Belgium. I know, that is really cool! When was the last time you got to listen to an expert on Belgian brewing--one who actually brews beer IN Belgium--talk about beer? How many of you answered, "Never"? That's what I thought. So get your act together and buy your tickets now. This thing will sell out, especially once the word gets outside of our normal circle of special event attendees. I don't want any of you valued readers to miss out because some stranger got the jump on you. Only 40 seats will be sold, which is about all The Fred bar can comfortably hold for an event like this. The menu is posted on the Taco Mac web site (I already gave you as link and told you where to find it). Take a peek.

I am off to Charlotte to get the new store open, so if you don't hear from me for a while, you know why. Have a great week.

When Casks Attack

2011-04-26T16:43:00.000-04:00

Here is an event update & reminder. Have a seat, it's a big one:

Fuller's ESB cask at Decatur tomorrow, 5:30 tap time. Why 5:30? Because cask expert and all-around beer guru Owen Ogletree is in town, but he has to be on the other side of town around 7:00. He is going to tap the cask, answer any questions you might have, all of that. I will be there too if that matters at all. Come out and taste what real, cask-conditioned English ale tastes like.
Thursday night we have a cask of Left Hand Fade To Black Smoked Baltic Porter at Crabapple. That is getting tapped sometime around 5:30 too. I know that is kind of vague, but have you ever seen the traffic on that road? Not pretty. Once the beer drinkers show up, we'll get into the beer. Word of warning though: This store has set records in the past for blowing through special beer, so don't screw around and miss it if you want to taste this rare beer.
Friday night it is Fuller's ESB cask-mania! Perimeter, Canton and Peachtree City are all tapping these firkins on the same night. I will be in Peachtree City personally. Maybe I'll see you there.
Saturday is the Prado Beer Festival! The line-up of breweries is stellar, of course. All of your favorites will be there from the American craft beer scene, plus some high-end imports. Lots of brewery reps will be on hand, some from as far away as New York and California. You can also taste some regional beers that you may not be super familiar with. Jail House, O'Dempsey's, Moon River, Five Seasons, Wild Heaven and Thomas Creek will all be featured. The weather forecast is for 80 degrees and sunny by the way. So....I am going to be outside drinking beer. What are you doing? Don't say yard work. Don't say pool party. Don't say anything else that is lame. And drinking beer outside with a ton of other cool people is the ONLY thing you can do this Saturday without being lame. So deal with that. (PS- Moon River is an award-winning brew pub in Savannah, GA. They can't sell beer here legally, but they can participate in festivals. So unless you go to Savannah, this is the only way to try their beer.)
Next week there is the final Fuller's ESB cask getting tapped at Windward Pkwy Taco Mac. This may be your last chance to taste this beer from a firkin for a LONG time. If Alpharetta is your 'hood, you will want to be there.

The last thing I have for you is two things. Maybe three. It goes a little something like this:

Tuesday, May 3rd. Beer dinner. Peachtree City. Bell's. Five spots still open. www.tacomac.com. Go!
Tuesday, June 7th. Beer dinner. The Fred Bar. St. Martin beers from Belgium. Brewer will be there (also from Belgium--duh!). His name is Marc-Antoine de Mees. Told you he was from Belgium. Menu coming very soon.
Tuesday, July 12th. Beer dinner. Duluth. Southern Tier. Brewer is in town. He is not from Belgium, but his name is Phineas De Mink. He is from Kalamazoo, MI. You don't hear that every day. A guy named Phineas from a place called Kalamazoo. People, I don't make this stuff up. Menu is coming in a few weeks.

Over and out. See ya 'round.

Fuller's Update & Reminder

2011-04-21T16:41:00.000-04:00

Just in case you forgot to write it down or enter into your little mechanical calendar, there is a firkin of Fuller's ESB getting tapped tomorrow at Metropolis. I will be there before I have to leave for the Hawks game.

The next one is getting tapped at Decatur on Wednesday the 27th. Then on Friday the 29th you will be able to get one at Peachtree City and Perimeter. Solid dates for Canton and Windward Parkway will be coming soon.

Thanks. Bye.

The Firkins Have Landed

2011-04-19T16:52:00.000-04:00

That's right folks. Six firkins of cask-conditioned Fuller's ESB are in our stores as we speak. This is a rare treat, so let's get down to business:

Where are they? Canton, Decatur, Metropolis, Peachtree City, Perimeter & Windward Pkwy.
When are they being tapped? Some dates are still being worked out, but here is what I have so far: The first one is getting tapped this Friday at Metropolis at 6:00 pm. No reason to freak out anyone! If you live in town and can't get there Friday, then just come by Decatur on Wednesday the 27th. That one is getting tapped at 5:30 pm so that Owen Ogletree--resident cask expert and Georgia's foremost appreciator of cask ales--can be there and say a few words to anyone in attendance.

I will be posting the rest of the dates as they materialize. But you can count on Friday the 29th being one--if not two or more--of the next dates. I apologize to those of you living in the northeast part of metro Atlanta. These were not delivered to the distributor that handles Gwinnett and Forsyth, which is why they are all conspicuously missing from those areas. I still love you people up there. It is simply a matter of legalities.

Lastly, it needs to be said that I had to really work on getting these casks over here, and I can't promise that I can do it again. These have been anticipated since January, and finally are actually here. I realize that there are quite a few cask events these days, but these may not be seen again for a long, long time. Real ale straight from England is something you just don't see in U.S. very often. I hope that you enjoy them. See you around.

A Dog Would Eat A Booger; Any Time, Any Where

2011-04-14T16:40:00.000-04:00

Here is your event reminder for the weekend, and even some events heading into next week and beyond.

If you dig Allagash beers--and you do!--The Fred is the place to be tonight. How does a keg of Allagash Bourbon Black sound? If you are having a hard time figuring out what that is, then I suspect that as a child you ate a lot of paste and boogers. They are also pouring a year-old keg of Allagash Curieux, which is a bourbon barrel-aged Belgian-style Tripel. It is one of those beers that is SO good, nobody else even tries to imitate it. I would like to take this opportunity to help everyone with the pronunciation of this beer. Say it with me: cure--EE--oh. I have heard some very creative attempts to pronounce this beer. But hey, when a seven letter word has four vowels, plus an "x", that's a tough one.
Tomorrow we are the launch place for the newest Red Brick seasonal. Can you guess what it's called? It is a Hefe-Weizen, and I tasted it today in Chattanooga. It is very good; dry and not too banana-y. There's a definite hop presence that let's you know it was made in the good ol' US of A. You can get it at every Taco Mac in GA and TN after 5:00 pm Friday.
On Monday you can try the Sierra Nevada Stung at our Cumming store. This beer was made by a local beer freak during a recent beer camp. If you want to know more about what you just read, the dude (Phil) will be on hand with a slide show. He can tell (and show) you all about his experience at Sierra Nevada helping craft this beer. It is an 8% rye IPA made with honey. We had it a few weeks ago at a Chancellor-only event, and it is great. This thing gets started at 5:00 pm.
Also on Monday there is the Belgian beer and Georgia cheese event at Deckard's. I mentioned it a little while ago, so you can scroll back a post or two for all of the details. Or just stop screwing around and call 404-941-3520 to make a reservation. That is an option.
If you are in Charlotte, we have a cask of Olde Hickory Death By Hops scheduled to be tapped on the 21st. If the name of that beer alone doesn't get you excited, maybe check your pulse.

And speaking of Olde Hickory and hops, this Saturday is the Hickory Hops Beer Festival. It is, for you former* paste and booger eaters, in Hickory, NC. It is a great fest that I went to once a few years ago. All of the NC breweries are there, and the thing isn't too crowded, which is key. I am going up there to meet some of the brewers and brewery people from that state. There is a private party for those people that I am going to tomorrow night too. You know, more "networking". Work work work. Unfortunately we might see a big thunderstorm on Saturday, but we'll make the best of it.

Have great weekend everyone.

* We know that you still eat your boogers. It's OK. I mean, you're gross, but you're not hurting anyone. So keep on digging in there for those tasty little green morsels. Do whatever makes you happy.

Happy, Happy! Joy, Joy!

2011-04-12T17:33:00.000-04:00

"I love you."

That is a quote from one of the most influential comic geniuses of the 20th century, Stimpy. I think he is referring to the arrival of Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA on draft tomorrow. Go to Deckard's American Tavern to taste an IPA of unparalleled awesomeness on tap in Atlanta for the first time since its test batch was here like 3 or 4 years ago. In a world awash in IPA's, I must say that Sierra Nevada really threw the gauntlet down with this one. "Who has been making craft beer since 1980? We have. So check this sh@t out. That explosion you are hearing is your mind.....being blown. You're welcome." That is not a direct quote, just my imagination. Enjoy.

This is what a genius looks like.

Hi. It's Me Again.

2011-04-07T16:43:00.000-04:00

Seriously, there are actually more things going on that you need to know about. I know, it's crazy. Check it out:

First off, I need to remind you about the Coney Island Freak Show going on at Metropolis this Saturday at 10:00 pm. Yeah I know it's kind of late for an event, but this guy is going to do some weird and wild stuff that isn't suitable for "normal" business hours. We don't want to scare the kids. Adults, sure, but not the kids. I will be there, along with Darren--the hardest working man in the beer business--from Coney Island.
Come to Newnan on Wednesday the 13th for a cask of Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted. Yes, I know you've never heard of that. Yes, there is a firkin of it in Newnan. Jan Pierce will be enjoying it as her 1000th beer on her Brewniversity list. Nice work, Jan!
On Thursday the 14th we are doing some Allagash stuff at The Fred. Like what? Like a barrel-aged keg of Allagash Black, a 2010 vintage of Curieux, a keg of Four and some bottles of Allagash goodness. I don't have time to name them all right now. You're coming for the barrel-aged Black and the Curieux '10 anyway, so you'll see the bottles when you get there.
Like cheese? Who doesn't, really? Read below to see details of chef Matt Deckard's incredible Belgian beer and cheese pairing event taking place at Deckard's American Tavern on Monday the 18th. Each cheese will be presented in an artful manner, not just a slab of cheese on a plate. He is keeping the actual preparations a secret, so if you think you can handle having you mind blown, keep reading.

Join us on Monday, April 18th as Deckard's American Tavern and Latis Imports bring you a night with Georgia-made cheeses. We will be pairing cheeses from local cheese producers with the great brews from Latis Imports.

1st course - Palm Speciale paired with Flat Creek Lodge Feta

2nd course - Rodenbach Red paired with Sweetgrass Dairies Asher Blue

3rd course - SteenBrugge Dubbel paired with Flat Creek Lodge Lowcountry Gouda

4th course - SteenBrugge Tripel paired with Sweetgrass Dairies Thomasville Tomme

5th course - Rodenbach Vintage 2007 paired with Sweetgrass Dairies Green Hill

All courses will be served with creative accoutrement.

The cost is $50.00, and you need to call Deckard's at 404-941-3520 for reservations. If you are unclear on the magical flavor combinations that are created when beer meets cheese, you'll want to go to this. Or if you are curious to see what a chef's palate comes up with when faced with some incredible and exotic beers, then you really want to be there.

As if all that was not enough, there are six firkins of Fuller's ESB arriving from England next week. Yes, these are the firkins that we have been talking about for five months. Expect to see some dates get put together in a hurry. You are going to want to taste a true cask-conditioned English ale fresh off the boat. Stay tuned for details.

How Do You Like Them Apples?

2011-04-05T16:48:00.000-04:00

Want to take advantage of a sampling opportunity tomorrow night? A guy I know is now the rep for two new brands of cider coming into Atlanta. These are very much in the European tradition of ciders: dry and bubbly, not sweet and gross. If you are a cider hater (and I was one too!), then you probably have not had a really good cider. I put one on a beer dinner menu a few years ago and thought that the people would throw their food at me once they got served a cider. But once they tasted the dry, sparkling, and refreshing cider, they really dug it. It can have a more Champagne-like taste than a cloyingly sweet taste. In fact, one of them is actually made with Guinness yeast. Pretty cool right there.

These guys are going to buy some bottles tomorrow night and share them with whoever stops by The Fred around 7:00 and before 8:00-ish. There isn't really a lot of structure here in case you couldn't tell. People are in town to show off this product, and those are the times when The Fred is usually the most full. If a bunch of folks show up (i.e. you), then they will probably hang out a little past 8:00ish. In case you could not tell by my (not exactly) elusive hint, you won't have to pay for these samples, so what have you got to lose? Enjoy.

What I Want To Know Is: Where Does The Time Go?

2011-04-04T12:17:00.000-04:00

Truly, where did the last two weeks go? The Craft Brewers Conference in San Francisco blew out the week of the 22nd (and it was awesome by the way). Then the past week was spent getting caught up from being out of the office for three week days. Remember, I do have other work responsibilities besides drinking beer and writing blog posts about it. Eventually I would like to divest myself of those other responsibilities and stick to earning money just for drinking beer, but that hasn't happened just yet. Baby steps...

Hopefully you are keeping up with the event announcements, because there were a few things last week that kept me busy. We had the Samuel Adams Long Shot event last Tuesday. A local home brewer was one of the winners of the Long Shot contest and got his home brew recipe made by Samuel Adams. You can find it in their mixed 12-packs only. It was a hoppy Belgian-style brownish ale and was extremely good. There were lots of beer people, media people, etc. on hand, along with the winner himself. Great guy. There was a Heavy Seas Black Cannon cask at Cumming last week too. Delicious. We didn't break the 31-minute record for emptying a firkin (held by the same location), but it was close. And if you were a Chancellor, there was an event at Prado just for you on Saturday featuring a local beer freak's Beer Camp beer from Sierra Nevada (for more info on Beer Camp, see old posts and pics from late 2008). There are only two more un-tapped kegs of this beer, so be on the look-out for announcements for when we are tapping them. One keg is at Deckard's and the other is at Cumming. Prado had two of them, so if you get over there soon, there may be some left. It is called Sierra Nevada Stung and it is an 8% ABV Rye IPA made with honey. It is great, people. Get some.

In between all of that I flew to Hampton, VA to see a concert and party with some old friends from back home. Thank you, tax refund. But seriously, if I don't see the inside of an airport or an airplane for a few months, it will be a good thing.

But, not rest for the beer-y! Tonight we launch New Belgium Abbey and Trippel at Deckard's. Be there at 6:00 pm to try Abbey in a bottle (draft coming soon) and Trippel on tap and in a bottle. Don't be surprised if the New Belgium guy shows up with some limited amounts of glassware to give away either. Both of these beers are very old recipes in the NB portfolio, and a big reason why this brewery has the word "Belgium" in its name. There will also be a very rare keg of New Belgium Lips of Faith Metric 10-10-10. What is it? It's rare and crazy and was brewed on 10-10-10. If you need to know more you either have to A.) Show up, or B.) Ask someone who does. I will be in the first group. What group will you be in?

But we are not done this week folks. Oh, no. On Saturday we have Captain Stab Tuggo performing his unusual talents at Metropolis at 10:00 pm. Why so late? Because this guy is going to swallow swords, hammer spikes up his nose, eat light bulbs and stuff like that. Not exactly suitable for dinner time. But this is all part of the Coney Island portion of our beer of the month for April. The Captain is our own hometown freak show performer from right here in Atlanta. If you have any sense of curiosity, you will want to see what this guy does. I realize that many of you don't live downtown, and that many of you are completely incapacitated with alcohol by 10:00 pm on a Saturday night, but we have a plan for that. Metropolis is one block from the Midtown Marta station. They also have 140 beers on tap. Let's see....easy to get to, incredible beer selection, crazy-looking guy doing freaky things to his body...and free admission....? What's not to love? I will be there for sure. Can you handle it? Check out http://www.stab-tuggo.com/ to find out.

But before we all get too excited about freaks and beer geeks, please take a minute to consider the Prado Beer Fest this year. It is on Saturday, April 30th at...do I really need to tell you where the PRADO Beer Fest is being held? This will be a beautiful late-spring afternoon with over 150 beers, a live band, and all kinds of great people getting their beer fest on. You can get advanced tickets (and save $5.00!) by going to www.pradobeerfest.com. The major issue that I am dealing with right now is having too many breweries that want to participate and how to cram them all into this event. Oh, but it will happen. These people want you to have their beer, so by god I am going to let 'em. Get it together and get a ticket. This thing will sell out.

OK, the last thing I have for you is our May beer dinner. It is being held in Peachtree City and features the wonderful beers from Bell's. Want to see the menu? Try www.tacomac.com., then click on "Events & Communications". You are going to want to go if you can. This menu looks awesome.

So that's it for another fun-filled week. I have a whole bunch of other stuff on the horizon, so stay tuned for more. I don't plan on leaving town again for very long until July, so I should post a little more regularly for the next couple of months. Have a great week everyone. See you at Metropolis for the freak show!

Goin' Back To Cali...Cali

2011-03-22T17:15:00.001-04:00

That's right folks, an LL Cool J reference in my blog. No, I never thought I would see it either. But I do seem to spend a decent amount of time in California, don't I? I think it's because California, above all else (translation: California, Uber Alles!), is pretty damn awesome when it comes to beer. I am going out to San Francisco tomorrow for the Craft Brewer's Conference. Yes I know that I am not a professional brewer, but apparently this is THE industry event of the year, and the "networking" (translation: drinking beer with other beer people) opportunities are huge. I plan on networking the hell out of this thing.

The day time is filled up with seminars on everything from: "Delaware Calagione and the Lost Temple of Yeast" or "Improving Brewhouse Efficiency for Small Brewers" to "High Gravity Panel Discussion". This is serious business. There are six different seminars, each lasting about an hour, on different categories of the beer business going on at once every hour for three days. Want to learn about opportunities in emerging markets like Brazil or the UK? You can do it there. Feel like brushing up on wholesaler laws or brewery taxation issues (Zzzzzzzz)? Me either. Want to listen to the owner of Russian River discuss the technical aspects of barrel aging, or the brewer from Brasserie de la Senne discuss the emerging new brewery scene in Belgium? That's more like it. I am very interested to hear Sierra Nevada owner Ken Grossman on "What's Next in Sustainability Practices Within Craft Breweries". That brewery's green technology has been trailblazing for years, so let's see where they are taking it in the future, shall we?

So you get the gist of what this event is all about. You can read more about it here if you want: http://www.craftbrewersconference.com/ . Otherwise just wait until I get back and I will tell you all about it. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the private parties and hospitality receptions. I guess if you are in the beer business and you have to sit through educational seminars, you require beer breaks, beginning around noon, all day and night, until 1:00 am. And if Lagunitas wants to throw a party for CBC attendees (and they do!), they do it big. Thursday night they have the entire Fillmore Auditorium set aside for CBC people. Live band, all that. If you do not know what the Fillmore Auditorium is or what it means to American music history, please fire yourself. This party alone might be worth the cost of admission to the entire conference. Stay tuned for details.

But while I am gone, we have some special events for you. I am going to list them here, plus some events for the following weeks since I tend to get a little behind while I am gone and not post anything for a while. Here we go:

The Fred has a Heavy Seas event on Thursday featuring a cask of Black Cannon Black IPA and kegs of Holy Sheet! and Aaarsh Red. Come by and see Atlanta's most eligible bachelor, Heavy Seas one and only Kevin Fox. He will be on hand to talk about life, his beers, the playboy lifestyle....You know, the usual.
Mall of GA is tapping a cask of Left Hand Fade To Black Smoked Baltic Porter on Friday this week. Now you folks in the NE part of metro Atlanta have something to look forward to this weekend.
Crabapple has a 2009 Smuttynose Imperial Stout keg to tap on Friday along with a Dogfish Head My Antonia. See, now the Alpharetta/Roswell people don't have to be jealous of the Gwinnett people. One love people. One love.
Next week on Wednesday the 30th we have another Black Cannon cask at Cumming. Can they break their own record of 31 minutes to kill a firkin? Will you be there to be part of history? Only you can answer that.
There is a Chancellor-only event on Saturday the 2nd. But if you aren't a part of it, you probably don't want to hear about it. If you are a part of it, here is your reminder.
Stay tuned for more details, but on Monday April 4th there is New Belgium event at Deckard's American Tavern. Typically get a case of the Mondays? I got a solution for you: beer. It's awesome. Mondays aren't. Be there.

Before I go, I just want to say how excited I was to drop a Dead Kennedy's reference into my blog earlier, only to find out that "California Uber Alles" is featured in a Tony Hawk video game and is downloadable for the Rock Band video game. Thanks Wikipedia. Thanks for ruining that for me. I gotta go now and get packed. As soon as I land tomorrow I get in a van with some Terrapin and Left Hand people to go visit the Russian River, Moylan's and Lagunitas breweries. Work, work, work....Talk to you next week.

Boom Goes The Dynamite

2011-03-14T14:25:00.000-04:00

Event Update! No, I am not going to remind you about the Foothills Sexual Chocolate cask tomorrow in Charlotte. You are either already going, or just wish that you were. No sense reminding those of you that are going that you are, in fact, driving to another state tomorrow. Pretty sure you're not going to forget that. Or if you live in Charlotte and are especially forgetful, well, hopefully you wrote it down somewhere.

This is actually not a reminder at all. It's an update. Look up above where I wrote "Event Update!" See, I told you. It actually should read: "Late Breaking Emergency Beer Event! Drinkers Needed!" I found out on Thursday that some much anticipated kegs from Colorado are arriving as we speak. That is, if you speak quietly while you are reading. I don't. And I don't speak while I am typing. OK, so not exactly while we speak, but right the hell now. You get the picture. We will be featuring the following beers at The Fred on Wednesday:

A firkin of Left Hand Black Jack Porter
A keg of the Fade To Black Smoked Baltic Porter. I know, you already had that, but so what. It's awesome, and we had one in the cellar anyway.
A keg of Left Hand TNT. This is a Dunkle Weizen Bock made with some Lapsang Souchong tea. I don't drink a lot of tea, but it sure sounds good. Apparently this type of tea has a notable smoky character, albeit a light one. If you need me to explain Dunkle Weizen Bock, I will. Quickly. Bock: A strong and malty German lager. Weizen: A wheat beer. Dunkle: Dark (as opposed to "Helles" or light). Put 'em all together. Got it? Germans pretty much tell you what you are getting up front.
A keg of Left Hand Stranger Pale Ale. This is a new recipe replacing their old Jackman's Pale Ale. It is going to be super fresh and tasty. When I saw the name I thought it said "Strangler", not "Stranger". Big difference one letter makes. I thought maybe they were trying to tap into the S & M crowd or something. I mean, that is definitely a demographic that most companies stay away from. Freaky leather and latex fetishes or not, people love a cold beer. There is no denying that. The Stranger, however, is a pale ale. The Strangler, I imagine, is something way different.

So you can be the first kid on the block to have some TNT and a little Stranger, plus the cask of Black Jack if you can find your way to The Fred on Wednesday. See you there.

When Cask Beers Attack, You "Nose" It

2011-03-08T13:01:00.000-05:00

Another interesting weekend segues into another busy week.....

About half-way through Round 1

The SweetWater Brew Your Cask Off event was Saturday. I was pretty excited to get a last-minute invite to be a judge. By last-minute I mean I was drinking Mean Joe Bean Friday night at Deckard's with SweetWater's owner, the infinitely energetic Freddy Bensch, and he sprung the offer on me. Apparently someone had backed out, and since none of our four entries were actually mine, I was eligible. Obviously I wasn't going to turn down the offer, so the 2011 BYCO went from starting at 6 pm, to starting at noon for me.

They went from number 1 to 90

I got to meet some really interesting people there. I sat next to a local morning radio personality, rubbed elbows with some guy from Top Chef, and had a nice chat with the on-air law enforcement/terrorism expert for CNN. Not too shabby, right? The founder and owner of All About Beer magazine was there too, but I have met him before. Anyway, nine groups of three judged ten casks each, taking the field of 90 entrants down to 30 advancing to the second round. Then about half of the judges judged the beers that advanced to the second round, and then after that the remaining judges judged the beers that made it through to round three. That round resulted in the three eventual winners. Confused yet? Don't worry, the specifics aren't really important or all that interesting really. We tasted some really good beers, and we tasted a few really bad ones. All of them were numbered, and then later lettered, to maintain their anonymity. All in all though, the beers were far more good than bad, and the overall beer quality was way above last year's BYCO.

Round 2 is under way

Once the event started getting into full steam, I had already been on site for over six hours. I had also been drinking beer either from the casks or from the taps inside SweetWater's tasting room for over six hours. Not that I am complaining about any of that, but when a few thousand excited beer drinkers started packing into the tents, I had had enough. Taxi! Yes, I dipped out around 7:00-ish. Sometimes you have to quit while you're ahead. But in case you missed it, here are the winners:

2011 JUDGES PANEL AWARDS
1^st PLACE: Cask #38 Final Gravity Home Brewers | Lika-Titi-Coco Porter

Porter with dates, vanilla and roasted coconut chips
2^nd PLACE: Cask #1 The Porter Beer Bar | The Sch’it
Hoppy porter with cactus sugar
3^rd PLACE: Cask #75 Fontaines | Two Pump Chump
Super hoppy beer with cardamom, orange peel and white pepper

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

Cask #62 Cypress Street Pint & Plate| Samhain

Pumpkin spiced porter influence by some Highland Park scotch

Now let's talk about what's going on this week:

Salute To Smith's at Crabapple, Cumming, Mall of GA, Metropolis, and Perimeter locations on Wednesday. If you don't know what this is, please read last week's post. Seriously, I don't have all day to repeat myself. I love my readers, but you really need to work on your short-term memory. I suggested that last week and you already forgot, didn't you. See what I'm talking about?
Mikkeller onslaught at The Fred this Thursday. Check it out: Draught-- I Hard Core You, Single Hop E. Kent Golding, Ris A la M'ale, It's Alive; Bottle-- Black Tie 500ml, Draft Bear 750ml, Green Gold 11.2oz, Not Just Another Wit 750ml, Red & White 1.5L.
Salute To Smith's at Canton, Dallas Hwy, Decatur, Ellard, and Newnan locations. Who likes free stuff and awesome beer? Me too! What a coincidence.
Cask of Peak Organic Spring Simcoe at our Woodstock location on Friday as well. If you play your cards right, you could hit this and the Salute To Smith's at Dallas Hwy in the same night.

And what about next week? Yeah, we have events next week. I am going to be in Charlotte for the cask of Foothills Sexual Chocolate on Tuesday the 15th. I will be there with everyone else who knows what's good for them. I know 99% of you don't live in Charlotte, but it isn't exactly on the other side of the world. There are so many locally made beers up there that do not come down here, it really is worth the trip up there one day if you like to rack up credits on your Brewniversity list. And frankly, I like a change of scenery every once in a while.

Deckard's American Tavern is having a St. Hoptrick's Day event on Thursday the 17th. Unless you are the "go to an Irish pub and drink green beer until I puke all over my stupid beads" kind of person, you might enjoy drinking Bell's HopSlam, Port Hop 15, Sierra Nevada Hoptimum or Terrapin Hoptaneous Combustion instead. Not into hoppy beers? What about Heavy Seas Aaarsh Red, Highland Gaelic or Rogue Kell's Irish Lager? There will be special food items too, including Shepherd's Pie and Irish Fish Cakes. In case you don't get it right away (and I didn't), if you pronounce the "Aaarsh" in "Aaarsh Red" like a pirate, it sounds kind of like "Irish Red". Maybe I am dense, but I didn't get that for a while until one day it just kind of clicked. Anyway, it is a high-grav red ale, like around 8%. Heavy Seas doesn't make any bad beers, and the rest of the line-up is pretty strong to say the least.

OK, that is all I have for you right now. April is going to be jam-packed with events too, but the end of March will not. I am going to the Craft Brewer's Conference in San Francisco from the 22nd through the 26th, so that week is wiped out. But stay tuned for April details, because it's looking pretty killer already. Have a great week everyone.
PS- I did not say anything about your short-term memory in any previous posts to my knowledge. Maybe I did, I don't really know. Don't stress out about it. Forget the subject ever came up. Which you may have already done.

OK, who farted? Really? Everybody at once?

Isn't It What It Is, Or Is It What It Isn't?

2011-03-02T14:13:00.002-05:00

Wow. I can't believe that I got back from Europe a week ago already. Where have I been since then? Well, I had to dig myself out of the hole that comes from being gone for 10 days first, then I flew to Jacksonville for a concert. I know, WTF? I had a few bucks laying around that I didn't spend on Christmas, and there happened to be a show down there that I really wanted to see. Plus there is an awesome beer bar there called Kickbacks. I met the owner when we all went to Montreal last June for a beer event. Kickbacks has 84 beers on tap and a hundred or so more in the bottle. The food is excellent too. If you are ever in Jacksonville and you want a good beer, that is your place. Order the Monte Cristo sandwich, and prepare to have your world rocked. Strangely enough, I ran into somebody I knew from Atlanta while I was there. Like I said, if you are in Jacksonville and you like good beer, you need to go to Kickbacks. Apparently I am not the only one from around here that knows that.

The trip to Europe was incredible. As you may remember from previous trips, it is going to take me a little while to get the pictures all organized into a slide show, etc. I did get some video too, so hopefully I can get that whole thing figured out and let you see some of that footage. I think the best videos are from inside the tasting room at Ayinger and from the brewery tour at Schneider.

Speaking of video, I also got some good footage at the Guinness Perfect Pour on Monday. This event, for those of your whose address includes "Under A Rock", is held annually at TM Lindbergh. Bartenders from across the city compete to see who can pour the most perfect pint of Guinness. The judges are Guinness big wigs from Ireland and the U.S. The judging criteria are pretty specific, but I am not going to go into that detail now. If you really cared about that kind of stuff, you were there Monday and saw it all go down anyway. We get to host the thing for a few reasons, but one big one is that Lindbergh has two levels, so attendees can watch from the ground level, or from the balcony. We even installed a closed-circuit TV thing so people could watch on the flat-screens. It was a blast. Lots of bar & restaurant people, lots and lots of beer, a Car Bomb or two here and there, you know....Last year our own Megan Martin won, but she got knocked out in the first round this year. The winner this year is a guy named Buggs who was pouring for Tap. The fact that he also works at TM Perimeter went unmentioned however....until now. But hey, no one's really keeping score.

Last night (Tuesday) we had a sold-out Fuller's Beer Dinner in Cumming. See? I have been busy, people, not blowing you off on purpose. If I knew the person that scheduled all of these crazy events that I need to attend, wait...that's me. Anyway, the only things better than the quantity of the turnout were the quality of the people, the deliciousness of the food and the tasty beers. Who knows? We may see another beer dinner up there this year after all.

Now that you have patiently read about what has already happened, let's talk about what is coming up. Friday is the release of the newest SweetWater Dank Tank beer at Deckard's American Tavern. If you want to taste the Mean Joe Bean (a coffee-infused Imperial Porter that tastes great!), you can get one after 6:30 pm this Friday. Some limited glasses will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you are one of those people that is late all the time, don't get your heart set on one. And furthermore, if you are one of those people who is late all the time, do you have any idea how much your friends hate it? That is if you have any friends left. Most of the people that you don't seem to talk to anymore for some reason were actually just sick and tired of waiting around for you all the time. They found other friends who aren't so selfish and self-centered that other's people time has absolutely no value to them compared to their own. You know how to ruin what would have been a good time? Be late. Miss the start of the game. Get a crappy spot in an already crappy line. Miss the previews before a movie. Make people wait on you so that by the time you get there they regret inviting you in the first place because they knew all along that you would pull some kind of shit like this, and right before you finally arrived they were talking about just leaving without you because you are such a tool anyway. But now you come waltzing in with some bullshit excuse that you just made up because no one wants to hear the truth: "You know guys, I am just a disorganized and inconsiderate person when you think about it. But now I am going to say I am sorry, so you are supposed to forgive me". You can't really get away with saying that, so you just say, "Oh my god, what is up with the traffic today?" That is how you ruin a good time.

PS- If you are running late, please try to be more honest about how far away you actually are. Have you ever heard someone says, "Dude, I am sorry, but what is up with the traffic today? It really sucks. I will be there in like 10 minutes."? Translation: You aren't going anywhere for at least 25 minutes.

So, yeah, the Mean Joe Bean thing is Friday. If you want a glass, try to be on time. And by the way, we live in a big city called Atlanta, maybe you've heard of it? The traffic is going to suck on Friday. We already know that, so don't bring it up. There are plenty of places without traffic problems. They are called "towns" and there are very rarely any stellar beers being released there. So to quote what every person I know, every person they know, and virtually every person in the country says every 45 seconds: "It is what it is". So sick of that. What isn't what it is? There's a rock. It is what it is. There's a person who eats out of a trash can and sleeps under a bridge in a cardboard box. It is what it is. Of course it is what it is. What else is going to be? How does saying that make it any better? Here's an apathetic jack-ass that can't think of anything more profound to say about a situation, person, or object except to state that it is, as anyone can plainly see, what it is. Hey, pal, I am not impressed by your ability to state the obvious. And just by saying, "It is what it is" and implying that there is nothing you can do about it doesn't absolve you of having an opinion or emotion. Divisive partisan politics are destroying America, but "it is what it is". So we just accept that? Somehow people's brains have eroded to the point that anything difficult or complex is excused by saying, in essence, "I am just too god-damned lazy to think or do anything about that. It is what it is."

If you are near the TM Suwanee on Friday, they are tapping a cask of Peak Organic Spring Simcoe. Unfortunately I am double booked so I will not be able to be there, but don't let that stop you.

Saturday is the SweetWater Brew Your Cask Off event at--you guessed it!--SweetWater Brewing Co., also in Atlanta. This is the thing where 80 bar, restaurant, home brewing, media, beer industry people got to make their own special SweetWater casks. See in January we got to look at a list of possible ingredients (like a hundred or so), plus the characteristics of 6 base beers, and select the items that we wanted to put into our casks. Then in February we went to the brewery and, one team at a time, prepped and added our stuff to the casks (under the supervision of a SweetWater brewer) and the brewery filled them with the base beer we chose. Three weeks later, the beer is ready to drink. So if you bought a ticket already, or if there are still any available, you can join me while we sample 80 different cask beers. They have the street in front of the brewery closed off, live bands, all of that kind of thing. We have 4 teams entered, and last year one of our groups took 3rd place. We are planning on improving on that this year. My team made a porter with sweet potatoes, pecans, cinnamon and nutmeg, plus a good dose of low Alpha hops to balance it out. Hopefully it turns out as good as it sounds.

I have something for you on Wednesday the 9th, but I will come back to that in a minute. First let's talk about Thursday the 10th. The Fred Bar is busting out some major Mikkeller stuff from the cellar. On tap will be: I Hard Core You (a collaboration w/ Brew Dog from Scotland), Ris a la M'ale, Single Hop IPA--East Kent Goldings, and It's Alive! In the bottle will be: Black Tie, Draft Bear, Green Gold, Red & White, and Not Just Another Wit. Now listen folks: These beers are expensive. You have been warned.

So back to the 9th. We are doing a Salute To Samuel Smith's at 10 stores; 5 stores on the 9th and 5 stores on the 11th. The whole idea is to remind everyone that Samuel Smiths has been making "craft beer" in a small, artisan brewery in England for a long, long time. I have been there (see slide show), and it is the real deal. In fact, in 1989 I was working at a beer distributor while I was in college. People in the U.S. had never even heard the term "craft beer", and there merely a handful of people who knew that a "microbrewery" actually existed. How do I know? I lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan where Bell's had been in business for 4 years, and most people in that same city had no idea what a microbrewery was. Go ahead and look at the date of origin for just about every American craft brewery. How many were open pre-1988? Go ahead, keep looking. This may take a little while. But there was Samuel Smith's, showing the world what a Pale Ale, a Porter, even an Oatmeal Stout tasted like. And great versions of them on top of that; recipes that are still considered world-class. Yes, the American craft beer scene is getting all of the attention right now. But ask some of those brewers about when and where they fell in love with a Samuel Smith's beer, I bet they will have a story for you. I can tell you exactly when and where, at 18 years old, a Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter made drinking good beer a lifestyle choice that I, obviously, have held onto ever since. In fact, without that catalyst, where would I be, career-wise, right now? My degree is in English and Philosophy for god's sake. What in the hell is that going to do for anyone? Thank you, Sam Smith's Taddy Porter. I am in the beer business now, and not trying to teach illegal immigrants and gangsters how to diagram a sentence.

So the thing goes like this: You order the limited-time-offer (only 24 per store) Salute To Smith's and you are going to get a Sam Smith's India Ale first. Once you finish that, you are going to get a Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout and a FREE T-SHIRT! The whole thing is going to cost you exactly the cost of the two beers ($15.00 plus tax & tip), AND it will show up as a new credit on your Brewniversity list. It will be listed as "Salute To Sam Smith's" as a bottled beer. Pretty cool, huh? These two beers are their flagship brands and they want to remind everyone, like I said earlier, that "craft" beer was being made way before most of us got on the bandwagon. Time to give props to the old-school brewers people. Here is the only drawback: Until you guys can either A.) All become the same size person, or B.) Assist me in becoming clairvoyant, t-shirt sizes are going to be limited to what is in stock when you arrive. Please state your case when you arrive and the store will do the best to get you what you need. Most shirts will be L & XL, but again, there are only 24 of them per store. If you get there and there are only 3 left and none of them are your size, don't purchase the offer. There is no amount of wishing, hoping, complaining or practicing Voo-Doo that will make another size appear. The program starts at 5:00 pm on the specified nights, and here is where you will find it:

Wednesday, March 9th: Crabapple, Cumming, Mall of GA, Metropolis, Perimeter
Friday, March 11th: Canton, Dallas Hwy, Decatur, Ellard, Newnan

I hope that you folks make this a big success. I am excited to be able to offer a free t-shirt and a new credit to our customers for doing nothing more that drinking two incredible beers. Enjoy.

The last thing I have for you today is the date for the Foothills Sexual Chocolate cask that we are tapping in Charlotte as part of Charlotte Beer Week. If you have been looking for an excuse to get to that store, or are just a freak for the Foothills Sexual Chocolate, join me on Tuesday, March 15th at Taco Mac South Park. Should be pretty ridiculous. Have a great week everyone.

Cask-Mania All Over Again

2011-02-06T11:51:00.003-05:00

Peaceful firkins full of deliciousness

Here are some pictures from the ACAT. The event was outstanding as I mentioned earlier. If you are interested in attending next year, figure out a way to stay informed, because it sells out quickly. One of the best elements of this event is the crowd size. There's a crowd alright, but a manageable and well-behaved one (for the most part...let's be realistic). How do you stay informed on ticket purchases? Not here. We co-hosted this event, but are not involved in it in any other way. It is not "our" event. It was partly in one of our buildings, that's it. If I were you, I would use my computer to find out how to get on the e-mailing list or something like that (hint: try http://www.classiccitybrew.com/).

Here are the judges results:

1st PLACE CLASSIC STYLE: Stone Ruination - Dry-hopped heavily with whole leaf Simcoe (an intense American hop variety introduced in 2000), this impressive IPA explodes with notes of pine, citrus, wood and passion fruit. This cask was made by Stone's assistant brewer Kyle Carne who worked with cask ales in the past while brewing in Scotland.
1st PLACE SPECIALTY BEER: SweetWater's A Barrel Full of Drunkies. This 11% ABV, blended cask is our rendition of a Quad cellared in an American bourbon barrel for 10 months and blended with another Quad cellared in a French Bordeaux barrel with Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus for 10 months. This fusion was then topped off with our adaptation of a Tripel that was cellared for 28 months with fresh blackberries in a French Bordeaux barrel.

ACAT in full swing

2nd PLACE OVERALL: Left Hand Milk Stout. Dark and delicious, America's great milk stout changes your perception about what a stout can be. Characterized by roasty, chocolately goodness with the addition of sweet milk sugar to balance out the flavor, this cask is also dry-hopped with Cascade, just for fun. It's "udderly" delightful!
3rd PLACE OVERALL: Weyerbacher Fireside Ale is an intricate dark ale with a touch of smokiness. The rich malt flavor, crisp bitterness and smoke nuances reach perfect equilibrium in this 7.5% ABV brew. Fireside Ale will warm you up as the temperature drops.
PEOPLE'S CHOICE: 5 Seasons Prado AAAH... BACON! Scotch Ale. Our 8% ABV, signature Scotch Ale sports a smooth, complex malt character with a slight roasted note, sweet balance and subtle hop finish. What could possibly make this beer more enjoyable? Bacon, of course. Whole leaf Hallertau hops, hickory chips and bacon were smoked with staves from our Heaven Hill Bourbon barrel, then added to the cask before secondary fermentation.

Happy ACAT attendees

Pre-game @ The Fred

There were 32 casks total. There were also casks for the people on the VIP guest list before and after the event at The Fred. Unfortunately this was limited to brewery reps and ACAT organizers, but there were enough of them to fill the room quite easily. The pre-game cask was Sierra Nevada's Estate Homegrown Harvest Ale (unbelievable!) and the always tasty Peak Organic IPA wrapped it all up afterwards. I think I was home by like 8:00 pm. Nothing good was going to happen if I stayed any longer. And for those of you that do not recall January 29th at this point, it was 65 degrees and sunny. Mother Nature sure did smile on the Atlanta beer drinkers that day.

Sierra Estate...Wow!

Enough about the past. Here is what you need to know for this week:

On Wednesday we are hosting an all-ladies beer tasting with Heavy Seas at Taco Mac Lindbergh Center. This is in coalition with Tower Wine & Spirits and GALS (Georgia Ale & Lager Sirens). GALS is an all-ladies beer appreciation society that does functions like this. Beer can be a pretty dude-heavy crowd most of the time, but these gals are trying to make the ladies out there who appreciate good beer feel a little more comfortable. If you are interested in coming (the cost is only $25 and includes food), go to http://www.towerwinespirits.com/. Put your cursor on the glass of beer, then click events. Kevin from Heavy Seas will be there to do the presentation. And guys, although it may seem like a great idea to come to an all-ladies beer event to pick up on some action, it is restricted to ladies only. Leave these women alone for one night will ya. If they need you, they'll let you know.
Thursday there is a Bell's event at The Fred. Tina from Bell's will be there, as will I. There are 2 casks, 2 other rare drafts and 3 or 4 rare bottles. As I have said before, if you want to know what we have at this event, you have to show up. Will you die if you don't come? Not likely. Will you miss out on some beers that you may not see again for a long time? Yes.

Don't forget about Deckard's Valentine's Dinner. Make a reservation (404-941-3520) for either Saturday, Sunday or Monday for this menu:

Lobster “Pot Pie”

carrots, fennel, biscuit crust, tarragon cream

Ommegang Triple Perfection

Fudge Farms Pork Tenderloin

sweet and sour belly, crispy blue crab hash brown, beer braised Napa cabbage

Ommegang Cup O Kyndness

Chocolate Indulgence “Float”

Chocolate Indulgence Ice cream, drunken cherry jubilee

Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence

No, I did not get paid to put this on here. I just like their beer. A lot.

The price is only $35.00 per person for the food and $10.00 extra for the beer package if you want that. Why is the beer separate? Because you can sub a $10.00 wine package if you, or the person who is currently tolerating you, prefers wine over beer. What will the wine pairings be? I don't know. This is not "Fred's Wine Page" now is it?

If you don't hear from me for a while, don't freak out. I am leaving for Germany on Sunday. I will be there for 6 days, in Brussels for 1 day, then in Amsterdam for 2 days. Pretty excited for that as you can imagine. Have a great week everyone.

PS--I was just in Charlotte and our store there has a cask of Foothills Sexual Chocolate. Stay tuned for a date to tap that sucker. Wow.

Event Update

2011-01-31T11:07:00.000-05:00

Apparently I had too much Colt 45 Blast! while writing that last post. The event featuring Bell's specialties (including 2 casks) is on Thursday, February 10th. What we have this coming Friday the 4th is a small keg of Sierra Nevada Hoptimum (pictured). See, I know when I am doing things, just not exactly sure what it is sometimes. Gimme a break please. See you around.

A full re-cap and slideshow from this weekend's Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting are coming soon. It was awesome. But you knew that already, whether you were there, or just wish that you were.

They Do Serve Beer In Hell. This One.

2011-01-27T12:02:00.002-05:00

In case you have not read the book (or worse yet, seen the movie), I They Serve Beer In Hell, save your money and energy. I found the answer: Colt 45 Blast. A blueberry and pomegranate flavored, 12% alcohol malt liquor. That, friends, is what you have to drink in hell. So if you happen to find yourself in some type of crack-infested ghetto in the next month or so, please stop and grab me a 40 of this exquisite beverage. I have to try it just to say that I did. Not to mention, the label seems to imply that you'll have intense psychedelic hallucinations when you drink it, so I am looking forward to that.

For the record, I was loaned that book a few years ago, and it was pretty funny. If you can get past the desire to punch the writer for being such a selfish a-hole who is infinitely impressed with himself for being such a selfish a-hole, it's a good read. I did not see the movie, and from what I have heard, no one else did either. The only thing worse than reading about someone like that guy is watching someone like that guy. If I want to do that, I could just go to a club in Buckhead on the weekend. No thanks.

Here come some events....woo-hoo! Write these down:

Tonight there is a small firkin (called a "pin") of Left Hand Fade To Black Smoked Baltic Porter at Windward Pkwy. We will only get about 50 pints out of this thing, so you better get there early.
Speaking of Left Hand, on Wednesday, February 2nd we will have the Left Hand High-Gravity Bonanza at the Mall of Georgia store. On tap will be this year's Fade To Black, plus a cellared keg of last year's FTB Foreign Export Stout. You mean the one that took home a gold medal from the GABF but has not been brewed again or seen since? Yeah, that one. We have been sitting on it since last winter. There will also be kegs of 2009 Left Hand Imperial Stout and 2009 Widdershins Barley Wine. In the words of Glen Quagmire, and I quote: "Giggity".
On Thursday, February 10th there is a crazy Bell's event at The Fred. There will be some beers there that you really, really want. Trust me on this one. That is all I am saying at this point.

PS: Due to the Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting event at The Prado this weekend, The Fred bar will be closed for a VIP party until 9:00 pm. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please mark that on your calendars.

See you around.

Event Change!

2011-01-19T15:58:00.000-05:00

I am very sorry to let you all know that the Heavy Seas Black Cannon cask did not make it in town for tonight's event at Deckard's. We will still have an insanely delicious cask of the Heavy Seas Siren Noire Imperial Chocolate Stout, along with many other Heavy Seas specialties. I hope to see your shining faces at Deckard's tonight. Remember, event starts at 6pm.

Good Grief! That's A Lot Of Beer Events!

2011-01-17T16:46:00.000-05:00

Don't forget about this week's events. It is going to be a busy one. We have our internal contest tomorrow to see who gets to participate in the Guinness Perfect Pour Contest being held next month. How do we decide which two of our 100+ bartenders gets to contend for the prize? They pour a bunch of Guinness drafts, that's how. And then somebody has to drink them. Rough life, I know. Sorry, but this is closed to the public. More on the GPPC coming soon.

You can get into Deckard's on Wednesday though. Read my post from last week for details. Basically there is going to be a ridiculously good cask of Heavy Seas Siren Noire Chocolate Imperial Stout and a keg of the new Black Cannon. More delicious Heavy Seas beers and $6 apps expertly paired with the beers will complete the picture. I will be there for sure. Everything starts at 6:00pm. See you then.

On Thursday we have the Port & Lost Abbey event that was rescheduled from the ice disaster last week. The owner and brew master, along with a slew of his beers, will be at Kennesaw Taco Mac at 7:00 pm. Some of their incredible beers will be available at 5:00, but the dude won't be there until 7:00, and the top-secret bottled beers we have won't be available until then. These are very limited and expensive. There, now you've been warned. Count on me being there.

Woodstock is unveiling their new draft wall on Friday until further notice. This store had installed like 54 new lines, so if you live near there, life just about 54 times sweeter. I will be there as well. Told you I was going to be busy. If anything changes, you will be notified as soon as I am.

Sorry for the lame picture. I took my new Flip Cam to the Falcons game on Saturday, but you don't want to relive that debacle. Unless you are a Packers fan, and in that case, congratulations. You have a really good team, and I can't say a bad thing about you as far as fans go. Generally a good bunch of people. But then again, their team won, so they were in a good mood.

That's all I have time for now. Have a great week, and get out there and drink some beer. I know I will.

Get Blasted On Wednesday

2011-01-14T15:56:00.000-05:00

Like IPA's? Who doesn't these days, right? If you are anything like me, you are also really digging the recent trend towards making black IPA's, or Cascadian Dark Ales, as they are also called. I don't know about you, but CDA's doesn't exactly roll off the tongue like "black IPA". Anyway, the beers are great, and a new one has just sailed into Atlanta--Heavy Seas Black Cannon. Take all of the deliciousness of Loose Cannon and imagine it dark. I can't wait to taste it. Deckard's is going to be pouring some of this beer for the first time on Wednesday, along with tapping a cask of Heavy Seas Siren Noire, an incredible chocolate Imperial Stout. Some other Heavy Seas favorites will be on deck as well, and you can meet Kevin from the brewery if you are interested. The food menu will have some great looking pairings, too. Check it out:

Loose Cannon- Oysters “Rockafella” (Crispy salami, Habanero cream, Spinach, Manchego Cheese)
Black Cannon- Jerked Swordfish
Below Decks- Goat Cheese and Gorgonzola Fritters
Marzen- Grilled Kielbasa with Beer-Braised Saurkraut

These are all appetizer sizes at $6.00 each. So you can have a few beers, get a small plate, and just have a super-duper good time in general. If you have always wanted to be somewhere that you could talk like a pirate, this would be that place. Which reminds me of a joke about a pirate that walks into a bar with a steering wheel hanging from his waist. Don't know that one? Come see me at Deckard's for the rest of the joke. It's a good one.

The Lost Abbey & Port Brewing thing is definitely on for Thursday at Kennesaw Taco Mac. If you do not know about these beers, check out some of their ratings. Pretty much everything is high 90's and a few 100's (extremely rare) on a popular beer rating web site. Not that you need other people to tell you what you like or don't like, but when a consensus of people are in unanimous agreement, that usually means that you are on to something good. But then, of course, the prevailing sentiment can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like, "Gee, I am not sure that this is good, but everyone else thinks it's good, so I better go along with the crowd so that I don't look stupid." On second thought, don't look up their ratings. Make up your own mind. I just looked at a 99 rating for a beer I think is garbage. It is made by a really geek-famous brewery, so nobody has the guts to say it sucks.

Also, we are going to be busting out the new draft system at Woodstock really soon. The work is starting to wrap-up, so that store will see 54 new taps very soon. Could be as early as next Friday the 21st. Other notable upcoming events are:

All Taco Mac locations (yes, TN & NC too) will be releasing the new Red Brick Helluva Bock on Friday, February 4th at 5:00 pm. I bet if you went in earlier they would probably pour you one though.
Huge night of Bell's specialties at The Fred on February the 10th. More details will follow.
A cask of the next Terrapin "Georgia Theater" Series, a smoked IPA called Hoptaneous Combustion. Yes, you are right, that does sound intriguing. You can count on the fellas at Terrapin to keep thinking up unique and tasty brews. I had a Moo-Hoo last night, and man is that a great beer.

That is all I can think of right now. Enjoy your weekend, and look for me on TV tomorrow night. I landed some tickets to the Falcons game, and I assume that most of the city will be watching. This game is going to be huge for the team if they can pull off a win. Those Packers are looking pretty tough these days though. Should be an awesome game, and the dome will be a tremendous atmosphere.

PS--Thanks to all of the understanding people who came out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. All locations were open during the ice freak-out, and we were very busy. Typically that is not a problem, but due to the limited number of employees we could get into work, it was a little challenging. There are even some reports of yours truly bartending and running food. All true. Our company president was waiting tables at a few locations this week as well. Hey, what can we say? We know you needed somewhere to get a few beers and a bite to eat. Ice doesn't change that.

OK, Mother Nature, You Are Really Starting To Piss Me Off Now

2011-01-12T09:21:00.000-05:00

In case you were not inconvenienced enough by the "ice situation" we are experiencing here in the southeast, get this: Now we have to postpone the Port Brewing/Lost Abbey release at Kennesaw scheduled for tomorrow! See? You see what I am saying? This weather has crossed the line now. You want to cripple the whole city? Fine. Whatever, I can work from home. I know how to cook. But when you mess up my beer events, you've gone too far.

So why did we have to postpone it? Something about trucks not being able to get here, flights being delayed and cancelled...that kind of crap. Oh well, I guess we'll shoot for next Thursday. Stay tuned.

PS--Do you realize that one integral part of our society that goes largely unnoticed has been especially hurt by this weather situation? Beer trucks. That's right, no beer trucks have been able to run all week. So every beer you drink from now until everything thaws out is bringing us closer and closer to THE END OF THE BEER SUPPLY AS WE KNOW IT! This is real people. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Coolers are looking thinner and thinner, kegs are running out without replacements. What if another front comes through and does this again next week? What then? Truly, what then? You think this whole mess sucks right now, try it without any beer in sight. Frightening. Be careful out there, and if you see someone delivering beer, give him a hug.

This Guy Has A Gigantic Drinking Problem

2011-01-09T16:23:00.000-05:00

I went to see the Salvador Dalí exhibit at the High Museum on Saturday. It is pretty awe inspiring to be in the presence of such amazing and unique works of priceless art. I am not very knowledgeable about art in general, but when you see original works, as opposed to pictures or reproductions of them, up close and personal, it is pretty impressive. And when you think about the brain of the person who created them, well, we’ll never see another person like that ever again. I can definitely say that I am glad I went. Unfortunately, like apparently the rest of the city, I waited until the last minute. I got there when it opened at 10 am, and there was already a line. Regardless, it was worth it, especially since two of the really huge paintings had not been viewed publicly or in the U.S. since the late 50’s. I had never even seen a picture of The Madonna of Port Lligat or Santiago el Grande. One belongs to a museum in Canada and another to a private collection. So take my advice if you are smart, the next time something comes to town that you really want to see, don’t procrastinate like everyone else.

When I was leaving I saw one lady getting huffy with the museum staff about the wait times to get inside. Listen lady, the museum has had this thing since August. It isn’t their fault that nobody decided to go until it was almost over. I am sure the wait was non-existent in September. What is wrong with people? Why did she think that ruining someone else’s day with her bitchy attitude would accomplish anything? Or are some people just so selfish that they don’t care about anyone other than themselves, and if they are not happy, then goddamn it, you aren’t going to be either? If you are miserable, please keep it to yourself. Strangers don’t care, and your friends and family already know it. But hey, if I had a face like hers, I guess I would be pissed off about it too.

Are you ready for the Lost Abbey and Port Brewing launch at Kennesaw on Thursday? I know that I am. These are some seriously good beers, and there are going to be a good amount of them. If you want to know exactly what we are going to have, you’ll have to show up. At last count there were going to be about eight different beers, all draft, and then a few super-special bottles showed up just for the event. I will get it all sorted out this week, but I doubt that I will have time to post them here before Thursday. The owner/brew master and his right-hand man will be there from 7 to 9 pm. We will be saving anything in short supply until then, but you can get the draft beers after 5 pm.

I have some casks of Peak Organic Spring Simcoe coming at the end of the month. As soon as I have an ETA I will set up some dates and locations for these. Same story with some firkins coming from Fuller’s. Those are looking more like early to mid-February. Speaking of February, I will be going on a beer trip to Germany and Amsterdam for 10 days in February. I just got a new Flip camera to take video of some of the key spots we stop, so look for videos to be posted here once I figure out the whole situation with doing that. I am looking forward to this trip, as you can imagine. We will be seeing some of the greatest and most historic breweries in Germany. The short detour to Amsterdam is really just for sight-seeing, but we will get a tour of Heineken while we are there and explore the pub culture extensively.

If you need an idea for Valentine’s Day, we have you covered. Do you need a romantic dinner for two, but still want to drink good beer? Done. But your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/booty call doesn’t drink beer? No problem. Deckard’s is doing a three-course, fixed price menu over the Valentine’s Day weekend for $35.00 per person (plus tax and gratuity). For another $10.00 per person you can add pairings of Ommegang beers, or wines from Deckard’s collection, to each course. The special menu and pairings will be available on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. You will need to make reservations (404-941-3520), but you already knew that, it’s Valentine’s Day. There’s nothing romantic about waiting for a table. So yes, finally, someone thought about the beer drinkers on a holiday where you have been being ignored for centuries. No more! Enjoy.

That’s it for now. You folks have a great week, and I will get you all of the details on these events as soon as I can. Since I was not allowed to take pictures at the Dalí exhibit on Saturday, I took my own surrealist picture for you. This is clearly the hand of a giant holding a can of Budweiser. That’s right, I know a giant. And he likes Budweiser. What’s so hard to understand about that?

To Be A Hillbilly, You Have To Have Hills

2010-12-29T11:39:00.002-05:00

So what did you get for Christmas? Did you get a t-shirt purported to have special and amazing powers? I did. Thanks to my cousin Chris, I am now the owner of the Three Wolf Moon t-shirt that, I learned this weekend, is somewhat of a phenomenon. I am not normally a believer in magic, but this shirt will apparently change my tune. I don't make this stuff up people, despite what you may think. Click here and scroll down for some awesome reviews. There are over 1700 testimonials to the shirt's "powers", most of which are pretty hilarious. I have yet to take this bad boy on its maiden voyage, but trust me, I will pick the right time and report my results back immediately. I am going to Jacksonville, FL in February where I think it might make a big splash, but I need to test drive it first. The northern part of Florida is full of dangerous rednecks, so I need to be sure of what this thing can do before I put myself in a bad situation. Rednecks by definition are dangerous (because they are stupid), but the ones in north Florida are a special breed. North Florida is like the Fertile Crescent for cooking crystal meth and impregnating your teen-aged relatives. I know that I am not offending any north-Florida swamp-billies here, because none of them can read. So picture a bunch of these people when confronted with me in a t-shirt packed with mystical powers.... I either need to be Jesus, or I am getting my ass beat. Or more likely, dragged to death behind a pick-up truck and dumped in a lake. When you confuse drunken idiots on meth-amphetamines, the outcome is not going to be to your liking, I can guarantee that.

For now, though, let's focus on more immediate issues:

Deckard's is the place to be on New Year's Day. We will be tapping a firkin of Terrapin Wake & Bake at noon. There will also be Left Hand Wake Up Dead (yes, the one I told you about a few weeks ago!), Bell's Java Stout and Founders Breakfast Stout available. They will have some hang-over helper special brunch items ready as well. That means food. Or a tricked-out Bloody Mary with Old Bay seasoning and all kinds of goodness. We discussed the mimosas last week. Deckard's will also have coffee from Jittery Joe's in Athens, which is the coffee used to make Wake & Bake. I will be there for the cask and some of the 1:00 pm bowl games. I know of a few other local beer people who will be on hand too. You can lay on the sofa at home like a sack of potatoes with the rest of the weaklings all day if you want, but the strong people will be toasting a new year early and often at Deckard's.

The only other thing I have for you is ABSOLUTELY HUGE! On Thursday, January 13th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm we will be welcoming a new brewery into GA at our Kennesaw location. The owner & brew master from Port Brewing/Lost Abbey will be in town along with his fantastic beers. To clear up any confusion, these are two lines of beers from the same brewery. Belgian-style beers come under the "Lost Abbey" label and their American-style ales are "Port Brewing Co." brands. I was there in October, and if a band of heavily intoxicated rednecks had suddenly shown up and murdered me, I would have still died a happy man. The San Diego trip was filled with highlights (losing my camera was not one of them), and the Port/Lost Abbey visit was probably the highest of the highlights. I do not know all of the beers we will have yet, but I will let you know as soon as I find out. Now if you are the kind of person who gets really excited to meet legendary beer personalities--and you know who you are--I need you to get a hold of yourself for this one. There will be no dry-humping of the brewer, OK.

That's all I have for you today. If you are near The Fred bar on Friday, I will be there for a while. I should be gone before all of the midnight craziness ensues. I used to go big on New Year's Eve, but now it just looks like a bunch of idiots in paper hats making noise and getting drunk for no reason. Why do people insist on doing what the rest of the world tells them to do and when to do it? Go get drunk on any other night of the year. Don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day. Don't go to a Mexican restaurant and drink margaritas on May 5th. Think for yourself for once for Christ's sake. Be original. Like a lone wolf....Or a lone wolf with two other lone wolves, howling at the moon. Something like that.

How Can You Become An Overachieving Drinker?

2010-12-21T14:42:00.000-05:00

Are you already an overachieving drinker? Here is a short quiz:

Do you like to drink, no matter what time of day it is?
Are you able to drink, even if the night before you drank enough to kill lesser drinkers?
Do you feel that hangovers are best fought with more alcohol?
Do you often say, "You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning!"? Do you have that on a t-shirt or stupid hat of some sort?
Is Jimmy Buffet your hero and personal savior?
Have you ever thrown up on yourself, a friend, loved one or complete stranger?
Do you wake up and have no idea where you are, how you got there, or why you are naked in the street?
Do you own a funnel for the sole purpose of alcohol consumption, using it for no legitimate household function whatsoever?
Have you ever learned the hard way what a "drinking injury" is?
And finally, do you ring in the New Year on a higher note than you rang out the old one?

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, then you are probably pretty fun to hang out with. Unless you answered "yes" to numbers 4 or 5. Not sure how I feel about those people. And if you answered "yes" to number 6, I doubt many people invite you anywhere in the first place. Number 7...well, maybe in college. And a funnel? OK, if you are currently in college, I can see where a funnel is a requirement. Truthfully, though, if you answered "yes" to any of these questions, pretty much anyone is going to tell you to slow it down. Which is why people don't usually ask these questions, unless you are undergoing rehabilitation treatment. Because if a family member or loved one is asking you these questions, it is called an "intervention", and you want to get the hell out of there in a hurry. Those people love you so much that they want you to completely change. Makes sense, I guess....

But seriously, if you answered "yes" to question 10, I have a beer event for you. We are planning a New Year's Day event at Deckard's American Tavern that is going to be a lot of fun. It all started with a cask of Terrapin Wake N Bake. What better day to tap it than the day it is most acceptable to start drinking right after you wake up? There will also be other "breakfast-themed" beers for you: Bell's Java Stout, Founders Breakfast Stout, and Left Hand Wake Up Dead. There is also a keg that Terrapin has been sitting on since May of 2009. It has found a home at Deckard's and will be tapped on New Year's Day: Terrapin 30 Strong, the strong ale made with 30 different ingredients for Taco Mac's 30th anniversary last year. This beer was great when it was fresh, so it should be incredible now. Pretty nice line-up if I don't say so myself.

So that is the "wake" part, but what about the "baking"? Well, Chef Deckard will be feverishly cooking and baking while we are all waking. He is going to have traditional New Year's foods prepared with a twist, along with plenty of other brunch options. Some of these dishes will be prepared with the hungover folks in mind, so don't worry if you are a little ill. Matt will fix you up right. If you can't think about beer that early, they make killer Bloody Marys with Tito's Vodka from Texas, Old Bay seasoning and all of that kind of good stuff. Mimosas? Of course they have mimosas. So you can bring your grandma and her whole Bridge club if you like. (Note: Having never had a mimosa, I am completely unqualified to make a statement implying that mimosa drinkers are a bunch of grannies. I hear that they are delicious. According to my grandmother anyway.) If you can only stomach coffee, they will be serving coffee from Jittery Joe's, the Athens roaster that Terrapin uses for the Wake N Bake. Probably good with Bailey's.....

Yes, Deckard's has TV's. There are two big SEC games on at 1:00 pm if you are into that kind of thing, and you will be able to watch them. I am not going to tell you the entire bowl schedule for the 2010-2011 football season. You have access to that information from other sources. I don't think you are reading this to hear about football. But if you are looking for a serious beer event on New Year's Day, I just have one question for you: Who loves you? I do. Who else thought of the tired, hungover, wore out beer freaks who have nothing to do on January 1st? Nobody. Do you want to start 2011 with your priorities straight? You do drink beer, right? Who has a cask of locally-brewed, coffee/oatmeal stout and a keg of 18 month-old rare strong ale ready to kick the new year off right? Deckard's. You're welcome.

To make 2011 your beery-est year ever, you can't wait until the new year is even one day old. Not if you plan to overachieve. Or are you an underachiever? Are you embarrassed to call yourself a beer drinker? Do you cry yourself to sleep at night wishing that you weren't such a putz? New Year's Day is about resolutions! Resolve to stop being such a putz! Resolve to drink more beer, and start achieving some reachable goals! Do you want to lose weight? That's hard. Wanna get rich? Doesn't happen overnight. Want to find true love? Keep that (cheesiness) to yourself, please. Lots of goals and "resolutions" are difficult, so why bother? I mean, is anything that's difficult even worth it? Not when you are hungover it isn't. That I know for sure. So just resolve to drink more beer next year. How hard is that? Not hard at all. How rewarding is it? Very. I should start charging for this kind of advice.

That's all I have for now. I am leaving for a while to go home, so you may not hear from me until after the "We're Waking and He's Baking" event, but I will be back for that. See you there. Festivities start at noon.

PS--For anyone sensitive to pictures of babies drinking (or in this case trying to drink) beer, relax. This is merely an allegorical representation of the baby new year showing its appreciation of beer. Or maybe it is an allegorical representation of the frightened child trapped inside you, looking for true love, only to supplant true love with alcohol abuse. You can look at it however you want. But either way, we do not advocate the consumption of alcohol by infants. They are loud enough already. Why get 'em all fired up?

I Woke Up Dead. And I Loved It

2010-12-16T14:50:00.001-05:00

I wanted to update you on a few quick things:

On Tuesday our Dallas Highway store in Marietta is unveiling their 20 new draft lines. That store had previously had 50, and we made some adjustments to the interior and were able to upgrade that system by a whopping 40%. Stop by and check it out. They are bringing in some old standbys and some wackiness too. I am waiting to hear the final list, but I am pretty sure that there will be a Terrapin Big Daddy Vlady Russian Imperial Stout keg and a Southern Tier Krampus on draft. As I said recently, if your plans on Tuesday involve more holiday shopping, skip it. Get in the spirit by getting into some spirits instead. More on this later.
Our friends at Left Hand in Colorado sent me a package the other day. I opened it, inspected the contents, and put them in the fridge. No big deal, I have a lot of beer at home that needs drinking. It stacks up. Not bragging or anything; beer is my job. So after listening to Jason from The Fred rave about this new Left Hand barrel-aged imperial stout called Wake Up Dead, I opened it last night. As anyone who reads this regularly knows, I don't exactly use this space to tell people what I like or to advocate for specific brands, but holy baby-Jesus-in-the-manger! This beer is out of this world! Left Hand can really make some dark beer, and this one is an instant classic. Push back you chair, close your computer, grab your keys and go find a bottle if this beer now. Buy a few, trust me on this one. Why are you still reading? Go.
The cask of Peak Organic IPA at Perimeter last night tasted great. One reader named Amber came out to enjoy it on her birthday. Happy belated birthday Amber! Sorry I couldn't stay and talk longer. I wish I had. The traffic leaving Perimeter Taco Mac to get to the highway took 30 minutes. For those of you not familiar with the area, that is about a mile and a half, maybe two. If you were any of those people who were desperately going to or from the mall to finish up some holiday shopping, I hate you. Honestly...poor planning people. On a list of places to absolutely avoid at all costs right now, malls are behind only Afghanistan. Any mall is ahead of Iran, North Korea and Detroit as places that you should try to stay out of at all costs. What could they possibly have inside that mall that you could not find in another store in another place at another time? Here is something you have never heard in a mall, "Oh look, what a unique store!". Never. My reaction to a mall, any mall, is pretty consistent, "Well this looks like the same shit I see everywhere else. Can we leave now?". And another thing: Every store in that mall sells their crap on the internet. Stay home. Stop polluting the environment with your exhaust and stop ruining peoples' days by clogging up the roads. Why would Jesus want to be born at this time of year? It is just crazy around Christmas....
I am just finishing a ridiculously good lunch at Deckard's American Tavern. I am here planning a beer event for February. I had a pastrami Reuben with a cherry pepper dijonaise. On the side was Matt's incredible macaroni & cheese. Don't tell my cardiologist about this meal, but damn it was good. If I would have had my camera I would have taken a picture of it. Matt also made some of today's appetizer special: House-Made Beef & Sausage Meatballs in marinara with smoked mozzarella. There was some super-crusty garlic bread thing on the side with the meatballs. It rocked my world. Last week I had an order of Deckard's meatloaf, which pretty much redefined what meatloaf should be from now into eternity. I don't know what the spicy glaze was, but I was a big fan of it. The people sitting next to me ordered one almost immediately after seeing mine. Mashed potatoes, green beans, all of that. (For attentive readers, you may recall my adoration of the meatloaf at Sierra Nevada's pub at the brewery in Chico. I can't compare the two at this point, having not had the Sierra Nevada meatloaf since 2008. You can't lose with either one, really, but you should seriously stop by Deckard's for a beer and a bite. That is all I am saying.) In case you are curious, the beer event under discussion involves Valentine's Day weekend. Cancel whatever plans you may already have for a restaurant you probably don't really want to go to anyway. A romantic, beer-centric opportunity is about to manifest itself. Your welcome. Remember, I provide you with alcohol related social events. The rest is up to you slugger. I can't get the fish the into your boat. All I can do is bait the hook.
After getting this Valentine's thing planned, Matt & I just hatched another idea. Deckard's has a firkin of Terrapin Wake & Bake. All we need now is an opportunity to start drinking early to make sense of the "Wake" part....hmm....And Matt can certainly "Bake" something....New Year's Day! That's right, you can watch the Florida/Penn State or Alabama/Michigan State games at Deckard's with a pint of locally-brewed hand-drawn coffee-oatmeal imperial stout in front of you. Matt is going to have a special brunch menu, complete with some traditional New Year's Day dishes, plus brunch favorites. You can nurse that hangover the old-fashioned way--a little hair o' the dog that bit ya. They have a full bar too if Bloody Marys are your thing too.

Thank you for all of your attention today. That is two posts in two days, so don't yell at me if I disappear for a while. I am going back up north next week for the holidays. Not going to pack my computer for that, so it could be January before you hear from me again. Either way, have a happy and safe holiday season.

Note: Why is it correct to spell "fridge" with a "d" when "refrigerator" is spelled without a "d"? I demand to find out who is responsible for this. Just add a "d" to refrigerator and nobody will notice.

I Think Technically It Is Called A "Bro"

2010-12-14T16:02:00.001-05:00

Wow. It has been two weeks since I have been in touch with my readers. Very sorry for that, but I think that we are all running around like crazy these days. I was in Charlotte for a few days earlier this month. I went to a Chimay beer dinner at George's Brasserie up there. Please do not confuse that with George's brassiere. Big difference. There is enough confusion going on where a guy named George and his brassiere are concerned. A "brasserie" is French term for a restaurant of some sort. A "brassiere" is something that George really has no business with, unless George likes to wear a dress, which is totally fine if that is what makes George happy.

A few Fridays ago we did the Lenny's RIPA event in Canton, which was a big success. The beers were all great, but especially the firkin of Lenny's. The store did a superb job with it, and the beer came out crystal clear and tasting incredible. Then last week we had our annual holiday beer dinner extravaganza. If you missed it (again) this year, well, you goofed pal. It was a big hit as always. All of the holiday beers were delicious, and each person had their favorite. I can't say enough about the St. Bernardus Christmas, which has been a staple at this dinner each year. Of course the eggnog spiked with Rogue Hazelnut Spiced Rum is a fan favorite that looks like it will be a December tradition for years to come. If you are looking for a holiday cocktail, this is where it's at, trust me. We also hosted the Beer Connoisseur One-Year Anniversary party at Deckard's last week. That was a blow-out. Lots of great beers all over the place. See, I have not been being lazy and ignoring my readers. I really have been all over the place for the last two weeks.

So here is a quick run-down of upcoming events. Maybe I should say "event". There is a cask of Peak Organic IPA being tapped tomorrow (Wednesday, Dec. 15th) at the Perimeter Mall Taco Mac. Need to do some last-minute shopping? Screw it. Come over and drink beer instead. Everybody has enough "stuff". Your nephew just wants money or I-Tunes cards or Bieber tickets, not another shirt from The Gap. In fact, if you even attempt to enter a mall this weekend, you have some bizarre masochistic tendencies you probably keep a secret. In fact, if you do, then I think know a "woman" named George that you might like to meet. Looks like Mrs. Claus decides who is naughty or nice this year....

Coming up we have a beer dinner in Charlotte on January 12th with Anderson Valley Brewing Co. The owner and president, Trey White, will be in town for the event. The menu has been posted to www.tacomac.com already, so check it out. If you or someone you know are in the Charlotte area, you should really see about making this dinner.

We are also planning a Valentines beer dinner at Deckard's with five different Ommegang specialties. I will have a menu and a date for you in the next few weeks. I mean a date that the dinner will be held, not a date for you to take to the dinner. I am sorry, that is not exactly within my skill set. You are on your own when it comes to finding romantic partners. I give you social events that involve alcohol. The rest is up to you champ. But seriously, if you and your significant other appreciate good beer and are looking for a Valentine's spot, I have you covered. More details to follow. But you can skip the bistros, brasseries, cafes, lounges, ristorantes or whatever, and have a nice sit-down meal in an unpretentious setting with some great food and elegant beer pairings. Then you can go home and get freaky. I know that's what you were thinking, so I just went ahead and said it for you.

We are also going to do some sort of event surrounding the arrival of some firkins from Fuller's that should be here in February. You may recall that I was at this brewery this past February (see slide show #1 from my trip to England). The beer will be a great change of pace from the American firkins we get so much more frequently. The brewery is very cautious to send these over here only in cool weather months to ensure that they travel safely and arrive as tasty as they can be. Once I get an ETA on that boat I will get some dates set down. We should be getting about six of these things.

The only other event that I know of right now is the Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting on January 29th. It is being held jointly by Taco Mac Prado and Lucky Devil Brewing Co. (formerly 5 Seasons) at The Prado. Unfortunately this event is sold out as usual, but who knows? Every year something happens to somebody and they have to give up their tickets at the last minute. So you can pray for someone else's misfortune in order to get into a beer event. If that's your kind of thing.

But don't despair. There will be more January events for sure. We are just waiting for the holidays to get over with and people to get back to a regular work schedule. I personally will be back in Michigan for a few days to visit family. So if you are complaining about the cold in Atlanta right now, cram it. I get to go into sub-Arctic temperatures for "vacation". Have a great week and all of that. Maybe I will see you guys out for a cask of Peak Organic IPA tomorrow. Bye.

Holiday Pet Peeve # 17 (and I have a lot of them!): Anyone who ever uses the spelling or vocal inflection of "holi-daze". Stop it. Just stop now. You are not clever. You did not invent that. Stop acting like something you read on a redneck's hat 20 years ago is still considered witty. Even the person who first came up with it is sick of it. The next time you think about opening your mouth, just don't. If you like to get wasted over the holidays, keep it a secret. Just like grandma does.

Eight Crazy Nights

2010-11-30T09:53:00.000-05:00

OK, the holiday is over and everyone survived I assume. Family time can be so....interesting...is a word that comes to mind as "desciptive enough". Unfortunatley I was not able to be with my family, but I had a great time anyway. Some buddies of mine own a restaurant here in town. They closed it for the day and had friends and family over to the restaurant. It was a blast. We had a brined turkey, a fried turkey, a ham and a pot roast. If you are one of those people who is sick of hearing people rave about how good a fried turkey is, because you still have yet to eat one, let me ask you something: What in the hell are you waiting for? I was one of you at one time, but now I am that other guy. Fried turkeys are out of this world. They make every other turkey ashamed of themselves for even thinking of getting killed, gutted, plucked, roasted, carved and eaten. Non-fried turkeys are the dial-up internet connections of the poultry world. Get with the program people. Remember: If something makes a food less healthy, by definition it also makes it taste better. It's just that simple. Hamburger? Good. Bacon cheeseburger? Way better. Pickles? Who doesn't like pickles? But deep-fried pickle are outstanding. I think I have made my point here.

So in addition to Thanksgiving, we had that Discovery Channel viewing party on Sunday the 21st. Huge success. Yes, on a Sunday at 10:00 pm. You offer people rare and crazy Dogfish Head beer and they show up. Hey lonely people without any friends! I just gave you that advice for free. You're welcome. Get a bunch of crazy beers together and put the word out. All of a sudden you're popular. It's like magic, but not fake. So the show has already been moved to Monday nights at 10:00 after just two episodes. Remember what I said about sharks not being prime-time material back in the day? Well it looks like beer is poised to kick some shark ass. Unless those sharks have laser beams attached to their heads. Then beer would be in trouble, because who can deal with sharks with frickin' lasers? I mean, really? Plus, I discovered that the show where they drive trucks over a road of solid ice is on The History Channel, not Discovery. What is historical about trucks on ice? Stupid. I also pretty sure that Bear Grylls show is on History too. What a lame show. How am I expected, as a viewer, to believe that this guy is in actual danger when there is a f---ing camera crew following him? How stupid do they think we are? "OK, this is a real dangerous situation here. Except over there is Bill with the camera....And the director is on his cell phone. Sally is holding the microphone, drinking a latte from Starbucks. Oh, here comes the caterer. Thank god, because I am starving. Cut! Hey Bear! (If that is your real name there....ahem...Todd...cough!). Put down that slimy piece of animal shit and come have a falafel!" Really dangerous situation there. I am sure that falafel is going to be hot. Careful pal.

We are currently deep into our He'Brew Jewbilation event at Mall of GA. They have tapped 6 rare kegs over 6 consecutive days, and killed them in 1-3 days each so far. They only have 2 more to go, with # 7, the Jewbilation 14 getting tapped tonight. The whole thing starts up again at Crabapple, Kennesaw and Newnan on Wednesday of this week to coincide with Hanukkah. So go tell Veronica, have a happy, happy.....what, no Adam Sandler fans out there? The Hanukkah song? Tough crowd. So get your people together and check out these stores from December 1st through the 8th. There will some great beers that you will probably never see again. I have done my part. Now it's up to you to finish the job.

On Friday we are doing the Lenny's Mania (previously called Lenny's 3 Ways, but apparently some of you have dirty minds and were not entirely sure of what you were being invited to) at Canton. I will be up there if anybody wants to have a beer with me. You just might learn a little about beer packaging and serving methods and their impact on flavor. Tim (our guy in Canton) has some other specialty He'Brew beers to bust out, so like I have said in the past, please plan ahead. You forget about safe transportation, you just might wake up looking at the wrong kind of bars.

That's all for now. I am off to Charlotte today for some work stuff. I am also going to a Chimay beer dinner tonight, so that isn't going to suck. Pretty psyched about that as you can imagine. "Why, yes. You can just stand there and keep refilling this glass with Chimay all night. I thought you'd never ask." Take it easy folks. I will be back in touch soon.

Got Beer....Bitches

2010-11-19T13:19:00.000-05:00

The keg of Dogfish Head Bitches Brew is en route to The Fred now. It will be getting tapped for the broadcast of Discovery Channel's new series, "Brew Masters". The show airs at 10:00 pm Sunday. The beer will be available at 8:00 pm. No earlier, no later.

I have hats and really cool key-chain bottle openers to give away. So try to stay a little bit sober this Sunday and come out to watch a great show and drink this rare and historic beer. See you there.

Trade In Your Birthday Suit For A Santa Suit (And Do Everyone A Favor)

2010-11-17T16:14:00.002-05:00

The Discovery Channel, which used to be about nature and history and documentaries, has a new program debuting on Sunday. It is called Brew Masters and features Dogfish Head deity Sam Calagione. It follows him on his adventures in beer land, which are far more interesting than mine. Sam gets to brew crazy beers using unusual ingredients, and sometimes he does it in very unique surroundings. Long story short, this is not some boring old documentary following a guy around a brewery. Sam is no ordinary guy either. This is a new series of shows featuring this guy and his world. Beer world. On a major cable TV network. Sure, Discovery used to be a great place to watch wild animal shows and Hitler documentaries, but that was then. Now it is full of shows about trucks driving on ice, science dorks blowing stuff up, sharks, and some guy named Bear Grylls. Not be mistaken with Bare Girls, which, I would assume, is on Cinemax late at night. I do not have Showtime, Cinemax or HBO (death to Comcast!). My internet and digital cable are enough. If I need more channels, I am watching too much god-damned TV. End of story. Did I mention "Death to Comcast!"?

But I will be watching Brew Masters on Sunday night. Want to watch it with me? 'Cause there's a big slumber party at my house! Wrong. We are having a viewing party at The Fred. Here is the deal:

The first episode centers on the brewing of a wacky stout of some sort. It was brewed to commemorate the 40-year anniversary of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. Don't know who Miles Davis is? Then you no longer have to wonder if you are cool or not. (Hint: You're not, sorry.) The beer is inspired by the album and its groundbreaking fusion of jazz, rock & funk. The beer is a blend of mostly Imperial Stout blended with a honey beer flavored with gesho root. No, I do not have any idea what a gesho root is either, but thanks for asking.
We will kick off the evening around 7:30 or 8:00-ish with some Bitches Brew music to get everyone in the mood, followed by some educational beer programming on the TVs. Libations will be DFH Chateau Jaihu & Chicory Stout drafts, some Palo Santo Marron and Red & White bottles. We may, and I stress MAY, have a small keg of the Bitches Brew. It is leaving Delaware on a truck today that is supposed to arrive on Friday. If that happens, we will have the keg. If this truck (they make multiple stops, not straight from DE to ATL) shows up late Friday or on Saturday, no DFH Bitches draft. I understand that this is a deal breaker for many of you. I will try to notify you all here as soon as I find out the good news. No post between now and then, no Bitches Brew. but it isn't like The Fred isn't loaded down with special beer any way, so we won't cry if it doesn't show.
At 10:00 we will watch the Brew Masters show on Discovery. Yes, 10:00 pm on a Sunday. Where did you expect a beer show on Discovery to debut? Friday at 8:00? That is prime time to watch trucks drive on ice! Or sharks. Do you want to watch a beer show in prime time some day? Then you should be sure to support this one, because this is your chance. Watch it. DVR is cheating. E-mail the station and tell then how much you like it. If they can milk extra ad dollars out of this thing by moving it to a better time slot, they will. What if Shark Week got replaced by Beer Week? Can you imagine that? This, readers, is where it starts. Sharks were not always prime time, and I am still baffled by the popularity of trucks on icy roads. I drove a Ford Escort on icy roads in Michigan for years and no one made a TV show about me. Now the pawn shop show, that I can watch. Quality programming there.
Free stuff! A package from Milton, DE arrived at the office today. I am not there, so I have no idea what is in it. But whatever is in it will be for any attendees Sunday night. I will open it up around 9:00, but don't get too excited. I expect it to be bottle openers and stuff like that. Hats and t-shirts? Maybe. Depends how big the box is. It will not be full of free beer and locks of Sam Calagione's hair, so keep it in your pants beer geeks.

I have three more things for you before I go:

The first of the eight days of He'Brew craziness starts Wednesday at Mall of GA Taco Mac. Eight different beers tapped on eight different days. Read the last couple of posts for more details. Remember that these are small kegs and will not last more that a day or two. You can taste new batches of the last six recipes for He'Brew Jewbilation, their anniversary strong ale. These are made with the number of hops and malts that correspond to the year's anniversary, and are all different. Start on Wednesday with Jewbilation 8 (eight malts, eight hops, 8% ABV). On the seventh day you will get the new version, Jewbilation 14 (yes, 14 malts, hops & ABV). The eighth day will be Vertical Jewbilation, a blend of 8 through 14, barrel aged in sazerac barrels. Three more stores launch the same series December 1st: Crabapple, Newnan & Kennesaw.
Fred & Peter's All-Star Holiday Extravaganza beer dinner is selling fast. At last count there were 14 seats left out of 50. The event is Tuesday, December 7th at The Fred. I gave you a link to the menu last week. It looks pretty awesome if you ask me.
The Beer Connoisseur Magazine One-Year Anniversary Party is Wednesday, December 8th at Deckard's. Tickets are $40 each, and HERE IS A LINK to the info. There are certainly some bells & whistles for the price tag. We are simply the venue for this event, so you need to open this up to find out more and who to pay. They are looking for someone to don the Santa suit for their birthday event, so if you are jolly and feel like drinking beer through a fake beard, call the number for the BC mag people. They would love to have as many Santa's as possible I imagine. And if you want to wear your birthday suit to a Santa event, I think the people at Cinemax may want to do a show about you.

That is all I have for this week kids. Hopefully I can get my new camera out of the box soon and take some more pictures for your entertainment. I don't have any beer trips planned until February though, so not much is happening for a while. We did something fun Monday night, but if you weren't there, you don't want to hear about it now. Have a good week and keep that going into the weekend. Peek here Friday or Saturday to see if we received the Bitches. Later bitches.

Event Reminders & Updates!

2010-11-11T15:07:00.000-05:00

Here is a boatload of special events to clue you all in on, plus an update on the Lenny's 3 Ways that has been getting moved around. Got it pinned down finally. Here it comes:

There is a bountiful harvest of events on Friday, November 12th (tomorrow!). If you need detailed info on any of these events, try checking an older post. I can't keep repeating myself all of the time. Plus, based on your choice of on-line reading, you are clearly above average intelligence. Be sure when reading old posts to check more recent ones for accurate dates. I promise to get better at getting these dates solid earlier and keeping them that way. Fall is crazy, so give me a break.

The Kennesaw store's three-year anniversary is Friday. They will have a ton of good beers (see last post), including a cask of Terrapin Moo-Hoo. If you missed the Moo-Hoo cask at The Fred last week, don't make that same mistake again. This beer is selling, according to Spike (Terrapin brew master), faster than a cow with its tail on fire. It's that good. I will be there, for whatever that's worth.

Also on Friday there is a crazy wooden keg of Schneider Edel-Weiss at Deckard's. It gets tapped with some contraption that I have never seen before. People, I have been in and around the beer business for 20 years, and I have never seen anything like this before. Want a unique beer experience? This is it. Here is their description and invite:

"Many years ago, the beer brewed for Octoberfest was not necessarily the standard marzen style lager beer associated with the event today. At this time, there were many styles of beer brewed there. The festival was in October rather than September, and it was often quite cold out, making necessary richer and stronger beers. Thus, Schneider's Wiesen Edel-Weisse was made to be warming. It was quite full bodied, as the malt contained a fair amount of unfermentable sugar. In order to balance such a beer, it had to be brewed with more hops for balance, resulting in more noticeable hop character than is usually found in hefe weizens. In celebration of fall we will be tapping a wooden cask of this delicious October wheat beer. Make plans to join us for this amazing beer on cask! Tapping will be at 6:00pm sharp this Friday."

The Fred is tapping a cask of Lagunitas Barrel-Aged Cappuccino Stout for Friday. See, this is what happens when events stack up on top of each other. I can't be at more than one place at a time, and I would have spread these out if I could have. Not for your benefit, but mine. Sorry. That's not true. I know plenty of you are going to have a hard time deciding where to go on Friday. I love you all very much, you crazy beer drinkers you!

What about the chance to meet Shmaltz founder Jeremy Cowan at Metropolis on Friday? He will have some of the advance copies of his book, "Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah" and will sign them if you can manage to get one. There will be kegs of Jewbilation 13 from last year (and these age really well!) and the debut of Jewbilation 14 (14 malts, 14 hops, 14% ABV). Jeremy is a very interesting guy, and our local Shmaltz guy, Darren, is great too. All of these events are awesome! Aarrgghh!

Our original store at Virginia-Highland has just recently brought in a bunch of rare large bottles that you may have not seen before. There are some Allagash, Avery and Lagunitas specialties if you are interested. They're not cheap, but hey, you're worth it. Call them if you want specific details. Ask for Alex or Andrew.

So that's just one day. Wow. You have your assignments. Godspeed, beer drinkers.

The Lenny's 3 Ways in Canton has been OFFICIALLY scheduled for Friday, December 3rd. We will have He'Brew Lenny's RIPA on draft, and in a firkin with a gravity tap, and in a cask-conditioned keg through a beer engine. Ever wonder how the same beer tastes with different serving methods? Show up on the 3rd and wonder no more. We will be un-fogging the foggiest minds, then re-fogging them with great beers. There will also be '08 & '09 He'Brew Rejewvenator on draft, plus big bottles of that Jewbilation 14 I mentioned earlier. This is going to be a great event for lovers of strong/hoppy beers. Like lighter beer? Stay home.

If you or someone you know lives in the Charlotte area, we are hosting a holiday beer tasting on Wednesday, December 1st at our South Park store. If anyone is interested in going, they should call the store and ask for Mrs. Garrison. Or Towelie. But not Kenny, he is either dead or about to die. But seriously, Charlotte Magazine is putting on this event, and people can pay through:

http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/Promotion-and-Events/Holiday-Beer-Tasting/index.php

There will be eight holiday/winter beers to sample, and brewers will be on hand to talk about their beers and beer in general. Light apps will be provided, and the cost is $30.00. It will be a great chance for people in that area to meet like-minded folks and talk beer with the professionals.

Lastly, the Third Annual All-Star Holiday Extravaganza beer dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, December 7th at The Fred. The menu and payment link should be up at www.tacomac.com today. If you have always wanted to attend one of these events but have not, this is the one you want. We will feature six different holiday/winter beers with our new chef's expert food pairings. Reception starts at 6:30 with a home-made eggnog spiked with Rogue Hazelnut Spiced Rum. Beer and food follow at 7:00.

That is all I have for now. Enjoy your weekend. It isn't like I didn't give you enough to do. Look for me at the Falcons game tonight. I will be the guy that looks like me drinking beer. See you around.

Have You Seen My Pictures? No? Me Either.

2010-11-05T14:18:00.000-04:00

First I need to update everyone on some upcoming events. By upcoming, I mean that they could be either over or ongoing by the time you read this. So get ready, because here we go:

Tonight there is a cask of Abita Vanilla Turbo Dog at Metropolis. Scott from Abita will be there with some freebies. Go meet Scott. He's a good man to know.
Tonight is The Fred's one-year anniversary. There will be a cask of Rogue Brutal Bitter upstairs and a cask of Terrapin Moo-Hoo downstairs. There will also be a bunch of special beers on tap & in the bottle downstairs. Need more details? Show up.
Next Friday the 12th is the Kennesaw store's three-year anniversary. Here's the line up: Terrapin Moo-Hoo cask, kegs of Founders Breakfast Stout, the Left-Hand/Terrapin collaboration Oxymoron, Brooklyn Detonation, Terrapin Hopzilla, DFH Chateau Jaihu, Red Brick Vanilla Gorilla, Bell's Sparkling Ale & Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog. That is not a really old keg of Smutty OBD by the way. That is a special high gravity brown ale from Smuttynose; more like an old ale than a brown ale. Very rare. That is pretty stellar line-up.
Also on the 12th you can meet Jeremy Cowan, owner and founder of Shmaltz Brewing. If you are not a big beer label reader, you may not recognize the name of Shmaltz. They are the brewers behind the He'Brew & Coney Island brands. Jeremy has written a book about the formation of his company, which literally started with cases of beer being hand delivered by Jeremy. His story is also unique in the aspect that when you think of beer magnates, not a lot of Jewish names pop up right away. If you are able to get a copy of his book, he will be available to sign them. They will have a few copies of the first run on hand for purchase. There are only 150 in existence right now, but the first big printing is happening very soon. And.....there will be special beer, of course. More about this guy's beer in a minute.
On Sunday the 21st we are going to have a viewing party of a new Discovery Channel show called "Brew Master". Basically the show is going to feature Sam Calagione, the mastermind behind Dogfish Head, and the crazy things that he does around the globe. Sam is known for using odd ingredients, ancient recipes, brewing with other renown brewers and brewing in exotic places. So imagine all of that in front of a camera. He is also a really intelligent and engaging person with an infectious wealth of knowledge about everything beer. It should be a cool show. The viewing party details are getting fleshed out right now, but here is the basic framework: The first episode involves the brewing of Bitches Brew, which was made to commemorate the 40th anniversary and release of the landmark Miles Davis album of the same name. So the evening will involve some Miles Davis, maybe a viewing of the documentary "Beer Wars", and then the Brew Master show on Discovery. Oh, and some free stuff. Plus some wacky DFH beers. Will we have a keg of Bitches Brew? Maybe....But if we don't, attendees will get an invite to a private event when the beer shows up. Stay tuned for more details as they come into focus. This will take place at The Fred and should run from 7:30 to 11:00 pm.

I mentioned a while ago about a multi-day beer event that you would really want to be a part of, and here it comes. I also mentioned that there would be more discussion about Jeremy Cowan's beers, and guess what? They are tied into each other. Didn't see that one coming, did you? Here is the breakdown:

Every year there is a new He'Brew Jewbliation to commemorate their anniversary. This year we have Jewbilation 14 to mark their 14th anniversary. It is made with 14 malts, 14 hops and is 14% alcohol. Last year's Jewbilation 13 was made with 13 malts, 13 hops....you get the picture. The beers are outstanding.
This year they re-brewed the recipes of all of the Jewbilation beers going back to Jewbilation 8 (8 malts, 8....). We are going to serve each one on a consecutive day leading up to Vertical Jewbilation on the 8th day. What, you may be wondering, is Vertical Jewbilation? Read on.....
They took some of each Jewbilation 8 through 14 and blended them together. Sounds good, right? Then they aged that beer in a sazerac barrel. Now it is a 10.5% barrel-aged blend of seven different recipes that is ready to rock your world.
We are starting this event at Mall of GA on Wednesday, November 24th. Why? Because that coincides with the holiday shopping season. After that mess, everyone needs a strong drink to squelch the desire to kill mass amounts of people brought on by all of that god-damned Christmas music everywhere. Why do we all have to listen to that same music every year for six weeks? It is not that good! What other collection of 28, maybe 32 songs would anyone even attempt to bear at any other time? Let's take Led Zepplin's first four albums. Classics. We can all agree on that, right? Now put them on Shuffle, and listen to nothing else, and tell me how you feel about "Misty Mountain Hop" in six weeks. I hate Christmas music. Hate it. Play it for a week and I could deal with it small doses. SMALL doses. "Gee...how can we make a mall experience suck even worse? I got it! Play this shit all day and night for basically ever!" And can't someone make a Christmas soundtrack for the South? Why are we hearing "Let It Snow"? Have you been here when it snows? It shuts down the whole city! We don't want that. "Walking In A Winter Wonderland"? Where? It's gray and rainy here in the winter. That's not a wonderland, pal. Make a Christmas song aboud cold rain and not having a warm enough jacket because it's only like that once in a while. Call it, "Jesus Christ! This Sucks!". More of a rock song really.....
The other three stores participating in this eight-day beer bonanza are Crabapple, Newnan and Kennesaw. They will be starting on Wednesday, December 1st. Why? Because that coincides with Hanukkah, which may or may not have terrible music. I am not aware that it does, but I am not aware that it does not either. So...the jury is still out on that one.
Please remember that these beers are not going to be on tapped all at once. Each keg is only good for about fifty 11oz. pours. So the Jewbilation 8 getting taped on Day One may be gone by the time they tap Jewbilation 11 on Day Four. In addition to that, the stores are spread out geographically to draw customers from the entire region, not just the immediate vicinity. Not to mention, you would not want to sit down and drink all of these beers at once. You would be babbling incoherently and most likely piss your pants. Please enjoy Jewbilation 8 through Vertical responsibly.
Intrepid credit seekers may be wondering about these beers being "new credits" since they are old recipes. The answer is "yes". Jewbilation 10 will be named Jewbilation 10 '10, for example, to indicate that this is the recipe for Jewbilation 10 brewed in 2010, not 2006 when it was originally produced. All of the Jewbilations numbered 8 through 13 will have that special "10" and be completely new credits. Any questions? Yes, you, in the back......I see. The question was, "How did you come up with such an awesome idea?" Well, ma'am, it wasn't my idea. The guys from the brewery cooked it up. Yes, they are geniuses, I agree.

I know I promised you great pictures and stories from my trip to San Diego, so here it is in a nutshell:

San Diego and its breweries were 100% awesome. Plan a trip as soon as possible. Use one of the multiple van services that do brewery tours. We saw two companies where that is all that they do. They take people around to some of the 30 breweries in San Diego County.
I lost my camera. It was (maybe still is?) full of pictures of Stone, Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Pizza Port in Solana Beach, Alesmith and Ballast Point. The last place I had it was at the counter at Ballast Point, gathering up beer and t-shirts and Bloody Mary mix. Must have left it on the counter or something. I am beyond angry with myself, because I don't lose things. I have had the same sunglasses since 2007, and they were half the price of that camera. In fact, if you see me put my sunglasses down, please steal them. I want a new pair, but can't exactly justify that while I have a perfectly good pair that I am just bored with. Not to mention, now I need a new camera, so actually, don't steal my sunglasses. I need them for a little while longer now.
Beautiful city, amazing beer, lots of personal tours and tasting and free beer, free beer, and more free beer. Then we paid for a lot of beer, went to the Chargers/Titans game (great seats--too bad I can't show you a picture!) and came home on Monday.

So in lieu of a slide show of San Diego breweries (and a distillery with a secret speakeasy room!) and Qualcomm Stadium on a beautifully sunny 80 degree day, there's a picture of our marketing VP, Bruce with Jim Koch. He owns Samuel Adams, you may remeber him from such places as....TV. He is the guy in the ads talking about beer and beer stuff. He was at Metropolis on Wednesday. We had lunch and a beer. So the next time I see hum on TV I can be like, "I had a beer with that guy!". He was very cool and extremely knowledgeable about what he does. I can certainly say that I am very glad to be able to say that I have met the founder of Samuel Adams. A true pioneer and an iconic figure in the brewing world, right there at Taco Mac in midtown.

Have a great weekend everyone. Don't be at mad at me about the loss of the pictures. I am mad enough at myself for all of us. Luckily there are no major trips or events planned between now and when I will be able to buy another one. See ya.

Trick Or Treat? That's An Easy Question.

2010-10-28T12:47:00.001-04:00

Here are some beer events to keep you occupied while I am away. It's Halloween weekend, and the kids get to go nuts gobbling down more candy in a couple days than they are usually allowed to eat in a year. So why should the kids have all of the fun? I mean, what do they really contribute to society anyway? You're the one that brings home the paychecks and picks up all of their stuff. You drive them around everywhere and help them with their homework; hell, you paid for the damn costumes AND the candy for the rest of neighborhood kids.

So go ahead and treat yourself. There's nothing tricky about good beer: Open mouth, tip glass, swallow beer. No tricks, just treats. Here you go:

Tomorrow (Friday the 29th) Prado has a firkin of Rogue Brutal Bitter. Such a great beer. They also have this year's Ommegang Adoration to tap. This was in pretty short supply last year, so if you missed it in '09, get it together please. People are counting on you.
Tomorrow (I am not telling you tomorrow's date again) is the Newnan store's five-year anniversary. They have all kinds of crazy beers to tap: Founders Harvest Ale, Great Divide Smoked Baltic Porter, Left Hand/Terrapin Oxymoron, French Broad Zeptember and Rogue Shakespeare (cask) to name a few (OK, most). There are also some SweetWater Festive '09 liter bottles for sale. Coooool.
There is a firkin of Lagunitas Wet Hop Pale at Deckard's for the 29th as well. It was hopped with Amarillo & Simcoe. For those of you not paying attention, the 29th is tomorrow.
Thursday the 4th of November is The Prado's one-year anniversary. They will be pouring some '09 Allagash Curieux, '09 Avery Hog Heaven and '09 Corsendonk Christmas. Can you dig it? I thought so.
Friday the 5th is The Fred's one-year anniversary. What can I say? Jason is going to bust out some gems that will be bordering on ridiculous. I am not going to go into detail about everything. If you are not aware of the caliber of beer selection there by now, well then welcome to planet Earth. Where have you been? Not to mention, all of these beers are in limited quantity, so if you like to drink amazing beer with like-minded people, you'll want to be there. I will be there for a few hours for sure. ETA is up in the air at this point.
Also on Friday the 5th there is a cask-conditioned keg of Abita Vanilla Turbo Dog at Metropolis. Dark beer with vanilla? Sounds pretty Halloween-y to me. People have been raving about this beer since it arrived last week. Scott from Abita will be there with some give-away stuff. You should meet Scott, he's a great guy.

That is all for now. Have a great weekend everyone. Thanks also to all of those who turned out for the beer & cheese pairing Tuesday and the beer dinner last night. Two great events this week already. Bye.

Event Retractions & Changes!

2010-10-22T11:50:00.001-04:00

The cask of Heavy Seas Winter Storm at Crabapple is tonight! I said it was next Friday, but I was wrong! (First time ever. And if you believe that, I have some swamp land....) I had next Friday confused with this Friday because I am unavailable both nights. Tonight I am going to see Daniel Tosh at The Tabernacle. If you don't know who that is, then you aren't watching Tosh.0 on Comedy Central. Funniest show on TV right now. Although I am not able to see season two of East Bound & Down because I don't have HBO. That might be the only thing on TV that could be funnier than Tosh.0.

The Lenny's 3 Ways at Canton may be getting moved. Why? Too many events stacked on top of each other. I will let you know when we get it figured out.

Sorry for the confusion.

"My Hands Felt Just Like Two Balloons"

2010-10-21T11:48:00.000-04:00

Short & sweet today everyone. I just have a few event updates for you, then I gotta get back to work. Write these down:

Beer & cheese pairing at Deckard's on Tuesday the 26th has only 5 seats remaining. You can see the last post for details and a link to pay. At $25.00, this thing is a steal. Don't be cheesy--sign up!
Fred & Peter's Scary Beer Dinner is next Wednesday the 27th in Duluth. Only 4 seats remaining. I had to make a last minute substitution to my roster. Founders Harvest got benched for Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Jack & Ken's. My bench player is fresh off a gold medal performance at this year's GABF, so sorry Founders, you need to sit this one out. Sometimes your best player may be on the bench. Tom Brady was riding the pine behind Drew Bledsoe. One is a future Hall of Fame-er, and the other is barely a, "Oh yeah, whatever happened to that guy?". Tom Brady happened to him, that's what. Jack & Ken's is a super hoppy black barley wine. What? Yes. On draft.
Taco Mac at Crabapple has a cask of Heavy Seas Winter Storm set for Friday, 10/29. I will be in San Diego that day, but Kevin Fox from Heavy Seas will be there. He's a great guy, and the Winter Storm firkin is going to taste great. Can Crabapple come close to the 30 minute record it took Cumming to drain a LH Twin Sisters cask? Show up and find out.
That same day (10/29) our Newnan store has their 5th Anniversary. They are sitting on a cask of Rogue Shakespeare and a keg of the Founders Harvest (not to be confused with Drew Bledsoe, which is not a beer). They also have some 1 liter bottles of 2009 SweetWater Festive. Nice.
The weekend of Friday, November 12th is looking pretty awesome right now if you live in the NW part of metro Atlanta. Kennesaw has their 2nd Anniversary, and there will be a firkin of Terrapin Moo-Hoo. Not familiar with Moo-Hoo? Well it isn't out yet, but it is a chocolate Milk Stout. I am not a gambler, but if I were, I'd bet the house that this thing is going to be incredible. We will also be doing an event on Saturday the 13th in Canton. It is called Lenny's Three Ways. We will have He'Brew Lenny's RIPA on draft, in a firkin, and on the beer engine from a cask-conditioned keg. They also have '09 and '10 He'Brew Rejewvenator kegs. Can you spell "des-ig-nat-ed dri-ver"? I can. We may offer some of these in an 8 oz. pour so that you can get the feel for everything without losing the feeling in your brain.
Most likely we will be doing a book signing/meet & greet with Shmaltz Brewing Co. (He'Brew and Coney Island brands) founder and president Jeremy Cowan. He has an interesting story to tell (I mean, he got a book published about it, so...) and is a really engaging guy. And there will be special beers, of course. The plan right now is to do this on the 12th (Friday), with the location TBD. Depending on flight arrangements, we may need to move this to Thursday the 11th. Stay tuned.

In other news, there are a fair amount of things up in the air. That's not news, really. Things are always up in the air. Birds, for one. Well, I guess they are not always up in the air when you think about it. It is safe to say that at any time of day, any day of the year, somewhere in the world a bird is up in the air. But all birds? Doubtful. Maybe if there was a catastrophic disaster around the globe, like if--and this is a big if--all of the birds in the world would be up in the air at the same time. If a meteor struck the Earth, for example, shaking the entire planet violently and instantaneously, then all birds that were not dead would be up in the air at once, right? Except penguins. They can't fly. So...so much for that theory. Clouds are always up in the air. Right? Is fog a cloud? Does fog touch the ground or does the heat from the Earth keep the fog just above the surface of the planet? Rainbows are up in the air, but they aren't real. They're just refractions of light; hallucinations basically.

Well we can ponder what is or is not "up in the air all the time" all day if we want. And you can't say "outer space" is up in the air. I already thought of that, but there isn't any air in outer space, so that's disqualified. You can't be "up in the air" if you are just "up above the air". Big difference. OK, moving on.....But what about some sort of element that exists only is the stratosphere? Like ozone? Can or does ozone exist only up in the air and nowhere else? Not locked in some prehistoric rocks. Not trapped in a volcano or emitted by the ocean? Sorry, but I was asleep during most of my science classes at every level of learning. That shit is boring. My apologies to the scientists and science enthusiasts out there. Not my cup of tea.

So what kinds of beer stuff is up in the air? There is a second cask of He'Brew Lenny's RIPA on the way, casks of Lagunitas Wet Hop Pale Ale and Barrel-Aged Cappuccino Stout en route as well, plus a second Moo-Hoo cask. Details TBD once we get a little closer to the arrivals. We are also planning a huge, week-long event at 4 stores in December. For now all you need to know is that we will be tapping 8 different kegs on 8 consecutive days at 4 different locations, and all of the beers are special. The stores are evenly distributed to allow all of our customers outside the city to participate. No ITP stores are involved in these events. It is going to be something that you don't want to miss. Starting 12/1, clear your calendars for a while. Trust me on this one.

I hope to be in touch before I leave for sunny San Diego next Friday. If not, I will definitely return with a lot of great photos from Stone, Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Ale Smith, Ballast Point and Pizza Port. If you are watching the Chargers/Titans game on Halloween (4 pm EST) watch for me. I'll be the guy that looks like the guy whose picture is at the top of this page. In the meantime, there is a slide show from Boston at the top of the slide shows to keep you busy. Talk to you soon.