Photo by Ashton Smith
Owen Ogletree gathered Ashton Smith, Niki Schley, Andrew Borchert, Flavia Costa, Ian Meents, Stacy Stewart and The Beer Wench for a blind tasting of 13 craft beers made in Georgia. The tasting was conducted as a best-of-show panel, with each beer evaluated on its adherence to style and drinkability. See below for notes and awards...
 FIRST PLACE:
DRY COUNTY OLD 41 OATMEAL STOUT
- Roasted malts; burnt bread crust; espresso hints; bitter chocolate; creamy; viscous; not too sweet; good dry finish; pleasant; good beer for the style; medium esters; low hops; nutty quality. Excellent brew.
 JAILHOUSE FEDERALE MEXICAN LAGER
- An international pale lager style with light malt aroma; low hops; light corn complexity; mild fruity esters; wonderfully drinkable and well constructed.
 THIRD PLACE:
ORPHEUS SYKOPHANTES
- This wild, sour specialty brew with figs and dark candy syrup is dark brown in color with a ruby hint; balsamic hint; figs; leather; nice fruity esters; earthy; complex; malty; dark sugar notes; warming; cherry; dark fruit; acetic/lactic finish is pleasant.
 HONORABLE MENTION:MONDAY NIGHT RUCKSACK HEFEWEIZEN
- This special wheat beer contains Mandarina Bavaria hops and orange peel; notes of clove; orange zest; banana hint; cereal malt; pleasant; wheat character is nice; refreshing; pleasant fruit and orange complexity.
SOUTHBOUND MOUNTAIN JAM SOUTHERN LAGER
- This international pale lager style has a clean aroma; citrusy hops; light malt; subtle bitterness; crisp finish with a hint of malt sweetness; good balance of all notes.
 TERRAPIN HOPSECUTIONER IPA
- Perfect appearance for style; malty; floral; earthy; aromatic; light bitterness; malty; could use a bit more American hop flavor and aroma; ends a touch sweet but quite drinkable.
 WRECKING BAR HOP NOGGIN' IMPERIAL IPA
- Deep gold in color; murky, hazy; catty hops; sweet melon; malty mouthfeel; sweet finish; honeydew; dank; cantaloupe; rich malt; soft mouthfeel; orange; citrus, floral, honey notes.
 EAGLE CREEK TEA PARTY AMBER
- This amber contains orange pekoe and black tea. Toffee hint; caramel note; orange tea; tea makes up for the light hops; tea is quite mild; lightly sweet finish; tannin hint from the tea.
 GATE CITY OTP DOUBLE IPA
- Earthy aroma; herbal; piney; pear; rich, herbal hop note; perfumy; resins; tannins; needs a bit more clean American hop character and lighter esters; a pleasant, malty brew.
 SECOND SELF MOLE PORTER
- This porter contains cocoa nibs, chilies, chipotles, cinnamon and cloves. Spice hint is nice; clove note; light chocolate; pepper warmth is mild; light/medium body; dry tannins; appearance is perfect; spices are subdued; could perhaps use a bit more malt for a better body and mouthfeel.
 REFORMATION CADENCE DUBBEL
- Grain husk note; tannins; earthy malt; dark fruit; prune hint; might be a touch thin for style; fruity; citrus hint; needs a bit more dark fruit and toffee complexity.
 ATLANTA BREWING HOMESTAND PILSNER
- This Czech-style premium pale lager contains Mosaic and Cascade hops. Yeasty; bready; mineral note; herbal; grassy; sulfur hint; nice, light pilsner malt; light finish.
 MOON RIVER DIXIE KRISTAL TRIPEL
- This Belgian-style tripel contains cane sugar. Clove; Belgian spicy fermentation character; spice; white pepper hint; light, sweet finish; pleasant; rich; nice hop balance; ends slightly sweet for style; a robust, tasty strong ale.
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Owen Ogletree shares news and views on craft beer, beer events and beer travel.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Georgia Craft Beers Face Off
Thursday, January 31, 2019
BEER IN THE NEW SOUTH 2007
While Oregon and Washington, Colorado, Maine or California
amongst others saw explosive craft brewery growth, the Southeastern states
seemed trapped in light lager culture and a persistent prohibitionist mindset.
Beer remained stuck at sports bars and tailgating parties.
Now, a vibrant beer world flourishes in the Southeast.
World-class imports, locally-produced microbrews and specialty brews from the
rest of the country have achieved unprecedented popularity in the region.
Southerners are realizing that beer can be a varied and vibrant part of meals,
social gatherings and life as a whole.
The Bad Old Days
The South’s love affair with robust, old-world beer styles
is a relatively new trend that trails other regions of the country. There was a
long, bland beer legacy to overcome.
The bad old days of southern beer were pretty bad. The
smattering of southern breweries in the 1800s could not begin to compare to the
hundreds found in northern parts of the country. German immigrants who founded
the early breweries of the Northeast and Midwest never settled in the South in
any great numbers, and the oppressive heat of the lower states made beer
production extremely difficult.
The modest group of southeastern breweries that existed in
the early part of the twentieth century was completely squashed by Prohibition
and the Great Depression, and grain rationing during World War II drove many
post-Prohibition breweries out of business.
Religion has also exerted a restraining influence on beer in
the south. In his book, Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause: Southern White
Evangelicals and the Prohibition Movement, Samford University professor John L.
Coker explains that prohibitionist sentiment was not popular in the South before
the Civil War because the temperance movement was associated with the northern
anti-slavery movement. After the Civil War, however, southern Protestant
leaders reinterpreted the ideals of temperance and prohibition to be compatible
with southern culture. By 1915, alcohol had been officially forbidden by most
southern churches.
This Protestant holy war against alcohol never occurred in
the Catholic state of Louisiana, which explains many of the state’s liberal
alcohol laws. Prohibition, however, was a different matter. Wolfram Koehler,
owner/brewmaster of New Orleans’ Crescent City Brewhouse, reflects, “New
Orleans, with 22 operating breweries at the turn of the 20th century, was truly
a brewing capitol of the South, but almost all were lost due to Prohibition.
When I arrived here in the 1980s, Dixie was the only surviving brewery in the
Big Easy. When we began Crescent City Brewhouse in January of 1991, this was
the city’s first brewery opening in over 70 years.”
Besides the sultry climate and an oppressive church, what
other factors held beer back? State laws did not help matters. Microbreweries
and brewpubs were illegal in most southern states from Prohibition right up
until ten to twenty years ago. And a lack of any ingrained brewing tradition in
the South allowed the big national brands to completely dominate the region
after Prohibition.
Ironically, even though most southern states outlawed high
alcohol beers in the past, strong spirits have always been a staple of imbibing
southerners. Whereas barley and hops were scarce in the South, corn and other
grains used in the production of distilled spirits have always been readily
available. Moonshine was in wide, albeit illegal, production over the past 150
years—especially during Prohibition. It was much easier to hide a still than a
brewery, and a small volume of spirits was easier to produce and transport than
a much larger volume of beer. Spirits weren’t filling in the heat of the summer
and were easier to carry in small flasks to conceal from religious folk.
Locally distilled beverages reigned supreme in those days, and the South simply
lost whatever taste it had for beer.
Another reason the South trailed other parts of the United
States in beer appreciation may have something to do with its early population.
Affluent intellectuals settled the Northeast, European immigrants with strong
beer backgrounds gathered in the Midwest and adventurous risk-takers made their
way to the Northwest. Farmers, laborers and many individuals on the run from
the law populated the old South.
Low incomes, long hours of hard work and a conservative,
stubbornly traditional nature seemed to help solidify the cheaper light lager
preferences of many “old school” southerners. Scott Maitland of the Top of the
Hill Restaurant & Brewery in Chapel Hill, NC adds, “Craft beer is more of a
white collar thing, at least in the beginning, and the South has only recently
started a transformation from an agriculture-based economy to an informational
one.”
Southern Beer Pioneers
In the early 1990s, southern beer culture began to move. An
economic boom in the region provided disposable income for people to travel and
sample new beers from Europe and other regions of the United States. Many
larger cities in the South experienced construction and business growth that
brought new jobs and an influx from other areas of the country. People
encountered exciting new flavors in wine, coffee and cuisine—a natural
progression toward an interest in craft beers.
Glen Sprouse, brewer for 5 Seasons brewpub in Atlanta, has
his theory about southern beer drinkers. “I see a combination of three beer
subcultures in the South: rigid individuals who stick to the old southern
drinking traditions of very light beers, another diverse group who wants to broaden
horizons and move on to craft products, and people from outside the South who
live here now and have brought beer preferences with them from other areas. The
latter two groups have really driven the beer revolution in the South.”
Southern “beer geeks” emerged to lead the charge to change
laws that limited the sorts of beers available. Homebrewing was legalized in
several states in the 1990s, and the hobby nurtured many of the region’s
current commercial brewers.
Grassroots efforts of beer devotees also led to the
legalization of brewpubs and microbreweries in every state from Louisiana to
North Carolina. Restrictive alcohol limits on beer, usually at 6% ABV (alcohol
by volume), have been lifted in all but Alabama and Mississippi. The effort
took seven years in Georgia, where beer connoisseurs got the law changed in
2004. North Carolina’s Pop The Cap pushed the change through in 2005. A similar
campaign succeeded in South Carolina in 2007, while the Free the Hops movement
is still struggling to make headway in Alabama.
Southern beer culture benefited from the efforts of many
brewing pioneers in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Uli Bennewitz emigrated to
Manteo, NC in 1980. He missed the rich German lagers of his homeland and
decided to try his hand at opening a German-style brewery and restaurant. He
discovered brewpubs were illegal in the state of North Carolina—worse still,
Manteo was in a dry county. Bennewitz immediately began lobbying efforts to
change the laws in the state. His campaign succeeded in 1985, and he opened the
Weeping Radish brewpub in Manteo in 1986.
Bennewitz is extremely proud of bringing German beer
traditions to the region: “In 21 years we’ve never served any other beers but
our own, and this has worked well for us. We can’t emulate the big boys—we must
stick to a local marking and keep our company’s personality.” In keeping with
this line of thinking, Weeping Radish has recently opened a new farm brewery on
24 acres of land in Currituck County about 30 miles from Manteo. Unfiltered beers
for both locations will be produced here, along with homegrown veggies. The
farm also boasts a 5,000 square-foot butcher shop and smokehouse where a master
butcher from Germany crafts artisan sausages and meats.
Abita Brewing Co. just celebrated 20 years of beer
production at their microbrewery in Louisiana. In the ‘90s, the company even
added a separate brewpub restaurant just down in road. Abita president David
Blossman says, “Anybody who thinks the South doesn’t appreciate craft beer
needs to come and take a tour of the Abita Brewery. We’re running at full
capacity and starting a five million dollar construction project to expand the
brewery. As the number one craft brewer in the Southeast, we feel very
appreciated.”
In the nineties, Nashville saw the opening of two of the
country’s most respected brewpubs. Chuck Skypeck’s Boscos and Dave Miller’s
Blackstone Restaurant & Brewery have been extraordinarily innovative in
terms of their house beers and menu items. Cask-conditioned ales and special
beer tastings are a staple at each brewpub, and Skypeck even produces Flaming
Stone Beer, one of the only American beers in the German steinbier tradition,
made with hot rocks from Boscos’ pizza oven.
Atlanta’s first post-Prohibition microbrewery was known as
“Marthasville” (also the original name for the city). Marthasville lasted for
only a few years, but was successful in showing the metropolitan area that a
small company could produce flavorful and distinctive beers. Atlanta Brewing
Co. started producing Red Brick Ale in 1993 and quickly filled the niche
vacated by Marthasville. Atlanta’s director of marketing, Grey Martin, says,
“Atlanta Brewing made a conscious decision to eschew the hippie aesthetic, so
popular on labels out west, and give our packaging kind of an old school
breweriana look. You don’t need to belong to a particular demographic to drink
and enjoy our beer.”
Highland Brewing Co. is noteworthy as the first commercial
brewery in Asheville, NC, now the state’s most sophisticated beer town. The
company is named in honor of the Scottish and Irish immigrants who initially
settled this area of the state, and its ales have helped foster a taste for
UK-style beers in the region. “Highland has nurtured the local market with as
much community presence as possible. Our Gaelic Ale, Kashmir IPA, Oatmeal
Porter and other brews have made believers of a previously skeptical public,”
says owner Oscar Wong.
Northern Florida had its craft beer indoctrination in 1987
when McGuire’s Irish Pub of Pensacola installed a brewhouse and began cranking
out its line of five regular ales and a rotating seasonal. Despite being told
that dark or hoppy beers would not be appreciated in Florida, the brewers
pushed on with true English and Irish-style beers that have ended up being a
hit. “We are rocking at McGuire’s—packed all the time and selling all the beer
we can make. We have a good clientele of regulars and beer tourists who seek us
out, so we are proof that brewing good beer in the Southeast works,” says Gary
Essex, brewer at the Destin location.
Spreading the Word
The new players of the southeastern beer culture include a
variety of energetic brewer-evangelists spreading the love of craft beer
throughout the region.
Crawford Moran, the founder of defunct Dogwood Brewing Co.,
is the co-owner and brewer for 5 Seasons brewpub in Alpharetta, GA. “The key to
growing our beer culture is continuing education about craft beer,” he says.
“We must keep educating consumers, wait staff, restaurateurs and especially the
politicians. I brew a vast array of styles, we do a unique cask ale every week,
we always have a high gravity beer on tap and we’re aging beers on site in
whiskey barrels. The advantage of a brewpub in the education area is that I get
to interact directly with our customers.”
Locally-owned brewpubs that drip with southern ambience and
hospitality are the first place that many southern folk get to sample their
first craft beers.
“In the early 1990s, the concept of a brewpub seemed really
outrageous to a lot of people. Now brewpubs are a commonplace, accepted locale
to enjoy good food and fresh beers,” says Jordan Fleetwood, brewer for Twain’s
Billiards and Tap brewpub in Decatur, GA. “Twain’s was established as a great
beer bar and then grew into the brewpub arena. It was a natural progression for
us, and our customers have really been supportive.”
Scott Maitland’s experience with his Chapel Hill brewpub
leads him to concur. “When Top of the Hill opened ten years ago, people didn’t
understand the concept of local breweries or the fact that beer was something
different than Bud, Miller and Coors. A typical exchange at the bar went like
this: ‘Hi. I’d like a Bud Light.’ ‘Sir, we are a microbrewery and we only sell
the beers that we make.’ ‘OK, how about a Miller Lite?’ This has completely
changed now. We educated the college crowd, and because of the great economy
now in our state, these young people have stayed here and are demanding craft
beer. I think brewpubs don’t get enough respect for creating a grassroots-level
of appreciation for craft beer.”
The founders of Atlanta’s Sweetwater Brewing Co. met while
attending the University of Colorado in Boulder in the early 1990s and worked
together for a time at Rockies Brewing Co. (when they weren’t hiking, fishing
and river rafting). The two free spirits visited Georgia around the time of the
1996 Olympics and saw Atlanta as a city in desperate need of another
microbrewery. Sweetwater’s motto is “Don’t Float the Mainstream,” and the
company has grown into a craft beer leader in the Southeast by producing West
Coast and U.K.-style ales. Their immensely popular Sweetwater 420 outsells
Samuel Adams Light and Shiner Bock in the Atlanta area and is the most popular
craft beer in the state of Georgia.
The struggle for great beer is most arduous in the states of
Alabama and Mississippi. Alabama does have two fine brewpub standouts:
Montgomery Brewing Co. and Old Auburn Ale House. Lazy Magnolia is Mississippi’s
lone brewery, and brewer Leslie Henderson is well aware of the difficult road
ahead in running a brewery in the state. “We knew that this is ‘Bud Country,’
and that natives in southern Mississippi won’t tolerate being told that they
need to catch up with the Yanks,” says Henderson. “Instead, we started making
beers that use local ingredients (pecans, sweet potatoes and locally produced
honey) with flavors designed to pair with the amazing food we have down here.
In doing this, we’re adding to the overall culture of the South, not trying to
introduce some alien beer culture.”
Creating National Recognition
Linus Hall and his wife Lila started Nashville’s Yazoo
Brewing Co. in 2003. Linus was a homebrewer who got his professional start
working at Brooklyn Brewing Co. After relocating to Nashville, Linus decided to
open his own microbrewery in the old Marathon automobile factory near downtown.
Yazoo’s beers have become a vital and respected part of Nashville’s beer
culture, and the hefeweizen brought home a gold medal from the 2004 Great
American Beer Festival.
As to why the beer culture in the South may trail other
areas of the country, Linus offers, “Based on the success of many new breweries
popping up in the South, I think that southerners do have the taste to
appreciate rich flavors of a well-made beer. Look at our food—spicy, rich,
barbecued, smoked—much more adventuresome than the fare in some parts of the
country where craft beer took off in the beginning. I think with our
ever-expanding food culture, the rest of the country better look out, because
the South will one day lead the way in craft beer sales!”
John Cochran and Brian “Spike” Buckowski started their
Athens, GA-based Terrapin Beer Co. in 2002, contract brewing their unique Rye
Pale Ale out of Dogwood Brewing in Atlanta. The crisp, refreshing pale ale
later went on to beat out 92 other pale ales to win a gold medal at the 2002
Great American Beer Festival. Terrapin is known for using non-traditional
ingredients such as rye and coffee and for helping create new styles such as
their hoppy India Brown Ale, a cross between a traditional brown ale and an
IPA. The company also produces four seasonal “monster beers” that are all over
8%. Terrapin’s beer portfolio, probably one of the most unusual in the
Southeast, has enabled the company to begin construction this year of their
very own brewery in a 45,000 square-foot warehouse located just outside
downtown Athens.
John Stuart of Green Man Brewing believes that the South
really has not created its own unique beer styles. His progressive town of
Asheville, NC has weather very similar to some parts of the U.K., and this is
why Stuart thinks that traditional, British-style ales are so popular there.
Green Man has been so successful with their line of pale ale, ESB, IPA and
porter, that they have opened a new microbrewing facility and tasting room just
down the street from their Jack of the Wood pub (home of their original
brewpub). Stuart remarks, “Tasters who visit our microbrewery are very appreciative
of our ales, and no one asks for a light lager.”
Paul Philippon of the Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery in
Farmville, NC rejects the stereotype that beer drinkers in the Southeast only
want light bodied beer. “We produce full flavored, full-bodied dark beers.
Regional differences make things a lot more interesting than homogeneity, and I
hope that Duck-Rabbit can make a positive contribution to the range of beer
styles and beer flavors available in the Southeast.”
Great Beer Pubs Make a Difference
The important influence of prominent beer pubs in the region
should not be discounted. Bars like Bulldog Pub in New Orleans, Barley’s Pizza
in Asheville, and Georgia’s Brick Store in Decatur and Summits Wayside Taverns
in Snellville and Cumming serve a staggering array of well-cared-for draft and
bottled beers from around the world. Summits’ owner Andy Klubock says, “Our
store in Cumming has over 200 different tap lines and as many bottled
beers…more than any other place in the country, in our opinion. I think Summits
does a good job of introducing new styles to Georgia and allowing customers to
continually try new things.”
Many look at Brick Store as one of the most impressive beer
bars in the entire country. Dave Blanchard, Mike Gallagher and Tom Moore started
the pub in 1997 in a beautiful, historic building on the main courthouse
square. The best craft beers available at the time from the region, nation and
world were served in proper glassware by friendly, well-trained staff. In 2004,
House Bill 645 brought an end to Georgia’s 6% ABV law and allowed beers up to
14% to be sold in the state. This spurred Brick Store to open an impressive,
Belgian-themed bar upstairs from the original pub. Blanchard explains, “Our
relationship with importers and breweries allows us to offer beers that
customers will find almost nowhere else in the state. What’s really encouraging
is that people visit the Brick Store from areas of the Northwest or Northeast
and say that our pub is better than many of the places in those areas.”
Brick Store’s Mike Gallagher adds, “We get to be creative
here in the Southeast. If our pub were located in Portland, Philadelphia or New
York, people would be looking to see how we fit in with the established beer
culture or what we are doing that’s different. Here, we are helping create the
beer culture and set new trends. After we opened and made a success of the
place, people admitted to us that they had some big doubts about whether or not
we could make the pub work here. They were polite southerners all along the
way, but many admitted that they were amazed that we have done so well in a
region of the country that has been dominated for so long by light lagers.”
A few obstacles still remain in the journey toward beer
enlightenment in the South. Michael Bryant of Dunedin (a pioneering brewery in
Tampa) and Kevin Rusk of Titanic Brewery & Restaurant in Miami remain very
frustrated by the legal landscape in Florida. Rusk sums up their opinions:
“Florida legislators, along with their friends who own Busch Gardens, have
purposely manipulated the state’s laws to keep out many craft brewers. Up until
2005, the state also banned any bottle that was not a domestic size, allowing
only 8-, 12-, 16- and 32-ounce bottles. This prohibited many fine beers from
being sold in the state.”
After a few legal victories favoring craft beer in the past
several years, the Georgia Department of Revenue alcohol division has decided
to enforce brewery laws that have been basically ignored for years. Breweries
are now being fined for bringing beer samples to festivals, telling retail
customers where to purchase their beers or doing pint nights at bars. It is
still illegal to purchase beer directly from a microbrewery or take home a
growler of beer from a brewpub.
Danner Kline’s Free the Hops campaign keeps fighting to
raise the beer alcohol limits in Alabama. Kline communicates both frustration
and hope when he says, “Influence from the religious right is crippling.
Alabama is still overrun with neo-prohibitionists stigmatizing alcohol at every
opportunity, portraying alcohol as the ‘Great Satan’ killing children and
breaking up families. All of this is detrimental to a culture that appreciates
fine alcoholic beverages. I am envious of cities that have a wide variety of
breweries when the entire state of Alabama only has one bottling brewery,
recently destroyed by fire. The South still has a long way to go, but I think
many years from now we’ll have a well-developed beer culture that will not be a
carbon copy of the Northwest or Northeast.”
On the whole, beer culture in the South has made remarkable
gains in the last 15 years. Rather than viewing the South as lagging behind,
many craft brewers now see the region as a land of promise and possibilities.
Several breweries in other parts of the country have capitalized on this
demand: Ommegang, Oskar Blues, Great Divide, Dogfish Head and Victory are all
amazed at the massive volume of beer that they have sold in Georgia alone.
As beer drinkers in the Southeast become more educated and
experimental in regard to robust beer styles, the region will offer new
horizons and an ever-expanding market for these beers.
Spike Buckowski, brewer for Terrapin in Georgia, sums it up
by saying,” I feel that the beer culture in the Southeast is evolving into
something very special. It’s really nice to have a wide open market down here
and introduce people to creative and flavorful beer styles. To tell the truth,
many southeastern craft brewers are producing beers that are still over the heads
of many beer drinkers here. In a lot of ways, I kind of like that.”
MEMOIRS OF A BEER ROADIE
Beer Travel Features
First published in All About Beer Magazine - Volume 31, Issue 1
March 22, 2010
With sheets of rain blanketing our SUV, windshield wipers
pounding out a mind-numbing rhythm, a stream of crimson brake lights ahead to
the horizon and two stressed-out beer reps in the back seat on their Blackberries,
all I could think was, “Man, I really need a beer.”
Four beer dinners in four states in four days? This sounded
like an intriguing, if not demented, concept back when Terrapin Beer Co.’s
Dustin Watts and Chris Lennert of Left Hand Brewing invited me along as
official press “beer roadie.” Our soaking on I-85 from Atlanta to Durham,
aggravated by major traffic accidents in our path (one even involving a Hazmat
squad), gave us all second thoughts.
Friendship Brew
The story of this epic journey really began after a beer
festival three years ago, around midnight in some forgotten beer bar, when
Dustin and Chris cooked up the idea of an annual, collaborative Terrapin/Left
Hand brew―known ever since as the “Midnight Brewing Project.” Dustin explains,
“Chris and I have been friends for years and really wanted to do something
together with the two breweries. To me, our Midnight Project collaboration is
all about friendship. Just as friendships evolve with time, so will this
collaboration.”
Co-owner/brewer Brian “Spike” Buckowski of Terrapin in
Athens, GA, journeyed to the Left Hand brewery in Longmont, CO, in 2008 to work
with Left Hand’’s Ro Guenzel in the creation of a creamy, black rye lager
called Terra-’Rye’Zd. Labeled and released by Left Hand during this first
collaborative year, this beer, which was greeted with rave reviews by beer
lovers in Colorado and Georgia, holds hints of chocolate and spicy rye.
Chris Lennert adds, “This collaboration is all about fun and
friends. Terrapin and Left Hand have similar philosophies about brewing and
enjoying ourselves while we run our businesses, so it makes sense for us to get
together and throw some ideas into a collaborative kettle.”
In July of 2009, Guenzel paid a visit to Terrapin in Athens
for round two of the Midnight brews. Amazingly, when Guenzel and Buckowski compared
their independent notes for the proposed beer, the two recipes looked almost
identical. The result, known as Depth Charge Espresso Milk Stout, weighs in as
a rich, full-bodied dark ale with impressive notes of caramel, chocolate,
roasted grains, lactose sugar and a smooth blend of espresso from Athens coffee
roaster Jittery Joe’s.
I often describe Dustin Watts and Chris Lennert as beer
brothers―both being imaginative, creative, energetic and personable
representatives of their respective breweries who find true joy in sharing the
“gospel” of craft beer at every available opportunity. Dustin and Chris,
looking for a grand way to celebrate their collaborative Depth Charge in key
markets and get their brews into the hands, mouths and minds of craft-beer
fans, brainstormed a liver-wrenching series of four beer dinners up the East
Coast. Our epicurean beer adventures took place October 26 to29, 2009 in
Atlanta, Durham, NC, Richmond, VA, and Philadelphia. The idea of being a beer
roadie and hanging out with these guys for a few days sounded like a splendid
adventure, so I agreed to come along and document the events.
Day 1―Atlanta: Kickoff at Taco Mac
Dustin, Chris, Kerri Allen (my “Beer Wench” wife) and I
began by making our way from Athens to Atlanta for dinner No. 1 at Taco Mac in
Lindbergh Center near downtown. Taco Mac, very popular among Atlanta-area beer
aficionados, comprises a chain of close to 30 locations featuring
ever-expanding selections of craft beers, an extensive menu of tasty pub fare
and a casual, fun, welcoming atmosphere.
After Chris, Dustin, Kerri and I set up the dining tables
with brewery promotional materials and loaded a rotating set of photos
featuring the collaborative brewing process and Depth Charge label on the
dining room televisions. The excited crowd of beer lovers began to trickle in.
With the noise level rising to the official decibel level of
“rowdy” before the end of the reception courses and beers, Dustin and Chris
realized quickly that this could be a challenging evening to carry on beer
discussion and promotion. But our pair of brewery heroes carried on with superb
bravado―rotating through the room between courses, speaking to each table,
making each attendee feel special and welcome.
Matt Deckard, Taco Mac’s corporate chef, consistently rises
to the challenge of creating unique, flavorful, upscale menu items for special
beer dinners. For the Terrapin/Left Hand dinner, chef Matt provided scrumptious
food during the beer tasting reception, four courses and dessert. Each culinary
creation―smoked duck pate, tuna poke, chorizo stew and goat cheese stuffed
meatloaf, to name a few―accompanied a Left Hand or Terrapin beer. The
mouth-watering chocolate/peanut butter dessert provided a sublime match to the
rich sweetness of the Depth Charge.
Fred Crudder, Taco Mac’s beverage manager, remarked that the
Terrapin/Left Hand event ranked as one of the best dinners ever held at his
restaurants. “The really special element of this collaborative dinner was the
excitement generated among the customers,” said Crudder. “The dinners we’ve
done with each of these two breweries separately were successes, but this
particular one had the added element of collaboration, which strikes a chord
with craft-beer drinkers who like to see camaraderie between two of their
favorite breweries.”
Day 2―Durham: Drenched and Delayed
After an early morning of being a dutiful roadie helping
load T-shirts, pint glasses and boxes of Terrapin and Left Hand stickers into
our SUV, we enjoyed a cup of espresso and took off up I-85 toward our next
collaborative feast to be held that evening at Tyler’s Restaurant & Taproom
in Durham, NC. We had no idea what lay ahead.
After hours of torrential precipitation and long, painful
delays through two major accidents, a drive that should have taken us a little
over five hours turned into an almost 10-hour, torturous crawl into Durham.
Just outside the city, our two beer celebrities, over one
hour late to the Durham dinner, began to brainstorm ways to “make it up” to the
crowd. We decided to burn through our entire stash of pint glasses and give
everyone at the Tyler’s dinner a Terrapin glass and Left Hand bottle opener.
Gifts and bribes sometimes can be useful.
Luckily, Jason Ingram from Left Hand decided at the last
minute to fly to Durham for the dinner. Jason arrived at Tyler’s on time and
saved our butts as he discussed both the Terrapin and Left Hand beers for the
first and second courses. The dinner crowd erupted into thunderous applause
when our rain-soaked and exhausted group of beer trekkers finally entered the
room.
Our two beer celebs pulled it together as they addressed the
crowd, apologized for our tardiness and quickly focused on the beer and food.
The Tyler’s five-course event featured lemongrass scallops paired with Left
Hand JuJu Ginger, smoked mozzarella rarebit alongside Terrapin RoggenRauchBier,
molasses pork belly and Left Hand Black Jack Porter, a pepper-crusted venison
loin next to Left Hand Oak Aged Imperial Stout and a dessert of vanilla cream
doughnuts washed down by Depth Charge.
Chris polled the crowd, and the results proved surprising.
“Only about half of the people here have been to a beer dinner before tonight,”
remarked Chris. “For me, that’s great news. I absolutely love introducing
people to craft beer and food pairings.”
After the dinner we enjoyed a few pints with Tyler
Huntington and Daniel Kulenic, the two cornerstone personalities of Tyler’s. We
discussed plans for future events and reminisced about the evening. One of the
main duties of any good beer-trip roadie is to keep your beer superstars from
going over the edge and ending up in hangover territory, so around midnight I
gathered our group and headed to our hotel for a well-deserved night’s sleep.
We kept our fingers crossed for a dry and problem-free day three.
Day Three―Richmond: An Asian Flare
Our group of liver-weary beer travelers awoke to clear skies
and dry roads. Colorful fall foliage and light traffic highlighted our drive
from Durham to Richmond, and I suggested quick stops at Legend and Richbrau
brewpubs before checking into our hotel.
Always the responsible roadie, my eye stayed on the clock as
I coaxed Dustin, Chris and The Beer Wench toward our hotel and the setup for
our next beer dinner at Richmond’s Mekong Restaurant. As we walked toward this
unassuming Asian eatery located in a drab, suburban strip mall across from a
neon-lit adult novelty store, I was thinking, “Whose bizarre idea was it to
have a craft-beer dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant?”
Trust me, Mekong was the perfect choice for this
collaborative event. Owner An Mekong, a maniac for craft beer (especially
Belgian-style ales), jumped all over the opportunity to host this dinner. With
draft beer stations set up all around the dining room, 10 spicy and flavorful
Vietnamese dishes each served alongside a Terrapin or Left Hand beer, and a
free Halloween costume party with live music after dinner, this proved to be
the most eclectic and unique beer dinner in my recent experience.
Colorful food items with names I cannot begin to pronounce
appeared at a rapid-fire pace while patrons spun their table’s lazy Susans,
shared each dish family-style and discussed every bite and sip. An ran around
the event with a huge grin as he discussed each special iplate. His spicy Pho
Xao Bo with carrots, bok choy, garlic and ginger alongside Left Hand’’s 400
Pound Monkey IPA formed the resounding crowd favorite pairing of the evening.
Perhaps ethnic cuisine might provide a new frontier for beer
dinners. “Many people don’t realize just how well craft beers go with Asian
food,” explained An. “I’ve been carrying great beer since 1998, and now we have
a huge following of beer lovers. We rotate beers quite often, and people come
in all the time to see what new beers we have on and taste how each beer pairs
with different dishes.”
When Dustin began buying Chris shots at the bar around
midnight, I realized the time had come to pry everyone out of Mekong’s blur of
flowing beer taps, saucy Halloween costumes and live classic rock to walk down
the street to our hotel beds. We had to get an early start the next morning
toward Philadelphia and our last beer dinner of the journey.
Day Four―Philadelphia: A Grand Slam
Our Terrapin/Left Hand crew hit the road for Philly around 8
a.m. Not surprisingly, we hit traffic while trying to maneuver through DC, and
everyone’s bladders began to scream while we were sitting on the highway. In an
act of pure desperation, I exited toward Reagan National Airport, and the gang
jumped out at the passenger-loading zone to run inside for the restrooms. Upon
his return, Chris proudly announced, “Wow, I’ve never peed at Reagan airport
before.”
We cleared DC traffic about an hour later with the goal of
lunch and beer samplers with our buddy Brian Finn, head brewer at Iron Hill
Brewery & Restaurant in Wilmington, DE. Brian’s malty Oktoberfest, cask IPA
and sour blueberry lambic did wonders in firming up our constitutions for the
final push into Philly.
Upon parking our SUV and checking into our hotel in the City
of Brotherly Love, I attempted to motivate the group toward a quick warm-up
beer. They were not having it; a quick nap seemed their only motivation at this
point. The Beer Wench and I left the sleepy pair and enjoyed our first beer in
Philly at Brauhaus Schmitz―a new German tavern near our hotel.
After rousing Dustin and Chris and gathering our beer dinner
materials and giveaways, we walked to the classic Monk’s Café around 5 p.m. for
the 6 p.m. beer dinner. Monk’s owners Tom Peters and Fergie Carey quickly let
us know that the entire restaurant was sold out for this event, but the
impending World Series game that night forced about half the attendees to
cancel. Tom and Fergie don’t usually allow cancellations for their popular beer
dinners, but hey, we are taking about the Phillies in the World Series here.
This night’s dinner consisted of about 20 die-hard beer aficionados seated in
Monk’s back bar.
Dustin and Chris encountered no trouble in mingling and
discussing their beers with the intimate crowd. An imaginative range of menu
items from grilled baby octopus to smoked seafood and bleu cheese tarts was
followed up by a creamy cappuccino caramel flan paired with the star of the
beer dinner tour―the Depth Charge stout. The rich, sweet course of pork loin
with apples and juniper made for a remarkable complement to Terrapin’s malty
Big Hoppy Monster imperial red ale. As always, everyone seemed quite impressed
and pleased with the warm atmosphere and experience at Monk’s.
The Beer Wench and I were driving for a visit to Victory
Brewing in Downingtown, PA, the next day, while Dustin and Chris were flying
back to Georgia and Colorado. We bid our fond farewells and reflected on the
challenges and joys of our pilgrimage.
Bidding Adieu
“Going on this beer dinner tour really felt like we were in
a band together,” says Dustin Watts. “It was really great to be a part of four
magnificent dinners in a row―each night being special and different. It was a
traveling celebration of beer, food and friends. Chris and I already have new
ideas and twists and turns planned for next year, and we’ll just have to wait
and see what happens.”
One thing seems certain; this spirit of collaboration
between two personable craft breweries sets a standard for demonstrating how
small, artisanal businesses can allow creativity and a love for their products
to drive fun, unique marketing strategies that often prove far more productive
and personable than run-of-the-mill billboards or magazine ads. Collaborative
beers make up a popular new trend among modern-day craft breweries―where
cooperation and camaraderie seem more valuable and productive than cutthroat
competition and self-seeking rivalry.
Owen Ogletree is a BJCP National Beer Judge and Georgia beer
writer who runs Athens' Classic City Brew Fest and the Atlanta Cask Ale
Tasting. Read more about his beer excursions and experiences at
www.ClassicCityBrew.com
TRADITION MEETS CREATIVITY WITH INTERCONTINENTAL CASK ALE COLLABORATIONS
First Published in All About Beer Magazine
By Owen Ogletree
By Owen Ogletree
Sunday, January 20, 2019
2019 Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting Winners
UK-STYLE BEER:
First - Fyne Ales Hurricane Jack
Second - New Realm 2018 Harvest Ale
Third - Creature Comforts English Mild
CLASSIC STYLE BEERS:
First - Alcovy Brewing Dubbel Take
Second - Straight to Ale Datin' the Devil & Raisin' Hell
Third - Torched Hop Double Dry-Hopped Hops De Leon
SPECIALTY BEERS:
First - Bold Monk Stained Rose
Second - MAZURT Dupree's Last Meal
Third - Pontoon Snozzberries: Dragon Fruit Edition
PEOPLE'S CHOICE:
Lincoln Fill Station/Cherry Street Continental Breakfast Stout
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