Omnivore Atlanta

Black as soot: Pennichuck Feuer Wehrmann

Pennichuck Brewing Company
Milford, NH
5.0% ABV

One of several Pennichuck beers that pays tribute to firefighters (the name means “firefighter”), this one taking the form of a traditional German schwartzbier. Schwartzbier (”black beer”) is a dark, malty lager made with roasted malts. Although similar to British porters and stouts, schwartzbier is a bottom-fermented lager, making it cleaner and less bitter than its Anglican cousins. If someone tells you they don’t like dark beer, try this one on them.

Feuer Wehrmann pours nearly black, with a hint of light around the edges. The aroma is slightly smoky and sweet with some nice toffee notes. The taste is rich and roasty, with a nutty bite. Burnt caramel, chickory, carob, and herbal hops round out the flavor profile. Bitterness is low to moderate, both from the malt and hops. Smooth, almost creamy, mouthfeel, with a solid presence front to back. The dry, roasty finish holds the malty tastes well, with a bit more bitterness building over the session.

Beer like this makes it easy to see why Germans have such high per capita beer consumption. Great structure and drinkability make it perfect for pairing with rich foods, where it can contribute plenty of complementary flavor without leaving the palate oversaturated.

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After my annual Fourth of July party, the recycling bin brims with a mountainous pile of wine bottles.
I imagine the recycling guy considers me a lapsed Friend of Bill, but it doesn’t matter — our nation’s birthday is the day to enjoy everything. In honor of our America’s independence, here are some creative tips to prepare for the celebration.

Introduce the Box

Ignore the naysayers who might not be hip to the newfangled wine-in-a-box. Once derided as an outlet for the worst vinous swill on the planet, wineries now sell good juice you squeeze from the plastic sack housed inside the box, aka the bladder. Within each three-liter “cask” — the box’s cool Aussie nickname — are four bottles of wine, hermetically sealed for your fresh drinking pleasure. Once liquid is drawn out, the bladder compresses to avoid exposure to oxygen — the element that ruins wine — so the wine stays drinkable longer, usually up to nine weeks. It’s good for a party because it’s inexpensive, unbreakable, sits handily on your countertop for easy serving, and requires no dangerous-when-drunk corkscrew. Seek out Hardy’s and Black Box selections.

Continue reading Corkscrew: Sangria and boxed wine keep July 4th cheap.

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Katy Love of the Dirty South Beer Club samples a saison

Once a month, about 15 members of the Dirty South Beer Club gather at a member’s abode, or perhaps a remote mountain cabin, and sample beers selected for a designated theme, share their opinions, and vote on their favorites. These are not professional beer judges or even card-carrying beer geeks, but rather a group of young, college-educated, aspiring bon vivants looking to expand their knowledge of beer while enjoying each others’ company.

The club (which has no affiliation to Dirty South Wine, the Atlanta-based wine blog) started last year, when a group of friends began to take a greater interest in the beer they were drinking and decided to get together on a regular basis for tastings and to learn more about beer. The group brought in some other friends by invitation in order to keep the meetings intimate. One of the founders, Katy Love, admits that when they started it was much more chaotic than informative. “We had way too many beers, and everyone got really drunk. We had no idea what we were doing.” The club has gradually added more structure, started taking notes, and conducts a simple yes/no/neutral vote on each beer. The comments tossed out during the tastings are refreshingly expressive (”wet dog,” “bong watery”) and honest (”this tastes like butt”). (more…)

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Despite a weakening economy, the Nielson Company revealed an almost 25 percent jump in U.S. rosé wine sales in 2008. Since I’ve harped on the greatness of pink for the past five years, I’ll take at least a sliver of that celebratory pie, thank you very much. I’m rejoicing that Americans have finally begun to embrace the beauty of rosé wines.

With the red fruit and tannin of red, and the cool, invigorating acidity of white, rosé is a perfect marriage. One of the best food wines in existence, it’s like drinking a white wine with bright, ripe berry flavor. It matches summer fare — grilled burgers and ribs — but also spicy eats. I used to complain of their lack of availability — many wineries make dry rosés though not enough for major distribution — but I’m seeing increasing variety on shelves and lists. Pink from pinot noir, syrah, grenache, zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon and everything in between can be had for less than $20 per bottle. Woohoo!

Continue reading Corkscrew: Rosé Rising

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A dozen years, hundreds of beers: The Brick Store Pub

As might be expected, the Brick Store Pub is giving you a present on their anniversary. Twenty-seven presents, in fact. In an attempt to outshine its 11th Anniversary celebration from last year that featured 11 special kegs over 11 days, this year the Brick Store will tap 14 kegs over the first 11 days (one a night, plus 2 on Fridays and Saturdays) starting with today’s 2006 Lagavulin barrel-aged J.W. Lees, and including limited, rare, and oak-aged beers from America’s best breweries (and a couple from Belgium, as well). But that’s only the warm up for Day 12, on Saturday, June 27, when a special treat will be tapped every hour from noon until midnight. That’s 13 kegs in all; sort of beer cake with 12 keg candles and one to grow on.

Among the offerings during the lead up are a 2006 Terrapin Big Hoppy Monster barrel-aged in a Jack Daniels cask for 9 months, aka Big Sloppy Monster (6/18); one of the first kegs of the new Duck-Rabbitor Doppelbock (6/21); Sweetwater Double IPA aged on first-run Bordeaux oak (6/23); a wooden cask of t’Smisje Kerst Belgian strong dark ale (6/20); and a firkin of Avery Maharaja (6/25). The run on the 27th includes no less than 5 kegs of Allagash Brewing Company’s top-notch Belgian-style ales (Interlude, Victor, Victoria, Hugh Malone, and the new Confluence), interspersed with three different Oskar Blues beers (Dale’s Pale Ale, Gordon, and 10 Fidy) aged in whiskey barrels from Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey distillers. Start toughening up your liver. (more…)

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A couple of weeks ago on our Omnivore blog, I posted a rant about the terrible wine service I’ve received recently, and over the years in Atlanta. It’s a topic I’ve found increasingly frustrating because there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the quality of wine service in this city. High-end restaurants in Atlanta often employ servers who don’t understand wine service basics. There are plenty of less expensive restaurants, however, that have some of the best service around.

My post garnered a lot of responses. Many agreed that Atlanta lacks in this particular area, and quite a few readers called out places that excel at wine service. I like the spirit of giving credit where it’s due, so I set out last week to find the places that are doing it right, and to understand how they do it.

Continue reading this feature on Atlanta wine service.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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That shit is wack: The Dank Tank at Sweetwater

The mercury has cracked the 90 degree barrier now, and summer has surely settled in. Thus, it is only natural that Georgia’s non-conformist breweries are going the opposite direction of the bigger breweries, swimming upstream if you will, and rolling out two of their biggest beers from the past. Sweetwater Brewing Company is re-introducing its popular Donkey Punch Barleywine, a sweet, hop-heavy alcohol bomb that packs 10.2 percent ABV and over 140 IBUs (International Bittering Units), as the latest in its Dank Tank series. Meanwhile, up GA 316 in Athens, Terrapin Beer Company’s third Side Project, Gamma Ray wheatwine, an 11% ABV monster brewed with 1,500 lbs of Tupelo and Sourwood honey from Savannah Bee Company, is replacing the All-American Imperial Pilsner as the new summer seasonal in its Monster Beer Series. Looks like summer is getting a little hotter.

Sweetwater’s 50-bbl Dank Tank is dedicated to experimental “dark side” brews, with the first release being a Belgian-style IPA that came out in December of last year. A Scotch ale and a double IPA followed. Thus far, these limited batches have only been available in kegs at select bars around Georgia and at the brewery and special events. However, this latest release will be the first Sweetwater beer to be bottled on its new 22-oz “bomber” bottling line, making it available at better package stores, which is good news, indeed. (more…)

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Like the violin I misused as a tot, wine requires practice. I don’t read many books about it, although I definitely should; I don’t study it much anymore, although that might make me sound smarter. But I drink. A lot. Not to alcoholic levels — though the thought has fluttered in my throbbing, hungover head — but enough to become intimate with countless grapes. It’s important since habitual tasting trains the tongue to decipher chardonnay or riesling and, with practice, you can discover what makes music in your mouth.

Each month for the past eight years, I’ve invited an eclectic group to practice their drinking in my home. We blind taste 12-15 bottles at one sitting and the attendees have mostly an untrained yet keen interest in wine. From this base camp I’ve personally converted dozens into wine geekdom; some have even moved on to California winemaking. Sure, I could taste the wines alone — my husband and I make regular progress through the bottle stash — but how much fun would that be?

Continue Reading Practice Makes Perfect

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What’s worse than having to work on a Sunday? Having to work on a Sunday while drinking really good beer in someone’s summery back yard with a bunch of homebrew enthusiasts. For this year’s beer issue, I slaved away, drinking beer and hanging out with the guys from the East Atlanta Brewery, as well as homebrewer Abby Jackson and the guys from the Final Gravity homebrew group. I know. It’s a tough life.

Beer Issue ‘09: Homebrew!

Atlanta’s DYI beer community makes a splash

Slide show: Dave Hatker walks us through EAB’s homebrew process

Abby Jackson: Homebrewer

Atlanta homebrew resources: stores to help you get your brew on.

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Here’s a scene from a meal I had this week at a new-ish, high end restaurant in town.

Me: “I’d like to know about a couple of wines.”

Waiter: “OK, which wines were you interested in?”

Me: “This German pinot blanc, and this white Burgundy. What can you tell me about them?”

Waiter: “I’m not familiar with either of those wines. Let me go check for you.”

The waiter left for around 10 minutes, and when he came back he said “The French wine is going to be a little bit dry, like a chardonnay. And the German wine will be fruity.”

I bit my tongue. It’s tempting, in these type of situations, to say something like, “You mean like a chardonnay because it IS a chardonnay? Yes, I knew that, what can you tell me about it?”

But really, is it even the waiter’s fault? Shouldn’t the restaurant be training, and even testing its servers on wine knowledge? Or, just as acceptable to me, if the waiter doesn’t know the wine, shouldn’t there be someone on hand who can give me more information than a broad description of what wines from that country generally taste like?

Unfortunately, this experience is not uncommon in Atlanta restaurants. And I’m talking expensive restaurants, the kind where you’re paying a premium for touches like … wine service! Apart from general lack of knowledge, I’ve recently had a waiter pour for my husband when I ordered, another waiter bypass the tasting altogether (on the one bottle of the year so far that I’ve had to send back — a real pain when everyone at the table already had full glasses), many waiters who don’t even recognize the name of a wine I’m ordering off of relatively short lists, and many, many waiters who, if they do know anything about wine, assume that I don’t and lecture me about how I probably won’t like the French chardonnay I’ve ordered because it isn’t buttery. Or something equally insulting.

In fact, wine service is so bad in Atlanta, that for all the meals I eat out, I can remember more vividly the ones where the wine service was decent, because it’s so uncommon. Craft. Repast. A former sommelier from Floataway Cafe who I still remember three years later just because she was enthusiastic and recommended something I wouldn’t have picked otherwise but loved nonetheless.

What’s up Atlanta? Why is this one area of service that so often falls apart? My challenge to you: step it up! I’m thirsty!

(Image courtesy sxc.hu)

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Beer me: The eager throng at the EABF

The East Atlanta Beer Festival may be a victim of its own success. A sellout crowd swapped sweat in the narrow confines of the backyard of the defunct John B. Gordon School on Metropolitan Avenue on Saturday. Why don’t they just tear that building down already and make more room for the festival? Fueled by beer samples from over 60 breweries, most attendees did not seem to mind the crush, but I once again was unwilling to dive into the deepest corners of the fest, thus missing out on offerings from Flying Dog, Brooklyn, Unibroue, and perhaps others. Not that I haven’t had most of these beers, but a festival offers the chance to revisit old favorites, or make side-by-side comparisons that are more difficult in other settings.

I also enjoy the opportunity to try things that I may have written off before and give them a second chance. Or as is often the case, reaffirm what I already knew. Either way, one should not discount the value of a retry, since many things can affect the perception of a beer at any given time, including the freshness of the sample, a tired palate, the opinion of others, and experience with a given style. Our tastes change, and it is no different with our tastes in beverages. It’s easy to go on a hophead kick for months, seeking out bigger and bigger beers before taste fatigue sets in and those well-crafted, balanced German lagers start to taste pretty good again. (more…)

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Smuttynose Brewing Company
Portsmouth, NH
7.7% ABV

The lengthy spring has extended the appeal of styles like maibock, the rich, malty lager that is traditionally served in the month of May. Although the month has passed, this style still holds plenty of appeal. Smuttynose’s maibock, part of its Big Beer Series, pours a beautiful, clear autumn gold with a nice two-finger head that settles slowly but inevitably, lacking any significant staying power. A tall pilsner glass really shows off the color, clarity, and slowly rising bubbles.

The doughy, earthy aroma of German malts dominates the nose, with a hint of spicy, floral noble hops in the background. The taste is sweet initially, but more like honey than sugar. Biscuity malt, tannic white grape skins, and a sweet sting of alcohol provide a firm mouthfeel. A touch of ale-like fruitiness in the center suggests honeydew melon and apple. Powdery dry grain, mildly spicy hops, and an astringent bitterness drop hard in the crisp finish, leaving the palate clean and ready for another sip.

This is a well-structured, dryish bock that strikes a nice balance of sweet malt, spicy hops, and alcohol. It lacks the complex malt character of a traditional German maibock like Einbecker, but makes up for it in drinkability and food friendliness. It may set a new standard for the style.

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The recently opened 5 Seasons Restaurant and Brewpub will be hosting its first beer dinner on Thurs., June 4, in conjuction with Hop City Craft Beer and Wine and Matt Simpson, the Beer Sommelier. The 5-course dinner will feature beers from Georgia craft breweries Terrapin, Sweetwater, Atlanta Brewing Company, and 5 Seasons, as well as a special surprise treat from another Georgia brewer. 5 Seasons Chef Philip Rainwater will be preparing the accompanying dishes that will include an heirloom tomato salad, pan-roasted skatewing, and all-natural beef filet. The cost is $60 per person. Click here for all the details.

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Light Beer: Stone Levitation Ale

It’s that time of year again, where Bud Light Lime pulls its “seasons change, tastes don’t”ads and starts running its “Summer. Not just a season, but a taste” ads. Well, I’ve tasted summer and it is way better than Bud Light Lime. Commercials like these give the impression that summer beers have to taste like Gatorade so as not to interfere with your pickup game of football with the Girls of the Southeast Conference.

Certainly, summer calls for beer with a lighter body, a drier finish, moderate alcohol, and perhaps a bit of citric tartness. Sweet, thick, roasty, and potent beers do lose some of their appeal in hot weather. Still, the desired characteristics can be achieved without sucking out all the flavor. Additions of specialty malts, spices, and fruit can all make a beer more palatable on a hot day. More importantly perhaps, the right hops can add citrus, spice, and floral aromas and flavors, along with quenching bitterness. (more…)

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Stains are the mundane bane of many red wine drinkers. Inevitably, juice dribbles down the shirt, drips on the carpet, or spills on the clean — mostly likely new — white tablecloth. It’s inevitable and a buzz kill. One of my cream-colored couches, which I bought long before wine controlled my life, is now dotted with pinkish splotches, whispering tales of half-drunken accidents that weren’t mopped up. But my spill knowledge has grown and I’m ready to share my expert spotty advice on remedying red wine messes.

Read the rest of Corkscrew: How to avoid and clean up red wine stains.

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Larry Bell at his Michigan brewery

The craft beer industry is full of colorful characters from Dogfish Head’s extreme beer advocate Sam Caliagione to Lagunitas’ Zappa fanatic and cannabis apologist Tony Magee. Between those representing the East and West coasts respectively, you’ll find self-described eccentric Larry Bell, founder of Bell’s Brewery of Kalamazoo, MI. From selling homebrew cooked up in a 15-gallon soup kettle, Bell has become a leading brewer in the Midwest, moving into a new facility in 2003 that’s already been expanded twice and now has a capacity of 140,000 barrels. Over 110,000 barrels were brewed last year, making Bell’s the 13th largest craft brewer in the country. Bell’s is now distributed in 17 states, including Georgia, where it’s rolling out this week.

With the tagline “Inspired Brewing,” Bell’s emphasizes its dedication to craft beer excellence. Batch numbers printed on the bottle can be entered on the company’s website to get information on brewing and bottling dates. The brewery turns out 7 year-round beers and 10-12 seasonals, along with one-time releases such as the Batch series of commemorative beers. In the first round of shipments, Georgia will see the Amber Ale, Porter, Pale Ale, Third Coast Old Ale, and Kalamazoo Stout from the year-round stable, along with the wildly popular wheat ale, Oberon, which is the company’s only summer release and accounts for close to half of the brewery’s output. Because of the shortage of particular strains of hops, the Two-Hearted Ale, a brisk, hoppy IPA, will not make it to Georgia until later. “In the summertime we’re so busy brewing Oberon that it’s tough getting to those other specialties. Come September we’ll be able to offer up a little bit larger portfolio,” Bell says. (more…)

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Decisions, decisions: Taco Mac is tapping special beers all month.

New beers are popping up all over this month, from new-to-Georgia breweries, to special casks and limited edition releases, to spring and summer seasonals from local and national breweries. It can be a bit overwhelming. I suggest you you just take it One Beer at a Time.

Bell’s Weather. Monday marks the Georgia debut of beers from Bell’s Brewery, and a number of local bars have events to mark the occasion. The Brick Store Pub will have a rare cask of HopSlam, the brewery’s much-drooled over double IPA, which will not be part of the regular Georgia portfolio until next year’s release in January. There will also be a keg of Special Double Cream Stout. Starting Tuesday, Taco Mac will be tapping Bell’s Amber Ale, Pale Ale, Porter, and Oberon, with a sixtel of HopSlam and Expedition Stout at the Kennesaw location. Check with your neighborhood store to see what is pouring. The Porter Beer Bar in L5P will host a Bell’s Beer Dinner on Tues., May 26. Check their website for details. Look for a full story on Bell’s next week.

More, more, more. Speaking of Taco Mac, there’s enough new stuff rolling out at their stores to keep you half-lit well into June. This weekend was the debut of Terrapin’s 30 Strong Ale, brewed especially for Taco Mac’s 30th anniversary. Thirty years is a long time in the restaurant business, and Taco Mac certainly deserves a special toast for turning its little Va-High pub into a beer bar empire. I remember experiencing some of my first world-class beers at that original store back in the early 80s when I didn’t know a hefeweizen from a doppelbock. Terrapin’s 30 Strong has a ridiculous 30 ingredients that includes 19 kinds of malt, 8 varieties of hops, water, and yeast, and is aged on oak spirals. It clocks in at 8.8% ABV. Now that’s extreme! (more…)

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Woo hoo! It’s National Cocktail Day, according to the the Museum of the American Cocktail. In honor of that, here’s Rowdy’s celebration of Holeman & Finch’s Greg Best, whom many consider the city’s best bartender. If you don’t go to H&F, for God’s sake, go somewhere and stimulate the economy by getting sloshed.

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Moinette from Brasserie Dupont

Brasserie Dupont
Tourpes, BEL
8.5% ABV

This Belgian strong pale ale differs from others in the style in that it is dry and effervescent like a saison, but has a higher alcohol content than is typical for that style. Upon popping the cap an immediate cascade of bubbles races to the top, pushing a frothy head out of the bottle before it is even poured. Open it over the sink to avoid spillage. After the initial gush, it pours a glowing yellow-gold, with a modest one-finger head of pillowy foam atop that leaves sheets of Belgian lace on the sides of the glass.

A heady aroma of yeasty bread, white pepper, and orchard fruit greets the nose, with a bit of estery alcohol and citric tang. The taste is dominated by powdery pale malts, tart yeast, and earthy, woody spices. The crisp, dry mouthfeel is remarkably refined, with a tannic bite of white grape skins. A clean finish and champagne-like effervesence will appeal to wine drinkers.

This a sophisticated beer with amazing attenuation for such a strong ale. Refreshing and complex, it can be enjoyed with summer salads, seafood, cheese, or fruit. At $4-5 a bottle, it is an indulgence, but one you won’t regret.

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It sounds like bottled baked potato with bacon topping. It kinda skeezes me out, yet intrigues. But, given the growing fascination with all things pork and cured, we should have expected it: A potato-based vodka with a “savory bacon flavor” has been invented in Seattle.

Created by Black Rock Spirits after two years of testing, Bakon Vodka celebrates the renaissance of our favorite salty slab. With no tongue-in-cheek, they are “bringing home the bacon.”

The website says: “Our vodka is column-distilled using a single heating process that doesn’t ‘bruise’ the alcohol like the multiple heating cycles needed to make a typical pot-still vodka. No tinge or burn on the tongue, no obnoxious smoky or chemical flavors, just a clean refreshing potato vodka with delicious savory bacon flavor.” (more…)

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Last weekend I told you about Dirty South Wine’s quest to land a gig as in-house blogger for Murphy Goode Winery. Now you can watch Dirty’s application video and vote for him. Check it out – it’s part wine geek love, part performance art.

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The eco-friendly campus at New Belgium Brewing Company

Fat Tire Amber Ale from New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO is due in stores the first of next week. It will be available in 22-oz. bombers to start, with 6-packs and draft to follow shortly. Fat Tire has myriad fans, and it has propelled the company into the number 3 spot in the nation among craft brewers (behind Boston Beer Company and Sierra Nevada). I find it to be a decent enough beer; it is balanced and has a nutty, toasted malt character that makes it a good choice with food. New Belgium also turns out some other good beers, which will no doubt make their way to Georgia soon (look for the 1554 Belgian Black, Abbey-style Dubbel, Trippel, and if we are lucky, La Folie Flanders Red).

For me, though, the best thing about this company is their commitment to the environment. I don’t think there is another brewery in the world that takes sustainability as seriously as the folks at New Belgium. Their brewery is a model of efficiency. It runs almost entirely on wind power with the remainder from gas generated on- and off-site. The buildings utilize passive solar power and evaporative cooling, and were built using downed timber. The boilers are the most energy-efficient available, and their recycling efforts have reduced landfill diversion to only 15 percent, not including spent grain and yeast, which are also recycled. The company’s employees, who are also its owners, are deeply involved in the effort to reduce waste and save energy, and each receive a bicycle on their 1-year anniversary at the company. The parking lot at the brewery has as many bikes as cars. They also sponsor a number of green-focused events and donate 1% of their revenue to environmental non-profits. That’s commitment I will drink to. For more information on New Belgium’s efforts at environmental stewardship, check out this summary and their 2007 Sustainability Report. (more…)

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Our friend Hardy Wallace, AKA Dirty South Wine, is on a mission to get hired by Murphy-Goode Winery for what is basically a six-month party in wine country. If they’re looking for some snobby, boring blogger who will continue to alienate the masses with “ooohhh, wine is so fancy” wine-speak, then Hardy is probably not their guy. But if they’re looking for someone with a sense of humor and some genuinely interesting things to say, as well as an inventive spirit for how to present wine to the public, then they have found their dude. My understanding is that the winery is looking to see how much excitement hopeful bloggers can drum up ahead of time, so help support Hardy by checking out his new blog dedicated to the project at www.goodetobefirst.com, and follow him on Twitter: @goodetobefirst. Go Hardy!!

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French Broad Altbier

French Broad Brewing Company
Asheville, NC
5.5% ABV

Once a rarity, Altbier seems to be coming into its own lately, with the classic German Uerige more widely available and quality American versions coming from Victory, Otter Creek and Southampton. Altbier is a German ale found primarily in the Düsseldorf region. It is fermented at ale temperatures, but cold conditioned like a lager, for a clean, crisp character. Unlike the other German ale style, kölsch, altbiers are malt-forward and slightly sweet, rather than spicy and dry.

French Broad Altbier pours an orangey-gold, with a rocky, off-white head. Damp, earthy aroma and some floral notes in the nose, along with a bit of estery, ripe apple. Toasted Munich malt dominates the flavor, with its distinctive graininess and bready character. Grassy, herbal, tea-like hops provide a subtle counterpoint, but this one is all about the malt. Smooth and soft on the tongue, with a gentle carbonation and easy drinkability. A welcome break from the current hop-bomb trend. Try this with a grilled burger and corn-on-the-cob at your next cookout.

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May Flowers. The month of May promises to be one of the biggest in recent memory for Georgia beer lovers: Craft Beer Week, two new Terrapin releases, the opening of 5 Seasons Westside, and the Georgia debut of Bell’s and New Belgium. Look for more details here in the coming weeks on all of these events. Then, toward the end of the month, the East Atlanta Beer Festival kicks off the Atlanta festival season. The fest takes place on Sat., May 30, from 1-6 p.m. at the corner of Moreland and Metropolitan avenues in East Atlanta. Over 120 craft beers will be featured and proceeds benefit community projects. Buy your tickets today (Apr. 29) to save $5 and avoid the long lines. They will be $35 at the gate.

French Broad spotted in Atlanta. No, not Carla Bruni. Asheville’s French Broad Brewing Company has begun distribution in the Atlanta area. The small brewery (about 2,500 barrels in 2008) opened in 2001 and has pursued a goal of creating classic European style beers with an Asheville twist. Recently they have been stepping up production, expanding into Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, and now Georgia. “We’re a little stressed here at the brewery right now,” says marketing director Matt Barnao. “We’re on a pace to triple our production from last year.” To keep up with orders, beers are brewed during the day on the company’s 15-barrel system, then the night shift comes in to bottle on a semi-automated bottle filling system. (more…)

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