Omnivore Atlanta

The Oktoberfest beers are arriving at a rapid pace, so its time to get warmed up on some strong, malty lagers, even if the warm weather does linger a bit longer in Georgia than it does in Germany. American craft brewers are releasing their fall seasonals as well, marking the beginning of the dark beer season.

If you want to find out what the fall seasonals are all about, sign up for the monthly beer tasting at The Porter Beer Bar that takes place Wed., Sept. 16, at 7:30, featuring pumpkin beers and Oktoberfests (also known as marzens or festbiers). Six samples will be served for $20. Call the bar at 404-223-0393 to reserve your spot. Speaking of the Porter Beer Bar, the little-gastropub-that-could is celebrating its first anniversary in Little Five Points, a significant landmark in that culinary Bermuda Triangle. They will be celebrating all day Sat., Sept. 12, with 30 special kegs and two casks. (more…)

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New Belgium Brewing Company
Ft. Collins, CO
6% ABV

This golden ale pours a bright gold with excellent clarity. A decent head settles to a ring and leaves a bit of lacing. A beautiful beer that should be served in a pilsner glass to show off its glowing color. The aroma is of floral, fruity hops, with some definite grapefruity citrus and a hint of honey sweetness. The bright citrusy, piney hops lead the flavor profile, with some dry, biscuity malts following closely behind. Clean orchard fruits (apple, pear) lends some sweetness, but overall this is a dry, almost powdery ale. The mouthfeel is medium-light, with a nice spritzy bite and mild bitterness. Easy-drinking, with plenty of hop flavor and good balance, this is a nice session beer that is well suited to autumn weather in Atlanta.

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Weyerbacher Brewing Company
Easton, PA
6.0% ABV

More American craft brewers are attempting basic Belgian-style pale ales and that is a good thing.

Weyerbacher’s offering pours a hazy, almost cloudy, autumn gold and is apparently unfiltered. The rich, off-white head settles to a tight, solid cap of foam.

The straight up Belgian yeast aroma of overripe banana and melon skin fruit esters and a hint of spice is very promising. On the palate, the balance of sweet honey malts and tangy, bubblegum-y yeast is evident right out of the gate. Floral, lemony hops come in strong, with a surprising cilantro-like soapy bitterness. Any sweetness begins to yield to dry, crackery malts and tart apple. The bitterness in the finish lingers a bit long for my taste and is my only real complaint. Zotten has a nice rustic quality to it that is suggestive of a farmhouse ale or biere de garde. Terrific, weighty mouthfeel for a regular BPA without become heavy or cloying. A brisk carbonation helps in that regard, as does the dry finish.

A bit too bitter for the style perhaps, but pair it with some rich, creamy cheese, a baguette and some fig preserves and you have a great picnic.

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Atlanta Brewing Company
Atlanta, GA
5.5% ABV

Atlanta Brewing Company has really been improving their product lately, and they should make a point of saying so. Lots of people have preconceived notions of their beer, and if you haven’t had one lately, they are worth revisiting.

Peachtree Pale Ale pours a hazy, burnished gold, with an off-white fluffy head that leaves some nice lacing. Citrusy and floral hops dominate the aroma, with some caramel malt in the background. The taste is hop-forward, with a strong grapefruit rind bitterness upfront from the Cascade hops, juicy citrus in the middle, and spicy dryness in the finish. A coarse graininess in the toasted malts and solid carbonation contribute to a moderately prickly mouthfeel. Medium bodied with a very faint caramel sweetness. There’s a borderline aspirin-like bitterness in the aftertaste. A bright pale ale that borders on an IPA, Peachtree Pale Ale is a fine session beer and well-suited to summer quaffing.

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While you have been lounging by the pool this summer, Terrapin Beer Company’s Spike Buckowski has been slaving over a hot brew kettle to bring you a slew of new brews. Side Project No. 7 is out now, an easy-drinking saison dubbed Maggie Farmhouse Ale. This 6.0% ABV Belgian-style pale ale has a soft palate and fairly light body from a wheat addition, with some white pepper spiciness to give it an edge. It’s a nice balance of dry, bready malts, a bit of green apple tartness, tangy yeast, and a clean hop bitterness in the finish. It would make a perfect complement to a light summer meal.

Terrapin is replacing the summer seasonal in its Monster Beer Tour, the All-American Imperial Pilsner, with Gamma Ray Wheatwine, a potent and tasty Side Project from last year that will join the regular rotation. The release was delayed somewhat, but word is that bottling will take place next week, and the beer will hit shelves near the end of the month or in early September. Wheatwines are a rare style, and we are lucky to have a damned good one brewed right here in Georgia on a regular basis. (more…)

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Full Sail Brewing
Hood River, OR
5.6% ABV

This month’s beer picks will lean toward the lighter side of the spectrum to guide you through the dog days of summer.

Full Sail’s LTD series has included a bock and an amber ale, and the third offering is a German-style pilsner, perfect for summer quaffing. This is a simple concoction of two-row pale malts and Sterling hops that plays on, but does not copy, the classic German pilsner. It pours a clear gold with a frothy, off-white head that clings to the side of the glass. The aroma is full of earthy grain and floral hops with a hint of spice. Cereal graininess rides over the mildly soapy, grassy hops, but the finish is clean and satisfying. The body is medium-light, with a bit of slickness and a pleasant tingle of carbonation. Great right out of the bottle and reasonably priced, this is a fine choice for toting to a backyard barbeque or house party where tolerance for biting hop bitterness might be low.

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Sweetwater Brewing Company will be releasing its fall seasonal, Sweetwater Motorboat ESB on Aug. 7. The beer will be available in 6-packs and on draft. Introduced last fall, Motorboat was an unqualified success, winning a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the ESB category and selling out in about 6 weeks. Steve Farace of Sweetwater promises that there will be more to go around this year.

Never one to be constrained by style guidelines, Sweetwater brews Motorboat with a generous dose of hops, including a dry-hopping with Cascade, and loads it with toasted malt, making it more like an amber ale than a typical British bitter. This year’s version will follow the same path. “We’ve upped the ante a bit on the hop bill this year, but we’re not monkeying around with it, just improving it,” says Farace. ”With a beer like Motorboat it’s all about balance in a fall seasonal.”

One could say things are going swimmingly right now at Sweetwater. The Dank Tank series of specialty brews is getting settled in, with the next offering being a blueberry Belgian ale brewed with 750 pounds of organic, Georgia-raised blueberries and wheat and rye malts due out Aug. 20. The 8.5% beer will be called Big Ol’ Blue Balls, in true Sweetwater double-entendre fashion. The popular brewery “tours” on Wednesday through Friday have been expanded to include Saturday afternoon from 2:30-4:30 p.m. and special casks are now offered on Wednesday to take some pressure off the Friday evening gatherings. “The casks have really been going great,” says Farace. “It gives us a chance to experiment with our core beers, adding fruit, dry-hopping, or whatever we want to try.” (more…)

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Lagunitas Brewing Company
Petaluma, CA
7.3% ABV

Iconoclastic brewer Tony Magee and his crew don’t need much excuse to release a new beer, and their hop-forward wheat ale is the second to draw on the current economic crisis for inspiration. “So we are all on collective disability,” says the label. “That’s cool. Let’s put some ice on it and keep ourselves elevated for a while.” I couldn’t agree more. The brewery’s website says that this beer has a nice “wheaty-esque-ish-ness,” as if they were a bit embarassed to be releasing a wheat ale, considering their reputation for big, hoppy beers. They needn’t have worried, since this is not your typical pale wheat ale.

Sumpin’ Sumpin’ pours a glowing gold beer with excellent clarity. None of the unfiltered haziness or yeasty aroma often associated with wheat beers is present. Just fresh, piney, grapefruit-y hops and some cookie-like malts in the background. Hops dominate the taste, as well, with some tropical fruit notes. The wheat malt lightens the body a bit, but not to the point of being watery or thin. There is some breadiness mid-palate and a hint of yeasty tang, but mostly a firm, fruity sweetness carries the hop flavors aloft, and all else drops away. The mouthfeel is sticky, but soft, leading to a bone-dry finish. A modest bitterness lingers nicely, and the final impression is of a buttery white wine with some grainy tannins and palate-drying resins.

Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ might be a bit puckering and potent for swilling, but it nevertheless hides its alcohol well and is thankfully not overly sweet or bubble-gummy, making it a perfect summer sipper for hopheads. Another interesting concoction from Lagunitas.

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With all the new breweries that have come to Georgia in the last two to three years, the trip to the beer cooler at your local package store can be somewhat intimidating. Add to that the increased price of craft beers, and it can be difficult to plop down $8-10 on a 6-pack of an unknown quantity. That’s where beer tastings and beer dinners come in. For little or no money, you can sample new beers and get a sense of both the styles and brands that are worth your hard-earned money. There is no shortage of opportunities to sample beers in Atlanta. Here are a few regular or semi-regular tastings that are going on around town, along with a few upcoming beer dinners.

Hop City Craft Beer & Wine store hosts free beer tastings most every Wednesday at Octane Coffee Bar & Lounge across the street from their retail store. Magic Hat beers will be featured at this week’s tasting (July 15). In two weeks (July 29), sample beers from Sierra Nevada. Hop City has also teamed up with neighborhood caterer Figs & Honey, who operate Tiny Bistro, to host wine and beer events. Sign up for Hop City’s email list or become a fan on Facebook to get updates on the featured beers. (more…)

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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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Although it’s less than a week after the start of summer, it seems like we’re deep into the heart of it now. No need to take off the party hats, except to wipe the sweat from your brow.

Taco Mac continues celebrating its 30th anniversary, as well as the beginning of summer, with the release last week of Red Brick Solstice Roggenbock from Atlanta Brewing Company. According to Taco Mac beverage manager Fred Crudder, it’s similar to the Helles Bock but with the addition of rye malt, which should add some spiciness and a grainy bite. Check your local outlet to see if it has Solstice on tap.

The Brick Store Pub’s 12th anniversary celebration continues this week, with special kegs each night, leading up to Saturday’s shindig featuring a new beer every hour and probably some silly behavior in the final hours. Be sure to ask your server for tap list updates if you go this week, since there are a number of excellent choices beyond the featured beer, including New Belgium La Folie and De Ranke Noir.

(more…)

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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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Moor Better: Claymore Wee Heavy Scotch Ale

Great Divide Brewing Company
Denver, CO

Named for a famous sword, this beer is a tribute to the “Wee Heavy” ale, the rich, strong version of Scotland’s traditional malt-forward ales. Hops were historically hard to come by in Scotland and were regarded with some disdain since they had to be imported from England. Malted barley, on the other hand, was a staple, so these beers are loaded with cereal goodness.

Great Divide’s version pours a deep mahogany brown with some ruby highlights around the edges. The aroma is peaty and slightly smoky, and leans toward woody, rather than sugary notes. The taste follows suit with deep, charred caramel, mild coffee, and earthy hops. That smoky peat comes through on the back end, suggesting a cozy hearth. A bit of brown sugar sweetness, cocoa powder and nutmeg spice linger on the lips in the semi-sweet finish. Medium-bodied, with some leggy alcohol, Claymore is best enjoyed at cellar temperature like a good Scotch, where the malt can really shine.

Photo by Jeff Holland)

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Terrapin Beer Company
Athens, GA
9.8% ABV

Terrapin brewer Spike Buckowski has jumped into the Belgian ale wave with both feet with Volume 5 of the Side Project Series. Monk’s Revenge is described as having the hop profile of a double IPA, with the malt and yeast of a Belgian tripel. Six kinds of malt and six hop varieties, dextrose to replicate the Belgian candi sugar, and a yeast copped from one of the 7 Trappist breweries (Spike is mysteriously vague about which brewery) all contribute to a wonderful complexity in both aroma and flavor.

Floral and spicy hops greet the nose, along with a faint resiny note that clues you to the beer’s American heritage. Sweet, biscuity malt and the unmistakable ripe fruit of Belgian yeast are also evident. The taste starts with the smooth, mild tropical fruit sweetness of pineapple and banana, followed quickly by a tingly hop bite of grapefruit, white pepper, pine, orange, and mint. The sugary base carries warm buzz of kirsch and amaretto into the strong, drying finish. The banana and clove esters of the Belgian yeast become stronger as it warms, as does some solventy alcohol.

The balance here is fantastic, with all of the malty, fruity, hoppy, and tangy notes getting their chance to shine, but the overall effect seems a bit raw. The bottle-conditioned beer has a dullish carbonation that might lively up itself with a bit more time, and the hot alcohol suggest that this would be a good candidate for cellaring, although the hopheads might object that the fresh hop aromas and flavors would suffer. I’d have a couple fresh, then put a couple away; that way, you get the best of both worlds.

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War documentaries are perhaps best made by outsiders who are able to show the nobility and suffering on both sides of the conflict. Anat Baron brings such neutrality to Beer Wars: Brewed in America, a documentary film that explores the goings-on behind the scenes of the world’s largest and smallest breweries as they struggle to win the minds and palates of America’s 115 million beer drinkers. Anat is allergic to alcohol, so she’s never tasted the beers that are at the center of the conflict.

“I think that [not drinking] has helped me in making the film because I don’t cast judgment over one or the other group,” Baron says. “I am certainly the last person to tell you what to drink or what not to drink, but beyond that, the actual war does exist in the business of beer, and that is more what the film is focused on; it is far less about the two different types of consumers, and whether Bud drinkers think beer geeks are elitist.”

Baron’s 90-minute film will air simultaneously in 440 theaters across the nation on April 16 and will be followed by a 30-minute live discussion with a panel of brewers and beer experts hosted by know-it-all pundit Ben Stein. The panel will be answering questions generated in advance from the live audience. “They have a digital network in the theaters that can accept satellite feed,” Baron says. “It’s just a really cool idea, I think, that all these people across America are going to be watching something happen simultaneously. I wanted to get people talking, and this seemed like a better way to do that than the traditional way of rolling out a few theaters at a time.” (more…)

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Rx for Beer Blahs: Mama

Take two and call me in the morning

Oskar Blues Brewery, makers of Dale’s Pale Ale and Ten Fidy Imperial Stout, have released a Czech-style pilsner called Mama’s Little Yella Pils that should prove popular this summer. The Lyons, Colorado-based Oskar Blues has made a name for itself as one of the first craft breweries to sell their beer in cans rather than bottles. Cans are easily recyclable, more easily handled, require less energy to produce, and can be taken many places where glass bottles are not allowed, such as the park, the beach, or the pool.

Mama’s Little Yella Pils is modeled after the classic pilsner from the Czechoslovakian region of Pilsen that inspired the original Budweiser. A generous amount of pale malts and German specialty malts give this interpretation a firm, grainy body, while the Saaz hops provide a fresh, floral aroma and a crisp, dry finish. The modest 5.3% ABV keeps it in the realm of an everyday quaffer. Yella Pils is available now in 6-packs of bright yellow cans. Unfortunately, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau rejected their tagline on the can, “Take two and call me in the morning.” Don’t ask me why.

Firkin Saturdays at the Brick Store Pub

The Brick Store Pub will be tapping a fresh cask of real ale every Saturday at noon, just in time for sidewalk season. The first offering this past Saturday was the Russian Imperial Stout from Thornbridge Hall Country House Brewing Company, an amazingly rich, smoky stout with a dark-fruit tang and notes of chickory and bittersweet chocolate. If you weren’t there, you missed it, since the firkins only last a couple of days and this was the only one shipped to Georgia. Coming soon will be Gwatkins Yarlington Mill Cider, the CAMRA Gold Medal Champion Cider of Great Britain in 2002. (more…)

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