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New Realm releases a new collaboration with Zillicoah Beer
New Realm Sound of Our Own Wheels has hit shelves, a collaboration with North Carolina’s Zillicoah Beer Company.
This double IPA is actually a family collaboration, a first for New Realm. Jon Chassner founded Zillicoah in Woodfin, North Carolina in 2017, and Jeff Chassner is the Chief Sales Officer of New Realm. As the name suggests, these Chassners are cousins. Family ties make a beer collab pretty self-evident.
New Realm’s brewmaster and co-founder Mitch Steele, Jeff, and Beer Street Journal traveled to Zillicoah’s home of Woodfin for the first of what would be two brew days. We’re pretty sure Zillicoah’s Jon and John (Chassner and Parks) wanted to brew an India Pale Ale with the man who literally wrote the book on IPA, so an Imperial IPA had to be on the brew sheet.
Sound of Your Own Wheels is a big tropical flavor bomb, brewed with Azacca, El Dorado, and Strata hops. This douple IPA pours golden and clear like a west coaster (Mitch Steele has entered the chat) and 9% alcohol by volume. It is prudent to note that Wheels doesn’t drink at all like a 9% beer. Finish the 4-pack one sitting and see what we mean.
We asked Steele what he thought of the finished beer this week at the launch in Atlanta. “It’s probably the best double IPA we’ve made yet,” he says with a smile. While New Realm’s beer styles have been all over the map, the brewing of imperial IPAs have been reserved for special occasions like anniversaries or friends. You honor the special occasion with high alcohol and hops, naturally.
Sound of Your Own Wheels is bright and sunny like late summer in the South and strong enough to make you forget how drenched in sweat you are as if you’ve been pushed into the deep end of a pool. The Sound of Your Own Wheels might just be you telling yourself to “drink more.”
Available in 16-ounce cans and draft for a limited time.
Style: Imperial IPA
Hops: Azacca, El Dorado, Strata
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft.
Debut: Mid-July, 2023
9% ABV
Second Self Beer to shut down June 17th
Atlanta, Georgia-based Second Self Beer will close its doors at the end of this month after 9 years of operation.
Second Self – situation on the city’s upper westside, was the 42nd brewery to open in the Peach State. The brewery had a geeky streak, releasing beers like Maverick & Gose (Top Gun) and Triforce IPA (a legend of Zelda nod.) As the years progressed, founders Jason Santamaria and Chris Doyle pivoted the brewery to be more than just beer, with the goal of being a full “beverage company.”
Second Self released “Cirrus,” a line of non-alcoholic CBD drinks, as well as taking on numerous contract brews and beverages for third-party companies.
That pivot was successful for a while until the challenge of the pandemic and rising costs forced the contracts to fold. That was a big financial hit for the brewery.
In a phone call, Santamaria told Beer Street Journal that in an effort to potentially save Second Self, the brewery cut their taproom hours, while Jason himself took himself off of the payroll going back to his previous role at IBM.
“Everything is just so much expensive, it just kept getting more complicated,” he says.
The brewery’s last day will be June 17th, open from 1-9 pm.
On a personal note – I want to say thank you to Jason and Chris. You both have been welcoming of Beer Street Journal even before the Second Self even opened to the public. It has been an honor and a downright freaking blast covering your releases over the years, not to mention canning days, tank pulls, and nerd trivia. You are some of the kindest people I have met in the beer industry. Legend of Zelda for life.
All images: Beer Street Journal
NoFo Brewing acquires Tantrum Brewing
NoFo Brewing, located just north of Atlanta, has acquired Cleveland, Georgia-based Tantrum Brewing. The deal was closed this morning.
NoFo is acquiring the brewing equipment, 10,000+ square foot building, and 5.3 acres of land owned by Tantrum, located just two miles from the base of popular North Georgia hiking spot Mount Yonah.
This is NoFo’s third location in just over three years of operation, as the brewery will open a taproom in Gainesville, Georgia this summer. This move is part of NoFo’s strategy to dominate the North Georgia market.
“North Georgia is a special place for NoFo, and we think our brand will be an excellent addition to White County and the surrounding area. We look forward to serving customers in Cleveland very soon,” says Joe Garcia, Co-Founder and CEO.
Tantrum Brewing will retain its recipes and intellectual property. NoFo will not be brewing or maintaining any of Tantrum’s current lineup.
MORE: FULL CIRCLE BREWING ACQUIRES SPEAKEASY
The Cleveland facility has a 30-barrel brewhouse which NoFo expects to have online by June. The sale will be complete on May 15th and will start re-branding the facility immediately. A distillery will be added to the site sometime this year as well.
NoFo tells Beer Street Journal that their annual capacity will hover around 4,000 barrels annually after this purchase in 2023, only distributing in Georgia through Modern Hops.
The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. NoFo Brewing Cleveland will be located at 1939 Helen Highway, Cleveland, Georgia.
New Realm Psychedelic Rabbit jumps in on the thiol craze
Let’s talk about thiols. If you crave tropical flavors in your beer or IPA, listen up. This bit of fermentation science is for you.
Thiols are aroma compounds and they come in two forms – free form and precursor. The free form are volatile and pungent thiols found in tropical fruits, grapes, and hops. Those thoils boast flavors of passion fruit and guava and fresh grapefruit. When a beer is more “thiol expressive” it is far bolder and big-time tropical.
Sounds good right? Eventually, but some fermentation science has to happen first.
Chicago-based Omega Yeast Labs introduced “Cosmic Punch,” a thiolized version of their British Ale yeast in 2021. This engineered yeast strain biotransforms the massive amount of thiol precursors in malt and hops to free form (expressive) thiols. Ultimately, the thiol output is far greater using this yeast than found in the traditional brewing process.
How? Omega’s goal was to make freeing these thiols more efficient. It’s about the IRC7, a gene in yeast that creates an enzyme that frees thiols from their precursor form. The challenge was that many brewing strains have mutations in the IRC7 gene that disable the enzyme, resulting in low thoil output.
Extremely simplified – Omega developed a yeast that keeps the gene active, and thus the enzyme. The final beer – which so many are IPAs or hoppy lagers are bright, snappy, and quite expressive.
It’s that bit of science behind New Realm Brewing’s new Psychedelic Rabbit Transcendent IPA. While the brewing team had created a few test batches of an IPA with Cosmic Punch, Kane Wille, brewer at New Realm says it was Omega’s Star Party yeast that really made a difference. “We did a 20-barrel batch in Atlanta and loved it, so it became Psyche Rabbit,” Wille says.
Azacca, Cashmere, Citra, and Mosaic hops headline this beer, and with the help of Star Party, you really find out what thiols are all about. The result is truly a burst of passionfruit, pineapple, and citrus flavors, in a beer that looks so much more of a west coast IPA, with a lighter mouthfeel, without having to be overly dry-hopped. “We wanted to bring something innovative to the market this year, and have been overwhemed by the success of this IPA already,” Jeff Chassner, Chief Sales Officer tells Beer Street Journal. “We are very fortunate to have such a talented brewmaster in Mitch Steele and an amazing team of brewers”
The India pale ale has always dominated craft beer, always going through a plethora of identities as the years pass. By the taste of it, the days of quadruple dry-hopping an IPA might be fading, with the rise of these yeasts.
Style: IPA
Hops: Azacca, Cashmere, Citra, Mosaic
Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft. Year-Round.
6.5%
Orpheus Brewing to close Atlanta location
Orpheus Brewing’s founder and brewmaster Jason Pellett announced today on social media that the brewery will close their current facility on Dutch Valley Road in Atlanta on April 23rd.
As the brewery closes down its current taproom and brewery, brewing operations will shift into the hands of Bevana, a third-party beverage company based in North Carolina. Bevana has already partnered with notable breweries like Unknown Brewing, D9, and Fatty’s Beer Works. Orpheus Brewing’s beers will continue to be available in-market with no disruptions.
Additionally, Pellett stated it is his intention to eventually find a smaller space for a brewery/taproom in the future.
Orpheus Brewing opened its doors in May 2014.
Roadhouse Brewing acquires Melvin Brewing
Jackson Hole, Wyoming-based Roadhouse Brewery has acquired Melvin Brewing Co. and their Alpine, Wyoming production facility. The combined breweries are only 35 miles apart.
Both breweries were born in the garage and grew significantly over the past few years. Melvin Brewing and Roadhouse Brewing combined brew 55,000 barrels (1.7 million gallons) of beer annually. This acquisition and investment will push both to 80,000 barrels in the coming years while presumably expanding Roadhouse Brewing’s distribution footprint. A “state of the art” Melvin brewpub is planned for Alpine, Wyoming.
“The Melvin Brand is audacious and bold and aligns with our values of independence and innovation. DBoth breweries have a similar origin story, which began with the love of craft beer, homebrewing, and the mountain lifestyle. We are carving out a space where psychedelic rockers and hip-hop revolutionaries come to party together.” – Colby Cox, co-founder of Roadhouse Brewery Group.
Melvin Brewing is distributed to 27 states and won Small Brewpub and Brewery Group of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival in 2015 and 2017.
The deal closed on December 22, 2022.
Fall Kickoff: Georgia Tech Athletics now have their own beer
Thanks to Atlanta’s New Realm Brewing, Georgia Tech Athletics has its first official beer. The beer launches today ahead of Tech’s first football game against Clemson.
New Realm Helluvienna Lager debuts today, an amber lager suitable for mass consumption at tailgates, at home or bars during any and all of Georgia Tech’s sports programs. The launch of this beer on the first day of Tech’s football season was intentional, according to New Realm’s co-founder and CEO Carey Falcone. “We have enjoyed the support of the Georgia Tech community since we opened in 2018. “We are looking forward to being on-campus and a part of Tech history,” Falcone says. “From our first meeting with Angel Cabrera (GT President), Todd Stansbury (GT Athletic Director), and the leadership team at GT, it was clear that this was much more than a sponsorship, it was a partnership,” Falcone adds.
“The style of beer that comes to mind when we think sports is a lager,” Jeff Chassner, the brewery’s Chief Sales Officer tells Beer Street Journal. “We’ve brewed a lot of German-style beers over the last two years, so an amber lager similar to our Bavarian Prince festbier was pretty much where we wanted to be,” he adds. ” New Realm sent a few beers over to their friends at Tech to try, and the Vienna lager won hands down.
READ MORE: NEW REALM & BLACKBERRY SMOKE TEAM UP
Helluvienna Lager features pilsner, Vienna, German Munich, and Carared Malts, along with German Hersbrucker hops making it about much of a European -style beer as possible, minus the location. As for the name? Helluvienna Lager is a play on the (I’m a) Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech” fight song. Interestingly, that fight song started as a Scottish drinking song in the late 1800s. Naturally.
Here in the 21st Century, this New Realm/Georgia Tech collaboration hits shelves this week in 16-ounce cans and draft. It’s already on tap at Atlanta-area Taco Macs, and on shelves at Total Wine, Tower, and Mac’s Beer and Wine. Over the next few weeks – metro Atlanta QT, Kroger, and Publix locations.
Tonight the #4 ranked Clemson Tigers travel to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech for a rare Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Clemson is favored by 22.5 points. This beer might go from “fun” to “medicinal” quickly. Let’s hope New Realm brewed enough of it.
Style: Vienna Lager
Hops: Hersbrucker
Malts: Pilsner, Vienna, German Munich, Carared Malts
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft. Year-Round
Debut: 9/5/22
5.2% ABV
