Ok beer drinking social media addicts. Here is a fun event during Atlanta Beer Week 2010. You better have read the previous post about the casks featured on the Sweetwater tour for beer week. Well, one day in particular has Continue Reading →
With the first annual Atlanta Beer Week fast approaching, I thought I would start a series of in depth Spotlights digging in to the happenings of the week. By now you know my love of casks. During ABW, Sweetwater Brewing Continue Reading →
To catch you up – Sweetwater Brewing (Atlanta, GA) has discontinued their Summer Hummer seasonal offering. Replacing Hummer is a new YEAR ROUND offering – Sch’Wheat! American Wheat Ale. Sch’Wheat! just made it’s mainstream debut at Sweetwater’s 420 Fest recently. Continue Reading →
One of favorite casks at Sweetwater’s Brew your Cask off was Cypress Street’s Knobzilla Vanilla. Wes Anderson, beer manager at Cypress was the lead brewer in this tasty concoction. It won the People’s Choice Award!
A couple of days late on this, but the most recent brew from Sweetwater’s “Catch & Release” series – Road Trip has returned! Road Trip is classified as a German Pilsner. At least German Pilsner in the beginning. If you Continue Reading →
By now you have had a beer on cask, or at least heard the term “cask.” A cask beer is beer that is unfiltered, unpasteurized, and went through a secondary fermentation in the cask (keg) from which it is poured. Continue Reading →
Coming soon from Sweetwater Brewing — Sch’wheat! Sch’wheat is an unfiltered American Wheat Ale joining Sweetwater’s year round offerings.
American wheat ales have a moderate wheat character and are brewed with American yeast strains. Citrus and spice are noticeable in American Continue Reading →
Ok beer drinking social media addicts. Here is a fun event during Atlanta Beer Week 2010. You better have read the previous post about the casks featured on the Sweetwater tour for beer week. Well, one day in particular has been enhanced.
Wednesday May 19th – Sweetwater is featuring a cask – “Dirty South” a dark version of our IPA dry hopped with Centennial hops.”
In addition, Sweetwater is adding a social media twist – Foursquare. Hope you know what Foursquare is by now. (www.foursquare.com) & (http://4sqatl.com). Go there now, learn it, download the app to your phone. You’ll need it. For this event, if you check in on Foursquare you’ll receive –
½ Price pint glass with your Four Square Check
10% discount on SweetWater Schwag
Random raffle prizes to boot
Also – if the event hit 250 checkins, then everyone will unlock to infamous Super Swarm Badge — marking all you fine folks as the 2nd group in the US to ever unlock it. 1st and only so far was at South By Southwest.
So, if you’re not on board with Foursquare, crawl out from under your rock and get it. You’ll need it. Drink up!
With the first annual Atlanta Beer Week fast approaching, I thought I would start a series of in depth Spotlights digging in to the happenings of the week. By now you know my love of casks. During ABW, Sweetwater Brewing will feature a cask on tour each night. Here is the cask lineup –
May 19th — “Dirty South” a dark version of our IPA dry hopped with Centennial hops in the cask
May 20th — “Chocolate Quad” Our BSP Quad “kissed” with Chocolate
May 21st — “Old Faithful” SweetWater’s IPA dry hopped with Centennial hops in the cask
May 22nd — “Go Big or Go Hop” SweetWater IPA dry hopped with Columbus Hops in the Cask and a little Hop Secret
Tours are Wed, Thur, and Fri from 5:30 — 7:30 and Sat from 2:30 — 4:30
To catch you up – Sweetwater Brewing (Atlanta, GA) has discontinued their Summer Hummer seasonal offering. Replacing Hummer is a new YEAR ROUND offering – Sch’Wheat! American Wheat Ale. Sch’Wheat! just made it’s mainstream debut at Sweetwater’s 420 Fest recently. Seems like Sch’Wheat was well received. If you missed it at 420 Fest, the 6 pack bottles have arrived. You won’t find it on draft yet. Draft hits in June.
From the previous post –
“American wheat ales have a moderate wheat character and are brewed with American yeast strains. Citrus and spice are noticeable in American wheat ales, less banana and clove like many German hefeweizens you might have had. Hops are definitely more prevalent in American wheat ales. Sch’Wheat! Is intended to be kind of a gateway beer by Sweetwater. There is still a huge part of the beer drinking population that has never even tasted a craft beer, much less an unfiltered beer full of wheat. Not every craft beer is one that you would want to hand to a friend to try hoping to get them hooked on craft beers (some are so bold in flavor, it could be a turn off.) This offering of Sch’Wheat! aspires to be a transition into the world of craft beer with a light, subtle, easy drinking session beer.”
Availability – Sch’Wheat! can be found in the Sweetwater Tacklebox variety packs. 12oz/6 pks. Draft debut in June 2010. Sch’Wheat! is a year round offering.
Tasting – Be on the lookout for orange, citrus and spices in the nose. Palette will contain some of the same. Light orange/citrus. Hummer was heavy on spice. Sch’Wheat! scaled back on spice…
One of favorite casks at Sweetwater’s Brew your Cask off was Cypress Street’s Knobzilla Vanilla. Wes Anderson, beer manager at Cypress was the lead brewer in this tasty concoction. It won the People’s Choice Award!
Well today – (4/18) Cypress Street’s Knobzilla Vanilla will be seen again in Atlanta – as a part of the special beer tasting at Sweetwater’s 420 Fest. The top 5 winners at Brew Your Cask Off will be featured alongside Knobzilla ,and 5 that Sweetwater has created for the event.
Casks tap in the Sweetwater tent @ 2pm! Not sure of the cost for these… Bring cash!! Take MARTA, parking sucks! See you at 2!
A couple of days late on this, but the most recent brew from Sweetwater’s “Catch & Release” series – Road Trip has returned! Road Trip is classified as a German Pilsner. At least German Pilsner in the beginning. If you haven’t had Road Trip, its a crisp lager with a spicy hop finish. It’s essentially a pilsner with extra hop additions. Instead of a lager yeast, an ale yeast was used, and it was fermented at ale temperatures – putting this “Road Trip” all over the map. (Forgot that part, thanks Mark!) This part of the process makes a big difference in ending flavor. It can be stylistically confusing, and the flavor is all over the place, but hey – what good road trip isn’t right?
Tasting – Look for hops with some spicy notes with a little bitter. Crisp, fresh, with some sweet notes. So many beers are born out of seasons. Road Trip is no different. A good choice for warm weather.
Availability – April – July. 12oz/6pks and Draft offerings.
By now you have had a beer on cask, or at least heard the term “cask.” A cask beer is beer that is unfiltered, unpasteurized, and went through a secondary fermentation in the cask (keg) from which it is poured. Why is this unique? Cask beer is also be called “real beer.” The glass of cask beer that’s in your glass is beer in the raw. Beer in the natural state, straight out of fermentation. Most of the time nothing was added to it to clarify it. It’s not filtered, or changed. There is even yeast still in it from fermentation.
This is a short description of cask beer in hopes that you will get a better understanding of this weekend’s “Brew Your Cask Off” by Sweetwater Brewing. Sweetwater invited various Atlanta bars, magazines, distributors and guest brewers to design a cask from a list of adjuncts (or additives.) In the design process, one could chose hops, malts, yeasts, and adjuncts ranging from vanilla beans, to spicy peppers, oak chips, tea leaves, various fruits, or cooking spices. There are a few bourbon entries. A certain Atlanta based beer mag used carrots. Even nuts have been used in at least 2 casks. However wild and crazy you wanted to be, it’s your choice. A few weeks ago, each brewer(s) or group were invited to Sweetwater to brew their cask homebrew style on site.
Earlier I mentioned that secondary fermentation occurs IN the cask. That’s still the case here. Once brewed, each groups beer is added to the cask. (The pic above shows the casks sitting and fermenting.) Groups could chose a light or dark pre-brewed base by Sweetwater to fill the rest of the cask. Yeast was then added, and then closed up. The plastic pieces seen in the picture above are the airlocks. Airlocks are added to the casks to let the carbon dioxide that is being created as the yeast turns sugar to alcohol bubble out, without exposing the beer to the outside air, and infection.
So, long story short — that’s how you get the cask beers being featured this Saturday. Each one is unique, and handcrafted. This time, by friends/ brewers you know. Brew Your Cask Off is a really unique and fun idea. This event really puts people closer to craft beer, how its made, and what makes each beer unique and different. I honestly can’t wait. Oh! and you get to vote for your favorite cask.
Brew Your Cask Off is this Saturday, March 20th from 6-10 pm
Tickets are $30 presale, and $35 day of. Tickets are available at www.brewyourcaskoff.com . $1 of each ticket sold goes the charity with the most votes, so vote online when you go to get your tickets!
Coming soon from Sweetwater Brewing — Sch’wheat! Sch’wheat is an unfiltered American Wheat Ale joining Sweetwater’s year round offerings.
American wheat ales have a moderate wheat character and are brewed with American yeast strains. Citrus and spice are noticeable in American wheat ales, less banana and clove like many German hefeweizens you might have had. Hops are definitely more prevalent in American wheat ales. Sch’Wheat! Is intended to be kind of a gateway beer by Sweetwater. There is still a huge part of the beer drinking population that has never even tasted a craft beer, much less an unfiltered beer full of wheat. Not every craft beer is one that you would want to hand to a friend to try hoping to get them hooked on craft beers (some are so bold in flavor, it could be a turn off.) This offering of Sch’Wheat! aspires to be a transition into the world of craft beer with a light, subtle, easy drinking session beer.
Sch’Wheat! will debut in the Sweetwater Tacklebox variety packs first, then at Sweetwater’s 420 Fest, then full launch on tap handles and 6pks shortly after. Tasting notes, and more info on official launch coming soon…
UPDATE – Sch’Wheat! will replace Sweetwater’s Summer Hummer seasonal.
Ok beer drinking social media addicts. Here is a fun event during Atlanta Beer Week 2010. You better have read the previous post about the casks featured on the Sweetwater tour for beer week. Well, one day in particular has been enhanced.
