Don’t Miss This

Posted in Brewery Expansions, Don't Miss This, Scofflaw Brewing Co.

Scofflaw Brewing to build second location in Atlanta

Scofflaw Brewing is building a second location in their home city of Atlanta, Georgia.

Selig Enterprises, one of the largest real estate companies announced this morning that Scofflaw Brewing will join The Works, an 80-acre mixed-use development coming to Atlanta’s Upper Westside.

Scofflaw’s home at The Works will span 9,000 square feet and serve as the brewery’s main R&D facility. Expect an open design with a large outdoor area featuring games and friend gathering places. The open plan will be designed to give brewery attendees a more intimate look at the brewing process.

“I have a great relationship with the Selig family and their business. There was no question that creating a Scofflaw R&D brewery and tasting room at The Works was the right strategic decision for our team.” -Scofflaw CEO Matt Shirah.

Scofflaw Brewing’s new location will be built alongside a 16,000 square foot food hall by Robert Montwaid known as Chattahoochee Food Works. The food hall will feature food vendors, entertainment and chef-driven events, a test kitchen and artisanal market shops.

The Works is an 80-acre adaptive mixed-use development Atlanta’s Upper Westside, located off Chattahoochee Ave. near Topgolf Midtown. According to Selig, The Works’ vision includes “distinctive retail and dining, imaginative experiences and inspired gathering areas in an interconnected environment preserving the character of Atlanta’s historic industrial Upper Westside. The multi-phased master plan comprises 350,000 square feet of retail and entertainment, 500,000 square feet of office space, 500 residences, 200 hotel rooms and 13 acres of green space.”

Phase One, 27 acres, is currently under construction and scheduled for opening in early 2020.

Image: Beer Street Journal 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Oskar Blues Brewing, Cigar City Brewing, Don't Miss This

Oskar Blues & Cigar City debut ‘Bamburana’, a double barrel-aged imperial stout

Oskar Blues and Cigar City, both part of the CANarchy collective, are debuting a barrel-aged imperial stout nationally this month.

This collaboration is a big one, perfect for a winter release. The two breweries created an imperial stout, aged in both whiskey barrels and brandy barrels, with figs and dates. After blending into the finishing tanks, Bamburana was then aged again on Amburana wood spirals. Amburna is a tropical tree native to Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru.

“We were pleasantly surprised with the vanilla and gingerbread spice nuances this South American wood contributed into the finished beer and look forward to putting this delicious beer in front of folks,” said Wayne Wambles of Cigar City Brewing

Oskar Blues Cigar City Bamburana is a national release in 12-ounce cans and draft starting in mid-January, 2019.

Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Figs. Dates. Barrel Aged. Whiskey. Brandy.)
Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft. Limited Release.

Debut: Mid-January 2019

12.2% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Yuengling, Coming Soon, Don't Miss This

Yuengling is releasing a barrel-aged beer, but only at the brewery

This Friday, America’s oldest brewery will release a beer that’s a little different from the famed Amber Lager. Yuengling Bourbon Barrel Reserve is coming to Pottsville, Pennsylvania. 

Prior to modern refrigeration, brewers of the world used cold caves to ferment beer at colder temperatures. Incidentally, Yuengling has their own hand-dug caves that were in heavy use in the 1800s. It is there that the brewery has been resting a Marzen-style beer in bourbon barrels for 120 days prior to its release.

As much as this release might excite the hardcore Yuengling fans, Bourbon Barrel Reserve is not only draft-only but solely available at the Pottsville taproom on January 11th at 5 pm.

Style: Marzen (Barrel Aged. Bourbon)
Availability: Draft Only. Brewery Release.
Debut: 1/11/19

?? ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Stone Brewing Co., Don't Miss This

This time it’s not an IPA. Stone Tropic of Thunder Lager debuts nationally

From one of the most popular purveyors of hops comes something a little different this month – a lager. Stone Tropic of Thunder Lager ships nationally this week.

Citra and Mosaic and rising star Cashmere are the hop stars of this craft lager, which boasts flavors of pineapple, citrus and coconut. In their descriptions, Stone wants you to think of this lager as a desert island beer.

Mainstays Citra & Mosaic along with newcomer Cashmere hops are joined by their juicy tropical aromas of citrus, pineapple and coconut (try stringing all that together in a catchy tune). The rescue ship will find you all soon enough. For now, set aside the non-working cell phone and lack of social media (again, work with us here), kick back and revel in your moment of tropical island lagoon serenity.

 

Stone Tropic of Thunder Lager is available in 12-ounce cans and draft nationally starting in January 2019.

Style: Lager
Hops: Citra, Mosaic, Cashmere
Availability: 12oz Cans, Draft.
Debut (Nationally): January 2019

Image: Stone Brewing

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in EPIC Brewing Company, Don't Miss This

Epic Quadruple Barrel Baptist is big, bold, and blew us away

In the world of imperial stouts filled with various dessert-like additions, Epic Quadruple Barrel Big Bad Baptist stands alone. This big bottle of ridiculous is how you make a decadent pastry stout.

Big Bad Baptist was supposed to be released under another name – Jack Mormon Imperial Stout, back in 2011. Epic Brewing made a barrel-aged imperial stout brewed with Jack Mormon roasters coffee. Unfortunately, the state of Utah rejected the “Mormon” name, even though it was a homage to their coffee roaster.

Brewery co-founder Dave Cole is a California Baptist and decided to integrate his real-life “Big Bad Baptist” roots into the name.

In that first year, Big Bad Baptist scored a 100 on RateBeer.com, and still maintains that high mark today.

Since the launch, variants of this coveted imperial stout have been released, including a Double Barrel, Triple Barrel, and Big Bad Baptista Imperial Stout. Each one takes a creative step forward. Now there’s Epic Quadruple Barrel Baptist and it really is the best Baptist we’ve ever had.

The brewers at Epic racked their imperial stout to both whiskey and rum barrels. Meanwhile, the team barrel-aged their own coffee beans, coconuts, and almonds. Basically, the only thing that’s not barrel-aged is the cocoa nibs. You might read all that and think, there’s just too much going on here.

You’re not wrong. There are some imperial stouts out there that are packed with chocolate, vanilla, strawberries, lactose, even cookies, and cereal. Some taste great. Some of these coveted imperial stouts are just muddled in flavor. That’s how Epic got this beer right. Scroll up and read everything the brewery put in the beer. Now read the next paragraph.

Every flavor is present in every sip. Your first taste starts with this rich, chocolaty imperial stout which gives way to a balance of subtle almond, coffee, and coconuts that finishes with a mix of vanilla oak and toasted rum sugar. That’s what blew us away. All these flavors are very much there in a beautiful balance, from start to finish. To us, that’s the crossroad of imagination and brewing talent. Epic didn’t just throw all the buzz-worthy additions to a barrel-aged imperial stout and expect a line outside. This is a symphony of barrel blending, and we were some morose tipsy folks when the bottle ran dry.

Epic Quadruple Barrel Big Bad Baptist is available in 22-ounce bottles – an extremely limited release hitting distribution now.

Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Chocolate. Barrel Aged Coffee. Barrel Aged Coconut. Barrel Aged Almonds. Barrel Aged. Whiskey. Rum.)

Hops: Nugget, Chinook, Cascade.
Malts: Muntons Maris Otter Malt, Briess 2-Row Brewers Malt, Crystal Muntons, Weyermann Light Munich Malt I, 2-Row Chocolate Malt 2-Row Black Malt, Roasted Barley.

Availability: 22oz Bottles. Extremely Limited Release.
Debut: Late Oct/Nov 2018

12% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Don't Miss This

“The Brunch Bill” is what Georgians truly agree on. Earlier booze.

The United States may be divided on pretty much everything when it comes to politics. Well, except for one thing. Alcohol.

The State of Georgia finally passed the referendum allowing Sunday sales during the midterm elections of 2011. It wasn’t until September of 2017 that the state’s breweries gained the ability to sell beer directly to their customers. (Incidentally, the state was the last one in America to finally allow this.)

Today, Georgians overwhelmingly agree on something else. Earlier alcohol sales on Sunday.

It’s been called the “Mimosa Mandate” and the “Brunch Bill”. It’s real name is SB17, and it allows for statewide sales of alcohol at 11 am, instead of the current 12:30 pm. 45 metro Atlanta cities and counties approved the measure, allowing the cities and counties to enact it whenever they choose going forward.

Most metro Atlanta cities passed the measure by 70% or higher – in some places with an overwhelming 86% approval.

The city list can be found below, which Beer Street Journal is told is not fully complete. The passage of SB17 “The Brunch Bill” could bring in more than $30,000 extra dollars to on-premise businesses annually, which could mean more jobs and tax revenue.

Atlanta City List

Fayetteville
Peachtree City
Senoia

Cherokee County
Holly Springs
Kennesaw
Woodstock

Cobb County
Acworth
Austell
Kennesaw
Marietta
Powder Springs
Smyrna

DeKalb County
Avondale Estates
Brookhaven
Chamblee
Clarkston
Decatur
Doraville
Dunwoody
Tucker
Stone Mountain

Douglas County
Douglasville

 

Fulton County
Alpharetta
Atlanta
College Park
Hapeville
Johns Creek
Milton
Roswell
Sandy Springs
South Fulton
Union City

Gwinnett County
Braselton
Duluth
Peachtree Corners

Hall County
Braselton
Flowery Branch
Gainesville

 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Brewdog, Don't Miss This

Brewdog launches new streaming craft beer tv, teases with “beer porn” site

Scottish brewer Brewdog has launched their own subscription beer centered tv network this week. The BrewDog Network is available online starting today.

In addition to building production facilities and brewpubs across Europe and most recently Ohio, co-founders Martin Dickie and James Watt have been seen on their “extreme brewing” tv show “Brewdogs”. Their tv show featured the duo going to extremes to brew some interesting beer, like brewing with lava rocks in Hawaii or creating the most expensive beer recipe on earth in Las Vegas.

The tv a show hasn’t been seen since NBCUniversal axed the network last summer. Brewdog has continued filming episodes for their this new streaming network.

The channel features celebrities like William Shatner, Zane Lamprey, and Alison Becker (Shauna Malwae-Tweep from Parks & Rec).

In honor of the launch, Brewdog launched Beer.Porn, a parody site mimicking the number #1 most visited porn site on earth – PornHub. The mock site has some pretty porny sounding video titles like “Josh has an ale-to-mouth adventure”, “Three Bad boys explode everywhere”and “Nerdy brunette loves big cocktails”. All the videos actually deal with booze and not bodily fluids. 24 hours later, the domain redirects to the Brewdog TV landing page.

Brewdogs Beer Porn

The network is free for the first 7 days, and $4.99 a month after the trial concludes. At launch, The Brewdog Network touts 14 original shows.

by Reid Ramsay