Now Tapping

Cypress Street’s Beer Geek Tuesday 3/23

It’s Tuesday again, one of 7 great nights for drinking great beer.   Tonight at Cypress Street, Terrapin Brewing (Athens, Ga) is the featured brewer.  I’ve already mentioned the cask – Terrapin Hopsecutioner w/ whiskey chips.  The Capt’n will be Continue Reading →

Cypress Street’s Beer Geek Tuesday – 3/16

A salute to St. Patrick’s Day! Nitro Stouts for all!

Here’s your lineup –

Victory Donnybrook Irish Stout – 3.7% ABV.  German Whole Flower Hops, German 2 Row Barley, Roasted Barley.  Only available on draft – for CO2  or Nitrogen.  Fantastic on Continue Reading →

Now Tapping: Brooklyn Cookie Jar Porter

Brooklyn Cookie Jar Porter.  Sound tasty? It better.  Cookie Jar Porter joins Brooklyn’s Brewmaster’s Reserve Series, brewed in small batches, and are draft only.

Born out of a discussion around a roaring fire, brewer Tom Price mentioned that his friend’s bakery Continue Reading →

Bottle Spotlight- Beer Geek Breakfast

This beer just was just tapped at Brick Store Pub, so it’s prompted me to write another bottle spotlight.  Mikkeller Brewery is based out of Denmark, first opened in 2006.  The name Mikkeller is a combination of the two brewer’s Continue Reading →

Now Tapping @ Beer Geek Tuesday

Tonight, in addition to the French Broad Wee Heavy-er Cask at Cypress Street will be 3 beers recently released.  In now particular order –

Sweetwater’s BSP Quad – Belgian Quadtruple, 11% ABV.  American interpretation of the Belgian Continue Reading →

Posted in Casks, Now Tapping, Terrapin Beer Company

Cypress Street’s Beer Geek Tuesday 3/23

It’s Tuesday again, one of 7 great nights for drinking great beer.   Tonight at Cypress Street, Terrapin Brewing (Athens, Ga) is the featured brewer.  I’ve already mentioned the cask – Terrapin Hopsecutioner w/ whiskey chips.  The Capt’n will be making an appearance too.    Here’s your rundown.

CASK – Hopsecutioner. American IPA, 7.2% ABV.  Newest full time offering by Terrapin, and only the 2nd distributed IPA in the Atlanta market.  The brewers at Terrapin soaked American oak chips in Woodford Reserve Kentucky Bourbon, then added those chips to the cask.  Woodford Reserve is very bold, and presents very well on the palette.  Looking forward to this one.

Capt’n Krunkles – IPA, 7.5% ABV.  Newest Side Project release by Terrapin – #10.  Unofficially a black IPA, Krunkles is a hoppy IPA with dark roasty malts.  Hops include – Warrior, Columbus, Nugget, Centennial, Simcoe.  Dry Hopped w/ Ahtanum.  Malts – 2 Row Pale, Dark Munich, Crystal 24, DH Carafa III.  I think you’re in for a pleasant surprise.

Rye Squared – Imperial IPA, 8.5% ABV.  Part of Terrapin’s Monster Beer Tour, limited seasonal release.  Lots of strong aromatic & bittering hops. Hops include – Magnum, Fuggle, East Kent, Golding, Cascade, Amarillo (Dry Hop.)  Released in February.  Balanced, clean, cellars well.

All beers tap tonight at 7pm! Come hear Cypress Street brag about their People’s Choice Cask win at Sweetwater’s Brew Your Cask Off on Saturday! Congratulations again!

Cypress Street Pint & Plate 3/9, 7pm
817 W. Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA
by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Now Tapping

Cypress Street’s Beer Geek Tuesday – 3/16

A salute to St. Patrick’s Day! Nitro Stouts for all!

Here’s your lineup –

Victory Donnybrook Irish Stout – 3.7% ABV.  German Whole Flower Hops, German 2 Row Barley, Roasted Barley.  Only available on draft – for CO2  or Nitrogen.  Fantastic on Nitro.

Guinness Draught – 4.2% ABV.  Dublin, Ireland’s keystone brewery.  As if I need to introduce you to this one.

In Bottle –

Murphy’s Irish Red – 5% ABV. Hails from Cork, Ireland.  Toasted grain notes w/ some mild bitter.

Paired with these beers will be Corned Beef & Cabbage ($7) , and Bangers and Mash($7).  In case you don’t know -Mashed Potatoes and Sausage.

These beers are featured alongside a great craft lineup.  All starts at 7. Sorry for the short update.  I have to get drinking myself!

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Brooklyn Brewing, Now Tapping

Now Tapping: Brooklyn Cookie Jar Porter

Brooklyn Cookie Jar Porter.  Sound tasty? It better.  Cookie Jar Porter joins Brooklyn’s Brewmaster’s Reserve Series, brewed in small batches, and are draft only.

Born out of a discussion around a roaring fire, brewer Tom Price mentioned that his friend’s bakery made some of the best oatmeal cookies.  The conversation then turned to how good oatmeal cookies are with beer.  (And they are if you haven’t tried them.  Oatmeal cookies and Terrapin’s Wake & Bake? DAMN GOOD.) In the end, the fireside round table attendees were talking about how good oatmeal cookies would be IN beer.  Like I just mentioned, Terrapin’s Wake & Bake uses oatmeal, as does Founder’s Breakfast Stout, Breckenridge Oatmeal, Wolaver’s Oatmeal, & Sam Smith’s.  It’s tasty, and adds depth to a stout/porter.

Tom Price’s friends at Feed Your Soul Bakery in Jersey City, NJ makes the oatmeal cookies in which he raves.  After some market research (read: eating cookies,) Cookie Jar Porter was brewed with floor-malted barley malt, golden oats, raisins, brown sugar, honey, vanilla beans and a subtle dash of spice.  That’s not all.  Coffee, chocolate, and caramel flavors are thrown in for added depth and complexity.   Each of these flavors are prevalent, its a fun beer to drink and sort out on your palette.

Ingredients –

Hops – Willamette

Malts – Floor Malted Marris Otter (In other words, Malted AT Brooklyn) , Crystal, Chocolate & Caramel

Other Grains – Whole Golden Oats

Also – Brown Sugar, Pureed Raisins, Tremblay Farms Wildflower Honey.

7.8 ABV


Note:  You can order these amazing cookies online – Feed Your Soul Bakery

NOW TAPPING:  The Porter Beer Bar (3/16)

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Mikkeller, Now Tapping

Bottle Spotlight- Beer Geek Breakfast

This beer just was just tapped at Brick Store Pub, so it’s prompted me to write another bottle spotlight.  Mikkeller Brewery is based out of Denmark, first opened in 2006.  The name Mikkeller is a combination of the two brewer’s names — Mikkel Borg Bjergso and Kristian Klarup Keller.  Beer Geek Breakfast finds its way into a lot of beer geek arsenals, so get to know this beer to impress the beer geek in your life.

Beer Geek Breakfast (BGB) is an Imperial Stout with oatmeal & coffee flavors.   (Sounds like a part of a balanced breakfast.)  In tasting, you will note bittersweet chocolate notes, offset by sweet oatmeal.  Roasted malts and coffee are present.  Coffee is stronger on the palette than in the nose.

Ingredients —

Hops — Centennial, Cascade

Malts — Pilsner, Oat, Smoked, Caramunich, Brown, Pale Chocolate, Chocolate

Extras — Roasted Barley, Flaked Oats, Gourmet Coffee

Yeast — Ale

7.5% ABV

Availablity — 750 ML Bottles, Rare Draft Offerings.  Tapped last night 3/8 at Brick Store Pub!  Also, I believe The Porter is also tapping it!

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Now Tapping

Now Tapping: Gluten Free @ 5 Seasons West

This is the first time I have seen a gluten free offering by a brewpub.  At least in Atlanta anyway.   Crawford Moran at 5 Seasons West has teamed up with their highly talented Chef  Dave to create gluten free Mondays.

The inability to process gluten is a medical condition called Celiac disease.  If you suffer from Celiac disease – drinking beer which is made with wheat and barley, will cause an array of issues including abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea.  Celiacs have a damaged lower intestine that can’t process proteins found in rye, barley, and wheat.  Beer draws sugars from these grains in order to ferment them into alcohol.  The solution to this is substitute these grains with celiac friendly sorghum to draw sugars for fermentation.

This substitution is exactly what Crawford Moran did.  Instead of barley, he used sorghum for fermentable sugars.  He also used buckwheat and roasted buckwheat for extra flavor.  The yeast is  gluten free American Ale yeast.  Cascade hops were used for their strong aromatics, and some bitterness.  The yet unnamed beer is a pale ale, with emphasis on the hops which makes rather unique in the world of gluten free beers.  The current commerical options in the gluten free realm tend to be more malt forward ales and lagers. This would the be first pale ale I’ve come across.

In addition this beer, Chef Dave at 5 Seasons West will be offering various entrees and small plates that a free of glutens to compliment this new offering on Mondays.

Hops – Cascade

Malts – Gluten Free Sorghum, Buckwheat

Yeast – Gluten Free Ale Yeast

5% ABV

Tapping today, 3/1 @ 5 Seasons West!

1000 West Marietta Street Northwest
Atlanta, GA 30318-0524
(404) 875-3232

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Dogfish Head, Now Tapping, SweetWater Brewing, Terrapin Beer Company

Now Tapping @ Beer Geek Tuesday

Tonight, in addition to the French Broad Wee Heavy-er Cask at Cypress Street will be 3 beers recently released.  In now particular order –

Sweetwater’s BSP Quad – Belgian Quadtruple, 11% ABV.  American interpretation of the Belgian Quad style.  This strong beer has a lot going on, including hops and brett yeast.  Some sweet with dark fruits.  While 11%, it doesn’t really taste that way.  Limited release from the Dank Tank.

Terrapin Rye Squared – DIPA, 8.5% ABV.  Note citrus hops, malts, sweet tones in this season offering from Terrapin.  Rye add some spice and pulls it all together.  Seasonal release.

Dogfish Head Black & Blue – Fruit Beer, 11% ABV.  Belgian golden ale w/ pureed blackberries and blueberries.  Flavor seems to meld seemlessly w/ the golden ale.  Not often found on draft. Limited release.

Also, don’t forget the French Broad Cask! All tapping as a part of Beer Geek Tuesday’s at Cypress Street in Midtown.  While there, make sure you geek out with beer manager Wes Anderson.  It all starts at 7 pm tonight!

Cypress Pint & Plate
817 W Peachtree Street Northwest
Atlanta, GA 30308
 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in New Releases, Now Tapping

NOW TAPPING – 5 Seasons West Nitro Stout

5 Seasons West just tapped their first Nitro Stout, something brewer Crawford Moran has been wanting to do for a while.

Nitro Stout has everything to do with their other stout offering, Dark Star Stout but with a difference in gas – i.e. nitrogen.  A little technical info – CO2 dissolves very well into beer.  Thus, where the head and carbonation in your pour comes from.  In order to push some of the nitrogen into the stout, Crawford pressurized the keg to 40 psi for a few days.  ( Regular kegs pressured at 14 PSI or less , or pounds per square inch) This pushes some nitrogen into the stout.   Final piece of the process is the nitro tap nozzle.  You’ve seen them, they look like  a black cone  on end of the tap.  It’s job is to separate the nitrogen from the beer, essentially foaming and fluffing up the beer.  It’s that process that gives the nitro tapped beers the big foamy head, and creamy body.

5 seasons West’s Nitro stout is just that.  Rich, creamy with a nice, full mouthfeel.  There are hints of coffee, but not from coffee – from roasted malts.  Dark Star doesn’t present with the coffee tones, but after the nitrogen tap, coffee shows up in full force.  Willamette hops are used in both beers (well, same beer.)

Nitro Stout is tapping now at the 5 Seasons West Skybar, typically open Wednesday – Sunday.  My mouth is watering as I sit here writing this.  I’ve only had one pint to date, and have wanted it again ever since.  I think that might kick off my weekend.

5% ABV

1000 West Marietta Street Northwest
Atlanta, GA 30318-0524
(404) 875-3232

by Reid Ramsay