Rare Opportunity
The Fred’s 1 Year Anniversary!
Tomorrow, Atlanta’s craft beer speakeasy turns 1! How do you celebrate? Craft beer style! Here’s the lineup…
Terrapin – Moo Hoo CASK! – The first firkin of Terrapin’s newest chocolate milk stout seasonal is tapping @6pm!
Founder’s – Canadian Breakfast Stout – aka CBS. This is their popular KBS aged in a maple syrup barrel. Rare.
Terrapin – So Fresh & So Green, Green. Wet hopped seasonal featuring amarillo hops.
Fred Brick – Steam Beer. Collaboration between Fred Crudder & Red Brick Brewing.
Rodenbach – Oak Aged Vintage 2007. Unblended edition of Brouwerji Palm’s Flemish Sour.
Scaldis Prestige – AKA Bush Prestige. Belgian Strong Pale Ale. 13% ABV. It’s Bush Ambrée aged 6 months in oak instead of steel vats.
Sierra Nevada – Estate Harvest Ale. IPA, 6.7% ABV. – Fresh hopped 100% organic offering from SN.
In addition- since Matt Deckard departed Taco Mac to start Deckard’s Kitchen & Kegs – a new chef has joined the team There will be a food spread to show off his talents. ( Sorry I don’t know his name yet.)
Also, some special taps upstairs at The Prado – Allagash Curieux 2009 Vintage. Avery Hog Heaven 2009/2010. Also, St Bernardus Christmas bottles.
It all starts at 5 pm!
The Fred Bar
5600 Roswell Rd
Atlanta, GA 30342
COMING SOON: Hebrew Jewbelation Vertical Pack
Shmaltz Brewing (San Francisco/NYC) just released Jewbelation 14 in celebration of their 14 years of craft brewing. Just to recap – it’s a big barleywine – 14 hops, 14 malts. The Jewbelation series started in Shmaltz’s 8th year of brewing – with 8 hops, 8 malts, and of course 8% ABV. To celebrate not only the past releases in the series, but also Chanukah, the brewery will be releasing a vertical gift pack.
The vertical pack will feature years 8-14 in 12 oz bottles. There is an 8th bottle included in the gift pack, one I’m especially excited to try. The 8th bottle will contain a blend of all seven years, aged in 6 year Sazerac 6-year rye whiskey barrels. According to the brewery, the aging was between 4-6 months in the barrels, done this year. It will be featured separately on special draft appearances.
If this gift pack didn’t seem fun enough, included in the box is special glass, candles, and instructions on how to make your own beer menorah! You can submit your beer menorah pics to the brewery. Best one wins a prize.
Arrival: November 2010
Beer Tweet Up @5 Seasons West!
In early July, I got to collaborate with Crawford Moran & Matt on a beer. After Crawford and I got to talking, a beer I’d always wanted to try surfaced – a dark saison. I really thought it would be interesting to take a darker spin on the light bodied saison. On brew day we went to work. Starting around 7:30 am we fired up the grain mill. All in all, this beer took about 7 hours to brew from start to finish, and has been fermenting about 3 months.
This Thursday, yours truly (@ATLBeerMaster) , Jennifer Mann (@ATLBeerChick), Wendy Rutherford (@ATL_Events), and John Ashbaugh (@AtlantaBeer) with 5 Seasons West will be getting together to tap the Dark Saison. It will be a pretty cool evening, Wendy has “negotiated” some specials including $3 pours of the Dark Saison, $5 Svedka vodka cocktails, $5 house red & white wine, & 2 for 1 app specials! Be sure to read on to see how this beer is brewed.
5 Seasons Westside -10/7, 6:30-8:30 pm
1000 Marietta St NW
Atlanta, GA
Brewing craft beer takes a bit of time. ( It’s basically an all day affair for just one batch.) The short version – You have to crush your grain, Mash in, sparge, boil, cool, transfer to your fermenter, pitch yeast. and then wait. There is a good bit to talk about in the brewing process. Fair warning – this is a simplified, short, version of the process.
 |
Grain. Every beer begins with grain. Malts to be exact. Malts are crushed in a grain mill to allow water to soak out the fermentable sugars That’s where your alcohol will come from. In this case we used 6oo lbs of malt, including.. |
 |
Mashtun. This is your first step. The grain mill feeds the grain into the mash tun. Here it is soaked between 155-160 degrees. The sugars are being pulled out of the grain. You may hear this referred to as the “tea” |
 |
Sparging. A very important step in the process. The spray nozzles you see is a way of slowly dripping water through the grain to get all the sugars out. This creates a sweet tasting “tea like” liquid called wort. This is a delicate process. If it is done at the wrong temperature, or the pH is incorrect, you will extract tannins from the husks of the grain. This will bitter your beer. (In a bad way.)
|
 |
Brew Kettle. The image to the left is the wort filling up the kettle from the mash tun. Here the wort is boiled, and hop additions are made. Note: What hops are used, and when they are added change the resulting flavor of the beer. |
 |
Hop Addition #1: Whole flower Willamette hops are being added in a bag early in the boil. The bag(s) are tossed in to soak like a teabag. I actually used a stick to fully soak the bags. As you can imagine, it’s a bit warm. |
 |
Belgian Candi Sugar. Belgian candi sugar comes in light & dark versions. It’s literally rock candy you’ve seen as a kid. Candi sugar is commonly used in dubbels & tripels. It boosts alcohol in the beer without adding too much to the body. (Heavier mouthfeel, thick body, etc.) In the image on the left, we are boiling the light candi sugar to pour into the boil. |
 |
Hop Addition #2. This secondary hop addition is a noble hop Hallertau. This are not bagged, but allowed to freely boil. |
 |
Cleaning the tun. As you can see the water has been drained, leaving spent grain behind that needs to be emptied. What I am doing her is harvesting some of the grain to be used to make “Spent Grain” bread in the kitchen. The remaining grain is left for farmers to use as feed/fertilizer, etc. |
 |
Cooling: This is yet another very important step in the process. Water boils at 212 degrees. That’s WAY too hot to introduce live yeast cells. It would be like throwing live crabs into boiling water. They would die. The boiling wort has to be cooled to at least 70 degrees to allow the yeast to be pitched. (next entry) The picture to the left has multiple connections. Here this is connected to the brew kettle. Behind this panel is a series of cooling plates that chills the wort to 70 degrees is literally seconds. Here the beer is being chilled and pumped from the kettle to the fermenter. (Pic to follow) |
 |
Yeast Pitch. The yeast is being pitched into the fermenter here, as it fills. We used a Belgian Saison yeast. |
 |
The Fermenter. Dubbed “The Michael Jordan” because it’s fermenter 23. The location of the primary fermentation. Here the yeast goes to work. |
Local Tap Takeover @ Cypress Street
This weeks Beer Geek Tuesday is big one at Cypress Street. Wes Anderson has gone out of his way to make a night featuring local beers. Expect representation from every brewery (or future brewery, I mean you Monday Night Brewing) on hand for the event. In case you don’t know everyone I’m talking about – Sweetwater Brewing, Red Brick Brewing, Terrapin Brewing, Wild Heaven Craft Beer, Twains, and Jailhouse Brewing. As if the beer isn’t enough, enjoy conversations with some of the brewers themselves, brewery representatives, distributors, even members of local craft beer stores. Continue on for the tap and guest list!
Tap List:
Sweetwater Crank Tank
Sweetwater Sch’Wheat
Terrapin Reunion
2010 Terrapin Big Hoppy Monste
Redbrick Octoberfest
Redbrick Pale Ale
Wild Heaven Ode to Mercy
Wild Heaven Invocation
Jail House Breakout Stout
Jail House Mugshot IPA
Odempsey’s Big Red
Odempsey’s IPA
Confirmed Special Guests-
Randy O’Dempsey (President, Brewmaster, O’Dempsey’s)
Nick Purdy (President, Sales, Wild Heaven)
Brian O’Connell (Beer Pimp, SweetWater)
Chris Caban (Sales, Redbrick) – Other Redbrick staff
Chad Baker (Sales, Jailhouse)
Glen Golden (Brewmaster, Jailhouse)
Steve Hayes (Sales, Terrapin)
Jordan Fleetwood (Brewmaster, Twains)
Potential Guests:
Matt Wells (Savannah Distributing)
Bobby Marek (United Distributing)
Carla Jan (United Distributing)
Jim Brooks (GA Crown) –
Michael Vandura (General Distributing)
Really Special Awesome Guests
Me! – AtlantaBeerMaster.com (LOL)
The Local Beer Tap Takeover for Beer Geek Tuesday kicks off @ 7pm!
Cypress Street
817 West Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30308
Twitter: @CypressStreet
Terrapin’s Hop Harvest This Saturday!
This Saturday, Terrapin Brewing in Athens, Georgia hosts they’re first “Hop Harvest”! From Terrapin-
Terrapin Beer Co is hosting a celebration of “everything hoppy” with their 1st annual “Hop Harvest Festival” this weekend Saturday September 25th from 4:30 — 7:30pm.
The featured beer of the night will be the first ever pouring of Terrapin’s new fresh hop (or “wet —hop”) limited-release beer “So Fresh & So Green Green”. This very special beer is brewed with Amarillo hops cones flown in overnight from the Yakima Valley in Washington earlier this month. Brian “Spike” Buckowski, co — founder & brew master at the brewery, plans to make this beer annually so Saturday will be the beginning of a Terrapin tradition!
Terrapin will also serve 6 casks of ale each dry hopped with a different variety of hops. These casks will offer people a unique tasting opportunity to identify the distinguishing characteristics of different hop varietals. These unique casks will be tapped at 5:30.
Other plans for the festivities include!
- Special guests John Isenhour from Hop Union and Patrick LaZell from Country Malt Group/Canada Malting Company to explain the unique role hops play in the brewing process and to educate visitors about the history and biology of these bittering beauties.
- Farm 255 will have their mobile Farm Cart on hand with locally grown farm to table goodies for sale.
- Live music by the Welfare Liners local Athens Bluegrass favorites.
- Hopzilla, Big Hoppy Monster, Hopsecutioner, Hop Karma and more of your favorite hoppy beers from Terrapin!
Terrapin Beer Co. Brewery – 9/25/10, 4:30-7:30 pm
265 Newton Bridge Road
Athens, GA
Duvel Tripel Hop
Duvel Moortgat started experimenting with extra hop additions in their now famous brew “Duvel” prior to 2007. The idea came from an old advertisement for Moortgat “Hopbier” from many years ago. In 2007, this hoppy version of Duvel was released, and sold out in a matter of hours. When the idea came up to brew it again, the brewery made this stipulation. Their facebook page had to break 10,000 fans.
As you can probably assume, the 10,000 mark was exceeded and the beer has arrived. 3 varieties of hops were chosen for Tripel Hop. Styrian Golding and Saaz are used in the original Duvel, with Amarillo joining the party in this beer. Tripel is dry hopped with Styrian Golding.
Beer Rundown:
Style: Belgian Strong Pale
Hops: Styrian Golding, Amarillo, Saaz
Malts: Unspecified
Taste Expectations: Floral hops. Spicy flavors. Belgian candi sugar and yeast. Effervescent & crisp. With a finish of Duvel signature hop bitter, and some alcohol.
Availability: 750ml Corked & Caged. Very limited release. Retail $18
9.5% ABV
The Porter’s 2nd Anniversary!
The Porter is turning 2! Here’s a great reason to get excited. THE BEER! Today, September 11, 2010 The Porter Beer Bar in Little 5 Points here in Atlanta will celebrate with an awesome tap lineup.
Quick backstory on The Porter –
Molly Gunn and husband Nick have a love of good beer. Having been to various great beer bars around the country (and working in some too!) Molly and Nick decided it was time to start one themselves. After spotting a empty location in little 5 Points and signing a lease, they got to work. The goal, a bar with great beer and great food. One year later, I would have to say they have accomplished that goal.
Here’s the list!
Founder’s Kentucky Breakfast Stout – Imperial Stout, 11.2% ABV. Coffee, vanilla oak. Amazing
Founder’s Canadian Breakfast Stout – Imperial Stout, 9.4% ABV. Popular KBS in Maple. RARE!
Allagash Blonde – American Blonde Ale, 8.2% ABV. Limited release. Light fruits. High carb.
Allagash Fluxus 2010 – Imperial Stout, 10.3% ABV. Brewed with cacao nibs. Roasty malts, bitter chocolate. Light coffee.
Smuttynose Oak-Aged Triple – 9% ABV. Oak, sweet notes. Light fruits like pear/apple.
Smuttynose G-Bock – Doppelbock, 9% ABV. Caramel, toffee, alcohol. Some plum.
Smuttynose Rougue D’Shire – Flanders Red, 5% ABV. Sweet & sour. Lactic, and raspberries. Unique.
Malheur 10 – Belgian Strong Pale, 10% ABV. Sweet, malty, fruity, boozy.
De Molen Engels – English Bitter, 4.5 ABV. Sweet malts. Lemon, citrus. Biscuit and bread.
J.W. Lees – Moonraker Ale – Winter Warmer, 7.5% ABV. Notes of cherry, bread. Spicy & sweet.
Podge Imperial Stout – 10.5% ABV. Sweet roasty malts, raisins, dates, plums. Full bodied. Chocolate.
Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouche Brut 2007 – Sweet French Cider!
Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouche Brut 2008 – Sweet French Cider!
BFM La Douze – American Pale Ale, 6.5% ABV. Pale malts. Grassy hops, grapefruit and orange. Crisp.
Petrus Aged Pale Ale – Flanders Oud Bruin, 7.3% ABV. Sweet malt, light sour fruits, nice carbonation. Some spice.
There are actually more than this… some secrets YET to be revealed… More to follow.
The Porter
1156 Euclid Avenue Northeast
Atlanta, GA 30307
