Brewery Tours and Beer Store Tastings in South Carolina

Posted on June 8, 2010 by Brian

It’s official, the governor signed bill H.4572 yesterday, so it is now law. That means that breweries and stores in South Carolina can legally allow customers to sample beers. It also allows breweries to sell a limited amount of beer directly to customers from the brewery.

While this is a big step for craft beer in South Carolina and I’m very excited to see progress being made, I have to temper my visions of what will come from this bill.

We’re still a ways off from the scene I witnessed on Friday night at the Highland Brewery outside of Asheville, where they had a band, a trailer grill cooking meat, and kids running around while their parents sat in canvas chairs on the lawn drinking beer and talking.

Bill H.4572 is very limited. It allows for sampling at breweries and stores. You still can’t get a full pint of beer. I don’t know about you, but it’s tough to throw a party when you can only have two ounce samples.

Now, let me try to clear some of my raincloud from the sky. This is still a very important bill for both breweries and beer stores in South Carolina. It allows these businesses to have more direct contact with customers in order to develop relationships and to educate.

That is the foundation of the craft beer industry and why it continues to grow while macro sales are in decline. There’s a reason North Carolina has more than 30 breweries and there are five in South Carolina. This bill had to pass if we were to have any hope of supporting new breweries and growing craft beer in this state.

This is a time to celebrate another victory for craft beer drinkers and those yet to come over to the good side. So get thee to a brewery near you and buy a case of beer.

Here are some of the details from the new bill:

Brewery Tastings & Sales

  • Tastings and beer sales must be done in conjunction with a tour of the “entire brewing process utilized at the licensed premises.”
  • Samples are limited to four ounces of beer under 8% alcohol by weight and two ounces of beer over 8% ABW.
  • Only four brands of beer can be sampled by a customer in a 24-hour period.
  • A brewery can sell up to 288 ounces (a case of 24 12-ounce bottles) to an individual per day.

Retail Tastings

  • The retailer must notify the State Law Enforcement Division of the tasting at least 10 days in advance.
  • Only eight products can be sampled at a tasting event.
  • No more than one container of each product can be open at one time. Not sure what that has to do with anything, but that’s cool.
  • Samples can only be two ounces for a beer under 8% ABW and one ounce for a beer over 8% ABW.
  • Only two of the products sampled can be over 10% ABW.
  • A person can only get one sample of each product.
  • A tasting can last no longer than four hours.
  • A single retail establishment can only have 24 tastings per calendar quarter.
Posted in Beer-related news | Leave a comment

English Phil’s Summer Ale

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Brian

On May 8, my friend Phil married his betrothed, Meredith. It was a delightful ceremony at a winery outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. The rehearsal dinner and reception took place nearby at Meredith’s parents’ house, a mere 18th century farm house. I wrote about some of this experience in my Cornhole Comeback post a few weeks ago.

A couple months before the wedding, I decided to brew up a beer to bring to the rehearsal dinner as my wedding gift. What do you expect from a homebrewer, His and Her Pillowcases for Lovers?

The rehearsal was going to be a casual, outdoor barbeque with a wide range of guests, so something light was in order. I’m usually one for trying to push people’s palates and challenge them to try something new, but I thought I would use this opportunity to try something new myself: brewing a session beer.

As I started to look through style guides and recipes for lighter beers, I came across the old standbys like pale ales, english bitters, brown porters and the like. Then I stumbled across a style I don’t believe I’ve seen commercially, but sounded like it fit the bill: english summer ale.

According to the Brewer’s Association style guide, an English-style Summer Ale is ”light straw to golden colored with medium-low to medium bitterness, light to medium-light body, and low to medium residual malt sweetness… The overall impression is refreshing and thirst quenching.” Sounded good to me.

I set out to develop my recipe, and once I settled on my ingredients, I found it an incredibly easy and inexpensive beer to brew. Due to it’s light nature, it was easy on the malt and low in hops. I can see now why it’s so appealing for the big boys to push light beer on the public. Despite the low price, their margins are pretty good.

Not only was it easy to brew, but it fermented and finished very quickly. It was pretty much done fermenting in three days. I gave it a week in secondary to clarify then kegged it.

I think I’m going to continue on this session beer theme and try some other styles. I’m really digging the drinkability and low-cost, while still delivering a satisfying flavor. Next up will be a session porter. Stay tuned.

The Name

So where did the name come from? I’ll give you the abbreviated version of the story. Our friend Phil has a rich and colorful history within our circle of friends. Some people, such as Phil, seem to easily attract and retain nicknames. Among the half-dozen or so I can think of off the top of my head, one is “English Phil.” He earned this nickname from the photograph below.

Over a New Year’s Eve gathering a few years back, we stayed at a mountain house in Asheville. One particular afternoon, while most of us were already slinging beers, Phil sat fireside drinking tea. We thought this highly amuzing and thus dubbed him English Phil, because, well, it just seemed like the English thing to do.

Years later, the nickname remains, and it seemed the perfect name for Phil’s wedding beer.

About the Beer

English Phil’s Summer Ale is a light, straw-colored ale with a white, foamy head. The head lingers nicely for several minutes after pouring.

The body is light, but present. It’s not watery and actually has some substance to it for such a light beer. The aroma is bready and subtle. No hops present.

The flavor is crisp with a toasted malt character. No hops in the forefront, though there is a very slight, nearly imperceptible bitterness on the back end. It finishes clean without a lot of aftertaste.

Overall, it does what it set out to do. It’s light, clean and highly drinkable. I actually like the flavor, and for a light beer I feel like it brings a subtle malt complexity that is absent from your standard American Golden Lager.

If I were to do it again, which I probably will at some point, I think some hop flavor and aroma would be a nice touch, but just enough to perceive, not so as to take away from the malt.

Recipe to make 10 gallons

12 lbs Maris Otter
0.5 lbs caravienne
0.5 lbs honey malt
0.5 lbs carapils
0.15 lbs special B

1.25 oz Willamette (60 min)
1.0 oz Willamette (20 min)
1.5 oz Willamette (0 min)

Wyeast 1098 British Ale

Original Gravity: 1.040
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV: 3.4%
SRM: 7
IBU: 20

Posted in Homebrew, Recipes | 3 Comments

Dogfish Head is loose in Greenville

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Brian

Last night was Dogfish Head’s Greenville release party at Barley’s Tap Room. It was a day I was eagerly awaiting for a long time. Dogfish Head is one of the most revered breweries by beer geeks in the world.

More accurately, they are probably the most polarizing brewery in the world. Long ago, in 1994 when Sam Calagione founded the brewery with the tag line “Off-centered ales for off-centered people,” he wanted to push the boundaries of what had been done. They have created some of the biggest, craziest, weirdest and tastiest beers around.

However, when you step out like that, people are either going to love you or hate you. Or at least love a beer or hate a beer. There is no middle ground.

Last night at Barley’s was a perfect illustration. It’s rare to be at a table full of fairly sophisticated beer drinkers and see the range of strong reactions on people’s faces as they tried beer. It went from pure bliss to all-out disgust. There was no, “Oh, it’s alright.”

I’m guessing Sam would be happy with that.

The lineup we were treated to last night was amazing. On draft we had 90 Minute IPA, Palo Santo Marron, Punkin and Black & Blue. In bottles were Olde School Barleywine, 120 Minute IPA, Fort and World Wide Stout.

It was my first time having the Olde School, Palo Santo and World Wide. Olde School and World Wide were big, strong beers bursting with malt and alcohol. Obviously, at 15% and 18% ABV, respectively, these are sipping beers. More than a sampler glass would be too much. I really enjoyed their flavor, but I think they could use 3 to 5 years of aging to mellow and achieve their peak.

I found the Palo Santo to be the most intriguing of the night. It’s a 12% ABV brown ale aged in Paraguayan Palo Santo wood. The wood aging gave the beer a very unique smokey character. It was more subtle than a truly smoked beer, but it was balanced and tasty. Then again, I am on a smoked beer kick, so take that as you will.

Welcome to Greenville, Dogfish Head. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Posted in Breweries | Leave a comment

The Cornhole Comeback

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Brian

This has nothing to do with beer. Well, I suppose it does because I was drinking beer while playing cornhole, but I feel like I have to share this story, even if no one else cares.

Last year at a spring cookout, my friend Andy and I paired up to play cornhole against a few friends. We managed to supplant the pair that had just won 7 straight games. We ran the table that day, winning 8 or 9 games in a row. Having demoralized the competition, the others gave up.

A few months later at our fantasy football draft, we played cornhole after the draft. Andy and I once again teamed up. We won an around 25 games in a row and were not defeated that day. We played so much cornhole that Andy’s elbow hurt for about a week. I’m not making that up.

By this point, our friends were convinced we were somehow cheating or that foul play was afoot. I’m not sure how you cheat at cornhole, since each team has players throwing at the same board, but we had them cussing up a storm. It was unreal, considering our friends are not paraplegics.

Individually, Andy and I are pretty good. I have lost many times with other partners, so it’s not like I’m some ringer that never misses. However, when we’re teamed up, for whatever reason when one of us has an off game, the other is able to step it up.

This past weekend, we all met up once again in Virginia for my friend Phil’s wedding. The rehearsal dinner and reception were both outside at his bride’s parents’ farmhouse. It was a beautiful setting for a wedding weekend.

And they had cornhole.

News of Andy and my exploits traveled far and wide, so of course everyone was challenging us to duels. Friday night we took on all comers, around 15 more wins. Saturday night after the reception, we played again.

Andy and I getting in a little practice between games.

A few other wedding guests cleared out an alley among the tables under the big top so we could play under the lights. We had heard rumors that one of the girls was a cornhole ringer. Apparently she won an iPod at a cornhole tournament or something. Perhaps this would be where it all ended.

We took on the ringer with her on my side. After some dispute over rules and scoring, we managed to get the game along. She was dead serious, and I’ll admit my competitive juices were flowing. There was no way we were losing to this girl.

She was good, and we matched each other nearly toss for toss. Luckily, her boyfriend would have had trouble hitting the broad side of a barn, and the girl even called him out mid-game on the PA system. It was high comedy. Andy managed to annihilate the poor guy, so we took the match.

Andy under the lights.

Streak alive. And then, the real game began.

The Comeback

Every man, deep down, wants more than anything to be clutch. To come through when it counts with his back to the wall and all the pressure bearing down to test his true mettle.

We all dream of hitting the walk-off home run, sinking the game-winning three-pointer as time expires, or heaving the hail mary that fall into a receiver’s arms as the clock reads zero.

I remember Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run in the 1988 World Series, Jordan’s game winner against Craig Ehlo and the Cavaliers in the 1989 playoffs, and of course, John Elway’s many comebacks, none bigger than the The Drive in the 1986 AFC Championship game.

Around 11 pm, as the reception was winding down and most guests had left, Andy and I squared off in a match against Red and Kurt. We’d played many times against Red and knew he had skill, but Kurt was a newcomer to cornhole. However, he’s one of those naturally gifted people who you can tell pick things up quickly. We knew this would be a formidable team.

Red and I facing off.

Red and Kurt got out to a quick start, up 12-5. (We played to 21.) Then, Red tossed one of the best rounds I’ve ever seen, sinking all four of his shots in the hole. I thought we were done. I was so overwhelmed by Red gunning us down that I didn’t notice Andy had sunk one in the hole. Add in the two he laid on the board and we were now down 19-5.

After regrouping, both teams struggled a bit the next two rounds and the score was 20-6. No more room for error, we could not give up a single point from here on out or the streak would be done.

I was up, tossing against Kurt. After three tosses, we each laid two bags on the board. Then Kurt sunk a cornhole. I was down to my last toss, needing to hit it in the hole to keep our 50+ game streak alive.

I took a deep breath, lined it up, and let fly. I nailed the shot, barely touching wood. Andy rushed over and threatened to kiss me on the lips, but we made due with a few chest bumps.

I knew, even at the time, that if we somehow managed to complete this comeback, this was the moment. The back-to-the-wall shot to stay alive.

Since I never played seriously competitive sports, rec league basketball being my highest level of competition, I don’t have very many do-or-die moments that really had anything on the line.

I do remember one in particular, a basketball game my senior year of high school. We were down one with a few seconds left. I can’t remember if we diagramed a play (probably not), but we inbounded the ball from under our basket. The other team tried to press and I somehow managed to break free down the court and no one followed me to defend.

One of my teammates passed the ball ahead to me, and not having a great sense for the clock, I stopped at the free-throw line to shoot rather than risking a layup and having time run out. I missed the shot. Though minor, that memory has stuck with me for a long time.

The game-saving toss to stay alive seemed to rattle Kurt and Red, while it put Andy and I into an amazing groove. It seemed we led off each round with a shot in the hole to immediately put the pressure on our opponents. A few rounds later, I recall hitting three cornholes and laying the forth on the board. We just exploded.

Suddenly, the score was 20-20. It came down to me and Kurt. I hit the first toss in the hole. Kurt matched it, right in the hole. I laid one on the board, he matched it. Then I hit another in the hole. Kurt missed. I missed. Kurt missed.

I fell to my knees like Brandi Chastain in the World Cup. Andy about threw me through the tent in a grizzly bear hug. It was pandemonium. Well, as pandemonius as two people can be.

We played a few more games that night, leaving the streak in tact somewhere in the neighborhood of 60. I don’t know the exact amount, but I do know that’s insane.

Over the course of sixty games, there is no logical explanation as to how we could not have a bad game and catch someone else on a great game. We’re not that good, and our competition hasn’t been that bad.

Andy and I have talked about traveling around to college football tailgates and hustling drunk frat boys, or perhaps going on the American Cornhole Association tournament circuit.

We will lose sometime soon. We are vulnerable, as Red and Kurt showed us. No matter when the streak comes to an end, it’s been an incredibly fun ride. For the first time in my life, I’ve been on a team that’s unbeatable.

It’s a neat feeling, even if it is just cornhole.

(Photographs courtesy of Matthew Johnson)

Posted in Untamedbeer news | 13 Comments

BrewGnome’s Belgian Golden Strong takes the pendant

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Brian

On Saturday, BrewGnome, also known as Nicole, won her first homebrew award at this month’s Upstate Brewtopians homebrew club meeting with her Untamed Beer: Brew Gnome Signature Series Nicolie-Belgique Golden Strong Ale.

This brew was Nicole’s first time taking the reigns as lead brewer. It was very hard or me to sit back during the brewing process, but I managed to play nice as assistant brewer and consultant.

The Nicolie-Belgique was inspired by Stone’s Cali-Belgique IPA, an American-hopped Belgian-style IPA. She started out with a strong pale grain bill, and hopped the hell out of it with Amarillo and Cascade, and fermented with a Belgian Strong Ale yeast.

The result was an 8% golden pale ale with a sweet malt backbone balanced by a tremendous amount of citrus hop flavor and aroma. She went easy on the bittering hops, so it doesn’t destroy your mouth with bitterness on the finish. Despite all the malt and hops, the finish is nicely dry.

All-in-all, it’s an exceptionally well-balanced, big beer with a lot of flavor and wonderful aroma. I knew from the moment I first quaffed the magnificent aroma that it would win the Brewtopians competition.

I think Nicole’s ego is officially out of control since winning, but it’s well-deserved. After all, you gotta go gnome or go home.

Posted in Homebrew | 6 Comments

Bringing BottleTree to the World

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Brian

Last Monday I had the privilege of being a part of bringing a new beer into the world. It was the first bottling run for the pilot batch of BottleTree Blonde. BottleTree, based out of Tryon, NC, is the culmination of the dream of engineer turned homebrewer turned commercial beer maker, Fred Block.

Fred Block holding a couple of his babies.

The pilot beer is a belgian-style blonde ale which I think it’s going to make a big splash once it hits the market. It’s crystal-clear golden yellow with a light body, slight sweetness and a dry finish. It also has a perceptibly tart twist at the end.

Fred’s aim with this beer was to make it a refreshing, accessible gateway beer for people who typically don’t drink craft beer, but with enough complexity that will satisfy the beer geek. However, this isn’t a “light” beer in the traditional sense. It’s 6% ABV, but you’d never know it by how light and crisp it is.

I give it my stamp of approval. I think it would make an excellent summer session beer.

The Dream of BottleTree

Fred’s story in creating BottleTree is one of those down-home, American business stories that ought to inspire any aspiring homebrewer or entrepreneur.

Around 8 years ago, Fred discovered homebrewing while researching thermodynamics for his professional engineering exam. He found some info on the thermodynamic aspects of brewing and was instantly hooked on the process. He started reading everything he could find on brewing for more than four hours a day after work nearly every day.

Being an engineer, he started building process maps, high level at first, then drilling down and expanding each piece into more and more detail. And believe me, I’ve seen his homebrew system, he’s done his homework.

Almost immediately, Fred knew he wanted to go commercial. He started planning and after more than 600 hours of research over eight years, he finally caught the break he was looking for.

Fred happened to run into Tom and Bill Davis, the owners of Thomas Creek in Greenville, SC, at an Octoberfest celebration in the fall of 2009. After telling the Davis’s his plans for BottleTree, they were interested in working with him to brew the beer. Seven months later the pilot batch rolled off the bottling line.

Now, don’t let my terse description give the impression it’s been an easy process. Fred has had to deal with a lot of rejection and doubters along the way.

Rejected by banks, Fred has risked his personal life savings to make this happen. Rejected by other breweries, he had no idea how his beer would be brewed until his chance meeting with Thomas Creek. It sounds cliche, but through it all he never doubted himself and never gave up on his dream.

Fred has sent most of the 32-case pilot batch out to 18 distributors in seven Southeastern states looking to see who wants a piece of the action. Early signs look good, as distributors who have heard about what Fred is doing have actually been calling him, which is remarkable for a start-up venture.

Fred describes BottleTree’s philosophy as creating unique beers that most people would enjoy. Once the Blonde kicks in the doors, Fred said his next style will likely be an American Pale with fresh ginger root. That was his first award winning homebrew, and it’s only appropriate that it be the next beer in the BottleTree lineup.

There’s a long road ahead, but I want to congratulate Fred on achieving this milestone. I hope he’s able to take a moment to pause and soak it all in. It’s one hell of an accomplishment to get to this point, and I’m looking forward to buying my first six-pack.

Posted in Breweries | 3 Comments

Greenville Beer Week

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Brian

This past week could have been classified as Greenville’s Unofficial Beer Week. It was anchored by Saturday’s Top of the Hops Festival, Greenville’s first major beer festival. Barley’s Tap Room and Thomas Creek Brewery, Greenville’s craft beer standard bearers, were the presenting sponsors, and they did not take that responsibility lightly. They picked it up and combined to throw one hell of a week-long party.

Let’s take a sentimental journey, though I will admit after four days of going out (I took Wednesday off for my own personal safety) the journey is slightly hazy.

Tuesday: The Gubna Comes To Town

On Tuesday night, Adam Mundy from Oskar Blues was on hand at Barley’s to unleash the Gubna Imperial IPA on our town. Not only did Adam bring Gubna thunda’ on draft, he also had it on cask.

The Gubna is a single-hopped Imperial IPA, using only summit hops. I’ve never used summit in my own homebrew recipes, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Let’s just say it was strongly reminiscent of a friendly herb. A kind bud, if you will. I’m sure that choice was not accidental.

I started off with the cask selection, which was aromatic, smooth and delicious. However, the finished product on draft was even more so. It was awesome. The aroma came up and punched me in the nose. The carbonation bubbles proceeded to make the beer dance on my tongue. I believe it was doing the tango.

Wednesday: Foothills Pre-Fest Party

As I mentioned earlier, I was MIA on Wednesday for my own personal well-being. Knowing what lie in store Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I felt I needed to choose my battles, and it’s nothing against Foothills, but I needed to rest.

However, looking at the lineup of beer Foothills brought to Barley’s that night, I’m having more regrets than when I decided not to go see Stone Temple Pilots on the Purple tour in 1995. Sexual Chocolate, Vanilla Bean Barrel-Aged Peoples’ Porter, and a honey-primed firkin of Cascade, Centennial, and Simcoe dry-hopped Hoppyum IPA.

Excuse me while I grab a tissue. The tears are starting to well up.

Thursday: Up the Creek, I would like you to meet Randall

Thomas Creek joined the fray at Barley’s on Thursday night, and they brought out the big guns. And I mean big. Up the Creek is a 12.5% ABV extreme IPA. Run that sommbitch through a Randall of fresh hops and holy crap.

It’s such a big beer at 12.5% with a ton of body and a bajillion IBUs that when you add that fresh hop aroma and flavor from the Randall it takes it to another plane of being. Thomas Creek also brought out the Randall at the World Beer Fest in Columbia and Brewvival Festival in Charleston, and it was regarded as a top 5 beer by many of the people I talked to. I’m not crazy and it ain’t no joke.

Friday: Beer and BBQ at the Brewer’s Reception

The scene shifted to Thomas Creek’s brewery on Friday, as they hosted the pre-festival brewer’s reception. Known for their Southern hospitality, Thomas Creek knows how to throw a party. Then again, a brewery full of beer, homemade barbecue, and live music is a guaranteed recipe for success.

Aside from being a veteran brewmaster, Tom Davis is apparently a barbecue savant as well. He was out at the brewery at 7 am to start smoking a mountain of pork butts. I’m not sure what he did to make that pork so succulent, but it’s probably illegal.

What should be illegal is his homemade hot sauce. I thought the warning on the label of the “Devil’s Pecker” bottle was just hype, and I paid dearly. I paid most of the bill the next day, but believe me, it has been paid in full.

The highlight of the dinner for me, though, were the brats. They were boiled in Deep Water Dopplebock before being thrown on the grill. They may have been the best brats I’ve ever had. No more pre-boil in PBR, I’ve found my new secret to success.

Saturday: Top of the Hops

After a whirlwind week of events and beer, it finally came down to showtime. Top of the Hops is the first major beer festival to spring up in Greenville. Since I’d like to see more cool beer events here, I had my fingers crossed that my fellow Greenvillians would turn out en masse to support this festival. I believe they came through.

The event was primarily indoors at the Bi-Lo Center, a 16,000 seat venue in downtown Greenville. Indoor beer festivals always make me nervous that they’ll feel like a trade show. However, Top of the Hops kept the cement floor, had plenty of floor space, and had cornhole and ping pong that kept it from feeling too sterile.

Jake and I discuss the finer points of cornhole. I proceeded to lose 21-15.

At the festival I presented the Homebrewing 101 session at Brew University, and I have to admit I was a little nervous going in. While I’m no expert homebrewer, I know enough to fool beginners, so I knew I’d be ok. However, it was more challenging than I thought it would be to present three years of knowledge in 20 minutes, all the while under the pressure of knowing all these people had lots of beer left to drink.

Luckily, I had beer to share at the end: a Belgian Golden Strong Ale that Nicole and I brewed, along with Katie Barnes’ (from Thomas Creek) first-ever homebrew, a chocolate stout. (I will readily admit, her first brew was much better than my first red ale.)

Everyone told me I did a good job, but you can never trust your friends. I did have a few people come up to me afterward to chat, and I even had several people from my seminar pull me aside throughout the rest of the festival to ask questions, so I must not have been that much of a bumbling idiot.

I had the crowd mesmerized.

The second seminar was given by Tom Davis, brewmaster from Thomas Creek, on the craft beer industry. Tom’s talk was insightful, and I especially enjoyed his answer to how Thomas Creek has evolved over the past 12 years of operations, from starting out as “essentially a large homebrewing operation” to a brewery that measures and accounts for everything, including oxygen levels in their bottles, a consistent temperature throughout the mash, and invaluable knowledge and experience in yeast wrangling. All those factors have allowed Thomas Creek to produce a better, more consistent product. I couldn’t agree more.

John Bice from Whole Foods hit clean-up at the Brew University with a food and beer pairing. Not only was his knowledge of food and beer impressive, he was amazingly articulate at the three-hour mark of a beer festival. I found out his secret: coffee. I knew he had to be cheating.

His pairings were delicious:

  • Thomas Creek Class Five IPA with fresh goat cheese from Split Creek in Anderson, SC
  • Thomas Creek Appalachian Amber Ale with Seaside cheddar and Applegate Farms Genoa salami
  • Thomas Creek Dopplebock with Unikaas Reserve Dutch gouda and Kallari chocolate

The rest of the festival was well-done. Logistically, there was plenty of space, good traffic flow, plenty of water, and obviously lots of bathrooms. The only critique was that a few of the vendors were separated outside, which was both good and bad. Bad that they were separate and it was crowded out there on a nice April day, but good that there was at least an outdoor option for those that wanted to see sunshine.

I didn’t go back down to the floor once I presented my seminar at 3:00. I wanted to catch the other presentations on the upper level, and I had been blessed with access to the VIP lounge, so I was able to find some rare and interesting beers in there. The most interesting was Billy’s Chilies from Twisted Pines. It had a nice chili aroma and balanced flavor with a little spicy kick at the end. Chili beers are hard to do, but I thought this one pulled it off.

To wrap up my review of the festival, I have to tell one final story. I feel this one about sums it up.

It’s about 6:00, and Nicole, myself, and our friend Adam are standing near the little alcove that served as the location of the Brew University. I go behind the podium to grab my cooler, and I see three Thomas Creek buckets are still there with a good number of beers left in each.

There was a couple sitting in the chairs toward the back, and something possessed me to let the guy know he could come grab a beer or two. (You know, trying to spread the love.)

So they come up to the stage to browse the wares, and I head back to the concourse with my cooler. We notice the guy has started stuffing beer bottles into his cargo shorts. Nicole goes to take a picture of them and then comes back.

About a minute later, we notice the two of them walk out of the University and down the concourse carrying one of the Thomas Creek tubs. After I snapped out of my disbelief at what I was witnessing, I ran down to let the guy know I didn’t mean he could take all the beer and a tub.

I kid you not, his response was, “Oh, you mean I can’t have the tub? Well, I’ll give you $10 for it.” After informing him it was not mine to sell, he and his girlfriend decided to peacefully return it to the stage, where I noticed they had taken all the beer in the other two coolers and piled it into the one they tried to walk off with, probably 50 beers in all. Oh, and he did manage to snag one bottle for the road.

Ah, beer festivals…

Saturday Night: The Cherry on Top of the Hops

After all that, there was still more beer deliciousness to be had. Barley’s offered four casks at their post-festival party:

  • Terrapin Brown Ale aged in a Pinot Noir barrel
  • Highland Gaelic Ale dry hopped with Willamette
  • Coast Hop Art IPA aged on oak
  • Thomas Creek Dopplebock with vanilla cream and cocoa nibs

You might wonder how I’m still alive after a beer festival and these casks. Somehow, moderation ruled the day and Nicole and I split a flight of the cask beers.

The oak-aged Hop Art was delicious and right on, much better than my feeble attempt at a homebrewed oak-aged IPA last summer. Terrapin’s brown ale on pinot noir was a lot tastier than I expected. It had an intriguing spice flavor, reminiscent of cocoa and clove.

(I’m sure the Highland cask was good, but I had it third after the Terrapin and Coast, and it was underwhelming. I’m sure it was a fine beer, but it just didn’t hold up after the first two.)

The Thomas Creek Dopplebock cask was like drinking dark chocolate cake with vanilla icing. It was close to sending me into a diabetic shock, but it was worth it. Dessert in a glass.

It was the perfect way to end a great week of beer in Greenville. I hope this opens the flood gates and we have many more like it. Not that my body could handle it.

Posted in Beer events | 2 Comments

trailer loading fail

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Brian

This showed up in the morning delivery at the brewery Thursday morning.

Now, I own a pickup truck. There have been a couple times over the years that I’ve said to myself when loading it up with furniture or other stuff, “Oh, don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” only to have something shift or slide and it gets bent or dented. My mistake, I learn and am more careful next time.

But these are giant palates of bottles. The fine folks who loaded the trailer didn’t use airbags to cushion the space between the palates and walls of the trailer. If the driver needed to swerve out of the way, or say, make a left-hand turn, then this would happen.

(Actually, they did use three, one at the front of the trailer for the first row of palates and two against the trailer door at the back. Why they didn’t use more is unknown. Nothing like making a $1,300 mistake to save $100 on airbags.)

We lost four palates of bottles and three hours of my life shoveling them out of the trailer. The inner workings of a brewery…

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I’m teaching the Hombrewing 101 seminar at the Top of the Hops Festival

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Brian

I’m sure most of you from Greenville have heard by now, but on April 10, the Top of the Hops Festival is coming to the Bi-Lo Center from 2-6 pm. This is the first major beer festival to be held in Greenville in, well, ever to my knowledge.

The festival is co-headlined by Thomas Creek and Barley’s Tap Room, so you know it’s going to be bomb, as the youngsters might say. It’s even more bomb because I’m going to be teaching one of the educational seminars, Homebrewing 101.

If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, or if you’re on the fence if you want to go, you should come out for no other reason than to lob some slow-pitch softball questions so that I can knock them out of the park and look really smart.

However, I know you don’t go to a beer festival for the education. It’s about the beer, and there will be plenty of it. There will be more than 120 beers from 55 breweries. The brewery list is impressive, so there will be a lot of good beers to be had.

The cost is $35 for regular tickets and $60 for VIP. Please do come out and support this festival if you can make it. We’ll only get more cool beer events in Greenville if we show people that we’re willing to support it. A dollar is the most powerful vote you can cast.

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the Brick Store Pub

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Brian

I had the opportunity to go to the Brew Your Cask Off Festival at the Sweetwater Brewery in Atlanta this weekend. It was an awesome time, there were some great casks, and there were some, well, not so awesome casks. I’m planning on writing more about the festival for HopPress on Thursday.

One of the highlights of my weekend in Atlanta was having lunch at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur on Sunday. The Brick Store is one of the most renown beer bars in the Southeast, if not the country. It’s been on my list of places to go for at least three years, but I’ve never had the chance to make it. Since I was on a beer mission this weekend, it seemed like the appropriate time to swing by.

Meeting our friends and fellow Brewtopians Bobby and Shelly C, Nicole and I arrived around 12:15 pm. In a strange quirk of Georgia law, they could not actually serve our beer until 12:30. So we put our beer orders in the queue and patiently sipped  on our water for 15 minutes while perusing the menu.

Being a lover of draught beer and in the mood for a sour, I decided to start with an Echt Kriekenbier, a Flanders Red. It was tart with cherry fruit, a slight funk and a creamy body. It went exceptionally well with our baked brie with apples and cucumber appetizer.

The lineup of our first beers. In true beer bar fashion, each beer was served in its own special glass.

The Brick Store boasts of having 17 draught and 75 bottle selections in their downstairs bar. They also have an upstairs Belgian bar, which has an additional 7 taps and 120 bottles. While 24 taps isn’t going to break any records, the Brick Store focuses on quality over quantity.

For instance, Bobby C heard a rumor they had Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. Fortune shined upon us, for the rumour was true. What an amazing blend of bourbon, coffee and chocolate. Holy crap it was good. If we didn’t have to drive back to Greenville later that day, I would have allowed that 10% ABV beer launch me into orbit.

The food menu was almost as good as the beer menu. It’s not typical American bar fare. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw they had pierogi primavera. Pierogi are Slavic-Midwestern delicacy, potato and cheese dumplings. You just don’t see pierogi down South too often, so I had to get it.

Nicole chose the Shepherd’s Daughter’s Pie, which consisted of ground lamb, beef and pork, barley wine ketchup, fennel, scalloped potatoes, gruyere sauce, mesclun greens with lemon vinaigrette. Both dishes were delicious, but I have to give the edge to my pierogi.

The view from upstairs looking down at the main dining room.

The Brick Store is not that large, but it’s comfortable and has a lot of intricate detail and ambiance. On the downside, I can imagine that cozy atmosphere would get crowded at peak times.

The Belgian bar upstairs is bad-assed. They have a lot of exposed brick and no windows to the outside, so even though it’s upstairs, it has the feeling of a basement or cellar.

Behind the upstairs Belgian bar

If I lived in the area, I’d probably be at the Brick Store every night and I’d probably be broke. Broke, but happy…

Now that’s a doorknob.
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