PHILOSOPHY
Classic Irish. The bar draws a mixed crowd of locals, collegians (upstairs is a more raucous smoking area), beer geeks, and families whose kids perform in fiddle jams. (Present company included! My talented nieces Isabella and Sophia have performed there.)
KEY BEER
Experiment by choosing from flights made up of local and regional favorites as well as beers from further afield (nine to eleven dollars) including “Aromatic & Bitter” (with beers like Tallgrass 16-Bit DPA); “Dark & Roasty” (Warsteiner Dunkel); “Belgian Artistry” (Chimay Tripel); and “Oklahoma breakdown” (Anthem Arjuna, Roughtail Pale Ale, and a Prairie rotating handle).
GEORGIA
Athens
CREATURE COMFORTS BREWING CO.
271 W. Hancock Ave. • Athens, GA 30601 (706) 410-1043 • creaturecomfortsbeer.com • Established: 2014
SCENE & STORY
Athens is a college town with killer barbecue and music, but has almost no local beer, due to restrictive laws that hampered development for years. Undaunted, David Stein, former home brewer turned head brewer at Twain’s Billiards & Tap, a well-known brewpub in Decatur, Georgia, (see page 399) was working with the name Creature Comforts for his ambitious line of home brews. He linked up with a brewer friend and former PhD candidate in Genetics, Adam Beauchamp, who was well into his career at Sweetwater in Atlanta, Georgia. Working with a third partner, businessman Derek Imes, Stein and Beauchamp began building Creature Comforts in a huge, old, 13,000-square-foot auto and tire warehouse in downtown Athens. They salvaged and refinished old wood from the building to form bar tops, tables, wall paneling, and ceilings, winning an award for outstanding rehabilitation by the Athens Heritage Foundation. Nice work, guys. Their $2 million project opened to rapturous welcome in April, 2014 and hasn’t slowed down. You pay twelve dollars, get a glass and a wristband (plus, often, some coupons for food in the area), and are allowed to try six beers. There are two tasting bars, with live bands in and out and beanbag/cornhole outside, plus picnic tables. Looking across the street at an old Baptist church, the vibe is idyllic.
PHILOSOPHY
The motto is “crave curiosity.” Shouldn’t we all? This project has turned into contentment in liquid form. “What started out as curious exploration of what we love, turned into us uncovering our passion, following that passion, and finding happiness,” the crew reports.
KEY BEER
They’re brewing across the spectrum from a tart Berliner weisse (Athena) to crisp pilsner (Bibo) to an American-style IPA (Tropicalia, lush and fruity).
THE TRAPPEZE PUB
269 N. Hull St. • Athens, GA 30601 (706) 543-8997 • trappezepub.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
Every beer town worth its salt needs a marquee draw, be it a bar, brewery, bottle shop, or that home-brew store stoking the early sparks. Fortunately for Athens, which has a lively art scene, bike culture, and energetic food-and-drink vibe, the Trappeze Pub pulls off a thirty-three-tap, 200-bottle high-wire routine without breaking a sweat. It can’t be easy to maintain such a selection, but in this brightly lit and crisply run bar—all warm terra-cotta-hued walls, big windows, tasteful breweriana and a vast collection of appropriate glassware—but the owners make it seem that way, pulling in vaunted brewers from companies like Belgium’s Urthel and Colorado’s Left Hand for tasting nights. Inventive pub grub such as spent-grain breads and beef dishes braised in beer round out the bill.
PHILOSOPHY
Good beer is not just something to pull in customers; it’s in the foundations—it really matters here. Which is why the place is often slammed, and why you should go, too.
KEY BEER
The tap row runs heavy on regional favorites from Sweetwater, Terrapin, and Wild Heaven Brewing Company, a Decatur upstart for which Trappeze founder Eric Johnson is the brewmaster (the new company is open now and looking to put Decatur on the map as a brewing town). Look for Wild Heaven’s Invocation, an 8.5% ABV Belgian Strong Pale Ale, a powerful blend of lush, ripe pear-like fruit flavors from pale malts with spicy noble hops in the background.
Savannah
THE DISTILLERY
416 W. Liberty St. • Savannah, GA 31401 (912) 236-1772 • distillerysavannah.com • Established: 2008
SCENE & STORY
The Volen family honored a colorful bit of local lore when they overhauled this historic former distillery, drugstore, soda fountain, lunch counter, and rumored former bathtub gin dispensary. It’s full of atmospheric exposed brick surrounding a glorious mahogany back bar, oak bar, old copper still, and artifacts discovered on-site, from musket balls to old liquor bottles, clay pipes, dishware, and bleached bones. The menu features inspired comfort foods such as fried pickles, wild Georgia shrimp, and a beer-battered cod po’boy sandwich among other goodies, but save room for the Double Chocolate Deep Fried Moon Pie and Beer Float, made with stout, lambic, or other fresh draft brew.
PHILOSOPHY
Officially: “No crap—just craft.” They helped organize and facilitate the first Savannah Craft Brew Fest was in 2008. The staff at the Distillery did a series of events the week leading up to it, which eventually morphed into a legitimate community event called “Savannah Craft Beer Week.” So raise a glass: they’ve helped shape the local beer scene considerably.
KEY BEER
Ode to Mercy, a rich and toffee-ish 8.2% ABV imperial American Brown Ale from Decatur’s Wild Heaven Brewing Company, making waves through the Deep South with adventurous, well-crafted beers.
Decatur
THE BRICK STORE PUB
125 E. Court Square • Decatur, GA 30030 (404) 687-0990 • brickstorepub.com • Established: 1997
SCENE & STORY
The Brick Store in downtown Decatur (a short drive from the center of Atlanta) is one of those beer bars you hear about in conversation described as a hallowed place, a sanctuary, the end of the rainbow in humankind’s quest for the perfect beer bar. Of course, we all know nothing’s perfect (or why keep searching?), but it has got more than a few checks in the win column. The interior downstairs has the paradigmatic blend of exposed brick and creaky wooden floors, cool lighting, 18 rotating taps and about 100 bottles, all superb, centered on local, regional, and nationally acclaimed American craft beers, with a good mix of German and English specialty beers and vintage and reserve bottled beers as well. There’s an upstairs bar, too, the Belgian Room, which is as advertised and one of the main reasons to visit, with 8 taps and over 120 bottles laid in.
There’s a good and varied food menu, too, with beer snacks (like housemade pretzels and ale-battered chicken fingers), burgers, salads and some beer-friendly entrées such as shepherd’s pie and fish and chips, and the prices are very reasonable: There’s nothing on the menu over nine dollars.
PHILOSOPHY
Beer appreciation is the focus here. To allow and encourage conversations and cater to the naturally curious drinker, there are “no televisions, no neon, no obnoxious music and no major domestic beers.” This is the beer enlightenment in action, but it’s not dull or pretentious.
KEY BEER
This is surely one of the only places in the entire American South where you could find a beer like De Proef Signature Ale, a collaboration between Lost Abbey/Port Brewing’s Tomme Arthur and Dirk Knaudts of the famed De Proef brewery in Belgium. Their 8.5% ABV golden-colored ale is tart, big, and funky, and as Michael Jackson described it, “Everything promised by the brewers, and more. Aromas fresh as a forest. A hint of green wood. Firm, smooth, rounded, body. Lemongrass, lemon zest, and cedar. A suspicion of sulfur and sweat. A long and distinct finish—you don’t want it to end.”
Atlanta
THE PORTER BEER BAR
1156 Euclid Ave. • Atlanta, GA 30307 (404) 223-0393 • theporterbeerbar.com • Established: 2008
SCENE & STORY
This diminutive Little Five Points area bar is small in layout but mighty in stature. Along with Decatur’s Brick Store, this is one of the
premiere beer bars in the South, and the interior is a home run, with long wooden benches, cool metal tables, white-tiled walls, and a collection of retro plastic and vinyl suitcases. With thirty taps and over 800 bottle selections to choose from, the owners go out of their way to print pairing suggestions for the haute-rustic bar bites like pork empanadas with golden raisins, adobo almonds, and cocoa pineapple-jalapeño sauce, hush puppies with applewood smoked bacon, and Fuji apple sauce, and wild Georgia shrimp po’boys.
PHILOSOPHY
Thorough. With both a food and beer blog, a beer list updated “daily by 6 p.m.,” beer flights, and other considerations, this bar is going the extra mile.
KEY BEER
Hitachino XH, a Belgian-style brown ale, brewed in Japan and aged for three months in shochu (Japanese rice spirit) casks—the kind of beer-world curiosity that is generally far tastier in concept than in execution. But this strong, spicy, frothy oddity is delicious, with a wine like bite that would work well with those bacon and apple-kissed hush puppies (7% ABV).
BEST of the REST: GEORGIA
TERRAPIN BEER CO.
265 Newton Bridge Rd. • Athens, GA 30607 • (706) 549-3377 • terrapinbeer.com
Opened in 2002 by friends John Cochran and Brian “Spike” Buckowski, this is a young brewery growing fast with ever more adventurous styles and interpretations. Tours of the 40,000-square-foot space turn festive with live music in the taproom. Look for the Side Project beer series, such as Monk’s Revenge, a superstrong (9.6% ABV) Belgian IPA with intense flavors of sweet and ripe citrus with an herbal, hoppy finish, and the Walking Dead Blood Orange IPA, inspired by the hit TV show. Recent upgrades include a new-and-improved tasting room appointed with recovered hardwoods and tap stations (supplied from overhead beer lines), plus a gift shop and a small stage for live music, and cool events like the Hip-Hop Harvest DJ sets on Friday nights.
TWAIN’S BILLIARDS AND TAP
211 E. Trinity Pl. • Decatur, GA 30030 • (404) 373-0063 • twains.net
Brewer Chase Medlin took over in 2012 from David Stein (now at Creature Comforts; see page 395) to craft fresh tap offerings at this superpopular pool hall and brewpub. Criminal Sin India Pale Ale is the house favorite, along with Four Count Pale Ale, River Sunset Amber, and Mississippi Nut Brown. The interior has cool teal-and-blue tile floors, copper pool table lamps, funky art, green wooden chairs, and exposed gray brick. In 2015, the owners announced they were taking over a local bowling alley to create the Comet, with thirty-two lanes, vintage arcade games, shuffleboard, pool tables, and a vast craft beer list. In other words, this is a fun crowd.
ALABAMA
Birmingham
J. CLYDE HOT ROCK TAVERN & ALEHOUSE
1312 Cobb Ln. • Birmingham, AL 35205 (205) 939-1312 • jclyde.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
Full of classic beer-bar appointments (exposed brick; wooden rafters, beams, and tables), J. Clyde has some sixty taps (with a dozen from Alabama) and another 200 bottles on offer, in addition to a late-night menu and standard pub menu with items like steak au poivre and fried green tomatoes. In 2015 the owners started talking about a brewpub to be constructed nearby.
PHILOSOPHY
Cask and ye shall receive. On most days, and infallibly every Friday at 4 p.m., something notable happens here in the state’s best beer bar: A vessel of the only cask-conditioned ale in the state is tapped (and then drained in short order). Generally, the term “cask conditioned” refers to lighter British-style ales fermented and then “conditioned” or rested for a period of time at temperatures of around 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit with some natural fining agents in the beer, resulting in clarity, softness, and a delicate carbonation. (I say “generally” because cask conditioning is migrating into other, not exactly British styles, like the Italo American experiments at Eataly New York’s rooftop Birreria.)
KEY BEER
Look for Coffee Oatmeal Stout from Birmingham’s Good People Brewing Company on draught (and maybe cask). It’s a 6% ABV sipper with deep roasted coffee and cocoa flavors.
FLORIDA
THE SUNSHINE STATE HAS EMBRACED CRAFT BEER WITH THE FORCE OF A TROPICAL STORM. It seems hard to imagine that in the soporific land of blue-hair retirees, Disney rides, and plastic nightclubs that earthy, funky, DIY craft brewing would take such hold but, in fact, it has, with some seventy-five breweries and brewpubs open and several more in planning stages. The following is but a fraction of what’s worth exploring.
Tarpon Springs
SAINT SOMEWHERE BREWING
1441 Savannah Ave., Unit E • Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 • (813) 503-6181 • saintsomewherebrewing.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
Home brewer Bob Sylvester took his tiny Belgian-styles operation pro in 2007 with an ally and imprimatur shared by only a handful of other U.S. brewers: the Shelton Brothers, a distributor of many of the world’s most rare and unusual beers from around the world, especially Belgium and Europe. Created in his warehouse and workshop-like brewery, Sylvester’s beers have made a deep impression and are now distributed in more than twenty states. Check the location info online; Sylvester announced plans to move in 2015. With collaborations stacking up with great breweries like Jester King, Saint Somewhere is really going places.
PHILOSOPHY
Belgian all the way. With a recent expansion, Sylvester is joining the ranks of the world’s top producers of traditional saison beers, which are, loosely, country ales from Belgium that burst with grain-given flavors of ripe pineapple and stone fruits accented by herbs and spices and sugars including (but not limited to) orange peel, clove, honey, and lemongrass.
KEY BEER
Saison Athene, at 7.5% ABV, is Sylvester’s contribution to the mustardy-gold style, very popular to brew but rarely mastered. He’s getting it right: fermented at higher temperatures (making Florida a good base) it’s got big, interesting layers of fruity complexity with a kiss of honey-like sweetness and a peppery dry finish.
GREEN BENCH BREWING
1133 Baum Ave. N • St. Petersburg, FL 33707 • (727) 800-9836 • greenbenchbrewing.com • Established: 2013
SCENE & STORY
At age twenty-one, Green Bench’s founder and head brewer Kristopher Johnson was on his second major in college (biochemistry, then literature), and he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. “I was working two jobs and I really wanted a hobby. I decided to try home brewing—my father was a home brewer,” he told me. It wasn’t long before he stepped up to try all-grain brewing on a system he put together himself, whipped up an IPA recipe, entered it in a statewide competition and took home second place. “I was hooked,” he recalls.
Next came gigs with Wayne Wambles at Cigar City, and then a local home-brew shop who planned to start a small brewery. For two years he helped them set up, taught classes, and started dreaming up Green Bench. “I had a couple of failed projects along the way. Eventually I gathered investors, we decided to become partners, and within a year we opened the doors of Green Bench.”
Green Bench would become the first production microbrewery in St. Pete, and stakes were high. What they put together in short order is pretty amazing. Inside the 1,500-square-foot taproom, the front facade of the bar is covered with hexagonal blocks that used to line the streets of Central Avenue in front of the brewery. Outside, there’s a huge beer garden with a fire pit and we have a movie screen. The family-friendly space plays host to bands, parties, and food trucks out front. Inside, you can spot the 15bbl brewhouse (with bright green LED lights on the tanks at night), rows of tall steel fermenters, and two custom built foudres. Recently they’ve collaborated with such barnstorming brands as Crooked Stave, Troi Dames (of Switzerland), Jester King, and Prairie Artisan Ales. There’s even talk of a coolship, to experiment with the local tropical flora’s effect on beer.
PHILOSOPHY
Quality first, then diversity. “Gone are the days in which you could open your doors, make an awesome l
ocally produced IPA, and sell it simply as the ‘local option.’ Every other brewery in town has that selling point. You have to set yourself apart,” says Johnson.
KEY BEERS
Green Bench’s range is superambitious and impressive, from 100-percent foudre-fermented farmhouse ales to barrel-aged and oak-fermented sour blends, hoppy wheats, and Sunshine City IPA, a lip-smacking American-style IPA. The emphasis on wood-aged sours is pretty unusual—this is steamy Florida, not a cool climate in, say, Washington State. But these tart beers are well suited to the climate. “We’re the first brewery in the southeast of the country to own a foudre,” says Johnson. Try the Saison de Banc Vert and Saison de Banc Noir, which are 100-percent oak-fermented with the house Saison yeast culture and Brettanomyces.
Tampa
CIGAR CITY BREWING
3924 W. Spruce St., Ste. A • Tampa, FL 33607 • (813) 648-6363 • cigarcitybrewing.com • Established: 2009
SCENE & STORY
Beer writer and Tampa native Joey Redner was immersed in beer—selling it, writing about it, running a bar, and generally loving the entire craft beer scene. He stands apart from his famous father (the elder Joey Redner, a divisive figure in town as the founder of Mons Venus, one of the nation’s most notorious strip clubs, said to be the birthplace of the lap dance). Wayne Wambles was a home brewer gone pro; he had discovered the wonders of craft brews during 1996’s Hurricane Opal, when a friend shared home brews with him over the course of three days as they waited for the power and water to return. When Redner and Wambles met, the die was cast for Cigar City, a company quickly remaking the entire Florida beer scene with innovative, award-winning beers. There are tours Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; reservations are required, so e-mail [email protected] to schedule. And if you’re already a fan, then you know about Hunahpu Day: Cigar City’s largest annual event, celebrating the release of its acclaimed Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout, an imperial stout aged on cacao nibs, Madagascar vanilla beans, ancho and pasilla chilis, and cinnamon. Nine thousand people showed in in 2013; 2014 was a near riot (counterfeit tickets created a shortage), and 2015 cost $200 a person.
The Great American Ale Trail (Revised Edition) Page 44