The Summer of Sour: Creature Comforts Athena

Creature Comforts Athena (Berliner Weisse)--4.5% ABV


In a world dominated by IPA's, this summers trend of Sour and Sessionable beers had made me very, very happy. An avowed fan of the Porters and Stouts, it's been fun trying and learning about newer, less heavy styles. Arguably you could call the summer of 2015--"The Summer of Sour".

Berliner Weisse's have been immensely popular with many of the newer breweries popping up trying to perfect the Old-World German style.

Southern breweries have lead that charge and the reason is simple: A light, slightly sour beer is the perfect accompaniment on a 90 degree southern night.

Quite possibly the best representative of the Berliner Weisse style is brewed in Athens, Georgia by Creature Comforts Brewing: Athena.

Creature Comforts has quickly become a standard bearer for Georgia beer and there are few better than Athena--the Greek Goddess of reason, intelligent activity, arts and literature.

In fact that definition fits this beer perfectly.

Two fermentations make this beer one of the cleanest you'll ever drink and the citrus and fruit notes are prominent enough to satisfy even the wine fanatic with a taste for whites.

The beer is cloudy in its pour and the carbonation while not quite as pronounced as in a champagne, the flavor does remind you of one.

A friend of mine recently said; "This beer is perfect for drinking after mowing your lawn". And I can't disagree with that. Or you could call it a "Grilling" beer. Something light and easy to drink watching your food of choice sizzle on the grill.

Athena pairs really well with barbecue and richer, heavier food. It cuts the heavier taste down to size with the tartness alone. For me, I don't want something heavy with a burger or steak, I want something light.

The other place where Athena shines: Dessert. Yes, seriously--Athena as a dessert beer. Try it with a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie or piece of cake after dinner, you won't be disappointed. I promise.

The Creature Comforts web site talks about the beer being an homage to their hometown of Athens. And to many in Georgia, while being the home of the Georgia Bulldogs, Athens is also known as the "Classic City".

In short Athena does its hometown proud, the beer has been labeled a "Classic" by many a reviewer. Living in Georgia I can tell you it is hard to find. Very hard to find. But if you do see it at the store or do find it on tap it's well worth the investment. At the end of the day, the "Classic" moniker fits. Athena is easily one of my favorite beers, hopefully it will be one of yours too.

Brewery Review: The New Guys--Second Self Beer Company

Time for a Brewery Review...

Jason wishing he was leading tour

In the not too distant past (a few Saturday's ago), I got a call from friend of the Ale Hoppers, Jason Murphy wanting to go check out a brewery. He needed to get out of the house, his wife was not feeling well.

It didn't take much to convince me, I didn't have much on my plate and Chelle was bogged down with a work project she needed to finish.

So Jason and I did a little homework and decided we'd take the 20 minute drive and visit Atlanta's newest brewery, Second Self.

LOCATION:

1311 Logan Circle in Atlanta. For those who live in the ATL, on the Westside, about a mile from Red Brick and not far from Nuevo Laredo Cantina.

WEBSITE:

SecondSelfBeer.com

BEERS:

--They are brewing 5 Beers right now and they are all pretty darn good. A little different than the standard, the beers all share a clean, flavor filled taste. For $12, you get 6 samples and a tour of the small, but nice facility.

Thai Wheat

THAI WHEAT: One of the Cleanest beers I've ever had. Very strong Lemongrass and Ginger flavors. Light and refreshing, I could drink this during the summer and never go to anything else. Really good and highly recommend this beer.

RED HOP RYE: Hoppy, with some carmel and malt notes. Again, a very clean beer, just a bit hoppier than what I prefer. For me, the bitter end makes it hard to drink more than one.

LIPA: One of the lightest IPA's I've ever had. Pretty good beer and I'm not an IPA fan. Once again, nice clean taste with a very slight bitter finish. Not as hoppy as the Red Hop IMO. Good entry level IPA for those looking to venture into the Craft Beer world.

Mole Porter

SAISON: Yum. Not a year round brew, but it should be. Notes of grapefruit and orange peel stood out to me. Slight peppery finish. Sensing a trend, this also is a very clean beer and a good accompaniment to just about any kind of food.




MOLE PORTER: Limited release beer. Can't say enough good things about this. I'm a big Porter/Stout fan, and this absolutely nails it. Chocolate is prominent and the peppery/mole flavor is there just enough to let you know it's there. Too many of these type beers go for too much heat, Second Self got the mix perfect here.

BREWERY: 

Brewery

---A smallish warehouse on the Westside of Atlanta. The size may be deceptive as they only have a couple of tanks. The tasting area takes up most of the space right now. According to Chris, one of the co-owners, they chose the site knowing they would need to expand. And if the quality of the beer is an indicator, that won't take long.

Bar and Taps

ATMOSPHERE:

---Again, typical warehouse. Once you park and walk in, there's a small bar with 4 taps along with a pressure cleaner for your glass if you are sampling. There's a lot of room for people to visit.

OUR THOUGHTS:

---Really enjoyed the visit. When we were there, it was the second tasting session they'd ever had. The gang still has some kinks to work out, it's very laid back.

The name itself came from what Chris described as their "Second" jobs. Neither he, nor Jason, the "beer architect" were full-time brewers until they opened Second Self. Both began brewing as a hobby--or second job.

They both got into the business because they wanted to produce something a little different. While Chris has brewing experience from Sweetwater and from getting his brewing certification, Jason's background is more as a chef.

Which is why the beers blend so well with foods. Ideally, food pairings are the best way to drink them.

If you are a serious Craft Beer geek looking for something to do on a Friday or Saturday we highly recommend paying these guys a visit.

Brew Your Cask Off: Cask Beer With The Masses

104 One of a kind casks on the Sweetwater Brewing Campus in Midtown Atlanta, what could be wrong with that?

Very little actually....

This past weekend, we ventured back onto the beer trail with a couple thousand of our friends to check out the annual Sweetwater Brew Your Cask Off event.

It was a cool fall November evening in Atlanta and a good chunk of the event was outside, but it all wasn't. There were beers scattered all over the Sweetwater campus, from the tent out front, to the tank room, to the upstairs party room. Plenty of beer and plenty of people.

By no means was the event a Sweetwater event. Most of the local breweries participated. As did a ton of local restaurants, a couple of beer distributors and even some out of town businesses.

There were some, um...interesting concoctions. Including the people's favorite, a "Fruity Pebbles Ale" from Cypress Street Pint and Plate. Yes, Fruity Pebbles.

My favorite: A beer called "Cask and Titties" (mmm...) from the World of Beer. It was a stout with bourbon soaked peaches, vanilla bean and spices. It was really good.

For Chelle: A hoppy Belgian beer from Twain's Restaurant in Decatur. "Nelson's Spicy Berries" featured Sweetwater Whiplash infused with Green Hatch Chilis and Strawberries. And it was dry hopped.

But alas, we did not pick the winners...

The Judges Choice: " The Walking Dad"--A Sweetwater 420 with dried Apricot, Grapefruit Peel and Peach Extract and infused with Forbidden Fruit Yeast. It was done by United Distributors, who distributes many of the Georgia Craft Beers. We didn't get a chance to try it.

The Professional Winner: "Danch Meng Blueberry Bootlegger" from Jailhouse Brewing in Hampton, Ga. A breakfast stout with bourbon soaked blueberries and coffee. Somehow, I missed this despite it being a spot on Phil beer. Though Chelle did try and said it was "Pure Awesomeness".

The People's Choice Award: "Fruity Pebbles" by Cypress Street Pint and Plate--(one of our favorite craft beer bars in Atlanta). Haha! We both tried this and while I wouldn't say I'd drink a growler of it, the sample was really good and they gave out Fruity Pebbles treats to chase it with. Oh, and everyone was dressed in Flintstones costumes. (thought I got a photo of them, but guess I didn't.)

Event Review: It was a fun time. It's the 5th time Sweetwater has put on the event and it's gotten bigger every year. They apparently expanded the offerings this year to include beers created by local businesses to round out the 100+ casks.

However, the one thing we did not enjoy was the crowd.

The event was packed by the time we got there just after the gates opened. It was very difficult to move around the main tent due to the amount of people and those people getting their beers and not moving out of the way to drink them.

The crowd also had a larger number of people there in good part to get drunk, which takes a little of the fun out of the event. Most Craft Beer fans are there to enjoy the variety of different beers and sample. Not to get crappy-ass drunk. And unfortunately there was a lot of that.

It did not help that Sweetwater, while Atlanta's largest brewery, has limited parking. The night we went, there was almost no parking in the warehouse district they are located. So we took the shuttle from a local plaza. It was a bit crowded and there were not nearly enough buses for the people there, but they were moving and when we were ready to leave, there was a bus ready to go.

Would we go back?

Probably not. It was a cool event to go to and experience as fans of good, original and creative craft beers, but now that we've done it, we more than likely would not go back.

Because we can---here's something to explain the "Fruity Pebbles"---The Pebbles and Bam Bam Show. (Yes, this really existed)

GABF Day #3: Festival Time--Our Look at The Great American Beer Festival

So, Saturday marked Day 3 of our Great American Beer Festival trip and also the day we had tickets to the event.

And when they tell you it's the "World's Largest Beer Festival" and that you'll see some crazy stuff, well, whomever "they" are was understating.

It's a long day too.

We started by going down to LoDo and settling in near the Denver Convention Center early. The gates were not scheduled to open until 5:30pm, we got downtown around noon. Which left a ton of time to wander and explore.

Probably too much time.

But we killed the clock with a good lunch at a local pizza spot and some coffee at Starbucks along with a couple of trips up and down the 16th Street Mall.

And around 5pm, we made our way to the Convention Hall. Along with, oh, say 20,000 or so of our fellow beer fanatics. I don't know what the actual attendance for the event was, but the 20,000 may be on the low side.


**NOTE**--We took a ton of photos, I will have to figure out the best way to produce a photo gallery. I'll put as many as I can in this post.

Let me add at this point the organizers of this festival have crowd control down to a science. We waited for a few minutes to get in, but considering the amount of people being herded in, it was a bit tight, but not long at all. It moved assembly line--ID check, bracelet, upstairs to get your glass and boom...you're staring at more beers than you can ever possibly imagine in one place.

Think Home Show or something like that on a oh, 4 times larger scale size wise. And then compound that with 20,000 or so beer fanatics. Or a better example might be a fan festival attached to a major football game.

The people watching was amazing. Never in our lives have we seen so many people wearing pretzels. Or dressed up in some sort of bizarre costume even though Halloween was 30 days away.

The photos barely encapsulate what we saw. There were people with beer can necklaces, wearing beer mug hats, dressed like Disco Fever or in some cases some sort of exctasy related get-up.

The pretzel necklaces were indeed impressive. Some had the mini-twists, some had soft pretzels. All looked ready to be eaten and we suspect by the end of the evening, most of them were.

And yes, a lot of them were drunk. Though we aren't sure how since the event featured 1 oz pours and the Brewers were pretty consistent with it.

But the star of the night...and the week is the beer.

And there is beer everywhere. 3000+ different beers from over 700 different breweries.

The styles weren't incredibly different, there are only so many way to produce a beer, but the spins are what made the best stand out.

We tried very hard to stay away from the "Big Name" brewers. The lines for Stone Brewing, Great Divide, Left Hand and others were almost back out the door.

No, we tried to hit the little guys. Visit the breweries we'd never get to experience at home. And sometimes it meant going to a brewery that didn't have a long, crowded line.

But that was okay. For us, the fun in traveling or going to places we've never been is to experience things we don't get at home.

For me, there were a couple of favorites. Obviously, I lean towards the Porters and Stouts and this event was no different.

I loved the Peppermint Stout from BJ's Brewery (yes, I know, mass retailer). But man it was good. Tasted like a York Peppermint Patty.

I also enjoyed my first Cigar City Beer. (yes, I know, from Florida) For some reason there beer isn't available in Georgia (that we're aware of). I had a Maduro Brown Ale. Which was nutty, roasty, goodness in a glass.

My 3rd favorite--the Award Winning Smoked Alaskan Porter from Alaska Brewing. I had heard from my friend Chad Clark who used to live there how good the beers were. And boy was he right.

For Chelle it was a Louisiana Beer (natch) from Bayou Teche. A Honey-Oak based Ale called Miel Sauvage, which I tried as well. And, yeah it was pretty tasty.

She also fell in love with the Gose beers. And she had a bunch of them. For those of you unfamiliar with the style, a Gose is a slightly sour/salty version of a beer. It is somewhat similar to a Farmhouse Ale with more bite to it.

I tried a few of those as well, and yeah, though a contrast to my first love the Porters, the Gose's were pretty darn tasty.

All in all, this was easily an event to scratch off our bucket lists. We are very sure we will never experience a festival on this scale ever again.

The festival was the focus of our trip but the culture in Colorado was the reason we came. You could say that GABF 2014 was the Apex or highlight of our trip and arguably it was. But the beer culture itself is the star in Colorado.

Everywhere we went, there were Craft Beers or fans. The culture is open, friendly and very, very inclusive. We met some awesome folks at the breweries in Fort Collins and the Brew Pubs in Denver and our last day trip in Boulder as well.

If you love great beer and have never been out here before, you owe it to yourself to make the pilgrimage. Everywhere you turn there's a brewery or brew pub or restaurant with fresh to table food.

Having and experiencing the festival on top of the trip made this quite possibly one of the best trips Michelle and I ever have or ever will take.

We WILL be back....

Cheers!

GABF Week Day #2: Beer Daytrip--Fort Collins, Colorado

While there is so much to do in Denver, particularly on Great American Beer Festival week, we decided that it would be fun to do a little exploring. In part because we've never really spent much time in Colorado.

With that in mind, we decided to spend our Friday about an hour north of Denver in the sleepy little college town of Fort Collins. Which we should add is quite the beer town in its own right.

**NOTE**---Rather than review each place individually, we're going to combine things here.

We started our adventure at the most fitting place we could think of...New Belgium Brewing.

NEW BELGIUM:

The biking crew at New Belgium has a gorgeous, wood toned, busy building just east of downtown Fort Collins.

And they have an amazing collection of beers on tap. We should note, as much as we would have loved to take the 90-minute tour, we weren't able to get a reservation.

Beers: (Favorites)

Phil--Salted Chocolate Stout (Lips of Faith). Of course I loved this. Right in my wheelhouse. Had a 1554 Black Lager as well, don't know why I never had one before.

Chelle--Tour de Fall. A nice, seasonal, Octoberfest style beer. Easy to drink.

**NOTE**--We also tried a one off run called NBB loves Loveland. It was a sour with lots of fruit notes. Did not taste like a beer, but boy was it good.

Thoughts: A local hangout place. Many of their beers are available everywhere, but the brewery specific beers are amazing. You must come here if you are in town.

The tour from what we are told is worth the 90 minutes, but plan ahead, you have to get reservations in advance. It books very, very quickly.

FORT COLLINS BREWING:

This is a modern, beautiful, art-deco looking building that houses a great brewery and a really, really good brew pub/restaurant. (We had lunch here at Gravity 1020 and it was fantastic)

Beers: (We did Tasting Flights)

Phil--Yes, I loved the Chocolate Stout, because I almost always love those beers. This was a really good one. A little stronger than most, but that's not a bad thing. Their new 1020 Pale Ale was pretty good too.

Chelle: Rocky Mountain IPA. Much like me with the Stouts, Chelle loves her IPA's and this one was very good. Lots of fruit and earthy notes, very well done. The Red Banshee Amber was right up her alley as well.

Thoughts: If you come here, get a tasting flight and some food. The beers are very good, the restaurant is even better. I had a Cuban style sandwich on Ciabatta bread that featured house made pickles. Chelle had a flatbread that featured some fresh goat cheese. Really good stuff. Another worthy stop.

ODELL BREWING:

The last stop on our Fort Collins tour. We weren't familiar with their beers because we're pretty sure they aren't available in Georgia. Which is unfortunate because they do some great beers.

Again, we did tasting flights here, which we recommend because you can try a little bit of everything in the house. Well, okay, not everything, they had some 16 beers on tap.

Beers: (2 Different Tasting Flights)

Phil: Their Dopplebock was really good. I can't remember the name of it unfortunately, but it was deep, well rounded and very tasty. Gramps Oatmeal Stout was also very, very good.

Chelle: She also loved the Dopplebock. It may have been a brewery only beer. But man, it was a good one. She also like the Levity Amber Ale. It was a slightly bitter, hoppy classic Amber Ale.

Thoughts: Another obvious local hangout. The building is beautiful and just a couple of blocks from Fort Collins Brewing. They don't have a restaurant, but have food trucks on site daily. The patio/courtyard area is huge and can hold a ton of people, the inside also has quite a few bar seats.

Again, a worthy stop for anyone trying to get the best of the best.


OUR THOUGHTS ON THE DAYTRIP:

This was a lot better than we expected, a straight drive up Interstate 25 North and just a couple miles off the highway, Ft. Collins is a small but cool town. It's very obviously a laid back culture and vibe with several good breweries and pubs. Enough so that we couldn't hit them all.

If you are in Denver for a few days and want a great beer stop, this would definitely be a worthwhile trip.

GABF Week Day 1: Breckenridge Colorado Craft: Great Beer and Good Food

We promise we aren't going to rave and gush like slobbering children over every place we go to this week.

Really, we do. We will be honest.

Our last stop on Day #1 of our Great American Beer Festival adventure in Denver was the Breckenridge Brew Pub in the shadow of Coors Field on Blake Street in LoDo.

Atmosphere: Very typical brew pub. When we were there, the bar was crowded and that is indeed where we parked ourselves. The restaurant had a few folks there and there was a party in the back room. It was a surprisingly low-key sedate place.

The Food: Food was good, not great. Very typical bar fare. I had a pulled pork sandwich with sweet potato fries. They were nothing outstanding.

Chelle had Chicken Wings with Mango Habenero sauce on them. These were pretty good. Roasted, nice size wings and the sauce was tasty. Nice, subtle zing.

We also split some pretzel knots to start. They were doughy, but nothing to write home about. Though the mustard, made from their 471 IPA was really, really good.

Beer:

Phil--I had to start with the Nitro Vanilla Porter, it's always been one of my favorites. This was as good as I expected and very fresh.

I also had a Mango Mosiac Ale (limited release) which was really tasty. Tasted a bit like unsweetened Mango Tea, which I really like. Had a nice smoky finish.

Chelle: Loved her choices. Started with a Black Bottle Mexican Hipster. An IPA aged in tequila. Which if you know her, you know why she loved it.

She finished with a Lonetree Brewing Peach Pale Ale which tasted exactly like you think it would. A solid session beer with a nice, but not overpowering peach flavor attached.

Our Thoughts:

Come here for the beer. It's very good and was a great way to wrap up our first day here. Go to the bar and get a tasting flight or work your way down the list but stay local. There are some awesome limited run beers here that you may not find in other places nearby.

The food however, well, eat if you are hungry, if not there are better places out there. The food wasn't bad, just generic and with so many "Farm to Table" restaurants/pubs in the area, you can do better than eating here.

We could easily see this place packed before a Rockies game in the summertime. But when we were here, the Rocks were as usual, long since eliminated from the baseball season. Still having this view out your window from a bar seat ain't bad if you into your baseball.

Overall: Come thirsty, leave hungry.

Cheers!

GABF Week Day 1: Great Divide Brewing: Busy For a Reason

First off, let us say there is no way to hit every brewery or beer pub in the Metro Denver area in a short period of time.

Too many choices and eventually you'll get beered out.

But you'll end up mighty happy in the process.

The 1st Brewery we hit on our 1st full day in town: Great Divide Brewing.

Location: Araphaoe Street in Denver. In LoDo, a few blocks from Coors Field.

Atmosphere: Somewhat of a hipster vibe. The bar/tasting room is small and at happy hour can get crowded. There are a handful of seats and bar space in the narrow tap room.

Beers: You can get a full pour 12/16oz or "Tasting Samples" which are 3 oz. We suggest you get the tasting samples so you can try as many beers as you can, they have a lot on tap, some stuff not available outside Colorado.

Some of our Favorites:

Phil--Oak Aged Imperial Yeti. A barrel aged Imperial Stout. Nice. The bourbon taste compliments the chocolate/espresso notes in the beer very well. Easily one of my all time favorites.

Phil-- Colette: Very tasty Farmhouse Ale. Slightly sour notes complimented by the herbal aroma. Not a heavy or high gravity beer, very session able.

Chelle--Lasso IPA: A simple, smooth IPA with Columbus, Centennial and Cascade hops. Very herbal with some slight citrus notes. Even Phil liked it and he's not an IPA guy.

Chelle--Hoss Rye Lager: Nice. A German style Marzen beer that pours copperish in color and tastes very fruit-flavored with Cherry notes prominent.

Our Thoughts: 16 Different beers on tap. Nice. And we are pretty sure they are all good. Somewhat similar in structure to some of our home state of Georgia's breweries only with a full on-for profit taproom.

If you find yourself in Denver, this brewery without question should be on your shortlist. It's one of the best we've been to.