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)