Resting up for a big Beer Day in Atlanta

Just read a few tidbits while getting psyched up for two fun events tomorrow:

1. GALS (Georgia Ale & Lager Sirens) January Meeting at Hop City, where the owner Kraig Torres will be talking to us about the beer retail business. I'm even dragging a friend along because I love encouraging other ladies to get into beer culture! To be followed by a scavenger hunt OR homebrewing lesson. Can't wait.
2. Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting. OK, so I dropped the ball on this one. I mentioned it to Mr. Know-it-All when tickets went on sale, but he just grunted. I should have realized that all he heard was Charlie Brown's teacher, but I didn't, and this week he asked if we were going. Well, it was sold out, so no. But not so fast. Some of the great people on Beer Advocate's website responded to our plight and we have each procured a spot on the list. Thanks beer peeps! This event is supposed to be pretty great. It's partially sponsored by Beer Connoiseur Magazine, and thrown by Lucky Devil Brewing (or 5 Seasons...I'm not sure because they recently defected from the 5 Seasons Chain) and Taco Mac. Casks are concoted by craft breweries around the USA, so I hope they taste better than some of the wacky stuff I had at the Sweetwater event last year! (though I still loved that). Even better is that it's supposed to be a high of 65 degrees tomorrow. Yahoo!

And now onto my items

• RateBeer.com just released their "Top Beer Bars in the World" list. 2 Atlanta bars are in the top 10: The Porter Beer Bar and Brick Store Pub. Both I love, but I'm calling a little "B.S." here - Monk's cafe in Philly a distant #50? And in the top 10 in the WORLD? Just shows why I like Beer Advocate better than RateBeer.

• Sounds like Cigar City Brewing products are FINALLY hitting Georgia in March of this year. Hooray for Jai alai IPA!!

• Brick store is going to have 2 rotating casks going of Port and Lost Abbey products - can't wait to try more from these awesome producers who are new to the Georgia market.

• Porter is having their LAST wild friday tonight. Wish I were there, but I have to rest sometime!

I'll update this post with pictures tomorrow and a summary - it oughtta be a great day.

Success! The Angel's Share Captured in the Wild in Atlanta

Well, we thought it was all gone, but it's NOT!

Had some errands to run yesterday, so we headed to little 5 points and afterward had lunch at The Porter so we could try some of their sour ales left over from Friday night's "Where the Wild Beers Are" event. The had a lot of kegs remaining from the event (yay!) and we were also able to get the very end of their Mikkeller Baconator, which we've been hunting for months. It was SMOKEY as expected. Anyway, I had a super Bell's Wild One and Mr. KnowitAll had an Ichtgem Grand Cru. Food was awesome as always, but we had to move on to get closer to Decatur so we took off and headed east.

Our next errand was trying a new beer shop in Decatur called AleYeah! on W. College Ave. Wow. What a concept. Great beer, beer making supplies, glassware, local craft foods (can you believe they had my favorite Spotted Trotter Items and Cheese from Sweetgrass Dairy, including a cheese made using Arrogant Bastard???). We picked up a lot of things, including The Angel's Share from Burbon Casks, Sierra Nevada Hoptimum, and a store assembled 4pk of 2 Young's Double Chocolate Stouts w/ 2 Timmerman's Strawberry Lambic (obviously for me, thank you whoever came up with THAT idea.) This place is definitely worth the trip and we're planning to add it to our rotation. Anyway, the proprietor was talking with us about The Angel's Share he had in stock and happened to mention that he had tried the brandy aged variety at Leon's Full Service the night before...and that he was pretty sure they still had it. Can you believe it!!??? So of course we headed there immediately....

And they still had it!!! Can you believe it??!! Beautiful, delicious, and as amazing as we remembered from our last opportunity to taste it in 2009. They also had a tremendous draft list there, which included Port Mongo Double IPA (which we were also hunting), and Mikkeller Chokolat (which was a very nice complement to my Book Kreik...sorry, I'm a chick and I like that kind of stuff.)

All in all an "unbelievably" productive day, and we still made it to our chili cookoff on time!

Hop Slam Weekend

Had a big coup this week - my spouse was following the Tower Liquors blog while I was in a seminar and found out they got some Bells HopSlam in this Tuesday. I was able to swing by and get a mini keg PLUS their last 6-pack. I even gave one bottle to their beer manager so he could try it out. He said when there is such a buzz, he feels bad reserving some for himself. How awesome is that?? I'm going to email him to see if he liked it or not. I'm thinking definitely.

We were also lucky enough to get on the Green's wait list, so we got another case of HopSlam, too. Don't worry, I'm planning on sharing the wealth with a few coworkers and friends over the next week.

Anywho, what we did Thursday was we had a HopSlam tasting. We had saved a bottle of 2010 HopSlam and "blind tasted" it against a HopSlam 2011 and a Port WipeOut. I correctly identified them all (and I must say the Port WipeOut was great, but not a double IPA so it was kind of unfair to it). But I was able to confirm two things about the HopSlam: 1) that IPAs indeed to not age well, but also that 2) the 2011 is even better than the 2010. The 2011's well balanced fruity strawberry grapefruit smell gives it a BA 5.0 in my mind, and the taste has a great hop citrus zing with citrus fruit juice and peppery spice on the tounge. Incredible, and worth the trouble and cost.

Tonight I'm drinking a Yuengling Porter, which was tough to come by here in Georgia, but is full of nostalgia for me and is just as good as I remember. Maybe even better. On to make dinner and add some reviews later on whatever else I get to. A coworker gave me some of his homebrewed ale, and I'm looking forward to trying it out!

New beer is out!

Would always love to have more to say about records management, but the thing is, as much as I love it I love food and drink even more!!

Today was a great adventure: forays to my 2 fave pubs in the ATL and a pre stop to one of our favorite beer stores.

1. Hit Brew City - No Dogfish Head Bitches Brew or Squall available; no worries, we procured some wittekirke (wit AND framboise), Allagash Interlude, Yakima Glory, Double Bastard, Tres Pistoles, Weyerbacher Fireside Ale, and Terrapin Moo-Hoo. Yes, we have a problem.
2. Hit The Porter Beer Bar - as always the food here is incredible. We only ordered a cheese tray and were 'gifted' some spent Sweetwater grain bread, but it was very lively and the local cheeses were incredible (thanks sweet grass and my fave flat creek dairy). They were out of the listed Dogfish Head Bitches' Brew (but luckily we had already procured a couple of 750ml bottles earlier in the year when the first distribution was released - btw it's tremendous!) So I ordered a Rodenbach 2008 vintage. It came in a 4 or 8 oz glass, which seems pretty small, but it is a vintaged version and I must say a bit smoother than the regular or Grand Cru you might get in a bottle. Have to agree with some frequent beer reviewers on Beer Advocate that it would be nice for the US to advocate bottling/production dates on beer so we could compare these types of things, especially because I've had some Rodenbach Grand Cru in the past which has been a mere one click sweeter than salad dressing!

Next was the Mikellar Green Gold. You can procure this at Hop city, but it will run you about 5.50$ a 12oz. And it will be totally worth it. It was served in a beautiful tulip glass and was honey colored with a dense, high tan head. The smell was floral and fruity and the hops were quite evident. This IPA is extremely well balanced; it is supposedly made in the style of an "american ipa" but it is super hoppy without being overpowering and tasty from the first to the finish. Try it.

Last was an out on a limb beer for me, the Kasteel Cuvee Du Chateau. Listed as a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, it is not exactly in my wheelhouse, but the Porter's description listed it as fruity and complex. It was MUCH lighter than expected, despite the dark color, and had a tremendous cherry presence and very disguised alcohols. It was served in a chalice which gave it a large surface area for aeration.

Somewhere in there I think I had a taste of someone's WakeNBake and Stone Cali-Belgique - nothing disappointed.

After The Porter we moved onto:
3. The Brick Store - Looking for Bitches Brew, but none on the main menu. I had to settle for Stone Vertical Epic 101010; Very nice balance, and I was able to take my time with this one, but in between that and the Dogfish Head Squall we spotted in a 750ml in the cooler, we had nice spinach, chick pea and potato soup, with the most incredible pierogies on the side....I always consider The Porter the winner in a food war with Brick Store, but that soup was an unexpected surprise...

The Squall was even better than we'd expected: it is basically a bottle conditioned 90 minute ale, and the smoother for it. That's all I can really say. 90 minute WAS my favorite beer, and this is my favorite incantation of it so far. Good luck finding it if you are in the ATL.....

4. Home and a standard Brooklyn Chocolate Stout from the stash. Spouse hit the Oban, and that was OK by me. We checked out the movie "Up in the Air". Don't watch many movies, but I'm so glad we picked this one. Great acting, great story, great message, script and execution....wow. Love to see it when Hollywood exectues well. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.

Anywhoo, overall, a great day.

Talk atcha later: tomorro is an NFL day, so a good day to report on Local ATL beer offerings!! Stay tuned.

Flat Creek Lodge

Just got back from Flat Creek Lodge in Swainsboro, GA earlier this week. I always have a magical time there (I don't throw around adjectives like that lightly) and this year was no exception.

I brought back some cheese with me, but not as much as I'd like: Flat Creek, you need to make more available to us on site!

Anywho, tonight is wine and cheese night featuring only Flat Creek Cheeses. Tonight we're having Drunken Deer, Low Country Gouda, and Uneenodae (this one I had to get at Alon's).

I hadn't planned to have Italian wine, but that's what the spouse wanted, so we're also having an amazing new-ish supertuscan called Brancaia. This wine was ranked number 10 in the Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2009. I've tried this in a previous vintage and was unimpressed, but this 2007 is truly super at a super price. Strong fruit that holds up to food without being overly tannic. In fact, it's a bit much for these cheeses. Next time I'll pair it with some pecorino and maybe a robiola. Thanks to our friends for giving us a bottle to try out!

Back to the cheese!

The Low Country Gouda isn't as strong as I remembered - especially when paired with the wine - but it's still tasty.

The Drunken Deer is beer cheese with chunks of smoked deer jerkey that was washed in some home brewed beer throughout it's aging. This I like. It is just as good as I remembered, but still smoky and probably better suited for beer drinking. It tastes like a mild cheddar and is semi soft. Very nice smoke flavor, without being overwhelming. Luckily, I bought almost a pound of it, so I will be able to try it with some porter or IPA next time.

The Uneenodae wasn't something that I was able to get at the Lodge, but I've bought it from Alon's before. It is really tasty. Mild, but with quite a bit of flavor. Somewhere between semi soft and hard, with those little calcified chunks in it which are the sign of a spectacular cheese (in my book anyway.) This cheese is 50% sheep and 50% cow milk, and is the first Flat Creek cheese I've had with sheep's milk since they took on the flocks. (Lacaune-East Friesian mix sheep, in case you are interested.) If I were the cheese producer, I would consider this one of my masterpieces...and it's produced somewhat locally. These sheep's milk cheeses are only produced in limited quantities because of the lower yield of milk in these smaller animals. Flat Creek also recently lost their main cheesemonger, which worries me that we won't see such strong sheep's cheeses for a while, but I'm hoping if I get on their list the new cheesemonger will start producing great cheeses soon (and I will get some!!)

Kudos as always to Alon's for their fresh baguette, awesome marinated anchovies and olive tapenade. We also added a favorite of mine, olive and almond paste, along with some grilled artichokes, peppardew and topped it all off with some olives and greek salad.

Pictures to follow....a nice low-key night. Thanks Flat Creek Dairy! Can't wait to be able to bring home some of your award winning Blue Farmhouse, Cypress Cheddar. Also looking locally for Aztec Cheddar, Smoked pepper and Cilantro Leiden cheeses!