Craft Brews, Home Brews or Beer Cons?

[Ruin]

Is anyone else here in to the microbrews, craft brews etc? I've been a bartender off and on for years and was introduced to microbreweries a few years ago. Recently with my new job I've expanded my palette quite a bit. I've met some cool people who are in to the craft brew scene and have helped me understand beer and its complexities better as well.

Any fellow GR friends that are in to this as well? I spent most of Saturday night at Terrapin Brewery's 9th Anniversary celebration in Athens, GA (not too long of a drive from here). I got to try some great barrel aged and cask beers along with their Georgia Theater Sessions beer. Also got to try the two new beers (a wheat and a lager/IPA combo) that were both great! Afterwards we went with some friends to Trappeeze (if you live in GA or near Athens go, and ask for Asher) and had some more craft brews and even a couple vintage brews as well. Thanks to a great night at work Friday night I was able to sample some quality and expensive beers. One was from the UK and brewed in 2005.

Just checking to see if anyone else is in the same ball park I am. I'm going to start home brewing in the next week or two too!

[Cobblers]

You should go to an idyllic pub in Northamptonshire, England called the Folley Pie Pub in Napton on the Hill.

Once there you will find yourself surrounded by countryside and the local canal system. And once you venture inside you will find the pub serves proper local ales/beers. They also do a mean pie and chips that is to die for I can assure you.

http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_buttons/2006/08/napton_folly_pi.html

If you ever find yourself needing a drinking buddy at this place then I'll be there!!

But no, never thought about home brewing but then England has so many small, family run brewerys so as long as you know where to go you are then kind of spoilt for choice.

If you ever get to visit the UK, why not try and venture out of London - people rarely do and they miss so much. And then you could consider going on:

http://www.blackcountrytours.co.uk/danpie.html

http://www.andypryke.com/pub/BlogJanuary2008 - this is some random persons blog who about half way down his page describes part of the time he spent doing this tour.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

MMMM Beer!!!

[Ruin]

Thanks for the links Cobblers! Some cool stuff I'll have to check out if I'm ever in the UK.

Tried a Belgian Ale last night... Lucifer by Het Anker. Very good. A little extra carbonation, kinda sweet (but not sugary) and sorta dry. Good Belgian flavor to it. Also had Terrapin's Hopsecutioner IPA. Very hoppy but not very bitter. And Dogfish Head's Palo Santo. It's a Brown Ale, but very dark, and kinda sweet. We have it on tap at work right now and I'm kinda preferring the bottle instead.

Forgot to add...

Girlfriend had a Wayerbacher Slam Dunkel last night. Dark in body, but seriously tastes like banana bread. Kinda creamy too. Definitely a sessions beer. She also had a Fort Collin's Red Banshee. It's like Killian's Irish Red, but with more flavor and body. And she always ends the night with a Duchesse de Bourgogne by Verhaeghe Vichte. It's a brownish-red sour. Not my thing, but she loves it. It seems to be a new trend with the lady folk.

[Parabellum]

We tried microbrewing a few years back. The end result was me getting really, really sick. Hopefully, you'll fare better than I did!

[petsfed]

Thanks for the links Cobblers! Some cool stuff I'll have to check out if I'm ever in the UK.

Tried a Belgian Ale last night... Lucifer by Het Anker. Very good. A little extra carbonation, kinda sweet (but not sugary) and sorta dry. Good Belgian flavor to it. Also had Terrapin's Hopsecutioner IPA. Very hoppy but not very bitter. And Dogfish Head's Palo Santo. It's a Brown Ale, but very dark, and kinda sweet. We have it on tap at work right now and I'm kinda preferring the bottle instead.

Forgot to add...

Girlfriend had a Wayerbacher Slam Dunkel last night. Dark in body, but seriously tastes like banana bread. Kinda creamy too. Definitely a sessions beer. She also had a Fort Collin's Red Banshee. It's like Killian's Irish Red, but with more flavor and body. And she always ends the night with a Duchesse de Bourgogne by Verhaeghe Vichte. It's a brownish-red sour. Not my thing, but she loves it. It seems to be a new trend with the lady folk.

It seems like Colorado (and mountain time zone) breweries have amber ales dialed, and the Pacific Northwest is good with IPAs. If you could get it, I'd say try anything by Ninkasi Brewing, out of Eugene, OR. I'm a big fan of Sweetgrass, an American Pale from Grand Teton Brewing, Victor, ID, but Zonker Stout is another good one, from Snake River Brewing out of Jackson and Lander, WY.

My rule of thumb is that if I can't get to the physical brewery within a hard day's drive (e.g. about 14 hours), then I don't really want to drink the beer. Not because I buy local, but because the beer is fresher that way. Thus, I can't really recommend the poor man's microbrewery, New Belgium, because they have put a lot of effort into making sure that their beer can survive the transit, and the beer has suffered for it. Same with Deschutes, and to a certain extent Kansas City Brewery.

I love my local brew pubs though. Their seasonals are always a step above even my favorite bottled brew.

[Ruin]

Para, thanks! We haven't been able to start yet. Since we're not set up for it it's a big up front cost so it has to wait. We have several friends who are home-brewers so we're going to get some guided assistance.

Petsfed, That all sounds great! We're really limited to the South East and New England breweries here. We don't really get anything West of this Mississippi. But we do get a LOT of Belgians... go figure. I guess it's just the way our distributors are set up.

I almost moved to Laramie a year ago, but SC got me instead. I'd love to try some west coast brews. Especially the Rocky Mountain region brews. You should be able to get some great lagers there too! There are online distributors that I might start ordering from too.