apologies and events..

For those who do read, I am sorry for the lack of updates/posts in the last few weeks. Lots of fun stuff happening around the Tampa Bay area for our own little version of "beer month". For my part in this month of events organizing the Stogie and Stout held at the brewery it has been in the works for months and is finally getting to the event itself. This Saturday if you are in the Tampa Bay area or can be here this is a beer tasting like no other. I have assembled over 30 Stouts, Porters, Brown Ales, and Doppelbocks for tasting and will on Saturday change every tap in the brewery to one of these nubian beauties. We will even add some taps by bringing in our beer trailers. You can still get tickets if you are interested at dunedinbrewery.com. Check this out for a taste:

Just a few of the beers we will be featuring for this year's Stogie and Stout
Terrapin Wake n' Bake Oatmeal Imperial Stout	Left Hand Smoke Jumper Imperial Porter
Stoudt's Fat Dog Oatmeal Imperial Stout	Lefthand Milk Stout
Rogue "Paul" Black Lager part of John's Locker Series	Duck Rabbit Baltic Porter
Thomas Creek Doppelbock	Duck Rabbit Milk Stout
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout	Terrapin Monster Series "Dos Cocoa"
Dunedin Brewery Leonard Croon's Old Mean Stout	Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock
Sea Dog Hazelnut Porter	Shipyard Pugsley Series Imperial Porter
Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter	Shipyard Imperial Porter
*CASK* Cigar City Maduro Brown Ale	Avery's Czar Imperial Stout '07

My favorite little watering hole Oldsmar Taphouse celebrated a year last week with a party and a few special goodies on tap and in bottles. Cigar City bottles even showed up there, although that was the only case that existed in the world at this point and I am sure it did not last long. I am glad I was able to get one while it was there.. Yummy!! Can't wait until those guys are up and running. The OTH has also been awarded by ratebeer.com the coveted ranking of the "Best Beer Bar in America" and #3 in the World. Awesome!! I think it is well deserved, of course I am biased but it is tough to beat..

The #2 beer bar in the U.S. just happens to be in Orlando, and to me eventhough I have only been there once holds a special place in every Florida beer lover's heart as well (hopefully) is Redlight Redlight. Brent and crew are seriously devoted to their craft and go out of their way to have some of the most amazing offerings I have seen in Florida including one of my absolute favorites Cantillion Foufoune (sp?) on tap, which I very reluctantly missed but is still very special. Brent also has a few pins (5 gallon casks) which he sends out to breweries who are willing to fill them and is able to get things on his hand pump that otherwise would not be available. I was able to be there a few weeks ago and they had 5 smoked beers on tap! How much fun is that?? Well, perhaps not much if you don't like them but for me it is almost heaven. If you are in Orlando I would not miss Redlight Redlight, while it is a little out of the way of the more well known areas of Orlando it is well worth the trip.

More to come, in the mean time..

Cheers!!

Atlanta and the Infamous Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting part 2

Now for the report on the Atlanta Cask Ale tasting, I had been waiting for the pictures from my accomplice in this little trip but if you know who I am talking about you know we will probably never see the pictures again..

The Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting has got to be one of the best tastings/festivals in the southeastern United States. Owen Ogletree and his staff of volunteers truly care about all things ale and lager and it really shows in their dedication to events such as this. You can check out the happenings around Athens and Atlanta he is involved with by checking out his website classiccitybrew.com there is always something going somewhere between Atlanta and Athens on and beyond that the North Georgia area has become an oasis in the southeast for quality beer both in what is distributed there and the breweries that are thriving in the region. This year was the 5th year of the Cask Tasting and was held at the Atlanta Brewing Company's facility which to my knowledge in following this event for it history was the first year at a new location, for the past years it had been held at Sweetwater but I think the venue change was great and allowed me to get a look at another very great Altanta brewery.

Assembled in their traditional stillage racks 21 casks from breweries mostly around the Atlanta area with a few others (such as ours from the Dunedin Brewery and our good friends at Cigar City Brewing) there was supposed to be one more but I guess someone else had some issues with blowing the bung out of the cask which was a bummer. We arrived to a line of very thirsty enthusiasts eagerly awaiting enrty to the beer wonderland that was to come and were given our cups and let loose. We (Dunedin and Cigar City boys) immediately headed to where our beers were being poured to check them out and see how they had turned out and we were not disappointed! Our beer dubbed The Bomb, not because we are conceded or anything but because of the mishap with the first one we filled resulting in redecorating Joey's office over at Cigar City (read earlier posts) was an onyx, inky, rich mother of a beer. We had dry hopped it in the cask with a load of very high alpha hops which came through nicely although I would back it off a little for the next time as the smoothness of the oatmeal in the grain bill was lost in the grassy, citrusy aroma and flavor being dominated by the hop.. Although if you dig on the hop-bombs (excuse that term) then we hit the target dead on. The beer from Cigar City was even better than ours, definitely more robust and complex with the notes of 2 different types of chilies, chocolate, cinnamon, and vanilla. The chilies came through heavily although not overbearing with the inhearent sweetness from the abundance of the malty base. The balance of cinnamon, vanilla, and chocolate was right on par with the everything else going on and I am happy to report that the judges felt the same way and awarded this Hanahpus Imperial Stout as it was named 1st place of all beers in the event. The beers were all jusdged by BJCP judges and while it was not a "sanctioned" event it certianly will gain the guys some attention at least throughout the southeast.

Other notables were the Duck Rabbit Bourbon Barrel Milk Stout which by description was "Milk stout aged for 2 months in 2nd use 23-year old Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Barrels". This beer was wonderfully balanced in everyway with the oak and bourbon notes coming through but not overpowering the already very tasty beer. Also of note was the "This Beer" from Max Lager's in Downtown Altanta the description tells it all "This beer contains water, malt, hops and yeast. That’s it - no exotic fruits or spices, no coffee or other breakfast foods, no rice, corn or other side dishes. It wasn’t aged on foreign or domestic wood tainted with the flavor of rival spirits. It is beer. If you’ve really gotta be technical.....it’s an ale, it’s fairly red, it started at 17 degrees Plato, and finished at 2.1 degrees (if you’re a beer geek, you do the ABV math). Bittered with plenty of Northern Brewer hops and finished with Centennial, if there’s not enough hops for you then you name is probably Chris Terenzi. If it’s too much they you probably should have given your ticket to someone else." and while most of the other beers of the fest were very experimental this was a nice change from all of the extremes in flavors and actually won second place which I was glad for. It is nice to see all of the crazy idea everyone comes up with but still very refreshing that a beer like this can still hold it's own among this crowd. There were so many more, and every one of them that I tried was wonderful in it's own right although I can not list them all I thank all the breweries that participated for allowing us to sample their experiements in this very historic and traditional way of conditioning and serving ales.

I can not wait for this event to come up next year, and hope we can again be a part of it as I am already thinking of what we will do for next year. If you live in the southeast I would definitely consider trying to get tickets to this event if you can. They are very limited usually to about 250 and first come first served via email with Owen when he releases them. These ever so coveted tickets are free, but the event benefits the Atlanta Humane Society so donations are very appreciated. If you live in the Southeast in general Altanta is definitely worth a stop for a few days to check out the beer scene with a short hop up to Athens you will not be disappointed in what you find.

More to come about Atlanta in the future..

Cheers!

Atlanta and the Infamous Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting part 1

We came, we saw, we drank..

Being from Atlanta originally, I still remember how to get around the town which helps find the beer bars and breweries. We did just fine and found the help of a few taxi cab drivers as well. The journey started out early Friday morning and soon after we entered the city limits we headed to the Brick Store Pub in downtown Decatur which is considered by the "rating sites" as world class and a lot of people feel this definitely one of the south's premiere spots to quaff a pint and I agree. Their draft and bottle lists were as usual quite impressive.. Among the extensive offerings from around the Atlanta area there were a few others including a Baltic porter from Finland (Sinebrychoff Porter) that I had never had the pleasure of trying on draft and they also tapped a cask of a porter (Ola Dubh 12yr) aged in a very special single malt barrel while we were there which was very yummy. We also stopped by Twain's which is also in the downtown area of Decatur. Their beers for the most part were very consistent, we did try a Belgian Black Ale that was slightly out of character from most anything I have tried before and while it was not unenjoyable, the balance from the phenolics as a result of the typical yeast strain did not mesh well with the roasted malts within the beer itself. Totally drinkable, it just was not what we were accustomed to which could of course be our problem, although a softer strain of yeast we felt would have lent it self a better compliment to the beer. No matter what, Twain's is a place not to be missed for the beer enthusiast living or visiting Atlanta. If I lived there I would be there quite often in fact.

On Friday Night we hit the Taco Mac in Atlanta near Lindbergh Station for the Brewer's Reception for the Cask Ale tasting which would take place the next day. Taco Mac's are more sports bars with an extensive selection of beer than anything else but hey, as long as they have all of the beer I can ignore the 100's of TV's tuned in to ESPN or the like.. They literally have at least 100 taps, and probably about 4 times that in bottles so there is always something new to pick from. This little pre-party party was a blast and I was able to see some familiar faces in the southeastern beer circle, as well as meeting quite a few more people who I had never had the pleasure of talking to. I have to say the beer scene in the Atlanta area and even the southeast is very strong and I can only hope this is a sign of things to come for the Tampa Bay and Florida area in general. After the reception was over we headed to Rockbottom in Atlanta which was disappointing to say the very least. I really hate to trash anyone, my focus is to promote any place that makes and/or serves fresh local beer but this place was really lack luster in every way. From the service, to the food and especially the beer we were disappointed on all fronts in fact we did not even finish the beer it was just not, well.. Good. I have been to many Rockbottom Breweries out west and always had a very good experience. I am not sure it was this one, or what but it was not a very pleasant experience this time..

On Saturday we woke up an headed to Green's Beverages which is the best place to pick up quality beers in the Atlanta area. Adam, who handles all of the beer has really shown a lot of focus on all that is available to the state and has built up an impressive cellar of rare and specialty Belgian and other beers from all over Europe and the United States. I found Boon's Marriage Parfait 2003, Cantillion St. Lamvinous, and Peche Mortel to name a few lurking about that we are unable to find here in the Tampa Bay area. I am sure there is much more but I had no room after loading the 2 kegs of DuckRabbit beer for the up coming Stogie and Stout at the brewery in the car.

We spent the rest of our time at 5 Seasons Atlanta, both before and after the Cask Ale tasting which was basically lunch and dinner. Sure it seems odd to spend that much time at one place, but if you have ever been there you know why. This place is simply one of my favorite brewpubs in the nation hands down so I had no problem spending a good amount of my time there. The Helles and Cartoon Brune which were old favorites held to the high expectations I have always had of them, the Hopgasm a creation of new brew master Kevin McNerney who in his former life brewed for Sweetwater Brewing Company was fantastic and I am happy he has come to continue his fine talent at this wonderful little brewpub. When we were there in the afternoon it was quite a mellow place, when we returned later in the evening it was packed and full of thirsty crowds! A great site to see!!

All in all a great beer town, especially for a state that has only been able to have beer over 6% for about 4 to 5 years..

Cask ale festival review to come.. Stay Tuned!