Catch 22 gastropub Stone Brewing beer dinner

On Wednesday night, October 15 Sarah and I enjoyed a great four beer, three course dinner at Chef Miley’s Catch 22 Gastropub. We arrived around 6:15p and found a seat at the front community table next to Cousin Owen and The Beer Wench. We talked for a few minutes and met the new Stone Brewing rep. Andrew before the entry beer was served.
The opening beer was Reason Be Damned, an 8% Belgian Strong aged in red wine barrels. My likeness for Belgian yeasts comes and goes, but this was superb. So much so that Sarah even liked it, she even got another half pour before dinner started.
The food pairings started off great and it’s hard to imagine how they could possibly get any better. The first course was a intensely spicy roasted poblano soup with hominy, which was paired with Bang Bang. Bang Bang is a hoppy red ale aged in bourbon barrels at 7.5% and was touted as being the only keg in the state. If so or not I’m glad we got to enjoy it. The bourbon doesn’t shine much which would be okay if sipping this beer solely but paired with this amazing soup made the bourbon shine and accentuated the bitterness of the hops. Everyone was raving about the pairing and the base of the soup. It truly was great. Sarah and I were discussing our excitement for the dinner a few days earlier and I told her I was anticipating a southwest course being Miley’s roots from Cali and Stone being San Diego based. The main course is duck two ways, a roasted thigh and beer braised leg tamale. Sides were ancho creamed corn, smashed avocado with green onion and lime. Pair that medium rich course and slight heat with Enjoy By 10.31.14 and now this is debatably the best course. Typically I’m not a fan of the hugely bitter Enjoy By beers, but this course and that great tamale gave perfect balance to the beer. Thankfully there was plenty of corn and we were given left overs. Score!The last course would certainly fall short but I was looking forward to finally trying this Chris Banker/Stone/Insurgente Xocoveza Mocha Stout. It’s an 8.1% stout brewed with cocoa, coffee, peppers, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg which sounds like a lot but comes across as, well, a mocha stout. Paired with an amazing pumpkin latte trifel and white chocolate whipped cream and you suddenly have a pumpkin spice latte. The huge coffee bitterness of the stout cuts through the sweetness of the dessert. There was a cookie that I quickly devoured, so I can’t say much about it. Just like the cookie, the last course was great.

Typically I like to say which of the courses was my favorite but Chef Miley made that really tough. We stayed a bit after so I could enjoy another pour of the stout, Sarah had a pour of Southern Tier Pumpking, and we talked to our vast group of local beer geeks and how much we all enjoyed the dinner. We left full but not stuffed and not overly served, which is great. Most beer dinners set out to get you hammered and Chef Miley didn’t do that. Catch 22 has had two recent beer dinners so their tap list and new fall menu is great, so I strongly suggest a visit soon. Thanks to Chef Cora so the extra ancho creamed corn too, it paired great with cast iron seared pork chops and sautéed broccoli at home the next day. Great job to the chefs and everyone at Catch 22!

[drink local]

Hop Lovers Unite

Fall brings a lot of new things but one of my favorites is wet hop craft beer. Many breweries nowadays are doing this and the more the merrier. When hops are ready to harvest in the Pacific-Northwest breweries will place orders for fresh hops which are then flown overnight to be brewed with as soon as possible. For the past four years Terrapin has released a fresh wet hop beer called So Fresh & So Green, Green; which obviously pays homage to the band Outkast and we’re okay with that. Along with the release of SF&SGG is their annual Hop Harvest Festival which takes place at the brewery.


This year’s version; which is brewed with a different hop each year is brewed with Simcoe. A favorite for many of us home brewers. Simcoe is typically characterized as citrus and piney and is typically high in alpha acids, like 11% – 14%. Each year is a different hop and naturally with Spike the first version in 2010 was Amarillo, followed by Challenger, Citra and last year Centennial. If I had to rank them all in order of liking them it would go: Citra – Simcoe – Amarillo – Centennial – Challenger. Yesterday they had SF&SGG running through a Randall of extra Simcoe hops; which really showcased the aromatics of the hop.


Another neat thing for Hop Harvest is the cask tent. Each cask is Georgia Only! Golden Ale with a different hop in each one; most new or experimental hops. I only made it to the tent once and tried a new hop called Lemondrop; which gave hints of lemon and other citrus notes. There is always a barrel aged booth too pouring some unique and rare treats. As always a personal go to favorite is bourbon barrel aged Wake-n-Bake (Imperial Coffee Stout for the TTB). There was also BBA Hopzilla and a whiskey barrel aged Mosaic. The real treat came from knowing someone that knows someone that knowed someone and we got a few pulls of the soon to be release next Reserve Series, Moo-HooChiato. This is like a personal dream come true, Moo Hoo chocolate stout and Jittery Joe’s Wake-n-Bake coffee. This Reserve Series seems to keep getting better and better.


Look for bottles soon of SF&SGG at your local glass house (bottle shop). This is certainly one you want to enjoy fresh so pop ’em when you get ’em. Cheers to the Terrapin crew on another great event in Athens.

[drink local]

ältesten Brauerei der Welt

Thankfully my entire time in Deutschland over the summer wasn’t all work.  I actually got a few days off here and there then finally things worked out and Sarah was able to come visit.  She did an amazing job planning a 10 day trip for the both of us to visit several great places in Germany; mostly southern.  While staying in Munich for three days she surprised me by planning a guided tour of Weihenstephan Brewery in Freising; just north of the city.

Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan or Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan is the oldest continually operating brewery in the world; since 1040.  The brewery is in fact owned by the State of Bavaria and has been since 1923.  Along the brewery is the Technical University of Munich; where many brewers go to learn the art and science of zymology.  Many wind up being brewer assistants eventually leaving to brew elsewhere or opening a brewery.

Sarah originally planned on us taking a 10am English guided tour on a Monday, but this tour was booked so she planned a 1pm German guided tour.  She was ensured all the guides speak both languages.  Once our tour group started to arrive and assemble (we were first; imagine that) we learned that there were other English speakers and even Americans in the group.  As tour time got closer we were pleasantly surprised that they arranged to have a smaller tour just for us; nine people total.  The other group was a large 30 something tour.

Our tour guide was a great kid and explained a lot for all the questions.  I stumped him a few times asking about English measurements but thankfully I could convert his Metric measurements.  He’s working on his PhD and doing his dissertation on turbidity in water and bier.  The tours are described as ending with two samples of their beers.  Our group however had four samples and they were all great beers!  He did a great job showing everyone how to view, smell, taste and enjoy their beer; just like a judge would.  If you are ever in Munich you should do yourself justice and make the trip.  It’s less than an hour by car and right at an hour by train.

Sarah wants a puppy

If you’re a friend and read that title you’re thinking this isn’t anything new.  Sarah has always wanted a puppy.  But instead she got to visit River Dog Brewing in Bluffton, SC.  Or rather, Ridgeland but who knows where that is; right?  We come to HHI once a summer with her family and always take this fun little back road off I-95 which gets us out of some traffic on US-278; the main road into HHI.  Thankfully for me their new brewery is off our typical travel route.  Which Sarah despises because it’s all back roads from Augusta to I-95, but now we have a reason to go that way.

tap handles

River Dog has a nice corner spot in what looks like an office park.  Their tasting room seems quite small with only five or six tables and maybe six chairs at the bar.  I’m not sure if they let you mingle outside during busy times or not.  They have a nice size brew house, especially when compared to the last brewery I visited, Jailhouse in Hampton, GA.  They brew on a 15 bbl system and have six 30 bbl fermenters.  I think the guy told me they have three 30 bbl bright tanks too, or maybe they were 15 bbl, I can’t remember.

River Dog flight

With the new South Carolina pint law they have no problem selling you beer either.  I quickly order a flight which was a taster of all six beers they had on tap.  From right to left in the picture was their American Wheat, next a Toffee Holiday ale which was great.  This beer is described as an amber Belgian ale and brewed with Belgian candy sugar and chocolate covered toffee from River Street Sweets in Savannah.  Next was their Chocolate Rye Porter and was possibly my favorite on tap.  It came off obvious at the substantial amount of rye used in this recipe which added great depths to the beer.  I got some spice from the rye plus some nice chocolate and roast notes from the rest of the grain bill.  Moving down the list was a Lowcountry Lager which would please even the Silver Bullet drinkers of the southeast.  Next was a great IPA with a load of fruity and citrus hops.  Their website contradicts itself saying it’s 5.8% abv but also says it’s a 7.6% beer, while their tap list says it’s 6.3% abv.  Its balance was a little off, more hop forward and could use some extra body.  At 7.6% it would be great and it wasn’t bad at any means, but it could have been better and more balanced.  It’d be interesting to know why I see three different numbers.  Naturally Untappd has it at 7.6%, but that number won’t change unless River Dog edits it.  The IPA was one of my favorites still.  Last and certainly not least because this could be filed under save the best for last was their Citrus Sour.  I didn’t want to sour my palette plus this was a beer to sip and enjoy.  Sarah loves sours, probably not as much as puppies though, so she got a pour of her own too.  Huge citrus flavors with a nice tartness and surprisingly light and way to refreshing at 6.8% abv.  This made it a toss of favorite beer of the day between the rye porter and the sour.  Wish I would have gotten growlers of both.

tap list

fermenters

The bar keep guy told us they were planning to release around five sours this quarter also.  So I suggest keeping an eye on their social media to see when those happen.  Denver and I have already mentioned making a day trip if we have to.  But we’ll both be down here in May and I think only a week apart this year; normally its two – three weeks apart.  Plus when we go back I have to tip the guy big time.  They use an iPad as method of payment and I was looking at the screen so I only saw confirm payment which I hit.  After we walked out then Sarah tells me I didn’t tip the guy that there was a space on the iPad to add tip amount.  Naturally we never have cash and were rushed to get to Sea Pines registration to check-in before they closed.  So now I’m trying to figure out a way that the guy will forgive me for my oversight.  Sorry dude!  They recently sent a cask up to Atlanta also for ACAT and that I believe was a kriek and was superb from what I’ve been told.  So it seems they’re killing it on the sour front.  Which is a good thing for southeast brewers.  It would be great to be known for having a line of refreshing sours to convert the Steel Reserve drinkers over to local.  Well, you may not convert those guys because who’s gonna stop drinking a six-pack of 211s that only cost four bucks?

This should make it on the list of musts people and it’s not that far off I-95 for those traveling.  I know I’m already looking forward to visiting again in May and trying to get my sister-in-law drunk.

citrus sour > puppy

Jail Broke

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I finally got a chance to visit Jailhouse Brewing in Hampton. It was a completely freezing awesome day of brewing and bottling. It’s well worth the drive south; their beers are great and the are just all around great guys.

More suds

Every beer blog I read has already posted a two thousand and fourteen page talking about beer this year, etc.  So here goes mine, but there’s really something to be excited about other than saying I’m going to write more (many of you would prefer me to write less or even none).  You see what’s about to happen in Athens, Georgia is the local breweries are actually going to double.  How many people can say that?

Currently Athens is home to, the now ever vastly expanding, regional brewery Terrapin Beer Company.  It’s also home to Copper Creek Brewing Company, also known as the home of wing night.  They have great wings on sale Thursday night and if I’m lucky Sarah lets me go twice a month, but normally only once a month because she loves me.  In 2014 Athens will see doors open and beers pouring from two new breweries, Creature Comforts and The Southern Brewing Co.

Creature Comforts

Creature Comforts

is housed in the old Snow Tire Co. building on W. Hancock St. downtown.  With Creature Beer being downtown, it’s a prime location which will certainly be at capacity during game weekends.  They recently received their tanks and posted plenty of pictures over on their blog.

CCBC tanks arriving

Line up!

From reading their site they will brew on a 30 barrel brew house and as you can see above, has a lot of fermentation capacity from the rip.  They posted on Facebook that their Berliner will be in cans, so let’s hope all of their beers wind up in our favorite aluminum container.

The Southern Brewing Company

The Southern Brewing Company

has acquired land along Collins Industrial Boulevard, which runs alongside highway 29, and is across from McLane Trucking.  They are working on plans for clearing land and building right now.  Brian Roth, a 10 year brewing veteran, is working diligently to make his dreams come true.

Concept 2 – phase 1 includes a 10k sq. ft. brewery with huge bier garden

He has the help of long time friend and co-founder Rick Goddard (you’ll soon realize he’s not American once you go to his bio page) and brewer Mark Mooney, so he’s surrounded by good help.  I’ve never seen anyone as proficient as Rick clean not one, but two giant 15 gallon pumpkins in a single brew day.  If you ever need a trust worthy bottle filler then call on Mark.  I’ve never seen Mark pull a bottling bucket off the table while bottling and I can’t say that about Brian.

What’s great about SBC is their love for brewing, the community and the camaraderie that comes with it.   We started out as a cleaner at Gratis Brewing, the home brew pilot system for SBC, and have moved up to collaborator.  Remember the great things we said about Rick?

Rick fisting a gourd

It’s a very rough timeline because there are still a lot of hurdles to jump or knock down, but they are tentatively planning to brew on their system in July.  I didn’t think I’d ever say this but summer can come soon enough.