New Groove Brewery Celebrates One Year!!

The only thing I like better than birthday parties are birthday parties at a brewery!! Here's some pix of like minded folks:

 http://newgroovebrew.com/

The Community Tap's 6th Annual (and final) Craft Beer Festival

So, The Community Tap's 6th Annual Craft Beer Festival is now officially in the history books. I am among the many who are raving about how special this event was; quite the swan song, at least for this venue and size. I'm looking at my many photos, yet to be edited, glad that I have so many reminders, but resigned to spending a couple hours or more sorting and titling.

In the meantime, I want to pass along my personal thanks to all who contributed to making this such a successful way to spend an afternoon, including these four fine folks: Ed, Kim, Anna and Mike.
Lots more pix to come, stay tuned!

Cheers! See ya next time, whenever and wherever.

Wednesday Beer List

You know you love'em... so here's another one for this Wednesday:



https://vinepair.com/articles/ask-brewers-next-big-style/

Read on and Cheers!!

My Girl, My Whiskey, and My Beer

Hey, lest I forget, I want to mention how much I enjoyed My Girl, My Whiskey and Me's performance yesterday at Upstate Craft Beer Co. where not only did they do a farewell (for now) show but also premiered their collab brew, #50in52, a Whiskey Stave Aged Double IPA. One complemented the other, making for a grand afternoon as the crowds and smiles will attest. We'll welcome them back in the Fall; the beer is still on tap, so you still have time to enjoy it.

Cheers!

Love Them Lagers!

Being Monday, our thoughts naturally turn to lagers. Or more specifically, lagers I had Saturday at Hi-Wire Brewing's Lagerfest and Crawfest Boil. Full disclosure: I don't drink a lot of lagers anymore, being a card-carrying member of the Hophead Herd, so this opportunity to sample some of the new style offerings was irresistible. My good buddy and bottle share enthusiast, Bob Muller joined me on the trek up the hill to Asheville. As the beer lineup shows, there was a significant range of flavors offered within the style (and one porter ringer). With mostly ABVs in the low 5s and low 4s (Brown Truck had a 3.8% lager!) these beers were easy to drink and paired nicely with the enormous quantities of crawfish being consumed outside.
Some standouts for me were the Munich Dunkel from Brevard Brewing; rich flavors, light body but typical dark color.
The James Jack Pilsner from Olde Mecklenburg was a classic example of the style with a balanced profile and a crisp finish.
Hi-Wire and Holy City brewed a collab Black Rye Lager which was dark, roasty and spicy in the finish. Very drinkable.
Epic Brewing's (from Utah) Los Locos Mexican Style Lager with lime and sea salt was probably the best "lawnmower" beer there, very refreshing and balanced, definitely sessionable.
The oddest brew offered (imho) was the Holy City BB aged Pils. The light color gave no clue as to the flavor intensity from the barrels, but it was surprisingly balanced, remaining close to the style in drinkability.
This event showcased just how varied the lager style can be and just dismissing them offhand (which I have been guilty of) only serves to miss out on some excellent brews, never a good thing.
Some photos of the event, tho mostly about the beer, not being a big crawfish fan myself.
https://www.facebook.com/HiWireBrewing/

Cheers!
 

Yee-Haw Brewery Coming To Greenville

By now, a lot of you have read the Upstate Business Journal's story about Yee-Haw Brewery coming to town later this year. Since I was not familiar with Keys Village, I hustled on down to see the location for myself and to take a few snaps. Link to story below, too.

https://upstatebusinessjournal.com/…/yee-haw-brewing-co-op…/

Stay tuned for more brewery news from good ol' Greenville. Lots of beer news yet to come.
Cheers.

Swamp Rabbit Brewing 3rd Anniversary

Hmmm... a rainy morning. So, how to compensate for the lack of sunshine. Well, one way would be to revisit a time yesterday where there was no rain, just a lot of people enjoying the day and their beers. A lot of people.

That's exactly what happened yesterday during Swamp Rabbit Brewery and Taproom's Third Anniversary Party. With a crowd that size, it was clear that there were no parking places left in Travelers Rest. A crowd that required 3 food trucks to supply the hungry hordes.... or at least those wanting to pair good food with their good beers. In between sips of a most excellent India Pale Lager, I managed to get a few snaps of the festivities.

Hope they brighten your day.

Now, it's just wait until the 4th Anniversary and do it all over again.
Cheers!