25 Beers fo Christmas '08, Day 10: Sweetwater Festive Ale

Brewery: Sweetwater Brewing Company
Style: Winter Warmer
ABV: 8.6%
Date Poured: December 2008

I tried to drink this beer for the 25 Beers of Christmas '07 but the old flip top container had failed and the beer was spoiled. Fresh, this beer has an overbearing spiciness that I do not enjoy at all. The solution? Try a capped bottle that has been aged for a year and hope that the spice has calmed down.

It's a deep, nearly opaque, brown with a thinnish tan head. Fruity sweet malt with sweet spices.

Fruity, sweet dark malt. Lots of sweet spice, clove, cinnamon and ginger. Quite sweet and quite a lot of spice. Lightly roasty and sweet in the finish.

The spice, even after a year, is heavy handed and all the flavors are a bit haphazard. I've given it a real chance but this beer is just not for me.



Sweetwater Brewing Company

And So It Begins...(Belgium Trip Prologue)

I am sitting here in Atlanta Hartsfield airport waiting for a flight to Dulles Airport and then on to Brussels. Surprise! The flight is delayed.

So the question becomes where to spend my time. Atlanta Brewing Company used to have a pub here in the airport but it has been closed for sometime. Fortunately, Sweetwater Brewing has opened one of their own out in Terminal B. So I headed over for some lunch and a beer.

They have four Sweetwater brews on tap: 420 Pale Ale, IPA, Summer Hummer and Blue. I ordered a draft of the excellent IPA. Surprisingly, $6.90 buys you a big 20 oz draft, not a bad price for an airport pub. I ordered the hot wings and they were actually quite good as well. Spicy with plenty of sauce and blue cheese dressing, hot and fresh out of the kitchen. Nothing better to drink with your wings than Sweetwater IPA!. The staff was prompt and friendly on top of everything else.

Marooned in the Atlanta aiport? Get down to terminal B near gate 11. It'll do in a pinch...

The Session #4: Local Brew

I'm a newbie to this beer blogging thing but I saw The Session post over at Lew Bryson's blog and became intrigued with the concept. I was wholly unprepared for this but did have a couple local beers in the fridge that met the criteria so I figured I'd pick up the flag for the Atlanta area.

Terrapin Rye Pale Ale

Terrapin is based out of Athens, GA (even though all their bottles are contract brewed in Maryland) and since the ABV cap on beer was popped nearly three years ago have built a reputation on their seasonal "Monster Beer Tour" extreme beers. However, their flagship beer manages to be pretty innovative, if not extreme. Rye Pale Ale is made with (duh) rye, in addition to other specialty malts but at about 5% ABV makes a decent session beer as well.

The beer pours a slightly hazy copper with a billowy ivory head. The sweet, citrusy hops are evident immediately in the nose but the real payoff for this beer is when it hits your lips and the lightly grainy malt flavor melds with the orange rind flavored hops. The mouth is real creamy. Above all, this is just a really enjoyable and tasty brew. I was happy that one of my local favorites was in the fridge. I must be doing my job, supporting my local brewery and all that.

Sweetwater Road Trip

If you were to rank the best breweries in Georgia, Terrapin and Sweetwater would be ranked 1 and 1A and you couldn't go wrong with either in the top spot. (Some would argue that only Sweetwater is a true GA brewer since Terrapin contract brews elsewhere but I don't subscribe to that argument.) While Terrapin only offers two year-round offerings (their Golden Ale and the aforementioned Rye Pale Ale), Sweetwater offers five and has very recently put an emphasis of their seasonals by thinking outside the box (well, for them anyway). They bottled their Happy Ending imperial stout this winter and this spring have released Road Trip, a beer they bill as a double pilsner recipe in which they subbed ale yeast for the lager yeast.

Road Trip pours crystal clear with a bright golden hue. The head is snow-white and dense and the aroma is dominated by noble hops. The hops (Saaz?) dominate the tongue as you sip this beer but do not completely overwhelm the malt. The mouth is not crisp like a pilsner but softer and creamier (I'm guessing from the ale yeast...). To call this a double pilsner is incorrect; it's what may be the world's first Imperial Cream Ale! (The extreme beer movement's next logical step...) I have a soft spot for a good cream ale so this beer is right up my alley.

Well, I've enjoyed my first post for The Session and think this is a great idea. Support your local brewery!