DrankTank : The Beverage Blog

An idea I had never considered:  explosive growth in “craft” beer is unsustainable, and has probably already peaked (mostly because of value of shelf space conflicting with need for variety).  Article by the “beersage” in 3 parts: 1 2 3

This weekend we went to Asheville, NC for some serious around-the-clock beer tourism. Several triad homebrewers got together and made a weekend out of touring breweries and drinking North Carolina beer.

In case you didn’t know, Asheville is one of the top beer capitals in the country. That’s right. It beats out Portland, Denver, an other more famous beer destinations in one very important statistic: There are more breweries per capita in Asheville, NC than in any other US city. That not only means there is a huge variety of beer, but it is incredibly accessible (private brewery tours, discussing brewing techniques with the head brewer, or shaking the hand of the owner… those things are the norm, not the exception).

I made a personal goal this weekend to see how many North Carolina beers I could sample in one weekend. We didn’t even get to all the breweries in Asheville, only touched on a tiny fraction of the beers brewed in this great state, and frankly didn’t add any to my list on Sunday because I was worried of my liver exploding after all the beer on Friday & Saturday.

So here they are… the 63 NC beers I drank this weekend.

Liberty Red
Liberty IPA
Liberty Nut Brown
Liberty Oatmeal Stout
Highland Black Mountain Bitter
Highland St Teresa Pale Ale
Highland IPA
Highland Gaelic Ale
Highland Oatmeal Stout
Highland Seven Sisters Abbey
Jack of the Woods Extra Pale Ale
Jack of the Woods IPA
Jack of the Woods Porter
Jack of the Woods ESB
Jack of the Woods Stout
French Broad Wee Heavy
Wedge Golem Belgium Strong
Wedge Iron Rail IPA
Wedge Payne’s Pale Ale
Wedge Pilsner
Wedge Witbier
Wedge Belgium Abbey
Wedge Russian Imperial Stout
Wedge ?
Craggie Batter Hill
Craggie Swannaanoa Sunset
Craggie Toubab Brewe
Craggie Meet You Maker Barleywine
Mother Earth Dunkle Dark Cloud
Duck Rabbit Barleywine
Pisgah Roast Chocolate Stout
Pisgah Barleywine
Pisgah Dopplebock
Pisgah Cosmos
Pisgah cosmos
Pisgah Schwartz Bier
Pisgah Baptista Noel
Pisgah Vortex
Pisgah Pale Ale
Pisgah IPA
Pisgah Solstace
Pisgah Equinox Marzen
Pisgah Pilsner
Pisgah Nitro Stout
Pisgah Porter
Lexington Ave White ale
Lexington Ave ESB
Lexington Ave American Pale Ale
Lexington Ave IPA
Lexington Ave Chocolate Stout
Lexington Ave Gold Strong Ale
Catawba Firewater IPA
Catawba Blackwater Uber Pale Ale
French Broad Kolsh
Catwaba Farmhouse
French Broad rye
Fox Hill Traditional Mead
French Broad Altbier
Big Boss Bad Penny
Foothills Seeing Double
Oysterhouse Dirty Blonde
Oysterhouse IPA
Asheville Brewing Co. Ninja Porter

September 1 I had my first of many Oktoberfest Bier of the season. Bought some Sam Adams Oktoberfest, Bell’s Oktoberfest, and Blowing Rock Oktoberfest (gotta buy NC when you get the chance… even though it’s contract brewed by a place in PA, it’s exclusive to NC).

Tonight I happened by my neighborhood Harris Teeter and discovered a deal that I had to share. If you are in NC, like O’fest beer, and have a Harris Teeter nearby, go try your Harris Teeter ASAP.

A 12 pack of any Sam Adams Lager (including the Oktoberfest) for $12.99. That’s significantly cheaper per beer than buying by the 24bottle case at a big beer warehouse like TOTAL WINE. Usually, a case is going to cost you $30 or more. Go now and stock up for the season. And give me one as a reward for telling you about it.

The idea of a “beer season” may seem ridiculous to some beer enthusiasts.  But to me, it just feels right to grace late summer through autumn with that title.  In my mind, beer season starts tomorrow.

The much anticipated Greensboro Summertime Brews Festival is tomorrow, and my Jalapeno Tequila Gold will be making it’s 3rd annual appearance.   The lineup of beers looks great this year, but as always, our homebrew club breaks out the crazy recipes for this event and is consistently the longest line; beating out commercial craft beers from all over the world in popularity.

That’s not a bad kickoff to beer season.

Shorty after, I’ll be heading to Yellowstone via Salt Lake City, where I hope to indulge in a multiple Polygamy Porters:  Arguably one of the most awesome names ever for a beer that is both witty AND makes fun of a religion.

And by the time we return from that, we’ll be just a few pints away from OKTOBERFEST PARTY season, which is already shaping up to be chocked-full of lederhosen-wearing, lager-chugging fun.

Yes, there really IS such a thing as BEER SEASON, and I am thankful for it.

Some guys over in Durham, NC are building a brewery.

They are doing something pretty unique.  They have coined the term “southern experimental brewing” and state their mission:  “to develop a new genre of beer that reflects the unique Southern confluence of agriculture and industry”

They are still experimenting with recipes (trying out ingredients like scuppernong grapes, sweet potatoes, and rhubarb), so you can’t buy it yet.

Check out their blog.  They are currently chronicling their experiments and legal battles with brewing with kudzu!

I imagine there’s not enough lawyers in the entire triangle area to start selling a beer that REALLY reflects North Carolina’s agricultural history… the Tobacco Beer.

The cost of your favorite beer will jump significantly if a proposed beer tax is instituted. Our passion and our brewery friends are being unfairly singled out by the governor and you can stop it with just a little bit of effort.

Governor Perdue is planning to impose a greater ’sin tax’ on beer and wine.  (She initially pushed to almost double the level of excise tax.)  Please go on line and e-mail the governor and your legislators to tell them that a beer and wine tax increase is a bad idea.