Craft beer is dead.

May 26, 2023

Update May 26th, 2023.

I left the craft beer world behind in May of 2022. It turns out Aaron of Crafty Bastard is a giant piece of unethical shit. I won’t go in to it, but I wouldn’t return to the world of beer for all the money I could have. fuck it. I don’t even drink much beer now a days. Honestly, if all the craft breweries in the world went out of business I would be happy with Guinness and Coors Banquet the rest of my life.

There are so many unethical brewery owners. Especially in Knoxville. There are breweries I absolutely refuse to visit or support with my money.

Also, what the hell craft beer? We don’t need a pickle barrel aged east coast ipa with fruit loops. I swear the art of brewing is dead. Brewers will put anything in beer now to make it taste like Saturday morning cereal milk to appeal to zoomers who will never know the struggle of finding a good beer at the store. Most gas stations now have many great options.

Fuck your pastry stout, can you even lager bro?

Anyway, the only brewery in Knoxville I have love for and hang out at is Alliance Brewery on the southside. You can usually find me there Saturday nights before my radio show.

Anyway, I’m out. I’ll probably let my domain name expire this year because I am so over the industry and the beer scene.

Doubtful I’ll bother to update again. Check back in a couple of years.

-Ratchet

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

I still have this site? It’s been over 4 years since I’ve posted.

July 9, 2020

Update 10.10.2021

I left Fanatic Company after 6 years and made sure my duties were in good hands. I miss Marty and the whole crew over there and should visit more than I do.

I left to come back to the production side of things. The timing worked out as my friend (and former homebrew buddy Aaron McClain) expanded Crafty Bastard Brewery into a 2nd location and production facility. My friend (and technically supervisor), Carl built out a 15 bbl brewhouse purchased from Salty Nut in Huntville, AL. It was disassembled, trucked and reassembled mostly by Carl. By the times things were up and running, I was eager to return to work after the pandemic. I’ve been telling Aaron for years whenever we would hang out, go on the river, etc that I would come to work for him anytime. Once the brewhouse was up and running, Carl needed help and preferably experienced help. I was already doing the pre-opening landscaping so I got the job. Being engaged to the Front of house manager, Leslie probably helped as well, lol.

Anyway, I’ve been here since July and I love it. I’m back working a job I love with people I respect. It’s hard physically exhausting labor with long hours sometimes and it’s good for my soul.

Anyway, I’m keeping this domain for the grandfathered in email that I have with it. Ratchet@ratchetbrews.com Feel free to holla, unless you’re a scammer or a bot in that case you can rightfully fuck right off.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++===============================================================++

Wow, i just randomly looked to see if this was still active and to my surprise it is.

Basically, I’m mostly retired from the beer scene. My girlfriend Leslie is a manager at Crafty Bastard Brewing and I do social Media for Fanatic Brewing company. I still visit breweries when I vacation and I still love craft beer, I’m just not obsessed with it as I was.

My main thing  I do now is the low power FM Radio station that I have a show on. WOZO 103.9 FM in Knoxville (where I live). Check it out at wozoradio.com and look for my Dj page.

My son has a job, his driver’s license and a car. In just a couple of years he’ll be off to college.

That’s all to report. I’ll check this website again in a few years when I remember it. Cheers!

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

I haven’t posted in over 2 years

August 4, 2016

That’s because this blog exist only as a online time capsule. Anyway, I’ve been pretty busy. I’m the bar manager at Sugar Mama’s in Knoxville and am running my own company, Knows Beer Media, which has been more successful than I imagined it would be. I don’t have time to blog, hell I barely have time to read blogs. Alright, back to work…

See ya.

–Ratchet 

Leave a Comment » | #craftbeer, #knoxbeer, Knox Beer Week, Knoxville bars, Knoxville Beer, Knoxville beer bars, Knoxville beer blog, Knoxville beer scene, Knoxville Beer week, out of date knoxville beer blog, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

This Blog Has Run it’s Course and It’s Time To Say Goodbye.

January 24, 2015

Well y’all, it’s true. I haven’t really thought about posting on here in awhile. I said in my last post I’d come back, but that didn’t happen.

Honestly, it’s been fun writing this over the last couple of years. Looking back and seeing how the craft beer scene has changed and grown. Looking at how excited I use to be to go on beercations and seek out new beers. What has changed? Nothing really. I still like those things, but now that there are a million beer blogs and craft beer is ubiquitous. Even dinky little backwoods gas stations have at least a couple of good beers. It’s a great time to be a beer drinker!

Instead of deleting this blog, I’m leaving it as an online time capsule of sorts. I plan on letting my domain names expire, but it will still be here in it’s .wordpress.com variation. Maybe when I’m older and my memories start to fade I can come back and read where I was and what I was doing in these years.

I’ve got other projects that I’ll focusing on in my free time.

So while this is a goodbye to Ratchet Brews and Jason Knows Beer,  it’s a hello to other things. I’ll still be tweeting,  and posting on facebook and instagram. I’ll still be writing, but mostly for myself.

It’s been one hell of a ride, and it ain’t over (except for this site).

Cheers,

 J

Leave a Comment » | #NCbeer, beer travel, beercation, Knoxville beer blog, out of date knoxville beer blog | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

Things are going really well

October 28, 2014

I am posting just in case people are still checking this out. I kind of have abandoned this blog for awhile. I still want to keep it, but don’t feel like writing that much.

Things are going really well for me in Bryson City. I’ve settled into my role as assistant brewer. I have spent a lot of my free time exploring the area. Hiking is becoming a new favorite past time, I am in the right area for it since the Smoky Mountains are 2 minutes in any direction. I visit Innovation Brewing at least once a week. They’re only a 10 minute drive away. I’ve also discovered a new favorite restaurant in Sylva, Soul Infusion.

I go to Asheville quite a bit more since it’s only an hour.

There have been many events, and fun things that have happened. I could have written about a dozen or more post since last, but I really want to get more settled in a give the blog a break until December. I say that, yet here I am writing more then I intended to.

Anyway, I’m still pretty active on twitter and instagram. If you find yourself coming to Bryson City to visit the brewery, give me a shout.

–J

Leave a Comment » | #AvlBeer, #craftbeer, #NCbeer, Beer, Nantahala Brewing Company, Trail Magic | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

This. All Day.

August 28, 2014

Listening to this: https://soundcloud.com/djmaars/dj-maars-boomtown-set-2014

and announcing this Post by Nantahala Brewing Company.

I’ll be busy, but I’ll check back on this blog come December.

 

Peace.

Leave a Comment » | #AvlBeer, #craftbeer, #NCbeer, Asheville, Beer Festival, beer travel, Nantahala Brewing Company | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

A Month Since My Last Post

June 25, 2014

A lot happens in a month. It’s been that long since I last wrote here. I just haven’t been inspired to write. It’s not like a lot of stuff hasn’t happened. I just haven’t gotten around to (or felt like) writing about it.

I guess I could start where my last post left off, Asheville Beer Week. Despite my intentions, I only did a few days there. Sunday ended with Westside Fest. It was a great festival despite having to run around to the local homebrew and hardware stores to get a few missing parts for the Randal. I ended up on the news once again. After the event Sunday, I was just tired. I sobered up (hadn’t drank too much there anyway), ate dinner at Asheville Brewing Company and drove back to Maryville. This was the opening weekend of Asheville Beer Week and I had originally planned on going back the following weekend. For some reason this year, I just wasn’t feeling it and decided to stay in town and work instead. After all, Sunday June 1st was the first Sunday where we were open at Bluetick Brewery. It is my day, being that I was the one to convince Christopher to let me open up the bar and make him some money.

sundayfunday

Let’s see, what else has happened in the last month? Quite a few things actually. June 6th Trader Scott, Richard and myself took short beer trip across the mountains. We went to Sylva, NC to bottle shop at Pj’s, checked out Innovation Brewing and Heinzelmanchen Brewery. This was right before going to a bottle share party & trail magic release at Nantahala Brewing Company. It was just a day trip, really fun and much needed.

Most of what has gone on has been at Bluetick Brewery where I now work full time. The Blackberry Farm Brewery gig didn’t last long, as I wasn’t a good fit there. Bluetick is definitely my type of place and it’s exciting to be on the ground floor of a up and coming brewery. I set up and promote events as just one of my duties. Our biggest event took place on June 20th. It was our Grand Opening, and the place was packed. Here is the WBIR news segment about it.

The next day was Knoxville Brewfest near the Southern Railway terminal in downtown. Another duty of mine is being the festival guy, so we set up and poured 2 of our brews. It was a lot of fun and thankfully we had enough volunteers so that I could get out and socialize with friends at the fest. Not that I didn’t spend a lot of time at our booth. I wasn’t the driver so after the fest we hit a few parties around Knoxville before going home.

Other then this, my life has been pretty routine. I injured myself running, so I am still trying to rehab my leg. I still run a little (until it starts hurting) but mostly doing my exercise bike while watching movies. Most of my time is spent at Bluetick Brewery working. Tuesdays I go in early, place beer orders, meet with distributors, make phone calls, write the newsletter and bar tend for the very few people who come to have a beer. My usual bartending nights are Thirsty Thursday, when we put our weekly batch of beer on tap, and Sunday Fundays. Sundays are my favorite because it’s laid back, we get a pretty good crowd and group of regulars and we do a bottle share at 2pm. This Sunday I anticipate that I’ll get my “Elite” badge on Untappd for having 2500 unique check ins. I joined Untappd on June 19th, 2011, so this milestone has taken me a little over 3 years of trying different beers to achieve. I’ll be bringing out the best stuff from my cellar to celebrate. So if you want to participate, grab a bottle and come on down.

This is all for now. I don’t know when I’ll write again. I’ve been writing the weekly Bluetick newsletter so that’s been taking most of my creative juices. Of course I still constantly tweet, so there’s that. Until next time.

 

Cheers,

…®@†©he†…

 

 

Leave a Comment » | #AvlBeer, #craftbeer, Appalachian Vintner, Asheville, Asheville Beer Week, Asheville beercation, Asheville Brewing Company, Beer, beer aging, beer and running, Beer Festival, beer travel, Bluetick Brewery, Craft Beer in Knoxville, Knox Beer Week, Knoxville beer blog, Knoxville beer scene, Maryville Beer, Maryville beer blogger, Maryville craft beer, Ratchet, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

Day 2 of @AvlBeerWeek #Craftbeer #Beercation #AvlBeerWeek

May 25, 2014

So much fun. I could sum up yesterday with just those three words. I started the day off drinking coffee at my friend Wes’s house and writing yesterday’s post. I published it hastily so I could make it to Hi-Wire Brewing’s Ringmaster’s Reserve bottle release and brunch. Luckily they had wifi, so I was able to fix all my typos and add in the hyperlinks. Today I don’t know if I’ll have that luxury.

1st event of day 2!

1st event of day 2!

I enjoyed the event. There wasn’t any lines and I was able to get food and my bottles pretty easily. I sat down and enjoyed washing down my waffle covered in mango chutney with the belgian ipa. I could have stayed for hours, but it was time to meet up with Wes, Aaron, Rob and Das Krewe at Wedge Brewing for Just Economics Just Brew It homebrew festival.

Rob and I helped Wes pour his Scotchy Scotch Scotch Butterscotch Scotch ale and his Balls A’ Fire Cinnamon beer. Wes had made up his own infusion contraptions where the beer was poured through funnels full of butterscotch or red hot candies. By themselves, the infusions were a little to much, so we quickly settled on telling people to try the beer on it’s own and then to add a shot of the infusion. That seemed to be the magic combination, and Wes got many compliments on the brews.

Wes's booth and homemade infuser

Wes’s booth and homemade infuser

The best part of this festival was the creativity of the homebrewers. The recipes, the beer names, the signs were amazing. My favorite beer, name and sign of the fest belonged to Jay Love who brewed a session IPA called Lord Chugginton’s. I liked it so much I told him that I wanted to buy the name and recipe from him. He did give me his awesome sign for it.

My favorite beer of the festival

My favorite beer of the festival

As the festival proceeded in the dusty parking lot behind Wedge, Rob kept going to the brewery and buying us full beers. Here we were surrounded by free beer, yet he wanted full pints. Who am I to argue with the concept of that? At the end of the festival it was awards time. Wes won a trophy for most creative for his Scotchy Scotch Scotch! I was tired from being in the sun, and had sobered up, so I drove back to Wes’s house for a quick nap, a shower and a change of clothes. I needed to rally for the night! I had met so many cool people and made plans to hang out with friends old and new.

Wes displaying his award with Das Krewe

Wes displaying his award with Das Krewe

 

After I felt refreshed, I headed over to Catabwa’s new brewery in Asheville where I met up with my people. It was a release party for their seasonal King Coconut. I arrived to a table full of my friends and absolutely covered in pitchers of beer. They even had a glass waiting for me.

IMG_7997

After a few rounds we made plans to take the party back downtown. Some of our group wanted to hit up French Broad Chocolate Lounge, while others wanted to go anywhere else. Wes and I parked over in the South slope brewery district and dipped into Twin Leaf Brewery for a half pour. It was my first time checking them out. Really nice place with a great selection. While there I ran into my buddy Pete who currently works for Olde Hickory brewing.

After Twin Leaf we headed towards Wicked Weed where there was another crazy long line. We headed towards Thirsty Monk but never made it that far. We stumbled across a new brewery I hadn’t heard of before called One World Brewing. We had to check it out! We got our first drink when the rest of Das Krewe made it over to join us. I didn’t really hang with my friends because flirting  upstairs with a girl I just met  became my priority. Her name was Carmen, and she worked there. Before I knew it, it was getting really late and everyone was ready to call it a night. I wasn’t ready to leave, and certainly knew I shouldn’t be driving. Wes had started sobering up over the last hour or so and took the keys and got us safely back to his place in South Asheville.

So what’s on the agenda today? I’m going to the bottle release at Wicked Weed. Then it’s WESTSIDE FEST! I’m running the randal during this and am looking forward to it. What else will the day have in store? More drinking, more flirting and lots and lots of fun. You can follow along on my twitter, untappd and instagram. Also make sure to follow Asheville Beer Week on those same social media outlets as well as Facebook. A big shout out to Asheville Ale Trail as well.

Check out the pictures below. See y’all around town.

Cheers,

-R@TcheT-

Leave a Comment » | #AvlBeer, Asheville, Asheville Beer Week, Asheville beercation, Asheville Brewing Company, drinking, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

Day One of My #AvlBeer @AshevilleBeerWeek #Beercation

May 24, 2014

I’ve been looking forward to this since last year. It’s ASHEVILLE BEER WEEK! Asheville is Mecca for beer lovers, Beer City USA, and my favorite city to visit. Last year I was an official guest blogger for ABW, but this year the official blogging is being done by my friends over at Asheville Ale Trail. I am simply here to enjoy.

I got into town around 6pm on Friday evening. My original plan was to head over and see friends at Urban Orchard but on the way into town I received a text from a friend informing me that there was a Green Man meet the brewer event and tasting at Appalachian Vintner. Since App Vintner is always on my itinerary, I opted to go there first. I arrived and settled up to the bar where I was greeted by Charles. I placed an order. I thought it appropriate that my first official beer of Asheville Beer Week would be the Asheville Brewers Alliance White IPA. This cloudy, hoppy and tasty beer is a perfect representation of the style, and of Asheville.

My first beer of Asheville Beer Week.

My first beer of Asheville Beer Week.

 

After I finished it, I ordered Green Man’s Berliner Weisse. I walked over and spoke with Green Man’s brewer to ask if this was the previously bottled Shadenfreude, but he informed me it was not. I told him of my love of Green Man’s beers and showed him a picture I keep on my phone of when I had bottles of all the small batch stuff.

I have more pictures of beer on my phone then anything else

I have more pictures of beer on my phone then anything else

After talking some more, it was time for some bottle shopping. I walked around and carefully chose a small selection. This trip is being done on a shoestring budget, so more times then not, I kept having to put back bottles of stuff I wanted. As I sipped and shopped, Charles came over to inform me that he had just tapped a keg of Olde Hickory’s 2013 Event Horizon. How could I resist? This beer is better as it warms, so I cupped my half pour tightly in my hands to lend it some of my body heat. While I was shopping, I noticed on Untappd that other Knoxvillian friends of mine were in town. I paid for my beers and headed to try to catch up with them. As I drove downtown, I saw Julie from Bruisin’ Ales on the front patio of  Thirsty Monk. I parked and walked over there. Jason from Bruisin‘ was on the front patio and after we said our hellos, I walked to the bar where I saw my favorite Asheville bartender, Clete. Sitting at the bar was Julie and Jason came in to join us. I had a pour of Stone’s Sprocketbier while we chatted. I wanted to hit up Wicked Weed, so I said goodbye and walked over. When I arrived, there was a line to get in. At this point I was hungry so I headed over to Coxe Avenue to get a slice of pizza (and more beer) at Asheville Brewing Company. I settled up to the bar and ordered. After awhile I got a text from my friend Jerry that himself, Millie, Robert and Brittney were over at Barley’s and I should join them. Right when I was leaving, an incredibly gorgeous girl stopped me outside the door. “Are you Ratchet?” Caught off guard I stammered, “uh, yeah.” “Oh hey, I read your blog, you in town for beer week?” We talked for a bit while my phone kept getting text from Jerry asking were I was.
I didn’t want to be rude to my friends, so I invited her to join me, but she was in the same position with her friends waiting inside at Asheville Brewing Company. We talked about getting together at some events and said goodbye. I stupidly forgot to get her number. So if you are reading this, email me and let’s hang out at Westside Fest, ok?

Catching up with my buddies at Barley’s we had a drink and made plans where to go next. We agreed that Thirsty Monk would be a good choice, especially since Robert said he hadn’t been there before. We walked over, bought a round upstairs and then headed downstairs for another. The group wanted to go to Asheville Brewing Company, and I was with it, but convinced them to go across the street to my favorite dive bar, the Asheville Yacht Club. I love that place! It’s small, rough, rowdy and has good drinks.  I have some great memories associated with it. We ordered some more beer. Our crew was a little disorganized and wanted to go over to Jack of The Woods, but a quick check showed there was a cover charge, so we passed and settled back to our drinks at Yacht Club. It was getting late and I still had to make my way to my friend Wes’s house in South Asheville. I said goodnight and parted ways with the rest of the crew as they headed for Asheville Brewing Company.

 

I got to Wes’s house and we hung out a bit and tried a few brews. I was tired and knew that today would be huge, so I called it a night.

Today’s agenda is fun. Wes is a great homebrewer and is pouring his beer at Just Economic’s Just Brew It homebrew festival. I am helping at his booth, Midnight Oil brewing. I’m really looking foward to seeing all my Asheville friends. The last 2 years the locals have told me that this event is their favorite part of beer week. Before this I’m going over to Hi-wire Brewing’s Ringmaster Release and Belgian Waffle Brunch. I’m trying to hurry up and write this so I can go. Tonight after Just Brew It, a group of us are going over the Catawba’s Asheville location for the King Coconut release party.

Well I need to get out the door and get to it. I’ll be live posting today’s festivities on Twitter, Instagram and Untappd. I’ll try to write again tomorrow. Check out the pictures below.

Cheers,

-R@TcheT-

Leave a Comment » | #AvlBeer, #NCbeer, Appalachian Vintner, Asheville, Asheville Beer Week, Asheville beercation, Asheville Brewing Company, Beer Festival, beer travel, beercation, Bruisin Ales, Maryville beer blogger, Thirsty monk | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

With My New Jobs, When Will I Have Time To Write Again?

May 5, 2014

CurtisFest happened a few weekends ago. It was very small and intimate and truly felt like a family get together. Everyone knew each other or at least felt like it by the end of the fest. There was incredible bottle shares. I hardly left the “Brew Mob Lounge” that we set up. I saw a lot of friends I hadn’t seen in awhile and hopefully rekindled some friendships that had died out. When the fest ended, I went out afterwards. The first time in months I hung out in downtown Knox, even though I probably shouldn’t have. I’m not going to say much more about that other then I’m glad I did though.

Last Friday was Hops for Hope, another small intimate beer festival. This one took place at The Lily Barn in Townsend, TN. It was a fund raiser for The New Hope Advocacy Center. I volunteered and set up my Randal full of hops and strawberries and ran Lagunitas Pale Ale through it. Many of my beer industry friends were in attendance. The whole event was fun, but sometimes it’s all about the after party. A row of cabins was reserved for the brewers and reps at Dancing Bear Lodge. We all met up afterwards. Evan from Foothills had some killer beers to share and so did Lauren from Cherokee, Cynthia from Eagle, Donald from Blackhorse, Dave from Saw Works, (Redacted) of Casual Pint.  There were many other people there, some I had just met, some of which I didn’t know. There was serious drinking, drunken dancing, hot tubs and ridiculous amounts of fun into the early hours of the morning. I promise y’all the embarrassing dance videos are erased (except for Morgan’s, we’re gonna make that one viral, lol). As for the rest of what went on, the general consensus is, what happens in Townsend stays in Townsend 😉

With everything in my life right now, I can see it getting harder to carve out time to work on this blog. There’s some edits I want to make, so general design changes, etc… I still put aside and hour a day for running. Monday evenings are booked with the run at BBM. Other days are taken up by my son and work. I’ll still try to write because it gives me an outlet and a way to organize my thoughts about what I see and experience in our craft beer culture. I also know I have more readers then I ever expected to at this point because I see the stats. Sometimes I still don’t believe people read this.
With that said the only beer focused events on my radar is Asheville Beer Week from May 23-31 ending with Beer City Fest and Knoxville Craft Beer Week ending on June 21 for Knox Brew Fest. June 20th is going to be our grand brand launch at Bluetick Brewery. We are planning an epic party for that where we introduce our beers to the world. I am hoping to have a couple of my small batch series on tap for the event. If anything happens, or I find time before then, I’ll write and let you know about it. Check back later, I’ll try to upload some pictures in the next day or so if I can find the time

Cheers,

R@TcheT

 

Leave a Comment » | #craftbeer, #knoxbeer, Asheville, Asheville Beer Week, Beer, beer and running, Beer City Festival, Beer Festival, Beer run, beer travel, Calfkiller Brewery, Drinking, Eagle Distribution, Knox Beer Week, Knox Brew Fest, Knoxville beer blog, Knoxville beer scene, Maryville, Maryville Beer, Maryville beer blogger, Maryville craft beer, Ratchet, Social Media, starting a brewery, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer

« Previous Entries