Ratchet Brews

This…Changes…EVERYTHING!!!!

That’s how I feel about what I am going to tell you. Now, I might be getting a little over excited. It could be I’m blowing this out of proportion, but honestly I’ve been waiting for something like this for awhile. For about a month I’ve been giving a few of you hints about this. I had a meeting with the owners of a new establishment coming to downtown, and they gave me the go ahead to break the news. Knoxville is getting a new craft beer bar. Specifically, Knoxville is getting it’s first craft beer bar that is going to specialize in high gravity beer! It’s called Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern. It’s located in the space between Downtown Wine and Spirits and Morelock Music on Gay Street. It’s currently under construction with a projected opening the last weekend in April. I saw the plans and this place is going to be really nice! They are building it with craft beer fans in mind. It’s purely a bar (no kitchen) but they do plan to provide snacks for the thirsty and also to have something to help clear your palate between rounds. There are some details still being worked out such as the number of taps they’ll have (I’ve heard anywhere between 16 and 40 being discussed) but I was assured a majority would be high grav. There will also be a display cooler of rare and exotic beers as well. I was shown the design and can describe the decor as simple yet elegant. The back wall will have a little stage for music. This will not be a tv bar, but they do plan to have a 100 inch screen in the back. However, I was told it will only really be turned on for big sports games and the occasional movie night. I can’t wait for this place to open, and really hope it does well. If you are a craft beer fan, you’ll love this place.

Moving on to something else I’m a little more involved in. I’m teaming up with The Casual Pint to bring Knoxville it’s first ever beer infusion night. This is going to take place on Wednesday March 28 from 6-9pm. For those not familar with beer infusing, let me explain. We will be taking a keg of Woodruff’s Porter and running it through a randal packed with cocoa nibs and shredded coconut. The beer takes on those flavor characteristics. I did this at home months back when I first got my infuser and it was amazing. The beer seriously tasted just like a mounds candy bar. Other cities have been doing infusions for awhile. Asheville Brewing Company is famous for their once a week infusion night, where they blend unique flavors. One of the infusions became so popular, customers demanded they add it to their regular line up. This is how the beer called Fire Escape came into being. They infused peppers with their escape artist pale ale, and people could not get enough. Beer infusing has not been done before in Knoxville. For a unique taste and experience, I hope you come out and try it. We plan on doing this once a month if it’s successful. Every month will be something different. Some ideas we are kicking around for the future are infusing a blonde ale with fresh cut strawberries, running an IPA through fresh whole leaf hops or trying vanilla bean pods and cinnamon sticks with a stout.

One last thing I wanted to mention for this update is that Downtown Wine and Spirits has just gotten a new shipment of rare and hard to find beer. New to the store is Fantome Noel. They told me that they have asked for this beer for 5 years and got 6 of the 8 cases that came to East TN.  Achel Trappist Blonde, Shipyard Smashed Blueberry, Weissenohe Bonator Doppel Bock have also arrived. If you know about these beers, you know how hard they are to find. Much like the shipment of Sweetwater 420 IPA, these won’t be around long, so I suggest you get down there. Tell the guys Ratchet sent you and sign up for their email list. They just might hook you up with a discount.

Well that’s my exciting news.  Please repost and let’s help the Knoxville beer scene grow. The more we support things, the more beers the distributors will see fit to bring to this area. That translates into more variety available to us craft beer lovers.

Cheers,

Ratchet

Update: This news has been making the rounds since I announced it. Check out this great write up and one of my new favorite blogs, Stuck Inside of Knoxville: Click Here . Also Mero Pulse has mentioned it, and WATE had this video about it: WATE Story about Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2012 at 13:32 and is filed under #knoxbeer, Beer, Casual Pint, Craft Beer, Drinking, home brewing, Knox Beer Crew, Knoxville Beer, Knoxville beer bars, Knoxville beer blog, Ratchet, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.