Grand Opening of @HopsandHollers and info on @CurtisFestKnox #CraftBeer

April 5, 2014

Hey y’all, quick update today. I’m really looking forward to next weekend and the Thirsty Orange Craft Beer Extravaganza. I plan on leaving Mur-vul first thing Friday morning to go visit a friend named Adam at his brewery, The Damascus Brewery. This is located in, you guessed it, Damascus Virginia. I remember visiting the Virginia Creeper Trail a few years back and thinking that Damascus would be the perfect place for a brew pub. After visiting there I plan on going to Kingsport, TN to visit Sleepy Owl Brewery. My friend Brian Connatser recently came up with the funds to start Sleepy Owl through a successful kickstarter campaign. He’s not brewing yet, because he’s still waiting for his TTB permits, but I’m going to check out his system and see what the future holds. Then it’s off to Johnson City to check out the site, get settled in to the hotel and go to the Friday night beer dinner at The Battery. The menu for this looks incredible. I am mostly vegetarian, but I’m not passing on this. It’s more calories then I normally consume in a week, but I’m not worried because the next morning I’m running my first official 5k.

runbootyThe Run For The Booty is a color run, meaning they bomb the crap outta you with colored cornstarch that sticks to your sweat. You come out looking tie-died at the end. This isn’t a timed race, because they have unique stations set up along the route where you did for gold coins and other prizes. This is a fund raiser for ETSU’s new football team. After I run, I’ll get cleaned up and head to the site to get set up. Much like last festival, I’m running the mobile infuser.

Of course, I’ll be blogging about all this after the fact and of course you can follow along in real time on my twitter feed.

Today (I’m writing this part on Saturday April 5th), I started my day early. Friday after work I took my son to go see the new Captain America movie. We got popcorn and I ate way to much of it. I have been trying really hard to stick to my diet and everyone knows movie theater popcorn has a bazillion calories in it. So I was feeling guilty and chastising my inner fat boy. So instead of going out or drinking beer that night, I made myself go to bed early so I could get up and run. I did 5 miles beating my record by 5 minutes. After I showered and changed, I drove to Knoxville to the Happy Holler neighborhood for Hops and Hollers’ Grand Opening. I had seen my friend Charles on Thursday night at South College’s Brewing Science Program Graduation party at Saw Works. I didn’t know he was co-owner. We started talking and he said they were going to open on Saturday at 11. I said I’d be honored to be his first official customer. He said, “Do it!” so I was there at 10:30. This is a cool spot on Central. It’s not as far down central as Taps and Flats. I walked in and was greeted by Charles and his partner getting ready. They were still writing the tap list on the board. I took a few pictures and at 5 till 11 I asked for a pour. I got Terrapin’s RecreationAle. It was the first pour there. I had brought along some markers and had a 1 dollar bill so they could put their first official dollar as a business up on the wall for good luck. I can’t wait to go back and drink there again. I could only have 1 beer because I had to work at the Beer den, so I said goodbye and headed back to Mur-vul.  On my way I picked up some flyers from my new friend Joe Fox to put up for CurtisFest.

What is CurtisFest? It’s a small intimate craft beer festival that will take place 2pm to 7pm on Saturday April 26th at Mead’s Quarry at Ijams Nature Park. This is a festival mainly to celebrate the life and legacy of a good friend, Curtis McArthur. Curtis passed away due to a tragic accident on New Years eve. All of us who knew him are still in shock and mourning. Curtis was beloved by all. As a rep from Sweetwater brewery, he traveled around and was a fixture of the craft beer scene nationwide. I got to know him from his many trips to Knoxville and we hung out together at many festivals. I have some Sweetwater swag given to me by him that I will treasure forever. His longtime friend Joe Fox started the Curtis McArthur foundation to raise money for scholarships for South College’s Brewing program. This is a way to honor his memory and is something that ol’ Dirt McCurt would have approved. The money from CurtisFest will go to this and to his memorial fund.

So what is going down at CurtisFest? Good people drinking phenomenal beers in an absolutely gorgeous setting. Tickets are $50 and worth every penny. You get an official Curtisfest tulip glass and unlimited samples of some of Curtis’s favorite breweries. These include Asheville’s Wicked Weed and Highland, Nashville’s Yazoo, Terrapin and Sweetwater from Georgia, Knoxville’s own Alliance and Saw Works along with Founders from Grand Rapids Michigan. They expect to add more breweries as we get closer to the date. Curtis was big into sharing beer, so that is a big part of the festival as well. Dig in your cellar, grab a couple of rarities and bring them out to  let other people enjoy them. Who knows, maybe someone else who’s doing the same will have that rare white whale you’ve been searching for. For people who live or are booking a hotel room downtown, there will be free shuttles going back and forth from Market Square to the site.

The other really cool parts of this festival is the food truck fish taco cook off. There will be some stiff competition to determine who makes the best one. Also on tap is a dj playing Curtis’ favorite tunes, so come prepared to boogie! If that isn’t enough to entice you, there will be disc golf, corn hole, paddle boarding and kayaking demonstrations as well. So go ahead and make plans to attend now. For a festival of this nature, there are a very limited number of tickets being sold. You can purchase them online or at the following locations: Barley’s in Knoxville and Maryville, Central Flats and Taps, Hops and Hollers or come see me out at The Market in Maryville, where Dave and I have them for sale. Even if you never met Curtis, please come help us honor his memory and make some great memories while doing so.

This is all for now. I’ll write again next week after Thirsty Orange. Don’t forget I work Sundays at The Market and do a different infusion each week.  We also do a bottle share, so garb something cold and come on down.

Cheers,

 

-R@TcheT-

curtis2

 

 

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Beer Running! @BeardenBeerMrkt @CentralFlatsTap @YazooLeah

February 17, 2014

Hey y’all, figured it was time to write again. Since my last post, I’ve been picking up more and more hours working at The Market in Maryville’s Beer Den while I wait for my new full time job to start next month. I absolutely love everything about being part of the team at The Market and if they could afford me, would be more then happy to be there full time. Alas, they are a struggling mom and pop store and can only justify so much in employee wages, which I completely understand and sympathize with.

In the meantime I really enjoy getting paid to do something I love and am good at, sell beer. We have 8 constantly rotating taps. Pints are always only $3, we do growler fills and you can get a flight of all 8 beers for only $8. Not to mention the bottle selection is incredible. I love when people ask for suggestions or want to know more about a particular style of beer. I also love getting to know the regulars.

Since my last post, many of these regulars, my friends and my readers have asked me the same thing. “Are you really giving up on the idea of opening a nano-brewery?” This is something I thought long and hard about before I came to my decision. Like I said in my last post, I found myself spending to much thought energy on it, and stressing out. I think about it in these terms. The idea of opening a brewery is like a seed. I put that seed in the ground and my thoughts were like watering the seed. Well if you are constantly watering a seed, eventually you are going to drown it and it won’t grow. My decision was one to step back, stop watering it, and let nature take it’s course. For now I have other personal goals and things I want to accomplish. Maybe after I get a firm grip on those things, I’ll be in a better position revisit this idea and have some tools at my disposal to make another effort. In the mean time, we changed the name of our home brewery from Ratchet Brews to We Know Beer. When I say “we” it’s because the home brewing is about more than just me, it’s a team effort. Richard and Todd have become a big part of this, and deserve credit and recognition. This will be our official name when we represent at festivals. Not “We Know Beer brewery” or “We Know Beer brewing company“, simply We Know Beer. This new name encompasses everything we want to be about. It’s more then just about brewing beer, it’s also about education and appreciation, along with other things. We are having our logo developed and hope to debut it along with a mission statement and new merchandise in time for Thirsty Orange in April.

Until then I really need to do an inventory of ingredients and schedule a brew day. It’s kind of hard right now because I am in this inbetween place of working on the weekends while waiting to start my fulltime job. Once I am settled into a regular routine, we’ll be back to brewing on a regular basis. When this happens I’ll let you know.

There’s a few other things I want to write about before I end this post. When I made my goals for this year, getting back in shape was right there at the top of the list. Luckily there is a great beer running community. I love to run and several years back I would do so everyday. Then things happened and I slowly fell out. I started eating a lot. I was in a stressful and unhealthy relationship. Eating, drinking, staying up late and constantly arguing took it’s toll. I gained a bunch of weight. I became depressed. I finally arrived at the point when I said ENOUGH! I’m not doing this anymore. Since then, I haven’t been happier. I eat very sparingly now, mostly a juice diet. I still drink but not everyday and not as much. This balances nicely with my diet. I take yoga classes, weight train and started running again. I’ve was able to transition off of toxic and potentionally long term damaging anti-depressants simply by changing how I react and think about things. When I feel negative thoughts creeping in, I smile and think about all I do have and how blessed I am. I laugh more and I do my best to avoid stressful people and situations. Helping with all this, like I said, is the beer running community. Being around and getting to know other positive, health minded craft beer drinkers has made a world of difference. Monday evenings are now one of my favorite nights of the week because of the fun run at Bearden Beer Market. It’s a great challenge and keeps me working. I have an end of summer goal to be able to do the run at a 9 minute mile pace, including the big killer hill near the end. I’m also going to start the Thursday evening run that takes place at Central Flats and Taps.

Last Saturday morning I joined the Yazoo Barely a 4k run at Central Flats and Taps. Getting up early to start at 8am with 100 or more other people in the cold was exhilarating. I ended up running my personal best time so far. The run ended back at the bar where a round of Yazoo Fall Lager was waiting for us with a complimentary breakfast. We hung out and enjoyed the company of friends while watching the USA vs Russia Olympic Hockey game on tv. There are some great pictures on Central Flats and Tap’s facebook page of the run. I want to thank @YazooLeah for herding the cats to put this together. Yazoo is having a pub crawl through the Old City on her birthday, March 3rd. You know I’ll be there for this one.

This is all for now. It’s been so long since I’ve been at any beer related event that I’m really looking forward to my trip to All Ale to The Queen festival in Charlotte, NC on March 21st and 22nd. So far I’m still traveling solo, so if anyone wants to split gas and help me work the infusers at the festival, let me know.

Cheers,

Jason

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The Start Of A New Year Is A Great Time to Change Things Up.

February 5, 2014

After a month long hiatus, I’m back. I wanted to begin the new year off by changing, challenging and improving myself. So I began by breaking off a relationship that I found myself not wanting to be in anymore. Then I made myself go a full month without looking at or posting on social media. Because that just wasn’t enough, I made myself go a month without drinking any alcohol. To this end, I took January “off” to get my head straight and focus on my goals for 2014. I hardly went out, didn’t really hang with my friends and made diet and lifestyle changes. In this process of staying offline and not drinking, I learned a lot about myself. I realized that I don’t need to constantly check twitter, facebook and untappd to see what everyone is up to. I don’t need to post my every thought or every little detail of my existence. Taking time away also helped me realize who my true friends were as opposed to those in name only.
The not drinking part was little harder, especially the first couple of weeks. I have amassed a pretty decent collection of craft beer and a nicely stocked liquor cabinet. Every time I open the fridge, I see bottles. During this month, when I did go out, it was mostly to the Downtown Grill and Brewery. I’d go to get out of the house, eat something, use the internet and talk with my bartender buddies. They are use to seeing me coming, taking my mug down and filling it for me before I even get to the bar. This happened several times during January. I would thank them, explain what I was doing and drink water instead. I’ve also been working at The Market in Maryville’s Beer Den, surrounded by beer. I could have poured myself a pint at anytime. People were constantly bringing in bottles to share, but I stuck to my plan. That’s why when I did have my first beer in a month, Woodruff’s IPA at the Brewery during the Super Bowl, it meant so much. Before this self-challenge, I was drinking everyday. Some days I’d just have a beer at the end of the day. More often than not, it was several beers. It had just become part of my routine. I was also spending too much money on alcohol. Last year when I had a job that paid decently, I spent a majority of my disposable income on ordering rare craft beer online. I was always trying to keep up on the latest releases, arrange trades, and make trips to brewery only releases. Most of the people I had surrounded myself with were the same way. When I took the month of January to not drink, it started out without a purpose, just one of those “let’s see if I can do it” things. By the end of the month I had many realizations. In retrospect, the money I spent last year chasing down rare beers could have been put to use on things that would have better improved my quality of life and my health. I don’t write this to make myself out to be some self-righteous teetotaler who has “seen the light”, or to make any of my friends question their lifestyle choices. Honestly, I would have been perfectly happy carrying on like I was, had I not took on this challenge. So what does this mean now? Am I NOT going to bottle releases, NOT buy rare beer online or do trades anymore? Of course I will be. I LIKE those things. However, in 2014 I’m not going to do it as much. I don’t want to spend the energy worrying that I’m missing out on same rare once in a lifetime beer, or blow most of a paycheck ordering online when there is so much more to the world. I don’t feel the need to drink everyday, and when I do, I want to respect it more. I want it to be special.

During my month long sabbatical, friends would reach out to check on me. Apparently there were rumors going around that I was depressed and that’s why I was self-isolating. Nothing could be further from the truth. The whole time I was happy and in a really good place. Other than work, I pretty much had time to read, meditate and yes, I even solo brewed a batch of Imperial Stout on the down low.

During my alone time, I reevaluated my goals of opening a nano-brewery. This unrealistic dream of mine took up a lot of my time and energy. I found myself thinking about it to the point where it became stressful for me. In the last 2 years I’ve made no measurable progress towards this goal. Honestly, I’m not in a financial position to accomplish this. I am very independent and don’t like the idea of taking on investors who would possibly have power over my dreams. By giving up this idea, it frees me to pursue other things, and is a huge burden lifted from me. For now, I’m quite happy brewing an occasional batch of beer at home.

The other change I made is my name. My nickname was Ratchet since sometime around 1993. This is way before it was slang for anything else. I started to hate how I’ve been known for the last 21 years had morphed into a term of derision in society and popular culture. It became enough for me to abandon my long term nickname to go back to using my real name. I thought since I’m not trying to go pro anymore, I would give up the name “Ratchet Brews” for this blog and change it to Jason Knows Beer, which I like to think I do. For me this fits more into what my website is about. Because of the name change, you might notice some glitches in older post on this blog. Some pictures might be missing and such. To me, it’s not really that big a deal. I might fix it, I might not. For now, going forward is more important to me then what happened in the past.

So is there going to be content change on my blog in 2014? Not really. I’ll still write the really inane, irreverent post that I always have. You can expect more stories about my traveling adventures. Also the same live updates from beer festivals, brew days, etc. I do want to branch out more into beer education and to that end, I plan on studying and going for Cicerone certification. I want to write some articles on specific beer styles such as origins, recipes, and the like. I’ll continue to write because it’s become too much of an outlet for me to give it up. I’ll probably throw in some non-beer tidbits every once in awhile because I do plan on being more active in running, hiking, urban exploring and eating right. At the same time I don’t plan on being as active in the Knoxville “Beer Scene”.

With all that said, I do have some travel plans in the following weeks and months. This Saturday is the Tennessee Winter Beer Festival In Townsend from 3 to 9 pm. This is an ultra small event at the The Laurel Valley Country Club. Some of the breweries present this year will be Turtle Anarchy, Saw Works, Studio Brew, Calf Killer and Smoky Mountain. If you haven’t got tickets yet, you’re pretty much screwed since it’s sold out. I’ll be there and might live post similar to last year.

Saturday February 15th I’m driving up to Lexington to attend Craft Writing: Beer, The Digital, and Craft Culture at the University of KY. This is a one day symposium at the University of Kentucky showcasing writing in craft beer. Speaking will be such well know beer writers as Stan Hieronymus, Roger Baylor, Mitch Steele, and Jeremy Cowan. The keynote address is by Garrett Oliver. I am hoping to learn from the best. If anyone is interested in pitching in for gas, you are welcome to ride up and back with me. I just plan on going for the day and driving home after.

Saturday March 22nd is All Ale to the Queen in Charlotte, NC. This is the ending event of Charlotte Beer Week. I’ll be there for the weekend running the festival Organizer’ s brand new Dogfish Head Randall. I have 2 nights booked at a hotel, so if anyone wants to go, hit me up.

April 11th and 12th is The Thirsty Orange Beer Extravaganza in Johnson City. It starts off with a small beer dinner on Friday Night at The Battery Restaurant.  The new site of this year’s event is at ETSU’s Millenium Center. There will be better (& free) parking, more room, more events and way, way more beer. I will be there as well, and may or may not set up a booth serving my homebrew. I’ll know closer to time.

Well, thanks for reading. I’ll post again soon. Hope everyone has a great 2014. I know mine has been amazing so far.

Cheers,

Jason

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