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.
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Posted by jasonknowsbeer
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.
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,
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Posted by jasonknowsbeer
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,
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: #AvlBeerWeek, ., Asheville beer week, beer festival, beer travel, Beercation, Going Pro, home brew, Hops for Hop, Knoxville beer blogger, Maryville beer, Ratchet | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer
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,
Leave a Comment » | #knoxbeer, Beer, beer and running, beer bottling, Beer City Festival, Beer Festival, Beer run, beer travel, Craft Beer, Craft Beer in Knoxville, Drinking, home brew, home brewing, Jason, Knox Beer Crew, Knox Beer Week, Knoxville Beer, Knoxville beer blog, Knoxville beer scene, Maryville Beer, Ratchet, seasonal, Seasonal Beer, suttree's high gravity, Thirsty Orange, Uncategorized | Tagged: beer festival, beer travel, beer video, Beercation, central flats and taps, home brewing, homebrew, homebrewing, Knoxville beer, Knoxville beer blogger, yazoo knoxville beer event | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer
Christmas is next week and I know some of you are struggling to find the perfect gift for the beer geek in your life. Unless you want to pay a fortune for shipping, it’s too late to order gifts online. I thought while I sat here filling out applications and emailing resumes, I’d take a few moments to put together a list of beercentric gifts available here in Knoxville.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen our small craft beer community grow exponentially. You can find a decent selection of quality suds almost everywhere now. So let’s start with the most basic and easy thing to acquire: gift cards.
Yes giving a gift card can feel like the easy way out, but believe me, your recipient will appreciate it. Not sure what to buy? Can’t remember if they like IPAs or stouts more? Give them the gift of choice. Pretty much everyone offers gift cards now. As far as retail beer shopping, you can’t go wrong with Bearden Beer Market. They carry a wide variety of brews, shirts and other gifts. They also offer growler fills. On cold nights they have a couple of fire pits going in the beer garden, so feel free to bring your own marshmallows.
Another popular choice is The Casual Pint. With 2 locations and more opening in 2014, they also have a great selection of beer and merchandise. Unique to CP is the create your own mix-a-six pack from the selection in the cooler. Not many other places offer this.
If you are on the North side of town, check out Vic’s. Killer selection, knowledgeable staff and you can get your high grav’s right next door. Ask for Louie and tell them Ratchet sent you.
For the best selection in Maryville, check out The Market. Growlers are available as well.
As far as high gravity beers go, you can’t go wrong with either McScrooge’s or my favorite, Downtown Wine and Spirits. Both offer gift cards and a world class selection of big beers. Right now Downtown Wine still has some rarities available from their cellar sale. If I were you, I’d grab a couple of the 2007 JW Lee barrel aged beers before they’re all gone. I also heard they just got in the 2013 Brookyln Black-Ops.
When it comes to craft beer bars, Suttree’s is a sure shot. A gift card here will go along way. They always make sure to have the best draft beer selection in Knoxville.
One of the longest running craft beer bars in Knoxville, Barley’s is also know for their killer selection and awesome food menu selection. Take someone here for dinner and they’ll really get into the holiday spirit.
Want to give something brewed locally? Downtown Grill and Brewery offers gift cards. Great food, super friendly and knowledgeable bar staff and a fine selection of English style ales. Growlers and kegs available. You can get a 5 gallon keg for $50 (plus deposit). Think about how well this would go over at your Christmas party.
Speaking of locally brewed and Christmas parties, you can’t forget about Saw Works. Knoxville’s favorite microbrewery has a tasting room called The Mill. There you can buy a growler, a shirt or some glassware. It’s also available for private parties and they have an upcoming Holiday Bash this Friday at 7 pm. I wish I could make it, but I’ll be in Hot Springs that night.
Maryville’s upcoming Bluetick Brewery has just got a bunch of merchandise in, just in time for Christmas. Every purchase helps them get that much closer to opening their doors to the public.
Is there a home brewer in your life? Knoxville has 2 great homebrew shops. Allen Biermakens on Martin Mill in South Knoxville or Fermentation Station on Kingston Pike in West Knoxville. Both have a great selection of supplies and equipment for those who brew their own.
You know what would make a great stocking stuffer? Tickets to the Tennessee Winter Beer Festival in Townsend, TN. It takes place on February 8th. You can buy tickets online now or at the Market In Maryville.
Looking for rare beer? There’s a local guy selling a few from his cellar. Check his list here. If you buy something it helps his broke ass buy Christmas presents for his kid.
Well that’s the Knoxville Beer Geek Christmas list. I hope this helps you procrastinators with some ideas. Before I sign off, I want to let you know about tomorrow’s (Thursday night’s) infusion event at Suttree’s. I’ll be taking the ever so popular seasonal from Terrapin, Wake-N-Bake, and infusing it with fresh mint, cocao nibs and mini-candy canes for a festive treat. I’ll be starting around 7 pm, and I am hoping to see everyone.
Y’all have a great and Beery Christmas and try to not let the Krampus get you. I’ll try to post again before the new year.
Cheers,
Leave a Comment » | #knoxbeer, Asheville Brewing Company, Beer, beer aging, Beer Books, Casual Pint, Christmas beer, Craft Beer, Craft Beer Christmas, Craft Beer in Knoxville, Drinking, home brewing, Knox Beer Crew, Knox Beer Week, Knoxville Beer, Knoxville beer blog, Knoxville beer presents, Knoxville beer scene, Laurel Valley Country Club, Ratchet, Seasonal Beer, Social Media, Tennessee Winter beer fest, Winter Warmer, woodruff | Tagged: ., ale, beer, beer festival, Casual Pint, craft beer, home brew, homebrew, Knoxville, Knoxville beer, Knoxville beer blogger, seasonal beer, Suttree's High Gravity Tavern | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer
Big Shot out to @theNuttyBrewnette & @CraftBeerCritic!
View original post 198 more words
Leave a Comment » | Craft Beer, Craft Beer in Knoxville, home brew, home brewing, Knox Beer Crew, Knox Beer Week, Uncategorized | Tagged: ., craft beer, drinking, home brew, homebrewing, Knoxville beer blogger, Knoxville Homebrew Club, Ratchet | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer
Hey y’all, Live posting for 2013 Knox Brew Fest here that Southern Railway Terminal. Going to post until my iPhone battery dies. I’ll be too busy to write, so the plan is to upload as many picture and videos as possible. I really want to focus on the attendees, so come by the Ratchet Brews booth and get your picture taken. Come back and see yourself on here.
Myself, Todd and Richard at our booth
Myself, Todd and Richard at our booth
Hops
The booth right after we set up
Glassware for sale
Shirts for sale
Gates are open for VIP. 4 pm for general admission. Come on by!
Khaleesie and Todd
The guys at the UBC booth were frying up bacon.
Todd pouring that good ol’ Ratchet Brews
Shirts
Highland
The infamous Aaron Russell.
So glad to see wicked Weed here!
Hoppyum? Yes please!
My British friends
AllianceBrewingCo.com
Adam Ingle of Alliance Brewery. I can’t wait for these guys to get up and running.
Alliance cask ESB is delicious!
Thanks for the support!
Neil from Yazoo
Jason Smith of Knox Beer Crew @NGD69
Old Style!
Katie, myself and my buddy David Chisholm. My beer was his 500th Untappd Check in. So honored!
Congrats to David Chisholm on earning his Untappd Legendary Badge by drinking my Apricot Honey Lager!
Gingers unite!
Every time you purchase a Ratchet Brews shirt, a brewer gets his… Mash paddle?
Local social media guru, Kelly Absner
I met many of my blog and twitter followers in real life for the first time. I want to give a shout out to Jonathan Harris (@DrSkwurl), Landon Moore (@LanDub17) and everyone who stopped by the booth to say hi. Thanks everyone for the support, the encouraging words, the feedback and for purchasing merchandise. If we met, you tried our beer or your picture is on here, please leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you!
Once again this year I ended the festival in decent shape. I just didn’t have time too drink much, being that I was so incredibly busy. I’d like to thank Richard, Todd and Katie for all their hard work and help with everything. After we packed up, we headed to Downtown Grill and Brewery for dinner. Our friends Aaron and Stephanie Carson from Kingsport Oktoberfest and Thirsty Orange joined us. We wanted to hang out longer, but it was a really long day and we were exhausted.
So that’s it for now. I still have some other post that I’m working on and hope to publish soon. Until then, check out the new twitter account @KnoxWaterWeek. I mean, after all, you need water to make beer. Since we had a whole Knoxville Craft Beer Week full of drinking, it’s time to give that liver a rest.
Cheers y’all,
Leave a Comment » | #knoxbeer, Beer Festival, beercation, Calfkiller, Casual Pint, Craft Beer, drinking, Eagle Distribution, home brew, home brewing, Knox Beer Crew, Knox Beer Week, Knox Beer Week logo contest, Knox Brew Fest, Knox Brew fest 2013, Knoxville bars, Knoxville Beer, Knoxville beer bars, Knoxville beer blog, Knoxville Beer week, Ratchet, Saw Works Brewing, Seasonal Beer, Tennessee Beer Festival | Tagged: ., beer festival, beer video, Casual Pint, craft beer, drinking, home brew, home brewing, homebrew, homebrewing, Knox beer crew, Knoxville, Knoxville beer blog, Knoxville beer blogger, Ratchet | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer
Every day of this week has been a beer version of choose your own adventure. With so many great events each night, and only 1 of me, it was hard to pick what to attend. I started off #KCBW in what I consider “My neighborhood”, Downtown. Both Suttree’s and The Casual Pint had special cask to kick things off. The Casual Pint took it 1 step further and had Union Avenue closed down for a block party featuring bands playing and vittles from the Hoof Food truck. I visited Suttree’s first where I enjoyed a beer with a few friends before heading over to The Casual Pint. I didn’t stay out for very long. I actually went to bed super early so I could get up super early the next day.
One of the tap list boards at Suttree’s
Sunday was brewday. I was up at 4:30 to prepare. The plan was to brew a batch of wheat beer and be completely finished with clean up and everything in time for the Knox Beer Crew meeting at Sunspot. Thanks to help from my good friends and assistant brewers, Todd and Richard, we did just that. My buddy Dalton, who has been missing in action showed up and lent a hand for awhile. Friends Joy and Willie stopped by to lend support as well. We finished brewing in record time, and I was able to take a short 45 minute nap before heading out to Sunspot for our monthly tasting.
The Knox Beer Crew Monthly tasting was an official Knoxville Craft Beer Week event, so we wanted to make sure it was done right. The usual suspects we there and we did it up bigtime. We met on the upstairs patio of Sunspot’s new location. A couple of us brought pop-up canopies to shade us from the hot summer sun. At this tasting we also did a swap meet, where some of us brought shirts, stickers, bottles and glassware to trade. I got a few things I have been wanting to try for awhile. I also got a couple of rarities. We had a few new members join us, and we had a great time. Everyone brought their A game to this tasting, by busting our rarities from the cellar and hard to find beers from all over. My buddy Jason Smith had just returned from a beercation in Vermont and brought my favorite DIPA, Heady Topper to share. Richard Groves brought a bottle of Rogue’s Voodoo Donut Chocolate Banana Peanut butter beer. I can’t even stand the smell of the last beer in this series, the Maple Bacon beer. The new one was only slightly better, but many people passed and those who did only took a tiny sip. There ended up being a 3/4th full bottle sitting there, getting warm. The next thing I know, I was being dared to chug it for a can of Heady Topper. I love Heady, but that was too much. I negotiated for 2 cans of Heady in exchange for this stunt. Jason Smith agreed, and the next thing I know I’m holding my breath and downing this nasty concoction straight from the big pink bottle. I did it and here are the videos proving it. Thanks to Matt Crowell and Animal for providing these.
The tasting ended and I packed up and got some water to go and hit the nearby greenway to walk a few miles, sweat and sober up before I drove home.
Knoxville Craft Beer Week Calendar
Monday was something we all looked forward to. The much sought after Foothills Sexual Chocolate and several other rare Foothills high gravity beers made their debut at Sunspot.
Foothills High Gravity Tap Takeover at Sunspot.
The local distributer had to move heaven and earth for the permits to go through in time to make this event happen. I headed there after work and met with more of the Knox Beer Crew. I love Sexual Chocolate and have had many opportunities to drink it. That is why my 1st beer was the Gruffmeister Maibock. While I was hanging out with my friends, I got a call from Cara at The Casual Pint. They were having an infusion night at the downtown location, and were having a hard time getting everything set up. They needed my help. I finished my beer, said my goodbyes and headed downtown.
Sexual Chocolate, Foothill’s highly sought after seasonal.
I arrived at The Casual Pint where they were having an infusion night with a new brand in town, Blue Pants Brewery. They were still struggling with getting the Dogfish Head style infuser working. After tinkering with it and bumping up the gas pressure significantly, I was able to get it flowing. The beer being infused was the Spare Pair Pale Ale with Simcoe hops. I sat and talked with Blue Pants TN sales rep, Kimmie. She told me about the brewery and their line up. I look forward to trying more beers from them. I left The Casual Pint and headed over to Suttree’s. It was the Monday night, and Sut’s has started to do a bluegrass jam every Monday. This was also bartender Stanton’s birthday party, and there was a free keg of Dark Horse Brewing Company’s Thirsty Trout Porter. I had a drink and said happy birthday to Stanton, and hung out a little bit before calling it a night.
Tuesday there was a few things going on, but a friend of mine so graciously traded me a ticket to Dave Chappelle’s show at the Tennessee Theater. I just had a quick drink at Suttree’s before heading over to the show. Dave is a comic genius and the funniest person of this generation, but his show was marred by hecklers and other dumbasses who didn’t know how to behave. It was so bad, that many news outlets reported on it the next day. See Knoxville, this is why we can’t have nice things. Heed the signs next time, dumbasses.
Signs posted all over the TN theater. Too bad they were ignored.
Wednesday after work I headed over to The Casual Pint’s Bearden location for Highland Brewery’s bingo night. Highland founder Oscar Wong was there along with my friend and sales rep, Kitty. I sat and sipped on a dry hopped, cask conditioned Gaelic Ale. The place was packed and they ran out of bingo cards. Luckily I got one and played several rounds. It was fun, even though I didn’t win.
Bingo Night at The Casual Pint. Kitty from Highland and Nathan, owner of TCP
Thursday after work I went on a bike ride with my son downtown. We road around and stopped in really quick for some ice water at Suttree’s. Next door at Downtown Wine and Spirits, there was a free Victory and Southern Tier tasting. I tried several things while talking with several of my beer scene friends. We didn’t stay long. We rode around some more and ended up joining the patriotic bike parade through downtown. Afterwards I dropped him back off at his house. I left there and headed straight to Sunspot for barrel night. Many of my Brew Mob and Knox Beer Crew friends were there as well. There was more rare and tasty beers on tap upstairs. I tried several that I have been wanting for awhile. Here’s a Brew Mob video from last night.
A video of Don from Knox Beer Snobs from last night.
Tonight I’ll be infusing New Belgium’s Heavenly Feijoa with fruit at Suttree’s. This starts at 6, and I’m hoping to see you out. If I have time, I might stop by BBM later in the evening to see a few brewery friends.
Tomorrow is Knox Brew Fest at The Southern Railway Terminal. I will have a booth and be pouring my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Stout, Apricot Honey Lager, Maibock, Rauchbier and an IPA infused with hops. I will also have merchandise for sale, so bring extra money. I am looking forward to seeing everyone. I will be live picture and video blogging all day at the event, so come by the booth and you might end up on this blog.
This is all for now, I hope you are having a great week.
Cheers,
Leave a Comment » | #knoxbeer, beer travel, beercation, Craft Beer, Drinking, home brewing, Knox Beer Crew, Knox Beer Week, Knox Beer Week logo contest, Knox Brew Fest, Knox Brew fest 2013, Knoxville Beer, Knoxville beer bars, Knoxville beer blog, Knoxville Beer week, Ratchet, Tennessee Beer Festival | Tagged: ., craft beer, drinking, home brew, home brewing, homebrewing, Knox beer crew, Knoxville, Knoxville beer blog, Ratchet | Permalink
Posted by jasonknowsbeer
Knoxville Craft Beer Week as written by the Knox Beer Snobs.
Also if you are not a member of the Knox Beer Crew, this is a good time to come join us and see what we are all about. Here is a copy of the email announcing our next tasting.
Hello Everyone. Hope you are all doing well & getting excited about Knoxville Beer Week! We are looking forward to our June tasting and just wanted to send out the final details regarding the event.
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Posted by jasonknowsbeer
We planned to leave Knoxville at 12:30, but as most vacations go, we got a slightly late start and left Knoxville at 2:30. We made great time and it worked out that we arrived in Ashvegas a little bit after 4. That turned out to be alright, because that was the time that the ABA Hoppy Saison release party at Greenman kicked off. We skipped checking in to the hotel. The nice desk clerk laughed at me on the phone when I called to tell her we’d be checking in late, around 7 pm. I guess that’s not “late” in the hotel biz, I just didn’t want our room given away because we got considered a no-show. Yeah, I know I can be neurotic sometimes.
We drove straight to Dirty Jack’s, the Greenman tasting room. As soon as we parked and walked in, we were greeted by several of our Asheville beer friends. Right by the bar was Adam and Missy Reinke ordering their pours of ABA Hoppy Saison. We grabbed a table with them and were soon joined by Gary Glancy, another ABW guest blogger. Committee member Caroline Forsman was in attendance as well as Asheville Brewing Company’s Doug Riley and Mike Rangel. I also had a chance to meet and touch base with Asheville Ale Trail’s Hilton Swing. It’s likely that I’ll be writing an exclusive report for his website, so be on the look out for it later this week.
As we sat at Dirty Jack’s enjoying the conversation and beer, I noticed on twitter that the only guest blogger I hadn’t yet met was in the house. I did not know what Sarah Spooner looked like, because on her twitter profile, half her face is covered. Katie made it her mission to determine which of the females at the bar she was, based on eyebrows. She struck out the first time and was convinced she finally knew who she was. She told me to go ask. After looking foolish the first time, I told her I wasn’t going to do it. She made a bet with me (don’t ask), that if I asked her if she was Sarah, and she was wrong, that I’d win the bet. Challenge accepted. Well K was right, and I got to meet and chat with my fellow guest blogger. I also need to make good on my bet (I haven’t forgotten darlin’).
I also spoke with Billy Pyatt of Catawba Brewing Company at length. This was the second time we’ve met, the first being at GABF in Denver last year. Catawba is opening an Asheville location and we spoke about the plans, the history of Catawba and what it takes to be a professional brewer. He also graciously extended an invitation to take Katie and me on an exclusive tour of their Morganton location. This is something we absolutely can not pass up, and we plan on working out the details with him today.
Greenman’s head brewer and local beer legend John Stuart was there as well. I know who John is, having seen him around, but I’ve never spoke or officially met him before. I introduced myself and tried not to sound like a gushing fanboy as I told him that his rare batch releases are my absolute favorite beers. I explained how I’ve had every one of the limited edition 750 ml bottles, going out of my way when necessary to procure them. He was very personable and we talked about his brewery, beer week and his decision to send his beers to Knoxville (thanks Tupelo Honey!)
After a few more half pours, we decided to check into our room and unpack. We checked the ABW event schedule to plan our next move. We saw that Barley’s was having a French Broad flight night with free glassware. We headed that way. Since it was 2 hours after the official start, all the free glassware was gone. This wasn’t completely unexpected. We both got a half pour of beer. I had Foothills Brewing’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout and Katie Khaleesi had Foothill’s Jade IPA. We looked at our plans. As we sat there, we thought, well maybe we could go across the street to Wicked Weed for another half pour, then hit up Thirsty Monk for the Rogue XS event. Katie had to go shopping for a bathing suit so she could lay out by the pool at the hotel (we are on vacation, after all). I noticed that where we were going was right next to Carolina Cinemas.
I had visited Carolina Cinemas on a previous trip to Asheville. I knew that they had a decent local draft beer selection. Since we we’re going to be out that way anyway, why not catch a movie? We skipped Wicked Weed and Thirsty Monk and headed over to see the Hangover Part III. I wanted to bring attention to this theater for other beer tourist such as myself who want another option for beer and entertainment. We arrived and approached the counter. “Is the manager around?” I asked. No, he just left, but I am the assistant. I explained who I was and that I was in town writing for the Asheville Beer Week website and wanted to ask him some questions about Carolina Cinemas and their beer selection. He gave me the manager’s card and told me to give him a call. I called up Greg and introduced myself. I asked if it was alright to speak with him and get some information about their operation. He was happy to talk to me. I asked about the beer selection, the decision process on behind what to carry and how they get the beer that they serve. He told me that they focus on local craft brews. Pretty much what they carry comes straight from the breweries themselves, with the exception of Catawba which comes through a distributor. I also asked if they get special limited releases. He told me that they do get some of the popular seasonals such as Highland’s highly sought after Cold Mountain. At the end of the conversation, he generously offered to comp our tickets for the showing. It was very much appreciated. We purchased a Shiva IPA for myself and K had Pisgah’s Nitro Stout. We walked into the theater and had the whole place to ourselves. Of course, this being a Monday night after a long holiday weekend, it wasn’t completely unexpected. A few more couples trickled in before the movie started. I’m a beer blogger and not a movie critic, but I will say that The Hangover III wasn’t all that great. It had a very flimsy premiese, rehashed jokes and none of the originality of part one. That being said, by all means see it and decide for yourself.
So if you are looking for something else to do while in town, don’t hesitate to hit up Carolina Cinemas. First run movies, great service, incredible beer at a very fair price of $5 a pint… you really can’t go wrong. We will definitely be back!
After the movie we hit up Wally World (yeah, I know, they suck) to get a few things. Sunblock, bathing suit etc. Well my darlin’ Khaleesi is kind of a candy addict. For months now she has been obsessing on “the great Skittles controversy“. Apparently Skittles have changed their green from lime to green apple (gasp!), making the original flavor a highly sought after collectible. Bags and boxes going for ridiculous amounts of money on eBay. She believes they have a shelf life of several years. She has also apparently been monitoring Skittles sales online and struggling with purchasing one of the last of the original 1 pound bags. Well at Wally World, we made a quick trip down the candy aisle. Low and behold, digging through the bags and boxes of Skittles, she hit pay dirt! Two big bags of original Skittles buried underneath the new ones. I thought she was going to cry. I’ve never seen a grown woman so happy to find candy. She looked through the 4 ounce boxes and found more with the original lime! Thirty dollars worth of candy later and we were on our way back to the hotel. It was around 12:30 at this time and we thought we’d go to The Monk for one last night cap. They were closed however, so we went back to rest up for today.
Next on the agenda is hitting up Bruisin’ Ales for some bottle shopping. At 4 pm, Asheville Brewing Company’s Perfect Day IPA is going on tap. Today’s big event is the Belgians at the Ballpark starting at 6pm. Nine innings, nine brewerys, food and 27 beers. Phew! Tickets are still available, and I’m sure this event will be epic! Depending on how things go, we may hit up a few other bars and breweries as well. Tune in tomorrow for recap of todays beer based adventures.
One more thing I’d like to mention. Not only are we here to drink great beer and hang out with our current friends, but to make new ones as well. If you read this blog and spot me out and about, please introduce yourself and say hi. If you do, I will hook you up with a little souvenir or something.
Well it’s off to Bruisin’ Ales. Make sure to follow the Asheville Beer Week Twitter feed as well as the hashtag #AVLBeerWeek. Follow along with me on my twitter feed and my untappd check ins as well.
Enjoy the pictures below. Click to enlarge.
Until tomorrow…
Cheers,
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Posted by jasonknowsbeer
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