Back in May of this year, at the start of my yearly visit to America, I found myself in Atlanta, Georgia, a city I had never expected to visit. But as my second cousin Mark had invited me to come stay for a few days, I took advantage of this opportunity to get to know another relative. And I was really impressed with Atlanta as well.
Located in the foothills of the Appalachians, Atlanta boasts the densest urban tree coverage of any major city in the country, which is impressive considering the city was burned to the ground by General Sherman durings the American Civil War. Named after the Atlanta-Pacifica Railway, Atlanta is most remembered as an important centre of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. And its airport, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is currently the busiest airport in the world, so I was highly impressed by how easy it is to find one’s way around the terminals.
Although I was only there for a few days, we did manage to get to one of the city’s breweries. Located in Decatur, northeast of Atlanta, Three Taverns Craft Brewery was quite difficult for the two of us to get to. This was due to the rubble, formerly known as a pavement, and it seemed like it was going to be impossible to get there. But Mark was managing impressively well with his walker that he uses for stabilisation, so I followed his heroic lead as we forged our way through broken concrete, gravel, and other treacherous construction-site obstacles. We ended up reaching the brewery a half hour before it was due to open at 4pm. Fortunately there were some casual seats outside in the shade, where we sat back and waited for the place to open. At one point a young man, presumably an employee, emerged from the pub, and when I chatted briefly with him I found out he had recently visited Newcastle upon Tyne. So we talked for a few minutes about cask ale.
Exactly four minutes after opening time Mark and I finally entered and found ourselves in a brick room with a beamed wooden ceiling. As we were the first customers of the day, we had plenty of time to peruse the beer menu and sample the offerings. I first had a taste of Hazy Bird (5.0% ABV), a hazy IPA collaboration with Ladybird Brewing of Kansas. The beer was described as “tropical with a touch of diesel”, and that sounded all right to me. But I ended up going for a pint of A Night On Ponce American IPA (7.5% ABV). Described as tasting of citrus, tropical fruit, and light pine, it was very drinkable and a happy faith restorer after my lousy beers the day before. This was just a good zippily hoppy pint, and it was nice and clear, which was a great change from all the cloudy IPAs I’d been having lately. Mark went for a pint of the darker Maury Mable’s Irish Stout (4.5%), a dry Irish stout with notes of roasted coffee, dark chocolate, and light toasted grain. In my opinion this was a perfect coffee stout, just the way I like my dark beers, and it was dry like a proper porter. Mark thoroughly enjoyed it.
Advertised as “what Georgia drinks”, Three Taverns was inspired back in 1994, after founder Brian Purcell visited Belgium and was inspired by the beers brewed by Trappist monks. A few years later, he had a glass of Le Trappe beer at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur, and later during a visit to Portland, Oregon, he experienced a tasty home brew. Named after a travellers’ rest on the Appian Way which is mentioned in the book of Acts, Three Taverns Brewery was finally opened in 2013.
Apparently we were in the Parlour, where the brewery’s Genesis Project provides space for experimental and imaginative brewing. There is also another taproom called the Imaginarium, in the Atlanta Dairies complex on Memorial Drive Southeast, that features the brewery’s experimental beers including sours and pastry stouts. There is also the Ponce Brew Terminal, located in Ponce City Market, which features more experimental beers such as an Earl Grey tea, vanilla, and lavender sour, a Mexican dark lager, a tangerine milkshake IPA, and a Japanese rice lager. The Ponce also serves cocktails and hot snacks.
It would have been great to visit some of these other Three Taverns venues; but alas, there is only so much time in a day and a week and in one's life.
After I said goodbye to Mark and checked in at the airport for my onward flight to Chicago, I had time to stop into the Sweetwater Brewing Company Last Cast Bar & Grill in the B Concourse for a pint. As is always my preference I took a seat at the bar, where I first had a taste of Daytrip IPA (6.6% ABV). An easy-drinking tropical brew hopped with Citra, Columbus, Mosaic, Simcoe, and Waimea, this was indeed nicely tropical. The barman also offered me a taste of the brewery’s flagship beer, 420 (5.7% ABV). Brewed with Cascade hops and offering a lovely balance of citrus and pine, this West Coast style lager tasted more like a pilsner. The first batch of 420 was brewed on April 4, 2020, so the name was taken from this date.
I ended up going for a pint of Tropical High Hazy IPA (6.2% ABV). Double dry hopped with Mosaic, Citra, El Dorado, and Azacca, this offered a pleasant wallop of that combination of tropical fruit, lime, and pine that I always thoroughly enjoy. It was a good farewell to Atlanta, a city I’d never visited and never even thought I’d ever visited. To tide me over till I reached Chicago, I ordered the fish tacos which were, as usual, more than I could eat: three sauce-soaked tacos with a load of potato crescents. But I did what I could with them.
And the young barman was great, making the whole experience a fine farewell to the city.
I suppose I should make a mention of my first beer taste in the city, at Mellow Mushroom. This was on an evening when I joined Mark and a small group of his friends who meet here to participate in the weekly quiz. I was looking forward to my first Atlanta pint, but I gather this small chain is more into their pizza and food than the quality of their beer. My first pint of Daytona Daydream IPA (6.0% ABV, Outrun Brewing, Stone Mountain, Georgia) was murkily tainted and really awful, and I was not a happy drinker. So the only other choice for me was the Voodoo Ranger IPA (7.0% ABV, New Belgium Brewing Company, Asheville, North Carolina), which at least was drinkable if not terribly exciting. And we came in second in the quiz, simply because the other three made a mistake on one of the questions they should have known. I mean, having been an expate for many years, I really only contributed to one answer, so I was still impressed that they came second, even though they fully expected to come first. So it was a fun night, and I have to say the pizza was decent as well.
Related Links
|
PUB UPDATES:
- SHEFFIELD TAP, SHEFFIELD: Just before I left for this year’s trip to America, I had a half pint of Quench (3.8% ABV, Brass Castle Brewing Company, Malton, North Yorkshire). A DDH Pale with Citra and Mosaic. Apparently the hops are held in suspension to give the maximum juiciness. It really packs a hops punch against a light brew, so perhaps that’s the result of those hops trying to punch their way out of suspension. I mean, what crime did they commit, anyway? Being too citric? Being too darkly mosaic? It’s a really nice wake-up brew for the very, very start of another five-week holiday in America, this year’s being quite complicatedly all over the country. So hey, let’s go!
- TWO SHEDS, SHEFFIELD: I stopped in on yet another very hot afternoon. The air conditioner wasn’t on, but the front and back doors were open and a lovely breeze was blowing through. I sat at the bar and decided to have two halves. My first was Blueberry Pale (4.0% AB, Beartown Brewing, Congleton, Cheshire). Brewed with Canadian low-bush berries and pale malt, this is described as “hoppy, sweet, fruity, and zesty”. And it definitely is. Abbie loves it, and Lee agrees with me that it’s good as a half but it’s liable to become a bit tiring. But my half is very pale, not blue at all, with a lovely light blueberry taste. I mean, it’s not a sour, so it’s quite unique. I told Abbie that if she loves this, she should try a blueberry vanilla sour if she ever runs into one, and she thought that sounded wonderful. My other half was Parallel (4.8% ABV, Atom Beers, Hull, East Yorkshire). Brewed with Simcoe and Harlequin hops, this was quite good as well, and I admit that I drank my blueberry half first and then moved on to this, as I wanted to full experience this taste without any blueberry ambience. So I wasn’t really treating it as a parallel half; but it' s a free country, and I can drink my beer in whatever manner I want to.
Before I left, as I was enjoying the conversation and also that lovely breeze, I had another half, this time of Fuji (4.4% ABV, Triple Point Brewing Company, Sheffield, South Yorkshire). Fruited with the unique and lovely yuzu, this is brightly tart and suggestive of yuzu, grapefruit, and lychee. So it’s a really pleasant and easy-to-drink pale with a subtle exotic character.
- HALLAMSHIRE HOUSE, SHEFFIELD: Between heatwaves I stopped in a couple of times to have a fine cask beer, Summer Ale (4.0% ABV, Thornbridge Brewing Company, Bakewell, Derbyshire). A collaboration with Bundobust of Manchester, this is a surprisingly great hoppy brew for such a low-ABV cask with what sounds like a gentle breezy sort of name. It’s actually really good, and it seems to be popular as well. What more can I say?
On an earlier visit, Doug poured me and himself small tasters of a new cask offering, Faith Jaipur (8.4% ABV, Thornbridge Brewing) We both gasped at the first sniff of this amazing beer, and on my first sip I got cinnamon and then lemon, and Doug got lemon and then cinnamon. Woohooey! This was a very dangerous weapon in the pub, because it didn't taste that alcoholic. Perhaps aside from showing photo ID, someone ordering this should also show their License to Kill Responsibly.
- WALKLEY BEER COMPANY, SHEFFIELD: On a visit back in early May, I was once again being indecisive--so I went for two half pints. The Good Manners Cost Nowt (4.2% ABV, Farmyard Brew Company, Cockerham, Lancashire), a Eukanot Pale Ale, was a lovely cask ale for a lovely warmer day, when everybody seemed to be in a lighter mood. My favourite pub dog was currenty romping across the beaches of Brittany (well, probably not actually romping, as he does suffer from arthritis). And I was feeling happily productive earlier in the day, in the weeks before another travelling adventure to.the US , so this positively florally hopped beer suited me just fine. My keg pint was Fog (4.6% ABV, Burnt Mill Brewing, Ipswich, Suffolk), another hazy pale. I felt like I was lying back in a chaise-lounge smelling the ripening of mangos and guavas while sucking the juice from a half of a sweet Meyers lemon that had been sprinkled with a dash of freshly ground mixed peppers. I was reminded of the only house I ever owned, whose massive back garden featured a Meyers lemon bush so passionately abundant with fruit that I would occassionally pluck three juicy ones off just to impress a friend with my juggling prowess. In fact, I think I taught my closest girlfriend Eileen how to juggle with Meyers lemons. I realise all of this is beside the point, but this beer is inspiring happy memories. So just indulge me for a moment...
BOTTLED/CANNED BEER UPDATE:
- In Atlanta:
- A Night On Ponce IPA (7.5% ABV, Three Taverns Craft Beers, Decatur, Georgia). While I was in Atlanta I bought a six-pack of this which I took back to my second cousin Mark’s flat in Buckhead. On the can this is described as “a fitting introduction to the quality and character of Atlanta and its beer scene…an IPA as rich in flavour as the sights and sounds of the street that inspires its name.” The street mentioned is the 16-mile-long Ponce de Leon Avenue, a major thoroughfare that runs through some interesting neighbourhoods and intersects the Atlanta Beltline. As we sat in the flat listening to easy listening music, I found this beer to be very easy drinking as well. But as opposed to the music, this beer didn’t become cloying at all.
- Back at Home:
- Wingsuit Pale Ale (4.4% ABV, Triple Point Brewing Company, Sheffield, South Yorkshire). This is hopped with a wonderful blend of Cryo Strata, Cryo Sabro, Cryo El Dorado, and Harlequin. I’ve really enjoyed this beer by the pint, and the canned version was just as wonderful. What gloriously fancy hops! I felt like dancing! I felt like spinning around and spreading my wings.
- AAAGGGHHH! NEIPA (5.4% ABV Triple Point). The can explains that this beer was inspired by the brewers’ favourite screaming heroes. “Goku turning super saiyan, Keanu Reeves shooting and shouting into the sky, Captain Kir screaming, mourning for Spock. This NEIPA is a homage to screaming your heart out, super hoppy super soft, low bitterness, and bags of fruity flavour." Hopped with Goldings, Galaxy, Citra, and Krush, this is a very fruity and floral beer. I appropriately put this can in the fridge this morning as today’s after-work choice, and at the time I had no idea it would end up an AAGGGHHH! sort of day.
- Caught in the Rain Piña Colada Sour (7.8% ABV, Vault City Brewing Company, Edinburgh, Scotland). One taste of this and oom, wow! I mean, Vault City know how to do beautiful sours. And this is perfect in every way! Its definitely pineapple-coconut and rum, which if done right can be an amazing tiki cocktail. But this is a beer, and they’ve cracked it. It’s truly wonderful, a perfect reward after dealing with getting a stroke patient off the toilet. It’s an evening of contrasts, definitely.
|