This week is CMA week down in Nashville. There are performances all around town and starting Friday, there are big concerts at LP Field with all your country music favorites. It also means that the town swells with about 25,000 more people, all of whom seem to congregate downtown – if you plan…
drink a beer from your local brewery, or buy a beer from a local brewery for a friend, or both.
My suggestions:
Fullsteam Summer Basil Farmhouse Ale, Foothills Peoples Porter, Mother Earth Dunkel Lager.
(Source: beeriety)
out of focus. series 1. photo 6
The Competition was fierce. We began with 16 and ended with one. We had a Rocket Girl and Rocket Science. There was a Gopher and a Gaelic. There was also a Bad Penny and a Sweet Josie. We can all agree on two things. There was one winner, there were no losers.
So Congratulations to Sean, Chris, and the crew at Fullsteam for bringing us Rocket Science IPA, this year’s NC Craft Beer Champ. Fullsteam does so much so well, but most importantly they are truly passionate about what they brew, where the brew it, and who they are brewing it for.
Thanks all for voting, sharing, and promoting Craft Beer in NC. Now get out there and treat yourself to some local goodness from one of these 16 breweries.
I say next year we go 64 deep.
Here is the complete field of 16 NC Craft Beers.
Gopher Ale Heinzelmännchen Brewery
Payne’s Pale Ale Wedge Brewing Co.
Gaelic Ale Highland Brewing Co.
13 Rebels ESB French Broad Brewing Co.
Pisgah Pale Ale Pisgah Brewing Co.
Green Man IPA Greenman Brewery
Rocket Girl IPA Asheville Brewing Co.
Antebellum Ale Craggie Brewing Co.
Red Oak Amber Red Oak Brewery
People’s Porter Foothills Brewing Co.
Bad Penny Brown Ale Big Boss Brewing Co.
Sweet Josie Brown Ale Lonerider Brewing Co.
Firewater IPA Catawba Valley Brewing Co.
Rocket Science IPA Fullsteam Brewery
The Duck Rabbit Porter The Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery
Our Neighborhood Porter Mother Earth Brewing
working from home on a recent snow day.








out of focus. series 1. photo 5
Recently the Houston Press published the US of Beer map. Good Magazine took that idea and made it right by creating the US of GOOD Beer map. Is there anything wrong with Keystone, Bud, or PRB? No. Is there everything right when it comes to supporting, drinking, enjoying local craft beer? Yes.
(Source: GOOD)
Asheville, NC. For 23 years I called it home. In the early ’90s, beer was consumed mostly outside of downtown in small taverns, local bars and on front porches. It was usually on special. It was almost always light in color and name.
Then the beer scene began to change. In 1994, retired engineer oscar wong moved to asheville and began brewing beer in a basement just under barley’s taproom & pizzeria. They served his beer upstairs, though many locals smuggled in more familiar varieties. Ones in a can, with red and white logos, imported from places like st. louis, mo and golden, co. Others would just ask for “your lightest beer” at the bar.
Fast forward to today. Asheville is now beer city usa. It is home to 9 breweries, a brews cruise, and many brew festivals throughout the year. The granddaddy of festivals though is the annual brewgrass festival. This past fall was my first trip home for the festival. Simply put it’s 7 hours, 5 bluegrass bands, and 40+ breweries. We made it a guys weekend, parked our cars on Friday and didn’t see them again til Sunday. All this with the beautiful asheville skyline and mountains as our backdrop. Mark your calendar for may, that’s when tickets usually go on sale. It only took a few hours to sell out last year. Make plans to join some of the best people in the world, in one of the most beautiful towns in the world, with a few of the best brews in the world…or at least the USA.
here are a few of my favs from the day, in no particular order.
sweet josie brown ale lonerider brewing company, Raleigh, NC
sue smoked porter yazoo brewing company, Nashville, TN
clawhammer octoberfest highland brewing company, Asheville, NC
rocket girl ipa asheville brewing company, Asheville, NC
13 rebels esb french broad brewing company, Asheville, NC
king don’s pumpkin ale catawba valley brewing company, Morganton, NC

(thanks to luke b. for the photo)
we are men. we love fellowship. we also love an excuse to do so. to us on this particular night it looks like an amatuer game of texas hold em. because few of us play enough to warrant world series status, we usually spend more time saying “your move” or “is that 10 to me?” or “man i shouldn’t have folded my pocket aces.” yeah we are those guys.
it also gives us a chance to share some beer. many in this group prefer craft beer when given the opportunity. we do appreciate the pbr cans and coors light bullets on occasion, but our hearts lean craft. you can spot a few of the craft beer choices in this post. check out luke sporting a hell’s belle belgian blonde www.bigbossbrewing.com.
let me know if you want in on the next game.



yes that is a gmail bowtie tuxedo shirt. remember, we are “those guys.”



out of focus. series 1. photo 1
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