drank up a bunch from Arizona

On my trip to Arizona over Valentine's Day I had several beers from the area.

Two from the Grand Canyon Brewery, the Pale Ale and the Whitewater Wheat. I had these both in downtown Sedona, the former the first night and the other the last.

Then three from the Oak Creek Brewery in Sedona, AZ: the Nut Brown Ale, the Porter and the Amber. All three were very nice, the Brown in a bottle, the Porter at the Brewery and the Amber in downtown Sedona.

Trip to Athens, GA and the Terrapin Brewery

I took this trip about 2 weeks ago, since then we've had a snow storm (snowed in for 3 days) and another weekend has come and gone.

I stopped in first to the Five Points Bottle Shop off of Lumpkin St. Got a couple of Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (12oz) and may well be keeping it for some time. Also picked up another 10 or so bottles of stuff, Sam Adams Infinium, the next two Terrapin Georgia Theater releases; Sound Czech and Hoptaneous Combustion, a couple of Terrapin Side Projects; Capt'n Krunkles Black IPA and Big Daddy Vlady's Russian Imperial Stout. Lastly, a Left Hand Oak Aged Wake up Dead Imperial Stout and a Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura, Dark Dawn Stout. That's only nine beers, I spent over $130 for all of it and feel like I may have missed a few.

I then went over to the Terrapin Brewery which is always a fun time. Due to the fact that it is located in the same town as the University of Georgia (UGA) you know that a large majority of the crowd is in the 21-25 age group. Lots of people on a Saturday night. The place was packed and also VERY cold, they had several heaters but it's the beer that truly warmed everyone up. There was a band playing as well belting out some nice rock tunes.

Good Times.

Red Hook Brewery

A photo from my trip/tour of the Red Hook Brewery in Seattle Washington.

They had lots of these conditioning tanks in a nice cool room, or should I say warehouse.

just arrived back from Seattle, WA 3 breweries and a brewpub

I will be writing up a review of each, didn't get to do the "in depth" research I would have liked to. ie. drinking more, but I did a fair amount.

Missed about 3 other breweries that I hope to get to in the future, Pike Brewery, Hood Canal Brewery, and another one on an Island I can't remember at the moment. I've since added about 10 more to the list but who knows if I'll ever make it back to Seattle?

There's a new brewery in town...

Jailhouse Brewing Company

They have been here since about November 2009, Currently serving a Wheat, an IPA and a Stout. All brewed in the American way.

My Brother and I drove all the way down to Hampton, GA. Well I drove and he rode but whatever. We arrived at about 2pm on Saturday and were greeted but the co-owners, a husband-wife pair, Glenn and Melissa Golden. Glenn started the tour in the namesake room of the brewery, the Jailhouse, complete with original bars on the windows. Talked about all the different malts and grains used in his beers. This guy really knows his stuff and is willing to share all he knows.

We then moved to the brewing area and Glenn talked all about the process of temperature control, creating the wart and hopping. I think they have two 15 barrel kettles (mash and boiling) and three 15 barrel fermenters along with two larger conditioning tanks.

Slammer Wheat - American Wheat, unfiltered and very lager like. 5%

Mugshot IPA - an American IPA with Simcoe, Cascade and ??? Hops 6%

Breakout Stout - a Stout made in the American style. 7%?

I thought the Stout was absolutely wonderful and my brother who normally only likes Guinness like it a bunch as well. The IPA was not as hoppy as say a Sweetwater IPA but included enough pine flavor to make it very lip smackable. The Wheat was crisp and dry but just not my cup of tea. Something along the line of a Hoegarden would be more to my liking.

Quick overview of the shakedown is here --> The Shakedown
The places serving JailHouse Brews are here
The whole story from the beginning Starts Here

Thinking of beer trips past

I remember just after moving to St. Joseph, MI the new family and I used to take day trips over to Chicago, IL where I was born so long ago in order to just take in a museum or just drive around the city in search of who-knows-what. It was sometime in the early 1990's and I think I stumbled onto the Goose Island Brewpub. We had some lunch and I had a beer, that's about all I remember. I vaguely do recall that maybe it was in a large warehouse looking place with just brick buildings all around up and down the street. Also maybe a large rolling on a track railroad car kind of doors.

Now I wish I had wrote more stuff down back then.