Monday Night at Monday Night

 

Monday Night Brewing - Blind Pirate IIPA

Monday Night Brewing – Blind Pirate IIPA. A delicious malty double IPA that tastes even better on draft(only had it in the bottle before I visited the brewery)

Monday Night Brewing is one of Atlanta’s newest breweries and I had the fine opportunity of heading down there and drinking some beers this past Monday. It was the first time that I had seen their new facility which is located just off 17th Street and Howell Mill Rd. The brewery had plenty of space to find your own spot to relax and enjoy some beers. The tasting room was expansive with plenty of seating, interesting decor/art work, black and white movies playing in the background, and a big bar with plenty of serving room to keep the lines down. I really enjoyed the outdoor patio area and spent most of my time hanging out there next to the hot dog vendor “Doggy Dog” (if he’s there, get the “Lil’ Kim”… trust me).

Monday Night Brewing

Monday Night Brewing

The brewhouse is a quad something or other 30 barrel system(if memory serves correct). So basically they can brew four 30 barrel batches in one run. The brew system, fermenters, and bright tanks line the back walls while the bottling line takes up the center of the brewery; with the mill-house and water purification on one end and packaging storage on the other end. So they make beers at this joint, let me tell you about a few of them…

Monday Night Brewing - Drafty Kilt & Fu Man Brew

Monday Night Brewing – Drafty Kilt & Fu Man Brew

I tried all of the beers that they had on tap with Blind Pirate IIPA being my favorite of the bunch(Pictured at the top). It is a slightly malt forward IIPA and it is quite tasty. This is one of the newer additions to the Monday Night line up; it is offered on draft and in 22oz bottles. One of my favorites that the brewery makes is Drafty Kilt, a scotch ale. This is a dark and robust smokey treat. It had been a while since I had tried one of these and it seemed a bit smokey-er than I remembered and I liked that. An interesting offering from MNB is Fu Man Brew; it is a Belgian style Wit beer with Ginger added to it. This beer starts off smooth and crisp but finishes with a ginger kick that really gives the beer some character compared to most other wheat beers. I also had the opportunity to try a limited production version of their Eye Patch IPA; this version was doused with a dose of Serrano peppers. This added a nice light smokey flavor that was complemented by just a little heat. These flavors melded nicely with the hops and malt in the IPA.

It was a great way to break-in the week and I’m sure I’ll be finding myself there again.

Burnt Hickory – Inaugural Wednesday Tasting

Burnt Hickory Wednesday Draft List

Burnt Hickory Wednesday Draft List

BHB kicked my ass and I liked it. What a great way to start off Wednesday brewery tours and tastings. Burnt Hickory has been rocking very successful Saturday tastings for a while  now and this past Wednesday was the first weekday tasting event. Many good people showed up to support the brewery and to drink heady beverages. The line up was great, not a beer on there that I wouldn’t want to drown my pallet with. A few beer highlights where, well, all of them. SERIOUSLY. You gotta make it to a tasting and try them all. They are all Big Beers but don’t be scared cause they are tasty. I’m a huge IPA fan and I post about them a lot so let me tell you about something different for a change. Fighting Bishop is a beast of a Belgian style tripel; brewed with green peppercorns this beer has a wonderful complexity of spice, citrus, and fruit flavors. It is a big ass tripel that goes down way to easy. Think a high-gravity summer time poolside slam it down in the heat goodness kinda beer (that all makes sense in my head).

Burnt Hickory Bottle Teaser

A selection of BHB beers bottled up to make you jealous that you can’t take them home with you yet.

If you happened past the bar you may have noticed the line up of Burnt Hickory beers all bottled up. This was just a nice “teaser” line up of beers that you can not take home with you unless you find a growler store selling BHB beers on draft. Hopefully one day in the not so distant future we will all be able to have a line up of BHB beers like this in our fridges. One of the best parts of the day was the brewery tour hosted by head brewer Will. He was an entertaining and informative tour guide that at the end of the tour was kind enough to share one of my favorites with all the tour patrons… Noggin Knocker! Fuck yeah! This is currently my favorite beer. It is DAMN good. Here is a picture from my point of view.

Burnt Hickory Noggin Knocker

A little Noggin Knocker in my glass. Careful, it’ll get ya!

So that glass right there made my day. Maybe it’ll make yours too, you’ll have to head to the brewery to find out! Burnt Hickory does tours and tasting Wednesdays and Saturdays. To be sure they are doing a tour on the day you want to go check out the breweries Facebook page.

Peppercorn IPA

SweetWater IPA cask with peppercorn and centennial hops

Cask of SweetWater IPA aged on peppercorns and centennial hops.

I made it over to the SweetWater Brewery this past Wednesday and they had an interesting cask of IPA. The cask contained peppercorns and centennial hops which thoroughly enhanced this beer. Spicy peppercorn dominated the nose and palate while the centennial hops made a more modest appearance. If you have time to drink some beers on Wednesday nights then SweetWater is a good place to be. Every hump day they pour unique casks of heady brews that are worth fighting the traffic for.

Brew Day at Burnt Hickory Brewery

Burnt Hickory Brew System

Burnt Hickory Brew System

The kind folks at Burnt Hickory Brewery in Kennesaw, GA were gracious enough to let me come help out on brew day this week. Burnt Hickory has been around for just over a year now and during that time they have created a great notoriety for producing some killer beers. Their line up of monster beers are changing the beer game in Georgia; every beer here is bigger and Bigger is Better. The brewery is producing higher than average ABV beers that are packed full of flavor and creativity. The beers produced here will knock the socks off veteran beer drinkers and blow the minds of craft beer neophytes. One of my favorites brewed at Burnt Hickory is a seasonal called “Noggin Knocker” it is an Imperial Eggnog Stout; Need I say more? No? To bad cause it gets better… It’s a barrel aged spiced milk stout that clocks in at 13.5% ABV. This beast then gets split into whiskey and rum barrels and is aged to perfection. Holy Shit this stuff is good. Whats it taste like? You will just have to try it yourself, this is no time for a review of this bucket list beer. It’ll be awhile before this beer comes back around, so let’s dry out our moist panties and move on. Cannon Dragger IPA was on the production list for brew day at BHB this week. This is a big american IPA that is full of hops. It’s a bit bigger that your average IPA at 8% ABV and is a mainstay for the brewery that is available year round. In addition to brewing some beers a little brewery maintenance and new fermenter construction happened that day. New fermenters = more beer for all of us!

Head brewer Will assembling a new fermeter at Burnt Hickory Brewery.

Head brewer Will assembling a new fermeter.

Brew day went off with out a hitch and with lots of beer hitting the fermenter’s before the day was done. Burnt Hickory is offering a brewery tour on May 18th so make sure to be there. Until then you can find their beers on tap in the Kennesaw area.