Atlanta Beer Week
In May 2010, Atlanta joined the ranks of major American cities honoring craft beer with a week of celebrations. Four years later, and moved from May to October, Atlanta Beer Week survives. But it’s become a much more informal series of events, with breweries, bars and restaurants taking up the cause to present new releases, tastings and dinners.
Atlanta Beer Week 2013 runs Oct.19-26. Check the website for events and updates: 2013.atlantabeerweek.com.
Sweetwater and Terrapin, Georgia’s two largest and most visible craft breweries, brought back gold medals from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver with a pair of fairly new beers.
At an awards ceremony Oct. 12, Atlanta’s Sweetwater won the top honor in the Rye Beer category for Lowryeder. Originally called Rye’d Ale, and brewed as part of the Crank Tank series to benefit Camp Twin Lakes, Lowryeder joined Sweetwater’s year-round lineup in August 2012.
Made with 25 percent rye malt and brewed with Columbus, Mount Hood and Centennial hops, then dry-hopped with Centennial and Mount Hood, it’s truly a rye IPA with a spicy, hoppy presence that’s very approachable and pairs well with food. In fact, at the recent Atlanta Cheese Festival, it made a pretty-close-to-perfect match with Cabot Clothbound Cheddar.
Athens’ Terrapin won gold in the German-style Altbier beer category for Tree Hugger. Originally brewed for the Decatur Green Fest in support of the Dogwood Alliance, the rather rare style became part of Terrapin’s year-round lineup this past March.
Not as hoppy as most of Terrapin’s offerings, the malt-forward ale features a blend of German malts, including Munich and CaraMunich III, that impart caramel and toffee notes. Mount Hood and Vanguard hops give it spicy, herbal aromas and flavors, and snappy bitterness. Perfect for fall, pair it with German sausages or cassoulet.
It’s really good to see Sweetwater and Terrapin win major awards for these two beers, which certainly aren’t among either brewery’s best-sellers but represent the kind of quality judges at the Great American Beer Festival often recognize.
For those who haven’t been paying attention, the festival is presented by the Brewers Association, and the medal competition is something like the Super Bowl and Academy Awards of American craft beer. Most small craft breweries don’t have advertising budgets, but medals can make up for that in many cases.
In 2002, Terrapin’s very first beer, Rye Pale Ale, won the gold medal in the festival’s American Pale Ale category, a feat that helped launch the brewery. In the same year, Sweetwater won Small Brewery of the Year, certainly a milestone in its history and a pinnacle of the awards.
This year, festival judges evaluated 138 beer styles across 84 categories. More than 3,100 different beers were served at the festival, with 624 breweries in the festival hall. As usual, hoppy beers dominated among brewery entries, with 252 beers judged in the American-Style India Pale category and 149 beers judged in the Imperial India Pale Ale category.
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