Favorite Microbrew

Well I used the search button, but didn't come up with anything for a few of my favorite things. I guess since they sell it, even at a local level, it's a commercial brew.

Whenever I go to to Gatlinburg, I get my favorite microbrews. Velas Helles (obvious style in the name) and ThunderRoad (bottle describes it as a Classic Bohemian Pilsner).

Love to go get a few when I'm in town, which sadly isn't often! Great beers, but they're not pasturized so transporting them home to the Dayton Ohio area is kinda... interesting. Involves 2 coolers in my trunk and lots of ice. but so worth having a great brew at home. Last time I managed to bring home a case of both.

I was kind of suprised not to find anything on these or the brewery itself (If nobody objects, I'll mention the name, I'm not sure how "product placements" go here, and don't wanna cross any toes. Take my word for it, I'm not affiliated with them. Just a fan!)

Hoping someone here knows what I'm talking about! Be a shame to keep it a secret, or be the only one that's had them.

Plugging your favorites (or something new) is exactly what this section is for. Putting in the city & state can help travelers, as well.

If you are selling it, then we have the vendors' area.

Calhouns

http://www.calhouns.com/Images/CMSImage_18_13.pdf

Rogue brewery in Newport Oregon and Eel River Brewery in Fortuna, CA are two of my fav's! Deschutes is killer too!


Dan

Here in Wisconsin I like Sprecher Brewing, their Special Amber and Dopple Bock in particule. Lakefront Brewery has good beers too, their ESB is my fav. commersial beer on the market. Capital and New Glarus are good too. Beer is good, it all has it's place(not looking for a fight about BMC).

My favorite NW Micro is Boundary Bay Brewing Company in Bellingham WA. Great consistent beers across all styles, and a killer Imperial IPA! Favotite micros in general are Russian River in Santa Rosa CA, Walking Man in Stevenson WA, Pelican in Pacific City OR, Hair of the Dog in Portland OR and Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter MI.

Brewtopia:

Right on with the Boundary Bay! A buddy of mine is from Bellingham and brings back some Boundary Bay every once and a while. Last trip he brought back the Cabin Fever, which rocks.

Speaking of giving a local plug, Northern Lights here in Spokane really is an awesome brewery, as well as Laughing Dog up in Ponderay, Idaho. Both make a couple kick ass Imperial IPAs as anniversary brews.

I had Laughing Dog for the first time at the Fresh Hop Festival in Yakima last summer. Northern Lights is great beer as well but we never see them over here in Western WA. I had a Boundary Bay Imperial IPA tonight at Collins Pub. Tried it along side Stone Ruination and it blows Stone out of the water!(IMHO)

Brewtopia said:

Calhouns

http://www.calhouns.com/Images/CMSImage_18_13.pdf

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Direct link: http://www.smoky-mtn-brewery.com/

Yeah, it's owned by Calhouns. Brewed at the Smoky Mountain Brewery, and they distribute it to their sister restaurants. In Gatlinburg there's the Brewery (which has kick ass pizza and wings), Calhouns, and Cherokee Grill. They all serve the SMB microbrews. And if you go to other Calhouns outside Gatlinburg, they sell most the brews too. But the closer you get to the Brewery the fresher the beer. Had it at Knoxville one time, and would rather have gone the extra distance to Gatlinburg to have it directly from the Brewery. Besides, the Brewery is much cooler looking and has a great look and location.

The ThunderRoad has been my thing of late when I'm there. It's more hoppy, but the Velas is so smooth and fruity. It's got a great flavor and leaves you with a clean after taste. Turned my buddy onto these beers when he went with his wife to the area, he ended up in the Brewery most the time. She wasn't pleased I guess.

It's pretty cool, you can see the brew tanks when you enter the building. And they had stacks of bags awaiting their chance to be used as ingredients.

I think Velas won the Gold Medal in 1999 at the Great American Beer Festival. Bottle describes it as a Light German Style Lager. I think it's a pretty good brew. Wish I could get it locally though. It's a 350 mile trip to get my beer, but I bring back a fridge full.

I have so many favorites its impossible to narrow it down to one. Mac & Jack's African Amber is a great local brew but I also like Deschutes Brewery out of Bend OR and Lost Coast Brewery out of Northern CA

I don't even know how to describe this one, but I had a great beer this past fall. I was going up the annual Oktoberfest in Minster Ohio and they had a specialty beer this year. This is a small small town out in the boonies in Ohio. But they throw a hell of a bash each year, drawing more then 80,000 people over 2 days to a town of about 3,000 people. In Ye Olde Days, they had a brewery in town called the Wooden Shoe ( http://www.minsteroh.com/pictures.htm ), which is now gone of course, but the recipe remained hidden away somewhere. After the brewery was gone, the name was then applied to a restraunant in town. I'm not sure about the ownership of it, but they had access to the recipe. So this past year, they had a commercial brewery whip up 75 kegs according to the original time honored recipe.

And WOW! I took a sip and looked at everyone I was with and said "I think I just found the best beer I've had". 75 kegs, the beer stands opened at 11am I think, and none of this beer remained by 2:30pm. Of course it helps that they sell it by half gallon milk jugs. We quickly drank 3 half gallons between 3 of us, went back for another and they said they were completely out, and didn't even have any for the next day! I'm hoping this year they produce more of it, because it'll surely sell out.

edit: Here's a link to the history of the brewery.

http://www.americanbreweriana.org/history/wshoe.htm

The Wooden Shoe I tasted last week was indeed fresh, just bottled from the aging tanks. Medium bodied, crisp and refreshing, the flavor profile was smooth across the edges with a surprising depth of flavor rarely found in lagers, except when small batches are brewed with purpose. Welcome back, Wooden Shoe.

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- Dayton Daily News

I used to work right across the parking lot from Old Dominion Brewery in Ashburn, VA....so my micro-brew experience is directly related to sampling their beers..

Tuppers Hop Pocket Ale/Pilsner were my favs for a long time....and I've seen some mention of their Oak Barrell Stout. The original stout was conditioned in hickory bourbon kegs and only available at the brewery on nitrogen...completely different from the vanilla-flavoured stuff that is available in stores (it was called Bourbon Stout until ABC decided they couldn't use the word bourbon in a beer advert...)

I was designated growler-tender in my neighborhood, and was responsible for the weekly trips to the brewery with a dozen or so 2 liter jugs for the Friday night poolside samplings......those guys (and gals) were directly responsible for my brewing addiction/hobby.

Mine would have to by Hub city in Lubbock, Tx. I worked their for a year before it got shut down by the IRS. We had some great beers. Humperdinks here in DFW has some damn good beers also.

local place here in indianapolis called The Oaken Barrell. has several types of beer, brewed right there, on location at the restauraunt. my favorite is probably "razzwheat".