Macon HOMEBREW at the Macon Octoberfest

This weekend marks the second annual Macon Octoberfest and this year's event is focusing on Georgia-brewed craft beer.  A variety of music acts will be performing, including an authentic polka band hailing from Atlanta.  Tickets are on sale now and range from an $8 single day admission to a $40 two-day VIP package.  The VIP packages are your best value ($25 single day, $40 both days) and include a custom 32oz stein, 32oz of beer (or 8 4oz samples), a Bavarian meal prepared by Grow and access to priority seating, bathrooms and draft options.

Your hometown favorites, Macon Beer Company, will also be debuting their new seasonal offering at the Macon Octoberfest.  Eager to know more about their next offering, I sent a few questions over to Jeremy Knowles to see what they have in store.  Here's what Jeremy had to say.

What is the name and style of the beer you're brewing for Macon Octoberfest?

The brand is HOMEBREW. Using this brand as a medium, we plan on identifying up and coming homebrewers by showcasing a developed recipe and making it commercially available. This batch is our first and the homebrewer is CJ Holmes. CJ won last year's Octoberfest homebrew competition and he won with a peach IPA.

What all can you tell us about the Octoberfest beer?

This round of HOMEBREW is a Peach IPA. It is a 7.3% ABV, has around 70 IBU's and is hopped with Millennium and Glacier hops. Macon Beer Company partnered with Lane Southern Orchards to get the peaches from the Ft Valley location.

When were the peaches added to the beer and why did you choose that stage in the brewing process?

Peach puree was provided by Lane Southern Orchards and we added it to secondary fermentation. At Macon Beer Company we propagate our yeast from batch to batch so adding the peaches before secondary would likely result in our next few batches having some peach aroma or flavor. We didn't want to continue the peach theme but we wanted to have active yeast on the peach to get the flavor profile most closely matching the homebrewer's recipe. It made the most sense to rack the beer with some active yeast onto the peaches.

Macon Music seemed to be a big success, is this beer similar to Macon Music?

Though both MUSIC and this year's version of HOMEBREW are both IPA's, the comparison really stops there. MUSIC was more of a traditional IPA where hop overtones are the focus. HOMEBREW has a deep fruit aroma and finishes slightly tart but peach is really the focus.

After the Macon Octoberfest, will this beer be available around town?

The beer will be debuted at Octoberfest and will be featured around town. Supplies are limited but the brand will be available after Octoberfest.

What's your favorite thing about the Macon Octoberfest event?

The support the Octoberfest leadership offers to the Macon community through donation and engagement is really my favorite thing about the festival. It's also great the festival showcases Georgia craft beers. Georgia's, and really the southeastern US craft beer scene is booming. Not many festivals have caught on that Georgia has great craft beer and even fewer are brave enough to limit the breweries to only Georgia craft.

When will the next Macon Beer Company seasonal beer come out? Can you give us any details about it?

Macon Beer Company is still a company in startup mode. We're going to take some time to better equip ourselves for the upcoming year. Our next seasonal will be Macon Love and will be released in March in conjunction with Macon's Cherry Blossom Festival.

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Congratulations to CJ and we all look forward to trying out your recipe as the very first Macon HOMEBREW!  The Macon Octoberfest is this Friday and Saturday and it looks to be a great weekend for it.  Tattnall Square Park is the location, and yes, the Atlanta German Polka Band will be playing both Friday and Saturday.  It's not Octoberfest without beer steins and polka!

Purchase your tickets here for the Macon Octoberfest and save a few bucks!

Georgia Picks Up Some GABF Hardware

The Great American Beer Festival is an annual beer festival in Denver, Colorado that is in its 33rd year.  From the consumer end, this is the country's largest beer festival, featuring 700 breweries, 49,000 attendees and spread over 3 days.  From the brewer end, it's also an opportunity to compete with breweries across the country for awards in 90 different categories of beer styles.  This year Georgia brought home 3 medals.  Here are your winners.

Creature Comforts - Curiosity No. 2
Bronze - American-style Brett Beer
From the Creature Comforts website: Our first bottled beer in the curiosity series of beers. Curiosity is a blonde American Brett beer refermented with kiwi and pineapple juice. This beer is fermented with our house Brettanomyces blend.

Coastal Empire - Dawn Patrol Breakfast Stout
Bronze - Herb and Spice Beer
From the Coastal Empire website: No information currently available.

Monday Night Brewing - Bourbon Barrel Drafty Kilt
Gold - Wood and Barrel-aged Beer
From the Monday Night website: What do Scotland and the American South have in common? An appreciation for good booze. But that doesn’t mean they always get along. We put our award-winning Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale in Kentucky bourbon barrels and let them duke it out in the cellar. Who won? You did. The chocolate, caramel, and roasted malts in Drafty Kilt complement the charred oak and vanilla notes in the bourbon barrels quite well. Notice we didn’t say “compliment.” Scotch and Bourbon still don’t send each other Christmas cards.

Congratulations to all three breweries on an excellent showing!

Check out all the winners here.

If Macon Drinks It, They Will Brew It

There are many beer destinations in our country.  One of these, Denver, is kicking off the Great American Beer Festival today, which is the largest beer festival in the country.  In fact, Colorado's governor is the co-founder of Wynkoop Brewing, located in Denver.  Oregon offers up the largest number of breweries per capita, while Asheville, NC carries that title for an individual city.  California has the largest number of breweries in the country and reinvented hoppy beers.  In Wisconsin, nearly 1 in every 3 beers sold is a craft beer.  The pacific northwest boasts the largest hop fields in the US and is responsible for most of the hops that define the flavors of American craft beer.

These cities and states had to get their start somewhere, as people weren't drinking craft beer in 1970.  In every case, a few daring individuals had the idea that they could open a brewery and offer up a local alternative to the huge brewing corporations.  Their friends and neighbors liked the new and exciting beverages, and a risky idea became a stable business plan.  Americans wanted more, and therefore more breweries opened.  State laws changed to support small businesses instead of mega-corporations and one brewery at a time, these states became world renowned for their brewing achievements.

Unfortunately, Georgia is behind the curve.  We all know that because the numbers don't lie.  We are 47th in the country in breweries per capita in 2013, and that's considering 2013 saw a 30% growth in craft breweries in our state.  That's also considering that Atlanta can claim two of the top beer bars in the country with the Porter Beer Bar and the Brick Store Pub.  State laws need to change to favor small brewing businesses, but we'll get there the same way everyone else did - one brewery at a time.

Something different in the beer industry just happened right here in Macon.  While it surely wasn't the first time to happen, it is a rare occurrence and I've never witnessed it before.  Macon was just handed a beer culture.  Over the past few years, local businesses have been interested in offering a more interesting selection of beer, especially downtown.  Growler stores, popular around the country, are opening in middle Georgia in response to recent law changes and have been doing well.  Macon is getting there one brewery at a time.  In fact, Macon currently has one brewery, which illustrates where our Progress lies, pun intended.

So what happened?  Macon-Bibb passed a law that allowed our growler stores to sell pints.  This sounds simple enough.  It's an additional line of revenue for stores only allowed to sell carry-out products.  But what it creates is something far different.  In most cities, a profitable beer culture needs to be established before anyone risks opening up a 50, 60, or even 100 tap bar.  That's a lot of beer to go through, and it's an expensive setup to build.  You need enough people to buy that much beer before you start selling that much beer.

This is essentially the Field of Dreams scenario.  If we build it, they will come.  What was anticipated to be an additional side business, has created a beer culture.  Lazy Dog Macon was the first to obtain the new license, and they're busy every night.  Macon is now the home of a 64 tap beer bar, and you can even take beer home with you.  That's something you can't do in Atlanta.  Growler Spot is set to obtain their permit at the start of 2015, which will add another beer destination to our map.

Five years ago, Macon was known for southern rock, a prestigious university and good southern cooking.  It's possible that in five years from now, you'll be able to add craft beer to that list.  If this experiment holds, it proves out the craft beer business model in Macon.  Macon Beer Company proved that we were willing to support a local brewery.  Now Lazy Dog has proved that we're willing to support a bar that only serves craft beer and wine.  No Bud Light, no liquor, no food (other than light snacks).  The opening month has been so successful that they've just extended their regular hours.

Congratulations, Macon.  We may not have built it the traditional way, but it's up to us to make it successful.  If we continue to support our existing and future craft beer businesses, who knows where we could be in five years?

Macon Octoberfest - October 24 and 25

Now that the dust has settled on the Macon Beer Fest, you're probably wondering to yourself when the next big beer event will happen.  Octoberfest is that event!  Macon Octoberfest is a 2-day beer and music festival that takes place in the newly updated Tattnall Square Park next to Mercer's campus.  Proceeds are being donated to the LH Harris Ecology Center, the Alzheimer's Association and the All About Animals Rescue Shelter.

Octoberfest isn't an "all you can drink" type of beer festival. Much like the Oktoberfest in Munich, Macon Octoberfest features a variety of live music (including a polka band!), Bavarian food and your pick of Georgia craft breweries (that you can drink out of a 32oz stein).  Tickets purchased before October 23 get you around a 20% discount, and are free with an active military ID.

Breweries featured at the 2014 Macon Octoberfest include:

• Coastal Empire
• Eagle Creek
• Jailhouse
• Macon
• Max Lagers
• Odempsey’s
• Red Brick
• Red Hare
• Service Brewing
• Southbound
• Strawn
• Sweetwater
• Terrapin
• Wild Heaven
• Yes Face

While 16 and 32oz beers are available, I'd recommend going the 4oz sampling route to find your favorite, then enjoy a nice 32oz mug.

The event runs from 4-10 on Friday, October 24 and 11-10 on Saturday, October 25.  Ticket packages are available for one or two days and there are also VIP packages that include mugs, drink tickets and food.  Hop on over to http://maconoctoberfest.com/ for more information and to buy tickets.

Stay tuned for tap lists as they become solidified and more information on Macon Beer Company's special event beer.  Prost!

Lazy Dog Macon to open next weekend

Just stopped in Lazy Dog Growler Macon to see their nearly finished space.  If you follow them on Facebook or Twitter then you already know it's looking very nice.  Just shy of an official announcement, it sounds like the target date for the grand opening will be next weekend, around September 13.  The new space is on the first floor of the Armory building, right under the turret, and features beautiful historic hardwood and terrazzo floors.

Lazy Dog Growler's Macon location will boast the most taps of any bar in Macon, with well over 60 taps of craft beer ready for you to drink in house or to take home in 32 or 64oz growlers.  The new location will showcase new growler artwork that commemorates their new store in the historic Macon Armory building.  Here are a few pictures of what's to come.

Macon Beer Fest Recap

The high was 100, but that didn't stop the beer-craving masses from flooding the streets of downtown Macon.  Much like last year, each attendee received a handy bag to carry their sampling cup and check sheet.  Many of the locations were offering draft beer this year, which was a nice addition.  The lines moved much faster than last year with many stations having an almost non-existent line.  Perhaps my favorite improvement was that I was able to try every beer.  I enjoyed my last sample at 7PM on the dot.  Last year there were 3 or 4 beers I was unable to try due to locations running out of beer.  Overall, it was a great day and I didn't even get a sunburn!

If you want to see pictures, check out my twitter @maconbeerscene or the hashtag #maconbeerfest.

Here's a list of what you tried at each location, and my quick thoughts on each beer.

Bearfoot Tavern
Red Brick Matcha Yuzu Super Green IPA - Do you like green tea?  Because that's exactly what this beer tastes like!  Maybe a bit much for me, but plenty of others around me were enjoying it.
Strawn Scottish Ale - My favorite Strawn beer.  Nice and roasty but light enough to enjoy in the heat.

Hummingbird
Jailhouse 4D IPA - Tons of hop character in this IPA. Jailhouse constantly changes their IPA and I think each version is better than the last.
Jailhouse Reprieve - Sort of a cross between a wheat and a saison.  Spicy, yet refreshing.  Maybe it was the heat, but I thought of it as a summer saison.
Note: The Hummingbird will have these beers on tap for $2/pint tonight (9/3/14)!

Lemongrass
O'Dempsey's Inukshuk IPA - This was my last beer of the day, so all I remember is that I liked it.
O'Dempsey's Big Red - Malty and sweet, just as you would expect.

Ocmulgee Traders
Orange Blossom Pilsner - Both the name of the brewery and the beer.  A sweeter, slightly fruity take on a light beer.
Sprecher Hard Root Beer - Tastes exactly like root beer, but the same alcohol as a beer.  Dangerous.
Harpoon IPA - An old favorite, a well-balanced IPA.

Downtown Macon Rotary
Back Forty Naked Pig - A nice pale ale, not too bitter, from across the state line in Alabama.
Innus and Gunn Original - This brewery is known for barrel aging all the beers, so it would be expected that this one had a hint of bourbon to it.
Anchor Porter - I suppose they had to get a dark beer in here, but the chocolate and coffee notes were a bit too much in this heat.  This would be a great winter beer.

Margaritas - Mercer Village
Abita Lemon Wheat - Sort of what you'd expect if you dissolved a lemon drop in a beer, which actually worked in a good way.
Three Taverns White Hops - One of my favorite GA breweries, this one crosses a wheat and an IPA for a summer take on the style.

Twang
Southern Tier Phin and Matt's - Easy drinking pilsner-ish beer.  Light and refreshing.
Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan - Been seeing a lot of this one recently.  A slightly sweet brown ale with a hint of pecans.

Ginger
Terrapin Liquid Bliss - Holy crap it's peanut butter and chocolate.  Not exactly a summer beer but would be a great dessert beer.
Sweetwater Blue - The summer classic.  Light, a bit sweet and a strong flavor of blueberries.

Cox Capitol Theatre
Max Lagers Hopsplosion - Whoa. The hoppiest thing I've had all day, maybe all summer.  Maybe even too hoppy for me.
Max Lagers Demon d'Or - Very sweet with some Belgian flavors. Glad I'm drinking it indoors because it's probably too boozy for the heat.

Ocmulgee National Reserve
Uinta Hop Nosh - I've had some beers from this brewery that I didn't like, but this one is a solid IPA.
Clown Shoes Clementine - A bit of hops, a bit of wheat and a bit of orange.  Refreshing.
Highland Gaelic Ale - Not sure what I was expecting, but this one tasted a lot lighter than it looked.  Kind of wish it had more malt.

Downtown Grill
Eventide Kolsch - A lighter beer that was appropriate for the weather. First time trying something from these guys and I liked it.
Wild Heaven White Blackbird - This was a more traditional saison, with plenty of spicy notes.  One of my favorites of the day.

Rookery
Macon Progress - The beer we all know and love.  Need I say more?
Macon Music - The latest batch of this IPA is the best yet.

Macon Beer Fest in 2 days!

The Macon Beer Fest is only two days away, do you have your tickets yet?  The event sold out last year, so there may not be tickets available the day-of.  If you haven't purchased tickets yet, you can buy them online here or from the Grand Opera House.

If this is your first year at the Macon Beer Festival, it's possibly unlike any festival you've attended before.  The Rotary Club of Downtown Macon and Mainstreet Macon pair together with local business for a one-of-a-kind pub crawl meets beer festival.  You'll receive a map and tasting tickets for each location.  Your beer destinations are spread across downtown Macon and you'll get to sample craft beers from Georgia and beyond at each location.  You may even discover a cool new bar or interesting restaurant along the way!  One thing is for sure, you won't have to travel far for a good post-festival meal.  You could even check out The Dirty Guv'nahs for Weaver's Weekend at the Crazy Bull after the festival!

What's new this year?  More beer!  This year's festival will see 13 different stations sponsored by local businesses.  In addition to the lineup from last year, Ocmulgee Traders, Margaritas, Twang and Crazy Bull will be sponsoring your beer consumption destinations.  A full list of venues can be found here.

In case you're feeling a bit guilty for spending your Saturday day-drinking around downtown Macon, don't worry.  The Macon Beer Fest is for a good cause!  Proceeds go to Pints for Prostates, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness of prostate cancer through the universal language of Beer.  There will even be free PSA tests at The Rotary venue, just in case you need a little liquid encouragement to get tested.  It should be noted that they will only be testing your blood for PSA and not BAC.

Come on out Saturday and have a great time with the rest of Macon's beer-drinking elite!

More information: http://www.themaconbeerfest.com/