Bubblings From the Fermenter
By Dave Perez

This month I sit to write my Bubblings from the Fermentor while drinking a wonderful Black Hawk Stout (damn fine beer!). Next to me is my lovely and incredible wife (and I am not just saying that because she is reading and criticizing every word I type ;^}. Oh, by the way she is drinking some rancid grapes (ouch, that hurt. I guess I should keep the editorials to myself. Nah.). So back to the reason we are here and why Sara is so great.

Last month I was burnt out and in desperate need of a vacation. So Sara took me on a beer extravaganza (Sara's word) to Atlanta and the Mountains of North Carolina. Now most people go on vacation to see the sights and to relax. Not the Perez Clan. We went in search of as many beers as we could drink in a 10 day period. You, are probably reading this (you are reading this aren't you?) and saying big deal. I've gone and drank a bunch of beer before. T'is true but we tasted nearly 100 different beers at 13 different Pubs. Not to mention the 100 bottles we purchased for home. I will continue to bring some to the meetings and other events.

All told we had some incredible beer and only a few mediocre ones at some very nice establishments. The highlight of the trip had to be the Summits Taverns (formally Taco Mac) for their sheer volume of taps. The Snellville, Georgia location was our favorite with only 150 taps and a gracious and knowledgeable bartender who spent a whole lot of time with us once he realized we knew beer. He even gave us some of the illegal (for Georgia) Imperial Stout they were holding for a special event. They had one of the best beers of the trip, Rodenbach on tap, pure bliss.

The Black Hawk is dry so I move on to a Rodenbach Alexander. Incredible!

The Summits in Cummings Georgia had the most taps at 250 and the worst service. But, I did have glasses of what may very well have been the last kegs in existence of Three Floyd's Alpha King, Robert the Bruce, and Mild. All I can say is it is truly sad that brewery is gone. I also had a wonderful De Dolle Bos Keun Belgian on tap. Wow, what a beer! The Summits in Sandy Springs Georgia was the smallest with 100 taps, but we had some really great Stouts there. While in Atlanta, we had dinner and some decent beers at Rock Bottom Brewery. Try the Hazelnut Encrusted Chicken if you go there.

On to N.C.! Asheville NC is a smaller city than Gainesville but boasts 4 excellent drinking establishments. Barley's Taproom has great pizza, some beer-smart staff, and about 36 beers on tap. The Green Man Pub has four Irish style beers, one of which was an ESB on cask and was quite good. The Bier Garten had an excellent selection and very good food. I was really in the mood for a Fullers ESB, so we went down the block to a nice little Irish Pub, Hannah Flanagan's. They had great atmosphere, 40 taps, and friendly service. We skipped a fifth Pub, Ashville Pizza, because they were packed and we had heard mixed reviews about the beer quality.

Some other if the great beers we tasted included: Weeping Radish Weizen, Catawba Firewater IPA, Brooklyn Penant, Cottonwood Endo IPA, French Broad Wit, Rouge Chocolate Stout, Sweetwater Exodus Stout, Summits' Testy Stout, Lindemans Cassis (Sara's favorite), Mahr Weissenback, Schneider Aventinus, Rogue Imperial Stout, and Rogue OBF. There were many more but those were the best.

So why is Sara so great? She helped create a fantastic beer extravaganza for this poor slob of a beer drinker.

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