ChattaBREWga

I was in Chattanooga for the weekend visiting the inlaws and attending a concert and was able to try a good selection of new (to me) beers at three different locations around town.

The first was at the Market Street Grille downtown next to Miller Plaza. I was actually looking for another new place called Deluxe Grill and Tap Room (supposedly 40 beers on tap was what drew me to it) located across the street. It was after lunch and Deluxe wasn't open until dinner, so I was walking back to the car and the meter that I had just pumped a dollar worth of coins into and passed by the window of the Market Street Grille and noticed on the hand-written marker board above the bar saying that they had Highland Cattail Peak on tap. I knew Highland was a great microbrewery over in Asheville, NC, but had never heard of Cattail Peak.


It was a wheat beer. Enough said. Not that great...to me, but not awful. The Market Street Grille was a fine little pub with some decent beer selections, but I decided to move on down the street a few blocks and return my new favorite Chattanooga haunt, The Terminal Brewhouse. These guys brew their own beer in a great little historic building and I had saw on the website recently that they had a new hoppy beer they were brewing called the Magnum PA - a combination they describe as "west coast double IPA meets English IPA." It was delicious. Just a hint of bitterness but great hoppy flavor and finish. I decided to give the beer menu a look for my second pint and landed on their Belgian White. The Belgian style of beer has been documented frequently on here as not being my favorite style of brewing, but it was a hot day and ice cold orange-infused draught sounded pretty good...and it was pretty good. Hats off to The Terminal House for again delivering the good in terms of real craft beer in Chattanooga.


Later that evening my wife, Ashlee, and I strolled downtown to stretch our legs after dinner and when she asked for a destination I asked if she would mind checking out the Deluxe Grill and Tap Room I had tried to visit earlier in the day. She agreed and after a pretty long walk we arrived at the quiet little place (their location is too far away from most of the walkable nightlife in downtown Chattanooga and parking is very minimal - not sure they are going to survive). Their claim at having 40 beers on tap looked pretty close to being the truth. They had a wide selection to choose from including a vast array of Highland Brewing products. I chose St. Terese's Pale Ale which I have had before in a bottle, but never a draught. Very close to perfection. Light and smooth. Perfect for a summer's night. Ashlee ordered the Star Hill Northern Lights IPA and found it to be a bit heavy for her so we switched half-way through our pints because she really liked the lighter St. Terese's. I had also had Northern Lights IPA only from a bottle so it was a real treat to get the enhanced flavor from the draught.

Chattanooga is turning into quite the little beer town. Did I mentioned I filled two growlers at the Chattanooga Beverage Company with two of my favorites, Moccasin Bend Centennial (another small local microbrewer) and French Broad Alt from North Carolina, to take home with me for the following week?