Southern Brewers Festival

I made it down to the 15th Annual Southern Brewers Festival in Chattanooga this past weekend with my wife, Ashlee, and my brother-in-law, Andy, a budding beer snob. This event has really grown from the small gathering of just a few brewers setting up on the corner of the host, Big River Brewing and Restaurant, located downtown. It was so small when it started out in fact that they would run out of beer within a couple of hours of starting. But, with steady growth each year it has become what it is today, a large and anticipated downtown event held on the river at Ross' Landing with at least a couple dozen brewers from mostly around the south as the name of the festival would imply, but even some of the bigger boys from across the U.S. like Sierra Nevada and Yuengling.

They added a few "new to me" brewers this year while a couple of others I was hoping would be there were sadly missing for some reason or another - Good People Brewing from nearby Huntsville who were announced in earlier festival promotion as gong to be there this year was not to be seen, nor was Duck-Rabbit Brewing out of North Carolina who I discovered at this very same festival a few years ago.

Tickets to the event are $15 and all those proceeds go to the local "Kids on the Block" campaign and includes a commemorative plastic mug to sample beer in and one free token to use to buy one said beer. You can purchase more beer tokens for $3 each and they in turn each get you a generous 10-ounce pour of any craft beer available. Most of the microbreweries bring two or three of their offerings of various styles. There is no chance of beer running out too early nowadays as tractor-trailer loads of kegs stand nearby at the ready. The event lasts all day and into the night with a musical stage for various local bands and even the preliminary round of the World Krystal Hamburger Eating Contest being held during the festival...the winner ate 4 big Angus burgers and 42 of the little ones...wow!

A lot of the usual suspects were there representing great Southern microbrewing - Sweetwater out of Atlanta, Terrapin out of Athens, GA; Starr Hill from Virginia; Foothills from Winston-Salem, NC; Highland from Asheville, NC; and Abita out of Louisiana. A few of the "new to me" brewers that I tried included:

Moon River Brewing out of Savannah, GA - I tried their Slow Vannah Pale Ale and it was very good. Crisp and smooth.

Seven Bridges Brewing out of Jacksonville, FL - I tried their Sweet Magnolia American Brown Ale. Ashlee, Andy and I all gave this one the unanimous festival grand prize in our opinions. Great brown ale taste with a smooth finish and aftertaste. It's the only one I went back for seconds on.

Bold City Brewing out of Jacksonville, FL - I had to try their Mad Manatee IPA of course. It was decent, but nothing to blow your socks off. I also tried their Duke's Cold Nose Brown Ale. It was nice, but just didn't compare to the Seven Bridges product. It was good to see Jacksonville having some competing brewers coming out of that area.

A1A Brewing out of St. Augustine, FL - Their Red Rocket Ale was my first purchase of the day (because they were the first booth I came to) and it was a great starter. Nice, crisp Irish-style ale. Perfect for a warm summer's day on the river.

I ended the day with some Sweetwater 420s (in bottles) at the Blue Plate Restaurant adjacent to the festival as we met some friends for dinner, good conversation and a lot of laughs late into the night.