Franklin Main Street Brewfest 2010

Saturday, March 13, 2010 - Franklin, TN

My wife and I and some friends attended the SOLD OUT Franklin Main Street Brewfest tonight and had a great time. I was able try over a dozen new-to-me beers and was pleasantly surprised at most of the results. This event was known last year as Fiele Franklin and we also attended, (see previous blog), but this year the organizers dropped the free activities early in the day and focused on the beer tasting in the evening, and it was a rousing success since all the $30 tickets were gone well before the 6 PM start.

We started our day as we did last year by having a late lunch and a few pints at McCreary's Irish Pub which is right in the middle of the Brew Fest area of downtown Franklin and one of the stops on the tasting tour. Nothing really new was had while I was there although I did try my wife, Ashlee's, Sweetwater Blue, a blueberry infused ale from one of my favorite regional microbrewer's down in Atlanta. The Brew Fest started promptly at 6 PM and had 22 tasting locations serving over 40 beers. Here's a quick rundown of the new-to-me-stuff I tried and what I thought of each:

- Sierra Nevada Kellerweis - not bad, but I am just not a big fan of wheat beer

- Saranac Irish Red - a decent red ale from one of America's oldest independent breweries in upstate New York.

- Point 2012 Black Ale - a dark, roasted ale with the Mayan calendar deadline in mind

- Point Cascade Pale Ale - a good pale ale from Point Brewing in Wisconsin

-Victory Whirlwind Witbier - again not a big fan of wheat bear, but this one was bearable

- Fruli Strawberry Beer - very sweet going in, but mellows quickly to a nice aftertaste. Great product out of Belgium. Definitely the most unique beer of the tasting.

- Jubilee Nut Brown Ale - one of the few nut brown ales available for tasting tonight and it was a good one. Interesting story in that Jubilee is a brand-new Nashville-based beer company that currently has their nut brown ale brewed at the nearby Bluegrass Brewery in Louisville. Half of the proceeds of their beer sales goes to aid a local youth organization.

- BBC Jefferson's Reserve Stout - a nice hearty stout from Bluegrass Brewing. This was a chaser for a shot of Feckin Irish Whiskey as well.

- Fatback Amber Ale - an excellent product from the new and local Cool Springs Brewery

- Pecker Wrecker IPA - best name of the night, best IPA of the night from the "Best in Show" brewery of the night, Cool Springs Brewery

- Cool Springs Oatmeal Stout - yep, three for three. These guys are doing it right here in Williamson County. An excellent addition to the local microbrew scene.

- 1900 Amber Ale - a nice ale out of Colorado's Fort Collins Brewery

- Retro Red - an Irish red ale also from Fort Collins

- O'Fallon Smoked Porter - a decent brew with a nice smokey flavor and finish from the St. Louis area

- Cablera IPA - an excellent India Pale Ale served up in an aluminum can. This one is a real mystery. I can't find any information on it anywhere. Don't know where it is brewed or even if it's available locally. More research is needed because it was excellent and being in a can makes it Bonnaroo noteworthy. EDITOR NOTE: 7/7/10 - Learn to spell, dumbass. It's Caldera IPA out of Oregon. And, yes, it is available in Tennessee.

We ended the evening after the tastings at The Red Pony Restaurant 's bar and I was actually able to try one last new beer to end the night. The name intrigued me, Old Engine Oil, and when it was poured from its bottle I saw the name was accurate. It's a black ale as dark as motor oil. Its from Harvestoun Brewing in Scotland and I did enjoy its smoky delivery and pleasing aftertaste. A great way to end a great evening of beer tasting. Congrats to the city of Franklin for a roaring success to their 7th annual festival. Here's hoping next year's is bigger and even better.

Blinded by the Tiger

My wife and I took a brief long-weekend trip to New York City and one of our activities was a food tour around one of the great neighborhoods in Manhattan, Greenwich Village. During the tour our guide pointed out a local watering hole called The Blind Tiger on Bleecker Street which she said has "lots of good beer on tap." Well enough said!

After our tour concluded we wandered around in Greenwich Village and found ourselves at The Blind Tiger's door. Smaller than it appeared from outside, we stepped into a charming, little pub very reminiscent of some of the great bars we encounted in Ireland last year. Our guide was dead-on with her report that they had "lots of good beer on tap" - 28 very unique choices to be exact - with only a few I had even heard of. We found a couple of seats and placed our order. I started with the first of 4 new-to-me IPAs available - Smutty Nose from New Hampshire. My wife, Ashlee, is a big fan of ginger beer ever since our trip to Australia a couple of years ago and was excited to see Hitachino Ginger Beer on tap as well. I had a few sips of it on the way back from ordering it at the bar and have to say it is pretty good despite my less-than-enthusiastic opinion of ginger beer. This one was not near as overwhelming in ginger taste as some others we have tried. It also had a whopping 7% ABVwhich was even more than the Smutty Nose weighing in at 6.7%. The Smutty Nose was decent although not as hoppy as I really prefer.

Ashlee stuck with her ginger beer on the second round (the girl is loyal) while I opted for Green Flash IPA out of California. Now this is what I was looking for! Good and hoppy with a great opening flavor and pleasing aftertaste. Ashlee was happy to remain seated in the active little bar people-watching and sipping her ginger beer. I, of course, was VERY happy to continue hanging out in The Blind Tiger as the USA and Canada dropped the puck for Olympic Gold and there were two more IPAs on the board calling my name to try them. Number 3 on the IPA hit parade was Moyland's IPA from California. Not bad, but the Green Flash stayed in the lead as my favorite. I finished my IPA tour with Southern Tier out of New York. And the winner by a nose (not a smutty nose) was Green Flash.

I finished the afternoon with a Slyfox O"Reilly Stout from Pennsylvania which was nice and hearty in flavor and weight and at only 3% ABV, a good way to slow down before I was walking out of the place like a blind tiger! We met some really nice locals who obviously enjoyed beer and they were telling us about another place in Brooklyn called Spuyten Duyvil (Spitting Devil) that had an interesting beer menu as well. Definitely something worth checking out the next time we visit The Big Apple, and I sure wouldn't mind coming back to The Blind Tiger.

BY THE BY: On our way to NYC we got stuck in the Philly airport for four hours due to a mechanical problem with our inbound plane. We drowned our sorrows in a fairly cool airport bar there called The Jet Bar (kind of a Hard Rock Cafe-style place) and they had two decent local mircobrews on tap: The Sly Fox Pale Ale had a clean, smooth taste, and the Dock Street Rye IPA wasn't as hoppy as I prefer, but it was an interesting blend and a decent beer overall.