late summer beer update

AT THE LAKE:

We spent a weekend up on Center Hill Lake and I took with me a pint bottle of Hop Session Ale (more birthday presents) from White Birch Brewing (NH) and an Imperial Stout from Smuttynose Brewing

AROUND TOWN:

Note the business to the left.  Now that's all about location, location, location!

I had a day off and was over in western Nashville and stopped by the Cool Springs Brewery where I had a great Mango IPA and a delish Ginger Bombshell.  I was back at Cool Springs Brewery a week or so later and had a Dew Me Now, an English-style pale ale which actually tasted like Mountain Dew.  How the hell??  I am ready to proclaim Cool Springs Brewery as my favorite local brewery.  And that's up against a lot of stiff competition, but they are doing some really creative stuff there.  During dinner at our local Red Robin. I had a draught of the Country Roots stout from Nashville's own, Tennessee Brew Works. At a show by The Fray at The Woods Amphitheater at Fontanel I had a Long Hammer IPA from Red Hook Brewing.

Beer-flavored ice cream?  Add it to the Beer Bucket List...

AT BONNAROO:

It was that time of summer again and I toted in a 12-pack of cans (remember, no glass at The Roo) of Brooklyn Brewing's Summer Ale (which made a great shandy along with Diet Sprite).   I also bought a couple pint cans of Summer Shandy from Leinenkugel at the festival.  At the Broo'ers Tent I sampled the Pot Belly Porter from Ole Shed Brewing over in Tullahoma, TN (gonna have to make a visit there some time) and also their Southern Pale Ale.  I then moved on to the Dream Machine (an interesting India Pale Lager) from Magic Hat and the Maggie Peach Farmhouse Hale from Terrapin.

What happened next was a first for me.  I actually took a CIDER BREAK from beer.   It just so happened that some folks from Woodchuck were giving free tastings and a talk about their products at the Broo'ers Tent while we were visiting and we thought, "what the heck."  I tried the Amber Cider, the Summer Hard Cider, the Dry Hop Cider, the Private Reserve Barrel Select and the Smoke Apple.  I have to admit they were pretty darn good...but I ain't giving up my hops for apples just yet...

Back at camp I also had a  couple Recreation Ales from Terrapin that my friend, Mike had brought.  I also had a Take Two Pils(ner) from Sweetwater on our last day there during a show.

AT THE BEACH:

Clinking the Kaliks!  We had several different types of Kalik beer while in the Bahamas including the regular Kalik Lager,  the Kalik Gold,  the Kalik Lime and the Kalik Radler (their version of a shandy).  All were exceptional given the beach locale and the warm summer temps.

We took a quick cruise over the 4th of July holiday to the Bahamas.  We decided to drive down to Florida to catch the boat and on the way down my friend, Mike, and I grabbed some nasty domestic beer since it's all we could find while Ashlee drove.  I had a Steel Reserve 211 High Gravity (high gravity, LOL) Pint Can and the regular Steel Reserve.  They both sucked out loud, and I am embarrassed to report them here, but got us the buzz we were looking for at least.  Once the cruise ship, my first libation was a Boddington.

My baby bringing us a couple cold ones from Capt. Danny's sweet boat that we privately chartered for the afternoon.

We ran out of beer (as Capt. Danny predicted we would), but he came to the rescue by finding us another tour boat with more Kalik for sale.

Dead Bahamian soldiers.  A cool shot taken by my friend, Wayne, with his awesome GoPro camera.

ON A ROAD-TRIP:

We took a quick long weekend road trip up north stopping in Louisville for one night and then on to Cincinnati to catch our first Reds baseball game at Great American Park.

In the cool Louisville neighborhood of Clifton we stumbled upon the relatively new Apocalypse Brewing Company where I sampled their Apollo IPA.

In Cincinnati, right outside the ballpark I had a  Northern Liberties IPA from Moerlein Brewing at their very nice Lager House facility.

I am sad to report I did not partake in the Brewery District at Great American Ballpark (since our seats were attached to an an all you could eat and drink (soft stuff) suite, but I was happy to see the large variety of real beer available and I hope to belly up there the next time we come which we will because we had a blast!

A view from our sweet seat at Great American Ballpark.  Go Reds!!

AND HOME AGAIN:

Sunday, July 27 - I went and saw the mind-blowing film, Snowpiercer, at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville.  Beforehand, I stopped at a new beer bar nearby called Hurry Back.

 My first beer from the Hurry Back's impressive list was a Dragons Milk stout from New Haven Brewing.  The friendly bartender also offered me a taste of the pepper-infused Guano Loco from Terrapin which was wild.  I dodged a few storms as seen flickering the photo above on my way home.