Gameday Beers of the Week: Georgia
I guess the Bulldogs (not underdogs!) are trying to do a “red-out” this Saturday. So you’re probably expecting me to do a theme week of red ales or something, but no! Red ales are unequivocal garbage for one, and you what else is that this is going to be a normal week with the normal slate of recommendation categories. Whether you’re favored or you’re a Vegas underdog, the process should remain the same.
Six-pack beer of the week: Creature Comforts Tropicalia IPA
In many ways, an IPA is the perfect six-pack choice for a game against the Bulldogs. Because IPA, like Athens, is still associated with hipsters & burgeoning trends even though in reality it’s a stable & mainstream-popular style of beer that’s resting on hipper laurels. Athens has seemingly always had its counterculture alt-hip reputation, from music to restaurants, and that sensibility is once again manifesting itself in beer. While Terrapin was holding it down for years as Athens’ go-to local brewery, they’ve become very established/old guard at this point. Recent upstart Creature Comforts has taken the reigns as the new it brewery in town, and they’re also getting beer nerd cred throughout the country in ways that few Southern breweries ever do.
Their Tropicalia IPA is one of their flagship beers. While the new world hop varietals used in this beer don’t make it AS fruity as a mixed drink at the Flora-Bama, it’s not far off: Tropicalia gushes forth with juicy citrus & tropical fruit flavor. It’s enough to give an unsuspecting beer nerd a Nick Chubb*
*I just wanted to make a dick joke. Beer nerds come in all genders and bodies, of course.
Celebration beer of the week: Terrapin Wake-n-Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout
Yeah, I just called Terrapin “old guard” a couple of paragraphs ago, but they’ve lasted to become old guard for a good reason: their beer is consistently good. Especially the maltier styles. Wake-n-Bake, or “W-n-B” as it’s called now to get the government off their backs for making a weed reference, is as true a Southern classic in the world of beer as there can be. It’s essentially as old as Founders’ famous Breakfast Stout, and perhaps even better. They partner with Athens coffee roaster Jittery Joe’s for an exclusive coffee blend that ramps up the boldness & depth of the base stout, as well as lending some gentle acidity. The oats give the beer a heftier body yet also a far smoother one. Fall weather is setting in — which means stout weather — and a pitch-black beer is a good way to celebrate an Alabama victory as a nod to the 2008 blackout game.
Grandpa beer of the week: Red Hare Long Day Lager
Marietta, GA’s obscure Red Hare Brewing makes one of the more appreciable lagers in the South. Their Long Day Lager is a Czech/Bohemian pils beer through and through. We’re talking soft cereal grain flavors, maybe a wisp of sweet corn soup as the beer warms, cut by the metallic tang of European noble hops. I have a slight hesitation in calling this a grandpa beer, not because it’s too good to be a grandpa beer, but because Red Hare supplements the noble hops with Cascade, giving this lager an unexpected trace hint of grapefruit. It’s pretty legit and you’d never know it unless somebody told you, much like every good thing in the state of Georgia that doesn’t come from Atlanta, Athens, or Savannah.
Georgia beer you can buy in Alabama: Like any of them.
Really, any of them. Creature Comforts doesn’t distribute to AL yet AFIAK but like every Terrapin special release comes to Alabama’s marked-up package stores in kegs & bottles. Get their fresh hop ale, So Fresh and So Green Green. Outkast puns are always worth your money.
Georgia beer to avoid at all costs: Sweetwater 420 Pale Ale
It’s a ubiquitous pale ale, bolstered behind marketing that both references week and somehow a fish. It’s also straight awful. Imagine if instead of your uncle buying the world-class Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at Publix after a round of golf because SNPA is available everywhere he instead bought a beer that sounds the same — pale ale — is also green & is also available everywhere, but instead of tasting like a world-class glass of grapefruit & orange peel muddled with pine needles in the most refreshing way, it tastes like cotton candy jizzed on an invasive shrub. Thousands of Southerners make this crucial mistake every week and it’s time to take a stand, frankly. If you enjoy this beer please go try basically any other pale ale. Heck, try Sweetwater’s IPA — that’s actually quite good somehow. Just stop buying 420 Pale Ale, stop snickering at the “420” in its name, and learn how to taste things.
