Brew News: Terrapin Hop Shortage Ale

Hey pub-crawlers, great news. Terrapin's first Side Project beer, Hop Shortage Ale, is on the shelves of a few select package stores. The Hop Shortage Ale is a kind of middle finger to the worldwide hop shortage, with a healthy heaping of hops in every bottle.

Spike (Terrapin's brewmaster) only brewed one batch (I saw it in the fermenter when I took the tour, too! I watched my beer ferment...neat, huh?). This beer is also the first bottled Terrapin to come out of the new brewery in Athens. And actually, unless I'm mistaken, it's the first beer to be sold publicly, bottled or otherwise, ever brewed in Athens by Terrapin.

I bought two for myself (they're $7.00 for a 1 pint, 6 ounce bottle) and loved every single drop. It's a lot like the Rye Pale Ale, with a little more hop taste through the beer.

Sherlock's in Kennesaw had it as of April 4th and Total Wine in Kennesaw didn't on April 4th.

Brew News: Terrapin Brewery Open for Tours

Got some brew news guys,

Terrapin opened up their brand new brewery yesterday in Athens. They're doing tours on Mondays and Thursdays from 5-7 plus the second Saturday of each month from 2-5. I went on the 2nd tour ever given yesterday, and I must say it was pretty cool. Getting to see where your favorite beer is made, who makes it, how it's brewed...it's neat. It makes the beer better too. They even had live music.

The facility is in Athens, Georgia at 256 Newton Bridge Rd. It's a fairly easy drive (and a decent ways from downtown) and well worth it. You can do the tour for free, but you only get a tiny medicine cup to sample their beers, or you can pay $7.00 for a free Terrapin glass and 6 tickets (each ticket gets six ounces of beer). They have Rye Pale Ale, Golden Ale, India Brown Ale, All-American Imperial Pilsner, and the just-out-of-the-brewery Rye Squared on draft.

Also, I was able to talk to the Marketing Director, Dustin Watts, and he said the India Brown Ale will start being bottled in the next few months (trust me, if you haven't had it...it's great). He told me that a new line called Side Project will be starting soon too, where single 50 barrel batchs of a special one time only brew will be made. The first one is called, ironically, Hop Shortage (there's a huge world-wide hop shortage). Be on the lookout.

Cheers!