With the Hawks in Boston on Friday and the Five Stripes in Birmingham on Saturday, there’s plenty of weekend to get out and about in Atlanta and explore new beer before State Farm Arena awakens with the New York Knicks in town Sunday.
Let’s talk about what you can go find.
HUGE IPA NEWS
Monday Night Brewing (Atlanta, West End) will kick off the weekend with an amazing Friday. Their Hop Hut has always been incredible, but today they’ll show off a new experience, including a new bar, lots of seating and “tropical vibes.” (Of course. It’s a Tiki Hut, right?)
But they didn’t stop with redoing the Hop Hut. Monday Night also renovated their West Midtown taproom, and oh yeah, they’ll launch three new New England IPAs on Friday to crush this celebration.
- “Suspension of Disbelief” is a citrus, passionfruit, and guava IPA with five different hops and a brand new emergent yeast strain. It’s clocking in at 9.1% and 52 IBUs.
- “I Feel It All” promises a slight coconut aroma followed by apricot, peach, and tropical island flavors.
- “Everything Now” is a 7% mango, papaya, and coconut IPA with five hops.
These are all “super small-batch” releases, so as my mom used to say, don’t dawdle.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Gate City Brewing Company (Roswell) turns 5 this weekend and they’ll party for three days starting Friday with live music all weekend, food trucks, and new beer releases.
The guys also announced four new vodka and mixed fruit blend cocktails: “Project Passion,” a 13% passion fruit, pineapple, and lime creation, “Berry Smooth” has pineapple, raspberry, Blueberry, and black currant at 10%, “Orange Dreamsicle” features blood orange, tangerine, and Madagascar vanilla beans at 8.5%, and then there’s a 12.5% “Parti Ender” with raspberry, blueberry, and black currant.
NORCROSS BREWERY UPDATE
Social Fox Brewing (Norcross) has been feverishly preparing their new Skin Alley location in downtown Norcross and they’re about to start brewing pilot batches next week with the expectation that construction will be complete by the end of February, says Mike Greene.
When the brewery launches they plan to have nine beers and a hard seltzer. Greene says they’ll release the names for the brews as opening gets closer, but did share the styles:
- Classic American Lager
- Blonde Ale
- IPA 1
- IPA 2
- Porter
- Wheat
- Saison
- ESB
- Berliner Wiesse
They’ve already planned their beer calendar for the first year and “will gradually work in small batches” after starting with their core beers.
TASTE THIS
- Second Self Beer Company (West Midtown) tapped “Malibu Doyle” on Thursday. It’s a 13.9% Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout aged in run barrels with roaster coconut.
- Speaking of high-ABV releases, Akademia Brewing Company (Athens) offered up two new brews Thursday. The first a 13% Imperial Stout with hazelnut called “Jazz is Back.” The second is “Sirens, Vampires, and Lovers,” a 6% American Wheat with mango and lime flavors.
- StillFire Brewing (Suwanee) will introduce “The Captain” on Friday. It’s an 8% Strong Ale aged in Captain’s spiced rum barrel.
- Wrecking Bar Brewpub (just south of Little Five Points) has a Vienna Lager out which they call “a toasty and dry lager base with a subtle caramel finish” on IG.
- “Yesteryear IPA” is on draft and available in crowlers from Contrast Artisan Ales (Chamblee).
- Six Bridges Brewing (Johns Creek) released two new offerings on Thursday. “Here Comes Treble” is a 7% American IPA with notes of candied pineapple, mango, and orange, and “Limeade Chew Toy” is a 5% hard seltzer.
- It’s Friday, which means – just like clockwork – another new beer at Wild Heaven (West End). “El Jefe Hefe” is a wheat beer brewed with Honduran Cherimoya and vanilla and it pays tribute to Atlanta United’s first Champions League opponent, Futbol Club Motagua.
- Three Taverns (Decatur) is bringing back its maple, bacon, banana, and coffee 8% milk stout on Saturday. It’s called “Morning Smack” and on Saturday they’ll pair it on draft with doughnuts from Revolution breakfast meat pies from Heaps.
- On Friday Reformation (Woodstock, Canton, Smyrna) will have an 11% version of their Imperial Stout “Declaration” available. It was aged in Four Roses bourbon barrels.
- Orpheus (Beltline – Eastside Trail) collaborated with Overflow Brewing Company (St. Pete, Florida) to create a 6% sour ale featuring apricot and pineapple. It’s available Friday in their tasting room.
- “CRB in Session” is a 5.2% Sweet Stout with coconut, cinnamon, vanilla, and lactose from Variant Brewing Company (Roswell). It was released on Wednesday.
- One of the most hyped releases of the month – and would you expect anything less from a collab that Brij Patel was involved with? – comes, from Pontoon Brewing (Sandy Springs) and Sprayberry Bottle Shop (Marietta) on Friday. It’s called “Rainbow Smiggles” and it’s a Berliner Weisse that was made with 300 pounds of Skittles, over 100 boxes of Trix cereal, two pounds per gallon of strawberries and pineapple, vanilla, and lactose.
