For those of you observing Dry January, more power to you. Not me, though.
I applaud the notion and would love to hear how the 31 days went once February rolls around. For everyone else, let's hand out some accolades and then talk Atlanta beer and lots of new releases.
THE AWARD GOES TO...
The folks over at Beer Guys Radio announced the winners of their readers' choice Best of Georgia Beer Awards. You can visit to see the entire list of winners. Wild Leap cleaned up, Dry County was well represented, and since later in this column I'll talk about new breweries, Schoolhouse Brewing won the 2019 Best New Georgia Brewery or Brewpub award. Be sure to visit Beer Guys Radio for the complete list.
TASTE THISThere are quite a few new-year beers being dropped (or were just released) ready for you to enjoy on the first weekend of 2020.
- Variant Brewing Company has a peach and guava gose ready to enjoy. It's called Bellini and will hit you with a bit of a salty taste thanks to the Pink Himalayan salt it was brewed with.
- Breweries will continue to push the boundaries of dessert beers in 2020. Contrast Artisan Ales released a Gingerbread Cookie Brown Ale on New Year's Day. The brew was crafted with biscuit malt, cinnamon sticks, oats, ginger and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans.
- Leg Lamp Witbier is a new brew from Left Nut Brewing in Gainesville. It's a 6.3% ABV Belgian wheat ale with banana clove notes and a bit of orange.
- Upon returning from Florida where I bounced between sours and porters for the most part, I've been on an IPA kick to start 2020. Still Fire Brewing released a west coast double IPA called Look Into My I's. On IG they called it a "new IPA on steroids."
- Schoolhouse Brewing released a guava and pineapple sour on Thursday called Berliner in Paradise. I know where I'm stopping on my way home from work.
- Passion fruit, peach and pine is what you'll find with the Torched Hop Brewing release of Echoes in Time, a west coast IPA released Thursday on draft.
- One of the trends noticed in 2019 (and it'll continue to grow in 2020) is low-calorie spirits. Six Bridges Brewing is in the action to kick off the new year with a low-cal IPA called Junior. According to Untappd, the brew clocks in at 160 calories per pint.
- With the cool can award of the week, Pontoon Brewing announced Stand By IPA, a west coast IPA that will be very piney with a resin and citrus feel. Look for this in cans and draft next week.
- Orpheus Brewing announced a new year-round beer called Elusory. It won't be ready until March 1 (sorry, folks), but when you get your hands on it you'll taste orange, melon, stone fruit and dankness. It'll be a 6.7% double dry hopped hazy IPA.
- Award-winning Cherry Street Brewing released Quad on the Knob on Wednesday. It's a 10% Belgian style quad that was aged for 16 months iin a Knob Creek Rye Single Select barrel.
- Tuesday saw the release of what High Card Brewing called on IG "the first Double IPA brewed in Tucker." MotherTucker Double IPA is a 9.4% ABV tweak of their Tucker IPA that was amped up with lots of hops.
COMING SOON
Next week I'll take a look around at what 2020 will bring to Georgia in terms of new breweries. Until then, take a look at the social media accounts of Cochran Mill Brewing Company. They expect to open in February and posted some photos of new serving tanks for the brewery.
Cochran Mill is located in Fairburn.
