Checkpoint Bravo: Asheville, NC

With a relative easy pass into the mountains, we cruised into Asheville, NC, and headed to the place called, "Wicked Weed Brewing." Right away, I was allured to the cozy seats around the patio's fire pit. Inside, we were invited to a long table in front of the bar, reminiscent of an Old Country beer hall, where many patrons had already gathered. A mural sized portrait of Henry the VIII gazed over from the far wall, and tempted us to plant roots in this pernicious place.

With one look at the menu, and all of its foodie delights, I could have easily lived out my days wallowing in the beer and food decadence. But we were on a mission, so we bore through all the seductions, and went down stairs to the tasting room. Oh man, another great space accented by a great wall of taps.

The selection varied greatly, with many of the brews following the sour and/or wood aged movement. For me, I partook of the English Infidel: A nitro based porter. Cheers to you Ye "Defender of the Faith." Two tasting flights later, it was time to move on. Oh, we could have spent much more time right there in front of the tap wall, but alas, "of all the losses, time is the most irrecuperable." So we removed ourselves, kicking and screaming, from our bar stoops, and threw ourselves back outside. We explored our surroundings, and were quite delighted by the sights and sounds of Asheville's unique Southern style. A small drizzle began to fall, that led to a light rain. We took a quick turn in hopes of spotting an awning for shelter, but found ourselves down a dark alley. An open door at the end leaked out a faint incandescent light. Oddly, we were drawn to it. We entered and shook the drops off our heads. We were dry from the rain, but were now in a metal staircase that led one way, down. We peered over the railing into the depths, as we clanked our way down the stairs. At the bottom was "One World Brewing", a 1 barrel (Excuse me 1.5 barrel, as I was corrected by the knowledgeable staff) nano-brewery. The basement space was small and dark, but clean and simplistic. Free from any blaring TVs or 37 pieces of flair all over the wall (unless you consider their brew system and fermentors flair). The ambiance was relaxing. What a great place to stumble upon. We tried a flight, and were impressed with the quality of their brews. Pleased with ourselves, and our find, we made our way back to street level. The rain had ceased, and we made one last stop at the Thirsty Monk for, what else, the soup of the day.

"Mmmmm, that sounds good. I'll have that." What a great bar with a downstairs devoted to Belgians. My kind of place. We sat on the couches, sipped on a Belgian IPA (Tough combination to master) and planned our next course of action. Once our wits were about us, we saluted Asheville, a superb beer town, and ventured out under the cloak of darkness to the next location on our mission, Devil's Backbone.

Mission: Beer-possible [Cue Music]

The mission, if we choose to accept, required us to cart homebrew up to Brooklyn, NY. The plot was devised by little sister, to provide libations for her rehearsal dinner the night prior to her wedding. Brewing batches of witbier, pumpkin ale, and Not Your Mother's would be easy. The task of trucking the hooch 1,030 miles, and appealing to the ever so discriminating tastebuds of hipsters seemed much more formidable. Nonetheless, mission accepted. [Cue the message to self destruct] After months of preparations, the cache of kegs was secured in the back of the vehicle, and we set off. We forged through the urban jungle of Atlanta, and ventured on to the Appalachian Foothills. Not to be too distracted by the beautiful fall foliage we arrived at Checkpoint Alpha: Oskar Blues Brewery. Brewery founder, and Auburn alum, Dale Katechis's East of the Mississippi production site provided a safe house for us travelers from his home state.

 As soon as we walked through the archway of empty cans, and up the stairs to the tap room, the great staff welcomed us. After a shared flight, which included an aged sour, aptly named "Golden Sour" that had a chardonnay like aroma, and a "Mole Pils", a cask conditioned version of their "Yella Pils" with cinnamon, coffee, cocoa nibs, and peppers (Still kinda scratching my head on that one) we continued on our route. But not before I ordered a Crowler to go. What's that you ask? What's a Crowler? It's a can. It's a growler. A Crowler. A 32oz aluminum can that can keep straight from the tap beer sealed and fresh for days, weeks, months, and maybe even longer. If that's the case, make it two Crowlers. With samples loaded up and stickers slapped onto kegs like a stamped passport, we left the friendly confines of Oskar Blues and stared straight into the next leg of our journey, The Blue Ridge Mountains. No literally, they were right there in front of us. The brewery is surrounded by these beautiful rolling mountains. Great view.

Brew Batche(s) #61* REINKE'S REVENGE 2014

Racked'em both over onto raspberry purée tonight. Gravities were dead even at 1.022+0.002@ 75F. Massive difference in taste though already. The Special Dark was crazy coffee on the taste. Even the trub was darker and thicker on the rack over. Both should come in around 8% or so. Then shortly thereafter it'll be ProAm decision time.

Inaugural Fall Balls 10K

Sponsored again this year by BlackStone Brewing Co with a medley of Hop Jack, Pumpkin Ale and  APA, the Inaugural Fall Balls 10K takes the unofficial place for the fastest growing 10K in the nation! Hot Balls didn't take place this summer because to be honest it wasn't hot here in the South. As a matter of fact I can't remember a single 100F, non heat factor day this summer. But with attendance up a whopping 200% this year, we feel like we made up for the lack of the summer race. Post celebratory brew included Sam Adams Oktoberfest and Spaten Oktoberfest. Now that the word is out we hope to have an even bigger turnout for Turkey Balls and Snow Balls.

Brew Batch #60 Mongoose IPA

Kegged this one today in the hopes that it'll be ready by next weekend. FG 1.006+0.002 @77F to give a healthy 7.1%abv. Seems to have a cloudy dark straw color that should clear with cold conditioning.

Brew Batch #59 Quadruple Wheatwine

Kegged this one over today and put it on cold storage. FG 1.008+ 0.002@ 78F to give 9.3%abv. Man, this one is going to be great come December.

Brew Batche(s) #61* REINKE'S REVENGE 2014

What you see before you is not one spent grain bag of Reinke's Revenge 2014, but in fact 2! I know it boggles the mind that first of all I am actually ahead of brewing this year, with the original brewing day being October 4th. But there's good reason for this early brewing. In years past I let October slip up on me with football and hunting season blending into the trials of professional life and before I knew it I was months behind getting this annual beast in the kettle. Inspired by Red, I've self imposed a double batch to see if I have the pro-am moxie for GABF 2015. Each batch was simultaneously brewed with Andy Mc's help, but the LME is slightly different. Somewhere along the line the LME I had been using was inadvertently changed to Dark instead of Special Dark. However, the batch I want to recreate well (#44 raspberry) was done with Dark. Unable to decide on which to use, Andy procured some long lost Special Dark and we did them both. Brew time was spot on and the SD came out at 1.086+0.001@ 72F with the D at 1.082+0.001@ 72F. I'll follow the same fermentation times and secondary on purée. Here's to being 310 gallons into this hobby.