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| My cousin killed Osama Bin Laden |
It's almost time to cut the cheese! OK, so maybe you think fart jokes are a little immature. That's your opinion, and I can appreciate your high-brow intellect and elitist sense of humor. I really do. But let's ask someone who had a reputation for intellectual humor, Kurt Vonnegut, about the fart joke milieu. In his novel "Galapagos", the only humans to survive a global disease lived on a remote island. Everyone else was rendered infertile by the disease, leading to the near extinction of our species. However, living on a remote island for millions of years, the survivors naturally continued to evolve in ways we would not have evolved otherwise. We become more like a furry version of a seal, with virtually no resemblance to the humans of present day. In fact, one of the only remnants of humanity as we know it today is that everybody still laughs when someone farts. So there you go you elitist, high-brow intellectuals. Kurt Vonnegut made a fart joke. In your face. He didn't make the fart joke actually in your face. That's just a figure of speech. And he's dead, so presumably not farting in anyone's direction at all. Unless of course there is 1.) Heaven, 2.) He is there, 3.) People still fart in heaven. I am going to let you ponder that one on your own.
But back to the cheese. If you attended the last beer & cheese pairing we did last year, then you have been anxiously awaiting the next one. Well here it comes, Saturday, July 9th at The Fred Bar. Last year's event featured some of the best American craft beers we could find, paired with a selection of cheeses from around the country and the world. To outdo that performance, we had to come up with something really special. So this time around we are offering the following beers:
Boon Mariage Parfait
Palm Speciale
Rodenbach
Rodenbach Vintage '08
Steenbruge Dubbel
Steenbruge Tripel
These beers, of course, are from Belgium, and represent some incredible breweries and styles. We are going to be pairing these with cheeses made at Sweet Grass Dairy in south Georgia. Not only are the cheeses going to be featured, but the head "cheese" from the dairy is also going to be at this event. He will be there to help educate you guys about cheese making, Georgia cheeses, cows I suppose, and whatever you want to know. These folks are personal friends of our chef, Peter, so it will be a great opportunity for you to mingle with them if you are curious at all about what they do. Peter is going to feature the cheeses creatively in small bites, not just a piece of cheese on a plate. This is not, I repeat, not a beer dinner. This event is going to run from 3:00-5:00pm and consist of those six beers in 4 oz. pours and the six little bites to feature the cheese and compliment each beer. The cost is $30.00 (cheap!), and there will be guys from the importer of these beers on hand to talk about beer (if you are into that kind of thing, and you are). The structure will be loose, with each pairing at stations located throughout The Fred so that you can move around and taste at your own pace. Will have cool beer stuff to give away? Probably. We usually do. No promises though.
The next event is the first in the Brewniversity Back-To-School program. On July 16th at Deckard's American Tavern, we are going to give you a stiff drink of learnin' with the first annual Whiskey Class. You will get to taste five different whiskeys from 4 different countries. All top-shelf stuff and up. No cheap hooch here! Now since I know that you are beer drinkers, I am going to pair a different beer to compliment each whiskey. You are going to need something to sip on while you are getting educated, and we can't give you that much hard liquor. I've heard about you and hard liquor....Expect lighter bodied beers with lighter whiskey, rye ale with rye whiskey, etc. On hand will be Kevin Mulcahy, an expert on all things related to whiskey. This guy is incredibly knowledgeable and entertaining, so come with questions and be prepared to learn something. This event, like the cheese one, runs from 3:00 to 5:00 pm, and the cost is only $25.00. Chef Deckard is also going to have an affordable, whiskey-themed food special that evening if you want to stick around for dinner. We did this type of event last year as well, but with tequila, and it was a huge success. Frankly, I don't actually have a good reason why it has taken so long to do another one.
So as you can see, we are taking the Brewniversity in a bit of a new direction with some actual "learning". I know that "learning" usually means "boring", but I am here to change all of that. The other event we have coming up is the beer dinner on July 12th with the brew master from Southern Tier in town. Bet you can learn something from that guy. That event, along with the Belgian Beers and GA Cheeses event can be found here. The Deckard's Whiskey class can be accessed by clicking this link. I realize that it is hard to think about July events in June, but these events will sell out, so don't procrastinate if they sound like something you are interested in attending.
I think what we have actually done here is given a new life to the "stay-cation" idea. Why leave Atlanta in July? Just bounce around from one drinking event to another. I have some more things to insert before, after, and in between the three things mentioned here today, so why go anywhere really? Any highly-evolved furry sea creature knows that I have all of your entertainment needs covered.
Have a great week everyone. I will be in Charlotte for a meet & greet with a brewer from Stone on Friday night, so if you are in the area, you should come by. We have a cask of double dry-hopped IPA and a regular keg of Stone Belgo Russian Imperial Stout. You don't see that every day.
