Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Candy Gram For Mongo...

Part of the SHBC tasting panel, hard at work.

The results of the 2013 Southern Home Brewer's Challenge are in. Well, they were in Monday night, so
maybe you already know this if you follow me on Twitter. But we sampled a lot of beers on Monday, coming across some really strong efforts. Sure there were a few duds in the bunch, but overall, a high quality sampling of local home brews. We picked the best one from each category, and then picked our favorite from that grouping. So I will list later the top brews from each category, but first let's announce the overall winner, whose beer will be made by Red Hare and be featured as part of the Taco Mac Beer Of The Month program in January. Brewed by Jeff and Sharon Wilson, and is called Mongo Strong Brown Ale. Hopefully confetti is falling from the ceiling in their house right now and the local marching band is in their front yard, cheerleaders doing flips and all that. I didn't arrange that, but wouldn't that be cool? I'll have to work on that for next year. The beer was extremely interesting in that is was very rich and flavorful, but not sweet like you would expect from the words, "strong" and "brown" when referring to beer. Nice work.

And now, the best of the rest:

  • Wheat and Wit beers: WIPA Snappa Hoppy Wheat by Brent Cater and Chris McDaniel
  • Flavored Wheat beers: The Bavarian Peach by Jeremy Bowlby
  • Amber and Brown Ales: Origin Amber Ale by Jeremy Bowlby
  • Pale Ale and IPA: Session IPA by John McDonald and Thomas Balkcom
  • Porter and Stout: Pullman Porter by Daniel Coats
  • Miscellaneous beers: Man's Best Friend by Stephen Upchurch
What else is going on? A lot, as usual. Tonight you can drop by Taco Mac Metropolis around 7:00 pm to meet the brewers from Six Point out of New York. They are in town and are dropping by to have a few beers and press the flesh. Nice guys. You should pay them a visit.

Have you heard about this contest? Voting just started on Saturday, so please click on the link (below), select Taco Mac and blow it up. You can vote as many times as you want. If we win, there will be a ridiculously rare and cool opportunity for something special to happen at Taco Mac. Here is the communication we received:

Welcome and Congratulations for being nominated as one of the Freshest Beer Bars in the US.  On July 8th, DRAFT Magazine put out the call to our readers to nominate bars that they thought were most deserving of hosting a Founders Day Celebration with DRAFT Magazine and Pilsner Urquell to celebrate their 100th anniversary.  We received over 2000 nominations and now we have narrowed it down to the final 25 for the fans to decide who will have this opportunity.  

Voting for the Freshest Bar begins at 12:01 am EST Saturday August 3rd and will end at 11:59pm EST August 31st, 2013.  The bar receiving the most votes will have the opportunity to host the Founders Day celebration on or around November 8th.  The Founders Day Celebration will include the following with a collaborative effort from DRAFT and Pilsner Urquell working directly with the winning bar to coordinate programming: 
  • 170 Liter Wooden Barrel of Unpastuerized Pilsner Urquell flown directly from the brewery in Plsen Czech Republic 
  • Attendance by Vaclav, the brewmaster for Pilsner Urquell in Plsen
  • Attendance by DRAFT Magazine Founder Erika Rietz
  • Tapping of the Keg Ceremony and Pouring Competition
  • Shirts, Hats, Mugs, and other assets relating to Founders Day
Here is the link you need to help bring this bad-ass event to a Taco Mac near you:


If you are reading this and have not already voted at least twice, just be aware that I am extremely pissed off at you right now. No excuses. Don't even talk to me until you have voted ten times. Have your kids vote. Have your dog vote. Cast a vote for the dog you had you when you were growing up. Cast a vote if you never had a dog growing up, but really, really wanted one but your parents just wouldn't listen and you never forgave them for that, but you held in those emotions for a long, long time, until now. Let it out. Let it all out by voting for Taco Mac. The dog you never had would have wanted it that way, if he had existed, which he didn't, but why open up old wounds?

You folks have a great week and weekend. I am off to Charlotte tomorrow. Talk to you next week.
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