That is right, folks, the beer is free!
IF you volunteer to pour at the Beer Connoisseur Festival at The Prado. The parking lot from in front of our store to the end where 5 Seasons is will be closed off on Saturday, June 12th for a beer festival hosted by Taco Mac & Beer Connoisseur magazine. For those of you who don't know, Beer Connoisseur is a new national magazine being published right here in Atlanta. You should subscribe. It is a beautifully done quarterly magazine that gives beer its rightful opportunity to show off.
The beer festival is a charitable event, so in case you needed a reason to get out and drink beer, there you go. If you think that being behind the counter pouring beer and talking to people sounds fun, then go to the web site at http://www.beerconnoisseurfestival.com/ to sign up as a volunteer. You will "work" for half of the day and have the other half to goof off and drink beer. It'll be like being me for a day.
That is the big news for now. I am going to the Braves game on Memorial Day, so look for me if you are watching. I will be behind 3rd base, about 12 rows from the wall.
Tuesday is the big release of SweetWater Sch'Wheat, their new American Wheat Ale. You can find the bottles now, but the draft is coming to every Taco Mac store Tuesday. It is also our June beer of the month, so if you want some SweetWater glasses, here is your chance.
Wednesday I am off to Montreal. There is a beer festival called Mondial de la Biere, which features a lot of beer that I have never heard of. I am a guest of Uniboue, makers of La Fin du Monde and Maudite, so I will be touring their facility. The other brewery I really want to get to is Dieu du Ciel. If you have not had any of their beer, go get some now. Bring a lot of money with you, because you're going to need it. I think what I am going to find out is that Canada is a lot like the U.S. & Scandinavia right now--tons of innovative small breweries going nuts. Should be a good trip. I will be back Saturday with lots of good pictures.
The final slide show of my England trip is over there on the right. It is basically the two days we spent in London. We went to this great pub along the way called The Cock Hotel. You can see what the bar looked like there, plus the really cool cellar. They have this old chute that they still use to slide kegs down in to the cellar. When you see the giant firkin in the middle of the room, that is called a Hog's Head.
We went to this open air market that had an amazing cheese shop. We bought some cheeses and got some beers at the pub across the street, then snacked and drank on the street. Something about the neighborhood, or the Borough Market in general, brought out a lot of good looking people. The only thing that got us out of there was the sun setting and the temperature starting to drop. Other than that, I was about as pleased with my day as a person could be.
We rode the London Eye, which is a huge Ferris Wheel contraption. But instead of two-person cars it has giant capsules that hold about 15-20 people. It is also taller that your standard Ferris Wheel, so the views of London were incredible. After that we saw the sights around London, you know, touristy stuff. We had dinner at a traditional pub whose owner is married to a Thai lady. So in this great pub you get the most amazing Thai food. If you ever go to London, you have to go to The Churchill Arms for beers and Thai food. We stopped by a pub called St. Stephen's, which is in the shadow of Big Ben. The clock, not the sexually aggressive quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. If you are in his shadow, you might not like what happens next. Needless to say that after visiting St. Stephen's, I had a great song in my head the rest of the day.
Lastly we went to the London Pub Of The Year in '07 & '09 called The Bricklayer's Arms. That should pretty much speak for itself as far as how great that place was. The trip home was a little long, especially getting out of the airport. It is great to travel, but it sure feels good to be home. I am sure that I will be saying the same thing on Saturday when I get back from Montreal. Talk to you then. Happy Memorial Day.
