I Gotta Go, But First....

Hey everyone, I have a quick couple of thing for you, and then I need to pack my bags. I am leaving in the morning for San Diego and the annual Craft Brewer's Conference. Should be a lot of fun. I mean work. Grueling work. But check these things out. I recommend that you read it all, because at the end there is something pretty damn cool.

1. Tomorrow night you can drink some delicious Troubadour beers at The Fred and meet the brewery's founder and brew master. His name if Stephaan, and he is from Belgium. I just me him today, and he is very interesting and knowledgeable. You should go out and try to meet him. Great guy who makes outstanding beers. There will be three bottles and one draft for you to drink. 
2. Secondly, I want you to know that there are only eight spots left in next week's German beer dinner. If you were thinking of going, you should probably get your tickets now. People have a hard time thinking about events in a particular month until that month actually starts. Trust me, I plan a lot of events, I should know. So today is May 1st, and a decent amount of you are going go, "Oh yeah, I did want to go to that beer dinner in May", over the next few days. I would react sooner than later if I were you.
3. The cask of Red Hare that our Chancellor, Joe E., helped make is getting tapped at the Johns Creek store on Saturday (Cinco de Mayo). Go check out his special creation and let me know how it is. I will be on a plane back from California until 7:30 pm, so I can't make it.
4. On Monday the 7th at the Perimeter and Kennesaw stores you can be the first kid on the block to try Mother Earth beers. This is a great NC brewery that is just arriving in Atlanta. The owners and brew master will be making their rounds and visiting with our customers after they finish up a meeting. Plan on those guys being around at like 6:30 or 7:00 pm. There should be four drafts featured if everything ends up the way it is planned. I will be at the Perimeter store personally.
5. On Wednesday the 9th you can taste the awesome Terrapin Tree Hugger in a firkin at the Decatur store at 7:00 pm. I don't like this beer...I LOVE it. Reminds me of being in Dusseldorf drinking fresh Uerige Altbier, fresh from the cask. Come join me on this little trip down memory lane. 

The last thing I have for you is this bombshell:

Attention Home Brewers! It is time to get prepared for the Southern Brewer’s Challenge! In honor of National Home Brewing Month, please read the following announcement. This is your chance to enter a pro-am competition to have your recipe made by a commercial brewery, and sold at restaurants across the southeast. Here is how it works:

Taco Mac and Red Brick Brewing Co. have partnered up to help make one lucky home brewer’s dream come true. We will be receiving submissions throughout the month of July at specific Atlanta-area Taco Mac locations. Dates and locations will be listed below. Our judging panels, made up of representatives from Taco Mac and Red Brick, along with other Atlanta-area beer luminaries, will judge the submissions throughout the month of August. Once the winner has been announced, the brewery will take some time to fine tune the recipe to their brew system’s specifications. Once a final recipe is reached, the beer will go into production. The release date will be targeted for the very first opportunity in January, 2013.

Once the beer is available for sale at all area Taco Mac locations, the brewery will go back to work on another batch. This next batch will be bottled for a targeted launch in the spring of 2013. In fact, the release of the bottles (to be sold at area off-premise retail stores) will coincide with the announcement of the 2013 Southern Brewer’s Challenge. If this program is as successful as we expect, we will continue to do this every year.

The submissions will be at the following locations on the specified dates:

• Monday, July 2nd at Taco Mac in Cumming and Peachtree City
• Monday, July 9th at Taco Mac in Kennesaw and Buford
• Monday, July 16th at Taco Mac at Prado and Metropolis
• Monday, July 23rd at Taco Mac in Duluth and Crabapple
• Monday, July 30th at Taco Mac at Windward Pkwy and Decatur

When planning out what you are going to submit, here are some things to think about:

• No more than two styles per brewer.
• The winning beer needs to be produced in a large quantity, so choose ingredients that are readily available.
• Red Brick brews mostly ales, and in the interest of not tying up their equipment with a lengthy lagering process, ale styles would be preferred.

All submissions must have an accompanying info sheet, which will be provided at a later date. In addition, all submissions must be in the form of two bottles of twelve ounces each. No big bottles, no growlers, etc. Lastly, the submissions need to be received at the stores specified, on the dates specified, and between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm. There will be someone on site to receive the samples during those times, which will prevent loss, breakage, or anything else that would prevent samples from getting to the tasting panel in tact. If you miss the submission date, you must choose a different location to drop off your beer. If you leave it at a location before or after the submission date and time, it will not get into the judging process. Please refer to www.fredsbeerpage.blogspot.com for future details. This should be enough to get you excited and help you get started. May the best brew win!