Blue Grass And Bourbon

Whoa! Another week flew by already, and its Monday again. Sorry that I was AWOL last week. Monday I was swamped with our charity golf tournament. Tuesday and Wednesday I was trying to get caught up from Monday, and then I went to Lexington, KY on Thursday and Friday. In case you forgot, we were going up there to visit the Woodford Reserve distillery to hand-select a barrel of bourbon for our Taco Mac restaurants. Actually we chose two, both with very different flavor profiles, and they will be blended together and bottled later this summer. I don't have time to tell you all about the trip right now, but don't worry, I will. I took a ton of pictures, and it was an awesome experience. If you have ever wanted to visit a distillery, I highly recommend that you try Woodford. The grounds upon which the distillery sits is a beautiful site, with old buildings and trees and flowers and a creek, and just picture postcard stuff everywhere. And to get there you wind through some of the most stunning horse farms with palatial barns that look like anything but a "barn". It is a place that I will definitely return to some day, and hopefully not before too long. I didn't want to leave.

But let's get down to business here. I gotta get back to work. For those of you that don't know, I actually have a job that needs to get done, besides drinking beer and traveling and writing a blog every now and then. Phone calls, spreadsheets, meetings, e-mails...the same stuff most of you have to do on a daily basis. But nobody wants to hear about that stuff, and I am sure that you are no different. You want to hear about beer. Cold, delicious beer. Here you go:

1. Tomorrow is the Two-For-Tuesday beer event. The upstairs bar at The Prado has a Green Flash release with five different beers on tap from one of San Diego's most renown breweries. Double Stout, Hop Head Red, Imperial IPA, Le Freak and West Coast IPA. We only have a tiny amount of the IIPA, but the rest we will have a good amount of on hand. A couple important guys from the brewery will be there as well. The Fred Bar will be hosting the guys from Heavy Seas, along with a cask of their 2012 Letter of Marque. There will be some other drafts and a few bottles too. Most importantly though, is that Joe Gold from the brewery will be there. This guy is awesome. Make sure you introduce yourself, tell him that you love Heavy Seas, and then enjoy the conversation from there. Joe is a pleasure to talk to, and extremely knowledgeable about his business. This is one of the best guys in a business full of great people. Both events start at 6:00 pm
2. Then on Wednesday you can meet me at the East Roswell location when we tap as cask of Boulder Mojo IPA at 6:00 pm. This is a rare cask, and the first one that I have ever seen in GA from Boulder Brewing Co.
3. On Friday I will be in Chattanooga for a cask of Left Hand 400 lb. Monkey. I always look forward to seeing our loyal customers up in Chattanooga, and this time I am getting a room so that I can relax and drink some beers with them.
4. Next week on Tuesday the 26th we are launching the new Jailhouse Prison Camp Pilsner at the Metropolis store in midtown. The brewery crew will be in house to help kick it off right, and I will be there too. Glenn and the folks from Jailhouse are a cool bunch, so be sure to introduce yourselves to them if you can make it. We'll tap the keg at 6:00 pm.

Those are all of the events for you right now. I added picture below that I took with my phone from Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY. That is where they run the Kentucky Derby. This a shot from the Finish Line Suite where we watched the races on Friday. Pretty nice set-up. You can see the track below, and the University of Louisville football stadium in the background. I took more with a better camera, so look for those next week maybe. It was a fun way to spend the day, and to spend some money. Betting on horse racing is not a skill you are born with, and beginner's luck is a figment of some loser's imagination. We all got wiped out in a hurry.

The famous twin spires of Churchill Downs.