Fare Thee Well...Fare The Well, I Love You More Than Words Can Tell

It has been a while building, but that did not make the last few days--Friday in particular--any less difficult. I have been going through a series of long good-byes for the last two weeks, which were a ton of fun, but they could not prevent the deep feelings that naturally arise when you leave somewhere you have been for a long time. I said good-bye to Atlanta, where I have lived for thirteen years, early this morning with a suitcase and a few house plants in my car. I gave everything I own to three strangers with a semi-truck on Tuesday. They are allegedly meeting me in Baltimore tomorrow morning and giving it all back. If you have never had movers take your stuff a long way away, that's what it feels like. Everything you own and hold dear gets given to a group of men you have never met, most of whose English is...marginal. Maybe. But hey, they say they are going to be at my new place at the crack of dawn, so we'll see how much of my shit they broke over the last four days, and then start unpacking. I start my new job on Monday, about which I am inexplicably excited. The new challenges that are already coming to me via e-mail and phone are making this move look the great idea I always knew it was. He shoots, he scores! Feels good.

But now I am enjoying being able to sit in a chair and watch TV and use a computer. Since those strangers left with all my stuff, I have been living in an empty place while they worked their way up to Baltimore. Toothbrush, air mattress, a few changes of clothes, and my Brita. Soap and shampoo were there as well. A towel. You get the picture. Since around noon on Tuesday, that is all I had. That explains the long good-byes, because seriously, I had nothing to sit on, nothing to watch, listen to, or read. I managed to see a matinee of Bad Grandpa though. I am not going to tell you to go out and see this movie, because I don't know you. I, personally, laughed until tears ran down my face on multiple occasions. So did the rest of the audience. Jackass movies are OK in my book. A lot of time to spend for a short amount of material if you ask me. But this movie was pretty damn funny the whole way through. They needed to put some calmer parts in there so the audience could stop laughing and breath for a minute. No kidding. Please remember this important point: It's raunchy. If you can't laugh at raunchy humor, stay home. You will...disapprove...to put it mildly.

I do not like to be in a car for long periods of time (defined by anything more that about four hours). So today's drive was going to be a challenge for me patience-wise. To get from Atlanta to Baltimore it takes about ten and a half hours. Problem is, if you don't time your drive correctly, you might just wind up in metropolitan Washington D.C. traffic, which makes Atlanta traffic look like a cream puff. Since I didn't need to be in Baltimore until Saturday morning, I found a hotel in a quiet town about two hours away. So I am in Ashland, VA, within striking distance from my destination, after a nine hour drive that included a few stops. I told you, I don't like to be in the car for a long, long time. Coffee, gas, bathroom, El Carbonero.

El Carbonero? Oh, yes. By 11:45 a.m. I was pulling into the El Salvadorean place called El Carbonero in Graham. NC, and you can read a few things about it here. Folks--first of all, if you know where Graham, NC is, then you must either live in "the triangle" or have family there; secondly, if you knew there was El Salvadorean food there, then you obviously live in that town. And you are most likely Hispanic. By using an on-line map service from Atlanta (it was Google, duh), I was able to determine where I would be en route to the east coast by lunch time. Thanks to Yelp! (and I realize the drawbacks inherent there), I was able to locate El Carbonero and its consistent five-star rating, inside this small town near the Virginia/North Carolina border. The on-line directions? Spot on. Timely? I was ten minutes late, but I had stopped three times already. I could have easily been a few minutes early.

Exterior? Could use some work, which may indicate some serious grub. If you think the best food comes from the prettiest places, then you make too much money, and probably wish you were still cool. Interior? About what the exterior indicates: no frills, but kick-ass food. And when there is a  sign that says "Cash Only", you probably just hit gold. Like I did. Chuletas Fritas apparently means "fried pork chops" or, in my vernacular, "Can I kiss the woman who made me this food?". Occasionally while I was eating, an older woman in shorts and a t-shirt cam out of the back. She was wearing a hairnet, which tipped me off that she cooked. I hoped. The servers spoke English to me, but being the only gringo in the place, they spoke Spanish to everyone else. After you eat you get a hand-written check. Then you get up and go pay at the counter. The cook lady with the shorts and hairnet is taking payments. Cash only. That, boys and girls, is what you call teamwork, El Salvador style. I will leave you with two last things on this story. One: Get the pork chops at El Carbonero; Two: Find out what that chicken soup is that all of the Hispanic customers are eating. Looked pretty outrageous, and all of the non-Gringo had a huge bowl of it.

Excuse me? $8.95? I guess that seems fair.

That is about all I have for you for now. I am enjoying a Devil's Backbone Eight-Point IPA, which is made not far from here, up in the Shenandoah Mountains . Great to see regional IPA for sale at area grocery stores in a semi-rural area. Also great to see local shoppers snatching up the six-packs of those same local beers. I was looking at the whole beer cooler for more than a few minutes, and saw one guy grab a case of light beer, while six or more people bought local or other quality beer. I sure hope that you are all following the same patterns. Buy local and drink local. What's good for your local brewer is good for your local economy. Are you part of the solution? Don't be part of the problem.

New Horizons, New Adventures

After a long and illustrious career with Taco Mac, I will be changing course for a new direction. You can still

follow my adventures here at Fred's Beer Page if you like, and I hope that you do. They will mainly be concerning the goings-on at Heavy Seas Brewing Co., which is where I am setting sail for post-haste. I have to sell a condo first, so if you know anyone looking for a really cool, modern two-bedroom on a quiet street in a great part of town, contact Marilou Young at Virtual Properties. I actually already have an offer, but you can offer me more if you want!

I am extremely excited about the new career and the relocation. I spent eleven years in one place in Michigan where I worked for a brewery, followed by thirteen wonderful years here in Atlanta working for Taco Mac. It was time for a new adventure, and there was no question that beer would have to be heavily involved. The people and the brews at Heavy Seas have always been some of my favorites, and I am lucky to have landed there with them. As the brewery and pub operations at Heavy Seas progress there will be a ton of new challenges to overcome, and lots of exciting solutions to find in order to do so.

I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my blog over the years, and the nice things that many of you have said about reading it when we saw each other socially. Unfortunately the next few weeks will be spent packing and moving, so there won't be too much excitement there. Once I get my feet on the ground in Baltimore, I will be sure to update you on my situation. Until then, over and out!

GABF...DRBT....PPPFFFT!

Sound like someone's in the middle of a losing battle with the bottle. But no, that is just what's on tap for the next

few days: Great American Beer Festival, Denver Rare Beer Tasting, and then probably being pretty wiped out when I get home on Saturday. As I mentioned, there are tons of special, smaller events in, around and after the main goings on in Denver this week for beer lovers. Tonight is the Left Hand Brewing 20th Anniversary party, billed as "20 Years and 20 Beers". They are bringing back a bunch of specialty beers they have not brewed in a while, plus busting out some new and wild concoctions. Wish me luck.

As if resting was ever on the agenda for more that a minute or two these days, we are going to jump right into the Decatur re-opening to the public on Tuesday. The building looks great, and anyone who was ever in the old one will barely recognize the place. More than just a face lift, this was a total overhaul. The draft selection looks great, of course, and they have a special cask for Tuesday night. A few of the employees went over to Red Brick during the closure of Taco Mac and helped make a cask of Vanilla Gorilla blended with two types of chili peppers and a dose of cinnamon. They are also going to be tapping a different cask from a local brewery each night after that (except Thursday, that is pint night). They are all listed as, for example, "Red Brick Decatur RO Cask", or "Three Taverns Decatur RO Cask". The "RO" stands for "re-open", so each of these is a completely unique Brewniversity credit that will never appear again. In addition to Red Brick and Three Taverns, they will have one from Terrapin, Blue Tarp, Monday Night and JailHouse. You will need to be there to find out what kind of beer is actually in them.

Once that week is complete, it's Atlanta Beer Week. Taco Mac has events planned each day, and some at multiple stores. I will have a complete list for you next week. I have told you for weeks now to clear your calendars, so if you have things booked during ABW and miss these beer events, don't come crying to me. I tried. You didn't listen.  

That is all I have time for today kids. The airport is calling. I am outta here. Have a great weekend.

PS-- There are only about 15 spots left for the Innis & Gunn event at The Fred Bar on Wednesday the 23rd. Just scroll down a few blog posts to see all of the relevant details. It is rare chance to meet the owner, founder and brew master, in town from Scotland for an appearance. Don't miss out. 

Do You Drink Local? Read On...

Sorry that I have been quiet this week. The re-opening of the Decatur store has been taking up a fair amount of my time these days, especially since next week is going to really fly by. Great American Beer Festival in Denver starts on Thursday, so I will be back to Denver again (I was just there Sept. 19th-23rd), this time to drink beer. No other responsibilities. The festival itself is fun enough, but there are other events around town during the late morning, afternoon, and pretty much all night. Most notable is the Denver Rare Beer Tasting on Friday afternoon, and a Left Hand 20th Anniversary party Thursday night. The DRBT is just after the annual Sierra Nevada Kill The Keg event at Falling Rock Tap House, where each year they try to tweak their draft system and kill a keg of a special Sierra Nevada beer (Estate Homegrown maybe?) in a shorter time than the year before. If you want to get a decent spot at Falling Rock, you need to be there by 10:00. That would be 10:00 in the morning. And so it begins...

But on another more local note, here is an artist's rendering of the exterior of our remodeled Decatur location. It is scheduled to re-open on Tuesday, October 15th. The inside is totally tricked out with all kinds of beer related architectural detail. Trust me, you'll want to get down there sooner than later to check it out. More on that later, including some actual real photos. I could not get in there to take pictures yesterday because they were laying the flooring. Guess I should have called first.

Before I hit the road for the weekend, I wanted to relay a story for all of you beer drinkers out there who like to seek out some of the exciting beers from across the country. It goes like this:

• A few weeks ago I bought a six-pack of a locally made pale ale at a BP station. Not exactly a hot spot for craft beer, Chamblee. It tasted so good and fresh, I checked the date on the bottle. I don't normally do that, but it was so remarkably tasty that I was compelled by uncontrollable forces to look for the date. This beer had left the brewery just three weeks before I bought it. That means it got packaged and dated, delivered to a local distributor, warehoused there behind older inventory, then loaded on a truck and delivered to a BP station, purchased and consumed in under 21 days. Not impressed? You don't know a lot about the beer business then. You won't get fresher beer unless you get it from the brewery or make it yourself.
• Last week I bought a four pack of a super sexy, highly desirable beer from a very renown craft brewery that is a long way from this market. The beer's flavor was very good, but it had sediment in the bottle where there should have been none. Hmmm...that's odd. Check the freshness dating, and yep, it was bottled in June. June of 2012. So this beer that I bought at a reputable retailer of quality beer was 15 months old. The sediment was particulate matter (the non-water elements of the beer) coming out of the liquid due to age, and possibly being poorly handled along the way from the brewery to my local store. Why, then, did it taste OK? Well, it was hopped pretty much out of this world, so that bitterness can cover up a lot. In addition, this is a beer I do not drink more than a few times a year. Why? Well, I think I just told you why. Maybe the next time I am closer to the source I will buy it again, but for the price I paid for it, I sure wish it was a great deal more fresh.

So I just wanted to relate that experience in case it matters to you. Sometimes you don't need to send your dollars across the country when you want a nice, fresh, hoppy beer. Maybe what you are looking for is brewed right around here somewhere, and your money can go back into your community. Have a great weekend everyone.