Atlanta great beer availability

Hop City
100 Marietta Street
Suite 302
Atlanta Ga, 30318

http://www.hopcitybeer.com

 

I'd stop at Green's on Ponce myself. Same selection as HopCity, but usually has more of the popular stuff on hand than HopCity does.

Go to HopCity though, as it's a fantastic store, and cool folks there. Check out growlertown and get something local on tap to take back to the hotel room.

You'll struggle to find any CCB on hand in Atlanta, but recently, as in, a few days ago, there was a shipment out of the blue of some Jai Alai.. Shoot over to the Porter Beer bar in Little Five Points.. They have a bottle list with some CCB stuff on it like aged Zhukov if thats your thing.

Obviously if you roll to the east side of town, towards Decatur you can go to the Brickstore, and the Wrecking bar, Twains.. all great places for a cold drink.

Look for Sweetwater, Terrapin, Red Brick, Monday Night, 3 Taverns, Wild Heaven, Redhare, Burnt Hickory, Jailhouse as some local only stuff in town.

Bring some BCBS, and I have some fresh Jai Alai for ya.

 

Pretty solid recs above me. Hopcity is your best bet for convenience to downtown. I would start there and ask them for ideas on places nearby with decent beer menus. Most of the places listed above are outside the DT radius but worth the 15 min drive.

 

Just a word of advice, beermenus is not a great source to check for here like it is in Chicago. You can not go by it at all.

As far as the other suggestions, they are good. If you want to save money go to Greens. Hop City tends to be a decent amount higher per bottle/six-pack. Unless things have changed their growler prices are ridiculous but might be worth it for an out of towner.

 

I've really been enjoying the beers Red Brick has been brewing the past year or two.

 

Indeed, the Brick Mason line up has been really good. The current BBA Stout they have is pretty dang good. I like what they do with some barrels, because for the love of beer, they are one of the only ones in town that know what to do with a barrel.

 

Those barrels in question are now filled with a barleywine to be released next year early. Sporting wood over that.

 

Oh hell yes. I'll definitely be grabbing a handful of those beers to throw in my closet for a later date.

 

I hear that they've got a new head brewer, so the Brick Mason line has been his recipes. They are still maintaining their core beers which were the old head brewer's recipes. I enjoy both the new stuff and the old, but I definitely think the Brick Mason line has been top notch.

 

Yeah, Garret Lockhart is his name I think. The new stuff has been great. Really atleast trying to get mainstream and get some stuff that people will want to seek out. Barrel aging tends to do that. The last couple Anniv beers have been great.

The barleywine sounds great, and the last stout was good, although, a little more barrel that beer would be world class, IMO.

 

I thought the BBA Stout was a little weak and was not really well rounded. I was not expecting it to come close to BCBS at almost half the price but still though it lacked depth.

 

Hey, for their first big stout, and the first time doing it in barrels I'll take those practice rounds as often as they'd like to do it for us.. I admit, it wasn't some stellar, world class, white whalez type of beer. But for a reasonably priced barrel aged stout.. it hit the mark. Couple that with the fact that we dont get much KBS, very little Black Note, and BCBS won't ever make it to GA unless the ABV drops, it works.

 

That's the problem with the Atlanta Market in general. People will go nuts over limited distro items or 'hyped' products, but let a gem in their own market sit on shelves. The fact that you can still grab 20th in Atlanta, is a crime.

 

Hey, I'm fine with that actually. More for us to snatch up. Atlanta will never have highly sought after beer because our laws sucks, our breweries are too small to get a beer out there, or too big to be bothered with anything but their flagships. Not to mention, the above issues.

Once someone in ATL gets a great beer, and I think our closest thing to a nationally known beer people seek, is Wake n Bake.. Barrel age that shit and we'd have BM's from across the country for people wanting to trade for it. It's silly.

 

I agree. I thought 20th was all gone, found six cases of it Tuesday night. I of course bought a case. The barleywine is more hop forward from what Steve has told (Anderson, assistant brewer) but time in the barrel will mellow the hops. I'm psyched.

 

Ya know, I just looked up the rating on the 20th... 92 here on BA... A 92 point, Barrel Aged Stout.. and it SITS on our shelves in town.. Seriously?!

That said.. the new Vanilla Gorilla #8 is out, and man, they hit it this year. I didn't like the smoked vanilla last year, but this one is tasty, tasty.

 

OP, I think Greens is the best overall bet. Tower on Piedmont has more American beers, but you can find some gems in the Greens walkin. Until recently they had 750's of Tilquin Gueuze from 2010-2011 just hanging out. I've found a 2011 Older Viscosity sitting next to a 2013 as well...if you sift through you can find some decent stuff. Depending on what part of DT you are in those options might be easier than dealing with the Westside. Plus to get to Greens you'll have to drive by the Clermont Lounge