Atlanta Brewing Company - Red Brick Blonde

Red Brick Blonde was a Gold Medal winner at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival in the Golden or Blonde Ale category. We love a quality, craft-brewed blonde ale—this is a style that is easy to drink, but full of flavor. Expect clean, light grains on the nose, with hints of toasted crackers, and faintly floral flourishes (say that three times fast!). Lightly lemony hops are detectible, blending with the clean barley notes. The beer has just a bit more oomph in the flavor department, with all of the elements described in the bouquet landing somewhere on the palate, but punched up a bit by a subtle pepperiness from the hops and heaps of tasty toastiness. In the early years of our club, in the mid-to-late 90s, we’d have called this “hoppy”, but in the wake of today’s super-hopped double-IPAs, applying that term here would get us some scoffs. But really, for an easy-drinking golden ale, this is quite nicely hopped. And this is no dumb blonde; it’s smart, well built, and very tasty. Simple, tasty beer is difficult to make. The world needs more microbrewed beers like this, for if there were more of this stuff, there’d be less Bud/Miller/Coors and more people acquainted with simple, GOOD beer. Flavorful enough to keep the connoisseurs happy, but easy enough to drink to make it sessionable, this is a great beer for warm weather, and for warming your friends up to drinking better beer. Should come as no surprise that this beer from Hotlanta is refreshing in the sun. Share it with some cheddar and onion-capped Angus burgers from the grill.

The Atlanta Brewing Company (ABC) is the oldest operational craft brewery in the state of Georgia. Like numerous areas of the south, restrictive prohibition-era "hangover" laws have meant slow momentum for the craft beer scene. The fact that this is the oldest of the state's craft breweries, and was founded in 1993, kind of gives you an idea of not only what type of pace the beer scene has been developing at, but, really, how far ahead of the curve ABC was when they decided to set up shop. In late 2005, new ownership and management joined longtime ABC Brewmaster Dave McClure. Robert Budd, President, and Dave Weil, Director of Operations, have been hard at work with Brewmaster Dave in building their brands and getting more people turned on to good beer than you can shake a Georgia peach at (yes, we do reserve the right to create our own ridiculous expressions over here in the newsletter department.) Their Red Brick Ale was the first beer they brewed and it remains their flagship brand, but this month we're featuring their Red Brick Blonde Ale and the back-from-the-dead Laughing Skull. The brewery also serves up a traditional, German-style Hefeweizen in the summertime, a hearty double-chocolate Oatmeal Porter in the winter, and an American-style Pale Ale all year round. Then there are their limited release beers like their Red Brick Barrel Select, a beer that took home Gold from the World Beer Cup in the Wood and Barrel Aged Beer category. This is their Red Brick Ale aged in Jim Beam Bourbon barrels for 10 months. Now that's some southern comfort! In 2006, the Atlanta Brewing Company was named one of "10 great places to see what's brewing in beer" by USA Today. We agree—especially amidst the awakening of craft-brewed beer's collective consciousness that's currently happening in the South. Turns out ABC also has a great guided tour and beer tasting every Wednesday and Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. Four to six beers are offered on tap, and a tasting room with all the creature comforts one needs for such an affair is currently in the works. Pay 'em a visit and say "Hi" for us. For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (404) 355-5558.