Drinking Knoxville: Our Saving Brews

9.29.2008

Our Saving Brews

Hey Mackey I’ve got it, I’ve got it! Something good did happen this Saturday. This Sat. started the 14 day count down to the Knoxville Brewers Jam; now one of the better Saturdays in the fall. So what if it’s on the same day as the Georgia game, it couldn’t have picked a better year for that to happen. The Brewers Jam is one of the great drinking days of the year here; start early with an excited drinking frenzy, then unleash on the town hidden by the many drunks that all flood the bar.
We are going to do a small preview of some of the attending breweries, it won’t including everything, sort of a must hit before it’s gone. You have to prioritize your booth route by what you must have and when it might run out. This will show some of my favorites in no order, so you can decide on your own, whose line you will be waiting in and which ones you will let be drank by others.

First:

All around quality brewery, nothing outstanding, nothing undrinkable. Well brewed products that you are happy to see at somebody’s party, but never the thing you’re jumping up and down excited over. They make a group of very drinkable beers that aren’t to edgy, but that is more of what we need, there are too many imperial vanilla eight hop pilsners if there’s even one. I recommend the St. Terese’s Pale Ale, or the Kashmir IPA, the Gaelic Ale is only palatable at best and readily available in town.

Second:
Heading in a complete different direction are these unbalanced canines. Let me start with the fact their Founder was good friends with Hunter S. Thompson, and Ralph Steadman does their art work too. Check out their website and read their story if that does not paint a good enough picture for you. Problem is their art work and beer names are more memorable than the beer, but only sometimes. If you can find the Horn Dog barley wine or Kerberos triple you're in luck, any of their ales are good, but I am not a fan of their In Heat Wheat.