Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I Found Some Great Beer - In The South!!

Here's what I hope will be the beginning of an series of eclectic posts from your US traveler, The Wheelman. I may mention trains, I may not. That's OK - Debate Coach said so!!

Work has brought me to Atlanta this week, arguably the home of the saying "wrong side of the tracks". Tracks - busy ones - slice through Atlanta as subtly as do its famously clogged Interstates. I happen to be working in a location within earshot of where CSX and NS essentially merge in the shadow of the downtown skyscrapers. My day is punctuated by frequent toot-toot-ti-toots; alas, I can't tear myself away to have a look. That's just as well; some of these neighborhoods define "rough".

Since I can't chase trains during the week, I adapt by pursuing a noble goal - find the Local Brew. Many blog posters/readers have been know to tip a few, so here's my first Local Find:

Sweetwater Brewery

I found this brew in a supermarket east of Birmingham AL. Normally in the south, I'm disappointed to find the most exotic brew on the shelves to be a guaranteed-to-be-skunked Heinekin, or the ubiquitous Modelo or Tecata. Well imagine my surprise when I read the following on the Sweetwater carton: "Sweetwater Georgia Brown Ale - Smoother than a Bill Clinton apology". This had to be worth a taste! It was pretty good, as was their Sweetwater Blue, purchased at one of Smyrna GA's finer liquor stores.

Someday there'll be a slide show at HAPT headquarters, and with any luck the bottles I sneak into my checked baggage won't break (again...) so they'll be available to sample.

Until the next beer .. Wheelman out

1 comment:

Debate Coach said...

Great to hear a bit from the railfan world's great sub-culture (at least in our circles). My fridge is still lined with many microbrew samples from several rail adventures. They await the next gathering at the HAPT "multi-media center".

Welcome to HAPT's Railfan Adventures


The Hebron Any Power Team is actually just a bunch of fun-loving rail enthusiasts who enjoy photographing and chasing all things railroad with friends. This bunch of guys cover a lot of ground for a group based way up "nawth" in Maine. We also have friends scattered around the country who contribute well to our hobby. In fact, our name is derived from our actual friends in the Worcester Foreign Power Team, except that Hebron hasn't seen a train since the 1950's so we'll settle for "any power".

Welcome and enjoy the eclectic collections of the contributors. Maine idealizes "life in the slow lane" so we present this blog as an effort to share our less time sensitive findings and to add to our hobby.