On Tap - Wedge Brewing

Lets say you have a dilemma. You and a group of friends want to go out for a beer. One friend chimes in that he likes lagers. Another says, oh I like dark beers. A third person claims his or her love of belgians. And you, loyal reader, like to drink locally made beer. Well, Wedge brewing can easily solve your problem. They currently have eight beers on tap. Two belgians, two dark beers, two lagers, and a pale ale and an IPA. You can't get much more variety than that.

One of the newer beers on tap at the Wedge is the Oatmeal Stout. The oatmeal gives the stout a bit of chewiness in the mouthfeel, and the beer is being run on a nitrous tap, giving it a Guinness like creaminess, although with more flavor than the ubiquitous Irish brew. This is a great beer to have as the weather gets cooler.

If stouts aren't your thing, then maybe a nice crisp lager will do the trick. The Helles Bock has been available for a couple of months now, and it has a nice caramel malt taste, making it a little more complex than your typical lager.

One of the belgians that Wedge has available is the Abbey Ale. The Abbey is a Belgian Dubbel, and the highlight of this style is the sweet malt character. The yeast for this beer also comes into play, giving the beer some fruitiness. This is a highly drinkable belgian style ale.

Other beers on tap at the Wedge include the Payne's Pale Ale, the Iron Rail IPA, the Community Porter, the Zatec Pilsner, and the Golem. Each beer is distinctive, and I am sure that you shouldn't have any trouble finding one that suits your taste.

On Tap - Barleys, Part Deux

This is the second edition of 'On Tap', and in the first one I promised to occasionally post about what's pouring in local beer bars. Well, I haven't exactly gotten around to doing that yet, and I'm featuring the same bar that I posted about in the first one. I will eventually make it to another bar, but there were a couple of notable beers on tap at Barley's last night that I needed to share.

As I mentioned in the Brewgrass writeup, the Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse was scheduled to be tap at Barley's soon, and I am happy to report that it is pouring downstairs right now. It uses the Schneider Hefeweizen yeast, so it has some of the familiar banana and clove tastes that you would associate with a German hefe, but it is dry hopped with Amarillo and Palisades hops, giving it a citrusy aftertaste. This is bigger than your traditional hefe at 7.8% alcohol, but you can hardly tell it is there. If you are a fan of German hefeweizens I would suggest giving this unusual rendition a try. It will only be available for a limited time.

Closer to home, Pisgah's Fall seasonal, Equinox is now available upstairs. This one is not easy to classify, with Pisgah dubbing it a 'Harvest Ale'. It is amber in color, with a sweet lightly toasted malt flavor that is combined with an earthy, slightly spicy finish. A very interesting beer to say the least, which is no surprise coming from the brewers at Pisgah. Another big beer, this one clocks in at 7.5%.

Last but not least, one of my favorite regional breweries, Terrapin Beer Company out of Athens, Georgia, has brewed an 'India Brown Ale'. As the name suggests, this beer is a marriage between a hoppy IPA and a sweet brown ale, and the pairing seems to work. As with most browns, this one has a nice caramel/chocolaty sweetness, and the addition of 5 types of hops plays a wonderful contrast with its bitter finish. This will eventually find its way into bottles, but in the mean time you can head upstairs at Barley's to find it. Speaking of Terrapin bottled beer, we should also be seeing the fall release of this years version of the Big Hoppy Monster, a big, moderatley hopped 'red' ale that has some interesting malt characteristics that play well with the hops.

On Tap - Barley's

This will be a semi-regular feature, in which I, your intrepid blogger, ventures out to a local Asheville bar or brewpub in search of good beer. Most of my focus will be on seasonal releases and rare microbrews from near and far. Hopefully this will inspire the thousands of people who read this blog to set forth on their own beer odyssey.

Today's featured bar is Barley's Taproom. Barley's has long held the title in Asheville for most beers on tap with 43 in all, and they do an excellent job of highlighting North Carolina breweries. If you go there hungry, you can grab a table downstairs and order a slice of pizza, a pita wrap, or a beefalo burger to go with your beer. Recently, they have undergone an expansion of their kitchen, so there should be a couple of new things on the menu in the coming months. If you don't feel like eating, you can always go upstairs and hustle your way into a game of pool or throw a few darts. Barley's also features live FREE music three times a week and trivia on Monday nights.

Okay, now that the obligatory introduction is out of the way, let's move on to the beer. If the summer heat is getting to you, our very own French Broad Brewery has a beer to quench your thirst. Go ahead, wipe the sweat off your brow, and order a Gateway Kolsch. Germany is most famous for its lagers, but if you order a beer in the city of Cologne, they will pour a top fermented ale known as Kolsch. Light in color and body, it certainly looks like its lagered counterpart, but the ale yeast lends a slightly more fruity character. The Kolsch actually tastes like a hybrid of the two, as the Kolsch yeast ferments at slightly lower temperatures than most ale yeasts and many Kolsh's are lagered for a short period of time. I had a pint last night and it was light and refreshing, and it made me want to book a plane to Cologne so I could try the real thing. Donations will be accepted.

Speaking of beer traveling, on my list of things to do before I die is to go to Belgium. Since that isn't in the cards in the near future, I have to settle on drinking Belgian style beers here at home, and Barley's just so happens to have one on tap downstairs. Brooklyn Brewery has recently been releasing some special draft only Belgian style beers, and the current selection is the Abbey Singel. While most Belgian style beers I drink are high gravity, this one could be described as a Belgian session beer, weighing in at a modest 6 percent. Light in body, fruity, with a definite Belgian yeast presence that is slightly spicy with hints of banana. This goes down easier than its higher alcohol brethren.

My last featured beer is one that has been on tap upstairs off and on for awhile. Foothills Brewing has been churning out some great beers lately, and the beer that first really peaked my interest in them is the Seeing Double IPA. A sweet sipper with more malt than you find in a lot of Double IPA's, but the citrusy hops remind you of why this is called an IPA. There is also a pleasantly mild alcohol burn that reminds you that you are drinking a beer that is 9.5% alcohol. Go easy on this one kids.

Another beer that I didn't get around to drinking was Catawba Valley's Bier D' Clam. If you didn't catch the double entendre, I suggest reading that last sentence again. This is an Oyster Stout. Yes, they make beer with oysters. No, it doesn't sound appetizing, but I have had an oyster stout from Rogue that was fairly tasty. I shall try to have this on a return trip, and if anybody has any insight on this beer let me know.