Saturday, October 8, 2011

Day 280, Oct 7 / Gaelic Ale

Day 280 / October 7, 2011
Highland Brewing Co. / Asheville, NC

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This Beer Run is brought you by the letters NC and HHH

A couple weeks ago, my friend Henry (HHH) dropped off a pre-packaged beer run for me.  He had been on vacation in North Carolina, and as we beer geeks are prone to do, he checked out the local stores for interesting and unique beers he couldn't get back home.  Fortunately for me (and therefore, vicariously for you, my legions of loyal readers), he applied the old, "One for you, one for me" technique as he picked out his beers.

Interestingly, however, he brought me a mixed 5-pack of North Carolina Beers, with one slot noticeably empty in the 6-pack holder.  "One for you, TWO for me..."  Hey, I'm not complaining, I got 5 free beers out of it!  Thanks!

You might not know this, but North Carolina has the largest number of craft breweries than any other state in the American South, with over 28 breweries and 21 production breweries.  Many of these beers are not distributed outside of the state, so that makes a visit to North Carolina a treat for a beer geek.

Click on the NC Brewer’s Guild logo above for a directory of all of the great places to get a fresh beer in North Carolina.  And while I’m at it, I’ll put a plug in for The Beer Mapping Project, an ingenious mashup of Google Maps and directories of breweries, brewpubs, beer bars and beer stores.  Here’s a map of North Carolina beer locations.

And another thing…  if you've visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina, you've probably figured out that my Beer Run logo was inspired at least in part by the iconic logo of the Brew Thru, a small chain of drive-thru beer (and other beverage) stores on the Carolina coast.

Now on to today’s (well, yesterday’s) beer.  Highland Brewing is the oldest of Asheville’s nine breweries and brewpubs, starting production in 1994.  Highland brews five year-round beers and five seasonals.  Gaelic Ale, their flagship beer, is an American style filtered amber ale.  Now I have actually seen this on the shelves in Virginia, but never picked it up before.  My mistake.

The Gaelic Ale is very good – it’s got a nice malty, slightly grainy taste.  Very drinkable, not overpowering.  It definitely will become a go-to beer.



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