Good Word

It's event day. I'm up pretty early and trundle down to the bistro to see what they offer for breakfast.

Yippee! They have fried stuff. I go for the usual eggs over easy, bacon and potatoes. Plus toast, of course. It's not bad at all.

I laze around in my room for a while before meeting up with Stan in the lobby. Good Word is only a few minutes away on foot. It's much warmer today and I'm feeling overdressed.

We find a door that's open and make our way to the brewery where we meet up with Todd. Amongst all the stainless-steel shiny things, he pulls some beers off the tanks. Including the Heineken Donker Lagerbier he brewed from a recipe I provided. It's a bit paler than I expected, but very tasty. With a pleasant Saaz hop character.

He double decocted it, despite his brewery not really being built for that. It sounded like a right palaver, including as it did buckets hand-filled with wort. I admire his commitment.

Todd brews quite a lot of Lagers and is another who spunds to get them to naturally carbonate. I've noticed quite a lot of interest around Atlanta in brewing and serving Lagers the traditional way. And in less fashionable Lager styles. As if to prove this, Todd gives us a Czech-style pale 4% Lager. Maybe a tad hoppier than one from Bohemia. Really tasty, though.

We move on into the pub and sit at the bar. Just as well. My crappy old legs can't take too much standing about.

Todd starts pulling us samples of the beers he has on tap. There are rather a lot of them. Soon I have a dozen half-filled glasses in front of me. As I taste them, I start to struggle to remember what they all are.

The pub is beautiful, with massive windows. It looks like a converted light industrial building, but I think it's a new build.

I dutifully finish off every glass. Stan is more retrained, just sampling each beer. Me, I hate beer going to waste and drink up every drop.

It's still quite early - only 13:30 - and things don't kick off until 17:00. I wander back to the hotel for a rest.

Slightly refreshed, I head back out again. To Truck and Tap, a bar I noticed earlier. I'm a bit early as it doesn't open until 14:30. I fill in the time sitting in the sun in the park outside City Hall. How the weather has changed. I was freezing my arse off in Atlanta.

I roll up to the bar 5 minutes after opening time and am surprised to see half a dozen drinkers already ensconced at the bar. I order a double Jack Daniels, no ice. Just to get me in the mood for this evening.

Two women around sixty come in. One orders a Chardonnay. And the other a hazy IPA. Now there's a surprise. They sit at a table and start playing cards.

I get back to Good Word a little after 16:00. Art Whitaker turns up and is soon setting up the gear to live stream me and Stan.

The event has only been advertised to brewers. Soon there are forty or fifty of them sitting in front of us. Pretty well every brewer we saw yesterday and many more.

There isn't a presentation, just a Q & A. Which suits me fine. I field questions about historic beer, Stan ones about hops. Two hours just fly by.

 

John Roberts has brought the beers Zebulon sent to him for me. I crack some open and share them around. People seem to like them. I know I do.

I flog a few books, which is always good. I wish I'd brought more copes of "Scotland! vol. 2" with me as the two I have disappear immediately.

While I’m sampling the Zebulon beers, Todd brings me a plate of fish and chips. Just what I need after a long day of drinking and only a sandwich since breakfast.

I don't leave it too late, heading back around 10:30. I rarely stay out very late nowadays. I appreciate my sleep too much. I don't have to be up crazy early tomorrow. Not that late either.

Whisky whisks me to oblivion.



Good Word Brewing & Public House
3085 Main St,
Duluth, GA 30096.
https://goodwordbrewing.com



Truck & Tap Duluth
3137 Main St,
Duluth, GA 30096.
http://truckandtap.com/duluth/