Back to Atlanta

I rise around 8:30. After a quick shower, I go for some hotel breakfast.

Two eggs, two rashers of bacon and tomato. It's not a huge breakfast. Then again, I'm not hugely hungry. I wash it down with a coffee and orange juice. Got to keep up the caffeine and vitamin intake.

It’s really reminding me of the breakfast place in my hotel in Silver Spring, the last time I was in the USA. Is it the same chain? Probably.

After checking out, I wander down to Good Word to meet Todd. We have a bit of a chat until it’s time for me to return to Atlanta. He gets me an Uber, which whisks me off to the Brick Store pub in Decatur. Where I’m meeting one of the owners, Dave.

It's not open, but there are various staff preparing for the week ahead. Dave takes me upstairs to the cask beer bar where we settle down and get a couple of pints. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. t's rather nice, with a soft texture and massive depth of flavour. Dead drinkable, too.

The cask ale bar is a cosy area at the top of the stairs, with the much larger Belgian beer bar just past it. A set of four beer engines stands proudly on the bar. The walls are covered in UK-related memorabilia. With pride off place given to a portrait of Michael Jackson (the beer writer, not the kiddie fiddler). There are also portraits of John Lydon and Joe Strummer.

Dave shows me the cellar, which is a cooled room directly behind the bar. As well as the casks, there are rows of ageing beers, like Hardy Ale. It’s an impressive setup. And a demonstration of their commitment to cask.

This is dead pleasant. Drinking good cask and talking all things beer.

“Would you like some food?”

“Sure.”

One of the chefs has made a Chinese-style stew for the staff. We both get stuck into it.

A couple of hours pass as we chat and work our way through the cask offerings. Creature Comforts Dark Mild is the second beer. Which is also pretty nice. We finish up with Green Bench Dry Irish Stout.

After a couple of hours, Dave drives me over to New Realm. Where I'm meeting up with Mitch Steele.

Mitch arrives after a couple of minutes. We sit at the bar where I get myself an Agave IPA. Which is clear and bitter. Like IPA used to be. I do like an old-fashioned, bitter IPA. A style which seems to have rather fallen out of fashion. The fate of every style, eventually.

We talk about beer trends. And a topic we've discussed before: the lack of preservation of craft beer brewing records. I fear that someone doing my type of research into American beer in 30 or 40 years’ time will get very frustrated. At the sheer lack of hard evidence.

My next beer is Irish Dry Stout. Which is, er, dry and roasty. I’m just happy to come across a Stout that isn’t either full of weird crap or served on nitro. Or both.

It’s always good chatting with Mitch. He’s a fun bloke and extremely knowledgeable. A great combination.

I don't get long with Mitch as he's doing a podcast later. He gives me a lift to my hotel. Where I check in and lay about my hotel whisky.

Feeling a little peckish, I head off out. As it’s after 9 PM, pretty much everything is shut. Spotting a Subway, I get myself a sarnie. Only a six inch, as I’m not ravenous, just a bit hungry. It’s pretty OK. Slightly surprisingly. Especially with a shitload of jalapenos.

I don't stay up too late. Lots of stuff to do tomorrow.




Brick Store Pub
125 E Court Square,
Decatur,
GA 30030.
https://www.brickstorepub.com/



New Realm Brewing Co.
550 Somerset Terrace NE #101,
Atlanta,
GA 30306.
https://newrealmbrewing.com/atlanta/