Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 2/15/2016

While the low clouds and frosty morning dew have plagued the land for months, the long winter wasn’t as brutal as the one before, yet the town-folk were ready for some good old-fashioned sunshine and warmer temps. Once Atlanta Winter Beer Fest comes around, there is light at the end of the cold, winter tunnel, and it’s always the best way to kick-off festival season 2016. This year, the weather was almost warm, and the beautiful day, along with the unlimited winter beer made for an ideal Atlanta festival day. We love Atlanta Winter Beerfest!

We always challenge ourselves to find new and exciting beers to chat about and this year was no exception. Over the last few years with the local brewery phenomenon, and the bigger brands clawing to keep up, beer is getting more exciting with new and inventive ingredients to step it up a notch. Be it nuts, chocolate, and everything in between, brewers are pulling out all the stops to entice beer aficionados to buy their beer. Bring it, we say. That being said there were a few fun beers we discovered at this beer festival.

The best beer that we hadn’t tried of Atlanta Winter Beer Fest was Orpheus’ The Ferryman. This Imperial Stout has a little bit of everything from the darkness of the malt, to the nuttiness of the hazelnut, and sweetness of the vanilla. It was the right balance between the sweet and bitter. Has anyone else noticed that a lot of breweries are using hazelnuts in their brew? Monday Night’s Georgian Imperial Stout has it, as well as Southern Sky had a specialty one with hazelnut for one of its employee’s birthdays. It does ad a good flavor to it. We’ll take it!

Some other good beers we discovered were Unknown Brewing Co out of Charlotte’s Silverback Stout. It was a good drinkable stout even if it was a little bitterer, hoppy than I like. It has a lot of chocolate up front and that makes up for the bitter finish at the end. Unknown Brewing just launched in Atlanta in December so you should be able to find something yummy from them at your local haunt. We’re keeping an eye out as we’d love to try the Imperial Stouts they offer. Finally, Burnt Hickory didn’t bring my favorite, Big Shanty Stout, due to the fact it was so popular they were literally OUT, but they had a good Brown Ale called Mudhoney (yes, a tribute to THAT Mudhoney). It was a balanced beer between hops and malt that ended with a sweeter honey hint. Have we mentioned we love the rock-n-roll themed names Burnt Hickory gives all their beers? They have great selection of beers AND name them something fabulous that appeals to our love of rock! Well done, gentlemen.

http://atlantawinterbeerfest.com/