Been a minute since we visited the mystical land of Biergartenopolis, and this installment comes a bit late considering the event date, I know, but hey.
Busy.
Doing non blog things.
You can deal with it. You'll be fine.
In the short recent history of Memphis microbrews, my wife and I have grown fond of the standard offerings of one High Cotton Brewing. It started with a trip to The Growler for, well, a couple of growlers for a get together we were having at the house. Whilst looking for a couple of beers that would please a fairly broad audience of beer consumers at the house, one of the beers decided upon was High Cotton's ESB.
The Growler, as seen in this post last year
High Cotton's ESB on the left, fresh from the Growler.
If you are unfamiliar with ESBs (Extra Special Bitters), here is the low down as given at High Cotton's page on the ESB, in case you didn't read the above:
Strong bitters can be seen as a higher-gravity version of best bitters. Since beer is sold by strength in the UK, these beers often have some alcohol flavor. In England today, “ESB” is a brand unique to Fullers; in America, the name has been co-opted to describe a malty, bitter, reddish, standard-strength English-type ale. Hopping can be English or a combination of English and American.
To put it in a little different frame of reference, ESBs remind me of what would happen if a Belgian ale and an IPA met and politely shook hands.
Maybe they liked what they saw and started making babies, I don't know.
Point being, they tend to be pretty tasty, finding a balance somewhere between the sweetness and brightness of a Belgian with some of the bitter of an IPA.
At any rate, one growler led to another and before long we saw the ESB and a few other High Cotton selections popping up at local restaurants (Central BBQ and RP Tracks, specifically, but there are oh so many more). A few visits to said restaurants and, before too long, we had both sampled the most of the available line of High Cotton's brews and grown rather fond of them.
During this time, there had been breadcrumbs dropped here and there about High Cotton opening their own tap room. As mentioned in a previous post on Wiseacre's tap room, the micro brew scene is fairly new to Memphis, having previously only been open directly to the public via brew restaurants, most (and pretty much only) notably Bosco's. Fast forward a few years and a law or two later, and we get some more local breweries serving the area and distributing to growler filling stations like The Growler and the Madison Growler and Bottle Shop, and tap rooms at the Growler and Wiseacre.
A little late to the game, but highly anticipated, High Cotton had their grand opening on June 14th, year of our lords two thousand and fourteen. And let's be honest, it really hasn't even been a year since the craft beer scene became "public" (check out this article over at the Memphis Flyer site for more deets on the whole thing), so it's not bad at all in the grand timeline of... you know... time.
Supported by live local music IN THE BREWERY, food trucks from Stick 'Em and Rock'n Dough, and a bunch of decent Memphis folks, I would say the opening was a success. The lady wife individual and I went down for a bit, sampled some wares, and had some pizza. Even met and chatted for about 20 minutes with a Canadian metal fan... FEMALE... that works for a well known locally based gigantor business who was in town visiting (and missing the Revocation show, but that's a whole 'nother thing) and her friend.
But surprisingly, saw no one we knew... weird...
At any rate, 'twas good times. If beer's your thing, go and check it out.
And until you do, check out the visual evidence.
The facade, pic from fuzzybrew.com because, for some reason, I didn't get one.
It's what they serve
The early crowd
The excellent and friendly crew taking care of business
Grain stores. Homeboy in the lower left is another friendly staff member working a second, smaller tap station
DA BREWERY! The equipment was largely taped/roped off, but impressed they even had the room open.
Rock'n Dough Pizza Co truck - when nice Australian ladies with charming accents sell you pizza, you BUY IT. Also, the pizza is awesome.
Cold IPA and ridiculously hot, fire baked pepperoni pizza. Winning combination.
And there you have it. Check out more pics before and during the opening over at ILoveMemphis Blog. Or better yet, if beer is your thing, get yoself down there yoself and grab a pint or a growler.
Do it for yourself. Do it for Memphis.
What?
Weird.
MOST HONORABLE UPDATE:
So, I'd be willing to be that if you're anything like me before we went down to the tap room, you would like to know where it actually is.
And that's fair.
Check 'em out at 598 Monroe in Memphis, just down the street from Kudzu's. The back door is about a stone's throw from the old 616, if'n ye hung out down there as a whippersnapper. Lots of good shows happened there back in the proverbial day.
And since I neglected to give you a location before, I'll even give you a map now. Thanks, Google!
