Beer Tasting – The Market @ Washington & High – 6/17/2011

Hello fellow snobs! My apologies for the tardy post on another excellent tasting The Market @ Washington & High hosted last Friday. A travel conflict kept me away from a keyboard until now. These tastings just keep getting better and better. If you still haven’t made it to one, you need to get this on your radar. It’s very affordable, the food is awesome, conversations are great and the beer is always stellar.

The tasting on the 17th focused on Smoky Mountain Brewery. If you’ve lived in Knoxville for any stretch, you’re familiar with Smoky Mountain and Calhoun’s and probably have had more than one of their brews. The highlight of this tasting was that Marty Velas, Brewmaster for Smoky Mountain Brewery, was on hand to tell us a bit about himself, brewing and then walked us through the beer. Now, for me, this was pretty exciting as I hadn’t met Marty before but had heard a lot about him in the various beer circles around town. Marty has more brewing experience than you can shake a stick at. It all began many moons ago after a trip to Europe inspired him to come home and try his hand at recreating some of the brews he had enjoyed while across the pond. An engineer by trade he dove headfirst into the brewing industry after a brief stint in aerospace engineering in the 1980’s. Marty was able to spend some time in Europe learning more about the art and science of brewing and subsequently got involved in consulting. This allowed Marty to travel a fair amount and help people setup brew pubs and breweries. He also helped establish the first craft brewery in Japan in 1994. It was a consulting gig in fabulous Knox-vegas that inspired him to put roots down here – the Calhoun’s on Bearden Hill. 15 years later he’s still brewing and enjoying every minute of it. Marty also walked us through the brewing process and a brief history of the craft beer industry.

Smoky Mountain brews about 6,000 barrels a year, 8 styles year round and 3-4 seasonal brews. The challenge in brewing for Marty seems to be the challenge in consistency and his meticulous manner and engineering background serve him well in that light. However, he’s not afraid to try new things as he has plans for more one-off brews that will be location specific. Also, the new legislation defining high gravity beer production has already got this brewmaster’s mind turning and has plans for a beer of this nature around the holidays.

Now, before I touch on the beer we tasted, I would be remiss if I didn’t give Mike and his team at The Market a big thumbs up for yet another awesome meal. Benton’s bacon BLT, pasta salad and chips – ’twas awesome!

Mountain Light: We began the tasting with the Mountain Light beer. This brew is made with 100% malted barley with German and American hops. This is a very light and dry beer with some malt flavor to it. It’s very clear and pretty crisp. Very good example of a light lager.

Whitewater Wheat: We then moved to the Whitewater Wheat which is a very light, refreshing wheat beer. This Ale had a hint of fruitiness to it but wasn’t strong, and is cloudy as you’d expect from a wheat. Overall a pretty good beer and one I’d classify as a “dock beer” as it’d be very refreshing on a Saturday afternoon at the lake.

Cherokee Red: The Cherokee Red is probably the beer I am most familiar with at Smoky Mountain as it is what I gravitate to the most when I sit down with a plate of ribs. This is an Irish Ale much like a Killian’s or a Fat Tire. It is a very drinkable Ale and goes well with just about anything.

Black Bear Ale: The Black Bear Ale is a brown ale that is very reminiscent of a Newcastle – just better. I don’t recall ever trying this beer before and was surprised at how much I liked it.

Tuckaleechee Porter: I won’t lie, I’ve gotten more into stouts and porters lately and next time I’m in Smoky Mountain Brewery/Calhoun’s, this is probably what I’ll order. This is a very good example of what a porter should be, it’s got a little sweetness and bitterness to it, you can pick up on the coffee and chocolate notes – nice beer.

Overall another stellar tasting at The Market @ Washington & High and many thanks to Marty Velas for coming out and spending the evening with us!

The next tasting is currently scheduled for 7/22 @ 7pm and Sweetwater is the beer on deck. Curtis McArthur from Sweetwater will be joining us and rumor has it that he’ll be bringing with him a few bottles that we don’t see ’round these parts. Suggest you sign up early by visiting The Market and adding your name to the sheet.

Cheers!