Bluetick Brewery | The Beer

You may have caught our post a few months back on Maryville’s up-and-coming brewery, Bluetick Brewery. In case you missed it, in a nutshell this is a co-op brewery where beer fans such as you and I can buy-in and not only have a say in what’s brewed but also get some free beer kicked back to us on a weekly basis. Also, for a few more bucks, you can get your homebrew supplies at cost through the cooperative – pretty cool and for some of you it may be the best financial decision of your life. More on this in a minute. I think the big question on everyone’s mind before creaking open the old cow skin, green keeper is, “how’s the beer?”

Last week, Bluetick Brewing teamed up with The Market in Maryville for Pork and Pints – two of our favorite things. The best part? The beer was free. Yep, you heard me – free. Old Blue brought three beers for us to check out, and check out we did. There was less than 30 gallons on hand and a thirsty crowd to boot (note the line in the pic as far as the eye can see), but we got a great taste – here’s our take.

Rocky Hop IPA:  This is a black IPA which according to their sign is made with a faucet chocolate grain. This beer has great chocolate and coffee notes and is very drinkable. Centennial and cascade hops are used in this beer and it rounds out to a nice 5.6% ABV. This is not only a nice black IPA but a very sessionable beer.

Chimney Tops Peat Smoked Porker: This is the beer I started with and I almost didn’t try anything else as I enjoyed this one so much. The exciting part of this beer is that George Dickel whiskey was used to soak some barrel chips and tossed in to give this porter a very subtle sweetness right at the end. It by no means over powers but gives a great flavor to this beer. Head brewer Chris Snyder told me he felt he needed to increase the grain bill on this one to give it more body and while I don’t disagree that wouldn’t be bad, it’s still very good. 6.0% ABV.

Mt. Pleasant Amber Ale: I’m not a fan of amber ale and I almost didn’t try this. Usually I find amber ales just “okay” and I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t even pay much attention to them anymore. This beer has taught me not to be so dismissive of other styles. Cranking in at 5.6% ABV the grain smoked over cherry wood brings an incredible smokiness to this beer that I cannot adequately describe in this post. Hands down, this was my favorite beer of the evening. I like being surprised and this accomplished that.

So, the verdict? Pretty good stuff and with the exception of the porter as mentioned above, dialed in pretty well. Wondering how to get involved? Here ya go:

Lifetime Membership: $200 one time payment
– Two pints a week at the tap room.
– Voting rights for your favorite beer and to determine the set “house beers” always on tap.
– Discounts towards merchandise & growler fills & weekly member specials
– chance to be on the board of directors

If you’re a lifetime member, you have the option to sign up for the LeConte Club for $360/year you get an additional growler fill per week and access to all your homebrewing supplies at cost. As I mentioned above, depending on how much you home brew, this could be the best financial decision of your life.

Their website will be online shortly and you’ll have the option to sign up there. Be sure to check them out on Facebook though for all the latest and greatest info.  In the mean time, these guys are working hard to have the brewery open to members in March of 2013 and the general public in June of 2013.

Exciting stuff and I’ll know you’ll join me in raising a glass to say CHEERS!