Brew Your Cask Off – @ Sweetwater Brewery – A Review

Howdy fellow snobs –

I hope you’re enjoying this warm weather as much as I am – seems as though spring has sprung. This past weekend a good friend of mine and I met in the great city of Atlanta, which I usually refer to as Dam-lanta as traffic snarls aren’t uncommon – being very “dam” like and because these traffic snarls often make me utter the same word in frustration. But alas, we are off for a weekend away from the troubles of life where we could do as we pleased, eat and drink as we may and not be driven by any alarm clocks or schedules (still woke up before 7am both days, yes, def a FOUL).

I did note that Sweetwater Brewery was having their Brew Your Cask Off Festival and being as I do enjoy cask ales and I had never been to the brewery I chalked this up as a “two-fer.” Tickets were purchased and we went not quite knowing what we were getting into.

If you couldn’t tell by the name – this is an all-cask festival. The short of it is that the base of every cask is a Sweetwater brew. Local companies come to the brewery, pick their brew of choice and cask away- bananas, peanut butter, bourbon, oak…nothing really seemed to be off limits. There were 135 casks in the program but there were a few more than that I’d say. Some good, some bad, some OK and some terrible. Also, while I did mention local companies – our very own Aubrey’s and Bearden Beer Market threw their hats in the ring. The BBM with “Nectar of the Gods” – a nice Belgian wheat that had a nice citrus smoothness to it. Aubrey’s created “Alpha Kenny One” which was a porter that contained french oak chips that had been soaked in Jim Beam along with Maryville’s own Vienna coffee and cocoa nibs – I’m not going to lie, these two were probably my two favs of the evening.

Overall a very cool experience and very different than the usual festivals we go to. They sold out and while I don’t know the exact head count I’d feel safe saying 1,500. Also, the crowd seemed young to me – younger anyway – and yes, I realize I am getting older but still. It was also great seeing many Knoxville friends and KnoxBeerCrew amongst the crowd.

This is certainly a unique festival. It’s certainly worth checking out next year – especially if you dig casks and off the wall creativity.

Cheers!