Happy New Year!  ~ Our new blog is live and our new campaign “Strong in ‘09” is in full swing.  Well, it’s going to be anyway……we wouldn’t say ‘full swing’ yet but fear not.  Anyway, we got together last week to discuss all things beerschool and (of course) to have a brew.  We met at one of our favorite ‘after school’ hang outs the 12 South Taproom in Nashville.  The brew of choice was Lakefront Organic ESB (Extra Special Bitter).

ESB’s are British style ales that traditionally have a little less carbonation but are still rather hoppy.  We liked this beer, we’re always up for trying organic brews and this one did not let us down.  You can definitely taste the hops in this beer but because of the lower carbonation it has a smoother finish.  We’re not sure where else you can find this one in the Nashville area so you might just want to visit the taproom.  It’s in a bottle but make sure you pour it into a glass to bring out the flavor.  I know I know, we’re starting to sound all beer snobby now but it’s true, the beer will taste better when poured into a glass.   GRADE: B+

Well it’s New Years Eve. Time to celebrate the end of yet another year. It’s been fun and there’s a TON coming from beerschoolblog.com in 2009. Can’t wait! Thanks for reading/watching/tellingyourfriendswhoalsolovebeer. Tonight, we will be toasting to you, our loyal students. What will we be filling our glass with? The only beer worthy of this special night…The Champagne of Beers (of course). Miller High Life.

So, as we enjoy drink this classic American lager that prides itself on providing “quality without draining your wallet”, please realize that we do it for you. We do it because we love you and want you to enjoy better beers. Hey, someone has to drink to the High Life on New Year’s while you sip Duvel or Chimay or some other high-gravity/awesome beer.

This one is not good. It’s worth drinking for the novelty though…go ahead, serve it up in actual champagne glasses to impress your friends.

Grade: D- (not an F…because Josh is from Milwaukee and that would break some sort of family code)

Have a good night and BEer safe out there! As Miller says, “Drink Responsibly”.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ~ Brian & Josh

You’ve gotta admit, a brewery with beers named Monk Madness, Menage Frog, Dead Guy Ale and Dad’s Little Helper (malt liquer) must kick a lot of A. Right? Rogue Brewery from Portland, OR does and it will put you on your A as well. We like their beers.

For today’s lesson, we serve as tasters thanks to Jon’s suggestions in the Depot Street post.

First up: American Amber

This is the prom-king of Amber Ales. It’s won three World Champ awards at the World Beer Championships (that’s like getting an A+ in class) and it’s well deserving. It’s smooth and tastey. Slightly sharp but overall, really good! If you like Fat Tire, as just about everybody in Nashville does, you’ll love the American Amber Ale!

Next: Dead Guy Ale

Ok. One of the best Ale names out there. It just screams toughness. For being a very strong, almost IPA tasting beer Dead Guy Ale is quite fantastic and smoother than you’d expect. It’s very good. One amazing thing to note: this beer tastes really sharp when it’s fresh from the fridge…as it warms up, it gets SO much better!

Grade: B

No, not the 80’s glam metal band…

and not the Dodge car…

We’re talking about the new stout beer from our friends at Yazoo Brewery.  Yazoo has taken their popular Onward Stout and given it a little kick by combining nitrogen with carbon dioxide.  When you order a beer on tap carbon dioxide is used to dispense it, adding a little nitrogen during the pour lowers the amount of carbon dioxide and gives it a different taste.  Stout beers tend to have a bit of a coffee taste, the Nitro Stout definitely still has that but it doesn’t have as much of an aftertaste. We think that makes it even smoother and easier to drink.  We know they have it at 3 Crow Bar in East Nashville and we think the Nitro is a limited run so go out and give it a try.  We’re glad we did.

GRADE : B+

Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale by Rogue…..Keeping in the spirit of the beerlympics, we wanted to spend some time with international beers. Honestly we grabbed this one because it has some cool Japanese lettering on the bottle and we figured any beer with the word obi in it must be good because as we all know Obi Wan Kenobi is our only hope

You just don’t mess with a jedi or his beer, we can’t emphasize that enough. You could get yourself killed and we (as your teachers) just don’t want to see our students sliced in half by swords made of light…..sorry…some say we care too much.

Ok so this beer isn’t really from a jedi but it is from the jedi of food Iron Chef Morimoto.

We both liked this one! Its a pretty standard black ale. What that means is it tastes a tad bitter but it’s tolerable. We think black ales are that first step before you dive into the world of “stout” and “porter” - Grade B

p.s. we’re not freaky star wars fans, or trekkies, or anything else like that….not that there’s anything wrong with that!

Mellow Mushroom on the square in downtown Franklin, TN.  We know what you’re thinking…..well actually no we don’t because if we could truly read peoples minds we’d be chillin’ on some island somewhere (well separate islands of course…that’s just weird) because we would have made a bunch of cash from being on the t.v. reading peoples minds…..Anyhoo….. Our point is, Mellow Mushroom might not be what comes to mind when you think of a good place to drink some different beers.  Well, this restaurant has surprised us.  They have a large selection on tap (around 20) and at least twice that many in the bottle.  Plus if you’re there before 7 pm, the beer is cheaper.

Brian grabbed a Sweetwater 420 for $2.25 and Josh had a Red Hook ESB for $2.  The Sweetwater 420 is becoming another one of our favorite pale ales.  If you’re looking to dive into the world of pale ales, this is a good one to start with.  A lot of people say that they don’t like the after taste of some pales.  Sweetwater is great and it doesn’t have a funky after taste.  Some would say “it finishes clean”  but all we know is it doesn’t make your face scrunch up after you drink.  This is good, especially if it’s date night : Grade B+

Mellow Mushroom in Franklin has at least 3 Sweetwater beers on tap and host of others that are sometimes harder to find including Magic Hat #9.  Saga and Introverted One (shout outs) have both posted about that beer so it’s cool to know this is one place to find it in the area.

It’s always cool to find something great when you’re not expecting it.  Cheers to you Mellow Mushroom, we’ll review the Vandy location soon.  Keep it……er…..mellow?  :: lame

p.s. name the movie that this blog is titled after and win!

Our review of 3 Crow Bar in East Nashville: This place is amazing! We tasted 2 beers. 1 was awesome. 1 was bland.

Classroom: 3 Crow Bar

Total of 30 Beers on tap, over 70 beers in the bottle!  A brand new bigger patio and a food menu that includes Sandwiches, wraps, pizza, snacks….etc  But enough “classroom” details, on to the BEER!

Josh started with the GROLSCH FLIP TOP and Brian went for the COOPERS PALE ALE.

The Grolsch is one of the best lagers we’ve had.  Right up there with Samuel Smith’s.  It’s really smooth, a tad sweet (but not over-bearing) and it’s really easy to drink.  Hahaha that makes us laugh, “really easy to drink” …. like beer is ever literally ‘difficult’ to drink ~ GRADE : A

The Coopers Pale Ale.  hhhmmmm, hhmmpphhhh, ugh…. and all those other words.  We really wanted to like this one.  We drank the Coopers Lager at Olde World Leaf and Ale in Brentwood and it was a decent Australian lager.   The lager is like the next step up from Foster’s.  You all probably know the Foster’s “Oil Can”…. that was the good beer we (Brian) would buy in college, aaahhh the memories.  Anyway we digress.  If Foster’s is Australian for beer, Coopers lager is Australian for “great” beer, Coopers Pale is Australian for bland.  It’s just kind of……there.  There is sediment in the bottle of this pale.  Which normally indicates a good, healthy, strong brew.  Not so much here, we think they put it in for show.  GRADE : C-

So, back to 3 CROW BAR.  We really like this place.  It’s a no frills East Nashville bar.  Some of the best bar sandwiches we’ve had and they’ve got a killer beer selection.  Don’t be scared, venture into the East side, and go to 3 CROW BAR!