Beer Issue - Foaming at the mouth!

Patrons of Atlanta’s most popular bars pledge a sudsy allegiance to some of their favorite brews

THE BRICK STORE PUB</
Russ: The Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Stout. One of the big attractions is that it’s 9.5 percent alcohol. It’s pretty much the heaviest stout money can buy. The flavor is good and a lot of alcohol doesn’t hurt. The flavor is chocolaty, rich stout. So it has a lot of body to it. It’s like a meal it’s so heavy. It’s good to drink when you’re eating; it’s good to drink instead of eating. The alcohol works better then. It is completely dark and opaque. No sunlight can penetrate it. It’s hard to find in Atlanta, so when I’m here, that’s what I drink. They don’t even have it at Taco Mac and there’s hundreds of beers there. I’m a member of the Passport Club at Taco Mac, which means that I have had over 125 different beers, so I’ve had a lot of beers and the Great Divide is my favorite. I walk here [Brick Store Pub]. I don’t have to drive. If I was driving I wouldn’t drink it.</
DUGAN’S</
Rob: Stella Artois. Everybody talks about a full-body wine; Stella tastes like a full-body beer. It just encapsulates all your taste buds and it makes you recognize it, and at the same time it lets you know, “I’m not overbearing but I’m a good beer.” I can take it whether I’m eating chicken wings or a filet mignon. It just blends in well. Even if I get some cognac prior to it, it blends in well. I like the color, I like the amber of it, I love the flavor. When I drink about three of them, I’m feeding myself like a good meal because it has such flavor. The Stella glass they put it in actually lets the beer breathe. Sometimes when you’re drinking a Heineken, it can be kind of musty. But Stella really breathes. It’s almost like a champagne.</
MANUEL’S TAVERN</
Robin: Terrapin Wake-n-Bake. It’s brewed in Athens. I like to drink my beer ... [and support] smaller companies. They taste better; there’s more of a variety of flavor. I just like the idea of the entrepreneur, starting out and just doing something different and not mainstream. I can’t do the big domestic beers. They’re very watered down, really little to no flavor. The Wake-n-Bake is a stout and it’s actually a coffee-oatmeal stout. So it has this beer flavor but it also has this intense coffee flavor. It’s actually brewed with coffee. You open up the beer and it smells exactly like coffee and that’s what really catches a lot of people off guard. It’s, “Wow, this really does taste like coffee.” Most people don’t expect that from a beer. It’s a high-gravity beer. So you get your bang for your buck. Financially it’s a good decision if you’re drinking on a budget. It’s a sit-down-and-relaxing-after-a-long-day kind of beer.</
THE EARL</
Jed: Guinness. I drank Newcastle for a long time and then it started to taste like water, and so I had to go on to something darker, which is Guinness. I love it and I drink it every time I’m here to excess. Guinness is one of the default drinks that a lot of people drink at the Earl. And frankly, when you’re here, what else is there to drink besides something that is already part of the status quo, if you want to be part of the scene? It has antioxidants. Very important to think about. And also it has less calories than any American domestic from what I understand. The taste is like a nectar. It’s a dark nectar from the most beautiful bumblebee that I’ve ever met. My favorite color is brown and Guinness is dark, dark brown so it usually matches what I’m wearing. And when I’m here, I have jerk tuna and a Guinness. There’s something about the crispness of a Guinness and the tanginess of a tuna. Fantastico!</
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