FuzzyBrew

The spring beer festival season in Memphis continues this month with the 3rd annual Memphis Brewfest, which will be held Saturday, April 21, in Downtown Memphis.

The festival is one of the premier beer tasting events in the Mid-South and features hard-to-find craft beers, international beers and homebrews.

The event, which takes place outdoors in the courtyard of AutoZone Park, starts at 4 p.m. and ends at 7:3o.

Advance tickets are $36 and can be purchased online. After April 15, tickets go up to $39. A maximum of 2,000 tickets will be sold. Net proceeds from the festival benefit Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy and the Memphis Redbirds Foundation.

So what’s new this year?

Joe’s Wines & Liquors has stepped up and will be a Tier I sponsor. In addition, there will be an auction for a New Belgium Fat Tire Cruiser bicycle, with proceeds benefiting the festival’s two charities.

On April 17, there will be a special Sports 56 WHBQ remote broadcast at the Downtown location of the Flying Saucer, with beer specials.

And on the day of the festival, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., there will be a brewers/distributors brunch, which is open to the public. The pre-beerfest gathering at the Flying Saucer will feature a buffet that includes breakfast tacos, shrimp & grits and plenty of fresh fruit.

For a recap of last year’s event, go here.

We’ll share more details about this year’s event as we hear about them.

Craft beer fans converged on Handy Park off Beale Street in Downtown Memphis on Saturday for the 3rd annual River City Brewers Festival.

More than 100 different beers were served, from craft beers to homebrews provided by the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs. There were also plenty of free food samples, from chicken wings to steaks to pork sliders.

Unlike last year’s festival, which was soaked by rain, Mother Nature cooperated, delivering a perfect 85-degree sunny day.

There were two tasting sessions — Session A from noon to 4 p.m., followed by Session B from 6 to 10 p.m. Festival attendees received a commemorative 5-ounce tasting glass and could sample as many beers as they liked.

Some of my favorites were New Belgium’s Shift Lager, Red Brick’s Old Stock Ale, O’Fallon’s Hemp Hop Rye and Widmer Brothers’ Pitch Black IPA.

The sun was on full blast during Session A.

Justin tapped the first keg of Yazoo Brewing Company’s Gerst Amber Ale in Memphis.

Gerst beer, created by William Gerst in 1893, has been recreated by Yazoo.

Boscos Squared’s brewer Adam served up Memphis-brewed craft beer.

Atlanta’s Red Brick Brewing, which has been distributing in Memphis for about a year, served its fantastic Stock Ale in addition a Blonde and Brown.

Laughing Skull Amber Ale, another excellent offering from Red Brick, was served.

The Patrick Dodd Band provided the soundtrack for the day.

Just what everyone needs: a PBR toaster.

A hoppy highlight was New Belgium’s Shift Lager, which made its Memphis debut.

Lazy Magnolia brought a keg of its new Southern Hops’pitality IPA, as well as the Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale, Deep South Pale Ale and Jefferson Stout.

And, of course, there was cornhole!

Homebrews from the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs will join over a dozen wines on Saturday night (March 24) at a special tasting event in Memphis.

“Steel Toes to Stilettos,” which benefits collegiate members of the Society of Women Engineers, will be held from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Chickasaw Oaks Village shopping center in East Memphis.

The Bluff City Brewers are bringing a Scottish Ale, Kölsch and a “Budweiser with Flavor,” joining 14 different American wines at the event.

Hors d’oeuvres will be served by Just Catering. There will also be live music by local band Good Karma and a silent art auction showcasing local artists.

Tickets are $30 for a single ticket or $50 for a couple and can be purchased online. Attire is dressy casual.

All proceeds support collegiate members of the Society of Women Engineers. These funds go toward supplying free science and engineering based workshops to girls in the Memphis area. Some monetary support goes to sending collegiate members to conferences where they learn many of the skills they need to be successful in the job market.” [source]

For those of you who worry about the quality of the water you brew with, check out MLGW’s recently released water quality report.

We’ve got some great water in Memphis (as Ghost River’s Chuck Skypeck will tell you), and I don’t mess with my water beyond filtering out chlorine (and using a potable hose), but recipes often call for different minerals and such. If you’re trying to clone a beer from a particular part of the world with different water, well, it helps to know what you’re starting with.

Highlights:

Alkalinity (ppm) 54
Copper (ppm) 0.03
Chloride (ppm) 7.2
Hardness (ppm) 47
Hardness (grains/gallon) 2.8
Iron (ppm) 0.04
pH (standard units) 7.2
Sulfate (ppm) 17.4
Temperature (°Celsius) 18.4
Sodium (ppm) 9.78

Oh, and there’s very little poo in our water; coliform bacteria was detected in less than 1 percent of monthly samples.

Download the PDF.