Brewing in Tennessee

by Bryan Gros

As everyone knows, I just moved to Nashville. Feeling thirsty, I went into one store claiming a large selection of beers. They had a few types, mostly imported light lagers or American-brewed light lagers with labels from foreign beers. I was about to scream "You call this a beer selection?" when my eyes lit upon the wonderful yellow box of Anchor Steam. Unfortunately, the price was $11 for the six pack.

I was undaunted, however. I said to myself, "No problem. You can make better beer than Fritz. Well, almost as good a beer as Fritz. And for only $1.50 a six pack." I was also clever enough to have brought two sacks of Hugh Baird Pale Ale malt from California. All I needed was hops and yeast.

A quick look in the yellow pages showed that I could get my supplies from the Lil Ol' Wine Shoppe or from the US Postal Service. I went down to the Shoppe to talk to the proprietor. He asked if he could help. "Yes," I said. "Do you have any liquid yeast cultures?" He said "All I have is the one kind there in the fridge." Turns out he had five packs of dry mead yeast. Guess mead isn't too popular in Middle Tennessee. "Got any leaf hops?" I asked, but didn't hold my breath. "No, I got pellets in the freezer." I looked and he did have a decent selection of hops, but they were all pellets, all in one ounce packages, and no indication of the alpha acid much less any info on the oil amounts. I left without asking him about the extra p and e in his Shoppe's name.

Since I was getting thirstier, I figured I better get something in the carboy. I didn't have all my equipment unpacked, and mashing in the garage when it's 31 degrees outside didn't look too appealing. I mashed 2# of grain and used a can of amber malt extract and some Cascade pellets. Yep, a can of extract. My first and hopefully last batch of beer with canned ingredients. While I boiled the wort, I figured I should get my mail order catalogs out!

It so happens that I found a liquor store with the wonderful name of Frugal MacDoogal's. They had Anchor Steam for the incredibly low price of $9.00 a six. If you think that's amazing, they also had the Porter and (are you sitting down?) Liberty Ale. It seems that Liberty is not a big seller, however, because when I checked the date code on the bottles, they all were from June.

I got a six of porter (bottled in December), and noticed they had a few cans of malt extract. My curiosity was up, and I looked in the fridge. No leaf hops, but I did see Wyeast! I looked through the yeast and they had a decent sampling of some ale and lager strains. I checked the dates, though, and they were all from December 94 or January 95. Oh well, back to the catalogs.

At least I've got a porter to enjoy while I get my hop order together!

Aren't you glad you live in the Bay Area?