Mention in the Commercial Appeal in Memphis

Last Friday, I made what has to be the most boring three hour trip, the one from Nashville to Memphis, to pour beer at a tasting at the Dixon art museum in Memphis. The event was the annual Art on Tap, and about 800 people enjoyed all the beers that are available in Memphis, from Coors and Bud, to microbrews like Yazoo and Sierra Nevada, to honest to god homebrew from the local homebrew club, some of which was fantastic, and some of which was horrible. I was doing my usual multitasking all day trying to get ready to drive to Memphis - standing up one of the new 40 bbl fermenters, planning the next weeks brews, and loading up our poor cargo van with beer for a delivery to our distributor in Memphis, Southwestern Beverages. See, they were almost out of Pale Ale in kegs and bottles, and I needed to get them some before they could come up to Nashville for the next big order of everything. So the van was severely overloaded - and all the weight was in the back end, so that the front tires were probably airborne some of the time. It made for steering the van quite the adventure, especially during the torrential downpour I ran into in Jackson. So I finally made it to Memphis, delivered the beer to Southwestern, got lost five times trying to make it to the art gallery, showed up hot and sweaty in t-shirt and dirty jeans, get busted trying to commandeer a golf cart to bring the beer in to our booth, finally get to the booth with the beer in my arms, realizing that I am severely underdressed for a tasting at an art gallery, and begin pouring samples of my not-cold-yet beer to the unsuspecting Memphis public. Surprisingly, it was a big hit, especially the Hefeweizen.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/sep/11/a11party/

Annual Dixon beer-tasting bash draws crowd to party in good taste

By Michael DonahueTuesday, September 11, 2007

A few sprinkles fell, but, for the most part, the rain held off while guests wet their whistles at Art on Tap. The 12th anniversary of the beer tasting was Friday night at Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

Among the liquid artwork was Yazoo Hefeweizen, Jack Wall's favorite brew of the evening. Jack, bar manager at Old Venice, described it as "full-bodied beer, not too sweet, not too sour."