The beers of Fountain Inn: Sweet Water Travel Guide Lager

I haven't posted in a long time. Things are great, but things have also partially gone to shit. I'm in a creative funk, all I do is work, and what's worse I don't make a whole lot doing it. Sounds like a situation I've been in before. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Last time I was in this funk I used the blog as a way to focus myself on accomplishing something and enjoying it. We're going to crank the old girl up and see if I can drive her out of this funk.
The beer I'm reviewing tonight is also about 2nd chances, it's the Travel Guide Lager by Sweet Water brewing company out of Atlanta Georgia (USA, not the country of Georgia. Although I would love to review a beer from there eventually). Sweetwater was started in 1997 by Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney, two former roomates at the University of Colorado and mutual beer enthusiasts. Both graduated in 1993, one continuing his studies at the American brewers guild and the other working for the likes of Mammoth Brewing, Averey Brewing, and Rockies Brewing. In 1996 Bensch visited Atlanta for the Summer Olympics and believed the area to be prime for a west coast styled brewery. McNerney later joined him to start their first brewing location off I-20. The brewery is named for Sweetwater creek, the namesake for Sweetwater creek state park which is located a few miles from the brewery. They sold their first keg of beer on Feb 17th 1997 (it was their ESB, not the infamous 420 pale ale which would be first brewed on April 20th, hence the name) and a mere two years later they hosted the 1999 world beer cup and three years from that they won the 2002 Great American beer festival award for best small brewery. A year later they moved from their original location to a 2,500 foot facility nearby and a year after that signed a deal that increased their distribution from 200,000 cases to 700,000 cases a year. McNerney left in 2008 for family reasons, later becoming the brewmaster of 5 seasons brewery. In 2012 They expanded their facility and increased their production capacity from 100,000 to 500,000 barrels a year later they were declared #26 in the top 50 US breweries and #19 among craft breweries.
I've had beer from Sweetwater many times before and had to stop buying their "tackle box" variety pack as I kept getting completely trashed every time I did. They make a fantastic product that makes you want another, but they also tend to be 7.5-8% ABV which will put you over the edge faster than you realize. Tonight's beer is not quite like that, but hopefully still very good. I bought a 12 rack, that's allot of beer if it's not good.

I received this beer in a sea green 16 oz can with a map of Cape Hatteras on it (it's on the coast of North Carolina). It says on the front in big bold red letter reminiscent of the Wes Anderson film Moonlight Kingdom (really, the whole can is reminiscent of the film) "Guide Beer, A Lager" followed by it's 16oz designation and it's claim to be 4% ABV as well as a few map markers on the artwork. On the rear of the can it has the epitaph "The capitans of those Hatteras shipwrecks: Did they do it intentionally? Did they take one look at all that marlin and tuna and decide to park it on the rocks for eternity? We like to think so. We like to think they're still out there, guiding us through these waters." and then it declares it is "Proudly brewed in Atlanta, Ga". Around the rim of the can it says "for those who show us the way 11% of profits support guides- Guidebeer.com". Apparently it's a charity for retired guides. The website seems to indicate there are four other beer can styles, probably with different corresponding epitaphs as well. well, lets crack the top and see the beer.

nose from the can is a light malty sweetness with a touch of corn. It forms a white and frothy but quickly dissapating head. the beer itself is perfectly clear with a light golden color and low agitation. It's about a 4 on the SRM.

Nose from the glass is the same as the can, but diminished. On first sip, it has an intense cereal flavor. It starts with a heavy cheri-o like cereal malt flavor, then you get sweetness, then the two carry on into a slight sweet corn flavor (I would usually say that's DMS, but on their website they specifically say they used flaked corn in the grain bill, which only has pilsner malt otherwise). I get a slight hop flavor, but not enough to distinguish it from the malt. It finishes dry, just a little astringent, that full lager character really makes it's self known at the very end. Has a generally malty sweet aftertaste, I feel as though it's influenced by the Mt. Hood hops they use. It has a very clean profile, it's not a terribly complicated beer, but sometimes that's ok. In any case, it's a damn refreshing beer.

Listening to a playlist of Psychobilly. So, updates from the last post. I can't believe my last review was March of last year. I own a house now, it's 11 doors down and on the same street as my parents place in Fountain Inn. My 180SX was stolen by some dickless bumpkins out from behind Dave's shop. I sank into a pretty bad funk after that, but by the grace of God about 9 months later a guy contacts me over Facebook and says he's got my old car. Well he bought it about six months before and was getting it ready to register when he kept running into problems because everything was in my name. So he found me in hopes that I could help him out with this and I told him right off the bat it was stolen. Well we got everything straightened out and he brought the car back to me. I can't tell you the rest right now as there is an ongoing investigation on the people who stole it (let's just say we were able to confirm who these assholes were). So I got my car back and I made a great friend out of it. I also bought my great grandfather's 1964 Volkswagen Beetle from my uncle. My family bought it new in 1964 and I have the original window sticker framed on my wall. I'm quite proud of it and have been doing a renovation for the past couple of months. It was in Maine and then Florida, so it's got a few rust problems in notorious problem areas for Beetle's. I'll get it straightened out soon enough, then hopefully I can take it to car shows in town. There is a whole lot more, but I'll save it for future blog posts.

Final thought's. It's a nice and clean sessionable beer. It's tasty and sweet, although sweet beer is not my thing as my readers may remember. I have 11 more and at 4% ABV I think I'll have another. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval!