Yazoo/Calfkiller "The Beacon"

[Kealia]

What is it?

It's made with "...some German oak smoked wheat malt, local TN honey, and some in-house Calfkiller-roasted coffee. It's fermented with Calfkiller's house ale yeast and unfiltered..."

Based on that description you would expect a darker beer. Well, you would be wrong - as was I. This poured a light straw color, I'm guessing due to heavy wheat presence. The head on this beer was the thickest, creamiest head I have ever seen on a beer. Period. The beer was carbed up like a hef so it sustained that head, too. After 10 minutes in the glass I finally decided to quit waiting for it to die and take a few sips. After that I dropped a bottle cap on the top just to see how long it would stay. I got tired of waiting and finally took it off.

Again, this is well after 10 minutes in the glass:


The aroma on this one was interesting. While the head was super thick, it trapped the coffee notes and you would have thought this was a porter if blindfolded. Once the head thinned a bit (much, much later) the yeast aroma broke through - Belgian, but not overpowering like some can be to me. There was a sweet something as well - not sure if the honey came through or I just imagined it but try to conjure up a spoonful of honey plus a little sumthin' sumthin from the yeast.

I took a quick video to show head and carb level another 5 minutes or so after removing the bottle cap from the picture above.

The taste starts clean, almost pilsner-like to me, then gets a little sweet, then a little spicy and finishes clean. Wait! After it clears your palette it leaves a coffee aftertaste. Not coffee-like, or roasted malt, but actual coffee. WTH!?!? That's awesome - and confusing.

This beer was absolutely unique. It doesn't smell or taste the way it looks. It's crazy, but crazy-good. My buddy and I split the bomber and just kept sipping while looking at each other like this -->

The ingredients don't seem to make sense and yet they work together very well. We enjoyed the bottle while scratching our heads and saying, "How the hell did they do that?"

Well played Yazoo. Well played Calfkiller.
Thanks Swen!

[swenocha]

Ahh, The Beacon. I love that beer... A lot of people describe the late/after-taste as bacon, but I lean coffee like you do. I just love all the different flavors in that beer. It tastes different early and late in the taste, and at different temps.

To add to this story, I personally labelled and tape wrapped that bottle during a day working at Yazoo. The beer was created to protest the beer tax structure of Tennessee, which has the highest beer taxes in the country and also had a tax structure that leads to rapid escalation of the taxes, leading to many breweries not distributing here and many TN breweries never opening or not distributing. When the label was submitted to the government for approval, it raised some red flags... particularly for the IRS:


(click for larger view)

Note the use of the word tax... several times. The IRS hung the label up to the point that the bottles couldn't be labelled at bottling time due to the fact that they didn't know if the label would get approved. So the unlabeled bottles sat in the corner of the brewery as the approval drug on for months. When finally approved, the bottles had to be hand-labelled. Also, someone got the great idea of wrapping the tops in red electrical tape, which, of course, is an allusion to the red tape of dealing with the government on the taxes (and these labels, for that matter). So, I, and a group of a dozen or so others, labelled and red tape wrapped thousands of these bottles. Had some nice paper cut fingers after that effort from the tape rolls...



Linus and the Sergio brothers discuss the Beacon:


Unfortunately, of the case I got on labeling day, and the four I bought outside of that, I'm down to my last bottle, and it is long gone in the bottle shops. I think I'm going to open it next weekend on our train/beer/vineyard adventure...

Yazoo's blog on the Beacon

Fortunately, the effort of the collaboration (shedding light on the beer tax issues in TN) worked... the tax has been reformed. It's still the highest in the country, but the structure has changed and will no longer inflate crazily like in the recent past. And since those changes, we've had a rush of new breweries and also outside breweries distributing here. Coincidence?

Glad you enjoyed it!

[swenocha]

I should also point out... "What is it?" is a perfect description of most of Calfkiller's beers. They are a local tiny micro that distributes throughout the midstate. This is the only beer of theirs that's been bottled (though Linus and company worked on it with them, and it was brewed at Yazoo, I tend to think of it as a Calfkiller beer mostly, as it presents more like one of theirs), but all of their beers fit the "what is it?" category. They are hard to describe, but are totally awesome.

They are into a lot of crafty things. As mentioned in the vid, they also roast coffee. And they do woodworking.



And they make super-cool tap handles:




I totally love what these guys do. They are off-kilter, they brew nothing to style, they build wacky displays with dangling casks and elaborate woodwork for beer fests:



They also name beers with names such as 'Sergio's Ole Evil Ass Devil Bullshit Ale.'

If you're in the area, you should make sure to catch some of their beers at a good beer bar around town. They deserve to hit it big. As I always say, if you're in the area, hit me up. I'll introduce you to their beers, as well as Yazoo, Blackstone, and a bunch of great local brews...

[Inkleg]

......."Note to self, must go visit Swen soon"......

[Brewbirds]

It sounds like they are way to busy but you should ask them to join the . That would be kewelll.

[swenocha]

......."Note to self, must go visit Swen soon"......

All right, Inkleg... I'm looking forward to it. But we're definitely going for hot chicken if you come...

[Kealia]

I regret not trying hot chicken when I was out there, too.
But, I did eat lunch at Monells and will never forget it. I think I'm still digesting some of it, too.

[swenocha]

Yeah, I can understand that from Monells or Arnolds... That's some heavy eatin' right there. Be sure to hit Lizard's Thicket if you go out to SC for more of the same...

[Inkleg]

......."Note to self, must go visit Swen soon"......

All right, Inkleg... I'm looking forward to it. But we're definitely going for hot chicken if you come...

Lets see, visiting with Swen, eating hot chicken and drinking Yazoo beer. Oh hell yeah.