Dare all, and prevail.

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It's going to be beautiful. It already is.

It's noon on a Friday and the sun is brilliant and warm. We mill about waiting for everyone to arrive for a group photo.

Today, I am just a stranger bewitched by the vacant spaces and dreamy light. I am just doing my job, watching for natural frames and dramatic shadow. Trying to capture the thousand tales being told in every unlit corner, in these worn floorboards, in these old brick walls. Waiting for an honest and unexpected laugh.

Inside, sunlight spills across the empty floors mixing with soft, deep shadows. Before we get to the posed pictures, Jen Hidinger and Ryan Smith take us on a tour of the building, helping us envision the future barkeep, tabletops, and outdoor patio seating that will transform the space from dream to reality.

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I'd heard of the Hidingers through Sweetwater's fundraising initiative, but until last week when I was invited to photograph recipients of a giant check for over $36,000 in proceeds from sales of Sweetwater's Second Helping IPA, I didn't really know their story.

Ryan Hidinger was 36 when he passed away this January after battling late-stage gall bladder cancer. Forbes called it a tragedy, but there's nothing tragic about Ryan's life or the legacy he leaves for the rest of us.

Soon now, Staplehouse will open its doors, a restaurant whose post-tax funds will go in their entirety to the non-profit The Giving Kitchen, which seeks to support hospitality workers faced with unanticipated hardship.

From The Giving Kitchen website: 

"Combined with funds raised by TGK from charitable contributions, the profits of Staplehouse will help TGK fund grants to help pay excessive medical and other expenses for the people who anonymously and graciously nourish so many of us during our dining experiences and who may find themselves in a time of need."

In the moment Jen Hidinger and Ryan Smith are handed the check, everyone is visibly moved. I feel suddenly privy to a moment I did not earn. Humbled to bear witness to this unflinching love. I don't hesitate to call it that--love. You'd have to blind not to see it. This quiet, even, bottomless love.

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It's rare to encounter someone with both extraordinary talent and extraordinary selflessness, but if you ask anyone who knew him, Ryan Hidinger embodied both. Though the almost $300,000 raised by the community for his treatment did not ultimately stop Ryan's cancer, he chose to live a life that inspired an unstoppable dream. A life that dares the rest of us to dream big, be kind, and take care of one another.

I look forward to the day I can pay my respects at a Staplehouse table. Join me.

Staplehouse
541 Edgewood Ave.

ATL, GA.


Dare All and Prevail from Gregory Miller Pictures on Vimeo.

#EarnYourBrew: A Fitness Challenge for Beer Lovers

What?

A fitness challenge for beer lovers. Any goal you like. Attainable, realistic, and workable for your life. My goal is 6 miles of walking a week, any way I can get it. What's yours?

Why?
As most beer enthusiasts will likely admit, taking up drinking as a hobby can really add some inches to the waistline. I'm not overwhelmingly vain, but I do like to feel good, and moving my body (to the beat or otherwise) just feels good. My mind is clearer, my stress levels lower, and my motivation on the rise. What's not to like (seriously, can my enthusiasm be any more annoying at 9am?). Plus, there are only so many days until summer left, and I'd like to feel a little more free in the skin I'm in (bathing suit season--need I say more?).

When?
I'll be spreading out my miles between two days each week. Bonus points for hula hooping on brew days. Pick a day (or every day) and get er done.

Where?
Inside, outside, upside down. Ok, maybe not the last one. Personally being in a gym kinda drives me batty, so I'll be walking it up through the many beautiful parks and trails we's got's here in Georgia. Post your fitness goals to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook with #EarnYourBrew. Let's do this.

How?
Eat well, fill that pint glass with water (in between the beer of course), and use the hashtag #EarnYourBrew to keep track of meeting your weekly fitness goals. I'll be looking through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for media to share of others throughout the week.

Tweets about "#EarnYourBrew"

Beer, baseball, and ice cream in single serving fix

This summer Atlantans can get their beer, baseball, and ice cream fix in a single serving as they take to the stands at Turner Field.

Frozen Pints, co-founded by business partners Aly Moler and Ari Fleischer, will be available in a branded cart on the main concourse of Turner Stadium "near a booth that sells craft beer."

In addition to exploring new corners of the ice cream market, Aly and Ari have been hard at work on a new flavor combination of Frozen Pints which marries Goose Island's Sofie (a twice-fermented Farmhouse Saison with a delicate, champagne-like flavor profile) with strawberries and cream. The limited-release flavor Strawberry Sofie is officially set to hit shelves this week.

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I had a chance to preview the flavor myself during Goose Island's Migration Week this month at Ormsby's in Atlanta which hosted a ladies-only evening of ice cream and beer pairings.

A rep. from the brewery did his best to elucidate the finer points of the Goose Island beers as we tasted each one along with a different flavor of Frozen Pints ice cream (though I'm not sure how dialed in he was to the existing expertise of his audience. "Next ladies, we have our IPA, which means India Pale Ale...," maybe the incredibly knowledgeable and nearby standing female rep. I'd met earlier in the week would have been a more appropriate choice? But I digress).

While strawberry ice cream has never been my favorite (I still prefer the more hop-forward and beer-centric styles of ice cream like the Frozen Pints Peach Lambic and Frozen Pints Honey IPA) I did think the sweet, fruity, and mildly beer-flavored Frozen Pints Strawberry Sofie paired beautifully with the tart and boozy Goose Island Lolita (not a menu-approved pairing, I might add).


If you don't want to wait until opening day, you can go ahead and get yourself a scoop at local Georgia retailers.

Sweet Cans Coming to a Pool Near You

Sweetwater Brewing celebrated their 17th anniversary this past February, and with a new canning line already up and running (and rumors of some other exciting plans in the works) they have a lot to be happy about.

I was invited to take a closer look at the canning line, and made a short film to let you in on the magic.

Because they're can conditioned, the samples they gave me to take home will have to wait a couple weeks in the fridge before I can pop the tops. But as the saying goes: patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

The brewery is rolling out 12-packs of 12-oz 420 cans throughout Georgia to start, but will follow up with IPA 12-packs and 16-oz tallboy singles of both 420 and IPA throughout the rest of its Southeastern footprint early this summer.

There's No Place Like Home: A Visit With {Omaha Brewing Company}

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Set to make their debut at the upcoming Georgia Craft Beer Fest in a few weeks, Omaha Brewing Company might be the only Georgia brewery you have to drive through Alabama to get to.

About 20 miles south of Columbus on the Alabama-Georgia line and a stone's throw from the Chattahoochee, Omaha emerges almost out of nowhere amid a stretch of undisturbed pines and swampland scrub. Unlike other places I've visited, the location almost begs the question of place. Why here? Why Omaha for a brewery? With a deep and personal family history tying the owners to the town, it's not a question that goes unanswered for long.

I recently got a chance to spend a weekend in Omaha with my family to preview the brewery and try their beers. As with other small, locally-owned Georgia breweries I've visited, there's a sense that the beer is more than just a business. Even in its unfinished newness, Omaha Brewing Company seems to gleam with promise, offering potential commerce to an area that's long gone without.

Robert E. Lee and his wife Stephanie Lee, the brewery's owners, warmed their hands while we talked fireside. Beneath the old oaks on the plot where his grandmother's house once stood, Robert told tales of growing up in this small Georgia town. He attended school in Omaha's one-room schoolhouse where students from first through fifth grade would complete their lessons under the direction of a single teacher. He still retains ownership of much of his family's land.

The Lees approach outsiders and each other with such familiarity and deep Southern regard that it's easy to feel at home in their presence. They've informally adopted their brewer, Nick Fowler, as one of their own. "He's like one of our sons now."

Formerly employed by Red Brick Brewing in Atlanta, Nick says he's lucky to be living on the property his boss's late aunt once called home. A working electric organ (a Wurlitzer) that once belonged to her still stands in the dining room and provided hours of entertainment for my four-year-old son. With only minutes to commute to work, Nick says he enjoys having time to hunt and fish here, and the space it allows his dog Simcoe (who is often by his side) to be a "free-range puppy." 

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In a way, looking at Omaha is like looking at the stars. It's hard to know which fires are still burning and which have gone out. At night, amid the hums and howls of humans and animals alike, the town seems alive with ghosts.

A town that flourished during the cotton boom has since been left to vouch for its own, seemingly skipped over by the census bureau in 2010. Robert says he's watched the population fall from about 350 to just over 100 residents in recent years, many of whom are still blood relatives.

The people, perhaps here more than other places, seem to live by an unwritten code. They take care of each other. They make do, and in some instances, they make their own rules. Neighbors offer up the gutted boar laying on the back of their pickup. In the lazy and unexpected warmth of a February afternoon, an old toilet becomes target practice on a derelict and blocked off bridge. Along isolated backwoods roads, open container laws might be more of a suggestion than a rule.

But isolation also comes at a cost. A recent fire destroyed a large pavilion on part of the Lee property. Nick says the fire department in Lumpkin, fifteen miles away, didn't even know where Omaha was. 

Introducing herself as "Blue Jeans," Stephanie shook visibly as they assessed the damage, reclaiming a "welcome home" sign from what remained of the pavilion. "It's hard--this is the first time we've seen it," Stephanie said, squeezing my shoulder. Offering her apologies, she expressed gratitude for the safety of their son (who'd been sleeping there up until the night before the fire). "It was home to us. It will be again. We are so blessed." 

It's taken me far too long to distill the experience of visiting Omaha. That Wurlitzer shook loose too many long put away memories, maybe. Or it might have just been the overlap of days drinking good beer that made it hard to untangle some perspective from the poetry that's wrangled my brain the last few weeks.

It's easy to fall into the sky when it looks the way it does in Omaha. To want more of the stillness, slowness, and quiet that I got in those few days there. To want more time amid the vastness of the world above we can only see when the lights are turned out.

Late at night, Nick takes us out to the family's hunting field to get a look at the sky. Beneath brilliant starlight, he tells me it took a while to be convinced, but he knows that "even in places like this people can understand the story of craft beer."

And with approachable, well-crafted beers already in the works (I got to sample more than my fair share of the Hoppy Wheat and Hefeweisen) it's a story that's easy to believe. A recent graduate of Siebel's World Brewing Academy, Nick is in a unique position to make his mark and seems set on doing just that. 

The beer...

Oma-Hop: A hoppy wheat session ale with a light body, low IBUs, and huge citrus hop aroma and flavor (coming entirely from Citra hops), it's an easy-drinking, hop-forward delight that could very well be a gateway glass to another world for many novice craft beer drinkers (in my humble opinion).

Nada-Banana: The Weiss beer is a German style, done in a slightly modified method Nick came up with that uses low alpha bittering hops, and a large addition of cascade at flame out, fermented at higher temp (76f) to promote the banana esters from the Weihenstephan yeast.

Confirmed brews on deck include an oak-aged Imperial IPA, and a Jack Daniel's barrel-aged Imperial Stout (the last of which I can say firsthand is surely going to send some beer-geek hearts aflutter).

Stay tuned....

Follow Omaha Brewing Company on Facebook for updates, or join me in welcoming them at the Georgia Craft Beer Fest this March!

Haley Cowan: A Lady Who Loves Beer

Haley Cowan is one busy lady. Juggling both her Doctorate of Pharmacy degree and her role as Brand Manager for the local and newly launched Eventide Brewing, this South Georgia native grew up among the cotton blossoms and the peanut crops. 

When she's not talking, tasting, and toeing the beer line, she's got her nose in the books studying for exams. Despite her Georgia roots, she'd gladly relocate to Spain (tomorrow, if you asked) and travel back in time to meet Amelia Earhart for a flight of another kind. Find out more about Haley in this month's focus on Atlanta Ladies Who Love Beer.

Tell us about you. Where are you from? How did you end up in Atlanta? Do you think this is your forever home?

I grew up in a small town in South Georgia, in a place where the smell of freshly dug up peanuts permeates the air in late summer, giving way to cotton blossoms in the fall. I spent my college years in Statesboro at Georgia Southern where I met Nathan and Geoffrey. After graduating, Nathan and I spent a few years living up and down the East Coast. We settled on Atlanta in 2009 so that I could pursue a Doctorate of Pharmacy degree at Mercer while he pursued a career in engineering. While we have a lot of roots and family in Atlanta, we have high hopes of living abroad. I would happily move to Spain tomorrow given the opportunity.

When you're not drinking beer, you're...

Not drinking beer…ha, that’s a rare occurrence, though a truer statement would be when you aren’t sampling beer. It’s rare that I get to sit and enjoy a full glass. When I am not focusing on my family or Eventide I am buried in the books, studying for my next exam, or working on my research project.

{Update} with Kati Collier: A Lady Who Loves Beer

What's new with last year's LadiesWhoLoveBeer? I caught up with Kati Collier to find out.

With a new address already busting at the seems with beer, and the new title of Decatur's Girls Pint Out Rep., their growing beer family collection is showing little sign of slowing any time soon.

Kati dreams of making Ina Garten a "craft beer convert" and hopes to one day make space for solid food in the fridge. Catch up with the rest of Kati's news in today's update.

Any new developments on the beer horizon? 

I have had so much fun being back in ATL and getting back into the beer community here. Especially because I’ve met so many great ladies who love beer!

Props to our friend and fearless leader Gina, @atlbrewbabe, for starting up the new Georgia branch of Girls Pint Out. She’s doing a bang-up job of getting events and logistics going. I am honored to serve as the Decatur Chapter Rep and hope to keep getting connected with great local girls who love beer!
Brett and I closed on our house in Decatur in the fall and have really enjoyed entertaining friends and family there. 

We had a bottle share at the house before Christmas and I made a Mexican chocolate stout pound cake to pair with the epic Mexican Cake stout by Westbrook. The lovely Aly from Frozen Pints brought along some Moo-Hoo Mint Ice Cream and it was a match made in heaven. (Hey Food Network, if you’re reading this I’m totally down to host a show about beer and baking. Call me, maybe?)

I’ve helped Brett work a bunch of events around town, such as the Decatur Beer Festival, Hotoberfest, and Secret Stash Bash. Stone opened up the Alabama market to great fanfare, and so I helped work the Cask & Drum music/beer festival in Birmingham.

New brew loves?

Living in Decatur, a.k.a. the Epicenter of Good Beer in ATL, isn’t terrible. I love being close to Leon’s, The Porter (not actually Decatur, but still nearby!), and the newly renovated Decatur Taco Mac.

Fave new beers in the past few months: the new Stone Go To IPA. It’s a delicious IPA that clocks in at only 4.5%, so it’s not only sessionable but much lower in calories. It just hit the market on March 3rd and is their newest year-round release. Dreams do come true.

Brett and I celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary in January by taking a trip to Washington DC. We really enjoyed sampling the local brews at ChurchKey and City Tap House, among others. Beercations are the best!

Future goals/plans/dreams either beer-related or not... 

I’m excited to help see Girls Pint Out grow in the state and meet more like-minded beer ladies! Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay updated with events.

We also need to do something about our beer cellar situation. Beer currently occupies about 90% of our fridge (terrible problem, I know) so it would be nice to make room for actual solid food again!

If you could have one beer anywhere and with anyone you like (past or present) who/where would you raise your glass and why?

I’d love to make a craft beer convert of Ina Garten. She just needs to know well a Stone IPA goes with her homemade pizza dough. We’d obviously be drinking on the porch of her fabulous Hampton’s home. I’d impress her with my encyclopedic knowledge of her cookbooks, suggest pairings with her food, and we’d laugh over IPA’s as she offered me rosemary roasted cashews.

Pictures from top left, clockwise: Working the Secret Stash Bash, Cask & Drum festival in Birmingham, Monday Night Brewing with a friend, and sharing beer-mosas with Brett at City TapHouse in DC.

Women Unite Over Pale Ale

This Saturday, March 8th, women from across the world will unite over a beer. Brewing a beer, to be exact.

And the state of Georgia is no exception. Members of several women's beer enthusiast groups, including GALS, BeerHeadATL, HeyBrewtiful, and GA Girls Pint Out, will add their names to the ranks as they collaborate on a brew in support of this international event.

Atlanta's Wrecking Bar and Twains Billiards & Tap have been added to the map of international participants, which includes breweries as far away as Tel Aviv, Australia, and Japan.

Globally coordinated by Denise Ratfield and Sofie de Ronde, both members of the Pink Boots Society, International Women's Collaboration Brew Day (#IWCB) is both a fundraiser for Pink Boots Society and an effort to "to raise the profile of women in the industry and to raise the profile of beer to women."

Locally, GALS co-founder Jennifer Kosman O'Connell says she was eager to participate after hearing about the event. "I was immediately on board and was one of the first to RSVP to the event, without even a brewery sponsor." O'Connell says Chase Medlin, Twain's brewer, contacted her looking for participants not long after hearing about the event. Medlin says "there needs to be more diversity in the brewing community" and that he's happy to lend support to Pink Boots Society. 

Sande Edwards of BeerHeadATL, who coordinated participation from Wrecking Bar, says she feels "very fortunate to be able to participate" and owes "a debt of gratitude to Wrecking Bar for opening their doors," adding that she hopes to present more events that "connect Atlanta-area women with their passion for beer."

The beer, a "4% pale session beer with a universally available hop" will be brewed and sold locally under the name Unite Pale Ale (see artwork above left). To follow the day's happenings, you can check back here for updates (see ticker below with embedded twitter search) or keep an eye on social media for hashtag #IWCB.

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