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We had worked our way through a good chunk of Blue Ridge Georgia and were almost ready to head home. Almost, I say, because we hadn’t yet been to Fannin Brewing Company for a visit and a few beers. Fannin is a brewery, not a brewpub, you see and they have limited tasting hours on the weekends. Fridays the tap room opened at 530 PM and closed at 7PM, not a huge window but surely enough to try the 4 beers they offer. If you can’t make that, they are also open on Saturdays from 2PM to 6PM.
I had already tried a growler of their well-done Blue Ridge Lager from Stout’s Growlers back in Canton a while ago, so I pounced on Black Bear Lager for all it was worth and left 7 Hills IPA and Dahlonega Gold for later.
You can’t beat the price of admission. A tour of the brewery, souvenir pint glass and 6 8-ounce samples will run you $12. That’s not bad at all, really, $4 a beer plus a free glass. By Georgia law, they can’t serve you any more than that, although the law just changed and will soon allow you to receive up to 72 ounces of beer to take home with you. The catch: the price of it has to be built into a tour. You can enjoy your beer at one of the benches inside the tasting room or outside in the patio area. We chose the latter as it was a pleasant day.
The 7 Hills IPA was a pleasant beer to enjoy that day. Named (I assume) for the city of Rome, Georgia, of which the brewery has a picture on their website. This is a seasonal beer that the brewery says is offered May to August; I found it on tap in late April. The beer has an alcohol content of 5.4% by volume. They also say this about it on their website:
Our first official take on a true IPA, with an IBU of 85. This beer has Mosaic, Amarillo and Citra hops, which delivers nice citrusy notes. We tried to stay true to our German roots, thought - wheat delivers a great mouth feel. Come tell us how we did.
My glass of Fannin Brewing 7 Hills IPA arrived a bright orange amber color with a medium film of head and a luscious tropical fruit nose of melon and passion fruit. Taking a sip, the beer had a light to medium malt body up front with just a hint of caramel and then more of the passion fruit hops the nose promised. The Mosaics are really apparent here, but the beer finishes with a long dry bitterness as well. Quite tasty indeed, I didn't get the wheat so much though I think it added to the lightness of body. A stab at a "session IPA" perhaps? I found this to be more an American Pale Ale than a true IPA myself.
If you’re in Blue Ridge, Fannin Brewing is definitely worth a stop. Tell them the bruguru sent you, and you can thank me later.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft