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. The girl manning the tap handles had a difficult time explaining Black Bear Lager to me, not that she didn’t know here beer, but she was trying to explain it was roasty (but not too roasty) yet not as full bodied as a porter or stout. I got the feeling it was a Schwarzbier, and after trying a sip I told her the same. She just smiled and said “exactly!”. And there you go.

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.

Back to the Black Bear Lager. This is a seasonal beer that the brewery says is offered in November and December, though I found it on tap in April. It has an alcohol content of 5.7% by volume with 27 IBUs. They say this about it on their website:

This German Schwarzbier, or black lager, features real vanilla bean.  It's made with all-German Perle hops for a distinctive, chocolate taste.

My glass of Fannin Brewing Black Bear Lager was as you might expect dark black (but not opaque) in color and featured a very pleasant light roastiness in the nose with a moderate amount of tan head to cap it off. Taking a sip, the beer had a smooth clean maltiness perfect for the style with a respectable roasted coffee and chocolate character. The beer finishes dry with roasted malt bitterness and a hint of herbal hops to boot. I didn’t get any vanilla, but I did love the heck out of this beer and it was easily my favorite offered the day of our visit. I do love lagers though. So there.

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



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