Huntsville Beer - Straight to Ale
Chatting with the team from Straight to Ale. (L-to-R) Beer Guys Aaron and Tim, Straight to Ale’s Dan Perry, and Matt Broadhurst.

Huntsville Beer Road Trip

The Huntsville beer scene is booming.  Due to aggressive changes to Alabama’s beer laws (a lot of that championed by their consumer advocacy group Free the Hops) they’ve seen awesome growth since 2010.  In a very short 6 years Alabama has implemented laws to raise their ABV cap, allow legal homebrewing, allow sales at breweries for on-site consumption, and beginning June 1st, allowing to-go sales from breweries of up to 288 oz of beer – equal to a case of 12 oz cans/bottles.  As those of us in Georgia are all too aware, this is a pretty amazing accomplishment.

For our official Alabama kick-off we met up with the good folks at Straight to Ale and taped a show (airing 05/21) then hit the Rocket City Brewfest and some other spots around town.  We met a lot of great people, drank a lot of great beer, ate some awesome food, and saw a bunch of rockets and a space shuttle.  A combo I highly recommend.  If you’re planning a weekend getaway don’t leave Huntsville off your list.

This is most definitely not a complete and definitive list of what to do or drink in Huntsville, just what we enjoyed on our quick weekend trip.  If you have recommendations of what we should try on our next visit, please let us know.

Straight to Ale

Recently celebrating their 6th anniversary, Straight to Ale launched right after the ABV cap was raised in Alabama.  We sat down with Matt Broadhurst (Operations Manager) and Dan Perry (Co-Founder) to talk about their beer, their brewery, and plans for the future.  They shared some of their Monkeynaut IPA and 6th Anniversary dark sour with cherries, which were both great.  I also sampled their He Ain’t Heffe hefeweizen, which is one of the best I’ve had.  Straight to Ale will soon open a second location that will triple their production and double their workforce.  The new location in the Campus No 805 area will be the 3rd brewery in the area and part of a growing craft beer district.  I’d like to give a special thanks to Leslie at Straight to Ale for helping organize our visit.

Huntsville Beer - Yellowhammer Brewery
The Beer Guys squad enjoying some brews at Yellowhammer.

Yellowhammer

Our first stop in Huntsville for a little pre-gaming prior to our show at Straight to Ale.  Yellowhammer is a gorgeous brewery in the Campus No. 805 district with a nice bar area and an attached (but independent) brick oven pizzeria.  We enjoyed a few small pours at the bar while chatting with the team.  Check out their Belgian White and Hops Fell Lager.

Below the Radar Brewhouse

After our show taping we needed some food, so we headed to Below the Radar Brewhouse.  I felt their house brews were just OK, but they had a long list of other beers to choose from, and the food was excellent.  Others recommended their fish & chips, so that’s what I went with, and they were great.  We also tried the smoked rainbow trout and the crawfish arancini di riso bites and I can recommend those as well.  I discovered Blue Pants Peanut Butter Pinstripe here and loved it.  Peanut butter beers can easily taste artificial but this one was excellent, if you enjoy peanut butter stouts give this one a try.

Rocket City Brewfest

Depending on how you look at it our timing was either great or awful for our Alabama launch.  Many of the brewers were busy with festival activities so not the best weekend for schmoozing, but a great weekend to be in Huntsville drinking beer.  To help spread the madness out some the fest is held in two sessions over two days.  We attended the Saturday session and got to try all of the beers we wanted to try except for one, the Beer Camp beer with GA’s Creature Comforts brewery was gone before I could get to it.  From a consumer’s perspective things seemed to run very well.  The festival was busy but I wouldn’t say it was crowded, and things were spread out pretty well to keep people from being wedged in one area.  It also helped that the weather was amazing, not a cloud in the sky and comfortably cool.

Of course there was a great representation of Alabama breweries but the overall variety was great.  I saw Georgia’s Terrapin and Sweetwater, Bell’s, Boulevard, Cedar Creek, Cascade, and many others.

Old Town Beer Exchange

Once you try all the beers in Huntsville you’ll need some to take home with you, Old Town Beer Exchange (OTBX) has got you covered.  A combination bottle/wine shop and beer bar, they don’t have a huge inventory but they do have a good selection.  You can even belly up to the bar and have a pint or two to help you decide what to get.

Space Shuttle Pathfinder
Space Shuttle Pathfinder on display at the US Space & Rocket Center.

US Space & Rocket Center / Marshall Space Flight Center

Not beer, but super cool, and worth a day’s time if you’re in Huntsville.  I knew the center was there but hadn’t planned on visiting, when I looked out my hotel window and saw rockets and the Pathfinder space shuttle I changed my plans.  That’s right, I dropped a day of brewery visits to go see space ships.  Crazy, I know.  We took the bus tour to the Redstone Arsenal and saw the test sites where rocket engines were tested for the Apollo program, as well as a tour of the ISS Payload Operations Command Center.  This is one of the best places to go for space buffs, a lot of the US space program’s history is in Huntsville.  They do have Biergarten Thursdays with German beer and food, so if you plan your trip right you can double down.

Beer Recommendations

I sampled a ton of amazing beer in Huntsville, I recommend you try them all, but here are some of my favorites from the trip.

  • Blue Pants Brett IPA | Funky, hoppy, and refreshing.  This was one of my favorites at the festival.
  • Blue Pants Peanut Butter Pinstripe Stout | I know some folks aren’t into peanut butter in their beers, if you’re one of those people, skip this one.  However, if you like the style then Peanut Butter Pinstripe is one of the best I’ve had.
  • Straight to Ale He Ain’t Heffe | Hefeweizen is not one of my favorite styles, it just doesn’t have much going on in my opinion.  But occasionally I’ll stumble on one I really enjoy, and this is one of them.
  • Trim Tab DIPA | OK, not a Huntsville beer but I had it at the Rocket City Brewfest in Huntsville and it impressed me enough I needed to include it.  As I’ve said before, I’m not usually an IPA guy, but I’m leaning to them a bit more.  Trim Tab’s DIPA was probably the best beer I had all weekend, it reminded me a lot of Creature Comforts Cosmik Debris.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find any to bring home with me, but I did get a 6-pack of their IPA.
  • Yellowhamer Hops Fell | This hoppy lager is light and crisp with a good hop aroma and flavor.  Perfect if you don’t want palate-punching IPA but still want some hoppy character to your beer.

More Huntsville area Breweries to Check Out

  • Old Black Bear Brewing Company | Popular brews include Cave City Lager, Milepost 652 ESB, and Speckled Trout wheat beer.
  • Rocket Republic Brewing Company | Popular brews include Mach 1 IPA, AstroNut Brown Ale, and Vapor Trail Cream Ale.
  • Salty Nut Brewing Company | Popular brews include Hop Naughty IPA, Imperial Moustache Red Ale, and #busted Nut Brown Ale.  They recently release Unimpeachable Pale Ale, taking a little stab at Gov. Bentley’s sex scandal.

I’ll say it again, if you’re considering a weekend getaway don’t leave Huntsville off the list of possible destinations.  Take the back roads from Atlanta and you’ll get a nice, scenic drive that will only take a few hours.  There’s plenty of great craft beer to enjoy, awesome food, nice people, and all that spaaaaaaaace stuff.  With the to-go law for Alabama breweries going into effect June 1st, I’m sure we’ll see even more breweries popping up soon.

https://beerguysradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Beer-Guys-at-Straight-to-Ale.jpghttps://beerguysradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Beer-Guys-at-Straight-to-Ale-150x150.jpgTim DennisBeer BarsBeer FestBeer TravelBrewpubsLegislationShowsalabama,Huntsville,Straight to AleHuntsville Beer Road Trip The Huntsville beer scene is booming.  Due to aggressive changes to Alabama's beer laws (a lot of that championed by their consumer advocacy group Free the Hops) they've seen awesome growth since 2010.  In a very short 6 years Alabama has implemented laws to raise their...Cold beer, hot conversations, stupid jokes.