Travel: Check out Miami’s eye-popping Wynwood Walls!

Besides Art Basel, Wynwood Walls 

also make Miami’s art scene hot!

I love to travel and besides featuring great locations to indulge in craft beer and get your grub on, I also make sure to share other attractive gems the world has to offer. With the internationally celebrated Art Basel going on the weekend of December 5^th through the 8th in Miami Beach, I was reminded how cool a certain section of the city was that I visited recently. It’s called Wynwood Walls, an ingenious and simply jaw-dropping reinvention of a deserted warehouse district.  

My cool tour guide.

Spearheaded by the late Tony Goldman, a famous and imaginative real estate developer, in 2009, he saw how the unsightly exteriors with very few windows of abandoned buildings could be incredible canvases for world renowned artists to brilliantly showcase their gifts. Before he passed last year, his vision was thankfully realized.

Here are just a few of the Wynwood Walls I took some photos of. They are always changing so make sure you check this district out and make it your own year-round Art Basel. Below are some of the ridiculously sick walls I saw below. 

The colors and the baby Hulk made this one by Ron English one of my faves!

This was chiseled in the wall!

I had to leave my stamp of approval, of course!

Be sure to support you local artists and cherish the art wherever you are throughout the world. Oh, and good luck to my art homies showing off their work this weekend in Miami Beach including Hebru Brantley, Dubelyoo, C. Flux Sing, Miya Bailey, and others. 

Cheers!

Ale

It's the 80th Anniversary of Repeal Day!

Thanks to the 21st Amendment, craft beer is legal!

I can't lie, I love watching all of those captivating, violent and witty gangster movies and television shows based on the crimes of selling liquor and beer during the Prohibition mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment  via the Volstead Act between 1920 and 1933. Of course, those pubs and breweries of yesteryear were not as inventive, utterly delicious ales and lagers we are lucky to indulge in today (we're talking mostly lagers in the 5 percent ABV range served in glass mugs like the one above), but the spirit of sipping the world's greatest beverage remains in tact for the past 80-plus years. 

In case you don't know about Boardwalk Empire, get HBO On Demand and step your game up! This official 'Cheat Sheet' should help.

And with that, I say hoist a glass to the ongoing movement of brewing finely crafted ales and lagers; phenomenal film productions like Boardwalk Empire and The Untouchables; and the overall freedom to do whatever the hell we please in the U.S. ...to an extent.
I am hitting up a few spots in Atlanta including the Wrecking Bar for the new batch of Hop Noggin, West Coast-style Double IPA birthed by my homey Neal. What are you up to? Whatever you choose, just make sure it's a brew that's, well, gangster.

Cheers!
Ale

Pumpkin Ales you should consider...

Check out my latest Jezebel Magazine beer feature.

I did this article in the latest edition of Jezebel Magazine featuring the best Pumpkin Ales on the shelves. Get 'em before they're gone. (Oh, the aged ones sit pretty well too.) This joint is on page 120. Here's the digital version of the magazine. Dig it!
Happy Holidays!
Ale

Plain and simple, I hope you get to try my brew...

Ale Sharpton and Little Cottage Brewery present... 

The Shake Yo' Rumpkin 

Imperial Rum Pumpkin Ale

The Shake Yo' Rumpkin homebrew I crafted with my homey Jon Shari and Little Cottage Brewery (follow him here) is something I dreamed about making and it's all of 8.47 percent ABV plus absolutely gangster! I can't disclose more than that, besides saying this is finally the brew I would go to war with. (We will go over the ingredients when we link up.) I just hope to see you and give you a pour because it is extremely limited. 
Of course, I am having a few bottles chill out for a year to really see how nuts it can be, but even after a week of being bottled, I am already grinning ear to ear on its progress. 
The Shake Yo' Pumpkin on the right is the original version and is nothing to eff with either, but the Rumpkin? Cray-cray.
Cheers!
Ale

I had a blast on Atlanta Eats TV and Radio!

Steak Shapiro and I are choppin' it up at The Porter Beer Bar during his beer episode.

This past Saturday was a classic day for beer!

In case you missed the last episode of the Atlanta Eats television show that came on Saturday morning, November 23, they have it posted on their website. (Here is the link.) Hosted by local celebrity and gourmand Steak Shapiro, this particular show featured some of the main spots of Georgia capital's beer scene, including SweetWater Brewery, the Brick Store, Hop City, and the Porter Beer Bar. I was asked to join Steak at his Porter stop, and I was more than happy to join him. Although I would love for you to check out my segment in the beginning, but the entire show is well done. 

And if that wasn't enough of a great way to start off the day, the Atlanta Eats Radio show booked me for a live interview right after the show aired, so I happily drove over and kicked it with their jovial host Mara Davis. That went super well, especially after I cracked open the liquid surprise I had on deck: Enter the delicious Terrapin Brewing Company/Schmaltz Brewing Company collaboration called the Reunion Ale '13: A Beer For Hope, a brown ale brewed with cocoa nibs, cinnamon, Jittery Joe's coffee and vanilla at 7.5% ABV with proceeds going to the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research. I lost my mother on this exact day two years ago from f*cking cancer (see my post about it here), so it was fitting to present this sipper during my radio appearance.

Mara and the Villains Wicked Heroes posse.

Here is the link to my fun interview with my homey Mara. We start at around the 49:19 minute mark. Highlights include a hilarious beer song intro, some impressive belches, my connection to Reverend Al Sharpton, plus my shout outs and recommendations on places around Atlanta and throughout the nation to indulge in the best beverage on earth. 
After we finished, the Villains Wicked Heroes rolled through with my favorite salad in the city, their Hail Nero made with kale, and some of their crazily inventive sandwiches. 
After that, I was off to Burnt Hickory Brewery to be a guest pourer (see the @DrinkLikaFish video here), then a potluck dinner and debut of the Shake Your Rumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale brewed with my dude and homebrewer extraordinaire Jon Shari, and closed the night watching that bullsh*t Pacquiáo fight at my fellow Brew Tang Clan member Mike's house. 
What a day. Thanks Mom.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Ale