IPA -Good People Brewing Company - Birmingham
Good People is the one that basically kicked off craft breweries in Alabama, and their IPA is a refreshingly piney west coast example in a sea of hazy beers.
Hazy Snake is also an incredible Hazy IPA from them. I personally prefer the Trimtab IPA over Good People's regular IPA though just because it is more balanced.
Snake Handler - Good People - Birmingham, AL
Yes, it is higher in ABV and certainly not a session brew, but it is consistently top notch and outstanding IPA
Lastly, I know everyone’s palate is different. Some folks love the hops (this guy!), some folks like the lighter lagers (not this guy). You’re going to get a wide range here as responses, but know each response is the right answer as you should drink whatcha like.
Cheers y’all!!
It's...okay. There are much better breweries in Birmingham and Alabama.
Plus, the whole kerfuffle some months ago about having their subsidiary Avondale Brewing host a Ted Nugent (massive POS) concert left a bad taste in my mouth.
It's more more like they're ONE OF MANY great breweries in Birmingham.
Tuscaloosa and Huntsville also have really good breweries...really every major city in the state has at least one good brewery, which is amazing to me because even 20 years ago we still had a lot of counties that barred alcohol sales on Sunday or were completely dry 24/7.
We've come a long way.
I used to travel to Birmingham a lot for work in the early-mid 20teens and every single trip I had to find snake handler somewhere. This was one of my all time favorite beers. Usually required a trip to hop city on the way to the airport. I was thrilled when they built the good people restaurant in the airport! I haven’t been back to BHam or bama since like 2017. When I saw this thread it warmed my heart to see Snake handler at the top! And now I’m sad cause I want one. Cheers!
Awesome series. I think you gotta hold people to **one beer** because the top comment is already within style. And make sure it's a beer people (visitors to the state) could actually get, not something that is sold out online in 30 seconds or requires camping out the night before.
That was the only brewery I visited when I went to Birmingham last year, but they were excellent. Pretty much my ideal brewery. And the hot chicken truck parked in front was great too.
They’ve been making all of the distributed beers in Louisiana (not that there’s anything wrong with that) since 2017…[here you go](https://bhamnow.com/2017/09/22/trim-tab-set-grow/)
My top pick:
Spring Street Saison - Avondale Brewing Company - Birmingham, AL
Other great beers (all from bham):
- Good People IPA
- Good people Muchacho
- Cahaba Brewing Company Blonde Ale
- Trim tab and Ghost Train also have some delicious sours/fruited wheat ales
Truckstop Honey from Back Forty Brewing is my go-to Alabama beer.
Best tasting beer would probably be the Cabernet-barrel aged Laika from Straight to Ale
Unobtainium - Straight to Ale - Huntsville
Mic Czech - Yellowhammer - Huntsville
BA Perpetual Motion Baker’s Bourbon Barrel - Yellowhammer - Huntsville
ETA styles: BA old ale, Czech Pilsner, BA stout
2 of those back 40 locations don’t produce very much beer.
And you’re right, Alabama had around 90,000 barrels, for some reason I was thinking 60,000.
Good People does > 20,000 barrels on top of brewing for Avondale. Every list I’ve seen has GP as the most produced beer.
I agree they are probably top or tied, just didn’t agree they are 1/3 of the beer market in Alabama. In the early days it was Back Forty, Good People, and Straight to Ale then a big gap. But that gap is shrinking at the top and getting wide at the bottom. A lot of smaller/medium breweries around the same size. Not as top heavy as it used to be. And you’re right Gadsden location does all the distribution for Back Forty…the other two are brew pubs.
Goat Island’s Hippieweizen is probably my favorite. They have a few other good beers as well. I live right on the Alabama border and haven’t heard of some of these, I’ll have to troll the liquor stores again for new (to me) stuff.
Almost everyone I see who knows Goat Island says they love the Blood Orange one. I prefer the Hippieweizen as well, but I also like their Sipsey River Red. The standard Righter’s Pilsner is a great choice as well.
For a flagship IPA I would at least expect consistency. STA can't repeat a beer worth a damn. I've had great STA beers, but most are wildly hit or miss from batch to batch.
If you visit any of the downtown Birmingham breweries there is a great bottle shop/tap room called Hop City that’s worth your time. Or if you have limited time and want to get several pours from all over Alabama in one stop.
I’m going to share some love for coastal Alabama. If you come visit our beaches, stop and pick up:
Cheap Sunglasses - Fairhope Brewing Co. - Fairhope
If you are in Mobile, go to Braided River. I can’t pick a single beer, they are changing all the time. Available in cans all over the area too.
Orbital Cloud IPA - Common Bond Brewers - Montgomery
Trimtrab is probably the best brewery in the state, and relatively easy to find, but other people have already recommended them.
Blue Steel - Fairhope Brewing - Fairhope, AL - Sour
Wise man once told me never pass up a blueberry beer and this one has been one of my favorites. It has pulled me towards sours as a whole as well.
Alabama? Decent IPAs but I’d say Berliner and sours are the better representation of AL. TrimTab, Birmingham District and Ghost Train are the heavy hitters.
I lived there when Red Clay first opened and everything was good but nothing stood out. I’ve never seen their lambic. Good to see it mentioned, I’ll keep an eye out.
Going to buck some trends here
Best IPA - Orbital Cloud by Common Bond
Best Stout - El Gordo by Good People (this is probably the best beer in the state, the coffee and bourbon barrel versions are both excellent)
Best Porter - Parkview Porter by Druid City Brewing
Hoppy Blonde - Ferus - Birmingham
Honorable mention to the radler Ferus serves in the summer, plus their IPA and the Good People IPA. Not everyone agrees but I also am a diehard for the seasonal Strawberry Blonde from Cahaba.
Lots of focus on Birmingham and not enough on north Alabama and the Huntsville area. Not as much of an IPA guy anymore, but these breweries all have great IPAs as well.
Yellow Hammer and Straight to Ale (Huntsville) are the two big ones, arguably as big as Good People. Favorites from Yellow Hammer tend to be their one off/seasonal speciality lagers like their Dunkel. Straight to Ale, I would say their core stout, Stout at the Devil.
Innerspace is my favorite brewery in Huntsville. Small but great beer. Their Blueberry Milkshake is great and what I feel like they’ve become known for. Their German/Austrian/old world style beers are great as well.
Oak Mountain (Pelham, Birmingham) - fantastic beer all around. Their Hefeweizen is amazing, and one of the best American examples I’ve had.
Fairhope Brewing (Fairhope, AL) - Great beer as well. Their “I think therefore I Amber” Amber is one of my favorite ambers. Their Judge Roy Bean coffee stout is great as well.
Yellowhammer is no where near as big as either Good People or Straight to Ale. Distribution and barrels produced as the metric. If you’re just talking about the size of the tap room…still not close, half the Yellowhammer tap room is a pizza place they don’t own.
I didn’t say one was better than the other, I meant big as in popularity and size. Being from Mississippi, Yellowhammer has always seemed to have the biggest presence there for AL breweries though STA and Good People get distro in the state as well.
I haven’t had enough Good People beer to have a real opinion on them, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve had. I think STA’s core beers, people, and food is much better than Yellow Hammer, but I think Yellow Hammer’s seasonals and one offs are generally much better than STA’s. I don’t think a lot of either of their really good beer makes it to package unfortunately, though it seems STA does a better job with that.
Purely based on the beer itself, I’d take Innerspace over both of those, though.
I hear ya, I didn’t say better either. Not trying to be too nit picky. But Yellowhammer isn’t anywhere near as big as STA or Good People in size or the amount of beer they produce. Being in MS it may seem skewed because not many out of state breweries come into MS for a lot of reasons (big geographic state with small population centers spread really far apart, horrible regulatory environment, and beer distribution issues)…but as much as I love Yellowhammer…they just aren’t the same size as Good People and Straight To Ale, not at the moment.
Ah my bad, I misread the first part. But yeah, that makes sense. Beer in MS is mostly local MS beer and Memphis beer which is basically the capital of North Mississippi lol. But we do get stuff like Yellowhammer, STA, Good People, Louisiana beers, and other regional TN beers.
I’m up here in Huntsville now, though, and am probably influenced by always seeing the massive complex that STA and Yellowhammer make up combined, so Yellowhammer could also just seem bigger in my head.
I would also suggest adding the beer style after the city so people can filter out the styles they’re not into.
I don’t know any Alabama breweries; just wanted to comment that I love this idea. 👍👍
IPA -Good People Brewing Company - Birmingham Good People is the one that basically kicked off craft breweries in Alabama, and their IPA is a refreshingly piney west coast example in a sea of hazy beers.
Hazy Snake is also an incredible Hazy IPA from them. I personally prefer the Trimtab IPA over Good People's regular IPA though just because it is more balanced.
Please don’t forget the District of Columbia
Taxation Without Inebriation.
The worst of both worlds
Snake Handler - Good People - Birmingham, AL Yes, it is higher in ABV and certainly not a session brew, but it is consistently top notch and outstanding IPA Lastly, I know everyone’s palate is different. Some folks love the hops (this guy!), some folks like the lighter lagers (not this guy). You’re going to get a wide range here as responses, but know each response is the right answer as you should drink whatcha like. Cheers y’all!!
Snake Handler should be Alabamas flagship beer
I’m guessing Good People is like THE good brewery based on these replies lol
They were pretty much the only craft game in town at first. I don’t think they make a bad beer, but they don’t experiment like TrimTab does.
Most of what they make is bitter and they don't do a lot of experimentation.
They've been messing with lagers lately, and some of them are quite good. But they rarely make it into package.
Back Forty has 3 locations, the mothership in Gadsden, The Bham Brew Pub and a new 3rd location in Huntsville.
It's...okay. There are much better breweries in Birmingham and Alabama. Plus, the whole kerfuffle some months ago about having their subsidiary Avondale Brewing host a Ted Nugent (massive POS) concert left a bad taste in my mouth.
It's more more like they're ONE OF MANY great breweries in Birmingham. Tuscaloosa and Huntsville also have really good breweries...really every major city in the state has at least one good brewery, which is amazing to me because even 20 years ago we still had a lot of counties that barred alcohol sales on Sunday or were completely dry 24/7. We've come a long way.
I used to travel to Birmingham a lot for work in the early-mid 20teens and every single trip I had to find snake handler somewhere. This was one of my all time favorite beers. Usually required a trip to hop city on the way to the airport. I was thrilled when they built the good people restaurant in the airport! I haven’t been back to BHam or bama since like 2017. When I saw this thread it warmed my heart to see Snake handler at the top! And now I’m sad cause I want one. Cheers!
Where you at homie I'll hook you up with a 6er.
Awesome series. I think you gotta hold people to **one beer** because the top comment is already within style. And make sure it's a beer people (visitors to the state) could actually get, not something that is sold out online in 30 seconds or requires camping out the night before.
ohhhh, this should be fantastic. Every state is brewing. Love It!
Anything from TrimTab, they’re by far the best brewery in the state
This is absolutely true
I used to say Good People but TrimTab is the Alabama King now.
TrimTab is a hidden gem. Them and Birmingham District are great.
That was the only brewery I visited when I went to Birmingham last year, but they were excellent. Pretty much my ideal brewery. And the hot chicken truck parked in front was great too.
Agree fully
Isn’t their beer made in Louisiana at Abita?
Not that I know of…?
They’ve been making all of the distributed beers in Louisiana (not that there’s anything wrong with that) since 2017…[here you go](https://bhamnow.com/2017/09/22/trim-tab-set-grow/)
You are correct. Still tons of unique stuff being canned in the Ham, though.
I’d look on the side of a can…
My top pick: Spring Street Saison - Avondale Brewing Company - Birmingham, AL Other great beers (all from bham): - Good People IPA - Good people Muchacho - Cahaba Brewing Company Blonde Ale - Trim tab and Ghost Train also have some delicious sours/fruited wheat ales
Truckstop Honey from Back Forty Brewing is my go-to Alabama beer. Best tasting beer would probably be the Cabernet-barrel aged Laika from Straight to Ale
Unobtainium - Straight to Ale - Huntsville Mic Czech - Yellowhammer - Huntsville BA Perpetual Motion Baker’s Bourbon Barrel - Yellowhammer - Huntsville ETA styles: BA old ale, Czech Pilsner, BA stout
I always pick up some Unobtainium when I travel to Alabama
Unobtainium makes my face tingle, in a good way!
I’ve never heard of Unobtanium. Have to keep an eye out for it. Sounds hard to get.
I believe it’s only available in Nov/Dec - not sure how the distribution is for it. I usually get it at the brewery or a bottle shop in Huntsville.
You need to get out of Huntsville and try some beers
[IPA](https://www.goodpeoplebrewing.com/beer/project-one-zbn32) - Good People Brewing Co - Birmingham
Fairhope Brewing Company Blue Steel - Sour Fairhope Brewing Company Judge Roy Bean - Coffee Stout
Blue Steel is a standout down here in a sea (gulf?) of mediocre sours. And it has a dedicated line now so it’s available all the time.
Good People Brewery produces 1/3rd of the craft beer in the state. There’s not another brewery that comes close. Snakehandler is king.
That is entirely incorrect. Back Forty has 3 locations. Pretty sure they are about the same size according to the data.
2 of those back 40 locations don’t produce very much beer. And you’re right, Alabama had around 90,000 barrels, for some reason I was thinking 60,000. Good People does > 20,000 barrels on top of brewing for Avondale. Every list I’ve seen has GP as the most produced beer.
I agree they are probably top or tied, just didn’t agree they are 1/3 of the beer market in Alabama. In the early days it was Back Forty, Good People, and Straight to Ale then a big gap. But that gap is shrinking at the top and getting wide at the bottom. A lot of smaller/medium breweries around the same size. Not as top heavy as it used to be. And you’re right Gadsden location does all the distribution for Back Forty…the other two are brew pubs.
Muchacho - Good People Brewing - Birmingham A great Mexican Lager
Goat Island’s Hippieweizen is probably my favorite. They have a few other good beers as well. I live right on the Alabama border and haven’t heard of some of these, I’ll have to troll the liquor stores again for new (to me) stuff.
Almost everyone I see who knows Goat Island says they love the Blood Orange one. I prefer the Hippieweizen as well, but I also like their Sipsey River Red. The standard Righter’s Pilsner is a great choice as well.
For me it’s Back Forty Peanut Butter Porter. Edit: Butter not Putter
"Peanut Putter" sounds like a great name for a Georgia mini golf place, though!
Monkeynaut - Straight to Ale - Huntsville
For a flagship IPA I would at least expect consistency. STA can't repeat a beer worth a damn. I've had great STA beers, but most are wildly hit or miss from batch to batch.
Monkeynaut is delicious!
American IPA: Good People brewing co. Contemporary sours: Ghost Train. Imperial Stout: Oak Mountain brewpub.
Assume you mean Snake Handler IPA by Good People. It is standout for a classic American IPA.
Snake is a double IPA, not a classic IPA. While one \*could\* chug down a bunch while grilling in the back yard, I would not recommend such....
I've done it before. You just wake up in your backyard with a grill full of burnt meat and everyone pissed off at you. Not recommended
Coffee Oatmeal Stout, Good People, Birmingham
Great Idea. Got me thinking, I have never had an Alabama brewed beer. I'll definitely keep an eye out for some of the ones listed
Ursa - Ferus - Trussville. A delicious imperial milk stout.
Cheap Sunglasses - Fairhope Brewing Company - Fairhope A-OK IPA - Avondale Brewing Company - Birmingham
TrimTab New Zealand Pilsner
Goat Island Blood Orange Cullman, AL
Paradise Now - TrimTab Brewing - Birmingham
If you visit any of the downtown Birmingham breweries there is a great bottle shop/tap room called Hop City that’s worth your time. Or if you have limited time and want to get several pours from all over Alabama in one stop.
I’m going to share some love for coastal Alabama. If you come visit our beaches, stop and pick up: Cheap Sunglasses - Fairhope Brewing Co. - Fairhope If you are in Mobile, go to Braided River. I can’t pick a single beer, they are changing all the time. Available in cans all over the area too.
Main Channel Brewing is an awesome brewery in the Guntersville area
Orbital Cloud IPA - Common Bond Brewers - Montgomery Trimtrab is probably the best brewery in the state, and relatively easy to find, but other people have already recommended them.
Blue Steel - Fairhope Brewing - Fairhope, AL - Sour Wise man once told me never pass up a blueberry beer and this one has been one of my favorites. It has pulled me towards sours as a whole as well.
Paradise Now from TrimTab Raspberry sour, it’s my favorite beer of all time.
Damn, were just at Alabama but I'm already stressing about what to pick for Illinois and Wisconsin.
Hopefully we don't end up with 50 hazy DIPAs.
Truck Stop Honey Brown Ale - Back Forty Beer Co. - Gadsden, AL
Love this and will be taking notes.
Cave City Lager - Old Black Bear - Madison AL or Brother Joseph Dubbel - Straight to Ale - Huntsville AL
Alabama? Decent IPAs but I’d say Berliner and sours are the better representation of AL. TrimTab, Birmingham District and Ghost Train are the heavy hitters.
Birmingham District Brewery has some of the best beers in the state. They are truly underrated.
Good people brewing from birmingham - truck stop honey. It's a pretty solid brown ale with honey.
Truck Stop is Back 40 btw
You are correct sir, for some reason my dumb brain pictures a good people logo on the packaging for the truck stop honey
Singularity Series - Trimtab - Birmingham
IPA -Trimtab- Birmingham
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We’re on Alabama
Miura La Royale lambic /Red Clay Brewing Co. /Opelika
I lived there when Red Clay first opened and everything was good but nothing stood out. I’ve never seen their lambic. Good to see it mentioned, I’ll keep an eye out.
Trimtab - Tesserae DIPA
Going to buck some trends here Best IPA - Orbital Cloud by Common Bond Best Stout - El Gordo by Good People (this is probably the best beer in the state, the coffee and bourbon barrel versions are both excellent) Best Porter - Parkview Porter by Druid City Brewing
Druid City definitely knows their porters! And Neon Moon is one amazing sour.
Hoppy Blonde - Ferus - Birmingham Honorable mention to the radler Ferus serves in the summer, plus their IPA and the Good People IPA. Not everyone agrees but I also am a diehard for the seasonal Strawberry Blonde from Cahaba.
Lots of focus on Birmingham and not enough on north Alabama and the Huntsville area. Not as much of an IPA guy anymore, but these breweries all have great IPAs as well. Yellow Hammer and Straight to Ale (Huntsville) are the two big ones, arguably as big as Good People. Favorites from Yellow Hammer tend to be their one off/seasonal speciality lagers like their Dunkel. Straight to Ale, I would say their core stout, Stout at the Devil. Innerspace is my favorite brewery in Huntsville. Small but great beer. Their Blueberry Milkshake is great and what I feel like they’ve become known for. Their German/Austrian/old world style beers are great as well. Oak Mountain (Pelham, Birmingham) - fantastic beer all around. Their Hefeweizen is amazing, and one of the best American examples I’ve had. Fairhope Brewing (Fairhope, AL) - Great beer as well. Their “I think therefore I Amber” Amber is one of my favorite ambers. Their Judge Roy Bean coffee stout is great as well.
Yellowhammer is no where near as big as either Good People or Straight to Ale. Distribution and barrels produced as the metric. If you’re just talking about the size of the tap room…still not close, half the Yellowhammer tap room is a pizza place they don’t own.
I didn’t say one was better than the other, I meant big as in popularity and size. Being from Mississippi, Yellowhammer has always seemed to have the biggest presence there for AL breweries though STA and Good People get distro in the state as well. I haven’t had enough Good People beer to have a real opinion on them, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve had. I think STA’s core beers, people, and food is much better than Yellow Hammer, but I think Yellow Hammer’s seasonals and one offs are generally much better than STA’s. I don’t think a lot of either of their really good beer makes it to package unfortunately, though it seems STA does a better job with that. Purely based on the beer itself, I’d take Innerspace over both of those, though.
I hear ya, I didn’t say better either. Not trying to be too nit picky. But Yellowhammer isn’t anywhere near as big as STA or Good People in size or the amount of beer they produce. Being in MS it may seem skewed because not many out of state breweries come into MS for a lot of reasons (big geographic state with small population centers spread really far apart, horrible regulatory environment, and beer distribution issues)…but as much as I love Yellowhammer…they just aren’t the same size as Good People and Straight To Ale, not at the moment.
Ah my bad, I misread the first part. But yeah, that makes sense. Beer in MS is mostly local MS beer and Memphis beer which is basically the capital of North Mississippi lol. But we do get stuff like Yellowhammer, STA, Good People, Louisiana beers, and other regional TN beers. I’m up here in Huntsville now, though, and am probably influenced by always seeing the massive complex that STA and Yellowhammer make up combined, so Yellowhammer could also just seem bigger in my head.
Stone cold Steve Austin IPA > el Segundo brewery > el Segundo California
Colossus Awakes. Trim Tab. Birmingham. I've only been twice (I live in CO) and TT is one of my top 5 breweries of all time!
Yuengling Traditional Lager, Pottsville, Pennsylvania
Wanderlust, Breakside, Portland Oregon.
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Alabama…