Founder/Co-Owner Carmine Parisi, Head Brewer Thomas Muhs, Assistant Brewer John Garner and Local Patron/"Midnight Trucker" Inspiration Glenn Haynes talk to Travel Track about process, chemistry and history in regards to their brewery in Ball Ground, Georgia: RockSolid Brewing Co. Their brewery was only one in the state of Georgia to bring home a gold medal for their "Midnight Trucker" dark lager.
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TravelTranscript
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00:38 What made it taste for you the way it does?
00:42 It was something that we wanted to keep it--
00:45 we wanted to keep that one relatively simple.
00:47 We want to keep that one very sort of standard and basic
00:53 as far as like--
00:54 the malt profile is really what comes forward.
00:57 And so we use a honey malt, which is why
00:59 we call it a honey blonde ale.
01:01 So it has a little bit more of that sweetness
01:04 that doesn't completely ferment out
01:07 as part of the fermentation process.
01:09 And then for the hops, it's just enough hops
01:11 to give it a little bit of bitterness,
01:13 to give it kind of much more of like a background note,
01:16 a slight floral.
01:19 So we use kind of more floral, earthy hops
01:23 for that particular style, as opposed
01:26 to anything that's going to be really like fruit forward,
01:28 citrus, tropical, something you might find in more like an IPA.
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01:47 The only reason I could think that the darker beers don't do
01:49 so well here, like the heavier, darker beers,
01:51 not like Midnight Trucker, obviously,
01:54 is because it gets so hot and humid here.
01:56 We are kind of technically a mountain town,
01:58 but it still gets so hot and humid.
02:00 So that's why Bee's Knees--
02:02 That's why Bee's Knees goes better.
02:03 That's why the Kolsch does good.
02:04 We have a lager called Linger Langer Lager.
02:07 Say that three times fast.
02:10 That goes over really well.
02:11 Again, the West Coast and the cold IPAs,
02:13 the cold IPAs go over way better,
02:16 just simply because they're made like a lager.
02:18 Award winning.
02:19 Well, when I first came in, I thought, oh, my lord.
02:28 But you know, you change a little.
02:31 I might have drank a couple of them,
02:33 and then it's sort of, hey, this is pretty good.
02:37 I don't like the light stuff, the seltzers.
02:40 I like dark.
02:42 So the Midnight Trucker's right up your alley.
02:44 Yes.
02:44 I just enjoy watching people.
02:46 So this is perfect.
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03:11 What happened is, you know, Glenn was at the bar,
03:14 and we were talking back and forth creating this dark lager,
03:19 but we didn't have a name.
03:20 So I asked Glenn, since you're part of the family here,
03:24 part of the group, what kind of name you think will be good?
03:27 How did they call you in the past?
03:29 What was your past?
03:32 And he said, they used to call me Midnight Trucker.
03:36 I said, done.
03:37 Love it.
03:38 It's a great name for a great beer.
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03:51 I'd never been to a brewery.
03:52 Oh, you've never been to a brewery?
03:53 No.
03:53 Wow, OK.
03:55 So I was here just because it was new,
03:59 and I thought, you know, it might be a pretty cool hangout.
04:03 Well, I told them what I drank, which they said, well,
04:09 let's get you this.
04:10 Of course, it didn't taste nothing like anything
04:12 I'd ever drank before.
04:14 Do you remember what he started with?
04:16 It was probably Bees Knees or Linger Longer,
04:20 because that was the name of a cat house that used to be here
04:24 in Ballground years ago.
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04:34 Can you talk about sweetness in some of the-- like the vanilla,
04:38 using those kinds of ingredients, the honey,
04:41 where you don't overuse them, but you give them
04:44 enough of a--
04:45 sort of a pinpoint that people can really find it, you know,
04:48 in the back taste.
04:50 So that's always kind of the balance
04:51 when it comes to, you know, trying to create a recipe,
04:54 formulate a recipe.
04:56 It's always just kind of a matter of you want to use
04:58 just the right amount of sugar, and you want to use
05:01 just enough of an ingredient so that people know it's there,
05:04 that people can taste it.
05:06 But you also want to avoid it kind of being one note, right?
05:09 So if you add too much honey to something,
05:11 and depending on when you add it or if it doesn't fully
05:14 ferment out, you end up getting something where
05:17 all people taste is honey.
05:19 And then they might not, you know,
05:20 they might not enjoy it so much.
05:22 I mean, you might if you really like honey.
05:24 But for other people, it's going to come off
05:26 being like too sweet or too cloying,
05:29 a little bit too thick and kind of like syrupy.
05:33 Whereas if you don't use enough,
05:34 then people aren't going to detect it at all.
05:37 And then there's really no point in saying you used it
05:39 if nobody can, if nobody can tell that it's there.
05:43 It's always just a matter of balance.
05:44 And honestly, stuff like that is just a lot of it's trial
05:47 and error, a lot of it is just a matter of being able to
05:50 make the right decisions.
05:52 And I think that's what makes it so special.
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09:21 So I was out here one day and their daughter was back there looking at the pictures on the wall over here.
09:27 The old pictures.
09:29 And I thought, she needs to know about ball ground.
09:31 I thought she was right pretty, you know.
09:35 But I went over and was telling her about that and she told me, well her mother and daddy lived here.
09:41 And she started telling me where we're at.
09:43 She says, out on Old Dawsonville and turn on Roy Haines Drive.
09:47 And I thought, oh my lord, where is this going?
09:51 Because that's going up to my house.
09:53 And went right by my house, right around the corner down there.
09:57 And that's how I met them and we've been hanging out here ever since.
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10:15 That's the brewery.
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10:23 So because we have 10 taps, we are able to experiment.
10:27 We try to keep about four taps full of the things that people like.
10:32 Which again in this town is the West Coast and stuff.
10:35 Ballground's palate has itself evolved.
10:37 Everyone, like I said, wanted the lagers, the light beers.
10:40 And then we've come up with a few good West Coast IPAs that they seem to love.
10:44 And they go for the hazies.
10:46 Not too many drink the darker beers.
10:49 Like the heavier, darker beers.
10:51 Except for a good old Glen.
10:53 Glen loves the dark beers, I'll tell you what.
10:55 I love dark beers.
10:56 They're good.
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