Whenever we sit down to talk about featured beers and the name Yee-Haw comes up, it feels like we’re talking about an old friend. Perhaps it’s because we’re thinking fondly of our former downtown neighbors, Yee Haw Industries, or perhaps it’s just because we like Yee-Haw beer so much that we can’t imagine life without it? It’s hard to know. With love, time sometimes stands still.
You’ll understand, then, how we feel baffled when we realize that Yee-Haw is technically just a year old. Their grand opening in Johnson City was July 9, 2015, but it seems a lifetime ago when in March of last year Johnson City’s News and Neighbor wrote about the coming renovation and transformation of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Depot, fondly known as the Tweetsie Depot, into the birthplace of what would become one of Tennessee’s best and brightest stars in the craft brew firmament.
To commemorate a full year we’re using the month of July and our taps to celebrate our friends in Johnson City and the many successes that the last 365+ have brought them. Just last month, Yee-Haw heard and heeded the commission to “Go west, young brew” as they made a foray into the Music City. And we couldn’t be happier that Yee-Haw’s Dunkel took home a bronze medal at the World Beer Cup in May, but, while we’re not particularly selfish people, we do have a few trepidations about sharing our beer with Nashville, let alone the entire world.
Even so, as we’re generally in favor of things that enhance global peace, and as we know from first-hand experience that Yee-Haw does, in fact, make the world a better place, at the end of the day the good brews of Yee-Haw are worth sharing. So, cheers!
In the midst of their increasing popularity, the brewery has invited the mystic Swabbie Robbie to come hang out at their place in Johnson City. The Swabbie is an expert in the ethereal realm of microbiology. Known to his friends as Robbie Brooks, Swabbie Robbie is the Quality Assurance man on the spot and spends his days swabbing and testing things around the brewery to insure both quality and consistency in all of Yee-Haw’s exceptionally enjoyable suds.
And what’s even better new for us is that there’s more beer! And by more beer, I mean there’s new beer, and that includes 2 of the options that we’ll have available at our place.
The first is a Blackberry Berliner Weisse! It’s a summer seasonal and the folks at Yee-Haw say it’s “a refreshingly tart, effervescent, low alcohol, wheat beer infused with blackberries, it will knock the thirst right out of you!”
We’re also really excited about having one of the brewery’s new high gravity offerings – the program was added to the Yee-Haw line-up this spring. We’re serving the Double IPA which the makers describe as, “Our take on this modern American style is big, bold, and beautifully balanced. Using three varieties of the finest American Pacific Northwest hops, along with British malts, we’ve expertly crafted a high gravity Double IPA that drinks like a session beer. Up front assertive hop aroma and flavor gives way to a silky malt finish. “
We’ll also have Yee-Haw’s award winning and crowd pleasing Dunkel, a classic dark lager, as well as the very crisp and super-suited-to-summer-sipping Pilsner – it’s a study in refreshment!
Come on down – and if you hurry there may be some swag left! But if not, cheers – there’s always some good beer!