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Chattanooga Brew- BrewMar 09 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Big RIver Grille and Brewing Works makes for a nice midday or evening break during your stay in downtown Chattanooga.
In my spare time, I like to do many things. I read books, listen to music, work around the house, surf the internet, etc. Since I enjoy many activities equally, I try to allocate an equal amount of time to each activity to make sure that I don’t overextend myself in one area at the expense of others. But of all my spare time activities, the ones I love more than any other are traveling and sampling beer. So you can only imagine the great rush that overtakes me when I am participating in both activities at the same time, i.e, traveling someplace to try beer. And that is exactly what happened when I decided to visit this brewpub for the first time. The establishment is Big River Grille & Brewing Works, a brewpub/restaurant located at 222 Broad Street, in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Beer: Big River Grille & Brewing Works produces six regular, year- round brews along with few seasonals. Here’s a list of the regular offerings: Southern Flyer Light Lager- Light beer, with a grainy taste and a good hop nose, this is Big River’s lightest offering. It has a sweet taste profile and a moderate to low alcohol level of 3.8 percent by volume. Rating: 2.5 stars Vienna Lager- Not as rich of some of the heavyweight Vienna lager on the market, Big River’s Vienna is light and amber colored, with a somewhat toasted taste of malt and German hops that manages to be very thirst- quenching as well as good- tasting. The alcohol level is 5 percent by volume. Rating: 3.5 stars Sweet Magnolia- Sweet brown ale, with a more complex flavor profile than the other beer in the lineup, Sweet Magnolia combines flavors of maple syrup, chocolate, and molasses with the finishing touch of Mt. Hood hops. There aren’t many hops here- just sweet malty goodness. The alcohol level is 5 percent by volume. Rating: 5 stars Imperial 375 Pale Ale- This pale ale has a vanilla- like aroma and a taste of toasted malt and American Perle hops that impact a honey- like citrus taste to the body. The alcohol level of this product is 5 percent by volume. Rating: 3 stars House Brand I.P.A- This beer has a more pronounced hop flavor than the pale ale, but it’s really not that aggressive. The aroma is one of citrus- possibly orange and lemon. The beer is infused with Fuggle hops and is dry- hopped, making it more aromatic. The alcohol level of this beer is 5.7 percent by volume. Rating: 3.5 stars Iron Horse Stout- Featuring the taste of coffee and roasted malt, Iron Horse Stout is sweet and dark black and color, and it ranks with Sweet Magnolia as the best beer in the bunch. The alcohol level is 5.4 percent by volume. Rating: 4.5 stars. Big River also produces a few seasonal beers. When I have visited, I had the opportunity to try two of them: Seven States Pilsner- This beer has a straw color and a grainy flavor that tries to imitate some of the great pilsners of the world. While easy to drink, it falls a little short of satisfying. Rating: 2.5 stars Toasted Oak Pale Ale- This product has almost no aroma, but what it lacks in nose it makes up for a little bit in flavor. With the taste of toasted oats and an aftertaste of burnt crackers and wheat toast, this beer is interesting, but the flavor profile is a little too mild to earn a thumbs- up recommendation from me, although it isn’t really bad, either. Rating: 2.5 stars. Menu Selection: Now, let’s talk about the food. Big River Grille and Brewing Works features a menu that is fairly typical of a bar and grill type of establishment. Here is a breakdown of what you can purchase at this restaurant: Appetizers- A good choice if you are about to order a sample platter of beer, the appetizers include selections like chicken quesadillas, nachos, buffalo wings, Jalapeno spinach cheese dip, and a few others. Soups/Salads- For lighter appetites or as an addition to your meal, Big River offers Caesar salad, grilled chicken salad, cashew chicken salad, greenhouse salad, soup of the day, etc. Sandwiches- Select from such menu items as the Hickory Bacon Burger, Big Brew Burger, Classic Reuben, Grilled Chicken, Honey Dijon Chicken, Tuna, and more. Meals- For dinner and/or lunch, Big River Grille offers selections like meat loaf, shrimp, ribs, sirloin steak, New York strip steak, blue crab stuffed chicken, salmon, fish and chips, chicken tenderloin, chicken fried steak, and others. They also have several pizzas to choose from. Desserts- To wind down your eating experience, Big River offers carrot cake, key lime pie, and chocolate cake. Atmosphere: This restaurant/brewpub was constructed out of a former bus barn, and this helps to add to the uniqueness of the interior. The walls are constructed of brick and the ceiling is elevated well above the dining and bar areas. Television sets can be found throughout, and they are usually tuned to sporting events. Big River divides this brewpub into three sections. The middle section includes tables for dining, while the other two sections feature bar areas. One bar area is a little more formal, with plenty of seating and television sets. The other bar is more casual, with about six billiard tables and plenty of smoke. With three separate areas, Big River Grille easily lives up to the first word in its name. It is a big place, with room for a few hundred guests to dine, drink, play billiards, or watch their favorite sporting event on television. Final Thoughts: Visiting a new brewpub or microbrewery is always a much- anticipated event. The travel, the beer, the food, and the excitement of experiencing something brand new make a visit to any brewpub something enjoyable, even when the beer isn’t all that great. With Big River Grille and Brewery, you get a complete experience that includes good food, beer, and entertainment. This brewpub is located across the street from the Tennessee aquarium in downtown Chattanooga, making it easy to find. It’s a family restaurant, offering more food than the typical brewpub and an average number of home- brewed beers. You can always count on at least six products on tap, and usually there is a seventh, which changes with the season. Judging the beer, it appears that Big River has succumbed a little bit to the pressure of selling beer to as wide an audience as possible. This is a frequent occurrence with brewpub chains. They often start out making very high- quality beer, but then later decide to water the beer down a little bit, to help it appeal to more people and therefore increase sales. With Big River, it is easy to see that this trend has begun. But, thankfully, it has not become the norm for all of the beer in the lineup and it has not been taken to the extremes like it has in other chain brewpubs. Among the year- round brews, two of them- Sweet Magnolia and Iron Horse Stout- are quite noteworthy. In fact, each of these products has won awards at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, with Sweet Magnolia winning a Gold medal in 1998 and Iron Horse winning a Bronze in 2000. Iron Horse also took home a Gold in the 1998 World Beer Cup. Aside from these two products, the others rate pretty much middle of the road, and that includes the two seasonal products that I have tried. They are all very drinkable and non- offensive, which is ok. But it’s not enough to warrant a high rating from a beer lover like myself. It’s a little frustrating to drink beer like this, because I often sit there and think about how great they could have been if the brewers had packed a little more punch when they formulated the recipes for these products. The Toasted Oat Pale Ale is a good example. Here you have a product that has some promising taste characteristics and complexity, but it’s too tame to make a great impression. With a little more emphasis on quality rather than on making a beer that will sell more, this could have been a very impressive malt beverage product. The same could be said of several other beers in the lineup. Food is tasty at Big River Grille, and it’s also fairly priced. Sandwich platters, which include fries (with a few exceptions) are priced between $6 and $9 each. Dinners range in price from $9 to $20, depending on how fancy your feast happens to be. Food is cooked to order and is served by friendly waiters and waitresses who are very good at explaining the menu items and the beer products, to help aid in making a decision. The portions are large, too. When I was here last, I ordered the Hickory Bacon Burger- a juicy, delicious hamburger that included one- half pound of beef and a generous portion of fries. Big River Grille and Brewery is owned and operated by the Gordon Biersch Company- a chain of restaurants and brewpubs located mostly in the western United States. It has only a few locations (scattered around Tennessee and Florida), but it will likely expand in the near future as Gordon Biersch allocates more funds toward growing this chain. Overall, Big River Grille and Brewing Works is a nice place to visit in the small but growing tourist town of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The food, the beer, and the atmosphere combine to make this a recommended place to stop for some good, casual dining and some decent beer- particularly Sweet Magnolia and Iron Horse Stout. I give Big River Grille and Brewing Works a solid rating of 4 stars out of 5. It’s not the greatest brewpub I’ve ever visited, but the combination of reasonably priced food, fresh beer, and fun entertainment in the middle of a fun city make Big River Grille a place worth visiting if you happen to be in the Chattanooga area.  |
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