Some days, you set out to achieve greatness. Other days, you accidentally drive past greatness, pull a u-ey, get a little lost, and stumble into it.

While visiting great friends in Evans, Georgia over the Thanksgiving holiday, we saw what looked to all the world like a gas station at a busy intersection.

That's no gas station on the corner of Washington and Belaire in Evans, GA...

Hey! Wait! That's not a gas station - it's an old gas station that's been converted into a growler filling station. JACKPOT!

We wandered in, and found the barman Will sitting with a glass of newly-tapped Gouden's Carolus Noel in his hands, lamenting the transient nature of seasonal brews. He took us on a tour of Tip Top's 20 Taps, and after some lively discussion with a group of thirsty customers, we decided on both the Carolus and a local Saison from Orpheus in Atlanta.

Will was our filling station attendant for the day.

The beer, of course, was amazing. But the venue, it is awesome. Their tap list is available online all the time, and we recommend you click on that link and see the true beer geek-ery therein. Also the taps are constantly rotating, so if you are anywhere near the place, check the web, and stop in and grab a growler or two. Tell 'em The Happy Hour Guys sent ya!

Cheers!

In keeping with our heavy diet of ROAD INFO, we’ll continue with a quick stop in the great state of GEORGIA! We rolled through Atlanta for a little less than a week, and while our schedule was too crazy to get any video, we did spend some museum time one day, (the Georgia Aquarium, which is truly jaw-dropping) and what’s gotta be the best many-millions ‘o dollars marketing pitch of all time, theWorld of Coca-Cola, or the Coke museum. Wow. But the best part of the whole day was our introduction to theMellow Mushroom Pizza chain! Mellow Mushroom started in Atlanta, specializing, in their words, in “the two food groups known as pizza and beer”.

The pizza was - in a word - mind-blowing (a hyphenated word, but whatever). They are franchising now, and our spies tell us that they make a special effort to feature LOCAL BREWS in each of their restaurants. Go Mellow Mushroom! We’ll be back, and we’ll be ordering whatever’s local. In this case it was several brews from Atlanta’s ownSweetwater Brewing Company - we loved their Georgia Brown Ale, of course their IPA, and were struck by the fruityness and rewarding finish of the ‘Motorboat’ ESB. Keep an eye out for these brews, AND the Mellow Mushroom!

Cheers!