Beer on Sunday

Anderson County is dry. If you don't know the concept, you can't buy booze. If you're lucky, at best you can find beer in certain areas stores. Want a glass of wine? Not a chance. You'll have to drive to another county that sells that stuff and about a 45 minute drive from anywhere you live out here. I was familiar with the term "Package Store" from my summers growing up, for no other reason than that's where we would stop to pick up booze for my Grandfather's Manhattan. He had one at 6:00pm. Just one. No one in my family prior to my generation was much into drinking and I think it's possible that we've made up for that during college and beyond.

When I was in High School, my father came upon a new hobby of brewing beer. I caught on pretty quick and although it was a lot of work, I enjoyed it. Over the years his collection of brewing equipment has grown. He moved to Florida for six months out of the year, a few years back. He tried and failed to make beer that tasted like mine and got into wine making. He has won several awards for his wine. I mean lots of awards. Pretty much every competition he has entered, he wins Gold and Double Gold. He made an attempt again at beer crafting just before I got here and lucky me, I showed up to be able to bottle it. 5 gallons of Tennessee Caramel Nut Ale.

In honor of the dry county and the fact that you can't buy beer in a store before noon on Sunday, I present RRanch Bootleg Beer! It's over 8% and pretty good. I guess they just assume you will stop by after church, not before. Stores are all closed by 8pm here and I'm not allowed out after dark so I guess it doesn't matter what time the evening cut off is. In California, I stopped for gas on my way home at about 10:15pm one evening. I had a winning lottery ticket and was not allowed to cash it in. I had no clue that there are no lotto sales or winnings exchanged after 10pm. Guess that's supposed to keep people out of trouble. You can buy a lotto ticket on your way to church though. For the record, I haven't seen a bar since I've been here and had one beer at the Mellow Mushroom in downtown Knoxville. I guess it's good to know I can always come home and enjoy a cold one safely and no ones gonna stop my tractor. (I'm kidding.)