Beer Quest for Brewfest: Avondale Brewing Company | Arts & Culture

Avondale Brewing Company

• Began: 2011
• Owners:  Brothers, Colby and Hunter Lake, Chris Donaldson, and brewer Craig Shaw
• Location: Birmingham, AL
• Flagship Beer: Spring Street Saison
• Tap Room Hours: Monday - Thursday 4pm - 10pm, Friday 4pm - 12 midnight, Saturday noon - midnight, and Sunday 1pm - 8pm.

I hit I-65 to find my next adventures on my beer quest. I stopped by Avondale Brewing Company to learn my ABC's and figure out what the heck "Trunks Up" meant.

Avondale is a neighborhood in Birmingham. It's in the revitalization stage, and it's cute as a button.  The building that the Avondale Brewery is in is rich in history.  The address of  201 41st Street South in Avondale has seen a fire department, a saloon, and even a brothel.  

While the brewing company has only been up and running for a little less than a year, the owners, Colby and Hunter Lake have been working on the building for two years.  Both brothers have lived in the Birmingham area for a while, and these two real estate agents have been leading the way in getting Avondale occupied.

My favorite part about learning about this brewery was learning the history behind the names of the beers and the elephant, Miss Fancy.  Miss Fancy is a beer drinking elephant and a staple/legend in the Avondale Community. Check out the video above to hear Colby talk about the history of how they got their motto, Trunks Up!

Colby said he is excited about this year's Rocket City Brewfest.  This will be the first time they will attend and they are bringing all of their regular beers and some barrel aged porter along with a Kolsch.  The Kolsch was a light summery beer that was easy to drink.

Avondale's Head Brewer, Craig Shaw is a fan of Belgium beers. He even uses a different technique with some of his beers  than all the other breweries in North Alabama, open fermentation.  Instead of putting the beer into a cone shaped fermenter, they put it in a flat bottomed fermenter that is covered by a sheet to keep dust and other items out.

Both Craig and Colby said that Avondale is continuing to grow.  Right now, they have bought a new space behind their current building that they will be moving some of the equipment into. Craig said he is brewing 6 days a week and sometimes twice a day to keep up with the demand. (A nice problem to have) 

They recently headed to a brew conference in California to decide how they want to manufacture their beer for shops to sell.  Cans or Bottles?  They are still discussing that right now.

As for what you can expect if you head down the road to them, you can find good music on the weekends and crawfish every  Saturday. They have an indoor taproom, and upstairs taproom, and an outdoor patio.  It was a relaxing atmosphere that made you want to hang out with your friends and stay for a while.

Rocket City Brewfest is almost here.  If you haven't tried Avondale, get your tickets to RCB for this Friday or Saturday and check it out..  The guys at the Avondale  tent will have you yelling Trunks Up before you leave!