Yazoo-hoo! "Defy Mediocrity"

Finally.... finally..
I have been trying to find my way to the Yazoo Taproom for more than a year now, but circumstances never seemed to conspire in my favor.

But finally, finally, I managed to coordinate getting a couple of co-workers (my boss and another colleague) to head over there after work on Friday.

And Yazoo did not disappoint.
The taproom is squeezed into a corner at one end of a massive Industrial Revolution-era brick factory-- the old Marathon Motors plant. Accomodations are modest-- this ain't some restaurant-- the place is only open for a few hours, three days a week. This is about the BEER! Room for about 5 tables, a bar to handle 6-7 patrons, and standing room for those who can't find a seat.

Enough about the decor
On tap, they had:

• Hefeweizen
• Amarillo Pale Ale
• Dos Perros
• Roggen
• Onward Stout

Of these, I had pints of the Hefe, Pale Ale, and the Roggen. Here are my notes:

• Hefe: pure, honey golden, cloudy goodness. Yeasty and smooth-- Based on a very unscientific, eavesdropping survey of patrons that afternoon, this clearly the most popular. They serve it with a lemon-- screw the 'Man-law commercial'.
• Pale Ale: Dark and rich, with that tart, hoppy flavor. Better than the bottled Yazoo that's available locally.
• Roggen: like the Pale Ale, but with the knobs on the Hoppy Ale flavor turned up a few clicks.. maybe a few too many. Not my favorite.

As for snacks, one of the guys at the table ordered up the Cows Milk sampler-- an assortment of cheeses, fruit, and bread, served with a sampling of 4 or 5 different brews. Again, this isn't a restaurant, and we weren't a group that was too concerned with how 'each cheese is matched to a different beer'. So while the cheese and bread was good, I'll make dinner plans next time I go.

Back to the beer. On the way out, I ordered up two growlers, one of the Onward Stout-- which will wait til next weekend to crack open-- and one of the Sly Rye Porter, a brew they had just added to the chalk-board menu while I was in line to pay. On Saturday night, good friend John (a fellow sleepydad) and I opened the Porter and I have to say, it may be the best of the bunch. Dark as the stout, but smooth and delicious.