The Red and Black

Issue date: 1/17/08 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: Frannie Fabian The new Trappeze Pub opened in December. The bar features many uncommon beer brews including brown ales, barley wines and Belgian blondes. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Frannie Fabian Located next to Hot Corner Coffee on Wash-ington Street, the Trappeze Pub offers a unique beer selection. It is the only pub in Georgia to have an elephant tap of Delirium Tremens, an imported beer from Belgium. [Click to enlarge]

Hot Corner's now defunct "quiet room" space is up and running again - only this time with beer brews and socializing as opposed to coffee beans and studying.

University alumnus Eric Johnson and his longtime pal Mike Vernelson decided to introduce a different kind of bar to the Athens community - one that doesn't require yelling above loud music.

"You don't come here to get drunk," Vernelson said of their bar, Trappeze. "You come here for good conversation. The only reason it gets loud is because people are talking."

Johnson and Vernelson modeled Trappeze after Brick Store in Decatur, a bar that serves many kinds of beer in bottles and on draught.

"We wanted to bring something truly special to Athens because we love the city," Vernelson said. "We're bringing the best beers around the world to Athens."

The bar features many uncommon beer brews including brown ales, barley wines and Belgian blondes.

"Eric is a self-professed beer geek, and we just started talking about the kind of bar that we wanted to go to in Athens," Vernelson said.

Johnson built the tap system for the 27 draught beers himself and the two also built the coolers housing the other 164 bottled beers.

The name is a play on words referring to the Trappist beers brewed in monasteries or under the authority of monks.

Right now, there are six beer-producing monasteries in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. These beers have an official hexagonal logo, similar to the one Trappeze has taken.

"The idea behind the bar is to bring a beer selection, featuring a lot of imports from Belgium, Germany and all over Europe," said bartender Aaron Jollay. "It's not a place you can come and expect to order a light beer. Have a Bud Light and Jager Bomb other places."

Trappeze doesn't sell any low-end domestic beers, such as Budweiser but does have some liquor such as vodka and scotch and also offers champagne and a wine list.

Jollay recommends any of the Belgian beers, specifically St. Bernardus Abt 12, a dark ale.

"Some beers have these amazing tastes - you wouldn't think beer could taste that way," he said. "They have complicated flavors, too, like Belgian ales have fruit flavors and other things."

The price range for these brews is from $3 sizes to $22 pints, and the alcohol content is all across the board but clearly listed in the thick menus.

Soon, the owners hope to offer food items to pair with the various beers.

"Our beer selection is the most unique thing about us, but we're constantly looking for ways to move it forward to the next level," Vernelson said.

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