I spent the past weekend in Atlanta to celebrate my birthday, which just so happened to coincide with the kickoff of Atlanta Beer Week. My wife, our friend Josh and myself spent two days traversing the metro area checking out different events and trying new and different brews.

One beer I was determined to try before heading back home was Social Potion, a collaboration between New Holland and Athens, GA’s own Terrapin. To celebrate New Holland’s launch in the Peach State, the Michigan-based brewery teamed up with the folks at Terrapin to create a 7% weizenbock brewed with Michigan wheat, black currants and pink peppercorns. And to add another special touch, the beer was being poured only in Georgia during ABW and in Michigan.

It took about three days to track the beer down, but we eventually found it at Roux on Canton, a small Cajun-influenced bar and restaurant near Josh’s house in Roswell. It was certainly worth the effort to track down.

As expected with a weizenbock, Social Potion pours a hazy, murky dirty-water brown. There were two good fingers worth of a billowy head on top and they stuck around for a while. The lacing and alcohol were both really nice.

The wheat was the strongest note on the nose. Behind that were the sweet dark flavors of the currants and just a very slight pepper note as well. All the ingredients are all there in the aroma.

On the front of the tongue was just a very slight tart bitterness followed with a good bite of carbonation across the palate. It’s tingly with a rich and very smooth mouthfeel from the wheat. On the back was a rich flavor of toffee and a rich tart and sticky sweetness from the currants. The peppercorns pop up again on the finish and linger a bit on the back of the throat. A really great beer all around.

This was the last beer I had on my trip to Atlanta and was a great note to end the weekend on. I’m glad folks in Atlanta get to try all the great beers from New Holland, and any time someone teams up with Terrapin, the results are pretty great.