A monthly guide to beer in Knoxville
Hello Knoxvillian craft-beer lovers, and welcome to the maiden voyage of “Tapped in,” here in BLANK Newspaper.
First, let me take a moment to introduce myself.
My name is Molly Lamb.
I’m a new-to-Knoxville craft-beer lover; a hop-head, a malty maven, a dunkel dame, a hazy heathen, a … well, you get the idea. I love craft beer, and I love KNOXVILLE craft beer.
A beer just simply tastes better when you’re cracking it open while the Vols are playing and you can see the Smoky Mountains off in the distance. Why is that?
A bit about me: I’ve completed craft-beer courses at San Diego State and Cornell universities.
I was also the apprentice for the head brewer out in Colorado Springs at Rocky Mountain Brewery.
I’ve hosted brewery tours and tastings (always super fun). And I was the original host of Brewvana’s podcast, “Brews Less Traveled.”
That’s how I found Knoxville.
Knoxville was one of the undiscovered craft-beer cities I was exploring on the podcast. Needless to say, I fell in love with the Scruffy City.
We have an amazing beer scene. Not only is it filled with kind souls, cozy spaces and great vibes, but the beer is some of the best I’ve had, and I’ve had a LOT of beer.
I’m constantly blown away by our creative local breweries.
So each month I’ll be featuring one brewery to brag about. I’ll do a Q&A with someone from its team (hopefully an owner or head brewer) and I’ll also tell you why that brewery is so special.
And of course I’ll highlight some beers I taste along the way.
This month I’m featuring Hexagon Brewing Co., located at 1002 Dutch Valley Dr. #101.
My favorite thing about Hexagon is the fact that it’s a little out of the way. It’s off the beaten path, so everyone you encounter there went specifically to be there.
They didn’t just stumble in, and something about that immediately feels like you’ve found family when you sit at the bar.
And when you do sit at the bar, look up at the shadowbox to study the vintage, handmade, bamboo fly-fishing rods in it. They belonged to the late grandfather of owner and founder Stephen Apking (we’ll meet him below).
If you like darts, Hexagon is a great place to play. The taproom has three dart boards that are in very good shape. Plus, there is outside seating and live music on most Fridays.
Cam was behind the bar during my visit. He immediately greeted me with a big smile when I walked in. Something tells me this is a really chill and lovely place to work.
My recommendations
Hexagon has amazing food. Sliders, sandwiches and salads make up most of the menu. Get the Bologna Man sandwich (topped with Benton’s bacon and homemade jam). Pair it with Carl’s Dunkel, a dark, malt-driven lager that will pair nicely with the smoky pork products.
Like lighter beers? The Skinny D Kölsch should be your choice. This hybrid ale is perfectly executed. In general, the German presence on their beer menu is lovely and approachable.
In addition to German lagers, Hexagon also does a fantastic job integrating natural fruit flavors into its beer. There is a strawberry wheat ale that is not something I would typically choose, but I was very quick to order a second.
I had the pleasure of speaking with the owner, founder and native Knoxvillian, Stephen Apking. Here’s our conversation:
BLANK Newspaper: What is your craft-beer origin story?
Stephen Apking: My craft-beer origins started in the mountains of Tahoe, California. Every year for spring break starting in 1996, I would go out to stay with my brother in Truckee, California, where we would snowboard at Squaw Valley. On the mountain in Squaw Valley, the only beer that was available was [from] Lake Tahoe Brewing Co. It was their amber beer that I fell in love with. On returning to Knoxville, I soon realized that the only craft-beer offerings were Killian’s Red, Sam Adams and Newcastle. With the limited selection, the only choice I had was to turn to homebrewing. At the time, another local brewer [named] Ron Downer had started a homebrew shop and ultimately taught me the art of all-grain craft homebrewing.
BN: How did you come up with the name Hexagon?
SA: Originally, I was homebrewing under the brewery name Underground Brewing Co. or UBC. While helping in another local brewery with recipe development, they came under fire for trademark infringement of their name. I realized if I was going to ever be professional that I would have to trademark the name of my brewery but soon found quite an opposition to the Underground Brewing Co. name. There were many reasons why Hexagon made it onto the list of potential names: I was a beekeeper at the time; I was born in 1966; the cores to the snowboards and wakeboards that I would ride were honeycomb shaped. But it wasn’t until 2013, after my grandmother passed away, that I was given the opportunity to go to my grandparents’ house and locate some bamboo fly rods that my grandfather had taught me to fish on. On that trip, I discovered a book that he had been reading when he passed away some 20 years earlier. While looking through that book, I came across a handwritten note dated two weeks prior to my grandfather‘s passing. He was reading a book on how to build and make bamboo fly rods. The page that was bookmarked by the note happened to be the chapter that discussed the strength of the hexagon pattern in building fly rods. The hexagon shape is a pattern of strength and efficiency, which mimics a lot of my own philosophies.
BN: What’s something that makes Hexagon unique?
SA: I believe that Hexagon makes many unique beers. Probably some of the most unique are the ones where we use smoked grains from local smokehouses. Probably the most unique is the Benton’s Smoked Bacon Porter where actual bacon, as well as grains from Benton’s smokehouse, are infused into the beer to create a rich and unique flavor.
BN: What’s your favorite beer to brew?
SA: Probably my favorite beer to brew is Chocolate Jesus simply because it is the least complex out of the beers that we make. My least favorite beer to brew is Indi Kush, which is one of the most complex beers that we make.
BN: What’s your favorite beer to drink?
SA: I get asked this question quite frequently, and as always my response is, “Well, it depends.” I am very partial to traditional German lagers. In the summertime, as well as early in the day for a lunch beer, my favorite is going to be Tres Amigas. As the day moves into night, I tend to start drifting towards the heavier and darker lagers, such as the Dreher Beer or Dunkler Helm. Towards the end of the evening and depending upon the season, I tend to drift to Big Orange Juice Bomb or Dos Diablos.
BN: What’s the most-ordered beer at Hexagon right now?
SA: Based on monthly sales reports right now, the most popular beer in the taproom is Tres Amigas. Usually running a close second would be White Chocolate Buddha. That’s the most popular wholesale beer we produce. Following closely behind is Big Orange Juice Bomb, Num Num IPA and Strawberry Venus.
BN: What’s new on the beer menu?
SA: The newest beer on the menu right now is Water Knockers. That is a watermelon New England IPA brewed for our bartender Nick and his wife Markie.
BN: You have a delicious white stout on the menu; tell us a little bit about that beer?
SA: Is that style really a stout? It can be controversial to some folks.
As with most of my beers, White Chocolate Buddha was inspired by a local friend. This one came from Eddie from Eddie’s Health Shoppe. Several years back, he was launching a white-chocolate flavor to his Zen Evo chocolate line and inspired me to do a white-chocolate blonde stout. It wasn’t until we had problems with the coffee for Chocolate Jesus that I discovered the perfect flavor combination for White Chocolate Buddha, which is the beer recipe we use today. So sometimes it takes a problem with one beer to solve a problem with another beer. The grain profile for this particular beer is extremely unique, and quite frankly the only ingredient missing is a dark roasted malt.
BN: What are some fun October events happening at Hexagon?
SA: Events for the taproom through October will be the Headroom fire jam Saturday, Oct. 7, starting at dark; our Halloween party Saturday, Oct. 21; and our full-moon festival Saturday, Oct. 28. As usual, we will continue to have free-roll Texas hold ‘em every Monday and Thursday night starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday is Fun With Friends cornhole league. Wednesday night is ping-pong night. We will continue to have live music on Friday nights only through the UT football season.
Now that you’re in the know, go a little off the beaten path and grab a beer at Hexagon this month. Play some darts and order a beer that you may not normally order and tell Stephen hello if you see him behind the bar.
Until next month, cheers and stay “Tapped in,” Knoxville! – Molly
