Long before Here, Queer, Holding a Beer was around, Ray and I made brewery trips just as often as we do now. We talked about eventually starting a blog and when we did, including a couple of throwback blogs of our favorite brewery memories. This is the first of our throwback series and also, hands down, one of our best brewery stories to date. Ray and I went to Omaha Brewing Company on one of our weekend camping trips near Columbus, GA. We went to the area to check out Providence Canyon and do a little hiking.
After the hike, we headed to Omaha Brewing - a HUGE brewery (but seems to be little known) in a small unincorporated town with maybe three houses, a dentist's office, and a brewery. As we hung out, the place started to get super packed. They were having a big car show event that day and everyone in the area seemed to be attending. The beers were decent and they had a large selection. I think they had just as many seltzer flavors as they did beer. I had a flight of beer followed by a flight of seltzers. Their slogan is “Small town, Big beers” and they certainly encompass it.
They offered us a free tour on arrival and said the pups were allowed so they got to
experience their first official brewery tour. Their brewing system, brewhouse, and storage were adjacent to the brewery and also in a massive building. After the tour, we picked a spot to hang out and people watch.
I think the beertender caught on quickly that we weren’t from the area because we weren’t talking to every one that passed by, as others were. She chatted with us for a while (mostly because of Leo and Saylor) and we learned that her name was Steph and that she and her husband, Doc (also the local dentist), own the place. When it was time to leave, I joked to Steph about coming back the next day because we enjoyed it so much. She wasn’t messing around and quickly invited us over to her house the following day for a 4th of July party instead. They had two, large gator-free, ponds for the pups to swim in so that’s what we did!
We assumed heading in that it would be a large gathering with the whole town, although small, making an appearance. Boy, were we wrong. We joke that we wish we had taken a picture of the directions. I don’t think any of the streets in the town had names so she basically said turn left at the dentist's office, right after a while, and left again to pull into the driveway. After arriving, we quickly realized it was only about 10 people there including us. They were hanging out and drinking mimosas waiting for us to arrive to start the day’s events - shark tooth-hunting. You read that right, shark tooth hunting, on the Hannahatchee Creek. We had already made it this far so we said “what the hell” and followed them out to the river.
Once we got there, we all started our half-mile trek upriver to find a spot where the banks were high and there was a decent bit of erosion. We were told to bring something sharp that we could use to pick at the banks. We found some random tools in Ray's truck toolbox and watched as we learned how to chip away at the banks and look for something small, black, and shiny in the mud. We were essentially sitting in the river and looking for shark teeth. The Lee’s and company (all of the beertenders & dental hygienists) were pros and pulled out a ton within a few minutes. We struggled a bit more but both found a couple eventually!
Out of everyone, I think the dogs enjoyed the hunt the most. They loved playing in the water and running up and down the river and being able to splash around. We were told not to worry about gators because they don’t make it that far up the river, luckily they appeared to be right because we didn’t see any.
After a couple of hours in the water, we decided to pack it up and head for the camper. That was enough excitement for the day and enough seltzers. We ended up taking home 5 shark teeth and hope to make something cool out of them! While we enjoyed our shark tooth hunting adventure, I don’t think we will be in a rush to go again.
If you’re ever near Omaha, GA, stop in to say hello to Steph and Doc. Let them know Bailey, Ray, Leo, and Saylor sent you!
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