TMac's Brewniversity: Cheers to Higher Education!

The Taco Mac, located on Douglas Boulevard near the IHop and Home Depot, is no stranger to beeroisseurs. The bar & grill has hosted this beer tasting club for years and its former name was the Passport Club. Now, the Brewniversity, offers ‘pledges’ to move up their beer list and obtain a number of rewards and gifts while educating the participating customers about beer and all brews have to offer. I inquired about the program and spoke with two ‘students’-one pledging and one well on his way up the list-about their experience.

Shane Harrison, a 22 year old recent graduate of Columbus State University, lives in Lithia Springs and learned about the Brewniversity through friends and servers at the restaurant while he usually sits and the bar and chats up the bartenders. He frequents our local Taco Mac, he says, even more regularly now that he’s pledging with the Brewniversity. “I started studying [at the Brewniversity] about 4 months ago,” Harrison says. “Before joining the Brewniversity I probably went there two or three times a year. Now that I have joined I go once every week.”

I asked about his ‘report card’-what Taco Mac calls the list of beers each individual pledge and member has purchased-which currently lists about 25 beers. “Dunkleweissen [is my favorite]. It's a dark wheat German beer that I fell in love with in Germany and Taco Mac is the only place I've found that carries it. Amazing!”  

Harrison adds, “I get my seasonal pint glass” when he participates in Seasonal Night and celebrates his birthday there every year. He says he “wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The Brewniversity posted a list of rules you can find on their website for the school at http://www.tacomac.com/brewniversity_rules.html. Of course the standard “must be 21 to enroll” is listed but they also state that only 6 beers may count towards the student’s report card a day, but still reserve the right to limit even that number. Another student of the Brewniversity uses this 6 selection limit to his advantage.

Chadwick Miller, another Taco Mac regular, has racked up a whopping 610 beers and is well on his way to reaching the Chancellor position, the highest level currently in the program at 1,000 beers. So far “[I’ve won] two t-shirts, a mug for home, a polo, embroidered zip up, embroidered pull over, and $110 in gift cards,” Miller says. He started in the spring of 2009 and his visits have moved from once or twice a month to 2-3 times a week.

His favorite selection? “Lindeman's Faro, its made with candy sugar.” With Taco Mac carrying hundreds of brews, Chadwick will certainly enjoy finishing his degree with the Brewniversity.

Also listed on the rules and regulations page of the Brewniversity on Taco Mac’s website are the different levels and how to achieve them. For example, 13 beers qualify you as a pledge, 125 beers constitute your bachelor’s degree, 225 equal to your masters, and so on until 1,000 as Chancellor which also wins you a place on their Chancellor Plaque.

Start studying up and enroll at the Brewniversity today at Douglasville’s Taco Mac!