Buckle this, Bible Belt

Two weeks in Tennessee has forced some hard realities upon me:

1. Beer of 6 percent alcohol by volume or less (90 percent of the beer most people drink) can be sold in grocery stores
2. Anything stronger falls under hegemony of liquor stores. If it's made by a monk, you'll probably find it on a small shelf at the rear of a wine store.
3. Beer tastings cannot be held on the premises of liquor stores, so most hold them at adjacent coffee shops and cafes.

I've got a big sigh building up, and I don't know when it will break out.

Fortunately, I discovered Grand Cru Wine & Spirits (great name) with a helpful manager name Jason, who hails from Portsmouth and as he put it, "learned to drive on North High Street."
I nabbed a few new Belgians (and a Duvel to hold me over), at which point Jason started talking vintage ale, then gave me a free bottle of a vintage ale circa 1996, which he described as "candied chocolate mushroom water, but good."
Needless to say, a review is forthcoming.