30. March 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

A drive to San Antonio allowed for the opportunity to stop in the Root Cellar Cafe and pick up some of the newest craft beer in the hill country (http://www.rootcellarcafe.com). The Root Cellar is a locally renowned restaurant (closed Mondays) that packs them in at lunchtime so keep that in mind if visiting. The owners have begun brewing Belgian ales under the moniker of Darkside Brewing (brewed by Silas Parker on a 15 gallon nano-system) complementing a few local draught selections such as Live Oak Pils, although at present their beers are only available in 750ml corked bottles. At present they have a Blonde, a Strong Golden Ale, a Dubble, and a Quad (all priced at $10 a bottle except the Quad priced at $11). Draught availability was expected soon according to an employee.

Posted in Central Texas Beer Happenings | 1 Comment »

22. March 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

OK, so the American Homebrew Association racks up a whopping number of entries that normally total over 4,000, but last week in snowy Irving Texas the Bluebonnet Homebrew Competition hosted by a number of area clubs took in a record setting 1,603 entries making it the largest competition in the state and among the largest in the country.  Shaun O’Sullivan of the 21st Amendment brought beer including the new Belgian inspired release “Monks Blood”, possibly the most interesting beer in a can today, and also gave a talk. Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker also brought some special selections and gave a talk.

Posted in Beery Happenings Beyond | No Comments »

22. March 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

It seems as if the brewing industry is always looking for the next big thing. Recently we have seen wave after wave of Belgian IPA’s, and other Belgian hybrids, followed by a rash of black IPAs. So what will be the next “big thing”, especially within the state of Texas? For some reason I think we will see more Pro-Am selections, collaborations between homebrewers and professionals. Sure, Sam Adams has done it with the Longshot line and others followed suit making it a sizeable category now at the GABF, but it seems as if breweries that had not considered it before are finding fertile pastures in the land of homebrew. And lets face it there are some great homebrewers out there making beers that could easily compete against the pros at GABF. So this year watch for more Pro-Ams at brewpubs and your local beer bars. The next up will be two beers selected at the Alamo Cervezafest, the best of show will be brewed at Blue Star Brewpub in San Antonio (but not taken to GABF), and the other will be brewed at Freetail also in San Antonio and entered into GABF. In April  Southern Star will hold their second annual Pro-Am competition which will be entered into GABF(see details on entering at http://www.southernstarbrewery.com/SSBNews.asp).  Nearby in Houston during the month of May homebrewers attending the Big Batch Brew Off will judge the best barleywine to make into the next Divine Reserve also entered into GABF. In Austin there will possibly another two opportunities for GABF entries  this year - Uncle Billy’s Brewpub intends to hold a competition this summer (stay tuned for details, but rumors are that it could be in the Bitter category) UPDATE - curiously the category is correct -  http://austinzealots.com/files/UncleBillysKeepAustinBeeredProAmRules.pdf and Jester King says they will likely solicit recipes for a GABF entry as well (they are not sure whether they will have a competition to do so - UPDATE - according to BA rules they will have to if they want to enter anything in the Pro-Am). There we have it, several opportunities for Texas homebrewers to see their beers up in lights.

Posted in Houston Beer Happenings, Central Texas Beer Happenings | No Comments »

8. March 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

Seems like everyone has a post on the Austin Homebrew Supply move, but I thought maybe I had something to add including a few behind the scenes pictures. The shop is now just north of the previous location in a building of roughly 18,000 sf with somewhat expanded floorspace but a huge increase in warehouse and office space. The store does quite a bit of walk-in sales but online orders apparently total well over 100 each day, so what you don’t see are the pallets of boxes in the back waiting to head out which have already made the store the biggest single UPS customer in the area. Notice the giant stacks of 5 gallon buckets in the back of the picture to the right. This coming weekend they will have an official grand opening party from noon to 5pm with bands and lots of commercial kegs. See www.austinhomebrew.com/ for all the details and a map. 

Posted in Central Texas Beer Happenings | No Comments »

8. March 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

A quick update, Southern Starin Conroe is running flat out and looking for more fermenters. One of the owners is flying to California next week to possibly purchase as many as five more to keep up with demand which must be keeping brewer Dave Fougeron busy given they continue to operate on a 15 bbl system. While we visited they had run through all their Buried Hatchet Stout after a distributor came by and took the remaining 29 kegs they had the day prior. Luckily they had more in the finishing tank they were about to keg the next day.

A quick sidenote on the Purple Possum Meadery in Navasota Texas.  Anyone familiar with the place will remember the original owner passed away and his son and daughter-in-law were running it. While stopping in a liquor store near the Exxon station on the corner of 105 and 1774 in Planterville that usually carried their products we were told TABC shut them down as they did not properly file to re-open (or something to that effect) so they were no longer producing but hoped to do so again in the future.  As another aside, that small store just north of the turnoff for the Texas Renaissance Faire in Plantersville has a few beer selections that might surprise people including Gulden Drak, Piraat and Petrus.

Posted in Beery Happenings Beyond | 1 Comment »

3. March 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

To follow up a previous posting about the lack of breweries represented at Beer Connoisseur Magazines Second Edition party I am pasting a reply they sent that implies the breweries dropped out without reason, which seems highly dubious and contrary to what a few of their employees told me. 

Hi,We appreciate the feedback. To our knowledge there were no rules broken by us or any company participating in the event. The breweries that canceled did so the day of the event, which put us in a bad position as far as announcing they had dropped out. We only knew about it 2-3 hours before the event started.

We appreciate you coming and hope you enjoyed interacting with The Beer Connoisseur Magazine and other beer enthusiasts folks and other local media in attendance. We will be covering the event in our Summer issue which will be on newsstands June 1.

Editorial Department
Beer Connoisseur Online

email: editorial@beerconnoisseur.com

Posted in Central Texas Beer Happenings | 1 Comment »

1. March 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

Over 200 people showed up for an AHA rally on Sunday. Alas no sign of Charlie this year, but Brock Wagner gave personal tours of the shiny new brewery, or as they labeled it, their “newery”. The 120 bbl brewhouse obtained from a 12th century monastic brewery in Germany was operating while we were there and it was possible to see the batch go from mash, lauter to whirlpool. In the picture of Brock you can also see a glass canister where the grain is doused with water on the way into the tun so that it is completely saturated (that’s the kind of thing the beer geek in me loves). Brock said the old system was sold to a startup in Oregon that submitted the highest bid. He also added the new system should improve the overall quality of their product and alleviate other issues such as the production of DMS which some people claimed affected the pilsner they produce. Check the website www.saintarnold.com for expanded tour dates and go see what 240 bbl fermenters look like. Good job Brock!

Posted in Houston Beer Happenings | No Comments »

1. March 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

Atlanta based Beer Connoisseur Magazine chose Austin as the site to celebrate the second issue of their new glossy publication and the wonderful people at Independence hosted the event, but some oversights put a damper on the evening for those that arrived expecting to partake in the offerings from seven area breweries as had been advertised. Pre-bought tickets cost $15 plus a service charge and there was no mention of any changes as people began to arrive, but the lack of taps was immediately apparent. Live Oak, 512, Real Ale, and St Arnolds as well as local brewpub Uncle Billy’s did not have a presence at the event despite being on the promotional flier leaving only NXNW and Lovejoys (which was not promoted)to augment the Independence offerings. As might be expected the two brewpubs were overwhelmed and quickly ran through what they brought. Luckily the crowd itself was relatively small, perhaps a result of not promoting the event very well. Certainly it didn’t flash across homebrew club email lists. While the magazine itself seems wonderful, this event was anything but. Hopefully along the line someone at Beer Connoisseur  learned some lessons about organizing a beer event.

Posted in Central Texas Beer Happenings | No Comments »