27. June 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

Real Ale hosted its 14th Anniversary party in Blanco on the 26th with free beer and bar-b-que and the Church of Zymurology bus was on hand delivering a group of the faithful from nearby Austin. A string of special beers were on tap including two years of Devil’s Backbone and consecutive casks of which the dry-hopped Fireman’s and the Rye really stood out. Tours were given throughout the day and Tim Schwartz reported the company currently has a Pilsner conditioning that should be ready for distribution (in kegs only) in the next two to three weeks. They will subscequently follow their foray into lagers with an Octoberfest which will be both kegged and bottled sometime in August or September. As you can see from the pictures it was a great time, but it was a little warm which prompted a stop for a dip in the Blanco River before returning that night.

For a short video of a reveler at the recent festival see http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=125060327535002.

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12. April 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

The good folk at Jester King had a few people out for an official groundbreaking party on Friday of last week and progress on the brewery is well underway.  Founder Jeff Stuffings had several Jester King prototypes to try including a wood aged Imperial Stout and their very sessionable hoppy American Wheat labeled Das Wunderkind, which I think is destined to become a best seller. The cement truck is scheduled to pour on Wednesday of this week and the structure will be assembled quickly thereafter. As the sun sets over a very impressive landscape only minutes from the city proper in the picture to the right Jeff points out where everything is to go. See more pictures of the guys getting dirty at http://www.jesterkingbrewery.com/.

In somewhat related news, Edward Peters currently at Austin Homebrew Supply was identified as the new brewer at South Austin Brewing Company once it starts up (at least I didn’t spill the beans). For background on South Austin see http://southaustinbrewing.wordpress.com/.

Posted in Central Texas Beer Happenings | 1 Comment »

8. April 2010 by Brother Spargealot.

Austin and its environs appear set to become the next Portland if the number of new micros and brewpubs are any indication. One up and coming area brewpub that is well under way in Johnson City is the Pecan Street Brewing Company (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Johnson-City-TX/Pecan-Street-Brewing/127058221590).  New pictures on the Facebook site show a great deal of progress with the buildout and the 7 Bbl JV Northwest brewing system. Brewer Sean Elliott confirms they hope to be up by late fall and have as many as eight beers on tap. The initial line up will include a Blonde (most likely a Kolsch), a Pale Ale made with Amarillo and Cascade hops, and a Pecan Amber utilizing Texas pecans in the mash.  They also hope to start making big beers, aging in barrels and doing some cask conditioning.

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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.

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.

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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. 

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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.

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.

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