(512) One

P1110214
Originally uploaded by aaronchamberlain

Fruity, boozy, a tad sweet, green apple. Very good. Deserving. If (512) keeps it up they may just become my favorite TX brewery. Maybe they already are....

Reminder

Don't forget.

They had (512) One at Flying Saucer last night. I did not have any. Being the crack beernalist that I am, I found out about this at 10:30 last night. Sleepin' on the job.

Es un barleywine, güey.

"The best rated Mexican craft beer" claims the website. That shouldn't be too hard. I am gonna move to Honduras to start the "Best Rated Honduran Craft Brewery."

Rumor has it that TX will be getting some of their beers. And they are rated well. But are they given a bump because of the novelty of a Mexican craft beer? I don’t even really count them as a Mexican beer anyway. Come on, the brewery is in Mexicali! That’s like a brewery in Pensacola saying they are a Floridian brewery. Pensacola is not Florida and Mexicali is not Mexico.

(If it is not obvious, I am doggin’ Pensacola. ‘Cause that town blows.)

Gibb's Beer Run

SN Anniversary Ale

2009. Spotted it last night at HEB Hancock.

Unfortunately, I am still on this damn beer diet. So this will not be enjoyed until next month. The next beer I am going to buy is a mixed six pack of Rahr. Paul's right.

Whilst walking around Hyde Park Market, raising my eyebrows at the prices, I noticed they had six pack's of Rahr's Winter Warmer ($9.99). I've yet to buy anything from Rahr. I have heard from others that this is a pretty good beer.

I usually leave Hyde Park Market empty handed. Mainly because of the prices. The owners are always nice and ask "What were you looking for?" Maybe I should just tell them that their prices are out of hand. For example, Friday I bought an Anderson Valley Brother David's Triple and it was $8.99 for a 22oz bomber. A bit high, but not too crazy. Then on Saturday I saw it at Spec's for $5.99. But I hate Spec's.

Whiskey Aged Dale's @ Draught House

How was it?

Two Newbies from Real Ale

Two new beers coming up:

1. new IPA - via Texas Beer - I'm guessing this is different from the Lost Gold IPA

2. Real Ale's first lager - via Beer Town Austin's Over A Pint, Episode 1

Old Odd Beer Commercial

I was talking to my grandmother last night. Just yammering about, mostly talking about my grandfather who passed away last year. And then we got on the topic of beer and she told me about a Colt 45 commercial in which my grandfather's BFF starred. He is the surfer. Youtubed it right away. Ah the internet, it is truly amazing sometimes.

Over a Pint, Episode 1

Beer Town Austin has posted their first "Over a Pint" episode, with Adam from Real Ale.

Grab a coolish one and tune in.

Not beer (entirely) but still tasty

Good news regarding (512) Anniversary Party. Not only will they be releasing their anniversary beer, which I have high hopes for and unlike Shiner, I am almost certain it will fulfill my expectations ... but Jennie, aka PookieSoup, of MisoHungry Makes it with Moonshine will also be there. With delicious baked goods. Per her comment: (512) Pecan Porter Drunken German Chocolate cupcakes and (512) Pecan Porter Lamingtons.

She has mentioned (on Twitter) to me before her (512) Pecan Porter Drunken German Chocolate cupcakes. But what the hell is a lamington? I feel stupid. Don't bother googling it (I know you are about to). Just click here.

Anyway, I am looking forward to having one of those cupcakes in one hand and a pecan porter in the other.

(512) Brewing 1st ANNIVERSARY

Saturday, August 1st, 2-5 pm
MUSIC - HOURLY TOURS - SCHWAG
Come and taste our1st Anniversary Ale

(512) ONE - A Belgian-Style Strong Ale with Organic base grains, Forbidden Fruit yeast, domestic hops andlocal Good Flow wildflower honey


Hell yeah!

Firkin Friday @ Draught House

Another post stolen from Beer Town Austin's Twitter feed.

This week's cask at the Draught House will be a whiskey barrel aged Dale's Pale Ale.

I'm thirsty.

No Ho Ho

Yesterday was Christmas in July at the Ginger Man. I missed it. Having a new baby makes it harder to go downtown. But just wait 16 years. The boy's gonna be drivin me all over the place. I can't wait.

Chris from Beer Town Austin (that's his photo) made it out. Here are a couple of his tweets (a little bit of myself dies each time I use that word):

Having seconds. The cask didn't work so it came out of the beer engine. And they ran out of SA glasses. Still yummy

@SaintArnold Christmas in July at the Gingerman. Feeling jolly.

Texas is Stoned

Stupid pun.

From Stone's Twitter feed:

The stars @ night are small and dim, deep in the heart of @StoneBrewTexas -until now. Stone 13th Anniv Ale is TX approved & a few weeks away

More AV

Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' IPA was at Flying Saucer for two seconds. When I arrived on Thursday (for Hop Wallop cask) it was gone.

Spec's and Grape Vine had the IPA, Triple and Amber a few days ago.

For now they don't fit into my drinking "schedule," but when I am done with this stupid diet my gigantic blue recycling bin is going to be overflowing with Boont Amber bottles.

Texas Monthly’s 50 BEST HAMBURGERS IN TEXAS

What, no Hut's Fats Domino?!? That is my favorite. I have not had any of these. I have my work cut out for me. Austin burgers in bold:

1. The Grape, Dallas, Classic Cheeseburger
2. Counter Café, Austin, Counter Burger
3. Alamo Springs Café, Fredericksburg, Cheeseburger (With Green Chiles on a Jalapeno-Cheese Bun)
4. Toro Burger Bar, El Paso, Toro Burger
5. The Cove, San Antonio, Texas Burger
6. The Porch, Dallas, The Stodg
7. Perini Ranch Steakhouse, Buffalo Gap, Hamburger Steak on a Bun
8. Dutch’s, Fort Worth, Bacon and Bleu Cheese Burger
9. Beck’s Prime, Houston, Bacon Cheeseburger
10. Orlando’s, Lubbock, Cheeseburger in Paradise
11. White Buffalo Bar, Gage Hotel, Marathon, Buffalo Burger
12. Cover 3, Austin, Chop-House Burger (With Cheese and Bacon)
13. Burger Fresh, Conroe, 1/2 Pound Hamburger
14. Burger Tex II, Austin, Bulgogi Burger
15. Twisted Root Burger Co., Dallas, Hamburger
16. Max’s Wine Dive, Austin, Houston, Kobe Beef Burger
17. Love Shack, Fort Worth, Dirty Love Burger
18. Fatty’s Burgers & More, San Antonio, Ref Burger
19. MoMak’s Backyard Malts & Burgers, San Antonio, MoMak Classic Burger
20. Kelly’s Eastside, Plano, Southwestern Burger
21. Big’z Burger Joint, San Antonio, Big’z Famous No. 1
22. Chicken Oil Co., Bryan, Snuffy Burger
23. Café Michael Burger, Galveston, Tiki Burger
24. Burgers, Fries and Cherry Pies, Midland, The French Connection Burger
25. Mockingbird Bistro, Houston, American Kobe Beef Burger
26. Parkside, Austin, Cheeseburger
27. Black Sheep Lodge, Austin, Black Buffalo Burger
28. Miss Hattie’s Café and Saloon, San Angelo, Miss Hattie Burger
29. Mel’s Country Café, Tomball, Double Hamburger
30. Roaring Fork, Austin, Half Ass Burger
31. Gene’s Tasty Burger, Wichita Falls, Frisco Burger
32. Cliff Café, Dallas, Brie and Granny Smith Burger
33. Bracken Store Café, San Antonio, Bean and Frito Burger
34. Sam’s Deli Diner, Houston, Hamburger
35. Dry Creek Café, Houston, The Regular (With Asadero Cheese)
36. Hamburger Store, Jefferson, Build-Your-Own Burger
37. Mighty Fine, Austin, Hamburger
38. Roadhouse, Bastrop, Jalapeno Cream Cheese Burger
39. Lankford Grocery and Market, Houston, Old-Fashioned Hamburger
40. Classics Burgers and “Moore,” Kerrville, Cheeseburger
41. Koffee Kup Family Restaurant, Hico, Jalapeno Cream Cheese Burger
42. Hruska’s Store and Bakery, Ellinger, Cheeseburger
43. Rosco’s Burger Inn, El Paso, Rosco Burger
44. Port Aransas Brewing Company, Port Aransas, Stopher Burger
45. Goode Company Hamburgers and Taqueria, Houston, Mesquite Burger
46. Snuffer’s Restaurant and Bar, Dallas, Green Chile Swissburger
47. Fred’s Texas Café, Fort Worth, Diablo Burger
48. Speedy’s Burger, Houston, Hamburguesa Mexicana
49. Gourmet Burger Grill, San Antonio, Hamburger
50. Jakes, Dallas, #1 Jakes Special

B is for Burger

Texas Monthly is rating the top 50 Texas burgers in their August issue. Personally my favorite burger is Bonnie's in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NYC. Though Austin does have some damn good burgers.

The thing is you got to have the perfect package: Good burger, good fries, good beer. That is what Austin seems to lack. No one place can pull it together. Am I wrong?

Bonnie's always had three good taps. An ample load of canned/bottled beer. Fries, perfect. Burger, spiced just right. Chipotle mayo on the table. Forget about it. No Texas joint can beat it. I wish they could. Enlighten me.

Hop Wallop Cask II - UPDATED

**UPDATE: My dear readers. I misinformed you. Draught House will not have Hop Wallop for Firkin Friday. Sorry. They will have it TONIGHT. Directly competing with Flying Saucer. Oh, what an epic battle of bars! So what is on for Firkin Friday.

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, dry hopped with Cascade and Columbus hops. Boo yeah!

Please disregard the rest of the post below.

Now you have two opportunities to grab a cask drawn pint of Hop Wallop. Tonight at the Flying Saucer and tomorrow at the Draught House for their Friday Firkin. You snooze you looze.

Flying Saucer will be pulling the beer through their beer engine. Usually for Firkin Friday at Draught House the casks are gravity casks. It will be interesting to compare the difference. Unless maybe for some reason the DH is also drawing it through their engine, which then means this paragraph is bollocks.

Not Drinking Sucks

Remember last week when I said I had stopped drinking beer for a month or two to lose a few pounds. Yeah, that's over with.

I did not last through Thursday - I had to get some of that Ruination cask at Flying Saucer and then we zipped over to Draught House for a glass of Allagash Curieux. I have cut back a lot though. And because I am enjoying a beer here and there, I've decided to start swimming before work. So far I've gone two days straight! That is a big deal for me.

Have no fear, this is temporary. I could never keep this up forever. Well maybe, I'll see how I feel in September. Till then drink one for me.

Hop Wallop Cask

Flying Saucer is tapping a cask of Victory Hop Wallop @ 7pm tomorrow night (Thursday). Looks like daddy might have to go for a little bike ride.

Anderson Valley - Texas

Rumors of Anderson Valley's arrival have been around for awhile now. They are finally coming true. Myth busted! Or verified? I never understand when it is busted or verified. Anyway, the Houston Flying Saucer is having a launch party for AV tonight. They will be featuring the oatmeal stout and amber on tap.


Their Boont Amber is awesome. It is probably my favorite amber. Amber - what the hell is it anyway? Almost any beer can slap an amber label on it. A further exploration of this later is needed. Look out for that.

Jester King Brewery

A new brewery in Austin? I guess we will have to wait and see. It seems promising from their website. The owner, Jeffrey Stuffings, seems serious and intent on getting the brewery up and going.


Right now he has an interesting list of beers: Weizen-Virtue, Masquerade Red, India Pale Ale, Rex Machina, Impaler Vlad and La Danse Macabre. It is funny that he did not give his IPA a name. Maybe that was the last ale to name and he just got burned out.


Good luck to him. I look forward to drinking his beers, especially the Impaler Vlad (blood oranges!!), which sounds delicious.

Dry Times

I am not drinking right now. Not a drop. This is strictly a diet thing. Some may scoff, I know I would. I recently reached a point where I thought I may hit the 200 lb mark. I knew I had to do something. I am terribly lazy, so any workout routine would not work. It's bloody hot and our new baby are two reasons I have not been skating as much. I still bike to and from work, so that is something. So I cut beer for a month or two, save for special occasions, such as the fourth of July.

And then I read this at I Love Beer, about an event at the Draught House:

Rob Todd of Allagash will be in [house] on Monday, July 13th from 6-8pm. Please come by and meet the man behind the beers. FYI, we currently have Allagash White, Victoria and Curieux on tap.

Great. Thanks a lot Lee!

Maybe this counts as a "special occasion."

Not Beer Link of the Day

Dave Carnie has been one of my favorite writers since I was a pimpled adolescent skate rat. Back then he was the editor for the skateboard magazine Big Brother. The magazine was mostly about skateboarding, but also delved into deeper topics like drunkenness, boobs and poop. But it was not all skateboarding and silliness. It was because of Carnie that I started reading Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I'm telling you, this was quite the magazine. I still have a lot of old issues I've dragged from Florida to Mississippi back to Florida to NYC to Austin (my wife is a saint).

Anyway, I say all this to say Dave Carnie now, among other things, has a food blog. His short description of the blog:

I used to think that traveling the world and getting paid to write about riding a skateboard was the best job in the world, but I think I found one better: being a food writer. Plus, unlike skateboarding, you can actually write about food. Although I’m sure we'll find a million ways to avoid the subject. Welcome to “Food on Drunk,” Dave and Tania Carnie's new and ridiculous website about food and all the nonsense that goes on around it.

So I guess this is not a totally "not beer link." He talks about beer in there in some places. It's by far the best food blog I've read. It's actually entertaining.

http://foodondrunk.blogspot.com/

This Thursday @ the Austin Saucer

According to Sam from Flying Saucer, a cask of Stone Ruination dry hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo will be tapped this Thursday @ 7pm.

I just saw this over at Beernews.org and it made me extremely thirsty.

Check

Thanks Dave!

Steady Yeti

Slow gettin goin this Monday morning. Enjoy this video from lemasney. I wanted some sort of Chocolate Yeti video. This is close enough. I had a Chocolate Yeti last night. It was tasty. Plenty going on with that beer. Maybe too much. Hot stuff, it gave me a bit of heartburn. Tasty heartburn.

Saint Arnold News

I just received the latest Saint Arnold newsletter.

The big news is the latest info on Divine Reserve #8:

DIVINE RESERVE NO. 8 IS BEING BREWED NEXT WEEK It has been a year since we have brewed a Divine Reserve. Our issue has been a lack of capacity to brew these very time (and tank) consuming beers. But next week we are going to squeeze in a brew of Divine Reserve No. 8. It will take us 46 hours of continuous brewing to get this baby into the tank (one of our regular beers takes about 21 hours). DR8 will be a Scotch Ale and is based on the Big Batch Brew Bash winning entry from Phillip Kaufman. But don't expect to see this beer in the stores this summer. Expected release date is September.

And this:

NEW BREWERY IS PROGRESSING Opening day at the new brewery is drawing closer! Here is a video giving a tour showing the progress of the brewery. (It can take a few moments to load on our website.)

Saint Arnold Video News: Our New Home Edition
http://www.saintarnold.com/mt/2009/06/the_saint_arnold_video_news_ou.html or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5T0GJ7cxI0

Independence Day with Independence Brewing

I was reminded of this by Steve @ All Good Beer. Independence is having their monthly tour/tasting and it just happens to fall on the Fourth of July. How cheeky. Bring an umbrella, because it's gonna be toasty and there is not much shade around there, unless you wanna sit under a semi-truck.

NOTE: NEW TIMES!Entrance to the brewery and beer tasting tickets will be handed out from 1-2 pm. The brewery will remain open to 3 pm for your leisurely enjoyment

Firkin Friday - 7/3/09

Draught House is tapping a cask of Real Ale Lost Gold IPA today @ 3pm.

(512) updates

1. (512) has a new blog, change yr bookmarks: http://512brewing.wordpress.com/
2. They've expanded, adding a new fermenter (80BBL Uni-tank).
3. (512) One is being brewed to celebrate their first anniversary, to be released at their Anniversary Party (details to follow soon).

Beer Times

Jenn Ackerman/The New York Times

New York Times' beer coverage seems to come in sporadic surges. Right now they are in one of their high tides. Two stories today:

1. Beer Cocktails - with recipes.
2. Grow Your Own -also they seem to love Bierkraft in Brooklyn, about 80 percent of their beer stories have some sort of Bierkraft connection

Thirsty Thursday #26

Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout
by Guinness Ltd, Dublin, Ireland
Style: Irish Dry Stout
ABV: 5%

I've had it on tap and from a bottle. I prefer the bottle version better. Come on though, 250 years and another slightly boring dry stout. Seriously. Give me a double stout, a chocolate stout, a milk stout, something a bit different. A bit special. Don't get me wrong, it's enjoyable, but I think 250 years calls for a little more pomp and circumstance.