Beers I Want This Weekend...

...but am to cheap to buy (right now). A man can dream.

Hops & Grain Tasting

Beer Town Austin beat me to the punch with this one. Whatever. I stole the above picture from their website. Hops & Grain had us over to try some of their homebrews, which they plan on scaling up once the brewery is open. And just as Beer Town Austin imported his notes straight from his iphone, I am going to give you the straight dope directly from my notepad:

Alt
It was like a malt/hop battle. Dry hopped with Saaz and it shows, or should I say it smells like it. It is light drinking, but no light bodied.

Schwartz
Good roast and smoke rolling around in there. Finishes clean. Super dark, black (duh). Zesty and clean.

Pale Ale
Citrus hop aroma and flavor. Some DMS, but not off-putting.

Red
Hoppy and bitter. I really like this hoppy red. Malty finish, but bitterness stays around.

Hoppy Brown
Gnashing hops. Piney. Some milkiness. I feel like this would be a great leaping point for great variations. Additions of cherry would be "tasty."

If I had to rank them from my favorite to least favorite, it would look like this:

1. Red
2. Schwartz
3. Alt
4. Hoppy Brown
5. Pale Ale

*Alt only slightly edged out the Brown

Thanks guys.

Saint Arnold Pub Crawl Returns to Austin

Again with the crawling. From the latest Saint Arnold newsletter:

We will be having an Austin Pub Crawl on Saturday, June 19 so if you are looking for an excuse to visit Austin, you may want to mark you calendars.

The last one was fun and I bet this one will be better. Who wants to bet me? Come on.

My Last Pint

New website alert: My Last Pint.

This is the deal. We launched it with an interview with Sam Calagione.

Enjoy (I hope).

Uncle Billy's 3rd Anniversary Beer List

From Uncle Billy's facebook page...

UPDATE: BEER LIST

The following will be on Tap/Keg for the Ann. Party:

1. 3rd Anniversary Ale "Dave Tripel" - Belgian-style Tripel, strong & pale, hint of candy sugar, straight German Pils malt, Styrian Goldings hops and fermented with Westmaille yeast - 8.5% ABV

2. 2nd Anniversary Ale "Boozer Chavez" (one keg)

3. World Beer Cup & GABF winner "Hell In Keller" (one keg)

4. Hop Zombie (one keg)

5. Bitchin' Camero (one keg)

6. Woodeye Rye (one keg)

7. Oatmeal Stout (one keg)

8. Ax Handle Pale Ale (one cask)

9. Agave Wit

10. Hill Country Amber

11. Back 40 Blonde


*The Anniversery Beers are served in half-pint glasses only. Also, many of these are one keg, so when it runs out...it's gone! Get here early!

Anchor Sold???

...sending shockwaves through the Twitterbeerverse...

Southern Star 2010 Pro-AMm Winner Announced

And it is a smoked porter. Mmmm, love that style.



BA chatter here.

GA(ustin)BF Tickets Available

Still no word on breweries attending, but tickets are available for purchase at the Austin Music Hall website. If you are not a betting (wo)man you can spend an extra ten at the gate:

Tickets on sale now! Click here to purchase The Great Austin Beer Festival is our opportunity to celebrate everything we love about beer. With so many great breweries in Austin and beyond, you will get your chance to sample some the finest local beers and explore beers from our best breweries from all over the world. The event offers multiple opportunities to learn everything you want to know about beer. Join us in downtown at the Austin Music Hall on June 26th. Admission is $30 online and $40 day of event. It includes unlimited 4oz samples. Food will be sold separately. For questions email info@greataustinbeerfestival.com www.greataustinbeerfestival.com

I think....I think

...it's gonna be a good weekend. If you need me, I will be by the pool with one of these.

2010 American Craft Beer Week

May 17-20 is American Craft Beer Week. This is what they have listed for events in TX (I'm sure more will be added):

Humperdink's Arlington
Arlington, TX
www.humperdinks.com
817-640-8553
Description: We will be tapping one 1/2 bbl. keg of The Chocolator Reserve (chocolate double bock). Brewery tours will be available Tuesday, May 18th from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Draught House Pub & Brewery
Austin, TX
www.draughthouse.com
(512) 468-7132
Description: Each night of the week we will have a different brewery representative in house to talk about and sample their beers with merchandise give aways. These are free events. On Sunday will will host a beer and cheese tasting with 8-10 pairings. This will be a ticketed event.

Humperdink's N.W. Hwy.
Dallas, TX
www.humperdinks.com
214-358-4159
Description: We will be tapping one 1/2 bbl. keg of our 2009 Oak Aged Maibock. Brewery tours available Monday, May 17th from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Humperdink's Greenville Ave.
Dallas, TX
www.humperdinks.com
214-368-1203
Description: We will be tapping one 1/2 bbl. keg of our Vanilla Porter. Brewery tours will be available on Wednesday, May 19th from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Freetail Brewing Co
San Antonio, TX
www.freetailbrewing.com
210-395-4974
Description: May 17: Craft Beer Week Kicks off with our Spring Beer Dinner. $45 + tax & gratuity. Tickets on sale May 1 May 18:Craft Beer Week Recession Buster. Pint night drops to $2/pint for ONE DAY ONLY! May 19: Release of Solera III May 20: Barrel Aged La Muerta keg release. Only 5 gallons, so get here early. Keg tapped at 6pm. May 21: Craft Beard Week. Start growing those funky beards now - Jason and John Lee will judge and the best beard will win a $50 Freetail gift card (ladies, you can participate too - make a fake beard!) May 22: Craft Beer Week Battle of Wits IV. Chris Taylor Band live on the patio 8-11pm.

And this is from Flying Saucer:

Live Oak Listed

Like I've said before, everyone loves a list. This is my list of Live Oak's beer listed from favorite to least favorite. What are your favorite Live Oak brews? Give me your list.

1. Primus Weizenbock - Perfect!
2. Hefeweizen - Near perfect.
3. Liberation - So glad this is back.
4. Big Bark Amber
5. Oaktoberfest - Middle of the road for me, oktoberfestwise
6. IPA
7. Pilz

These are the beers I've not had enough of to make a judgment:
Pale Ale, Old Tree Hugger Barleywine, Liberator Dopplebock

www.liveoakbrewing.com

Dogfish Head/Alamo Drafthouse Off-Centered Film Fest Day 1

Last Friday was the Dogfish portfolio tasting at the Lake Creek Alamo Drafthouse. I had all these grand plans of getting these photos up by Monday, but you know how it goes. Hueva sets in...Those videos of Sam rapping and announcing Bitches Brew really saved my ass.



Anyway, back to the tasting.



Stage setup. That is not Sam. But that is Patrick Beach sitting in front of me. He's got his shit together. Hey Patrick, I thought I got some wild comments, WTF.

It was also nice to meet and chat with Ronnie Crocker.

Yeah, yeah, these guys too...



These were the first three "courses" (see course/beer list here). They were all good. The Medjool date stuffed with gorgonzola, marcona almond and wrapped in bacon was a no brainer.



This is how they served the beers. Three beers=three foods to pair 'em up with.



Proscuitto=can't lose. Next.



Sliders. So yummy I ate one before remembering to take a photo. At this point I started getting annoyed with the photo taking. That or I was getting a bit buzzed. Not sure.



Look at that duck sausage, it's that brown smear looking thing. It was siccccckkkkkk, loved it. But come on, they barely gave me anything to chew on. And the truffled parmesan cheese fries were no joke either.

That was the last photo. I had fun. I did not see anyone who did not. And I think that is the best thing you can say about any event.

Let's go through this. They got:

Holder Page - Check
Twitter Page - Check
Facebook Page - Check

Now they just have to pull it all together with the planning. We will see what materializes by June 26th. Fingers crossed.

Beer in a Box

Have you seen this?:

... Why hasn't the populist sudsy brew, already an everyman's refreshment, entered the boxed beverage realm?

Because it's simply more difficult to keep carbonated beer pressurized and oxygen free in large, four-liter containers, according to Thomas Hussey, a recently graduated industrial design student from Australia's University of Technology Sydney .... He knew that costly pony kegs were a poor long-term answer in an environmentally conscious world. So he developed Kegless, a workable solution to the boxed beer dilemma.

With a two-pronged focus on cost and environmental impact, Hussey's invention eschews pricier bottles, kegs and cans in favor of a revolutionary collapsible container that maintains the CO2 pressure while barring oxygen. And it's turned heads. Hussey is one of 14 finalists in the student category of the 2010 Australian Design Award and the Australian component of the James Dyson Award who will advance to the global competition.

More technical info here.

Independence Brewing Headed Out to Houston

Not the brewery, just the beer:

Independence Brewing from Austin, TX has begun to self-distribute in the Houston area. Spec's has been carrying the beers in Houston for a while, but only at the downtown location. The beers will now be available over a wider area, starting with HEB locations in the Northwest area of Houston as well as The Woodlands.

More Dogfish Head

Are you sensing a theme? Maybe this will be Dogfish week. With last weekend's events we are left with a ton of material to get through. This is that short movie I mentioned last Friday starring Will Oldham and Sam Calagione. It premiered Saturday night at the Lake Creek Alamo Drafthouse for the Off-Centered Film Fest.

Dogfish Head and Miles Davis

Sam was not just rapping at Friday night night's Off-Centered Film Fest, dude was making announcements. He let the packed house at the Lake Creek Alamo Drafthouse know that Dogfish Head was brewing a special release beer to coincide with the fortieth anniversary release of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew!

They were contacted by Sony to brew the beer to coincide with the albums upcoming re-release.

Sam explained the beer as a threaded beer made from multiple primary fermentations, later blended together. The first thread will be a Tej, an African honey beer with gesho root (for bittering). And the other three threads will be imperial stouts with Madagascar sugar.

The beer is set to release in August.

Sam Announcing Dogfish Head's Miles Davis Bitches Brew Beer! from Aaron Chamberlain on Vimeo.

Sam Rapping at the Off-Centered Film Fest

Sam from Dogfish Head Rappin' from Aaron Chamberlain on Vimeo.

More to come later. This was Friday night at the portfolio tasting.

CLICK HERE FOR YOUTUBE VERSION

Sam and Will

One of my favorite artists, Will Oldham, teamed up with Sam Calgione for one of tomorrow's Short Films. Party Ends has go the info:

A short film made by Will Oldham and Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales founder Sam Calagione will be debuting at tomorrow night’s Off-Centered Film Fest short film competition screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek Saturday April 17th.

That’s right. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy himself and the world’s numbero uno craft beer rockstar are bros. They goofed around to make a silly little film to pass the time and comment on the de-humanization of corporate breweries.

...

The short film, titled Robot Brewery Tour, features Will Oldham as an oddball, wild-eyed investigative journalist touring a soulless brewery run by a Robot, played by the ever-charismatic Sam Calagione. Calagione explains via email:

“Imagine a terrifying dystopian world where the international, robotic, brewing conglomerates successfully automated flavor and humans out of brewing process and reduced beer to a generic commodity….wait you don’t have to imagine that. We totally filmed it!”

The short will debut Saturday night at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek as part of the Off-Centered Film Fest. It is sure to be irreverent and at the very least off-centered. I assume it will hit Vimeo next week…

Boston Beer Co. is 25

Draught House/Antonelli's Cheese and Beer Pairing

From Antonelli's Cheese Shot:

On May 23, we're headed to The Draught House to pair our amazing cheeses with their beers. Details are still being hammered out, but stay tuned for more details on how to reserve a (limited!) space at each event.

Take this as my official request for a seat!

Stone Sublimely Self -Righteous Hittin' Texas

From Jason Armstrong:

Stone Sublimely Self -Righteous Ale is rolling into Texas next week! Cheers!

2010 SA Longshot sixpacks

They are hitting TX now. Get one. I am.

From Wine Enthusiast (what...don't hate):

Michael Robinson’s Old Ale: An English-style beer with notes of dried fruit, nuts and caramel brewed with five different malts. Light brown and full bodied with a slight bitterness, the ingredients are all-American except for the yeast. At 9% abv, it’s a bit bigger than the average beer, designed for cooler nights or after-dinner sipping.

Ben Miller’s Barleywine: Ben is a self-proclaimed “hop head” meaning that several varieties of American hops were used in his barleywine, resulting in an intense profile of resiny citrus aromas and clean hop bitterness. Dark red and flavorful with rich red stone fruit and caramel components.

Jeremy White’s Saison: Jeremy White is the employee winner of the Sam Adams Homebrew competition, hailing from the IT department of the company. Refreshing, flavorful and light bodied, his classic Belgian-style saison is brewed with grains of paradise (sound familiar? Sam Summer Ale, anyone?), infusing a light peppery flavor throughout alongside notes of sweet grain and citrus.

Top 50 Craft Breweries For 2009

From the Brewers Association:

1. Boston Beer Co.; Boston MA
2. Sierra Nevada Brewing; Chico CA
3. New Belgium Brewing; Fort Collins CO
4. Spoetzl Brewery (Gambrinus); Spoetzl TX
5. Pyramid Breweries; Seattle WA 6. Deschutes Brewery; Bend OR
7. Matt Brewing; Utica NY
8. Magic Hat Brewing Company; Burlington VT
9. Boulevard Brewing; Kansas City MO
10. Harpoon Brewery; Boston, MA
....
48. Saint Arnold Brewing; Houston TX

H/T: Brookston

REMINDER: OFF-CENTERED FILM FEST

Friday and Saturday. Although, I think Friday is already sold out.

Spec's Spring Beer Fest

Remember last week's nonsense about a beer event at Spec's on Brodie Lane.

Well it actually turned out better than I was expecting. It was no fest, but still, they had a lot of beers to try for free. AND a free glass.

And it was not all Abita. Actually they only had one beer there, their Strawberry seltzer, I mean Lager. Nothing spectacular, but for free, who can complain. I tried the Deschutes Inversion IPA. I was unimpressed. The Red Chair is much better in my opinion.

Now for pictures of the event. Not really, what site do you think you are reading, BTA?:



List, part 1.



List, part 2.



These are my notes. Professional.



This is the pencil I used to write those notes. Free glass and a free pencil.

Happening Tomorrows

From Artisanal Imports:

April 14, Wednesday night at the Gingerman Austin, from 6-8 pm, we have the wonderful & talented Hildegard van Ostaden from the Urthel brewery tasting her beer and answering your questions. We will also be displaying the brand new Urthel Saisonnière, an adventurous hybrid style of Saison and golden ale brewed with 20% wheat! Come on out!

More on Urthel Saisonnière.

Speaking of Uncle Billy's

They are three years old and they are throwin' a party. From their Facebook:

Happy Beer Day to us!! Come celebrate with us - live music on the patio plus delicious beer, shots & app specials.

LIVE MUSIC (details to come)

DRINK SPECIALS: $3 pints, $5 patron silver & patron XO cafe shots

FOOD SPECIALS: $3 appetizers

Anniversary beer? We'll see...

Remember last year? That was good.

World Beer Cup, TX Style

Winners were announced this past weekend.

TX winners:






The Covey and Uncle Billy's are killing it this year. Congrats!

(512) Brewing Spring Open House, A Recap

From the dudes at Beer Town Austin. I was not their, but they were. So go their and read it, but I can sum it up: Great Beer, Great Atmosphere.

CONFIRMED: Live Oak 13th Anniversary Party - April 17th

Thanks to my roving reporter, we got a confirmation on the Live Oak party:

Anniversary party is set for 4-17, next Sat, 12-5pm

Best Shirt Ever?

Probably.

Flying Saucer Announces Date for Their Fall Beer Fest

They sure are getting the date set early. I guess they are trying to "call" the date early to avoid any bumping of elbows with other bars and events, who are planning similar events. It reminds me of when I was a kid and we would call shotgun for the car ride home before even leaving for the vacation.

www.beerknurd.com/stores/austin