ABW Today (Friday)

It's sad. Let's do two weeks next year. Only two more days. Get out there today, 'cause tomorrow is it.

Draught House is 42

This is the Draught House anniversary party. It was a week after the Flying Saucer fest, but you knew that, right? For me it was the kick-off event for Austin Beer Week.



Crowd was thick.



Oh look, another crowd shot. Wow. I see some Austin Beerlebrities in this one.

Let's see. We sampled these:

1. Green Flash Imperial IPA - Nice
2. Jester King Commercial Suicide - Carbonation was not there and most knew it, but flavor was decent. (NOTE: I had this later in the week at the brewery's acoustic night and it was MUCH improved. Great carbonation. Great flavor. Both Sofia and I really enjoyed it. Like a porter, but with less alcohol punch.)
3. Widmer Bros Bourbon Brrr - Much better than I expected. So much tasty brrrrrrrbon flavor.
4. Ommegang Cup ‘O’ Kyndnes - Very nice. Sofia enjoyed it, but thought it a little heavy.
5. New Belgium Imperial Berliner Weisse - Good.
6. Independece Braggot - this is only my second or third braggot. I really enjoyed it. Not too sweet. Honey very apparent. Nice. I wanted more.

So pissed that I missed the Bitches Brew. Oh well. Otherwise, good times:

ABW Today (Thursday)

Going strong in ABW. Lots of stuff tonight. You can go see (512) Brewing and Beertown Austin at Billy's if you want. Or get some Bitches Brew at Ginger Man. Or head out to Jester King for a little music and brews. That's where we will be.

More info on ABW Last Call

Further info on ABW's Last Call. Can't wait to try Indy's Red IPA and of course one of my favorites, LIVE OAK PRIMUS!:

Highlights include favorites and extremely rare beers:

(512) Brewing
- Whiskey Barrel Aged Double Pecan Porter - Cask
- ONE Brandy Barrel Aged
- TWO Double IPA

Real Ale
- 2009 Sisyphus - Cask
- Coffee Porter
- Devil's Backbone
- Mysterium Verum (a secret whiskey barreled aged beauty)

Live Oak
- Primus - Cask

Independence Brewing Company
- Stash IPA - Cask
- Convict Hill Stout - Cask
- 6th Anniversary Braggot
- Groovin' Leuven - Head Brewer Justin Rizza's Red IPA!

Everyone's guaranteed a pour, and numerous brewers and owners will be in attendance, including from Austin's brewpubs (Uncle Billys, NXNW, Draught House, Lovejoy's and Black Star Co-op) and soon-to-be brewers like South Austin Brewing Company, Deep Ellum Brewing, Adelberts Beer and others.

For noshing, the creative minds at the HighBall have delivered:

Cheese Plate
Featuring Chimay, Guinness Cheddar, Bleu, Wisconsin-Aged Cheddar, Fireman's 4 Beer Bread, Hops-Pickled Vegetables, Nuts, Fruit, Crackers

Sweet Potato Gaufrettes
Herbed Creme Fraiche

Beef Roulade
Smoked, Beer Braised Kale, Apple Mostarda

Pretzel Sliders
Pretzel Bread, Beer Braised Sausage, Slaw

Chocolate Stout Cake
Framboise Raspberry filling, Ganache coating

PLUS... all Last Call attendees receive a $10 off coupon good toward membership in the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.

Ranger Creek's Lineup

Looking good. Can't wait to grab them all. And drink them.

Austin Beer Week Today (Tuesday!)

Good stuff today. If I venture out I will be keeping it local, maybe hitting Red's Porch or Opal Divines, maybe down to Zax. What are you doing tonight?

ABW Today and Last Call

Do this:




Holy crap, tons of stuff to do today. TOO MUCH FOR ONE SCREENSHOT! I'm sitting out today. I gotta recover from yesterday's bike pub crawl (more on that tomorrow).



But I will be going to this. And you should to. This is the lowdown from ABW:

	Austin Beer Week’s Last Call -- Final Round Austin Beer Week, Texas Craft Brewer's Guild & the HighBall are delivering final rounds to an exciting week of craft beer celebration. Join us for two "last call" sessions, each featuring tasty food pairings crafted by Highball chef and Alamo alum Trish Eichelberger. Highlights include extremely rare beers from (512) Brewing (cask-conditioned Whiskey Barrel Aged Double Pecan Porter, ONE Brandy Barrel Aged, TWO Double IPA), Real Ale (2009 Sisyphus Cask, Coffee Porter, 14 Anniversary Ale, Mysterium Verum) and Live Oak (Primus Cask). Everyone's guaranteed a pour, and local brewers will be on hand, making these beer and food tasting sessions more intimate than any festival, more confab than frat party. Come mingle with us as we put the proverbial feather in the Austin Beer Week cap.
	The HighBall
	Oct 30, 2010 @ 5 pm AND 7:30 pm
	$35

And from Highball:

Austin Beer Week, Texas Craft Brewer’s Guild, and the HighBall are delivering the final rounds to an exciting week of craft beer celebration. Join us for two “last call” sessions, each featuring tasty food pairings crafted by HighBall chef Trish Eichelberger. Highlights include extremely rare beers from (512) Brewing (Whiskey Barrel Aged Double Pecan Porter, ONE Brandy Cask, TWO Double IPA) and Real Ale (2009 Sisyphus Cask, Coffee Porter, 14 Anniversary Ale, Mysterium Verum). Everyone’s guaranteed a pour, and local brewers will be on hand, making these beer and food tasting sessions more intimate than any festival, more confab than frat party. Come mingle with us as we put the proverbial feather in the Austin Beer Week cap.

There will be two sessions, each lasting an hour and a half.

FS Fall Beer Festivaling

I know we are in the midst of Austin Beer Week, but let's take a quick look back to last week.



Beer festing. First, I missed the Treehugger. Damn. Grabbed a Boulevard Dopplebock instead. What stood out for you? I loved the (512) Barrel Aged One and most everyone else seemed to as well. Brooklyn Blast, yeah. Green Flash Double Stout, great. Had some Thirsty Planet too, ummm, what else....Some other local stuff too, standard fare.

Did not have any food, smelled good though.

I used the port-o-potties, I liked how they had hand sanitizer stations. That was a nice touch. It was reassuring knowing the people serving beers did not have peepee sprinkles on their hands (too far?). Or at least they were sanatized peepee sprinkles.



I thought I had more pictures, but it looks like only two came out not horrible. So you have to look at my goofy ass serving up some Victory brews. Enjoy.

Good time. Better than last year. More beer (I think), shorter lines, better weather.

Jester King's First Label

This from beernews.org:



Can't wait to have some tomorrow at the Draught House.

Independence Brewing 6th Anniversary Tasting

Like last year, Independence Brewing had media/bloggers out for a tasting leading up to their anniversary party. Tomorrow is the big day - 6 years and the release of their 6th Anniversary Braggot. Unfortunalty I was unable to make it out to the tasting. Never fear, I had one of my roving reporters, Matthew Reid, covering the event. Thanks Matthew, take it away:

Either I was in the right place at the right time or he was frantically looking for someone to fill in for him, but I was lucky enough to take Aaron's place at the unveiling of the 6th Anniversary Braggot at Independence. Beertown Austin has guest writers, why not Craft Austin!!?? My wife, Nicolle, even had a sitter watch the kids so we could have a short date night.

A little background about Independence: Rob Cartwright brewed at Copper Tank. Amy Cartwright worked at the Bitter End in college and for so many start-ups, she wondered why she kept working on projects that never got off the ground. Together they formed Independence Brewing, still at their original location. You can read more here.

Independence is located near the airport just off I-35 and the frontage road of Hwy 71 in an industrial area amongst a number of warehouses. When you pull in to the parking lot, it is an unassuming building. If the doors were closed, I don't think you could even tell there was a craft brewery in the space. However, with all the doors open, it was very inviting. Picnic tables were set up in the tasting area just inside the doors, and three dogs roamed the area, two of which belonged to the Cartwrights. The other one belonged to MisoHungry (Jennie Chen) who brought some goodies to share.

We did not have the chance to talk with Jennie, but what she brought was delicious. We also met John who runs a few blogs, one of which is Hop Safari. I had never heard of this site, but it's worth checking out.

Nicolle and I spent most of our time talking with Amy. She also gave us a tour of the facility. They were approaching 3000 barrels of annual production and thought it was the right time to work with a distributor instead of self-distributing. It just so happened that Brown Distributing was interested in working with a local brewery. In the end, they decided to add new tanks (doubling their capacity) than to add new cargo vans. Six years ago, friends thought they were crazy to have such a large space, but it looks like the Cartwrights were forward thinkers.

Oh, what's that? You want to hear about the Braggot? Oh yeah, I guess that's the reason we went. I'm going right to the point: In my humble opinion, this is the best beer that Independence has released. The aroma is peppery and flowery. The taste has a nice hop presence and is a little citrusy from the clementine orange juice and zest. The aftertaste is a tad alcohol-y, but doesn't detract from the beer at all. At 7.5% ABV, Nicolle was starting to feel it after just half a pint. Being the good husband that I am, I took one for the team and helped her out with it. There were some cheese samples to try with the beer provdided by Antonelli's. The suggestion for the Braggot was a brie-like cheese called Pierce Pt by Cowgirl Creamery in Petaluma, CA. (Beer speaks, people mumble)

Next up was the Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout on cask. You can see by the picture that this poured with a lot of head. Once that settled down, having this beer on cask is the way to go. The aroma and taste were roasty and chocolately, and Nicolle detected an up-front coffee taste. There was virtually no aftertaste except for a longing on your tongue to have more. The cheese from Antonelli's for this beer was a blue cheese called Blue d'Auvergne.

I suppose you would like to hear a little about the 6th Anniversary party this Saturday, October 23. Yes, they will have the Braggot. Yes, they will have the Convict Hill on cask. Yes, they will have a cool glass to purchase. The glass is a wide-based mug with a handle. On one side there is a logo of a honey-comb and the number 6 to pay tribute to the local honey used in the Braggot. Amy said they have received a few firkins recently, so they will have a cask of Stash IPA dry-hopped with a hop that you will have to wait until Saturday to find out. They are also pulling out a keg of one year old Jasperilla (2009). The event will be at their brewery location from 4-8 pm. Check out their website for the honey-comb logo along with more details and other beers being served.

The great folks at Independence definitely know how to run a business and everyone is friendly. As I spoke with a fellow volunteer at the Flying Saucer Beer Festival last Saturday, he said that he has volunteered at the Independence anniversary parties every year and they sent him to GABF recently. Now that's appreciation for your supporters!

ABW: (512) Brewing

And now, (512) and what they will be up to during ABW. Check out the ABW website for full listing.

Sure these guys will be there, but still, it's a can't miss.

Bruin cask, need to try that.

ABW: Saint Arnold Austin Scavenger Hunt 2

ABW: Live Oak Brewing

Ok, ok, I had the greatest intentions of laying out each the breweries "best" events. As you can see I am a little behind. ABW starts in a few days, let's do this. Up now, Live Oak. For Live Oak's full schedule go here.





This event at Alamo looks like it will be one of the highlights of ABW. Good food. Great movie. Killer beer. Although eating at Alamo is always tricky, it's dark....depdending on what you eat, you have to awkwardly shift forward in your seat....don't get me started. But the food is really good, even if I can't see it.

Austin Beerworks Info

A few specs of info, straight from the horse's mouth. I look forward to seeing this play out. The styles they have line up as of now sound great:

Austin Beerworks is an owner-operated brewery that produces bold and clean craft beer. It’s canned for quality. Our goal is to introduce consistently exceptional craft beer to the average beer drinker, and to build community in the town we love.

We are actively building our brewery. Our team includes professional brewers with over 9 years of combined experience. We're aiming for a January 1 launch, but it could be sooner or later depending on the federal and state permitting process.

Saint Arnold DR #10 - Bottling

It's bottling day kids. November 2 is right around the corner.

Draught House Anniversary Party Beer List

Beertown Austin has the scoop. For the full list go there, but these are the guys that jumped out to me:

• Jester King Commercial Suicide Cask
• Southern Star Pro-am Smoked Porter primed with agave syrup with chipotles in the cask Cask
• New Belgium Shadow of the Foeder (La Folie blended with 1554) Cask
• Draught House Grackle India Black Ale Cask
• Dogfish Head Bitch’s Brew Draught
• Deschutes Jubel 2010 Draught
• Draught House Whiskey Century Stout Draught
• Ommegang Rare Vos Draught
• Brooklyn Chocolate 2007 Draught
• Ommegang Cup ‘O’ Kyndnes Draught

Can't wait.

Austin's Newest: Austin Beerworks

More, well not really, here.

I also came across this from Industry Screenprint Studios.

ABW: Independence Brewing

Austin Beer Week is less than a week away. Let's take a closer look at what's coming, starting with Independence Brewing. This is not everything. Check the ABW website for the full gamut.




6th Anniversary Party. Technically this is not part of Austin Beer Week, but it might as well be.



Mmmm, cask Convict.






A good one for the Fam maybe. Sofia, you see this?

ABW: More Bike Pub Crawl Stuff

First, thanks to the Design Shaman for the awesome poster.

Second, these are the discounts confirmed for the crawl so far. More to come:
Billy's on Burnet: $2.75 Texas beers
Black Star Co-op: $3 Texas beers

Come join us. RSVP at Facebook and/or BeerAdvocate.

Whip In Cellar Tap

WHAT:

365 Days of Beer/Running

365 days of running (at least one mile a day) and beer (at least one pint a day). That is the goal. I'm three days in, going good. Will I do it, probably not, no I will. That is why I am telling you guys. Hold me accountable. I sure ain't gonna quit like these guys. More later.

Oh yeah, thanks to Beer Runner for the inspiration.

I Love a Rumor

Coming to TX - If it does not happen, don't look at me, I'm just spreading this rumor...:

ABW with Uncle Billy's

Uncle Billy's

Stone Lukcy Basartd Ale

No that is not a misspelling. Check out more info here.

Saint Arnold DR #9 to Become Fall Seasonal

Photo from @saintarnold.

We've heard about this before, but now it's fairly official. Cool:

It was at this point that Brock made the biggest announcement of the night: This Imperial Pumpkin Stout will become a yearly seasonal release starting next year! That is great news for any beer lover.

H/T: BTA....via Barley Vine.....via Brock Wagner

Pedernales Brewing Company

I just recieved an email from, I think, Pedernales Brewing Company. I hope this ain't no swerve. They love caps lock (emphasis mine):

PEDERNALES BREWING COMPANY, LLC

“ROLL OUT THE BARREL” THE NEWEST CRAFT BREWERY IN TEXAS WILL SOON BE BREAKING GROUND IN FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS…RIGHT IN THE HEART OF THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY.

DR. PAUL FARNSWORTH, NOTED CRAFT BREWER, SPEAKER, CONSULTANT, AND PROFESSOR OF FERMENTATION SCIENCE AT UNM IN ALBUQUERQUE, WILL BE THE BREWMASTER FOR PEDERNALES BREWING COMPANY.

THE PEDERNALES BREWING COMPANY, LLC IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THEY WILL HAVE MULTIPLE BRANDS AVAILABLE– LOBO, LOBO BOCK, AND LOBO NEGRO; LADDER TRUCK LAGER, WHICH WILL BE A BENEFIT BRAND TO SUPPORT RURAL EMS UNITS AND VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENTS; AND PEDERNALES CLASSICS -WHICH WILL SHOWCASE CLASSIC BEER FROM AROUND THE WORLD INCLUDING PALE ALE, PORTER, STOUT, PILSNER, AND OTHERS.

THEY INVITE YOU TO “LIKE” THEM ON FACEBOOK AT "PEDERNALES BREWING COMPANY." MORE INFORMATION WILL BE FORTHCOMING IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS AS THEY BREAK GROUND AND PREPARE TO BE OPEN WITH THEIR PREMIERE PRODUCT LAUNCH IN LATE SPRING OR EARLY SUMMER 2011.

PEDERNALES BREWING COMPANY, LLC WILL ALSO SOON BE ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT AND IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT LEE HEREFORD, 830/669-2917.

I am still a bit unclear about those beer styles/brands. It looks like two different brands with various styles under each brand. I guess time will sort out the details.

For the latest, follow them on Facebook.

Even More Info on FS Fall Beer Fest

This is like a never ending saga. Ted, Sam and Co. need a vacation after planning this year's fest.

Still want VIP tickets to the Flying Saucer Fest? Act fast, you only got three days.

Hopdoddy

Burgers and beer. What else do you need? Hopdoddy knows whats up. They open today.

For real media coverage:
Statesman
Thrillist

And for all other info on the new joint:
Facebook
Website
Twitter


Photo: Hopdoddy Facebook

h/t: BTA

More from SF Trip

I told you about the Trappist. I still need to do the Beer Revolution post, tomorrow maybe. Today I got some Triple Rock action for you. I did not go, my wife and her family went after I had returned to Austin. Great thanks a lot, go after I leave. But at least they shot a MLP for me.

My Last Pint #28 with Rodger Davis of Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse

Sofia and her family seemed to enjoy the place. Beers and foodage were quality.

DH Beer Olympics

Don't have a bike? Not coming to our bike pub crawl? Well, you can still have fun on the first day of Austin Beer Week. Head out to the Draught House, we will be swinging through: