Independence/Judge's Hill Dinner

Hold on, I am trying to find my notes on this dinner . . .

Ok, I'm back. This was not your average beer dinner. It was a battle, a duel betwen Chef Jonathan Gelman of The Driskill Grill vs. Chef Rob Snow of Judges' Hill Restaurant. And it all benefited the Sustainable Food Center. All the food was Wild Game supplied by Broken Arrow Ranch. The dinner consisted of three rounds with a dish from each chef — each paired with an Independence beer. We voted on our favorite dishes/pairings. It was blind, RED plates vs. BLACK plates.

ROUND 1



Wild Boar Belly w/ Risotto Cakes, Smoked Walnut Vinaigrette, Pickled Local Vegetables and Bootlegger Brown
That belly was great. I really enjoyed the pickled vegetables except they were too small, diced beyond belief, annoying. Overall the food overpowered the beer, not a great pairing.



Buttermilk Fried Quail, "Stash" BBQ Sauce and Stash IPA
The fried quail was perfect, the egg on top a bit too decadent. BBQ was tasty. With the Stash, this was a better pairing than first plate.



My Stash. You think as a beer blogger I would have taken more photos of the beer. Sorry. But this one was just so pretty.

ROUND 2



Venison Steak, Jalapeno Cotija Potato Croquette, Raspberry Jasperilla Demi-glace and Jasperilla Old Ale.
Venison was venisony and cooked well. Reminded me of my childhood (I was raised by wolves). The croquette was light and fluffy or as I wrote in my notes - NICE. All paired nicely with Jasperilla.



Antelope Grilled, Chilled & Rood Awakenings and Rood.
Saying grilled antelope is not enough for this plate, it had three kinds of antelope meat. It was a meat orgy. The jerky was my favorite part. Again, second dish was a better pairing in this round.

ROUND 3



Gold Deluxe Angel Food Cake with Grilled Fredericksburg Peaches & Merlitons and Gold Deluxe.
Merlitons? I had to bing that. This may be the worst photo I've ever taken, my apologies. I liked the fruit, hated the angel food cake, but I've always hated angel food cake.



Wild Boar Smores and Gold Deluxe.
This was easily the most anticipated plate of the night after everyone read the menus. And it was good, really good. Made with boar bacon. I did not vote for it though. Putting bacon on something is cheating, everyone is gonna vote for bacon.

Overall, I enjoyed the food from the RED chef better and the pairings from the BLACK chef. Guess what, I forgot who was red and who was black and who won. So, bing that if you really want to know the results.

Thanks to Independence Brewing for having us out and also to Adam for giving Austin Beer Guide a nice shout out during the dinner (unexpected and appreciated)!

Whip In is 25

And they are throwing a 4 day party. Sounds right. Plenty of music and this:

w/ $2.50 draft BREW SPECIALS from
(512) BREWING
FRANCONIA
INDEPENDENCE
JESTER KING
LIVE OAK
RANGER CREEK
REAL ALE
SAINT ARNOLD
THIRSTY PLANET

Independence Brewing Rood

Rood - Independence's new spring seasonal.

Stash/‘Stache @ Black Star Coop with Independence and BTA

"FREE ‘STACHE PORTRAITS!"

WTF, those wild 'n wily guys at BTA. Oh and an Independence Stash IPA cask too. Buy a Stash keep the ('stache) glass. Monday, January 10.

Independence Brewing Pub Crawl

From the folks at Independence:

Come out and join us as we crawl through campus the Sunday after finals!

1:30PM meet at Cuatro's (1004 W 24th)
2:30PM Cain and Able's (2313 Rio Grande)
3:30PM TBA
5:00PM Hole in the Wall(2538 Guadalupe St), Black Brew will be playing a show

We will give you a punch card and if you get it punched at each location we will give you a limited run Indy Crawl Pint glass!!! Must be 21 years old to participate.

Dear Santa, Part 2

I'd wear this.

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: 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?

Independence Brewing Anniversary Party - More Details

Big news is the announcement that they are brewing a braggot for their anniversary beer. Not big on braggots, but truly, I've only had a couple. So I am just talking shit. Prove me wrong Independence. Click here for all the info on the upcoming Anniversary party.

h/t: BTA

Independence Brewing 6th Anniversary Party

From Steve at All Good Beer:

Independence Brewing of Austin, TX is celebrating six years of brewing quality handcrafted beers in South Austin with an anniversary party at the brewery on Saturday, October 23 from 4:00pm ~ 7:30pm. Admission is free, but commemorative anniversary glasses will be available for purchase. A special anniversary beer has also been brewed up for the event. Come out and enjoy live music, games and great beer and help celebrate 6 years of Independence!

Independence / Parkside Dinner

This happened last week.



I paired the wheat with water. Just kidding. They had Hor D'Oeuvres for us to enjoy. The chicken lollipop was the clear winner.



The charcuterie plate. This is just my plate. The presentation platters were much nicer looking. This was my favorite course. Loved everything, especially the pate grande mere and the rabbit terrine. Had this with the amber. They should served the Stash IPA for this course.



This butterery bass was the bomb. Wow, I should be a food writer. This course was paired with the pale ale.



See those beans, they were great. I wish I had a whole bowl of them. The pork on top wasn't that bad either. Brown ale with this, best pair of the night.



Dessert time. Donuts and ice cream. Convict Hill stout with it. Nice.

FYI, I had been eating vegan for a month or two leading up to this dinner. After the dinner I was back on the wagon. But Parkside is too tasty, I had to indulge in their meaty goodness (oh, I wrote it!). The beer was good, the food was gooder. Thanks to Independence and Parkside.

Parkside/Independence Dinner

I want to be there . . . I love Parkside. Independence ain't no slouch either. Purchase tickets now.

Independence Pale Ales

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.

Weekending

Friday night, Sofia we HAVE to go to Draught House tonight to get some Jubel. It's a "once-a-decade" kinda beer! Come on, we can stop by with your parents before dinner. They agreed, but were not too happy, as you can see in the above photo.



It was a dream.

Saturday was the Beer Connoisseur/Independence Brewing party. We arrived early and left too early. It was fun. Beers were had from Lovejoys, NXNW and of course Independence. The highlights were the Stash IPA , NXNW Black Ale and the NXNW IPA. There were some breweries that were supposed to be there that were not, not that big of deal. We ran the gauntlet of beer and left for dinner.

And now for three photos of the event that you could not have lived without:







Thanks to Independence and Beer Connoisseur.

Beer Connoisseur/Independence Recap 2

Liquid Austin checks in with a bit of different angle from the Beer Connoisseur/Independence party. Interesting.

As with Steve, Patrick, it was cool to finally meet you.

Beer Connoisseur/Independence Recap 1

Steve @ All Good Beer gives us a quick recap (with photos!) of the festivities from Saturday.

More to come from me, and others, later.

P.S. Nice meeting you Steve.

Snow Day

I took a snow day yesterday. Sorry about that. Quick reminder, don't forget about this:


(click to enlarge)

Featuring beer from Real Ale, Independence, Uncle Billy's, Live Oak, North by Northwest, Saint Arnold and (512) Brewing.

Beer Connoisseur Spring Issue Release Party @ Independence

This is happening next week. Oh and full disclosure, Beer Connoisseur invited me to the event (but I planned on posting this anyway):

Saturday, February 27th
4:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Independence Brewing Company, Austin TX
http://www.independencebrewing.com

Come join the Beer Connoisseur Magazine as it makes its debut national appearance for its Spring Issue Release Party at Independence Brewing Company in Austin, Texas!

Mingle with the Founder/Publisher, Managing Editor, writers and staff as well as with Austin’s most notable beer figures. Taste Independence Brewing Company beer while listening to live music and enjoying Austin Eats. Also help BC Magazine raise money for the Haiti recovery efforts by joining in a raffle for fantastic prizes donated by the industry.

$15 tickets In advance
$20 at door for RSVP’s only. RSVP full name to editorial@beerconnoisseur.com
Entry includes a copy of BC’s Spring Issue 2, Beer Tastings, Brewery Tours, Live Music, Photographer and more.
Food available for purchase
Raffle for prizes for Hatian relief


PURCHASE TICKETS: http://xorbia.com/tickets/beerconnoisseur/
VIEW ONLINE INVITATION: http://www.beerconnoisseur.com/emailmarketing/austin/austin.html


_________________________

PRE PARTY AND POST PARTY at THE GINGER MAN

12 - 4pm and 8:30pm to close
Enjoy $.50 off draft and $2 off pitchers with show of your event ticket.

Meet the BC staff in a more relaxed setting from 12 - 2 PM and have your picture taken for consideration for the Summer issue. Then catch the event Uship shuttle to the brewery for the evenings main event. At the conclusion of the party, catch a sober ride back to The Ginger Man on the Uship shuttle and enjoy the same post-party discounts!

The Ginger Man
301 Lavaca St
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 473-8801
http://www.gingermanpub.com

___________________________


Brought to you by The Beer Connoisseur™ Magazine and Independence Brewing Company.

Safe shuttle/bus service from brewery to downtown provided by Uship.com http://www.uship.com

Over a Pint 14 - Independence Brewing

Over a Pint, Episode 14 from Beer Town Austin

Some items of interest:

... Stash IPA in bottles! Stash IPA in bottles! Stash IPA in bottles! …pending TABC label approval. ... Also they are working on getting the Convict Hill Imperial Oatmeal Stout in bottles soon.