WHERE: Draught House Pub and Brewery WHAT: Come celebrate the latest issue of the Austin Beer Guide at our release party. We will also be awarding the winners of our Best of 2011 Readers Poll. If that is not enough (we know what you want, good beer) we will also have be a keg of the Bourbon Barrel Night RYE-der collaboration we brewed with Hops & Grain!
There it is. That is what you look for, starting next week.
The first release of this issue will occur a week from today. We are throwing a party at the Draught House. The party will also serve as the kick off for Hops & Grain, who will be pouring their beer for the first time that night. Buy a Hops & Grain beer and you get a free BeerTown Austin "Selleck" stache pint glass. We will also be giving away free swag we picked up at GABF. People love free stuff. See you on the 26th at 5pm.
Check out these nice cans (ugh) from Hops & Grain. Things over on the east side, where H&G's evolving brewery is located, are chugging along. It's not all roses though:
The construction side of this project has been fairly easy. The permitting process on the other hand, has been an absolute nightmare.
Read more about the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the ying and the yang, the good and the bad, the ales and the lagers of opening a brewery in Austin in 2011.
#1: All stools must be meet certain height and width requirements. Our bar top is approximately 44 inches tall and the underside of the bar is 40” from the floor. All stools should have a seat no higher than 32”, standard height is 30”. Total height of the stool should not exceed 72”. No stool, in its entirety, should be more than 24” wide, standard bar stool width is 16”.
#2: Must be a custom design. Each bar stool submitted must have some level of customization. This could be anything from painting an already built bar stool or creating your own from scratch. Remember, creativity is the name of the game and the winners will be chosen based on this. And after all, the people sitting on these stools will be drinking beer, so make it cool.
#3: All bar stool creators must be ok with other patrons sitting on their bar stool at any given time. You cannot be selfish with your creation and all winning stools will be sat upon on a first come first served basis. Only exception being the Stool Sample Project special tasting events. Here you will be expected to sit upon your own creation, and brag about it all night.
I am totally making a stool. HAHA. No really, I had an idea right away when Josh told us about this project. But since then I've realized the idea sucked. Time for plan b.
Now the worst: Live Oak Primus. It pains me to say this. I used to love this beer. I was so looking forward to it this year. I could not get enough of it last year. This year, after several pints, I'm just not feeling it. Something is off, it's leaving me flat, unaffected. I only include this as my worst beer, because it did not live up to it's past mighty form. Maybe I changed. I'll keep chasing the dragon though. I want my Primus passion back.
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
