De Proef Brouwerij and Terrapin Monstre Rouge Keg

Damn, that is a hideous label. But who cares about the label when you are drinking from a keg. Draught House has (had?) one and it was tapped on Saturday. It was the only keg of the stuff sold in Texas, so you better get there today to try some.

DR #11 Spots - UPDATED

Want Divine Reserve 11? Try these spots (TAKING COMMENT UPDATES, CALL PLACES FIRST JUST TO MAKE SURE):

Central Market N Started presale Monday night, call ahead
Chris' Liquor
Whole Foods S Ask in beer section, beer held in back.
Whole Foods N SOLD OUT
Whip In
Spec's 290
Spec's Airport
Spec's Arbor Walk SOLD OUT
Spec's S.Park Mdw.
Spec's Rrk
Spec's BeeCaves
Gabriel's SM
HEB #68 Slaughter
HEB #425 Hancock SOLD OUT ACCORDING TO BEER GUY
HEB #404 Bee Caves/71
HEB #29 Westlake
HEB #428 Brodie
HEB #451-RR620
HEB #580 Parmer/1431
HEB #591-Palm Vly
Wheatsville
Fresh Plus #1 (W.Lynn)
Wiggy's
Farm to Market
Junior's
Live Oak Market
Hyde Park Mini Mart
Reuben's-Stassney
East End Wines
Thom's Market
Twin Galleria
Twin-Hancock
Barton Hills Mkt-S. Lamar
Oak Hill Liquor

ON TAP:

Billy's on Burnet - casks this friday
Dig Pub - pouring now
Whip In - pouring now

These sniped from BeertownAustin:
Tuesday- Dig Pub, Whip In, Draught House, Homefield Grill
Thursday- Saucer, Ginger Man
Friday- Billy’s on Burnet, Black Star Co-op

Saint Arnold DR #11 Unleashed Tomorrow

Another Divine Tuesday is happening tomorrow. I had a sample of it Friday. It's really good. I'm thinking it's a 2-3 six pack purchase. BAers are split, a lot of hatin. I guess DIPAs are not special enough to warrant a DR release. Fine, more for us. Reminded me a lot of one of my favorite DIPAs—Great Divide Hercules. Creamy, piney.

Saint Arnold DR #11 - 3/29/11

Cool. So next week I'll be drinking this.

Divine Reserve No. 11, a double IPA, is being released on Tuesday, March 29. If you are a hophead, this is your beer. We used over 1,000 lbs of a combination of Simcoe, Centennial and Columbus hops to brew this beer. The final result is a wonderfully hoppy, 9% ABV, 76 IBU (as lab tested) double IPA. We put the "as lab tested" note on there as paper calculations give much higher IBU results, but the bittering compounds in hops tend to start reaching their solubility limits around this level.

Read more here.

Sierra Nevada: Ovila Project

Finally. Bring it on. First release is the dubbel this month, one of my favorite styles.

Saint Arnold DR #11

It's an imperial IPA, not a wheatwine as had been rumored. Oh well, I'm not a fan of wheatwines anyway. Maybe less intriguing, but tastier. Bring on April.

SA Moveable Yeast: Farmer Brown's Ale

From Saint Arnold:

We have been eagerly awaiting the kegging of Farmer Brown's Ale, the next in our Moveable Yeast series. It was supposed to be kegged last week and released this week. The beer did not want to cooperate and we did not want to rush the beer. Beer always tells you when it is ready. In this case we were waiting for the yeast to drop out. But now it is ready!

Farmer Brown's Ale is our regular Brown Ale fermented with saison yeast. The result is a beer with pleasantly spicy and earthy notes, nice fruitiness, a dry finish but with a nice malt flavor to stand up to all of the yeast notes. We thought it was such an interesting beer when we test brewed it that we moved it up in the order of Moveable Yeast releases.

It will start showing up on draft in accounts next week, although some accounts will wait considerably longer before tapping their kegs. It will also be available on our weekday tours at the brewery starting this coming Monday.

Event of the week?

Billy's pouring a cask of Altared Amber from Saint Arnold. Sounds like a good time to me.

-Thursday,6:30 Pm
-Buy the beer, keep the glass

Freetail Stuff

Have not checked in on Freetail in awhile. They have some good stuff going on as of late. First, the biggest news, plans for possible expansion (read entire release here):

FREETAIL BREWING CO. TO CELEBRATE SECOND ANNIVERSARY, EYES EXPANSION

Locally owned and operated brewpub celebrates its second birthday while onsidering a second location (November 2, 2010) San Antonio, TX – Freetail Brewing Co. announces the celebration of its Two Year Anniversary with a weekend of full tap lists and special bottles releases November 26, 27 and 28.

....

In addition to news of the birthday celebration, Freetail Brewing Co. is also formally announcing their plans for a second location.

“It wasn’t long after we opened that people first started asking when we could open closer to their neighborhood,” said Metzger. “Today we are excited to be formally in the market for location number two.”

The company is considering sites in New Braunfels, San Marcos, Houston and of course, San Antonio.

....

Can't wait to see where they land. I'm crossing my fingers for San Marcos, but it would be nice to see Houston get a great brewpub. Hey Houston, if you are lucky enough, don't screw it up this time. Visit often, drink and eat a lot.



Also, tomorrow is the release of La Muerta in bottles. I've heard these releases are fun. Get there if you can:

Dia de La Muerta. La Muerta bottle release. Bottle sales will begin at 11:30am. Tickets will be distributed to those waiting in line beginning at 9:00am.

Nothing Today...

Sick as a damn dog. Still got my Divine Reserve #10 though. Go get yours.

Saint Arnold DR #10 - Bottling

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

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

Freetail Anake - Oct. 9

These days there is so much going on in Austin it is hard to keep up with great spots like Freetail. I love Freetail and visit them every time I am down in San Antonio. Thank god for the internet:

October 9, 2010: Ananke. Wild ale aged in used wine casks for 7 months. Divinely sour. Named after the Greek Goddess of Necessity.

The reviews look good. I need to be back in Austin for Sonic Youth that night, but I may try to swing a morning mission to SA.

h/t: thatkidmar

Austin Beer Week - Saint Arnold Tasting

A hint of what's to come:

@franktex: Teaser for another event for @austinbeerwee - @SaintArnold Divine Reserve 1-9 vertical tasting w/Brock-details coming soon!

Stone 10.10.10

OK, Matt, when do we show up for the next vertical tasting. . .

h/t: Beernews.org

(512) TWO "Review"

I was playing Words With Friends last night and an oppenent slayed me with the word TWO. Wow, what a doozy. Sure it was a shitty word, but it served a purpose. It reminded me that I had not mentioned my impressions of (512) TWO, (512) Brewing's 2nd anniversary beer (duh). And I know you've all been waiting anxiously for a full report. Surely.

I did not go to the party at the brewery. I did have TWO at the Draught House the same evening as the party though. So I sort of partied with everyone. In spirit, let's say. Instead of writing the whole "aroma is hoppy, flavor is hoppy, overall pretty hoppy" review, I thought I'd just let you know how I thought TWO stands up to a few popular DIPAs out there. Lazy? Maybe. Here you go:

TWO v. Hercules - Herc wins. It's my favorite.
TWO v. Maharaja - TWO wins. I don't get the devotion to Maharaja.
TWO v. Pliney - Tie. I know, I know. I've only had Pliney a couple of times. Not really know how fresh it was. Plus, it is hard to get pas the hype of this beer. I try, I try, but that green label and red dot just gets one excited.
TWO v. Ruination - I prefer TWO.
TWO v. 90 Minute IPA - Tie.
TWO v. Hopslam - Tie. Similar to the Pliney situation.
TWO v. Racer X - Racer X wins. I love that beer, maybe more than Hercules. NOOOOOO.
TWO v. Hop Stoopid - TWO by a hair.

So, as you can see, TWO faired very well against some heavy hitters. And you can take that to the bank. My palate is as good as gold.

Saint Arnold DR #10 - November 2

Mark yr calenders. Crocker's got the details son.

Weedwacker Approved

Had our first pints of Saint Arnold's Weedwacker. We had them over a late lingering lunch at Zax this weekend. SA's first Movable Yeast beer is a success. I really enjoyed it. I love hefeweizen's and this hefeweizenized kolsch fits the bill. This is what some other nerds think.

Divine Reserve 10 Time

Divine Reserve is being brewed tomorrow. Start lining up now.

(512) 2nd ANNIVERSARY OPEN HOUSE

(512) Two is set to be released on the thirsty Austin scene. A double IPA just in time for the end of Summer.

Details here.