A couple bits and brews

 

A reader sent me this. Taking out a second mortgage for the opportunity to taste this beer. He also mentioned that H-E-B now has Melvin beers as well. I have no idea what those are so I gave him a HaHa on the text.

In local news, PH is starting new happy hour prices at all locations.

Great news, right? A humorous fan of the blog told me, "They are trying to make up for introducing the Austin market to $18 4-packs." Funny stuff.

In (maybe) celebrity sightings, a fellow beer journalist on background mentioned to me he saw a homeless guy riding a bike near North Loop in a Rick's Near Beer tshirt. I joked that it might have been Josh Hare, owner of Rick's and an avid cyclist.

Ok, that's it. Check me out, blogging.

100 Best Beer Bars in Austin (2016) **UPDATED**

You've been asking for it. Patiently, you waited. Well, here it is—the OFFICIAL and ONLY 100 Best Beer Bars in Austin, updated and all new for 2016. In honor of Ted Cruz's big win in Iowa I was going to give this list a TEXAS sized bump up to 125, but that would be ridiculous. We must be discerning with our choices, especially when it comes to beer. Not everyone can get a trophy. This list is only the best—the best 100! Enjoy and leave a comment about how terrible my list is. But remember, this is official.

*UPDATE* Added Red Horn and Violet Crown Cinema. I was rightly called out on these two via Twitter—Red Horn especially.  And I should also mention, brewery taprooms were not included in this list. Maybe my next list will be 100 Best Brewery Taprooms in Austin. 

*UPDATE #2* Kraft Beer megachain World of Beer is closing up shop (saw it on Facebook, has to be real), after less than a year in biz. Go back to Florida! I'll replace it with a neighborhood fave. 

1	Draught House
2	Brew + Brew
3	Craft Pride
4	Billy's
5	ABGB
6	Pinthouse - Burnet
7	Crown & Anchor
8	Hopfields
9	The Wheel
10	Banger's
11	Black Star Co-op
12	Pinthouse Pizza - South Lamar
13	Jackalope
14	Dog and Duck Pub
15	Waller Creek Pub House
16	Dig Pub
17	Cuvée Coffee Bar
18	Workhorse
19	NXNW - North
20	Haymaker
21	Easy Tiger
22	Bender Bar
23	The Ginger Man
24	Black Sheep Lodge
25	Hi Hat
26	Whip In
27	NXNW - South
28	Stay Gold
29	Brass Tap
30	Flying Saucer - Triangle
31	World of Beer  Torchy's -Mueller
32	Red's Porch
33	Opal Divine's - Penn Field
34	Uncle Billy's
35	Sholz Garten
36	The Grackle
37	The Liberty
38	Nasty's
39	Gourmands Neighborhood Pub
40	Thunderbird - Koenig
41	Mean Eyed Cat
42	Whole Foods - Domain
43	HEB Mueller
44	Hopdoddy - Anderson
45	BB Rover's
46	Drink.Well.
47	Fado
48	Mister Tramps
49	Red Horn Coffee House & Brewing Co.
50	Little Woodrows - Burnet
51	Whole Foods - Downtown
52	Whole Foods - Arbor Trails
53	Contigo
54	Opal Divine's - Marina
55	Hopdoddy - S. Congress
56	Slab BBQ & Beer
57	The Silo on 7th
58	Eureka!
59	Zax Pints and Plates
60	Star Bar
61	Flix
62	Kung Fu Saloon
63	Little Woodrows - 6th Street
64	Radio Coffee + Beer
65	Gibson Bar
66	Frank
67	Draft Pick
68	School House Pub
69	Glass Half Full Taproom (Alamo Drafthouse - Lakeline)
70	Sherlock’s Baker Street Pub
71	Hole in the Wall
72	Buzz Mill
73	Via 313
74	Brew Exchange
75	Violet Crown Cinema
76	Porter Ale House
77	Swift's Attic
78	Quickie Pickie
79	Austin Ale House
80	Violet Crown Social Club
81	White Horse
82	Cherrywood Coffeehouse
83	Nomad Bar
84	Hideout Pub
85	Spider House
86	Thunderbird - Manor
87	Whole Foods - Bee Cave
88	Parlor
89	House Pizzeria
90	Javelina
91	MugShots
92	Handlebar
93	Westside Alehouse
94	Little Woodrows - Parmer Lane
95	WingzUp
96	The Goodnight
97	Punch Bowl Social
98	Taco Flats
99	Little Woodrows - Southpark
100	Cover 3

Euro Beer #73: Wine/Beer at Dos Trece

Barcelona

Nightcap time. Always needed when tourin' around. We stopped in a joint by our apartment called Dos Trece. According to their website: "a neighborhood restaurant by day and hip cocktail bar by night." Ok. Also, apparently it is a Mexican restaurant. So authentic. Mexican restaurants are only second in number to Irish pubs on this Earth. Red wine for Sofia and a Moritz beer for me. Moritz is like the official Catalan beer. In 2007, when we were in Barcelona, they were still making their comeback after reopening their brewery in 2004.

Proof of life photo for Mom.

Bienvenidos, por favor noooooo perrrrritttos.

DOS TRECE

Carme 40

Euro Beer #72: Wine and Shit Food (La Moños)

Barcelona

10/28/2007:Walking back to our place around lunch we were hungry, very hungry. When you are very hungry you are prone to making terrible dining choices. This was one of those times, but not really. La Moños is a crusty little place, packed with loco locals. Nothing fancy. For 6 euro you get full and a bottle of wine. We could not complain. The wine was not the highlight, but intoxicating.

We both got the paella to start. It was dry, but not altogether untasty.

My cod in orange sauce with potatoes and onions. Again, not bad. 

Sofia's merluza frita. Ok. She seemed to like it.

My ice cream. Whatever. I am so glad documented this. I bet you are drooling looking at this plastic cup of ice cream.

Sofia's arroz con leche. 

Actually we really did love this place. We were the only tourists, which is not always a good thing. I mean I never really looked at us as tourists. We were travelers. Yeah, travelers. At the end of our trip we flew out of Barcelona. We stopped in here again. But that comes later. We are just getting started in Spain (sorry Jason). And remember this was back in 2007. We've been all kinds of places since then, but whatever, I have photos of this trip. So we are gonna keep going until we are done. #throwbackthursday

Pre-iphone (me having an iphone) traveling.

So if you are ever in Barcelona and you want something local, cheap, crazy, sorta gross, but not really terrible:

La Moños

Carrer de l'Hospital, 93

Euro Beer #71: Walk Around San Miguel Especiales

Barcelona

First full day in Barcelona. We walked/skated around mostly. And drank some brews as we went. Like Estrella Damm, San Miguel is ubiquitous in Barcelona (and throughout Spain).

Ramblas!

Austin Beer Guide Fall/Winter Issue Release Party

Beer List for Tomorrow's Austin Beer Guide Issue Release Party

http://www.austinbeerguide.com/…/fall-issue-release-party-b…

RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1645295442375445/

Austin Beerworks

Wet Hop Heavy Machinery and Mondo Pale series (one malt bill, three yeast strains, three hop additions, three different beers)

Community Beer Company

Funnel Cake 

Mosiac IPA

Hops & Grain

WinoWeisse

Bourbon Barrel-Aged Porter Culture

Jester King Brewery

Estival Dichotomous

Oasis, Texas Brewing Company

Whiskey Shakes (a bourbon barrel-aged version of Early Morning Shakes - a coffee pale)

Pinthouse Pizza

Deep Water (ABG collaboration - an oily hop future IPA)

Deep Throat (cask conditioned and extra hopped of the later), and Wet Hop IPA (duh)

Zilker Brewing Company

Pale Brett Cask (brett, fresh herbs from the Zilker garden and primed with light Belgian candy syrup, aged for 3 months)

Euro Beer #70: Estrella Damm

Barcelona

We arrived late to Barcelona. We dropped our bags at our apartment and went for beer and snack. Random stop in Plaça Reial (Plaza Real): Cerveceria Canarias. We slugged down some half litres of Estrella Damm.

Had some patatas alioli. Pretty tasty. 

The next morning I had a big ole gringo-ish breakfast at La Gloria Restaurant near cathedral on Via Laietana.