Friday Specials Around Town

Draught House - Buy a pint, keep the glass
Flying Saucer - 4-8pm Big (23oz) Beers for Pint (16oz) Price
Billy’s on Burnet - Happiest Hour, $1.50 Domestic Pints, $2.00 Mid Pints, $2.75 Premium Pints

What am I missing? Let me know.

La Folie to Texas

Travis Poling:

New Belgium spokesman Bryan Simpson confirmed the latest rumor that La Folie
will be distributed in Texas. There are no details yet, but state approvals are
in the works.

Thanks for the good news Travis, you made my day better already.

Harpoon IPA

I mentioned this earlier. Available now in Austin. I know the Draught House has it. It's decent. It was easy to find up north and when I lived there I had a few, to say the least.

Thursday Specials Around Town

Draught House - $2.75 House Beers
Gingerman - Thirsty Thursdays, All draught beers are $3.00 from 6 pm until 6:30 pm
Little Woodrows - 25 oz mug for only $4
Billy's on Burnet - Happiest Hour, $1.50 Domestic Pints, $2.00 Mid Pints, $2.75 Premium Pints

What am I missing? Let me know.

Austin Beer Festival, No Mas?

I guess the Austin Beer Festival is no longer happening. The website is bye bye (or maybe just "under construction").

Does anyone know anymore about this?

New Avery

One I would very much like to try. Adam Avery told me it hopefully will make it to TX (depending on label approval).

{click image for more info on Brabant}

Stone Foodage

Stone Smoked Porter & Pasilla Pepper BBQ Sauce and Stone Ruination IPA Curry Mustard Grilling Sauce. I saw these at Central Market last night. At nine dollars a bottle, I'll probably just stick with a bomber of the beer and some regular Dijon. But come grilling season, we'll see.

Wed. Night Specials Around Town

Hump day. Almost there.

Draught House - Free Pizza
Gingerman - Flight Night - 8 PM until 10 PM. Our choice of four 4 ounce Real Ale beers paired with a pretzel. Price $10.25
Billy’s on Burnet - Happiest Hour, $1.50 Domestic Pints, $2.00 Mid Pints, $2.75 Premium Pints
Flying Saucer - Brewery Nite - MAREDSOUS Glass. Starts at 7pm

What am I missing? Let me know.

DR8

Itching for Divine Reserve 8 yet? Me too. So are a lot of other people:
http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/1682547

Booooo!

Well the big announcement from SA regarding 1-29-09:

Twitter exclusive: Cedar Creek Tweetup featuring some Divine Reserve #7.
6:30-8:30 this Thursday! When the DR7 is gone, it's gone.

I think that is Houston. Good for Houston. Booo for Austin. Hey, but my rumor was not to far off. It had something to do with Divine Reserve.

Another updated form Saint Arnold

SaintArnold - Divine details about the 1-29-09 event on the way in 15 minutes.

Looks like my rumor might be true...

Whip In - Now Serving Draft Beer!

From their website:

Now Available (as of 26Jan09):

Beer on 17 Taps:

20 ounce - Imperial Post-Colonial pours unless otherwise marked we've got two kegerators!

enjoy from the 8 taps of Kegerator Westly:

Live Oak Pilz $5
Live Oak Hefe $5
Live Oak BigBark $5
Live Oak Seasonal Primus $5
Steamworks Special (8oz)
Steamworks conductor (8oz)
RealAle Full Moon Rye Pale $5
RealAle Seasonal: Devil's Backbone Trippel Ale (8oz)

Enjoy from the 8 taps of Kegerator Eastly :
Independence Stash IPA $5
Left Hand Imperial Stout v2007 $12 (80z)
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale $5
Deschutes Black Butte Porter $5
N. Coast Brother Thelonius Belgian Brown Ale (8oz)
St Bernardus Trippel (8oz)
Duchesse de Bourgogne (8oz)
Scaldis v2004 (8oz) $12

Enjoy from the LonerStonerKegerator:
Real Ale Coffee Porter v2007 $6 (8oz)

Also enjoy any single beer from our extensive cold shelf selection:
$2 per person initial glass service fee (TX Law says NO 6pax or 750ml unless accompanied by others)

Coming Later:
The Whip In BrewPub Specializing in English & Belgian Ales

Update on SA Rumor

Remember the rumor I tried to start about Saint Arnold. Well that didn't go anywhere. But there is an update. Something is going on with Saint Arnold on January 29. From their twitter feed:

Why will 1-29-09 in Houston, TX be so awesome? Answers to come tomorrow.

Stat tuned...

Bud Points??

If you like math and if you like beer, you will love Bud Points.

Monday Specials Around Town

Sorry about the slow down around here. We have been moving apartments for the last five days. Almost done.

Draught House - $2.75 Porters and Stouts.
Gingerman - Logo Pint Night starting at 6 PM! Buy the beer, keep the glass (until we run out).
NXNW - Cask Nite, 7:30pm – 8:30pm - PyJingo Pale Ale.
Flying Saucer - $2.75 for most pints.
Little Woodrows - $2.50 Texas Beers open until close.
Billy’s on Burnet - Happiest Hour, $1.50 Domestic Pints, $2.00 Mid Pints, $2.75 Premium Pints.

What am I missing? Let me know.

Thursday Specials Around Town

Draught House - $2.75 House Beers
Gingerman - Thirsty Thursdays, All draught beers are $3.00 from 6 pm until 6:30 pm
Little Woodrows - 25 oz mug for only $4
Billy's on Burnet - Happiest Hour, $1.50 Domestic Pints, $2.00 Mid Pints, $2.75 Premium Pints

What am I missing? Let me know.

Updated Specials at the Draught House

Saint Arnold Rumor!

I could be missing something here. It is probably painfully obvious. If I am, please let me know. But here it is:

Saint Arnold's twitter feed has been listing reasons why January 29 is awesome. What does this mean? I'm not sure. I'm going to go out on a limb, and hopefully start an internet rumor.

Saint Arnold will be announcing their Divine Reserve #8 on January 29.

There it is. Flame on.

BeerAdvocate/Dogfish Head

BeerAdvocate's sixth annual Extreme Beer Fest is coming up in February. Along with the fest, Dogfish Head and the BeerAdvocate will be brewing a new beer:

Speaking of raising the bar, the Alström Brothers are scheduled to brew a limited release beer on December 9 with Sam Calagione and Lead Brewer Bryan Selders at the original Dogfish Head brewpub on Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.

BeerAdvocate recently had a contest to name the beer. Users were urged to email their best name. The entries were widdled down to the top ten. Now the BeerAdvocate users are voting on those top ten names.

Info on the beer being brewed:

Inspired by a shared love and respect for America's extreme beer movement, Italy's emerging craft beer scene, and the kitchen sink attitude and devilish drinkability found in Belgian brewing, the collaborative recipe is the result of numerous emails and phone calls discussing the ingredients, final characteristics, and new ways to look at extreme brewing. Jason, Todd, Sam, and Bryan each provided unique spins to ensure maximum off-centeredness and deliciousness.
Ingredients:
- Maple Syrup (Grade A, Massachusetts)
- Chestnuts
- Green Peppercorns
- Korean Corn Tea "Oksusu-cha"
- Fawcett's Maris Otter Base Malt
- Dash of MFB Kiln Coffee Malt
- Liberty & Vanguard hops
- Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre House Yeast Strain
- Aiming for 8% ABV

My entry , are you ready for it, was: Cornucopismo

Come on. That is good, right? Definitly worthy of a place in the top ten. Think again. I guess they did'nt get it or it's just really stupid. Here are the top ten:

Neinheitsgebot
Charlie Foxtrot
BAcchanaleia
The Manticore
Moby Dick
Sinzibuckwud Nigrum Oksusu-cha
Silk Road Vanguard
Reinheitsge-not
Dongji Sunrise Fusion
Up Up Down Down Left Right
Left Right BA Select

Seriously? Oh brother. I'm not going to complain, but I have major problems with some of those names (I mean...two variations on Reinheitsgebot). Oh well.

Beer Social Networking

The Facebook of beer

The Myspace of beer

Twitter Taste Recap

Saturday was the Twitter Taste LIVE Beer!: Introduction to Trappist Ales. It went well I guess. I enjoyed it. It was interesting to share ideas and impressions of beer across the country, live. Though, I do not know if Twitter is the best forum for such an event. It took place as if we were chatting, but my other "twitter followers" who were not participating were getting inundated with hundreds of, to them, incoherent ramblings about beer, possibly. And I don't have that many followers. AND I was not really saying all that much, imagine the followers of the people who were chiming in every half second.

This is what some other peops thought:

Good Beer Blog:

Was it perfect? No. But within minutes of the Twitter Taste Live starting I was emailing Jay about how this needs to be integrated into each month's edition of The Session. It was, as I said, like being at a beer fest, the crowd moving around you. It is not like a quiet seat in a pub not like the lecture hall feel of an organized tasting. It was not exquisite like a food and beer pairing. All of these experiences are valid and they are different. Sitting in the family rec room on the computer as kids run around and sports are on the TV will not replicate them all. But it will mirror some aspects of those things and create new ways of thinking about what conviviality means in relation to craft beer.

ChipperDave:

There is also the anti-social aspect of using computers as a replacement for meeting up with people face to face. While Twitter will never replace the need to have actual encounters in person, it can help get you "out" there when traveling around just isn't in your interests for that point in time. I'm not advocating that we all turn into cave dwellers and drink "alone", but for those times that when all of your "friends" that you want to mingle with are scattered across the globe, Twitter at least gives you a chance to touch base and share a virtual drink.

Beer Babe:

One of my favorite things to do when at a bar or brewpub is to slide a glass around the table saying "ooh, try this!!" So to have a time when, across many different locations, people are all discussing the same bottle of beer, there are opportunities for great insights. I got great suggestions for foods to pair with the beer, other beers that I would enjoy if I was enjoying that particular beer.

Coming Soon...

http://www.sierranevada.com/about/news.html#torpedo

Police rank bars linked to drunken driving

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/17//0117bars.html

Rain, a bar I have never been to and probably never will, ranks first. I was hoping no beer bars would show up, but Gingerman checks in with 12 drunk driving suspects.

Twitter Taste LIVE Beer!

Not sure how this will turn out. But I will be participating this Saturday night. Anyone else from Austin joining in?

For the first TTL Beer! we will be starting with an Introduction to Trappist Ales - The ultra tasty brews from Trappist Monks. These two abbeys happen to be in Belgium.

We will be tasting:

From Chimay:
Chimay Red
Chimay Tripel

From Westmalle:
Westmalle Dubbel
Westmalle Tripel

Saturday January 17th 8PM EST with @beertweeter & @Brookston hosting...we may have a surprise guest too!!

Thirsty Thursday #18

Shiner 100 - Commemorator
by Spoetzl Brewery, Shiner, TX
Style: Dopplebock
ABV: 6.7%

I got five left. Anyone wanna trade?

Shiner is 100! To celebrate their anniversary they’ve released this stark bier, or dopplebock. It looks good, smells ok, but the flavor just ain’t there. I say go ahead and try it. I mean come on 100 years, that is pretty cool. Just don’t expect it to touch Ayinger’s Celebrator.

December Beers

Cleaning up my flickr account, I found these beauties from last month. Never put them up here.



Picked up six of these while staying at the folks house in Orlando. Great post jetski.



My Christmas Eve beer. From Knightly Spirits.



Stout and Pale ale at BJs in Orlando.



Had this about a year. One night I could not hold back any longer and popped the cap. It was good.

FS 1st Anniversary

I should have waited until after dinner to stop by Flying Saucer, who were celebrating their first year anniversary.

The place was a madhouse. Packed. Flying Saucer sucks when it's packed. It's actually a pretty nice place when it's a bit emptier. It seems to only fill up with loud, obnoxious drunks. Maybe I am just getting old. It does make it hard to enjoy a pint. I am sure the crowd would have been the same or worse after dinner, but they might of actually had the beers I wanted on offer. The "special" beers of the night were being tapped on an hourly schedule. I was really looking forward to having the 2007 SN Bigfoot. Alas, the barley wine was not on until 9pm, three hours from the current time. The bartender said the Piraat IPA would be on in ten minutes. I had a SN Anniversary Ale ($1!) to keep me busy until then. My wife, pregnant, had a lemonade. Sorry Sofia. Could not find a seat to save our lives. Time passed. Went for the Piraat. Nope. Not until 7pm. Barbar Winter Bok was actually the latest beer to open up. Had never had it, so I went for it. Decent, it had a very distinct hard candy flavor which I could not place (does that make sense?). It became to cloying, but I managed to tough it out and finish my chalice. By this time we were more than ready to head out for quieter settings.

We did not hear any of the music. Over the entire night they had some interesting beers. The Anniversary ale was a stupendous deal. Sure it was crowded, but all in all a good event. If it were a touch warmer there probably would have been more people outside and I would not be sounding like such an old curmudgeon.

Flying saucer last night

It was packed. I had two and split...more later.

From Saint Arnold's Twitter Stream:

Just in case you were wondering... we produced 22,749 barrels of beer in 2008. That is a 27.7% increase over 2007. Thank you Texas!

Just Added to the Saucer's Anniversary tomorrow

$1 PINTS SIERRA NEVADA ANNIVERSARY

Tempting for sure.

Shiner 100 Review

Not from me. I am looking forward to it. But from tedo. Check it out.

From Saint Arnold

I had heard about this on the BA boards, but had not seen it confirmed anywhere. Here it is from the horse's mouth. No word on Austin.

SAINT ARNOLD IS CHANGING DISTRIBUTORS NEXT MONTH IN MUCH OF THE STATE Glazer's, our distributor for the past 10 years, has decided to sell their beer distribution business in much of Texas. Thus, we will have new distributors come February 1 in the greater Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio and Corpus Christi areas. For most of Houston and San Antonio it will be Silver Eagle. In Dallas/Fort Worth, it will be Ben E. Keith. There may be something of a learning curve at first since this is the first time Silver Eagle has distributed a beer that did not have any connection to a certain large brewery in St. Louis. But we are excited as we believe that this will be a great opportunity for us to continue our growth.

Barrell Aged Beers: Pricey and Delicious

There is a decent article and interactive feature on the NY Times website right now. I do have to complain about one thing Eric Asimov writes:

But in the last decade or so, brewers have given barrels another look. Inspired by winemakers, whiskey producers and even lambic brewers, who never stopped using barrels, these brewers see oak barrels not as storage vessels but as tools that can make beer more complex and interesting.

I think that bit is less reportage and more assumption. The way he uses the word "even" when tossing in lambic brewers. The largest inspiration for barrel aging came from lambic brewers, period. Do I have actual verification for this? Well no, I am just a two bit blogger, not a writer for the bleeding NYT. But you know it and I know it.

Austin Flying Saucer

From Flying Saucer:

THE SAUCER is ONE YEAR!
THIS SAT. , JAN. 10 @ 4pm
TAPPING A NEW SPECIAL KEG EVERY HOUR.... including....
Live Oak
Cask IPA
Dogfish 120 IPA
Barbar Christmas Bok
Dogfish Midas Touch
Piraat Belgian IPA
Sierra Nevada 2007 Bigfoot
Brassier de Roc
Imperial Triple

Harpoon Coming to Texas

According to Nick (nickdanger0479)on BA Harpoon Brewing is coming to Texas:

Harpoon's flagship beer, IPA (India Pale Ale), will be available on draft starting in January. The IPA is has a floral aroma with a medium body and an aggressive, clean hop finish. Their popular wheat beer, UFO Hefeweizen, will roll out on draft in February. Both the IPA and UFO Hefeweizen will be available in packages and Harpoon's Irish red ale spring seasonal Harpoon Celtic Ale will be available on draft in March.

Bierkraft

I love living in Austin. But there are some things I miss about Brooklyn. One of them is living a few blocks from Bierkraft.

(512) is Organic

Well at least the malt is now.