Jester King's GRAND Opening

Shit was slamming at the Jester King Grand Opening. And it got even more mobbed after this.



As they say, this is where the magic happens.

They had the biggest event I've ever seen at a brewery. The lines were long, but not horrible. The food smelled great, but I did not have any. We brought goldfish and graham crackers for the kid, I stole some of those. The beers, which I had, were great (stop using that word). I had a couple glasses of the Boxer's Revenge. Really enjoyed that one, want more. A Black Metal and Rye IPA were had as well. A lot of bike and car enthusiast were there adding to the crowd. Facial hair enthusiasts too.

You Tell Me, aka New Saint Arnold?

From beernews.org

Barber Shop Brewpub Opening

This weekend is the big weekend for Barber Shop Brewpub in Dripping Springs:

DRIPPING SPRINGS, TX - January 27, 2011 - Don’t be fooled by the name, the only need for sharp scissors at this barber shop is for cutting a grand opening ribbon. With a nod to its location’s history, The Barber Shop, a new brewpub in downtown Dripping Springs, Texas, opens for business this weekend.

Owned and operated by long time Dripping Springs resident and competitive homebrewer John McIntosh III and his business partner Dave Niemeyer, the bar promises a local pub atmosphere with community-style tables, darts, a dedicated dominoes table, and big screen television for sports. The beer tap line-up features a heavy emphasis on the area’s burgeoning community of microbrewers.

“Dripping Springs is just a stone’s skip from brewers gaining national acclaim including Real Ale, Jester King, 512, and Thirsty Planet,” notes McIntosh. “The Barber Shop was created to celebrate and support local and our selection definitely reflects that.”

Wine drinkers will also be able to sip and eat local as The Barber Shop offers wine selections including hometown favorite Bell Springs Winery, and is working closely with The Goodnight Diner, located just a couple of blocks down. Chef Jana Muniz is not only creating a custom nut mix for snacking, but also a convenient takeaway bar menu with easy to order, walkable eats.

The Barber Shop’s building started its life around November 1924 as a wooden and tin garage. In 1938 it was given its rock exterior and served as a garage and gas station until around 1960. After that, it was not used commercially for most of the next 25 years when it was then remodeled and turned into a barber shop.

“While Dripping Springs old timers may chuckle at calling this building ‘the old barber shop,’ that’s what it was for the past quarter century and that’s the sign that was still up when we took over,” muses McIntosh. “Plus it had ‘bar’ in the name so we went with it.”

Repurposing the bar’s name and sign is in line with much of the building’s revitalization which includes walls made from leftover tin from a friend’s barn and a bar built from wood salvaged from a family member’s home remodel. Décor includes garage memorabilia and dozens of decades old beer cans that revealed themselves during the remodel.

“We feel fortunate to be in such a unique location and we’re keen to maintain a sense of history and community,” says McIntosh, a University of Texas graduate who also studied at Oxford where he acquired his appreciation for the local pub. “The Barber Shop warmly welcomes all, but if your family was around when the building was first built, you get dibs on the dominoes table.”

The Barber Shop is located at 207 Mercer Street, Dripping Springs. Hours:
Wednesday and Thursday: 3pm-10pm
Friday: 3pm-12am
Saturday: 11am – 12am
Sunday: 12pm - 7pm

For more information visit the brewpub’s website at www.barbershopbar.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/barbershopbar.

Boulevard Chocolate Ale

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I'll at least really, really like this beer. BLVD's Smokestacks rarely miss.

h/t: Beernews.org

Saint Arnold on the World Wide Web

Speaking of new websites, Saint Arnold recently got a face lift. Looks nice, really like that sesame seed background. . .


That is a little jokey joke, no comments about matl please.

Darkside 1 Year Anniversary Party

From Darkside:

1-Year anniversary Party on Feb. 13th, 2011, 5-10pm. Music from the Blue Hit and The Spell. Bring your bike for free beer.

h/t: Zymurology

JK: Boxer's Revenge Release

From JK:

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- Jester King Craft Brewery is very pleased to announce the debut of Boxer's Revenge Farmhouse Provision Ale this Saturday, January 29th at the brewery's Grand Opening Celebration.  Boxer's Revenge is the first of three authentic farmhouse ales brewed as part of Jester King's year-round lineup.  The others are Das Wunderkind!, a farmhouse "table beer", and Cocksure, a hoppy, amber farmhouse ale inspired by the French tradition of bière de garde.  Das Wunderkind! and Cocksure will be available in the coming months.  

All three of Jester King's year-round farmhouse ales are aged in oak wine barrels with wild yeast after undergoing an initial fermentation with French farmhouse yeast.  After aging, the individual barrels are blended to taste.

Boxer's Revenge is inspired by the hearty "stock ales" or "provision ales" produced by some of iconic farmhouse breweries located along the Franco-Belgian border and named in honor of the stalwart workhorse in George Orwell's Animal Farm.  It combines delicate notes of tropical fruit, citrus and spice from the primary French farmhouse yeast with tart, rustic, earthy notes from the Brettanomyces.  A final dry-hopping with fresh Cascade and Centennial hops adds yet another layer of depth and complexity. 

Following Jester King’s Grand Opening Celebration, Boxer’s Revenge will be available on draught at a small number of accounts throughout Texas.  In the months that follow, it will be released as a regular, year-round offering in both kegs and 750mL, amber, champagne-style bottles.  Please see the attached information sheet about Boxer's Revenge.

NXNW New Website

 






Looking much better, fresh, that old site was haggard.



Beer logos look updated as well:

Circle Brewing Co. - First Beer Available for Guzzling

Just saw this at Liquid Austin:

Ben Sable, President of Circle Brewing, just gave us the heads up that the brewery will be rolling out their first beer today — the Blur Texas Hefe. 

. . .

As of right now, the Draught House will be the first place in town to feature a keg.

Read This

Man I gotta get back to Belgium.

Knockin' Em Back Again with BTA

Damn, this was a long time ago. That BTA sure is on top of things.

Chris, next time let's see if we can take an even more horrible picture of me. 

Euro Beer #3 - The Hairy Lemon

In fall of 2007 my wife and I traveled through Europe for 10 weeks. We ate a lot of food and drank of a lot of beer (and wine). Not enough food, not enough beer. Still in Dublin:

Euro Beer #3 - The Hairy Lemon


I know. Another Guinness. Hey we were in Dublin, give me a break. And as this little series is chronological, you will probably see a few more before we head to London. Get used to it.

We were waiting for our buddy to get out of school. Why not wait with a pint. If you go to Dublin, go to Hairy Lemon and sit in the front window nook. Great for a beer or two and people watching. Travel tip of the day, whoopdedoo.


For more euro foodage and drinkage, go here.

The Hairy Lemon
41 Lower Stephen St.
Dublin

Dublin door.

1600 Bottles Like This

More here.

(512) Cascabel Cream Stout

Cascawhat? (512) Brewing's newest beer is a cream stout with peppers:

Our cream stout, is an indulgent beer brewed with generous amounts of  English chocolate and roasted malts, as well as the traditional addition of lactose. Our stout, however, parted ways with tradition when we added over 20 pounds of Cascabel peppers to the beer.  Cascabel peppers, also called Guajillo, are characterized by their earthy character and deep, smooth spiciness. The peppers were de-stemmed by hand and added to the beer post-fermentation to achieve their most potent flavor potential. They add hints of raisins and berries to the beer, as well as a subtle tingling spiciness that washes away with each gulp.

I want a pint, now.

UPDATE: On tap at Whip In.

A Pint a Day, Not Six

I can't wait for the news that drinking a six pack is good for you. We are all waiting for that, right? But this is a good start.

h/t: Pete Brown

Widmer W'11

I know we are all in a pleasent mood sippin on our newest TX conquest:

But now there is this:



























photo: www.notsoprobeer.com
Sure, it may not end up being Abyss level, but I have enjoyed the last two years of Widmer's Reserve Series. It's on now at Draught House for sure. I'm guessing we will start seeing bottles soon.

What's Up at Freetail?

A good amount. Check out the full gamut at beernews.org.

Flying Saucer 3rd Anniversary Party

This Sunday. Not enough info for you? Ok. Sam just posted this on BeerAdvocate:

Original release 512 Bourbon Barrel Pecan Porter. It has been kept cold ~40 degrees since we got it, so I am not worried about that infection problem some people who warm cellared the beer ended up with. We had a dozen bottles and I drank one a month or two ago and there were no issues.

Avery Rumpkin - This beer is going to be bad ass. 13+% ABV Imperial Pumpkin Beer that has been aged in Gosling Rum Barrels. My fellow Cicerone Matt up at the Moth in Dallas has gotten to try it and says it phenomenal and I trust that dudes palate.

Sierra Nevada Grand Cru - A blend of Oak Aged Bigfoot, Celebration and fresh Pale Ale (hopefully bottle recipe but I dont know). This should be a tasty treat.

Other beers tapped will be:

St Arnold Altared Amber (Amber with Belgian Yeast)
Avery Samaels
Avery Mephistopheles
Allagash Four
Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu
Dogfish Head Pangea
Dogfish Head Theobroma
Sierra Nevada Jack and Kens Black Barleywine

Come out and see us for a delicious day of beer drinking. All beers will be served in 10oz pours (11.5oz snifters) so you should be able to have a few of them and still remember your name.

Wytchmaker Rye IPA Label

From Beernews.org.

Jester King to Start Bottling

This from JK:

Our first bottling day will be Saturday. We're filling 750mL, champagne-style bottles of Wytchmaker Rye IPA. All the bottled beer will be bottle conditioned for natural carbonation.

Uncle Billy's Groupon

Get em while they are hot.

Best Craft Beer Moment of 2011

Ok, that's it. Let's wrap this whole thing up. This won't be beat:

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.

(512) Brewing Dinner at Lake Creek Alamo

A couple of days ago I had a comment wondering about beer dinners with local brewers. Here you go:

(512) Wit
Sweet Emotion
Orange Julius sorbet turbocharged with cayenne syrup Racing stripes, candied basil bud and rice paper

(512) Pale
Randall “Pink” Floyd
Pink salt and pink peppercorn crusted “London” broil With busted Griottine cherry vinaigrette

(512) Bruin
. . .”Air Raid!”
Dijon glazed pork belly with roasted tomatoes, pork jus, “magic” mushroom porridge and fried duck egg

(512) IPA
The Wooderson
Smoked jerk chicken with curried sweet potato, poached baby spinach and aged cheddar cornmeal biscotti

(512) January Seasonal
Top Notch Slider
Ground beef tenderloin slider on sweet brioche with grilled jalapenos, house made condiments, shoestring fries and icebox pickles

(512) Pecan Porter
Party at the Moon Tower
An assortment of mini moon pies

(512) Double Pecan Porter
“. . .Who’s buying breakfast?”
Mini pancakes with vanilla syrup, chopped beef hash and a poached quail egg

All that whilst enjoying Dazed and Confused. Groovy.

Jester King Grand Opening

Sure they've been open, but this is gonna be GRAND. Can't wait.

New Bar: Draft Pick

From Eater:

Draft Pick will boast a full menu and "Austin's largest high definition sports viewing screen."

Nothing about beer, but let's hope with a name and logo like that they will have some decent brews. Otherwise . . . well, you know.

http://www.draftpickaustin.com/

MLP #37 with Silas Parker of Darkside Fermentation

The latest MLP is San Marcos' favorite nanobrewer.

24 Diner + Lagunitas

Looking for a good way to spend $55 on January 19? Well, look no further. Chowder and Hop Stoopid = Perfect.

From 24 Diner:

APPETIZER
Fried Gulf Oysters
Jalapeño Remoulade (Passed)
Lagunitas IPA

FIRST COURSE
Scotch Egg on Spinach & Roasted Winter Squash Salad
Pecans & Warm Honey-Lemon Vinaigrette
Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Wild Ale

SECOND COURSE
Creamy Shellfish Chowder
Applewood-Smoked Bacon, Potatoes & Fried Leeks
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale

THIRD COURSE
Braised Short Ribs
Roasted Mushrooms, Parsnip Purée
& Fried Root Vegetable Chips
Lagunitas Imperial Stout

FOURTH COURSE
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Burnt Orange Caramel Sauce
Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout

New Beer from Thirsty Planet

It's called Silverback Pale Ale and some of the proceeds from the beer will go to Austin Gorilla Run.

More Thirsty Planet news via Liquid Austin.

2010: Best and Worst

Best: Truthfully, I can't think of the "best beer" I had in 2010. I know I had some good ones. But none really pop into my head as the best . . . Peche Mortel was amazing back in January. Ohhhh and Jubel...too good. Sierra Nevada's four 30th anniversary beers were all solid, the stout and barleywine being my favorite. (512) Whiskey Barrel Double Pecan Porter was delicious most of the time. My bottle was perfect. Ok, now I remember, THE BEER is Grand Teton Double Vision Dopplebock. INSANE, no that is too far, it was close to insane - perfectly delicious.

I will also note my great pleasure in seeing the openings of our newest breweries: Thirsty Planet, Jester King (loved that Black Metal Stout last week) and Black Star. And it was exciting to follow the development of breweries like Hops and Grain, South Austin Brewing and Circle Brewing.


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.