Tastes of Texas @ Ginger Man

This is happening at the Ginger Man tonight:

Tastes of Texas

March 31st
7pm
$15 per person

Come taste some special Texas brews from (512) Brewing, Real Ale, St. Arnold and Live Oak. Meet the brains behind the beer.

Gross, brains. I know Real Ale will be pouring Volume XIV and/or Lost Gold IPA.

Weedwacker and Lost Gold IPA to be bottled

I had heard this was happening. Good news.



And who doesn't like Lost Gold. Liquid gold, that stuff.

2011 Off-centered Film Fest Schedule

THURSDAY, APRIL 14th
STRANGE BREW BEER PARTY – AT SUNSET Kick off the OCFF with an outdoor screening of STRANGE BREW and a medley of craft brew. Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, and various brewers from the local Austin beer scene will be on hand serving exclusive brews and participating in a discussion about the state of the craft industry and Texas beer trends after the movie. Participating breweries include (512), Live Oak, Thirsty Planet and more! Bring a blanket and/or chair and enjoy a brew and movie under the stars.
Buy tickets HERE
REPUBLIC SQUARE PARK - 422 Guadalupe St. Austin, TX 78704

FRIDAY, APRIL 15th
BEER FEAST AND SUDSY COMEDY SHORTS – 7:00 PM Join Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery for an evening of off-centered ales and incredibly awesome food. Featuring the Three Stooges’ “Beer Barrel Polecats”, “3 Little Beers” & more.
Buy tickets HERE

Course One - Seared Diver Scallop with thai red curry, lotus root, baby chard
Beer: Namaste
Course Two - Smoked trout mousse with lemon cucumber, English thyme, spring garlic, cumin cracker
Beer: Aprihop
Course Three - Koubes - bulgar wheat shell stuffed with roasted eggplant steamed in mushroom broth with spiced pepper and oregano yoghurt sauces
Beer: Midas Touch
Course Four - Smoked quail, ramps, wild mushroom empanada with avocado crema
Beer: Pangea
Course Five - Seared bison, chimayo chile posole
Beer: Raison D’Etre
Course Six - Cherry and Duck confit, barley risotto, fried shallot
Beer: Immort
Course Seven - Bittersweet chocolate ganache in a ginger caramel crisp with candied grapefruit
Beer: Fort (vintage)

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER SCREENING – 10:00 PM
Join Sam Calagione and WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER starJo Lo Truglio for an evening of off-centered ales and a post movie audience Q&A.
Buy tickets HERE
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE LAMAR -1120 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78704


SATURDAY, APRIL 16th
BEST OF THE SHORTS CONTEST SCREENING – 7:00 PM Sam Calagione and crew will be at the Alamo Drafthouse on S. Lamar enjoying some pints and celebrating some off-centered films. The three winners of the Off-Centered Film Festival and several other honorable mentions will be aired and enjoyed by all.
Buy tickets HERE
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE LAMAR - 1120 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX 78704

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.

Independence Brewing Rood

Rood - Independence's new spring seasonal.

Saint Arnold Austin Pub Crawl #3: April 9

April 9, mark it down. See you there.

Draught House Firkin Fridays On the Horizon

Draught House will be tapping a Moylan's Hopsickle cask this afternoon. Sounds fantastic. They also have casks of Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti and Southern Star (Creme Brulee) Buried Hatchet Stout coming down the pipeline.

Also, while you are there you can grab an Independence Rood and/or Jester King (Mikkeller) Drink 'in the Sunbelt.

 

 

Drink Beer, Save Texas Party @ Uncle Billy's on the Lake

Sunday, April 03, 2011 from 1:00 PM - 8:00 PM (CT). Get yr tickets.

Euro Beer #7 - Prince of Wales Pub

In the 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. Creeping around London:



Euro Beer #7 - Prince of Wales Pub

A rowdy, drunk happy-hour crowd made this place kind of lame. But we grabbed our beers and sat in the corner. I had a Wells Bombardier Bitter. It was good, but not as satisfying as the Young’s Bitter that I enjoyed earlier. Sofia gulped down an Adnams Broadside, which was smooth and a bit sweet. She commented that it would pair well with pork chops. We had no pork chops.



Young me.



I also had a Green King IPA. Grassy. Decent.

For more euro foodage and drinkage, go here.

Prince of Wales Pub
150-151 Drury Lane
London



Phancy Phones.

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.

Stone Double Bastard to Texas

Coming next week. Sticky news, right?

Oh this too:

Double Horn Brewery Update

Remember Double Horn? The Marble Falls brew pub is still under construction but moving along nicely. They posted some new photos on their FB page.

Jester King: Wytchmaker Rye IPA Bottles

The guys from Jester King are out at CBC (some of them at least) this week, but that is not stopping them from releasing bottles of Wytchmaker Rye IPA to the thirsty masses. More of this too:

Hops & Grain Stool Sample Project

Every other blog in town already has this up. I might as well throw it up as well:

#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.

Sierra Nevada: Ovila Project

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

Austin Beer Guide Website

It's live. You can even download a copy of the first issue.

New Shiner: Ruby Redbird

Not my favorite Shiner label. Made with grapefruit juice.

I eat a grapefruit almost everyday at work, when they are available. I don't eat it until around 3, sometimes later. It is always my last piece of fruit for the day. First I break the skin with my teeth. Then I peel off the outer skin. If you've ever peeled a grapefruit you know that there is a second layer, a soft white fibrous skin most people tear off and discard. I do peel it off, but I eat it. It is very bitter. The bitter skin prepares me for the tart, sweet fruit. I eat the grapefruit pieces one by one. I try to only eat one per minute. THAT is how you eat a grapefruit.

Euro Beer #6 - Young's Windmill Pub

In the 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. Out of Dublin and over to London:



Euro Beer #6 - Young's Windmill Pub

Our first beer in London was had at The Windmill, a Young's pub well known for their pies. Whilst in London I wanted cask ale and would accept no less. We stumbled across this pub while walking among the crooked London streets. Service was unimpressive, but not surprising. The crowd was sparse.



Oh look, one of those famous pies. This one was a steak and mushroom pie, with mashed potatoes and mushy peas. The pie was excellent and left us scraping the plate.



We had a pint of Waggledance and Bitter, both acceptable. Beer is the cheapest thing to do in London. Shit is expensive there. Though there are some nice free museums. Go to the museums, drink beer before and after.

For more euro foodage and drinkage, go here.

The Windmill
6-8 Mill Street
London

Draft Pick Opening

A commenter recently reminded me about Austin's newest bar: Draft Pick. The grand opening is tomorrow, just in time for St. Pat's. I can speak for the atmosphere, but check out this strong beer list from their website:

SHINER BOCK

SHINER BLACK

SHINER LIGHT BLONDE

RA FIREMAN'S #4

RA RIO BLANCO PALE ALE

RA DEVIL’S BACKBONE

RA BREWHOUSE BROWN ALE

CIRCLE ENVY

CIRCLE NIGHT LIGHT STOUT

512 WIT

512 PECAN PORTER

512 BLACK IPA
INDY AUSTIN AMBER

INDY FREESTYLE WHEAT

INDY CONVICT HILL OATMEAL STOUT

SS BOMBSHELL BLONDE

SS PRO-AM ”SMOKEHOUSE” PORTER

LIVE OAK PILZ

LIVE OAK HEFE WEIZEN

LIVE OAK LIBERATION ALE

RAHR UGLY PUG
RAHR'S TEXAS RED
RAHR IRON THISTLE
SA FANCY LAWNMOWER
SA BROWN ALE

SA ELISSA IPA

TP THIRSTY GOAT AMBER
JK COMMERCIAL SUICIDE - OAKED DARK MILD
JK WYTCHMAKER RYE IPA

Much better than I had expected.

Real Ale EMPIRE

Barrel aged IPA, I want. And Billy's has it.

Adelbert's Beer Update

Equipment on its way and they found a location: 2314 Rutland Drive, Suite 100. Follow the action here.

I thought 2010 was a big year. 2011 may be bigger: Circle . . . Austin Beerworks . . . Hops and Grain . . . South Austin Brewing . . .

(512) Brewing Spring Open House & Black IPA

Its that time again. I had the Black IPA last night, but had a lot of beer before it. I need to try again with a fresh palate.

ABG Printed

This from last night's Big Texas Beer Tweetup. We also used the event to launch our first issue of Austin Beer Guide. Stay tuned to the Twitter feed for drop locations.

Hops and Grain Delivery!

Brewhouse delivery. Just one step closer to opening day and getting our hands on their beer.

Circle Brewing Co. - Grand Opening Reminder

http://circlebrewing.com/

Event: Big Texas Beer Tweetup

Don't tweet, don't worry. It will still be a fun event.

• Happy hour prices on beers and food
• Meet and great with some great Texas brewers
• Rollout of Opal Divine's new beer menu featuring 24 Texas crafts on draft
• Debut of Austin's newest print beer resource, the Austin Beer Guide

Let us know if you are coming, or not, or maybe.

#BTBTwunkards

Poster by Shelley Lai

NXNW Does St. Paddy's Day

Check it out:

WHO: North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery (NXNW)

WHAT: Join Austin-based microbrewery NXNW for their annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration. With green-tinted craft beer, lively music and authentic cuisine, the luck of the Irish will be in the air.

Savory Irish Stew and warm Soda Bread prepared by Head Chef George Powell will be served to complement an Irish Stout brewed on-site. A special cask-conditioned version of the Irish Stout will be served that evening. 22-ounce bottles of the stout will be available to take home.

To accompany the tasty Irish treats, Austin-based musician Jeremy Steding and the Irish Curse Band will entertain guests on the outdoor pavilion from 6 to 10 p.m.

WHEN: Thursday, March 17, 2011

COST: Free admission.

Jester King + Mikkeller: Drink’in the Sunbelt

Hello, it's Monday and you probably already know about this.

Craft Austin: All the beer news you want, but already know!

Spring Beer Dinnerat Flying Saucer w/ Deschutes

Dissident! Nice. I can't make it. We have something else going on (more on that later).

Austin Beer Guide

Start looking for this next week. It is a joint effort of Craft Austin and Beertown Austin. Let us know what you think. More to come, so you better like it.

Also, thanks to Liquid Austin for the plug.

No Thanks

This is dumb. Am I just a total bore or what?

Slate: German Beer Culture is Starting to Suck

I like Slate articles, but I am so over the internet right now and don't feel like reading this article right now. How about this: you read it and leave me a quick recap comment. Ok, ok.

Jester King Black Metal Bottles

From JK:

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- A small number of Black Metal 750ml bottles will begin making their way to Austin retailers tomorrow, and to those throughout the remainder of the state starting next week. The official statewide release of both Wytchmaker and Black Metal 750ml bottles will take place in approximately two weeks, once the current batches have fully conditioned. Cheers!

SXSW: Saint Arnold + Ginger Man

March 16: Beer, music, trivia and prizes. What else do you need? Oh yeah. . . FRITO PIES!

What other SXSW beerish events are going down? I'll start looking now and report back.

Houston Beer Fest

Wow, what a website! Blimps, airplanes, beer wenches, House of Pain. I don't care if you are planning on attending the 2011 Houston Beer Fest (June 11), but you NEED to check out their website. It is something to behold.

Texas Beer Freedom Rally @ Austin Homebrew

Drink Beer. Save Texas. I wish.

What do we want? TX BEER FREEDOM!
When do we want it? NOW!

Join us for a rally for TX House Bill 660. Raffle, t-shirts, glassware, and MORE!

Co-hosted by Freetail Brewing, NXNW Restaurant and Brewery, Uncle Billy’s Brew & QUE

Fado + Guinness + Bloggers + Trivia

I think I'm going to this.

Circle Brewing Happenings

First, they brewed their first batch of Nightlight Irish Stout.

Second, they've announced the date for their grand opening. It will be on March 12 at 2pm (till 6pm). Three free samples . . . buy a $10 pint glass and you can fill that up instead, which (as you know) is always the way to roll.