Friday, October 2, 2015

Beer & BBQ Fest at Brenner's On The Bayou

It's going to be a beautiful weekend and I suggest spending Saturday afternoon outside on the grounds of Brenner's On The Bayou for their annual Beer & BBQ Fest this Saturday, October 3rd from 3pm ~ 6pm.

They'll be featuring craft beer from local, Texas and out of state breweries along side barbeque from four different regions (Texas, Memphis, Kansas City and the Carolinas). Tickets are $55 before Saturday and $70 the day of. There is also a VIP option for $110 which provides early access to the festival and a VIP room with premium selections, on-site brewery representatives and additional food options.  Valet parking is $10 or you can take the shuttle service for $5 (see Parking & Info for more details).

  • Karbach Brewing Co. – Houston, TX
  • Saint Arnold Brewing Company – Houston, TX
  • Independence Brewing Company – Austin, TX 
  • Cedar Creek Brewery – Seven Points, TX
  • Bayou Teche LA 31 Brewing – Arnaudville, LA
  • SweetWater Brewing Company – Atlanta, GA
  • Ballast Point Brewing Company – San Diego, CA
  • Boulevard Brewing Company – Kansas City, MO
  • Boston Beer Company – Boston, MA

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Texas Breweries at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival

The 2015 Great American Beer Festival begins in less than a month, so it's a good time to take a look at the Texas breweries that will be attending this year.

Last year there was 47 Texas breweries with booths on the festival floor which was the largest turnout ever. It's down slightly to 45 this year, but that probably has more to do with the space limitations in the convention hall and how the booth space is assigned due to the record number of craft breweries now operating. According to the GABF website, the following breweries will be representing Texas this year:

Brewery
City
Booth
(512) Brewing Co
Austin
Y2
903 Brewers
Sherman
K2
Austin Beerworks
Austin
K3
Bitter Sisters Brewing Company *
Addison
K5
Black Star Co-op
Austin
K6
Blue Owl Brewing *
Austin
K8
Bluebonnet Beer Co *
Round Rock
K9
Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co
Houston
K12
Circle Brewing Company
Austin
K13
Community Beer Co
Dallas
K14
Deep Ellum Brewing Co
Dallas
W10
Flix Brewhouse - Round Rock
Round Rock
K16
Fredericksburg Brewing Co
Fredericksburg
K23
Freetail Brewing Co
San Antonio
K24
Freetail Brewing Co - Brewpub *
San Antonio
K25
Hops & Grain Brewing
Austin
K27
Humperdinks Restaurant & Brewery
Dallas
K28
Independence Brewing
Austin
K30
Lakewood Brewing Co
Garland
K32
Live Oak Brewing Co
Austin
L3
Martin House Brewing Company
Fort Worth
L5
Middleton Brewing Co
San Marcos
Z2
No Label Brewing Co
Katy
L7
North By Northwest Restaurant and Brewery
Austin
L8
Oasis Texas Brewing Company
Austin
L9
Panther Island Brewing Company *
Fort Worth
L10
Pedernales Brewing Co
Fredericksburg
L11
Peticolas Brewing Co
Dallas
Z11
Pinthouse Pizza
Austin
Z12
Rahr and Sons Brewing Co
Fort Worth
X3
Real Ale Brewing Co
Blanco
K1
Revolver Brewing
Granbury
L13
Saint Arnold Brewing Co
Houston
J17
South Austin Brewery
Austin
BP17
Southerleigh Brewing *
San Antonio
L15
Spoetzl Brewery
Shiner
L20
Texas Beer Refinery
Dickinson
L23
Texian Brewing Co
Richmond
L24
The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co
Austin
L25
The Collective Brewing Project *
Ft Worth
L26
Tupps Brewery *
McKinney
L30
Twin Peaks Brewery
Irving
K34
Twisted X Brewing Co
Dripping Springs
L31
Uncle Billy's Brew & Que
Austin
Z21
Zilker Brewing Co*
Austin
L33
* Denotes first time attending GABF
 
This is another great turnout from Texas and includes quite a few new breweries. Hopefully this will result in another great medal showing after Texas breweries took home 16 medals last year and 10 the previous year. 

Good luck to all the breweries who have beer entered in the competition this year and I look forward to sampling your beers on the convention floor.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Celebrate National Bourbon Day with a Beer Dinner at BRC

In celebration of National Bourbon Day this Sunday, June 14th, BRC Gastropub is hosting a special beer dinner featuring bourbon barrel aged beers from Karbach, Firestone Walker, Oskar Blues and Saint Arnold. The cost is $70 per persons and reservations are required which can be made by calling 713-861-2233 or sending an email to brcgastropub.@feedtcc.com.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

4th Annual Houston Press BrewFest

The 4th Annual Houston Press BrewFest takes place on Saturday, May 16th from 3pm ~ 7pm at Silver Street Station (the same location as previous ones).  Over 100 beers will be available (beer list available soon) as well as food trucks and live music. It's a great festival for trying a variety of beer styles in one place as well as an opportunity to try some of the new craft breweries that are not widely available. If you want to see what it's all about, check out the video from last year's BrewFest.

General Admission and VIP ticket options are available and both include eight 3oz sample cards (additional cards will be available for purchase). VIP tickets include early admission at 2pm to begin your sampling one hour before the General Admission ticket holders as well as in-and-out access to a VIP area with additional specialty beers and complimentary appetizers. Tickets officially go on sale to the public at noon on March 21st with early bird pricing (GA $30, VIP $55) before increasing to regular prices (GA $35, VIP $60) on April 28th. If you're a procrastinator, there may be some remaining tickets at the door (no guarantee), but for a much higher prices (GA $45, VIP $70), so you may as well go ahead and grab a couple tickets now for cheap. And if you're really excited about it, you can get in on a special pre-sale starting today by going to this link and entering promo code ALLGOOD15 to unlock the purchasing options.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Craft Brewing Industry Reaches New Levels in 2014

The Brewers Association has released the 2014 data on craft brewing growth and for the first-time ever, craft brewers reached double-digit (11%) volume share of the marketplace.

In 2014, craft brewers produced 22.2 million barrels, and saw an 18 percent rise in volume and a 22 percent increase in retail dollar value. Additionally, the number of operating breweries in the U.S. in 2014 grew 19 percent, totaling 3,464 breweries, with 3,418 considered craft broken down as follows: 1,871 microbreweries, 1,412 brewpubs and 135 regional craft breweries. Throughout the year, there were 615 new brewery openings and only 46 closings.

Note: Numbers are preliminary and the Brewers Association will release the list of Top 50 craft brewing companies and overall brewing companies by volume sales on March 31. Additionally, a more extensive analysis will be released during the Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America® in Portland, Oregon from April 14-17.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Texas Debut of Alpine Beer Company

Another week, another out of state brewery makes its debut in Texas. This time it's Alpine Beer Company from Alpine, California (sort of).

Alpine was founded in 1999, but initially had their beers contract brewed at AleSmith Brewing Co until they opened their own brewery in 2002. Alpine's beers have been highly regarded, particularly their IPA's, but were difficult to find as they had a maximum production of around 1500 bbls a year and distribution didn't reach far from home. But that started to change in November 2013 when Green Flash Brewing Co. began brewing some of Alpine's beers (Nelson, Hoppy Birthday and Duet) at their facility in San Diego.  The increase in production and sales of Alpine beers would help raise capital that Alpine desperately needed in order to expand. Apparently that relationship worked out pretty well because in November 2014, Green Flash bought the Alpine Beer Company. And with the production capabilities and resources of Green Flash, beers from Alpine are now finding their way to Texas.  The Flying Saucer in Downtown Houston is tapping a different Alpine beer every night from March 9th to the 13th, including the highly sought after Nelson (apparently the Flying Saucer is the only location in Houston to receive a keg). The following is the tapping schedule:

Mon, March 9: Duet
Tues, March 10: Hoppy Birthday
Wed, March 11: Alpine Ale
Thur, March 12: Nelson
Fri, March 13: Irish Red

I'm happy to see that Alpine was able to find help from within the craft brewing industry.  I'm sure we'll be seeing more mergers and takeovers in the future as the older craft breweries continue to expand and seek new markets and revenue streams.  And this is definitely preferred over a takeover by ABImBev.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Beers From Sweetwater Begin Flowing in Houston

Sweetwater Brewing, named for a tributary of the Chattahoochee River, was founded in Atlanta, GA in 1997 by two former college roommates. It has since grown to be the 19th largest craft brewery thanks to their most popular beer, 420 Extra Pale Ale, and the rest of their regular lineup which includes the Sweetwater IPA, Georgia Brown Ale and Take Two Pils along with Blue (a light bodied ale with a hint of blueberry) and Hop Hash Double IPA (made with the hop resin scraped out of the hop pelletizer).

There are various events around town this week to celebrate their launch and it shouldn't be too difficult to find it on tap, but here's a few that I know about:


In addition to those, I also found events at Hay Merchant today and Ladybirds on Thursday.

Friday, February 13, 2015

8th Wonder Celebrating 2nd Anniversary

8th Wonder is celebrating two years of brewing beer in the shadow of the Houston skyline with a party on Saturday, March 21st at 3:00pm. Tickets are available online and priced at $100 for VIP or $25 for General Admission. Only 200 of the VIP tickets are available and prices will increase after March 1st. Further details about what the VIP level gets you hasn't been released yet, but a post on their Facebook page indicated "rare tappings, private bathroom, merch, light bites, pint glasses and more". The event also includes musical performances by: The Suffers, Earphunk, Stooges Brass Band, Wild Moccasins, DJ Sun and Fox & Cats.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Hay Merchant's 3rd Anniversary

The Hay Merchant is celebrating their 3rd anniversary on Thursday, February 12th. The doors open at 3:00pm, but there undoubtedly be a line forming way before then. Their Facebook page indicates Kevin has dug deep in their cellar and come up with a bunch of special beers to mark the occasion. The same post also includes a great parody of the recent Budweiser commercial: