July Beer Dinner at Rudyard's Pub Featuring Independence Brewing

This month's beer dinner at Rudyard's Pub will be featuring beer from Independence Brewing of Austin, TX. Joe Apa, formerly of T’afia and Plum Easy Kitchens, will be carefully crafting 5 courses paired with 5 different Independence beers, including White Rabbit, Stash IPA, Austin Amber, Convict Hill Stout and the recently released Hell or High Lager (brewed to commemorate their 3,000 batch of beer). This month's dinner is also a pet food drive for a local homeless pet shelter, so please bring along a bag or a few cans of pet food so the animals can eat too.

The dinner takes place on Thursday, July 24th at 7:00pm and tickets are available online for $50 each or you can contact Rudyard's at (713) 521-0521 for more info.

Central Market Beer Fest

Central Market's annual beer celebration begins today and runs through June 24th.  Scheduled events include in-store tastings and beer dinners, some featuring the owner and/or brewmaster from the brewery.  There is also a Sip & Stroll on June 19th with eight food and beer pairing stations setup around the store.  Check the online events calendar for an up-to-date listing of events (tickets required for some events and can also be purchased online).  And if the calendar of events doesn't get you excited, then perhaps 20% off all beer purchases of $25 or more will help.

Open The Taps at Alamo Drafthouse

On Wednesday, May 21st from 6:00pm – 8:00pm, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Open the Taps are hosting a fundraising event at the Mason Park location to raise awareness about changing the legislation that prohibits businesses with liquor licenses from selling beer growlers.

Beer loyalists can sample fresh brews from Houston’s favorite craft breweries and learn about how to bring growlers back to Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

Tickets are $10 each which includes a pint glass and 3 beer samples.

Book Review: The Craft Beer Revolution

As both a brewery owner and active member of two brewing associations, Steve Hindy (co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery) has over twenty-fives years of first hand experience with the industry's inner workings and relationships. His book, The Craft Beer Revolution: How a Band of Microbrewers Is Transforming the World's Favorite Drink, is an insiders story about the rise of craft brewing, the struggles within the industry and it's associations and the relationships with "Big Beer".

Everyone is familiar with the story that Fritz Maytag is basically credited with sparking the craft beer revolution when he bought Anchor Steam Brewing just as it was about to close, but you'll learn about a lot of other people who also deserve some credit. And as an active Director of both the Brewers Association and the Beer Institute, Steve has being working hard to improve and steer the industry as well. There's definitely a lot of historical facts and tidbits that I was completely unaware of, but it may be a little too in-depth for readers who are not directly involved in the craft brewing industry. However, it's those stories that I found the most interesting. The ones that involve Jim Koch of Boston Beer Co. and the apparent running feud with some of the brewers (including Steve) were particularly entertaining (and explain Koch's quote about the book).  It's definitely a great read and I recommend it to anyone who's interests in craft beer go beyond just drinking it.

Houston Press BrewFest 2014

The 3rd annual Houston Press BrewFest takes place on Saturday, May 17th from 2pm ~ 7pm at Silver Street Station (the same location as previous ones).  Over 35 local, national and foreign breweries will be serving up a variety of different beers on tap and from the bottle. 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. There will also be bands playing and local food trucks on-site.

General Admission and VIP ticket options are available and both include eight 3oz sample cards. The VIP ticket includes access to a special area with additional beers and appetizers. Enter Promo Code AllGoodBeer (before noon on Friday, May 16th) and you'll get a discount off the original price.