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.

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:

Post by The Hay Merchant.

Adelbert's Set to Release a Bière Brut

Adelbert’s Brewery has announced that it's latest release, Sundowner, is a Bière Brut, a style not commonly produced in this country.

A Bière Brut (also known as Bière de Champagne), is a style where the brewing and fermentation process is similar to how a champagne is produced, including using a champagne yeast and aging in the bottle for many months. Some of the more traditional Bière Brut brewed in Belgium and France are even put through the same process as champagne to remove the yeast (the bottles are stored inverted so the yeast collects in the neck of the bottle and that yeast is then frozen and driven out by pressure). The result is a beer that is typically light and very bubbly and tastes and looks more like a champagne or sparkling wine. DeuS (Brut Des Flandres) is probably the most well known of the style, but some may remember Infinium that Boston Beer Company released a few years ago. Adelbert's is excited to be the first brewery in Texas to produce one:

“Since our founding, we have sought to create traditional Belgian-inspired ales,” said Scott Hovey, Adelbert’s Founder and Brewmaster. “We are excited to not only be introducing a style that is rarely produced internationally, but to be the first Texas brewery to produce it. We look forward to introducing Texans to this style and eventually the other markets we distribute to as well.”

Sundowner is a blend of the spicy, fruity notes of a Belgian ale balanced with the mouthfeel and body of a sparkling wine. Brewed with champagne yeast, this effervescent ale possesses hints of white grape and green apple with a crisp, bone dry finish.

Sundowner begins distribution across Texas in early November and would make a great alternative to popping a bottle of champagne on New Years Eve.

Record Number of Texas Breweries at 2014 GABF

The brewery registration process was tweaked a little for this year's Great American Beer Festival to try and avoid the "race to register" process that initially locked some breweries out of attendance last year (most were eventually accommodated). Instead, of the first come, first served process, all breweries wanting to enter beer for judging were able to register and indicate if they also wanted a booth on the convention floor. After the registration period closed, the total number of competition beers each brewery was allowed to enter was determined by dividing the number of competition entries that can be judged by the number of breweries that applied. And if demand for booth space exceeded supply, booth selection would be determined by lottery for each region. 

These changes should have made sure that all breweries who wanted to enter beers in the competition were able to enter, but there may be booths from a few of your favourite breweries missing if the number of requests exceeded the maximum and they didn't win the lottery. But, these are the issues that have to be dealt with then there are now over 3,000 operating craft breweries (and almost 2,000 more in planning stages) in the country.

Perhaps due in some part to the changes in the registration process, Texas has it's largest showing of craft breweries again this year:

(512) Brewing Company	Austin
903 Brewers	Sherman
Adelbert's Brewery	Austin
Armadillo Ale Works	Denton
Austin Beerworks	Austin
Big Bend Brewing Co.	Alpine
Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery	Austin
Branchline Brewing Co.	San Antonio
Brazos Valley Brewing Company	Brenham
Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co.	Houston
Circle Brewing Co.	Austin
Community Beer Co.	Dallas
Cornel's Brewing Company	Beaumont
Deep Ellum Brewing Company	Dallas
Flix Brewhouse	Round Rock
Four Corners Brewing Co	Dallas
Hops & Grain Brewing	Austin
Independence Brewing Co.	Austin
Kamala Brewing at the Whip In	Austin
Karbach Brewing Co	Houston
Lakewood Brewing Company	Garland
Live Oak Brewing Company	Austin
Martin House Brewing Company	Fort Worth
Middleton Brewing	Driftwood
No Label Brewing Co	Katy
North by Northwest	Austin
Oasis, Texas Brewing Company	Austin
Pappy Slokum Brewing Co.	Abilene
Pedernales Brewing Co.	Fredericksburg
Peticolas Brewing Company	Dallas
Pinthouse Pizza Craft Brewpub	Austin
Rahr&Sons Brewing Co.	Fort Worth
Real Ale Brewing Company	Blanco
Revolver Brewing	Granbury
Saint Arnold Brewing Company	Houston
South Austin Brewery	Austin
Spoetzl Brewery	Shiner
Texas Beer Refinery	League City
Texian Brewing Co	Richmond
The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Company	Austin
Twin Peaks Brewing Company	Dallas
Twisted X Brewing Company	Dripping Springs
Uncle Billy's Brewery & Smokehouse	Austin
Zio Carlo Magnolia Brewpub	Fort Worth

Assuming this list is correct, there will be 47 Texas breweries this year, up from 36 in 2013, 30 in 2012 and 22 in 2011.  As a recap, the following Texas breweries won medals in the 2013 GABF competition:

Medal	Beer Name	Brewery	Style
Gold	Black Thunder	Austin Beerworks	German-Style Schwarzbier
Bronze	Elba	Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery	Herb and Spice Beer
Gold	Cedar Creek Belgian Style Dubbel	Cedar Creek Brewery	Belgian-Style Abbey Ale
Gold	Public Ale	Community Beer Co.	Extra Special Bitter
Bronze	Atrial Rubicite	Jester King Brewery	Belgian-Style Lambic or Sour Ale
Gold	Bitterama	Namaste Brewing at the Whip In	Herb and Spice Beer
Bronze	Blind Jake	Pinthouse Pizza	Brown Porter
Silver	Brewers Cut Altbier	Real Ale Brewing Co.	German-Style Altbier
Bronze	Saint Arnold Weedwacker	Saint Arnold Brewing Co.	German-Style Wheat Ale
Silver	Saint Arnold Summer Pils	Saint Arnold Brewing Co.	Munich-Style Helles

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

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.