Saint Arnold Brewing's 17th Anniversary Party

Saint Arnold Brewing is celebrating their 17th anniversary with a party on Sunday, June 12th from 12pm ~ 3pm. The cost is $36 per person which includes a barbecue lunch and a special anniversary glass. Reservations must be made in advance online (click here) and will most certainly sell out.

The Saint Arnold Olympics will also take place that afternoon and they are seeking eight 2 person teams to compete. If you are interested, please send the name of your team along with the names of the two team members (include email address and phone number) to lennie@saintarnold.com. If more then eight teams are submitted, there will be a random draw to choose the participants.

Recap: Deschutes Beer Dinner at Plonk!

I was fortunate enough to be hosted by Deschutes Brewery at their Beer Dinner last night at Plonk! Beer and Wine Bistro. The local Deschutes rep for Texas and a few others direct from the brewery in Oregon were on hand pouring samples and talking about their beer.

The beer dinner was three courses, starting with PEI Mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce with freshly baked focaccia bread paired with the Mirror Pond Pale Ale. The fococcia bread is made at the bistro and baked fresh when it's ordered. It was soft and fluffy and perfect for soaking up what was left of the sauce after finishing the mussels. They apparently use the same bread for their muffaletta sandwich, which I'll definitely have to come back and try another day.

The second course was hanger steak served medium rare on a bed of Carolina Plantation Grits with a porcini mushroom and red pepper sauce and paired with the Black Butte Porter. The grits are milled to the exact specifications of the bistro and were slightly more course then other grits I've had, but were still very creamy. The steak was very tender and the sauce had just a bit of a hot kick at the end which paired wonderfully with the porter.

For dessert, we were served a frozen mascarpone custard with toasted almonds and a snifter of 2010 The Abyss. I don't think any further words are necessary other then... awesome!

Thanks again to the Deschutes Brewery, I had a great time talking with their Reps and thoroughly enjoyed the beer dinner. I also highly recommend trying Plonk!. The owner informed us that the bistro is still a work in progress and the beer taps are not installed behind the bar yet, but they do have draft beer available (in addition to bottled beer), its just currently in the walk-in cooler.

Open House at No Label Brewing

If you didn't get a chance to try their beer last night at the Petrol Station, No Label Brewing is hosting a FREE open house today from 3pm ~ 7pm. Go check out the brewery located in the old rice silos in Katy, TX and sample their El Hefe and Pale Horse.

Freetail Brewing Co. to Open Brewpub in Houston

Well, its finally official, Freetail Brewing Co. has announced that their second location will be in downtown Houston.

Scott Metzger, Founder and CEO of Freetail, announced it this afternoon on Twitter and followed it with a live chat Q&A session. The exact location is not being announced at this time out of respect to the developer, but rumours are already flying about it. What we do know is that it will be 20,000 sqft spread over three floors in a historic downtown building. The total cost is estimated at $4.2 million and it's projected to open in spring of 2012.

A few intersting comments by Scott Metzger from the Live Chat Q&A Session:

- Freetail Houston will have a ton of its own brews. I don't want a clone of San Antonio - our Houston brewteam will have the freedom to create their own recipes unique to the tastes of Houston

- We don't have the brewteam in place for Houston yet, and will begin our search in the coming months. I know Houston is full of great brewers or maybe we will bring some folks in. .

- An exciting part of the new location is the inclusion of a company store that will be a place to come in, pick up growlers, merch and yes... packaged product. I foresee both cans and 22oz bombers available at the company store on a regular basis.

- We're going to expand our menu considerably. We'll have our signature pizzas, but add a gastropub element to it

You can review the Q&A chat session in its entirety here.  The offiicial full press release is available here.

*** UPDATE 7-27-2011 ***

Freetail annouced it has suspended plans to open location in downtown Houston, cites "increasing level of resistance in capital markets" as reason.  Full press release available here.

***

No Label Tapping at Petrol Station

No Label Brewing from Katy, TX will be tapping their El Hefe (Hefeweizen)and Pale Horse (American Pale Ale) at 7:00pm tonight out at the Petrol Station. No better way to celebrate American Craft Beer Week then with a locally brewed craft beer.