Beer Town Austin

I had the hardest time spelling “episode” as I typed out the title.

Weird.

Come one come all to our 20TH episode (took me three times to spell it this time too!) of Over a Pint, the beer “vlog” show featuring  some guy drinking beers, asking questions, and making things awkward with your favorite ATX beer influencers.

Yup. This is our score episode (as in four score and…), and boy did we score.

Brian and Tammy Smittle of Thirsty Brewing Co had us out to drink some beers and shoot some video.

We had the honor of being their very first press outing. Although, we were scooped by that other most popular beer personality at the Statesman. Whatever. It’s not a contest. (I actually met Patrick for the first time this past weekend at the Beer Connoisseur party at Independence, and he’s a great guy).

Ok, that rabbit’s been chased. Back to Thirsty Planet.

Brian and Tammy successfully evaded the watchful eye of the internet and ATX beer scene for nearly two years as they cleverly hatched their plan for a 30 barrel production brewery out on 290 W (they are literally neighbors to Jester King).

At the time of publishing, Brian suspects he should be brewing beer in about two or three weeks and it should be filling pints around town in about six. Yes, that’s correct; there should be new local ATX beers on draft in merely a month and a half. *shock face*

Thirsty Planet plan on debuting three styles: Amber, wheat, and IPA. Brian has been a pro brewer for various brewpubs since 1993 (before many of us online beer nerds could even drink beer). He began as a brewer in Vail, CO, then refined his craft in multiple brewpubs in OK. As his brewpub empire expanded, he found himself more often encouraging wait staff to up-sell Pizza Shooters, Shrimp Poppers, or Extreme Fajitas than donning his rubber boots and crawling into kettles to clean out spent grains. As a result, Brian and Tammy moved to Austin in 2008 to pursue their dreams of owning and operating a full production brewery.

Currently, they own a very large brewery with room to expand into bottling very soon. And besides the first three beers, Brian plans to utilize their large and hostpitable tasting room as a laboratory for various experimental brews he plans to churn out on his 5 barrel pilot system. He mentioned trying some more exotic styles including smoked porters, double IPAs, fruit beers, beers with brettanomyces, and various local ingredients. He hopes to cultivate a brewpub type atmosphere at the tasting room to share beers and receive feedback. In addition to the large tasting room, they plan to develop an outside bier garten for outside drinking, local music, and cyclist recouping (this place will be an excellent biking destination). Brian mentioned he’d like to keep the tasting room open multiple times a week to encourage more of a brewer/drinker relationship. I’m OK with this.

Brian asked me to encourage folks to sign up for the newsletter for more info. Also, check out their site for the best info. Don’t trust us; we’re just in it for the free beer and popularity.

Wow. Enough with the writing, more with the video.

We’re drinking the Real Ale PhoeniXX Double ESB (Tammy has a rootbeer, I think. She’s preggers). So if you’re able, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint.

Enjoy!

[Hmm. So I forgot to hold the mic up to my mouth as I spoke, so you can't really hear everything I'm saying so well. We'll have a better mic soon.]

Audio

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Direct link to the mp3 HERE

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[Also, Shawn couldn't make it out for this one, my camera battery was dead, and all these images are from my iPhone... sorry. Shawn got a fancy new camera so we'll have better images in the future...]

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1. July, the Buddy System Month; Black Star Co-op/Thirsty Planet, Parkside/Independence, Freetail/Real Ale, and 24 Diner/Avery
2. Thirsty Planet Grand Opening
3. Over a Pint Episode 2 with Nate Seale of (512) Brewing Co.
4. Over a Pint Episode 12 with Todd Usry of Breckenridge Brewing
5. Over a Pint Episode 14 with Independence Brewing Co