Over a Pint Episode 21 with Jester King Craft Brewery
Look who’s 21… It’s Over a Pint. Finally legal. We’ve been voting, smoking and purchasing adult media for a while now, but at last, we don’t have to ask homeless guys outside the gas station to buy us beer.
And our first legal beverage choice, being 21, came from the noblemen Jester King. Last we heard from the Brothers Jester, they were completing fundraising and tweaking recipes. Currently, they are preparing to break ground on their land in southwest Austin, ramping up the third Jester, Joe Madia, awaiting the arrival of their brewing equipment, finalizing their brews for launch, and crossing all their “t”s and dotting their “i”s for TABC.
Wow. These guys have been some busy bees.
So Jeff, Mike, and Joe had us out to their land to try some beers and show us around. Watch the video for the good stuff, but here’s a brief recap.
Meet Joe. He’s from Pittsburg, was Jeff’s roommate at Notre Dame, just finished up medical school, is in charge of the artistic direction, will be assisting Michael in the brewery buildout, and is an all around solid guy (I actually first met Joe at Draught House when he approached our table with a pitcher of Deschutes Obsidian Stout ready to share.) He’s a solid guy, and I regret besmirching his meat-eating-rep on the last podcast.
Jester King plan to break ground March 1, expect to receive their 35 barrel brewhouse and fermentation tanks in may, and will hopefully be brewing beers for us to drink August, 2010.
Speaking of, the gentlemen Jester brought out a few beers for us to try (this is why we got into this whole beer blogging business!) We had Das WUNDERKIND!, La Danse Macabre, Impaler Vlad, and an experimental watermelon wheat.
Das WUNDERKIND! was excellent as usual. It’s a very well balanced, sessional, hoppy wheat, perfect for, uh, er, everything. Maybe not driving. They plan to release this as a year round offering in cans. You should be looking forward to this.
La Danse Macabre, their Russian Imperial Stout, has improved, in my opinion. A bit hot with alcohol last time I tried it, this past taste featured more of the coffee, anise, and chocolate flavors from the malt. The guys are tossing around the idea of making this a once a year seasonal release, possibly on Día de los Muertos, in 750ml bottles.
Impaler Vlad. I have been craving this beer since that day in June when I first read the description on their website. And it did not disappoint. A belgian style ale brewed with blood oranges and French oak chips soaked in pinot noir, Impaler Vlad is rich, dynamic, and refreshing. As you drink it peels back multiple layers of citrus, pinot, and smooth oak. I believe this will be distributed in 750ml bottles.
We also had a Rye IPA with flaked rye, crystal rye, and malted rye nicely hopped with chinook, simcoe and centennial hops. Jeff explained that they had originally planned on doing a traditional American IPA, but fell in love with the complexities of rye and stuck with it. They didn’t specify, but I expect this hoppy rye treat to be served in cans.
I won’t elaborate too much on the watermelon wheat, since it was just an experiment. Don’t read into this that it wasn’t good, but just to be fair, I don’t want to commit anything to the Internet about it. I’ll say this; it was refreshing and different. I had the 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon this past week, and the Jester King experiment WAS NOT A CLONE of this beer.
Jeff explained that they plan on launching with the Das WUNDERKIND!, Rye IPA, La Danse Macabre, and possibly a saison. They also mentioned they are kicking around the idea of hosting a contest among homebrewers for an additional fifth beer in their lineup.
We’ll post a cool video/photo collage (like this one) of the land soon, but I’ll just say that it’s good country out there. They have room to expand, great surroundings, easy access from 290W, and a great beer hall ready for tastings and events. From the beginning, Jeffery and Michael have been adamant that they want the brewery to be a communal destination, hosting music, dinners, tours, tastings, and various events the likes of which we have not yet seen in the Austin beer scene (they alluded to something similar to what these guys do.)
Geez, lots of writing. Watch the video already. More images and a little background on this OAP bellow.
Objectively speaking, we’re big fans of these guys and can’t wait to see their beers on the shelves and taps around town. Cheers, guys and thanks for having us out!
We’re all drinking Jester King beers in the video, soon enough you can too. Until then, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint.
[Not much of a back story. This was the third Over a Pint taping we did with Jester King. The first one recorded with no audio, the second one was based on an event that couldn't happen, and this one is perfect!]
Oh yeah, and we all went to Salt Lick afterwards.
