So the folks over at SABC are pouring beers and ready to open the doors to the throngs of Austin beer lovers Saturday, February 11.

From the horse’s mouth:

uth Austin Brewing Company announces the Grand Opening party of Austin’s newest craft brewery. Saturday February 11, from 2-7 PM.

Please join us for authentic Austin music and the first opportunity to try our Belgian-style beer. Brewmaster Jordan Weeks will be on hand to give tours and talk about his specialty Belgian Style Golden Ale and Saison D’Austin. There will be souvenir tasting glasses and Tshirts for sale.

Live music is provided by The Everydudes. Yumé Burger, a new Austin food truck, will be on site vending freshly prepared meals. This will be a Green Event with 100% compostable recycling.

Spread the word, bring your 21-and-older friends, and come celebrate the craft beer resurgence in Austin!

South Austin Brewing Company is located at 415 East St Elmo, Unit 1D, Austin TX 78745, directly across from the Music Lab studios.

Sounds great.

More details:

What: South Austin Brewing Company Grand Opening
Where: 415 East Saint Elmo Road, Austin, TX 78745 (across from the Music Lab)
When: Saturday, Feb. 11, from 2PM to 7PM

I remember back when we used to number these. Like we thought someone might create a catalogue or reference guide for them.
Wow. Pie in the sky.

So we recently spent some time out at the Austin Beerworks brewery with the ABW boys, Will, Mike, Michael, and Adam (whom you may or may not recall, was the guest on Over a Pint Ep1). They gave us the tour, let us sample some unfiltered, uncarbonated beers, and then participated in an Over a Pint taping.

Since our visit, ABW has released all four of their staple beers on tap, Screaming Eagle IPA (cans pictured above), Peacemaker Extra Pale Ale, Pearl-Snap Pils, and Black Thunder Schwarz beer (black lager), with the Extra Pale Ale and IPA releasing in cans over the past 7 days around town.

Between the four of them, they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table and it shows from their brewery build-out ingenuity, fund raising, marketing and branding, and obviously, the quality of their initial beers. Both Adam and Will have prior brewing experience (at Flying Dog and Real Ale, respectively), and it shows.

Although none of the beers are ground breaking or “extreme” (I’d argue that the Black Thunder is something of an anomaly in these parts… no, Shiner Black doesn’t count), they are not setting out to make those beers right now. From their own words, they are aiming to make solid, drinkable, delicious, dry, Texas summer appropriate beers (just heard today the whole state is declared a natural disaster due to the draught and wildfires…)

So without further ado, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint.

Enjoy!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, yeah?

Well, Over a Pint has been on a hiatus, but now it’s back. Huge thanks to JIB for coming back from Hawaii, surviving having a kid, and now making time to do some videos.

Some of you may already know that BeerTownAustin now has an iPhone app. If this is news to you then go check it out and if you don’t have an iPhone then go buy one so you can download it. Or you can just look at it on one of our iPhones when you see us.

I have wanted to create an iPhone app for some time now and thought that BeerTownAustin would be a great reason to do so. I spent about a week learning everything I needed to and then got to work creating it. I will say that with a background in web development, Objective C (the language iPhone apps are written in) was a little harder than expected and kinda like learning a new language.

Once it was created I sent it off to Apple. When you create an iPhone app it must first be approved by Apple before it is available in the App Store for download. It is hard to know when Apple will approve your app because there is not a set time frame for approval. Luckily for us it was accepted in exactly two weeks with no issues.

So what does the app do?

The BeerTownAustin app is a fairly simple concept. It is an aggregation of everything BeerTownAustin. When you first open the app you are presented with the latest articles from the website. So now if you aren’t near a computer you don’t have an excuse for not checking out the recent happenings in beer world. Well maybe just the happenings in our beer world.

Also included in the app are all our videos that are easily viewable on your iPhone, the Knockin’ ‘Em Back podcast episodes that you could play while driving in your car, our Twitter feed, and all our photos that we have taken in an easy to view layout.

I hope you will check it out and let us know what you think. Also if you like what you see leave a review in the App Store.

I am a music fan. I’m lucky enough to live in Austin where we are so proud of our music scene that we declared ourselves the Live Music Capital of the WORLD! Aside from all of the bands that come through town or live here and play here, we are lucky enough to host a number of big music festivals every year. But the biggest of them all is South by Southwest. During SXSW over 1000 bands invade our town and play their music at every bar, alley, makeshift stage, and front-yard they can get a permit for.

If there is one thing that sxsw is about besides the music, it’s about going out and having a responsible good time. Well that’s what the beverage companies want me to say anyway. The fact of the matter is, there is a lot of drinking during SXSW. It may be a party put on by a new startup during the Interactive festival, a film premiere party, or just kids out drinking and dancing to their favorite band.

With all of the partying there is a great dilemma when it comes to the question of what to drink during the festival. Odds are your choices are limited to whatever the bar (or alley) is selling during the show. As a result you may be drinking a lot more of the National Beer of Texas than you would prefer. There’s nothing wrong with some Lone Star, especially in the right environment, but I noticed something new this year. Craft breweries are getting in on sponsorships this year. Also, more local bars are stocking gasp local beers. A movement is afoot and it looks like this year there will bring more “good” beer options than ever before.

Without further ado, here is my quick and dirty SXSW good beer survival guide.

Craft Brew Events

• Flying Dog is all over the place – You already know this if you read BTA, but it’s good beer and a lot of it!
• Dogfish Head/Gingerman SXSW Event Day 1 – Nice way to start out your Friday afternoon with a pint of Dogfish Head at the G-man.
• DC Does Texas – Good bands and free Dogfish Head at Lovejoys!
• 15th Annual Yarddog Throwdown At SXSW – Not free Dogfish Head, but only $3.  What better way to start off the Saturday of SXSW than with a bit of hair of the dog (pun intended)
• The Bay Area Takeover – All bands from the Bay area and free beer from Trumer Pils.  I haven’t had Trumer, but it gets a B+ from Beer Advocate

Bars with Good Beer

• Mohawk – Mohawk always has good bands and they usually have at least one Live Oak tap inside.
• Club DeVille – Club DeVille is next door to Mohawk on Red River and also has at least one Live Oak tap for your enjoyment. They also have 20 oz pint glasses.
• LoveJoys – Right in the middle of it all off 6th Street, you can get some microbrew.
• Ginger Man – When you need a break from the insanity of the music and 6th street, take a load off and enjoy some beer from the giant tap wall at Gingerman.
• Side Bar – Right off of Red River on 7th street you can find Real Ale on tap and a comfy couch. This is a great spot to catch some music and relax while in between bigger shows on Red River.
• Casino El Camino – Okay, I’m really including this one because they have a good Ms Pacman machine and I’m a dork. They also have some decent beers on tap and a fun atmosphere.

There are many more spots around downtown Austin to get good beer. Let us know your favorites in the comments. Also, please share any shows sponsored by Craft Brewers that I might have missed.

If you are skipping SXSW you can escape the influx of out-of-towners, hipsters, drunken idiots, and record label reps and head over to 512 to enjoy their Spring open house.

If you didn’t already know from this or this, Beer Connoisseur magazine held a party at the home of Independence Brewing Company on Saturday, February 27 for the launch of the second issue of their publication.  Some bloggers may have beaten us to the punch with a recap first, but how many had VIDEO?!?! (Scroll down now if you hate reading).

The weather and turnout ended up being great for everyone to rub elbows with fellow beer geeks and industry type folks (and maybe even a few of those professional media types).

While we were disappointed to see that not all the local brewers we had hoped for could make it out, no one went thirsty. In addition to some of the Independence staples, Lovejoy’s brought out their Blonde (which I did not have but heard was tasty) and Pale Ale, while North by Northwest sampled their Black Ale (excellent!) and IPA.

During our time there we also caught wind that Independence would soon be bottling their Stash IPA and Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout, probably their two best offerings in my opinion.

The Beer Connoisseur staff told us they took the time to visit Uncle Billy’s, the Ginger Man (where a pre-party was held for those who just couldn’t get enough beer) and some other local watering holes while in town to get better acquainted with the ever-growing Austin beer scene/brews.

Their publication and site are dedicated to all things related to beer culture. They hail from Atlanta, GA, which is experiencing a small but strong beer transformation (the Brick Store Pub consistently ranks as one of the best bars in the U.S. from Beer Advocate), and are excited about expanding into the Austin area.

Check out the video with Nick Kaye, managing editor, Beer Connoisseur to hear more about the work they are up to and what brought them to Austin. You can look for their quarterly magazine to start popping up around town soon.

Note: We feel it’s our duty to let you know we were extended a complimentary entry. Had I personally paid the entry fee, I would have been a lot more disappointed in the lack of breweries in attendance.

Welcome to Over a Pint episode 17. We recently got a chance to sit down with Steven Yarak, Jeff Young, and Karrine Karen Thornblom of Black Star Co-op.

We talked for a while. Over 15 minutes. We posted the first ten minutes here. We’ll post the B Side of the interview later this week (they take about 2 hours do with the importing and the editing and compressing and uploading and such.)

Steve, Jeff, and Karrine were excellent hosts and shared some nice beers with us as we discussed the history of the world’s first cooperatively owned brew pub, a little bit of their mission, membership perks, their beers (and why we can’t try them yet), their food, their new location and them getting LEED certified.

Jeff elaborates on the beers and talks a bit about the Infinity series, barrel aging and made some math jokes, too (I get it, they always CONVERGE on deliciousness!)

Hmm. So because the video was so long and we had to cut it up we see Karrine in the first video, but she doesn’t really talk much until the second… so just be patient. She is the buildout manager and is heading up the LEED certification push. What she has to say is interesting, just said in odd time increments that do not fit with the other content so well.

We shot this on an early Sunday afternoon. Actually, it was the Sunday after the Flying Saucer 2nd anniversary party. It takes us a bit to get in the swing of things (at least for me.)

We’re drinking the Delirium Noël and then move onto the Allagash Interlude (did I mention we went for 15 minutes?) So if you can, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint.

Enjoy!

Direct link to the mp3 HERE

Much thanks to Sean for fancy-ing up the audio!

Flying Saucer had us out for a North Coast food pairing with North Coast co-founder Tom Allen the other day.

It was pretty swanky. Sam and Rob flexed their cicerone muscles and put together a very interesting seafood pairing for the beers.

As a journalistic disclaimer, Flying Saucer was very gracious and comped our tickets. With that said, this was a great event. Allen was on hand and after a brief North Coast history, he walked us through the tasting. It was  very educational [read: my non-beer drinking wife was finishing more than half of each taster, taking notes, and walked away with a new found appreciation and affinity for belgian style ales].

Allen was kind enough to give us a few minutes for a video after the event and informed us that North Coast is working on landing their Acme Pale and Acme IPA series in Texas soon (hurrah!)

Here are the pairings:

Scrimshaw Pilsner (Pilsner Style Ale)

w/ Grilled Brined Shrimp with Tomatillo & Avocado Salsa

Pranqster (Belgian Style Golden Ale)

w/ Fire-and-Ice Melon Soup

Old Rasputin (Russian Imperial Stout)

w/ Fresh Oyster on the Half Shell w/ Shallot Vinegar Drizzle

Le Merle (Belgian Style Saison)

w/ Ahi Tuna Ceviche with Mango and Avocado

Brother Thelonious (Belgian Style Abbey Ale)

w/ Texas Pecan Pie

Personal favorite pairings included the Ahi Tuna Ceviche with the Le Merle and the Brother Thelonious with the pecan pie. The oysters with the Old Rasputin were surprisingly good, but not exactly my cup of tea (wasn’t such a fan of the shallot/vinegar drizzle).

With two of Texas’ four (this was the count last I heard) cicerones on staff, hopefully Flying Saucer will do similar pairing events in the future.

Our swanky new video intro courtesy of the gentelman Adam Gutierrez.

When I go out to a bar for drinks with friends I usually end up opening a tab with the bartender. I never feel comfortable doing this. I usually wish I could just pay cash. Leaving a credit card with a bartender, who usually puts it in an organized box, while you spend the next few hours hanging out with friends, is not very secure. It is not the bartender that I am worried about, or anyone in particular, it just invites the opportunity for something to go wrong.

Another downside to leaving your credit card with the bartender is that you may forget it when you leave. After a few drinks one could understandably become forgetful. Aside from the inconvenience of having to drive back to the bar later, some bars will add a fee to your tab if you forget your card.

So what if there was a way to avoid all these inconveniences? Well there is. TabbedOut is a very innovative new iPhone app that allows you to open and close a tab from your iPhone. How cool is that! ATX Innovation developed this app right here in Austin, TX and they already have a number of bars in Austin using their service. And that number is growing.

Let’s take a look at how it works.

• First you have to download the app from the App Store to your iPhone and set it up. One of the great features about TabbedOut is that all of your sensitive information is securely stored on your iPhone and not on a server somewhere. And you are not required to setup an account with TabbedOut.

• Once you have downloaded and set everything up you can easily find the nearest bars that use the service by selecting “NearBy.” Soon TabbedOut will include a feature to manually search for a location.

• Once you get to the bar you can open your tab right on your iPhone. TabbedOut is integrated with the bars Point Of Sale (POS) system so once you open a tab the bar is provided with your payment information. This allows you to leave quickly whenever you are ready.

• When you are ready to leave you will be able to see everything that has been charged to your tab. Once you have reviewed your tab select the tip you would like to include and then hit the button that says “Pay Tab.”

• How easy was that. And you even have the option to send yourself a reciept to your email inbox.

I had the opportunity to meet up with Rick Orr, the CEO of ATX Innovation (the creators of TabbedOut) to see it in action and get the rundown on how it works. Rick explained how this idea has been in the works for years and as mobile technology progressed, the reality of implementing a system like this became possible.

We discussed how easy it is to integrate the software with the Point Of Sale (POS) systems at restaurants and bars. They have already built a number of partnerships with producers of POS systems. For a restaurant or bar to start using TabbedOut all they need is a supported POS. From there the setup is very painless and it doesn’t cost the restaurants and bars anything to adopt this payment option.

TabbedOut makes its money by charging a small fee, currently $0.99, to the user’s iTunes account. The fee is charged for each tab that is opened. According to Orr this fee could change in the future and may be different in different locations.

After seeing TabbedOut in action, I am very impressed. My suggestion is to download TabbedOut to your iPhone, for free, and give it a try. You may start begging your favorite bars to adopt this service. And for those of you that don’t have an iPhone, it will soon be released on Android and Blackberry platforms.

I did a video interview with Rick Orr and unfortunately the sound did not turn out to be usable. But below are some images of the interview.

Follow TabbedOut on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tabbedout

Welcome to Over a Pint episode 17. We recently got a chance to sit down with Steven Yarak, Jeff Young, and Karrine Karen Thornblom of Black Star Co-op.

We talked for a while. Over 15 minutes. We posted the first ten minutes here. We’ll post the B Side of the interview later this week (they take about 2 hours do with the importing and the editing and compressing and uploading and such.)

Steve, Jeff, and Karrine were excellent hosts and shared some nice beers with us as we discussed the history of the world’s first cooperatively owned brew pub, a little bit of their mission, membership perks, their beers (and why we can’t try them yet), their food, their new location and them getting LEED certified.

Jeff elaborates on the beers and talks a bit about the Infinity series, barrel aging and made some math jokes, too (I get it, they always CONVERGE on deliciousness!)

Hmm. So because the video was so long and we had to cut it up we see Karrine in the first video, but she doesn’t really talk much until the second… so just be patient. She is the buildout manager and is heading up the LEED certification push. What she has to say is interesting, just said in odd time increments that do not fit with the other content so well.

We shot this on an early Sunday afternoon. Actually, it was the Sunday after the Flying Saucer 2nd anniversary party. It takes us a bit to get in the swing of things (at least for me.)

We’re drinking the Delirium Noël and then move onto the Allagash Interlude (did I mention we went for 15 minutes?) So if you can, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint.

Enjoy!