We met up wt Mr. Peters Saturday morning at the tail end of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild meeting at Independence Brewing Co to talk about the quickly approaching Texas Craft Brewers Festival.

Here’s the deal. If you only go to one beer festival in Texas, make it this one.

Enough from me, watch the video.*

Swifty, along with the other Texas Craft Brewers Guild members are waking this festival from a six year hiatus. Started back in 2004, by Rob and Amy Cartwright of Independence Brewing, the festival is Texas’s only Texas only craft beer festival. This is an event that allows Texas brewers to showcase the fine craft beers made in Texas.

And with the recent growth and excitement going on in the state, there will be a lot to showcase.

The details:

September 24, 2011 2 – 8pm
Fiesta Gardens, Austin, TX

Buy tickets here.

And coming up this Sunday, there is a kick off party at Draught House.

Check out the poster below.

*Pardon the video quality, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these.

Recently we were invited out to Uncle Billy’s on the lake for a brewery tour and tasting with the always enjoyable, Brian Peters.

I’ve been out to the new location on the lake before, but had never fully appreciated the multi-story brewery that lived in the guts of the location. Mr. Peters put his new brewhouse together based on his years of brewing in various brewhouses and environments to create a facility that truly fit his brewing style and beers.

The brewery lives on the third floor of the new Uncle Billy’s location and uses gravity to move beer from his two 40 barrel and four 20 barrel fermenters to the serving tanks in the basement. He brews on a custom Newlands 20 barrel brewhouse and aims to produce 4,000 barrels a year.

Mr. Peters, or Swifty to anyone who’s been around him for more than 10 minutes, played host and tour guide to a handful of us as he walked us through his new brewery and his current beer portfolio.

Since his move west to the lake, Swifty has become quiet the evangelist with the major theme running throughout his house taps being “conversion”. Being he’s only been brewing there for a few months, he is unsure his new neighborhood’s taste, he’s been brewing up quiet the arsenal of accessible, tasty, easy to drink, “conversion” beers that appeal to the mass drinker, yet still have the subtlety and craftsmanship to impress and satisfy fans of his previous brewing outposts.

With a refreshing wit, crisp pre-prohibition lager, and a tasty amber, Swifty is ready to convert even the timidest of palate over to the better beer side. And for the seasoned craft beer veterans, he’s brewing the wildly popular Hop Zombie and Wood Eye Rye (among this drinker’s top three rye beers) in addition to the GABF gold medal winning Hell in Keller.

The evening we visited, he also had on a mighty tasty session porter that accomplished both being roasty and rich, but still land solidly in the “drink more than a few” category.

Oh yeah, and there’s a sunset out there, too.

April 29 Uncle Billy’s celebrated their third anniversary of slinging beers in Austin [we realize this is nearly two months tardy; we're still playing catch-up...]

Yup. And they had a party and a special beer to celebrate.

Specifically, the “Dave Tripel”; a Belgian style tripel that truly hit the celebratory spot. It’s been said before, but since I put it in my notes I’ll say it too, similar to the Real Ale Devil’s Backbone, but not in a hacky way.

I was told by Ryan Fulmer (UB manager) that the Dave Tripel was brewed close to the Tres Diablos from the Bitter  End. Sadly, I never tried any of their beers, so I have to take his word for it.

Also on deck were the second anniversary ale, the “Boozer Chavez” (a belgian style quad), the GABF/World Beer Cup medal winner Hell in Keller, a cask of the Axe Handle pale, and a round up of the usual suspects.

The 2nd Anniversary quad aged well. It was very smooth wt a good mouthfeel and a raisin finish.

I also imbibed in the Hell in Keller; my first time since the medal winnings. It was a bit awash after having both anniversary ales back to back.

All the beers were $3, the new parking lot was packed out, we ran into Jordan Weeks of South Austin Brewing Co (you ate our fried Okra and therefore owe us a video…), Josh Hare of Hops & Grain, JB of Austin Homebrew, Stuart West of the Church of Zmurology, and a few other Zealots and BeerAdvocates.

Also, congrats to Otis (formerly the assistant brewer to Brian Peters) on his promotion to full time brewer.

<unfounded blogger speculation>Perhaps this means Uncle Billy’s is prepping up to brew beer in a second location???</hopes and dreams>

All in all, it was a great event with some great beers.

Thanks for all you do in Austin, Uncle Billy’s and here’s to three more years!

Welcome welcome to our 18th Over a Pint. This one was shared with Mr. Brian Peters of Live Oak, Bitter End, and currently, Uncle Billy’s fame.

Brian had us out a week or so ago to share some beers and talk shop. We showed up just as he and brewing assistant Amos Lowe were finishing up a batch of the Back 40 Blonde. Seeing the two of them work in tandem, moving hot liquids, creating cool liquids, turning wheels, checking tanks, all the while skillfully maneuvering around their 10 barrel brewhouse made my beer that afternoon taste all the more “craft.”

Brian told us that they pumped out 800 barrels last year and expect to produce 1,200 barrels this year, thanks to the newly opened parking lot. When Uncle Billy’s Brew and Que came on the scene in 2006, they were slinging more beers than they could barely produce.

“It was fun selling so much beer you can’t keep up,” commented Brian.

The parking lot went away in June, 2007(?- neither of us could remember for sure), and the beer production dropped. Brian fully expects it to pick back up as the brewpub opened their new parking garage just north of the location last week (if we were on the ball, we’d had gone out and taken some pictures… we were there in spirit.)

Brain just put on the Parking Lot Pilsner and he said he the Hell In Keller (yeah, the one that won that medal) should be on soon, too. On the day we went out, we had the Axe Handle Pale (which I kept calling the Buried Hatchet), the [Ctrl] [Alt] [Delete], the Resonator 2X IPA, and the barrel aged Ruby Red (my favorite).

The Axe Handle is on year-round, but I’m not sure if the other rotating beers are still on tap. If so, go get them. Brian said he made the Alt hoppier than the style is, but I appreciate that. The Resonator is a solid 2X IPA, nicely hopped with a good malt balance. And the Ruby Red with the wild yeast added in the barrel is, in my opinion, outstanding- maybe one of the best local brewpub offerings I’ve had in a while.

I feel I would be doing our readers (I’m pretty sure I can use the plural here) a disservice if I don’t address all the recent rumors surrounding Uncle Billy’s concerning a second location and a canning line. Brian could not comment on it, so I used my other source (is Twitter a source now?) and was told “As for now, we can’t confirm or deny it…we’ll let you know when we have official details and information.”

So, there you have it. Still/just rumors. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. But seriously, shouldn’t we already be more than happy just to have the GABF medal winning Uncle Billy’s in our town? YES!

We’re drinking the Axe Handle Pale, Resonator 2X IPA, and [Ctrl] [Alt] [Delete] in the video, so if you can prepare yourself with a cold one and join us over a pint.

Enjoy!

Audio

Direct link to the mp3 HERE
Subscribe to the Podcast