Yowza.

No good reason this took so long to get up. Painting, packing, moving, jobing, unpacking, brewing, etc-ing.,

Welcome welcome to part two of Knockin’ em Back at Billy’s on Burnet, a podcast. Check out Part One here.

It’s still JIB, Shawn, myself, and our guest comedian/old roommate Bryan Gutmann!

Good stuff.

We hit up the beer news, lots of it out dated at this point. We talk about the Dogfish Head/Alamo Drafthouse Lakecreek Off-Centered Film Fest (coverage of this to come…), the Flying Saucer East Coast Big Beer Week (also coverage to come…), we talk about Ranger Creek announcing that cicerone Rob Landerman of Flying Saucer being their future brewer, the news that Draught House plans on submitting some beers to the Great American Beer Festival for 2010, also we discuss the old news that Real Ale will be bottling some of their barrel aged experimental beers (Mysterium Verum) in 750 ml bottles. We get over excited about this as I ran into some Real Ale buddies the other night and they said it may not be in the so near future.

We chat about our recent go-to beers and “special” beers, Brews-you’re-intos…

• Chris- Dale’s Pale Ale/Draught House Red Planet Cask
• Shawn- Deschutes Mirror Pond/Big Sky from Missoula Montana
• JIB- Real Ale Full Moon Pale Rye Ale/…
• Bryan- Yellow Tail Cabernet/stiff drinks/homebrew via Shawn and me/bottle in front of him

Also, this is very important: we discuss the underage drinking being portrayed in the 1985 film Teen Wolf. Yikes, talk about irresponsible film making…

We continue on with lots of bullshitting and drinking. We do the Twout-Outs and discuss Bryan’s upcoming Internet sitcom podcast, “Making It.” FUN! It should debut here.

Also, what’s up with the dead mom in Full House? And how is Joey related to the family?

Not for grandmas, children, republicans, sunday school teachers, boy scouts, the PC, or the easily offended…

There’s a good story in there about a dirty word that snuck its way onto the site design.

This one ranks in at Explicit Content LEVEL ORANGE.

Huge thanks to Alex and Billy of Billy’s Burgers for sponsoring the podcast this “month”. Also thanks to Bryan for coming out and drinking wt us.

Sorry, no new photos this time, Shawn’s in China.

Enjoy!

Audio

Direct link to the mp3 HERE

Subscribe to the Podcast

American Craft Beer Week is fast approaching. May 17- May 23. Yup. If you read this guy, you already knew that.

This post is where we will list all ACBW 2010 ATX events. Watch it get updated as more events approach.

AUSTIN EVENTS:

DRAUGHT HOUSE

DRAUGHT HOUSE
Mon.- Come out and sample New Belgian beer for free, from 5-8pm, and receive a glass with beer purchase. We will also be raffling off sweet New Belgium cruiser.

Tues.- Sample Live Oak beer for free, 5-8pm, and receive a glass with beer purchase. Meet the brewers.

Wed.- Sample Deschutes beer for free, 5-8pm, receive a glass with beer purchase, other shwag too.

Thurs.- Sample North Coast Beer for free, 5-8pm, get an Old Rasputin glass with beer, meet Tom Allen, one of the owners of the brewery. Tapping of Draught House Whiskey Century.

Fri.- Sample Brooklyn beer for free, 5-8pm, receive a glass with pint purchase, also a quiz with prizes. Tapping of a 2007 keg of Brooklyn Chocolate Stout.

Sat.- Sample Real Ale beer for free, 5-8pm, receive a glass with beer purchase. Tapping of Highlander barrel aged Real Heavy.

Sunday- Beer and Cheese Tasting done in partnership with Antonelli’s Cheese Shop. This is a ticketed event, which will be held from 1pm-3pm. A limited number of tickets will be for sale at the Draught House an Antonelli’s for $45. Below are the details of the pairing-

Live Oak Hefeweizen (TX) w/ Fresh Chevre (Pure Luck – TX)
Brooklyn Lager (NY) w/ Lincoln Log (Zingerman’s Creamery – MI)
Draught House Bombay IPA (TX) w/ Oma (von Trapp Farmstead – VT)
North Coast Red Seal (CA) w/ Vermont Ayr (Crawford Family Farm – VT)
Ommegang Hennepin (NY) w/ Ossau Iraty (France)
New Belgium Eric’s Sour Peach Ale (CO) w/ SarVecchio Parmesan (Sartori – WI)
Real Ale Devil’s Backbone (TX) w/ Marieka Gouda Aged (Holland’s Family Farm – WI)
(512) Pecan Porter (TX) w/ Barely Buzzed (Beehive Cheese Co – UT)
Deschutes Jubel 2010 (OR) w/ Caveman Blue (Rogue Creamery – OR)
Bread and fruit will accompany the pairings.

Austin Flying Saucer

Austin Flying Saucer

UPDATE

Mon.- Harpoon Brewery Special Tapping @ 7PM 100 Barrel Oyster Stout Glass Giveaway UFO.

Tues.- Colorado Craft Featuring the Beers of Avery, Lefthand, and Ska.

Wed.- Sierra Nevada Sierra Fritz and Ken 30 Series Sierra Nevada Imperial Tulip Glass Sierra Southern Hemisphere Harvest Glass Night Buy the beer, keep the glass

Starts at 7PM and supplies are limited So get here early!

Thurs.- Brooklyn Brewery Rare Beer 2007 Black Chocolate Stout Tapping at 7pm Get here early, When it’s gone, it’s gone…

Fri.- Breckenridge Special Tapping Barrel aged Summer Bright Glass giveaway Brewer’s Table.

Sat.- North Coast Special tapping Brewer’s Table with Tom Allen Glass Giveaway Open at 11am.

Sunday- Texas Brewers Meet and Greet Reps from local brweries Special tappings Giveaways Cheap TX Pints!! All Draught Beers from the Lone Star State $3.00 (512) Live Oak Real Ale Independence Southern Star St. Arnold’s Shiner

American Craft Beer Week featuring the beers of Harpoon, Brooklyn, Sierra Nevada, Ska, Breckenridge, New Belgium, and local Texas Breweries.
We will be tapping a different Limited Release
beers every night at 7PM all week long.
Come by any evening for a Brewer’s Table from 6PM – 9PM

Ginger Man

Gingerman
“Gingerman will have Real Ale casks on all week and Real Ale flights available on Tues. the 18th.”

- Real Ale Facebook

Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar

Alamo Drafthouse

“Alamo Draft House theater on S. Lamar will have “The Devil’s Share” (barrel-aged Devil’s Backbone) on tap this week”

OUTSIDE AUSTIN:

Freetail Brewing Co

San Antonio, TX
www.freetailbrewing.com
210-395-4974

Description: May 17: Craft Beer Week Kicks off with our Spring Beer Dinner. $45 + tax & gratuity. Tickets on sale May 1 May 18:Craft Beer Week Recession Buster. Pint night drops to $2/pint for ONE DAY ONLY! May 19: Release of Solera III May 20: Barrel Aged La Muerta keg release. Only 5 gallons, so get here early. Keg tapped at 6pm. May 21: Craft Beard Week. Start growing those funky beards now – Jason and John Lee will judge and the best beard will win a $50 Freetail gift card (ladies, you can participate too – make a fake beard!) May 22: Craft Beer Week Battle of Wits IV. Chris Taylor Band live on the patio 8-11pm.

Dancing Bear Pub

Waco, TX
Dancing Bear Pub
254-753-0025

Description: The Dancing Bear Pub’s Texas Craft Beer Festival The Dancing Bear Pub is presenting our First Annual Texas Craft Beer Festival to celebrate American Craft Beer Week Saturday, May 22nd. Come join the festivities from 5 pm to 1 am at 1117 Speight Ave. Waco, Texas. American Craft Beer Week is celebrated throughout the country from May 17-23. The “Mother of All Beer Weeks” recognizes small and independent craft brewers. It’s a fantastic opportunity to emphasize craft beer, which we Texans love. The Dancing Bear Pub will highlight seven Texas Craft Breweries with the tasting event on our beer garden. (512) Brewing Company, Live Oak Brewing Company, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Shiner, Southern Star Brewing Company, Rahr & Sons Brewing Company and Real Ale Brewing Company. We will have live music and food is available from Terry and Jo’s Food for Thought. This event will take the place of our monthly Beer Tasting. Tickets will be $30 per person. This includes the tasting and a chance to win swag. The Dancing Bear Pub will donate half of the proceeds to Fuzzy Friends Rescue.

Fredericksburg Brewing Co.

Fredericksburg, TX
www.yourbrewery.com
830-997-1646

Description: We will have a small batch of our Garrison Brothers Bourbon barrel aged stout on tap that week. Along with a small brewery tour on Friday the 21st at 10a.m. We will also be having beer specials through out the week!! So be sure to come by and sign our Declaration of Beer Independence!!!

Check back here for updates…

Looky looky. It’s time for another Over a Pint.

Number 24, that’s about 20 more than I ever thought we’d do.

And what a good one. We really wrangled in a good guest for this one (thanks Josh!)

We sit down with Mr. James Watt, head of stuff and emperor penguin at BrewDog for a few minutes before his Draught House hosted BrewDog tasting (yeah, I know that happened over a month ago… we have day jobs.)

James jumped across the pond to promote the release of the 32%abv Tactical Nuclear Penguin (previous World’s Strongest Beer) and the 41%abv Sink the Bismarck! (current World’s Strongest Beer.) See the videos here and here. Probably you are already familiar with the back and forth for the title between BrewDog and German brewery Schorschbrau.

BrewDog achieves these high alcohol levels in their beers via freeze distilling (fractional freezing.) As alcohol freezes at a lower temperature than water, as they freeze the beers, it removes water and leaves more alcohol… can I explain a simpler idea simplier? Look here for more.

James was kind enough to open a bottle of the Penguin for our video (did you also nearly shit your pants when he used the Bismarck! as a bottle opener?!?!) It was nice. At 32%abv, it was incredibly drinkable. There was an amazing flavor presence for the amount of alcohol. I liked it. Not a your go-to six pack beer, but good for once in a while.

Later that night for the finally of the tasting James opened a few bottles of the Bismarck!. A “quadruple” IPA, at 41%abv it retained a great amount of hop flavors. James explained that it was “freeze hopped”; a method where the oils from fresh hops are extracted and infused into the beer as it is being frozen. Also, not bad.

As of now only the Penguin is available in the US (only 400 odd bottles in NY and CA) with the Bismarck! only available online. Some have criticized BrewDog as being gimmicky or extreme for extreme’s sake. In my opinion, yes, they are over the top, and I think BrewDog would be the first to admit that, but after trying them I think they came up with something that may not be for everyone, but it is good for what it is. I was pleasantly surprised at how much flavor and dynamic tastes were present in these high ABV beers. Definitely more than a gimmick. Or at least a lot of work and attention to detail for just a gimmick.

In the words of my favorite beer critic, “They were tasty.”

Besides the Penguin and Bismarck!, the Draught House tasting featured a ten beer flight. The standouts for me included the 5AM Saint (a session-able hoppy red coming soon to the US), the Tokio/Tokyo/Tokyo* (an 18%abv imperial stout with loads of spices), the Smokehead (a smoked imperial stout) and the Hardcore 2X IPA which recently won Gold at the World Beer Cup.

The tasting was great. Hopefully the Draught House will do more events like this (word has it there is a cheese and beer pairing in the works.)

For the video James and I are drinking the Paradox Isle of Arran, and imperial stout aged in oak whisky casks. Very smooth, dynamic (listen to James’ description!) and drinkable. So if you can, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint!

Enjoy!

Look what the cat dragged in.

Another episode of Kockin’ em Back. This is the third episode brought to you by Thunderbird Coffee Koenig .

Check out ONE and TWO here.

This is a good one. Clocks in just under an hour. Still figuring out the format/how much to pander to the sponsor’s ego (we genuinely laughed at most of your jokes, Chris)… just kidding. Getting to hang out and drink with our sponsors has been a lot of fun.

This episode was manned by myself, JIB, Shawn and Josh (little beard/@itzsprad) and we were joined by Chris (T-Bird owner).

We spent a good amount of time talking about the Thunderbird history, their beers, mixing coffee and beer, riding bikes, riding roller skates, regulars turning into roommates, cussing a lot, Budweiser Chelada, SXSW, the Austin Homebrew (re)Opening party, the Draught House Brewdog tasting and the (512) Spring Open House.

Lots of talking points there.

Also, lots of talking points lost. We moved due to crazy rain coming in on us and then we set back up in dryer quarters, recorded a good 20 minutes, and then realized I had never turned our mixer back on.

Bummer. We had a good little chat about Charles in Charge, I think we sung the song, I told a story about me yelling at people at SXSW, and some other boring shit.

Also, we should have thought to do a quick audio check after we moved the equipment from the rain. My mic sounds like a robot for a bit, Josh’s get’s real loud and reverby, and Chris’s just goes up and down. Bummer.

Well whatever. It’s not like you’re paying for this shit.

Speaking of, we have a big red “Explicit” box in iTunes, and we made sure it was warranted for this one. So no grandmas or…

Hugs and kisses to THUNDERBIRD COFFEE, our generous sponsors, that guy Joe I met at the (512) party who said he listened to the show, the people sitting beside us on the patio who didn’t mind us taking all the good chairs, and to all you who stuck with us back when this podcast was just some lame pathetic attempt at free beer and semi local notoriety…

Cheers!

Audio

Direct link to the mp3 HERE

Subscribe to the Podcast

Saturday, March 13th, Austin Homebrew celebrated the grand opening of their new location at 9129 Metric Blvd with beer, music, food and good times.

It was a great party. I’m pretty sure the first “hot” day this year… and it barely capped over 85. Geeze.

Beer by Uncle Billy’s, Real Ale, Live Oak, Independence, (512), NXNW, Lovejoys, Saint Arnold, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, and Draught House (although the DH keg fell through at the last minute, it’s the thought that counts).

At one point there was a snaffu with the plastic cups running out, but the crowd got wise and went inside to purchase the new AHS laser etched glasses. These things are hot as shit, and you know the wife was pleased as punch when she learned I brought home another pint glass.

Not only was it a great event, there were great people present. The guys from Black Star Co-op were pouring the beer, Jester King were present with an impressive presentation board and brewery information, and it’s always a great day when I run into Josh from Hops and Grain.

Also, in the most random of coincidences, I was standing in line when Carl, the Beer My Valentine runner up, walked up and introduced himself and even before I finished shaking his hand Janice, the Beer My Valentine winner, got in line behind me and said hello.

Isn’t that crazy?!?!

Moving on.

If you haven’t made it out to the new location, you should. It’s great. JB explained they moved from the previous 6,000 sqf location on Burnet to the new 18,000 sqf one.

That’s something like three times as big.

He explained that part of the move to the new location allows AHS to purchase in larger bulk and trickle down the savings to us homebrewers. Nice.

Also, they have more registers at the counter in the show room!

All in all, it was a lot of fun. The various kegs moved quickly (the Uncle Billy’s Wood Eye Rye was gone before I could blink), but there was always something good ready to go.

And true to form, it being a hot day, I decided to start off with the Live Oak Primus, cause that’s always a good idea.

Thanks to Andrew Pogue for the photographs and JIB for the fancy video work and Garageband for the rockin’ tunes!

Draught House is hosting a BrewDog tasting event this Thursday, 3-18 from 7 to 9pm.

Tickets are $25 and went on sale today (Sunday).

Josh said there are a very limited amount available. I heard in the 30s.

Also, brewer James Watt will “be on hand to discuss.”

Here’s some info on the beers being served at the tasting:

BrewDog Zeitgeist Black Lager

4.9% ABV 30 IBU’s

Malts Lager Malt, Caramalt, Munich Malt, Chocolate Malt

Hops Cascade

Zeitgeist does not presume to tell you how it will affect your senses, the experience is yours to define! At the invisible insurrection of the Zeitgeist it was written that the black liquid delivered at once tinges of roast malt and overripe autumnal fruit before revealing its true dark lager credentials with a clean crisp and refreshing finish.

BrewDog Punk IPA

6% ABV 65 IBU’s

Malts Marris Otter Extra Pale Malt

Hops Chinook Ahtanum, Nelson Sauvin

An inherently contradictory take on a classic style. This is a light golden colour with tropical fruits and a light caramel on the nose. The Palate soon becomes assertive and resinous with the NZ hops balanced by biscuit malt. The finish is aggressive and dry with the hops emerging over the warming alcohol.

BrewDog Dogma Scottish Ale

7.8% ABV 65 IBU’s

Malts Marris Otter Extra Pale, Caramalt, roasted barley, Dark Krystal Malt, Munich Malt

Hops Bramling Cross, Amarillo

Brewed with Scottish Heather Honey, Poppy Seed, Kola Nut and Guarana.

A conspiracy of transcontinental ingredients infused with some devastatingly BrewDog imaginative thinking.

BrewDog Tokyo

Brewed with jasmine and cranberries as well as a large amount of malts and the finest American hops, was fermented by a skilled team of brewers with a champagne yeast to enable the high ABV. The beer was then dry hopped before being aged on toasted French vanilla oak chips to give it an entirely unique flavour.

BrewDog Bashah Black Belgian Double IPA

8.5% ABV 90 IBU’s

Malt Marris Otter, Dark Crystal, Caramalt, Chocolate Malt

Hops Hercules Warrior, Amarillo, Centenial

Bashah – Black as Sin Hoppy as Hell. The latest collaboration between BrewDog and the Stone Brewing Co from California. Made at BrewDog in Scotland this is a nice amalgamated cocktail of cocoa, sweetened clove, crème caramel with little spikes of lime freshness.

BrewDog Hardcore IPA

9% ABV 100 IBU’s

Malts Marris Otter Extra Pale Malt

Hops Simcoe, Chinook, Amarillo and Warrior

This Golden Imperial Ale rocks! A delicately robust malt toffee canvas is the setting for the ensuing epic. The aromatic kiwi, lychee, pine and big hop flavours kink in and leave your mouth punished and puckering for more. The addictive underlying sweet caramel and full bodied, dry finish ensure you can’t put it down for long.

BrewDog Paradox

10% ABV 70 IBU’s

Malts, Marris Otter, Dark Crystal, Caramalt, Chocolate Malt Roast Barley

Hops Galena, Bramling Cross

Paradox see’s our killer Imperial Stout aged in amazing malt whisky casks from some of Scotland’s most famous distilleries.

The flavours, aromas and intricacies of the whisky are beautifully infused deep into the soul of our smooth, robust base beer.

Isle of Arran is charactised by dark bitter chocolate and autumnal fruits.

Smokehead is a demonic rollercoaster of a beer with smoke, sea salt and oak pulling you ever closer to the dark side.

I also heard there may be a couple extras…

Last month we went on our second bike pub crawl. We rode, we drank, and then we repeated. Several times.

Here’s some photos from the night.

If you think this might be some action you wanna get in on, keep checkin the site and we’ll post info about another one soon (hopefully at a time when just the thought of biking won’t make us cold…)

Muchos Gracias to Crown&Anchor, Draught House, Flying Saucer, and Billy’s on Burnet for fueling us with a wide variety of great brews all evening. And also a big thanks to ATXBS.com for getting the word out (and thus supplying a good percentage of the riders)

Thanks to everyone who came out, we’ve got another one up our sleeve soon.

For the $25 Draught House gift card, our FIRST PLACE photo was taken by Andrew Pogue.

And coming in at a close SECOND PLACE and winner of the Austin Homebrew logo pint glass and wall mounted bottle opener is Austin Pixel’s literal interpretation of “Beer Porn.”

Thanks to Draught House and Austin Homebrew and everyone who participated.

We got a lot of great beer porn (at one point we had to try not to judge solely on what made us thirsty) and had a very hard time choosing the winners.

You’re all winners in our book… except for all of you who didn’t play.

Here are a few of our other favorites.

By Aaron C.

By Josh S.

By John C.

By Sarah S.

[Sarah's was my wife's favorite]

Thanks again to everyone who participated. Watch out, we have a good contest coming up later this week.

Cheers.

Last week

Lauren Salazar (wife to Eric or Eric’s Ale), NB Sensory Specialist, was there with the rest of the local NB crew to meet and greet and pass out pints of the Ranger. She was kind enough to go on camera with us.

Lauren talked up the Ranger, an American style IPA with 70 IBUs and 6.5 ABV hopped with “tons and tons and tons…” of Cascade, Chinook, and Simcoe, and also shed some light on the name history (hint- it has nothing to do with that stupid baseball team in Arlington or Chuck Norris.) The Ranger was good. Nice and hoppy, well balanced, very drinkable. Go get it.

She also gets into describing her role at New Belgium as a sensory specialist. Basically, she can take someone who “likes beer” and five years later have them identifying off flavors and specific chemical compounds and scale on an intensity scale and other stuff that is above my pay grade (I don’t get paid anything for this.) Simply, she keeps your favorite New Belgium beers tasting the way they should across the board.

Oh, and she told us they are planning a Berliner weiss and a wet dry hopped sour ale, among other beers, for the Lips of Faith series. Wait, what? Wow. Those sound amazing. More info in the video about the Berliner Weiss, unfortunately we ran out of time before we could get much more about the wet dry hopped sour.

At the 2:36 mark you can see the guys in the background getting into a short game of charades, or he’s describing that Youtube video where the deer attacks the hunter. I’ve had that conversation at the Draught House before. I dunno.

Much thanks to Josh at Draught House and Lauren and the New Belgium crew for talking to us and sharing some beers.

For our sweet sixteenth OAP, we’re both drinking the Ranger, so if you can crack open a cold one and join us over a pint.

Enjoy!

Ok. Here’s the rundown.

You have till Sunday, January 31st to submit your steamiest, most succulent, mouth watering, sexy, tantalizing, </thesaurus> etc., beer photographs.*
They have to be taken at the Draught House with recognizable Draught House scenery as part or in the background of the photograph.
Put them online and send us a link in the form bellow.

Be creative, but not actually pornographic.

We’ll pick two winners and post those with all our favorites on the site.
First place=$25 DH gift card
Second place=Austin Homebrew Supply logo pint glass and a “Make Your Own Damn Beer” wall mounted bottle opener

*do not send any actual pornographic photos.

Thanks to Josh for the custom contest poster.