The local breweries are setting out to make this years Fall Beer Fest a hit. It’s looking like Jester King will have some of the first production runnings of Das Wunderkind!  among one offs and rare beers from 512, Independence and Ranger Creek. I had the chance to taste the excellent Morgul, a barrel aged porter, at the Real Ale/Freetail festival about a month ago. Keep an eye out for that one. This fest has been a great event in the past and with the beer lineup they’ve put together it’s promising to be the best four year old’s party you’ll ever attend. Food and a selection of full pints will be available to purchase as well as the wide variety of beers you’ll  be able to sample. Head over to The Saucer’s site and buy your tickets before Sept 22 for a $5 discount.

(512) Brewing Double Pecan Whiskey Porter
Circle Epic
Independence ESB - Firkin and  All Seeing IPA
Jester King Das Wunderkind! – Firkin
Live Oak Oaktoberfest
Real Ale Blanco Morgul -Firkin and Barrel Aged 14th Anniversary
Ranger Creek T.Rex – Firkin
St. Arnold Ellisa IPA – Firkin

Check out Austin Beer Guide to see the full lineup of  beers to be served at the festival. Be sure to follow the Austin Saucer’s twitter feed (@FlyingSaucerAus) throughout the day for tapping times and additional news about the event.

Here is our coverage of the previous two years at the FS Fall Beer Fest…

FSFBF 2010

FSFBF 2009

This is good news. Scott, brewer/founder of the yet to be Adelbert’s Brewery will be sampling his wares this coming Sunday evening at the Flying Saucer during their Belgian Beer Week events.

So this is only as good as Twitter’s word, with nothing confirmed on the Saucer website.

Even if it doesn’t pan out, Sam and the other FS crew have lined up a pretty great week.

This schedule borrowed from that other really great Austin beer publication:

Mon – Timmermans Glass Night
Tue – Blanche de Bruxelles Glass Night
Wed – Duvel Glass Night
Thu – Chimay Glass Night
Fri – Maredsous Glass Night
Sat – Hopus Glass Night

See you out there.

Got your BeerTownAustin Mustache glass yet? If not, you need it. Like, now. It’s a pretty big deal. Last month it was able to bring the Jester King guys out with a special barrel-aged beer, and this Wednesday it’s getting Ranger Creek to make the drive up from San Antonio for the “Buy the Ranger Creek Beer, Keep the Mustache Glass” night at the Flying Saucer.

Ranger Creek was around some during Austin Beer Week, but now they’re back WITH BEER. They just debuted their Oatmeal Pale Ale a few weeks ago. It’s good, and we’re not just saying that ‘cause you get a free BTA glass when you order one Wednesday.

Come out to the Saucer on Dec. 8, talk to brewer Rob Landerman about the “brewstillery” (especially if you can’t make the drive for their open house this Saturday) and leave with a sweet ‘stache pint. Glasses go on at 7:00 pm, supplies limited.

Already got yours? Come get more, it’ll make a good stocking stuffer.

Despite their irregularity, the bike pub crawls are one of our favorite events. Rolling through some of Austin’s best beer bars while making new friends – who wouldn’t love it?

With such a lag since our last one, we knew we were going to have to really bring it this time, which is why we teamed up with our frenemy for the BeerTownAustin vs Craft Austin Ultimate Fanboy Bike Pub Crawl Throwdown 2010. (Want more words in there? We got plenty where that came from.)

We’ll be kicking off Austin Beer Week on Sunday, October 24 by riding through north central Austin and hitting up some of our favorite neighborhood bars. We’ll give out wristbands for all riders to get beer specials at the stops (think cheap Texas pints and such).

Meet up on the Flying Saucer patio at 2:00 p.m. After hanging there, we’ll be off to Draught House to catch some of their Beer Olympics, then to Billy’s on Burnet, followed by Thunderbird Koenig and ending at one of Austin’s newest bars (and soon to be brewpub), Black Star Co-Op, just in time for dinner.

We’ve had a fun time at the past rides and are hoping for a great turnout. If you can, RSVP on Facebook so we can give the bars a heads up on how many people are coming through.

Bring I.D., cash and water and tip well. We’re not looking to make a scene so follow the rules of the road and be friendly. Helmets, light and common sense encouraged – we can’t afford to lose any more readers. And if you do find yourself in trouble, just tell them you’re with Craft Austin.

See you Sunday.

p.s. – Feel free to comment below or on Facebook if you are riding from south or east and are looking for others to ride with to the Saucer and home – safety in numbers.

[Big thanks to Design Shaman for the poster artwork!]

Rogue's Brutal IPA

Back in Mid-August the Flying Saucer threw together a weeklong celebration of hops. Seven days dedicated to beer’s “the most aggressive ingredient.” The event’s calendar was filled with appearances from breweries across the country. Harpoon, Green Flash, Boulevard and more delivered beers we would not usually get here in Texas.

I was able to make it out for a few nights of the Hopfest and each night seemed more enjoyable than the one before. Rogue made an impressive showing with their Brutal IPA, XS Imperial Red & Double Dead Guy. I have always been a fan of Rogue and it was nice to see them on tap here in town, something we need to see more of.

Boulevard's Trailer 7 (www.showmebeer.com)

Boulevard brewed up a special treat with their Trailer 7. I’m still uncertain if that is the beers official name or simply what Josh and I referred to it as. There was always some confusion between us and the staff when we ordered it but it was definitely worth it. Here is a little description of the Trailer 7 from Boulevard themselves (pulled from the Beer Advocate thread about Hopfest)

I wanted to clear up some information about the Single Wide IPA that’s going to be served. We pulled about 6bbl of wort from a transfer into one of our smaller yeast storage tanks where we fermented with our Belgian yeast strain that we use in Tank 7. After fermentation was complete we dry hopped with Sorachi Ace hops. This beer was then hand kegged.

I know hops are not for everyone.  I have only recently developed a taste for IPA’s and 2xIPA’s in the past few months. I like to attribute that to Avery’s Maharaja, an Imperial IPA and part of their Dictator Series, which was one of the many beers being featured all week during Hopfest. Even if you’re not a self proclaimed Hop Head you have to appreciate the scale of this event and the effort that The Flying Saucer put into organizing it. This appears to be a reoccurring series of events as they have already hosted a Belgian White week a few months back and Sam himself has hinted at a “Black Beer Week” once the weather cool downs. Just another thing to get excited about in the Austin beer scene.

Weedwacker sitings:

So far we only know of it being on at Billy’s on Burnet and Draught House.

Leave any other siting locations in the comments!

Anyone had it yet? How is it?

Holla!

More bold text and exclamation marks!!!!!

UPDATE: Just got word from Frank at Saint Arnold that due to shipping issues, only half the kegs got to Austin last week. The rest will be here this week. Will let you know if we see any.

—————————

Had a chance to visit Saint Arnold’s “newery” earlier this summer when passing through Houston on a Thursday as we headed to the beach.

Let me begin by saying we started visiting the old Saint Arnold brewery when we lived in Houston in 2004. It had its charms – sweating it out on a hot August day in a warehouse, making friends waiting in line for the office bathroom, not paying (that only lasted so long), and fighting less crowds. Going to the newery kind of made me miss it.

However, I can see why they are excited about the new digs. Air conditioning, his and her restrooms, expanded tasting room, fermenters behind closed doors far away from tipsy tour goers, and (most importantly), more room for brewing and expansion. Good for the Texas beer scene.

We took a 3:00 p.m. tour. They close at 5:00 and it flew by. I only used all four of my beer tokens by sticking primarily with the tasting glass. Brock showed off the space to about 20 or so of us that took the tour, including a bus of retirees. Ahh, can’t wait for those golden years!

It was a big day at the brewery when we were there. Oktoberfest had just begun being brewed recently and it was the first day they were brewing Weedwacker, the first beer in their “Movable Yeast” program. Weedwacker is their Fancy Lawnmower fermented with Bavarian hefeweizen yeast. Like a hefeweizen, it will not be filtered. It is scheduled to be realeased August 16, so get excited.

Speaking of Weedwacker (that’s why you’re reading this, right?), go and get yourself some when it hits town. It should be at a bar not too far from you. Try it next to a Lawnmower. Then go try it on cask.

Billy’s (cask)
Dig Pub (Cask)
Draught House
Flying Saucer
Ginger Man (cask)
Homefield Grill
Lovejoy’s
Opal Divine’s (all locations)
Red’s Porch
Zax (cask)

Welcome welcome to another episode of Over a Pint. This one wt Allagash founder, Rob Tod while he was in town for the Flying Saucer’s East Coast Big Beer Week back in April (yes, we are still playing catch up…)

Rob was in town slinging the Curieux, the Black, the Four and the Odyssey, a dark wheat beer aged a year in stainless steal/oak.

Very nice.

We were drinking the Curieux, a barrel aged trippel. Rob explains the creation of the Curieux was a happy accident as some of their strong cork bottles got held up in customs coming over seas and they didn’t have anywhere to put their latest batch of trippel but some Jim Beam bourbon barrels they recently acquired.

Rob explained how Allagash came about being an American brewery focused on Belgian style beers. He said when he was working at Otter Creek he and the other employees would bring in beers to share and he became inspired by the belgian style. He said he decided to open Allagash and focus on belgian style beers in the mid 1990s because very few American breweries were making those styles. He was impressed by the various styles and also the experimentation and ingenuity of the belgian brewers and wanted to capture that same spirit at Allagash.

Much thanks to Sam at Flying Saucer for opening up the cooler for us to shoot in as it was super packed and loud for the East Coast Big Beer Week (Allagash and Dogfish Head rarities tapped every night for a week).

We’re drinking the Curieux in the video, so if you can, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint.

Enjoy!

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…

Welcome welcome welcome to Over a Pint, the double deuce.

On this, our score and two, outing for Over a Pint, we sit down and share some nice nice beer with Sam Wynne and Rob Landerman of the Flying Saucer. These two fine gentlemen make up 50% of the living Certified Cicerones in Texas (not implying that there used to be more than four and some died, that’s just how it came out).

If you don’t know, a “Cicerone” is to beer as “sommelier” is to wine. Basically, these guys know their shit.

These guys are experts at food pairing, serving, glassware, aging, draft systems, style knowledge, history, brewing knowledge, and all things beer A to Z (I stole that last bit from Rob).

Ray Daniels, the cicerone Gandalf, put together the program in 2008. Previous to creating the Cicerone program, he was/is a professor at the Siebel Institute and is the author of several beer and brewing related books.

From the horses’ mouth:

Anyone can call themselves an expert on beer. But when consumers want great beer they need help from a server who really knows beer flavors, styles and brands. They also want to buy from a place that understands proper storage and serving so the beer they drink will be of the highest quality. Too often great beer is harmed by improper service practices.

In the wine world, the word “sommelier” designates those with proven expertise in selecting, acquiring and serving fine wine. Lately some beer servers have adopted the title “beer sommelier” to tie into the credibility of the wine world.  But anyone can call themselves a beer sommelier regardless of knowledge or experience.  And while some will be highly skilled, the only way to demonstrate that objectively is through independent testing of knowledge and tasting ability. The Cicerone Certification Program offers that independent assessment and certification so that industry professionals—as well as consumers—can be sure of the knowledge and skills possessed by current and prospective beer servers.

For more info, there is a great interview with Ray here.

Rob and Sam are currently “flexing their Cicerone muscle” at the Flying Saucer by planning beer tastings with food pairings (much like the one here) and with their regular “Randall” concoctions. As mentioned in the video, sounds like they have some cool stuff coming up.

Rob also flexed some “Cicerone muscle” on the second recording of the Knockin Em Back podcast.

Mainly, APPRECIATE THIS. These guys learned a lot and are very valuable resources and additions to our local beer community. And they are just plain nice guys, too.

In the video Sam cracked open a nice bottle of Lost Abbey Devotion, a Belgian Pale. If you have one you re ready to open (don’t sit on that shit too long) join us Over a Pint.

Sorry for the lack of photos. The original photographs we took got lost. Sorry, Sam and Rob for making you guys pose for some.