So here we go.

If you follow BTA on Twitter you know we go out and drink beer sometimes. Being the amateurs that we are, we don’t make it out to every beer special in Austin, but also being obsessive-if-it’s-advertised-at-us-we’ll-bite type guys, we do try a lot of beer.

Here are our favorite recent ten.

(Disclaimer, I am not a trained beer critic, these are my opinions. Also, some of the beer was given to me free, but that did not influence the list)

(Counting down)

10. Moylan’s Hopsickle
Ouch- this is a hoppy beer. The bottle brags “Tripple Hoppy.” So should you expect a beer three times as hoppy tasting as a regular IPA? Maybe.
I liked that the hops were large and in charge, but a bomber size bottle gave me a hop headache. At 9.2% alcohol, I got a buzz too. Then later hop heart burn. It’s good, but good for sharing. NIce use of Tomohawk hops. I found it for $15 at the Hyde Park Market (also ouch). Thanks for bringing your Hopsickle to Texas Moylan’s.

9. Real Ale Oktoberfest This, Real Ale’s first lager, was not bad. Honestly, I have had enough Oktoberfests this month, that I can barely tell them apart. Unlike Oktoberfests I don’t like, it had a good amount of maltiness, but not too much that you want to pour it on pancakes. Also, they succeeded in avoiding that gross cardboard taste I get from some lesser Oktoberfests (aka, the one I tried brewing at home a few years ago. RIP Spookyfest).

8. (512) Pecan Porter wt Pumpkin Via the Flying Saucer Randall
I want to applaud Flying Saucer Austin for the ingenuity required to produce this beer. A lot of thought and hard work went into it. And adding Pumpkin and spices to an already outstanding porter is close to genius. Sadly, this was an experiment, and for the most part, didn’t really achieve the desired goal. And I was hoping for this one so bad. I LOVE pumpkin beers.
It had a great nose from the spices and pumpkin, but to flavor such a strong and already flavored beer, they needed more pumpkin. Great pumpkin. I hope the think-tank at the Saucer tries this again. FYI, I’m available for taste testing if you guys experiment with it.

7. Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #8 on draft
Saint Arnold released the 8th in their Divine Reserve series earlier this Fall. There was pandemonium among Texas beer drinkers.
People were buying cases at $17 a six pack.
There was a video.
There was much hype (of which we are not claiming to be innocent.)
Not everybody was happy with it.
I drove around. I got the $17 six pack. I drank it in holy silence. I was not so impressed.
Then I tried it on tap. At the Draught House.
AND I LOVED IT.
I think it’s still there. Also saw it on tap at Flying Saucer and Ginger Man I think. Someone should make a web page that keeps track of who has what on tap… and keep it up to date.

6. Real Ale Coffee Porter
Yum. And yum again. I took this photo at Opal Divine’s Freehouse during Go Texas Beer Week the night they had it on cask. If you can find it on cask, try it. I know Draught House did it last year for their Anniversary party, maybe we can look for it there again on November 7. (click the link to see their awesome party art)
Also, it’s now being sold in bottles as a seasonal. Gah, this is a great beer. If only it would stay chilly here in Austin for more than a few days.
Real Ale brews it using coffee from Katz Coffee Roasters out of Houston. Almost a perfect Coffee Porter, at only a 5.6% ABV, I would like it just a bit warmer.

5. Avery’s The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest
This beer was exactly what I needed to cut through my Oktoberfest boredom. A huge beer, malty, hot, sweet, getting me drunk; exactly what I wanted.
Avery rarely fails to come through on the hot-but-hot-like-you-like-it-beers.
With 9.3% ABV and tons of flavor, this beer made my Oktober. I found it on tap at Draught House.
It’s also on draft at the Ginger Man.

4. [edit]Indy Oatmeal Imperial Stout Independence Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout
Probably my favorite beer from Independence. This hearty stout is mighty tasty (why am I all of a sudden blogging like a pirate?). It’s gots flavors of chocolate, licorice, and I think raisins (and now it sounds like I’m reading this from a forum or the brewery’s website). I had it at Flying Saucer on a Sunday night on their TX beer special. It’s a good Sunday night beer. Maybe soon the guys at Independence will put it in bottles. Please.
[via Eric/@AustinBeerGeek, the Oatmeal Stout is now called Convict Hill. Why? "Convict Hill is the name of a Quarry in Oak Hill that the stone for the foundation of the capital is from." Thanks, Eric!]

3. Bear Republic’s Racer X
Name one beer by Bear Republic you don’t like… you couldn’t, could you? And with Racer X they only get better. (although some could take offense at their label art and web design…)
Excuse the rough iPhone pic, but I liked how the baby glass they serve it in at Draught House made my hand look giant. I got this at a Firkin Friday event.
It’s a mighty tasty double IPA. Double like I like. Citrusy aroma, like most hopped beers from Bear Republic, and a solid body. Here’s what Draught House had to say about it. As of now, only on tap in TX. Go get some while you can. It’s a winner!

2. Dogfish Head Punkin’ Ale
Oh yeah, this is a great beer. My second pumpkin to love. I won’t speak ill of the first, but alas, it’s not around this season.
This pumpkin beer puts all those novelty ones to shame. Kicks them to the curb. Kicks them hard.
I always recommend this pumpkin beer when someone asks. Mr. Calagione and company did good work with this one. Unlike the pumpkin ales you see in the stacks at the grocery store every fall that smell all right but are just over carbonated cardboard juice with some spices, the Punkin’
ale has a huge body of pumpkin. It’s like pumpkin pie that gets you drunk. I wonder if it would be good with whipped cream on top… I bet it would make a great ice cream float. It’s also good for just drinking, too.
It’s on tap and in bottles all over Austin.

1. Draught House Saison Noire
Yup. At number one I chose the Draught House’s housebrew, Saison Noire (I’m not actually sure that’s a photo of the Noire, it’s just the closest looking image I had that I wasn’t sure was something else… imagine it darker… and taken with a better camera by a better photographer.)
This beer is great. It has all the things I love about a Saison, but the Noire… it gets me. Very drinkable, lots of flavor, hopped just enough, but not too much to that you don’t get some of the yeast.
Looking back on Josh’s past few housebrew batches, he has taken a turn towards the dark side with the Black IPA, the Black Wheat, and now the Saison Noire.
In making this number one, I’m not so much saying that it’s a better beer than the other nine, they are all great beers, I’m saying that it was my number one of the past few months. For some reason, I kept returning to it. And it’s even came to me (via random pitcher dropped off at my table last week- thanks Ben!).

After putting this list together, it reads like I’m getting paid by the Draught House. I’m not. It’s just a quick bike ride from my house, so I go a lot.

What do you think?

What is this? Look here and here.

Penn Field Texas Beers for Go Texan Week

Real Ale:

Octoberfest, Lost Gold IPA, Coffee Porter, Anniversay, Devil’s Backbone, Sissyphus Barley Wine, Rio Blanco Pale, Brewhouse Brown, Fireman’s #4

Independence:

Austin Amber, Bootlegger, Pale Ale, Freestlye, Stash IPA, Oatmeal Stout

Live Oak:

Pilz, IPA, Hefeweizen, Big Bark, Oaktoberfest

(512):

One, Pale, IPA, Wit, Pecan Porter

St. Arnold:

Elissa, Amber, Lawnmower

Shiner:

Shiner Bock, Anniversary, Rauchbier

Southern Star:

Bombshell Blonde, Buried Hatchett Strong American Stout

We will also have Lone Star.

Freehouse Beers For Go Texan Week

Real Ale:

Octoberfest, Lost Gold IPA, ESB, Anniversary, Devils Backbone, Sissyphus Barleywine, Rio Blanco, Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, Brewhouse Brown, Firemans #4

Independence Brewery:

Austin Amber, Bootlegger Brown Ale, Independence Pale Ale, Freestyle, Stash IPA, Oatmeal Stout

Live Oak Brewery:

Pilz, Oaktoberfest, Big Bark, IPA, Hefeweizen

512 Brewery:

One (Anniversary Ale), Pale, IPA, WIT, Pecan Porter (Cask Cond.), IPA (Cask Cond.)

St. Arnold’s:

Elissa, Amber, Lawnmower, Amber (Cask Cond.)

Shiner:

Shiner Bock, Shiner Anniversary, Shiner Smokehaus

Lonestar:

Lonestar

Southern Star Brewing:
Bombshell Blond, Buried Hatchett Strong American Stout

This, our eighth episode of Over a Pint, we filmed LIVE. As in there was less than a 2 second delay from when the awesomeness that spewed from our mouths penetrated your ears.

Yup.

We went to Opal Divine’s for their Go Texas Beer Week.

It was a hella good time.
Our buddy Aaron from CraftAustin came out and helped us keep this live boat a float for the first 15-30 minutes. He was a consistent advocate for the audience as I would stray into self depreciative commentary. Thanks for keeping it pro, Aaron. He was drinking a Southern Star Buried Hatchet. I wish I had tried one of these. I’ll go back later this week for one… cause they’re $2.50 till the 2nd.

As if he weren’t gracious enough, Opal Divine’s owner Michael Parker came on to give us the low down on the event. He revealed that they are serving $3 (THREE DOLLAR!$@#) samplers and also spilled the beans on some special casks (yup, they are taping a cask at each location every night this week at 7 pm).
I am especially excited about the Real Ale Coffee Porter “dry hopped” wt coffee. To my knowledge, this will be tapped at the Freehouse location on Friday. Gah, I could go for one of those right now.

We were especially excited to finally meet Larry, of Twitter fame, @madhouselarry. Larry went to the Great American Beer Festival last weekend and shared some of his experiences with us. It was great to finally meet Larry and we hope to hang out more in the future.

To cap off our live event circus o’beer, we were graced by GABF gold medal winning brewery, Saint Arnold. Frank was on premises to tap a cask of Elissa IPA (YUM!). Frank has been a part of the craft brewing scene in Texas since the 90s (Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, Bill Clinton, Nirvana, Seinfeld, Michael Jordan, the good Home Alone movies, etc.,) and he talked about Opal Divine’s and Austin’s part in creating a craft beer culture in Texas. He also talked up the Divine Reserve series, the “Newery” (new+brewery=newery), and the greatness that is Opal Divine’s Go Texas Beer Week.

So, if you were one of the 10 folks who watched us live, we salute you.

This episode was full of cheers and jeers and all Texas beers. If you can stomach the chopiness of the recorded video from USTREAM, crack open a a TX beer and join us.
And mainly, go out to Opal Divine’s this week and support local beer, or you suck and you should probably have no business on this site.

Love,
Chris

Enjoy!

Part One

Part Two

Episode 7 with Michael Parker, owner of Opal Divine’s, all around great guy.

In this episode of Over a Pint we had the great opportunity to sit down with one of the godfathers of the ATX craft beer movement. Mr. Parker shares with us how he started with humble beginnings as a beer slinger at Dog and Duck, was involved in some of Austin’s earlier breweries and brewpubs, and since creating the Opal Divine’s empire (of which he explains the history of the name), has been integral in introducing Austin/Texas to some great great beers.

Mr. Parker, we thank you very very much.

We end the episode with Michael talking up the very exciting Go Texas Beer week. Yup. You heard him right. All taps, all Opal Divine’s locations, only Texas beer, only $2.50, all week, September 28-October 2.

Close your mouth, sweetie. You look like a trout.

And as if it couldn’t get any better… we will be there, live, in person, Monday the 28th at the Freehouse to shoot a LIVE OVER A PINT!
Yeah. So come out, drink some great TX beer on the cheap, and help us keep this LIVE OVER A PINT experiment afloat… you can’t imagine how much pressure there is to not be lame when you’re LIVE.
Normally, I don’t worry about being lame (it’s obvious if you’ve ever been around me in person), but when it’s LIVE… I’m infatuated with not being lame.

The facts: I’m drinking a (512) ONE (yum!). Michael has a Real Ale XIII. We clink glasses in this 10 minute episode, probably, more than any other episode to date.

Enjoy!

Over a Pint Episode 7 from Beer Town Austin on Vimeo.