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!

The headline says it all.

We’re celebrating the launch of the second issue of the Austin Beer Guide (www.austinbeerguide.com) this coming Wednesday at Draught House.

There will be brewers present, maybe some special beers, and NEW MUSTACHE GLASSES!

Buy any beer from a brewery featured in the guide, and keep the mustache glass.

It will be lots of fun, come out.

Be social with it here.

This should be a great event. Real Ale is pouring some Mysterium Verum XIV and we’re expecting a fair amount of local brewers to come out.

Also, MUSTACHE GLASSES!

Come meet, tweet, greet, drink, with us and a fair share of the Internet on Thursday at Opal Divine’s Freehouse.

We’re teaming up with our frienemy Craft Austin and our Pacific Northwest buddies at Taplister to pull together some of the greatest tweeters/drinkers (twinkers? twunkards?) across the World Wide Web to really put our livers and thumbs to the test.

Also present for the nerdery, brewers or brewery folk from Saint Arnold, Independence, Live Oak, Real Ale, (512) Brewing Co, Jester King, Ranger Creek, Thirsty Planet, South Austin Brewing Co, Hops & Grain and maybe a few more if we can wrangle them in for this.

And maybe I heard that Austin Beer Guide thing all the cool kids are talking about may show up, too.

RSVP and/or share with a friend.

See you Thursday.

#BTBTwunkards

So we’re making this beer from about 90% donated ingredients. We’re calling it the 90% Deniability Ale.

Via the Austin Zealots we acquired some Real Ale Sisyphus second runnings. We then gave the gents at Jester King a ring and scored some of their inoculated house yeast. Next we approached Draught House and were generously given 11 pounds of Celia hops. We purchased the remaining ~10% ingredients at Austin Homebrew out of our deep deep BeerTownAustin pockets.

Awesome.

We got the second runnings on Wednesday and “brewed” on Sunday (the wort from Real Ale was so hot it popped the butt off my corney keg!)

The wort was ~1.055 when we got it. We added a half a pound of Belgian Dark Candi Sugar, two gallons of water, and finished out at 1.060 OG. We added 1 oz of the Celia hops at 60 minutes, then half an ounce at 30 and another half at 15. We pitched with  White Labs Belgian Ale Yeast 550 for primary fermentation. There were signs of active fermentation within 12 hours. (see the video)

Next we plan to rack the beer in my Balcones Blue Corn Whiskey barrel and inoculate with the Jester King wild house strain and let it sit for a few months while moving the 5.3 gallon barrel among the various climates in my house [read: we're souring shit out of this beer]. Maybe we’ll add some cherries to it. Who knows.

So maybe come this Spring we’ll have five gallons of swill. OR maybe we’ll have five gallons of the most lusted over local collaboration known to man (who reads our blog and knows anything about the generous donators involved in this brew).

Much thanks to Real Ale, the Austin Zealots, Draught House, and Jester King for their donations. Also thanks to Little Beard for his paying attention to the Internet, driving to get the wort, and for brewing wt me.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress of this brew and depending on how it comes out, when/if we’ll make it available to share.

So check out the video of this sweet primary fermentation.

Wow. Lots of beer stuff going in the next few weeks.

Lots of “With our powers combined”s being duo-shouted.

It’s a good time to be in this area and like beer. And it’s looking like lots and lots more people are doing their bestest to make it even better.

Here’s what’s on the beer docket for the next few weeks (also known as this weekend and then the Thursday in two weeks from now):

Freetail/Real Ale Barrel Aged Beer Festival!

Saturday, July 17

11:30 am- you can’t stand up on your own

From the horse’s mouth:

Barrel Aged Beer Festival!  Real Ale Brewing Co. and Freetail are teaming up to offer a handful of rare barrel aged beers.  Event is free,  you only need to pay for what you drink.  On tap: Barrel Aged La Muerta, Barrel Aged OBR, Solera IV, Solera V.  From Real Ale: Empire, Highlander, Devil’s Share.  A handful of other goodies as well.  Fun starts when the doors open at 11:30am.

This sounds pretty incredible.

And who can complain about knocking them back at 11:30 am… not me.

I’m already mentally preparing my case to the wife for a day trip to SA. (“It’s unpatriotic how long it’s been since you’ve visited the Alamo… REMEMBER THE ALAMO!”)

A Bite of Black Star BEER SOCIAL featuring Thirsty Planet

Saturday, July 17

7-10pm

Most likely you’ve been to a Black Star beer social. Lots of beer and… cooperation. This will be the last beer social before the brewpub opens and will have sample food from the brewpub menu for sale.

ALSO they will be slinging the beers of Brian Smittle of Thirsty Planet (whom had a grand opening this past weekend; video and write-up to come).

This sounds like a great event. I heard it’s one of the last times to become a member/owner before the planets collide and Austin becomes home of the first cooperatively owned brewpub.

Parkside ‘summer nights’ with Independence Brewing

Sunday, July 18

7pm

Five courses featuring such summer ready delights as popcorn soup, chicken lollipops, rabbit terrine, steamed clams, octopus, and cinnamon sugar yeast doughnut pretzel ice cream  paired with Indy Freestyle Wheat, Austin Amber, Indy Pale Ale, Bootlegger Brown, and (one of our favorites) Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout.

Teaming up never tasted so good.

Tickets $40.

I’ll for sure be there.

24 Diner/Avery Brewery Dinner

Thursday, July 29

7pm

If you follow us on Twitter, you may notice that I end up at 24 Diner a good amount. My wife and I started frequenting while we were painting/moving and finished too tired to cook and too late to eat out at most places.

It’s got incredible waffles and a small, but excellently strategic beer selection (North Coast Bro. Thelonious on tap!?!?!)

I’ll describe their beer selection this way; outside of Draught House, they are (to my knowledge… and I know a lot) the only other tap in Austin pouring the craved for Dogfish Head Festina Peche.

To the point. They are pairing up wt Avery to offer an interest peaking beer dinner in late July.

They are serving the Depuceleuse wt duck confit, butter lettuce, and dried cherry chutney.

Shit. Yes.

Also among the five courses there will be rosemarry and honey ribs paired wt Maharaja and pecan sticky buns paired with the Meph Addict. Never had it, but it scores a 100 on Ratebeer and is 15%abv, so yeah, I’m looking forward to this one.

Also mentally preparing a case for a ride home from the wife.

Waffles?

$55 per person.

I’ll be at this one for sure.

YEAH!

SHIT YEAH!

Welcome to our final episode of Knockin’ em Back at Thunderbird Coffee Koenig podcast.

And boy is it a doosey.

Check out the other THUNDERBIRD COFFEE Knockin’ em Back episodes here, here, and here.

JIB, Shawn, Josh (Little Beard) and I finish out the evening on the rainy patio with beer news, a giving out of the gift card, Chinese internet cafe gang culture, a random guy who came by and cussed out his boss, how we would protect our homes and times that we didn’t, and some other shit (I tell a great story about catching people porking behind a Quizno’s dumpster).

[The banner photo is totally relevant... you have to get close to the end for it]

In the beer news we talk about the Uncle Billy’s/Austin Homebrew/Austin Zealots homebrew competition, the Real Ale barrel bottling project, the BJ’s Brewhouse Stone dinner, the arrival of the Sierra Nevada 30 yr Anniversary Fritz’s & Ken’s Imperial American Stout, and Saint Arnold possibly putting together some sampler sixers. I’m feeling lazy and am not going to link any of these. Do your own copy/past/Google-ing.

Big congrats to Dave (we didn’t gat a last name) for following us on Twitter and also being at Thunderbird and also approaching us and also winning the THUNDERBIRD COFFEE gift card. Good job, Dave.

So just like the last one, we are working hard on earning our “EXPLICIT” label in iTunes, so don’t play this for kids. Maybe find another beer podcast for kids.

Thanks thanks thanks to Chris and Ryan at Thunderbird for sponsoring this month’s podcast and to Josh for coming on as our fourth seater.

“Thunderbird Coffee, the cheapest place to be a hipster” -Dave

Enjoy!

Audio

Direct link to the mp3 HERE

Subscribe to the Podcast

More photos…

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!

We knew this was coming… but now it’s real. Real Ale… (er, sorry)

From their Facebook wall:

“Phoenixx ships today, but not sure when it hits the market.”

So that’s the good news… the bad news:

“We will not be brewing any more Coffee Porter this season and we have shipped it all. What is out in the market is what is left. Get it while you can. Until next year…”

Jeff and Mike are brothers. Jeff used to be an attorney. Mike, an investment banker. Now they’re homebrewers. Spring 2010 they will be head brewers and owners of Jester King Craft Brewery.

This is what freedom’s made of. This is why we support the troops. Here are some brothers that are taking the “and the pursuit of happiness” part serious.

The Story

Summer 2009, I caught wind of some homebrewer assholes calling themselves “Jester King” thinking they could own a brewery. “That’s cute,” I thought and remembered when I first started homebrewing and had high hopes of one day slinging my own beers at some brew pub that would only exist in middle earth, Mos Eisley, or on the set of Back to the Future 2. Then I got an email from a guy named Jeff introducing himself and Jester King. Since getting married, I have made a conscious choice to be nicer, and decided to give Jeff and Jester King the benefit of the doubt. Jeff had us over to his house, introduced us to his brother Mike (whom I called Doug for a long time) and grilled us some burgers.

Then he let us try his beer. And it is damn good (you might think the free burgers might have swayed my opinion of their beer, but after tasting the beer, the burgers were just a blur).

And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

The Back Story

Jeff started homebrewing in 2004 when he was a defense attorney in Boston. In 2006 he and his wife moved to Austin, and after a brief stint working for a firm downtown, Jeff did what most homebrewers only dream of, and quit his job and began raising funds full time to start his own craft brewery. His brother Michael quit his job as an investment banker in Chicago and moved to Austin to join the new family business.

Who hasn’t fantasized about quitting your job and starting a craft brewery with your brother?
Gah! I would be satisfied with just having a brother! (no, offense Amy and Becky).

The brothers Stuffings are starting a brewery in Austin, TX.
They’ve been crafting their recipes (an impressive repertoire so far), brewing with Love Joys and Real Ale, and raising some funds. Lots of funds.

From the Horses Mouth

“This seems to change often,” said Jeff “but as of the moment we have sold 33 out of 38 shares putting us bout 87 percent of the way to reaching our goal of $500,000.”

That’a a lot of Ks.

The original plan (as spelled out in the video) was to begin brewing Summer 2010. At the rate the Stuffing bros have been raising capital, it may be sooner than that.

“Spring to Summer of 2010 is the projected launch date,” Jeff said. “It’s hard to say right now, but we might be able to break ground on the brewery at the ranch before the end of the fall. We project it will take six to nine months after that.”

Ranch?

“Jester King will be building the brewery on some ranch land in southwest Austin next to a future olive orchard and peach grove,” said Jeff.

I don’t know about olives and beer (martini wit?), but I do like peaches in it and the Jester King guys have been experimenting with a blonde peach recipe.

The Beers

As Jester King and Jeff and Mike have come up in conversation over the past few months, one question that has surfaced more than once is “What do they have to offer that Austin doesn’t already have?”

Ok. First, that’s a dumb question. If you’ve ever been to any of the better beer towns you know that local competition among brewers is a good thing. Why? Because it pushes them to make better beers. Also, there are so many possible subtle differences within the beer styles there is room enough for more than four IPAs, two brown ales, two wits, two hefeweizens, and a handful of similar seasonals. Just because Left Hand makes an Imperial Stout doesn’t mean Oscar Blues shouldn’t have the Ten Fidy.

Second, yes, they do have something to broaden the local palate. They are a business and are planing on making money, so they will be brewing the expected styles like IPA, Hefeweizen, and a red ale. Additionally, they have an exceptional Imperial Stout, a tasty rye ale, and, my favorite, an extremely drinkable, yet flavorful hopped wheat aptly named Das WUNDERKIND!
These were the ones I tried. On the website, Jester King lists seven different styles including a belgian beer made with blood oranges and aged in pinot noire barrels and a high alcohol brown that tastes of toffee pudding.
The beers I tried were mostly exceptional. A few needy tweaking here and there, but the brewers were the first to point that out.

In Closing

Since the Jester King backyard grilling/brewing/tasting last September, [the objective train is now derailing] we’ve spent more time and imbibed more beers with Jeff and Mike and like them more and more. Even if their beers were undrinkable, we’d still like these guys. A better beer couldn’t be made by nicer people.
Back to being objective (really? we’re a blog). Jester King plan to open a full production brewery and bottling or canning line in early to mid 2010. They’ve made the local rounds, and from what I can tell, have some good people in their corner.

Here’s to seeing some new local representation in the beer aisle and on taps around town,
Cheers, guys!

Brewing with Jester King

Jeff and Mike brewed a batch of their Masquerade Red while we were hanging out. We made a video.
It’s not an intensive “how-to-brew” vid (we were playing corn hole and missed the boil and hop additions!)
This video will only appeal to a certain demographic; if you’re in that demographic, enjoy.

[video by JIB, images by Shawn, words by Chris]

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