June 26th, besides the Real Ale Anniversary party (which I truly regret missing this), witnessed the Great Austin Beer Festival.

We were there loud and proud. See us in the pic above sporting our new rasterized banner (no, it’s not a pixilated image. It’s on purpose… IDIOT!)

As a disclaimer, I should mention that we were an event sponsor and appreciate the GATXBF guys including us.

GATXBF had a lot going on. 1,600 drinkers last I heard, ~40 breweries, tons of beer (we roughly counted 80 cases left over after!), and a good(ish) time for all. Plus nice local representation from Independence, (512), Real Ale, Saint Arnold, and Live Oak (who’s table was manned by the original party animal himself, Mr. Chip McElroy.)

The good- lots of lots of beer.

The bad- lots of lots of people/lines.

The ugly- some hipster man-boy called me an asshole because he didn’t win the raffle (learn to read the rules you stupid, illiterate, scenester fuck.)

The incredible- (512) blew off some socks with a cellared keg of the 2009 ONE and a rare appearance of the Whisky Barrel 2X Pecan Porter (don’t think I didn’t “sample” a few 6 or 7 of these.)

The from-left-feild- we debuted our BeerTownAustin Mustache glasses. If you got one, yr lucky. If not, we plan to have more available soon. Look left (<–) to see it.

Laser etching and wooden sign by our favorite laser artist in austin at Austin Laser Art.

The unsung heroes- big thanks to the Jester King gents for sharing their wooden banner frame. Sans their generosity, we’d have been left holding our rasturbated sign above our heads and out arms would have gotten so tired.

The rest of the story- Promoter Blake Richards did a quick video and e-mail interview wt us post GATXBF.

Here it is:

BTA: Was Saturday’s event what you initially set out to do?

GATXBF: We set out to give Austin another beer festival (the other being Flying Saucer’s in October) and we wanted the event to be something that could grow in the future.

BTA: Did you expect such a large turnout?

GATXBF: We expected a good turnout because Austin is an event driven town and there is a lot of interest in good craft and import beers.

BTA: Are there plans for a second GAtxBF, and if so, how would you like it be different than this year, if at all?

GATXBF: There are no plans for second event; but I would like to do it.  It would be different, we would go outside and we would work with the TABC to figure out how we can do draught beer.

BTA: Not even hours after the event Twitter, Facebook, forums and blogs were already pouring in reviews of the event, mostly positive, but some negative, how do you respond to those?

GATXBF: They have been about 90% positive, I have responded to as many as I can especially the negative feedback.  We are open to constructive negative feedback, we realize that the venue was way too crowded and the beer was in bottles not draught.  With that being said, there were a ton of beers to sample and there is a good chance that most of the guests could find at least twenty to thirty beers that they have never tried.

BTA: Lots of people are wondering why the beer was mainly served out of bottles, can you comment on that? 

GATXBF: There are a few reasons for the bottles, we are going to work on draught next year.

BTA: What type of post-festival feedback did you receive from the brewers?

GATXBF: The feedback from the breweries so far has been very good.  I strongly believe a good majority would want to come back.

BTA: Why did you choose Austin for your festival?

GATXBF: I have been coming to Austin for years, I have family in Austin, it is simply one of the best cities in the country.  Why not Austin!!

BTA: Assuming there will be a second festival, what are you most looking forward to next year?

GATXBF: If we do it next year, it will be outside.  I am looking forward to that, it will be a completely different event.

Here’s the video:

Here’re more pics: (also by the talented Mr. Haley)

Our friends from Austin Homebrew Supply.

Celeb sighting.

More glasses and some of the raffle stuff.

Eric at the Independence table.

Jeff of Jester King shaking hands wt @madhouselarry (thanks for all the beer runs, Larry!)

The rear of the Saint Arnold booth. Our friend Kevin pouring beers next to Mr. Frank Mancuso.

[UPDATE: Received an e-mail from Kevin explaining that the event on June 19th was NOT the anniversary party, but just the seasonal release party for the ONE.2.

From the horse's mouth:

The latest open house was not our 2^nd anniversary party. It was just the re-release of (512) ONE because every seasonal sells out so fast we had to squeeze another one in, because we love it,  and as a prelude to (512) TWO. We’ll have a 2^nd anniversary party in Late August (likely 8/28) where a brand new (512) beer will be unveiled!

No comment on the style of the TWO, but that is good news. I loved the ONE and was perfectly satisfied wt the idea of the ONE.2 being the next anniversary beer, but this just incredible. Maybe it will be whatever is resting in those barrels...

-Chris]

(512) celebrated their two-year anniversary with an open house/release party for their One.2 on June 19. If there’s something I know about June 19, it’s that it’s hot.

We got married on that same date six years ago and people still remind us how hot it was (get over it!). This party wasn’t any different. It was sunny. So much so I got a little bit of a farmers’ tan (sexy, I know).

We arrived just after the 2:00 p.m. start to find an entrance line extending to the back of the business/industrial park. It’s our own fault for increasing our wait… we stopped to talk to Frank and Lennie from Saint Arnold (warming up for their pub crawl later that evening). About 20 people walked past us while we chatted them up. We may be fools, but we’re no line cutters, so to the back we went.

Once inside the beer lines weren’t too bad, even with the weird vortex of inside and outside tap line crossing paths.  Knowing we had a full day of activities ahead of us, I opted for only a taster of the One.2, a Belgian-style strong ale coming in somewhere around 8% abv.

It was good: sweet, caramely and similar to last year’s. One of our followers said they did switch from Good Flow to Round Rock Honey for this batch.

I honestly can’t say too much more as I didn’t go back for it; it was a little too much for me to imagine drinking a full pint in the setting. I don’t think it stopped too many others.

It was soon on to the reliable and tasty IPA and Wit, the latter of which was perfectly refreshing on a Texas summer afternoon.

Every (512) party I have been to has been a good time and this was no exception. Yeah, you have to wait in line, but what do you expect with free beer?

While there we did spot some barrels filled with something fermenting… what could be next?!?! Word is the guys may be playing around with some new ideas like a soured version of their Wit. After their last barrel release (Whiskey Barrel Aged Double Pecan Porter!), I’m in for whatever comes next.

The second Saint Arnold Austin Pub Crawl was F-R-E-S-H fresh! New bars. New format. New pint glass.

After the success of the first crawl, Saint Arnold implemented a format similar to the one they use in Houston (I think?), allowing us to visit the first three bars in any order. It worked. I don’t think I waited in line longer than a minute or two.

We decided to head east first to the Liberty Bar and get our punch cards. It was fairly sparse when we arrived, but not long after our friends showed up, we noticed the line slowly growing. Then this guy joined up with us. I think it was a strategic move on his part so he could copy and paste our account of the night.

In addition to the reliable Saint Arnold Amber, all the bars had the “award winning” Summer Pils on tap. I admit I did not have any of this last summer. For me, pils are a “right place, right time” beer. This was the time and the place. I pretty much stuck to it the rest of the night. Outside on the patio the flies were after our beer faster than we were so we hit the road pretty quickly.

On our way west we took a detour at No. 19 Bus, a double decker food bus. We fueled up on Chicago dogs and free Live Oak HefeWeizen. If you’re in this part of town I suggest you check it out.

We made our way under 35 to the Texas Embassy (probably my least favorite stop) where Lennie Ambrose, Saint Arnold’s Events and Marketing guy, was meeting crawlers as they headed downstairs. In addition to the Saint Arnolds, I spotted Independence’s Stash IPA. Good to see this making it’s way into more places; it’s tasty (one may or may not have snuck into my cup).

We had to make the third stop before 9:00 p.m., so with little time to waste it was off to Side Bar. This place was dark. I liked it. I could see myself drinking some Lone Star here if I ended up near 6th Street. With more Pils in our bellies, it was off to Shangri-La to claim our pints.

We ran into Saint Arnold’s Austin/San Antonio beer man Frank Mancuso passing out the glasses (no short supply this time).  It’s always nice to chat with Frank. If you haven’t met him at an in-store tasting, beer party or the Ginger Man, you just aren’t getting out enough.

All in all it was a good evening. We heard about 350 people partook in the event. Shangri-La had good energy and none of the early bars were all that crowded, but it may have been because we started on the east side (word was Side Bar was hit kind of hard early).

Thanks to the Saint Arnold crew for putting on another fun event. There was talk they may try to do these with the release of every season. If that’s the case, I can’t wait for Oktoberfest!

Lots going on in the next few weekends. We’re a  blog, so we’re blogging about it. You know, taking what other people are doing and commenting on it so it looks like we’re doing something too. It makes us feel important and such. It’s 2010, just go along with it.

(512) Summer Open House

6-19-10

2-5pm

OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, June 19th, 2-5 pm
Taste your favorite (512) Ales plus
the RE-RELEASE of our Belgian Style Strong Ale
(512) ONE.2

Hell. Yes. Please.

Kevin, Nate, and co throw some nice open house parties, and they’re always nicer when they include the release (or re-release) of something new. No word on if the (512) boys tweaked the Belgian Strong ale that made us all a little buzzier than we were expecting last summer. Either way, I’m ok. I loved the last one and can’t imagine any upgrades would be bad.

Bottle it maybe, eh?

Check out our coverage of the (512) ONE release party last year (they got that whole long line thing nipped in the butt via multiple pouring stations). More info from (512) here.

Saint Arnold 2nd Austin Pub Crawl

6-19-10

6-9pm

We will be pub crawling in Austin on Saturday, June 19. We are utilizing our “open house” schedule for the first 3 stops. This means that we will be signing tickets at all three of the first three stops for three hours so people can split up between the establishments. You will get your ticket at whichever stop you decide to visit first. But, VERY IMPORTANT, we will only be handing out the tickets between 6 PM and 7 PM. Thus, you still need to start between 6 and 7. Then, at 9 PM, everybody will gather at one final stop and that is where we will award the glasses.

This was good last time, I fully expect it to be great this time.

Where the first one had problems wt overcrowding and pubs hitting capacity, this time it’s less of a mass pub crawl and more of a pub sprawl. Sounds like a great time.

Hit it up, drink lots of  Saint Arnold (responsibly…), and say ‘hi’ to Frank, Lennie, and company. Last time I even ran into Brock himself stamping punch cards. More info here and also this jerk has pretty good coverage too.

Also, When In Austin did a short podcast wt FrankTex about the pub crawl. Check it out.

Read our coverage of the last crawl here.

Great Austin Beer Festival

6-26-10

4-8pm

The Great Austin Beer Festival is our opportunity to celebrate everything we love about beer.  With so many great breweries in Austin and beyond, you will get your chance to sample some the finest local beers and explore beers from our best breweries from all over the world.  The event offers multiple opportunities to learn everything you want to know about beer.  Join us in downtown at the Austin Music Hall on June 26th.
Admission is $30 online and $40 day of event.  It includes 4oz samples throughout the event.  Food will be sold separately.

As a disclaimer I should mention we are a sponsor of the festival. That being said, I’m pretty sure this will be great and totally think you should go.

Really though, it’s very exciting. Being in the business of drinking beer in Austin and talking about beer in Austin with people we meet while drinking it, we have been in more than seven or eight conversations with people about why Austin needs a festival… again (remember that Rob and Amy of Independence put on a TX brewers fest a few years back).

We’ve met the guys putting this on and they are pretty solid. We look forward to this event.

Also, we’ll have a booth there. So if you go, come by and say ‘hi’. We’ll have some cool shit for free and some other shit too.

More info here and here.

[If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, be sure to follow us on Twitter as we're giving out a $25 coupon code]

Remember the Live Oak anniversary party? It was more than a month ago so maybe not. Thankfully, we’re here with an ever so timely recap to help you live it all over again.

There was food. There was music. There was mud (but no rain!). More importantly, there was free beer (why else would we be there?). Live Oak celebrated its 13th year with its 14th party (?), and a good time was had by all.

The event came right as the last of the Primus was drying up around to town and the Liberation was about to make its return after a two-year absence. (Have you had it? If not, go get some.)

Live Oak describes the Liberation IPA as, “light in color and strong in hop character. Dry hopping with Cascade hops, gives this favorite a delicious citrus note reminiscent of a Texas Ruby Red. Its 60 IBUs will satisfy the most demanding of hop heads, while its full malt character balances the assertive hoppiness.” We describe it as “tasty.”

The regular staples were on hand, including the IPA, Pilz, Big Bark and much beloved HefeWeizen, perfect for a few afternoon beers.

In addition to chatting with Chip McElroy from Live Oak (below), we had a chance to visit with some of your other favorite beer friends from around town, including Frank Mancuso from Saint Arnold, Kevin Brand from 512 Brewing, the guys from Jester King, Ronnie Crocker, and a more.

It was good to catch up with the man himself and hear about the return of two Live Oak favorites (tree-what?!?!), the possible future site of the 14th anniversary party and what he has been up to lately. We hope to see you there next year!

Didn’t make it out to the anniversary party? Check out Live Oak’s weekly Saturday tours (reservation required).

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!

There are better Saint Arnold Pub Crawl wrap ups and coverage out on the internets, but since I took pictures I figured I might as well post ‘em.

Why only 75% of the story?

My wife and I had tickets to see Damien Jurado and Balmorhea at 9, so I skipped out on Little Woodrow’s.

So JIB and I went out last Friday, 2-19-10 with 448 other crawlers to drink Saint Arnold beers and walk around in large groups downtown. It was pretty fun.

Started out at ZAX Pints and Plates. It’s a cool place, sort of small for 450 crawlers, but if you got there on time it wasn’t bad. I hope that some oblivious boyfriend took his girl there planning on proposing, or maybe breaking up, or something intimate that got ruined by a lot of people showing up. It was semi-flash-mob-ish.

Craft Aaron brought his baby.

Josh and Sarah were there too (I just literally copy/pasted most of that last sentence wt links from Aaron’s page).

Also Frank Mancuso, the Saint Arnold ATX rep was on hand stamping out stamp cards and posing for photos (see bellow).

Sorry for having to use the flash, Frank. Shawn (the taker of all the good photos on this site) couldn’t make it out Friday.

After drinking some of the SA Winter Stout, we hoofed it over to the new Ginger Man. It was at capacity when we arrived and were presented with the option to have our second stamp punched and move on to Ghost Room (the old Ginger Man).

Standing in line on the street didn’t sound much like pub crawling to us, so we took the punch and run to Ghost Room option.

As a consolation for missing out on Ginger Man, Brock was at Ghost Room waiting to punch cards, shake hands, and kiss babies.

This was my first trip to the ol’ Ginger Man corpse, and it took a bit for me to stop talking about it. I’m sure I was getting annoying. Sadly, the inside was gutted, but the outside patio was pretty much as awesome as ever. Down to only six tap holes, the Amber was the only Saint Arnold beer flowing, and it got killed within 30 minutes.

On the patio we ran into Terry, who produces When In Austin. It’s a local podcast a la This American Life. I’m not sure if it’s intentionally beer focused, but the pub crawl was his second recent local beer story. Terry does a good job, check out his show.

Thanks to the patio, the lesser crowd, the handshake from Brock, and meeting Terry of When In Austin, the Ghost Room was prolly the highlight of my pub crawl experience.

I agree wt that jerk who brought his baby on a pub crawl, Opal Divine’s Freehouse should have been on the crawl.

Sure it was crowded, the beer ran out at a few locations, you couldn’t get into some places, and blah blah blah, I’m thankful that the gents from Saint Arnold saw enough of a craft beer scene in Austin to come down and attempt this first crawl. Let’s hope they do it again.

The Draught House has been dispensing beers for 41 years. Think about how long that is.
Think about how long you’ve been legally drinking beers.
41 yrs is long. That’s serious stuff. Check out that viking in the flyer. Not joking around. He has that huge hammer for a reason.

Josh dishes out a few versions of the history of the Draught House (did it come from a travceling dancer, a sordid character, or just a guy who likes good beer?), clears up the Draught Horse confusion, talks about his brews, and mostly the 41st party.

There will be music by DJ Jubal (if you’ve gone for the free brats on Saturday he most likely served you), lots of special beers (WTF- 3 YR OLD LIVE OAK TREE HUGGER!?!), a plush (yeah I said “plush”) selection on cask (Bear Republic Hot Rod Rye$!@# and Saint Arnold Christmas!@#$%@#$), plus some food and other stuff you can read about on the flyer below. I lazily copied and pasted a list of the beers Josh sent out on an email, the descriptions are his. It’s posted below the video.

I went last year, it was great.
Plus I heard from good sources that the New Belgium Tart Lychee is one of the best things New Belgium has made in a while.

We are drinking the Publication from Russian River. It’s got a good story. It’s not served at the Draught House.

So crack open a cold one and join us over a pint,

Enjoy!

[We're in the market for a microphone sponsor... we'll have better sound next time, sorry. Also, thanks to JIB for doing the editing and filming and working so hard for only some free beer!]

[All these beers are great, but I linked to the ones I'm really excited about]

Draught-
Our own House made Double IPA,as fresh as it gets with 3 pounds per barrel of American Hops.
Stone Cali-Belgique- a Belgian IPA hybrid
Stone Sublimely Self Righteous- a Black IPA
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid- big ‘ol Imperial IPA
Dogfish Head 120- the biggest IPA of all time?
Live Oak Treehugger- the 3 year old Barley Wine that we all miss…
New Belgium Tart Lychee-3 year old, aged in oak, blended sour ale with lychee and ceylon cinnamon.

Cask-
Brooklyn Pennant- classic English Pale Ale
New Belgium Hoptoberfest- hopped up blond ale
Green Flash Hop Head Red- Red IPA?
Green Flash West Coast IPA- the pinnacle of American IPA’s
Allagash Curieux- bourbon barrel aged Triple
Saint Arnold Christmas Ale- probably my favorite SA beer. Very rich and great on cask
Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye- excellent rye IPA only made better on cask.
Real Ale Firemans #4- this beer rocks out of the firkin.

Who thought we’d actually have the stamina to make 9 of these?

I’m going to nick name this one “the reckoning”

So welcome to Over a Pint Episode 9 at the Flying Saucer… the reckoning.

In this episode, we had the pleasure of sitting down wt Sam and Rob (whom I call Sam in the video, sorry Rob) from the Flying Saucer in Austin. Maybe you’ve been there. They’ve got this nice little gig going there wt the beer and such.

We sit outside on a Thursday night; the wind tickles our beards, the casual conversation in the background is loud enough for me to trail off when I realize I don’t know what I’m talking about, the Oscar Blues dry hopped Gordon is flowing, we’re rapping about the Saucer, their upcoming Fall Beer Festival, Rob says “shit”, we cheers like three or four times, it’s revealed that there’s more in store at the festival that you have to show up to find out (of which they spill some beans but also leave some beans left in the can for Saturday), a good time is not missed by any of us.

Do you know when the first Saucer opened?

Do you know in what city?

Can you tell what I do wt my hands when I don’t know what to say next?

What about the special stuff happening inside the Flying Saucer on the 24th?

After watching this video you should be able to answer all these questions and some (meaning they spill some beans in the video that really sweeten the deal).

Check below the video for their cool poster and a hand typed list of the beers we talked about or I was given a list of.

Also, I think we may do a live stream Over a Pint from the festival. TBA.

Sam and I both have a Columbus dry hopped OB Gordon from a cask and Rob is drinking a Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout.

So, if you can, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint,

Enjoy!

The hand typed list:

[I'll bold everything I want and don't want you to drink all of]

Allagash Four

Brooklyn Oktoberfest

Victory Storm King Imperial Stout

Dogfish Head Punkin

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale [WTF!?]

Green Flash Hop Head Red

Lagunitas 13 (Mondo Large Red)

North Coast Red Seal Cask

Anderson Valley Oatmeal Stout

Sierra Nevada Edge of Darkenss [WTF!?]

Green Flash West Coast IPA

Ska Modus Hoperandi

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #8

Live Oak Oaktoberfest Cask

Real Ale XII Anniversary Ale

(512) Pecan Porter

Independence Imperial Oatmeal Stout [aka Convict Hill]

Dogfish Head Burton Baton

Breckenridge 471 IPA Cask [WTF!?]

Boulevard Smokestack Tank 7

New Belgium Transatlantic Kriek