Oh what a day yesterday. Started out donating a bunch of my daughter's old clothes to a church that's going to get the stuff to the folks in Alabama. Then made our way up to an old friend's house in the Kingwood area to drop off the kid while we hit the Texas Beer Fest ... Oh yeah, did I mention our printer didn't work so I had to hunt down a printing place in the Kingwood/Humble/Lake Houston area to print out my tickets for the beerfest. Um, if you thought it was tough to find Bin Laden, try finding a printing place. After an hour roaming around the Upper Northeast Houston, we made it to the festival.
The wife and I didn't know what to expect, and honestly had not been to a beer festival like this before. I got a GREAT cheeseburger at this school bus like joint. You walk in and there were a half-dozen or so portable food trucks (nice stuff), as well as stands for various types of hot sauce, beer desserts, and sweetbread. Nice stuff.
I'll tell you know that I knew enough to know that there was NO POINT in trying to to detailed beer reviews. With maybe a couple dozen stands of different beers, I'll just hit the highlights. I counted a couple hundred people in the quaint rodeo stadium while I was there. Live
music going on in the back, but not too loud. And a special stand with rare beers being tapped every half hour.
I just loved how we had so many new breweries in town checking things out. Thirsty Planet , Circle , and something out of College Station (only three days old mine you) called New Republic. Of course No Label was there serving that bomb hefeweizen. Our favorites were there of course with Southern Star pouring their Jasmine Bombshell Blonde and Independence debuting a new bitter. Each stand had about 3 beers mostly in jockey boxes. The 2 oz pours were sad, but probably a good idea, with the place seemingly crawling with cops. Cops that seemed to be in line just as much as I was. Nothing but a new pilsner by Avery and the Utah beer was lower than 5% ABV, so everyone was feeling nice the whole time.
As we tried a number of new (to us) beers, special releases and others, I couldn't help but want to take a few hits of the Thirsty Planet Buckethead IPA. An excellent huge hoppy beer with a splendid mixture of several types of hops. At the cold temperature and fresh, it was just right for my tastes. High 4 stars. I even remembered that beer while drinking Heineken with the brothas while watching the Mosley/Pacquiao fight. Another great balanced IPA came from our boys at Squatters with the best beer poster would be awesome.
The wife and I didn't know what to expect, and honestly had not been to a beer festival like this before. I got a GREAT cheeseburger at this school bus like joint. You walk in and there were a half-dozen or so portable food trucks (nice stuff), as well as stands for various types of hot sauce, beer desserts, and sweetbread. Nice stuff.
I'll tell you know that I knew enough to know that there was NO POINT in trying to to detailed beer reviews. With maybe a couple dozen stands of different beers, I'll just hit the highlights. I counted a couple hundred people in the quaint rodeo stadium while I was there. Live
music going on in the back, but not too loud. And a special stand with rare beers being tapped every half hour.I just loved how we had so many new breweries in town checking things out. Thirsty Planet , Circle , and something out of College Station (only three days old mine you) called New Republic. Of course No Label was there serving that bomb hefeweizen. Our favorites were there of course with Southern Star pouring their Jasmine Bombshell Blonde and Independence debuting a new bitter. Each stand had about 3 beers mostly in jockey boxes. The 2 oz pours were sad, but probably a good idea, with the place seemingly crawling with cops. Cops that seemed to be in line just as much as I was. Nothing but a new pilsner by Avery and the Utah beer was lower than 5% ABV, so everyone was feeling nice the whole time.
As we tried a number of new (to us) beers, special releases and others, I couldn't help but want to take a few hits of the Thirsty Planet Buckethead IPA. An excellent huge hoppy beer with a splendid mixture of several types of hops. At the cold temperature and fresh, it was just right for my tastes. High 4 stars. I even remembered that beer while drinking Heineken with the brothas while watching the Mosley/Pacquiao fight. Another great balanced IPA came from our boys at Squatters with the best beer poster would be awesome.On top of that they had a serious amount of commercial craft beer courtesy of many of the beer distributors. Unfortunately those guys did not seem to get as much love as the local beers, but I guess that's how it has to be at the Texas Beerfest. I really hope they come back for another year. Somebody is having a beer festival of sorts in Hermann Park, and those guys slapped up Groupon just before the TBF. I know somebody in our house not named Don or Bella bought Ptickets for that one even though we would all be out of town. Best of luck for the Houston Beer Fest with a tremendous lineup of beering. I just hope that as more breweries pop up and the laws may soon change in our favor, we will see more festivals such as this. The bigger beer dinners already sell like hotcakes, so it is safe to say something is stirring in the Bayou City. And I'll drink to that.
2 comments:
Thanks for the link to New Republic.
no problem. Love seeing a new brewery up and running.
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