Texas Beerfest Wrap-Up

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.

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.

New Brewery Coming in Austin: Circle Brewing.

Great article in the Austin Statesmen. Beer is apparently making a STRONG push in Texas, despite the beer distributor lobby trying to hold them back. In addition to Southern Star in Conroe, we shall soon have another brewery just up 290 in Austin, TX. Granted, Circle Brewing's founders are Tennessee folk, and we don't take kindly those people down here, especially the old Houston Oilers fans. But regardless it looks like they are coming along great. Also, looks like Circle will have some comp with Jester Brewing as well. CHALLENGE!!!

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/bws/entries/2009/07/29/to_brew_perchance_to_dream.html

To brew, perchance to dream
By Patrick Beach Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 02:41 PM

If fund-raising and everything else goes as planned, we’ll have two new small breweries that call Austin home.

First up: Jeffrey Stuffing’s Jester King Craft Brewery. The former attorney and home brewer since 2003 hung up his barrister’s cap in June to work on the project full-time.

“There was a realization that this wasn’t gonna happen unless I was fully devoted,” says Stuffings, who’s currently getting professional experience helping Brian Peters at Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que.

I sampled Stuffings’ India Pale Ale and it’s really, really good. More encouraging is his fondness for crazy stuff — barley wines, smoked beers, big Belgian and chocolate stouts — as well as sessionable beers. “I really have a foot in both camps,” he says. “Right now I’m committed to brewing what I like.

The guy believes that in a decade Austin’s beer market will be comparable “to a Denver or a Portland.” Let us hope.

Stuffings has raised some $100,000 of the $800,000 he says he needs to get going and he’s set a deadline of March of next year to haul in the dough, although obviously he’d like it to be more like the end of this year. His vice president is Joseph V. Maida, who left a career in medicine to make beer.

So is this eating your life?

“Yeah,” Stuffings says says. “And it’s cool.”
You can learn more, including reading the company’s executive summary, at the site linked above.

Then there’s Nashville natives Ben Sabel (above right) and Judson Mulherin (left), who are starting Circle Brewing Co. These two have professional backgrounds almost as surprising as lawyer and doctor — Sabel was a talent agent in L.A. (“You’re never off work. You’re never on vacation) while Mulherin worked as an aviation mechanic and contractor in Denver and San Diego

So they’re complementary — Sabel has an MBA, Mulherin is the self-described “grease monkey” (although he has a degree, too). They’ve raised about $185,000 of an estimated $425,000 or so they say they need to get going. To start they’re aiming to brew an amber, a blonde bock and a Texas wheat.

So on paper these guys might not seem as wacky as Stuffings’ impending offerings, but they believe it’s important to have a solid front line before putting more adventurous product out the door.

Says Sabel: “While we might be choosing common categories, our beers are not common-tasting. We’re trying to fill holes in the market, especially the Austin market.”

That makes good business sense, but one of my persistent, low-level complaints about Texas brewers as a whole is their relative reluctance to challenge Texas beer lovers more. After they get going I hope they find room for more niche offerings and lead the charge toward a true Texas beer renaissance.