Faust Hotel and Brewpub Sold

New Braunfels' historic Faust Hotel and accompanying brewpub, the Faust Brewing Company, have been sold. The new owners, Vance and Priscilla Hinton, are long-time Texas beer and wine lovers, and intend to refurbish the brewpub and restore the full-service restaurant to make more of a complete tourist destination.

Faust Brewing Company has been brewing at the hotel since 1998. Priscilla Hinton is presently co-owner of Kork wine bar in downtown New Braunfels.

Real Ale Brewing Oktoberfest

Blanco's Real Ale is brewing up a new and as-yet unnamed Oktoberfest-style beer, according to a recent Facebook entry. Their first lager, this beer will be brewed using a traditional decoction mash.

A release date or availability have not yet been announced.

Peters in Austin-American Statesman

BREWERS IN THE NEWS

Long-time Texas brewer Brian Peters was recently profiled in the Austin American-Statesman piece "A stout with... Brian Peters" by Patrick Beach.

Peters is a former owner and brewer of such Austin landmarks as Live Oak Brewing and the former Bitter End brewpub. He is currently the owner and brewer at Austin's newest brewpub, Uncle Billy's Brew & Que.

Real Ale Brewing IPA

Blanco's Real Ale is brewing up a new and as-yet unnamed IPA, according to a recent Facebook entry. A release date or availability have not yet been announced.

Update: False alarm; merely the newest batch of their seasonal IPA, the Lost Gold.

(512) Brewing First Anniversary

Austin's (512) Brewing is celebrating its first anniversary on August 1st with an open house at the brewery from 2pm to 5pm.

To celebrate, (512) Brewing is also releasing their first anniversary ale, the ONE, a Belgian-style strong ale brewed with organic grains and wildflower honey.

Rahr & Sons in Louisiana News

BREWERS IN THE NEWS

Rahr & Sons received a short review of their Blonde Lager (mistakenly called their "Golden Lager") by The Town Talk, the local news source for central Louisiana, in a piece entitled "Rahr Golden Lager might be worth a trip to Texas."

Rahr & Sons Wins at US Open

Fort Worth's Rahr & Sons have won more medals at the recent 2009 U.S. Open Beer Championship in Atlanta, Georgia.

The winning beers are as follows:

• English Pale Ale: Gold for Blind Salamander Pale Ale
• Muchner Helles: Bronze for Rahr's Blonde Lager
• Schwarzbier: Silver for Ugly Pug Black Lager

The U.S. Open Beer Championship judges commercial beers in 55 different categories and is open to any commercial brewery or brewpub, domestic or international. A full list of winners is available on their website.

Divine Reserve No. 8

Houston's Saint Arnold plans to brew their limited edition Divine Reserve No. 8 next week, and scheduled for a public release sometime in late September. The Divine Reserve No. 8 will be a strong Scotch ale, based on the winning entry of Houston's recent Big Batch Brew Bash homebrewing competition by Phillip Kaufman.

Spoetzl Celebrates Centennial

BREWERS IN THE NEWS

This month, the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner celebrates its centennial year in operation. A recent news release detailing a short history of the brewery, picked up by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as "Spoetzl Brewery, once close to last call, marks its 100th birthday", is making the AP rounds in news sources to date as far as Houston, Denver, and Toledo, Ohio.

Update: The same story has also appeared recently in the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Examiner.

(512) Expansion and New Beer

Austin's newest brewery, (512) Brewing, has just installed an additional 80-barrel fermentor at their facility, greatly expanding their existing capacity. This is the first major expansion at this brewery, occurring prior to their first anniversary.

(512) Brewing is also planning a new anniversary beer, entitled simply ONE, to celebrate their first year in operation.