Southern Star Walloon

CONROE - Southern Star Brewing has revealed its first seasonal beer, the Southern Star Walloon, scheduled for release this month according to Houston blogger Bryan Carey.

Walloon will be a Belgian-style grisette, an obscure farmhouse style of beer with characteristics of both a witbier and a tripel. No word at this time as to whether this seasonal offering will be canned.

Southern Star Buried Hatchet Stout

CONROE - Southern Star Brewing has just received label approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for cans of their Buried Hatchet Stout.

Twelve-ounce cans of this foreign export-style stout should be in stores before the end of this year, and available year-round thereafter.

Southern Star Expanding

CONROE - Southern Star reports in their latest newsletter that they are adding new equipment, including new fermenters, to better keep up with increasing demand. The new equipment should be installed and operational by Oktoberfest.

Southern Star Saison

Southern Star's next beer will be a saison, the winner of their first annual homebrewing competition. Of the 43 beers entered, the winning brewers Mark Kizer and Scott Wells of Austin will have their recipe produced and sold by Southern Star, as well as entered on their behalf at the Pro-Am competition of the Great American Beer Festival next year.

The as-yet unnamed saison should be brewed and canned around June or July, and released for sale toward the end of summer.

Southern Star Sponsors Next Seasonal

Southern Star is hosting a public amateur homebrewing competition whose winner will be adopted and brewed as their next commercial fall seasonal. The winner will also be entered in the 2009 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) Pro-Am competition.

The entry deadline is May 2nd, with full rules and details available on their website.

Two New Beers from Southern Star

Southern Star announced the launch of two new beers to be included as year-round products. One is a blonde lager called the Bombshell Blonde, and the other is the Buried Hatchet Stout, a big American stout.

The Bombshell Blonde has already been available on draft in limited supply. Both products are to be canned and are currently awaiting label design/approval.

Hurricane Ike Brewery Report

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike that slammed into Texas last week, two Texas brewers were situated directly in the path of that storm, Saint Arnold of Houston and Southern Star in Conroe.

Both breweries have reported minor to no damage to their facilities, and no loss to brewing capacity or storage. However, like most of the region both Saint Arnold and Southern Star remain without power, and brewing operations and tours are suspended until further notice.

The release of Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve No. 7 will continue as scheduled, as that product is already in the hands of distributors. However, availability in the Houston area may be delayed.

Southern Star Rauchbier

Southern Star has just announced plans for a true rauchbier to be sold with their other products. This would be the first rauchbier produced commercially by a Texas microbrewery.

The as-yet unnamed rauchbier is planned for brewing to begin this week. A public release date has not been announced.

Texas Brewers in the News

More news items have appeared recently featuring native Texas breweries. Saint Arnold and Austin homebrewer Kerry Martin appeared in an Austin American-Statesman piece last week entitled "Houston's Saint Arnold pronounces local homebrewer's Wiezenbock recipe Divine." Martin's winning recipe at the recent Big Batch Brew Bash competition in Houston is scheduled to become the next beer in Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve series.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Barry Schlacter brought the world's most expensive beer for a review by professional brewers in "How good is a $400 beer?" Carlsberg's Jacobsen Vintage No. 1 was sampled and reviewed over the weekend by Fort Worth brewers Jamie Fulton of The Covey and J.B. Flowers of Rahr & Sons.

And just today, a Houston ABC affiliate featured a profile of Southern Star Brewing in a news segment entitled "What's brewing in Conroe?" The video includes brief interviews with Southern Star brewers Brian Hutchins and Dave Fougeron.

BrewCrAzY Interviews Brian Hutchins

The online beer and brewing podcast show BrewCrAzY recently interviewed Brian Hutchins, brewer at Southern Star Brewery, as they tour the brewery operations on-site at Texas' newest craft brewery.

Other than an overview of the brewing process, Hutchins talks about Southern Star's next beer, their Dortmunder-style lager, specially designed around the local Conroe water.

The interview is included in BrewCrAzY's BrewCast Show 60, originally airing on May 11th. (The interview with Hutchins begins about 28 minutes into the podcast.)

Texas Brewers in the News

More news items have popped up recently about various Texas brewers. Rahr & Sons was featured in a local NBC piece last week entitled "Beer Prices Rise With Grain, Fuel Demand" regarding the rising costs associated with brewing, and thus for many other small businesses.

Bringing home a gold medal at the World Beer Cup has fueled local coverage of The Covey and its brewer, Jamie Fulton, appearing recently in both the Fort Worth Star-Telegram with "Tops in hops: Fort Worth restaurateur's beer is the toast of the 'Olympics of brewing'" and the Fort Worth Business Press in "Aging well: Local brew master perfects his beer."

Also, a profile of recent Conroe start-up brewery Southern Star appeared recently in the local Montgomery County's The Courier entitled "Commence pouring."

Texas Brewers in the News

A snapshot summary of the 2008 Texas craft brewery scene entitled "Beer mugs runneth over" appeared in Tuesday's edition of the San Antonio Express-News.

Written by Travis Poling, reporter and beer columnist for the Express-News, the article touches on the status of new breweries such as (512) Brewing, Southern Star and Franconia, as well as the upcoming Freetail Brewing brewpub in San Antonio. Also mentioned is the recent Ben E. Keith acquisition as well as a number of out-of-state craft beers likely to appear here soon.

Additionally, a report by Lee Nichols appeared in the Austin Chronicle last Friday entitled "A Disaster Brewing," recounting the origins of the drastic current hop shortages and how local Austin brewers such as Live Oak, Uncle Billy's, North by Northwest and Real Ale have been impacted.

Southern Star Grand Opening

The newest Texas brewery Southern Star will be holding its official grand opening at the brewery on April 5th from 3pm to 6pm. The first scheduled brewery tour will be on April 12th at 1pm.

Southern Star Now Open

After many delays, Southern Star Brewing is finally operational and has their first batch underway. They anticipate their first beer, the Pine Belt Pale Ale, to be available around the end of March.

Southern Star has invested in a canning line instead of bottles for their beers, making them the first craft brewers in the state to do so.

BrewCrAzY Interviews Dave Fougeron

The online beer and brewing podcast show BrewCrAzY recently interviewed Dave Fougeron of Southern Star Brewing about his background and impending first batch at the new brewery.

The interview is included in BrewCrAzY's "It's the Alcohol Talking" Show 44, originally aired on January 13th. (The interview with Fogeron begins about 20 minutes into the podcast.)