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.

Winemaker Shop Changes Hands

Fort Worth's long-time homebrew supply store The Winemaker Shop will be closing its doors for good on December 27th. It will reopen under new ownership as Fort Worth Homebrew at an new and expanded nearby location.

The Winemaker Shop is Fort Worth's oldest home winemaking and brewing supply store. Originally opened in 1971, it was purchased by Emery and Janet Baca in 2005, who expanded its inventory and became involved in many local homebrewing events and competitions.

Fort Worth Homebrew is scheduled to open January 2nd, 2009. The new location will be the same business park as the current location (Suite 2826, SE Loop 820).

Austin Meet Your Local Brewers

Edible Austin is hosting a Meet Your Local Brewers Happy Hour at Austin's Whip-In on Friday, December 12th, from 3pm to 7pm. This event is part of their Edible Austin Eat Local Week 2008 to celebrate local Central Texas restaurants and foods.

Brewers expected to attend this event include representatives from Live Oak, (512), Independence, Uncle Billy's, Real Ale, Saint Arnold and Spoetzl. Discounts on beers and dishes from the Whip-In's Indian menu will be available.

Texas Brewers in the News

Once again, the media ran another story about the rising costs of hops and grain. Not exactly breaking news any more, but at least Dallas-Fort Worth's NBC affiliate Channel 5 gave some brief prime air time to Rahr & Sons with the video, "Beer Prices Rise Over Hops Shortage."

A number of sources have published news or reviews of the new Spoetzl history, Shine On: 100 Years of Shiner Beer by Mike Renfro. These include the Bryan/College Station Eagle with "Book tells story of Shiner Beer's first century."

Not specific to any particular Texas brewer, the National Beer Wholesalers Organization released a story across the news wire celebrating "Texas Beer Distributors Recognize 75th Anniversary of Repeal of Prohibition." Texas became the 32nd state to ratify the 21st Amendment on November 24th, 1933.

Travis Poling's own story about the upcoming Commemorator doppelbock from Spoetzl was picked up by the Dallas Morning News as "Shiner brewery reveals new beer for 100th anniversary." The same story was also echoed on Draft Magazine's website as "Spoetzl Brewery's 100th anniversary beer."

Poling also covered Freetail Brewing's opening the day after Thanksgiving with his piece in the San Antonio Express-News, "Freetail brewing up taste of Texas."

Freetail Opens in San Antonio

Freetail Brewing Company opened yesterday as San Antonio's second local brewpub. Named after the Mexican free-tailed bat indigenous to the area, Freetail Brewing is owned and operated by local businessman Scott Metzger.

The menu includes brick-oven gourmet pizzas and fresh salads and sandwiches. The brewer is Jason Davis, who has experience with Austin's Waterloo Brewing and Celis Brewing, and most recently as assistant brewer at Blue Star Brewing.

Freetail opened having only other Texas commercial craft beers on tap but with plans for 13 different beers rotating throughout the year. House beers should be available by mid-December.

TABC Names New Commissioner

Governor Rick Perry has named Melinda Fredricks of Conroe to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) three-member board. Fredricks is recently of the Texas Medical Board and has worked as a political organizer, political research analyst and chair for various legislative committees.

Fredricks has a Masters of Science degree from the University of North Texas as well as experience as a math teacher in the Lake Dallas area. She will serve a five-year unrepresentative term that expires in 2013.

Live Oak Plans New Facilities

Live Oak announced that it has acquired 20 acres on the Colorado River north of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport with an intent to construct new brewing facilities. Current plans to install a bottling operation were stalled due to lack of space in their current facilities east of I-35. The new location will provide ample room for expanded production and a long-awaited bottling line.

According to owner and brewer Chip McElroy,"Don’t start holding your breath for bottles yet. Keep looking for our beers on tap. It will take us a couple of years to get the new brewery completed.”

Live Oak Primus Weizenbock

Live Oak announced the release of a new winter seasonal named Primus Weizenbock. Celebrating their one-thousandth batch brewed, this new weizenbock will join their other current products in seasonal rotation. It is named after Jan Primus, the thirteenth-century Duke of Brabant, known today as the legendary royal patron of brewing, Gambrinus.

Primus is brewed using a decoction mash and will have a final strength of 8% ABV. It will be available on tap in December.

(512) Brewing Fall Open House

(512) Brewing will hold their Fall Open House on Sunday, November 23rd, from 2pm to 4pm at their brewery facilities in Austin. This open house will include the release of their newest beer, the (512) Pecan Porter.

Shiner 100: Commemorator

According to sources at the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the Spoetzl Brewery has just filed legal label information for the final beer in their series leading to their centennial in 2009. Named Commemorator, or Shiner 100, the beer will be a traditional doppelbock style with an ABV of 6.7%.

Text included on the label reads in part,

Commemorator, our centennial offering, is brewed in the robust classic German "stark" style...

a reference to the stronger stark beer style and related beerfests of Münich. The name is also traditional, maintaining the -ator suffix for the doppelbock style as homage to its originator, Paulaner Salvator.

No release date has been indicated but annual beers in this series generally appear in the February-March timeframe.

Shiner Book Published

A new book has been published about the history of the Spoetzl Brewery. Shine On: 100 Years of Shiner Beer, written by Mike Renfro, details the history of the brewery in Shiner, Texas, as they enter their centennial year of operation. The book includes historic photographs as well as Shiner's discovery, reception and place in the Texas subculture.

A brief review of this book recently appeared in the Austin Chronicle. Shine On: 100 Years of Shiner Beer is published this month by the Houston-based publisher Bright Sky Press.

More Texas Brewers in the News

Rounding out October's media coverage are a few more articles about Texas brewers. Patrick Beach covered Austin's Draught House anniversary in the Austin American-Stateman with "Draught House looking forward to another 40 years of pouring good beer." This month marked the Draught House's 40th year in operation as a beer bar at their current location, with brewing operations since 1995.

The Houston Press also ran a piece composed of responses to Robb Walsh's recent articles there, entitled simply "Texas Beer." Many readers came forward with informed comments, additional information and corrections to his original article, "Texas Wants Beer."

Texas Brewers in the News

October is proving to be a rich month for media coverage of Texas brewers. Brad Buchholz provided a very insightful profile of Texas brewing legend Pierre Celis in his Austin American-Statesman piece, "Full circle: At 83, Belgian master brewer Pierre Celis shares his expertise with a new generation." The article follows Celis on a recent visit back to the Austin brewing scene, including his friendship with Kevin Brand and the start-up (512) Brewing.

Rob Walsh also provided a very good piece in the Houston Press entitled "Texas Wants Beer: Change This Law!" This article details the struggle Texas breweries have had with the TABC restrictions of simply selling beer on premises directly to the public. This was followed up with an opinion piece, "Texas Wants Beer: My Ten Top Texas Beers." Walsh also published a similar article in the Dallas Observer regarding the TABC restrictions on beer festivals with "Beer is good: Texas law stifles state's craft brewers."

Several stories were published about the recent Great American Beer Festival that included nods to Texas brewers. Saint Arnold received a mention in the Associated Press piece, "Finding God at a beer festival," due to their titular patron and inspiration (which also appeared in several local Texas newspapers). Uncle Billy's and Fredericksberg Brewing's gold medals even drew mention from as far away as the Philadelphia Daily News with "Texas comes up big at Great American Beer Festival."

The recent Flying Saucer Fall Beer Festival in Austin received some coverage in the Austin American-Statesman with "Less music, better beer -- that's my kind of festival." Oddly, the similar Flying Saucer festival in downtown Fort Worth received no media mention.

Texas Brewers at 2008 GABF

Several Texas brewers won medals at the 2008 Brewers Association Great American Beer Festival. The winners were announced October 11th at the conclusion of the annual event in Denver, Colorado.

Recognized Texas brewers include:

• Kellerbier/Zwickelbier: Gold for Helles Keller from Fredericksburg Brewing Company.
• Kellerbier/Zwickelbier: Silver for Hell in Keller from Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que.
• Munich-Style Helles: Silver for Summer Pils from Saint Arnold.

The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is the largest professional competition sponsored by the Brewers Association, the craft beer industry's professional organization. This year's competition included more than 2900 beers from 472 brewers with an overall attendance of 46,000.

Awards are given in 75 different style categories of beer plus pro-am categories, with the top three beers recognized with gold, silver and bronze medals.

Flying Saucer Fall Beer Festival

The third annual Fall Beer Festival was held on Saturday at Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth. Sponsored by the adjacent Flying Saucer, the event featured a variety of popular craft beers including Texas brewers, national brewers and imports.


Several cask-conditioned versions of local and other Texas beers were included, as well as Saint Arnold's latest Divine Reserve No. 7. Flying Saucer management estimates attendance at this event to be at least a third larger than the same event last year.



Also present by Flying Saucer invitation was the Arlington homebrew club Knights of the Brown Bottle with literature about homebrewing and live brewing demonstrations right on downtown's Main Street.

Shiner Holiday Cheer

Spoetzl has announced a new winter seasonal beer called Shiner Holiday Cheer. This beer is intended to replace their present seasonal (and award-winning) product Shiner Dunkelweizen, which will be discontinued.

The Shiner Holiday Cheer will also be a dunkelweizen style but with the addition of peach and pecan flavors, reflecting their Texas heritage. It will have an ABV of 5.4% and will be available November through January.

Texas Brewers in the News

A few more news items have appeared in various media sources regarding Texas brewers and the Texas beer scene. The online news source Bloomberg.com featured the success of native Texas craft breweries in their recent piece, "Texas Beer Drinkers Swap Cowboys' Longnecks for Fancy Lawnmower."

Rahr & Sons also received a little out-of-state attention from the Appleton Post-Crescent of Wisconsin with this columnist's profile of "Rahr stands out from other ambers." The Fort Worth-based Rahr family and brewing tradition are originally from Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Although now a few weeks old, Patrick Beach of the Austin-American Statesman profiled Blanco's Real Ale in his piece, "Blanco brewery keeping it Real."

Various other minor news pieces have appeared recently regarding local Oktoberfest celebrations and special beers throughout the state but these all feature already familiar seasonal products and events.

The Art of Beer 2008

The Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont is hosting "The Art of Beer 2008" on Thursday, October 16th, from 6pm to 10pm. The exhibition will include a wide variety of beer brands and styles to show the public "there's more to beer than beer." Also included are food pairings, a German dinner and local music.

The event will be held on the museum grounds with proceeds benefiting the museum and its programs. Tickets are $45 in advance or $50 at the door.

New Location for Austin Ginger Man

Austin's Ginger Man has found a new location for their landmark downtown beer pub. The new location is at 301 Lavaca, still in the historic Warehouse District and a mere block away from the current location on 4th St.

The Austin Ginger Man has been scheduled for demolition ever since their city block was bought and planned for a high-rise development. Management hopes to have the new location open by New Year's Day 2009.

Independence Anniversary Party

Austin's Independence Brewing Company will celebrate their fourth anniversary on Saturday, October 4th, from 5pm to 9pm.

The event and the beer are free, with brewery items available for purchase and local bands playing live.

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.

Flying Saucer Fall Beer Festival

The Fort Worth Flying Saucer is holding its third annual Fall Beer Festival on Saturday, October 11th, from 2pm to 10:30pm. The event will be located adjacent to the downtown Flying Saucer in the Sundance Square parking lot.

Five beer tents with up to 20 draft beers will be set up outside. Samplings will be sold through a $15 tasting card, including a free tasting glass. As in previous years, some beers are expected to be exclusive to this event and not available elsewhere.

Update: The Austin Flying Saucer will hold a similar event on Saturday, October 4th, from noon to 10pm.

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 7

Saint Arnold has announced that the next beer in the Divine Reserve series (No. 7) was bottled yesterday. The official release date for this beer is September 23rd.

Divine Reserve No. 7 is a weizenbock style, a recipe taken from the Big Batch Brew Bash homebrewing contest this past May.

Texas Brewpub Report

Unfortunately, the large number of brewpubs around the state and the frequency with which they make changes makes listing and reporting on brewpubs awkward. To make sure that each brewpub receives its share of reference on this site, this annual Texas Brewpub Report will be posted every year on the anniversary of brewpub legalization in Texas (September 1, 1993).

Total: 17 independent brewpubs

Native Brewpubs:

North Texas

Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse (Grapevine)
The Covey Restaurant & Brewery (Fort Worth)
TwoRows Restaurant & Brewery (Addison)

Central Texas

Blue Star Brewing Company (San Antonio)
Dodging Duck Brewhaus (Boerne)
The Draught House (Austin)
Faust Brewing Company (New Braunfels)
Fredericksburg Brewing Company (Fredericksburg)
Lovejoy's Tap Room & Brewery (Austin)
North by Northwest Restaurant & Brewery (Austin)
Uncle Billy's Brew & Que (Austin)

West Texas

Edelweiss Brewery & Restaurant (Alpine)
Eola School, Restaurant & Brewery (Eola)
Jaxon's Restaurant & Brewing Company (El Paso, 4 locations)
Triple J Chophouse & Brew Company (Lubbock)

East Texas

TwoRows Restaurant & Brewery (Houston)

South Texas

Padre Island Brewing Company (Padre Island)
Port Aransas Brewing Company (Port Aransas)

Out-of-State Franchises:

BJ's Restaurant & Brewery (multiple locations statewide)
Gordon Biersch Brewery & Restaurant (Plano)
Humperdink's (Big Horn Brewing) (Dallas area, 5 locations)