The Covey Closes

FORT WORTH - Fresh off a medal at this year's GABF, Fort Worth's The Covey Restaurant & Brewery abruptly closed Friday night with only hours notice.

Owner and brewer Jamie Fulton has accepted an opportunity with a new brewpub project called Farmers & Brewers based in Washington, DC. No news yet on what will become of The Covey's equipment or location.

Update: The Covey's brewhouse equipment has been sold to a start-up brewpub in Bangalore, India, and Fulton will be consulting with them for a few months as they get operations underway.

Texas Brewers at 2010 GABF

DENVER, CO - Winners were announced over the weekend at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival, and again three familiar Texas brewers brought home medals.

Recognized Texas brewers include:

• Saint Arnold: Gold for Fancy Lawnmower as a German-Style Kölsch
• Real Ale Brewing: Gold for Rio Blanco Pale Ale as an Ordinary or Special Bitter
• Saint Arnold: Silver for Elissa IPA as an Extra Special Bitter
• Saint Arnold: Silver for Oktoberfest as a Scottish-Style Ale
• The Covey Restaurant & Brewery: Bronze for Cowboy Lager as a Munich-Style Helles

The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is an annual event sponsored by the Brewers Association, the professional organization for the craft brewing industry. This year's competition included 3523 entries from 522 brewers with a total festival attendance of more than 49,000.

Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded for beers in 79 different style categories plus a separate pro-am competition.

The Covey on NBC

BREWERS IN THE NEWS

FORT WORTH - The Covey Restaurant & Brewery was featured recently in a premium television spot on local NBC affiliate KXAS (Channel 5) in their "Around Town" segment, airing just before the opening of Saturday Night Live.

The full video as well as a short online write-up is available on NBC's website as the feature entitled "One Brewmaster and a Chef: The Covey."

Profile of Rahr, Covey on DFW.com

BREWERS IN THE NEWS

FORT WORTH - Local brewers JB Flowers of Rahr & Sons and Jamie Fulton of The Covey were profiled by Barry Shlachter for the local entertainment and lifestyle website DFW.com in a piece entitled, "2 local brewers have caught lightning in a bottle."

Shlachter also profiled brewer Alan Sparkman of Arlington's brewpub Humperdink's in an accompanying piece entitled, "Humperdink's brewmaster Alan Sparkman started as a banker."

And Shlachter provides a short guide to the local beer scene in Fort Worth in a third piece, "6 burning questions about our beer sphere."

Texas Brewers at 2009 GABF

DENVER, CO - Three Texas brewers won medals at this week's 2009 Great American Beer Festival. The winners were announced yesterday at an awards ceremony of the annual event in Denver, Colorado.

Recognized Texas brewers include:

• Saint Arnold: Gold for Summer Pils as a Munich-Style Helles
• Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que: Gold for Hell in Keller as a Kellerbier/Zwickelbier
• The Covey Restaurant & Brewery: Silver for Weizenbock as a German-Style Wheat Ale
• The Covey Restaurant & Brewery: Silver for 100 as a Belgian Style Strong Specialty Ale

Sponsored by the Brewers Association, the craft beer industry's professional organization, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is the largest professional competition in the United States. This year's competition set records despite a lagging economy, including more than 3308 beers from 495 brewers with an overall attendance of 49,000.

Awards are given in 78 different style categories of beer plus pro-am categories, with the top three beers recognized with gold, silver and bronze medals.

Covey Brewer on GMT

BREWERS IN THE NEWS

DALLAS - The Covey's brewmaster Jamie Fulton appeared again yesterday on the Dallas morning show, WFAA's "Good Morning, Texas." He was featured in a segment called "Learn to make pink beer," introducing his new Prickly Pear Wheat and the upcoming beer pairing dinner.

Covey, Rahr Win Medals

Both Fort Worth brewers The Covey Restaurant & Brewery and Rahr & Sons won medals at the 2009 Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition held last month in Los Angeles, California.

The breakdown of the awards is:

• American-Style Hefeweizen: Bronze for Texas Wheat from The Covey
• Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale: Silver for 100 from The Covey
• Münchner-Style Helles: Bronze for Rahr Blonde from Rahr & Sons
• Smoke-Flavored Beer: Silver for Smokestack Stout from The Covey
• Strong Scotch Ale (Traditional): Gold for Scotch Ale from The Covey
• Vienna-Style Lager: Bronze for Vienna Lager from The Covey

The Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition is an annual BJCP-certified competition organized by the Los Angeles County Fair. It is open to any commercially licensed brewpub or brewery, with awards given for 69 different style categories plus a number of substyles.

A full listing of awards is available from the Los Angeles County Fair website.

Update: Rahr & Sons also won a medal at the 2009 North American Beer Awards, an annual competition sponsored by the North American Brewers Association. Rahr & Sons' Ugly Pug won a bronze medal in the Schwarzbier (Black Beer) category.

The North American Beer Awards is held in conjunction with the Mountain Brewers Beer Fest each summer in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Texas Brewers in the News

A busy month for media coverage of Texas brewing. An op-ed piece appeared in UNT's North Texas Daily as a local guide to the best of Denton's liquor stores and other retailers entitled, "Beer Snob's guide to Denton booze shops."

J.R. Labbe of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram mentions Rahr & Sons in an editorial about HB 1062 in another op-ed piece entitled, "Easing restrictions on microbreweries."HB 1062 is current legislation in Austin known as the Texas Brewers Parity Amendment that would allow Texas brewers to sell their product direct to the public.

The Covey's brewmaster Jamie Fulton and Head Chef Sean Merchant again appeared on the cooking portion of the Dallas morning show, WFAA's "Good Morning, Texas." They appeared in a segment called "Valentine's Day Dishes with The Covey," promoting their Valentine's Day specials for both food and beer.

Austin's breweries also received some national media attention with a piece on National Public Radio (NPR) concerning the economic effects within the brewing business entitled, "Brewery Business Hopping Despite Tanking Economy." Featured in this story were Josh Wilson of the Draught House and Kevin Brand of (512) Brewing.

Barry Schlacter of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram posted a review of Spoetzl's Shiner 100 entitled, "Flavorful beer marks Spoetzl's centennial." And Patrick Beach provides a suitable tribute in the Austin American-Statesman to Austin's relocating Ginger Man with his homage, "There's a tear in my beer - the Ginger Man is moving."

Texas Brewers in the News

More Texas brewers and retailers have appeared in various media throughout the state, including several video segments. Austin's Fox television affiliate (Channel 7) covered the grand opening of the new (512) Brewing with the piece, "New Austin Brewery Opens its Doors."

The Dallas/Fort Worth morning program, "Good Morning, Texas," of WFAA (Channel 8) carried a segment interviewing Jamie Fulton of The Covey Restaurant & Brewery with the piece, "Local Brewer wins the 'Super Bowl' of beer brewing."

Houston's CBS affiliate KHOU (Channel 11) broadcast a piece featuring Brock Wagner and Saint Arnold regarding the rise in keg thefts with "Metal thieves tapping beer kegs."

Also noted in the Austin-American Statesman's Food & Drink section is a brief paragraph announcing that Whip In has expanded with a small in-store restaurant (including wine and beer sold by the glass) with "You go there for beer, but Whip In now whips up fresh Indian food."

Covey Brewer on Morning Television

Jamie Fulton and Sean Merchant, respectively the brewer and chef at The Covey Restaurant & Brewery, are scheduled to appear this week on the local Dallas/Fort Worth morning show, "Good Morning, Texas," to talk about the brewpub and Fulton's recent win at the World Beer Cup.

The piece is scheduled for this Friday, July 25th, around 9am. "Good Morning, Texas" airs on WFAA (Channel 8), the local ABC affiliate.

Update: The piece has been rescheduled for Friday, August 8th, around 9am.

Update: The piece has again been rescheduled for Friday, August 22nd.

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 at 2008 World Beer Cup

Several Texas breweries won medals at the 2008 Brewers Association World Beer Cup. The winners were announced April 19th at the conclusion of the annual Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego, California.

Recognized Texas brewers include:

• American-style Wheat Beer: Silver for Shiner Dunkelweizen from Spoetzl
• Vienna-style Lager: Gold for Vienna Lager from The Covey Restaurant & Brewery
• German-style Heller Bock/Maibock: Bronze for Bucking Bock from Rahr & Sons
• Strong Scotch Ale: Gold for Divine Reserve No. 4 from Saint Arnold
• International Pale Ale: Silver for Elissa IPA from Saint Arnold

The World Beer Cup is a judged competition held every two years and sponsored by the Brewers Association, the craft beer industry's professional organization. This year's competition included more than 2800 beers from 644 brewers in 58 countries.

Awards are given in 91 different style categories of beer, with the top three beers recognized with gold, silver and bronze medals.