Ginger Man Hosts "Texas Breweries" Tasting

The Ginger Man will host a "Texas Breweries" tasting at its Austin location on Monday, August 4th.

The tasting will include selections from five different Texas breweries such as Real Ale, Live Oak and Saint Arnold, as well as a few surprise guests as yet unannounced. Head brewers from the Austin-local breweries will also be present to lead the tasting and field questions.

Update: One of the unannounced breweries will be (512) Brewing, with owner and brewer Kevin Brand attending.

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

Just clearing out some minor news items, along with one significant beer article. Lee Nichols of the Austin Chronicle wrote the article entitled, "Microbrew Renaissance," a near-encyclopaedic review of current Texas breweries and brewpubs that appeared over the Fourth of July weekend. Nichols also includes beer recommendations for each of the brewers featured, as well as a small quote from this blog.

Also in the Austin media was a piece from News 8 Austin entitled, "Beer may become the new gas, in price." This article features Austin's Winemaker's and Beermakers Supply and the rising price of brewing ingredients.

And nearly beer-related is this article from the San Antonio Business Journal announcing the "Pearl Brewery site is set to be home to Texas' largest solar energy project," focusing on new commercial development of the old historic downtown Pearl Brewery site.

Live Oak at the Smithsonian

Live Oak Brewing has been invited to the Smithsonian Institute's Beer Gazetteer 2008 series next week. The invitation includes a tasting of Live Oak beers at the famous Brickskeller pub in Washington, DC, as well as a lecture by owner and brewer Chip McElroy.

The Smithsonian Resident Associate Program presents their Beer Gazetteer series each summer. For six weeks, various microbrewers from around the United States and Canada are invited to present their beers and short lectures for the public. Invited breweries this year include Live Oak, Capital Brewing of Wisconsin, Southampton Publick House of New York, Full Sail Brewing of Oregon and the Canadian brewery Unibroue.

McElroy and Live Oak will be featured on Monday, July 14, from 7pm to 10pm. Availability of event tickets is questionable, as the series has already started.

Port Aransas Brewing Now Open

The newest native Texas brewpub, Port Aransas Brewing Company, opened in Port Aransas during the last week of June in time for the Fourth of July holiday.

However, early response to this latest independent brewpub has been less than favorable. Comments by local customers range from "never try a new restaurant on opening day" to "the local brewpub just opened... and they suck." There is also speculation that the brewing operations are not actual beers brewed on-site but instead some sort of pre-packaged mixed products.

No opening announcement or review has been located, nor has any official response been found from the owner, Bob Pettit.

(512) Brewing Now Open

The latest operational Texas brewery is now (512) Brewing in Austin. Built and owned by Kevin Brand, (512) Brewing has brewed its first commercial beers in the past few weeks.

The first beers that will be available from (512) Brewing are their IPA, an American pale ale and a Belgian-style witbier. These beers should be available in keg only in the Austin area for now; there are no plans to bottle or can in the immediate future.

(512) Brewing is still awaiting final TABC approval before selling to the public.

More Texas Brewers in the News

June is proving to be a busy month for media coverage of Texas breweries. Saint Arnold has all but dominated local press this week with two additional stories, one in the Houston Chronicle entitled "More than just brew: Saint Arnold knows beer, but it also knows community." The Houston Business Journal also covered Saint Arnold's purchase of their new facilities in "St. Arnold drafts former HISD building for brewery."

Saint Arnold also takes a prominent spot in the June issue of Texas Highways magazine. A partial of their print feature "On Tap: Texas' Top 5 Microbreweries" is available online.

Franconia Brewing also received some notice this week with a piece in the Dallas Morning News entitled "Franconia owner banks on beer budgets."

Yard House Coming to Houston

The California-based beer bar chain Yard House is planning their first Texas location in Houston. The bar and restaurant is scheduled to open in March 2009 at the new CityCentre district under construction in west Houston.

The Yard House joins the native Texas establishments Flying Saucer, Ginger Man and Draught House with the same theme of "World's Largest Selection of Draft Beer" plus several hundred more available on a bottle list. The Yard House will offer full bar service and a lunch/dinner menu.

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.

Saint Arnold Begins Work on New Brewery

Saint Arnold has finalized the purchase of the building that will house their new brewing facility. With the purchase, work can begin this week to restore and build their new brewery.

The new location is at 2000 Lyons Ave, just north of downtown Houston, in a building that dates from 1914. Saint Arnold will include additional brewing equipment purchased from a German brewer, enabling them to quadruple their current brewing capacity.

Development is expected to take a year and cost $6 million.

Divine Reserve No. 6 Released

The latest in Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve series, No. 6, was released for sale this week. The official release date is Thursday but bottles of this limited-edition beer should be appearing at selected retail locations throughout the state all week long.

Divine Reserve No. 6 is a hoppy American barleywine that measures 10% ABV. A total of only 1172 cases were produced, and previous releases have sold out state-wide within days.

Studs & Suds Microbrew Festival

The inaugural Studs & Suds Microbrew Festival was held on Monday at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie. Sponsored by Ben E. Keith, the event featured their portfolio of craft beers as well as a few from Andrews Distributing.

While the number of beers available was close to 100, no local brewers were invited. The event was held within the race track, so attendance was variable as people walked between the festival and the race activities.

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 7

The 13th Annual Big Batch Brew Bash was held this past weekend. The style category this year was weizenbock, and the winner was Kerry Martin of the Austin Zealots homebrew club. As in years past, Saint Arnold will brew Martin's weizenbock recipe for their next edition in their Divine Reserve series (No. 7).

The Big Batch Brew Bash is the largest single-style homebrewing contest in the world, and is sponsored by the Kuykendahl Gran Brewers homebrew club and Saint Arnold. A total of 66 entries were entered for the competition this year.

Gordon Biersch Opens in Plano

The latest location of the California-based brewpub and restaurant chain Gordon Biersch opened yesterday at The Shops at Legacy in Plano.

Unlike the similar BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse franchise, Gordon Biersch will brew their own beers on-site. Following the German Reinheitsgebot purity law, Gordon Biersch plans six house beers, all German-style lagers.

Lovejoys Hires New Brewer

Lovejoys Tap Room & Brewery in downtown Austin recently hired a new brewer. Todd Henry, the new brewer, took over the duties from Russ Hall in March after a short apprenticeship.

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.)

Copper Thieves Hit Saint Arnold

Last week, thieves stripped open refrigeration and A/C systems on the roof of the Saint Arnold brewery in Houston and stole the copper elements inside. The thieves disabled the cooling systems and did about $75,000 worth of damage.

Production at the brewery was down for about five days, but no beer was lost.

Franconia Brewing Launches Website

The new McKinney brewery Franconia Brewing has launched their new website, including full details about the new location and operations.

Rahr & Sons Expansion

Rahr & Sons has just received three new 70-barrel fermentation tanks at their Fort Worth brewery. When fully installed, these new tanks will bring Rahr & Sons' annual brewing capacity up to about 6000 barrels.

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."

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 6

Saint Arnold has confirmed that the next beer in their Divine Reserve series (No. 6) will be a hoppy American barleywine. Brewing began yesterday and this beer should be released in June.

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.

Real Ale to Introduce 22-oz Bottles

Real Ale Brewing Company will soon start bottling their beers in 22-oz bottles, a size commonly referred to as "bombers." The first beers to be bottled in this size will be their seasonal offerings.

Real Ale's seasonals are currently not bottled and only available at draft locations.

Spoetzl Releases Spezial Leicht

The Spoetzl Brewery is expected to release a new beer for summer, the Shiner Spezial Leicht. This beer follows in the tradition of the calorie-conscious Shiner Light, which was met with some approval by consumers as a light beer that did not have all the flavor washed out. The Spezial Leicht will have only 99 calories per 12-oz bottle.

While the style of the Spezial Leicht has not been formally announced, it has been described as having a "German and Czech accent," making it most likely a light pilsner style similar to other mass-marketed light beers.