Lots of Tastings Happening for Austin Craft Beer Week, Including 512 Cellar Release and Head Can Jam No. 2! Plenty of New Beers In Stock This Week.

WhichCraft Beer Store has always been committed to promoting the unique characteristics of craft beer. We make an effort to educate and inform our customers in a way that encourages their fascination, and motivates them to explore the vast world of craft beer. To that end, we have partnered with Aviary Wine & Kitchen and a number of businesses that promote craft products to bring you A Taste of Texas, beer and food pairing. During two sessions on Saturday, November 5th, participants will be guided through a curated tasting of Texas craft beers, paired side by side with local cheeses from Antonelli’s Cheese Shop and cured meats from Austin local butcher shops. The result will be an exploration into local flavors with a focus on Texas’ craft food culture. We invite you to be a part of this experience. Tickets for both the 2:30pm and 5:00pm Sessions can be found on Eventbrite.


Christmas is right around the corner and WhichCraft Beer Store is gearing up with pre-sales of our annual advent calendars. These customized cases are a great way to make the holidays even more festive by surprising you with a new beer every day leading up to Christmas! Full details on  WhichCraft’s Advent Calendar pre-sale can be found on our Blog. These calendars are a huge hit every year, but only a limited number are available so place your orders now. Purchases can be made either in person or over the phone. A valid form of ID will be required to pick up your calendars. Cheers!


It’s that time of year again! Our favorite German-ish town to the south is throwing their annual sausage-and-polka-and-lederhosen-and-beer event…Wurstfest! WhichCraft Beer Store will once again be organizing a shuttle to and from the event, and we’ll be hitting a few breweries along the way. The trip was a HUGE success last year and we expect it to be even more fun this year. This shindig kicks off at 12:00PM on Saturday, November 12th, and tickets are $60 per person. More info and tickets can be found on our Eventbrite page.


We at WhichCraft Beer Store are looking forward to attending this years Austin Homebrew Festival, taking place on November 4th at Saengerrunde Hall. In many ways, home brewers drive the craft beer industry forward by innovating on existing styles of beer, as well as exploring new ones. The Austin Homebrewers Festival is an opportunity for home brewers around central Texas to meet, collaborate and most importantly… Drink! Tickets for the festival are on sale now and, as a supporter of  WhichCraft, Austin Homebrew Festival is giving you the chance to save on admission. Just follow this link to the festival’s Eventbrite page to take advantage of this exclusive promotion. More information on AHF can be found on the their website.

Free In-Store Tastings – All 6-8pm Except Where Noted

Thursday October 27th – TONIGHT!

Our friends from Artisanal Imports will be stopping by to guide us through a free tasting of Kriek des Jacobins, La Trappe Quad and Aspall Dry. Fans of traditional Belgian styles should not miss this!

Friday, October 28th

For the second time, we’re is teaming up with our neighbors at Audio Zeal to bring you this exclusive pairing event. Head Can Jam is a chance for you to sample some world-class beers while being treated to musical samples severed up on some of the industry’s most cutting edge equipment.  Audio Zeal will be providing the turn tables and headphones, and our friends at Epic Brewing will be providing the tasty brews. Its beer and music together, as they were always meant to be.

Saturday, October 29th

12-2pm – Our friend Daniel from Jolly Pumpkin Brewery will be behind the tasting bar to sample out some of our favorite beers from Jolly Pumpkin and North Peak. Beers included in the tasting lineup will be North Peak Mellow, North Peak Diabolical, and Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela.

3-5pm – Lexi From Deep Ellum Brewing Company out of Dallas will be dropping by for a special daytime tasting of their full lineup of canned brews. Its gonna ROCK!

6-8pm WhichCraft Beer Store will be hosting a special in store tasting. Beers included in the tasting lineup will be Barrow 784 Wit, Saint Arnold Oktoberfest, Austin Beerworks Heavy Machinery Belgian IPA and Sam Smith’s Winter Welcome.

Monday, October 31st

We will be hosting Kevin from Circle Brewing Company for a special pairing event, where we will sample their delicious beers, side by side with some local artisan cheeses.

Tuesday, November 1st

Aaron from Victory Beer will be in the shop to host a free tasting event featuring their Prima Pils, Winter Cheers and Dirt Wolf IPA.

Wednesday, November 2nd

512 Brewing’s own Dan Goodman will be here to host an exclusive tasting of  2015 Wild Bear bruin style sour ale. As part of this tasting event, WhichCraft will be releasing a limited number of bottles of 2015 512 Funky Kingston  and 2015 512 WBADPP from its cellar.

Thursday, November 3rd

The folks from New Belgium Brewing will be in the house to sample out their new Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale, as well as their Accumulation White IPA and Clutch Sour Ale.

New Beers This Week

Back in Stock: Austin Beerworks Heavy Machinery Belgian IPA, Lone Pint Yellow Rose 4pk, Founder’s Porter, Founder’s Harvest, Strange Land Bishop’s Gate, Guadalupe Gruene, Martin House Salty Lady, Tallgrass Zombie Monkie, Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere, Independence Cucumber Redbud, Firestone Walker Luponic Distortion, Jester King Fantome Del Rey.

Stone XocovezaThis insanely delicious take on Mexican hot chocolate is crafted with cocoa, coffee, pasilla peppers, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. 8.1% ABV / Escondido, CA / Ratebeer 99 / Availability: Very Limited

Founder’s Backwoods Bastard – Big and delicious for your ’perty mouth. Expect lovely, warm smells of single malt scotch, oaky bourbon barrels, smoke, sweet caramel and roasted malts. A bit of earthy spice and a scintilla of dark cherries. It’s a kick-back sipper made to excite the palate. 11.6% ABV / Grand Rapids, MI / Ratebeer 100 / Availability: Limited

Sam’s Smith Winter Welcome – Bottle: Pasteurised.Each year the label has a different picture. Ingredients: Water, malted barley, yeast, hops, seaweed finings, carbon dioxide. 6% ABV / Tadcaster, England / Beeradvocate 83 / Availability: Decent

Sierra Nevada Celebration – Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale represents a time honored tradition of brewing a special beer for the holiday season. There are generous portions of barley malts and fine whole hops of several varieties, creating a brew with a full, rich and hearty character. 6.8% ABV / Chico, CA / Ratebeer 98 / Availability: Decent  

Anchor Our Special Ale – The Ale’s recipe is different every year, but the intent with which we offer it remains the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the earth, with its seasons appears born anew. 5.5% ABV / San Francisco, CA / Ratebeer 90 / Availability: Good

Oasis Buff Sisters – Dry Hopped Belgian Ale w/ Fresh Citrus. 4.8% ABV / Austin, TX / Availability: Good

Lagunitas Born YesterdaySince Born Yesterday is bottled and shipped the very same day—probably the freshest Fresh Hop ale you’ll get your paws on. This puppy is made from whole-cone, un-kilned Mosaic, Equinox, Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo hops from our farmer friends in Yakima, WA. 6.5% ABV / Petaluma, CA / Ratebeer 99 / Availability: Limited

Great Divide Oatmeal Yeti – Much like its legendary predecessors, this Yeti is big, bold and dark.  The addition of rolled oats softens Yeti’s notoriously roasty backbone and the small amount of raisins added in the brew kettle create a unique dark fruit character. 9.5% ABV / Denver, CO / Ratebeer 99 / Availability: Limited

Stone 20th Anniversary Encore Series: 02.02.02 Vertical Epic Ale – Vertical Epic 02/02/02 was not brewed “to style”. Instead, the brewers tried to create something new. It’s triple-ish in nature, with wit character, coriander and orange peel, and has way more hops than either a Belgian triple or a Wit would. Belgian yeast was used. Belgian Strong Ale is the closest category that fits. 7.5% ABV / Escondido, CA / Ratebeer 98 / Availability: Limited

Barrow Evil Catfish IPA – This beer was inspired by a local legend and aims to create its own. Hoppy citrus notes with an intense but round bitterness. Multiply types of 2-row malt add to the character of this beer that finishes with a pleasant hoppy note. Evil catfish is dry-hopped several days before it is packaged for your consumption. 6.3% ABV / Salado, CA / Availability: Good

Barrow 784 Belgian Wit – The 784 is the number of people who voted for beer in 2014, enabling Barrow Brewing to establish itself in downtown Salado. This witte (white) beer has orange rind and coriander with a traditional Belgian yeast note. It is creamy and refreshing all at the same time. 5.8% ABV / Salado, CA / Availability: Good

The Bruery Gypsy Tart – Gypsy Tart is a Flanders-style brown ale with a California touch. A beer that can trace it’s origins to Great Britain, but more famously perfected in western Belgium, has been updated through modern techniques, delivering the sweet body and mildly tart finish that has won over numerous generations of beer drinkers in Europe. 8.4% ABV / Anaheim, CA / Ratebeer 89 / Availability: Decent

Crafted Artisan Meadery Bananas Foster Forever – Honey and banana wine with spices. 6% ABV / Mogadore, OH / Availability: Good

Crafted Artisan Meadery Gose Project Watermelon – Honey and Watermelon Wine with Sea Salt and Coriander. 6% ABV / Mogadore, OH / Availability: Good

Prairie ‘Merica – ‘Merica is a single malt, single hop farmhouse ale. It’s brewed with floor malted pilsner and 3lbs per bbl Nelson Sauvin hops. The beer is conditioned with 2 brett strains and wine yeast. The Nelson hops provide white wine flavors while Brettanomyces add a juicy quality to the beer. 7.5% ABV / Tulsa, OK / Ratebeer 98 / Availability: Decent

Prairie 4th Anniversary – This brew is refreshing with a lemon citrus aroma. The ginger is just enough to give this lightly sour ale an added dimension of flavor that keeps you coming back for more. 6.5% ABV / Tulsa, OK / Ratebeer 91 / Availability: Decent

Cascade Black Cap Raspberry 2016 – This NW style sour blond ale was barrel aged for 28 months before spending an additional two months on 300+ pounds of Black Cap raspberries: think Nouveau Boujoulais with blackberries. Vinous then sweet aromas of tart blackberries are the first to be noticed. Sharp, acidic notes of tart berries and leather on the palate lead to a sharp, dark berry presence and a finish with a prolonged dry fruit note. 6.5% ABV / Portland, OR / Ratebeer 99 / Availability: Limited

Martin House Turtle Power – This philanthropic seasonal was inspired by a Turtles favorite treat – blackberries. It turns out that brewers love blackberries as much as their reptilian cohorts. The strong malt and hop body of this altbier mixes well with the flavor of the blackberries for an excellent fall time treat. Martin House is brewing this beer to bring awareness to the plight of land based turtles and tortoises and the wonderful organization that leads this good fight – the Turtle Survival Alliance.7% ABV / Fort Worth, TX / Availability: Decent

5 Stones Toby G’s – Traditional Ale brewed with roasted pecans, vanilla beans, and Texas honey. 7.2 % ABV / Cibolo, TX / Availability: Decent

New Belgium Accumulation – Accumulation White IPA was inspired by the white beauty that falls each winter from the Colorado sky. Flurries of Mosaic and Amarillo hops bring soft fruit and citrus flavor, followed by a layer of bitter. Piled high in IBUs, Accumulation will make your winter brighter. 6.2% ABV / Fort Collins, CO / Beeradvocate 84 / Availability: Good

*Lakewood Thread Spinner – A lively American Barleywine aged in freshly-emptied bourbon barrels from Witherspoon Distillery. 13.5% ABV / Garland, TX / Availability: Limited / *Arriving Friday

Abita Christmas – Its spicy character is excellent with traditional holiday foods such as gingerbread or spiced nuts. Try some blue cheese or a creamy Camembert with a Christmas Ale. 6.1% ABV / Abita Springs, LA / Availability: Good

Free Weekend Tastings, 6-8pm

Friday

 Head Can Jam Beer and Music Pairing with Epic Brewing and Audio Zeal! Details Above.

Saturday

Free Tasting of:

Barrow 784 Wit

Saint Arnold Oktoberfest

Beerworks Heavy Machinery Belgian IPA

Sam Smith’s Winter Welcome

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