Hey, it’s National IPA Day! So, drink an IPA. Or something.
We just recently launched a fancy new website, and we’re happy to now offer a Special Order program for customers. We have the ability to special order cases and kegs, with a few caveats. 1) it has to be legal to sell in Texas obviously, 2) You need to be willing to purchase an entire case or keg worth of the beer and put down a $15 deposit. Send in an order form and let us research whether we can get that favorite beer you’ve always wanted!
- Note: If you’re unsure on whether a particular US brewery distributes to TX, this is a handy tool we like to use.
- Note #2: we won’t be able to accommodate special order requests for very limited & allocated beers (ie Jester King, Lone Pint, Firestone Walker Proprietor’s Reserve, etc. We get so few of those we can’t commit large quantities to any single customer.
Sahara’s latest blog post, #6 in the series, is titled Nice to Wheat You, and explores the life of wheat beers. It can be found here.
Free In-Store Tastings 6-8pm
Thursday, August 6th – TONIGHT!
We’ll be tasting Small Town Brewery’s Not Your Father’s Root Beer! Straight up AND we’ll have some vanilla ice cream available for mini-root beer floats. Yum yum.
Tuesday, August 11th
Brian Trivitt from Schneider Weisse will be at the tasting bar pouring free samples of a whole host of wheat beers from one of the quintessential German breweries. Taste for free Edelweisse, Hopfenweisse, Aventinus, Aventinus Eisbock and Nelson Sauvin.
Wednesday, August 12th
Save the World Brewing’s air guitar hero and owner of a luxurious mop of flowing locks Cory Rossmeissl will be back to sample out the brand new STW Quadrupel that will be released that very same day. It’s called APOCALYPSE which is awesome, and similar to STW’s barley wine features a bit of brettanomyces to cut the typical amount of sweetness most quads have. We can’t wait for this one.
Thursday, August 13th
Cedar Creek’s latest seasonal is Gone-a-Rye, an imperial IPA with some rye added to the malt bill for a bit of earthy spiciness. We’ll sample that and a few other year-round faves from them.
New Beers This Week
Back in stock: BFM Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien 2013 and 2014, Independence Stash (now in 6 packs!), Community Mosaic (arriving Friday!), Community Witbier (arriving Friday), Cedar Creek Gone-a-Rye, Independence Red Bud, Oasis Meta Modern.
New Braunfels Bauernhaus Bier Blondine – Luftweiss was the base beer for the 2nd in the New Braunfels farmhouse series. Blondine is fairly tart and finishes dry. Perle and Cascade hops are used for aroma but very low bitterness. A very clean expression of NBBC’s house sour yeast culture. 5% ABV/New Braunfels, TX/No ratings yet/Availability: decent
LoverBeer is a very highly rated brewery from Marentino, Italy that just dropped their first beers in Texas this week. They’re quite limited and all of the beers spend at least a little time in oak, so they range from mildly tart to quite sour. All were brewed in 2012 or 2013 so they each have some time on them as well.
LoverBeer Madamin – Oak aged amber ale that gets the brettanomyces yeast treatment to result in a complex tartness. 5.7% ABV
LoverBeer Beer Brugna – A spontaneous fermentation is at the heart of this wild ale. Brett and lactobacillus take center stage prior to and after Plums are added for a fruity complexity. 6.2% ABV
LoverBeer Dama Bruna – Stylistically an Oud Bruin or “old brown,” this one is malty with lots of oak aroma & flavor as well as sweet fruity characteristics. 6.7% ABV
LoverBeer D’uvaBeer – A wild ale that undergoes spontaneous fermentation, but this time with the addition of grape must for aroma & flavor hints of strawberry, raspberry & red currant. 8% ABV
LoverBeer March’L Re – The only stylistic departure from their other offerings, this one starts as their Priestess imperial stout. After the Priestess is brewed and fermented, it then undergoes 12 months of aging in oak barrels with coffee added for a very bitter, rich and almost tobacco-like finish. 8.5% ABV
LoverBeer BeerBera – No yeast was added as this wild ale was 100% spontaneously fermented through the addition of Barbera grapes and aging in oak vats. 8% ABV
Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest – Yes, you read that right. Your choice of geography means that even though it is 100+ degrees in Austin you will now be inundated with Oktoberfest beers. Sierra Nevada wins the award for first one to hit the market, and their marzen is a collaboration with German Brauhaus Riegale. 6.2% ABV/Chico, CA/Beer Advocate 86/Availability: plenty
Schneider Weisse Hopfenweisse – A very interesting collaboration between Schneider head brewer Hans-Peter Drexler and Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett Oliver. A pale and hoppy weizenbock dry hopped with Hallertauer & Saphir. 8.2% ABV/Kelheim, Germany/Ratebeer 98/Availability: plenty
Schneider Weisse Mein Nelson Sauvin – Nelson Sauvin is one of the latest “cool kid” hops from New Zealand being used for its intense island-y and tropical fruit characteristics. Schneider brewed a pale weizenbock that allows the hop aroma and flavor to take center stage. 7.3% ABV/Kelheim, Germany/Ratebeer 97/Availability: decent
Schneider Weisse Aventinus Eisbock – The standard Schneider Aventinus wheat doppelbock is pretty much THE textbook guideline for the style. The standard Aventinus version, rumor has it, underwent a partial freeze which concentrated the aromas and flavors found in the Aventinus. Head Brewer Hans-Peter Drexler brewed this eisbock as a nod to this tradition. 12% ABV/Kelheim, Germany/Ratebeer 99/Availability: plenty
Free Weekend Tastings, 6-8pm
Friday
New Braunfels Blondine
Naughty Kentucky Streetwalker
Prairie Gold
Breckenridge Breck IPA
Saturday
Epic Hop Syndrome
Grapevine Hopfest Unite IPA
Ranger Creek Purple Rhine
Slaapmutske Organic Tripel