"Craft" beer recommendation

[BradM]

I thought we all decided Miller Lite was the best craft beer.

[Pro88LX]

Their place is pretty cramped and always packed, but its definitely worth the trip. Budget at least an hour to stand in line waiting to get in(there is a separate line for to-go bottles that is way shorter if you don't plan on staying and drinking, but where is the fun in that?)

If you are in the area, hit up The Rare Barrel in Berkeley as well. They are in an old warehouse in an industrial area, and have way more room to seat people. Also tends to be far less crowded than RR. Their beers are phenomenal as well(if you like sours).

both are an hour from me and WELL worth the trek

[txsr20de]

In my opinion the biggest story is that Bell's will finally be available in Texas next week. Taps and Caps is doing a release party on Monday, everyone should have it on Tuesday. Their Two Hearted Ale is fan freaking tastic, on par with the best IPAs I've had.

Dogfish Head finally has cans in DFW which means we are getting their Flesh and Blood.

Agreed that Bell's coming to Texas is great news.

We have been getting Flesh and Blood down here for a few months, I was pretty underwhelmed to be honest. It is very drinkable, but nothing to write home about. Too malty and not enough hops for me, which is par for the course for other DFH IPAs.

I hope we see more NE IPAs getting Texas distro, I have had some recently from Trillium, Tree House, etc. that are incredible.

[BP]

Man this thread kind of died again.

So there has been some pretty big news recently in the beer world. In my opinion the biggest story is that Bell's will finally be available in Texas next week. Taps and Caps is doing a release party on Monday, everyone should have it on Tuesday. Their Two Hearted Ale is fan freaking tastic, on par with the best IPAs I've had.

Dogfish Head finally has cans in DFW which means we are getting their Flesh and Blood.

Also another big story is that Celis is opening back up in Austin. Pierre Celis pretty much invented the craft beer scene in Texas. He originally owned Hoegaarden which has a very interesting history. You've probably had their beer in some form and if not then you've certainly had one of the macro clones Shocktop or Blue Moon. Not only that but it started the ball rolling that brought us what AB Inbev is today.

He sold that brewery and opened Celis in Austin with his daughter, eventually selling it to Miller who promptly closed it down and never did anything with the name. His daughter has been producing various gypsy beers for quite some time and finally teamed up with Atwater Brewing and was able to get the rights to her family name back.

That brings us to today's Celis Brewing which will be producing the original recipe for Hoegaarden in Austin plus many other Belgian styles.

[BP]

That is a good suggestion, I've been to Pedernales a couple times, but not Real Ale, I'm staying on the northside of SA at the Marriott resort so real ale is on the way back from the wineries and Garrison Brothers.

It's an impressive place for sure and they have a distillery now. Not sure if they are selling anything from it but it's up and running. I always meant to hit up Ranger Creek as well but never made it.

[GrayStangGT]

You could check out Pedernales or drive a bit for Real Ale.

That is a good suggestion, I've been to Pedernales a couple times, but not Real Ale, I'm staying on the northside of SA at the Marriott resort so real ale is on the way back from the wineries and Garrison Brothers.

[BP]

That place looks awesome, wish it was already open to tour, I'll be down that way next weekend.

You could check out Pedernales or drive a bit for Real Ale.

[GrayStangGT]

Altstadt Brewery in Fredricksburg just started their first official brew. For those that haven't followed the place you should, it's going to be spectacular. It's owned by the Scripps family who are extremely wealthy, as in about $7 billion dollars worth. They founded HGTV, the Food Network and the Travel Channel and still own dozens of affiliates.

Anyway they have a lot of money and spared no expense in opening a fantastic destination brewery in Texas.

The building itself is a reconstructed 200+ year old German brewery and they are using a direct fired copper brew house.

https://www.facebook.com/altstadtbrewery/

That place looks awesome, wish it was already open to tour, I'll be down that way next weekend.

[BP]

Altstadt Brewery in Fredricksburg just started their first official brew. For those that haven't followed the place you should, it's going to be spectacular. It's owned by the Scripps family who are extremely wealthy, as in about $7 billion dollars worth. They founded HGTV, the Food Network and the Travel Channel and still own dozens of affiliates.

Anyway they have a lot of money and spared no expense in opening a fantastic destination brewery in Texas.

The building itself is a reconstructed 200+ year old German brewery and they are using a direct fired copper brew house.

https://www.facebook.com/altstadtbrewery/

[txsr20de]

Had some Blind Pig and Pliny the Elder yesterday. I really need to visit Russian River now.

Their place is pretty cramped and always packed, but its definitely worth the trip. Budget at least an hour to stand in line waiting to get in(there is a separate line for to-go bottles that is way shorter if you don't plan on staying and drinking, but where is the fun in that?)

If you are in the area, hit up The Rare Barrel in Berkeley as well. They are in an old warehouse in an industrial area, and have way more room to seat people. Also tends to be far less crowded than RR. Their beers are phenomenal as well(if you like sours).

[BP]

Had some Blind Pig and Pliny the Elder yesterday. I really need to visit Russian River now.

[BP]

We finally made the trek to Colorado last weekend. Visited Great Divide, New Belgium, Odell and even made it to Cheyenne and checked out Freedom's Edge.

I'd rank New Belgium right with Dogfish Head for giving the best tour I've been on. It takes about an hour and a half but you get 3-4 samples during the tour and they have a slide at the end. Being a week before my birthday our guide took me into the bottling room and let me take a couple of beers off the line to go. I can't even do that at Rahr! The only thing we had that hasn't made it here yet is their hoppy blonde they call Whizbang. We were there during it's first production run so they haven't even made it into cases yet. Not bad at all.

Odell has a very nice facility as well and it's only a few blocks away. We didn't do a tour so I don't know how theirs go. As for beers they had Jolly Russian which is fantastic.

Great Divide has two facilities and both are in Denver. Honestly there isn't much to see there. They had various versions of Yeti of course and their Titan IPA is fantastic but the place was packed and we had to pay for parking.

While we were in Fort Collins I noticed it was only about half an hour to the Wyoming border. I can say I've been there now. Not much happens in Cheyenne and it's bitterly cold and windy. They do have a couple of small breweries though so we went to the most popular one. Freedom's Edge had a Thanksgiving beer that was basically a scotch ale with some cranberries added to the batch. It worked out pretty well. I doubt they'll ever get a canning or bottling line so we'll probably never see them down here but hey if you ever happen to be in Cheyenne stop by.

We also drove as far up Pikes Peak as we could which was to mile 13. The rest of the road was closed. Not really beer related but it was part of the trip.

I do have to go back and hit up Oskar Blues, Avery and Left Hand. We just didn't have time being a weekend trip.

[Tyrone Biggums]

Man this sucks. I'm sure this is just the beginning of their total corporate domination of the craft beer market.

They won’t ever get total domination. The craft market is too big and they can’t buy up everyone. Enough people are going to catch on and start voting with their wallets. In the next 2-3 years the numbers from the existing buyouts are going to show that and buyouts won’t be as frequent. I think we’ll actually see one of the buyout locations fold within the next 5 years.

This makes me sad. Never was a fan of anything from revolver and legal draft that moved here not long ago is bland. Craft beer in the area seems to be to the point of investors simply trying to make fast profit on tolerabke beer.

The best thing Revolver made was Blood and Honey. I’m not saying it was, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was made to specifically be the flagship that carried them to a future buyout. The rest of their offerings were pretty safe and didn’t do much for me. Safe appeals to the non-craft market and that’s the path some some breweries choose. Those guys don’t appeal to me. I’ve always felt that way about Revolver, Rahr and now Legal Draft. LD has a really nice facility, but for whatever reason, investors, getting in to the stadiums, hob knobbing the political Arlington, etc., they’re playing the safe card with their initial releases. What they choose to do once they achieve a following is up to them.

As far as Arlington is concerned, Division Brewing is where it’s at. It’s not as fancy as Legal Draft, but the beer is top notch, the atmosphere and personality are genuine and Wade is always pumping out experiments and tried and true recipes that are damn good.

[phaux]

In additional news, Revolver, who was recently bought by MillerCoors, is using that big beer money and planning to open a second location at the upcoming Texas Live! district in Arlington.

This makes me sad. Never was a fan of anything from revolver and legal draft that moved here not long ago is bland. Craft beer in the area seems to be to the point of investors simply trying to make fast profit on tolerabke beer.

[95DRGT]

Yep. The community was quite lively about this yesterday. IMO, the best thing Karbach made was their Vanilla Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter. I always felt the rest of their offerings were "ok" at best. No big loss to me, but it further drives the point that ABI will go to great lengths to push the smaller guys out any way they can. Shelf and tap space comes at a premium and they’re going to take up every bit possible at any cost.

ABI isn’t stopping there. They shook up the homebrew world a couple of weeks ago when they bought Northern Brewer/Midwest Supplies. Between the two, they held the largest stake in the homebrew market in the country. This was HUGE. Not only are they attacking craft beer, they are now attacking independent homebrew shops. ABI’s ingredient buying power is extremely strong and now grain and hops will become a loss leader at NB/MS. They are essentially the Walmart of beer.



In additional news, Revolver, who was recently bought by MillerCoors, is using that big beer money and planning to open a second location at the upcoming Texas Live! district in Arlington.

The market is becoming so convoluted, even I have a hard time keeping up with who owns who and I follow beer daily. I choose to direct my money away from big beer, but it definitely takes some effort.

Man this sucks. I'm sure this is just the beginning of their total corporate domination of the craft beer market.