Road Trip #3 is happening on Saturday, May 30th! This one is going to be a blast; we’re headed to Jester King, Last Stand Brewing & Strange Land Brewing. Event details and tickets are on sale here.
We’re excited to be one of only about a dozen places in town to offer pre-sales of the Austin Passbook, a local guide that allows for 2-for-1 deals at a whole host of food and event destinations in Austin. At $20, if you use it only twice it pays for itself! Find out more and pre-purchase your book here. We’re also selling the books at WhichCraft, which are active from June 1st – October 1st.
Sahara’s latest blog post (#4 in the series if you’re counting) is all about saisons, a perfect springtime beer as the temperature outside steadily climbs upward. Read more here and pick up your curated 6 pack in the shop during the month of May.
If you’re interested, check out these new articles that were published that included two of our very own staff members! Sahara helped choose the new “official” beer of Austin, courtesy of The Chronicle, and Jody picked his summer go-to beer for Austin Monthly mag.
Free In-Store Tastings 6-8pm
Thursday, May 21st
We will be having Harpoon Brewery rep Mike Zanti in to help guild us through a tasting of their fine liquids. We will be serving UFO White, UFO Big Squeeze & Harpoon Summer (all in cans), and also Leviathan double IPA.
New Beers This Week
Back in stock: Community Mosaic (bottled on Tuesday!), Adelbert’s Vintage Monks, Ballast Point Piper Down, Ballast Point Tongue Buckler, Karbach Hop Delusion, Independence Red Bud, Green Flash Silva Stout, Harpoon Leviathan Double IPA.
Hops & Grain Greenhouse Batch 20 – Batch 20 features Lemondrop & Belma hops for a citrusy punch and a floral finish. 7.7% ABV/Austin, TX/No ratings/Availability: plenty
Jester King Hibernal Dichotomos* – It’s not every week we get new Jester King beers, so we’re always super excited when we get even limited quantity of JK. The 2015 Hibernal Dichotomos features winter ingredients paired with JK’s well water and blended house yeast culture. Beets were used in the mash to give the beer a pinkish/red hue, while oranges from the Valley were used for both their juice & zest resulting in a light, fruity & dry finish. Bottles will ONLY be released starting at 6pm Friday 5/15. 5.0% ABV/Austin, TX/Beer Advocate 95/Availability: very limited, limit 1 per household/*ONLY being released at 6pm on Friday 5/15
Jester King Black Metal* – Black Metal is the other beer we’re extremely lucky to get a limited quantity of, and it will only be released for sale at 6pm on Friday 5/15, limit 1 per household. This is the first batch of Black Metal to be released in 18 months, and the first batch using only the JK house farmhouse yeast blend. The resulting brew is considerably different than previous batches. Read Jeffrey Stuffings’ description here. 9.1% ABV/Austin, TX/No ratings yet/Availability: very limited, limit 1 per household/*ONLY being released at 6pm on Friday 5/15
Buffalo Bayou Rotundone – Buffalo Bayou’s latest release is a peppery, fruity yet dry saison. It features both pink and green peppercorns with a crisp malt base for a citrusy component but dry finish. The name Rotundone comes from the chemical compound found in both peppercorns as well as some grape skins. Interestingly, 1 in 5 people can’t smell the compound that the rest of us are quite sensitive to. 8.2% ABV/Houston, TX/No ratings yet/Availability: plenty
Buffalo Bayou Bourbon Barrel Smoke on the Bayou – The standard Smoke on the Bayou is a strong scotch ale that used smoked malt from three different local Houston BBQ joints. This version was then aged in Jack Daniels bourbon barrels. Only 12 cases total came to Austin. 9% ABV/Houston, TX/No ratings yet/Availability: limited
Prairie Noir – Our apologies, these never arrived from the distributor last Friday. We received our shipment of Noir yesterday, so we still have a good quantity available as of this email going out.
Er Boqueron – Now this is certainly interesting. It’s a blonde ale brewed by Cervesa Artesenal de Xativa in Valencia, Spain, and uses Mediterranean Sea salt water in the brew. It will be light, slight fruity and with a hint of salt to it. Comes only as a single 12 oz. 5.6% ABV/Valenia, Spain/Beer Advocate 80/Availability: decent
New Braunfels Senor Sauced Fuego – New Braunfels’ continues to release their small batch wheat beers, and this on happens to coincide with them celebrating their 2nd anniversary this Saturday if you feel like making a road trip to New Braunfels. This one is a dry hopped wheat beer brewed with cinnamon, aged on oak with ghost chilis added. Fans of spicy beers will love this one. 7.2% ABV/New Braunfels, TX/No ratings yet/Availability: limited
Austin Beerworks Heavy Machinery Half IPA – The latest in the Heavy Machinery rotating IPA series is the “Half IPA,” which is really just a dry hopped pale ale. Centennial and Citra hops are used during dry hopping so it will be only slightly bitter but big on hop flavor & aroma. 5.6% ABV/Austin, TX/Beer Advocate 90/Availability: plenty, but will go fast.
Birra del Borgo Perle Ai Porci – Inspired by the Nordic tradition, this unique one is a dark colored stout. During the brew, fresh oysters and clams were added along with their shells. The oysters were rare Fin de Claire N2 oysters from Brittany’s coast. Its aroma has beautiful roasted, slightly savory and mineral notes given by the shell. It has a creamy and full-bodied mouthfeel, with a pleasant, not too strong salty ending. 5.5% ABV/Borgorose, Italy/Ratebeer 88/Availability: limited
Ace Blackjack – Ace Cider took a 100% Gravenstein apple cider and aged it in chardonnay barrels to commerorate their 21st anniversary of the cidery. 9% ABV/Sebastopol, CA/No ratings yet/Availability: decent
Uinta Monkshine – A light & refreshing Belgian blonde ale features tangy influences of the yeast, assertive malt, and light, hoppy flavor. Also aromas of allspice and fruit. 6.8% ABV/Salt Lake City, UT/Beer Advocate 81/Availability: decent
Sierra Nevada Hoptimum – Sierra’s biggest and baddest Imperial IPA, this one is hopped, dry-hopped, then torpedoed (Sierra’s proprietary hop-infusion device) to be a huge, piney hop beast. 10.4% ABV/Chico, CA/Ratebeer 99/Availability: decent
Free Weekend Tastings, 6-8pm
Friday
Jester King Black Metal (only a single bottle to sample out)
Saint Arnold Boiler Room Berliner Weisse
Austin Beerworks Half IPA
Ballast Point Piper Down Scotch Ale
Saturday
JK’s Scrumpy Hard Cider
Hops & Grain Greenhouse #20
Upslope Belgian Pale Ale
Branchline 5am to Midnight