Notes From the Draught House

Just got an e-mail from the Draught House with various bits of news. The first one was about the hearing at the Texas Capitol tomorrow morning for House Bills 602 and 660, but I've already told you about that. (Try to be there if you love craft beer.) Here's the rest:

-Some of you may have noticed, but we have partnered with Antonelli's Cheese for beer and cheese pairing on Mondays. Each week, I will choose a beer and John will match a cheese with it. The sample is FREE with beer purchase. Tonight we have Chaubier, a French cheese made with 1/2 goat milk and 1/2 cow milk. It is dense and buttery and pairs nicely with Victory Brewing Company's Headwaters Pale Ale, their new soft, floral and very drinkable ale.

-This Wednesday, 3/23, at 5:30pm, we will have Deschutes brewers Tim Alexander and Brian Faivre in the House. Come by and say hi, get the inside scoop on their beers and keep a glass when buying the Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Black Butte Porter or Inversion IPA.

-Firkin Friday's have been sporadic but this Friday, 3/25, we will tap Moylan's Hopsickle, for those of you who can't get enough hops. Coming up, we will have firkins of Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti and Southern Star (Creme Brulee) Buried Hatchet Stout.

Video Tour of Souther Star

Don't adjust your volume; the first section of the video is completely silent. Give it a minute. Video by I Love Beer follower bobbrew.

Southern Star Brewing Contest

Big news from our friends out in the East Texas pines:

Attention all home brewers!

Southern Star Brewing is having a best of show competition (without the actual show). The winning recipe will be brewed here with the winner and be released as our fall seasonal. The beer will also be entered into the 2009 GABF Pro-Am competition.

As always, there are a few rules:

* Great American Beer Festival rules dictate that to be eligible for the Pro-Am, the home brewer MUST be an American Home Brewer Association member. Fortunately, Saint Arnold Brewing Company is hosting an AHA rally on 2/15/09, so if you are not a member, you can easily become one at this fun filled event. Check out further details at: www.SaintArnold.com

* Entries Must be greater than 5% ABV. Our license does not allow us to make weak beer.

* Entries must be ready to drink within 2 months after brewing. If you brew a giant, it must mellow fast.

* Entries must be "All Grain" batches.

* Entry must be able to be replicated on our system (i.e. no decoction or weird ingredient prep). We are capable of step infusion. Single step infusion preferred.

* Entries cannot be from blended batches. See above rule.

* There is no entry fee. Enter as many beers as you want. Style is open. Judges are invited to enter.

* You must submit at least 6 bottles of each entry along with the recipe(we will keep the recipe private unless you state otherwise).

* Entry deadline is MAY 2ND

Entries will be judged on a 2 round basis that may extend to three rounds by Houston area Homebrew illuminati (or as many of them as we can round up/convince to do this).Keep in mind our existing beer styles, as we are looking to diversify.

Good luck and we look forward to drinking … err, judging your entries!
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The next piece of News is that Southern Star Brewing will be celebrating its FIRST Anniversary on March 27th (a Friday) at 6pm at the brewery. We plan on having a band play and of course the tasting bar will be open. Though we won't be serving any food, but the admission is FREE and no reservations are required!

Keep an eye on the website for any updates including the name of the band and such.

We hope to see you there!

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Finally, we have a piece of distribution news. Seems that we are pretty popular outside of Texas as we are distributing Pine Belt Pale to Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois(Chicago area),North Carolina, and soon to be South Carolina.

Don't worry Texans, we haven't forgotten about you – we are working hard to try and get our beer to as many places around the state as possible. Wish we could tell everybody where they can buy it, but again legally we can't tell you.

Oh, and remember the tours start up again this Saturday (February 7th-Saturday) at 1pm and will occur every Saturday at 1pm for the winter and spring months.

We hope to see you there!

Cheers!

Brett
-SSB Webmaster

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Southern Star Brewing Company
1207 N. FM 3083 E.
Conroe, Texas 77303
936.441.BREW
(936.441.2739)
Brewery@SouthernStarBrewing.com

http://www.SouthernStarBrewing.com/

Hurricane Ike Hits Texas Breweries

That little storm that blew through Texas last weekend has impacted just about everything in our state, including the beer industry. Texas Beer is reporting that Saint Arnold and Southern Star, both of which are Houston-area brewers, are temporarily offline (in the production sense, not the Internet. Of course, both are without power, so they're probably offline in that way as well). Dammit, and I was just getting into Saint Arnold's Oktoberfest. Best of luck getting back into business, guys — thirsty Texans are counting on you.

UPDATE: I just got this note from Brock Wagner, CEO of Saint Arnold: "We got through pretty well. We were without power until last night but we don't think we lost any beer yet. Haven't finished checking everything. There may be a couple of short-term shortages, but nothing major. Hurricanes are impressive!"

Another great canned beer — this time from Texas

I should have written up Southern Star Pine Belt Pale Ale weeks ago. And actually, I did, so I'll just reprint here what I first wrote about them in The Austin Chronicle back on July 4:

[W]ow, for their first time at the plate, these guys hit it out of the park. Ignore the fact that it comes in cans (a rarity in the world of craft brewing): From the moment it poured into my glass and the smell of the hops hit my nose, I knew I'd love it. A slightly strawberryish flavor preceding a bracing, aggressive hop punch tasted wonderful going down, and heck, even my burps tasted good afterward. Rookie of the year!

I'm especially excited about Southern Star because it's yet another great Texas brewery, based out of Conroe (near Houston). I suspect this canned beer thing is a trend in the making.