'Beerfest' tonight

One last reminder: The Beerfest Sausage Feast is 7pm tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown. I'll be there, as will my pals John F, Lance, Nosregref, Jud, and Bobnoxious. If you want to join us, click on that link to buy tickets. If you're a regular reader but not someone I actually know, feel free to come up and introduce yourself, I'd love to meet you. I'll be wearing a dark green Austin Chronicle shirt, possibly covered up by a dark blue sweatshirt that says "London" on it. We'll probably hit the Gingerman afterwards.

Oh, and the menu sounds awesome. For $18, you get movie tickets and this (from the Alamo's website):

First we will serve Wurzburger Hefeweissen paired with Smitty's Sausage: Peppery sausage served with rye bread, sweet and hot mustard, and apple crisps.
Second course will be Hacker-Pschorr Edenhall Lager paired with Meyer's Sausage: Smoked Elgin sausage served with cheese and onion perogies.
The last course will be Spaten Optimator served with New Braunfel's Bratwurst: beer-braised New Braunfel's Smokehouse sausage with juniper scented saurkraut and sour cherry preserves.

Yum!

Stop reading this right now.

Get up from your computer, and get yourself over to the Draught House. As I write this, they will be open for another hour and 45 minutes. Get over there immediately and order their house brew, a winter saison. OMFG. Really awesome Belgian-style brown ale. I just had a couple of them, utterly magnificent, shared with Bill C who is visiting from Portland (a place where they know what a good brewpub is about). If you love Belgian beers, this will blow your mind, and they said they might be out of it by tomorrow.

Let it age

Karla sent me a fascinating article on how certain beers — your higher-alcohol, full-bodied ones, such as Belgians — can be a tasty treat if you let them age for a few months or years. I'd love to try this, except I don't have a wine cellar where I could keep them at 68 degrees or less. I have a beer fridge, but that would be too cold to let the aging happen. And during the Texas summers, I just can't afford to keep my house at 68, although the wife would very much like that.

***EDIT: So after saying I can't do it, the guy at Grape Vine Market just talked me into trying it. He told me to buy the special 60th anniversary edition of St. Bernardus Abt 12, and said I don't necessarily need to have my house at 68; I can probably pull it off even if I keep my house at 75 degrees. So I stuck the bottle in my closet. The key here is that, instead of aging for one or two years, he said at 75 I should age it for about five years. Which means I can't touch this bottle until 2011. You know, with a bottle of good beer in my closet, I don't know if I can hold out that long. Eh, I suppose I can. I know what Abt 12 tastes like fresh, and I can always get another bottle in the interim.

She wouldn't like England

Least justifiable reason to kill somebody: because they offered you warm beer.

Sorghum beer?

If you're one of those folks who needs a gluten-free diet, Anhueser-Busch is riding to your beer-drinking rescue with beer made from sorghum rather than barley. And apparently it's not as strange a concept as it sounds, as it's rather common in Africa.

Friends of Texas Microbreweries blog

A few posts ago I wrote about attempts by Texas microbrewers to pass a bill this legislative session that will allow them to sell their product directly to the public on the premises of their breweries. If you want to track their efforts, follow this link to a blog maintained by Houston's St. Arnold brewery. (Note: I've also permanently put the link in the "Other Beer Blogs" section to the right, listed as "Friends of Texas Microbreweries."

Antique beer for sale!

So a nice fellow from Britain sends me an e-mail today asking me if I'd be interested in buying some vintage bottles of beer from him. I'm assuming they're not still drinkable — I think the idea is to set them on the shelves and have your friends ooh and aah over them. Check out the pictures. I'd gladly do it if I had more disposable income, but given the financial wrestling I've had to do lately, I think I'd be better off spending my cash on beer I can actually drink. However, maybe I can tempt one of you with his offer.

His name is Rob Earnshaw, and his e-mail address is (posted long style so spammers can't scoop it up): robertearnshaw at btinternet dot com.

Here's what he e-mailed me:

Hi lee

I was reading your blog and thought you may be interested in this

I recently acquired 17 (full) bottles of antique beers from a relative. I thought that they may be appealing to you and your members.

Please email me back to find out more information, below I have listed the beers I acquired
17 bottles of antique beers, ales and lagers, spanning from 1953 to 1981,

mainly celebration beers.

1x Harvey's Elizabethan Ale, brewed in 1953,

1x Barclay's Russian Stout, brewed in 1966,

1x Banks imperial old ale, brewed in 1960's,

2x Gold Label, Barley Wine, brewed in 1960's

1x corked bottle of George Gale Prize old Ale, brewed in 1960's

2x St George Strong Ale, brewed specially for St Georges Taverns, 1960's.

3x George Gale Silver Jubilee Ale, brewed in 1977.

1x King & Barnes Jubilee Ale, brewed in 1977,

1x Courage Silver Jubilee Ale, brewed in 1977,

4x Ind Coope Strong Lager, brewed to celebrate the marriage of The Prince of Wales & Lady Diana Spencer, brewed in Wales in 1981

Also I have obtained a full working beautifully crafted beer pump, complete with ceramic fox hunting style handle, in a hardwood frame, roughly 50 years old, made by Gakell and Chambers Ltd.

Drop me an email if you are interested.

Best

Rob Earnshaw

E-bay listing: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/17-bottles-of-antique-beers-and-ales-from-1953-to-1981_W0QQitemZ220062699154QQihZ012QQcategoryZ13910QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZV
iewItem

Or call him at 07707083674