NXNW 12th Anniversary

Press release from NXNW. That's a mighty nice-sounding beer selection:

NORTH BY NORTHWEST CELEBRATES 12 YEARS
Join NXNW for music, fun and a limited release of their favorite seasonal beers

WHO:
North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery (NXNW) of Green Menace IPA at 7 p.m.

WHAT:
Celebrate North by Northwest’s 12th anniversary on September 4th with live music from Warren Hood and Jeremy Steding, entertainment by Nate the Great Balloon Artist and of, course, birthday cake!

Brewers Kevin Roark and Don Thompson will be tapping two firkin casks of Green Menace IPA at 7 p.m.

In addition there will be a limited release of North by Northwest’s favorite seasonal beers: Tu Helen Bock, Czech Pilsner, Summer Ale, Belgo Ale, Wit and Blonde Ale.

WHEN:
Sunday, September 4

Jeremy Steding will begin playing at 5 p.m.
Warren Hood will perform from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

COST:
$5 suggested donation benefiting SafePlace

WHERE:
North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery
10010 Capital of TX Hwy N
Austin, TX 78759

ABOUT:
Locally owned and operated by founder Davis Tucker, North by Northwest (NXNW) has been offering a mix of great craft brewed beer and fabulous food in a fun and interesting atmosphere since 1999. NXNW offers upscale food by Chef George Powell and beer brewed on site by Brewers Don Thompson and Kevin Roark. For more information, visit www.nxnwbrew.com or twitter.com/nxnwbrew.

House Brown 660

So apparently there's this new beer on the Texas market called House Brown 660. But it's not just one beer – different brewpubs each have their own recipe, but they're all using the same name to promote House Bill 660 in the Texas Legislature, a bill that would allow brewpubs to sell their beer 0ff-premises, i.e., at your local grocery store, liquor store, or other bars.

As I've noted in previous posts, it's a good piece of legislation that would remove silly obstacles to allowing these businesses to grow. If you're a craft beer-loving Texan, or even if you just support small businesses' right to reach more customers, then you should write to your state representative and state senator right now and declare your support for it. (And for HB 602, which would kinda-sorta allow microbreweries to sell their product on-premises. Click here for fuller descriptions of both.)

I think North by Northwest served up a cask version Monday night. And tonight (Thursday), here in Austin, you can get Black Star Co-op's version of House Brown 660. Head on over there and grab a pint to show your support. Or, if you'd like to make your own, head to Austin Homebrew Supply and pick up the ingredients and a recipe for yet another take on it.

But most of all, get involved and get these bills passed!

Austin Beer Week, Day 4

Okay, I did make it to NXNW last night after all. Damn, their cask-conditioned IPA was awesome, not that it surprised me in the least. And they had a raffle, and I won not one, not two, but THREE Austin Beer Week pint glasses (see photo). Ha! Suck it! I'm awesome.

Below is Tuesday's ABW schedule. Don't look for me — Tuesday is my poker night. I'll be hoping my lucky streak continues into my cards, and I'll be enjoying my growler full of NXNW IPA (not the cask version, sadly, but I'm sure still great).

(But oh, DAMN I wish I could attend that Divine Reserve vertical tasting.)

4:00 pm
Alamo S. Lamar Badass Beers
@ Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar)

4:00 pm
Special House Brews + Collaboration IPA on Cask All Week
@ Lovejoy’s Tap Room and Brewery

4:00 pm
ABW Happy Hour (4-7) + ABW Pint Glass, One Mug Club Raffle (4-8:30)
@ North By Northwest Restaurant and Brewery

5:00 pm
Jester King Meet & Greet with Brewer/Owner Jeff Stuffings
@ Draught House Pub and Brewery

5:00 pm
Beer Flight & Tasting Menu
@ Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery

5:00 pm
Independence Beer & Appetizer Pairings
@ Parkside

5:00 pm
Downtown Beer Social: Real Ale Oktoberfest!
@ Whole Foods Market - 6th St. & Lamar

5:00 pm
Pint Night with (512) Brewery
@ Red’s Porch

6:00 pm
Tapping Barrel-Aged Devil’s Share with Real Ale
@ Zax Restaurant

6:00 pm
Independence Cask Night at Opal Divine’s Marina
@ Opal Divine’s

6:00 pm
Beer + Wine + Conversation with Real Ale & Antonelli’s Cheese
@ FINO Restaurant Patio & Bar

7:00 pm
Saint Arnold Divine Reserve Vertical Tasting #1-9 with Owner/Brewer Brock Wagner
@ The Ginger Man

7:30 pm
Name That Beer Trivia
@ HomeField Grill

8:00 pm
(512) Brewing Meet & Greet
@ Doc’s Backyard Bar & Grill

So Much Beer, So Little Time

Wow, tons of events coming up here in the Austin area, and I can't keep pace with it all. I only have one liver, and not enough hours in the day. Let's do a little run-down, and no doubt I'm missing something here:

• North by Northwest Oktoberfest, Oct. 16-17: A big favorite for my family, I'll probably hit both days of this just because it's so kid-friendly. Oompah bands, German food, German-style brews, bouncy houses and facepainting for the kids, and cute waitresses in dirndls. That's really all I need in this life.
• Flying Saucer Fall Beer Festival, Oct. 16: Apparently those chuckleheads at the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission have been screwing with the Flying Saucer and have forced them to modify the setup they originally had planned, but it all sounds too complicated to summarize here. Bottom line, there is still a beerfest, it's happening noon-10pm, and there will be 50 different beers from 30 different breweries.
• Austin Beer Week, Oct. 23-30: An absolutely crazy assortment of activities, too many to list here, spread out all over the city. I won't even try. Just go check out their calendar. At a minimum, I'll definitely try to hit the Draught House's 42nd Anniversary Party on the 23rd, and no doubt I'll go to Black Star Co-op's brewery tour since it's in my neighborhood. The double feature of Strange Brew and Beerfest at Uncle Billy's Brew & Que on the 27th sounds pretty awesome, too. (Note: I really, really wish the people promoting this would have made an outreach to me. I mentioned in my "Beer Flights" column in the Chronicle that it was coming up, but I had no idea of the scope of it until just now. With earlier outreach, I could have done a bang-up feature on it in the Chronicle and really given it good publicity.)

NXNW Cask Night

It's the last Monday of the month, which means cask night at North by Northwest. I normally don't mention cask night too much on this blog, because I don't want you there. The cask only holds so many beers, and I hate it when it runs out early. More drinkers = less beer for me.

However, I don't feel up to going tonight, so I'm gonna let you have it all. Don't let me down. According the NXNW Twitter feed, tonight's offering is "Okanogan Black dry hopped with whole leaf chinook hops. Cask gets tapped at 7pm."

NXNW 11th Anniversary Party Coming Up

Sorry, I'm just gonna be lazy and reprint their press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 20, 2010

BREAST CANCER RESOURCE CENTER TO BENEFIT FROM NXNW CELEBRATION!
Restaurant and microbrewery celebrates with local music and fire dancers, all for a good cause

WHO:
North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery (NXNW)
Breast Cancer Resource Centers of Texas

WHAT:
NXNW’s 11th birthday is right around the corner on September 5th, and they are ready to celebrate with an evening of local music, NXNW-crafted brews and fire dancers, all for a good cause!

NXNW is encouraging guests to donate $5 at the door to enjoy the evening’s festivities. Some of Austin’s most popular musical acts will be part of the entertainment line-up.

Schedule of events: (Note: In honor of 11 wonderful years, expect something special at eleven past every hour!)

• 5:11 p.m. – Opening act Stephen Doster, Bill Carter and Will Sexton
• 6:11 p.m. – Jeremy Steding
• 7:11 p.m. – cask tapping of anniversary brew
• 7:30 p.m. – headliner Red Volkaert
• 9:30 p.m. – local fire dancers, Elemental Uprising
  

NXNW brewers Don Thompson and Kevin Roark will tap a cask of specially made German Pilsner anniversary beer to commemorate the occasion, and, of course, what’s a birthday celebration without cake? Pastry Chef Emily Tipps will prepare a not-to-be-missed anniversary dessert that is sure to delight guests’ taste buds.

Nate the Great Balloon Artist will also be a part of the evening’s festivities!

WHEN:
Sunday, September 5, 2010

WHERE:
North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery
10010 N. Capital of TX Hwy
Austin, TX 78759
512-467-6969

ABOUT:
Locally owned and operated by founder Davis Tucker, North by Northwest has been offering a mix of great craft brewed beer and fabulous food in a fun and interesting atmosphere since 1999. NXNW offers upscale food by chef George Powell and beer brewed on site. For more information, visit www.nxnwbrew.com or twitter.com/nxnwbrew.

Three Reasons Why You Should Go to NXNW TODAY

I've sung the virtues of seasonal drinking many times, and North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery is proving me correct right now. I stopped in this afternoon to spend some of last night's poker winnings on a growler of their Dunkelweizen (currently replacing Hefeweizen on their regular beer menu), and came away with so much more.

I haven't tried this year's Dunkelweizen yet — the growler awaits in my beer fridge, and I'll enjoy it with a Texas Lady Longhorns basketball game tonight — but I suspect it will be every bit as good as last year, with those rich tones of banana and cream.

I meant to just grab the growler and go, but then the Espresso Imperial Stout caught my eye. Coffee? Stout? Imperial? What's not to like? I stayed for just one pint, and it was well worth it. And at 7% alcohol, it wasn't quite as incapacitating as many products with "imperial" in their name, so I could enjoy it and head back to work. My only complaint was that it was served too cold. I recommend letting your glass sit for as long as you can stand it before the first sip.

But oh, my wandering eye! Right below the EIS on the seasonal beer board was Bourbon Barrel Aged Holiday Ale. Now NXNW's regular Holiday Ale was already a supremely fine barleywine, but aged in a bourbon barrel? Could it make a great thing even greater? Okay, I couldn't go quite yet. I requested just a tiny taster, and wow … the truly sublime beers don't just please your taste buds, they make your head swim with the deliciousness, and this one did just that.

As the word "seasonal" implies, these beer won't be available forever. I strongly recommend you get down there ASAP before they're gone.

If You're Missing Shiner Dunkelweizen ...

... and you live in Austin, and that new peachy concoction just isn't appealing to you, may I suggest the dunkelweizen at North by Northwest? Really, it's even better than the Shiner product. I went there for lunch this afternoon with the parental units, and filled up my growler with it.

It has this brown-gold muddy look to it, but don't let that put you off if you're more accustomed to filtered beers. The wheat flavor is rich and bold, and just screams Germany to me. It has a strong banana note to it, both on the nose and the tongue. This is one of their better offerings, and that's really saying something for North by Northwest, which is pretty consistently great.

This dunkel has replaced the hefe on their menu, I'm assuming just for the winter, so get it while you can.

Another get-while-you can: Their fabulous holiday barleywine is also on tap, although I can testify it isn't quite as fabulous as the cask-conditioned version I had back in November. Sorry if you missed it. (Don't forget: cask-conditioned night is the last Monday of every month.) Also, their bourbon-barrel aged Blackjack Ale is also now on tap. It's been over a year since I've had that, so I'll have to refresh my memory on it soon.

Big Festival Weekend

No, not ACL Fest, that's already gone by. Now it's time for the fall beer festivals, what with Oktoberfest time upon us.

North by Northwest's Oktoberfest has always been a favorite of mine, because, much like a scaled-down version of Wurstfest in New Braunfels, it has beer, sausages, and oompah music for me (not to mention cute waitresses in dirndls – that's them in the picture, plus "Pinty the Bear") and activities for my kids (bouncy houses, face painting, etc.). Anything that allows me to drink beer and not have to hire a babysitter is a good thing. That will be Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 4-5).

I'll have to go on Sunday, because Saturday I'll be at the new kid on the block, the Flying Saucer Fall Beer Festival. I don't see anything on their site about kid-friendly stuff, but it will be outside, so I assume the kiddos will have room to run around. (If not, then the Flying Saucer better do some tinkering before next year.)

[UPDATE: Oh, forgot: Today is also the 4th Anniversary Party of Independence Brewing! Happy Fourth, guys!]

Damn, this is really going to get me fired up for Wurstfest. And you know, sooner or later I'm going to have to check out Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg, but unfortunately, it's this weekend and I've already made my plans to be here in town. Maybe next year. Those Hill Country towns know how to do their German up right.

(Oh, and speaking of cute women in dirndls, I would be remiss if I did remind you to check out the best blog ever, Oktoberfest Girls, which has been having near-daily updates this month.)

Cask-conditioned competition tonight

Actually, not completely in competition – you could possibly do both if you were motivated enough, but I'm not.

At 6pm, Zax Pints and Plates (Barton Springs & Riverside) will tap a cask of Saint Arnold Christmas Ale, which has my mouth watering just thinking about it. This has become one of my very favorite holiday beers, so the thought of getting a cask-conditioned version makes my mind explode. But the thought of driving or even taking the bus downtown during rush hour is unappealing. Perhaps if I worked downtown.

But at 8pm, North by Northwest will tap a cask of porter, so I think I'll be doing that instead. Note that this is a week earlier than their usual last-Wednesday-of-the-month cask-conditioned night, and it's an hour later than usual.

Cask-conditioned beer rocks

I've been privileged to have cask-conditioned ales twice in the past week, and both attempts have been most successful. The first was Nov. 28 at North by Northwest, which offers a keg of cask-conditioned ale on the last Wednesday of every month. (Now forget I told you that, because I don't want you there — I get very sad when the keg runs out.) The other was Tuesday night at Uncle Billy's Brew & Que. Both were marvelously hoppy pale ales.

If you aren't familiar with the cask-conditioned ale, I'm not sure how to explain it, since I'm not a brewer. I think the way to explain it — and I'm probably wrong — is that after brewing, it continues to mature in the cask, and its carbonation occurs naturally instead of having CO2 artificially pumped in. And to get the beer out, pressure is not pumped into the keg — you either use a pump (common in a lot of English bars) or just use gravity (see the photo). It can taste a bit flat compared to regular bottled or keg beers, but once you get used to it, you realize the flavors can come out much better without all the extra gas. If you've had draft beer in a London pub, you have the idea. A better bet than trusting me is to read this article.

I think it's magnificent. And it's too rare of a treat here in Austin. When I was in Portland, it seemed like every brewpub had a cask-conditioned on tap, and I think I tried every one. You've gotta love the beer snobbery of a city where cask-conditioned ales are expected. (Humulone Red, by the way — he was at both events — disagreed with me. He thought the rarity of it here made it more of a special treat. I also know the Draught House have sometimes featured cask-conditioned homebrews, and the last time I was at the Ginger Man (some time ago), they had a cask version of Saint Arnold's Elissa IPA.

The next time you see a cask-conditioned is being served somewhere, give it a shot. Unless you're in Austin. In that case, I don't want you there taking my beer.

NXNW Cask Conditioned night

I shouldn't tell y'all this, because it will just mean less for me, but duty compels me: Tonight is cask-conditioned ale night at North by Northwest (it's always last Wednesday of the month – and if anybody from NXNW is reading this, you really need to keep your calendar up to date). I have no idea what style it will be, and sadly, I might not even be able to make it because of a work conflict. I'm in serious debate as to just how important this other event really is.

One reason why NXNW's Oktoberfest party is awesome

Because the waitresses wear this outfit. Oh yeah, the beer kicks butt, too.

[EDIT: I'm not the only one who enjoyed the costumes, as is apparent from this posting on craigslist:

I just wanted to give a shout out to the super freaking hot NXNW Octoberfest ladies working at Octoberfest last Saturday. The beer tent wasn't the only one pitched that day. Thank you for making it THAT much better. We'd also like to give a shout out to our friends the wind and your very cute panties. It was certainly a day to remember.]

NXNW Oktoberfest This Weekend

The hits on my website have been through the roof lately, more than double what they were this time last year. A big part of that is people searching for the phrase "Oktoberfest in Austin," and they're hitting on my info from last year. Well, here's your first taste for this year: North by Northwest's Oktoberfest is coming up this weekend. Click here for info.

(Thanks to Lance for the heads-up.)