"Week of Wood" at Black Star

Okay, after you've stopped giggling like Beavis and Butt-Head over the name of the event, you'll realize that you really, really want to hit Black Star Co-op every night this week, beginning tonight. Check out the descriptions:

Many of you remember the great beers from last year’s Week of Wood event we had in August. Well get ready for the 2012 edition! We’ll celebrate the presence of wood in craft brewing by tapping a special keg (or two) each day of the week, starting Memorial Day, Monday May 28, through Sunday June 3.

The lineup has been finalized! Check each day to see what barrel-aged goodness we’ll be tapping. If you can’t make it in for a specific tapping, come in when you can. These kegs should be on for a few days.

Mon May 28 – Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
Rich Imperial Brown Ale aged in special wood from Paraguay that gives this big brew very unique and complex qualities. (12% ABV; Milton, DE)

Tue May 29 – CASK of 2010 BrewDog Paradox Smokehead
Scottish Imperial Stout aged in oak barrels that aged Smokehead, Ian Macleod’s Single Islay Malt Whisky. (10+% ABV; Fraserburgh, Scotland)

Wed May 30 – Ranger Creek Bourbon Barrel Aged Mesquite Smoked Porter
Featuring malt smoked in-house over Texas mesquite wood, their Porter then aged in their own Texas Bourbon barrels. We’ll also have bottles of their Small Batch No. 1, Oak Aged Rye OPA. (7.5+% ABV; San Antonio, TX)

Thu May 31 - Jester King Whiskey Rodeo
The first batch of their Mikkeller collaboration (originally called Weasel Rodeo); a complex Imperial Oatmeal Stout w/ smoked malt, chipotle peppers, and Vietnamese coffee; but this version is 100% aged in Jack Daniels and Buffalo Trace barrels. Whiskey Rodeo also features some Lopi Luwak, the exquisite weasel/civet coffee! We also offer bottles of Beer Geek Rodeo, which you can take home to enjoy. (12% ABV; Austin, TX)

Fri Jun 1 – Southern Star Buried Hatchet Stout w/ Coffee & Oak
A special version of their Buried Hatchet (arguably an Imperial Porter), kegged w/ coffee and oak. (8.3% ABV; Conroe, TX)

Sat Jun 2 – Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti & 18th Anniversary Ale
Their Yeti Imperial Stout aged w/ French and American oak, cellared in the keg since November 2011 for extra smoothness.
A bigger version of their award-winning Denver Pale Ale with plenty of American and English hops, then aged in French and American oak to round out the edges and provide a touch of vanilla. (9.5%, 10%ABV; Denver, CO)

Sun Jun 3 – 2011 New Belgium La Folie Sour Brown (& Ooh La La!)
Nicknamed “Rodenbach of the Rockies”, this is a Flanders-style sour ale blended from beers aged 1-3 years in French wine barrels with wild yeasts and bacteria. What’s more, we’ve cellared it an additional year, AND we’ve been holding onto a keg of Ooh La La to pair with it; also from the Lips of Faith series, it’s like an Imperial Framboise (raspberry lambic), released once for Valentines’s Day 2011. (6%, 8.5%ABV; Fort Collins, CO)

Cheers, and may you and yours have a woody week!

Austin Chronicle "Beer Flights," May 11

I just realized that I forgot to post my most recent "Beer Flights" column from the May 11 Austin Chronicle. Please give it a read.

Saint Arnold Releasing Homefront IPA on Thursday

I've always admired those who are willing to sign on the dotted line and risk all to protect us, and that has deepened ever since I started working for a state senator who makes veterans her number-one issue. Here's a way to give back to them and enjoy it at the same time. Press release from Saint Arnold:

Homefront IPA Release
Thursday, May 24
Our single batch special release Homefront IPA will be coming out in 22 oz bottles only for Memorial Day weekend. It is a hop forward IPA with orange peel and orange zest. 100% of the profits from this beer will be going to Operation Homefront, an organization that provides emergency financial and other assistance to families of service members and wounded warriors.
Learn more about Homefront IPA here.

Live Oak to Start Bottling Soon!

This is a great day in the history of Texas beer. According to my Facebook friend Tony Drewry, Live Oak Brewing — which, in my humble opinion, is the best brewery in Texas — is going to start bottling soon. Tony posted this picture to Facebook.

Nice Press for Black Star Co-op

One of the things I like about Black Star Co-op, my neighborhood bar: They pay workers a living wage, instead of forcing them to rely on tips (and, in fact, the co-op doesn't allow tipping at all): http://www.good.is/post/at-one-austin-restaurant-a-living-wage-doesn-t-depend-on-tips

Beer Fests in Waco and Houston Today and Tomorrow

Hmm. "Let's go to Waco!" is not normally something I say, but this looks like a good reason:

(I'm giving Waco a hard time. It's better than its reputation. Personally, I love the Health Camp and stop there every time I pass through.)


And of course, the similarly named (but presumably much bigger) Texas Beer Festival is tomorrow in Houston:

 I worry that the organizers and my Houston readers think I've been giving them the cold shoulder — the truth is, I've just been much too busy in my personal and professional life to think much about it or this blog. Sorry about that. Now that I have a new job working in a downtown office, I Love Beer is getting neglected a bit. It was much easier to post when I was working out of my house.


The TBF sounds like it will be good. I got this press release from them last week:
With just over one week before the second annual Texas Beer Festival, at Discovery Green Park in
Downtown Houston, it is time to unveil the Specialty Beer List, and “State of the Craft” brewer’s panel.

The Great Brewers Specialty Wall is one of the biggest highlights of the Texas Beer Festival. Several months and great lengths have gone into sourcing many of these beers from our favorite Texas and National Craft Beer producers. We’ve collected over 25 beers that are rare, new to market, or custom made that will be featured both at the Specialty Wall and throughout various brewery booths. Ten of these beers are in firkins,
which are traditional vessels that are often manually tapped and frequently used for one-off beers by American craft brewers. Some will be limited to 2 ounces per patron, and may cost an additional beer ticket or two due to their high cost. We’ve also made the entire specialty wall available for the duration of the day this year, making it much more convenient to taste through your favorite rare beers at your leisure. 

The "State of the Craft" Texas Brewing Industry Panel will feature a lively discussion of where the Texas and National brewing industry has come from, where it's going, and what the future holds. Our very own Beer Commander, Jake Lewis, will moderate the discussion beginning at 2:30 pm at the Demo Stage.


This year's panelists are:
- Ronnie Crocker, Author of Houston Beer and the Beer, TX blog
- Chip McElroy, owner of Live Oak Brewery in Austin, Texas
- Scott Metzger, owner of Freetail Brewpub in San Antonio, Texas
- Brock Wagner, owner of Saint Arnold's Brewery in Houston, Texas
- Rassul Zarinfar, owner of Buffalo Bayou Brewing in Houston, Texas


The Texas Beer Fest, a one day beer tasting festival designed to promote the appreciation of craft beer, will take place on Discovery Green™ in Downtown Houston on April 28th, 2012 from 1:00pm to 7:00pm for general entry and 12:00pm to 7:00pm for VIPs. The Texas Beer Fest is the only craft beer festival in Texas featuring tastings of over 23 local, Texas breweries in one location!

Vote NXNW for Best Brewpub in America!

Chow, an online foodie magazine, is having a sort of April Madness Contest, if you will, pitting 16 brewpubs from around the Brewnited States in head-to-head matchups until a champion is crowned. And Austin is in the running: North by Northwest, one of my favorite hangouts, successfully advanced in the first round past Minneapolis' Town Hall, and now in the Elite Eight they currently have a solid 58% lead over Taos' Eske's. But they won't keep it unless you vote. Go here to cast your ballot, and perhaps vote for some others if you're familiar with them.

The playoffs have had some shocking upsets in the first round. Eske's made it past Denver's famed Wynkoop, and San Diego's Pizza Port, which I've heard great things about, also narrowly lost.

(Now, I'll be a little bit of a skeptic and question whether this is really a good way to determine best brewpub. It was obviously designed to give geographic representation across the nation, and doesn't acknowledge that there is a huge concentration of great brewpubs in the Pacific Northwest and California. To make an analogy with my favorite sport, track & field, the only reason the long-distance races in the Olympics aren't 100% Kenyan and Ethiopian is that each nation is restricted to three entries each. If Chow really wanted an elite field, about half of these entries would have been from Portland alone. And as one of the commenters on that page noted, where in the heck is northern California's Russian River? That said, I nonetheless love NXNW and think it's deserving of your vote.)