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Big Reds & Bubbles: Let the games begin
So it’s unofficially the holiday season. Thursday night the Wine & Food Foundation kicked it off with Big Reds & Bubbles at the event’s longtime home, the Driskill Hotel.
There was much seasonal fabulousness, and it didn’t hurt my mood that we were greeted by glasses of La Marca Prosecco from Veneto, Italy as we arrived on the mezzanine. Most of the reds, as advertised, were pleasingly, explosively plump, and the food — from dozens of our best restaurants was the product of a lot of thought and innvention: Perry’s Steakhouse and Grill offered smoked beef tenderloin drizzled with a bacon marmalade. Mark Paul and Stewart Scruggs of Wink (and Zoot) served tuna Nicoise. Perhaps most interested was Kenichi’s miso-cured beef tongue tacos. Executive Chef Mark Struhal said the trick is a long braise.
I really wish I hadn’t been tricked into eating lunch before this thing. There was a lot I just didn’t have room to sample. But there’s always next year.
(American-Statesman photo by Patrick Beach)
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Jester King Brewery has a home
Exciting news from Jeffrey Stuffings: His upstart brewery has secured four acres of land in southwest Austin and a warehouse in Victoria is being taken apart and shipped.
Stuffings quit his job as an attorney earlier this year to pursue the dream of making beer. Of course, there was the little matter of fundraising. There’s now $500,000 of investor dough to play with, which is at least a start.
Stuffings says they hope to lay the foundation in four to six weeks, with the aim of having beer out the door next spring or summer. Based on the test batches he’s made — samples of which he’s kindly passed along to me — it’s gonna be good. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, over at Circle Brewing, Ben Sabel and Judson Mulherin have ordered the equipment for their 30-barrel brewhouse. It’s being put together right now, meaning they should have it in the spring.
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What does Paste magazine know about beer?
Quite a lot, actually. Their piece on the 25 best American breweries of the decade makes some fairly astonishing picks. More intriguing is their favorite beers from those breweries. Bigfoot over Celebration at Sierra Nevada? Bah!
But then the only real purpose of such lists is to start verbal fisticuffs, right?
Speaking of Sierra Nevada, has anybody had their Estate, the one with hops and barley grown on site in Chico? I don’t know if I want to pay $9 for that until somebody tells me it’s great.
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No crummy picture but a really great dinner
That was “Boar Meets Beer,” the wild game dinner at Uncle Bill’s Sunday night. A stuffed wild boar chop with purple potatoes au gratin with brewer Brian Peters’ Bitchin’ Camaro, a sort of hoppy amber. Outstanding. As was the chocolate mousse in an edible white chocolate cup served with Insomniac Coffee Stout. And an appetizer of chilled asparagus wrapped with venison paired with a malty pils.
It was a pretty great night. If you’ve never been to a brewer’s dinner there, they’re planning another one in the spring.
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Black Star Co-op has a home
Typical fall Saturday in this part of the world: The Longhorns creamed Baylor, it was warm enough that people were asking “Is this November?” and a bold new business venture took a big step toward reality.
But this last event was unique, as the Black Star Co-op Pub & Brewery opened its doors for tours and a beer social at the new Midtown Commons development at N. Lamar and Airport boulevards, a few steps from Capital Metro’s Crestview Station commuter rail stop. It was such a big deal the agency even had one of its trains stop by.
“I’d like to formally welcome you to the site of the world’s first cooperatively owned brew pub,” founder Steven Yarak told the crowd of maybe 200 people who turned out to tour an empty building and sample beers from five local breweries. It’s worth nothing that not one of the beers was made by Black Star’s brewer, Jeff Young, but that’s because Young only had tape lines to show where his barrels and fermenters will be when the co-op opens, tentatively in June 2010.
Like commuter rail, the cooperative brew pub has been a long time coming and subject to delays. Yarak got things rolling in January 2006 with the idea of having a beer bar owned by its regular customers. At the first meeting to propose the idea and drum up interest was Young, who’d — serendipity alert — arrived in town maybe a week earlier with the aim of getting a brewing job. Young lobbied to make the bar a brew pub. From that first meeting, attended by some 16 people, the co-op has sold more than 1,200 memberships to folks in 20 states and three countries outside the U.S. — all of those transactions made, until Saturday, on nothing more concrete than an idea.
It’s a painfully Austin-y conception. The 4,000- or so square-foot space will offer a local and season twist on English pub food, an on-premises-brewed portfolio of beers, some 20 guest taps and specialty beers in bottles. (But don’t expect a lot of TVs tuned to the game. This won’t be a sports bar.) Young is especially excited about Waterloo, a wheat ale to be made with Hill Country peaches that he described as a perfect potable for Austin’s eternal and punishing summers. Architect and co-op member Matthew Nesbitt said the aim is for the space to be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building. And Yarak told the crowd that employees would be paid “a living wage” and gratuities would not be allowed. If that comes to pass, Black Star would be possibly the only public space in Austin besides Weed-Corley-Fish without a tip jar on the counter.
The co-op now aims to double its membership by spring and raise $375,000 in member investor shares, not unlike preferred stock in the for-profit world. Once the pub turns a profit, those investors — loyal regulars, it’s safe to bet — will enjoy “an annual refund on your bar tab,” Yarak said.
Was there any question the idea would become reality, or at least a step closer?
“I never doubted it for a minute,” Yarak said.
(American-Statesman photos by Alberto Martinez)
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Beer pong at the Dobie
Actually, just a movie about the “sport:” Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong” screens at the Dobie Theater, 2021 Guadalupe St., at 9 p.m. Thursday. Press release:
“Directed by Dan Lindsay and executive produced by Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me” fame), “Last Cup” follows four teams on their way to Nevada for the second annual “World Series of Beer Pong” where the team with the sharpest accuracy (and highest tolerance) stands to walk away with $50,000. “Last Cup” cuts through the drunken revelry and sets its cameras on four very different teams, culminating in a sobering and nail-biting conclusion.”
Editorial comment: Gosh, gee, wish I didn’t have a prior engagement. I’d embed the trailer but it’s kinda NSFW. It will, however, likely confirm your suspicion, if you are older than 19, that beer pong is stupid and gross and so are the people who play it. Sorry, do I sound like a crochety old man? What I meant to say was: Have fun, you crazy kids!
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RVSP deadline today for “Winemakers” event next week
Case you hadn’t heard, Ross Outon from Twin Liquors won the PBS reality series “The Winemakers.” And they’re having a reception in the “Austin City Limits” studios from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday. But you’ve got to RSVP no later than today. Attendance is free; you just need to let them know you’re coming.
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Black Star Co-op announces location
At long last. What’s billed as the world’s first cooperatively owned pub and brewery will show off its physical space at Midtown Commons at N. Lamar and St. Johns at 1 p.m. Saturday in a presentation and beer social for member-owners. (Or, come to think, I bet if you stopped by and asked them to sell you a membership they can set you up.)
This does not, alas, mean they’re open for business just yet but be patient just a bit longer.
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Wurstfest: What’s up with that?
All these years I’d never been to Wurstfest, OK? And now I’m the booze columnist and blogger so Sunday we went to the the big fall fete in New Braunfels.
You had your five kinds of sausage on a stick, although the chicken-fried bacon and a few other of your cardiologist’s favorites were sold out, which is to be expected on the event’s last day. The beer was appropriately Germanic; I stuck to Paulaner Oktoberfest. But at $6 a cup it wasn’t exactly cheap. And I forgot my lederhosen. And the weather wasn’t the greatest.
On the other hand, how can you not love a fest that calls itself the “10-day salute to sausage?”
Will I go again next year? Eh. Am I missing something here? Anybody care to make a case for the grand delights of Wurstfest that I apparently missed?
UPDATE: After reading numerous comments including the ones posted below, I am forced to accept the conclusion that I am irredeemably lame: Going on the last day (and during the day at that), only trying one of the beers and steadfastly not getting into the music. But I’d already attended three other Oktoberfests in recent weeks — I was oompahed out.
I’ll try again next year. I think.
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Why we love Draught House/Draft Horse/Whatever
Because bars only turn 41 once, it’s important to get the party just right. Saturday’s soiree for the Central Austin pub and brewery was a grand affair, and devotees showed their loyalty early and in abundance. Like:
We actually got there almost 15 minutes before the announced 1 p.m. start time and the gates weren’t open. A half-hour later, the parking lot next door (because the DH’s own lot was fenced off for the party) was nearly completely full. Already a couple hundred beer hounds were milling about outside in the sunshine, while inside easily fewer than a dozen people cheered on the Longhorns.
Clearly the people outside had their priorities in order, because manager-brewer Josh Wilson had — besides his own in-house brews, of course — some amazing and rare stuff socked away, including a two-year-old keg of Dogfish Head 120, a three-year-old keg of Live Oak’s Old Tree Hugger barley wine, Bear Republic’s Mach 10 (their double IPA, sort of a double Racer 5), two sour ales from New Belgium, the new brown ale from (512) and roughly a dozen more. A DJ was spinning, people gnawed on pork chops on sticks and John “J’B’ Brack from Austin Homebrew Supply was (for once) not having a brewing demonstration but conducting a charity fundraiser pretending to be a beer trivia contest. I did dismally, thanks for asking.
Gotta say I loved pretty much everything we sampled (although the NB Tart Lychee and Eric’s Ale are indeed tart as advertised) but the Bear Republic Mach 10 was a bit underwhelming — and I’m a huge fan of Racer 5. But if you’re expecting a true double IPA, this doesn’t even qualify as a Racer 7.5. Maybe my hopes were inflated.
Oh, and Travis Poling from Beer Across Texas was on hand selling his book of the same name.
I love neighborhood bars, especially ones that tough it out for decades and champion great beer well before it’s fashionable. The pork chop on a stick once a year doesn’t hurt, either.
(American-Statesman photo by Patrick Beach)
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Game dinner at Uncle Billy’s
And it has nothing to do with the Longhorns. Starting with a reception at 5:30 Nov. 15 with dinner at 6:30 at the brew and ‘que spot at 1530 Barton Springs Rd. and starring brewer Brian Peters’ gold medal-winning Hell in Keller, which took top honors for its category at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. (It’ll be in short supply, unfortunately, but we’re told another batch is on the way.
The menu sounds like this is going to be a don’t-miss-it kind of deal: Venison-wrapped asparagus with the aforementioned winning beer, smoked duck breast with Hill Country Organic Amber, creamy pumpkin soup in a sourdough bowl with Hop Zombie IPA (one of my favorites, that), a stuffed wild boar chop with purple potatoes au gratin and Bitchin’ Camaro and chocolate mousse with coffee stout. Seasonal, no?
Tickets are $45 and worth it; stop by or call 476-0100 to get a spot.
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Drink wine at Zax, help dogs
Zax Pints & Plates at 312 Barton Springs Rd. is having a “Meet and Mingle Yappy Hour” from 5:30-7 p.m. Monday with Brenda Lynch representing the dog-themed wines from Mutt Lynch in Sonoma County. A mere $25 gets you a wine tasting and appetizers, with a portion of the proceeds going to Emancipet and the Town Lake Animal Center. (Shouldn’t that be Lady Bird Lake Animal Center?)
For those of you wags keeping track of my weakness for horrific puns, please note I did not succumb to the urge to say Zax Bites & Plates was going to the dogs. But just woof it on over there already. Go through the front labrador. Fetch your own wine and keep your paws off mine. I pant take it any more, it’s time to end this tail.
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What do you get a bar for its 41st birthday?
Saturday the fondly regarded (and rightly so) Draught House Pub & Brewery at 4112 Medical Pkwy. celebrates entering its fifth decade of great beer with a blowout including lots of rare offerings and PORK CHOPS ON A STICK? I am so, so there.
And so will be Travis Poling, who blogs at Beer Across Texas and who will be signing the book of the same name he co-authored. He’ll be hanging around from 1-10 p.m. If you’re anywhere around central Austin Saturday and don’t stop by, you’re just, like, stupid.
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Ross Outon declared overlord of universe on “Winemakers”
So have you been watching “The Winemakers,” the PBS reality show in which contestants battle for a chance to start their own wine label? Turns out Twin Liquors’ wine guy Ross Outon won the whole deal. Hearty backslaps to Outon, who made some pretty great juice, a bottle or two of which you can pick up at Twin’s Hancock Center location.
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New brew, open house at (512) Saturday
Here’s a good way to start out All Hallow’s Eve: (5122) Brewing is having an open house from 1-4 p.m. Saturday. They’ll be sampling their new double brown ale, Bruin. And they’re a costume contest. The brewery is at 407 Radam.
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Cruzan rum dinner at 219 West
Seems like whenever I have a couple of drinks my pictures turn out like that. Anyway, that’s ahi tuna tartare with mango-habanero guacamole, the first course chef Joel of 219 West offered at last night’s media dinner with Andrea Bearbower, brand education manager for Cruzan, the rum distiller on the island of St. Croix.
Five different cocktails accompanied the dinner. The happy hour offering was coconut rum, pineapple juice, fresh lime and champagne poured into a champagne glass. The ahi was paired with a Cruzan mango mojito. The fabulous salad (I rarely say that but this one had spinach, candied pecans, bacon and blue cheese) came with a rasperry champagne martini. Lamb chops — cooked a perfect medium — paired nicely with Cruzan black cherry sangra and things finished up with Cruzan vanilla and cream spiced coffee with warm blondes — vanilla ice cream, caramel, chocolate and toffee.
The distillery goes back to the mid-1700s; it offers rums aged two to 12 years.
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Beer, sunshine, dogs, revelry: weekend wrap-up
They had a little media pre-party at Independence Brewing Friday afternoon before the big fifth anniversary party Saturday. Rob and Amy Cartwright were pouring three kinds of Jasperilla, dogs ran around the brewhouse and Rob had briskets going on a smoker in the parking lot. Great warmup for the weekend.
The big deal Saturday was the Flying Saucer’s second fall beer fest in Triangle Park, where we sampled 14 of the 22 beers — in four-ounce pours, I should note in the interest of paying temperance lip service — made available while we were there. Highlights: Breckenridge’s 471 cask IPA, which offered a blast of citrusy hops and dangerous drinkability; Lagunitas 13; Dogfish Head’s Burton Baton; St. Arnold’s Divine Reserve #8 (still one of the best Scottish ales I’ve ever tasted); Allagash Four; and Sierra Nevada’s Edge of Darkness, a small batch brewed by the Saucer’s own Keith Schlabs at the brewery in Chico, Calif.
By the time we left, 2:30-ish, the lines were such that it was one of those get-a-pour-and-get-back-in-line-for-another sort of deals. But full pints were available, too, and everybody seemed to be enjoying the gorgeous weather.
Next was the Ginger Man’s first Oktoberfest, with really, really good brats, potato soup and more from Sullivan’s. General manager and fashion maven Corina Guillory turned up in a skirt made from an old beer umbrella. Inventive and cutting edge, no?
And we wrapped things up at North By Northwest’s Oktoberfest, which is always a blow-out. A liter of Oktoberfest for $6 ($8 on Sunday for some reason) is a pretty reasonable deal. And Oma and the Oompahs are really hard to resist — even though they looked like they needed a break by mid-Sunday afternoon.
Ah, fall in Austin.
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It’s still drunk driving if you drive this
Ya just gotta read this: La-Z-Boy collides with car.
You know, if I had a recliner this pimped out — headlights! cupholder! — I’d want to show it off to the boys at the tavern, too. But I’d hope that between the barkeep and me, one of us would have the sense to cut me off after eight beers.
Of course, the guy claimed he was driving the chair JUST FINE until a woman jumped on and he collided with a car near the Keyboard Lounge, in Proctor, Minn.
And it’s making life difficult for our heroic members of the Iron Range law enforcement community. This from today’s Duluth News Tribune:
Proctor Deputy Police Chief Troy Foucault was supposed to be off work Thursday. He dropped his kids off at school but then decided to check in at work just to see how things were going.
“I didn’t get out of there until 4 [p.m.],” he said. “The phones were ringing off the hook — British reporters, L.A. reporters.’’
Thursday’s News Tribune story about a Proctor man convicted of driving drunk in a La-Z-Boy lounge chair powered by a lawnmower engine traveled around the world.
Foucault said he fielded at least 30 phone calls, including from reporters affiliated with Britain’s The Times newspaper, msn.com, yahoo.com, Splash News & Picture Agency, The Smoking Gun, and Court TV, among others.
Foucault said the media wanted to know exactly how the chair, which can travel 15 to 20 mph, could be driven. Some callers expressed an interest in buying it. The chair was forfeited to Proctor police, who plan to auction it with other forfeited items. Foucault said a date for that auction hasn’t been set but will be advertised in advance.
Duluth defense attorney David Keegan, who represented Dennis Anderson, the Proctor man convicted of driving the La-Z-Boy drunk, said he also was inundated with media calls Thursday.
Foucault said he’s seen nothing like it during his nine years in the Proctor Police Department.
“Our secretary wasn’t too happy,’’ he joked. “She said, ‘What have you created?’ I said, ‘I talked to the News Tribune, and all of a sudden it’s a whirlwind.’ ’’
(AP photo)
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Pace yourselves: Biggest beer weekend of the year
It’s like ACL Fest, SXSW, WWE and a tractor pull all wrapped into one weekend. Prepare to apologize to your ballooning liver Monday because there’s tons going on.
The big event is the second annual Fall Beer Festival hosted by the Flying Saucer at Triangle Park, 4700 N. Lamar Blvd., from noon-10 p.m. Saturday. Last year it was a blast, drawing something like 1,500 people, and this one promises to be better.
The deal is this: It’s free to get in but $15 gets you a glass and a tasting card with tickets for 10 sample-sized pours of 10 of the 30 featured beers. If you want a full pour, there also will be a tent there for that. And brats. And a Frisbee dunking booth, with a portion of the proceeds going to Austin’s Planet Cancer.
Oh — you want to hear about the beer? Dogfish Head’s Burton Baton, Boulewvard Smokestack, St. Arnold Divine #8, lots of cask ales, a “UR Not Worthy Tent,” beer from both coasts and in between. Saucer GM Ted Rowell has been cellaring great stuff all year, too, and some of it will be available in the restaurant as well as the park. The rarest of the lot with be Edge of Darkness, a robust brown ale brewed by none other than Keith Schlabs, the Saucer’s beer guru, and Scott Jennings, H-E-B’s beer guy, earlier this year at Sierra Nevada’s beer camp. There’s more about that on Capt. Keith’s beer blog.
Schlab said they brewed only 20 barrels of the beer, which was hopped with 55 pounds of fresh Centennial hops and “the guy at the brewery said it was fantastic.” There will be two kegs of that, so get in line.
Don’t have a Storm King Imperial Stout from Victory too early or you’ll never make it until sundown. Another piece of advice: Go early because some of the really good stuff will disappear.
Also Saturday starting at 1 p.m. is my beloved Ginger Man’s first Oktoberfest, which will actually be outside facing Third St. next door to the bar at 301 Lavaca St. German beer, German food from Sullivan’s, live music by the Lost and Nameless Orchestra, New Austin Polka Band and Gold Cure. Carnival games will raise money for Groundwork Music Project, which provides free music lessons for kids.
Still more Saturday. From 4-9 p.m. Independence Brewing Co. is marking its fifth anniversary with a big old bash at the brewery located at 3913 Todd Lane. The beer: Jasperilla Old Ale 2008 Jasperilla Old Ale 2008 aged on light oak Jasperilla Old Ale 2008 aged on toasted oak Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout Austin Amber Bootlegger Brown Ale Freestyle Wheat Independence Pale Ale
And food by Mangia. And music by the Blue Diamonds and Space Thief. Take cash (no plastic) for a $10 anniversary glass and of course your ID.
For the most Teutonically authentic vibe, you can’t do any better than North By Northwest Restaurant and Brewery’s Oktoberfest, which is so unwieldy it runs two days, from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to dark Sunday. Brats, oompah bands, wiener dog costume contests, distractions for the kiddos, fire dancers and lots more. It’s $2 to get in and this year the event benefits Breast Cancer Resource Centers, Therapy Pets Pals of Central texas and Central Texas Dachshund Rescue. Buy one of those monstrous steins and get in the spirit of things. The restaurant is at 10010 Capital of TX Hwy N.; most of the fun and games will be outside.
The NXNW folks were kind enough to drop off a growler of this year’s Oktoberfest and head brewer Ty Phelps and brewmaster Don Thompson have nailed the style, which is not always my favorite. Medium-light body, an appropriately autumnal shade of copper, extremely sessionable.
If you’re thinking about doing all three of these, I strongly suggest Cap Metro is your designated driver.
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Austin’s Grapevine Market to close
Oh, curses. As the I Love Beer blog and the Austinist have reported, the Grapevine Market at 7938 Great Northern Blvd. is closing as soon as it can liquidate its stock. The store has been open just off MoPac — and conveniently enough, right across from my house — for about 10 years.
General manager Eddy Carter said Tuesday the store was the victim of kind of a tough location — that giant sign apparently could only do so much good — and a cratering economy in which any bottle of wine over $15 was a hard sell. Wine sales are down locally and nationwide.
Carter said they’ll try to move as many of the store’s roughly 20 employees to the Round Rock location, which will remain open.
One small bit of good news is they’re having a sale to unload the inventory: 30 percent off on wine, 15 percent off beer, 25 percert off liquor and 30 percent off accessories and gourmet food items.
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Sierra Nevada Harvest night Wednesday at Zax
Word from Zax Pints & Plates at 312 Barton Springs Rd. is they’re having Harvest night Wednesday, with the original Harvest on draft and a few bottles of the Estate Ale.
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Dog Fish Head over my fave, Bridgeport, or Stone? Good to see Lagunitas made the list; have a bottle of their Hop Stoopid waiting for a taste.
... read the full comment by Winchester | Comment on What does Paste magazine know about beer? Read What does Paste magazine know about beer?
i’m completely excited about Black Star. i can’t wait to get one going in San Francisco!
... read the full comment by Peter Smith | Comment on Black Star Co-op has a home Read Black Star Co-op has a home
How about we split the cost and enjoy a half-bottle in the name of spreading the news about it? :)
... read the full comment by Charles Hueter | Comment on What does Paste magazine know about beer? Read What does Paste magazine know about beer?
Ahem, you left out the delectable pumpkin soup in the sourdough bread bowl, topped with cream. I thought my mouth had died and gone to pumpkin heaven.
... read the full comment by cindyinaustin | Comment on No crummy picture but a really great dinner Read No crummy picture but a really great dinner
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