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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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Brooklyn beer dinner at Alamo Drafthouse
One of the best parts of this job is covering the beer dinners at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, but Sunday night they really outdid themselves for Brooklyn Brewery’s repast with Garrett Oliver, a real authority on beer and food.
It started with frites with fresh Wisconsin cheese curds, pepper bacon and gravy with Brooklyn Local 2, which is made with wildflower honey and Belgian candi sugar. Next came these HUGE curried prawns luxuriating in coconut milk and lemongrass paired with the very special Broooklyn Duvee de Cardoz, which is spiced with Indian spices such as cardamom, ginger, mace and nine others. Next was Brooklyn Local 1 with a Belgian chicken stew and fresh, buttery baguette. Finally came Paul Michie’s fancy version of smores: pumpkin graham crackers drizzled with chocolate and marshmallows Michie made with Local 2, paired with a 10 percent alcohol Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout.
Oliver talked throughout the evening about how industrial food pretty much led the way for beer to follow it, from the artisanal ways of the past giving way to a culture in which we’re sold bread that isn’t bread, cheese that isn’t cheese and beer that isn’t beer. In 1900, Oliver notes, Brooklyn alone had 48 breweries. Today, he said, “When you walk into the supermarket, you are in a version of ‘The Matrix.’” Oliver also had lots of good tales about his father, who worked in advertising and pretty much lived “Mad Men.”
It was a phenomenal evening and if this guy ever comes around again and you happen to like to eat and drink great beer, one word: Go.
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Sweet: La Dolce Vita at Laguna Gloria
Well, that was fun. Laguna Gloria was transformed into Fellini’s Rome Thursday night the Austin Museum of Art’s La Dolce Vita fundraiser, with food from more than 50 Austin Restaurants, wine and spirits from more than a dozen purveyors, an add-on Scotch tasting and cigar bar and scads of beautiful people taking in a lovely evening in a gorgeous setting.
Moonshine had a shrimp corn dog I couldn’t resist; Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort offered a lobster bisque so irresistible I had three shots, and the crab cakes from Eddie V’s were loaded with crab. It was kind of hard to take notes while balancing plates of food and glasses of wine (work, work, work) but I remember crawfish tostadas, pulled pork sandwiches from Lambert’s, sushi, ahi tuna, Frito pie, chocolate and a lot more.
The party, which benefits AMOA’s exhibition and education programs, was sold out for the first time and it felt like it. Hundreds of people who’d shuttle bused it over were lined up well before the 6 p.m. start time. And by dark all the jostling was beginning to be reminiscent of ACL — minus the eau de barnyard. One of the draws for this 20th anniversary celebration may have been the wine glass auction: Something like 20 local artists offered designs.
It was one of those nights when Austin really outdoes itself, and its residents feel very privileged to live here.
Check out a whole host of A-List photos from the evening here.
Image from La Dolce Vita by Robert Godwin FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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“Beer Across Texas” is here
That’s Travis E. Poling and Paul W. Hightower’s long-gestating book (aren’t they all?) on Lone Star breweries, micros and brewpubs. It’s a leisurely amble from West Texas to the coast, with some three dozen entries from big boys such as Anheuser-Busch inBev in Houston to the in-transition Wimberley Brewing Co., which is almost certainly the state’s smallest commercial brewery, although it’s set to expand soon when it reopens as a brick oven pizzeria serving craft beer, tentatively in late November.
It’s broken down by region if you feel like taking a drive, and our guys also offer a good bit of Texas brewing history and often-annoying and restrictive quirks in Texas law and what that means for Texas beer lovers. Ahem. We’ve talked about this before.
Poling was for many years a business writer and beer scribbler for San Antonio Express-News; Hightower is a Ft. Worth technical writer, home brewer and credentialed taster through the Beer Judge Certification Program.
Published by Maverick Publishing of San Antonio, the paperback goes for $12.95. It’s available in all Texas Barnes & Noble stores, through Amazon or soon via beeracrosstexas.com.
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Twin Liquors’ Outon hanging tough on “Winemakers”
Twin Liquors wine guru Ross Outon is still alive after three episodes of the PBS reality series “The Winemakers,” in which a dozen contestants compete to start their own wine label.
At the top of the third episode, which aired Saturday afternoon, Outon sounded borderline cocky: “One the one hand I feel like it’s mine to lose. On the other I just don’t know what to expect.”
The nine remaining contestants worked a shift at a wine tasting bar before a crowd they thought was civilian. In fact, there were lots of wine experts. Later they faced a “crossfire challenge,” in which judges grilled them on questions such as: Pinotage is acrossing of what two grape varietals?
What is the term for adding sugar to wine during fermentation?
What’s the key difference between how port and sherry are fortified?
What’s the difference between a corked wine and a cooked wine?
What’s noble rot (besides a good name for a punk band)?
Three contestants failed the exam, but when the challenge was announced before the group, Outon rubbed his palms together and smiled. According to my journalist’s math, that leaves Outon and five others.
The show first airs at 12:30 p.m. Saturdays on KLRU through Oct 31. Check, as they say, local listings.
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Palo Santo Marron is here
Delaware’s Dogfish Head is so proud of this crazy beer they made a promo DVD about how it’s made, and it’s just now entering the Texas market. I got some at Spec’s over the weekend.
It’s a splurge — about $14 for a four-pack — but I’d say worth it. It’s a 12-percent alcohol brown ale aged in a 10,000-gallon wooden barrel made from Paraguayan Palo Santo wood, which is so strong it can stop a bullet. The vessel is said to be the largest wooden brewing vessel made in the states since before Prohibition. It pours a deep, dark brown and is pretty dense and on the sweet side, with some 50 International Bittering Units to balance the notes of vanilla and molasses. Like a lot of Dogfish Head beers, the word I think of is intense. Now if I can only hang onto the other two bottles until payday, when I’ll get another four-pack…
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Brooklyn’s Garrett Oliver coming to town
An abbreviated version of this interview is running in the American-Statesman’s Bock ‘n’ Ale Ya column Wednesday, but I’m giving you lucky sots the full version here — and two days early to boot.
Dapper Garrett Oliver is a beer and food sophisticate. The brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery and author of “The Brewmaster’s Table” has lectured extensively on traditional beer and food and was way ahead of the curve on the subject of beer paired with fine dining. So when he comes to town it’s a big deal, and he’s got a full schedule this weekend. On Thursday, he has no fewer than three events: • A book signing from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Central Market (4001 N. Lamar Blvd.). • A beer and cheese pairing at the Hotel San Jose (1316 S. Congress Ave) from 4 to 6 p.m. $15. • A beer dinner at Olivia (2043 S. Lamar Blvd.) at 7 p.m. $75. Reservations: 804-2700
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek (13729 U.S. 183 N.), he’ll host a $50 four-course dinner with multiple fine offerings from the brewery.
We caught up with Oliver via e-mail as he was traveling in Japan to chat about the state of brewing, a certain controversial New Yorker article that attempted to make him and Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione adversaries and why beer just doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Austin American-Statesman: You’re almost as much about great food as you are about quality craft beer. But the move away from meat-and-potatoes/food as fuel toward gourmet offerings began decades before the revival in small breweries, at least in the States. If you agree that’s the case, why the time lag?
Garrett Oliver: Greetings from Ibaraki, Japan! Actually, when you think about it, the food revival and beer revival have been remarkably concurrent. New Albion Brewing opened in California in the late 1970’s, just as Alice Waters was bringing Chez Panisse onto the scene. Sierra Nevada opened in 1980; in 1980, sushi was still exotic and the number one condiment in the U.S. was still ketchup, not salsa. Both movements - food and craft beer - have been pretty gradual. The high-end supermarkets typified by Whole Foods and Wegmans have really only revved up in the last 5 - 10 years. One thing I will say as that no food or drink has been as thoroughly industrialized as beer was in the U.S. So craft beer had a very long climb back because beer had fallen so far when it comes to flavor and food interest.
AAS: What are your thoughts on the Texas beer scene?
GO: It seems pretty vibrant to me. When we launched Brooklyn beer in Texas, I don’t think any of us though that our strong bottle -conditioned beer, Brooklyn Local 1, was going to be among the most popular. We’ve sent whole trailers of Local 1 to Texas - at one point Texas was definitely depriving New York City of the beer! It certainly seems that Austin is a focal point of a lot of good things, so hope we can help Austin “stay weird.”
AAS: Aside from your time spent in England, where does your brewing philosophy come from?
GO: My brewing philosophy is essentially a chef’s philosophy - try to make something creative and beautiful out of honest ingredients. And always brew beers that you want to drink - and nothing else.
AAS: In the New Yorker piece last November about “extreme beer,” you sort of came off - forgive me - as Felix Unger to Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione’s Oscar Madison. You called DFH 120 “unbalanced and shrieking” and said you even found the term “extreme beer” “irredeemably pejorative.” One could argue that yours is a fairly restrictive perspective, almost like Wynton Marsalis’ stuffy view of what is and isn’t jazz. Isn’t there room for crazy beer that challenges people, even if some of the efforts fail?
GO: I was very disappointed by that article. Basically I was set up. The author cut-and-pasted my comments out of context to try to inject some dramatic tension into the article. The fact is, I pour Dogfish Head’s beers in tastings all the time, and we are good friends with those guys. We just made a beer infused with bacon, and our current release is a barrel-aged beer called “The Manhattan Project” - it literally tastes like a Manhattan! So we’re anything but stuffy or pedantic. What I actually said was that I love a lot of very strong hoppy beers - Pliny the Elder from Russian River is a great example. It’s 10% and the hops will blow your head off, but it’s really nice. We have been making 10% beers since most brewers were in junior high school - I launched Black Chocolate Stout in 1994. But although I love a lot of DFH beers, I don’t like their 120. I also did say that the term - and it’s important that we’re talking about the term itself - “extreme beer” is irredeemably pejorative. And I stand by that statement. Transfer the term to “extreme food”, “extreme wine”, or “extreme cheese”, and it sounds pretty silly, yes? Well, we are artisans and I think we should have fun, but we ought not to make our profession look bad. The term “extreme beer” makes us sound like school children. It’s hard enough getting people to understand what we’ve got to offer.
AAS: Belgian-style ales really seem to have gotten a foothold in recent years among American micros and craft brewers. What stylistic trends do you see on the horizon?
GO: Barrel-aging and sour beers are really taking hold, and becoming a part of the American brewing lexicon. The level of skill out there is just tremendous, and as I travel I see that American brewing is now widely respected worldwide. That’s very cool - it wasn’t always the case.
AAS: And speaking of crazy beers, how’d that bacon beer turn out?
GO: Excellently! We debuted it at a magnificent beer dinner at Thomas Keller’s NY restaurant Per Se. We are very happy with that beer, though it’s only an experiment. We made 20 cases and it was hard work. But it does taste just like bacon with a hint of bourbon. If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.
AAS: In terms of fine dining, wine seems to trump beer even though beer goes better with a variety of cuisines than wine. Why that persistent bias? Why do so many restaurants have a 30-page wine list and four beers?
GO: Ever since the Norman Conquest (when France took over England in 1066), English-speaking people have had a strange inferiority complex towards the French. Wine became both aspirational and intimidating - it became connected to class and to money. Now, if you go to Italy, you’ll see none of that attitude. which is one reason why the Italian brewing scene is so cool right now - they suddenly have almost 300 breweries doing some great stuff. And people embrace what they’re doing. American restaurants have been slow - they are way, way behind the American consumer. It’s very foolish of them - restaurants that have great beer lists get better customers who come back more often. And they make more money.
AAS: In terms of leveling the playing field between the big boys and operations such as Brooklyn, if you could wave your magic wand and make a single change, what would it be?
GO: The real answer to that question is “inside baseball”. Personally, all I’ve ever wanted was for the rules of the road - the law - to be enforced. The big guys don’t play by those rules, and that’s unfair. That’s okay, though - we’re still winning. I’d much rather be us than them. The decline of industrial beer is inevitable. People have taste.
AAS: A lot of people say that the best beer that’s ever been brewed is being made right now in the U.S. Whether that’s the case or not, what can we learn from brewers in other countries?
GO: “Best” is a very strong word. I do think we have the best and most exciting beer culture in the world, partially because we have our great beers and also everyone else’s. But we can learn a lot from brewers in other countries. The British brewers are masters of subtlety - they make very light ales that are flavorful and elegant. The German brewers are brilliantly consistent, and they still brew most of the best lager beers in the world. The Belgians still make some of the most complex beers in the world. So I would not go around claiming that we’re “best”. The United States now makes wonderful beers, though, and I think we have more fun doing it than anyone else.
AAS: Historically, has beer always been viewed as less refined than wine? If so, can we blame France for that?
GO: We have only ourselves to blame, but we’re getting over it. The fact is that most wine and most beer consumed in America is still industrial. But when people think of wine, they think of the 10% of wines at the top of the wine world. When people think of beer, they think of the 90% at the bottom of the beer world. Most of that is because of heavy advertising. The fact is that beer has a far wider range of flavor than wine does. It’s not even close. Beer is better able to match the complexity and diversity of American food. Many people remain unfamiliar with real beer. Many of the best beers in the world cost less than a double latte at Starbucks. That’s a minor miracle, and one that can make your life a little better every day. And makes craft brewing a fine profession to be a part of.
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Jester King tasting canceled
That thing they were going to do at Draught House Thursday night (post below)? Never mind. No word on why but they’re trying to reschedule, perhaps at a different locale.
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Twin’s Ross Outon survives on “Winemakers”
The second episode of PBS’ reality show “The Winemakers” premiered Saturday afternoon on KLRU and Twin Liquors’ own Ross Outon survived another round of the six-episode series in which 12 contestants face a variety of challenges. The winner gets a shot at starting her or his own wine label.
But let’s not get too excited. Nobody got cut this time around. In fact, they brought back a guy who got the axe in the first episode to round out three teams of three contestants each. The challenge: to make a tabletop presentation of a kind of wine without using any wine. The judging was harsh. One judge, the Simon Cowell of this show, said of one effort, “Your group’s presentation — it reminded me of a 10-year-old’s chemistry experiment. It was chaos. It was unfocused.” Harsh!
And the infighting is beginning. In an after-the-fact interview, Outon complained, “Our illustrious (team) leader decided at the last moment we needed a few more things on the table than we had planned for. So honestly, we had too much time…to second-guess ourselves.”
But the panel showed more compassion than one would ordinarily expect and ruled that no one would be sent packing — until the next episode.
The show first airs at 12:30 p.m. Saturday through the finale Oct. 31. Check, as they say, local listings.
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It’s Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg this weekend
That’s where you can get better beer than ACL. More than 50 beers this year. All kinds of info at www.oktoberfestinfbg.com.
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Hey Cupcake (Vineyards)
Adam Richardson, the director of winemaking for Underdog Wine Merchants who fairly recently launched his own Cupcake line, was in town Thursday and we sat down at Trio to have a grueling two-hour lunch and sample the portfolio from the Soledad, Calif. winery.
Richardson is a native of suburban Perth, Australia who was an aviator in the Royal Australian Navy before he turned to wine for a living. “I basically always drank a lot of wine and became a really geeky fan of wine,” he said.
We started with the sauvignon blanc, a style Richardson says more people are turning to because they’re “tired of chardonnays they don’t wnat to drink.” It’s very smooth and grapefruity but not cloying with notes of, as Richardson put it “hay instead of green grass.” (Note: Cupcake’s grapes come from everywhere from California’s Central Coast to the Andes, New Zealand the Yakima Valley in Washington. Worldly, no?)
The malbec and petit syrah were fairly outstanding, but I was especially surprised by the dry riesling, one of the winemaker’s favorite styles. Absent the ingratiating sweetness that’s a turn-off for a lot of drinkers, this riesling had fruit up front and a good acidity to balance what sweetness there was. I’ll be serving this with my Thanksgiving turkey.
Best of all, all seven of the wines we tasted are available for around $10.
Fun fact: This Australia native just saw AC/DC for the first time last fall.
(Adam Richardson photo courtesy Cupcake Vineyards.)
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So, the real question is… where is Black Star Brewery going to open up? I’ve heard rumors and I have a guess….
... read the full comment by mktiv | Comment on New brew, open house at (512) Saturday Read New brew, open house at (512) Saturday
In a similar situation, a guy was arrested for DWI last year in upstate New York for driving a “Cruzin Cooler”. The end result was that he had to pay a $400 fine.
Coincidentally, the inventor of the Cruzin Cooler is an Austinite and
... read the full comment by Walking While Intoxicated | Comment on It's still drunk driving if you drive this Read It's still drunk driving if you drive this
Good way to get those liquid carbs before the Livestrong bike ride on Sunday. So many choices, so little time (and only one liver).
... read the full comment by Jim | Comment on Pace yourselves: Biggest beer weekend of the year Read Pace yourselves: Biggest beer weekend of the year
YAY
... read the full comment by BRYAN | Comment on Pace yourselves: Biggest beer weekend of the year Read Pace yourselves: Biggest beer weekend of the year
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