Ok, What I'd Miss?

After two weeks away (I'll write a short blog entry on Spain in the coming days) it is good to be back in Houston. Over the past 24 hours or so I've been trying to figure out what newsy items I missed out on. It seems there was some bad and some good things that occurred.
- First the bad: It seems that HB 2094 is dead. It made it further than the bill did the last time, out of committee, but due to the deep pockets of the beer distributors it has failed. Brock and Co. have sworn to try again. It will be two years so if you want to start writing your senators now and inundate them with letters it might not be a bad idea. Maybe if the folks in Austin get 2 years worth of letters maybe just maybe they'll see how much popular support there is for this bill (I know I'm naive thinking that the legislatures may actually consider the people over the deep pockets of the beer distributors, but anything is worth a try at this point).

- Ok, now with some better news. First, our two local Houston breweries had some home brewing contest. Right before I left, Southern Star Brewing had their home brew contest. The winner's recipe will be brewed as Southern Star's fall seasonal as well as entered into the GABF Pro-Am contest. The winning recipe? A Saison. SS has stated they may even try to can it. That would be awesome.
- The second bit of homebrewing news regards the 14th annual Big Brew Beer Bash, the largest single style homebrew contest in the states. Over the last few years the winning brew has been made into a Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve. Well the style this year is Strong Scotch Ale, the winner was Phillip Kaufman. His brew will be made into Divine Reserve 8 and will be released later this year.
- Lastly, while, we are talking about Saint Arnold's, they will be celebrating their 15th Anniversary this June. To celebrate they will be having a BIG party at the brewery on June 7th. See here for more details. Also Saint Arnold has posted some new pictures of their new brewery. Its coming along and the new brewhouse is in place! Can't wait for it to open.