Whats on Tap

This week is another busy week in the Clear Lake area with a lot of different things going on.  

• We'll start off with an event TOMORROW! At Beers Looking at You there is a special Southern Star Pint night, where they will be tapping a unique cask of their stout with hazelnuts and cocoa.  Their regular line up will be available as well as a snifter glass while supplies last.
• On Saturday at the new HEB on Clear Lake City Boulevard there will be a Festival of Beers starting at noon and running until 4 pm.  There will be beer pairings, tastings, and much more to check out.
• Saturday evening the amazing Hamilton Loomis will be playing at Haak Winery out in Santa Fe.  The concert starts at 7 pm,  Sounds like an amazing opportunity to drink some good wine and listen to an awesome blues artist.

Quick Hits - American Craft Beer Week edition

Happy American Craft Beer week everyone!  Starting today and running through next Sunday is the annual American Craft Beer week.  A time to honor great American beer, where bars and breweries around town are hosting special events, and tapping special beers all week long.  However, before I get to that, I do want to mention some pretty cool news.  Houston Beer guide, published my review of Clear Lake's newest craft beer grolwer spot Beers Looking At You.  Feel free to go over and checkout the article and leave a comment if you so wish.

Over on the right hand side of this blog is a calendar list of up coming events, including this weeks activities for ACBW.  If anyone sees something that I haven't listed please let me know and I'll add it to the list.  I do want to highlight a couple of cool things going on this week:

• Galveston Island Brewing will be having a bunch of different tappings, or special pricing on beers throughout this week.
• Thursday the great Nobi Pub will be hosting an Odell Brewery tap take over.  Expect some special beers to be available as well.
• Friday Nobi will be hosting another brewery, this type new to Texas New Holland Brewery.  This will be a good chance to try some beers that are new to the area.
• Also Friday, J. Henry's will be tapping a cask of Karbach's 3 Legged Lab with lactose.
• Saturday Dickinson's own Texas Beer Refinery will be celebrating their second anniversary.  Go out and celebrate their second birthday with some amazing beers, music and food.
• Finally, on Sunday, Nobi will be hosting another tap take over, this time for one of the original American craft breweries, Sierra Nevada.

Again, if anyone knows of ACBW events going on around the area please let me know and I'll post it on this google calendar.

News and Notes

Whew, its been a whirl wind couple of weeks me, but there is some upcoming events, as well as some local beer news that I'd like to finally post on this here blog.
- First up, for anyone looking for something fun to do on Memorial Day, Anvil has you covered. As they did with Jester King a few months back so too will they do with Ranger Creek Brewing. Starting at 4pm on Memorial Day, Anvil will be tapping 8 special Ranger Creek Beers:
1. South Texas Lager - Dortmunder Export Style Lager
2. La Bestia Amaible
3. La Bestia Amaible aged in Port Barrels
4. La Bestia Amaible Cask aged for 5 months in Cabernet barrels.
5. Oatmeal Pale Ale
6. Cask Oatmeal Pale Ale
7. Mesquite Smoked Porter
8. 6 Month Cabernet barrel aged Mesquite Smoked Porter

Additionally Mark and Rob from Ranger Creek will be on hand to answer any questions. That should be enough to get local beer geeks excited.

- Speaking of excited, one of the few things that Houston is missing to make it a top beer city is a good beer pub. Well it looks like that is coming to an end. Thanks in no small part to the local beer community and social media, Freetail Houston has announced its second location will be in Downtown Houston. Read more here in Ronnie Crockers Beer, Tx Blog.

- Speaking of Beer, TX Ronnie also has the latest and greatest on HB 602. Will it pass? Maybe, but I'm not holding my breath, thanks to some interference from ABINBEV.

- Last but definitely not least, Leslie at local beer blog Lushtastic has done an absolutely amazing job posting a round up of all the new and soon to be Texas Breweries. The list is amazing, and shows that Texas has to be on of the best up and coming markets for craft beer. Go check it out, and if you see any missing from the list, leave a comment on her blog and she'll update it as necessary.

News, Notes, and Upcoming Events

Its been a while since I've done a news round up, but there has been a few things that have occurred this week that I wanted to post on.

- First off, in some awesome news, HB602 has passed!!!! For those that have been reading this blog, this is something we've been hoping for for many many years. Now, this is the updated version of HB602 that answered some of my earlier concerns. It's still tied to tours and there is still a limit, but its worded as such that you can go to Live Oak and pick up a growler of their amazing Hefeweizen. Next up is the Senate, where SB1863 is the companion bill to the bill that passed the house. This bill was sponsored by Ft. Worth, State Senator Wendy Davis (anyone notice that the folks that are championing small business are Democrats?). It is currently in committee, but hopefully it will pass and Governor Perry will sign it in to law. If all goes smoothly, this September, you will be able to go to a local brewery, go through a tour and pick up some beer while there.

- In not so good news, I think that HB 660 is dead. This is the bill that would allow brewpubs to sell their beer through distributors. However this beer is sitting in committee, which in my experience in following these things is code for its dead and the committee is full of too many cowards that won't even put the bill up for a vote. Having said that, those that supported this bill, don't ever give up hope. It took 3 separate session to get the brewery bill passed, and HB 660 got much further on their first try then the original brewery bill did back in 2007.

- In one more example of why I am extremely excited at what Jester King Brewery is doing, they write this post on farmhouse ales. A great post on what farmhouse brewing is, what it takes to make a great farmhouse ale, and how Jester King is going about creating some truly unique Texas Hill Country beers.

- Finally in the upcoming events announcements, Real Ale will be finishing up their local tour tomorrow at Anvil. They've hosted tappings at The Flying Saucer on Thursday, and Petrol Station today. Tomorrow at Anvil, Real Ale brewer Erik Ogershok will be available to answer questions (just as he was at Saucer and Petrol), on tap though is where it gets really exciting: Lost Gold IPA, cask-conditioned Lost Gold IPA and the barrel-aged version known as Empire. So if you want to get your fill of Lost Gold in all of its many different version, head over to Anvil, for its 5pm Tapping.

Quick Hits

It seems lately, no matter how hard I try I feel like I've been neglecting my beer blog. For one reason or another it's gotten harder to write posts. I've been wanting to do something more than just post another beer review (although I do love doing those and have a bit of a back log to get to), but I'm preoccupied with other things or am lacking the motivation to post my thoughts. Hopefully this stops now and I'll get back into the swing of updating this blog more than once a week. With that out of the way, there is news to fit to print (or type into a computer) so here it is:
- Another new brewery? Yup, except this one isn't in Austin, its not even in Houston, its waaaay out past Beaumont. Republic of Texas Brewery will be based out in the southwest corner of Newton Country. The brewery is owned by award winning home brewer John McKissack and his wife Tammy. They also host a couple of Beer podcasts, so they know their beer. They are also going about starting up a brewery in a unique way, trying to do it with out incurring any debt, which obviously means taking it very slow. Nothing wrong with that, if it helps them be self sustaining. Additionally they are trying to do things the right way with respect to the Environment:

including plans to build green houses full of plants that will help scrub the CO2 coming from their fermenters before entering the environment. “Plants take in CO2 during the day and produce oxygen, so in theory it should be possible keep the CO2 from entering the atmosphere, or at lease significantly reduce it,”

Finally, these folks are going to be making big beer, both literally and figuratively. They seem to enjoy higher gravity beers, but they are also going to be bottling in 750 mL's. They seem to be an interesting new brewery definetley one to keep your eye on.

- Another good piece of news is that Vic and Anthony's has announced their second beer dinner featuring Stone Brewing. Head over to the blog All Good Beer for a link to the menu. The first one they did featured Dogfish head and not only was the food and beer pairing amazing by all accounts, they broke out some special beers as well. At 75.00 the price is a steal considering what a normal 6 course dinner would cost you at V&A. The dinner is on August 27th but get your tickets fast becuase it will sell out quickly. I've got mine (thanks to the Houston Chowhounds recent Charity Auction).

- Last news, first reported by Ronnie Crocker over at Beer TX, Saint Arnold will be brewing Divine Reserve 10 next week. DR 10 will be an English Style Barley wine based on a the Big Batch Brew Bash winning recipe. The release date will be later this year. The best news is that there will be a lot more Divine Reserve available this time around, twice as much to be exact. Good news all around.

Tuesday Quick Hits

The first Tuesday of the month, and the first day of the week for many after a wonderful 3 day weekend. Today also brings us some interesting news from the world of beer today, some of it local:

- In some of the coolest news to come out of Saint Arnold in quite some time, they have announced (as reported by Ronnie Crocker) that they will be doing a series of special yeast relases. Releasing beers that we are familiar with like Lawnmower, Elissa, Brown, etc but brewed with different yeasts. Check out Ronnie's post and article for more information, but here is the line up:
• Weedwacker: A variation of Saint Arnold's best-selling Fancy Lawnmower. All other ingredients remain the same, but the new beer will be fermented with a Bavarian hefeweizen yeast. Available Aug. 16.

• Altared Amber: The flagship beer will be made with Belgian Trappist yeast. Available mid-November.

• Bitter Belgian: Elissa IPA, also with Belgian Trappist yeast. Available mid-February.

• Brown Bitte: Brown Ale, with Alt yeast. Available mid-May.

- July 18th is Belgian Beer Week, and many local bars will be hosting special events. Flying Saucer has announced they'll be doing something (no details yet) while Gingerman has already been a little more forthcoming with their plans for an event on the 21st of July:

Come out and join us to celebrate the country that brews some of the finest beers in the world, Belgium! There will be a special glass giveaway in addition to the regular Wednesday glass. We will also be serving select draught and bottled winter ales to celebrate Christmas in July.
Doors open at 2pm

- Also Gingerman has announced a Belgian Beer and Food tasting on July 31:
Saturday, July 31st at 1:30pm
Enjoy some of the best beers Belgium has to offer paired with food items that complement the flavor of these brews.
Admission $2

Well that's all the beer news fit to print. If anyone knows of other events let me know and I'll add them to the calendar.

Quick Hits

Just a few short notes today from around the town in beer.

- First up Saint Arnold's has announced their 16th Anniversary Party will be held on June 13th. See below for details:
What: 16th Anniversary Party
When: Sunday, June 13
Time: 1 PM to 4 PM
Cost: $36
Includes: Barbecue lunch, special glass and the spectacle of the Saint Arnold Olympics
For reservations, please follow this link: http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2wqozfc3ae386f9

- Next week on June 3rd there is a Saint Arnold's Dinner in Galveston at Fisherman's Wharf. Only $50 plus tax and tip. For reservations, call 409-765-5708.

- One other piece of news that's somewhat old but I hadn't got around to posting on them, well until now that is. A few weeks back Southern Star held their now annual Pro Am home brewing contest. Just like last year's winning beer Saison was brewed, kegged, and entered into the GABF Pro Am tour, this year's winner will be as well. The winning recipe was a Smoked Porter. Very excited about this beer. I was very sad to see SS's Smoked beer go the way of the dodo bird so I'm happy that they are brewing another one even if it's not their recipe. No word on when this one will be showing up at your local watering hole, but I would guess sometime around late August.

Beery Houston Happenings

30 MARCH UPDATE below!

There's a few things going on around Houston that I felt the need to point out.

- First up is a new note on Anvil Bar & Refuge. Fresh off an amazing anniversary party last Sunday, the crew there is continuing to give back to its customers. Starting this Saturday they will be doing half off all drafts starting from when they open at 5pm until 9pm. If it catches on with the customers, they may make this a weekly thing. So if you've been thinking Anvil's beer prices are too high, here is your chance to take advantage of some amazing beers at half off.
UPDATE: Spoke with Kevin Floyd at Anvil, they are continuing the Saturday Half off Drafts, however it is from 5pm to 8pm.

- A reminder that I'll be attending Beer Camp II this Sunday. Check out here for a list of the beers we'll be tasting. The ones that peak my personal interest? Lost Abbey Duck Duck Gooze, the Russian River beers, Southern Tier beers, Uncommon Brewery Siamese twin ale, and Surly Darkness. This should be a great event, one I've been prepping for (yep prep...its hard work!). I'll try and post my notes as soon as Sunday night on the event.

- Lastly another week another Saint Arnold's beer dinner. This time closer to where I live down in the Clear Lake Area. Local Houston Brewery has announced that next week on April 1 (nope its not April Fools!), Kemah restaurant The Flying Dutchman will be hosting a Saint Arnold's beer dinner. The dinner will be six courses, with beers paired with king crab cake, gumbo, shrimp and stuffed beef tenderloin, dessert will be bread pudding and Saint Arnold root beer. The cost is a very approachable $45. If you've been holding off on a Saint Arnold dinner due to the price then here is a great chance to go to one that is very reasonable. For reservations contact 281-334-7575

If anyone knows of other events coming up, let me know and I'll add them to the Events Calendar on the right hand side of the blog.

St. Patrick's Day without Guiness

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! The day when the masses drink loads of green beer and dark Guinness. While I respect the history of Guinness and appreciate it for what it was, life is too short to drink mediocre beer, and Saint Patrick's Day is no exception. I'm not saying don't drink an Irish Dry Stout, by all means that's exactly what you should be drinking today, but there are some really fine examples, not only from our shores but from Ireland as well. All of these should be available in Houston
American Dry Stouts:
Avery Out of Bounds Stout
Harpoon Oyster Stout
Sierra Nevada Stout

Irish Stouts:
There are of course those that we all know: Murphy's, Guinness... however my favorite Irish Stout right now is from Irish Craft Brewery Carlow Brewing Company, maker of O' Hara's Dry Stout (we also get their Irish Red Ale, another very good beer. Whatever you do just don't dye it green). This Dry Stout is an incredibly rich, roasty dark black stout. Incredibly tasty, and if you want the full Guinness effect there are bars in the area that might have this on nitro. Regardless of what you drink, have a happy Saint Patrick's day.

Coffee Porter is Everywhere!

UPDATED BELOW:
Well maybe not everywhere, but it will be served in a unique manner in two different places this week.

- First up, off of news from their Facebook page, Beer mecca, coffee house, and home of the Rancor Burger, Petrol Station will be tapping a keg of Real Ale Coffee Porter on Thursday March 4th. This isn't just any CP though, its a keg of wine barrel aged Coffee Porter! This sounds pretty awesome.

- But that's not all. The beer and cocktail place in Houston, Anvil Refuge and Bar sent out a press release over the weekend about a RA Coffee Porter Cask tapping this Saturday March 6th. Kevin Floyd and company will be tapping a fresh cask of the popular Coffee Porter aged in Oak Barrels.
UPDATE: Recieved an email clarification from the fine folks over at Anvil. The RA Coffee Porter being served on Saturday is the same that is being served at Petrol on the 4th: of wine barrel-aged coffee porter. These are the only two in the city, very rare opportunity to try this beer.



I must say I am pretty happy to see these two events being held in Houston. There are a couple of reasons why this is really good to see: 1) Simply put its great to see beer bars promoting traditional cask ale. 2) Its great to see beer bars offering beers that we are all familiar with, but served with a twist, 3) Lastly and probably most importantly, good beer and good beer bars are truly a symbiotic relationship. Bars like Anvil and Petrol support the local craft beer scene by putting Real Ale's, or 512, or Saint Arnold, or Southern Star on their tap wall, offering and discussing these beers with their patrons. In return though its nice to see some breweries offering special casks to these bars. This is something I've seen in other places around the country. Go look at the tap wall at Denver's Falling Rock, they get special one off casks regularly. Its nice to see this happening in Houston.

Quick Hits: Upcoming Events Edition

Its a great time to be a lover of craft beer in Houston. There seems to be beer related events every week. Just last week we had the Petrol Station/Flying Saucer Stone RIS Vertical. There are even more events over the course of the next few weeks and months:

- Yes, I've knocked the idea multiple times, but it doesn't mean I won't try the beer. On March 17th, James Watt the brewer for Scottish brewery BrewDog will be at local beer institution Petrol Station serving to controversial Sink the Bismark.

- March 14, Rice Village watering hole and the original Beer institution of Houston Gingerman will be hosting a Texas Beer Tasting. Event starts at 3 pm.

- Speaking of Petrol Station, on March 29th they are hosting a Beer Vs. Wine dinner.

- Of course I've mentioned it before but Beer Camp II is coming up at the end of March. Unfortunately tickets are sold out.

Well thats a brief example of what's coming up in Houston. If you know of any other events, put them in the comments section and I'll post them on the Calendar on the right hand side.

Quick Hits

We'll call this edition of quick hits Good News, Bad News. First up unfortunately the bad news.

- Last week in the DFW area there was a horrendous snow storm (yes you heard that right, snow storm). Unfortunately it affected Fort Worth brewery Rahr and Sons, causing the roof to collapse. Worse still it looks like it coule be at least a couple of months before they are able to start up operations again. The only good news from this issue is that their distributor Coors, was able to get all bottled product out of the brewery and is storing it at their warehouse so they can distribute it. There are some good pictures and updates from Paul Hightower on his blog. Hopefully Rahr and Sons will be able to bounce back and continue the strong brewing of beer.

- A little late I know, but a unique vertical is occuring in the city of Houston this week. Bars Flying Saucer and Petrol Station are paring up to do a 6 year verticle of Stone's Russian Imperial Stout. Each night a different bar will host, tapping a different year of Stones RIS. They will also be tapping other different Stone brews. For example at last nights event they tapped Stones Cali-Belgique. For more details on how the tasting is going down head over to Ronnie Crocker's post about the event on Beer, Tx.

- Lastly, and a little more bad news for some is that Beer Camp II is coming! You may remember my write up on the original Beer Camp. Well the 2nd one has been announced for Mar 28th, unfortunately the tickets are sold out. They went in less than a day which at 50.00 a pop is amazing. I was out of town the day the tickets went on sale, but thanks to my wonderful wife I was able to score a couple of tickets. Here is a list of beers that could be available for tasting. As with last time I'll be posting my thoughts and notes on the tasting. If you want to be kept in the loop on all things Beer Camp, keep checking out the website, and follow beer camp on twitter.

Well thats it for now, back tomorrow with more tasting notes!

What I did on my Christmas Vacation

Finally back in Houston, well actually I've been back for a couple of days, but this is the first time I've had a chance to sit down and write here on the blog. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. I know I did. What did I do? you ask. I went to visit my wife's family up in Denver. If you know Denver you know its a great place to visit many breweries and drink good beer, and that's exactly what I did. I visited some breweries I've never visited, and others that I haven't gone to in a long time. Over the next couple of weeks I'll do some individual write up's of the breweries as most of them deserve their own entry, but here is a list of the ones I was able to visit:
Dry Dock Brewing - Recently won GABF Small Brewery of the year.
Odell Brewing
New Belgium Brewing
Fort Collins Brewing
Oskar Blues Brew Pub - Longmont
Wynkoop
Great Divide

I was also able to do a big beer run while in Denver and picked up quite a few beers not available in Houston, as I drink those, I'll post my thoughts as well.

Quick Hits: Tuesday Edition

It's been a while since I've had time to post much other than periodic beer notes on the blog. For whatever reason things are pretty slow here in the beer world, but I do have some news bits to share.
- Dec 1st, Dec 1st, Dec 1st, mark it down on your calender. The amazingly awesome (more on that in a bit) Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #9 Imperial Pumpkin Stout is released! If you don't want to mark it down on your calendar it is marked on mine on the right hand side of the page.

- Speaking of DR#9, the lucky people at Houston Press have actually had the chance to have some. All I have to say, is a Pumpkin in every keg.

- Many of us in our younger years went off every summer to camp. I doubt any of us went to the camp described by Houston Chronicle's Ronnie Crocker, yes that's right ladies and gentlemen, Beer Camp.

Quick Hits: Monday Edition

Just a couple of things on this Monday.
First this funny comic on "micro" beer that a friend sent me. It got a chuckle:

- Secondly a friendly reminder that this Friday is Session Time. Unfortunately due to my work schedule and lack of ability to have a beer I'll be unable to participate in having a Summer beer this week. But rest assured I'll do my best to report back on the round up.

- Lastly again due to my work schedule I wasn't able to make it out to the great events this past weekend, however Ronnie Crocker over at the Houston Chronicle has a brief write up on the wonderful beer tasting at Block 7 Wine Co.

Quick Hits: Tuesday Edition

Just two notes from the world of beer today.
- The Brewer's association has released their Mid-Year Craft Brewing numbers. Beyond the charts and figures that are in this report, there is one statement that really stood out for me:

The U.S. now boasts 1,525 breweries, the highest number in 100 years when consolidation and the run up to Prohibition reduced the number of breweries to 1,498 in 1910. "The U.S. has more breweries than any other nation and produces a greater diversity of beer styles than anywhere else, thanks to craft brewer innovation," Gatza added.

That last bit may be a bit of hyperbole, but to me it still amazing. From just 30 years ago when we had barely a hundred breweries to where we are now and where we continue to go, is awesome. And like I said above it my be hyperbole, but I believe that we do produce more styles than any other country. I also think that America is the BEST place in the world to get good beer. I'm not talking best beer culture that's a different argument, I'm only talking the fact that you can come here and get any type of beer that you want. We are no longer a country that drinks the weak yellow fizzy stuff.

- Next and last note is that the next Session has been announced. The monthly virtual beer tasting event is hosted by The Better Beer Blog, the theme is Summer Beers. From the announcement:

Summer Beers. With the summer coming to a close, what was your favorite beer of the summer? It doesn’t even have to be from this summer. Is it a lager or maybe a light bodied wheat ale? Maybe you’re drinking anti-seasonally and are having a barleywine or Russian Imperial Stout. Why is this beer your favorite? Is there a particular memory associated with this beer? How about a city? Maybe there was a particular dish that made this beer memorable? Spare no detail.

I can't tell you how excited I am for this session. First its getting back to just beer which was necessary, secondly living in hot sweltering Texas, I have a special place in my heart for summer beers. Post date will be Fri Sept 4th.

Quick HIts: Tuesday Edition

Unlike most times I post a quick hits, I actually have quite a bit of other things to blog about, however very little time at the moment so I figured a perfect chance to get everyone caught up on a few things.
- First, Ronnie Crocker of the Houston Chronicle was at the Lunar Rendezbrew XVI hosted by the Bay Area Mashtronauts. This is a wonderful Homebrew competition featuring a ton of great beers.

- Yes I missed The Session. I was so focused on my beer dinner, I didn't get a chance to post anything. However if you want to see my thoughts on beer and dessert check out my post from the beer dinner. I'll post a link to the round up and info on the next session as soon as it's released.

- Lastly, this Sunday is the 9th anniversary of the Houston's Flying Saucer. It will be a great party and the Saucer will be tapping 9 different beers over the course of the day. Here is a sample of some of the beers they'll be tapping: Monk's Cafe, a Stone Porter firkin spun with Vanilla, Allagash Curieaux, and Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Dogfish Burton Baton and Harpoon Bohemian Pilsner. Looks to be a pretty amazing list of beers, especially when you consider this isn't the complete list! I'll be there at least for a major portion of the day.

Quick Hits Monday Edition

Its the first day of the week and I sit here feeling the need to post something, but feeling somewhat too lazy to post anything original. I guess that's why they made quick hits, an excuse for me to point towards other peoples hard work (while always giving them credit) and making me feel better for posting. So here's some tasty quick hits with a promise of original entry tomorrow.

The first two notes actually comes from the same source.
- First we have a really great article from this weekends Chronicle as Ronnie Crocker writes about Phillip Kaufman. Before you ask who? let me explain. Mr. Kaufman is the winner of the BBBB home brew contest, and who's recipe Saint Arnold's is turning into the next Divine Reserve. Mr. Crocker writes a fun article on how Kaufman got into homebrewing.

- The second is a blog entry by the aforementioned Ronnie Crocker with some awesome news about Houston's own Saint Arnold Brewing. For the first 6 months of 2009 Saint Arnold's production volume is up 22.9% from the same period last year. That is some awesome stellar growth from Houston's brewery. Especially when you consider they are running 24 hrs a day at full capacity. I'm sure they can't wait to move into that new brewery.

- The last note is a reminder. Friday is the first of one of August which means its Session Time. The theme is Beer Desserts. Don't forget!

Quick Hits

Its a Wednesday of Quick hits. File this one under what's happening?
- First is a quick note on a non-beer related event that comes from those cocktail and beer lovers over at Anvil. This Saturday is a Coffee and cocktails event with pastries provided from the pastry chef at Textile.

- If you've checked out the right hand side of the blog you'll see a list of events, but there are a few I wanted to point out. First this Saturday is a Wine v. Beer event at Gingerman's. I went to their last event that was a Belgian Beer tasting and it was wonderful, so I encourage everyone that can to go. Second is that Cullens an upscale restaurant down in the CLC area is hosting a Texas Beer Dinner on August 21st. It will be a 5 course meal, featuring different Texas Beers. Featured beers from Saint Arnold, Southern Star, and Real Ale among others. Lastly the 16th of August is Houston's Flying Saucers 9th Anniversary. They'll be tapping 9 different beers throughout the day. Now that's going to be a party.

- More Stone Beers. The Stone Rep for the southwest has reported that Stone 13th Anniversary Beer will be here in the next couple of months. This ale is supposed to be a wonderfully hoppy ale to celebrate the San Diego Breweries anniversary.

Quick Hits Tuesday Edition

Just two quick notes today.
- As promised yesterday additional details on the next session. The hosts Beer 47 will be hosting the next session themed Beer Desserts:

Beer 47 will hosting a discussion about Beer Desserts. What beer desserts have you tried and liked? Disliked? What beer styles work well with dessert and which ones do not? Do you have any beer dessert recipes that you enjoyed and would like to share?

- Second quick hit has to do with Houston's own Saint Arnold's Brewery and the next Divine Reserve. As I've posted before DR 8 will be a Wee Heavy, brewed by the winner of the Big Batch Brew Bash. Well yesterday they started brewing the beer, and Houston Chronicle Beer Blogger Ronnie Crocker had a very nice post and interview with the winner of the BBBB who got to go to Saint Arnold's to help brew the beer.