Bearded Fox opened up at the peak of the Houston craft beer explosion. I attended their grand opening on February 18, 2017 in their unassuming location tucked behind a strip center. To this day, it is the most crowded brewery I have ever seen. To ensure you never had an empty glass, once you got a beer, you got back in line and drank it while you waited for another. That’s how long the lines were. It was wild. 

Because of their small brewing capacity and distribution, you often can’t find their beer on tap anywhere inside of the beltway aside from the occasional keg at Flying Saucer. Whenever I go out with my folks, who live up in northwest Harris County, I make it a point to order a Bearded Fox beer when it’s available, because I enjoy drinking them, and they aren’t something I get often until recently…

I recently went beer browsing at D & Q Beer Station off of Richmond and saw that they had two Bearded Fox beers in cans — Aunt Rose a red lager and G.O.A.T an imperial IPA, so I picked up both. Aunt Rose is the most crushable red ale style beer I’ve had. It’s light but still has malty complexity. I’ll go out and say that it is in my top 5 favorite Houston beers. The G.O.A.T is decent. It has all of the typical flavors of an imperial IPA with a very malty start but hoppy finish. 

Bearded Fox might not make your top 10 most recognizable brewery list, but I invite you all to take the pilgrimage up to their taproom or find their cans in a store near you.

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Because Houston Beer Month occurs in August, there probably won’t be too many folks clamouring for Russian Imperial Stouts or similar heavy hitters due to the hot temperatures and high humidity. However, light, crushable beers are not the only types of beers that can be enjoyed in the summer. Malt-forward beers like Festbiers, which are starting to make their annual appearance, and Ambers can be just as refreshing to combat Houston’s heat, and I had just the beer over the weekend.

Last weekend, Baileson Brewing in Rice Village tapped their Renew By 6/21 Amber Ale. As to be expected with an Amber, it is very malty and roasty with a little bit of sweetness. I tasted a small amount of chocolate with an almost coffee bitterness. One aspect of malt-forward beers that I enjoy is the nuttiness and complexity to them, and Renew By has a fair amount of pecan and other nut flavors. 

If you have never had the pleasure of drinking at Baileson, I highly recommend it. It has one of the friendliest and coziest atmospheres of any brewery in the Houston area (and I am not just saying that because they sign my paychecks). Though they are known for their IPAs, you can’t go wrong with anything that is served. Taps rotate frequently due to their small brewing capacity, so you can expect Renew By 2021 to be on tap for another 3-5 weeks before going on a short break.

Come for the beer and stay for the atmosphere.

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Once open, Big Owl will exclusively be a craft beer bar focused on products from Houston and Texas with 24 taps. One or two of these taps will be dedicated to Turkey Forrest beers, which currently is putting the final touches on a stout that has received great reviews with plans to add adjuncts as part of the beer rotation. With all four partners being grounded in their Latino roots and being the first 100% Latino-owned brewery, the bar and especially the Turkey Forrest beers will incorporate Hispanic culture, background and “flava” into everything they do. Licuados, aguas frescas and pulque style beers are all a part of future beer plans. 

Although Big Owl has not opened yet, the owners have big plans for both the bar and brewery. Their vision for Turkey Forrest Brewing is to grow the operation beyond the Big Owl location and into its own brick and mortar location sustained by just its beers. The bar itself will host Loteria night, a game similar to Bingo, and other Latino-inspired events. 

The bar’s location is 1848 Airline Dr, Suite C, at the northeast corner of the intersection of Airline Drive and W Cavalcade Street. The grand opening date has not been set, but the hope is that it will be sometime later this month.

You can follow their social media handles below for the most up-to-date progress and opening dates.

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

The post Big Owl Craft Beer House & Turkey Forrest Brewing launching soon in east Heights area first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Big Owl Craft Beer House & Turkey Forrest Brewing launching soon in east Heights area appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

The tap room reminds me of a mountain house, probably intentional based on the owners’ affinity for climbing mountains, specifically Colorado 14ers (more on that in a bit). The walls are scattered with skis, maps, and other outdoor-related decorations. It could be hot outside, but the taproom is cool and cozy. The taproom is flanked by two beer gardens, both equipped with picnic tables and umbrellas. This gives patrons ample options and space for their beer-drinking experience. 

Now onto the main attraction — the beer.

Walking Stick brews many IPAs, but they also offer a couple ESBs, which isn’t something that many Houston breweries are making. They also have a Porter and Stout but really seem to focus on the lighter style of beers — beers that would be refreshing to drink after climbing a mountain or two. On my visit, I had the Blanca Witbier IPA, which as you can tell from the name, is a wit / IPA hybrid, and it drank as you might expect it to drink — very hop forward with a strong banana and clove aroma and taste. 

I did take two crowlers home with me. One neat thing that Walking Stick does that I have never seen is they have crowler labels for each of their beers rather than a sticker or sharpie saying what the beer is. The San Luis Simpaticoe IPA is on the more bitter side. It’s earthy, but still very smooth and creamy. The Massive Brown Porter has a very light mouthfeel. It’s sweet, with strong caramel and chocolate notes. Overall, the beers were good. I would happily drink any of them again.

Finally, Walking Stick offers a membership into the Summit Club. A lot of breweries do this. They offer an annual membership where members get half of beer, or invites to special releases or events. However, Walking Sticks membership fee is based on how many Colorado 14ers, the 58 Colorado mountains that are over 14,000 feet, you have climbed. So if you have just climbed one 14ers, you pay $350 annually, but you get your own mug and half off beer. But if you’ve climbed 50+ peaks, your membership is only $5 a year. 

Grab your walking stick (heh), head to Colorado and climb some mountains. The beer and the taproom atmosphere are definitely worth the price of admission. 

The post Walking Stick Brewing Offers Good Brews and Great Vibes first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Walking Stick Brewing Offers Good Brews and Great Vibes appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Finally, hard seltzers have infiltrated craft breweries in Houston and around the country. I believe that the summer of 2021 will be the summer of craft brewery seltzers. While there are only five breweries in town currently making hard seltzers, this number is sure to rise as consumer demand remains strong for these beer alternatives. 

Here are the five Houston breweries currently producing hard seltzers:

Saint Arnold Superfine Hard Seltzer

Saint Arnold recently released their Superfine series of seltzers. There are four options: Mimosa Morning, Cherry Lounge, Sangria Sunset and Lemon Drop. The seltzers clock in at a 4.5% ABV with only 95 calories per can, which is a big reason for the appeal of hard seltzers versus beer. My personal favorites of the bunch are the Lemon Drop and Mimosa Morning. The 12-pack with three cans of each can be found at local Krogers, H-E-Bs and the brewery

Eureka Heights Fizzy Pants Hard Seltzer 

Eureka Heights released their variety pack a couple of weeks before Saint Arnold released theirs. The Fizzy Pants seltzers are more aptly named: Strawberry, Grapefruit, Peach and Watermelon. The seltzers are 5% ABV with 100 calories per can. My favorite of the bunch is the Peach. 

Galveston Island Strawberry Lemonade Seltzer

I can’t think of a better environment to drink a seltzer than at the beach, and if you are on Galveston Island, you can stop by the brewery for their seltzer option. Their seltzer is 5.5% ABV and 115 calories.

BAKFISH Swim Shady Seltzer

BAKFISH was the first brewery in Houston to release their own seltzer, back in Fall 2020. They have three options to choose from: Passionfruit Guava, Coconut Lime Mojito and A 5th of Kool-aid (Cherry). Their seltzers are 4.75% ABV with 96 calories.

Urban South HTX Lifted Seltzer

If there ever was a brewery in town to keep up with the latest trends (or create their own trends), it’s Urban South. Urban South’s Lifted hard seltzer series has various flavors from Raspberry, White Chocolate, Ice Cream to Pineapple, Cotton Candy. Like with everything Urban South HTX does, these are unlike any seltzer you will find in town. 

Like mentioned before, there will certainly be more breweries this summer releasing their own hard seltzer to keep up with consumer taste. I’ve heard a rumor that Texas Leaguer Brewing in Missouri City is very close in releasing their own from when this article was written. If you are a big beer drinker, hard seltzers aren’t going to blow you away with any sort of complex flavors, but hard seltzers are a great alternative to drink something less caloric than a normal beer while still feeling refreshed. 

The post Hard Seltzers Have Landed at Houston Breweries first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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Two years ago I decided that in 2021 I was going to do a vertical taste test of the ‘19, ‘20, and ‘21 variants to see how the taste and complexity changed throughout the years of aging. I had never aged cans before, so I was curious how well the beers held up and how they changed. Plus I enjoy the progression of the boy on the cans, who is growing up and always getting in trouble. He must’ve been the big mistake, since this beer sure isn’t!

The 2021 variation was exactly like described above. The bourbon taste smacked you in the face, but the beer was still delightful with chocolate and caramel notes. 

For some reason the 2020 version was my least favorite of the three, albeit still solid. The beer had lost some of its crispness and carbonation, but really didn’t lose much of its bourbon flavor.

Finally the 2019 version, two years of waiting really did this beer well. It lost a fair amount of its harshness from the bourbon, and instead was super smooth from the moment of the first drink to when the taste dissipated a while later.

My anecdotal recommendation is to wait two years to drink your Big Mistake, if, of course, you have the patience. Though if you can’t wait, there is no mistake in when you drink it.  

The post Make No Mistake: 11 Below’s Big Mistake is as Good as it Gets first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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DECA has a quaint but comfortable tap room, which can easily sit 40. The brewery also has an outdoor space with picnic tables. There are plans to add a permanent enclosure to make the outdoor space more practical during warmer weather.

The beer was absolutely delightful. The four owners all have different beer preferences and that reflects the beer selection. The beer selection is easily the most robust I have seen from a brand-new brewery. There were ten options available ranging from the light Lite Brite to the heavier Stout and Knox Road Porter and the very impressive 9.2% Mon Ami Saison. Cody Evans, chief brewer, credits the brewery’s smaller five-barrel system for giving DECA the flexibility to brew a lot of different types of beer. 

A couple of my favorite beers were the SMASH Mosaic IPA and the ESB. The IPA was clean and smooth with the right amount of hops. The ESB was a little sweet, a little malty, plus it’s a style that only a couple breweries in Houston brew.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to DECA beer company. The atmosphere was friendly and inviting plus the beer was top notch. The mainstay food truck is Uncle Tony’s selling beer-drinking classics like hamburgers, fried pickles and other sandwiches. 

With the addition of DECA, the northeast part of Houston has become a premier destination for beer. Back Pew and Megaton are just a couple miles down the road from DECA; Ingenious is a little further over in Humble while City Acre and Spindletap round out this premier beer area. 

The post DECA Beer Company is Serving Up Something for Everyone first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post DECA Beer Company is Serving Up Something for Everyone appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Viva La Vida Mocha – Coffee Milk Stout 6.1% ABV

To me, this beer is very reminiscent of iced coffee with very little alcohol detectable. The scent of the beer is mostly coffee and burnt malts, although the coffee scent is faded a little. Taking a drink, the coffee and burnt malts are again prominent in the flavor of the beer. The coffee is a little subdued, just like the scent, but that just makes this one taste and drink like a dry porter. It is very drinkable and smooth, yet sits fairly light in the stomach. There’s a light harshness that allows creaminess to come through, yet I don’t believe there is lactose in the beer. 

Choosy Mom – Peanut Butter Stout 6% ABV

When people think of good peanut butter stouts in Houston, they often think of Tasty AF by Saloon Door Brewing. Though Choosy Mom doesn’t quite live up to its peanut butter counterpart in Webster, it’s still an alright beer. The taste begins with a very sweet milk chocolate taste that is backed by a bit of peanut butter flavor. The roasted malt is lighter upfront, with it getting stronger as the taste advances forward. As the beer warms up, the peanut butter becomes more prevalent. Right out of the fridge, the peanut butter was almost nonexistent. 

The post A Look at Eureka Heights’ Rereleased Stouts first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post A Look at Eureka Heights’ Rereleased Stouts appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Andrew Mitcham is a man with many hats — former Jersey Village council member, current mayor, and founder, owner and head brewer of Senate Avenue Brewing Company. Mitcham started to put a business plan together two years ago after the city sought out someone to start a brewery.

“The original plan was to try to open in April, but in March when everything started to shut down, and we were still under construction, all the trades also shut down,” said Mitcham. “The electricians shut down for a month. The mill work people shut down for two months, and construction had to stop.”

Once the brewery finally opened at the end of September, the support was massive. Mitcham anticipated just family and friends showing up. However on opening weekend, there was a line of excited patrons wrapped around the building. Senate Avenue is in an area of town that doesn’t have many brewery options with Klaus and 11 Below being the closest, so people were excited about a new offering in northwest Harris County. 

The brewery itself is in a retail space of a new office building in the city limits of Jersey Village. The inside space is large enough to hold 12 picnic tables that are separated enough for social distancing purposes while the outside space holds another eight tables. The brewery has rotating guest taps to accompany its own beer. When I went in, I had a flight of their beers that were currently on tap.

• Ready. Aim. Fire. is a belgian wit with hints of coriander and lemon
• CD7 is a well-balanced amber ale that is malt-forward but also a little sweet
• Don’t Hassle Me I’m Local is a classic blonde ale. This is a perfect summer beach beer
• HD135 is pale ale and easily my favorite of the bunch. It’s smooth with a good amount of bitterness

What sets Senate Avenue apart from other Houston breweries is its in-house food options. Mitcham was inspired by small production breweries in Oregon that served really good food to bring out different flavors in the beer. The brewery offers a wide range of small bites such as crab cakes and empanadas but still has classic bar food like burgers and wings. 

All in all, Senate Avenue Brewing is a great place to have lunch or dinner with a beer. The atmosphere and employees are friendly and unassuming. Mitcham hopes that Senate Avenue can be a trailblazer in pairing good food with good beer, because we all know that Houston has both, but not always in the same location until recently. 

The post A Look at the Newest Houston Brewery: Senate Avenue Brewing Company first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post A Look at the Newest Houston Brewery: Senate Avenue Brewing Company appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

It was an exciting time to be drinking craft beer in Houston. From 2016 to 2017, it felt like a new brewery opened every other weekend. Drinking at breweries and checking in unique beers on Untappd became the hobby between me and my then girlfriend, now wife. We planned trips around visiting new breweries, or sought out local beers from where we were. We didn’t necessarily care about the types of beer we were drinking as long as they were new and creating new memories for us. 

It seems that the Houston beer scene is entering a new chapter, which is apropos of the revitalization of Houston Beer Guide. For years, growth and openings defined the Houston beer scene, but now I see Houston entering a period of innovation with what breweries are creating, and I’m excited to be a part of the team that will explore this new chapter. 

I want to write about Houston beer in a way that appeals to everyone, from those who have been drinking for years and tout 5,000 unique beers on Untappd to those who are just getting their feet wet in craft beer. Beer has been a big part of my 20s and created countless memories, from spending New Year’s Eve at Galveston Island Brewing to having our engagement party at Eureka Heights Brewing. Houston Beer Guide has the opportunity to help guide people to create new experiences and form new beer memories, and I’m excited to be a part of it and hope that you will join us for the ride.

The post Contributor Introduction: Cody Miller first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Contributor Introduction: Cody Miller appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.