Brett and Theresa have taken their love of homebrewing to full production over the past year. A breakout showing at the Brewmasters Craft Beer Festival in Galveston during Labor Day weekend showed that the new kids on the block were to be taken seriously in the Houston-area beer scene. Their Bound & Determined was a personal favorite of ours that was unlike anything else I had ever tried, but I’ll get more into the beers a little later.

Brett Bray and Theresa Hutchings, owners of Fetching Lab Brewery

The owners of the brewery do it all: coming up with the recipes, brewing the beer, cleaning equipment, making necessary repairs, managing the website, marketing… if you think of a task, they are doing it. For example, they have an ingenious way of keeping their cooler room at the right temperature without costing several thousands of dollars. They have rigged up a window unit that runs icy cold by using an override sensor that tricks the unit into thinking it’s running at 60 degrees. Instead, it’s cooling the room to about 38 degrees. It’s part of the do-it-yourself movement that you see with many of the smaller breweries in the area, especially the ones in Galveston County.

They usually brew five barrels at a time on their seven barrel system. One of their fermenters was originally a wine fermenter that they say was a great step in moving up from a homebrew system to a professional system. Another unique aspect about the brewery is that it’s located on their personal property. When asked about it, Theresa mentioned that when they were planning the brewery, they ran into the problem of how they were going to pay rent while getting all of the permits and licensing secured. Having property to support the facility, while waiting for the TABC to grant their licensing, solved the problem because the “rent” is paid to back to them.

If you’ve been to some of the beer hot spots throughout the Houston area, you’ll notice that the name Fetching Lab keeps popping up on the tap list. Whether it’s their Round Up amber, Laelaps IPA, or their outstanding Bound & Determined chile stout, you’ve probably come across the name and asked, “Who’s that?” Recently, they signed a distribution deal with Wandering Boots Distribution Company. Part of the reason for using a smaller distributor was the personal attention. Being that Wandering Boots is a startup company like Fetching Lab, they were able to devote 100% of their time selling one brewery to bars throughout the Houston area. Currently, Fetching Lab beers are in Harris, Galveston, Brazoria, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties with more places being added regularly.

My favorite beer is the Bound & Determined. Unfortunately, it’s about to go into hibernation for the spring and summer, but the beer has an amazing story behind it. If you know anything about New Mexico, it’s that the Hatch green chile is king and there is no other chile that is worthy. With Theresa originally being a New Mexico native, she wanted to join Brett’s team for a homebrewing competition by brewing a stout that was infused with Hatch green chiles. Brett had already entered the competition and was going to brew a pumpkin beer, but Theresa was determined to enter her own recipe, so she and a family member brewed, refined, and entered the green chile stout. It was a landslide winner and upon tasting it, Brett knew this would need to be part of the brewing lineup that would eventually be Fetching Lab Brewery. Bound & Determined plays on the determination that Theresa had to not only be included, but to make a beer so good, you had to take it seriously. The beer itself has a perfect balance of chocolate with a dark fruit flavored body finishing off with just a slight kick of chile on the finish. Nothing is overpowering and the flavors are subtle, which makes the beer incredibly drinkable and light for a stout.

Looking ahead for the future, Fetching Lab has several brews on the horizon. Their spring and summer seasonal, Breaktime Wheat is going to be coming out soon. A light and refreshing beer designed to combat Houston summers, it’s an American wheat that is the definition of a session beer. Another seasonal they hope to release for the summer is a blueberry wheat beer I was lucky enough to try, tentatively named Blue Mischief. Subtle blueberry flavor finishing with a crisp floral taste, this beer is going to be a hit when it comes out in the warmer months. Finally, another beer in the lab phase is a juniper rye that is unlike any beer I’ve enjoyed. There is a secret ingredient in this beer that they wouldn’t share. I think it’s honeysuckle due to the floral flavor, but I’ll have to see what the final product will taste like.

Fetching Lab swag, available at the brewery.

There are several things you need to know before planning a visit to the brewery. As we mentioned, it’s located on their personal property. The owners still have day jobs, so be respectful that time is precious. However, they want to be open to the public as soon as possible. They will be making several improvements to the property that should allow for the spring and summer months to include tours and tastings. They have a lake in the back where they plan on building a deck to enjoy a brew or two overlooking water in an idyllic country setting. Plus, they hope to add some pergolas to give the property a more comfortable feeling that will welcome you to the brewery.

If you find yourself looking at the other full-production brews in their lineup, know that Round Up amber, Laelaps (pronounced LAY-laps) IPA, and Teumessian (pronounced Too-MESSY-ehn) Fox pale ale are all designed to be well-balanced, sessionable beers. Fetching Lab’s goal is to provide craft beer that is accessible for all types of beer drinkers. They want to be known for subtlety and balance, which makes for perfect beers to drink throughout the year in Texas.

*All photos courtesy of Fetching Lab Brewery*

The post Fetching Lab – A Clever Country Brewery first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Fetching Lab – A Clever Country Brewery appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

There’s been a lot of talk in the Houston beer community about how the “solution to our problems” will be neighborhood-focused breweries. Houston’s urban sprawl makes it unlikely that we will duplicate the brewery-every-mile format of more developed beer cities, but that also makes it the perfect environment to have a brewery (or two or three) catering specifically to their neighborhood. While some newer breweries have been getting all the attention, Gordon Street Tavern has been quietly building this exact kind of ultra-local brewpub in Alvin.

Located in a beautifully restored 100 year old building, originally home to a hardware company, Gordon Street Tavern has been quietly brewing their own beer since mid-April. When owner Henry Dillmann bought Gordon Street 2 years ago, chef Jay Peek convinced him to keep the craft beer selections. Well, the craft beer bug bit Henry hard, and he is now fulfilling many beer drinker’s dreams: owning a brewery and sharing the craft beer gospel. He’s doing good work too, craft currently makes up 60% of their beer sales and that percentage is constantly increasing. To top it off, their Hefeweizen is their top selling craft beer, an honor well deserved.

Owner Henry Dillmann has done a great job tying the history of the city of Alvin into the identity of Gordon Street. As you walk in, you can’t help but see the arial photo of old Alvin filling up an entire wall. The tap handles used for the Gordon Street beers are railroad spikes, a tribute to Alvin’s history as a railroad town. One of their flagship beers, “Shep N John’s Golden Ale” is named after local celebrities: Shep the dog and John the goose, pets of town founder Alvin Morgan. All this makes Gordon Street feel less like a bar or restaurant and more like your friend’s living room. Adding to this feeling is the kindness of the staff and customers. Henry’s wife sat at the bar and ate dinner with my wife and I, and the ladies to the other side of us filled us in on the last 3 bands to play at Gordon Street during their live music Wednesdays. We didn’t make it very far into the menu before ordering 4 appetizers. My favorite were the pretzel sticks, with some very spicy, house made, Hopadillo Mustard, but they had some stiff competition.

They can fill up 2 large kegs, or 6 slim kegs, per batch.

We talked Henry and Jay into giving us a tour of the brewery while visiting for the afternoon. Tucked away in the building next door is a 1 barrel electric brewery. Their fermentation room is a walk in freezer, with the temperature set in the high 60‘s. Although this is his first professional brewing job, Jay has been brewing at home for around 25 years, and the knowledge gained shows through in his operation. During our visit, they had their Hefeweizen and Shep N John’s Golden Ale on tap.

The Hefeweizen is a traditional Bavarian Hefeweizen brewed with pilsner malt and wheat malt, noble hops, and a traditional Hefeweizen yeast strain. It is very light and easy to drink. The flavor is a very present but delicate banana which is followed by a clove spice, all flavors created by the yeast during fermentation, not additives. The sweetness of the grain comes in at the end to balance it all out. Shep N John’s is their Golden Ale targeted at craft converts. It is an exceptional gateway beer. I could definitely see myself drinking a pint or two on the patio listening to some live music, especially in our summertime heat. It’s a perfectly balanced golden ale, something that is much harder to execute than you may expect. It has a sweet malty aroma and flavor and a moderate amount of fruitiness from the American hop profile. It’s brilliantly clear despite the fact that I didn’t see any filtration equipment during our tour.

Based on these two beers, you may think they’re brewing only “basic light beers” and playing it safe in the shallow end of the ocean of craft beer styles. While good execution of light styles is something all palates can enjoy, they are also brewing “beer nerd” beers. Tapping soon, they have a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) IPA, brewed with Vienna Malt and Amarillo hops. In the fermenter, they currently have an Oud Bruin, a sour brown ale Jay is aging until their 1 year brewing anniversary. They also recently brewed a Gose, a tart beer brewed with coriander and salt. The salt for that small batch came from the Galveston County salt domes, ancient underground salt deposits.

In addition to their house beers, their tap list is a well curated list of classic favorites and newer locals. When I visited they had Live Oak Hefe, Saint Arnold Endeavor, Lone Pint Yellow Rose, Texas Beer Refinery Gose, and the first Fetching Lab tap I’ve seen around town. And they’re not afraid of sours and Brett beers either. Their current tap list has 5 of them. They keep their TapHunter page up-to-date, because they use tablets with the TapHunter app for their beer list. The drawback to this is they don’t list prices, but everything is in the $4-6 range.

Gordon Street Tavern is a neighborhood pub. It’s where people gather to watch the game, meet friends, and share stories. No matter where you’re from, it feels like home. The next time you’re in Alvin, whether you’re picking strawberries at Froberg’s Farm, passing through, or heading home, stop in at Gordon Street for a pint.

Shep N John’s Golden Ale (Left) & Hefeweizen (Right)

The post History is Being Brewed in Downtown Alvin first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post History is Being Brewed in Downtown Alvin appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.