Josh Frink – Editor-in-chief, Houston Beer Guide

Neve & Denise, B-52 Brewing Co, Wild Pale Ale, 5.5% ABV

I’m extremely comfortable saying this is the best Wild Pale Ale that I’ve ever had. It uses the same strain of wild yeast as the classic Belgian beer Orval, and it nails the flavor. The barnyard and leather flavors from the wild yeast blend surprisingly well with the citrus and tropical fruit aromas added by the Mosaic and Galaxy hop varieties. This beer is only available at the brewery’s taproom for now, but this beer is well worth the drive.

Casey Motes, Assistant to the Regional Manager, Eureka Heights Brew Co.

River Beer, Hops and Grain Brewing, Lager, 5.2% ABV

A beer like this embodies the full life cycle of a craft beer drinker. After going from pale ales to aggressive IPAs then boozy stouts, I usually find myself reaching for something sessionable. The fact that a world-class brewery decided to make an old school American lager might seem odd, but I think it’s a great example of a beer that brewers want to drink. The aroma starts with a soft floral, then quickly changes to Saturday morning corn flakes. Flavor is light grainy, simple and clean. Finish is crisp and dry. Makes you want to take another sip.

Plus we swear the production floor gets scrubbed way better after one of these.

River Beer | Photo: Casey Motes for Houston Beer Guide

Eric Sandler – Food Editor, Culture Map

Weisstheimer, 8th Wonder Brewery, Traditional German Hefeweizen, 5.4% ABV

With the summer’s heat in full effect, I want a beer that’s light, refreshing, and makes me feel a little cooler. Recently, I’ve found myself reaching for 8th Wonder’s Weisstheimer, and not just because the brewery sponsors my podcast. As Chris White noted in his HBG review, the new beer isn’t “8th Wonder’s version” of a hefeweizen; rather, it keeps things pretty classic with nicely balanced banana and clove flavors. A slight tang even makes it food-friendly.

Chris White – Writer, Houston Beer Guide

Lame Duck, 11 Below Brewing Co., American Pale Ale, 5.5% ABV

I’ve got a beer box pal in the Cincinnati area and he really likes APA, so I’ve been sending him what Houston has to offer. That process has led me back to some local beers I’ve had a couple of times, but haven’t exactly filled my fridge with for whatever reason. One of these that has earned its way back into my regular rotation is 11 Below’s excellent Lame Duck Pale Ale, which stands out as a really focused and crushable brew, perfect for these hot Houston summer days. It opens a little grassy, hits hard with some nice floral flavor and finishes clean with just a tinge of bitterness. At just over 5% ABV it’s not so strong that you can’t take a few down on a weeknight. I’m happy to share this with others as a standout Houston beer and to keep some for myself as well.

Jeremy Jordan – Owner, Half Yankee Workshop

Millions of Peaches, Brazos Valley Brewing Co, Peach Witbier, 5.2% ABV

It’s usually this time of year when it’s hot as hell all the time that I start to stray from my mainstays of Pale Ales and IPA’s. This month I fell in love with Millions of Peaches. A light and refreshing Witbier, it clearly tastes of peaches with a light sweetness, but a lot more subtle than you expect when you first get a peach-heavy whiff of it. It’s with a slight touch of sour, yet without the tart mouthfeel. “Moving to the country, gonna eat me a lot of peaches!”

Jeremy Jordan is a Craftsman that specializes in making tap handles and bottle openers, along with enjoying all the amazing craft beer Houston has to offer. Check out his creations at www.halfyankeeworkshop.com

Millions of Peaches | Photo: Jeremy Jordan for Houston Beer Guide

Kenneth Krampota – Writer, Houston Beer Guide

U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D, B-52 Brewing Co., Double Dry Hopped American IPA, 7% ABV

I got a crowler of the standard, and a pour of the raspberry shake version, and both were outstanding. I felt the raspberry version came off so differently than the standard because the acidity of the raspberry killed off the citrus flavors of the standard. Both excellent, but very different animals. What they did have in common was that soft pillow mouth feel that you want in the NEIPA style. Worth seeking out.

Josh Stewart – Host of the Interbrews Podcast & Co-Host of Liquid Lunch

Millions of Peaches, Brazos Valley Brewing Co, Peach Witbier, 5.2% ABV

People may not think about Brazos Valley Brewing in Brenham when they think Houston area brewing, but they should. Josh Bass and the crew at BVB are making some killer beers. Millions of Peaches in like a biscuit with peach marmalade. An American wheat beer with a metric s*#t ton of peachy goodness. It screams front porch enjoyment. This peachy wheat goodness has been in my heart, mouth and belly and on my mind when it’s not in my hand.

Josh is the host of the craft beer centric podcast Interbrews and Co-Host of the live beer show Liquid Lunch. Checkout past shows and subscribe on your platform of choice at http://interbrews.com/ and http://liquidlunchshow.com/

Millions of Peaches | Photo: Josh Stewart for Houston Beer Guide

If you’re interested in contributing to next month’s roundup, whether you’re a beer maker, a beer writer, or just a beer drinker, send an email to info@houstonbeerguide.com to be added to next month’s roundup.

The post What are HOU drinking? – July 2017 first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post What are HOU drinking? – July 2017 appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

11 Below Lame Duck

Brand new can alert: this week, the first adorable-duck-adorned cans of 11 Below’s pale ale hit the market, so this one is good to get fresh asap. Bryce Baker, 11 Below co-founder, states that it’s “quickly become a favorite among staff and customers.” And although the can was designed by a Dallas firm (Caliber Creative), I have to agree with Bryce that “the artwork is pretty badass.” It’s hard to imagine a better beach can design, and the beer inside speaks for itself as well, as kegs move pretty fast all over town.

SpindleTap Houston Haze

I never expected to see Houstonians wait in line to take beer home from a brewery, but if it’s going to happen, it makes perfect sense it would be for SpindleTap Houston Haze, an insanely crushable NEIPA that blows away any other Houston attempts at the distinct and delicious style. “The excitement surrounding Haze has been fantastic and consistent,” founder Adam Wright says. And while this is likely the hardest acquire to get from this list, that will only get easier over time: “every batch we’ve brewed has doubled in size … Haze is the champ of the cans we sell out of the brewery.” The can features art apt for the oilfield-centric brewery: “the downtown skyline with a shadowed offset against a refinery outline,” with a “purple spectrum” that reflects the “haze” imagery. There may be nothing about an oil derrick or refinery that suggest cooling off, but in this case, as with so many buildings in Houston, the coolness is inside.

8th Wonder Weisstheimer

No summer is complete for me without cans of Live Oak Hefe, and now 8th Wonder brings some local competition: a “ridiculously drinkable and delicious Hefeweizen,” in the words of Ryan Soroka, 8th Wonder co-founder. At 5.4% abv, this summer seasonal is just strong enough to make you forget the heat for a little while and still light enough to allow enjoyment of a few cans in one go. The cans are pretty slick too, a play on a historic style Houstonians will recognize from the blue tiled street signs still present all over the city. 8th Wonder’s cans are all designed by local branding agency GoodProject, but for this project they also teamed up with the Blue Tile Project for additional art and signage.

Bakfish Defying Gravity

Bakfish planned to can their beers from before they even opened, acknowledging that cans are better for the environment, better for portability, and thanks to their ability to eliminate sunlight, better for the beer. Defying Gravity is just one of the canned offerings available now, not only beloved by fans on tap and in cans, but also co-founder Brian Allen’s personal favorite. The focus is a hoppy beer with some light caramel tones mixed in, “but dominated with tropical fruits like mango, papaya, and pineapple mixed with citrus fruits like mandarin oranges and tangerines.” If that doesn’t sound like summer refreshment to you, I don’t know what does. The cans feature art by Houston-based Brenden Polk Designs, and are available to-go directly from the brewery in Pearland as well as at nearby stores.

Southern Star Buried Hatchet

Southern Star has been canning beer in Houston since before most other breweries in this post even existed. “First to Can Craft in Texas” is a badge Southern Star happily displays on their cans, and they’ve earned that right. If you can imagine now, when the can explosion has taken over craft beer across the nation, there was once a time when Southern Star faced retailers that refused to carry their beer “because we did not have beer in bottles,” owner/founder Dave Fougeron recalls. Of course, you might not think of a rich, smooth stout as a “summer beer” but until very recently, no one thought of it as a canned beer either, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s always stout season in Texas. Buried Hatchet is a true classic, one of the state’s best beers, and the beer that Dave is happy to say he’s “most proud of,” and in his opinion is “one of the best stouts in the country.” I can’t say I’d argue against that. Interestingly the artwork on the can is the inspiration for the name, and not the other way around. Art director Michael Draper drew the now iconic buried hatchet, and from that image, the beer was named. Dave points out “an old pull ring buried in the dirt” as an homage to the beer can’s long history.

Brazos Valley Willin’

If you know me, you know I love Mosaic. It’s my favorite hop, or as I call it, the “cheat code.” So Brazos Valley Willin’, a new mosaic pale ale that also features comet hops, hits the spot, “crushable yet hop forward and perfect for the Texas heat,” according to Production Manager Avery Clayton. The can features a “strong, take no BS, Texas woman,” also prominently displayed in all Brazos Valley Brewing artwork, and designed by Evan Hill, a childhood friend of the brewery’s founders. Willin’ joins a family of Texas IPAs designed to cool you off better than air conditioning, and this particular can gives Houstonians a great reason to visit the brewery in Brenham – after all, I can’t think of anything else out there that could be so refreshing.

Saint Arnold Raspberry AF

Of course, no list would be complete without a beer from Houston’s oldest brewery, Saint Arnold, and no list of summer-friendly cans would be complete without something as refreshing as Raspberry AF. Raspberry AF, according to brewer Aaron Inkrott, was a “truly collaborative effort,” and unlike many fruited beers, actually uses “100% fruit” ensuring it’s “great to drink again and again.” Of course, Saint Arnold’s cans are fairly iconic, but the artwork designed by in-house marketing guru and freestyle rapper, Jeremy Johnson, truly conveys summer. The art is supposed to invoke “a peaceful, serene picnic scene abruptly interrupted by the AF,” according to Jeremy. Saint Arnold only recently started canning, but their cans have really taken off, with many releases being can-only. And it’s paid off: Raspberry AF, with its juicy, “pleasantly tart,” flavor that built off the excellent Boiler Room, is an incredible beer perfectly packaged for a picnic or anywhere else your summer takes you.

The post 7 Canned Beers to Drink This Summer first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post 7 Canned Beers to Drink This Summer appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

(Click here to for a zoomable version)

Yo that IPA Region is stacked! Mostly Harmless got screwed, though. Pumpkinator vs. Rocket Fuel in the Sweet 16 is gonna be brutal. I’ve got EZ7 as my Cinderella. Think Yellow Rose can win it all again?

Welcome to the 2017 edition of the Houston Beer Guide Bracket. Last year’s bracket was a blast, with some nail-biters, a ballot-stuffing scandal, a handful of upsets, and Lone Pint Yellow Rose ultimately cruising to the title.

We’ve made some changes compared to last year, when we used weighted Untappd rankings to fill out the field from 1 to 64. This year, we still leaned on ratings, but we also opened up the selection process to the HBG staff, our own version of the NCAA’s selection committee. We awarded “automatic bids” to breweries that wouldn’t have qualified based solely on rankings. We eliminated one-time releases (no Divine Reserves, Bishop’s Barrels, etc.). And we limited the field to independent craft breweries — you know what that means.

Enough with the pregame analysis. Let’s get to the #HBGBracket. Voting for the first round ends Monday night, March 20th. The second round will begin Tuesday, March 21st. We’ll update results on Facebook and Twitter.

Update #1 – Round of 64 recap:
The first round has wrapped up and there were quite a few surprises. 12-seed SpindleTap Hop Gusher took down 5-seed Saint Arnold Endeavour, with a respectable win of 56%. In our far north vs. far south matchup, 14-seed B-52 Double IPA beat 3-seed Galveston Island Citra Mellow. Copperhead King of Terrors managed to eke out a win against Buffalo Bayou Vanilla Mocha Sunset, in a match decided by just 13 votes. In the battle of Clear Lake, Texas Beer Refinery’s Gulf Coast Gose held its ground against BAKFISH I Tell You Wit. Unfortunately, Texas Beer Refinery Catalyst wasn’t able to repeat last year’s Cinderella run. Yellow Rose continued last year’s tradition of dominating the competition, knocking out newcomer Running Walker Texas Reserve. Check out the rest of the results at the bottom of the page.

Update #2 – Round of 32 recap:
Well that was certainly interesting. The majority of this round went to chalk, with the 1-seeds doing especially well. Dig into the middle of the field a little bit, and you’ll see some very surprising results. 12-seed SpindleTap Hop Gusher continued its Cinderella run, leading 4-seed Brash Pussy Wagon the entire round. At the 24-hour mark, Brash Vulgar Display of Power vs Brash Cortado was exactly 50/50, but lower-seeded VDoP eventually won out. 11-seed Copperhead King of Terrors managed another narrow victory, this time over 3-seed No Label Nightmare on 1st Street. There were no upsets in the Easy Drinking region, dashing the chances of a Pilsner head-to-head between Back Pew and Saint Arnold. How will old-standard Buried Hatchet fare against new-hotness Raspberry AF in the next round? Last year’s champion, Lone Pint Yellow Rose, faces Cinderella; is there a stunning upset on the horizon? Will King of Terrors be able to sneak past Brash EZ-7 and into the Elite 8? It’s all up to you.

Update #3 – Sweet 16 recap:
Let’s start with the fun parts: Almost every one of the match up in the Sweet 16 ended within 100 votes. For nearly 1,500 votes, that’s pretty impressive. Brazos Valley 7 Spanish Angels overcame Saint Arnold 5 O’Clock Pils by 107 votes, 4-seed Lone Pint The Jabberwocky upset 1-seed Brash Abide with 92 votes, Saloon Door Tasty AF beat Brash Vulgar Display of Power by 39 votes, and Pumpkinator vs Rocket Fuel was decided by just 32 votes. Every beer included in the Sweet 16 deserved it’s place this far into the tournament. SpindleTap found a post in one of the beer groups by someone bragging to have voted for Hop Gusher several hundred times in a short period Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to undo the damage that was done. After a discussion with the team at SpindleTap, they offered to forfeit the game to Yellow Rose. At the T-11 hour mark, SpindleTap had the lead, and they appeared to gain more ground in the morning. As stated earlier, we believe that every beer that made it to the sweet 16 deserved to be there. Hop Gusher beat Endeavour and Pussy Wagon without any intervention, and there is a very strong likelihood that it would have beat Yellow Rose as well. Yellow Rose faces some stiff competition in the next round with Saint Arnold Art Car, as do all of the beers in the Elite 8.

Update #4 – Elite 8 recap:
The giants have fallen. Saloon Door rounded up their supporters to knock out 1-seed Saint Arnold Pumpkinator. Brazos Valley had a late surge of support: 7 Spanish Angels rallied from being down 49/51 at the 24 hour mark to come out ahead 54/46 and take out 1-seed Southern Star Buried Hatchet. 1-seed Yellow Rose clobbered 2-seed Art Car in a round that was expected to be more of a challenge for last year’s champion. Brash’s 7-seed EZ-7 avenged 1-seed Abide’s earlier elimination and trounced Lone Pint The Jabberwocky. Lone Pint Yellow Rose is the only 1-seed that remains in the tournament – how will it fare against the Saloon Door posse, which has already overcome some quite impressive opponents? Will EZ-7 or 7 Spanish Angels be the lucky one to advance to the finals?

Update #5 – Final Four recap:
Yellow Rose, our last 1-seed and last year’s champion was bested by the chocolate & peanut butter stout from Clear Lake, Tasty AF. 7 Spanish Angels, the coffee brown ale from Brenham, rallied its supporters to eliminate Brash EZ-7. It’s all come down to this: Saloon Door Tasty AF versus Brazos Valley 7 Spanish Angels. Peanut butter & chocolate vs coffee. Both beers eliminated some very impressive challengers along the way. Which beer will be crowned the best beer in Houston by the readers of Houston Beer Guide?

Update #6 – Championship recap:
Wow, that was a surprisingly close match. Saloon Door’s Tasty AF is now the reigning ‘Best Beer in Houston’ as chosen by the readers of Houston Beer Guide. If you haven’t tried it or any of the other 63 beers included in this year’s bracket, I highly recommend that you seek them out.

The changes we made to the beer selection process this year were a direct result of the conversations we had with our readers last year. If you have suggestions for ways we can make it even better next year, shoot us an email, we’d love to hear your ideas: info@houstonbeerguide.com.

Championship Results:

Saloon Door v Brazos Valley (1,800 votes)
Tasty AF – 51.3%
7 Spanish Angels – 48.7%

The Final Four Results:

Elite 8 Results:

Sweet 16 Results:

Round of 32 Results:

Round of 64 Results:

The post Houston Beer Guide Bracket 2017 first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Houston Beer Guide Bracket 2017 appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Held under the pavilion at Hennessy Park next to Saint Arnold Brewing Company, the small venue was a perfect setting for this bite-sized festival. The 10.79-gallon firkins used for the event allowed brewers to offer a small batch for experimentation to add adjuncts to, creating concoctions with fruit, spices, chocolate, coffee and other special ingredients. Fifteen Texan breweries brought firkins full of beer featuring everything from peanut butter to peppers.

Freetail’s Double Cherry Bexarliner was a hit. Though I prefer their more refreshing peach version, the tart Michigan Montmorency cherries in the latest of their Berliner Weisse fruit series paired well with the lactic tang of the beer. An improvement over the too-restrained single Cherry Bexarliner, which was served on the festival’s specialty tap wall, the extra cherry punch of the Double was just what the Berliner needed. Also fruity and refreshing was the addition of grapefruit to Real Ale’s White, a dry-hopped Belgian wit. Crisp with a subtle grapefruit finish, it hit the spot at the hottest time of day on the summer afternoon.

The popular variant vanilla earned high marks in its starring roles in New Republic’s Vanilla Sky, based on their Skylight dunkelweizen, and Lone Pint’s vanilla and chicory variation of their standby brown ale, Gentleman’s Relish. Though a bit overpowering in the dunkelweizen, the vanilla was a natural complement to the typical banana flavor of the hefeweizen yeast, and it tamed the boldness of the chicory in the brown ale.

No Label brought two cocktail-inspired beers: Old Fashion Ridgeback Ale and Dark & Stormy 1^st Street Blonde. The Old Fashion was the more successful of the two. Bourbon cherries, bitters and orange peel added complexity to the dark amber brew and nicely accented its existing caramel notes and roasted malt. The rum-soaked ginger and lime enlivened the blonde, but the lime finish was too intense.

Arguably the most audacious experiment, Cycler’s Ryed Hard (Reubenized) was the brewery’s take on a Reuben sandwich. Their rye ale was made over with mustard seed, star anise, juniper berries, dill seed, bay leaves, ginger, cloves, cardamom, allspice, coriander and mace to taste like a Reuben without the corned beef: an odd beer, but it worked well.

Like any experiment, the results can vary. Sometimes the result is something you want to replicate, and sometimes it falls flat. In my opinion, Deep Ellum’s Very Berry Dallas Blonde, 8^th Wonder’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Rocket Fuel, and Real Ale’s modified Real Heavy Scotch ale were misses. The Very Berry Blonde tasted like a watered-down berry lemonade, the Peanut Butter Chocolate Rocket Fuel was thin and had hardly any discernible peanut butter flavor, and the Real Heavy with English tea tips, candied figs and dried apricot had too many flavors to focus on.

A late entry in the Fest, new kid on the block Eureka Heights really impressed me with My Stoutrifice, an incredibly well-balanced milk stout brewed with Mexican cinnamon and peppers. It’s one of the best pepper beers I’ve ever had.

Other highlights included (512) Café au Lait, their venerable Pecan Porter with a coffee kick; the sarsaparilla-spiked Brazos Valley NYF Silt Brown, a dead-ringer for its namesake, Not Your Father’s Root Beer; Deep Ellum Tongue Punch, a solid tropical twist on their standard IPA; and the luscious, creamy Nutella®-like evolution of Southern Star’s Buried Hatchet Stout, Deez Hazelnutz.

Those standouts were a warm-up for my vote for Best in Show: Karbach Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter Horchata. The welcoming, warm cinnamon nose invited me to drink the imperial porter. Bourbon upfront with a grainy backbone and a cinnamon finish, it was a perfect symphony of flavors and one of my favorite BBHs to date. I really hope Karbach releases this one, at least in limited batches, so more people can try it.

Though most of the beers at the Fest were variation of standards from their regular beer lines, some breweries brought unaltered brews, showing off the richer, smoother character of cask-conditioned beers. Karbach offered their lupulin bomb, Hop Delusion Double IPA; Southern Star’s newish IPA, Conspiracy Theory, made an appearance; the revered Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 15 Russian Imperial Stout came out of retirement for the occasion, and 8^th Wonder’s tasty limited-release gose, Haterade, was also featured at the Fest.

One of my favorite aspects of this festival was the signage. Too often at festivals you are left on your own to figure out what you are actually drinking. Firkin Fest featured signs labeling the style, ABV, IBU and a detailed description of each beer and its transformation from its normal base into its firkin alter ego. Even better, some of the brewers were on hand to ask questions about their beers. The intimacy of the event allowed for longer discussions with the brewers, which I very much enjoyed. I’ll be back next year.

The post Houston Firkin Fest 2016: A Firkin Good Time first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Houston Firkin Fest 2016: A Firkin Good Time appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Why would a brewery use a firkin over a regular keg? Well, the firkin lends itself better to allowing natural conditioning and makes the beer have a smoother finish because of the lack of CO2 needed. It is also an outlet for a brewery to try something special like adding fruit, chocolate, coffee, spices or any other adjunct that the brewery wants to experiment with. Breweries now a days seem to like to use these to add an adjunct to a beer that they commonly brew, and that is what makes this festival so exciting. These beers will be unique. Yes, some of the breweries will have firkins of something they regularly sell, but just putting that in the firkin will change it a bit. In addition, this year there will we a draft wall with 10 limited releases from the participating breweries.

Speaking of participating breweries, it’s a who’s who of the Texas craft beer scene. The festival is actually run by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, so in many ways it’s the breweries putting this on. The following breweries are planning on participating: Real Ale Brewing Company, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Freetail Brewing Co., Deep Ellum Brewing Company, Brigadoon Brewery & Brew School, (512) Brewing Company, Cycler’s Brewing, Karbach Brewing Co., No Label Brewing Co., 8th Wonder Brewery, Lone Pint Brewery, New Republic Brewing Company, Southern Star Brewing Company, Brazos Valley Brewing Company and Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company.

Check back as the festival nears as we will update this article with the full beer list, and check back after the festival as I will be writing up a review. I’d love to hear about what you’re drinking and enjoying most that day. So, write a comment after the festival, or better yet, come say hello if you see me; I’ll be out there enjoying it.

Firkin List:

If you get the urge for more carbonation, this year Firkin Fest is offering some traditional draft options as well.

For more detailed descriptions, check out http://houstonfirkinfest.com/

Location: Hennessey Park, 1900 Lyons Ave, Houston, TX  77020

Time: 2 — 6 PM with VIP entrance starting at 12:30 PM

Parking: Free at Saint Arnold as well as on street

Tickets: VIP, General Admission and Designated Driver tickets are available at: Https://www.eventbrite.com/E/Houston-Firkin-Fest-Tickets-21216080869

 

Website: houstonfirkinfest.com

Twitter: @htxfirkinfest

Facebook: www.facebook.com/houstonfirkinfest

Facebook Event RSVP: Https://www.facebook.com/events/1686760454925906/

The post Houston Firkin Fest – Preview first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Houston Firkin Fest – Preview appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Using the same methodology as the Beer Ranking posts, the seeds below are based on the top 64 rated beers in Houston based on weighted rankings.

Voting for the Round of 8 ends Thursday night, March 31st. The Round of 4 will begin Friday, April 1st. We’ll update results on Facebook and Twitter as well.

[Direct link to the full-sized bracket here]

Update #1:

Well the first round is in the books and it appears the seeding wasn’t as absurd as some thought: chalk won almost every matchup, with just two exceptions. The contenders from B-52 and Texas Beer Refinery live on, winning as underdogs and heading to the Round of 32 below. Maybe we were right when we said, “You should be drinking Texas Beer Refinery.”

Update #2:

After the relatively predictable Round One, the Round of 32 went a lot differently, with several upsets. While Texas Beer Refinery continues their Cinderella story as a 13-seed (now facing a very tough Vanilla BBH 1-seed), the joy hasn’t been shared by everybody: Buffalo Bayou, Brash, B-52, and No Label were each eliminated in the bloodbath. One clear takeaway as we enter the Sweet Sixteen: the commonly “hyped” styles are clearly winning. Of the remaining sixteen beers, only two are styles other than IPA or Porter/Stout, and both of those, BB10 & FUN 013, are barrel-aged (as are five others at this stage). What will make it out of this round on Sunday to enter the Elite Eight of Houston Beers? There’s no certainties at this point, though I certainly hope my Yellow Rose is still alive!

Update #3:

As we enter the Elite Eight, the bracket tells two very different stories. On the right side, an unexciting previous round led to all the highest seeds progressing, and this round pits Black Crack against Yellow Rose, as well as a face-off between two Saint Arnold stouts. On the left side of the bracket, however, a completely different drama has unfolded with the Cinderella story TBR Catalyst knocking out one of my expected Final Four picks, and the fourth overall seed Vanilla BBH. It faces a heavy competitor in Bishop’s Barrel #10, but don’t be surprised if the magic continues. Meanwhile, another upset occurred in the previous round and the juicy newcomer Art Car IPA advances to face off against the number one overall seed and competition favorite, BBH. Vote below and come back on Thursday when we enter the Final Four.

Update #4:

With so much drama in the HBG, it’s kinda hard being a beer bracket referee. We’re down to our last four beers, and as the Final Four comes to Houston in the basketball sense, we’ve also got the Final Four here. Sadly, the Cinderella story from TBR didn’t make it past the last round, but nonetheless it lives on in my heart. On the left side of the bracket, number one overall seed Karbach BBH faces off against Saint Arnold BB10 in a battle of two bourbon-barrel-aged beers: a porter and a barleywine. The bourbon champion will move on to face a non-barrel-aged winner from the right side of the bracket, where my favorite, Lone Pint Yellow Rose (fingers crossed y’all), goes up against the annual autumn delight, Saint Arnold Pumpkinator. Who will make it to the championship? Vote below and come back on Saturday afternoon for the championship matchup!

Update #5:

This is it! From a field of sixty-four competitors, only one shall be victorious. Who will take home glory and who will take home defeat? (Except, not real defeat, because, either way both competitors are delicious.) We’re down to the final competition: Lone Pint Yellow Rose and Karbach Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter. Two of Houston’s most beloved beers and two of the country’s most exciting styles: bourbon-barrel-aged anything and mosaic-hopped anything. Vote below for your pick.

Update #6:

That’s it for our inaugural Houston Beer Guide Bracket. Obviously I’m thrilled with the result (read: WOO YELLOW ROSE FTW) and I hope you are too. What would you like to see us change next year? How can we make this bracket even better? Sound off in the comments below!

Championship Results:

Championship – Karbach vs. Lone Pint (903 Votes)
Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter — 42.4%
Yellow Rose — 57.6%

Final Four Results:

Game 1 – Karbach vs. Saint Arnold (592 Votes)
Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter – 56.3%
Bishop’s Barrel #10 – 43.7%

Game 2 – Saint Arnold vs. Lone Pint (637 Votes)
Pumpkinator – 23.7%
Yellow Rose – 76.3%

Elite 8 Results:

We had a little bit of a hiccup with this round. Someone decided to vote 2000+ times in an attempt to ruin it for everyone. We pulled the poll early, so there were fewer overall votes. We took the raw voting data and filtered it for 1 vote per IP address. Going forward the polls will self-regulate to one vote per IP address. We will also “check the tapes” before we publish the results.

Game 1 – Karbach vs. Saint Arnold (588 Votes)
Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter – 55.1%
Art Car – 44.9%

Game 2 – Texas Beer Refinery vs. Saint Arnold (619 Votes)
Catalyst – 41.4%
Bishop’s Barrel #10 – 58.6%

Game 3 – Saint Arnold vs. Saint Arnold (562 Votes)
Pumpkinator – 52.5%
Divine Reserve #15 – 47.5%

Game 4 – Southern Star vs. Lone Pint (610 Votes)
Black Crack – 31.3%
Yellow Rose – 68.7%

Round of 16 Results:

Round of 32 Results:

Round of 64 Results:

The post Houston Beer Guide Bracket 2016 first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Houston Beer Guide Bracket 2016 appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.