After coming across Wolfe in a recent Houston beer related online discussion thread, he extended an invitation to stop by the brewery and try some of Holler’s recent releases.  The first beer I tired was the recently Black Friday release, Dark Artifact.  This barrel aged Imperial Stout pours a dark black, and at 9% ABV.  It is very smooth for a barrel aged beer, with distinct notes of bourbon and a light, roasty flavor.  According to Wolfe, this year’s release of Dark Artifact was aged for seven months in William Price Rye Whiskey barrels.  Wolfe did mention to me that next year’s drop has already been brewed and barreled, and will get just over a full year of barrel aging in before being ready for release next year.   

The second beer I tried during my visit was one of Holler’s Seventh Anniversary releases, an Imperial West Coast IPA named Lucky 7’s.  The name goes along with the brewery’s casino anniversary theme, with the other themed beers released for the Anniversary including Poker Face Pucker (a mixed berry fruited sour), Jackpot Juice (a hazy IPA) and In the Money (a west coast pilsner).  Lucky 7’s was brewed with a collection of ten different hops that resulted in a smooth and dangerous 9.5% ABV brew.  Lucky 7’s went down a little bit too easy, but by the time I got to the bottom of the pint it had made its presence felt.  

In talking with Wolfe more, the conversation led to his journey to Holler.  Having gotten his start in home brewing many years ago, his interest in the industry eventually led to him joining on as an unpaid volunteer at No Label back in 2011.  After a year plus as a volunteer, Wolfe decided to leave his long-time aerospace engineering career behind and go full time into brewing.  He spent a little over six years at No Label as a volunteer, brewer, and eventually Head Brewer.  Wolfe additionally spent time at Southern Star Brewing in Conroe before moving on to become a Co-Founder and Head Brewer at Local Group Brewing.  After almost four years at Local Group, Wolfe made his jump to Holler and says he is enjoying his newest role tremendously. 

When asked what Holler has coming up for 2024, Wolfe replied “More events and more beer.”  It is obvious Wolfe doesn’t want to give too much away with the new year weeks away. He did mention that Holler will continue to innovate heading into the new year, including more barrel aged beers and creative uses of hops in future releases (and not just IPA’s), but will also continue to stay true to the history of the brewery and its historically popular beers.  When asked if Holler will be expanding further to take over more footprint in their current location, as has been suggested by internet rumors, Wolfe added “Nothing concrete for now, but we’re always keeping an eye out for opportunities and planning how to grow smartly.”

Holler Brewing is open normally seven days a week, and is always cycling though new releases, along with its house classics.  There is amble outdoor patio space available along with indoor seating.  There is also always to go options in the cold case by the bar in case you want to take a little bit of Holler home with you.

Holler Brewing is located at 2206 Edwards St. Suite A, 77007. Follow their socials at @hollerbeer (on Instagram)or visit them on the web at https://hollerbeer.com.

The post Huggy Bear Continues Brewing Up Excellence at Holler Brewing first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Huggy Bear Continues Brewing Up Excellence at Holler Brewing appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

The six pilsners in question are Dollar Pils Y’all, Czech my Phone, Czech it Twice, Patio Daddy-O, Foux DU Fafa, and Bravissimo. Coming into the flight, I have had half of these, but for science I knew I had to have them again.

I started with Dollar Pils Y’all, a 5.4% ABV german pilsner that I have had many times. This is one of my favorite beers Holler does, and one of my favorite lagers in town. The nose had slight bready notes that led to a herbal brightness on the palate. It rounded out with a nice light bitterness making a crisp and easy drinking pilsner. 

Next I had the Bravissimo, a 5.3% ABV pilsner made with Italian pilsner malt and Hallertau Saphir hops. This was a sweeter malt note on the nose with hints of lemony herbs. The palate was very balanced leading to a slight bitterness on the aftertaste.

I decided to stick with European for the next lager and had the French style pilsner, Foux du Fafa. This 5.7% tall glass of lager features Barbe Rouge hops and French pilsner malt. Like the previous two, this one also had a slight grainy sweetness on the nose, though here, that sweetness carried through to the taste. There was enough bitterness from the hops to keep the aftertaste dry, but not enough to leave any bitterness. 

After having a few European styles, I had the pilsner I was most excited to try, the Patio Daddy-O. This 5.4% bad boy is dry hopped and brewed with Nelson Sauvin hops, that lend the light beer a great passion fruit nose. That flavor was also prominent in the taste, but was balanced by the malt. For the amount of times I’ve had an IPA that was smothered in those hops, it was refreshing to encounter them used tastefully and with a balanced approach. This is your modern Juice Bomb IPA drinking beer drinker’s Pilsner.

I finished with the Czech my Phone and Czech it Twice. Czeck my Phone is a 5.6% Czech style lager and Czech it Twice is that with even more hops. I have had Czech my Phone before and it was what I was expecting, a nice amount of breadiness balanced by a little bitterness and herbal hops. A great example of the style and I would have told you it wasn’t missing anything. Then I had Czech it Twice. With the same grain nose as the OG, but accompanied by much stronger herbal and grassy notes and a more pronounced bitterness, it scratched all the itches that I didn’t know I was missing in Czech my Phone.

You might think that having six Pilsners in a flight would be boring, and if they were not as well done, I would agree with you. The team at Holler have proved that wrong though, where you can taste the subtle differences between each of the 6 lagers side by side. Oh and to make it even more fun, Dollar Pils and Bravissimo are also available as slow pour pints to add even more variety. So please go in and give Holler all your money so they keep making these amazing lagers for us all to enjoy! 

Cheers, and Happy Drinking.

The post Holler at this Flight of Pilsners first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Holler at this Flight of Pilsners 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.

In the four years after moving to Houston from Tampa, Florida in 2009, they grew attached to the city and found Houston’s penchant for food and drink aligned with their own interests. When John’s job took the Hollers to Doha, Qatar for two years, Houston’s budding beer scene was gaining greater momentum, and they followed along from afar.

After learning of their years in Qatar and their ties to another popular brewing locale, Tampa, I asked the Hollers, “Why Houston?” Their responses resonate with me, and I’m guessing with many of you: Houston is where their adult lives began, and Houston is where they, together, started homebrewing. Houston was the city that started it all. So, after two years in Qatar, they began to plan their return, a trip in which they would find themselves separated from one another but working together toward a single dream.

Upon returning to the United States in 2015, John set off to earn an International Diploma in Brewing Technology from the highly-esteemed Siebel Institute of Technology while Kathryn returned to Tampa in pursuit of hands-on knowledge at Two Henrys Brewing Company. Each of these endeavors were important steps in building a solid foundation for the brewery they began building in their minds in Qatar. While John was learning the science, technology, and theory of brewing in Chicago and Munich, Kathryn was learning the operations of a 7bbl brewhouse at Two Henrys, the same size brewhouse they opted for when constructing Holler Brewing Co. when they were reunited in Houston later that year.

Since signing their lease at Sawyer Yards in May 2015, the Hollers have been testing batches of beer brewed on their pilot system and collecting feedback from a group of drinkers to fine tune their recipes before brewing them on their new brewhouse.. Luckily, I found myself a part of this group and have been eagerly awaiting the day I can drink my favorites again, including a citrusy, golden IPA, and a sneakily hoppy Belgian IPA. Good news for me, and you, when John & Kathryn invited me to visit the taproom last week: their four 7bbl fermenters and six brite tanks were full in preparation for their just-announced soft opening today at 4pm. They plan to open with six beers and one cold brewed coffee on tap, with more beers added and rotated every week until their 19 draft lines are full. To start, you’ll be able to try a traditional, quaffable hefeweizen; a heavily-hopped amber ale; a luscious milk stout; and a bready, yet crisp, Pils in addition to a couple of my favorites from the test group.

It’s the perfect time of year in Houston to enjoy Holler Brewing’s spacious patio with our city’s skyline looming just beyond the trees.

Holler Brewing Company is located at 2206 Edwards St., Houston, TX 77007.

Check out their website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Photos courtesy Holler Brewing Co.

The post Making Some Noise for Holler Brewing Co. first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Making Some Noise for Holler Brewing Co. appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.