2017 was a transformative year for craft beer in Houston.

• We saw the rise of the NEIPA (thanks in large part to Larry’s “Who will be Houston’s Tree House or Trillium?” essay) with 8th Wonder, 11 Below, B-52, Baa Baa, Copperhead, No Label, Spindletap, Texian, Whole Foods Market, and others trying their hand at the style.
• Saint Arnold celebrated their 23rd anniversary and 5 local breweries made their own versions of classic Saint Arnold beers.
• We saw Texian and 160ft Beerworks close up shop. Texian plans to return.
• Baileson, Bearded Fox, Great Heights, Texas Leaguer, Vallensons’, and Wicked Boxer opened their doors to the public.
• Both Buffalo Bayou and Saint Arnold are (still) offering Free Beer For Life.
• Chris complained about the lack of on-demand craft beer delivery, and HopDrop delivered in response.
• And in the wake of Hurricane Harvey our city came together, reached out to one another, and got to work helping each other recover. Just about every brewery stepped up in a variety of ways. 8th Wonder used their high clearance vehicles for water rescues. Eureka Heights, Saloon Door, and countless others became donation centers. Saint Arnold spearheaded #ReliefBeers, and breweries from around the country donated $1 per beer sold to the Houston Food Bank, raising $35,000. Spindletap became a local distribution center, even attracting the superstar of Harvey relief – JJ Watt – into the tap room to sort and load supplies on to trucks. Hurricane Harvey will be a rallying point for our community for years to come.

Our Favorite Beers

We like to wrap the year up by sharing our the best local and non-local beer we had in the last year. It’s not an original idea, but it’s fun. We’d love to hear your picks as well!

Chris White

Eureka Heights ‘Mini Boss’ – To think, there was a time I didn’t think much of Eureka Heights’ beers. Dumb names, I said. Boring styles, I said. I was wrong, and Mini Boss represents everything I was wrong about. This beer explodes with citrus, finishes with a balanced bitterness and is enjoyable all the way through. Eureka took the megatrend of 2017 – hopping late with Mosaic and other big flavorful hops (in this case Citra) and hit it out of the park. It’s become a beer I seek whenever a new batch is released.

Listermann Brewing Company ‘Tricky’ (Cincinnati, OH) – I love all of Listermann’s series of NE-style IPAs with old school rap names, but I think Tricky has become the single example by which I have come to judge all comers in this style. Blending the aromatic elements of Mosaic with the pineapple/tropical flavors of Galaxy, it brings hop flavor and aroma from first pop of the 16 oz can and has very little perceptible bitterness – just a soft, clean, juicy finish. Listermann has a special place in my heart because 2017 was also the year I established a beer trading partner in the Cincinnati area (THANKS SAM), and so have been fortunate enough to get my hands on these delicious goodies.

Honorable mention: Galveston Island Brewing DIPA #7, MIA Brewing MEGA MIX Pale Ale, Urban Artifact Gaslight, Societe The Swindler, Odell Rupture Pale Ale, Grand Teton Brewing Teton Range IPA

Tim Spies

Saint Arnold Brewing ‘Icon Red Märzen’ – I am always excited to try a modern take on a classic style. And while there are many misses in the world of beer, Saint Arnold Brewing has proven more than capable in the handling of such styles. So as I expressed in my review of Icon Red Märzen, I was more than pleased with the results. A great representation of the style, and one that I hope will return with their regular fall lineup every year.

The Answer Brewpub ‘I Like Turtles’ (Richmond, VA) – Maybe it’s just me, but rarely do collaborations work out as well as I hope or expect. Two great breweries combining must always produce great outcomes, right? But sadly, seldom do such high expectations equal results. I Like Turtles is an extraordinary gem that greatly exceeds such desires. This collaboration between The Answer Brewpub and Bottle Logic Brewing is a delightful stout with caramel and southern pecan coffee and toasted coconut. This beer sets a deliciously high standard I hope more collaborations can meet.

Alice Hicks

Eureka Heights ‘Mini Boss’ – In short: liquid gold. I should not be surprised how good Mini Boss is given the strength of Eureka Heights’s output so far, but I was struck by its deliciousness at first sip. A grapefruit nose gave way to crisp, clean citrus and tropical flavors dancing on my tongue. At 6.8% ABV I am glad I don’t have to worry much about crushing too many of this double dry-hopped wonder, but it’s still dangerously drinkable.

Great Notion ‘Double Stack’ (Portland, OR) – I confess I had never heard of Great Notion Brewing before a friend mentioned it, which is actually a bit of a surprise since I visit Portland, Oregon and the surrounding area every other year. But with 70 breweries in Portland proper alone, it’s not hard to miss one. Now I know where I am going next time as soon as my plane hits the tarmac! Double Stack is a decadent treat. An imperial breakfast stout brewed with Portland’s Clutch coffee and Vermont maple syrup, Great Notion nails the flavor: the brew makes me feel as if I have been transported back to childhood and stuffed myself with stacks of syrup-doused pancakes.

Nathan Miller

B-52 ‘A Tart Frenchie – Peach & Apricot’ – Admittedly, I didn’t get to try as many new Houston beers this year as I’d like, but most of the ones I did try in my few trips back home or from boxes sent to me were very good. I think that my favorite was probably B-52’s “A Tart Frenchie – Peach & Apricot,” which was lightly tart, very well-balanced, and extremely refreshing, without hiding any of the delightful fruit flavor. It reminded me a little of some of the beers I’ve had from California’s Good Beer Co, which are absurdly delightful for many of the same reasons. It’s clear from this beer and others that I’ve now had from the growing Conroe brewery that B-52 is a force to be reckoned with, having already earned my vote for Houston’s second best brewery, rising with a bullet.

Cantillon ‘Nath’ (Brussels, Belgium) – December 1st, 2012, I was sitting at the Avenue Pub awaiting my taste of that year’s “Zwanze,” a special beer created by the Brussels brewery once a year. That year, it was a lambic with rhubarb added, and I recall not getting a lot of rhubarb flavor but still immensely enjoying it. Fast forward to August 26 of this year, and I’m sitting at Cantillon, trying my first bottle of Nath, the newest rhubarb lambic. This time, there’s a lot more rhubarb, with a fantastic balance, an incredible aroma, and an amazing lambic “canvas.” I was fortunate enough to try Nath one more time this year, on tap a month later (again at Avenue Pub for Zwanze day), and found the rhubarb slightly more muted, serving as a bridge to that memory from five years ago. And of course, it doesn’t hurt that it has such a great name…

Jose Luis Cubria

Eureka Heights ‘Mini-Boss’ – My favorite Houston IPA, and the beer that made me forget about Yellow Rose’s quality-control issues. It’s deliciously fruity, and the tropical/citrus notes hit you the moment you start pouring. It’s scary how quickly a crowler of this can disappear. (Honorable mention: the various barrel treatments of Saint Arnold DR17.)

Boon Geuze ‘Mariage Parfait’ (Halle, Belgium) – On the short-list for my desert-island beer, and an insta-buy every time I see it. The fact that this is now a Houston shelf beer blows my mind. For my tastes, it’s a perfect gueuze, and a perfect beer.

Kenneth Krampota

The post Our Favorite Beers of 2017 first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Our Favorite Beers of 2017 appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

SpindleTap Brewery’s Houston Haze NEIPA

When I wrote “Who will be Houston’s Tree House or Trillium?”, I figured we’d see some breweries gradually approach the style and brew some reasonable attempts, but that it would take some time before we saw a true player on the hazy AF juice front. SpindleTap said “f%7* all that noise” and is on the cusp of releasing the most flavorful and true-to-style local NEIPA I’ve had yet. I really enjoyed B-52’s Wheez the Juice, and hope to see its continued production, and Whole Foods Market Brewing Co. also delivered a very tasty IPA last week called NEAF. But SpindleTap’s Houston Haze has thrown down the gauntlet and set a new local standard.

Bursting with orange and grapefruit flavor from heaping amounts of Citra, and pineapple, mango and other tropical fruit notes from Galaxy, Houston Haze is a 6.5% double-dry-hopped delight. It’s close to a textbook example of the kinds of beers I’ve been hoping to see brewed in Houston and that prompted me to write the original essay. It’s also the first of the local stabs at the style that I’ve consumed to truly nail the mouthfeel — one of, if not the most critical component of NEIPA. Houston Haze features a soft, full-bodied creaminess with just the right amount of astringency. The body helps amplify the beer’s character while serving as a canvas for the flavor complexity, a result of the interplay of the heavy post-boil hop load and the London Ale III yeast strain.

And perhaps the most important signifier for me when drinking NEIPA is that, when done right, it lingers on the tongue long after the last sip, coating the palate in lupulin love and making it nigh-impossible to not go back for more. Houston Haze absolutely does this.

Release Details

Recognizing the fragility and best-consumed-fresh nature of NEIPAs, SpindleTap is only selling Houston Haze at the brewery (10622 Hirsch Rd, Houston, TX 77016). Sales begin Friday, March 17, at 10 a.m. SpindleTap only canned 80 cases, and there is a two (2) four-pack-per-person limit. Four-packs are $16. And, in case you miss out this go-round, they’re already planning to brew it again next week. Happy hunting!

The post SpindleTap Nails it With Houston Haze first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post SpindleTap Nails it With Houston Haze appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.