The Future Fortress BeerWorks | Photo courtesy of Fortress BeerWorks

“As huge craft beer fans ourselves, we’re beyond excited to become a part of Houston’s quickly expanding craft beer scene, and eager to help slake the thirsts of the beer drinkers of our great city,” said head brewer and co-owner Dion Billard. “It’s an invigorating time for craft beer in the greater Houston area. We look toward our neighbors to the west at Lone Pint in Magnolia, to the north at B52 Brewing, Copperhead and Southern Star in Conroe, and to the south at 11 Below as inspiration, and can’t wait to make beer that will further cement north Houston’s reputation as a can’t-miss craft beer destination.”

Dion says Fortress BeerWorks expects to launch with a Double India Pale Ale, Blonde Ale, Witbier and the brewery’s signature Smash IPA as they open their doors, with seasonals and special releases throughout the year. Dion also said that Fortress will offer Crowlers, and may also enter the 16-ounce can sale arena down the line as well.

Fortress has plans to send some product out to retail, though expects to spend much of its focus on providing the best possible experience for its patrons at its taproom. The brewery expects to be open Thursday through Sunday at the outset, with expanded hours an eventual possibility. Additionally, they will partner with local food trucks to ensure there is always a food option for taproom visitors.

Local commercial real estate firm NAI Partners arranged the lease transaction for the space. NAI has become something of a go-to firm for craft brewery leases, having also completed Great Heights’ lease on Wakefield Drive last year. (Editor’s note: Larry is VP of Marketing at NAI Partners.)

You can follow Fortress Beerworks on Facebook at @FortressBeerworks, and Instagram at @FortressBeerworks.

The post Fortress Beerworks Aims to Open in Spring This Fall first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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The unlikely duo of Justin Gyorfi, a urologist from Clear Lake, and Mike Broderick, an award-winning Pennsylvanian home brewer and former IT professional, have faced some formidable obstacles to opening Ingenious since we began reporting on the brewery’s progress in February 2017. The business partners weathered construction hurdles, Hurricane Harvey, and shortly after Harvey’s devastation, Justin’s first child was born, and Mike suffered a ruptured appendix on the same day.

The Ingenious Brewing taproom is full of hop themed decorations. | Photo: Shawn McDermott

During the delays, venues around the Houston area from Webster to Katy hosted events showcasing Ingenious brews. Justin said he is thankful for the support of these establishments, including Craft Beer Cellar downtown and Humble’s the Hop Stop, who were among the first locations around town to receive kegs and are currently serving Ingenious beers on tap.

A passion for craft beer, particularly IPAs and stouts, bonded Justin and Mike, who met when Justin was doing his residency at Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania. The two formed a plan to open a brewery, and in 2014 Mike sold everything he had and moved to Houston.

“We are trying to bring in elements from breweries around the country that we admire, then combine that with our own thoughts and ideas to create a distinct Ingenious experience here in Houston,” Mike said.

The bookcase bar at Ingenious Brewing Company. | Photo: Shawn McDermott

They have succeeded in creating a unique atmosphere with a very smart-looking bookcase bar and a wide array of brews, heavy on New England IPAs inspired by Tree House and Trillium, and complex stouts in the vein of Cigar City, one of Mike’s favorite breweries. A fan of Tired Hands’ milkshake IPAs, Mike also brews his own twist on lactose IPAs, FroYo beers.

Though the taps rotate often, Ingenious has a few beers that have consistently been on the menu. I tried the creamy Vanilla Coconut FroYo IPA, which features a vanilla aroma, subtle coconut flavor and light bitterness. My favorite beer was the Bigger in Texas New England IPA, an imperial version of their Made in Texas IPA. It is juicy, a little floral and has a velvety soft mouthfeel.

I also enjoyed the stouts I tasted, particularly the rum barrel-aged ones. All of them were well-balanced and very smooth. With no heavy booziness, they went down very easily – a little too easily for me as most of them ranged from 11-13% ABV.

Mike said he feels Ingenious’ variety of styles sets their beers apart from other Houston-area breweries. I agree. In addition to the IPAs and stouts, in their short existence Ingenious has also produced brown, cream, English mild, amber and wheat ales. I tried the Vanilla Coffee Cream Ale, which has a delicious candy nose. Heavy vanilla at first sip, the beer finishes with a slight coffee flavor.

Ingenious IPAs ready to drink | Photo: Shawn McDermott

Ingenious is working on having an on-site food truck full-time. Meanwhile, the brewery is hosting pop-up kitchens, most notably GastroCraft, featuring local chefs. GastroCraft’s Dennis Feray has created some insanely delicious culinary delights such as mouth-watering chili verde pork tacos featuring slow-simmered pork shoulder, fire-roasted poblanos and jalapenos, and dishes which showcase beer like “hopped-up nachos” made with IPA-infused queso. Hungry brewery patrons can finish their meals with April “Ape” Feray’s luscious, chocolately cupcakes, cookies and brownies baked with stout.

Additionally, Ingenious will soon offer ¼ lb. hot dogs on a fresh bakery roll, chips, and sodas, which patrons can enjoy inside, or on its kid- and dog-friendly patio. Outside food and food delivery to the brewery are also allowed.

On Mondays, Ingenious will offer full pours of many of their beers at half-pour prices. Thirsty visitors can take home brews in growlers or crowlers. The brewery recently began canning and plans to have fresh four-packs offered monthly.

The prolific brewery has scheduled releases of one to three new brews a week, one of which will typically be a barrel-aged offering. This constant variety should ensure patrons have the distinctive Ingenious experience that its founders desire.

“Each time a patron comes to the brewery, we would like to give them a unique beer drinking episode,” Mike said. “We want to give people a reason to come back again and again.”

Ingenious Brewing Company

1986 S. Houston Ave.

Humble, TX  77396

Hours: (as of the publishing date)

Monday, Wednesday-Friday 4-10 pm
Saturday 12-10 pm
Sunday 11-7 pm
Closed Tuesdays

Photographer Shawn McDermott is an IT engineer born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has been into photography for over a decade and loves traveling the world trying new beers!

The post Ingenious Brewing Brings Inventive Brews to Humble first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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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.

Photo: J. McElweenie

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: local brewery set to open doors in renovated food service warehouse.

The team at Eureka Heights Brewing Co. has been hard at work for 18 months transforming a 20,000 square-foot warehouse into the stuff of dreams. Casey Motes, formerly a brewer at Saint Arnold, Robert Eichenlaub, Joel Swift, and their significant others have led volunteers and willing family members in countless hours of renovation, fabrication, cleaning, painting, and all things necessary to make this Heights brewpub a reality.

Atypical for the neighborhood, the property boasts a massive parking lot, accommodating and perpetuating Houston’s love for private transportation. Inside, you’ll find plenty of room to stretch out near the cold storage on the beerhall-style tables or even play a game of cornhole near the fermenters, but they plan to fill that space with more stainless steel as demand grows. A little farther down the road, they plan to move the revelry into an updated air conditioned tap room at the front of the building and take over the cornhole court to set up their canning line. The well thought-out space is ready to adapt to whatever demand Houston drinkers drum up.

Photo: C. Motes

Located just west of the Heights dry zone, you’ll be able to buy beers by the pint, flight, or walk out the door with Crowlers or growlers of the good stuff brewed on the customized 30-barrel DME brewhouse. The starting lineup features an American IPA highlighted by loads of American hops, a cream ale with corn perfected by input from real-life cowboys, a truly American style of beer with loads of Citra hops fermented with Kolsch yeast, and a milk stout with cinnamon and cayenne.

Meet the Eureka Heights Brew crew at the official launch party tonight, August 5th, at The Flying Saucer in downtown Houston from 4 to 8 p.m. If you miss the Saucer event, you’ll find the Eureka Heights team at Hughie’s on August 11th from 5 to 8 p.m. and the full line-up at Jugs Draft on August 12th from 6 to 9 p.m.

Pictured: Joel Swift Photo: J. McElweenie

Eureka Heights will open the brewery doors to thirsty Houstonians before Labor Day, with a grand opening party to be scheduled when the temperature drops a few degrees.

Photo: J. McElweenie

Eureka Heights Brewing Company is located at 941 W 18th St, Houston, TX 77008. Check out their website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Photos courtesy Jason McIlweenie & Casey Motes.

The post Beer Is Flowing From Eureka Heights first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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What started as a trio of homebrewing buddies getting together to hone their craft and share their beers turned into a dream that, fueled by a few of those very beers, sparked an idea that turned into a brewery. Between then and now, Ned Davis, Mike Norfleet, and Herb Garcia have continued to tweak their recipes and practice a few other skills they learned along the way as they did the bulk of the heavy lifting building out their brewery and installing Texas’ only commercial 10-barrel electric brewhouse.

Their beers have been popping up around the neighborhood but soon you’ll be able to drink them directly from the source. They plan to offer five standard beers and five experimental beers in their taproom, which features a sizeable shaded patio and happens to be located just around the corner from Midtown’s favorite new spot, Axelrad Beer Garden.

If you’re antsy to check it out, they’ve already quietly opened their doors in anticipation of the grand opening, and you can check them out every weekend in July from 12-8 on Saturdays and 12-6 on Sundays.

Under the Radar Brewing is located at 1506 Truxillo St, Houston, TX 77004. Check out their website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Editor’s note: Due to overwhelming attendance at the soft opening and subsequent lack of beer, this article has been updated to reflect that Under the Radar’s grand opening has been postponed to August 27th.

The post Shining a spotlight on Under the Radar first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Shining a spotlight on Under the Radar appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

The Victorian-style City Acre “castle.”

On Thursday night I attended a preview of the much anticipated City Acre Brewing Co., a brewpub located about 10 minutes north of downtown off U.S. 59 at 3418 Topping Street. Originally slated to open four years ago, but delayed due to complex city regulations and beer laws, City Acre will hold its long-awaited grand opening on July 7.

Offering intriguing food and drink menus, eclectic background music and charmingly eccentric decor, there truly is something for everyone at City Acre.

Veteran homebrewer Matt Schlabach and his wife, Meredith Borders, purchased the nearly one-acre parcel of land off the Eastex Freeway in 2009, and had hoped to open a brewpub on the property in 2012. While waiting on permit approvals and facing construction interruptions, the space, which features an expansive garden and fantastical, gargoyle-guarded, Victorian-style “castle,” has served as a special event venue and de facto tasting lab.

The stalled progress of the brewpub had one advantage: it allowed time for perfecting beer recipes. Some took longer than others to get right. While the Sneaky Wheat Stout was a hit right out of the gate a year and a half ago, Matt says he test batched more than 30 IPAs before arriving on the final Bayouwulf base.

The City Acre Crew: (L-R) Rick Kelsay, Meredith Borders, Matt Schlabach, Jeronimus.

The extended wait also allowed for other, unexpected benefits, according to Matt. “It definitely gave [us] a chance to hone our vision,” he said. “When you’re doing nothing but thinking all day, you can really focus on what you want.”

This mindset definitely shows. The City Acre crew has created a unique, intimate place for beer geeks, foodies, friends and families to share their diverse tastes and discover new ones.

The extra time also allowed the garden to grow. City Acre now has 57 fruit-bearing plants grown with organic methods on the property. The brewpub not only highlights these ingredients in their food and drink, they make the ingredients the stars. “It’s very important to us to make something that showcases our fruits and vegetables,” Matt said.

Incredibly welcoming, the City Acre staff is an endearing, quirky team of intelligent, curious and passionate people.

A former mechanical engineer, Owner Matt has had his hand in nearly everything related to City Acre. Not only is he the brewmaster, he designed their logo, built some of the taproom’s light fixtures and bakes all the brewpub’s bread and buns.

Co-owner Meredith, a magazine editor by trade, is City Acre’s social media guru, as well as their menu and website copywriter.

A long-time friend of Matt’s, General Manager and Fermentologist Mandy Jeronimus, brings fervor for brewing and soda-making to the team. Mandy’s love of all things carbonated comes naturally: her grandfather was a soda jerk and her entire family homebrews.

Rick Kelsay, a Pacific Northwest native, answered Matt’s ad for a chef, and they immediately clicked. “It worked out better than I could have expected,” Matt said. “We came from a common idea of executing solid and simple first, then go from there. “Their shared background of mechanical engineering made Matt and Rick logical partners. “We work together to tweak recipes,” Matt said.

The result of the City Acre team’s hard work pays off in their four beers, inventive food and non-alcoholic drink menus.

The beers:

• Lil’ Wulf: the extremely drinkable session version of their soon-to-be-released Bayouwulf IPA. It is well balanced with subtle tropical notes.
• Tischbier: a clean, grain-forward, light table beer perfect for summer picnics or days at the beach.
• Sneaky Wheat Stout: so named by Matt because people usually drawn to lighter beers might be “sneakily” persuaded to like stouts after trying this crisper variant on the style. This smooth brew with dark chocolate and coffee notes would make me a believer if I weren’t already convinced stouts were worth my while.
• Hitchcock Blonde: a golden ale with a magnificent aroma. It is light and lemony with strong coriander notes and a bit of pepper in the finish.

City Acre also serves other local brews. 8^th Wonder Hopston, Texas Beer Refinery Bayou City Brown, and Southern Star Buried Hatchet were represented on taps, as well as a variety of Saint Arnold, Karbach, 8^th Wonder, and Southern Star beers in cans.

The food:

The sublimely savory German Burger, a pork and venison patty topped with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, house-made pickles and mustard, caramelized onions, and apple on a freshly baked bun crowned with toasted onion paired well with the Hitchcock Blonde. The burger reminded me of pork “sauerkraut supper,” a family recipe and childhood favorite of mine, which my mom always served accompanied by a baked apple.

City Acre offers a sweet finish to your meal with the brewpub’s own seasonal ice creams or house-baked cookies. Their blueberry sherbet was so good I almost forgot about how great the beer was after I tasted a spoonful of the creamy concoction. Not overly sweet like some sherbets, the bright burst of onsite-grown blueberries shined in this beautiful dessert.

Another distinctive characteristic of City Acre is their creative non-alcoholic menu, which is composed of a custom mineral water blend, house cold-brew coffee (served on nitro), and small-batch sodas crafted with pure cane sugar and homegrown seasonal fruits and herbs. I recommend the wonderfully frothy and refreshing hibiscus mint soda made with mint harvested from their onsite garden.

Mandy, Matt, and I bonded over our mutual affection for sour beverages while discussing City Acre’s fruit shrubs. Also known as drinking vinegars, the brewpub serves blueberry basil, raspberry malt vinegar, and grapefruit varieties.

I walked in City Acre’s taproom as a mere email acquaintance, and left feeling like I had made new friends. Do yourself a favor and check out City Acre–I think you’ll feel right at home, too.

For more information visit City Acre’s website: http://cityacrebrewing.com.

The post City Acre: Right at Home at Houston’s New Brewpub first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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Running Walker

Just down FM 359 from Texian Brewing in Richmond, Running Walker is laying the chips to become a major player in the Houston area craft beer scene. A few of their beers are starting to show up in accounts around town, and they have much bigger plans in the upcoming months. Fellow Houston Beer Guide writer Greg Manuel and I were invited out to the brewery to check out the progress. The brewery shares land with the Braman Wines tasting room, which had a nice crowd for a rainy Saturday afternoon. The winery and the brewery are both owned by Joe Braman, a noted figure in Texas ranching, real estate, oil, and wine. The name Running Walker is from a breed of hunting dogs Joe hunts with, one of his passions. The brewery itself is located in a large warehouse building next door to the tasting room. In front of the brewery they are working on building a large outdoor patio with both their wine and beer served, along with a stage for live music. Inside of the brewery building they are planning on a tap room, also selling their wine and beer, along with what is going to be a beautiful event space. The winery itself is located in a building behind the brewery, and down the road there are plans for a possible distillery as well. Also being discussed, is the idea of a tasting/tap room near downtown Houston serving their products. Our first steps inside of the brewery itself were quite a surprise. I’ve been in a number of breweries in my life, from large scale operations to small shops, but I hadn’t seen anything quite like this. No expense was spared, the floors were epoxied, everything was brand new, and the feeling was more of walking into a chemical clean room than the usual brewery. The German brewer, with 20 years of industry experience, preaches cleanliness and it really showed. Also notable was the amount of space they had to grow. They could easily quadruple in size in this facility and still have space. Currently they are setup on a 17 BBL system with a IDD High Efficiency Brewing System (HEBS). This system allows them to brew 4-5 different batches of beer in a single day. As general manager Tom Rey told us, their limits on brewing right now aren’t on the system but on the number of fermenters they have. They also have an 150BBL surge tank for filtering their well water supply.

Future outdoor taproom and live music stage

HEBS

Picture from the brewery looking towards the tap room, with entrance to the private event space on the left.

Tap Handle Design

Tap Handle Design

Future Private Event Space

The post Dog Will Hunt – Running Walker Brewery first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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Founders Brian Allen and Kris Szecsy

The name “BAKFISH” combines the initials of the partners’ first names with a bit of history into Kris’s past career as a marine biologist. Brian has a background in business development, allowing him to be the more commercially minded partner. Kris was a chemist in the oil and gas industry, and he is using that knowledge in the brewing process.

BAKFISH is currently brewing on a 30-barrel system, with plenty of space to grow in the future. For now, they plan to dial in their “core five” beers to ensure that they are always consistent and available in the tap room. BAKFISH currently has 4 out of 5 of their core beers on tap: Wit, IPA, DIPA and Porter. They expect to have their last piece of the puzzle, their Golden Ale, on tap soon. In addition to the core five, they are looking at ways to test the market to see how receptive the area is to more experimental beers. As Kris said during our interview: “The brewpub atmosphere allows us to keep playing.” A quick review of the four beers that I tried when visiting is below:

The Wit was so good that we accidentally drank it before we remembered to take a picture!

I Tell You Wit, 5%:

Cloudy as expected with a wispy head. Aroma is orange with chamomile, although I’m not sure if I would have picked that up unless I knew to look for it from the conversation with Kris. Flavor profile is reminiscent of Blue Moon, as the citrus notes from the wheat and the bitter orange peel blend seamlessly. The mouthfeel is full, but it fades quickly and finishes dry.

Circle Hook IPA, 6.5%:

Poured darker than the DIPA, causing the two to accidentally be mixed up when sorting out the flight at the table. Flavor is full of a mix of pine and caramels, with a quick bitter bite and a toasted malt finish.

Defying Gravity DIPA, 8.5%:

Pours a dark straw color and a little cloudy. Lots of pine flavor up front, with a nice mango, tropical midpoint, and a resiny finish. The alcohol was masked by the nice blending of the key flavors.

Goat Roper Porter, 6%:

Very strong aroma of dark roasted coffee upfront. Coffee flavor comes through on the taste, along with mellow chocolate notes. Overall, a relatively light-bodied beer which makes it very easy to drink, even in the Houston heat.

BAKFISH already seems to be fairly successful in connecting in with the local community, by both connecting with other area breweries to share knowledge, and by looking to assist local organizations. Coming up soon, BAKFISH will host events to help support local organizations such as the Friendswood Animal Advocates and Hunt with Heart. More information about both events is provided below, and you can always check out the brewery’s Facebook and Twitter pages for more up-to-date details.

I would highly recommend checking out BAKFISH if you live in the area, or if you are up for taking a short drive out to the suburbs. BAKFISH offers a kid-friendly and dog-friendly area, as well as a private space available for rent. They offer snacks at the brewery, and they also allow you to bring your own food or have it delivered.

Taproom hours:

• Monday through Thursday: 3PM-9PM
• Friday: 3PM-10PM
• Saturday: noon-10PM
• Sunday: noon-9PM

Location: 1231 Broadway St, Pearland, TX 77581

Upcoming events:

• May 14^th from 5:30PM-9:00PM – Ales for Tails Event supporting the Friendswood Animal Advocates
• May 16^th, Leukemia & Lymphoma Man & Woman of the Year Golf Tournament (BAKFISH is sponsoring a hole)
• June 17^th, starting at 6:00PM – Washer tournament at the brewery supporting the Hunt With Heart organization

The post BAKFISH Brewing Company first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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Photo credit – Saloon Door Brewery

The West Coast vibe of Saloon Door Brewery isn’t obvious when you walk through the doors: cedar planks cover the lower half of the walls, vintage chairs surround the tables, and even the name evokes a distinctly Texas feel. But when you talk to the crew responsible for the idea and execution of getting this new brewery up and running, you begin to see how Saloon Door drew inspiration from some of the breweries of Southern California.

Jason Graham and Jeff Graham

Owner Jason Graham previously worked at a baseball instructional facility in Vista, CA. It is 60 feet and 6 inches from the pitcher’s mound to home plate, and it didn’t take long for Jason to discover that Mother Earth Brewing Co. was just a few feet further from the facility than that. Parents would drop off their children to play baseball, then head to Mother Earth to pass the time, relaxing and enjoying a beer. Mother Earth’s sessionable beer and sense of community led Jason and his brother-in-law Josh, a homebrewer back in Texas, to wonder why something similar couldn’t be done near Jason’s hometown of Galveston. So they got to work infusing the SoCal vibe with Texas hospitality in order to execute their game plan: creating a community brewery with creative yet approachable beers.

After six months of looking for locations, the Saloon Door crew–a group of four after the addition of Jeff Graham and Austin Webber–found their future home right off the NASA Bypass on I-45 South. This bypass sees a high volume of traffic every day, and they felt it was the perfect location to lure in the road-weary locals and provide a place to hang out and blow off some steam. The family-friendly, relaxed atmosphere of the rustic taproom is the perfect place to unwind after a stressful day of work and I-45 traffic.

Their current line-up, brewed on a 10 barrel system, is full of 5-7% beers which invite drinkers to sit and stay awhile. With the vanilla cream ale, their creativity shines by adding a unique twist to a sessionable classic. On the other end of the spectrum, their peanut butter stout hits all the right notes for a full-bodied dessert beer, even at 5%. 

Photo credit – Saloon Door Brewery

Saloon Door will be open this weekend for their second soft opening, and if you make it out to the tasting room you will be one of the first people to try their anxiously awaited IPA. You can also look forward to catered food pairings including their milk stout paired with baked beans and a pulled pork sandwich.

If you can’t make it to the soft opening, mark your calendars for the weekend of April 29-May 1 when Saloon Door holds their Grand Opening party. This community focused brewery is just what the area needs, and if they live up to their West Coast inspirations it will surely be one that the entire city of Houston can be proud of.

Check them out on social media:

Facebook

Twitter (@SaloonDoor)

Featured image photo credit: Ulises DeLeon  

The post Saloon Door Brewing Preview first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Saloon Door Brewing Preview appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Featuring a massive beer garden, the new spot will have a hammock grove, lawn games, live music, and plenty of open space to sit back and relax. Their thirty-one taps will have something for everyone, with a focus on local favorites, national gems, and style classics. If that isn’t enough, their deep bottle and can selection will surely contain an old stand-by or a new favorite.

Behind this burgeoning beer program is Axelrad’s general manager, Elise Capers, who plans to take what she learned from her time with The Flying Saucer to new heights at this Midtown spot. Speaking of Midtown, fear not: parking should be plentiful with their large lot to the northwest, open street parking on Winbern, and neighbor HCC’s lot just north of that. And if you’re lucky enough to make the trip on a bicycle, don’t forget your helmet, because it’s worth five percent off your bill.

The best part for this pizza-lover is that Axelrad and Luigi’s will be sharing more than just a parking lot. They’ll be teaming up to satisfy the triangle-shaped hole in your stomach, with Luigi’s staying open late to make sure you’re fed before that long bicycle journey home.

Your first chance to check them out will be as part of the Sip & Cycle event, this Saturday, November 21. I don’t want to give away too much, but I will say that Axelrad will be pairing a Hugs & Donuts creation with a bourbon barreled bastard of a beer.

Axelrad Beer Garden is located at 1517 Alabama St and will open its doors and patio on December 5. Keep up with their progress on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The post Century-Old Axelrad Building Sees New Life as Beer Garden first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

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