If you’d like to have your event included, send an email to info@houstonbeerguide.com with the subject line “July Event Calendar.” Please include the date & time, a brief description of the event, the location, and a Facebook event link if available.

Saturday, July 1st

City Acre’s 1st Anniversary Party | 11am-5pm| City Acre is turning one! To celebrate, they’ll have special beers on tap all day (some new, some past favorites), a German food buffet, and bottles to go of their Skull Creek Kolsch aged on City Acre grown blueberries, dewberries, and blackberries.
This is a ticketed event.
More details on Facebook | Ticket link

Fetching Lab is, well, open | 1pm-5pm | Fetching Lab is only open one or two weekends a month, and even then only depending on the weather. The brewery is on the same property as their house, which is sure to make any homebrewer envious. The brewery is dog friendly, kid friendly, and horse friendly, but bring your own chair.
More details on Facebook

Local Brews Local Grooves at House of Blues | 3pm-10pm | The beer list for this annual event is too long to list. If you like Houston beer, your favorite brewery will probably be pouring beer here. There are multiple ticket tiers, some of which include a Saint Arnold beer dinner before the event.
This is a ticketed event.
More details on Facebook | Ticket Link

Town in City’s First Of JuLuau Party | 6pm-11pm | Town in City is celebrating the beginning of July. They’ll have Blood Brothers BBQ serving Hawaiian food, Hot Rod Pops serving frozen popsicles, and Reggae band Dem will be providing the grooves. They’ll also have some special tropical themed beers available.
More details on Facebook

Bike Ride and Hot Dog Eating Contest at TBR | 12pm-6pm | Join Texas Beer Refinery for their Independence Day celebration. Join 1 mile the “bike parade” from the taproom to the brewery at 12:15, and head back for the hotdog eating competition. There will also be live music starting at 2 and they’ll have “Cloud Nein” a German IPA brewed in collaboration with Wurst Haus.
This is a ticketed event.
More details on Facebook | Ticket Link

Running Walker’s Official Grand Opening | 12pm-11pm | Running Walker is officially opening their outdoor beer garden this weekend. They’ll have food trucks and live music all day to celebrate.
More details on Facebook

Tuesday, July 4th

Fourth of July Celebration at No Label | 12pm-7pm | It’s a day of contests at No Label: hotdog eating, watermelon seed spitting, and dog costumes. They’ll have beer available by the pint, plus food trucks and music throughout the day.

Friday, July 7th

Bishop’s Gone Wild Bottle Release at B-52 | 3pm-? | B-52 will be releasing their Saint Arnold tribute beer, a sour amber ale with raspberries and blackberries, at the brewery at 3pm. Limits will be based on turnout.

Bishop’s Gone Wild Bottle | Photo: B-52 Brewing

Saturday, July 8th

Saint Arnold Pub Crawl Downtown | 2pm-6pm | It’s time for the annual downtown pub crawl. Stop at any one of the locations below between 2pm and 3pm to get a punch card. Your route and stops will vary depending on where you start. Meet everyone at Market Square Park at 6 to redeem your fully stamped card for your Pub Crawl pint glass. You don’t have to drink at every stop to earn the stamp. After the pub crawl, Ishi and The Waxaholics will be performing at Market Square Park.

Stops: El Big Bad, Springbok, Molly’s Pub, Flying Saucer, OKRA Charity Saloon, Christian’s Tailgate, Conservatory, Batanga, Boots ‘n Shoots, Bovine & Barley, Nightingale Room, Shay McElroy’s, Little Dipper, Market Square Park
More details on Facebook

Monday, July 10th

Houston Haze Release at SpindleTap | 3pm-Saturday, July 15th | The newest batch of Houston Haze will be released on Monday at 3pm. As long as supplies last, it will also be available Tuesday-Thursday from 9am-6pm, Friday from 9am-9pm, and Saturday from 12pm-pm.

Friday, July 15th

Cubano and Craft at SpindleTap | 12pm-6pm | Experience a day of Cuban culture, Cuban cuisine, and craft beer. They’ll also have a cigar rolling station.
More details on Facebook

Belgian Beer Week kicks off at Flying Saucer Downtown | July 15 – July 21st

Saturday – Saison Saturday – Discounted Saison Bottles + BYO Saison Flight: Funkwerks Brett Saison, Funkwerks Tropic King, BLVD Tank 7, BLVD Saison Brett, Saison Dupont, Southern Star Summer Saison and more.
Sunday – Belgian Bottle Bottle Release: Large Format and rare Belgians from the cellar.
Monday – $3 Belgian Drafts + Maredsous Chalice Release
Tuesday – Victory Trivia – $5 Victory Golden Monkey all day long + Victory Hoppy Quad at 6pm.
Wednesday – Belgian Flight – De Ranke Tripel, Da La Senne Zinnebir and more.
Thursday – Belgium comes to America – The Bruery Sans Pagaie at 6pm.
Friday – Belgian National Day – Build Your Own Belgian Flights + Cantillon Tapping at 7pm
More details on Facebook

Sunday, July 16th

Feast of Saint Arnold | 5pm-8:30pm | Feast of Saint Arnold is Saint Arnold’s annual fundraiser for Texas Children’s Hospital’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center. It’s a 4 course meal (plus hors d’oeuvres and dessert) served family style like a medieval feast. Plus beer, of course.
More details on their website: www.saintarnold.com/feast-of-saint-arnold/

Sunday, July 23rd

Screwed Up Sunday at 8th Wonder | 11am-6pm | 8th Wonder’s annual event paying tribute to DJ Screw is back. The event will include music (of course), an interactive live artshow with Donkeeboy, and a DJ Screw pint glass with 3 beer tokens.
More details on Facebook

Friday, July 28th

Sangria bottle release at B-52 Brewing | 3pm-? | B-52 is releasing their red & white wine barrel aged saison that has been re-fermented with wild yeast, pink guava, blood orange, blackberries & raspberries.

Saturday, July 29th

Xmas in July at Buffalo Bayou | 6pm-9pm | This year’s annual event features a commemorative glass, all you can (responsibly) drink beers, and an ugly sweater contest.
This is a ticketed event.
More details on Facebook | Ticket Link

Board Game Bonanza at Flying Saucer Downtown | 12pm-6pm | Tea & Victory is bringing their library of over 200 board games to the Flying Saucer in downtown Houston.
More details on Facebook

Flying Saucer Board Game Bonanza – July 29th

August Preview

Aug 3 – IPA Day at the Flying Saucer Downtown
Aug 6 – Root Beer Float Day Celebration at Saint Arnold
Aug 10 – Beer dinner & cooking demo at City Acre
Aug 19 – “Nuke the Whales” bourbon barrel imperial milk stout release at Eureka Heights
Aug 20 – Flying Saucer Downtown’s 17th Anniversary Party

Don’t see an event near you? Use our Brewery Map to find somewhere new to visit.

The post Houston Beer Events – July 2017 first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Houston Beer Events – July 2017 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.

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.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, allow me to remind you that I love goses. I think they are tasty, I think they are refreshing, and I think you could make a pretty good argument that they are a perfect Houston summer beer. So when I walked into Mongoose versus Cobra a couple weeks back and saw the Texas Beer Refinery Cranberry Gose on tap, I had a bit of a moment. On the one hand, I love goses. On the other, the only thing I had ever seen from Texas Beer Refinery was their absurd prepackaged growler distribution system at grocery stores.

One more cool thing: the bombers (like this Mexican IPA) have incredible bottle caps.

But I’ll try pretty much anything, so I ordered a pint, took a sip, and was amazed. Twenty ounces later I wouldn’t shut up about how tasty of a beer it was.

I promptly texted several friends and fellow Houston Beer Guide writers to spread the word of this amazing find, and the conversations that ensued convinced me to seek out as many other Texas Beer Refinery beers as I could find without making the trek down to Dickinson. A quick trip to the HEB on San Felipe followed with me grabbing three other beers from their portfolio, including two bombers (the growler thing is apparently going away, which is good), and only because I already liked the cranberry variety, a growler of their Gulf Coast Gose.

Gulf Coast Gose Fall Edition (2015 Cranberry) – Tart and salty, with a great cranberry flavor, this is really really good. When I got to the end of my imperial pint, I realized I could drink a lot more of this.

Mexican IPA – Very adventurous flavors in this, but I enjoyed it immensely. There’s a limey and leafy flavor that works quite well, in spite of how that sounds. A great balance and I had no trouble finishing the bomber.

Gulf Coast Gose – Sure, there may have been no cranberry, but there were hints of grapefruit with lots of coriander. Very solidly constructed; this would be perfect for hot Houston summers. I will happily crush this one in the future.

Catalyst Imperial IPA – The only one of the four that didn’t blow me away, if only because my craft beer tastes have changed to veer me away from the extremely-hopped style of IPAs. Hop lovers will enjoy this because it is well crafted, bottle dated, and extremely hop-forward.

Having tried these four, I have to say I’m very excited for what Texas Beer Refinery does next. I may even head to Dickinson, when their new taproom opens in March, or the Clear Lake Shores Food Truck Park, where their beer is frequently available (and where I hear the food trucks are incredible). Regardless of where, you need to seek out TBR beers and drink them. You’ll be very glad you did.

The post You Should Be Drinking Texas Beer Refinery first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post You Should Be Drinking Texas Beer Refinery appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

My new Founders mug, included with the flight!

Back in August, I asked, “Where are Houston’s flights?” Since then, many breweries have begun offering flights, and slowly, my vision for a small-drink Houston brewery scene is coming true. At the same time, a few bars have begun offering flights, including what is probably the greatest flight program in Houston at Mongoose versus Cobra in Midtown.

You’re likely familiar with the traditional flight structure at bars that offer them: in contrast to a brewery highlighting their beers all at once, a bar flight usually allows you to “pick and choose” from a list of beers that cost around the same amount in order to try multiple things. Flying Saucer, for example, offers a “Build your own” flight, in addition to some pre-designed flights such as “Hop Head,” “Texas,” or “World Taster.” However, the flights at Mongoose are a different paradigm altogether: they are offered only once, they highlight a single brewery at a time, and they include beers that, if you asked for them as part of a flight at most bars, would get you a laugh and a head shake.

Take for instance the December Founders Brewing Flight, a flight I was happy to partake in. Participants on December 3 (these special flights occur on alternating Thursday nights only) received six-ounce pours of Curmudgeon Old Ale, Founders Imperial Stout, Founders Breakfast Stout, and Kentucky Breakfast Stout. The last one was poured into a beautiful mug which participants got to keep. The total cost? $15. Considering the lengths to which many in Houston went to try to even taste KBS, this was a crazy steal. Add the awesome mug in, and you’ve got an irresistible flight.

The flight that started it all: Houston Beer Week’s inaugural flight.

Other Thursday MvsC flights, all of which are between $10-15, have featured similar incredible offerings:

• Clown Shoes flight featuring a special firkin of Space Cake (yum!)
• A No Label/Ballast Point flight that included the only cask of Nightmare on First Street aged on Ballast Point Three Sheets Rum oak chips
• A $10 Texas Beer Refinery flight including the incredible Cranberry Gose
• Bourbon County flight including the very-chased-after 2014 BCBCS and two of the “Sister” sours.

As a lover of flights, I urge you to make your way “under the ivy,” as they put it, for the next Thursday night flight on Jan 28. And you’re in for a treat: my favorite brewery in Texas, Real Ale, is the focus of a flight that includes TWO Mysterium Verum beers this Thursday. Devil’s Share (wine barrel aged Devil’s Backbone Tripel – this is a rare treat), and Codex Triplex (Brett. Brux. steel-aged WT3F?! – I recently tried and was blown away by this one) both are the stars of the show, joining two other Real Ale delights. Don’t miss out!

The post Mongoose versus Cobra has the best flights in Houston first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Mongoose versus Cobra has the best flights in Houston appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.