Texian opened four and a half years ago to a much different market. When they opened, there were fewer than 10 breweries in the greater Houston area. (I believe they were number 8.) Today, there are 44 breweries in operation, with at least a dozen more in progress.

Texian’s taproom may be closing, but Texian is not closing. Going forward, Fulbrook Ale Works will brew Texian’s beers under a contract brewing arrangement. Texian will retain control of the recipes, but they won’t have brewing equipment of their own. Over the next year you should see even more of Texian’s beer on shelves around the state. Closing a taproom may seem like a strange move, since breweries make more profit selling beers in their own taproom, but that is limited to how many people come in the door. Selling beer in bottles and cans may make the brewery less money per ounce, but the market is much larger. Ultimately, Texian is choosing to focus on distribution instead of on taproom sales.

Fulbrook Ale Works will be a veteran owned and operated brewery. According to owner-operator Jeremiah Ivey, Fulbrook is hoping to have the TABC and TTB license process finished around October. In the meantime, they will be connecting the building to city water and sewer, putting in some much needed bathrooms, and renovating the taproom space. This purchase gives Fulbrook Ale Works a major head start in the process toward opening a brewery. Building renovations and acquiring tanks often take a year or longer. Beyond this, we don’t know much about Fulbrook Ale Works at this time. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as they get closer to opening.

Fulbrook Ale Works | Photo: Fulbrook Ale Works

So what’s next for Texian?

With the sale of the equipment and the transfer of their lease, the taproom is no more. Texian’s focus going forward will be getting bottles and cans back on shelves. They’ve had distribution issues in recent years, as fans may have noticed, but Josh says they’ve made a big push to correct that. The latest release of Donkey Lady, their sour ale aged on apples and spices, “sold faster than any previous release in the last 18 months.” Keep an eye out for new Texian beers in the coming months and some keg only favorites coming to bottles.

Josh Haley’s full statement:

“To put five years of your blood sweat and soul into something, it takes a lot out of you to do this. However, ultimately it is what was right for our company to be able to grow the way we want it to. When it came down to it, it was time to renew the lease on our building and we worked through multiple scenarios to analyze whether we continued on our current path or if there were other options that would lead to better gross and free up our time to focus on the distribution which creates more brand awareness. This move will allow us to introduce more brands that we have been working on over the last year two, as well as seeing previous favorite keg only beers in packaging. We intend on opening a new taproom, in the future. Yeah, it sucks. However, it will be great in the long run. The support, from our community, has been great and we already have opportunities being presented.”

Follow Fulbrook Ale Works on social media:

Twitter: twitter.com/FulbrookAle
Facebook: facebook.com/Fulbrookaleworks
Instagram: instagram.com/fulbrookale

Follow Texian Brewing Co. on social media:

Twitter: twitter.com/TexianBrewing
Facebook: facebook.com/TexianBrewing
Instagram: instagram.com/texianbrewing

The post Texian Brewing Closes Taproom, Sells Equipment first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Texian Brewing Closes Taproom, Sells Equipment 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.

A quick reminder of the methodology: To make this list, I started with all Houston-area beers with at least 100 Untappd check-ins. I then excluded any beers that have had less than 5% growth in activity since last quarter. The resulting 202 beers from 24 breweries were then weighted using a Bayesian estimate based on total check-ins and ratings. And finally: obviously all ratings should be taken lightly. Ratings are subject to the whims of rarity, perceived excitement, and even personal vendettas from groups of people. This is just a fun exercise but should not be considered a reflection of my opinion or the opinion of Houston Beer Guide.

Last time around, we only had 193 beers from 21 breweries. For the second quarter in a row, three more breweries have qualified for this list, indicative of the city’s steady brewery growth.

The Top Ten Beers in the Houston area, weighted:

Atop the chart, not much has changed from last quarter. Southern Star Black Crack rose two spots, largely due to the latest successful release. And sadly, my love of Yellow Rose can’t save it from another quarterly drop. Near the bottom, however, the real excitement occurs: the first sighting in the Top 10 of a Brash beer (likely a sign of more to come), as well as the first time that a No Label beer has made the chart. This year’s Perpetual Peace release has been incredibly highly reviewed and the Single Barrel variety helped as well. Clearly a good sign from the Katy brewery.

The Top Ten Breweries in the Houston area, weighted:

Again, the top of the chart remains unchanged. Much more exciting: Brash’s rise into the Top 5, as well as Texian’s return on the chart, something obviously bolstered by their recent focus on funky & sour beers. Texian’s return dethrones Brazos Valley, which has fallen completely off the chart, something likely affected by their lack of a new qualifying beer since last quarter.

What do you think? It’s March and that means one major thing for sports fans, and a similar thing for Houston beer fans. You’ve seen the rankings above, but now we want you to vote in our own March beer bracket with the top 64 Houston beers. Check it out here!

The post Top-Rated Beers & Breweries in Houston: March 2016 first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Top-Rated Beers & Breweries in Houston: March 2016 appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Let me explain…

I too want to improve my fitness and decrease my waistline this year but I don’t want to sacrifice my beer drinking in order to do so. Beer is deceptively high in calories — it’s often difficult for me to find an IPA with less than 200 calories per 12 ounce bottle. We always think twice about consuming nachos or pancakes but rarely do we put our beer mug down because of the caloric intake. There must be a way for all of us to continue enjoying our heavyweight beers without becoming heavyweights ourselves, right? I’ve attempted to dissect the local craft beer scene in order to find a resolution for you beer-loving fitness enthusiasts (or hopeful enthusiasts) by looking at calories and alcohol by volume, ABV.

The reason for looking at calories is obvious; the reason I also look at ABV is because nutrition facts are not required on beer labels and there’s a lot of resistance to making the information known. Alcohol content is probably the best indicator of calories since every gram of alcohol contributes about 7 calories towards your beer. It can get a lot more complicated than this due to the amount of sugars and the fermentation process, but this is a simple approximation. I utilized two sources for the information: www.myfitnesspal.com & The Next Glass (iOS app). Simply finding caloric information for craft beer is extremely difficult and my findings are only as good as the data available.

I’ve highlighted my 5 favorite healthy brewery options + a “cheat meal”. If you’re still thirsty for more there is a longer list towards the bottom. All calorie amounts are per a 12-ounce serving.

Saint Arnold

Saint Arnold’s Marketing Director, Lennie Ambrose, actually provided their exact nutrition facts. The SA beer with the least amount of calories is the new Boiler Room Berliner Weisse with 120 per 12oz, which I must say is awesomely refreshing. Other good options are Fancy Lawnmower, Weedwacker and Santo, which all clock in at 149 calories each. You shouldn’t have a problem finding any of these on store shelves.

Karbach

I found Love Street Kolsch to have 123 calories and Weisse Versa Wheat, 156 (according to Next Glass). Both are very solid beers, especially in the Texas heat. Also, Staycation with only 4.8% ABV or Zee German Pils with 4.9% ABV will keep you light and tight. The Zee German Pils was released last week.

8^th Wonder

8^th Wonder has quite the assortment of beers available but finding nutrition facts on them is tough. A safe bet would be to keep it light with some Dome Faux’m, which is a cream ale at only 5.2% ABV.

Buffalo Bayou

I wasn’t expecting to find a healthy option from a brewery that creates beers such as Bananas Foster, Mud Turtle, Gingerbread Stout and Red Velvet Stout, but they provide a selection of beers across the spectrum. For instance, their 1836 Copper Ale claims only 171 calories (Next Glass), while the Summer’s Wit hoists 180 (Next Glass). I highly recommend the toasty 1836 to be paired with a lean burger for the ideal post-workout reload. Beer hydrates, right?

No Label

They tout quite a number of beers under the 200 calorie mark. No Label has the lowest average calorie count of all the breweries I looked at. Your fittest bets would be the 1^st Street Blonde Ale with 150 calories and 5% ABV, or El Hefe Hefeweizen with 165 calories at 5.5% ABV (all stats from Next Glass).

Brash (CHEAT MEAL)

Let’s be honest, you don’t drink a beer from Brash because you’re looking to cut back on calories and they don’t make beer for that reason either. Consider a Brash Cortado, Abide, or Smoglifter Stout as your cheat meal. You earned it. If you want to be picky then search out their EZ-7 pale ale with only 5% ABV.

The following is a list of more local beers under 6% ABV or 200 calories per 12 ounces to fit your fitness goals:

B-52

The Payload Pilsner: 5.1% ABV
Schwarzbier: 4.3% ABV & 129 Calories
Wingman Wheat IPA: 5.7% ABV

Southern Star

Bombshell Blonde Ale: 5.3% ABV & 157 calories (Next Glass)

Lone Pint

Zeno’s Pale Ale: 5.9% ABV
Yellow Rose IPA: 6.8% ABV & 215 calories.

Whole Foods Market Brewing

Vienna Lager: 4.9% ABV

Town in City

Mosquito’s Revenge Pale Ale: 5.5% ABV

Spindletap

The Boomtown Blonde Ale: 5.5% ABV
Toolpusher Pale Ale: 5.5% ABV

Galveston Island

Tiki Wheat: 5.6% ABV

Texian

Vaquero Mexican Dark Lager: 5.2% ABV
Travis Pale Lager: 5.2% ABV

11 Below

7-Iron Session Ale: 4.5% ABV

And there you have it. Houston craft brewers are gaining a reputation for producing truly awesome BIG beers but as you can see there are plenty of lighter beers you can enjoy while trying to cut back on calories.

While my list is extensive, it’s not comprehensive, so if you would like to include any breweries that I missed or find faults in my arguments please leave a comment below.

The feedback is always much appreciated. Cheers y’all and I hope you’re able to enjoy plenty of beer while sticking to your resolutions in 2016. Let us know how it goes.

The post New Year’s Resolution: Drink (Somewhat) Healthier Beer! first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post New Year’s Resolution: Drink (Somewhat) Healthier Beer! appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Speaking of Saint Arnold, they managed to win a Gold Medal, their first since 2010, for Weedwacker, in the German-Style Wheat Ale category. Weedwacker is clearly a huge hit at GABF, as this is not the first medal it has garnished, and this Gold joins two years of straight Bronze in the same category.

Weedwacker’s Gold was one of nine Gold Medals that Texas took home this year, out of a total of fifteen overall medals. Though that’s a slight drop in the overall count from last year, it represents the best showing in the Gold position that Texas has ever had. In fact, only California took home more golds, showing that the appetite for Texas beer is clearly strong.

In addition to the Weedwacker Gold, Houston also earned one other medal this year: Karbach took home the Silver in American-Style Amber Lager for Karbachtoberfest. This marks the third year in a row that Houston has earned 2 medals after a two-year drought; clearly, I’m good luck.

But it wasn’t just on the award stage that Houston’s spotlight shone. The convention floor was full of people sampling the new sours at Texian as well as beers from Buffalo Bayou, No Label (I finally tried What the Hatch, and, yes, it’s as awesome as I expected), Texas Beer Refinery, and Saint Arnold. And, as expected, Saint Arnold did once again erect their famous wedding chapel and assist quite a few couples in love.

After a successful but exhausting GABF, I’m looking forward to a little rest. But more importantly, I’m looking forward to what the next year will bring.

Featured image courtesy of the Saint Arnold Twitter account.

The post GABF Wrap-Up: How did Houston fare? first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post GABF Wrap-Up: How did Houston fare? appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Courtesy of Texian Brewing

This year, Texian Brewing is debuting four brand new beers at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF). Three of them are mixed culture fermentations, a first for Texian.

Texian has been rolling out a new Wild Texas series of beers that showcase funky and sour flavors, along with names that reference little-known Texas trivia. The first beer in this series was “Donkey Lady”, a sour with apples and cinnamon that is as close to liquid apple pie as you can get without blending up an actual apple pie. The beer is named after an early settler that was burned in a fire and now haunts a bridge south of San Antonio.

Josh Haley, an Admiral in the Texas Navy, was kind enough to send me some information on the new sour and wild beers, along with the banner they are using for GABF, seen at the top.

FM359 is named after the Farm-to-Market road the brewery is located. Josh says, “We fermented this beer with a blend of Saccharomyces & Brettanomyces yeast strains as well as Lactobacillus bacteria. The combination creates a dry finish, a little fruitiness and a slight bit of tartness.” This sour and funky saison will be a base for fruited versions that Texian plans to release throughout the year. It is likely that the “plain” version won’t be found outside of their taproom or special events. The first fruited version will have raspberries and blackberries, and it should be available in 22 ounce bombers soon.

Courtesy of Texian Brewing

Aurora is the second in the “Wild Texas” series. It is a Golden sour brewed with Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces. The beer was then racked onto apricots and aged on oak. “The result is a tropical, fruit forward beer that is slightly tart and has a light hint of oak character”, says Josh. Aurora is named after the alleged UFO crash in Aurora, Texas, just north of Fort Worth.

Black Jesus will be the third beer in the “Wild Texas” series. Josh says it is “a dark sour beer that is fermented with a blend of Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. After primary fermentation, it is aged on tart cherries. The result is a tart beer that has a great cherry flavor and a slightly roasted flavor from the dark malts.” It is named after full-sized bronze statue of Jesus in the Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville (resting place of Sam Houston). The statue has darkened over time, and rumor is if you stare at it, the statue will switch from palms up to palms down.

For the sour beer nerds and homebrewers: These three beers are brewed with Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus, pitched alongside the Saccharomyces in primary. They will have live cultures in the bottle, unlike Texian’s other beers Donkey Lady and Charlie Foxtrot, which are kettle sours.

The post 4 New Texian Beers Debuting at GABF first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post 4 New Texian Beers Debuting at GABF appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.