The Texas Craft Brewers Festival!

I went last year and had a great if hot time. I plan on going this year as well. From the TCBF website:

The Texas Craft Brewers Festival is the largest beer tasting in Texas, featuring some of the best independent breweries from across the state.

With more than 40 handcrafted beers on tap, the festival will provide you with a unique opportunity to taste some of Texas' best beer.

Saturday, May 15, 2004
12:00 to 10:00 pm
4th and San Antonio Streets, Austin, TX

Scheduled to be there are the following breweries:

1. Bitter End with their Bat City Lager, Poindexter Pils, Nobleweiss, Austin Pale Ale, E.P.A. - Environmental Pale Ale, 2XryePA, and 1100 beers. I don't think I've had a Bitter End beer before.
   
2. Draught House with their Bayernischer Helles, Trolley Steam, Maibock, Biere De Garde, Calloway's Vanilla Porter, and Reanimator Dopplebock beers. This is my favorite Austin pub, by the way. I've tasted each of the beers they're bringing. My favorites are the Vanilla Porter, Trolley Steam, and Biere De Garde.
   
3. Live Oak with their Pilz, HefeWeizen, Pale Ale, and Big Bark beers. Probably won't be visiting these guys too much as I like heavier beers.
   
4. Lovejoy's with their Brother Bob's Bitter, Enns River Stout, and Old Horizontal (a.k.a. Old Whore) beers. I've been to the Lovejoy's pub a few times (their Honey Mead is excellent), but I haven't had any of these beers.
   
5. North by Northwest with their Northern Light, Pilsner (Spring Seasonal), Duckabish Amber Ale, and Py Jingo Pale Ale beers. New stuff for me here.
   
6. Jaxon's with their Borderland Lager, Cactus Jack Amber Ale, Chihuahua Brown Ale, and Andale IPA (ahn' da' lay) beers. Jaxon's is from El Paso and I haven't heard of them before.
   
7. Two Rows with their Honey Blonde Light Pale Ale, Uncle Reds Raspberry, Illegally Blonde Pils, Osage Golden Wheat, Old Town Hefeweizen, Dos Rows Vienna Lager, Route 66 Amber Ale, Oatmeal Stout, India Pale Ale, Hopzilla, Barking Fish Porter, and Barley Wine brews. That's a hell of an impressive list and I haven't sipped a single one!
   
8. Real Ale with their Fireman's #4 Blonde Ale, Rio Blanco Pale Ale, Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, and Brewhouse Brown Ale beers. I've had most of these Real Ales and I'm not much of a fan. The only exception is Fireman's #4, a very nice clean-drinking thirst-killer pint.
   
9. Saint Arnold with their Saint Arnold Summer Pils, Saint Arnold Kristall Weizen, Saint Arnold Fancy Lawnmower Beer, Saint Arnold Amber Ale, Saint Arnold Brown Ale, and Saint Arnold Elissa IPA. Love their Lawnmower, everything else is new to me.

Also of interest is the 1st Annual Austin ZEALOTS Homebrew Inquisition, ZEALOTS being Zymurgic Enthusiasts of Austin Loosely Associated Through Suds. Heh. :)

I hope this year the setup is such that there's more shade or at least a way to get to some while still holding a sampler of beer in hand. That was the single biggest problem with last year's event. It was bright, clear, and damn hot. The only shade was under a few highly populated tents and a small cluster of trees just outside the festival entrance...but leaving the grounds with beer wasn't allowed.

Posted by Drizzten at May 04, 2004 09:42 AM