Saucer Diaspora - Houston » Beer

Monday January 30, 2012: Beer from that City Up North at The Petrol Station

john — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:05:12 +0000

The Petrol Station has some friends visiting from the Big “D” and is celebrating by tapping a keg of IPA from one of the newest craft breweries in Texas. We promise this won’t be one of those “oh, I want my two friends who don’t have anything in common except me to meet and be friends” kind of awkward platonic set ups where everybody is uncomfortable and just wants to leave. Come out to sample the new beer, or to take advantage of their ‘pint and a burger‘ Monday night special, or maybe some rosemary feta french fries and a pint. Or just a pint. See you at 985 Wakefield, in Garden Oaks, at 8 PM.

Beer in Greco-Roman antiquity

mike — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:28:39 +0000

This thesis is an attempt to collect all the evidence for beer found in ancient Greek and Latin authors, from 700 B.C. to A.D. 900, and to provide analysis of and commentary on this material. The thesis is divided into three parts, one on the philology of beer, dealing with the various words and expressions for the beverage in Greek and Latin, one on the technology of beer, dealing with the methods of beer production in antiquity and the characteristics of the final product, and finally, one on the ideology of beer, dealing with Greek and Roman views concerning the drink and their subsequent influence on others.

via Beer in Greco-Roman antiquity.

Best letter ever written to a Lawyer

mike — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:48:03 +0000

It’s a shame we won’t be getting a Freetail brewpub in Houston. These guys seem like a lot of fun.

Moon Tower on the Horizon: A(nother) New Brewpub

mike — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:16:42 +0000

We still think it was nuts to close Moon Tower Inn just when the Houston weather was most conducive to outdoor dining. We could have given them plenty of ideas on how to keep serving up the sausage during the build out. However, we were pretty excited when we heard about their plans to open a brewery as a part of the new, improved, MTI; even more so when we heard who will be manning the mash tuns. Lushtastic has the details. Now if they would just be open Monday nights!

Win free tickets to BCTC (Belgium Comes to Cooperstown)

mike — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:55:08 +0000

Saveur and Ommegang are teaming up to give away tickets to BCTC:

‘This is BCTC’! Belgium Comes to Cooperstown.

Over 200 Belgian-style and true Belgian beers, from 50 craft breweries and ten importers, celebrating the best of the Belgian tradition of beer. BCTC is consistently ranked in the top 5 of beer festivals and is one of the few that is uniquely independent.

The event has sold out 8 years running, often with tickets selling out in minutes. But we have your entry. In celebrating food and beer, this is your chance to win two VIP passes to this year’s event, including hotel accommodations.

Festival Dates – July 29th – 30th

VIP Passes Include:
• Exclusive Brewery Ommegang beer dinner on Friday night
• Innovative Brewery Ommegang beer tasting Saturday (featuring limited and exclusive beer releases)
• Admission to Belgium Comes to Cooperstown festival

Hotel accommodations for the weekend (Friday & Saturday) in the Village of Cooperstown

If you go, you might find at least one other fun thing to do there.

HB602 is dead

mike — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:11:08 +0000

Not surprising, but sad nonetheless:

The latest effort by Texas’ small craft brewers to bolster their business by letting people leave their tours with a six-pack or two is dead.A spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Thursday that time simply ran out on House Bill 602, which was never offered for a vote by the end of the day Wednesday, deadline for the Senate to consider bills approved by the other chamber.The final, unresolvable conflict was a last-minute objection by Anheuser-BuschInBev, the world’s largest beer company. The Belgium-based conglomerate, which brews Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob and other beers in breweries in Houston and elsewhere, opposed a provision in the bill that would have denied it ability to offer the take-home beers.

more at Beer, TX.

HB602 had its flaws: I wish that the distributors wouldn’t have required the size limitation, and in reality, HB660 would have created a much better playing field (more akin to other more beer-friendly states). But as HB602 was the only of the three beer bills to get this far this session it was our best hope for improvement. But similar to the Cubs fan rallying cry on opening day (“there’s always next season!”), the legislature will meet again in 2013.

Monday, 16 May 2011: Base Camp at Plonk Bistro

mike — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:26:27 +0000

Plonk Bistro at 43rd and Ella has been on our radar for some time, and deserves a trial run. This week in particular should be a good time to try it out. Coincident with American Craft Beer Week, Deschutes Brewery (our third-most-favorite entity in Bend, OR) is doing some special things around town for what they’re calling Base Camp Week. Plonk’s main time to shine for Base Camp is the beer dinner tomorrow night, but they should have Deschutes specials all week long. See you there at 8 PM.

Coming Soon: Texas Beer Festival

mike — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:19:41 +0000

The Texas Beer Festival is happening in Humble, TX on May 7th. There are a number of related events (a pub crawl and a number of beer dinners) happening during the week before and the week after the fest itself. Looks like it will be an interesting time to be in Humble and and the greater Houston-Humble-Tomball-Cut-n-Shoot-Clute Metroplex.

Coming soon-ish: Hay Merchant

mike — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:01:12 +0000

There’s a whole lot of buzz this week concerning the upcoming beer pub that the folks from Anvil are planning for lower Westheimer. Based on this early read, it’ll be a place to watch: Barley Vine: Hay Merchant.

Pumpkin Ale Throwdown: Results and Recipe

mike — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:41:20 +0000

Wow, that was fun. Depending on who you talked to, there were either 17 or 22 entries in the Throwdown. At the end of judging, my Sons of the Scarecrow Organic Pumpkin Ale took first place! I was as surprised as anybody. It was great meeting other homebrewers who were all interested in learning from each other. There were several very interesting-sounding entries: I heard of at least two Saisons and one Imperial Pumpkin Porter.

My recipe was based on Jamil Zainasheff’s recipe for Pumpkin Spice Ale from his book with John J. Palmer, Brewing Classic Styles. I diverged from his recipe by using organic pumpkin flesh in a can (pumpkins weren’t in season just yet on brew day), using WPL007 pitched from a healthy yeast cake, and by substituting organic grains and hops from BrewOrganic.com.

I’ve posted my recipe in full after the break.

Sons of the Scarecrow Pumpkin Ale

21-A Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer

Author: Mike Hon

Date: 9/18/2010

Size: 6.5 gal

Efficiency: 68.61%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 142.52 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.043 (1.026 – 1.120)

|==========#=====================|

Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (0.995 – 1.035)

|==============#=================|

Color: 13.49 (1.0 – 50.0)

|============#===================|

Alcohol: 4.22% (2.5% – 14.5%)

|==========#=====================|

Bitterness: 23.1 (0.0 – 100.0)

|===========#====================|

Ingredients:

4.42 kg Organic Pale Ale Malt

300.87 g Organic Light Munich

300.87 g Organic Crystal Malt 15°L

300.87 g Organic Crystal Malt 60°L

49.56 g Organic Roast Barley

851 g Organic Pumpkin (canned) – added during boil, boiled 60 min

7 g Organic Kent Goldings (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 40 min

14 g Organic Pacific Gem (14.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min

1/2 tsp Organic Orange Peel (dried) – added during boil, boiled 10 min

1/2 tsp Cinnamon Bark – added during boil, boiled 10 min

1/8 tsp Allspice – added during boil, boiled 10 min

2.0 ea White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale

1/2 tsp Cinnamon (ground) – added dry to secondary fermenter

.5 tsp Cloves (whole) – added dry to secondary fermenter

1/8 tsp Nutmeg (ground) – added dry to secondary fermenter

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 70.0 °F

Source Water: 60.0 °F

Elevation: 16.5 m

00:03:00 Mash In – Liquor: 3.7 gal; Strike: 167.0 °F; Target: 154.1 °F

01:03:00 Rest – Rest: 60 min; Final: 154.1 °F

01:03:00 Batch Sparge – Initial Run-off: 2.66 gal sparge @ 168.0 °F, 0.0 min; Total Runoff: 5.08 gal

Notes

Named in honor of one of my favorite Disney TV Dramas http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606207/
First place winner at 1st Annual Pumpkin Ale Throwdown, Petrol Station Coffehouse and Pub, Houston, TX, 14 October 2010
Mr Malty recommends: 1.77L starter (177g of DME).
Inadvertent 90 min rest and boil.
Hit target mash temp 154 spot on.
6.1 Gal run off.
1.050 Pre-boil Gravity.
Added 2L of water to bring volume right.
Fermented at room temp, ~74F; was a vigorous fermentation.
Added more ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in keg.

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