So the past couple weeks have been a whirlwind of awesome beer news. CBC in Chicago, a class at Seibel, and discovering a most intriguing beer. Might take a while to pull everything together, but I will start with a brewery visit.
Over Easter I went down to visit my mom, brother, and step-dad in Houston; one of my favorite cities, if it wasn't for the horrible weather. Houston has hands down the best food in the country (I stand by that) and an incredible scene for just hanging out and drinking beer. Everyone is super casual, it is usually to hot to move, and every coffee shop basically turns into a craft beer emporium in the afternoon; in other words, potential beer drinking heaven. However, for a city of 4 million (so they say), Houston is desperately under served in the microbrewery market. That is, except for St. Arnold's.
On Good Friday, my brother and I headed over to St. Arnold's (named for the patron saint of Belgian brewers Arnold of Soissons) brand new brewery in the 5th Ward. When we arrived we were each given a souvenir glass and four beer tokens for $7, not a bad deal...until we saw the line. 250 people have shown up for the Friday tour and tasting, up from a normal 70 we were told. As we looked around, we saw that the regulars had come armed with board games, snack, and bigger glasses. Sneaky bastards; one token equals one fill, no matter how big the glass. After waiting for 15 or 20 minutes, we finally got out beers. I had the Alyssa IPA, which was fairly good, and my brother had some sort of wheat beer I don't recall. Really, the beer was a little thin for my great-white-north tastes, but for sitting around in the crippling heat of Houston, I could see how it would be just perfect.
Aside from the beer, the real treat was the tour. St. Arnold had a three vessel, 120 barrel brewhouse that they imported from a brewery in Germany. The brewhouse was situated on a mezzanine level, with a giant fermentation floor below. The centerpieces were the 240 barrel fermenters that had just been installed, surrounded by an army of 60 barrel fermenters from the old brewery, and a few 120s. Overall, pretty impressive. Once the line died down, the beer hall had a pretty cool vibe. People sitting around long wooden tables, playing board games, potluck appetizers, and drinking beer. In other words, standard Houston hanging out.
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A brewery tour on Good Friday at a place named after a saint? I can see it if you were fasting and using beer to sustain the fast, but otherwise, seems blasphemous. Almost like a ham and cheese bagel from a Jewish bagel store. ;-)
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