Houston Beer Week - The Draft

Lets get this going. The new discount is a group buy.

A 20% automatic discount kicks in when someone buys 4+ General Admission tickets, 3+ Bottle Share or Back Room tickets, or 2+ All Access tickets.

This runs until 11:45pm tonight. Get them while they last!

Also remember, Food is FREE: food at the event will be free to those attending. Food is being provided by Ninfa's Navigation, Antone's, El Hidalguense and Richard Flores who is roasting 300 lbs of pork for pork sliders.

Also, if ANYONE is interested in volunteering to help pour, we would greatly appreciate it. You would work one shift and then have the other shift to roam the festival. It's for a great cause and there are benefits to working the festival. Message me to let me know if you are interested!

 

Replied!

 

Bottle share was pretty good in my mind. Lots of nice stuff, but it took a little while to gain steam. Either the person you heard from was there early on or had an unrealistic expectation.

I felt the Houston breweries showed up strong. Jester King and Rahr brought junk. I didn't get to check out many breweries as I was working most of the day.

All I know is that Whiskey Barrel Aged Gingerbread Stout was awesome!

 

You guys were at the share too early. Lots better and harder to find stuff than Pliny there. The attitude of wait and see what's at a bottle share will lead to a bad bottle share. Luckily this one turned out great.

Some highlights:

Bruery Smoking Wood
Alesmith Decadence 2011
Brewdog TNP
Drie Fonteinen Golden Blend
Lost Abbey Judgement Day
Haandybryggereit Odin's Trippel
Hoppin Frog Naked Evil
Hoppin Frog DORIS
Funkwerks Tropic King

There was tons more stuff than that, those were just the better stuff I had.

 

It was enjoyed, very much.

Notice you heard from people who heard or stopped in real quick to check. It wasn't a "Whalez Bro" bottle share, but definitely a solid one.

I'm sorry if you brought something and weren't able to try it.

Everything I brought was gone by the time I got there too, but I expected it as I was working a booth pouring.

I forgot that we had a Dark Lord 2011 there too.

 

Also, let me say that I'm not trying to be a homer about this festival. I just wanted to let people know that it may have been a bit better than they initially thought.

I'm sorry if anyone didn't enjoy the bottle share. I know this is completely subjective, but I looked at it based on other bottle shares I've been to (which is quite a few). It was a solid mix of hard to find beers and beers we don't get regularly in our area due to TABC and/or distribution areas. About the only local stuff I saw was Divine Reserve. There were obviously some easier to get beers like CCB Maduro (which I've never actually had and didn't get a chance to try... lol), and the such, but nothing screamed, "I got it at Specs last night" like show up to many bottle shares I've been to. I think we all need to remember that even though those kinds of beers do show up at bottle shares, we should be okay with this as everybody starts somewhere. I was that guy like 2 years ago. You may also ask questions about some of the beers. I've been to a bottle share where people scoffed at a pair of Storm King bottles sitting at a share only to find out that they were from 2005.

That said, I was surprised at how this festival changed since last year. Beers at the festival were much better than last year overall. The breweries that didn't bring anything special seemed to get ignored for the most part. I was stationed at the Rahr booth and they had 2 kegs, no literature and never even floated 1 keg. Last year they tapped multiple varieties and even some rarities. They had a rep and promoted the beer, this year, they phoned it in. Last year that probably would have been okay, not this year, you needed something special, interesting, or new to get recognized. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing for craft beer. I think a few people have gotten into the "if it's not rare I don't care" mentality. Remember, drink what you like because it's good, not rare.

 

I get that, and I tick too, but honestly, if you are ticking to only tick and won't revisit some oldies but goodies, then you aren't getting the most out of beer.

I go to festivals as a way to have a good time and drink good beer. I was lucky enough to get a booth right next to Sierra Nevada and Karbach booths and be able to have access to Celebration, Narwhal, Yule, and BB Hellfighter all day. These are beers that no matter how many times I've had them, I enjoy again and again. We are starting to get a great portfolio of breweries (both local and distributed from other areas) that do allow you to find beers that are great to find on the shelf. We do Houston Beer week once a year as a celebration of beer. Nothing encompasses that as much in one event as Monsters/The Draft in my opinion. Good beer, good people, good food, live entertainment, and an overall fun day.

I find most festivals will have those same 95% and also mix in a few neat 1 offs or rarities. I don't feel like any one fest has a higher concentration of new things. Sadly a brewery (Jester King) that should jump at bringing good stuff to Houston continues to send ho hum offerings while sending their nice stuff to Austin and Dallas beer festivals.

I will say the bottle share was a good way to hit some of the goodies you were talking about. Even stuff like Pumpking and other seasonal beers from other markets are a nice treat even if you've had them before.

In the end, I think it was a great time and that's what it should all be about, not ticking. I save that for my house or smaller bottle shares like at Ginger Man or with friends.

Closest thing I've seen to a ticking festival was last year at Night After Monsters. I wish they had brought that back. It is exactly what I think you were looking for and was the highlight of beer week for me last year.

 

I think every local brewery should send regular stuff and some stuff that's a bit more special.

I picked them because they are probably the highest profile brewery in Texas. While I enjoy Commercial Suicide and Le Petit Prince, it's doesn't showcase much of their portfolio, only the session beer segment. Maybe their target audience is Austin and Dallas.

That said, next year I will try to give more input. If I can help in any way to secure some neat stuff for The Draft, I'd help. I hope they are open to opinions.

I think I would like to see a nice mix of good beer and nice little surprises. I think we had a good amount of both, but would like to see it evolve a bit more.

That said, I'd still go even if it was the same, but would love to offer even more good beer.

 

I pick and choose mine, that's for sure. I like this one because money goes to charity.

I understand wanting new stuff, but the stuff I had was worth the price of admission to me.

 

Yes, Jay and Cathy would have loved a bigger turn out. I think we may want to explore having it the first weekend of beer week again. I think that brought out bigger crowds because people hadn't been to a bunch of events before hand.

I never even made my way to the backroom. Was it good? Would you recommend we do it next year or just put that good beer out with the rest of the regular festival?

Just trying to get some feedback.

I'm glad folks had a good time.

And I agree that getting as much Whiskey Gingerbread or BB Helfighter as I needed was very nice.