Texas Beer Scene

Can you give me some suggestions on Martin House beers? I've never had any of their beer. I've seen them on tap before but didn't know much about them. Do they can/bottle or is it only draft?

 

Is there a better city in Texas than Dallas???

 

All of them?

 

@brock125, Martin House Pretzel Stout is always good!

 

I love your avatar but the best barrel aged wee heavy is made in katy now

 

I liked their barley wine and recently they released a barrel aged version called Christmas in July. Had it at Lakewood Growler tonight. Mind on my money was a cool beer. Those are on draft. As far as cans Salty Lady is a good Gose and Cellerman's Reserve IPA was one of the better DFW IPAs I had last year.

 

Don't they change the hop in Cellerman's Reserve each time?

 

Shannon makes some decent stuff. Not extreme or anything but tasty for the styles.

Had a new IPA from Rabbit Hole last night that was pretty good.

 

Yeah I haven't had the latest one yet but the Columbus hop version was really tasty. I may pick up the latest version soon.

 

Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio. Dallas leaves me cold. Seems kind of stuck up its own arse most of the time.

 

You say Dallas, I say southern Oklahoma.

 

Dallas is better than Laredo.


Barely.

 

That is not saying much.

 

My point, exactly.

Backhanded compliment.

 

Man, it really makes me sad to see this thread. When Jason (@Exiled ) and I first got into beer, it was basically a wasteland out here. Our most exciting beer on the shelves was the Boulevard Smokestack Series. If you wanted to trade, that's what you traded with. Or you drove to Austin to get a growler of Live Oak Hefe to trade with. It was that bad.

Now we have 30 local breweries in DFW, tons of which are making some really impressive beers. You must keep in mind that the first brewery in Dallas proper was November 2011, which was Deep Ellum. Speaking of which, those guys were selected as one of only FIVE breweries in the US to get Jameson barrels to age a beer in. And they're currently aging some quad in Opus barrels, some of the best wine barrels anywhere in the world. Texas in general is one of the most awarded states in the US at GABF each year these days. So this "scene" is less than 4 years old, and is still behind most in terms of overall percentage consumption. That is a lot of what is driving the market. Yes, there are folks like you and I who read BeerAdvocate, chasing the newest barrel aged beer, sour beer, adjunct beer, or innovation and creativity in brewing, but until our local consumption increases brewers are trying to simply satisfy the majority of the marketplace.

I feel like our beer scene has come a very long way in such a short time. It's literally like night and day from what it used to be. And for everyone saying you don't like Dallas, that's a generalization and you're certainly entitled to it. I feel like I've made some of the best friends I ever have in my life, and I spent many years in the midwest, a year in California, and I've done my fair share of traveling both domestic and international. Dallas is a great city for me. I'm a little biased, but I also think we've got the best beer festivals in the state in North Texas.

North Texas also has the best beer week in the state Mae Rock (who reports for Dallas Morning News) went to San Francisco Beer Week (heralded as one of the best in the US) and said that NTX Beer Week was better and had more to offer.

I pick my battles, and for the types of beer I can't get locally produced or distributed here, I just trade for them.

Welcome back Jason!

-Chad

 

Sometimes I wonder how I got into beer at all back then. Then the other day a vendor brought me bottles of Duchess de Bourgogne and St. Bernardus Abt 12 and it all came back to me, as did the reason why no American-made quad will ever be good enough for me.

 

One word: triplebock

 

God, I remember seeing that shit at HEB back in the day for $10. Glad I waited for the $6 bottles at Gabriel's a year or two later. There's only so much money I'm willing to pay for Jim Koch to shit in my mouth.

 

Beer in barrels = unrealized income. It's very difficult for new breweries to allocate a generous amount of beer to barrel aging, or age for extended lengths because they do not see a return on their expenditures for quite some time. Also, forgive my biases, but I do think the time Legion spent in barrels was almost perfect. Tastes differ person to person, but I like barrel aging to complement the base beer, as opposed to dominate the flavor profile. Anyhow- keep posted for the coming fall/ winter- as far as Community goes- there will be quite an array of funky stuff making it's way out to the market!