Let's try this again; Midland, TX

Discussion in 'Southwest' started by NABS, Sep 3, 2016.

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  1. erushing

    erushing Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2014 Texas

    If you're going on a Friday and you're going to DFW or Austin, you might find the traffic pretty unpleasant in those cities. Considering you're already in the car for so long, that might be tough. I don't know locations or logistics of the Ft Worth area breweries, but you could stay west of Austin and go to Jester King (as mentioned), Real Ale (Blanco) and there are some other breweries out in the hill country. I don't know that any others have great reputations necessarily, but those are possibilities. Pinthouse Pizza has a south Austin location that wouldn't require you to get too far into Austin from where you are coming from. You're going to have a very long day coming there though.

    As for Mexico, just for future knowledge of that, I don't personally think it's so dangerous to go to Juarez during daylight hours, but that's just me. Also, it is a large city and you can easily get stuck for hours trying to get back across the bridge if you hit it wrong. I'm not sure how great it is if you don't speak any Spanish either (I don't know if you do or not). I've really only been with people that grew up there and I do speak decent Spanish. Del Rio might be closer and would be way less crazy if you were back in Midland sometime and wanted to go. I wouldn't personally drive way out of my way to go to a border town though. There are better places to go in Mexico if you're so inclined.
     
    #21 erushing, Nov 17, 2016
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  2. Bigrock

    Bigrock Maven (1,301) Feb 4, 2013 Texas
    BA4LYFE Society

    Many of the places in Ciudad Acuna that made it such fun have dried up and closed due to needing passports to visit and increased violence. If I had to have a drink in Mexico, I would drive to Big Bend NP, go across the river to Boquillas and drink sotol.:grinning:

    San Angelo shouldn't be written off. I mentioned earlier Zero One Alehouse. There is also Concho Pearl. They have a decent tap list, but you could probably get most of their offerings just about anywhere. But they do have beers from Horny Toad Brewing, located up Hiway 67 30 miles in Rowena. And Eola Schoolhouse is just funky fun. Good farmhouse ale.
     
    #22 Bigrock, Nov 18, 2016
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  3. NABS

    NABS Initiate (0) May 11, 2011 Ohio

    Wow! Thanks for all the business in this thread!

    I appreciate all the recommendations. I know this is only my personal feeling, but I haven't seen this family in 7+ years. As much as I'd LOVE to spend a day or two (or more, having the time/money), I'm not going to take away family time for my beer travels. And I'm not going to inconvenience people by having someone make a special trip to pick me up from the car rental place when my brother will be out/getting off work. So, just for this trip, I think I'll just keep it to the Alpine area if one of the two places will open earlier than 4. (I'd even shoot to Marfa 1st for Celebration if one of those places would open at 2 so I could hit it and then the other when they open at 4.)

    If neither open earlier for holiday hours, I'll probably just keep it to San Angelo. If it comes down to it, I'll just stay in Midland (Beer Garden, HEB?) and Odessa (The Cellar, HEB?). I intend to be back much sooner than 7 years this time, though, and I'll DEFINITELY take some of the advice in this thread under advisement on a visit when I may have more exploration time. (Or, ideally, if I can end up getting my brother to at least try craft now, let alone get him hooked. Wish me luck!)

    And if I do ever make it to Abilene, I'll come back and start a thread with a review about my experiences.
     
    #23 NABS, Nov 18, 2016
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  4. donspublic

    donspublic Grand Pooh-Bah (3,552) Aug 4, 2014 Texas
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    @NABS was going to respond this morning, but wiped out what I typed. What I was going to say is you were going to burn up a lot of miles/time on the road during a break, spend it with family, grab good beer where you can find it. I don't think anything you were going to hit in a 8 hr round trip to FtW or anywhere else is/was going to be worth that effort. Grab some beers head back to the house with the fam and get your buzz on and be thankful :slight_smile:. Have a great trip and by all means give us a rundown of what you found and how it was. And above all else, enjoy your trip to our fine state.
     
    #24 donspublic, Nov 18, 2016
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  5. NABS

    NABS Initiate (0) May 11, 2011 Ohio

    @donspublic, thanks for the words/sentiment. My brother's off for the rest of my trip, so pretty much every moment of every day, barring this one day, will be spent with family/in-laws. Honestly, even if I weren't able to have one drop of beer, this would still be an epic trip. (Especially since there are actual options in town now. I could literally make a beer run and be back all in 30 minutes or less, provided I wasn't sitting down at the Garden.) I'm going to follow your advice, enjoy family, and try whatever beers I can get with no trouble. There will be more trips/better times for beer hunting.

    And, I know I'll enjoy my trip to your fair state. I've absolutely loved every prior visit to Texas and see no reason why it would change, especially since it's been so long. Thank you for the good wishes and I'll definitely be back with a report on Texas Trip V... at least, I think it's V, could be VI.
     
    #25 NABS, Nov 18, 2016
  6. NABS

    NABS Initiate (0) May 11, 2011 Ohio

    Got some good news the other day. One of the two establishments in Alpine will be opening early, so I can both before returning home. (I may even get out early and sneak Marfa in there first.)

    Again, thanks to all that replied with recommendations and suggestions. While I won't be able to take much of the advice on this trip, I hope there are more, and soon, where I'll be able to use this advice.
     
    #26 NABS, Nov 22, 2016
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  7. NABS

    NABS Initiate (0) May 11, 2011 Ohio

    Just jumping back in to thank the wonderful state of Texas and it's people for a great week+ while visiting family for the holidays.

    Not only did I not rent a car/make a trip on Friday, but didn't even make it to Midland Beer Garden. (Bowl season is not the optimal time to make too many trips out, at least if you're a college football fanatic.) I tried beers at every place we went to eat. I tried local beers in all the airports. And, in maybe the biggest surprise, I found a TON of beer in bottles. I'm sure some of it is just average stuff to everyone in Texas, but a few of the bombers seemed pretty good. (Although, I was unable to find any of the IPAs in the juicy TX IPA thread.) Hopefully it'll be arriving here soon. (I'm thinking I won't be lucky enough that it'll be tomorrow. These frigid temps coming in have me worried.)

    I had a great time, enjoyed so many things (drinking a beer in a movie theater?! WTF are you waiting for Ohio?!), most especially seeing family after 7+ years. And, there's more new stuff to look forward to trying next time. (Which definitely won't be as long.)

    Thanks to all the wonderful TX BAs that had given me advice in this thread. Even though I may not have used much of/any of your advice this trip, I plan on being back much sooner this time and hopefully putting some of it to use. Cheers!
     
    #27 NABS, Jan 4, 2017
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  8. The_Epopt

    The_Epopt Zealot (689) Nov 16, 2015 Texas

    Well, west Texas is vast and spread wide with few cities. Next time try to convince your family to do a weekend trip to DFW, Austin, of San Antonio. So much good beer to be had.

    Edit: glad you had a great time too!
     
    #28 The_Epopt, Jan 5, 2017
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  9. tjmodica

    tjmodica Pundit (824) Oct 2, 2007 Texas
    Trader

    I was referring to Alpine beer company not Alpine, Texas sorry for any confusion.
     
    #29 tjmodica, Jan 10, 2017
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  10. NABS

    NABS Initiate (0) May 11, 2011 Ohio

    No problem. If there was an Alpine Beer Company satellite location somewhere in TX, especially anywhere near my driving distance, I didn't notice. Plus, Alpine would have gotten me a brewery and a pretty nice looking restaurant with a pretty good beer selection, so all in all, it worked well for my original plan.

    So, no confusion here. (As much as I'd love to one day be driving around CA to hit some of their breweries, it definitely wasn't in the cards this time. Unless they opened a satellite location in TX about which I had no clue. Or there's a different version of the Alpine Beer Company from the CA company.)
     
    #30 NABS, Jan 10, 2017
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