Whole Foods Katy

My buddy went to the opening. Says they have growler fills AND sell homebrew supplies. I gotta check it out.

 

They've got a good guy running the beer department there, his name is Ian. He used to run the beer department at Specs in Sugar Land. Really nice guy, definitely knows his stuff.

 

Ian left SL Specs? I feel like that location is going to go down without him. He seemed to really keep things together in the beer department, and knew his stuff. Talked with him many times and he was cool to hold beers for me if I asked.

Still. Good for him on finding what will hopefully be a more fulfilling job.

 

they has some rye on rye in there too, I live two miles from it. The available kegs looked interesting too, makes me want a kegerator.

 

Yeah, I was sad to see him go. He was definitely the best beer guy of any Specs location I've ever been to (including the smith street location). I'm kind of worried about that locations beer section going downhill now too, they are still trying to find someone to replace him.

He told me the Whole Foods in Katy is a little closer to where he lives. They are lucky to have him.

 

I rarely bother even going to the Sugar Land Specs anymore. Last few times I went, their shelves were practically barren, and new stuff was hardly getting stocked. That being said I found a loner Stone Mint choc stout on the shelves there and bought it one day.

 

Ian had mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that he was headed to WF in Katy, their gain, SPECS loss. I agree that the supply and diversity of their beer seems to be going down. I like the WF in Sugar Land much better than SPECS>

 

BA user pawpaw used to run the beer dept at whole foods kirby, supposedly he works here now.

 

Justin took a good promotion for this new store and with Ian running the beer department I really wish I lived near Katy to justify the store being my new favorite beer store.

 

Thought I'd pop in to clear some things up

The rumors are partially true, I'm at the Katy location now, but we currently do not have a beer and wine specialist (initially it's going to be one position at our store instead of having a beer specialist and a wine specialist). There are several people that have applied and will be interviewing for the position, but in the interim it will be a combination of me, my team leader, and our coordinator purchasing beer and wine.

We also have a bunch of awesome kegs in the cooler that we'll be tapping eventually (and I'll definitely let you guys know), such as BBA Hellfighter, Morgul, Highlander, 120, to name a few.

We got one case of The Abyss, like every other WFM, but it was gone in no time.

Also, for those of you who don't already know, you can now order kegs through us to take home for your systems. Virtually anything that is available we will sell you (things that we're only allocated one--like BBA Hellfighter, won't be for sale for obvious reasons).

Hope to see you all around.

 

That sounds awesome. Any jester king kegs?

 

Will there be a Twitter page or some way of letting people know what is currently on tap?

No facebook as this teacher doesn't need one.

 

Haven't decided as to how we're going to keep an updated tap list for everyone, but I'll let you know hopefully within the next week.

@Daemose currently no Jester King kegs--they're pretty hard to come by. You guys should all pressure Jeff into sending us one

 

awesome to know youre now 2 miles from me. if you get the Katy WF anywhere near what youve done at Kirby WF, i'll never have to shop at specs again lol.

 

Aww shucks
I'm pretty proud of where I took the Kirby store so I really appreciate it when others can recognize that.

The bar is obviously going to be the current focus while we amass limited kegs and figure out what's popular (we went through almost 60 gallons of Live Oak from Wednesday-Sunday, so expect to almost always see at least one brand from Live Oak on tap ) and with that information we'll start changing out the cold box accordingly.

It's going to take some time because the suburbs are pretty weird (surprisingly, we've had a TON of requests for sours--where are these suburbanites drinking sours?!) but I think after a few months the cold box will be in a good spot.

 

Jester King actually self-distributes kegs IIRC. Their distro is a wine seller so they don't do kegs at all. They want to monitor their product's quality, so they physically come in, clean the tap lines, and setup the kegs. There's actually only a handful of places that even carry them on draught in Austin

 

Yeah, once I saw the available kegs, I wanted to run out and buy a kegerator immediately lol. With World of Beer opening in the immediate future, I'll never have to leave my bubble with exception of weekly trips to D&Q.