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May 20, 2012

Search Results Category: Microbrews

November 24, 2011

Freetail Brewing: Texas Number One Brewpub

by bryancarey — Categories: Beer Travel, Brewpubs, Domestic, Microbrews, Restaurants — Tags: , , , , , , — No Comments

Texas’ craft beer scene is still in its developmental stages but hundreds of ambitious men and women are working hard to make Texas the premier state in the union for microbrewed beer. One man who is helping the craft beer revolution is Scott Metzger, owner and CEO of San Antonio’s critically acclaimed Freetail Brewing Company. Here are the facts:

Freetail Brewing

Name:Freetail Brewing

Location:4035 North Loop 1604, Suite 105, San Antonio

Organization:Brewpub/Restaurant

Hours of Operation: Sunday, from Noon to Midnight; Monday from 4pm to Midnight; Tuesday through Saturday from 11:30am to Midnight

 

I visited Freetail Brewing in October, 2011 and found it easy to find, family- friendly, and every bit a restaurant as much as a brewery. The brewpub is located just outside the 1604 loop, in an elevated position that allows for nice views of downtown San Antonio and surrounding areas. A small windmill in back of the building makes it easy to find. The windmill, I was told, is non- functioning and only for show, but it does aid in the location process.

 

One of many pleasant surprises at Freetail Brewing is the large number of beer products offered. Freetail has produced dozens over its few years of existence and many have been retired and/or were featured only as seasonal products, but there are still a large number in the active rotation. When I visited, there were about twelve Freetail products on tap and a recent check of the Freetail website reveals the following malt beverages presently available:

La Rubia

Rye Wit

Freetail Ale

Self Regarde

Round Earth West Indies Pale Ale

Prickly Retail

Brettanolocator

Ate

Hypothesis E

Bandito

Tadarida Oscura

Rubio Fumondo

4shadow

Gremlyn

Prickly Fairy Peril

La Muerta 2011

La Muerta2010

Quite an impressive list, wouldn’t you say? Not all beers listed will be available at all times, but Freetail Brewing tries to keep ten to twelve products flowing at any moment. And the products themselves are just as interesting as their creative names. There is a pleasant surprise in every sip at Freetail Brewing Company.

Food is an important component to any brewpub and Freetail Brewing certainly takes its food seriously. The menu is divided among:

 

Appetizers

Salads

Specialty Pizzas

Sandwiches and Wraps

Desserts

 

Prices are reasonable at Freetail Brewing and many of the menu items seem tailor- made for a specific Freetail Beer. The stone- hearth pizzas are not only delicious and great with beer, they have been recognized by critics for their distinct craftsmanship and amazing taste.

Entertainment at Freetail Brewing is provided by nine high- definition television sets and two 100+ inch screens. With such a large number of screens, guests can treat themselves to non- stop sporting action and, depending on popular demand, other television programming as well. And if you would rather partake in an outdoor atmosphere, consider moving to the outdoor patio and watching the sun set while enjoying your food and brew.

Freetail Brewing is supportive of the craft brewing industry in Texas and it backs that support through its “guest” brewery taps: Kegs of craft beer from a Texas craft brewery, tapped and ready to drink. The guest brewery varies, but some of the featured breweries have included St. Arnold, 512 Brewing, Live Oak Brewing, Independence Brewing, Real Ale Brewing, Southern Star, and others. This is a nice gesture on the part of Freetail Brewing and it shows the businesses’ commitment to Texas craft beer industry.

Freetail Brewing presently maintains only its only location in San Antonio, but it has plans to expand in due time. Houston residents may recall that Freetail Brewing was planning to expand to the downtown area this year, but was forced to place its plans on hold. I asked owner Scott Metzger about this when I visited and he said that Houston has not been completely ruled out. The expansion has only been placed on hold until other concerns are addressed.

Freetail Brewing is certainly a place of distinction and it has several rewards and special recognition to prove it. Beer Advocate ranks it as the number one brewpub in all of Texas and it has been recognized by the San Antonio Express- News Critics Choice in 2009 and was awarded a Silver Medal in 2010 as the “Best Place for a Cold Beer.” San Antonio Magazine selected it as the “Best Place for a Beer” in 2009 and 2010, further solidifying its position as San Antonio’s finest craft beer establishment. Some of its malt beverages have also enjoyed special recognition and continue to win the hearts of critics and casual beer fans in San Antonio and beyond.

San Antonio is a city loaded with historic charm in a state noted for its independence and colorful past. Brewing has a strong history in Texas and is presently in the midst of a full- fledged revival thanks to the brewing creativity and ambitions of hundreds of men and women across the state. Scott Metzger’s Freetail Brewing Company is a perfect example of what can happen when ambition meets creativity and his brewpub is one you don’t want to miss if you happen to visit the San Antonio area.

 

 

To read other articles like this, visit Examiner.com

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November 17, 2011

Deschutes Jubeale will keep you warm and happy

by bryancarey — Categories: Beer Reviews, Breweries, Microbrews — Tags: , — No Comments

Winter is my least favorite time of the year, at least from a climate perspective. From dry skin to sinus problems to numb fingers, there is really nothing enjoyable about the feeling of cold air blowing against the body and I often count down the days to the return of Spring. There is, however, one redeeming factor for the winter season: Winter seasonal beer. These winter seasonal products are often spicy, warming, and often a little stronger than average. A good example of a winter beer that sets itself apart from the spice- enhanced winter crowd is Deschutes Jubelale, a winter ale.

Beer Bio:

Style: Winter seasonal ale

Calories: 216 per 12 oz. serving

Carbs: Unknown

Alcohol Content: 6.7 percent by volume

 

Deschutes Jubelale is a reddish brown ale and a good pour produces a solid head of foam that sits proudly atop the medium to full body and leaves legs as you consume. The nose on this beer is enticing, with scents of dark fruit, spice, chicory, and a small amount of chocolate. The beer has a strong and pronounced  flavor with the taste of caramel malt up front, followed by raisins, prunes,  figs, a small touch of orange peel and a dab of butter. There is a spiced  finish and the hops, while generous, remain subdued by the malt, which helps to balance the overall flavor.

Deschutes Brewery is ranked among the ten top craft breweries in the United States and among the products I have tasted thus far, I have yet to find a bad one in the bunch. I actually had not yet tried Jubeale until now and given my past experience with Deschutes, my expectations were high. Jubeale, thankfully, didn’t fail me. It has a body, complexity, and alcoholic strength along the same lines as Deschutes Inversion IPA and I found it a very good beer for sipping purposes. It is fun to taste slowly, small amounts at a time, as you discern different flavor sensations.

Deschutes brews and sells its Jubelale from October through December each year and like other winter brews, it has a higher alcoholic strength than the average beer. One quality that sets it apart, however, from many winter brews is the lack of spicy emphasis. Yes, there is some spicy character here, but it doesn’t overwhelm. Jubeale relies more on its fuller, richer, more alcoholic body to qualify its winter beer status.

Winter is still my least favorite time of year, but one bright spot is winter seasonal beer and Deschutes Jubelale is certainly a winter brew worth seeking out during the cooler season. I like its balance and I like that it doesn’t try to distinguish itself through the use of excessive spices. Its complexity, medium to full body, and stronger flavor profile make it just right for the cooler time of year and a few bottles can easily help cure the wintertime blues.

 

 

Rating: 8 cheers out of 10

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October 27, 2011

American Beer Day: A Time to Reflect

by bryancarey — Categories: About Beer, Beer Media, Breweries, Domestic, Macrobreweries, Microbrews — Tags: , , , , — No Comments

October 27 isn’t just the day that falls four days before Halloween. It is now recognized as American Beer Day- a day to celebrate the brewing industry, its history, its influence, and the many great contributions American beer has made to our quality of life.

 How important is beer? Well, consider these facts: Beer is the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the United States, where more than 1,700 breweries produce more than 6 billion gallons of beer each year.  Breweries across America include large, well-known macro- breweries such as Anheuser- Busch InBev, Miller, and Coors as well as regional brands and locally brewed craft beer brands. American pale lager is still the most popular style, but American breweries produce products of distinction across the spectrum.

 

Industry- wide, the trend is toward craft beer. The big breweries still control the market, but their dominance is waning. The craft beer industry gained momentum in the 1980’s, surged in the 1990’s, fell back a little in the early 2000’s, and is now expanded rapidly again in this, the second decade of the twenty- first century. As tastes continue to mature, there is no reason to believe that this trend will reverse in the coming years.

 

The American brewing industry has gone through many different phases and has experienced many highs and lows. Yes, the brewing industry was forced to endure the thirteen years of anti- American, anti- freedom insanity known as prohibition during the early part of the 1900’s. But America repented for this ghastly sin and repealed the prohibition amendment in 1933. Today, the industry is back on its feet and thriving like never before, with new breweries opening weekly and with malt beverage products that rival the finest in the world.

 

So, as October 27 winds down, take some time to reflect on the brewing industry and what beer means to you personally. Pay a visit to your local brewery, buy a six pack of your favorite brand, or otherwise find some way to pay your respects to the world’s greatest beverage and the men and women who work hard to brew, package, and distribute your favorite brands each day.

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October 2, 2011

2011 Great American Beer Festival Winners

by bryancarey — Categories: Award Winning, Beer Travel, Breweries, Brewpubs, Competitions, Festivals, Macrobreweries, Microbrews — Tags: , , , , , , — No Comments

2011 Great American Beer Festival is now officially over. It ran from September 29 through October 1 and it will go down in the books as the largest yet. A total of 526 breweries took part in this year’s festival, contributing a total of 3,930 beers to the competition. The numbers are up significantly from last year and with growth in the craft beer industry at its present level, the figures are bound to be even higher in 2012.

 

Great American Beer Festival, photo by Jason E. Kaplan

 

A total of 248 medals were handed out to well- deserving breweries across the United States. Here is a list of 2011 winners:

(more…)

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September 27, 2011

Big Sky IPA: Smooth IPA from the Mountain West

by bryancarey — Categories: Beer Reviews, Domestic, Microbrews — Tags: , , , , , — 2 Comments

Montana is, as we all know, a state in the Mountain West. Its population is low, there are no large cities, and it derives a good deal of revenue from tourism. But there is more to Montana than outdoor scenery- the state is also known for its craft brewing business and Missoula’s Big Sky Brewery is one that has enjoyed a good deal of national success. One of its many fine products is Big Sky IPA, a hoppy yet smooth brew. 

 
Beer Bio:

 

Style: American IPA

Calories: Unknown

Carbs: Unknown

Alcohol Content: 6.2 percent by volume

 
Big Sky IPA is amber/orange in color and its well- filtered processing results in a clear, see- through body. The nose on this beer is caramel- like, spicy, and citrusy with some floral notes. A standard pour is all that is necessary to produce a noticeable head of foam and it leaves a generous amount of lacing as you drink.

Moving to the taste, Big Sky IPA has a flavor that emphasizes the spicy, citrus hops common to many IPA, with flavors of grapefruit, pine, orange peel, and even a touch of pineapple. A nice caramel- malt backbone holds everything together and provides some balance to the taste, even though it still leans toward the bitter side with 65 IBU.

Big Sky IPA is a tasty American style IPA, with a medium body and a slightly oily mouthfeel, Most people have likely not heard of this brewery, but Big Sky is making a name for itself and is aggressively distributing its products to more and more areas of the United States. Just recently, it showed up on the store shelves here in Houston, Texas, and having not seen it here before, I was instantly attracted and grabbed a six pack to go.  

Big Sky IPA is a memorable brew and one quality that will appeal to many is its lack of hop attitude. Now, I am fully aware that there are many hopheads out there who crave the bitter sensation that only a bold IPA can bring, but a milder IPA like Big Sky IPA does have its usefulness. It offers easy drinkability and is much smoother than most. Its malt contributions arrest the bitterness before they have a chance to become extreme and this makes it a good IPA for those who are not yet accustomed to the style or who have tried IPA in the past and have been scared away due to the extreme, hair- raising bitter flavor.

Big Sky IPA is, overall, a tasty IPA and one of the few examples of its style that is smooth enough to qualify as an everyday drinking type of beer. It isn’t easy to find, but if you happen to be within Big Sky Brewing Company’s distribution area, I recommend giving this beer a try.  

 

 

Rating: 7 Cheers out of 10

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September 11, 2011

Freestyle Wheat: Independence Brewing again Fails to Impress

by bryancarey — Categories: Beer Reviews, Domestic, Microbrews — Tags: , , , , — No Comments

Summer beers are usually oriented toward refreshment and more often than not, these products contain a percentage of wheat malt. One wheat- based brew made in the Lone Star State is Freestyle Wheat, a product from Austin’s Independence Brewery. 

 

Beer Bio:

 

Style: American Wheat Ale

Calories: 144 per 12 oz. serving

Carbs: Unknown

Alcohol Content: 4.9% by volume

Freestyle Wheat Beer is yellowish/golden in color with a slight chill haze. The carbonation in this beer is active and it forms a white head of foam that is short lived and leaves little or no lacing. The nose on this beer is sweet and grainy, with hints of spice and apple/citrus in the background.

 

Moving to the taste, Freestyle Wheat Beer offers flavors of sweet grain up- front, with a small amount of clove and other light spice coming through in the finish. There is only a small amount of bitterness and it quickly makes way for a return to the flavor of sweet malt in the aftertaste. The beer is brewed using American two- row pale malt and white wheat. The finished ale has a bitterness rating of only 18 IBU.

Freestyle Wheat is one of several products from Independence Brewing and, like other malt beverages from Independence, it is very average in overall quality. It does offer some decent refreshment qualities but it reminds me of other Independence Brewing products for one simple fact: It is just not that impressive. It is certainly an acceptable beer that most anyone will find agreeable enough to drink, but those who crave a complex craft beer with personality will find it disappointing.

 

I’m not one to add fruit to my beer, but Freestyle Wheat Beer has a taste and character that almost  seems to beg for an additive. There is a certain level of fruitiness to this beer and because it is so ordinary, it might actually be enhanced with a slice of lemon. This isn’t what most craft beer lovers want in a malt beverage- we usually want our beer to taste great all by itself- and it doesn’t say much for the underlying product. 

So, in summary, Freestyle Wheat Beer is an average beer from a company with mostly average products. It fails to impress, but it also succeeds at quenching thirst and it is the type of summer brew that most anyone will find at least good enough to finish. It isn’t a bad wheat beer, but it leans toward the boring side and isn’t a brand I am likely to seek in the future. 

 

 

Rating: 5 Cheers out of 10

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August 24, 2011

Reader share: Five Favorite Organic Beers

by nitengale32 — Categories: About Beer, Beer Reviews, Microbrews — Tags: , — No Comments

Excerpt . . . According to Mason Walker, author of Organic Beer Industry Flourishes, “In 2009, the organic beer sector more than doubled the $19 million in sales reported just four years prior in 2005.” But to simply say that a beer is organic can be confusing, as there are actually several different levels of organic certification. The highest of those levels is “100 Percent Organic,” which means that all ingredients and processing aids are organic. This is followed by “Organic,” which means that at least 95 percent of the ingredients and processing aids are organic. According to Brittany Dern, author of The Big ‘O’ – Defining Organic Beer, the other five percent is usually made up of the hops, since it can be difficult to find organic hops in great quantities. With this in mind, let’s take a look at a few examples.

Continue reading Five Favorite Organic Beers

 

Do you have a favorite beer, beer recipe or beer pairing you would like to share with Great Beer Now?  Then Contact Us we would love to hear from you.

 

 

 

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August 14, 2011

Southern Brewers Festival: Seventeen Years and Going Strong

by bryancarey — Categories: Beer Travel, Breweries, Brewpubs, Festivals, Microbrews — Tags: , , , , , , , — No Comments

If you’re looking for some craft brewed enjoyment southern- style, then one event you don’t want to miss is the Southern Brewers Festival. This annual event is now in its seventeenth year and it offers an afternoon/evening of craft beer enjoyment and entertainment in the charming city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here are the facts:

Southern Brewers Festival

 

Event: Southern Brewers Festival

Location: 100 Chestnut st., Chattanooga, Tennessee

Date: Saturday, August 27

Time: 2pm to 12am

The Southern Brewers Festival is sponsored by two large brewpub operations: Chattanooga’s Big River Grille and Brewery and Atlanta’s Gordon Biersch Brewery. But the list of breweries attending the 17th Annual Southern Brewers Festival goes far beyond these two brewpubs. The breweries and other operatives serving up their malt beverages this year include: (more…)

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July 2, 2011

New Brewing Venture: New Republic Brewing

by nitengale32 — Categories: Breweries, Microbrews — Tags: , , , — No Comments

Excerpt. . .

Social life at any university is bound to include many things and one of them is beer. Keg parties are a regular part of the college experience and graduates at all stages of life can often recall several memorable parties where the beer flowed from the tap almost as quickly as it could be pumped.

Finding beer is easy for any college student, but finding the freshest possible beer is sometimes a challenge. For students of Texas A&M University, however, freshly made brew is now just around the corner thanks to a brand- new craft brewing operation that just opened. The brewery is New Republic Brewing and it just received its approval from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage commission a few days ago. Here are some quick facts about this greater Houston area brewery:

Continue reading on Examiner.com It’s official: New Republic Brewing is born

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June 30, 2011

Austin Amber Ale is Less than Exciting

by bryancarey — Categories: Domestic, Microbrews — Tags: , , , , , — No Comments

Austin, Texas is a city with attitude: A metropolis with an edgy and less conventional outlook that ranks highly on lists of favorite American cities. Anything that comes out of Austin, it would stand to reason, should be a little more eccentric than average and while this may be true in most instances, it is less than true with Austin’s Independence Brewery. And one good example of an Independence Brewery product that doesn’t deliver much excitement is Austin Amber.  

 
Beer Bio:

 

Style: American Amber

Calories: unknown 

Carbs: unknown

Alcohol Content: 4.9 percent by volume
 
Austin Amber Ale pours to a light copper color with a nose that features diacetyl notes with a little bit of caramel, citrus, and roasted malt.  The beer is well filtered, as evidenced by its completely clear body, and its light tan- colored head of foam is looks good at first, but doesn’t hold up for long.

As for the taste, Austin Amber Ale offers a few interesting flavors such as chocolate, caramel, and a lightly roasted malt flavor. The initial taste is earthy and bready and the sweet flavour profile is evident from beginning to end. There is very little hop character- only 14 IBU of bitterness- and the beer finishes without much aftertaste or much to remember, with a somewhat watery character.
  
Austin Amber Ale is a less than exciting beer product from Austin’s Independence Brewing Company and it is one of a handful of beer products I have sampled from this brewery to date. It is a simple beer that fails to make a positive first or second impression. The aroma is rather bland and the body of the beer has that “clear around the edges” look- a quality that is often indicative of a beer that is too watery. Looks aren’t everything, but in this instance, they are spot- on because the flavour is just as great of a letdown. I like the chocolate character present in this beer but I don’t like the overall sweetness level and the lack of any real hop character. Even the finish is disappointing. There is little aftertaste at all and in less than a minute, you can barely tell you were once drinking beer.

Austin, Texas is a city with many attractions and it is easy to see why so many visitors love the area so much and why so many new residents have decided to call Austin their home. Austin is known for its eccentric and unpredictable attitude, but these qualities are sorely lacking with Austin Amber Ale. Its bland flavor profile leaves you with a feeling of disappointment; an ultimate letdown for a product for which my expectations were so much higher.

 

Rating: 3 Cheers out of 10

 

 

Copyright 2011, Bryan Carey

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