This week in “The Brew”, The holidays are here and many are packing into shopping malls to find the perfect gift. The holidays are a are stressful time and you can either choose to sit in traffic, fight strangers for parking spots and spend hours waiting in check out lines or you can just head to your local brewery grab a beer and pick up some pretty sweet swag. From t-shirts and caps to growlers and glassware, you can find the perfect gift without all of the added stress, throw in a few bombers and you’ll be sure to be the best gifter this year. Here are just a few of the cool things we came across that you can pick up for the craft beer lover in your life. For more ideas be sure to check out your local brewery.

Jester King Hoodie $40

Peticolas Soccer Jersey $55

Revolver Brewing Metal Sign $25

Rogness Brewing iPhone Case/Bottle Opener $12

Ranger Creek Flask $12

The 7^th Annual Saint Arnold One Pot Showdown is coming up on January 26^th but now is the time to sign up and compete. The One Pot Showdown is a charity event held in the parking lot of Saint Arnold Brewery in Houston. Teams sign up and go head to head cooking up some pretty impressive dishes while including Saint Arnold beer as an ingredient. Do you think you have what it takes? This year the event will benefit the Houston nonprofit organization Kids’ Meals. If you’re interested in competing you better sign up soon, spots usually fill up pretty quick. You can find more information at: http://www.saintarnold.com/onepot/      

Jester King Brewery in Austin will be releasing a new beer. Ambrée will debut at the brewery this weekend along with the 3^rd blend of their very popular Atrial Rubicite. Ambrée is a 6.4% ABV French Flanders inspired farmhouse ale. Ambrée is a dry, tart, naturally conditioned amber ale fermented and matured with dozens of different strains of brewers’ yeast, native wild yeast, brettanomyces yeast, and souring bacteria. Jester King put a lot of time and patience in creating this new ale by letting it ferment for three and a half months. I can expect there to be quite a turn out at the brewery this week for the first release. I suggest you get there early before they run out.

Lastly we will be taking the rest of the year off to work on some website maintenance and spend the holidays with our family. We would like to wish you all a safe happy holidays and a happy New Year. 2013 was a big year for Texas beer and we can only imagine that 2014 is going to be even bigger. This is Texas so go big or go home. Thank you to everyone that has supported us and the Texas brewing scene this year. May we share a drink with all of you in the new year.

Cheers!

This week in “The Brew”…

Texas made it through the first big freeze of the season but in Dallas things seem to be heating up. The second annual Dallas Winter Warmer is going down this weekend at the Main Street Garden in downtown Dallas. The festival will feature big bold beers and winter seasonals to warm you up in these cold temps.  Many of the Dallas regional breweries like Martin House Brewing, Lakewood Brewing and 2013 GABF Gold Medal winners Community Beer Company will be at the festival sampling their beers along with other breweries across the country. For tickets and more information be sure to check out http://dallaswinterwarmer.com/      

Austin’s own Adelbert’s Brewing has to be one of the hardest working breweries in the state. Not only are they working with famed Celis Brewing but now they have teamed up James Vaello to help Naughty Brewing Co. off the ground. Originally a wishful dream, Naughty began to take shape when James Vaello, visionary and brewer behind Naughty, met Scott Hovey, owner and brewmaster of Adelbert’s Brewery in Austin, Texas. The two quickly became friends through their shared passion of brewing and Naughty Brewing was born using James’ recipes and Scott’s knowledge of large-scale production and brewery.This month they will officially launch their first beer “I Think She Hung the Moon”, which was brewed with Belgian candy sugar and Mexican piloncillo sugar cones for a drier body, sweet pecan smoke for a bold stroke and hibiscus for a hint of tartness. The name and label pay homage to James’ wife, Katie, and features a vintage inspired brunette pinup. “We had a vision of a dark, dry, tart and smoky beer that would pair well with anything you would put on a grill. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it,” added Mr. Vaello. Kegs will precede bottles by a few weeks, releasing in early December. Bottles will be available mid-December giving them time to bottle condition. Both will be available with limited availability across Texas at retailers currently selling Adelbert’s Brewery ales. These stores include Spec’s, Whole Foods, Twin Liquors, Central Market, HEB and a wide array of local craft beer and liquor stores. Following the release of Hung the Moon, Naughty plans to release a limited release of Kentucky Streetwalker, an Imperial Vanilla Porter aged in Kentucky Bourbon barrels, and Zijden Kousen (Dutch for Silk Stockings), a delectable Belgian IPA in the coming year. So much for being nice, sorry Santa but we’re planning to end this year Naughty!

Karbach Brewing from Houston announced this week that they will be expanding. They plan to break ground next year on a larger brewery next to the existing site. Karbach is reportedly one of the fastest growing breweries in the nation which is pretty impressive for a brewery that has only been open for a couple of years. The new brewery will help Karbach expand towards the mark of 60,000 barrels of beer annually. There is even talks that the new brewery will also have a kitchen in the tap room that will be opened and serving daily. Looks like there is going to be some head to head competition in Houston between Saint Arnold and Karbach.

Also this week the San Antonio Brewers/Distillers with Ranger Creek have released their new Small Batch Series No. 7 which has hit shelves in San Antonio and Austin. The Small Batch No. 7 is an 8% ABV Imperial Sweet Potato Stout which Ranger Creek say it has a balance of holiday spices, earthiness and rich chocolate notes. Over the last few years’ pumpkin beers have dominated the Thanksgiving season, are sweet potatoes the new thing for Christmas? You will have to hunt down a bottle of No. 7 to see.

As always, if you’re looking to just get out this weekend and visit a local brewery, don’t forget that we have a list of all of the breweries near you so head over to the Breweries and Brewpubs page and go support your local brewers.

We took a little break last week to spend time with the family and stuff our faces with turkey. This week in The Brew, we’re back in action and bringing you some of the latest news from the Texas craft beer community.

Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling from San Antonio is celebrating another great year. In the last three years they have made quite the name for themselves including distilling some pretty impressive whiskey. They were planning to host their 3yr Anniversary this weekend but with an impending arctic cold front arriving this week they have decided to postpone the party till December 21^st. Cheers to all of your hard work guys and here is to many more year of success. For more information about the event be sure to visit them at: http://www.drinkrangercreek.com/about/events-registration/?event_id=258           

Earlier this month, Twisted X Brewing Company celebrated their grand reopening of their new brewery in Dripping Springs and today they announced their tap room hours. The taproom opens up to the public this Friday so head on out to the hill country and warm up with some of their great brews. The taproom is scheduled to be open Fridays from 4-8pm, Saturdays from 12-8pm and Sundays 12-6pm.    

Yellow City Co-Op Brewpub announced on their Facebook page that they have finally got the ball rolling and are now incorporated by Texas as a co-op. Yellow City is now accepting members to be part of the action. They still have a long way to go but this is a great start for the first brewing co-op in Amarillo. For more information about Yellow City be sure to check out their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YellowCityCoop    

As always, if you’re looking to just get out this weekend and visit a local brewery, don’t forget that we have a list of all of the breweries near you so head over to the Breweries and Brewpubs page and go support your local brewers.