American Beer Timeline

A couple of dates for San Antonio on that timeline:

• 1855 - German brewer William Menger starts a lager beer brewery in San Antonio, Texas. This is the first brewery in that city.
• 1884 - Adolphus Busch of St. Louis and Otto Koehler establish the Lone Star Brewing Co. in San Antonio, Texas.

Freetail's Otoño Bienvenido

A quick article about Freetail's Otoño Bienvenido -- a pumpkin Saison.

Shiner Fröst

I've never been a real fan of Shiner. I don't know if it's the water they brew with (Artesian well water) or what, but it's always had a distinct and unappetizing taste. Still, the new seasonal Shiner Fröst, a Dortmunder Style beer (similar to a Pilsner, it's a pale lager), will be worth a try. According to the Texas Beer Blog, it will be available from January to March next year and I'll pick up a six pack.

Yard House at the Shops at La Cantera

My dad and I tried out the new Yard House at La Cantera on Black Friday. It was busy, yes, but not packed and there were more waitstaff than customers, it seemed (the place was crawling with them). Ritzie menu with $10+ burgers, but I was pleasantly surprised by the beer prices (no dining for us) at $4 a pop. You can't go anywhere for much cheaper than that and with 113 beers or so on tap, it's a beer lovers Elysian Fields. I'm still disappointed that they didn't have more Texas beers and their sampler platter was a little strange (each day the staff choose which beers will be included -- only six out of the 113, so you don't have any choice in the matter).

I had a pint of Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Left Hand's Milk Stout (a lovely thick, smooth stout) & Green Flash Brewing Company's West Coast I.P.A. (very hoppy on the first mouthful, in fact, one of the hoppiest I've had outside of Hypothesis A at Freetail, but it mellowed the more I drank it).

The ambiance was lacking as far as I'm concerned. Industrial, but dimly lit, with recess lighting spotlighting the tables and booths. The black walls made it that much darker. Yuppiedom, really.

The keg system was interesting. A windowed back room held all the kegs. The lines ran up into large shiny aluminum pipes (probably six or seven lines in a pipe) which came down into the middle of the oblong bar. The taps ran around the ellipses in the middle of the bar -- a very efficient use of space.

All said and done, if I'm back up in that area, I'd stop in for a pint or two, but I wouldn't go up just for the place.

Choose local: Choose Freetail.

St. Arnold Reserve No. 9

According to a blog called I Love Beer ("a place for the unrepentant beer snob"), St. Arnold's Reserve No. 9: Imperial Pumpkin Stout will be intermittently available in stores, restaurants and bars locally, but they're asking that the stores as well as the customers show restraint (two six-packs a person). On of the comments at the bottom of the page says that on consumer has yet to find a place here in San Anto selling the brew.

I'll keep an eye out myself and report any activity...

Beer Across Texas

An excellent website and blog for Texas beer enthusiasts. I just picked up the book, but have yet to really sit down to examine it. More on that later. For now enjoy all the beer news from New Braunfels resident, Travis E. Poling.

Yard House

Though I haven't been yet, I suppose I will soon. The Shops at La Cantera are actually quite nice in that snooty sort of way (though their website is absolutely disgusting). Actually, let me rephrase that. The landscaping is very well-done (who cares about the stores?) -- lots of Texas natives and stone and fountains. It's outside and a comfortable, relaxed place to  people watch. Especially if you can sit at a bar and do it.

Now there's one more place for just such an expensive endeavor. Here's a list of their beers (I count 113; around 99 on the Flying Saucer site with more than that in the bottle), which is not exactly inspired considering they claim the "World's Largest Selection of Draft Beer" (that just doesn't sound right). As Steve at All Good Beer points out in one of his posts, there is a real lack of Texas beer available (four Shiners, two Real Ales, and one Saint Arnold), which is a shame considering that Freetail, one of San Antonio's two microbrews, offers not only a great selection of their own beer (right around 13 at any given time), but a good selection of other Texas beer and wine (somewhere around six or seven other Texas brews). Their philosophy of loyalty to local fare is laudable and should be imitated, not ignored.

Still, I guess if the folks feel like the usual crazy Black Friday jaunt up to The Shops at La Cantera, I'll convince my dad to stop in for a brew with me. I'm sure there's plenty of oogling to be done with a mouth full of beer.

Freetail in the Fall

The doors are open and the sunlight coming in through the huge garage door bar window makes the interior bright and dark at the same time.

• Freeloader Browne -- $4.25, 5.6%, 38 IBU. This has a nice brown bite to it. Nutty and full flavored.
• Hypothesis A.: $6.50, 12.4%, 125+ IBU. The hoppiest beer that I have ever had, hands down. It's served in a barley wine glass and from the moment it hits your nose to it's nearly chili-like burn down your esophagus, you'll be saying, dear hoppy God. It quickly spreads across the back of your tongue and lingers so sublimely. Great stuff that mellows slightly as it warms up. Just slightly.
• Hop Brutality: $5.25, 6.9%, 80 IBU. Deliciously hoppy, but, of course, nothing like Hypothesis A. A great drinking beer.

I love this place. I wish it was so much closer. It would take me a half the day to get up there on my scooter. Might have to try it all the same.

Taco Land

An interesting little retrospective by NPR of Taco Land and Ram in particular. I remember going to see the Shit City Dream Girls. Excellent stuff. And what a spectacular place, though I didn't really ever meet Ram, except to buy a beer. Too bad they haven't opened it up again, but I understand why: Ram's personality was the place: now it's a shrine.

Beer in Texas

Short blog on the history of beer in Texas. Needs fact checking and grammar work, but the gist of it seems kosher.

Blue Star Brewery

A couple of new beers on the board at Blue Star:
1. Pomegranate Ale: As my friend said -- an ale that got a little out of hand and thus infused with pomegranate. It's a little sweet and over-carbonated (as the waitress noted right away), but not bad. It sits heavy at the back of the tongue.
2. Cask Conditioned Dry Hopped Stout: No aftertaste to this one. It does have a vaguely hoppy taste which is quite a nice complement to the bitterness of the stout (the hoppy bitter hits you further back on the tongue). Not bad.

The Pale Ale is good. A tiny bit fruity, but no skunky aftertaste. Not particularly hoppy either, but very good. Their beer has improved tremendously and I love heading over there on a Monday night for football and some chitchat.

The Esquire

The Esquire adorned San Antonio like a pair of jeans. It was the only real bar on the river (one that the tourists would miss unless they were paying attention and interested enough in shady places). It also boasted the longest bar in Texas, making it, according to a September 28, 2006 Express-News article ("Last Call for the Esquire Tavern"), into Ripley's Believe It or Not (we'll believe it) for being able to hold 5,973 Lone Star longnecks on it's wooden surface. That is a hell of a lot of longnecks. And you know that they were gone by the morning -- or at least their contents were. Sadly, the bar dating back to 1933 closed their doors (ostensibly for renovations -- it's been three years) on the day before the article ran -- a Wednesday of all days (not that it mattered a whole lot there though: People flocked to it like kids to an ice cream truck). A couple of other tidbits from that same article:

• "If they get rid of the wallpaper, I'm moving out of town," Chuck Ramirez, San Antonio native and visual artist, said dramatically. Indeed, the gaudy wallpaper is as much a fixture as is the famous 12-by-5-foot Mahncke Hotel painting fished out of the San Antonio River during the Great Flood of 1921 that hangs proudly above the jukebox.
  
• The Esquire will be closed for at least 18 months for a $1.8 million renovation, which will more than double the square footage and includes gutting the space, remodeling and adding a restaurant downstairs. Plans are to return as a family friendly destination, renamed Tavern Esquire and BBQ House.
  

I remember when I first moved down here in 1999, I got all dressed up (read: slacks and a tucked in button down shirt) for a job interview. It didn't go very well. I don't even remember what the job was or where downtown, but I do remember drowning my sorrows at the Esquire. I stood at the bar with the vaqueros and pioneers and the drunks and had a shot of well tequila and a 16 oz lone star. It just barely broke the two dollar mark, if I remember correctly. I tipped and laid down the change from my twenty and drank until it was gone. Alas, those days are gone (as are the ones of my brother puking under the table years later from the same said tequila while someone distracted the waiter). I never bought a shirt that read, "You got frisked at The Esquire" because I never thought I wouldn't be able to buy one.

Most recently (January 10, 2009), an Express-News article ("Group Backs Plan to Raze Annex") had this to say: "Also Friday, the [Historic and Design Review C]ommission approved conceptual renovation plans for the Esquire Tavern, which dates to 1933 and has long been known as a popular watering hole by the River Walk. Davis Sprinkle, project architect, said the tavern at 151 E. Commerce St. and its features, including its exterior tile and neon sign and elongated wooden bar, would be kept intact but made to look as good as new." As far as I can tell Davis Sprinkle is a part of the Sprinkle Robey Architecture firm, though there is no mention of the project on the website.

I have a bad feeling that the Esquire is kaput for the foreseeable future.

Indie Bash at the Lone Star Brewery

Lone Star Brewery -- the one being renovated just south of downtown -- is hosting a concert. Indie Bash at the Brewery will take place on October 24, 2009. They'll have live Texas bands on two stages and Lone Star beer.

Here's a brief article from WOAI about the event.

Southtown bars

I live in the Southtown area, south of Durango bordered approximately by I-10 to the West and I-37 on the East and extending down to around Southcross to the South. I love it. There's more and more happening (they threw up a foot bridge down by the silos) and always a great (if somewhat small) crowd around.

Looks like there's movement inside Holden's 101 (and someone built a basic metal fence out front on which was taped a notice to stop work sometime back); I haven't seen anyone in there, but there are paint cans and brushes lying on tables inside and a car parked outside quite often, not to mention that the SA Express-News has heard the rumors too.

Then, of course, Liberty Bar is going to be moving down to St. Benedict's. It's too bad they won't be in the old leaning house that they're associated (if not completely conflated) with, but it'll be great to have their menu down here and I think that the old building on Alamo might work out quite well.

Casbeer's has been down in the area for a little over a year and has a nice, simple menu (their signiture enchiladas are very good) and Alamo on tap, which I have to admit is not one of my favorite beers, but I drink it because it's a home grown beer (and sometimes it tastes better than others). I was under the impression that it was a Real Ale brew, but having seen the site, I'm not so sure what, if any, the connection is.

Another place that is seeing a lot of activity is Leo's Ice House down on St. Mary's and Claudia street. The dirty-footed tranny joint was a Southside staple, but now the sign is painted over and I'm hoping that it reappears in a similar guise.

I'll continue to post on places in the neighborhood.

San Antonio Microbrews

Freetail & Blue Star are the only ones in the city right now (if you don't count Dodging Duck in Boerne, which is almost as far out as Freetail). We're too big a city to only have two of them (though they're great). According to the Express-News, Lone Star Brewery, which is being renovated for mixed use, will have a microbrewery. I've also heard that Pearl Brewery is fermenting plans to open one (though I can't find anything that supports that). Hopefully they will come to fruition.

In the mean time, the Buckhorn Saloon, a great place to swill a beer, has Real Ale on tap (Rio Blanco Pale Ale, Full Moon Rye Pale Ale -- my favorite -- and Brewhouse Brown year around and a seasonal as well). Buy a Real Ale glass and get a discount (I believe it's a $1 off the pint) when you bring it in to get a fill-up. Have a more than a few and scare the tourists.

SA Beer meet up group

I'm a member of the San Antonio Beer Club (you'll have to create a free account if you want to see the events in full and RSVP). I haven't yet been to any of their meetups yet (they tend to do things at times when I already have things lined up). I just noticed that there are negligable dues ($3 a year), but what better way to meet people with whom you have at least one thing in common.

The next meetup is at Beethoven (one of my favorite places) on First Friday & Oktoberfest. Don't plan on sitting down or moving around much -- there will, however, be plenty of good German beer) and lots of ompah music. $5 at the gate and $3 in advance.

Lists of bars and other boozy establishments from various sources

Bars and clubs from 210sa
Some reviews from the Current
A list of wineries from San Antonio Express-News with a map. They also have a wine blog with wine news, upcoming events and various places to visit and imbibe.

Shady Lady Saloon

Shady Lady Saloon reviewed by Chuck Kerr of  the San Antonio Current.

Another of San Antonio's brilliantly named bars (a saloon at that!). My impressions when I get there.