San Antonio Limón

Recently my friend Ryan and I started up a (more or less) San Antonio blog called San Antonio Limón, which will have bar reviews as well as art posts, photos and more. I've decided that any Taproom-like posts (and there are some excellent ones already) would be better posted there to avoid duplication. Please bookmark us or better yet subscribe via email.

The blog is dead! Long live the blog!

—Lyle Rosdahl

Progress? HB 660 & 602

Mixed news about HB 660 & HB 602 as told by Travis Poling and Ronnie Crocker. Looks like brew pubs will not be able to distribute their own product (wholesalers got that taken out) & Poling ends his short article*: "Although it is a very consumer-friendly bill, expect distributors to put up more of a fight on this one because they will be doubly cut out of the equation for every barrel sold." I'm terrible with this kind of thing, so I'm not sure how that works exactly, but I trust Poling does.

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A clearer & more positive outlook comes from Brewed and Never Battered, a blog with updated information about the bills (specifically HB 660) from Scott Metzger, Freetail owner. Check out the testimony he gave before the Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee on March 22, 2011.

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*According to the same article, Alamo and Rahr both faired well at the World Beer Championship in Chicago.

Texas Distilleries

An excellent article about Texas distilleries, specifically those that produce bourbon, and the current outlook and products. Texas is beaming with bourbon and whiskey. Drink local.

A list of distilleries from the article:

• Rebecca Creek Distillery
• Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling
• Balcones Distillery
• Garrison Brothers Distilling

Here's a two-year-old list of other Texas distilleries with updated links below (Temptryst Rum is either no more or doesn't have a website):

• Paula's Texas Spirits
• Tito's Vodka
• Savvy Vodka
• Dripping Springs Vodka
• Railean Rum
• Treaty Oak Rum
• Texas Gin (site under construction)
• Spirit of Texas

This is probably not a complete list so if anyone knows of something I'm missing, chime in and I'll add it.

So many choices

Some beer picks from Travis E. Poling. They all sound delicious: so good to have the choice of beer here in the Lone Star State. Hopefully H.B. 660 will pass (more info here by Freetail owner Scott Meztger) and we'll have even more to choose from. Up and up and away.

St. Paddy's Day

Here again already (and my brother's birthday). A link to The Harp & Shamrock Society of Texas (San Antonio) webpage (it's kind of a difficult site to read, but has definitive info about the parade, golf tournament, 5K run, etc.). The festival at La Villita is this Saturday & Sunday (March 12 & 13, 2011) and the parade is Saturday at 11:00 am, which nicely coincides with Luminaria. The parade route: Start 3rd & Ave E. South on Ave E. to Houston, west on Houston to Alamo, south on Alamo to Nueva.

Wear green. Drink beer.

Sneak (microreview)

It's open already. Has been for more than half a year. So the review itself is not sneaky, but the place is a little bit. The sign, with it's single martini glass reminiscent of Swig down the street, suggests an upscale place (disregarding the cartoon of the man on the same sign, all nose, peering over the top of the bar name) as do the rather swanky velvet curtains in the window. Perhaps it's also because it used to be a trendy (not trendy enough, obviously) little glass store and I'm just projecting or remembering or something else psychologically elusive. Still I was surprised to find the dive-like atmosphere when I walked in with my brother last Saturday afternoon. It was early and smelled like stale cigarettes (a smell I'm actually partial to, though a smoky bar is grounds for a quick walk-out -- go figure). The cheap-looking, but fairly varied, bottles of booze behind the counter stood out immediately in the dark room and both the gloom and the booze added to the ambiance.

Small, dingy, filled mostly with a strangely shaped bar that wraps around a column -- intriguing. One pool table if that's what you like, sat in a small mostly open room spitting distance from the bar itself. When we saw that they had something like Bud Light and ZiegenBock on tap, we turned tail, but not before the attentive bartender, a slim young lady, walked over. We asked after the bottle variety of the frothy muse. The usual. So: a couple of Modelos later we were out on the unassuming patio, which, despite it being right in front of the place, had avoided my notice (I'm either losing any perception I once had or the sign and curtains stole the show): a couple of metal tables and benches fenced in catty-corner to the Buckhorn.

The patio afforded an interesting place to relax as a mixture of people walk up and down Presa. Not nearly as many people as St. Mary's or Alamo, but all kinds: tourists (some who come up off the river at Mad Dog's), river rats, and general San Antonionians (its got a ring to it: say it out loud). Between the two of us, John and I saw five people we knew to varying degrees within the hour we were there. A group of (probably) military guys, young and buzzing, asked us where the closest liquor store was (there's two -- Houston and Losoya & Commerce and Presa) and we chatted with a guy we know at the bar as we settled up. Good friendly fun. Definitely worth a peek.

More information: An article from the Express-News and one from their downtown blog (though I wouldn't call it the next Davenport).

Beer (mmmmm) Week

Sweet, sweet beer week. Didn't know this was even coming. Rejoicing time.

John Lee -- Freetail Brewing Co. Brewer

A very brief interview with John Lee, brewer at Freetail Brewing Co. I talked with him years ago now, as well as with Scott Metzger, the owner, for a San Antonio Current article about Freetail and the state of microbrewing in Texas.

HB 660 Filed in the Texas Legislature

Cheers, hopefully, to progress in the Lone Star State. Both for small businesses that deserve our local support and for beer enthusiasts state wide.

Mike Villarreal, State Representative of District 123 here in San Antonio, filed HB 660 that would allow Texas brewpubs, which can currently only sell on premise, to sell their products through retailers (wholesale distribution system). It seems ridiculous that this isn't legal already, but at least someone is trying to do something about it*.

Scott Metzger, owner of Freetail, and other San Antonio brewers worked closely with Villarreal to draft the bill. Check out Brewed and Never Battered, the blog Metzger created to keep you up to date on the bill as the Legislature moves, ever so slowly, through its 140-day session.

Keep your fingers crossed and pint glasses filled with local brews. And always write to your representative. Let them know that you support this bill. If you don't know your jurisdiction you can find out on the Bexar County Elections Jurisdiction Helper. Then look over the Elected Officials & Precinct Guide. We, the drinking public, can make this work.

*There's another beer related bill HB 602, which according to I Love Beer is on tap at the Legislature every session, that would allow microbreweries to sell their product on premise.