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.

An old unpublished 210SA bar review

Corner Pocket

The Cakery Bakery

While this isn't bar related, it is about a downtown bakery/cafe: The Cakery Bakery. Delicious. I had one of the specials for the day, the Banh Mi, a Vietnamese sandwich of marinated beef, spicy mayo, cucumber, cilantro and carrot salad all wrapped up in a hoagie-type bread (this was thinner and lighter than a hoagie, though). Light and refreshing, this sandwich tasted Vietnamese -- owner Doreen Howarth (who also co-owns the Milam Diner with her husband) got it spot on. I love the intriguing daily specials like the Banh Mi and the Mac & Cheese Panini, a regular on the menu, is really good, too. The ingredients are fresh: the Green Goddess dressing uses green onion and other herbs and tasted like it had been made that morning (and it probably had).

Get down there and give them your business. It's a unique, delicious and downright friendly.

Esquire 2011

--Glance (October 2010?)

Ranger Creek Oatmeal Pale Ale

Had the Ranger Creek Oatmeal Pale Ale at The Friendly Spot the other day. So delicious. Probably my favorite beer on tap right now.

GABF

So Texas did us proud with beer medals this year. It appears that, though we don't have many, our microbrews do an excellent job.

It's also great to see that there is so much interest in microbrewed beer and the Great American Beer Festival, that their site can't keep up with demand.

Check back for a list of those Texas medals.

Alamo Golden Ale

Several years ago, down on the Houston Street Fair, one of the guys from Alamo Beer Co. (a San Antonio company who has their beer brewed under contract by Real Ale Brewing Co. just north of Blanco) told me that they were thinking about opening a brewery over by Sunset Station. I never heard anymore about it until now. According to Travis E. Poling, author of Beer Across Texas: A Guide to the Brews and Brewmasters of the Lone Star State (sadly a very thin book), they now have their eyes on a facility on the near Eastside that may open in 2012 (it's certainly not a done deal). Eugene Simor, the founder of Alamo, Poling writes, "envisions building party and event space into the brewery location and perhaps a rooftop bar that would be independently owned and operated so as to not run afoul of archaic alcoholic beverage laws in Texas." They hope to up their brewing capacity to 60,000 barrels a year (from 3000 as of now). Obviously this would be another great boast for San Antonio and the Eastside, especially. It doesn't get any better than rooftop bars. Keep your fingers crossed.

Microreview: Hofbrau & "Beer Garden"

This place is awful. So awful that I have to use a sentence like, "This place is awful," to describe it. I mean, that's an awful sentence. Right on Jones Maltsberger, this "beer garden" has the personality of a rock. Not a quarry rock, which can have a bit of personality (you know, fancy little places made out of Hill Country limestone, something like The Vineyards), but a construction rock -- nah, still too much credit. Let's say some Platonic vision of a rock, perfectly rocky.

My brother and I walked in and our waitress, as it turned out, walked right by us without even making eye contact and found a seat in the "Beer Garden" (seriously, there was a huge door jamb that had "beer garden" written on the top of it). Then John had to go ask the bartender if we could get some service. We had a couple of Spaten Optimators and a plate of tasteless boiled (that's the only explanation I care to think about) chicken pieces and jalapeño slices wrapped in boiled bacon and coated in what must have been brown-flavored dish water (at least the chipotle ranch was all right, though it didn't taste anything like chipotle). The beer prices weren't knee-cappingly horrible, but not really happy houry (5.50 for the brews and who knows how much regularly), though the food prices were high (they can only get away with these prices for this shit on the riverwalk and Alamo Heights, my brother said) especially for the quality.

The speaker, attached to a tree, blared really bad, pop country music. I mean, just horrific stuff no matter where you are, but in a beer garden? Come on. If you're not going to play oompah music (and I'm fine with that: in fact don't do it), then don't play anything. And while there is a certain connection between South Texas (vaquero country) and Germany, pop country is not one of them. Tejano? O.K. Taylor Swift. Fuck no. Anyway, background conversations are music in biergartens. Still, I suppose nothing much about the place is biergarten. In fact the only thing beer gardenish about it is the outside seating.

On the way out (mercifully we were there for less than an hour -- long story, but we didn't have a choice), we walked through the inside, which still looks like the Mexican restaurant it was recently. At least the music wasn't on in there. Via Con Dios, it says over the exit. I'll be viaing con dios from that place forever.

Barrel Aged Brew Fest

Freetail and Real Ale Brewing partner up to sample some of their barrel aged brews. Freetail will offer up Barrel Aged versions of the highly-sought after imperial stout, La Muerta, and the winter warmer, Old Bat Rastard as well as Solera IV and V, the most recent pulls of their Wild Ale from a process usually used in the production of sherry and port. “With our Solera, we never completely empty a barrel. When we pull some out, we immediately replace it and the wild activity occurring in the barrel is constantly evolving,” explained Metzger.

Real Ale’s barrel aging program dubbed “Mysterium Verum” will also be heavily represented with beers never before seen in the San Antonio market. Representatives from Blanco will be on hand as Empire (barrel aged Lost Gold IPA), Highlander (barrel aged Real Heavy Scotch ale) and The Devil’s Share (barrel aged Devil’s Backbone Belgian-style tripel) are all tapped in addition to a handful of Real Ale’s non-barrel aged offerings.

There will also be a surprise in store for patrons. Doors open at 11:30 on Saturday, July 17th, 2010.

Information from Freetail press release.

Fresh Eyes at the Bottom of a Frosty Pint of Beer

An interesting review of Blue Star from a visitor to our fair city. I like to read what people think of a place that I frequent all too regularly (and sometimes complain about -- partly, I suppose, because of this fact). Still it points to the general decent quality and atmosphere (I must say that it's one of my favorite places to sit in the afternoon, skylight aglow). I'm glad they're around the corner as a choice.

News of Brews

The Bash at the Brewery is back for a second year despite developer woes at Lone Star noted in the Express-News and in the San Antonio Business Journal. Hopefully that's good news for the development. It could mean nothing at all. Of course B. Knightly Homes has nothing new to say about the matter.

Still: The Bash at the Brewery is on... Good Texas music and a view of the river.

And Ranger Creek has gotten their equipment, which was made in Germany (copper still) and Hungary (stainless steel brewing equipment).

And finally Real Ale is having its 14th anniversary party on Saturday, June 26 from 12pm - 5pm. They're located at 231 San Saba Ct, Blanco, TX 78606

Liberty Bar opening

Liberty Bar pushed their opening date back to June second.