Tag Archives: Local Beer

Beer, Baseball and an iPhone

Over the past few weeks I find that I have been pairing beer with lots of things….fishing, fish tacos, brewery tours, vacation sampling and now baseball……that shouldn’t be much of a surprise for anyone that has attended a baseball game….the only pairing that I can think of that I won’t write about is beer and driving. This is a family blog, no, not really, maybe more of a responsible beer blog…yeah that should work.

I was off to Midland, Texas this week earning a little money so I can continue with my many hobbies. Wednesday of this past week the local AA team, the Midland Rockhounds were returning to town to open a stand vs. the Arkansas Naturals. The attendance was sparse… not like my previous visit of a month ago. The Rockhounds were rocking the Naturals! A 5 run first inning and it was hit after hit from there on. I think I may know why we saw the low attendance – The Rockhounds are in the cellar of their division with just 24 wins…..sad…..but the poor “Naturals” were in the same position for their division with just 17 wins to show for their efforts.

Midland is still in a drought and no relief on the horizon. Odessa is proposing a 40% increase in water rates – those lawns that have some color other than dead will soon join the desert look of the region. The other drought  is for local craft beers…. I do have to give the stadium vender a pat on the back for a variety beyond the standard Bud, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light…..You can get  on draught – Dos XX’s, Shiner Bock (Texas Beer), Blue Moon Belgian Wit, Shock Top and ………….. insert 7 hour pause here because I just flat drew a blank. I sent my work partner for this trip an SOS call to help me out and then got busy with other tasks. An hour ago I was driving down Kingwood drive and ran into the word – Ziegenbock! Ah, that’s the beer I was drinking last night….and no I did not over do it….just two beers!  Wikpedia labels it as an “imitation craft brew marketed under Anheuser-Busch’s ICS (Import – Craft – Specialty) brand, positioned as a Texan beer to compete with Shiner Bock.” It is not a bad beer and competes well with Shiner Bock! Thanks Pat for sending the “Zig” text message….

Discussion on lost thoughts – I think they leave your brain as cyberwaves and float around until your brain collides with them and they can then be pulled back in. I am sure that we all have a unique harmonic frequency for our brain waves and when we encounter one of those orphan thoughts vibrating at “our” frequency we can recapture the thought. Makes sense to me….. the science geeks will say something like – you encounter some sensory clue, sight, sound or smell that allows the brain to connect that lost thought with the neural links that were associated to that thought or idea….. I prefer my harmonic mind meld explanation better.

As an aid for this post I am sampling a local beer brewed by Karbach brewery right here in Houston. I have previously enjoyed their “Hopadillo” IPA. Tonight’s choice is their Rodeo Clown Double IPA – mmmmmmm pretty tasty and one will probably be enough for the evening. Midland, Odessa, Lubbock and or Amarillo are in need a a local craft brewery – I correct myself…. Wicked Beaver Brewery is located up in the Lubbock area – they need to market in Midland! I just did a little snooping….these guys are committed craft brewers, creative, whacked out sense of humor (I like that!) and looks like they are branching out!

Wicked Beaver Brewing LLC | West Texas Craft Brewery | Dam Good Beer

I saw a photo on their Facebook that got me thinking. There are many many millions of beer drinkers in the US. If we all shift a significant portion of our $ spent on beer to true craft brewers we can help out the good ole USA.  Cut back on your Budweiser….. it is brewed by a Belgian-Brazilian beer conglomerate….Yes they have US breweries employing US workers but they own so much of the market your shift will not be a blip on their radar. There goes my Ziegenbock choice … Now Coors, is brewed  by the Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company and is the third-largest brewer in the United States. At least it is North American. Drink Blue Moon or Killian’s Irish Red – close to craft beers.

Now my iPhone shots from the Midland Rockhounds game.

My Jumbo Dog, mustard, catsup or ketchup – whatever, relish, onions and the West Texas favorite…smothered with jalapenos!

From our seats…. somebody liked us and set us up with box seats. Thanks Zoe at the Residence Inn in Midland. Please note the Chevron(my former employer) sign on the outfield wall. The first of several Rockhounds home runs went out way above the Chevron sign.

Blue Moon Belgian Wit beers were quite common – Go Coors.

I have to give her credit – beer in one hand – social networking with the other and she glanced up when the crowd made noise!

And heeeeeeres Rocky –

The Rouckhounds have such a great family stadium and Rocky is a favorite with the kids.

Remember – Drink local – support the guys that lovingly CRAFT your beer!

TTFN

Bishop

Tennessee Beer Travels

Not much brewing on  the home front. I will bottle the Dick’s Danger Ale tonight, if can find enough empty bottles.

We just returned from a trip to Nashville and Knoxville Tennessee. I am impressed with the scenery, the music and the some of the local beers. We arrived in Nashville on Tuesday the 8th of November. We checked into he hotel about 2:30 PM and Kathy said lets head downtown….  I thought it was a bit early but decided to humor her. It turned out to be a good choice. Our first stop down on Broadway St. was the Big River Grille and Brewing Works. http://www.bigrivergrille.com/ The food was Ok but the beers were pretty tasty. Kathy liked the Nashville Steamer Golden Ale. I had to try two and chose the House IPA – it was pretty good, not overly hopped but still tasty and the Sweet Magnolia Brown Ale.

We then wandered off to sample some more and to find some music. We found both! Yazoo is a local beer, both on tap and as we found out later, in bottles. The Hop Project is a very cool beer. Every batch is different, Batch 61 is out today and I sampled batch 60 – it was outstanding. check it out. http://yazoobrew.blogspot.com/ I also sampled the Dos Perros ale and enjoyed it as well. Kathy went with her old standard – Blue Moon Belgian Wit….. she is not quite as adventurous but is broadening her palate.  I have heard her reply to someone, usually a woman (will that get me in trouble?) – when they say all beer is the same and she then proceeds to educate them.. I love it. I did drink a few PBR’s as it wanted to lighten the ABV load for the evening. My lovely wife surprised me with a nice room at the Marriott and lo and behold – it came equipped with a jacuzzi tub….. hmmmmm. It was a nice surprise. Nuff said! The musis…. For a Tuesday night it was superb. I am ready to go back and maybe even dance a little.

We then wandered off to Knoxville to see our son Ben swim at the UT invite. He swam well and Kathy and I got to explore a bit more. The beer exploration included two trips to the Downtown Grill and Brewery on Gay St. Some nice beers on tap. Over the two visits I manged to sample 5 beers from the list, The White Mule Ale, the Woodruff IPA…I like!, the New World Porter…. Ok but not as good as the State Street Stout – tasted a bit like my stout, and the Downtown Nut Brown Ale. Kathy stuck with the very pleasant and easy to drink Downtown Blonde Ale.  http://downtownbrewery.com/The_Beer.html

We went to a place called Cafe4 for lunch one day and they had a local beer on tap made by Marble City. The waiter said it was a stout and I decided to try it. Well, when he brought the beer out is was a nice amber color and definitely not a stout. He checked with the the bar and they insisted it was the stout…..I think the delivery guy didn’t swap out the handle. The beer was a bit sweet and had a bit of spice flavor.  I looked up  the brewery offerings on my iPhone and it appears I was drinking the seasonal beer. It was definitely the Spiced Pumpkin Ale. A day later we went down the Old City Knoxville and found a little market that had beer on draught as well as growlers to go. They had a couple of  the Marble City offerings. http://mcb2.syncslate.com/our-beer/ No stout…… but I tried Dad’s Dime Ale and the Nectar Rubus….a rasberry wheat ale. Nice beers. I also had a South Carolina beer by RJ Rockers called Buckwheat After Dark Ale a Dunkelweizen… I really liked this one. http://www.rjrockers.com/page.asp?p_key=62A5E5C200184ECDB2D69B6C1AEF1E58&ie_key=587AF451F7AF42E497B18737E009A050

We tool a drive up into the Great Smoky Mountains – wow= really nice and an afternoon drive is severl days too few! We should be back in February again.

Kathy and Bishop - Big River Grille and Brewery