La Fours said:

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Say JAH, when you coming back to BCS? I'd like to get a crowler or two of that 8.5.88.

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ULaLa game. Don't know if you want to wait that long. Guessing they'll have another hazy IPA on by that point anyways.

Lol yeah. Don't worry about it then.

Glad you're making it to a few of the great local places! The scene around there has really shaped up well.

Wow. This beer is excellent. I recommend y'all seek this one out if you haven't had it. Raspberry sour ale from Martin House.

Just an easy going, refreshing, flavorful, light sour beer.

Chipotlemonger said:

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This crowd may like to see and hear more about the Cherry Funk Metal though! Great variant on Funk Metal.

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Chunk Metal is the tits! So good. Tried it on draft last night along with Atrial after some friends I was riding with decided to squeeze in a last minute JK stop following Oasis and Pinthouse.

This was the best part of the day, howevah:

Maca,

I am interested in the Parabola is you still have it.

Too early to start planning a share for the home opener?

or for the ucla game?

Jock 07 said:

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or for the ucla game?

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I keep pitching it and no one follows up.

If I were going to the game, I would be in.

NColoradoAG said:

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Jock 07 said:

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or for the ucla game?

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I keep pitching it and no one follows up.

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Well I'm down if we can make it happen

Jock 07 said:

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NColoradoAG said:

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Jock 07 said:

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or for the ucla game?

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I keep pitching it and no one follows up.

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Well I'm down if we can make it happen

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Are you talking about doing a tailgate prior to the game? If yes, I am pretty sure I could do that + my brother and our wives.

That's what I was figuring but have to admit I don't know the first thing about tailgating there.

I'll be out at the game too with 5 other Aggies. The three of us guys in the group would probably be down for a bottle share. Our only tailgate plans right now are just the Aggieland Outfitters tailgate pretty much.

I'll be out there for the UCLA game as well. My group doesn't have any plans ironed out as to what time we are planning to leave LA and get out to Pasedena.

I'll delve into the tailgating plans and see what's what. I can't remember if we have tickets to the TexAgs tailgate or not.

Was that a sauna

Indeed it was. They retrofit it with a supplemental a/c to keep it at cellar temp. Belongs to a dude who's fixin to open a new brewery here. Had a couple of their home brews and, while not saying much, they're going to be the best brewery in NE. One of them was a damn good BBA stout and a plum wine they were screwing around with as well as some phenomenal mead. Granted I don't know **** about mead but I know what I was drinking was excellent

found myself actually interested in a debate over on BA, curious as to the opinions here... the thread is titled "the craft beer boom has gone flat" so the content is pretty self explanatory. all questionable data being thrown around aside, im not sure we've reached that point yet (though it is inevitable).

its a bit misleading to point to the number of closures imo. the "texas big beer"s of the world didn't survive the increasing competition, but even a totally incompetent operation like that had a very real chance. correct me if im wrong but my perception is they closed due to tripping over their own dick moreso than the market not being able to withstand another brewery. I feel like the market wants to embrace new breweries still, but maybe now more than ever the complete clown show operations (not to be confused with clown shoes) will be weeded out. between increasing options and awareness/knowledge of the avg craft drinker, you gotta bring something to the table. so i suppose that's one thing that has changed, at least here in tx, brewers aren't getting the same blind loyalty they once received just for being local.

that being said, i tend to agree with those arguing the market is changing rather than going flat, and that established craft drinkers are shifting to more local craft options than ever before, replacing their once out of state craft purchases. a big reason for that is all the newfound quality options available in markets like houston- for the first time ever, when i want an excellent ipa, I have legitimate local options like yellow rose or one of the brash offerings- and while they might not be rated quite up there with pliny or heady and the like, we finally have something close enough to that level of quality that factored with freshness and cost, is a much more desirable purchase for every day drinking. same story for many popular styles across the board. I still buy some national brands like sierra Nevada regularly, but many others just arent good buys anymore next to what i can buy locally. in my case its stuff like firestone, odell, oskar blues, and even stone to a lesser extent (cant totally quit stone) that im shifting away from. and it's not blind loyalty to local spots, in most cases these brewers are earning it with the local drinkers.

you've also got the established brewers like St Arnold's stepping their game up amongst competition- the bishops barrel series has honestly turned into something great imo, id love to see some of the recent bb's in a blind tasting against highly rated national brews of similar style. not saying they'd take them all down, but i think there would be some surprises, especially considering the rate at which bb are released. i do wish st a would take some of the better ones and perfect them into something they could release annually at least. I thought 14, 18, and 10 specifically were pretty special with several others not far behind. anyway, the point is you can sustain beer snobbery locally like never before.

its an interesting topic, and ive got nothing better to concern myself with at nearly 3am as i alternate between growlers of knutsens farm (possibly the most refreshing beer ever) and abide. feel free to offer your opinion

I'm sure it's been discussed, but does anyone have insight to when Parish will get distribution into Texas or Houston?

cena05 said:

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I'm sure it's been discussed, but does anyone have insight to when Parish will get distribution into Texas or Houston?

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Not soon enough.

The problem with Parish is that outside of Envie their shelf offerings are just ok. I doubt we'd see Ghost, Bloom, or Opus Vert in Texas even if there was distro here.

JK Synthesis Analogous this weekend... only 700 bottles. Let the **** show commence.

Roughtail Brewing (OK City) hit DFW this week with Hoptometrist & Everything Rhymes with Orange

Everything Rhymes with Orange is really good. I had it at a restaurant in Wichita a couples ago.

AgEng06 said:

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JK Synthesis Analogous this weekend... only 700 bottles. Let the **** show commence.

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To me this seems like the kind of thing you'd want to do an online lottery for... You know, like you talked about after the Atrial release. But what do I know.

I've been thinking about this as well as talking with some folks about it, and generally I agree with you.

I don't think we've hit the saturation point yet, but the market definitely is shifting. We're getting to a point where it's not good enough simply to be a small local brewer. Consumers are really starting to pick and choose what they drink, and that's probably a result of 1) more options, both locally-grown and new availability from OOS breweries, and 2) just a more educated consumer base as the craft beer scene matures. Look at what's happened to Rahr in the last 5 years. I can think of maybe one of their beers I'd actually drink at this point.

Where I think you're really going to see a bubble pop - if there is one - is in the crazy fruited this, barrel-aged that, etc. I'm getting pretty fatigued on the whole idea of it all, and I find myself more often wanting a good simple beer over something with exotic flavors. Obviously that's a personal preference here, but I'd imagine I'm not alone.

The wild success of the Jester King's, Wicked Weeds, Weldwerks and other high quality mad-scientist type brewers has created a glut of crazy beers. Some are good, but a lot of times, you can't even tell if it's a good base beer or not because it's got so much other stuff. Hell, my friends have complimented my homebrew hatch-chile saison, and while it's very drinkable, I'm pretty sure it might be crap.

All that said, I think we're still in the growth phase of the craft beer market, but I'd think a leveling-off may be coming that could really hit breweries that A) are making a sub-par product relative to the growth in quality we've seen, 2) don't have their financial side of the house in order, and D) can't bow up to market consolidation. As Big Beer keeps putting pressure on the little guys through M&A, crappy legislative tactics, etc., sloppy business practices can get the little guys killed.

You know, you might be on to something...