Capt Keith's Beer Blog

Our first Beer FEAST of the 2013 season is finally upon us!  This is one of my favorite festivals because it is right on Lake Ray Hubbard.  The sun will be hot, but we have plenty of shade and a cool breeze rolling off the lake.  Each year our festivals get better and better, and this will be no exception.  VIP tickets sold out long ago, but we still have General Admission Tickets online for $30. (Beerknurds: Don’t forget about your additional discount) Day of tickets bump up to $40, so get your tickets now! www.beerfeast2013.com

Lake views!

Plenty of shade

And a cool breeze

Check out our BEER LIST!!!  Secret tappings will be unveiled at the festival.

MOTH Celebrates 3 years of pouring some exceptional craft beers. We would all like to thank you for your continuing support. If you are in town early April – come see us. We’ve been saving up some special beers for this list of events:

TAP TAKEOVER (ALL 40) with our cellared Wood Influenced beers starting April 9 – 14th

(Sneak Preview Monday, April 8^th  10pm for DG Members)

Green Flash Beer Dinner MONDAY April 8^th – 6pm

Owner Mike Hinkley and our good friend and BrewMaster Chuck Silva will present some very special beers with pairings by Chef David McMillan. SOLD OUT

Breckenridge Brewery Brew Master Session with THE MAN – Todd Usry

Wednesday, April 10^th 6:30

4 Beers with Paired Chef Specials – $25

Deschutes Brewery Art/Beer/Food Base Camp

Thursday, April 11^th 6:30

6 Beers including Abyss, Black Butte XXIV, Dissident (all draft)

Paired food and Art Show – $35 – Don’t miss this!

Sierra Nevada Flight

Saturday, April 13^th Noon-5pm

Brandy Barrel Aged Quad, White Wine Barrel aged Dubbel, Bourbon Barrel Aged Bigfoot, Vintage Bigfoot 2011, Pale Ale

Limited availability

Today is the second annual Stout Day, (or Tempranillo Day, for the oenophile) and people all over the country have their smart phone in one hand and their pint glass in the other.  Just like IPA Day, Stout Day is a social media driven beer holiday and is focused on not only drinking a stout, but celebrating the stout and spreading its good word.  We have teamed up with Untappd to produce a special badge for those that use their great beer tracking app.  All you have to do is check into the Saucer and a Stout Beer and the badge is yours.  Our Saucers and Moth are all celebrating in different ways, and some are taking it to the next level by celebrating Stout Week and even Stout Month.  Check in with your local spot, everyone has great things planned.

Many people are getting fed up with these “National” holidays (eg. Talk Like a Pirate Day, National Cheeseburger Day, and plenty other even more rediculous made up holidays) but since our little Craft Beer thing represents barely over 5% of the national market, it is up to us to spread the word and get “Lite” Beer drinkers to drop their Macro products and pick up a craft beer.  The stout and the IPA are two of the most misunderstood styles, so to me it makes sense for these two styles to be the first to earn their own day.  How many times have you heard someone say “I don’t like dark beers” only to find out they have never even tried one?  So many people are too quick to judge books by their cover and don’t understand the versatility the stout can have.  Watching someones eyes light up the first time they sip a Milk Stout sweetened with unfermentable lactose, or even a thick and chewy Imperial Stout, perhaps aged in bourbon barrels or on a bed of cocoa nibs never gets old to me. That’s half the fun of craft beer.  Sharing our knowledge and understanding of this craft along with a couple ounces of our favorite beer we might have smuggled back from a vacation wrapped in a sweater we took to the beach simply for the padding.  There are so many people out there who do not understand what we hold so dear, and in some cases take for granted.

Remember, today is not only about the stout (or generating web traffic for the various websites built around capitalizing on this opportunity, most of which I think are spreading the good word for the greater cause) but is also about sharing.  Invite someone from your office who doesn’t drink good beer to your favorite beer joint for Happy Hour today.  Spread the word through your social media outlets that you live the good life and enjoy beer made by hands and not machines.  Proudly exclaim what you’re drinking, who your drinking it with, and where. Open the door for another to become as enlightened as you are.  Help those who are drinking rice/corn beer loaded with chemicals to find out there is more out there.  And as always, tip your server well for letting you have all the fun.

We had a blast with our Summer Beer FEAST out on Lake Ray Hubbard, but now it is time to gear up for our Fall Festivals and this year we are adding one to the list.

Tickets are on sale now: Click the link below to buy your tickets today.

• Nashville – September 22nd. (This will be our 3rd annual festival here and we are doubling the beer offering)
• Austin – September 29th
• Fort Worth – October 13th  

Each of our festivals will have at least 60 brews to choose from and at the Nashville fest you will be allowed unlimited sampling from 1-6pm.    There are still a few VIP tickets remaining for the Nashville fest that include:

• Early admission by one hour
• A sweet BeerFEAST T shirt
• VIP brew caddy taster glass lanyard
• One food voucher for any one of the available food trucks
• Most importantly you will have access to the VIP only line for early access to the rare tappings.

Unfortunately we have to play by a different rule book at our Festivals in Texas since State Law prohibits us from giving more than 24 ozs of beer for one price. We will be selling additional tasting cards for (12) two ounce samples for only $6 inside the Fest, to allow you to sample even more of our delicious offerings at a reduced price. We’ve been collecting these brews for some time now and are looking forward to sharing them with you. Spread the good word. Space will be limited.

Sugar Land will also be joining in on the fun with their inaugural festival on October 27th, but their tickets are not on sale quite yet.  Keep an eye on their Twitter account @SaucerSugarLand for updates on VIP and General Admission ticket releases within the next two weeks.  And as always, the Twitter savvy can follow me @Schlabs, or my right hand man @SaucerSam as well as @SaucerFeast for a peak behind the scenes.

It has been 14 years TODAY since we opened our little beer joint in Nashville, TN. It was only 3 months after we opened Little Rock. 1998 was the year and it was a lot of fun (ass kicker) branching out into other markets. If you haven’t been to Nashville, go. Its a great city with good music and good peeps. If you plan to be in Nashville on Saturday August 25th – mark your calendar for this day to celebrate BEER. We hope you will come by and say hello. I’d like to raise a glass high to Brandi, Kacee & the gang for helping make Nashville a real beer town.

Special Tappings shall begin at 7 PM for your drinking pleasure:

New Belgium Collaboration with Lost Abbey Brett

The Shakepeare Stout is served w  Maraschino Cherries that have soaked in Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey!

Time for fresh new week of beer celebration in San Antonio and this time we are celebrating FRUIT BEER!  Starting August 6th, they will have fruit beers on Fire Sale and special tappings or glassware giveaways every day Monday through Saturday.

Special tappings will include Jolly Pumpkin/Maui Brewing Collaboration Sobrehumano and Dogfish Head Black and Blue among others, and will all start at 6pm.

Check out the stores social media outlets on Twitter @FlyingSaucerSA or “Like” The Official San Antonio Flying Saucer page on Facebook for updates

Last year we had some great success with a few #IPAday celebrations and this year we are getting behind it full force.  Every Saucer will be having some really great, and unique, IPA day experiences.  Tons of special tappings, casks, and of course discounts on India Pale Ales on draught and in bottle.  Come out and see us today and help celebrate the India Pale Ale.

We are also teaming up with Untappd, a web based social beer app that helps you track and share your beers with your friends.  Last year the Austin Flying Saucer had the most Untappd IPA Check Ins of any #IPAday celebration in the world and this year we want to fill up the top ten with Flying Saucers!  If you use Untappd, help us accomplish our goals by checking in a getting a special “IPADay: Saucer Style” badge as well as your IPA Day 2012 badge.

Hey – it is HOT outside. Beat this heat with our air-conditioned beer joint in Addison. Flying Saucer is hosting its 2nd annual BeerBQ this Sunday the 29th.

We’re opening up our cellar and releasing some beautiful beers.

1PM – 512 Double Whiskey Pecan Porter

   Boulevard Harvest Dance Wheat Wine

2PM – Dogfish Head Red and White

                Dogfish Head Black and Blue – click to see this video. Very nice seasonal from DFH

3PM – Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA Bottles

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

4PM – Brooklyn Black Ops

                Clown Shoes Hoppy Feet 1.5

5PM – North Coast Old Stock

                North Coast Old Rasputin XIV bottles

6PM       St. Arnolds Bitter Belgian Cask

Left Hand Widdershins

Food specials: BBQ Nachos, Sausage Plate, Pulled Pork Sandwiches and sides of Cotswold Mac n Cheese and Loaded Potato Salad. Also we’ll have some Cobblers for dessert.

Beerknurds – mark your calendars. The crew at the Forth Worth  Saucer is almost ready to  fill your glass again. We have a cold draught system and the plates are hung. BUT, we still have some finishing touches left before the triumphant return of our original Saucer.  It won’t be exactly the same (we will all miss the old Land and Title building), but there will definitely be some big improvements!   We will have more seating capacity and an enhanced food menu. We also have a dedicated cellar to stockpile some rare jewels. This obviously wont make an immediate impact but will allow us to save some great beers for the 20th anniversary (three years from now) and of course give you a stellar line up for our annual BeerFEAST during TX OU weekend.

Soon this patio will be brimming with craft brews!

If everything goes according to plan we could be open THIS WEEKEND!  We have an excited crew of Beer Goddesses and Beertenders ready to get back in action and serve up some pints from our brand new beer system.  For those that value the subtleties of craft beer there really is nothing like a pint from a brand new draught line.  At the other Saucers we often cut and rerun fresh lines every year or two, but every single line on our 80 taps will be brand spanking new.  Staff training and refreshers are going on now and we have had the opportunity to put together quite a crew of seasoned Saucer and 8.0 vets as well as importing some new additions from other areas of Texas and the craft world.

As you can see we have plenty to do but it already looks like home

We look forward to opening our doors to our loyal Beer Knurds and former 8.0 regulars.  Keep an eye on my twitter @Schlabs and the local @FlyingSaucerFW or my right hand man @SaucerSam for details on the goings on in our world.