Capt Keith's Beer Blog

The youngest Saucer on Lake Ray Hubbard turns 1 on Sunday! Come celebrate beer with us. Check out this link to see the Saucer and learn more details. Daniel and his team have been holding back some rare juice for the occasion and below is the tapping schedule:

NOON

Special Saucer/ Breckenridge Collaboration called FS 15

2 PM
Rahr Stormcloud IPA Cask-conditioned

Franconia Dunkel Cask-conditioned

5 PM
Avery 17th Anniversary Ale (dry-hopped black lager)

7PM
Stone Cali-Belgique (IPA with Belgian Yeast)

On the lake-side patio, we’ll be grilling Chicken and Pineapple skewers (Free)

Plus our usual Sunday Texas Pints are only $2.75 all day – love to the locals…. Come see us!

Our Summer Beer Fest at lake Ray Hubbard is scheduled for June 5th. This date has changed from the previously set May 22nd. We did not want to conflict with Taste of Addison.

Side note: In 1995, I had the privilege of opening the first Flying Saucer in Fort Worth Texas on June 5th. So essentially, this Beer Fest is on our 15th Anniversary. Come help us celebrate beer on Bass Pro Drive. Mark your calendars. We’ll have some interesting and unique beers for everyone to enjoy. Cheers…

The Lake Saucer is planning on kicking off summer with their first annual Summer Beer Festival. The date is May 22nd, which is a Saturday and the weather should be perfect that time of year. After hosting some great events in Austin and Fort Worth last fall, we have a solid plan in place. It will be a tasting format as before but we will do some planning to make sure the lines aren’t a mile long. Expect at least FIVE tents of hand crafted ales, with some jewels we’ve been holding back for an event like this.

Daniel is our GM at the lake. He moved from Charlotte FS, where he was an avid home brewer and hosted annual events like the Charlotte Oktoberfest. He is a certified beer judge and knows more about beer than you know about your mama. He and I will be hand picking 20 or so beers to place in the outdoor tents. We’ll have tasting glasses and information cards on all the beers out there. In addition to tasting stations, we’ll have a tent set up serving full pints.

Mark your calendars now and we’ll keep you posted through the website and with in store flyers. I will also blog to keep you up-to-date. Help us spread the good word about beer in Garland and Rockwall.

This July will be our 1 year anniversary and we’ve already seen some serious enthusiasm for quality beer in that area. If you have not yet been to the Lake Saucer, go soon. The patio is perfect with weather like this, with a beautiful view of Lake Ray Hubbard and a cool patio bar with 6 drafts to chose from. We’ve got another 80 inside and a cask ale on tap most nights.

Cheers

Keith

Wednesday 8/26 – I will be having lunch with Hans Peter Drexler – notorious brewmaster from Schneider and Sons, located in Kelheim, Germany. You are welcome to come and say hello and shake the hand of the man responsible for Aventinus, Edel-Weisse & the Weisse beer we love so much. Soon the Saucer will be carrying Hopfen-Weisse on draught. Of course, it will be in limited supply. We’ll let you all know when it arrives.

Later…… at Brewery Nite – 7 PM

Brad Farbstein – President of Real Ale Brewing Company – AKA “Distractor” is personally coming out to see the new place and to support his beer during Wendesday’s Brewery Night. Our featured beer is his Fireman #4. I encourage all of the Beerknurds in the area to come out and show him support. It is a real pleasure to have such a great local brewery in the area.

So, I am at the Lake Saucer yesterday during lunch. I see a couple at the bar and I ask how they are and what brings them to the Saucer. They’d never been to a FS, but saw our website and while scanning the beer list – came across the Green Flash IPA on tap. They drove to the Saucer for that one beer they found on the menu.

I love that stuff.

It made me laugh a little though… We were only able to snag 2 kegs due to the high demand of the product. It has been on tap for 16 days and we still have 1.25 kegs left. In most markets, this beer would have lasted only a day or so.

While we have some very savvy beer enthusiasts in the new market, we are working hard to convert the others. From what I can tell so far, Garland and Rockwall enjoy good beer and good times. Give us some time and they’ll all be drinking the good juice.

We opened the Saucer at lake Ray Hubbard last night at 4 PM. It wasn’t a Grand Opening Party. We were all just trying hard to hit our deadline of July 27th – so we moved ladders and poured beer  simultaneously. We had some Knurds from other stores come by to say hello.

One thing is for sure – it feels damn good to drink a Green Flash IPA on draft and sitting on this patio. The space overlooks the lake and has a nice breeze coming off of the water. It even feels cool-ish when its over 100 degrees out

We opened up the patio bar last night too. We feature FIVE draught beers – Fireman #4 (a shout out to the local gang in Blanco), Breckenridge 471 IPA, Full Sail pale (nautical), Spaten Lager (weaning the mainstream herd) & Franziskaner Hefe. The bottle selection hits just about every style from Pilsner to Imperial Stout with Trappist ales and Canadian tripels in between.

For your friends that prefer a Gin and tonic, we brought on liquor. We figured that Frozen Margaritas might be a hit in the heat. We make a pretty mean Bloody Mary too.

Beer selection inside is about 220 strong with 83 tap handles and a Cask Engine on the way. For those DFH fans – Burton Baton is on right now. We are pouring Green Flash IPA, Schneider Aventinus and Sierra’s newest Anniversary release. Come by and say hello.

Cheers

Captain

We are opening a  Flying Saucer on Lake Ray Hubbard just outside of Dallas on I-30 at Bass Pro. The patio overlooks the lake and will be the ideal place to drink a beer after work with friends. We are still under construction, but this is a shot of a small portion of the patio. There 21 boat slips in the background, which allows boaters to park and walk up for food and beer.

The patio should have over 20 tables and will offer plenty of space to enjoy the lake. We will have a remote bar set up with three draught beers and over 25 bottled beers on the patio.

The main tap wall will feature 80 draughts, many of which will be local to Texas. The bottle count is 140 and growing right now. We will carry liquor to make margaritas and bloody mary’s. The liquor list will be short, but quality as we’ve done in Houston and Austin.

If all goes according to plan, we should be open at the end of July. Come see us.

We are staffing the place up right now. If you know some good people – send them out Monday – Wednesday (noon – 6 pm) for interviews.