Capt Keith's Beer Blog

FALL BEER FESTIVAL OCTOBER 4th

Noon – 10 PM

The Austin Saucer hosted it’s 1st Annual Fall Beer Festival in the triangle. We set up 5 tents with 22 draught beers including 3 live ales. The Festival was set up like a tasting in the grass park (center of the Triangle). Those who came bought a tasting card with a commemorative glass upon arrival and could taste 10 beers per card. Pints were available in each tent as well.

This was our first major beer event outside of the Saucer and over 1500 people attended. Next year we will make a few changes, but remain focused on beer, education and good times.

The beer line up had some interesting seasonal beers from the local boys; Live Oak, Saint Arnold, Independence & Real Ale:

Real Ale caskDunkle Roggenbier

Real Ale cask Shade Grown Coffee Porter – and this was the 1st release of the Porter for 2008.

Live Oak Cask Dry-hopped IPA -one of my favorites, but almost too carbonated.

Live Oak Cask Oaktoberfest

Others included – Dogfish Head Punkin, Avery Kaiser, Sierra Nevada Harvest, St Arnold Divine #7 (Weizenbock), Stone Smoked Porter, Ayinger Oktoberfest, Victory Storm King Imperial Stout, Delirium Tremens and Nocturnum, St Bernardus Abt 12, Tripel Karmeliet and several more exceptional beers.

Our friends at Disc Nation hosted a Disc Golf putting competition with many prizes awarded throughout the day. Check out www.discnation.com to learn more about Frisbee golf.

The charity organization,  Us TOO was there to support their cause. They recently launched an awareness campaing called Pints for Prostates. A booth was set up to educate our audience about their cause and to help raise money to create awareness.

We are proudly serving cask-conditioned ale in Houston, thanks to our friend Adam with Avery Brewing Company www.averybrewing.com.

Our first offering is their India Pale Ale. If you like the draught version, you are going love this! It pours a nice dark cloudy orange with a full bouquet of floral hoppiness. The head is amazing – pillowy white and it lasts awhile. I think the unfiltered version has more flavor and would be my first choice if I were craving a hoppy American IPA.

Our system is fairly simple and we use CO2 (1# of pressure only – just to keep the oxygen out) to operate this cylinderless hand pump. Ideally, we would have firkins with old school hand pumps, but that would limit us to only a few breweries. Another issue would possibly be spoilage. A cask will only last a few days with a vacuum pump.  Most European pubs that I have visited sell primarily cask-conditioned ales. With limited offerings, they can really move through them quickly. The Flying Saucer has 80 plus taps and would be hard pressed to move a firkin every 2 – 3 days. We should be able to keep a keg for up to a week. So far, the beer has been well received and we will be seeking other breweries to participate.

Austin and Fort Worth will have Cask Ale at their Fall Beer Festivals in early October. Live Oak dry-hopped IPA and Real Ale Shade Grown Coffee Porter will both be on cask for each event. We will kick off the festivals with either a Cask of Dunkel Roggen or Oaktoberfest.