Have dinner plans tonight? Cancel them. As mentioned Monday, tonight’s beer dinner at the Libertine Bar features beers from St. Paul’s Summit Brewing Company. Cost is $50 per person, plus tax, which lets you taste five beers and five courses specially created to pair with each brew. The dinner starts…
As impressive as I found Commercial Suicide, from Austin’s Jester King Brewery, I didn’t have a chance to sample any of Jester King’s other offerings until last week, when The Common Table featured Black Metal Imperial Stout on BrewsDay Tuesday. And while I wasn’t completely blown away, it really was…
The holidays are over, and unless you’ve got Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Presidents’ Day off, there aren’t any work holidays until Memorial Day on May 30. Christmas and holiday beers are disappearing from taps and shelves faster than your New Year’s resolutions. But before you put a gun…
Paul Hightower at Dallas Craft Beer Examiner has a good round-up of the month’s beer events on his January Craft Beer Calendar, and Brian Brown of Plano Craft Beer Examiner has a more thorough run-down of the week’s area beer events. Both of them mention something I’ve had penciled on…
Overall, it’s been another great year for beer, at least from my perspective here in North Texas. If I didn’t suspect reader list burnout, I could probably do another top 10 piece on the best developments of the past year, and even another on things I’m most looking forward to…
This week, I’m looking back on 2010 with a couple of lists. First, I’ll share my 10 favorite beers of the year. They’re not my top 10 of all time, but rather 10 brews I tried (and in many cases, subjected to the Hophead Ranking System) this year and really…
Thanks to all who shared their tales of holiday embarrassment, trauma, blackouts and illness in our latest commenting contest. It was a lot of fun (and sometimes just sad) reading them, and also oddly comforting to know that I’m not alone in finding that the holidays aren’t just a nonstop…
The Libertine Bar sent along details about its December 29 holiday beer dinner, as well as a pair of tickets for one lucky City of Ate reader. Or rather, for the purposes of this contest, “one unlucky City of Ate reader” would be more accurate. Winning the tickets would be…
My only complaint about the Idle Rich Pub and Monday night’s Winter And Christmas Beer Tasting is something outside the control of the bar: Resident Parking Only areas are one of the most idiotic ideas shortsighted Dallasites have ever come up with, and they’ve spread like a cancer from a…
Sink the Bismarck! from BrewDog on Vimeo.Scotland’s Brewdog brewery made headlines early this year with Sink The Bismarck!, a 41-percent ABV quadruple IPA that surpassed German brewery Schorschbrau’s 40-percent ABV Schorsbock 40% as the world’s strongest beer. Schorsbock 40% had earlier one-upped Brewdog’s 32-percent ABV Tactical Nuclear Penguin as the…
Winter hasn’t even officially begun, but winter beers and holiday seasonals have already been on the shelves and bar taps long enough that I thought I’d offer a quick rundown of those I’ve particularly enjoyed so far this year — and one that gave me a good laugh. This is…
According to Samuel Adams press material included with a sample bottle of Infinium (and an ice bucket and pair of flutes — aww, you shouldn’t have!), 60 percent of men would prefer to toast with beer instead of Champagne if given the choice. Whether or not that’s a good reason…
Now that we’re into December, Christmas beers, winter warmers and other special seasonals are showing up in stores and beer joints. It is truly the most wonderful time of the year if you’re a beer lover, and year after year, Anchor Christmas Ale, also sometimes called “Our Special Ale” (and…
Earlier this month I spent a weekend in Austin for Fun Fun Fun Fest, where I was able to spend some time in the very cool Black Star Co-op brewpub and also bring back a few beers that I hadn’t seen in Dallas. One of the Austin-made brews that really…
One of the most exciting bits of beer-related news I’ve received in the last year came in an interview with Guinness brewmaster Fergal Murray at Trinity Hall in March as he was touring the country making the case for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with his products. Intrigued by outstanding Beer…
We’re coasting into the best time of the year, beer-wise, with winter and holiday seasonals and luscious stouts starting to edge out summer session beers on retail shelves and tap walls. At Hophead HQ, we’ve already nearly finished off our first (but likely not last) six-pack of Anchor’s 2010 Christmas…
To the three people on the waiting list behind me for Park Lane Whole Foods’ last six-pack of Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 10 in hopes that I wouldn’t show up to claim it, sorry. I hope you were able to find it elsewhere. And now I understand why the Houston…
One of my purchases during Central Market’s Brewtopia deal (when you could get 25 percent off beer purchases of $25 or more) was Dubuisson Scaldis Belgian Ale, ounce-for-ounce one of the most expensive beers I’ve ever bought. But I had a feeling it would be good, considering how great Scaldis…
Last night, as part of the three-pub cooperative Avery push we mentioned Monday, the Meddlesome Moth cracked open three kegs from Avery’s Demons of Ale series. The three beers in the series are all over 16 percent ABV and are not cheap. But given how uncommon they are, at least…
This week’s special Avery events at the Libertine Bar, The Common Table and the Meddlesome Moth are putting a special emphasis on the Colorado brewery’s Salvation Belgian-style golden ale. The Libertine and Common Table have already offered up food pairings especially made to go with the beer, and the Moth…
All photos by Jesse HugheyThough you may not have known it, as the brewery’s products are carried by fewer than 20 retailers and pubs in the area, Boulder, Colorado’s Twisted Pine Brewery has made its way into North Texas. In Dallas, you can find Twisted Pine brews at Pogo’s, Trinity…
Held in the store’s upstairs classroom kitchen, Friday night’s “Stone Brewery Gastropub” at Central Market was more cooking class than gastropub beer dinner. It provided such intriguing samples of food and Stone beers that it was impossible not to go downstairs and immediately head to the store’s beer cooler in…
