Nicer tap rooms are in order!

While I was sitting at Odell Brewing in Ft. Collins, CO last December, I had an epiphany when it came to tap rooms: Texas breweries don't have nice tap rooms because they can't sell beer on-site.

I don't know why it took me so long to realize that our tap rooms are 10x lamer than other states! I mean, yes, there are nice ones like St. Arnold's in Houston, but that's few and far between folks.

Most young breweries have a warehouse, a couple of taps in the wall and a bar table to serve it from. It's functional, but it sure isn't pretty.

BUT! With the slate of beer bills close to becoming reality, nicer tap rooms might be in our future! I think if breweries are allowed to charge for samples, pints, etc. they'll put more money into a useable space! I can't wait to see what the breweries come up with!

On Friday afternoon, the Texas House used voice votes to approve the bills. A final House vote on Monday will push the bills to Gov. Rick Perry's desk. There's currently no real opposition, so this is fo'realz people!

I've been keeping up with these bills for awhile, you can read past articles
here
here 
here
and here.

Here are my favorite tap rooms (places that actually have rooms, not just an open warehouse) in Texas right now (in no particular order):

1. Hops and Grain: It's a small room but it is a good space. The room has a/c, seating and a view of the brewery. My favorite thing about this place? Plenty of toilets! Because it's in a shared warehouse, there's a communal bathroom that is HUGE.

2. St. Arnold Brewing Co.: It's a grand beer hall. I remember when they used to have that warehouse on Hwy 290... the good ol' days. The new location has a huge beer hall with plenty of taps. There's usually a line to get in but it's a good deal! Even though there are at least a dozen picnic tables, you might have to sit on the floor if it's really busy, which is only a minor inconvenience.

3. Deep Ellum Brewing Co.: The open-air space below the pergola is lovely! You get your beer inside the warehouse, but there's a nice seating area in the front of the business. There are several picnic tables and wine barrels turned into tables. Bring a lawn chair just in case!

4. Jester King Brewery: Fairly large ranch-style tap room. No seating area inside the room but plenty of space outside!

5. Tie between Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling and Branchline Brewery:
Not much seating in either place but it's a good spot to hang out if it's 100 degrees outside. I might give RC an extra point because they have cool artwork on the walls. 

Rocky Mountain High

Last weekend I surprised Micah with a weekend trip to Colorado, because you know, recreational use of marijuana is totally legal there now. Kidding. While there was no toking up for us, we did partake in copious amounts of beer swilling.

We've been to Colorado several times before but all previous visits were during the Great American Beer Festival week, which you can read about here.While GABF is all sorts of awesome, I thought it would be fun to visit during an off-period and besides, last-minute flights were $140 roundtrip! Can't pass that folks.

Most of the trip revolved around visiting breweries that we haven't been to before but I did make Micah hike with me for a very short period of time. The mountains are so close, you have to!

Here's the eating and drinking recap!

FRIDAY:

We started off with an awesome creole breakfast at Lucile's in Fort Collins.

Then I abducted Micah and took him to Lory State Park. We didn't hike too far though, just enough to get a decent picture.

We had to hurry on the hike because I had booked us for a 1 p.m. tour at the New Belgium Brewery -- which we've been to before but it's such a fun tour and delicious samples.

Micah was really disappointed that they weren't serving La Folie. Apparently it's in such high demand that they didn't have enough for the tours, we got Frambozen instead. But all these new barrels should help with the sour beer output.

Right down the way from New Belgium is Odell. We've tried to to visit Odell the past two times but they were closed each time, that wasn't happening on our third trip!

 

{TX needs taprooms like this. Oh wait, breweries can't sell their own product at their own shop! Lame!}

{L: pilot tray at Odell Brewing, R: Equinox Brewing}

SATURDAY:

I booked us a room at the Edwards House B&B and it was a great choice! We got a free room upgrade and a fabulous breakfast!

Despite most of the clientele at the B&B being on the older side, we did have breakfast with a young couple that lo and behold, were homebrewers too! We said we were going to Funkwerks Brewery after we check-out and they were already planning to do the same thing! Small world. We ended up hanging out with them at Funkwerks for a couple of hours!

We actually did buy a bottle of Funkwerks' Mistral to take home! After leaving Funkwerks, we made a beeline straight down to Denver -- so little time, so many beer places! We actually drove straight from Ft. Collins to Crooked Stave. A friend told me about this place and they specialize in sours, so obviously we went there.

While we didn't love any of their beers (there were only 2 on tap), Micah did buy a small bottle that was $12 to take home. Hopefully it's delicious! The tap room is small and it gets packed, so come prepared!

For dinner that night, we visited Hops & Pie (highly recommended from the new b&b friends as well as our SA friends).

While they didn't have any Russian River on tap that day, Lost Abbey was and tons of other great beers. The pies are delicious too!

After dinner, we visited River North brewery. The beers here were decent but nothing to write home about and we definitely didn't buy any beer to go.

SUNDAY:

Since our flight was at 7 p.m., we pretty much had a full day in Denver and didn't want to waste any time!

To kick off my morning, I got this awesome sausage, spinach/artichoke bagel sammy at Hi Rise.

After eating breakfast, we walked over to Mr. B's Liquor store (the store came recommended from the b&b homebrewer folks we had just befriended). While the selection wasn't great, the service was friendly and Micah did pick up a bottle from Russian River. To check out a bigger beer selection, we went to Argonaut's on Colfax. We (and by we, I mean Micah) loaded up on 3 or 4 bottles here.

After our beer shopping, we headed over to a fairly new brewery called Renegade Brewing. They're open on Sundays! At 11 a.m.! I'm down with that and so were other patrons!

My favorite was the Cuban Missle Crisis -- a RIS aged in rum barrels.

Not only did humans like the bar, this pup wanted in on the action too! BEST.PICTURE.EVAR.

After Renegade, we visited Great Divide (we go there every time!) and Dry Dock Brewing on our way out!

I think I've had my fill of beer for the next few weeks! Until next time, CO, cheers!