Alright folks, time for a new installment of "Beer Travels" which is all about the fun places to drink beer outside of Baton Rouge. I'd say the majority of these lately have been from Houston, and this one is only technically an exception as the ironically named No Label Brewing is located in Katy, a western suburb of Houston. Last Saturday Mandi and I decided to go take in their 1-3PM tour/tasting and were met there by my cousin Philip.
The place is a little tough to find if don't have good directions, located in an old grain silo compound just on the north side of Hwy. 90 in old-town Katy. After we figured it out, and parked in the large open lot the "brewery" was right there in front of us. It was a beautiful day and I was excited to try some beers and make it 5 brewery visits on the year!
The tasting was free, so after showing some ID (yes, Mandi is over 21) we had to wait a few minutes for 1:00 to roll around. They were selling shirts and pint glasses, so we each bought a No Label pint glass for the tasting. Similar to other tastings if you purchase a pint glass they will fill that up instead of the 4 ounce or so standard tasting. I'm not sure I saw a single person without a pint glass in hand! At 1 PM the beer started to pour so I started out with the Ridgeback Amber Ale, one of the two No Label Brews I hadn't tried before.
Not a bad beer at all, a murky extremely sessionable tasty amber ale. I'd go back for more of these without thinking twice... and in fact I did! After that I went for the other beer that I hadn't tried before, the Black Wit-O, a dark wheat beer with a hint of anise for a bit of a licorice kick. It's also a 7% alcohol beer so only one was enough of this guy.
After that one I tried two that I've previously tasted at The Petrol Station... the El Hefe Hefeweizen and the Pale Horse Pale Ale. Both are fine examples of the style and equally refreshing on a warm summer day depending on your tastes. The really neat thing about the whole tasting/tour was the laid back tailgate atmosphere of it all. People were showing up with pop-up tents and bag chairs and lawn games as they chilled and drank some brews. And there were also a good many LSU fans present as is typical with the Houston area. All in all it was a great time and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something to do on a Saturday in the Houston area.
Thanks No Label for a great time at brewery visit #5 on the year, and I'll definitely be back.
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