Beer Travels: O'Bannon's Taphouse - College Station, TX

Written by special guest writer Dustin Davis, thanks Dustin for your contribution!

A couple of weeks ago I hit the road to follow the LSU Tigers to College Station for their matchup with the Texas A&M Aggies.  Having never been to College Station, I decided to do a little research on the best place for craft beer in the area.  The results were clear.  O’Bannon’s Taphouse (facebook) was the place to go.

I arrived at O’Bannon’s on Friday afternoon and met with owner, Chris Steele, who was nice enough to stick around and let me bug him with some questions.  O’Bannon’s has a great Irish pub look and atmosphere, but it was apparent that the beer selection was far greater than that of your average Irish pub.  With 50 beers on tap and around 80 beers total, there were the Irish pub musts, Guinness, Harp, and Smithwick’s, but what set O’Bannon’s apart was their American craft beer selection, specifically Texas craft beer.

 Chris had a sampler of Texas beers brought over with beers from Rahr & Sons Brewing Co., Live Oak Brewing Co., Karbach Brewing Co., and Saint Arnold Brewing Co.  Some of the highlights of the sampler were the Karbach Rodeo Clown Imperial IPA, Saint Arnold Oktoberfest and Live Oak HefeWeizen.  The Live Oak HefeWeizen is an exceptionally good beer and is currently the 2^nd highest reviewed hefeweizen on BeerAdvocate.

A sign of a bar owner who really cares about a beer is a number of seasonal offerings.  This shows me that I’m drinking fresh beer and attention is paid to beer selection and tap rotation.  This was all evident at O’Bannon’s, with many fall selections, from Oktoberfest beers to pumpkin beers.   I was also impressed when Chris told me they regularly host cask nights, though I was saddened to discover that I would be missing a Saint Arnold Pumpkinator cask night by just a few days.

 After some friendly conversation with some Aggies and a couple more pints of beer it was time to say “Slán go foil” (goodbye for now) to O’Bannon’s Taphouse, with plans in the works for a return in the spring for the LSU vs. Texas A&M baseball series and many football games in the future.

Beer Travels: The Ginger Man Pub in Houston, TX

Alright, time for some more beer travels!  I've been going mostly to Houston lately, and that includes a couple of trips to The Ginger Man Pub in Rice Village.  This place has a reputation for being one of Houston's top beer bars, so I had to check it out!  It turns out the reputation is well earned.  There is a large bar with a great assortment of taps, and plenty of seating inside and outside.  The Ginger Man Pub concept has multiple locations now, but Houston was the original, so it was definitely the best one to check out first, right? 

 

The first trip was around 7 on a Friday night... and I expected the bar to be a little more crowded but Mandi and I met up with my old roommate Chris and his wife Emily and grabbed a table near the back of the bar with no problems.  They had a cask of Dogma on hand from BrewDog especially for American Craft Beer Week, but unfortunately I had tried that one before!  That didn't stop me from trying it again later, but I started off with a new beer to me, the Live Oak (@liveoakbrewing) Liberation IPA out of Austin, TX.  While I was trying that one out Mandi went for a Shiner 102 Double Wheat from the Spoetzl Brewery (@shinerbeer) and we switched out... always nice to have a drinking buddy to help me try all of these new beers! 

 

From there I tried a (512) IPA and then the Dogfish Head Brown Ale, both very solid beers.  (512) Brewing (@512brewing) is out of Austin, hence the area code, and Dogfish Head (@dogfishbeer) is of course the super popular craft brewery out of Delaware.  After those two I went for a canned craft beer because I was all out of new draft beer options.  That meant it was time for Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi IPA.  Ska is a brewery out of Durango, Colorado that has embraced the movement to canned craft beer.  I've had their beer in bottles before, and on tap since, but it's still nice to see more breweries go towards cans as an option. 

Eventually the place filled up and started to really get loud, but it was never jam-packed like some bars get.  We also tried the "Beer Companion" meat & cheese & fruit plate which really hit the spot to add a little food to the stomach along with all the liquid bread.

More recently I went back with the same group on a Sunday afternoon... it was mostly empty but still was open after lunch on a Sunday, so props for that!  This trip was just for a pint each after lunch, but Emily was kind enough to let me try her Ommegang (@breweryommegang) Rare Vos ale so I could count it on the list!  I went with a Brooklyn (@brooklynbrewery) Blast Pale Ale, Brooklyn Brewing's double IPA which I absolutely loved.  This was definitely one of the best DIPAs I've tried recently and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes their beers hoppy.  

And now, after two trips to The Ginger Man Pub in Houston, I can say that I'll be back. It's a perfectly sized beer bar with the right ambiance and character to add to the beer drinking experience rather than take away like some places tend to do. I've experienced really good service both at the tables and at the bar on both trips, so I look forward to even more pints (and cans) of good beer!

Beer Travels: San Antonio Part 1 - Freetail Brewing Co.

Again I'm going to skip a little out of order in my beer writing, but I'd rather get all my thoughts on drinking in San Antonio down before I forget it all!  (Due to more drinking, most likely...)

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to present for work at a conference in San Antonio.  Fantastic, I thought, this should be a good work opportunity AND I'll get an evening or two in San Antonio to do some drinking!  Some quick research on BeerAdvocate (a good place to look for the beer hotspots in larger areas) and I decided the one place I couldn't miss was the Freetail Brewery.   Other attractive places included the Flying Saucer (a chain I know but they usually have a great selection), the Pedicab Bar and Grille, the Blue Star Brewery, and the Ranger Creek Brewery & Distillery. 

 

After checking into the hotel Monday afternoon I was picked up by a fellow Beer lover, Chad, and we headed up to the Freetail Brewery for some brews and grub.  The place is in a relatively new building way out on the outskirts of San Antonio... thankful again for the ride because a cab would have broke the bank! It's a nice new place... large L-shaped bar with fermenting tanks beyond... barrels hanging around for decoration and a good many flat-screen TVs with the Spurs on.

I was impressed with the quality of beers... while here I tried the La Rubia Blonde Ale, Exxxtra Pale Ale, Buffalo Hump IPA, and the Hopothesis Dark IPA all from Freetail. I especially enjoyed the Exxxtra Pale Ale and Hopothesis, very nice brews and reasonable microbrewery prices. They also had a guest selection, the Live Oak (@liveoakbrewing) Treehugger Barley Wine, which stole the show. I was impressed that they would have some other Texas micros on tap, kudos to them!

La Rubia Blonde Ale, Exxxxtra Pale Ale, Buffalo Hump IPA, Live Oak Treehugger Barley Wine, & Hopothesis Dark IPA

 

We tried a little food as well... the green chili & goat cheese artichoke dip was awesome, and the chips and queso were filling. Didn't get into the bigger items, but the appetizers were good.

A fun place... kind of a tough location unless you live on that side of town but worth the visit.  After drinking our fill there Chad wanted to check out a beer bar closer in to town that he hadn't been to yet... and I was certainly game!  So off we headed to a place called the Pedicab Bar & Grille... check back for Part 2.