Beer Travels: San Antonio Part 2 - Pedicab Bar & Grille

After hitting the Freetail Brewery in Part 1 of my beer travels in San Antonio, Chad and I took off to a place close to downtown called the Pedicab Bar & Grille... they had free wings with each beer on Monday nights, and a pretty high quality selection so it sounded good to me.  It was pretty easy to find, just look for all the cars parked on the street! There was a large open area out front after going through the gates with picnic tables and plenty of people drinking and eating wings. I remember it being a very diverse crowd... people from all walks of life and backgrounds hanging out drinking.

We headed up the ramps and into the bar... definitely a "hole in the wall" sort of bar with a good many tables and a large bar. There was a stage for live music although no one was playing this night.

They were definitely looking for quality over quantity, although it seemed I saw more people drinking Lonestar than anything else. We had some Green Flash Hop Head Red, 512 Pecan Porter, Oskar Blues Pale Ale, and then I dropped a pretty penny on some 2009 Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA just because I'd never had the chance to try one. Other than the 120 Minute, the prices seemed reasonable for the quality of beers.

I'm pretty sure these were the 512 Pecan Porters... but I had been drinking.

 As for the food... it was wing night and that ended up being a clusterfuck. Apparently you turn in your ticket to get your free wings (5 per beer I think, but they gave us a 20-spot for ordering the 120 Minute) and then wait until it's your turn to pick them up. No real order to it, but eventually (and after a few more beers) we got the wings. By then I was pretty well inebriated so they were quickly devoured, but nothing TOO special. Can't beat the price, though.

Definitely an interesting place... I can see it being some people's go-to bar but not totally my vibe.  The highlight was getting to try the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, which was a boozy mess but also pretty damn delicious.  

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

Thanks again to Chad for showing me around a few beer joints in San Antonio... unfortunately the rest of my trip was almost all work and no beers, but it was nice to have an evening to cut loose a little in a new town.

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.

Slacking Over The Last Week...

It's been a week since my last post, but I've been pretty busy with a work conference in San Antonio and then getting ready for the St. Patrick's Day parade in Baton Rouge.  In the meantime, thanks to a 9-beer night in San Antonio, I'm still on pace for 365 in 2011.  In fact, I'm five beers ahead of pace and I might add a few tonight.  The one problem with a 9-beer night is that I didn't get a chance to really review every one well.  I know which ones I liked best, which ones I don't need to try again, but it's tough to sit down and really rate and review a beer at a bar, especially after I had a few beers and wings in me.

Oh well... check back tomorrow for a new post about Smuttynose brews, and look for some NOLA Irish Channel Stout in bottles now!

Cheers!

Eric

"The 24 greatest cities in the world for drinking beer"

So, earlier today I stumbled across an article of sorts about "the 24 greatest cities in the world for drinking beer" and of course I was interested!  I was curious to see how many I have been to (that would be 11) and how many I'd been drinking in!  Unfortunately, that would be only 8 as my visits to Asheville, San Diego and San Francisco were in my younger non-drinking days. 

So, here are my thoughts on the 8 that made the list!  (In no particular order because the list is in no particular order...)

Dublin, Ireland
I certainly can't fault anyone for putting Dublin on their list of greatest cities to drink a beer, but I feel it's really an honor bestowed on Dublin for virtue of being the biggest city in Ireland.  This could just as easily be Galway, or Westport, or Dingle, or any small town in Ireland.  The whole country is crazy about beer and crazy about their pubs, with even the smallest of towns featuring multiple watering holes.  Sure, Dublin has the St. James Gate Brewery (total tourist trap) and more pubs that I can count (believe me I tried) but I'd focus more on the 'Ireland' than the 'Dublin' up there.

Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Really?  Atlanta?  Here is what they say: "Two award-winning production breweries operate in the city, Atlanta Brewing Company and Sweetwater, and brewpubs and great beer bars are scattered throughout. But for a real treat? Head to Decatur, where you'll find one of the nation's premier beer bars, the Brick Store Pub."  So, two breweries and a premiere beer bar that isn't even in the city proper qualifies for one of the 24 greatest cities to drink a beer in the world?  Yeah... no.  I think they threw Atlanta in as a nod to the growing beer scene in the South, but still, quite a stretch in my opinion.

Munich, Germany
I completely agree with this one, with a plethora of beer gardens, rich culture of drinking, famous locales like the Hofbräuhaus, and a little thing called Oktoberfest, Munich should make any top 5, let alone a top 24.  Atlanta boasts 2 breweries, Munich has 14 in the region, 6 in Munich proper... not to mention the brewpubs and beer bars.

Boston, Massachusetts
Alright, I'm really not all that well equipped to comment on Boston.  I've been there, I've drank there, and I've heard great things.  A quick search gives me 3 breweries in Boston (including Sam Adams, which is mostly brewed elsewhere, but still, it counts) and 7 brewpubs.  Not to mention countless beer bars.  I think it's a safe bet that Boston belongs on the list.  Really, this means I need to go back and pack my drinking shoes.

San Antonio, Texas, USA
Here's what the article says: "With its pedestrian-friendly climate and the Tex-Mex cuisine that invites pairing with good beer, the Riverwalk of San Antonio is a great city for beer drinking."  So I really think this one is included because of the place, not the beer.  Which is okay, but I find a hard time justifying a city with zero breweries and two brewpubs on this list.  It might be a spectacular place to grab a margarita or two to go with some chips and queso, but this one seems like it doesn't really belong.

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
After seeing San Antonio on the list I figured New Orleans would have to get a mention for the same reasons.  It's on the list primarily because of cheap huge-ass beers to go, no rules about open containers, bars that never close, and an infamous drinking culture.  New Orleans does feature two local breweries plus two regional beers on the North-shore.  Yeah, Dixie doesn't brew in New Orleans anymore after Katrina, but they are still a New Orleans founded brewery.  I suppose I can't argue that New Orleans isn't a great place to drink a beer, but in a totally different way than a place like Portland, Oregon or Brussels, Belgium. 

Seattle, Washington, USA
Other than New Orleans, this is my most recently visited city on the list.  In fact, the title image for this blog comes from a beer bar in Seattle called the Tap House Grill that featured 160 beers on tap.  According to BeerAdvocate, Seattle boasts 11 breweries and 15 brewpubs!  Eusebio and I visited the Pyramid brewery while we were there (great stuff) and had beers from several of the other ones.  I'll be headed back in July with Jay for our cousin's wedding so more drinking is sure to ensue.  Definitely a great city for any beer lover.

Baltimore, Maryland, USA
This one's similar to Boston for me, I've been there, I've had a few beers, but I don't really know enough to comment fully.  My first thought is that Baltimore probably doesn't belong.  Not when cities like London and New York are left off, not to mention that there is nothing from South America, Africa, Asia, or Australia on the list.  Upon further review, Baltimore is listed as having two breweries and 6 brew-pubs.  While not the worst choice on the list, it seems like a marginal choice at best.


And those are the cities on the list that I have been to and had a beer... next goal, make it to the rest of them!