San Antonio's Freetail Brewing Company

My bro-in-law David had said if possible, we should visit Freetail, a nearby brewpub. The requisite amount of wheedling and complaining made this happen, as the wife and sister practically insisted we get out of their hair for a few hours. So we headed down to the road to the Freetail Brewing Company, a modest-sized place but very nice--one wall slides up like a garage door to open entirely, so you can look out over a huge area, a quarry or something. The weather was great, and the beer selection was awesome: a few different varieties of IPA, a brown, a standard pale, a Belgian Wit, a saison—in all, probably a dozen or more, but only 3 that appear to be year-rounders. Most of the beers there seem to be made in small batches and sold until they're gone. I enjoyed the Hop Brutality IPA and it was okay; the Hopasaurus Rex was better, and the Hopothesis (available for the first time that day) at an insane 12.5% ABV and 125 IBU was ambrosia.

The service was spotty, and the brewmaster seemed a little too cool for school, for some reason. That said, the beer was awesome, the pizza was very good and the atmosphere was ideal. Thanks to David for taking me, and to anyone, check out Freetail when you're in San Antonio!

Sampling Beer from the Texas Hill Country

Greetings from San Antonio! A 5-day visit to the sister's house to visit our new baby nephew has, unsurprisingly, proven an opportunity to enjoy beer I can't get in Kansas City. After a 2-leg flight on delightful Southwest airlines (seriously, they're great) and a brief ride in our rented Chevy Aveo (seriously, it's a clown car) we arrived at my sister's place just before a flash flood hit. It wasn't long before I realized the only beer in the house, an 18-pack of Bud Light, wasn't beer at all—just an empty box in the fridge. Cruel fate! But an opportunity to venture out into the heart of the tempest in my tiny Aveo, to the H-E-B supermarket just down the street.

I was anticipating a poor selection, and I couldn't have been more wrong: this place had a GREAT selection of beers, including my favorite: Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA. However, in the interest of budgeting, I ended up purchasing my second favorite, Dogfish Head 60-minute IPA. I also picked up a sampler six-pack from the Real Ale Brewery in Blanco, TX—something local, and a variety to boot. Upon returning, I immediately cracked open a Dogfish Head 60-Minute, and it was good. Not 90-minute good, but still damned good. I followed it with the Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, and I was underwhelmed. I tried the Rio Blanco Pale Ale, and it was better, but not great. The Brewhouse Brown Ale was the best of the lot, but it was a Brown (i.e. relatively boring). That was yesterday.

Today we took the kids to the children's museum in New Braunfels, which was very nice. We came home, the kids played, I watched Doctor Who on my laptop, and at 5 I finally cracked today's first beer: another Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA. And I thought, you know, this is really good, so NATURALLY whatever comes after is going to pale by comparison. And trying the Real Ale Pale again, I thought, this isn't too bad. Not remarkable, a bit thin, not terribly memorable, but not bad. So kudos to Real Ale, a brewery that is not as good as Dogfish Head, but that doesn't make them a bad brewery.

Expect more reviews—I'm here 3 more nights.