BMD on Tour: B & J’s Pizza

Places visited: B and J’s Pizza Restaurant
Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Date visited: 04/20/13
BMD on Tour Song of Choice: OVERKILL – Live Young, Die Free

4/20, a date that is so associated with partying to the Potheads. For me, it is just another day of the week, month, and year. No big deal. This just happened to be the day that Maria (BeerMetalChick) and I took a weekend off to visit Corpus Christi, TX, to go to the beach and just to get a way from our normal routine. This particular trip had it’s ups and definitely it’s downs. I am going to ell you about them all, as there are some things I need to post up here so you all know about certain places in Corpus.

Our weekend trip began on Friday, April 19th, as we went down to Corpus right after work, so when we got up in the morning we were already in town and ready to do some fun stuff. We arrived to our hotel, a Motel 6 right off of S.P.I.D. near the part of the beach we like to go to. We got a queen bed, non smoking room. The bed was made up nicely and the room appeared to be clean, but upon further inspection, there were stains on the sheets, some “hard” stains too. There was cigarette ash on the top of the headboard that was still there and fresh as if the room was just vacated. When the mattress was moved to expose the rest of the headboard, as we were taking off the sheets, there were some really disgusting, dripping looking stains on the headboard. Yeah, fuck this! We went down to the office to complain and exchange rooms. We get a new room, and when we arrived to the new room, everything was definitely clean, and it smelled a lot nicer, and we were happy. We then noticed that the door was not locking properly, and we could be outside of the room and just push the door open without using the key. We noticed that the door hardware looked as if someone tried to break into the room. The metal by the lock/door knob was all scratched and dented. We then again, went to complain and asked for a third room. We looked into the room, it was clean, and we inspected the door, and again the door was all messed up and would not lock. Very unsafe!

By this point, we were ready to just turn around and go back to San Antonio, but it was already near 10pm. We got our money back, and searched for a new hotel. We found one, which was just a few dollars more, but we took it. We ended up staying at the Regency Inn on Surfside Blvd. This was a beach side hotel, and very close, within walking distance to the places we wanted to visit like the USS Lexington. Before we agreed to pay and stay there, we inspected the room. It was good enough for us, especially after such a horrible experience at that damned Motel 6! By the way the Motel 6 is located at 8202 South Padre Island Drive Corpus Christi TX 78412 and their phone number is (361) 991-8858, just in case you want to let them know that you heard wonderful things about them from BeerMetalDude! Haha!

I know none of that has nothing to do with Beer or Metal, but it is definitely something I believe all of you should know. I’m watching out for the readers of this site. Do not stay at that Motel 6 mentioned above, plain and simple!

OK, Saturday morning, we head over to the USS Lexington Museum, which of course is the actual aircraft carrier which has been opened to the public to tour the ship. We love going in there, especially since we love old things, and ghosts and all that. We had a lot of fun, yelling to ghosts and all that stuff. There was a whole section we were the only people down in the engine room, which was pretty scary being down there all by ourselves, especially cause we heard footsteps. Woooooooo, ghosts!!!!

We then went to our favorite restaurant in C.C., Pier 99. This place is delicious, and has such a good vibe there. They did have a couple of good beers to choose from, so I enjoyed a New Belgium Brewing Fat Tire, and a Saint Arnold Lawnmower while enjoying my Seafood Platter.

OK, let’s skip past the rest of the day to the main event of the evening. I mean, we did go to the beach, and I did drink a few new beers, but was having too good of a time to review any of them, or anything like that. Saturday evening is now upon us, and we ventured out to B & J’s Pizza Restaurant for some of their own brewed beers and other craft selection.

For many years, I have been in Death Metal bands that has played in Corpus Christi, TX and I had always seen B & J’s Pizza off S.P.I.D. (South Padre Island Dr Highway). I remember finally stopping there one night when a mutual friend of the band at the time worked there. I was always into craft beer, but not as much as I am now, so I do not recall anything special for me back then. Years later, I see that there are brewers starting to make their own beer there at B & J’s at their 2nd location on Staples Dr, 6662 S Staples St  Corpus Christi, TX 78413 to be exact. Last year on one of our usual visits to Corpus, we had stopped by this location to see what their beer was all about. According to my Untappd account, it was 10 months ago when I last visited B and J’s. I had three of their beers that were available at that time, The R.I.P.A. (Rye IPA), Hairy Porter (Porter), and Ace of Cascadia (Black IPA).

For my visit this time to the Brewpub, they unfortunately only had two of their own beers of tap for me to review and include in this article. That was a bit disappointing from the start, though. They had others listed on their Facebook and site, but I guess they had just run out that day or day before. I really like the layout of this restaurant/brewpub. The main side is all table for the restaurant, and the kitchen. Very open, and spacious place. The brewing equipment is off to the side in this room behind some plexiglass. They also have coolers full of craft beer to choose from. Separated by a wall with an open space, the other side is the bar, and more tables to enjoy your beverages, and/or food.

With well over 20 taps at the bar, and the huge bottle selection, this is plenty for your average craft beer drinker to really enjoy. I did have one beer not from B and J’s, and that was the Morimoto Imperial Pilsner by Rogue Ales. Wow, what an amazing beer, but I did not take full on notes to give it a BMD review, sorry! The beers I was able to taste made by B and J’s were:

Beer: Fuggin’ Mild
Style: English Mild Ale
ABV: 3.5%

I understand that brewers want to try to brew at least one of every style of beer they can, so I’m sure an English Mild Ale was next on the list, but since I was there on a small vacation weekend, I was looking for some brewed beer with bite, and that will knock me on my ass! I guess, I will just have to visit this place more often to make sure I get to try some of their stronger beers. This was my first time ever trying a true English Dark Mild Ale, and this was my first beer of the evening there, so my palate, and my mind were open and ready for anything.

They poured the beer into a pint glass, and it was very dark color similar to a dark soda. There was a light ring of head which quickly disappeared, leaving no lacing down the glass during this session.

The aroma was very malty, but quite light in smell. I picked up caramel, toffee, and some toasty malts. Nothing much else going on here with this one.

The taste is reminiscent of a traditional brown ale, but just with lighter notes and feel. The taste follows the aroma perfectly. Flavors of toasty malts, caramel, toffee all present and accounted for.

The body of this beer was surprisingly heavier than I thought it would be, but it wasn’t very heavy. There isn’t much of carbonation either. It was a rather pleasant, and easy drinking session beer.

Overall, it wasn’t going to crack my top beers, but it didn’t make the worst list either. I could really see myself enjoying cans of this beer at the beach.

Beer: Hairy Porter
Style: Porter
ABV: 6.8%

This is my second time having this beer thee at B and J’s. Definitely not complaining, but I did wish they had more of their own beer to choose from, since I had already had this one when I visited last year.

A pint glass was used for this beer that poured a deep dark black color with an off white thin ring head leaving spotty soap-like lacing.

Aroma was strong with malty caramel, light roasted coffee, and a fresh grain smell.

The taste followed the aroma. Picking up flavors of caramel, toasted malts, and it leaves a nice roasted coffee aftertaste. The body was slightly heavy and has a carbonation bite.

This is a fine example of a good Porter style beer. This is definitely a good beer of choice to be their flagship, as it seems.

We did not eat any of their food this time around, but we did last year, and the pizza was excellent. Overall, my experience here at B and J’s was a good one. The bartender was friendly, knowledgeable, and held up a good beer conversation, despite him having a really bad headache that day we were there. His name was Scott, and I saw him talking it up with all the patrons sitting around the bar, and he seemed to know the regulars who were in there. That’s always a plus when you have friendly customer service. I will definitely be going back on every visit to Corpus Christi. I guess the only complain I had was that we knew nobody there, and it seemed like the people who were there started way before me, as they were pretty loud and weird. We even heard one lady complaining on why I was taking photos in there. But I was not going to let the other guests ruin my time, so it was all ignored, and I sat and enjoyed my beers. The popular beer I was noticing this evening was Scotch Ale by Guadalupe Brewing Company. At least these people had good taste in beer.

Cheers to be staff at B and J’s, the staff at The Regency Inn, and at Pier 99 for their great job on helping us have a good weekend there! Raise your glasses and listen to Metal! Since this was really a beach trip with a beer stop thrown in there, I leave you with some awesome Thrash Metal, since I always link Thrash Metal to the beach.