Place visited: Big Hops Growler StationLocation: San Antonio, TX
Date visited: 07/10/13
BMD on Tour Song of Choice: OVERKILL – Wrecking Crew
Here we are, just over a month from the exciting night this was. Karbach Brewing Company from Houston, TX are finally distributing to another city besides their own, and guess what? They chose San Antonio as the first city to have product roll out outside the Houston area. From this beer lover, I thank you!
Karbach had a series of events which included tap takeovers, and special keg tapping at several eating and drinking establishments around San Antonio, including The Flying Saucer, The Friendly Spot, Bar Blanco (inside Whole Foods), Big Hops Growler Station, among others as well. I could seriously, only make it out to one event on their list, and I chose to go to their tap takeover event at Big Hops Growler Station, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite spots to drink at.
Now, before I go on, I must say this. This is not my first go round with beers by Karbach Brewing Company. Back in May, when I attended The Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas, one of my stops was to Lone Star Beverage, an awesome beer & wine store with great craft beer. They just so happened to have a few cases of Karbach beers available to purchase. But wait, didn’t I say that San Antonio was their first market outside of Houston to carry their beer? Well, unofficially, Lone Star Beverages was able to get a few cases for the DFW area by actually traveling and visiting the brewery themselves. How’s that for dedication?
Upon my arrival to Big Hops, the crowd was small but everybody already seemed to have a glass in hand with the good stuff by Karbach. I dove right in head first into a pretty strong and delicious beer known as Rodeo Clown, which is a Double IPA at 9.5% ABV. What a nice starting beer after a boring and long day at my day job. While drinking this beer, marketing rep for the brewery, David Graham introduced himself to me, and we held a good beer conversation. David told me how exited they were that they were able to expand their market, and that they chose San Antonio as they have seen that my beloved city is growing and becoming a good place for craft beer. Big Hops Growler Station owner, Rob Martindale was equally as excited to have these beers here in San Antonio, and he believed that they chose us for the same reason, that San Antonio is a growing and hungry (thirsty!) market to hit. This again was confirmed to me by one of Karbach’s founders, Blake Robertson who was also in attendance.
On this day, I was able to sample (if you can call full pint glasses samples) 6 of their beers. As I have learned from previous experiences, I do not do full reviews of beers I drink at an event, as I know I will have many, and my full attention is not given to the sampled beers. I can though tell you that every beer I have had the pleasure of drinking from Karbach have been great to excellent beers.
Here is the list of beers I drank at this event, listed in the order that I would rate them. The first beer being my absolute favorite:
- F.U.N. Series 004: Roll in the Hay – Their seasonal beer, Barn Burner Saison aged in white wine barrels. The smell and taste of this beer were far beyond excellent for me. I could live off of this beer forever and ever. Sweet, medium bodied, boozy goodness!
- Rodeo Clown Double IPA – Strong, boozy, pine, earthy hops with a good malty backbone.
- El Hopadillo Negro Black IPA – Good mixture of bright citrus hops with chocolate malts
- Barn Burner Saison – Huge fan of Saisons, and especially this one. Grapefruit, orange peel, banana, spices all make an appearance here in the taste.
- Hopadillo IPA – So many hops! They even dry hop this one. Oh so good!
- Weisse Versa Wheat – Bavarian Hefeweizen / Belgian Witbier hybrid, brewed with coriander and citrus peel. Damn these mad scientists for brewing such a beauty!
As of now, Karbach is only distributed into San Antonio in kegs for various restaurants/bars, but I know they do plan on selling bottles/cans here as well. I am really looking forward to being able to try their beers on a more frequent level, especially any one-offs, or special limited releases they might be doing.
I really hope that the craft beer drinkers of San Antonio were able to make it out to one of the events that happened during the first week Karbach was in San Antonio. If not, I am sorry you missed the fun, but please visit your favorite craft beer spot and see if any of their beers are available. You will not be disappointed.
I love metal, and I love beer, and as it turns out I must really love the band Overkill, as this is their 3rd appearance in one of my posts. I chose the song, The Wrecking Crew, cause number one, we were all wrecked by the end of this night, and number two, because this song is from their 1987 album Taking Over, which is exactly what Karbach Brewing Company did this night.
Cheers and enjoy, BeerMetalDude!
Beer Metal Media 