We met up with my friend Erica and her husband downtown to celebrate all things Texas craft beer (read: to drink beer outside on a beautiful day) at Texas Beer Festival a couple of weekends ago. Dozens of craft brews, many of them from Texas – every style for every taste, from the easy-to-drink “intro” Alamo Golden Ale that my Bud Light-drinkin’ baby brother would actually drink to a wildy fragrant Chai Porter that Erica and I decided would make a killer cupcake. And frosting! But, you know, maybe just not… beer 😛
My husband seemed solidly unconvinced on the “cupcake + beer = successful bakery” business model.
Clearly, his glass was still half full.
If you’ve been around here for more than 5 minutes, you probably know that Jason and I are hobbyist craft brewers. We like to drink beer. We like to make beer. And we love to drink the beer that we’ve made.
Our latest project? I call her “Ruby Moon.” She’s a Belgian-style wit beer (the same style as Blue Moon, hence the awesomely creative name) that we infused with the zest and juice of Texas ruby red grapefruit.
Beer and ruby red grapefruit. They actually were kind of meant to be.
Our origins in craft brewing were very simple. We bottled our first wine the year before and wanted to do something a little different. Jason printed the description of a beer that he really liked from a brewery’s website, handed that piece of paper to the guy at our wine supply store, and 15 minutes later we had everything we needed to make beer. At home!
Jason’s favorite brew was our first, an agave wheat beer. My favorite brew is our latest, the Ruby. And the good ones in between: a Blue Moon knock-off, a Texas-style bock (Shawndabock!), and a honey wheat. But J loves his Agave Wheat. And I’m going to be hard pressed to find one I love as much as the Ruby.
And that’s coming from a margarita girl 🙂
Two things came out of this weekend: renewed interest for pushing the envelope on our next brew and 2) a wicked tan line. It’s a good thing that I bought 5 of those summery kimono dresses from Target. Because after forgetting to put sunblock on my chest, they’ll be the only things I wear for a while.
Interested in brewing your own beer? If you’re in the Houston area, DeFalco’s is our go-to for beer- and wine-making supplies. They were so nice and super helpful to the two dorks who walked in to their store 6 years ago and declared that we wanted to make wine. And their grain room smells like heaven. If heaven were a beer supply store.
Those Dale’s are surprisingly good brews. I soo want some of your Ruby Moon – I tried Shiner’s grapefruit beer last year, but it tasted fakey. They love to put those artificial extracts in to really boost the flavor profiles, and it’s just too much. Glad you had a prettier day than we did! I wish we lived closer – what fun we’d have together! My hubs desperately needs a brewing buddy.
How fun does this look! Especially as home brewers I bet this was pretty educational to you two. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the tip on DeFalcos. My husband and I have been looking for a Houston homebrew supply store for a while.
Your Ruby Moon sounds delicious! I love the Texas twist on an old favorite.
Thank you so much Shawnda for hanging out with us! I have some No Label El Hefe cupcakes that I made last night that ‘might’ change Jason’s mind about that ummm cupcake business 😉
Where do you get your wine supplies? We are new to the area.
DeFalco’s! They’re the best!
Super cool seeing what a Beerfest looks like in Texas. I just went to one in my hometown this weekend. I love supporting the craft beer scene!
Your ruby moon sounds good on a hot day.
Your style is very unique in comparison to other folks I
have read stuff from. Many thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I will just book mark this blog.