A thousand supporters of free beer

This weekend was the Jester King Craft Brewery Grand Opening. We pulled in around 5PM, just as Josh was carrying a homemade sign spray-painted ‘Event Closed’. The brewery had swelled to support between 3,000 to 5,000 fans for live music, good food and [of course] beer! I had to turn away my parents and sister who had wanted to see the place, but didn’t want to wait in the long lines. It ended up being just as well because the TABC shut down the beer around 7PM, just as Melogrand graced the stage.

Sarah, Andrew and I planned to spend the night out there, but around 2AM and with bonfire smell permeating our hair and smoke filled eyes, we decided to head back to Austin to sleep. Michael came over and we had a wonderfully lazy Sunday out on Palma Plaza. We went to Not Your Mama’s Foodtruck for lunch and rode bikes all afternoon through the hills of Clarksville and Tarrytown. I saw some new parts of Tarrytown I usually miss when running and the sunlight through the huge Oak limbs splattered and sprinkled on the pavement as we rode fast and free.

Petanque on Palma Plaza

The night ended with a trip to the brand new English-style pub restaurant: Haddington’s designed by Michael Hsu’s firm. The dark interior walls were adorned with stuffed quails among the dimly lit sconces. We had [but not limited to]: Egg + Duck + Pork pate with pickled vegetables for an appetizer, I had rainbow trout stuffed with dressing and Andrew had Sea Bass on a bed of cauliflower. Christina, a wonderfully helpful volunteer from Chicago, had Lamb meatloaf and Michael and Jeff split the Pork Shoulder. Christina shares my love of Austrian wines and we split a bottle of the closest thing to it: Chateau La Rame from Bordeaux. The restaurant gave us all 3 of their desserts: a buttermilk vanilla custard, a bread pudding, and chocolate gaunche pretzels. I haven’t had a dinner like that since Mistral in Seattle when all I remember is the celery foam and good wine.

PRE-SCREENING

The night before the event Andrew and I were there finishing our bartop with Tungoil for the tasting room. We will post something further when it is finished, but for now all we have is this enticing preview:

Reclaimed long-leaf pine

The team was also nice enough to let Andrew and I in on the Farmhouse Ale tasting: Boxer’s Revenge. They had barrel conditioned 6 different types for the big event and they want to put their best foot forward so we tasted all 6 and noted the strengths and weaknesses of each one. I have never been apart of this kind of debate with beer experts!

Farmhouse Ale Tasting