Houston Beer Week Happenings
Houston Beer Week 2015
Hello Houston!
In late October you may have noticed a teaser tweet about big changes to Houston Beer Week…
🙂 more to come “@PremiumDraught: Anybody know whatever happened to @HoustonBeerWeek?” pic.twitter.com/sw7rlegs2M
— Houston Beer Week (@HoustonBeerWeek) October 27, 2014
I know you are probably wondering what a rabbit has anything to do with HBW and well, let’s just hop right to it. The 2015 Houston Beer Week will be happening April 18th through April 25th!
Why We’re Moving to Spring
Houston Beer Week has historically taken place in November. With the rise of craft beer popularity in Houston, November became saturated with beer-related events. Don’t get us wrong, this is very exciting! But we want Houston Beer Week to be its very best every year and that means getting as much participation from bars, breweries, and beer nerds as possible. In order to not overwhelm any of our partners, the smart choice was to take our eight-day event and move it to Spring. We hope you agree.
Why We Took 2014 Off
Unfortunately, there was no Houston Beer Week in 2014, but we know it doesn’t mean Houston has forgotten about us! Houston Beer Week decided to take a step back in 2014 to strategize and determine the best way to carry on the HBW legacy. We determined in order for HBW to be successful moving forward, we would need a bigger team behind it, a broader reach across the greater Houston area, and a better time for this week long event.
“Never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing” – Ron Swanson
Who is Behind HBW
One of Houston’s most recognizable craft beer champions, Cathy Rascoe and her husband Jay, created the first Houston Beer Week in 2010. With HBW she set out to do two things: support craft beer in Texas and support our community through charitable works. During the organization of four years of HBW and annual charity beer festivals at Guadalupe Plaza Park, the Houston beer community has grown quite a bit. As Texas is now the third fastest-growing state in craft breweries, Houston Beer Week is playing with the big kids now, and will need some extra hands on deck. In order to continue the success of HBW and foster its growth into one of the best beer weeks in the country, Cathy and Jay have decided to hand off the position of Chief Bottle Washer to a small group of Houston’s finest beer fans. HBW will continue to be one of the nation’s only all-volunteer Beer Weeks, independent of corporate ownership. Who are these new guys? We are people you already know. We are your most loyal bar patrons, we run into you on big release days, anniversary parties, tap takeovers, and lunchtime brews. We are a volunteer-based group dedicated to the cause behind HBW and we are ready to make 2015 an even better year for craft beer in Houston.
How You Can Get Involved
Be part of the Houston Beer Week Committee! As a committee member, you’ll be organized into teams based upon the different sections of the greater Houston area. Each team will reach out to bars, restaurants, and retail establishments in that area and get them ready for HBW 2015! We will be accepting registrations along with dues soon. Head over to our committee page for more information or give us your email address to get updated right from your inbox:
Sponsorship Inquiries
Houston Beer Week is made possible by our sponsors, and advertising with HBW is a great way to get your message to the growing base of dedicated craft beer fans. Please direct all sponsorship inquiries to [email protected].
Houston: The Floodgates Are Now Open
You’ve been waiting all year, and it’s finally time.
The Houston Beer Week calendar is ready to accept events from bars, restaurants, growler shops, retailers, breweries, and maybe even the Houston Symphony if they’d like to get on board. The sky is the limit.
New for 2013, we have an easy way for everyone to submit their Beer Week events online with two super easy steps.
1) Visit this link, which will prompt you to register with your name and email, then check your email for your new password.
2) Visit this Submit New Event page, and log in with your password. Here you can easily add new events, as well as edit your existing events.
There is no limit of how many events you add, or how creative you can be.
For example, Mongoose vs Cobra paired craft beers with poetry readings last year. Pretty sure that’s a first.
Once submitted, the events will be reviewed by a moderator and published on the Houston Beer Week website, at no cost to you. The HBW calendar is free marketing for your craft beer establishment- meticulously built by the Houston Beer Week Committee, a team of local volunteers who love craft beer.
If you’d like to add an image to the event, please make sure it is credited properly, and that you have permission to use the image.
The events are already pouring in for this exciting week, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Cheers!
-The Houston Beer Week Committee
Untapped Festival Coming to Houston
Hello fellow beer lovers. You may have heard that the Untapped Festival is heading to Houston. Yes, indeed! We are very happy to be working alongside our friends who produce and manage this terrific event. In fact, we were so happy about it, that we decided to have the Untapped Festival take the anchor spot for the final day of Houston Beer Week, and retire The Draft Festival. Though that decision was not made lightly, we believe this is the best move for Houston Beer Week’s long-term health and sanity. (well, the organizers’ anyway) And the wonderful folks at Untapped Festival are also big believers in charitable works, so they graciously agreed to take on our pet charity, Live It BIG, and help raise funds at the festival for this wonderful group. We think this is just grand!
The Untapped Festival will take place on Saturday, November 16th at Discovery Green park in downtown Houston. They have a huge line up of bands, and will be hosting more than 60 breweries, so there will be PLENTY of things on hand to keep you happily entertained. For more information regarding the bands, the beers, and ticket information, visit their website at www.untapped-festival.com.
AND, if you’d like to help us help Untapped Festival raise money for Live IT BIG (a non-profit 501c3 organization that helps raise money for cancer patients and underprivileged children), then volunteer through us! YES! If you volunteer via the Houston Beer Week team, we get money for Live It BIG and you get in for free. Sweet deal, no? Just sign up here: http://www.showclix.com/event/3783881/pre-sale . Even though this is a ticket site, there isn’t a cost to volunteer. We will accept volunteers until November 9th, then we will give the list to Untapped and they will take it from there! Hope you can join us and help us raise money for charity!
First Meeting of 2013
Hello, all!
It’s about that time of the year again! As you probably know, Houston Beer Week will be from November 9-16 this year. The friendly folks at Valhalla on Rice University campus have offered to host our first HBW meeting for the year, and of course, we’ll spot you on the first few beers.
This meeting will be at Valhalla THIS SATURDAY, September 21, at 12 noon. In order to attend, all members must be up to date on their dues for 2013.
Here’s a map of Rice campus to help you out.
If you’d like to join the HBW Committee and/or haven’t paid dues yet for 2013, you can do that here.
Thanks for reading, and we look forward to getting the ball rolling this year!
Jay
Big Announcements for 2013
Hello, all!
First of all, in case you haven’t marked your calendars yet, Houston Beer Week will fall on November 9-16 this year. Help us spread the word! As always, the week will be filled with a variety of craft beer-related events all over the city. We will be opening the calendar for submissions sometime in September. Additionally, like last year, we will have a Houston Beer Week Committee that will assist with the management and outreach of Houston Beer Week. Members from last year will be notified when it opens for membership this year by the end of July, and the Committee will open for new members on August 5th. So, if you were a HBW Committee member last year, look out for an email in the coming weeks. If not, but you are interested in joining our merry band of beer geeks, come back on August 5th and join the team. Dues remain the same — $20 and will get you access to our beer-centric meetings, an opportunity to purchase a HBW Committee shirt and represent our crew during beer week.
In addition, we’d like to announce a couple of changes for 2013. The rumors you’ve heard are true, we’ve chosen not to hold The Draft this year (formerly Monsters of Beer). However, we are excited to announce that the Untapped Festival is coming to Houston in November. If you’re unfamiliar with Untapped, it’s a craft beer/indie music festival. It has been extremely successful in Dallas and Fort Worth, and we’re happy to see it here in Houston. The festival organizers will be donating a percentage of the proceeds to Live It Big, benefiting Friday Harbour and Stepping Stones Charter School. The venue and date have not been set in stone yet, but you can follow @untappedfest on Twitter and Facebook for new details. They will be accepting volunteers for the festival soon, and we’ll be hitting up the HBWC members to help out!
Also, we’d like to announce Kevin Healy as our new Executive Captain for 2013. Kevin was a member of the Houston Beer Week Committee last year, and we believe he has a lot to bring to the management and expansion of HBW. Kevin has a background in technical computer stuff. He has raised funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by cycling 100 miles last month and raising over $4,200 for the charity. He also really likes craft beer, and that’s really important.
We’re super excited to have Kevin in this new leadership role for HBW, so give him a good welcome!
Jay and Cathy
Denver Meetup: The Texas Contingent
For the last two years, we’ve scheduled several GABF meetups at Houston craft beer bars to get fellow craft beer lovers together to plan their trip to the Great American Beer Festival. This year, we’d like to get everyone together in Denver as well, just for the fun of it. And where else than Falling Rock Tap House?
Falling Rock Tap House owners Chris and Steve Black hail from Kingwood, in fact, Falling Rock was modeled after The Ginger Man. If you happen to be in Denver during GABF, let’s meet up at Falling Rock on Thursday, October 11, any time from 1-5 PM. This is totally informal, just stop by and say hi to fellow craft beer-loving Texans. See you there!
Houston GABF Meetup #2!
Headed to Denver this year for GABF? It’s time for the 2nd Houston GABF Meetup. Let’s have a cold one at Petrol Station on Thursday, September 20! The second meetup had a great turnout last year, and is a great chance to visit with fellow Houstonians and optimize your GABF experience. If we’re all on the same page, we can all hang out in Denver with friends and find all of the good stuff. Even if you’re not headed to GABF, come get hopped out at Petrol Station anyway and meet fellow craft beer fanatics.
Mark your calendars!
Petrol Station
Thursday, September 20
5:30 – Whenever
Houston GABF Meetup
This year’s Great American Beer Festival tickets sold out in 45 minutes. If you’re one of the lucky 50,000 holding a GABF ticket for October, join us at Little Woodrow’s on Studemont and White Oak this Thursday for our Houston GABF Meetup. This is a great way to plan out your trip and get a good look at the hundreds of happenings surrounding GABF, and to meet and interact with other Houston GABF attendees. Also, it’s just a great excuse to drink craft beer with good people.
Little Woodrows (Heights location)
2631 White Oak Dr.
7PM
Help Petrol Station win this weekend!
As many of you probably know, around this time last year, Houston’s coveted Petrol Station won Stone Brewing’s Most Bitter Bar Challenge. This isn’t a city or state competition- Petrol Station sold more of Stone’s hoppy beer than any other bar in the nation. It’s not just an amazing feat because of Petrol’s modest size, it says a whole lot about craft beer’s steep rise in Texas. This tells the world that there’s a big market for craft beer in Houston and Texas- and the bigger our market gets, the more varieties of beer we’ll see around here in upcoming years. Let’s help them do it again!
This contest ends Sunday night at midnight. Give these hometown heroes your business tonight and this weekend, and fill up some growlers too. These are the beers that qualify:
Stone IPA
Stone Cali-Belgique IPA
Stone Ruination IPA
Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale
Tonight at Petrol, The Modular is having their first anniversary, so you’ll have plenty of fine cuisine to pair up with your Stone beers. Growler fills are only $8 for Stone IPA, and $16 for Ruination. If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #MostBitterRepeat, and help spread the word!
**********UPDATE 7/19/2012!
Today Ben Fullelove got the call from Greg Koch from Stone. PETROL STATION WINS MOST BITTER BAR IN AMERICA! Way to go Houston!
Recap: The Copenhagen Beer Celebration
Day One
Over the weekend, Jay and Cathy Rascoe visited Mikkeller’s Copenhagen Beer Celebration in Denmark, featuring 25 of Mikkel Borg Bjerso’s favorite breweries in the world. Check out Cathy’s recap on Brewtiful.com!