Craft Beer Austin Staff Picks | May 2020
It is time again for the Craft Beer Austin Staff Picks for May 2020. This month you will notice Beer-to-go and Pink Boots collaboration brew trends in the selections. In addition, you will also notice a new addition. Melanie Ross has officially joined the team as a contributor, so she gets her first staff pick this month. As always please take time to try and patronize the places and people that you care about in the community. We are starting to see businesses shudder right now and it’s up to all of us to reverse that shitty trend as quickly as possible.
Melanie
Independence Brewing Company | Peach Emoji | Peach and Black Tea Sour Ale
Taking a break every once in a while from the pilsners and IPA’s that rule our fridge is a welcome and necessary change up. Gotta keep it interesting, right? At 6.5%, Peach Emoji Peach Tea Sour provides a super crushable glass of happy! I love that the peach is the prominent flavor and gives it a nice amount of tartness. Peach is one of my favorite fruits when added to a beer as it tends to give a softness in the mouthfeel. I think they nailed the balance of sweet and salty and while tea can easily become a dominant flavor these guys have done a great job of keeping the bitter tea flavor on the back end. Enjoyable, bright, and easy. I could seriously drink this by a pool all day. Makes me miss a good family BBQ!
Dani
Vista Brewing | All Together | IPA Collaboration
I am currently drinking All Together by Vista. It is an IPA at 6.5% with flavors of pine, melon, and grapefruit. All Together is a worldwide collaboration to support hospitality professionals. Other Half Brewery out of Brooklyn and breweries around the world have teamed up to promote this beer to support workers in the local community. You can get this beer at Vista now, St. Elmo on May 15th, and Jester King and Infamous have dates to be announced. If you are looking to try this beer outside of the Austin Area, here is a map, https://alltogether.beer/#consumer-section, to show you which breweries in Texas and around the globe are brewing it. Cheers Y’all!
David
Oddwood Ales | Pool Dad | Pilsner
Summer is coming early. The kids are going stir crazy, so I grabbed a couple of 4 packs of Pool Dad, tossed the kids in the swimming pool (still cold but they will manage), played a few games of horse on the floating b-ball goal, did some synchronized dives off the raised hot tub, and made a few dad jokes.
Q: What kind of race is never run?
A: A swimming race.
Andrew
St Elmo Brewing Co. | Vaya | Coffee Cream Ale
Is there a more perfect coffee beer? Light, refreshing, and full of coffee flavors. This is not to put down any of the other coffee beers around town (looking at you, Sputnik), but I cannot sit there and drink a 4 pack of those and not feel guilty about doing so. Sure, this still rings in at above 6%, but that is beside the point. Plus, they are now in 4 pack cans from the brewery.
Pam
4th Tap Co-Op | Fruit Salad | Pale Ale
Before everything went to hell, I was part of the Pink Boots Society collaboration brew day at 4th Tap Brewing Co-op. This year’s hop blend has tropical, citrus, and piney qualities, so head brewer Amanda Bishop decided to go with a fruited Pale Ale. During the brew day, the Pink Boots members that participated (including all of the female staff at 4th Tap) were tasked with choosing the right fruit to pair with the blend and we decided, why not include them all! The original batch was sold out in one day, so I’m drinking the version from batch two: it’s a perfectly balanced pale ale that truly highlights the hop blend of Azacca®, El Dorado®, Idaho Gem™, and Loral® and I could drink it all summer long.
