This weekend deep Ellum Brewing Company celebrates their first year on the job, and they will have a tremendous splash. To celebrate DEBC is throwing a party replete with all the brews they produced from the past year and you will have an opportunity to taste them all Saturday November 17, 2012. The party includes all the past favorites plus a special beer they brewed for the one year anniversary called the Pollenator.
2012 brought plenty of local beer to your favorite taps and brew houses in Dallas as the city showed signs of growing into the ranks of great beer cities such as Austin. We saw the birth of award winning Peticolas Brewing Company, which is a one-man show based in the Dallas Design District.
Recently Peticolas took first place honors at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. The Dallas brew house took the gold medal for its classic English Pale Ale, Royal Scandal. This is a great honor considering there were 4,338 beers entered from 666 breweries for the largest beer competition in history.
Another good 2012 start-up is FireWheel Brewing Company. FireWheel has a good selection of beer to distinguish itself including their Texas Pale Ale which has a slightly elevated gravity and a clean, lively bitterness that some may associate with that of a mild IPA. Being unfiltered, it will pour slightly hazy, rich amber in color, and should be accompanied with a well lacing head. Look for the new Midnight Ninja – Black Ale very soon. This ale will be a heady 6.5% ABV brew with great promise.
Lakewood Brewing Company is making some proper beers at their location off Garland Road. We sampled the latest offering, The Hop Trapp last evening and it was a smooth ride to the bottom of the pint glass. Lakewood offers tours like all the breweries. The cost is $10 and for that you will taste four beers fresh from the barrels, and enjoy a cool band. A food truck is always on hand for noshing.
The beer scene in Dallas will continue to grow in 2013 with many more breweries slated to go online such as Four Corners located just across the Santiago Calatrava’s Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Trinity Grove.
Brew pubs also saw a growth in the DFW area adding force to a few favorites such as The Common Table in Uptown Dallas, and the Holy Grail in Plano. The latest to join ranks with 50 taps is the recently opened British Beverage Company (BBC). BBC offers plenty of the local stuff along with some smart selections of Texas beers and favorites from around the world, paying into the whole British thing. The food is pretty damned good as well, making this a new hot spot for the micro-brew enthusiast.
If you haven’t made it by Union Bear in the West Village, also in Uptown, you are doing yourself a disservice. Here you can try many fantastic beers, plus a few “macro beers’ made in house by real beer nerds for only five bucks a pint. Five bucks for what might otherwise cost up to twelve dollars elsewhere. This is a good place to graze through pints at a bargain.
Also celebrating their one-year anniversary is Good Friend located in East Dallas on Peavey Road. Good luck finding a parking spot at this amazing brew hall that also serves amazing burgers prepared by the ladies next door at Good 2 Go Taco.
Go out and enjoy a local cold beer this weekend.