I-P-A RIVER: Hello Texas, Hello 2020 and Goodbye to Sweet Ms.Bea

We had a fun trip to Dallas and Ft. Worth over New Year's and I found some pretty good craft beer as well. But, sadly, we lost our dear oldest cat, Ms. Bea, while we were gone, and it's broken our hearts. I dedicate my next 16 beers that I drink to Ms. Bea to represent every one of the wonderful years that she was a part of our lives. Cheers, sweet girl!

12/30 - Since we flew in on a Monday, a lot of the craft breweries in and around Ft. Worth where we were staying were not open. That was not the case for Martin House Brewing which was jumping (because no others were open maybe?), but I was lucky to find a seat open up at the bar just a couple minutes after I walked in. I commandeered that stool for a good while and made my way through two 4-choice flights of their large inventory of libations. In no certain order I had the following:
Cookies stout - excellent
Friday IPA - very, very good
Best Maid Sour Pickle Beer - a surprisingly good gose if you like pickles
Cream - an amazing cream ale that was the best of the night
Azathoth - described as an "other" beer by UNTAPPD, this weird concoction of an imperial ale with squid ink and menthol was a big swing...and a bigger miss...yech!
Black Forest Cake -strong ale that was a bit underwhelming
Puppy Chow - bow wow! that's a great stout!
Bacon Burnt Ends smoked stout that I was disappointed with

Ashlee joined me a bit later and I continued with:Denim Vest - just a sip of Ashlee's flight choice of a Belgian dubbel with a disappointing aftertaste
another sip of Ashlee's flight choice, the Jay Riemenschneider farmhouse ale that was ho-hum at best. These folks don't do Belgian-style beer very well.
I finished on a winner with a pint of their Escape Plan New England-style IPA

New UNTAPPD badge!! Woot! Woot! I love me some stouts!!

Ashlee was nice enough to take my now rather-snockered self to a great beer bar nearby called Lone Star Taps and Caps where I had this awesome double IPA with the great name: Sit Down or I'll Sit You Down from Peticolas Brewing over in Dallas.

You know a place is great when they have their own UNTAPPD badges. I wish I had more time to visit here again and again...and again!

Did I ever mention I have the best wife ever?? She then drove my happy (i.e. drunk) ass to a nearby In-n-Out Burger so I could get a double-double animal-style. Nom! Nom! Nom!

12/31 - One of mine and Ashlee's favorite canned craft beer brewers is Rahr and Sons Brewing. Guess who calls their home Fort Worth, Texas!! We stopped by "the mother-ship" today and had a fun time sampling and buying some libations to take with us. At the brewery, I started with a pint of the outstanding Graham Mie's Apple Pie Brown Ale. I had some of Ashlee's equally tasty Angry Santa spiced beer. We also split a pint of our favorite beer over the summer at the pool, the appropriately-named Adios Pantalones light lager. It was even better as a draft!! Prost ya'll!!

We had a great New Year's Eve dinner at a place in Fort Worth called Lucile's. They had a few local craft beers on tap and I had a very solid Ranch Style Pils from Wild Acre Brewing here in Ft. Worth.

We spent New Year's Eve and rang in the new year at the world's largest honky tonk called Billy Bob's where bro-country and Nashville-based, Cole Swindell, performed. It was a pretty good show, but the beer selections at BB's was mighty poor. At least they've got Shiner Bock....

Blech! I should have stuck with Shiner Bock. We made a mistake of ordering a bucket of Lone Star Beer lagers that were not very good. Made by Pabst Brewing out of LA, this mass-produced swill is awful. Not even worth the check-in on UNTAPPD.

1/1 /20 - Game Day!! Ashlee drove us into Dallas for The Winter Classic pitting our Nashville Predators against the home-team Dallas Stars. My friend, Charly, and I downed this outstanding crowler that I picked up at Rahr and Sons yesterday on the way to the The Cotton Bowl. Their Bourbon Barrel Aged Winter Warmer was the perfect beer to kick off an outdoor hockey game...even if it was only about 50 degrees outside.

We had an awesome time and it was an incredible event, if only the score had been better for the game itself as the Preds blew and early 2-0 lead to fall to the Stars by a final score of 4-2. To add insult to injury, there was ZERO craft beer available at the stadium. They took all this time to pump up Texas and the surrounding area and yet forgot to invite any local craft breweries to sell their wares??

One-half of the recent G.A.M.E. Weekend "Carolina 6" made it to Dallas for The Winter Classic. Thanks to Wayne and Charly for coming along for the adventure!

After a long day at the game and surrounding activities at the Texas State Fairgrounds, we headed back to Fort Worth to relax for the evening. We made another stop by Rahr and Sons and picked up a couple more libations for the night and days ahead.

Since we were all tired, we decided to stay in the hotel for dinner instead of going out. We ordered take-out, had it delivered to the lobby and commandeered a large table to nosh on. I cracked open a Rahr and Sons's crowler of Drunken Santa, a rum-barrel aged winter warmer that was excellent, and shared it with anyone who wanted some. Charly had bought a crowler of their Bourbon Barrel Regulator, a German-style doppelbock aged in bourbon barrels that was equally tasty. Thanks for sharing, bud!

I certainly earned this badge this trip with three great crowlers of Rahr and Sons beer checked in.

1/2 - Ever been to a Buc-ee's? It's these giant (Texas-sized gas stations/convenience stores) scattered around the Lone Star State and they are amazing! All kinds of shopping; huge, clean bathrooms,;a deli-style fresh jerky counter (photo above) and tons of other food choices. Surprisingly, I thought their craft beer selection wasn't that great.

I mean REAL fresh deli-wrapped beef jerky! Yes, it was delicious.

We had a great late lunch/early dinner at a regional craft burger chain called Rodeo Goat that also had an impressive craft beer tap selection. I opted for a nice Velvet Hammer imperial red ale from Peticolas Brewing here in Dallas.

We finished the night with hotel chill at the Sheraton at DFW Airport where I watched the UT bowl game come-from-behind win over Indiana, played an important online poker tournament in my WSOP league with a final table finish to keep a slim lead going into the last game next week, and had a couple cans of the just OK Dallas Blonde ale from Deep Ellum Brewing here in Dallas that I bought at a local Aldi. Again, not a great beer, but it was nice to see local craft beer on an Aldi grocery store shelf which is not the case at home.

A better can beer that I also had tonight was most of the six-pack of Rahr's Original Beer, a history-based lager that I bought at Rahr and Sons Brewing the other night.