"...Here in Texas, the small, plucky craft brewers and the overdetermined parade of wholesale distributors are, unsurprisingly, back at it again for another chippy round of political beer pong in this, the 2019 Texas Legislature. Only this time, the brewers appear more organized by their industry guild and its political arm, CraftPAC, which sounds like either a sugary pudding from the Nineties or a collection of pissed-off, brass-knuckled beerists ready to take up for small business rights...."

"...Hey readers! We here at the Austin Chronicle Food section have finally cut a sliver of our busy Pokéstoppin’ time to clean out our reader mailbag full of craft beer-related queries. This week, we’re answering questions about the Texas Craft Brewers Festival presented by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild...."

"...Elmo Brewing Co. bangs the drum for enterprising upstarts in 2017 as a model of all that is current and creative in craft beer..."

"...For over three years, locally produced web series The Beer Diaries has given its viewers and creators a window into the passion-fueled world of craft beer, a window open wide enough to take in an amber-tinted view of the world...."

"...You’re no dummy, right? So you figure that pairing craft beer with Girl Scout cookies is, like, it’s gotta be some kind of a joke, right? Or at least just another wacky gambit for publicity?..."

"...Indie music and craft beer are the most natural of companions, with their proletariat attitudes, conflicted commercial-success ethos, and facial hair heroics, it's a wonder that it took so long for them to make a rad little hipster baby in Austin...."

"...If you’ve been around Austin’s craft beer soap opera for longer than 10 minutes, you’ve noticed the last 12 years has been an extended maudlin scene of brewers sulking in a tulip glass of hazy IPA, pouting about their inability to sell beer-to-go from their own taprooms. And rightly so!..."

"...It seems that new brands of beer pop up almost daily in our fine brew-loving town. No complaints here! Amongst the many additions is the only Jewish heritage beer for Texas' chosen people...."

"...Craft brewing fans had only one tear in their beer at Tuesday’s House Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee meeting, but it could be a big one. Texas brewers and supporters (operating as Texas Beer Freedom) turned out in force to support House Bills 602 and 660..."

"...We’re kind of artsy here in Austin, as any travel brochure or chamber-of-commerce website will gladly tell you. So when we hear the words “American craft,” sometimes, even before we think of beer, we think of that classic painting of the farmer and his wife outside their country home...."

"...Austinites enjoy their hot summers because it's good beer drinking weather. They also enjoy their mild winters because it's good beer drinking weather..."

"...We’ve never really understood “99 Bottles of Beer.” Sure, the taking one down part is nice – we just don’t like that “pass it around” part. Fortunately, there will be enough local beer flowing for American Craft Beer Week that we won’t have to...."

"...Whether you’re searching for more socially acceptable ways to incorporate craft beer into daily routine, or testing new recipes for the impending holiday cook-a-thon, Jacquelyn Dodd’s debut cookbook offers solutions...."

"...Do you miss beer? I know I do. I still live through flashbacks of February “Stout Month” at Southern Sun Brewery in Boulder during graduate school: a whole 29 days of coconut, dark chocolate, blueberry, and java stout..."

"...Lockhart, a picturesque little town with a big reputation for smoked meat, has long proclaimed itself the “barbecue capital of Texas.” Beginning in February, one man hopes to beef up the town’s repertoire to also include great beer...."

"..."Beer Music Food Art": That's the tagline for the upcoming Index Fest and it isn't far from an Austin mantra. The Texas-touring festival comes to the Austin American-Statesman event space on May 13 and will have enough beer to satiate even our town's copious inebriators...."

"...It just wouldn't be Austin if the twin deluges of hand-crafted cocktails and craft beer didn’t eventually, serendipitously collide. This has been the summer of the beertailnado...."

"..."Holidays such as St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo are no more about beer than Presidents Day is about selling cars..."

"...There are five gazillion beer events around town for Austin Beer Week, but there is only one of you. And as much as we enjoy watching your impromptu karaoke performances of "Oops! … I Did It Again," we want you to take care of yourself enough to reach the finish line...."

"...Beerists Win Podcast Award Remember the new years beer-solution I had about spreading the love of craft beer like the Beerists? Well, that bar just got raised. The Austin-based podcast just won The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the Food and Drink category, even beating out NPR's The Splendid Table at the ceremony in Las Vegas...."

"...To me, good beer is kind of like Game of Thrones: My friends love it, and they talk about it all the time, but I've just never managed to find the time to get into it and understand a word of what they're talking about...."

"...Tap in to your inner beer nerd, get hopped up on excitement, and wrap your head around this: New episodes of The Beer Diaries are premiering tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse...."

"...Today and tomorrow, the Texas Senate is expected to vote on the four beer bills, Senate Bills 515-518, and a fifth, SB 639, introduced at the last minute by Commerce Committee Chair John Carona, R-Dallas. The last bill is described by San Antonio beer blogger Markus Hass as “a wish list of demands from the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas.”..."

"...Why do we like Austin Beer Week? Because of the beer, duh. And also because it breaks all the rules of space and time..."

"...Ever wonder what Austin’s Pulitzer-caliber journos massively fuss about in between critiquing style guides and inventing niche culinary trends? Well, the Austin Beer Guide release party of course...."

"...When it comes to battling the Texas heat, few things are more victorious than an ice-cold Shiner beer. But what happens when Texans move away from Texas? It may be a sin to leave the best state in the nation, but is it such a horrible sin that penance should be the loss of the comfort of a most beloved beer?..."

"...Starring: Matt Czuchry, Jesse Bradford, Geoff Stults, Keri Lynn Pratt and Nicole Muirbrook. Maybe it's a measure of how far the collegiate/coming-of-age film genre has fallen, or possibly it’s just the alcohol-fuled detritus of "generation kill," but I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell makes John Landis' seminal Animal House look like Kubrick, Welles, and the Marx Brothers combined..."

"...The Eastside's Scoot Inn and Attack Formation's Ben Webster hosted the fourth annual July Fourth Beer Bob (this year benefiting the Crack Pipes' Billy Steve Korpi) with live music, a beer-bobbing competition, and free jambalaya from Gene's Poboys. Here's the haps on beer bobbing: 1) Inflate a children's pool; 2) fill said pool with water, as much ice as possible, and 12-ounce cans of Pabst; 3) then contestants cross their arms behind their backs and commence to remove as many cans of beer from the pool with their mouth as possible in one minute..."

"...At any given moment, probably at the exact time you realize how much of your precious life you're wasting at your pencil sales desk job, while Daryl nukes the break room with his curried salmon-stuffed century egg, someone in Texas is making beer. Delicious beer..."

"...If you enjoy the wit and wisdom of the internet – but in analogue – here is your big chance to grab the 19th iteration of the Austin Beer Guide, the city’s long game arbiter of conflict between the craft slackers and the whale hunters...."

"...One of the best ways to shake off a Halloween hangover is to get back on the horse and have another beer. Luckily enough, Goose Island was in town and they organized a helluva Beer-B-Que for the Hallo-weary...."

"...Nothing can ruin a first date quicker than a bad beer selection. It’s true..."

"...This weekend marked a milestone for many Texas breweries after a fierce craft beer competition judged by an international panel of 293 expert judges. The Great American Beer Festival hosted 8,496 entries, received from 2,404 U.S..."

"...When Ben Edgerton and Andrew Wiseheart opened Contigo three years ago, they couldn't have envisioned how successful the casual, ranch-inspired eatery would be from opening day. Now, they're finally taking time to expand the high volume kitchen, and throwing a party in the beer garden while they're at it...."

"...Radio Coffee & Beer opened to much fanfare over the weekend. While South Austin residents have been waiting patiently for the coffee shop/craft beer hybrid to open its doors, local singer/songwriter and owner of Radio, Jack Wilson has been meticulously renovating the well-loved space...."

"...The inaugural Austin Bacon & Beer Festival last weekend looked like a rousing success. Marla Camp and the award-winning Edible Austin magazine teamed up with Massachusetts event company Eat Boston to produce the first Austin version of an event the company has held in a few cities across the country...."

"...Were you overwhelmed by the partial lists of Austin Beer Week events in today's issue of the Chronicle (Home's a Brewin' and Meal Times)?..."

"...There are precious few opportunities to drink beer and feel like you are giving back to the community. But on June 28, Hops and Grain and East Side Glass are going to let you do just that...."

"...Five years ago, the lads who document, write, and publish stories about our hometown’s craft beer hustle tasked themselves with creating a festival that would play out during the hottest part of Austin’s unrelenting summers...."

"...Connecting artists with a cause is what HOPE does. And on November 18-19, from 3-9pm, they’ll be showcasing their mission through art, beer, and community...."

"...Alcohol-industry watchdogs with the Center for Science in the Public Interest are seeking a court injunction that would ban beer makers Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing Company from selling so-called "alcohol energy drinks" (yes, facially an oxymoron), report the drug treatment and prevention advocates at Join Together. The CSPI argues that the drinks – "adulterated products" that the group has dubbed "alcospeed," which combine booze and stimulants, like caffeine, guarana, or ginseng – are marketed so as to appeal to underage drinkers..."

"...After having been voted out of the Texas Senate and out of committee in the House, the five craft beer bills permitting Texas brewpubs to distribute and small-production breweries to offer on-site sales direct to consumers have been scheduled for a full House vote today, Friday, May 17...."

"...You love music. You love craft beer..."

"...Ask the most loyal fanbase in music history to suggest a special ingredient for craft beer, and the answer is granola...."

"...The new 20,000 square foot, metal roofed Barton Springs Beer Hall is a welcome addition as part of the new layout of the ACL festival grounds. The biggest draw, aside from plenty of shade, is the list of craft brews containing 15 selections from across the country...."

"...ArtCrank, a "Poster Party for Bike People," returned to Austin last Friday, providing free beer, cycling art from local artists, and a chance support local charity...."

"...FrankenBike, an organization running free monthly cyclist swap meets, kicked off their pop-up events last week at Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar. Cyclists gathered to socialize, drink free Independence Brewery beer, and listen to the music of Brain Halo and Ugly Elephant...."

"...Halfway through "Atlas," from their excellent Warp debut Mirrored, the power went out, almost as if someone had willed it so that the whole crowd could scream the screwed sing-song beat. We stood there in the dark for a good five minutes before the power slowly returned and someone dropped their beer nearby...."

"...(Judges' scores and comments about each individual beer selection ran in the print edition of this issue and are not repeated here.)..."

"...When Austin was in its craft beer-loving infancy – let's call that the early Nineties – Shiner Bock was the perfect bottle to hold. It represented the city's shrug toward its inevitable ascendancy into alt-culture dominance..."