The most exciting thing about Black Star for me is the chance to create a menu that truly represents Austin and it’s beer culture. There are some great places to eat in Austin and its changing and growing at a rapid pace. We seem to be actually forming a somewhat respectable culinary identity. Queso is fine and good, but there are so many ways to do it poorly, and it seems that we’ve explored all of those ways at length. At the end of the day, it’s cheese sauce. I’m not saying I’m too good for queso. I order chips and queso 8 times out of 10 when I see a movie. (I am, of course, too good for movie
theaters that don’t serve beer.)

We’ve been missing a place to eat good food with local, high quality ingredients and have more than 4 beers on tap. It’s true that 2009 has brought us a few refreshing options with good food and good beer in one place. Black Star is going to take it to the next level. The beer AND the food is going to be made in the same place you’re ordering it from and prepared and served by the people that developed the menu.

That brings us to this term we’ve been throwing around while trying to concisely define what the Black Star food will be like. Texas Pub Fare. The rules you thought you knew about casual pub dining are being thrown out the window. The food will make sense. It won’t get boring. It won’t be the same in October as it was in June. Johnny and I have been dreaming this menu for months… ok.. years.

Kicking off the first Bar Hours of 2010, we’re returning to the land south of the river. January’s Bar Hours will be held at Snack Bar, a new establishment from two member-owners of our Co-op!

Please join us on Wednesday, January 13th for an opportunity to meet and have a beer with members of our Board of Directors. Snack Bar is located at 1224 S Congress, and as usual, the Bar Hours will run from 7-9PM.

As you know, these events are not formal meetings, but they are a great opportunity for member-owners (and prospective new members-owners!) to come share a pint with some of our Directors and enhance the membership linkage of our Co-op.

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Yes, that’s a bad picture, but we now have a prototype Black Star tap handle! About 2 years ago, my father and I were sitting in my favorite brewpub Barley’s, downtown Columbus, Ohio. It was my birthday (December 23rd), and the birthday-beers were a-flowin’! My dad and I, who are constant analyzers, starting thinking about the ergonomics, functionality, and marketing aspects of the tap handles sitting in front of us. One napkin drawing led to another, and soon enough, we had our tap handle design! It may be a little hard to see in the picture, but the body of the handle is clear, hollow acrylic with beer ingredients inside. The idea is that for each house beer we have on tap, the actual, proportional ingredients of that beer will be inside the handle. No other crazy design, like an angry moon or a cat dressed as a pirate, will be displayed on the tap handle…just the true, honest-to-goodness ingredients of the beer. Cool, eh?

Freetail beers...all of them.

Christmas is almost here and it’s time to start buying presents!  All I want for Christmas is a 7bbl Direct-fire, single-step infusion, combi-tank brewhouse with a compass in the stock.  Fortunately, the co-op is now in the design and purchasing stage of a brewery.  We’re going to be calling upon volunteers soon to wrap the brewery…and let me know if you have a tree that it can fit under:)

If you’re wondering what kind of beers we’ll have next year around this time, the current plan is to have 2 winter-ish beers: Moontower and Aleph Null.  Moontower is a dark, roasty, 10%abv ale on oak chips, and Aleph Null is a big 12%abv wheat ale with a secondary fermentation on grapes, belgian yeast, and aged in a wine barrel.  I’m also thinking of some “Triple Dee”, cask conditioned and served on the beer engine with some spices added.  Oh! winter is a wonderful time for beer!  So, in the meantime, try to find some good Christmas Ales at the local brewpubs…and if you find yourself sitting next to another Black Star Co-oper, be sure to tell them what I want for Christmas and make sure he invests in our Member-Investor Shares!

Also, I’m sure a lot of you kids have already heard, but there’s a fantastic brewpub in San Antonio called Freetail Brewing Company that just had their 1 year anniversary party.  Me and some fellow Black Starians went down there to see what all the fuss was about, and we were blown away!  Since it was a special party, they had almost every beer that they brewed in the last 12 months on tap.  Needless to say, we ordered one of everything!  That came out to being 22 samplers.  Big ups to the Freetail brewing staff.

The development of the brewpub continues, and so do regular Bar Hours with the Board!

Please join us on Tuesday, December 15th at Nomad Bar, 1213 Corona Dr, for an opportunity to meet and have a beer with members of our Board of Directors. As you know, these events are not formal meetings, but they are a great opportunity for member-owners (and prospective new members-owners!) to come share a pint with some of our Directors and enhance the membership linkage of our Co-op.

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