Hey y’all! Welcome to our blog. We had a jam packed and successful January!  From travel, to visiting to breweries and crafting galore, we have a nice recap of January below.

Stitch Club

Our Basics And Beer stitch club was born back in December when Germaine gifted her pals a subscription to COZYBLUE‘s pattern of the month club for Christmas. What a great idea! We have really enjoyed adding an evening of stitching and beer to our weekly activities. It’s a great way to unwind and relax after a stressful day.

In January, we completed December’s #cozybluestitchclub pattern, Dandy Lion. A mythical lion faced flower whose fluffy mane petals spread joy and Spring time greetings to all. For this pattern we used the following stitches: reverse chain stitch, back stitch, satin stitch, straight stitch and french knots. Stay tuned to see what we stitch up next month!

If you are new to embroidery, kits and stitch clubs are a great starting point. Look out for those which include pre-printed patterns on fabric and embroidery floss. All you’ll need is a hoop, a needle and sharp scissors. Check out our Embroidery Tips board on Pinterest for everything a beginner needs to know and stitch tutorials for how to complete your own Dandy Lion!

Sweet Treats

A few of us went to celebrate Oskar Blues ATX’s release of locally brewed Ten Fidy. At this event, they also tapped a PB+J Firkin that paired with an espresso cupcake from Hey Cupcake! Oskar Blues is still relatively new to Austin and we were really excited to have a glass of Ten Fidy from the source. Hope to be back in the near future for more events!

We’re always down to mix sweets and beer, so when we heard about Easy Tiger’s Milk & Cookies event, one of us had to at least try it out! They had Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin on Nitro paired with in-house baked barely cookies. Easy Tiger is a great go to, especially for happy hour! Don’t forget to try out a baked pretzel with beer cheese dip!

Brew Crew Event @ St. Elmo

The ATX Brew Crew is a group of people who love to drink and support local craft beer. Typically we host a monthly get together to check out a brewery or local beer related event. This month we explored one of Austin’s newer breweries, St. Elmo Brewing. Located south of downtown, St. Elmo is a bright spot in a very industrial area. When walking into the brewery, you are instantly greeted by the delicious smells from Soursop, the resident food trailer. The patio is covered in plenty of picnic tables, string lights, and cornhole boards. Inside there are even more tables, a bookshelf full of community board games, and of course their beautiful bar.

Stepping up to the concrete counter tops, you are greeted by a knowledgeable bartender who will help you if you can’t decide which of their delicious beers to choose from. Still can’t decide? No problem! They have a flight offering of 5 beers to ease the indecisive soul. The Dampf, most notably, is the clear favorite from their long list of carefully brewed beers, and by far the most unique. At just over 6% ABV, this Hefe-Barley style is versatile in that it is refreshing on a hot day, or just what you need to get you through a chilly Central Texas January. The ATX Brew Crew had a blast checking out this new South Austin brewery and looks forward to even more great beers from St. Elmo!

Travel Adventures

January brought lots of travel for work for Brittany, but gave her plenty of opportunities to see new places and drink great beer! In Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, she visited Los Muertos Brewing. Her favorite beer from them was their Anillo de Fuego, a Chili Ale with a spicy nose and balanced flavor. In her downtime, she sipped margaritas by the pool and worked on her embroidery project.

Next up was New Orleans, Louisiana, where she visited Courtyard Brewing and Wayward Owl Brewing! Wayward Owl has only been open 1 month, but has a decent selection of mainstays, as well as a few specials. Brittany’s favorites were their Scops Scotch Ale and Shoop IPA. At Courtyard, she visited with Brewer Scott about the batch he was working on that day, while really enjoying his latest hazy IPA – 69 LOL. Be on the look out for our travel section each month to see where we have been, and what we have been drinking!

Brewery Grand Opening

Bringing in a new year also brought us a new brewery on the East Sixth – Lazarus Brewing. The brewery was a dream of Pastor Christian Cryder who wanted to focus on creating a space where people could hang throughout the day and even multiple times a week. Because of this, they aren’t too concerned about distribution.

They have an attractive yet cozy space that draws people in to enjoy their incredible beer, tacos, and coffee! The taproom is decorated in teal walls, mahogany tables, and metal accents along with lights hanging down around the room. Their glassware are pieces of art especially the hand-blown Patron Saint glasses crafted with the Lazarus insignia in gold leaf. The bartenders are also a pleasure to talk to; they were excited and eager to inform us about the brewery as well as guide us through their beer selection. They were serving up tacos and beer all day while several bands played for the guests out on the dog-friendly patio. What an enjoyable grand opening party, we cannot wait to experience what else Lazarus will have in store!

Barks ‘N Brews

At the end of January, Kimberly brought Sierra down to Independence Brewery for Barkhappy’s Barks ‘n Brews event benefitting Austin Pets Alive. If there’s one thing to know, us basics love our dogs and this event was even better because there was beer involved.

Each ticket sold granted you one beer, a $10 gift certificate to Austin’s own Phydeaux and Friends pet store, and free treats from Brother’s Barkery and Yodog Snackery. All 200 tickets were sold out so Independence was at max capacity with dogs and their humans covering each inch of the brewery inside and out. It was definitely a great site to see! They even had several rounds of treat eating contests for the pups and raffle prizes to win. All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon spent to show our support for local businesses, our love for beer and all the pups!

Kettle Sour Sunday

Kettle Sour Sunday at Hops and Grain was an awesome special. They took their dry hopped kettle sour and used it as a base for 4 other variants – strawberry, blackberry, apricot, and cherry. The strawberry was so fruity and fresh, we went back for more!

They also had a mini flea market with local vendors selling handmade jewelry, soaps, oils, and furniture! You can always count on having good beer, good entertainment, and good people at Hops and Grain!