April showers bring May flowers, right? We’re almost heading into summer here in Austin and wanted to bring you a recap of our adventures in April. Enjoy!
Travel
Baltimore & Northern VA
Hello East Coast! This month, Germaine and S (her boyfriend) traveled to Baltimore to visit her sister and check out Charm City. There is so much more to Baltimore than the touristy Inner Harbor and we spent a few wonderful days checking out the different neighborhoods in search of good seafood and beer! We even managed to squeeze in some morning workouts at Under Armour HQ to offset those beer calories.
Of Love & Regret Pub & Provisions, was hands down Germaine’s favorite spot. Located across the water in Canton walking distance from Brewer’s Hill, OLAR is gypsy brewer Stillwater Artisanal’s unofficial taproom. Stepping down into the cave like tavern style pub and seeing the 20 taps on the wall, we knew we would be there for awhile. Having never had Stillwater’s beers before, we excitedly worked our way down the draught list. They do not offer flights but do offer half pours at half price. The current offerings were largely sour forward and as a sour beer lover, Germaine was in heaven! Her favorites were Tropic Punch, Syrlight and Money Tree$. Do not be deterred if you are not a fan of sours, there are other options and they also have an excellent cocktail program and offer a big selection of Scotch. INSIDER TIP ALERT! Make sure you head up to the 2nd floor to check out their little “bottle shop”, they offer a Match the Draft discount for bottles to go which we definitely took advantage of!
The brewery we were most excited to visit was Diamondback Brewing Company. Located in a historic building at the base of a 100-year old smoke stack, they largely specialize in IPAs that lean toward the hazy, juicy NE IPA style and we were looking forward to drinking some freshies! When we visited, they had 3 IPAs; Green Machine, Jam Band and TPS Report. And a Pale Ale; Omar, on tap. They were all delicious but Jam Band, a session IPA was our favorite. It packed so much flavor yet was still light and crushable. We must have had at least 2 pints each! Diamondback definitely lived up to our expectations and we were so disappointed that they did not have any cans for purchase. If you ever find yourself in Baltimore do not miss this small brewery! The location is a bit hard to find but just follow the smokestack to beer heaven.
While in Baltimore, we decided to take a day trip out to Northern Virginia to check out some breweries with a friend. Loudon County in NoVA has started to make quite a name for itself as a wine and beer destination. We were surprised to find out that there are over 20 breweries located on what is affectionately known as the LoCo Ale Trail (https://www.visitloudoun.org/things-to-do/loco-ale-trail/).
For our little outing, we stopped by Crooked Run Brewery, Aslin Beer Company, Ocelot Brewing Company and Lost Rhino Brewing Company. Lots of flights were consumed and the standout beers for Germaine were; Noriega, a triple IPA w/ Pineapple from Crooked Run, Here Kitty Kitty, a RIS from Ocelot collab with J. Wakefield, Megaton Maple, a maple stout also from Ocelot and Alphabrett, a barrel aged sour brown with Brett from Lost Rhino. If you live in the DC metro area, let us know if you have checked out the LoCo Ale Trail and which breweries are your favorite.
Embroidery Projects
Our #cozybluestitchclub pattern for the month, Flower Patch, was an intense piece stitched primarily with two pretty but very time-consuming stitches. Satin stitch was used for the flowers and the green border. And colonial knots were used to fill in the patch. While this hoop seemed to take forever to complete, the end result was beautiful. Love the texture from the knots and the smooth fill from the satin.
This month Cheryl also completed a custom e
mbroidery
hoop as a gift for her sister-in-law’s bridal shower! There are so many beautiful templates available online that can be easily transferred and customized to make special handmade gifts (lots are available for free too!). Check out our Pinterest board for tips on transfer methods and to see which templates we love and are inspired by.
Barks for Beer Giveaway + Winners
As both beer lovers and dog lovers, our favorite event of the year is Divine Canines Barks for Beers! We have participated in this wonderful event for the past two years and were thrilled when the opportunity came up to partner with them to giveaway two glasses/pawsports. Also our first giveaway, so double the excitement!
Congratulations again to our winners and a huge shout out to all who entered! Hope everyone has been busy conquering all 30 breweries and getting your pawsports stamped, we have loved running into fellow B4B-ers during our brewery visits!
Dogfish Head Bottle Share
Our monthly bottle share this time around featured all beers from our beloved Dogfish Head Brewing in honor of Record Store Day and their special seasonal, Beer To Drink Music To. We enjoyed 17 different DFH beers including a 12, 13, and 15 120 Minute IPA to finish off the “Minute” IPA vertical, as well as a 12, 13, and 15 Mile’s Davis Bitches Brew. Of course we listened to many great records while sipping these fines beers! Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and many others serenaded us through the night. Among the bottles enjoyed were 10 Caution Caps and 8 Pink Caps. Pretty impressive if we do say so ourselves!
Fitness
21 Day EmFit Superhero Challenge
Sometime in March, Kimberly decided to take part in a 21 Day challenge that Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and CrossFit coach Emily Schromm put together. This decision stemmed from the realization that what she was eating was negatively affecting the way she felt and she was frustrated because it seemed like there may have been other factors working against her.
The challenge started on April 2 and the premise was simple – don’t consume sugar, gluten, alcohol 😢, or bad oils; drink about half your weight in water each day and exercise for at least 15 minutes daily. The best thing was that there was an optional meal plan which made choosing the meals to eat even easier for Kimberly. Every day Emily would email the participants in the morning with a video message based on a health, nutrition, fitness and/or recovery topic to learn about and every other day she would give them a workout to do. She also encouraged people to partner up and check in with each other every day for help and support. The community surrounding the challenge was inspiring. There’s a whole Facebook group that consists of people who were both current and past participants there to give advice and answer other questions prior may have had!
Overall, the challenge was very refreshing, Kimberly had good willpower but broke the rules once or twice. The biggest benefit was getting down to the basics of eating clean to properly nourish the body and forming lasting habits of being healthy.
The Color Run
Early one Saturday morning, Cheryl and Kimberly traveled out to East Austin to participate in The Color Run. This was like no other 5k they had run before. There wasn’t a drop of competition in the air. Everyone went out there to simply have fun. They participated in Zumba for a warm-up before crowding into the gates with what seemed like millions of people and inched forward every few minutes. The girls finally got to the front of the gates where they were able to see what was going on.
Before they knew it, the starting tape was dropped in front of them and they had no choice but to start running. Kimberly decided to take it a little easy since she had not been running recently and most people were walking. Though they did continue to go through intervals of walking, running then sprinting through color stations roughly every half mile or so. These stations were more like enormous clouds of colorful powder with people standing in a line waiting for participants to come so they could coat them in even more powder. Until they made it through the last station which was made of bubbles and foam in order to get their unicorn medals. They were also rewarded with many snacks and drinks to fuel their post run recovery.
Beer + Sweet Treats
Chocolate Cake in a Cup
Our favorite feature beer recipe this month comes in the form of a sweet treat that is snack sized and fast to make! From “Cooking with Beer“, we gave “Beer Lover’s Chocolate Cake In A Mug”! Mixing the ingredients together took only 5 minutes, and its bakes right in the mug with only 3 minutes in the microwave! Here’s the recipe so you can try it out too:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
2 Tbsp favorite beer
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and pour into 2 large coffee mugs. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Cake will rise above edge of mug. Enjoy!
Our favorite beer we included was Community Brewing Company’s Vanilla Ascension Coffee Porter. What beer would you try this with? Let us know if you try the recipe!
Oskar Blues / Hey Cupcake Beer Pairing
Oskar Blues Austin always hosts amazing events. They have a massive venue for bands to perform, BYO Vinyl nights and yoga sessions regularly too. When they announced a Hey Cupcake! / Oskar Blues Beer pairing, we were all over that! The pairings went as following:
Mama’s Little Fella Pils paired with 24 Carrot (carrot cake)
Dale’s Pale Ale paired with Red Velvet
Pinner Throwback IPA with Buttercup (chocolate with peanut butter)
Our favorite was the Pinner Throwback IPA with Buttercup surprisingly! It paired really well together from the tropical fruits to the richness of the chocolate. We heard they going to do another pairing, so make sure you keep up with our events so find out where we’re going next!
Parties & Breweries
Barrow Brewing Company 1 Year Anniversary Party
Just off Main Street in the adorable little Texas town of Salado, is Barrow Brewing. The 
brewery has an industrial barn feel, with the salty smell of the brewery mom’s freshly made secret recipe popcorn. They are already canning 3 of their mainstays, but the real show stopper is their coffee lager, which despite my begging and pleading, is not leaving the brewery for a while. The perfect balance of lager and coffee had all of us going back for seconds and thirds! The anniversary party had great live music, food trucks, wonderful family friendly atmosphere and awesome glassware from Salado Glassworks made special for their Village Idiot Rye Beer. We highly recommend taking the little trip to Salado, Texas, enjoy a cold beer at Barrow and don’t miss out on the awesome antique shops on the town square!
Austin Eastciders Blood Orange Release Party
The one thing Kimberly broke the rules of her 21 day challenge for was the release of her favorite cidery’s new flavor. On April 5, Austin Eastciders held their first release party for their blood orange cider at Easy Tiger. Kimberly was so excited for the release that she knew she had to make one exception and indulge herself. She showed up 30 minutes early and waited until they could start serving. Plus, she was third in line!! Along with $4 cans, they were giving out blood orange koozies and Austin Eastciders bandanas, how could you beat that?!
Brew Crew does Lazarus Brewing
Every month the Brew Crew gets together at a local brewery to mingle and enjoy 
delicious craft beer in Austin. April’s meet up was at Lazarus Brewing on the east side. We’ve written about their soft and grand opening and we’re happy to report they’re still amazing. Their beer lineup is always changing, this time Cheryl enjoyed a Nitro Coffee Brown Ale called Ransom. They also have some of the best authentic tacos in Austin so don’t hesitate to come thirsty and hungry. The meet up happened to be during a Beerthoven Concert Series that was the perfect music for a hot Saturday afternoon. Make sure to hit up this brewery soon if you haven’t!
Guadalupe Brewing Company
The brewery, the myth, the legend – Guadalupe Brewing Company located in deep central Texas. It is the unexpected location of a stout mecca. It’s famed Ja S’more Bitte s’more stout with a freshly roasted marshmallow garnished on the edge of the glass takes the gold.
Among many other adjuncts are a Peanutbutta Stout with tons of peanut butter, Cocoa Reaper Stout with fresh and spicy Reaper Peppers packing tons of heat yet subdued somehow with mellow hints of chocolate, Maple Coffee Stout that tastes like breakfast, and the most Texas stout ever – Pecan Cocoa Stout with fresh Texas pecans and a light chocolate taste. But don’t be fooled by the hard hitting starting line up of stouts – this brewery has it going on in all the right places!
From a Mango SMaSH IPA to their Show De Bola, a honey golden ale with pineapple, cinnamon, and sugar, their lighter beers are just as great! We highly recommend to head out and enjoy a little taste of Texas Hill Country beer at Guadalupe!
Whole Foods 365 VIP party
The basics have been waiting for the new Whole Foods 365 in Cedar Park to open for months now. Not only do you get the quality of Whole Foods products , but it offers them at value prices every single day. Plus, Easy Tiger Bake Shop & Beer Garden opened their second location inside the store so you can enjoy all their breads, pretzels, sausages and beer while you shop! There’s also a Juiceland right as you walk in.
Kimberly won an Instagram contest for tickets to the VIP grand opening party two days 
before the store officially opened so she got to be in the first set of people to be inside the store. Everyone who entered was greeted with an iced sugar cookie in the shape of Texas and then headed straight to Juiceland. There were tables setup throughout the store handing out samples such as sushi, beer from Hops and Grain and cider from Austin Eastciders, coffee from Chameleon. But the jackpot was over at Easy Tiger where they had sandwiches, sausages, pretzels, beer cheese, and at least six beers on tap. It was amazing! And all free. Though it was difficult being able to walk around and see what the store had to offer and not be able to purchase anything since they weren’t open for business yet.
Austin Beer Guide Party
2017’s Spring and Summer Austin Beer Guide dropped on April 20th with an awesome party hosted at Draught House Pub & Brewery. Austin Beer Guide is divided into two releases: Spring/Summer & Fall/Winter. They also did a collaboration beer with Draught House to create a NEIPA which was so delicious and crisp! What we look forward to in the guide is the “This is The News” section, that highlights new breweries that are opening in the Austin area and big accomplishments for Austin breweries.
This season’s guide has a great article about Untapped and how consumer’s rate craft beers, to think before you review. One other thing we throughly enjoy is all of the creative ads by local breweries dispersed into the guide as well; they’re always so quirky and fun to see in print instead of always seeing their content digitally! Pick up a copy at your local brewery this season.Â
San Antonio, Texas has lots of amazing beer to offer. Our favorite spot of the trip was at The Pearl where we enjoyed lots of amazing beer from Southerleigh Brewing, most notably their Margarita Gose. The brewery is located in the old San Antonio Brewers Association building and features many old Brewing machines and pictures like a brewing museum! They also offer the best brunch in town.
Next stop on our beer travels brought us to Denver, Colorado. Some may say Denver is one of the beer capitals of the country, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Our first day in Denver, we enjoyed drinking all the special Yeti’s we could find at the Barrel Bar at Great Divide. A quick walk across the street will take you to The Source, an incredible collection of restaurants, butchers, cheese shops, florists, and above all, Crooked Stave. The mother of the sour beer exceeded all expectations, and of course we came home with quite a few bottles. We spent a week in Winter Park, Colorado, enjoying some fresh spring snow before spending our last day back in Denver.
core with a friendly skeleton greeting you as you walked in, beakers for flight tasting, and Petri dishes full of elements to learn about inside the community tables. They certainly have their beer science down as well.
Happy 6th Anniversary to Circle Brewing! We attended the big party in style after one of our own, Brittany, won a free ticket to the festivities from our friends at 
a packed weekend full of great beer!
It’s that time of year again! Jester King released their third batch of Colour Five, a sour beer blended with refermented blueberries. The color of this beer is beautiful – a deep dark violet that is tart and full of blueberry flavors.
he last weekend of March, Jester King released Rare Corals – a farmhouse ale refermented with guava, bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe, toasted coconut, and chamomile. The strongest flavors we tasted were the guava, cantaloupe, and the chamomile. Any time there is tea in beer, we immediately gravitate towards it. This definitely had a funky taste, yet was super smooth to drink on a hot day.
Bell’s is finally in Texas! This Michigan brewery debuted March 1st in Texas distributing a full line up like Two Hearted and Kalamzoo Stout. We went to The Brass Tap at The Domain to celebrate their debut where they had complementary Two Hearted glasses to take home with a purchase of a pint.
Spring brought with it the Spring Dream 
and Beer Garden for a monthly Mega Mutt Monday! This month the event was all about pit bulls, as it was themed The Pits of Spring. Bangers joined forces with Love-a-Bull Pit Bull Rescue to raise funds for their great organization. Kimberly and Jared enjoyed a delicious dinner accompanied by a couple rounds of beers while listening to the band Steel Betty.
Waking up in Louisiana in mid to late February feels cool and dreary, with the remnants of winter clinging onto the grey skies until the afternoon sun, in alliance with the river, teases the warmth and heavy humidity of the coming spring. If you live around uptown and St. Charles avenue, your daily coffee and chicory is sipped to the tune of local high school marching bands warming up for their second lines. This can mean only one thing: it’s Carnival season in New Orleans.
Ghost in the Machine, which was incidentally the first beer introduced to Kimberly at a couple Carnival’s past. She was eager to score a few bottles of Ghost, but alas! Parish was featuring a different rotation this time of year. Kimberly enjoyed a version of their wheat ale, Canebrake, blended with fresh strawberries, and finished the visit with a Flora Genesis dry-hopped sour. Also on tap was Rêve Coffee Stout, a beautifully blended sweet stout using beans from acadiana’s own Rêve Coffee Roasters.
Upon entry, you’re greeted by one massive open space, stretching from the spacious taproom in front to the production floor in back. Both are separated by a row of comfortable theater seats paying homage to the building’s storied past. Due to the wide-open facility, there is nothing to hide in this brewery’s process, and it’s no secret the beer is world-class. Amazingly, while only open three months, Wayward Owl featured almost 10 taps, including a barrel-aged scotch and Kimberly’s favorite: the DoKtor – a saison with coconut a limes served on nitro.
Next in line was Urban South, a brewery nestled in the warehouse district along the east bank of the Mississippi. Kimberly and Jared were fortunate to visit this brewery in the summer last year, and no trip to New Orleans is complete without a pit stop to sample this young breweries offerings. Kimberly chose a round of their Charming Shandy – a succulent blend of Charming Wit and Urban’s own fresh lemonade. Luckily, they visited early enough to still catch the Rectify coffee porter – a winter seasonal that is equal-parts toasty and chocolaty.
Mid-February, Cheryl traveled to the Bay Area with her hubs on a rainy weekend an explored various breweries and made a stop at Napa. Conveniently, she arrived during the tail end of San Francisco Beer Week. First stop was The Rare Barrel in Berkeley where they had a cellar release. We then ventured into Oakland to Drake’s Dealership where we stumbled upon a small beer festival that was unfortunately sold out, but we still were able to snag some food and a few beers.
After riding the BART back to San Francisco, we stopped in The Mission to go to Almanac’s new tap room. Since it was San Francisco Beer Week, their event focused on their Grand Crus. Our favorite was a Grand Cru in red wine barrels with vanilla, took some back to Texas! Our last stop after Almanac was Tripe Voodoo Brewing in Dogpatch where wine barrel aged beer was all over the menu.
Sunday and Monday were dedicated to travels outside of San Francisco. Sunday we went to Napa where we spent the rainy day at beautiful wineries like Artesa, Domaine Chandon, and Girard Winery. Our favorite wine was the Tempranillo from Artesa, which had a beautiful property and felt like you were someone in the United Kingdom.
Located just by the Austin Airport, Hi Sign Brewing is a brand new member to the Austin brewery scene. Of their core-four beers, the New England IPA and the Blood Orange Coffee Stout stand out among the others. Their hopes to bring attention to the style and elevate the style in Texas is certainly something we are looking forward to. The brewery is very large with plenty of room to either grow or have large events. Owner, Mark, gave us a private tour of the brewing set up and gave some insight into his brewing passion. Its very clear that Hi Sign is coming into the Austin scene strong. We are looking forward to great things from them.
The long awaited tap room from Austin Beerworks is finally here, and better than we could have ever hoped for. Not only can you just buy a single beer now (why would you want to though?) but there is tons of seating indoors and out to enjoy your beer, hang out with your pups, and even play a board game. The design of the new taproom is magnificent and the branding of ABW is consistent throughout the building. It is as if you were standing inside one of their cans, looking out. The live edge picnic tables were teeming with hundreds and hundreds of people from families, groups of friends, and people with their pets. It is clear this new space opens them up as a better event venue as well. We look forward to all the good things to come from this new tap room!
With a few locations around North Dallas, Taps and Caps offers an amazing selection of beers not just to enjoy in their bar, but in crowlers, and growlers of all sizes to go! Instead of a standard chalkboard telling you what is on tap, they have a live digital menu showing beer, beer type, brewery, what color the beer is, and the prices of each different size the beer is. But best of all, it tells you how much is left in the keg! So when you see something getting low, get a pour fast or you will be missing out! If you find yourself in the DFW area, this is a must go to bar!
This month, 
true and Sprinkles has finally opened at the 
Basics and Beer 