Saturday was spent with great friends who brought a load of growlers and crowlers consisting of quite a few Texas Beer Refinery brews to the house. These included some favorites like the Cucumber Gose, Best Buds IPA, and Russian Imperial Stout. After having so much fun and enjoying these beers, we wanted to make Sunday a TBR taproom day with those same friends. I’ll be honest, my friends are some of the biggest advocates of TBR and are the primary reason why I’ve tried so many of their brews lately.
With Germany vs. Ukraine on TV, Exploding Kittens (the card game) being played, and Gio’s Pizza on the table, all we needed was some good beer. Starting out was the One Sack Short Session IPA. Supposedly, the name came from not having enough malt for the brew resulting in this session. Compared to their other IPA offerings of Best Buds, Catalyst, Mexican IPA, and Mr. Nice Guy, this was an underwhelming beer as I found it to be bland and nothing special.
However, my mood was quickly changed and remedied by ordering the German Alt as my next beer. This altbier was malt-forward and uses a hybrid ale yeast that is the same as the Kolsch style. Nutty in flavor with a nice hop finish, this beer was a terrific second choice for me. It was refreshing, surprisingly balanced, and one of the better altbiers I’ve had in a while.
Finally, I finished the day with a beer that has me falling in love. The Cucumber Gose is damn near the best gose I’ve ever tasted, period. Unbelievably refreshing and tart, this beer utilizes the same recipe as their Gulf Coast Gose, but instead of grapefruits, cucumbers were used in the fermenter. I’m not a fan of cucumber, but the flavor on this brew is out of this world! I highly recommend trying this out.
Let’s put it this way, the beer was so good, we bought a 64 ounce growler fill of the Cucumber Gose and a 32 ounce crowler fill of their Apricot & Cinnamon Blonde that was on their randall. Plus, since we have awesome friends, we already had a 32 ounce crowler of the Cucumber Gose and another 32 ounce crowler of the Russian Imperial Stout sitting in our fridge. All in all, this is going to be a TBR week for beer.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to visit their taproom versus just enjoying their beer at a local bar. You have so many more options, plus the chance to try their experimental brews that are either one-off runs or randall-infused. There’s plenty of indoor and outdoor seating making it the perfect place to spend a day with friends and family. Galveston County is quietly becoming one of the best beer destinations in the state with Texas Beer Refinery at the forefront of this movement.