Welcome to the Basin Brewers Homebrew Club Website.

Our club was established in 1994 in Permian Basin of west Texas, and we have been proudly brewing ever since.

Membership is open to anyone who enjoys quality craft beer and can come up with $24 per year. Perks include sampling homebrew and microbrews, club mugs and t-shirts, discounts on grains and hops, free copies of Southwest Brewing News, and a friendly atmosphere.

If you have any news about homebrewing or Texas Breweries, email webmaster@basinbrewers.org

Basin Brewers in the News

Shiner 96 Comes Out of Retirment

National Homebrewers Conference

It's that time of year again! It's time for Gary and Jeff's annual Mission From God. This year, they will travel from Midland to New Glarus, Wisconsin, to Minneapolis, Minnesota and back in ten days.

Pray for their livers!

Follow the shenanigans from Jeff's Twitter feed. Sign up for Twitter while you are there. It's a fun way to keep up with friends and family.

Then, come back here in July, when Gary and Jeff will give all the detail of their trip: The Mission From God IV: The Search for Beer or Drink Harder. (They're still working on the name.)

Another Texas Brewery

While surfing the Web, I ran across No Label Brewery in Katy, Texas. A family run brewery, it looks like they are about to start brewing. According to the site, they will have a hefeweizen, an American Amber, an American Pale Ale, a Blonde Ale.

DUI Victim Confronts Woman Who Put Him in Wheelchair

by Jeff Holt

As home brewers, we enjoy drinking good beer, and having a good time. We shouldn't need a reminder to drink responsibly, and to always have a desginated driver. But, if you do need a reminder, here's a moving story from Fort Worth about Matt Lundy who took the stand at the trial of Erica Kolanowski. Kolanowski broadsided Lundy's car in January, crippling him and killing his friend, Josh Carter.

New Texas Brewery Round-Up

by Jeff Holt

In the last few weeks, there have been a plethora of brewing announcements centering on Austin and the Hill Country. Already announced new breweries include Jester King, Circle Brewing, Pedernales Brewing in Spicewood (who have changed their site a bit), and Black Star Co-Op. Some in the planning stages include Hops and Grain Brewing, Moonlight Tower Brewing, South Austin Brewing, and Thirsty Planet Brewing. Also in the news is Pecan Street Brew Pub in Johnson City, and Brewsters Pizzeria in Wimberley. Oh, and there's Root Cellar Cafe in San Marcos producing small batch Belgian style beers.

And Beorne Brewery was announced just last Saturday.

2010 National Homebrewers Conference

by Jeff Holt

If you have had a chance to check out Gary's account of our trip to last year's road trip to Oakland, you'll remember how much fun we had. We are planning to go this year's conference in St. Paul. The conference is 60% sold out. St. Paul is1200 miles away, and we've planned to visit brewpubs along the way, including at stop in New Glarus, Wisconsin.

I hope some of the rest of the members can make it this year. It's always a lot of fun, and it's amazing to see that many homebrewers in one place.

Texas' Next Craft Brewery - Jester King

by Jeff Holt

Austin is becoming the hotbed of Texas brewing. Austinis it home to (512) Brewing Company, Independence Brewing Company, Live Oak Brewing Company, North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery, GABF winner Uncle Billy's Brew and Cue, Draughthouse Pub and Brewery, Lovejoy's Taproom, and nearby is Blanco's Real Ale Brewing Company . There are a few breweries in the start-up phase: Black Star Co-op, Circle Brewing Company and Jester King Brewery.

Jeffrey Stuffings at Jester King Brewery just announced that he's purchased a new 30 barrel brewhouse from Newlands Systems, Inc. of Canada. It will take Newland Systems six weeks to build the brewhouse and then it will be shipped to their ranch in Southwest Austin. The brewery also order four 30 barrel conical fermenters from Pacific Brewery System Technologies. Also, he concrete foundation for the warehouse will be poured later this month, and is scheduled to be finished at the end of March. Last time I spoke with Jeff, they were expecting to ship their first beer by summertime.

Basin Brewers Brew-Off

by Gil Van Deventer

The Brew Off went great. We need to hold off reporting the results because we still need to judge the Best of Show and don't want to tip off any potential judges with the winners. Best of Show judging is planned to occur at Lobsterfest August 15, where we want only non-entry folks to judge and would like to further limit it to folks who know enough about beer and, better yet, are brewers themselves. Based on the Evite for Lobsterfest only 2 known brewers: Corky & Dustin, have committed to coming so far. I would expect a few more to show up. I sent them and others a separate email to encourage the non-entry brew guys to come to Lobsterfest early for Best of show judging.

We had the following judges for the brewoff: Greg, Elaine, Holly, Emily, Todd, Manny, Aaron, and Gil. It was a lot of judging for Greg, Holly, & Todd since they had no entries they were qualified to judge all categories. They had to judge 8 Belgians and 5 of the Other category! Judging started about 1 PM and went on until 5 or so. Took a while because of lack of judges so we had to use Greg, Holly, & Todd for the bulk of it. I thought they did a splendid job - worked hard and gave each brew a fair tasting. Based on their laughter I did notice they were having a greater and greater time as time progressed. Tom did most of the stewarding since he could not judge. We kept all brewers away from the judges while judging, except for the categories they were allowed to judge in. We had neutral crackers and water to clean the palate and clear plastic glasses.

I hope you don't mind waiting until Lobsterfest for the final tally.

__________________________________________________________

New Beer Taxes on the Horizon

by Jeff Holt, Webmaster

Charlie Papazian, founder of the American Homebrewers Association, recently warned of pending beer tax increases to pay for universal health care. Our Congress is contemplating tripling the beer tax, which would raise the price of a case $2 to the brewer. By the time the distributors and the retailers have added their markups, you and I will pay about $4 a case more. They are also proposing raising the taxes 20% on liquor and 233% on wine.

Papazian writes: "If you spend $3.38 on anything these days you need to actually earn about $5.40 (assuming 25% income tax bracket +4% state income tax rate). The bottom line is that a beer drinker will need to earn $5.40 (before income related taxes) in order to pay for that mythical $2 a case excise tax increase."

The main problem with raising excise, or sin, taxes is that the tax increase reduces sales, and ultimately revenue. The tax will also force those microbreweries on the edge to fail, increasing unemployment.

So, guess what this all means? That's right! It's time to contact your Congresscritters and let them know how you feel. Don't know who to talk to? Here's a website that can help you out.

Be polite, but be firm. Your salary isn't going up as fast as your taxes are.

__________________________________________________________

It's Too Late

by Jeff Holt, Webmaster

HB 2094, the bill that would allow microbrewers to get extra income from combining tour and beer sales, has died in committee. According to a post on the Houston Chronicle's Beer, TX blog, Houston's Rep. Jessica Farrar said, "It's very clear that ... it got buried." I say it was buried by the wholesaler's lobby, who contribute big bucks to every state representative's campaign. It takes a true statesman, like Rep. Farrar, to stand up to that kind of cash.

If you contacted your representative, thanks. The bill is dead until the legislature meets again in 2011. In the meantime, if you believe that supporting Texas brewers is a good idea, let your state representative know how you feel when they run for re-election.

_______________________________________________________________

It's Still Not Too Late!

by Jeff Holt, Webmaster

Thanks, everyone, for contacting your representative. Now you have to do it again! The Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee Voted 5-2, with 2 absent, to send HB 2094 to the Calendar committee. It should be noted that Rep. Charlie Geren, who said he didn't know anything about the bill, why it was being blocked, and that he would "probably" vote for it, voted against it.

The bill now moves to the House Committee on Calendars who will schedule the vote. If they don't schedule it, we lose. Please contact your state representative and let them know you support this bill. If your representative is on this committee, let them know you want this bill to go to the House floor.

___________________________________________________________

It's Not Too Late!

By Jeff Holt, Webmaster

Legislation has been introduced in the 2009 Texas House and Senate that would allow microbrews like Rahr & Sons, Real Ale, and Saint Arnold to sell beer directly to the public as part of a brewery tour. This would give small Texas microbrewers a little more money to spend improving their facilities, hiring new sales employees and other general improvements. Breweries in other states can sell directly to the consumer. That's why it's easier to find beers from Colorado on your store shelves than those from Texas brewers.

The bill is stuck in the nine member Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee, chaired by Rep. Edmund Kuempel (R-Seguin). The bill must be released by the committee by May 14, or the bill will die there. Rep. Kuempel said that if four other committee members support the bill, he would vote to send it to the floor.

According to the Houston Chronicle, "State Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, who sponsored the legislation in 2007 and again this year, said she has the necessary four votes and late in the day got a commitment from Kuempel. She said he was scheduling the vote."

Earlier in the year, Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) and Rep. Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton were identified as the key members blocking the bill from coming to the floor. Now, however, Rep. Geren says he would "probably" vote for it.

The Licensing Committee's vice-chair Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) said there was still time to get the bill to the floor, but it will still face stiff opposition from the Texas Wholesale Lobby. They are afraid this will cut into the monopoly's income, and are opposing it.

The wholesale lobby has so much power because it represents most of the beer distributers in Texas. Each state representative has at least two distributors in their district who contribute to the lobby, while there are only four microbrewers in the entire state. Those brewers simply cannot match the political contributions the wholsalers can make.

So it comes down to us, the craft beer lovers of Texas. Contact your state representative. Let them know you support House Bill 2094. Ask your representative to help get the bill out of committee. And then ask your friends to do the same.