Thanks for all the recomendations, Austin and SXSW kicked ass as usual
although I'm far to old to spend 5 days acting like I am back in
college (albeit drinking better beer).

I spent 2 good afternoons at the gingerman and ws able to try:

Dogfishhead 90 min. IPA- I'd had it before but it has been a while FG
as usual.

St. Arnold's spring Bock- FG as well much better than Shiner Bock
(although I don't mind Shiner Bock and I drank more than my fair share
of it while out at shows each night)

Live Oak Winter IPA- Very good as well.

Great Divide Barley Wine- God Damn good, definately one of the better
barley wines I've had (and I've had quite a few) very balanced and
drinkable.

Liberation Ale which I think was brewed by Live Oak- Good but after the
Great Divide it didn't stand out too much.

Also had a chance to hit the Bitter End once for drinks and once for
dinner had a very good Wee Heavy, An excellent dark and fruity Rye,a
Good ESB and the very herbal Equinox which I enjoyed but doubt I coud
drink very often. Unfortunately they were out of their Barley Wine.

Finally I swung by Lovejoy's for an hour or so of bad glam metal bands
a good but not great barley wine and an IPA that was very average and
had the same strange off flavor that plauged many of my attempts at
homebrewing.

I was also able to find the Trader Joe's and pick up some St. Arnold's
Elissa IPA (very good)and some dogfish head 90 min. (can't find it in
my neck of the woods and unfortunately I'm down to my final bottle)

Other than that I spent a lot of time at shows and parties and drank a
lot of Shiner,some Real Ale Brewing pale ale and a little Lone Star.

Mike

wrote:
Thanks for all the recomendations, Austin and SXSW kicked ass as usual
although I'm far to old to spend 5 days acting like I am back in
college (albeit drinking better beer).

Thanks for the input, I added it to my "if I ever get there" folder. My
notes on our recent ten day trip to AZ are in my blog, I'll be adding at
least three more over the weekend.

--
bill davidsen
CTO TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979
Beer blog: http://www.tmr.com/~davidsen/beer