This week's post has nothing to do with beer blogs other than the fact that it appears on one. Instead, I thought I'd do a quick report on my mini-adventure down in Austin, Texas.

We lived in Austin between 1997 and 2002. It's a great, fun town with terrific music and food. Before moving down there, I'd sampled Pearl and Lone Star beers and wasn't terribly impressed with either. Or, should I say I was impressed - terribly - with both. After moving to Austin, I soon discovered that one of the odd local customs was to place a bottle of Lone Star alongside roadkill armadillos. That's the best use I can think of for Lone Star.

But there were local beers that were worth the purchase price. The Shiner Beers, particularly the bock and blonde, were just starting to extend their reputation outside Texas. Shiner's actually the name of the town where the Spoetzl Brewing Company is located. The company's been making Bavarian-style beers since the early 20th century. (Here's a little Texas trivia. German immigrants to Texas brought with them not only their beer and pastry recipes, but the accordion. The instrument has heavily influenced the waltzy sound of Texas swing and Mexican conjunto.)

Austin's Celis Brewery in the 1990s was also putting out several varieties of Belgian beers. I remember a bad experience with a raspberry-flavored beer, but was otherwise impressed with Celis. Miller Brewing took full ownership of Celis in 2000 and promptly closed it. (Michigan Brewing Company purchased the company's brewing equipment in 2002 and has revived the Celis line of beers.)

Last week I went back to Austin for the first time since we moved to Baltimore. I was a participant in the 10th annual International Symposium on Online Journalism held at the University of Texas. But that was hardly as important as the opportunity to revisit a couple of my favorite bbq joints and taste a couple of new (to me, anyway) brews.

Thursday night we were treated to dinner at Iron Works BBQ. While it's located right smack in downtown Austin, it has the look and feel of an authentic Texas roadhouse. You wander up to the kitchen counter, put in your order and seconds later are handed a plate full of food. You grab your beverage of choice from ice chests loaded with beer or soda, pay the man behind the counter and sit down to enjoy it all. The drink I pulled out of the ice was a Shiner Bohemian Black Lager. It was a deliciously dry brew that provided some balance to the sweet bbq brisket on my plate.

Saturday night I walked over to another of my old favorites, Stubb's BBQ. You might have seen some of the Stubb's product line, sauces and rubs, in grocery stores. The original Stubb's was in Lubbock, but that restaurant is now closed. The Austin location is a combo restaurant and first-class music venue. I got there a little too early in the evening for the live music, but in plenty of time to get a good table, where I enjoyed more brisket and was introduced to a heady and hoppy craft brew, Austin Amber, from the Independence Brewing Co.

There are few things in this world that make for a better night than good bbq, cold beer and hot music. I was fortunate enough in the past week to enjoy that twice in Austin. Next week, back to the beer blogs. Sigh.

Beer Commercial

I figured I'd stick with the theme for this week's commercial. Here's one from Shiner.