Episode LXV (65): NEW HOUSTON BREWERY SO ‘LOCAL’ IT IS IN THE NAME: - Tonight we return to our roots — beer — and visit with the newest and most highly anticipated brewery yet to open in Houston as the founding fellas from Local Group Brewing join us live and in studio to drink (and talk) local craft beer.
Opening very, very soon in Hardy Yards at Houston’s Near Northside, Local Group Brewing is a 7,500+ square foot brewpub with a view of downtown Houston focusing on its taproom operation with 20+ taps, eight of which will be connected directly to ten-barrel serving tanks for optimal beer freshness, and a chef-driven kitchen pulsing out diverse bites made with thoughtfully-sourced ingredients.
“Our goal is to focus on the whole experience within our building, and that includes the beer we brew in small batches, high-quality food, amenities for kids and pets and a relaxing, casual atmosphere that spreads across a patio with killer views and an air-conditioned taproom,” explained Michael Steeves who will be joining us in studio along with his co-founders Todd Donewar and James "Huggy Bear" Wolfe. “Huggy Bear,” who originally came to Houston to work at NASA, left the aerospace industry after a decade supporting spaceflight in favor of the creativity and passion he found in craft beer. He joined No Label Brewing Company, where he quickly became head brewer, before continuing to Southern Star Brewing and earning a reputation for creating finely crafted and highly drinkable beers. The New Orleans-born Donewar and Canadian Steeves have worked together in Houston’s energy industry for years and found a common interest in homebrewing and eventually opening a brewery. The dream became reality when Local Group made a long-term investment in it’s Near Northside neighborhood by purchasing the building it now calls home.
Local Group recently made news by hiring the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts educated Jeff Samosa as the brewpub’s Executive Chef. Samosa has more than 15 years experience cooking delicious food at spots including North Italia, six different Hyatt hotels across the nation and Houston’s The Post Oak Hotel; he served as Executive Restaurants Chef at the latter, the Bayou City’s only AAA 5-Diamond Resort. As executive chef at Local Group Brewing, Samosa will put his hospitality-driven spirit and professional background to work redefining the brewpub experience with thoughtful, approachable, creative eats made with locally-sourced ingredients.
We look forward to visiting with Wolfe, Donewar and Steeves and diving deep into their vision for contributing to and collaborating with the local, regional and national craft beer scene. Word is we will could be the first media outlet to try their Horchatanita (3.9% ABV • Cinnamon lactose blonde ale reminiscent of horchata, the Mexican sweet milky refreshing summer drink) and Double Slammin IPA (8.4% ABV • An Imperial IPA was brewed with Mosaic, Citra and El Dorado -> Easy drinking with some time on this beer softening the bitterness). We also are led to believe the topic of Human Spaceflight might come up as well and who are we to pass on that, especially as the largest gathering of astronauts and cosmonauts in history have come together this week right next door to our studio for the Association of Space Explorers' (ASE) Planetary Congress XXXII (only the fifth time in history it is held within the United States) this week at the Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston.
And if time allows, we plan to put our guests to the test with our world-famous, on-topic audio quiz and tease some of what is on tap this weekend in beer, music and events thanks to our friends at The SCENE Magazine including our favorite event of the year, the Wings Over Houston Airshow. Note: The Thunderbirds are scheduled to enter local airspace at 3pm and our team will be there at Ellington Airport for a report and preview tonight. As always , a ton of great musical acts will be taking to area stages this weekend stating tonight when the Dutch symphonic metal band Delain, Finnish heavy metal band Amorphis and former The Gathering lead singer/songwriter Anneke van Giersbergen combine for a special international performance just down the street from the studio at Scout immediately following our show. The Karavan to the Keys Kickoff Weekend brings a full lineup of trop rock to T-bone TOm’s this weekend with the Kelly McGuire Band (plus Dennis McCaughey & Bewn Reyna) on Friday, October 18 and Jerry Diaz & Hanna’s Reef (plus Bama Breeze Sounds, Joel Block and Donny Brewer) on Saturday, October 19. And don’t forget Already Gone (Eagles Tribute), one of the top rated Tribute Bands in Texas, takes the stage Saturday night at Jackie’s Brickhouse. Make sure to read the feature about Already Gone and find out what else is going on this weekend in the current (October 2019) issue of The SCENe Magazine.
Did we mention there would be beer? Thirsty yet? Then grab a drink and tune in to the Galactic Coast Power Hour at 7pm!! The show is available live at www.vinyldraughtradio.com, on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, the TuneIn app, the Player FM app, the Live 365 app and NEWSFLASH: THE BRAND NEW VINYL DRAUGHT RADIO APP AVAILABLE NOW in both the ITUNES and GOOGLE PLAY stores (we told you it was coming). Episodes are also available after the fact on iTunes, Google Play and SoundCloud. Cheers from your hosts the Discovery Channel’s “Galactic Guys” (John Ennis and Mighty Michael Taylor). Special thanks to the tallest fella in radio (that we know), the great Greg Meisinger at the controls and keeping us on the air and sounding good. We also appreciate all of those helping behind the scenes at the station, the many networks that carry us and beyond. Prepare for Liftoff!!