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The Artistry of Craft
A blog dedicated to all things craft beer.
COVID-19 Update
March 19, 2020
Dear PintHub Community, We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe in this time of uncertainty. As breweries, bars, and restaurants must close their doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a particularly frightening time for the craft beer community. We also want to keep you posted about PintHub memberships during this time, and basically give you an easy way to freeze your account while PintHub venues are closed. First, why should I not freeze my PintHub Membership? We understand that drinking great craft beer around town is why you are a PintHub member! But we are a small business and a local business. (Our team is spread across Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin.) We are committed to helping our bars and breweries as best we can during this time. For example, we want to make sure the community knows about breweries that have beer-to-go. And Texas now allows for establishments to deliver beer to your home. We also are gearing up to make sure we can help our community come back stronger than ever. This is daunting in the face of having no revenue, so we definitely share the pain of many small businesses in this regard. If you want to support the continued health of our business and service providers, one way to do that is to maintain your membership. That’s great and all, but I still want to freeze my membership We totally understand if this doesn’t work for you and you need to freeze or cancel your membership. Please contact info@pinthub.com, and we will get that processed for you. Thanks for your time here. Be safe everyone!...
PintHub Events: Meet the PintHub Crew
August 6, 2019
We want to meet you! Hopefully, you want to meet us too! These events are a way to chat with our PintHub members and also an opportunity to connect with fellow craft beer lovers. Meet the PintHub Crew Events happen each month at a participating venue and will be posted on the events page so stay tuned if you want to attend these, our member appreciation nights, or whatever else we’ve cooked up. Who will be there? You! And of course every “Meet the PintHub Crew” event will have at least one PintHub crew member who will be decked out in their PintHub swag so they’ll be noticeable. What do we talk about? Anything! It doesn’t have to be PintHub specific but we always love to hear your feedback....
PintHub Update: Summer 2019
July 15, 2019
First off, thank you all very much for being a part of PintHub. You bring so much to the local craft breweries, bars, and restaurants that partner with us. We want to take this opportunity to provide you some background on our company as well as announce some changes to the service. Changes to the PintHub Service There’s really only one: Upon the request of your bartender, you may be required to open a tab (typically with a credit card) before you get your first beer. Otherwise, nothing changes. You can still choose any beer they are offering to PintHub members, and you’ll still drink it “on the house.” There is still no obligation on your part. Why the change? It actually came from the mind of an owner of one of our top spots in Austin. While it may be a small inconvenience, it’s very helpful for several reasons: First, opening a tab allows our partnering venues to track how well PintHub is performing for them. When these local business can see the data proving how effective PintHub is for them, they stay on PintHub for the long-term and they also tell their fellow brewers and bar owners about PintHub. It’s much easier for us to on board new breweries, bars, and restaurants for our members when PintHub comes recommended by a friend. Second, an open tab on a credit card makes it so much easier for you to tip our friends behind the bar. While you are currently able to tip via the PintHub app, it is a laborious task for our partners to divvy up tips. We’ve heard from them that this change would be beneficial because it leverages the systems they currently have in place. The easier it is for our members to directly tip their servers, the more tipping there will be, and the more we can reward those who do so much for our industry. Finally, at the end of the day, an open tab makes it easier for our members to support these local businesses. Order an additional round when it makes sense. Try some food. And you’ll look great in that trucker hat! PintHub is proud to play a role in helping the industry thrive. PintHub Background and Business Model PintHub is a startup company based in Austin, Texas formed by five friends and classmates. We launched the PintHub service in DFW in the summer of 2017 and in Austin in the summer of 2018. Our goal is to get beer fans trying great craft beer at great local businesses in the craft beer industry. At some of our recent events, members have asked us about our business model. Basically, how do our members get 30 beers for just $9.99/month? Pints cost $6, so that’s too good to be true, right? Well it’s not too good to be true because PintHub is an extremely effective way for breweries, bars, and restaurants to get and stay on the radar of local beer drinkers. These places are happy to pour you a beer “on the house” because the cost of a pour is a very small cost when compared to what they get: people enjoying their beer at their venue and the ability to maintain connections with their customers. That’s a big part of what powers these local businesses, and the bottom line is that you’re worth it! Thanks again for being a part of PintHub, and certainly feel free to email us at info@pinthub.com if you have questions. We’d love to hear from you. – The PintHub Team...
Fall In Love With These Fall Craft Brews
September 22, 2018
Today is officially the first day of fall and we all know what that means: pumpkin patches, sweater weather, and pumpkin-spice everything. For beer lovers, fall introduces a change in palate, an array of spiced sips that perfectly match the season. To celebrate the season, we at PintHub have compiled a list of delicious brews that are all things fall. To kick off our list, let’s start with a beer that is as dedicated to the season as its color is—the medium bodied, red ale. Besides the obvious color, what qualifies this beer to represent this natural change in seasons? Glad you asked! The balance of bold and tangy flavors, often with toasted notes, makes us want to enjoy it by a backyard bonfire. Have we convinced you yet? Grab a buddy and try the Shamus Irish Red Ale on tap at Hi Sign brewery; free with your app! For our light beer lovers, a good saison is in this season. With a typical lean towards a light and airy finish, saisons also carry spiced notes which are perfect this time of year. Want a golden recommendation? We suggest the Philosophizer from Adelberts. This saison boasts a smooth citrusy center with yeasty notes. Considering the spooky, upcoming holiday, we wanted to add something startling to the list. We chose the Blood Orange Cider made here in Austin at Austin Eastciders. Ciders are perfect fall sips for anyone, from a novice to a beer nerd with a tangy palate. Austin Eastciders delicious concoction that is their Blood Orange Cider is enhanced with Italian blood oranges and bittersweet apples for a zing that isn’t overwhelmingly sweet. Try one today at Tributary Cafe in Fort Worth or at the Dirty Mule Bar in Arlington! Perfect for fall or winter, porters are a staple of a dark, well-bodied brew. Coming in all shapes and sizes, porters’ malty taste is often mixed with hints of vanilla, coffee, or a type of nut. This stout beer is the perfect companion for your fall family campout or after a successful trip to the pumpkin patch. Oak Highlands Brewery crafts a Vanilla Porter that is spiced to perfection. Try this on the house at Ross & Hall, Smoky Rose or 504 Bar & Grill—all in Dallas! Finally, no fall beer list would be complete without the mention of a German-style Oktoberfest. Few breweries enter fall without honoring the tradition of Oktoberfest with an event. Recently, our venue Hi Sign celebrated in style by pairing this Marzen lager with sizzling brats and a local band. Oak Highlands Brewery also makes a delicious seasonal Oktoberfest which can be redeemed with our app at WhichCraft in Austin. What are you waiting for? Throw on a flannel (if Texas will cool down for us) and try one of these beers. Remember to tag us while you sip for a chance to be featured on our Instagram!...
Blue Owl Brewing: It’s OK To Be Sour
September 8, 2018
Tangy, crisp, and brimming with bold flavors from wild yeasts, sour beers are an interesting, and sometimes intimidating, corner of the craft beer world. Sour beers are traditionally produced through a longer process of barrel aging with wild yeasts and bacteria. The process allows for a unique flavor from each different barrel. Until recent developments, producing a product marked by a consistent taste was uncommon. This is where Blue Owl Brewing introduces its genius. From the start, cofounders Jeff Young and Suzy Shaffer set out to create a sour-mashing process never before attempted in other Austin breweries. Their vision included creating sours in a way that is replicable and time-saving, using the wort (sweet unfermented beer) of the main bash, and introducing it to naturally occurring bacteria and wild yeast. This wort is then sealed and starts producing lactic acids—as well as other low-level acids—which adds to a complex and interesting flavor profile, and what makes it a sour. Think of these sour-mashes as a refreshing hybrid of your favorite style of beer; if you’re a fan of pale ales, their Spirit Animal – Sour Pale Ale, still tastes like a pale ale and would be right up your alley. Their ingenuity does not stop with their sour-mashing process. While most brewers have used pH levels and titratable acidity (TA) to measure how sour a beer or wine will be, Young and Shaffer have created a new way to measure that sourness. Young coined the measurement ‘SU’ or sour units to describe how acidic and tart a beer is. To put it simply on a scale, their Little Boss has an SU of 50, while their bolder sour, the Van Dayum has an SU of 70. Currently, Blue Owl has a producing capability of 2,500 barrels a year and is looking to expand for the purpose of stocking and releasing their tasty brews across the state. Young describes Blue Owl’s vision with one simple word: “approachable”. Setting out to bring the creative taste of a sour, while being inclusive, has been Blue Owl’s goal for the sour market. Blue Owl’s value of approachability is realized in their true-to-form sour-mashed versions of classic brew styles. This means that bartenders are able to recommend sours based off of a craft lover’s go-to favorite, whether it’s a light pilsner or a hoppy Imperial Pale Ale. The Blue Owl Brewing taproom has also created a drinking experience as unique as their beers. With a funky, eclectic aura, they indulge customers with a four-drink tasting package, with prices based on sizes; a twelve-ounce souvenir glass costing only 15 dollars. This approach encourages customers to become familiar with different sour spins on beers they know and love, therefore introducing a new taste in a fun, approachable way. To keep things interesting, Blue Owl regularly produces different tiny barrel series inspired by a variety of flavors, or even collaborates with other breweries. Their newest sip, “Cool & the Gang”, a sour English mildly brewed with earl grey tea, is a recent brew in collaboration with fellow Austin native, Lazarus Brewing Check out this tangy concoction today with the PintHub app at EastSide Tavern....
A Pint with Your Best (Furry) Friend
August 26, 2018
Drinking with friends is great, but drinking with your dog is even better. If you’ve worried about bringing your pups with you when claiming your daily PintHub beer, worry no more. In honor of National Dog Day, we’ve compiled a list of dog-friendly PintHub venues (we narrowed it down since there were so many!) so that you can celebrate the right way today. Take a look at the best local venues on PintHub to explore this weekend, whether you’re in Austin, Dallas or the Fort Worth area—and if you want even more options, check out Dog Friendly Alliance’s website for a curated list of all the places you can bring your pups. Cheers! Austin Beerworks First on the list, is Austin Beerworks. Sitting on the north side of Austin, this local brewery comes equipped with a great outdoor area. Your pups will be very happy here—and so will you. If you haven’t tried their Peacemaker, an “anytime ale”, stay refreshed with that new pick. Adelbert’s Brewery Just three minutes away from Austin Beerworks, you’ll find local gem, Adelbert’s Brewery. As soon as you load their Instagram page (@adelbertsbeer), you’ll find yourself looking at a great snap shot of a puppers on their patio. Your fur-child will definitely make new friends while you try a new beer. photo via @adelbertsbeer Meridian Hive If you’re really into trying something new, then this is the place for you. You can currently get a glass of their specially brewed creation, Discovery, a perfect name for the brew to catapult you into a new world of mead. Though dogs can’t go inside the taproom due to the brewing process, they are more than welcome out on the patio. Hi Sign Brewing With five options of beer to choose from on our PintHub app, Hi Sign is a great place to bring your pups. You can happily scroll through their Instagram to find the best doggos gracing your screen—and with hammocks and a great space, it’s no wonder dog owners love to bring their dogs there. This is also the perfect opportunity for you to snap a picture of your own pet and claim bragging rights on your own social media. photo via @hisignbrewing Via 313 Pizza The outdoor patio greets humans and pets alike. If you’re more into enjoying some food with your beer, Via 313 Pizza will serve as a great choice for you. Not only can pups help you with the pizza, but they can hang out with you outside—preferably once the sun starts to set in this heated summer. This venue is also going to have the most options for you to try, so good luck picking one! photo via @via313 Wild Acre Brewing Don’t worry, DFW friends, we’ve got some places for you, too. Designed with a huge open floor plan, you can easily enjoy a brew in this dog-friendly taproom. There’s plenty of shade, so an afternoon trip won’t be terrible. Celebrate the day with a Sip-N-Go Pils or the Soul Pleasure stout. Panther Island Brewing If you’re craving a view of downtown Ft. Worth, then this is the taproom for you. A view, your pups and a cold, lovingly-crafted beer—do you need anything else? Bring your pup out and enjoy the appropriate brew, Sweet Fang. photo via @pantherislandbrewing Noble Rey Brewing One can never do wrong with a good can design. Admire the can you’re drinking from while you and your pups sit in an eclectic taproom in Dallas. An appropriate beer for the occasion? Off the Leash, a red ale that’s a solid six percent ABV. Ross and Hall Kitchen + Beer Garten Since the venue does serve food, pets must be strictly confined to the patio. That doesn’t make them any less dog-friendly, though. Set up shop and relax while you celebrate the best day ever with your best friend. 3 Nations Brewing Just north of Dallas, in Farmer’s Branch, Texas, lies 3 Nations Brewing, a community taproom that loves having your dog around. Another great thing about them? PintHub and 3 Nations Brewing have over 10 beers for you to try at their location. Overwhelming? Try their American Wit or the Stone Wizard Double IPA. photo via @3nationsbrewing Whichever venue you choose, celebrate National Dog Day with your furry best friend with your “on the house” beer. Open up your PintHub app and start drinking!...
