•  Austin’s Ice Balls! I’m actually not sure about cocktails made as ice balls. Using ice balls as the ice? Sure, that’s a great idea. I do that all the time. But to put all of the ingredients in frozen form and just pour a spirit over it? That, I will have to try before I praise it. But the article about Swift’s Attic bar manager Jeff Hammett is interesting, to say the least.
• Karbach’s happenings. Karbach is supporting the Robert Garner Firefighter Foundation at OKRA Charity Saloon with a new batch of Station 68; will now offer Karbach in Austin’s grocery stores; is having Karbach night at Grafiti, D&T Drive Inn, and Cedar Creek, among other places; and will a part of the Galveston pub crawl on October 11.
• Park Social opening in San Antonio. Olmos Park is getting a new classic cocktail bar, thanks to the people who brought you Folc and Alumina. Man, the longer between my San Antonio visits, the more places I now have to visit when I finally do get there.
• David Alan’s Tipsy Texan: Spirits and Cocktails from the Lone Star State is now available at the Texas State History Museum. All of you should go to the museum and buy a copy. You could just go to Amazon, I guess, but buying it from the Texas State History Museum is much cooler. Way to go, David! You are officially history! Wait, I mean that as a good thing…
• Texas represents! On the Food and Wine People’s Best New Bars contest, that is. There are my Houston favorites–Captain Foxhearts and Julep (which I have yet to visit–sorry), Austin bars–Half Step and Midnight; and my favorite San Antonio spot– The Brooklynite. Go vote now!
• Robert Earl Keen’s Honey Pils. When Texas music star Robert Earl Keen starts brewing beer, I listen. Honey Pils may not sound that good to me, but I will still buy it. Now the party will never end.
• Houston has two distilleries, and has for a while. Wait, what? Yes, there’s Yellow Rose, which I have written about before, and which happens to share a name with my wife’s roller derby league/team, and then there’s Whitmeyer’s Distilling Company. Me, I think Houston’s big enough for the two of them. Perhaps even a few more.
• Southern Star Brewing Company is expanding. With amazing beers like the Pine Belt Pale Ale, that’s good news for everyone.
• Dallas’s Midnight Rambler is set to open. I’m not sure about a pho-inspired shot with beef stock and cilantro, but a new cocktail bar can’t be a bad thing. Scrap that, yes, I am sure about a pho-inspired shot, and I will order one when I finally get to Dallas. Hell yes, I will.
• 99 bottles of beer. Literally. No, not figuratively, literally. Austin Beerworks has released a 99 bottles of beer pack. For $99. Pass one around, friend.

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