Austin Lifestyle’s Summer Brew HaHa was appropriately hosted yesterday at West 6th Street’s The Brew Exchange. As an issue release party for ALM’s latest edition with the great epicurean Rachael Ray gracing its cover, this drinkery was a prime locale. The concept for the novel bar is a capitalization of Wall Street’s stock exchange system of fluctuating price levels. The entire 100-plus beer list ebbs and flows cost-wise with supply and demand. That is, if one beer is dashingly popular one evening, its price will increase, while the others in its sub-category, i.e. IPA, Lager, Cider, etc, will fall. (Other “staple” beers remain the same—no worries to those diehard Lonestar fans!) With a sprawling ticker board above the bar displaying the prices in real-time, marquee-style announcement, bar patrons are encouraged to try out new and different beers as the relative supply and demand dictates. It makes having a couple of beers all the more fun!
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Brown Bag Delivers is a program that provides healthy options or alternatives to assist in a nutritious diet. You don’t have to “diet” if you’re eating healthy, they say, which is a philosophy that is biologically consistent in its results. Brown Bag catered the Brew Haha with curried lamb kabobs on skewers sandwiched with grilled vegetables, alongside seasoned rice and corn on the cob. Nothin’ like corn on the cob with a beer to celebrate the end of summertime! For those with a sweet tooth, Brown Bag offered dark chocolate oatmeal cookies, using a Brazilian dark chocolate with a slightly spicy, bitter taste—it was a most flavorful chocolate, making for a heartier, more filling cookie. To check out the ever-varying menu, stop bywww.brownbagdelivers.com.
To even further satisfy the sweet teeth, gourmet popcorn company Cornucopia served up samples of four of its most popular flavors. For starters, there was the Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate deliciousness; then the “Zebra,” which was popcorn drizzled with dark and white chocolates, alternatively; the final sweet option was the Nutella chocolate popcorn; and lastly, for those craving more of the savory strand of edibles, was the Dill Pickle option, which was a take on the classic pickle as a snack, and had a salty, buttery taste with natural dill flavoring. The Dill Pickle may be Cornucopia’s bestseller, but with 30-plus flavor options including vegan and candied corns, they are certainly ALL worth trying! See the entire flavor list atwww.cornucopiapopcorn.com.
There can never be enough snacking… and there can never be enough sipping! Leprechaun Hard Cider, founded in Houston, stopped by the event to dish out shots of its artisanal cider. The gluten free beverage is made from champagne yeasts, yielding crisp flavors in cooperation with the Granny Smith and Pippin apples. The apples used to produce the ciders vary with flavor and with seasonality. As the President of Texas’ first hard cider company, owner Jake Schiffer hand crafts his ciders in specially made stainless steel tanks, preserving the freshness and sweetness of the apples. To find out about the true Leprechaun story, visit Leprechaun Hard Cider on the Web at www.leprechauncider.com.
And if it’s the party you feel like you truly missed out on, check out images at anurbanexperience.blogspot.com
