Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company
5301 Nolda Street, Houston, TX 77007

“I think I follow your blog.”
I replied skeptically, “Really?”
“Yeah, what is the website again?”
I responded with, “It’s 365brew.com.”
“This it?” he asked while holding up his phone with the 365brew.com homepage displayed.
I said, “Yes!”
“Yep, I follow your blog.”

I had stayed the night at my sister’s house, which worked out nicely as Buffalo Bayou Brewing is less than a mile from her house.  She dropped me off at 11:55 am.  A small group had already gathered.  The doors were opened promptly at noon.  I handed over a ten dollar bill, was given 3 drink tokens, pointed to a table full of mason jar glasses already half filled with Buffalo Bayou 1836 and told to grab one.  It was going to be a good day.

Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co., holds “tours” every Saturday from noon to 3 pm.  Unlike the Karbach Brewing Co., there is no guided tour of Buffalo Bayou’s facilities as they are still a small brewery.  It all sits in one small warehouse where you can see everything by simply turning around in a circle.  The Buffalo Bayou staff is very friendly and I’m sure they would answer any question you may have.  I never got around to asking anything more than recommendations on which of their beers to sample next.

The 3 tokens you receive for $10 are good for an 8 oz sample (your new glass filled halfway) per token.  You are able to buy additional tokens for $2 a piece.  Which I believe means you can bring your own glass and just pay for tokens.

I was alone on this tasting.  I meandered around inside and took some pictures of the fermenters and aging barrels.  I walked outside and took a picture of the growing crowd.  My glass was now empty so it was time to get in line for the taps.  I saw two very interesting Wit beers that were available, a Cucumber Wit and a Watermelon Wit.  I like all beverages featuring cucumber, so I made my choice accordingly.  I took a sip and was not disappointed.  This wasn’t a beer with a hint of cucumber, it had a very strong cucumber flavor profile.  It would make for an ideal summer beer.  At this point I was standing by myself and saw a table that was occupied by only two people.  They appeared friendly.  I wanted a place to sit.  I took a chance and sat down to strike up a conversation with them.

Craft beer people I have found are very congenial especially when drinking good beer.  These two were a newly married couple named Aaron and Maria.  We chatted for a bit, normal small talk which quickly led into beer talk.  The subject of beer blogs was broached.  It turned out that both Aaron and myself ran beer blogs on WordPress.  This led to the exchange shown at the beginning of this post.

Small world.  I drove 900 miles and stayed at a home that was less than a mile from Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co., while Aaron and Maria had driven 200 miles on one of their rare weekends off, to randomly sit down at the same table and find out that Aaron follows this blog.

Aaron is BeerMetalDude, by the way.  Follow his beer blog, he does great work.

I’m probably underplaying how crazy excited I was (still am) to meet a random person who had read and follows this humble beer blog.  No matter the excitement my glass was empty, it was time for my next sample.  Maria was drinking the Pumpkin Spice Latte, which I hadn’t even seen and spoke highly of it.  I’m a sucker for pumpkin beers and even more of a sucker for coffee beers.  I had to try this combination of the two.

If you live in Texas and see a bottle of the Buffalo Bayou Pumpkin Spice Latte buy it, buy a few if you can.  Unfortunately for me, they didn’t bottle this beer until I had already driven back North.  The mild sweet pumpkin flavor and spice notes come on strong in the front of the beer and then is balanced out with perfect coffee flavor in the finish.  It is an exceptional beer.

Aaron and Maria took off around 2:30 pm.  I stayed until 3 pm, finishing off my last beer.  I was feeling “pretty, pretty, pretty…pretty good.”  I strolled back to my sister’s place in the warmth of the sun.  She in her foresighted benevolence had heated up some “Amy’s Pesto Tortellini,” which I devoured upon arrival.  It was a great day.