Trip to Rockwell/Dallas (area) TX. Looking for local beer to try...

Hi,

I am taking a trip with my wife and we want to know some local beers/breweries/brew pubs to try out. We are hop head's but love all styles!

We are from MN and would like to try beer that we can not get in MN & WI.

Cheers!

Check out the Holy Grail Brew Pub in Plano. It's supposed to be one of the best in the city.

As far as Texas beers, Saint Arnolds Endeavour is a citriusy, hop forward DIPA, Real Ale Rye Pale Ale and Rio Blanco Pale Ale are both solid beers, and Rahr & Sons Stormcloud IPA is also a tasty beer.

If you guys are staying over the weekend, tours are normally on Saturdays in Texas. The laws don't allow sales at the brewery, so you purchase a glass for $10 or so and get 3 or 4 pint glass samples.

I've done the Rahr & Sons, but it will be about an hour trip for you guys as it's in Fort Worth, but Deep Ellum would be worth checking out.

Welcome to Tejas!

There is a brand new brewery in Dallas called Deep Ellum Brewing Company. I have had 2 of their brews, a Rye Pilsner and a Double Rye IPA called the Dreamcrusher. The dreamcrusher is really good, and being a local brewery, I had it super fresh on tap. It's nearly 10% and around 100 IBUs, so you may or may not be into that. I have heard great things about their IPA too, haven't gotten to try it yet. You will be close to Flying Saucer on the lake if you're in Rockwall, and they have a ton of beers on tap, and most likely will have something from Deep Ellum Brewing.

I second the Holy Grail in Plano. It's my favorite hang out. The Flying Saucer on the lake is a great choice too. Typically they have about 100 on tap and 300 or so in bottles. Gotta be at least a couple you haven't tried. The Gingerman is a pretty cool place to go too. It's in Uptown. And if you can venture a little further north (Holy Grail is up there) check out Ringo's Pub. And across the strret from it is a Gordon Biersch. Enjoy your trip!

I visit Flying Saucer by the Lake every week. Awesome beer selection!

Isn't there a Monks bar in Uptown? Thought I saw it last time I was up there down the street from Jake's Burgers (which makes a damn good burger)

My fav beer bars in Dallas are Libertine and Old Monk. Old Monk is really great, but it's generally really crowded and hard to park at.

Old Monk is a good choice on the east-ish side of Dallas. Flying Saucer would be the easiest option. There's a few bars in Plano that I'm sure are good but I never get out there to drink.

As far as local beers, Deep Ellum is probably the easiest to find. It's fairly new. I'm not hot on their beers but they are quickly gaining steam. There's also Franconia you can probably find around town but I think their beers are mediocre at best. Rahr is hit or miss. If you can find a cask offering it's worth trying but their regular beers are mediocre. Peticolas is very new but you might find it somewhere. I haven't had their beers but they seem to do lots of hoppy beers.

You would do well to try to snag some south Texas beers. If you like hefe, Live Oak Hefeweizen from Austin is a must. Real Ale makes some interesting beers. The rye pale ale is good. Southern Star beers are all excellent. If you can't find it at the bars you should be able to find it at a decent bottle shop. Jester King out of the Austin area gets a lot of good reviews but I'm not a big fan of anything I've tried. St. Arnold's does some great cask offerings but the regular beers are usually solid sessionables.

Old Monk is a great beer bar. Goo food too!

Fastmetal said:

Old Monk is a great beer bar. Goo food too!

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Good. Stupid iPhone

I've had Peticolas and Deep Ellum beers on tap at the Holy Grail (Plano, TX). Just around the corner in Plano is the Gingerman where you can find St. Arnold's Elissa IPA on cask (most of the time), Deep Ellum's IPA, and several Rahr and Shiner beers. The Gingerman also has one or two of Real Ale, Live Oak, 512, Southern Star, and Franconia beers. If you like German beer and food, you need to visit the Bavarian Grill in Plano. Just recently had the pleasure of going for lunch and thought the food was great.

Several good choices are listed, but since you say Rockwall area - I will focus on the two close beer places as I live in Garland right next to Rockwall.

The Flying Saucer is a great beer place real close to Rockwall on Bass Pro Drive off Highway 30. More taps than you can imagine - anything you like will probably be represented. As a bonus, their back porch overlooks Lake Ray Hubbard - very nice on a warm Spring afternoon. Food is pub fare, but not too bad.

A little further out in Mesquite there is a BJs Brewery off Town East and Highway 635 (LBJ). This is a brewpub with decent brews and food (contact brews from St. Arnold brewery). The brown is pretty tasty as is the IPA (IMO).

If you are willing to drive 30 minutes, there is the Franconia Brewery in McKinney TX which has tours on Saturdays. Sure, they had an explosion during a tour a few weeks ago, but hey, you're on vacation! Don't let a little exploding fermentor scare you off.

http://www.franconiabrewing.com/homepage.html

Others already pointed out the Flying Saucer. But, again if you are willing to drive 30 minutes to Dallas, there is a place owned by the same people who own the Flying Saucer which I think has the most beer on tap variety of anywhere in the area. It is the Mettlesome Moth.

http://www.mothinthe.net/

Thanks for all the info! :rockin:

200 plus beers at Flying Saucer (just looked at the website)...wow. They seem to have something going on every night! Monday or Tuesday is TX beer night ($3 a pint!)

We will be going down to the Dallas Museum of Art (i think that one) and not sure if that is close to the Mettlesome Moth. I will check it out!

Plano does not seem to far from Rockwall (~30mins). Anything to do in the city. I will have my 6 yr daugther along (future brewer).

We will be staying at the Hillton on the lake in Rockwall.

Any craft beer shops around the Rockwall area? I always like to take home some 22oz (and etc) to share with my friends.

Thanks for all the replies!

http://kegsandbarrels.com/
I was there a couple of weeks ago and they had about three or four coolers worth of 22oz bottles. Looks to be about 30 mins. from Rockwall.

http://mrgsbeverage.com/
This one is a little farther for you, but a great store for good beer (and a sandwich).

As for things to do with the little ones, try the Grapevine Vintage Railroad. It is quite a trek for you, but is well worth the time. It travels from Grapevine, TX to the Fort Worth Stockyards. You stay in the Stockyards for a couple of hours then return to Grapevine, TX.

https://www.grapevinetexasusa.com/ThingsToDo/GrapevineVintageRailroad/tabid/267/Default.aspx

http://www.oldmonkdallas.com/
http://www.idlerichpub.com/index.php
http://www.thefillmorepub.com/
http://www.mothinthe.net/
http://www.thecommontable.com/

Never been to any of these, so you are on your own for the research.

D_Ranged_Eskimo said:

Check out the Holy Grail Brew Pub in Plano. It's supposed to be one of the best in the city.

As far as Texas beers, Saint Arnolds Endeavour is a citriusy, hop forward DIPA, Real Ale Rye Pale Ale and Rio Blanco Pale Ale are both solid beers, and Rahr & Sons Stormcloud IPA is also a tasty beer.

If you guys are staying over the weekend, tours are normally on Saturdays in Texas. The laws don't allow sales at the brewery, so you purchase a glass for $10 or so and get 3 or 4 pint glass samples.

I've done the Rahr & Sons, but it will be about an hour trip for you guys as it's in Fort Worth, but Deep Ellum would be worth checking out.

Welcome to Tejas!

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Had the endeavor last night, it's a GREAT beer. This is almost the perfect DIPA, one of the best I've ever had

Conway said:

We will be going down to the Dallas Museum of Art (i think that one) and not sure if that is close to the Mettlesome Moth. I will check it out!

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The moth is in the Design District, which is on the west side of 35 from downtown and the arts district, very close, probably about 10 minutes. There's also Katy Trail Ice House in Uptown, which has a beer garden style atmosphere and a huge selection of Texas beers. Two warnings. 1: Uptown can be very *****ey, and 2: if the weather is nice it can get really crowded.

Edit to add. It's RockwAll, not RockwEll

Thanks for all the info!

Lol: After i put up the thread i saw that i wrote Rockwell but do not know how to edit the title. lol

Lots of good places to visit on our trip

The Keg and barrels looks to be a nice beer shop and might try to make a trip to it. Anyone know of a closer beer shop that sell a lot of micro beers?

Thanks again everyone.

http://abbeerwine.com looks to be about the only bottle shop in Rockwall itself. I'm a huge Rahr fan, so definitely worth a try. They do tours on Wednesday nights too, but fighting your way into Fort Worth in rush hour traffic may not be a great way to relax. The Saturday tour is a blast. Deep Ellum is remodeling the "beer garden" this week, they're saying they'll be open for a tour on Saturday. There's a train that runs pretty close to them if you happen to be near a DART station.

If you're going to be in Rockwall, you really do need to hit the Saucer on the Lake. Its pretty much right there. Service is pretty good (except for the armageddon that is Wednesday glass night) and the selection is top notch. Its a much more relaxed alternative to the Moth - which is a great bar in its own right, but caters to a more...high-end crowd.