Question For Texas Members

I've got family coming up for a visit in a month, from Houston. Are there any local beers that I should have them bring up for me to try?

Nothing that I can think of worth mentioning....

Real Ale is a great brewery, if they can find Sisyphus, I highly recommend it, but it's pretty rare.

St. Arnold has some alright stuff, nothing too amazing though, but they do make a nice Texas Brown.

Rahr is my local favorite, but not sure if it gets to Houston, if so, Ugly Pug is great.

Souther Star Pine Belt Pale is good (reminds me of Oskar Blues Gordon), but another hard one to find, as it's the only beer they even package.

And I know a lot of people don't like Shiner, but their Black Lager is awesome.

There's a few others, but Texas isn't really known for it's great beers, and our alcohol laws suck, it's a lot of BMC around here.

BarleyWater said:

And I know a lot of people don't like Shiner, but their Black Lager is awesome.

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Eww. The Black Lager tastes like soy sauce to me. I was impressed with Commemorator, and I don't even like doppellbocks.

Pine Belt is... interesting, but I wouldn't say it's very much like Gordon.

My favorite Real Ale is Full Moon Pale Rye. Looks like it's available at Whole Foods in Houston.

+1 The Black Lager is average at best - it tastes way to smokey to me. I poured the bottle out after one sip.

Maybe not the best beer, but one that has some sentimental value for me, is St Arnold's Elissa IPA. It's named for a ship in Galveston Harbor that used to transport various wares (including IPA) across seas. Not sure if it survived the hurricane. Anyway, a small portion of each purchase of this beer goes toward the Galveston Historical Society to preserve the ship.
Also one of my first IPA's, and a big reason that I got interested in home brewing. Took the brewery tour and just HAD to start making my own. A pretty decent beer, IMHO.
My $0.02