Follow-up: Yard Sale Brewing Company

After a tip from my friend Dave, I contacted one of the founders of Yard Sale Brewing Company, Justin Engle, to chat about his plans for a new brewery in the Heights area of Houston. I had the chance to sit down with Justin and his business partner and graduate school buddy, Steve, at a new restaurant in the heights, Happy Fatz, to discuss their plans for Yard Sale Brewing Company. Recently, two (of an ambitious 5) of their initial offerings, Chipped Tooth IPA and Red Collar Amber, made their debut at the White Linen Night in the Heights event and were both received quite well, from what I hear. Coincidentally, Happy Fatz is BYOB so we also got to try a Yard Sale beer (or 3). Before I talk about the beer though, some background on Justin, Steve and Yard Sale.

From Pennsylvania originally, Justin attended a brewing party while in graduate school for Chemistry in Colorado a few years ago and decided to start brewing his own beer. He was joined by Steve, who hails from southern California, shortly thereafter. When work brought both of them to Houston, specifically the Heights, they decided to give the dream of owning a brewery a chance. They are still looking for just the right location, but definitely want to stay in the area. He told me, “we don’t want to be big”, and they have developed their business model after the great, yet small, brewpubs they spent their time at while living in Colorado. Though they don’t technically want to be a brewpub, because of the limitations that owning one provides in Texas, they do want to have the food element, in the form of a having food trucks near by, and the community hangout atmosphere they miss from Colorado. They want to accomplish this by having “happy hour tours” every weekday afternoon, among other ideas they have for creating a place where Houstonians can be “regulars”. They seem genuinely interested in getting to know their customers, who also happen to be their neighbors.

Justin and Steve have decided on using a 7 barrel brewhouse that they want to purchase from a fabricator in Wisconsin, which would put them in the 350-1000 barrels/year capacity. That is quite a range, but they do still have their day jobs! For the foreseeable future they want to be draught only and mainly only in the heights area, however they are considering canning their beers sometime down the road.

I had to ask, “Why ‘Yard Sale’?”, well, being that both guys completed their graduate studies at The Colorado School of Mines, they were around snow much of the year, so of course they skied in their downtime (when they weren’t drinking beer). Apparently, when you wipeout on the slopes and your equipment goes flying everywhere, they joke about it being a ‘yard sale’. I only say apparently because sadly, I’ve never been skiing.

Besides their Chipped Tooth IPA and the Red Collar Amber, they are planning three other standard, year-round beers: a Dark California Common, a Pale Ale, and a Honey Porter. I was interested to hear about the common, as that style is not very prevalent, I am definitely excited to see how they throw their twist on that style. They also plan to use locally sourced honey from Alvin for their porter, though wildflower honey (vs clover) is one of the tweaks to their recipe they have to experiment with. Of course, they want to have fun seasonals, like a spiced ale (cinnamon, nutmeg, honey and orange peel) and are still playing around on their pilot system to decide their favorites.

Now for the beer we tried! We sampled their Chipped Tooth IPA, paired with some great hot dogs from Happy Fatz. I don’t usually like to review this style of beer on my blog since most of y’all know very well that I am not a fan and hate to pass judgement with such a bias. The bitter finishes that are common, coupled with the aftertaste that seems to linger and destroy my palate for any subsequent beers just does not do it for me, but I didn’t find that bitter finish on this beer. It is quite hoppy, they use Magnum, Citra and Amarillo varietals, which gives it a more floral and citrus hop profile. This combination is much less offensive to me, while still being very hop forward. For an IPA around 7%, the booze is very well hidden. I must say, my boyfriend and co-interviewer, John, was all but madly in love with this IPA. I trust his judgement on this style, IPAs being a favorite of his. Also, knowing my friends’ tastes and their affinity for hoppy beers, I think Chipped Tooth will be a big hit for Yard Sale. Not to mention, a likely, and welcomed, addition to the tap wall at Petrol Station, hop capital of Houston.

I support all of Houston’s new breweries, and am equally excited to see what these guys do for our burgeoning craft beer scene. I think if they can secure a location that fits their business concept, the Heights will be lucky to have them. I can’t wait to try more beers from Justin and Steve.

Yard Sale is planning to be at a few events in December where you can sample their beers, stay updated on their plans by following them on Facebook and Twitter.