It’s basically a fancy-ass icehouse.
The brewhouse is quiet today, so you know all the heat is just naturally occurring on a 100-degree day in Texas Hill Country. It’s that kind of sauna-esque climate in which even the sound of chirping crickets has a piercing intensity. It’s like there’s an underlying anxiety about the place.
Combating that heated state, a cooler of beers selected by Brien Sublette of Jester King sits ready like an itinerary. A Bière de Miel. A spontaneous ale. A bottle of base Saison. But we start it all off with Le Petite Prince—the sub-3% ABV Table Beer that expresses the local water character as much as it does yeast, hop, or grain profiles. It’s a beer that defines this accomplished farm brewery for me.
We explore a bit—up in the coolship, ducking and sliding amongst the barrels, out to the old barn where they age the hops. But we keep returning, sweat slicking our foreheads and soaking through our shirts, to this little oasis, still as icy and thrilling as when we left it.
