02 Jan Top 17 of 2017

The Top 17 Posts of 2017

This has been a crazy year for Houston. World Series win, Harvey, snow, etc. The beer and our blog’s been no different. While Instagram settles for a top 9, we figured the top 17 of 2017 had a better ring to it.

So here are the top 17 most viewed blogs on the site for 2017. Some are beer reviews, others are breaking news, and others still are simple information that people have found useful.

17 No Label Sittin’ Sidehaze Beer Review

The 17th most visited blog of 2017 was this review that Tony wrote about Sittin’ Sidehaze. While they weren’t the first, they were one of the first to nail it. They took their time and it showed with this pineapply-orangey-fruity IPA of a beer. Despite Tony’s beef with the art, it’s a solid beer, and it’s easy to see why so many people have sought out to read about it.

16 11 Below Brewing Brewery Guide

One of the most fun evenings that we’ve ever had “on business” has been with the team at 11 Below, and I guess y’all agreed. Something about their humble, humorous selves has proven that brewing is more about making memories. We liked them so much, we even had Jeff write a guest post for us, but we’re saving it for a rainy day. Be on the lookout for it soon!

15 News of Texian Closing their Taproom

Bad news travels fast. That’s probably how this post landed at 15 for the year. When we broke this story, we earned the very-unofficial title of “the TMZ of Houston Beer”. We’re honored, and we’ll do our best to live up to it. Texian didn’t shut down, but they did close their taproom. Lots of people were speculating, but the truth is in the blog.

14 Lone Pint Yellow Rose IPA Beer Review

A classic. While it’s been under some scrutiny in the last few months for consistency (we’re working on a post on that too, so stay tuned), it’s still a Texas legend and something that people seek out on the blog. Those Mosaic hops put Yellow Rose at 14 on the most read blogs of 2017.

13 News of HopDrop, Houston’s First Dedicated Craft Beer Delivery Service

This is sort of a shocker since it was one of the most recent posts on the site, but it’s also not much of a shocker since it’s kind of a big deal. Now you can Hop Drop It, and if you don’t know know ya know… (Once you read the post). Fresh, local beer delivered to your door within an hour. Beat that.

12 F U Harvey Teku Round 2

These glasses were an accident and a half, a salvaged attempt at sticking it to the big guys ruined by Hurricane Harvey’s devastation. It seemed far more useful to use the $ we raised to help flood victims, so we pulled the plug on the original intent and did just that. But humble beginnings don’t have anything to do with big finishes, and the demand continues for these glasses (and relief efforts) long after the storm, hence why it’s number 12 on the list.

11 News of SpindleTap and Parish Collab on Operation Juice Drop

This is easily one of the coolest stories we’ve had the honor to be a part of, thanks to Sam’s crafty networking. There have been big collabs in town, namely Sierra Nevada and Saint Arnold, but there was something super special about the timing and heart of this one. SpindleTap and Parish collaborated to brew a hazy IPA to end all hazy IPAs, and they donated all the $ to Harvey relief. It’s a no brainer that it made the list.

10 SpindleTap Brewery Guide

July of 2018 will make 2 years of Beer Chronicle, and we’ve learned a lot along the way. We’ve all drank a ton of Houston beer, and we’ve all got a ton more to cover, but this write up is where we really began hitting our stride with the questions we ask and how we help tell people’s stories. We can’t even begin to take credit for SpindleTap’s success this year, but it’s an honor to help shine the light where credit is due. That light keeps getting brighter as the days pass, and that’s probably why this post is number 10 on the list.

9 Hey! Where’d My Haze Go? (And Can I Get it Back?)

Never one to shy away from controversy, we said what everybody was thinking. Great beer and friendships aside, we had to dig deeper into the haze craze and the even more crazy disappearance of it! None of these beers have a whole lot of staying power, and that’s by design, but Nick wanted to delve into storage a bit more and see how that affected things. Beer nerds already know, but this list is pure proof that not all of our readers are true mavens (yet). We as craft beer drinkers have to get our heads out of our own asses and realize that there are so many people that want to try new, fresh, creative, local beer, but so many of us are too busy being pretentious dicks about it that some of our BMC-drinking friends are afraid to ask us about it. Whoooo! *Rick Flair* Sorry, that’s a rant for another time/post. Back to the top 17 of 2017.

8 Best Crawfish Beers in Houston

Houston loves good food. What goes better with good beer than good food? Good people, of course! That’s why Chris, Tony, and his wife crawfish-hopped around town for a few weeks making pairing notes of the local beers they had. The old spicy-food-with-an-IPA will never fail you, but the best beer on this list is far from Indian or pale. All of our unending desire for good food and good beer put this one in the list.

7 Throwing Shade at Baa Baa: The Eclipse Teku Glass Drama

Everybody loves drama. Turn on the TV and every other show is some “reality” show filled with housewives or fake marriages, and they all center around one thing: dramatic people spewing venom. Although it was (mostly) all cleared up in the end, there was quite a fuss about a single Teku glass at Baa Baa’s Eclipse NEIPA release, and it had the HCBS FB group abuzz, so we figured we’d get all the angles for y’all. It proved to be a winner.

6 News of SpindleTap’s Houston Haze Release and Review

SpindleTap makes the top 17 for the third time with news of Houston Haze’s release. It’s no wonder with so many breweries putting out hazy IPAs this year that somebody had to shoot for the throne. The jury’s still out, and it probably always will be, but the traffic on our site’s an indicator that Houston Haze is one of the most read about things in Houston Beer in 2017, and rightly so.

5 Top 5 Stouts in Houston

Baby it’s cold outside… At least at the time of writing this post! Nothing goes better with cold weather than some dark beer, and we wanted to make a competition of it because y’all seem to enjoy that stuff! Jon Denman hosted us and participated in the tasting at Drink of Ages Pub, and a good time was had by all. The winners weren’t a big shock, but there were a few surprises in the blind tasting. Not sure if it was the “duh” beers or the shockers that had y’all reading, but this one landed at number 5 on the list because you read it!

4 Fullbrook Ale Works Opening in Texian’s Old Facility

There’s always a silver lining, right? It’s not just some old cliche adage that your grandpa said to cheer you up! It’s the truth! While we were all bummed to hear about Texian closing their taproom, we were almost guiltily happy at the news of Fullbrook Ale Works popping into the Houston scene. We’re still awaiting more official details and their proposed launch date has long passed, but that’s pretty typical of opening up a brewery/taproom. We’ll keep you posted once we know more, but for now, sink your teeth into this one.

3 2016-2017 Most Valuable Brewery (MVB)

To celebrate our birthday last July (7-13-2017), we decided we’d shy away from patting ourselves on the back and instead honor the breweries that make this blog what it is! We had some tough discussions amongst ourselves and even offered it to y’all to vote on. Well, the votes are in, and the MVBs have been chosen, and it was as much fun to read about as it was to organize.

2 Top 5 IPAs in Houston Phase 1

Ask any brewer, check any stats, IPAs reign supreme. It’s no wonder that each brewery has 2-3 (or more) of the style on tap at any given time. That said, we wanted to try and compare as many as we could get our ands on blindly. Not only was it a ton of fun for us to do, it managed to make it to the number 2 spot of 2017 despite the fact that we did it in November of 2016! We’ll be working on phase 2 one day, we promise!

1 What is Skunked Beer?

This is easily the most humbling result of the list. Going back to the rant at the end of #9, it’s crazy how something that we beer nerds take for granted is something that so many people (nearly 10K to be exact) don’t know. It’s even more shocking that they didn’t just text one of their friends that they know is a craft beer nut to ask! Instead, they took to Google, and they landed on this one. Hmm… While we spend much of our time chasing down the next big beer release, fawning over Barrel Aged this and Milk Sugar that, there are still thousands of people that want to know more about craft beer, and we’re happy to be the ones to share it with them.

Conclusion

So thanks for reading our buzzed rambles all year long, and if you haven’t read any of these yet, they’re all worth a look.

Thanks for encouraging us and helping us stay informed about everything, and correcting us when we get it wrong. We really don’t deserve the support, and we’re all genuinely grateful. It’s super crazy to think that Beer Chronicle now has the largest online collection of original content dedicated to covering Houston beer culture in only a year and a half! With hundreds of articles, thousands of unique visitors, and a diverse team of (mostly) Houston natives, Beer Chronicle is sharing Houston beer like nobody else, and we owe that to you for reading and sharing.

Thanks for a badass 2017. Here’s to more releases, more shares, meeting more of you in person, and maybe even adding a few more writers to the team! Beers to you, Houston! 🍺