I had the pleasure of getting to go to the Houston Untapped Festival this year. This is an outdoor festival showcasing numerous craft beers, and some really good indie music. The wildly unpredictable Houston weather had the first laugh as it was rained out on the original date, but it was the Untapped Fest who had the last laugh when it rescheduled for a month later. The weather was great!
Set on Houston’s beautiful downtown oasis that is Discovery Green Park, the Festival began with a line forming to get in just before the festival opened. I snuck in a little early to see the set up and chat up a few friends. I even tried a couple nice local offerings from Fort Bend Brewing. If you have not tried the Phat Dj IPA and the Pumpkin Porter, you should. As the gates opened and the crown came in, everything seemed to flow very smoothly. The music started, and me and my team were off to try some beer and mingle with the crowd.
The beer lineup was excellent! The kings of the court in my opinion was Saint Arnold who brought out their Bishops Barrel series and staggered out the entire line up 1-7 as the day progressed. They were not the only ones who brought out special releases for the event… Firestone Walker, Stone, and Buffalo Bayou were just a few of the others that I saw bringing out the rare beers. The selection was vast and had something to offer everyone who enjoys craft beer.
The Music was not to be over shadowed here either. A few times I would find myself in front of one of the two stages jamming out, and almost forgetting about the beer festival going on around me.
The festival set up the food area away from the beer tents in an area with places to relax, sip your beer, and eat. All within earshot of the music, but not so loud you couldn’t talk to a friend. There were also a couple games of bean bag toss going on under some shade.
As festivals go, this one was very well done. A great place to bring your dog, and get to chum it up with beer nerds, brewery reps, and many brewers themselves were out there having a great time. The excellent music and beer selections were in complete harmony with the beautiful ambience. To top it all off, there were enough port-o-potties that I never had to wait for one to open up and they were clean! I would highly recommend this festival to anyone looking to try a beer festival.
