From Texas to Beyond

Local, Near and Far: Our journey of exploring the world.

Category: Resources (Page 6 of 7)

information that is helpful and resourceful in setting up your travel

Middleton, WI

April 16, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Just West of Madison is the suburb of Middleton; had we not arranged for our hotel to be in Middleton I think we likely would have missed out all we were able to enjoy there. Middleton is home to a number of little treasures, I’m going to share about three that we were able to visit.

After traveling up to Monroe, visiting Baumgartner’s, Minhas, and New Glarus, we drove up to our hotel in Middleton. Not wanting to venture into Madison proper yet, we searched for a place to grab dinner close to where we were staying. Yelp recommended Hubbard Avenue Diner, and it was all of three miles from our hotel so we said yes! Stepping in to Hubbard Ave Diner, you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. It has the quinntessential vibe of an old-timey diner with the menu and love of pie to prove it! Little did we know that they are all about the pie there! After waiting close to 45 minutes to get a table (it is a popular place on a Friday night!), we were seated and served quickly. When we visit a new place that we know we’ll only try once, Matt will always ask “what is the one dish we should have at this restaurant?”. Thus, he ended up with chicken pot pie and warm applesauce and I had the pot roast with veggies. We thought the specialty dish would have been a burger, but not here! The servers and clientele were all very friendly–an attitude we almost always experienced outside of Chicago and the suburbs! Unfortunately, we didn’t save room for pie but thought/hoped we might return another night when we were needing a snack.

Hubbard Avenue Diner Menu

Matt enjoying his last bites of applesauce.

The National Mustard Museum was by far one of my favorite parts of our trip. When I had been researching things to do I didn’t come across it–I think we actually discovered it via a brochure in the Hubbard Ave Diner. Just a block from the diner, we decided we had to check it out; the claim to fame was something along the lines that there were hundreds of different types of mustard and the museum was FREE. The upstairs of the museum is a huge mustard store and gift shop. Throughout the store, there were samples of different types of mustard with pretzels. or you can take a particular mustard to the counter and one of the helpful employees will pull an open jar from the refrigerator case and allow you to try it. The employees were so knowledgeable knowing the different styles and telling us about the different tasting notes–who knew mustard was so involved! Mustard and different gift boxes are available for purchase as well–we stocked up on Christmas gifts for our parents and they loved it! The downstairs is the actual “history of mustard”, everything from when it was first used, to when it started being mass produced as French’s. There are mustard jars from all parts of the world that line the walls, along with other memorabilia and even a little space to watch a film. I know that this was a random little museum, but I loved learning and sampling(!) the mustard.

Vending machine mustard at the National Mustard Museum.

Capital Brewery is also located in Middleton, just a few blocks from the diner and museum. For $7 you get to go on a tour of their facility, receive a commemorative glass and get to sample four of their beers. This seemed like a pretty good deal, so we arrived early and were able to purchase tickets, receive our four tokens for the beers, and glass, and go on an afternoon tour. They have since changed their process and you must reserve/purchase your tickets online, so be prepared for that. The start of the tour included an informational session in their lounge where you could start your samples while listening to the history of Capital Brewery. The tour then moves through their hallway of awards–we were surprised to learn of their achievements and awards–not because the beer wasn’t good, but because we hadn’t heard of them! As the tour moves into the warehouse where the beer is produced, they share their brewing process; the tour guide we had was very proud of their product and passionate to share with the group; it was a great way to spend $7 and 90 minutes.

Capital Brewery

Logistics: 3 Now that they have moved to an online reservation system, this seems like it would be easier because you have a guaranteed spot, but it does mean you have to plan.

Atmosphere: 2 There was at least one bachelor party in our tour group, along with several other obnoxious patrons that made the tour not as enjoyable.

Value: 4 $7 for a long tour, four samples and commemorative glass make for great value.

Beer-Taste: 4 There was a seasonal beer available that had pumpkin notes, along with their year-round beers, we were impressed and enjoyed all that we tried.

Beer-Variety: 4 There were 8 different beer options available, so you really had to choose your samples carefully!

Tour: 3 The tour was informative, but I think the guide being a bit over the top made the tour just ok for us.

So there is Middleton in a snapshot, I think we captured the highlights, but also wish we had more time to explore. What are some of your favorite unexpected places you’ve visited (like The National Mustard was for us) and why?

Madison Trip Overview

April 13, 2015 / / 2 Comments

Matt and I have a tradition of alternating years that we plan something for our anniversary and birthdays. We’ve done everything from a weekend trip, to a basketball game, to (last year) eating at Wendy’s with our three week old. We both love this because we get the opportunity to surprise each other and not one person always has to be responsible.

For our second anniversary, we were both knee deep in work. Before I started at my full-time job, we had been taking short weekend trips about once every 6-8 weeks, but with both of us working it had become a lot harder to get away. We both desperately needed a change of scenery, even if for just a few days! We both love Wisconsin and the previous trips we had taken there, so naturally when it was my turn to plan, I chose to put together a long weekend trip where we might be able to explore a new area of the state.

Now, you’ve probably already picked up that we enjoy visiting breweries and trying new beers as well as exploring whatever new town/city we happen upon. Originally, I had the idea to drive out to a bed and breakfast that was also a brewery(!); I was SO excited about this. You can imagine my sadness when I researched and found out that it was in a super small town, where by my Google search, there wouldn’t be any restaurants and the brewery itself wouldn’t be open. I tried SO hard to tack this on to either the first night or last night of the trip, but it just did not pan out. So, back the drawing board! Thankfully I found a few great online resources to look up various breweries in southern  Wisconsin and came across four different breweries within a couple hours of each other–two of which happened to be in Madison.

Once I figured out where in Wisconsin we would be going, it was easy to put the rest of the trip together. When I trip plan for us, I use TripAdvisor, Yelp, and even city websites to create a list of a handful of places that we might want to visit, this includes restaurants, breweries, museums, local events, points of interest, etc. I try to gather all the helpful information such as hours of operation, address, tickets needed, admission price, and any other helpful information. If I’m feeling really ambitious I put everything on a map so we can easily see what things we might want to do on the same day. We usually don’t set an itinerary unless we really want to see a particular museum and say it is only open on Friday afternoon, then we plan accordingly.

So, some of the things you’ll be reading about the next few days are from this southern Wisconsin and Madison trip. Because of our work schedules, we took three whole days (including travel), leaving on a Friday morning and returning Sunday late afternoon. We decided that we could have easily spent one more day in Madison because there were things we did pass up, but if you’re looking for a snapshot, I think we captured it. Here is an overview of what we’ll be covering the next few days.

Tuesday — Baumgartner’s Cheese Store and Tavern & Minhas Brewery, Monroe WI

Wednesday — New Glarus Brewing

Thursday — Hubbard Ave Diner, National Mustard Museum & Capital Brewery, Middleton WI

Monday — Wisconsin State Capitol & Madison Museum of Modern Art

Tuesday — The Old Fashioned & Marigold Kitchen

Wednesday — Ale Asylum

 

Texas Craft Brewery List, Brewery, Craft, Tank, Texas

Texas Craft Brewery List – What to Drink in Texas

April 11, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Texas Craft Beer is blowing up!  The options are almost endless, with new brews and breweries popping up every month.  Each brewery is different, with unique beers and distinct experiences. And we want to try them all, right?  Right.  And with our Texas Craft Brewery List, that goal just got easier!

I tried to find a current comprehensive list of all craft breweries in Texas, and failed.  Thinking I might not be alone in this search, I had the great idea to come up with my own list. The only problem, I greatly underestimated the number of craft breweries in Texas.  By my count, there are 128 breweries currently operating in Texas, with more breweries trying to open their doors.  128 breweries!  That is huge.  And I am not including gastropubs, places that brew small quantities of beer to sell along with their food options.  I will have to make a second list of these in the future. We hope you find this resource a helpful tool for your quest to find your favorite Texas brew.

A few notes about our Texas Craft Brewery List:
  1. The list of breweries is broken down by geographic region.
  2. Tried and True: Breweries in italics indicates that at least one of From Texas to Beyond’s authors have sampled this brewery’s beer.
  3. Been There. Done That.: Breweries in bold and italics indicates that at least one of From Texas to Beyond’s authors have visited this brewery.
  4. We will update this list as new breweries open.
  5. If you have any modifications to this list, please email me directly at david@fromtexastobeyond.com. We appreciate any help in making this list a great tool for all to use!
  6. I have compiled our Texas Craft Brewery List from multiple different sources and personal research.  Feel free to use this list, but please be kind and cite our page as your source.
Fort Worth and Surrounding Area:
Dallas and Surrounding Area:
North Texas Area:
Austin and Surrounding Area:
San Antonio and Surrounding Area:
Central Texas Area:
Houston and Surrounding Area:
East Texas Area:
Gulf Coast Area:
West Texas Area:

 

The Texas Craft Brewery List was last updated on August 2, 2018.

State of the Blog Report

April 9, 2015 / / 2 Comments

So, we’ve been blogging for about a month now and one thing we thought we would do is a little recap. There have definitely been things each of us has learned along the way in our short time blogging together and we thought we would share those with you. Each month you’ll hear from either Matt or myself in a ‘State of the Blog Report’ post. We will share with you data–hard numbers and short explanations of the data, as well as cover a designated topic. We are borrowing this idea from one of my favorite blogs, Pinch of Yum, (Shoutout to Lindsay and Bjork, I wish we could be friends in real life and I love reading and trying recipes from Pinch of Yum!) and modifying it to our blog content and topics that we come across each month.

Numbers

We’ve already found that knowing our “numbers” is a delicate balance. A growing readership is our hope and what we are working toward, but at the same time, we know that we are SO new to the blogging scene and these things take time. We do know that these pieces are important though, so we want to share the trends we have seen in the last 30 days.

Google Analytics Traffic Overview-March

Google Analytics Traffic Overview-March

For each category that Google Analytics reports, there is a number and a graph to show the ups and downs of that category. Let’s start with a little glossary of terms, just to make things easier along with an example to help clarify. Let’s say you are checking out ESPN, you start at the home page, click around to check your team’s record, and then read an article about the coaching staff, spending about two minutes overall.

Sessions: This number reflects the number of times our website has been viewed. When you accessed ESPN, clicked around, but were still on the ESPN website, this one experience is counted as a single “Session”.
Users: This is the number of unique individuals who have visited our site.
Pageviews: This is the number of times a person “clicks” on the website. Going back to the example, you were still on the ESPN website, but you started at the home page, went to your team’s page, then read an article, that counts as three pageviews. Still with me?
Pages/Session: This is a simple division of the number of “Pageviews” per “Sessions”. For us, it reflects that each time a person visits our page, they usually click just over three times.
Avg. Session Duration: This tells us how long each “Session” is lasting.
Bounce Rate: This tells us that 42.13% of people visiting our site only have a single “Pageview” per “Session”, so folks who just look at say just the home page, and then leave without exploring further. We are always hoping for a small bounce rate.
% New Sessions: This percentage tells us that 61% of the visitors to our site are completely new; the goal is to strike a healthy mix of loyal readership while also generating new interest.

Google Analytics Traffic Source-March

Google Analytics Traffic Source-March

Another resource provided by Google Analytics is in the graphic above, representing how people get to our site. The glossary terms are the same across the top of the graphic, but more detailed information is given for each “Source”. You can see that several of the top five sources are easily recognized, the first one is from individuals who know and type in our URL, and numbers 2, 4, and 5 are all from Facebook.  Now, items 3 and 6-10 are all a little tricky, remember how we said we are looking for a low bounce rate? Each of these items has a 100% bounce rate AND the average session duration is 00:00:00, but the number of sessions is high. We are still learning what this all means, so I don’t have a good answer for you other than to say on the surface we know that the “Share” button at the bottom of each post does help to drive more traffic to our site. However, we also know that robots following links to our site–some of which build links (which is good)–but is also of little value. I’m sure we’ll be learning more about this and will have more to share about what this really means next month.

WordPress Traffic Overview-March

WordPress Traffic Overview-March

WordPress reports their numbers a little differently, the terminology isn’t the same and the information that is provided to the user does not include the “Bounce Rate” data. WordPress also reflects a number with a graph so we can see exactly what days have a higher traffic volume than others. The weekends are shaded darker in the graphic, so it is pretty clear to us that our readership usually tapers off on Fridays and is low on the weekends.

Views: This number reflects the number of times our website was seen, including the number of clicks. So, back to our ESPN example, according to WordPress, even though you clicked three times while you were in ESPN, this counts as only one “View”.

What Worked… and What Didn’t

There are varying degrees of things that we can say worked well and not so well from this past month. We are new at this and learning, so we also know that perhaps what didn’t work so well this month will be improved as we near the top of the learning curve. Here’s our short list of what worked and didn’t work this month:

Yay, this worked, we feel awesome!

  1. We started our blog, from Texas to Beyond.
  2. We have created a blogging schedule–and we’ve stuck to it!
  3. We established roles, each of us is responsible for some part of our blog and we all have ownership.
  4. Facebook seems to be the most effective source (right now) for referrals and to engage with readers.

Nay, boo, results weren’t what we thought 🙁

  1. Pinterest, Instagram and Flickr have all had a slow(er) start.
  2. Keeping an aggressive pace with our posts has been a challenge, but not so much that we are considering slowing down.
  3. The steep learning curve for us all has been difficult as we learn our roles and become more comfortable with our responsibilities to the blog and each other.

Reflections

I think anyone will tell you there are ups and downs of blogging…we’ve found that, yep, that’s pretty much true. The learning curve for each of has been steep as we prepared for the launch of the blog, and are continuing ongoing maintenance and writing. This month you’ll hear from each of the authors as they reflect on the last month of blogging, expectations, reality, and hopes for the future.

David: Reflecting on the first month of this blogging experiment, I have come to realize a few keys. First, how has our performance matched my expectations? Well, I think the numbers that are shared above met my expectations, but I am not sure since I did not write any down to compare. I would encourage new bloggers to capture their expectations before beginning. Secondly, I must constantly remind myself to not be discouraged! One day, our page views may be down, but maybe we received more Facebook “Likes”, or maybe a new follower retweeted our post, or maybe we got a compliment from a coworker on our photography. There are many platforms which we are receiving feedback. Especially when we see hit a bump in the road, I  focus on remembering the good feedback, holding onto positive notes! I must remember the good! We have been sharing the feedback within our team, and encouraging one another. This helps me persevere when I want to work out, watch TV or drink a beer without taking notes! Thirdly, I am working in the present, the future and the past. This makes it challenging to determine how much work I am expending for one month of posts. Every day, we are creating a solid format for future posts, but this means spending a lot of time writing meaningful introductory posts. We hope these framework posts pay off in the future, such as my article on The Ideal Barbeque Joint. One of my goals was to work ahead of the schedule as soon as possible; during the first month, I have also been working on articles for the next two months. When we make changes in the present, we also must work in the past, modifying previous articles to present a consistent message. Overall, this adventure has been filled with hard work and challenges. However, it is also rewarding to see friends and strangers alike benefiting from that hard work. I am looking forward to another month!

Rebekah: As with most things in my life, I am reminded of a Motown song.  The chorus of “Keep on Truckin’ by the Temptations is in the back of my head as I am reflecting on the first month of our blog.  I am tired, proud and pleasantly surprised.  I knew starting a blog would be a lot of work, but I definitely did not anticipate the GIANT learning curve and the hours required to produce it.  After a while, some tasks will become second nature, but until then, we will keep on truckin’.  Even though we are exhausted, there have been a lot of fun moments and I am SO proud of our work. We could not have had such a high quality by our self.  It is truly a collaborative effort and I am just so proud to be a part of it.    In terms of stats and how the blog has been welcomed, I have been pleasantly surprised.  Our friends and the community of Fort Worth have given us an encouraging welcome and that has been so fun.  Before the start of this blog, my engagement with social media was minimal, at best.  I had a very basic understanding of the terms and strategies.  But as I mentioned before, the learning curve is big, but we are keeping up with it.  I really look forward to the next month!

Rachel: As we went through steps to flesh out each of our roles and responsibilities before our launch, I don’t think we realize the amount of work it would take to really get going. We wanted to start strong (of course) and be successful (duh), but we are still developing and refining our strategy to get there. I myself am responsible for the overall look of our WordPress site, the organization and editing of posts as well as managing three of our five social media platforms. It’s a lot to learn in a short amount of time! BUT, I am so proud of the work we’ve accomplished, the skills I’ve gained (and am still learning) and I’m proud to be a part of something that I feel gives me a purpose outside of being a stay-at-home mommy. I think we are all hopeful that our blogging hobby turns into something more and I am excited to see where it all takes us!

So, there you have it, our first “State of the Blog” report is in the books. We hope you’ll enjoy getting our feedback each month and learning with us.

 

The Ideal Brewery Visit

April 6, 2015 / / 0 Comments

One of the things that brought David and I closer together as friends was going to a local pub to try out different craft beers. It soon became a passion of ours and we both developed hobbies for beer tasting, brewing, and pint glass collecting. Once a week, several local pubs in DFW host a “pint night” where a particular brewery and beer is spotlighted that evening; not only is the beer spotlighted but patrons walk away with a free pint glass from that brewery. This eventually led to collecting pint glasses and soon our cabinets were full! The passion for craft beer even led us to planning brewery visits on vacations.

I don’t have to tell anyone how popular craft beer has become over the last five to ten years. There are a number of new breweries opening their doors each day. The thinking seems to be that if you have a passion and can make a decent homebrew, then you might as well open a brewery. The competition is fierce and the hours are long for these brewers, but for craft beer lovers, this is a great time.

During our journeys, we will be sharing with you different breweries we have visited. We will share our experience of the brewery, what we liked, what we did not like, and if it would be worth going back. In order to share with you our experience and story, we need to create a grading rubric to better describe how we felt about that brewery. In doing so, we give our opinion with the utmost humility, recognizing there will be some controversy on this subject. This is all subjective, as anything is with taste, so much like what we have done with the Tex-Mex and BBQ establishments, let me share with you the categories that are important to us and some of the reasoning behind it. We know not everyone will agree and there is even debate among the authors, but as fellow craft beer enthusiasts, this is our rationale:Brewery tour grading rubric

Logistics: “What?! Beer is not first? Are you serious?” So hang in there and let me explain. We fully admit that the taste of the beer is very important, but if you are planning to take a trip and visit a brewery, you need to keep a few things in mind. Logistics is important because you may have to do a value analysis formula on this. Let me give you an example and we will work through this category. If you are going to visit a local brewery that is 10-20 minutes away, this may not be as important, because you have been there enough and you know when the best time is to go or if tickets are required. But, if you were planning to visit a brewery in another state or it may be the only time you get to visit it, you may want to see if it is worth going to. For example, we used to live in Chicago and one of the best breweries around is about an hour and a half away. Well, they have 5 tours throughout the day but it is on a first come, first serve basis. In order to get on the tour you may have to wait in line for three hours. So let’s say you do that. You wait for three hours, enjoy their food, then goof around until your time slot. Finally, the tour begins and it lasts all of ten minutes. The tour wasn’t informative, you didn’t really get to see anything, and you didn’t get a drink out of it. Was your time worth it? Honestly, no. This is why logistics are important, namely because if you are planning to go to a new place, you don’t want to waste your time. Essentially, it is important to consider timing, pre-ordering tickets (if needed), and the crowd.

Atmosphere: “Where. Is. The. Beer?!” Patience young Skywalker! Atmosphere and the clientele can make or break a brewery. Some of these things the brewery has no control over, including the type of customer; often the brewery is just happy to have the money and the customers in their doors. So maybe it is full of college kids who are used to drinking Bud Light and can go to a brewery and drink a lot for ten dollars. Or maybe it is full of beer nerds and they are all trying to show off their knowledge by continually interrupting the guide to talk about the fermentation process or all the flavor notes in a Irish Stout. Another important factor in the atmosphere is what is the brewery like? Does it smell like a brewery? Is it in a warehouse in the city, or a barn in the country? For the beer enthusiasts, it is important to see the manufacturing process. Does the tour or brewery provide a glimpse of how the beer is made (more on this in the tour section)? Lastly, if you are a visitor to this brewery, one of the biggest irritations is having to wait in a really long or unstructured line in order to get a beer. If I am there to taste a breweries product, I really don’t want to have to wait in line for 20-30 minutes trying to fight off others just to get a potentially bad beer.

Value: “What?! Now I am really getting mad that beer taste hasn’t been mentioned!” Hold on, we are almost there. If you are going to visit a brewery, you will want to know what you are getting for your money. One of the last things you may want to do is pay $20 to visit a brewery where there are no samples, and the “tour” is absolute garbage. For value, we want to know the costs and what is included. If I am planning on a trip and trying to decide between two breweries, I want to know if my visit to that brewery will be worth it. Will I be able to see the brewery? Will I get to leave with a pint glass? How much (if any) beer samples are included in the price?

Beer – Taste: “Well it is about time!” Undoubtedly one of the most important factors in a beer. There are many breweries that we have visited with limited knowledge and walked out in love with their beers. There are also a good many whose beer we will never try again. After visiting the facility, learning about them, and tasting the beer, we have also come away with a greater appreciation for that brewery. Some important factors for the taste is: (1) Simply put, is it good? Would you drink it again or are you looking for the nearest drain to pour it into? (2) Is it easy to drink? This doesn’t mean can you chug it in 30 seconds, but is it smooth? Is it bitter? Or sour? Does it have a bad aftertaste? Even though it may be a stout, do you find yourself looking forward to the next sip? Or are you trying to just get it over with? (3) Are there any special tasting notes? If it is a pumpkin ale, can you taste the pumpkin? and (4) Would you get it again at a pub or store?

Beer – Variety: Many breweries just have their normal selection on tap which is fine if you like the normal stuff. One of the best things about visiting a brewery is not only tasting their whole line of beers, but their special brews and seasonal offerings. We also love it when breweries offer beers made in unique ways, like brewing in an old world technique.

Tour: There are many breweries that simply fail at this. The beer is great but the tour is awful or non-existent, or vice versa. A good tour is going to be educational, engaging, fun, and have a knowledgeable tour guide (hopefully a brewmaster). Other factors include the length of the tour, seeing the manufacturing/canning/bottling process, and being able to drink on the tour. The beer may stink, but if it is engaging, fun and lighthearted, you could find yourself wanting to go back because it was such an enjoyable experience.

Other Noteworthy Items: These are items that put the brewery over the top. They are those things that cannot be graded but give bonus points for just being awesome. These are the things that stand out and set the brewery apart from the rest. Think of this like a BBQ joint that lets you see the pits or serves their food on butcher paper. Or a Tex-Mex restaurant that has a tortilla factory making fresh tortillas. Some examples would be the brewery giving the spent grains to local farms, or offering beer in bio-degradable cups that will turn to dust in 3 months. Other intangibles include offering good food or food venders; one of the worst things is going to a brewery and enjoying the beers but not having any food to munch on. Some breweries in the south offer more of a family atmosphere by allowing people to bring their pets and children. They have space for games like bocce ball or corn-hole. Also, breweries that offer gluten-free beer is a major plus. Or non-alcoholic options for the designated driver/minors is always a plus. A minority of breweries brew their own root beer and colas which is a great option for those that cannot drink. All this to say that not every brewery has the time, space, or capacity to do these things, but by offering them it sets them apart from the competition.

Here is our humble attempt at trying to provide different ideas and concepts to look for when visiting a brewery. Each experience will be unique. It may depend on the time you went and who served you. But in doing this rubric, we hope to provide you the reader with quality information to see if it is worth your time, energy and money to visit a brewery.

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