BMartin42 Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 My wife and I will be in San Antonio and Houston in April. Anyone know if any of the distilleries in those two cities are worth hitting? Never been down that way before. Schedule is going to be relatively tight so I know we won’t be able to get up to Garrison or any of the other Austin area ones. I saw a Yellow Rose in Houston and Alamo and Ranger Creek in San Antonio but don’t want to waste our time if they aren’t worth it. Love to hear from anyone in the know. Bars/restaurants with good selection particularly in San Antonio would be appreciated as well. Doubt we will have time for that in Houston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoustonNit Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 I live in Houston and I’ve never been to a local distillery. I have never heard anything good about Yellow Rose. The only one I’d consider going to is Whitmeyer’s.You said no time for bars but if your on the Southeast side by Clearlake I’d go Rosewater. I’d be a regular there if I lived on that side of town. If you want bar or store recommendations feel free to PM me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinjoe Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 9 hours ago, BMartin42 said: My wife and I will be in San Antonio and Houston in April. Anyone know if any of the distilleries in those two cities are worth hitting? Never been down that way before. Schedule is going to be relatively tight so I know we won’t be able to get up to Garrison or any of the other Austin area ones. I saw a Yellow Rose in Houston and Alamo and Ranger Creek in San Antonio but don’t want to waste our time if they aren’t worth it. Love to hear from anyone in the know. Bars/restaurants with good selection particularly in San Antonio would be appreciated as well. Doubt we will have time for that in Houston. It's been a while since I've been to Poison Girl, but I had a great time there when @doubleblankand @wadewood took a bunch of us SBers there to get sloshed... Excellent bourbon selection, and I think they still do a fair amount of their own barrel selects. PS: These are my very first ever @s !!!!! @scottbutt I did it again!!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoustonNit Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 It's been a while since I've been to Poison Girl, but I had a great time there when [mention=377]doubleblank[/mention]and [mention=332]wadewood[/mention] took a bunch of us SBers there to get sloshed... [emoji4] Excellent bourbon selection, and I think they still do a fair amount of their own barrel selects. PS: These are my very first ever @s !!!!! [emoji3] [mention=2914]scottbutt[/mention] I did it again!!! [emoji3] Yeah I know you said no bars but I almost feel like Poison Girl is a must, certainly over any Houston distillery. Didn’t bother mentioning it because I feel likes it’s an institution in these parts. I think it might be time for some Turkey Tuesday from my favorite picker in town. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMartin42 Posted January 22, 2020 Author Share Posted January 22, 2020 Thanks for the suggestions and keep em comin! Probably will be staying SE side in Houston. As soon as I finish this post I will google Rosewater and Poison Girl. As I’m looking at our itinerary there may actually be more time for evening libations than I thought and less daytime available for a distillery in Houston anyway. San Antonio I will have plenty of time for day and nighttime fun so would love to hear about that area too if anyone is familiar with bourbon spots. That is more of the vacation while Houston is more work related (sort of, hard to explain). Flying so won’t be able to take anything back really so any old store should be ok to find something to drink during the week and I wouldn’t want to invade a fellow SBers honey hole anyway. I’d feel like a trespasser. If I do find any of that supposed stash of Weller I always hear about in Texas though..... ETA: Holy Cow that bourbon list at Poison Girl!!! May have to figure out a way to squeeze at a couple hours and an Uber! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wadewood Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 I'm part of the Texas Whiskey Association and we have setup a Texas Whiskey Trail. To be a member distillery and on the trail you must ferment, distill, age and bottle whiskey in Texas. Here is a link to our trail; it's divided up into sections of the state. In the Houston area, we have 3 - MKT, Gulf Coast and Whitmeyer's. Whitmeyer's was just recently added so we need to update the trail map to include them. Ranger Creek is in San Antonio and several in the Hill Country region are not far drives from there. https://texaswhiskeytrail.com/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeepCover Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 As others have suggested, try to hit Poison Girl and/or Rosewater. I’d also recommend Whiskey Cake if you can fit it in your schedule. I’ve never had a whiskey distilled in the greater Houston area that would justify a distillery tour. I would skip the Houston distilleries. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wadewood Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 On 1/31/2020 at 6:54 AM, DeepCover said: I’ve never had a whiskey distilled in the greater Houston area that would justify a distillery tour. I would skip the Houston distilleries. I've conducted several 15 person blind tasting that included 18+ whiskies. In one a Whitmeyer's (local Houston distillery) Single Barrel Bourbon finished 2nd beating out numerous well known KY bourbons. Then again an earlier version on Whitmeyers from April 2015 finished last in the previous blind tasting. Also I've enjoyed every distillery tour I've ever been on and that number is well over 100. Many of them maybe I did not like their products (Woodford) but still enjoyed the tour. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeepCover Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 13 hours ago, wadewood said: I've conducted several 15 person blind tasting that included 18+ whiskies. In one a Whitmeyer's (local Houston distillery) Single Barrel Bourbon finished 2nd beating out numerous well known KY bourbons. Then again an earlier version on Whitmeyers from April 2015 finished last in the previous blind tasting. Also I've enjoyed every distillery tour I've ever been on and that number is well over 100. Many of them maybe I did not like their products (Woodford) but still enjoyed the tour. If I had a group of friends that wanted to tour the Whitmeyer’s distillery, sure I’d go, and I’d set aside my cynicism and skepticism. I’d probably enjoy it. But I also know that if I purchased a bottle of Whitmeyer’s bourbon off the shelf at my local LS, I wouldn’t enjoy it. I didn’t care for their sourced stuff and I haven’t cared for the 3 different selections of their own distillate I tried either. “Harvey’s Remnants” was a joke, especially at $75+. I’d take a $23 bottle of BT anytime over that every time. I’m not rooting against Whitmeyer’s or any other TX distillery, but I’m also not going to put my rose colored glasses on and hype a distillery that isn’t putting out quality bourbon with any regularity. Good for them if they located and bottled a honey barrel that beat out some KY whiskeys. Let me know when I can find a quality bottle of Whitmeyer’s on the shelf in a store and I’ll be glad to pay the going rate and support a local distillery. Until then, I’ll keep passing on bottles that look to be in their Terrible Two’s or in a blend with KY and IN whiskey to mask the age of their own distillate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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