St. Arnold's brewery

Damn this the shizznit! So last weekend we drive through the endless wasteland known as Houston and its suburbs for a few hours. We finally get off at the part of town where all the billboards are in Spanish and large trucks are pulling in and out of industrial complexes. Somewhat auspicious. Once we got there, we stood in a foyer for a while, surrounded by a mix of 20-something socialites, middle management types, and young Texas dudes. (Some guy had a shirt that said "BIG ROOSTER," then a picture, and underneath the picture it said "(cock)." Yes, I got it without the legend, dude. But thanks for thinking of me.) Anyway, we go inside and it quickly becomes apparant that this is a weekly ritual. Ok, good sign. There is a 15 minute overview of beer and the brewery (which was well done: informative and humorous) and then the floodgates open. Everybody gets in line for the free beer tasting. When you enter, you get 4 free tokens. If you have your own St. Arnold's pint glass ($5 at the gift counter), they fill the thing up at least 2/3 of the way. If you don't, you get a nice 6-8 oz. lasting glass. And so I drank with a bunch of other strangers also, with the atmosphere turning more and more party-like as the afternoon wore on. Great beer, free (!), and a fantastic atmosphere. In fact, it seemed to double as a sort of "singles-meetup" place as the day wore on. And yet again the paradigm is verified: Only in Texas!