After having so much fun on last year's Beer Train, we decided to do it again this year. We see the trains for Austin Steam Train on a weekly basis parked behind our beloved Whitestone Brewery, so its usually on our mind to go on another train ride. This year was another trip from Cedar Park to Betram and featured beer from Whitestone Brewery. The restaurant paring with the beer was Greenhouse Crft Food out of Round Rock. Adding more excitement was the addition of a special guest, Olly from Olly's Ale Trail, a Travel Channel show based out of the UK. While onboard, Olly greeted all the passengers, filmed a spot for his episode, and the team collected footage of passengers enjoying their beers. We were told that the episode will air between December 2017 and March 2018, so we can't wait to see our favorite brewery on tv! The train ride was nice and relaxing with the added bonus of musicians adding a little atmosphere this year. We also felt that Greenhouse did an excellent job pairing with the beers, so we will definitely be going to visit them again. The only disappointment on this year's train was that we were on a different car and we didn't have tables, so eating and drinking was a little bit difficult. We lucked out and Mike only ended up wearing a little bit of juice from his taco.

The first paring was the Cedrela Hefeweizen with bruschetta. I always enjoy a good hefeweizen and Whitestone has a great tasting one! Greenhouse created a tasty bruschetta to pair with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, a citrusy marinade and bacon.

Our next course paired the Nipsy Daiser IPA with a pork taco and tortilla chips. The Nipsy Daiser is a seasonal USA IPA made with special hops for the holiday. I am not a fan of IPAs in general, but I drank this up because it did go well with the taco. The tortilla chips were homemade and had delicious seasoning on them. The pork tacos were topped with a jicama slaw and field greens. The pork was super tender and tasty. This course made me really want to go try more of Greenhouse's foods.

For the dessert course, the pairing was the Grand Daddy Bourbon Porter along with a Chocolate Mousse with Mixed Berries and Sponge Cake. This was another great paring. The Grand Daddy is a strong beer, so I was only able to drink part of mine, but it did go great with dessert. The chocolate mousse had a bit of coffee to it which went well with the beer. The berries were nice and fresh and the sponge cake was fluffy and moist. Overall, this was another great beer train trip and we look forward to another beer train adventure next year!

The New Austonian