Balanced Brews, Made Local

Brent and Kat Thompson, the husband and wife team behind Texas Ale Project, were living in Ithaca, New York when they decided they wanted to make beer for the rest of their lives. Kat was attending Cornell’s MBA program at the time, and became involved in student led wine and beer clubs there. “I entered us into the homebrew competition. This was our first time brewing beer, we were complete novices, but we just did it for fun”, Kat tells us.

They had no idea how drastically this competition would affect the course of their lives. Fermenting in their closet and bottling by hand in the kitchen of their 700 square foot apartment in upstate New York, Brent and Kat discovered not just a hobby, but a lifelong passion. Their first homebrew was an Irish red ale dubbed “Amateur Leprechaun”. Now Brent and Kat are running Texas Ale Project in the design district, certainly more spacious environs than their old apartment, and the first brewery built from the ground up in Dallas proper since prohibition. Now, none of their beers can be referred to as “amateur”.

The beers you’ll find at Texas Ale Project combine an old word reverence for what Kat calls “tried and true European processes” with an innovative impulse to make brews that Brent describes as “in your face”. Savvy brewers understand the need to be both approachable and exotic in their selection, welcoming in craft beer novices and veterans alike. Texas Ale Project does just that; combining the familiar with the boundary pushing to make something that bears a distinctive flavor without alienating newcomers. As Brent puts it: “Every beer that we brew, we want it to be something that you want to go back to. Our IPA for example, ‘50 FT Jackrabbit’, it’s 7% ABV, 70 IBUs, but it’s not abrasive. So you’re really getting that nice bitterness backbone with just enough malt to really carry the hops forward. That’s really what we wrap our whole philosophy around. We want it to be something you can go back to.”

Something you can go back to indeed. We tried 50 FT Jackrabbit ourselves and were impressed with how a beer clocking in at such a high level of bitterness could be so sessionable. 50 FT Jackrabbit’s big brother is called “100 Million Angels Singing”. This beer is a love letter to IPA fanatics. At 100 IBUs and 9.2% ABV, it definitely meets the criteria of “in your face”, but as Brent and Kat are sure to point out, like all their beers, it’s still well balanced. The third core beer Texas Ale Project has on the market, readily available in cans all over the metroplex, is called “Fire Ant Funeral”, their Amber Ale. For beer drinkers who prefer malty sweetness to hop bitterness, this is the T.A.P. brew to get. It’s easy drinking; a flavorful, smooth, caramel hued ale with a malty nose, a clean finish, and just a tinge of bitterness for balance.

You can visit Kat and Brent yourself, and enjoy one of the bold, balanced brews they and their team have concocted. The Texas Ale Project taproom is open Thursdays and Fridays from 5pm to 9pm, and on Saturdays from 1pm to 9pm. They also offer free tours every Saturday at 2pm and 3pm. If it’s available, ask for their winter seasonal white Russian imperial stout, “The Caucasian”. The Caucasian is an anomaly; a gold colored stout brewed with whole vanilla beans and cold brew coffee. The beer is rich and smooth, potently flavored yet drinkable. It’s a great embodiment of what makes Texas Ale Project unique in the North Texas craft beer landscape.