BEER AND FOOTBALL
Brew of H gives Cougars fans their own beer to enjoy during football season
Aug 31, 2018, 1:11 pm
Brew of H is now available in cans. No Label Brewing
Houston Cougar football season has mercifully descended upon us, and as fans flood into TDECU stadium they’ll be happy to know that their namesake brew will once again be ready, waiting, and even more accessible all season long.
Katy-Based No Label’s “Brew of H” Pale Ale returns to the stadium for its second year, sporting a new distributor for easier access as well as can availability for students and alums alike to enjoy.
“We at No Label couldn’t be more excited about the launch of Brew of H in cans this year,” No Label Co-Owner Jennifer Royo exclaimed. “It’s going to be a great season with great beer. We can’t wait to cheer on our Coogs with a cold Brew of H.”
Those brand new cans shouldn’t be too hard to find either, as No Label announced a new distribution partnership with Silver Eagle Distributors. The new partnership ensures greater availability to Cougar fans not only across the city, but also greatly increases its presence within the stadium itself. And more beer is never a bad thing.
Royo and her husband Brian have accomplished an uncanny feat. From UH students to alumni to craft beer entrepreneurs, to ultimately serving a product made in homage to UH back to the university itself. The announcement of their partnership with Silver Eagle only adds to what was already a heartwarming, albeit unique success story.
Interestingly enough, Brew of H’s genesis can be traced back to 2014. At the time it was simply a T-shirt design by local craft beer-centric clothing line Brewheart Apparel, sold online and to patrons of the on-campus bar The Rooftop Bar and Grill on Calhoun. The whimsical play on words has since made the improbable jump from T-shirts and hats to an actual brew pouring out of taps across the city and now be distributed in tailgate-friendly cans, just in time for the fall semester.
In 2015 No Label and Brewheart Apparel began discussions to put an actual brew to Brew of H. By mid August of 2016 the beer had debuted and was an instant favorite to students and city-wide Cougar fans alike. Since then Brew of H has been widely viewed as the unofficial beer of UH.
“If someone would have told me four years ago that one of my t-shirt designs would become a widely distributed beer, I would have told them they were crazy,” Brewheart owner Shannon Parker said. “It has been incredibly surreal, not to mention humbling to work with No Label and watch the Brew of H brand grow and inspire Coogs and Houstonians as a whole.”
Per No Label, the Pale Ale recipe is described as “light bodied with a soft fruity aroma with hints of orange zest giving way to hints of grapefruit and a piney dankness. A perfect balance of malt and hops gives Brew of H its refreshingly crisp and easy drinking character with a nice and dry finish.”
The T-shirt itself can still be found at The Rooftop Bar and Grill on Calhoun and brewheartapparel.com, with availability soon coming to woodsonslocal.com. The shirt comes in various styles, including short sleeve and ¾-length sleeve.
Ultimately the unlikely story of a sweet shirt design turned regionally distributed craft-beer has continued to prosper and benefit Cougar fans and beer enthusiasts alike. This weekend we can all toast to the start of a new college football season, and with No Label’s new distribution partnership, there’s little reason why Cougars across the city shouldn’t be toasting with a frosty pint of Brew of H.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”