Barley Vine

Rochefort is Back!

2011-12-11T20:19:00.003-06:00

While Texas has been getting many new brewery's crossing state lines to enter our fertile market, few have been more anticipated than one that is re-entering. After a multi-year absence, Belgian Trappist brewery Rochefort is back in Texas. Rochefort is a Benedictine monestary brewery in Namur, Belgium, and is one of the 7 Trappist breweries in the world. Rochefort makes 3 different beers, the 6, 8, and 10. Many folks think that these numbers correspond to the percent alcohol however that is incorrect. Instead these numbers corresponds to the Original gravity: 6 corresponds to 1.060, 8 to 1.080 and 10. 1.100. Originally these numbers were close to the percent alcohol, however that was no longer the case, and never the actual intent of the numbers.
When I first heard that Rochefort was back in Texas I went out and picked up two of the 3 available beers.
Rochefort 8: The beer weighs in at 9.2% abv and pours a copper reddish brown color with a thick dense head of taupe colored foam. Very malty nose with notes of candied sugar, caramel and fruit. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, dried figs, raisins and other dark fruits concentrated. Finishes dry. Notes of chocolate, spicey. There is an interesting flavor here, that took me some time to place. Its like burnt sugar, with some brown sugar notes and caramel as well. The best analogy I came up with is the burnt sugar crust on creme brulee. Its a chewy beer, notes of cherry as it warms, very effervescent. No alcohol notes. A great malt forward sipping beer.
Rochefort 10: This is the big brother beer weighing in at 11.3% and pours an almost black color with a thin taupe colored head that dissipates quickly leaving a thin film capping the beer itself. Very malty nose, fruit esters almost grapey. Thick chewy mouthfeel, figs, plums, tobacco, sweet rich. Red wine like quality. Raisins, chocolate, rich chewy malty goodness. I love the fruity tobacco notes of this beer. Its like sitting in a big comfy over stuffed leather chair smoking a pipe. Notes of cola as well as it warms. This is one amazing complex brew.
For those wanting to try Trappist beers and see what all the fuss is about you must seek out Rochefort.

Fight Night Beers

2011-11-14T06:06:00.002-06:00

This past Saturday was Fight Night, which means its a good night to sit down and have a couple of beers. Unknowlingy there was a theme to the beers I had on Saturday.
Sam Adams Griffon's Bow: The second beer I've had from Sam Adams small batch series, this one is an oaked blonde barleywine. Notice that its oaked and not barrel aged. It weighs in at a hefty 11.5% and pours an orangish golden color with a quarter inch of just off white head. The nose is perfumey, notes of honeysuckle, pineapple, toasted malts, and maybe just a hint of oak. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, a good level of carbonation, slightly sweet up front, almost but not quite cloyingly so. Honeysuckle, melon, but finishes dry. Some alcohol, white grape juice flavors, an oaked white wine characteristic. There is a lack of depth to these flavors though that keep it from being really really good. Instead its ok, something worth picking up, but not one I would go out of my way for again.
North Coast Grand Cru: A new beer to the Texas market from a brewery that we've had in the state for a long time and one that makes some outstanding beers. This is a bourbon barrel aged beer made with agave nectar and weighs in at an even heftier 12.9%. It pours a hazy pale golden color with a thin white head. The nose again is perfumey with notes of honey, melon, pale malts, more oak on this one then the last. There are more phenolic notes of alcohol in this beer than the last as well. Great level of carbonation and again sweet up front, melons, honeysuckle. A rich beer, but its very bright, nothing is lost in its richness. Effervescent almost. This has an almost ice wine character to it. It finishes very dry. As it warms notes of peaches, vanilla, nectarines, even a slight tartness that rounds its character out. There is so much depth to this beer its unbelievable. I really enjoyed this one, and I think this is what the Sam Adams beer was trying to be. They are both very similar styles in certain respects, Sam Adams version was almost there, North Coast's was there and then some.

Sam Adams Third Voyage

2011-11-04T14:18:00.002-05:00

Sam Adams is an interesting brewery. They are a brewery that has done great things for the craft beer movement, but many craft beer nerds, turn their nose up at Sam Adams, and don't really consider them a craft brewery. Sure their flagship Boston Lager is not a mind blowingly complex beer, but is a great alternative in hotels and airports when there isn't much other options. Plus they make a great many other beers than just their Lager. Their Imperial Pilsner they brewed a few years back is one of the best beers I've ever had. They really helped create the whole extreme beer movement with Utopias and their Imperial series is damn solid (although I don't care of the Imp White at all). Sure they have their misses (Triple Bock I'm looking at you), but for the most part they make beers ranging from good and solid, to outstandingly complex.
They continue to release special beers, first it was their Barrel Room collection that we unfortunately don't get in Texas (damn label laws) and now its a collection of Small Batch beers, that luckily we do get. The first one I have had the opportunity to try is their Double IPA, Third Voyage. The beer is brewed with simcoe hops and Cascade hops from England, New Zealand, and the US which is where the name for the beer comes from. The name is based off of Captain James Cook third voyage that took him from England, to New Zealand before completing his journey in the Pacific Northwest of the US. But enough of the history lesson, how does the beer taste?
The Beer: The Beer weighs in at 8.0% (not sure of the IBU's) and pours a crystal clear ruby color capped with a dense foamy slightly off white head. The nose is full of hops, citrus, along with some earthy mustiness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a comforting level of carbonation. Massively hoppy, citrus peel, and pitch. Caramel malts, buttered bread, help give balance to the beer. There is a quality to the beer that I equate to hop marmalade on toast points. There is a slight sweetness to this brew that counters the over the top hops of the beer. However after the third or fourth sip, all I get is hops, hops and more hops. The tongue becomes saturated and its all I get. I like the white pepper spice impression that the resiny hops leave on my tongue. This is a fine beer, and makes me want to go out and try the other ones from this series. This one gets a strong B+ from me.

Saint Arnold: Divine Reserve 9 Vs. Pumpkinator

2011-10-17T06:18:00.002-05:00

Last week, Saint Arnold did something they've never done before, re-release a Divine Reserve (well sorta, but more than that in a minute). Last Thursday, marked the release of a new seasonal, released only in Bombers and on draft of Pumpkinator. It ended up being a lot harder to find than many expected. Most folks thought that Pumpkinator would be no different than any other Saint Arnold's seasonal, but that wasn't the case, as it turned out to be kind of a Divine Reserve type day with folks tweeting about where to find a bottle or two. Folks have been calling this a re-release of Divine Reserve 9, which in a way it is, but it also isn't an entirely correct statement either. Yes both are Imperial Pumpkin stouts, made with lots of pumpkin and spices, but DR9 weighed in at 11%, Pumpkinator weighs in at 9.5%, so there is a difference and abv can affect a lot about a beer. So how different are these beers? I have had DR9 at different stages of its life, read about my thoughts here, and here. However, in honor of Pumpkinator's release, I wanted to know how DR9 was tasting now, about 2 years after its release, so I did a tasting of both beers and here are my thoughts:
Pumpkinator: It pours very dark, with a little taupe colored head. A ton of spices on the nose with just a hint of pumpkin and some roasted malts. Medium bodies, maybe a little light, but not bad. Lots of carbonation which was surprising, very spicy, lots of cinnamon, cloves, and that same hint of pumpkin. Its liquid pumpkin pie. Really spicy, but I don't believe its as harsh as I remember fresh DR9 being. The beer is almost chewy its pie-like qualities. As it warms, it gets really good, some chocolatey coco notes come out that play really well with the pumpkin. There is some boozy notes, but again not nearly as much as DR9. A very good beer.
Divine Reserve 9: It pours a very dark chocolate black with a quarter inch head of taupe colored foam that quickly dissipates into a thin cap around the surface of the beer. The nose is of dark fruits, sweet malts and fruitiness. Some canned pumpkin and just a hint of those pumpkin pie spices. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy, lots of roasted malts, figs, raisins, dark chewy malts. Cake like, I compare it to a chocolate pumpkin fudge brownie. Most of the spices are gone now, but there is still some light alcohol notes, but its not unpleasant. A great beer that has aged wonderfully and has some more years to go.
The Verdict: Two good beers. I think I might like Pumpkinator a little more fresh than I did DR9. There is a smoothness and a roundness that wasn't there on the DR release. However, I also don't think Pumpkinator will age as well as DR9 has. DR9 was so powerful when first released that it needed time, Pumpkinator is good now. Yes it will age and do so very well I think, just not as well as DR9. Both are good beers, and its a step in the right direction for Saint Arnold to start a special seasonal release of bomber beers. The next one to be released will be in the spring and will be a version of Divine Reserve 11, definitely one to look out for.

Stone 15th Anniversary Ale

2011-10-11T06:24:00.003-05:00

Anniversary ales are becoming more and more popular these days. Each year brewery's release a special beer celebrating their birthday. Even Texas breweries are getting in on the fun, Real Ale released their own 15th Anniversary ale, an Imperial stout earlier this year. Stone, though is different, they've been doing anniversary beers for a long time and were probably ahead of the curve on this one, as they are on many other trends in beer. When I see their anniversary beer, I'm always a little surprised at how relatively young they are. The same age as Real Ale brewing, but younger than Saint Arnold's, Avery, and some others. I guess I've always just thought of Stone as being around much longer.
For Stone's 15th they made what they are calling an Escondidian Imperial Black IPA. Now if your saying, hmmm that sounds familiar, its because it is. They have a black IPA called Sublimely Self Righteous Ale, itself based off of their 11th anniversary beer, and a beer that I enjoyed. So whats the difference?
The Beer: This Black DIPA weighs in at 10.6% far heftier than SSR's 8.7%. It pours a dark rich chocolate brown with a cafe colored head. Hoppy hop hops on the nose. Citrus peel, pith, fruit all of it. Hints of coco and roasted malts struggle to make their voices heard through the din of hops. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, some astringency either from the booze or from the hops. Roasted malts, grapefruit, citrus peel, chocolate malts. Very very resiny, course, harsh. Much more so than SSR. This is not a gentle beer. There is no balance here, its harshness and hops. Warming it helps some as it gets fruitier, but there is still that harshness that distracts from everything else. Its an interesting brew, and I love hops, but give me an SSR any day over this. I'll give it a C.

Boulevard Nommo

2011-10-10T06:27:00.003-05:00

I count myself lucky that Texas is one of the states that gets not only Boulevard Brewing's regular line up, but their premium series of Smokestack beers as well. I've been impressed with almost everything they have put out in this series of beers. Their newest Smokestack beer is a dubbel, but of course you know its not just any dubbel. This one has been brewed with Molasses and had spices like coriander, Cinnamon and star anise added as well. That's a lot of things going on, but would it come together harmoniously or fall flat on its face?

The Beer: It weighs in at 8.1% and pours a deep rich garnet color with a thick dense of cafe colored foam. The nose is spicey, I really get some coriander here, maybe some star anise. Fruity esters, banana and cloves from the yeast used. Full bodied, and those same banana and clove esters, coriander. I was expecting this beer to be sweet, but it was surprisingly dry. It tastes of fall to me. Notes of coco, and cinnamon show up as it warms. Rich, flavorful, multiple levels. Spices get you, tickling the back of the throat not unpleasantly. Continuing to warm up allows even more coco flavors to pop out. This is a seriously rich complex beer. The dry finish really works helping to keep the beer from being sweet. This definitely did not fall on its face, it worked and worked well. This gets a B+ from me.

Clown Shoes Hoppy Feet

2011-10-07T06:08:00.003-05:00

Another beer from one of the newer breweries in the Texas Market, this one is an infamous Black Pale Ale. How can something be black and pale at the same time? A question for another day perhaps. This beer as all that are labeled as such are dark heavily hopped beers, this one especially so, weighing in at 80 IBU's.
The Beer: At 7% this is not overly high, nor is it a session ale, somewhere in the middle it pours a dark black with ruby streaks when held up to the light, capped with a taupe colored head of foam. The nose is chocolate, burnt coffee beans, roasted malts, and a whiff of citrus peel on the nose. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, lots of black patent malts here. Burnt malts before being walloped with hops. Citrus pith bitterness abounds on the tongue, but I keep going back to the malts that don't hide behind the hops. There is a chalky quality to it, a burnt malt taste to it as it warms up. This overly roasted quality gives some balance to the hops, however I could do without the chalky taste. This one gets a C+ from me.

MIkkeller 10

2011-10-04T06:20:00.002-05:00

Gypsy brewery Mikkeller is one of the more unique breweries in the world. No real place to call a home they travel around the world (mostly in Europe) brewing at different breweries. They also make some really good beers. One of the neat things they did a year or so ago was create a Single Hop series of beers. 10 different beers brewed exactly the same way with the exception of the hops used. This method allowed one to see the impact hops made on all aspects of a beer. I was lucky enough to try a few of these single hopped beers at a Camp Beer earlier this year. Mikkeller has gone from one end of the spectrum to the other with this beer. They have taken the 10 hops used in their single hop series, and blended them into 1 beer.
The Beer: This American IPA labeled beer weighs in at 6.9% and pours a cloudy orangish copper color with a thick dense head of off white foam. Spicy, citrusy, fruity, earthy nose with a hint of toasted malts. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a good level of carbonation. Resiny, floral, notes of grapefruit and tropical fruits. Marmalade with toasted biscuits comes to mind. Resiny finish. Its an OK beer, but as with the single hop series, I think it highlights why most beers use a blend of hops, and why certain hops blend better with some than others. A mishmash of hops thrown together will be hoppy of course, but many nuances are missing that leaves a good beer feeling muddled. This one gets a B- from me. A good beer worth checking out.

Clown Shoes Eagle Claw Fist

2011-09-30T06:34:00.002-05:00

I say this a lot in the blog, but it is a great time to be a craft beer lover in the state of Texas. Craft breweries are popping up everywhere, and more and more breweries are coming into this state (of course I wish there were more coming, but that's a whole other issue). One such brewery is Clown Shoes from Ipswich, Mass. They've been here for a little over a month or so, and for whatever reason I haven't gotten around to trying any of there beers before now. They are known for controversy as much as they are for how their beer tastes which is unfortunate. There are folks out there that seem to me to be a little to easily offended when it comes to Clown Shoes labels. If that gets your dander up, then I can't imagine how one would make it through a day in this world. Frankly I don't care what the label looks like, its whats inside that matters.
The Beer: Labeled an Imperial Amber Ale this one weighs in at 8% abv. The beer pours a ruby amber with a taupe colored head. Very malty on the nose, caramel, toffee, and then you get hints of citrus fruit and hoppy oils. The mouthfeel is full bodied, creamy, very small bubbles of carbonation that lead to this creaminess. Very hoppy, far hoppier on the tongue than the nose indicated. Caramel and Vienna malts in the flavor profile. Very resiny on the finish. Initially I felt the flavors were muddled, there wasn't a vibrancy to the beer. I had just bought the beer and had put it in the fridge to cool down, and maybe I hadn't waited long enough, because when I went back to have a second one, the vibrancy was there, and the flavors were all the same, but they stood out more and this was when I realized I liked the beer thank you very much. This one gets a B + from me.

Deschutes The Stoic

2011-09-27T06:45:00.005-05:00

Deschutes is one of those breweries that has a good line up of regular beers and seasonals that are available in six packs. Then, however, they take things up a whole other level with their special releases. Their Abyss Stout is top notch and one that is considered a "must have" for beer nerds. We are lucky in Houston in that we not only get their six-pack line up but we are starting to get most of their special beers as well. We've been getting their Bond Street (named for the street where their original brew pub was on) series of beer (you may have seen Hop In The Dark, Hope Henge among others). Now we are getting their really special beers like Abyss, Black Butte anniversary, and the subject of my post today, The Stoic.
This one is an usual beer to be sure, before my tasting notes, here are the stats: A quadruple style (which really isn't a true style so call it an American Strong Ale if you want), fermented with pomegranate juice and then portions of the beer are aged in used oak wine barrels, and used oak rye whiskey barrels. Oh yeah it weighs in at 11% abv.
The Beer: The beer pours a light orange color with a thin white head. There is notes of oak, pomegranate, vanilla, fruity esters. The mouth is medium bodied, very fruity, notes of white wine, oaky, spicey, very small hints of pomegranate flavors. Some alcohol burn is present as well. A tartness starts to show up as the beer warms. I keep going back to sweet, almost cloyingly so, with no counter. Sure there is a hint of oak, and some alcohol flavors, but its just a little sweet. If it was dialed back just a bit, and maybe some more oak or even whiskey (which I didn't get at all) it would be a balanced better beer. Its a beer to try as it's not ridiculously expensive, but one I don't know if I'd go out of my way for. This one gets a C from me.

Samuel Smith Yorkshire Stingo

2011-09-23T06:40:00.003-05:00

I have soft spot for English Brewer Samuel Smith. Back when I was first getting into craft beer a friend of mine bought me a Samuel Smith Gift pack that contained 3 beers and a logo'd pint glass. Those beers (Nut Brown Ale, Pale Ale, Oatmeal Stout) really opened my eyes to some great beers and some insight into British beer and brewing traditions. In this day and age of huge brewing companies that are getting ever bigger (see, SABMiller's recent announcement that they are buying Foster's), Samuel Smith's stands out for being a family owned, brewery that was founded in 1758. In fact according to one source that I read for this post, Sam Smith is determined to continue old school traditions, using horse drawn carriages to deliver beer near their Yorkshire brewery. However tradition goes deeper than the surface, it goes down to how they brew which is using traditional methods specifically the Yorkshire Square. A Yorkshire Square is a cubic structure usually made in stone or metal (Sam Smith's uses Welsh Slate) and its prized because of a couple of things: it collects yeast during fermentation very efficiently due to the a hole in the top of the cube. During brewing a highly flocculated yeast is used and as it ferments and foams up the yeast travels through the hole and remains there on the top, while the beer stays below. (I know a hard visual to understand, but something I would love to see in practice). The other reason this method is used is that it can lead to a full bodied beer with fruity notes.
Sam Smith uses the Yorkshire method to brew all of their ales, including this one named Stingo. Stingo is a style of beer that dates back a few hundred years, and this particular one is aged in oak casks that previously held cask conditioned ale. It is stored in these casks for up to a year or more, and then bottle conditioned.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 8.0% and pours a chestnut brown with a thin taupe colored head. The head dissipates quickly leaving just a thin barely there film on top of the beer. The nose is full of toffee, malty, vanilla, some oakiness as well, fruity esters. The mouth is medium bodied, notes of treacle, vanilla, oak, caramel, some dark fruits like figs and plums an oakiness is there as well. As it warms there is a spiciness that I can't place, it adds a nice level of depth to the beer. Also notes of cherry. There is a wine like quality to the beer as you finish it up. In true British style for what this beer is, there is an understated quality about it which is one reason why I really enjoy it. Its a big beer by traditional British standards at 8.0%, but light in body which makes it easy to drink. I don't get any alcohol quality to this one which makes sipping it slowly very enjoyable. A great beer and one more reason to go out and try some other Sam Smiths beers (I'm also partial to their Imperial Stout).

Life and Limb 2

2011-09-21T06:27:00.003-05:00

If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll notice right off the bat that I didn't put a brewery in front of the beer name. There's a simple explanation as there are two of them: Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head. Two icons in the craft brewing industry came together back in 2009 and brewed the original Life and Limb. It sold so quickly that few people were able to get their hands on one including yours truly. It was because of that disappointment that I was excited to see they had decided to brew another batch of L&L for release and it was this last two weeks that it started to show up on the shelves.

L&L is an interesting brew in and of itself. As stated on Sierra Nevada's website, the life portion of the name comes from the living yeast cells in the bottle, so one knows this is a bottle conditioned ale. The Limb comes from the two syrups used, maple and birch.

The Beer: The beer weighs in at a hefty 10.2% abv and pours a very rich dark brown, almost black, with a thick taupe colored head. The nose is full of black malts, vanilla, oaky, honestly a little disappointed here. The beer doesn't have a powerful nose, and what is there is very subtle. That subtlety ends at the first sip. Its medium bodied, very malty, sweet, coffee, roasted malts, vanilla, syrupy. I don't think I have ever had birch syrup before, but there is an earthyness to the brew that I think comes from the maple syrup used. I don't get a lot of alcohol in the beer its easier drinking than expected. Some cherry notes as it warms, there is a chocolate cake quality to the beer. Its not overly sweet mind you, but its just what it reminds me of. This is a good unique beer, maybe not a home run, but a very solid brew that is worth looking out for if you can still find it around town.

Wet Hopping

2011-09-18T21:04:00.008-05:00

I'm Baaaaccckkkkk....... yes I am well aware that it has been way to long since I've last posted, and even then it hasn't been very consistent. My only excuse, is that things have gotten crazy as life can tend to do. Between having a new baby at home, and starting a little non-profit up called Open The Taps , maybe you've heard of it, but if not, check out the link. I'm hoping my limited posting has now changed, and I'll be back doing what I enjoy, blogging about beer, bars, and everything that entails. So, enough of that stuff, let's get on to the post.

I received a text message a couple of days ago from a friend about me doing a blog post on wet hops. Well now just happens to be a good time to do a post for a couple of reasons. 1) its hop harvest season, 2) a great beer resource has been released that would help give me information on Wet Hopping. That great resource is The Oxford Companion to Beer (edited by Garrett Oliver). Just in thumbing through this thick tome its clear that its something every beer lover should pick up and read.
First a little history of what wet hopping is and what it isn't. Many folks are familiar with the term dry hopping which is adding the traditional dried hops (or pellets) to completely brewed beer (usually occurs in cask or keg). Wet hopping however is very different then this process. Fresh hops off the vine are around 80% moisture, they are harvested once a year, and then they are dried or kilned and this is what is usually used in brewing beer. In the simplest of terms the drying of the hops stabilizes them so that they can be stored and used at any time of the year. However, during hop season, those that live hear hop growing areas have an opportunity to make a unique beer. Hop season runs from late August to late September depending on what hop variety you are talking about. To make a fresh hop ale, hops are harvested, packaged loosely in a cardboard box and shipped quickly to an eagerly awaiting brewery. These fresh hops need to be used within 24 hours of harvesting, so everything has to happen FAST! Once the hops arrive at the brewery they are used just like regular hops are, with one exception: (Per Oxford Beer Companion) because of the high moisture content one has to use 4 to 5 times wet hops as they do dry hops to get similar results. Because of the short turn around from harvest to brewing, wet hopped beers are one of the last truly regional ales around. You won't see many if any wet hopped beers from Texas breweries because we don't live near a hop growing region. However you do see a great many of the style in regions of California, Washington, and Oregon, all near areas of prime hop growing regions. The good news is that we do get some wet hopped beers in Texas from breweries outside the state.
Before getting to a wet hopped beer, I wanted to get a better understanding of what to expect regarding the differences in the flavor profile between a beer hopped using the traditional process and one being wet hopped. I reached out to knowledgeable beer man and owner of the soon to be open Hay Merchant, Kevin Floyd to get his thoughts on this issue. Kevin feels that wet hops have a more subtle flavor profile than their dried counterparts, but that subtlety allows for more layers of flavors. This subtlety brings more balance and more spicier notes. Kevin also gave me my favorite quote in trying to describe wet hops: "a dry hop can be a one note chorus, but in comparison that same hop when its fresh comes off like a full symphony." Well with that quote its time to have a wet hopped beer. Last week I was lucky enough that Anvil Bar and Refuge tapped a cask of Wet hopped Moylan's Hopsickle, and figured if your going to have a wet hopped beer, go big or go home.
The Beer: (Check here for my thoughts on the dry hopped version). The nose is very earthy, hops are present, but not over powering. The mouth feel is intense, mouth coating hops. I remember the other one being like biting into grapefruit, this one was more earthy, and grapefruit pith. Its big, and complex, but no single flavor wallops you over the head. Quickly though after a few sips, the flavors stick to the side of your mouth and it starts to saturate your taste buds. Its a big beer, but very little alcohol. Not a session beer, but maybe a one beer a session beer. I wouldn't know what I would drink after this one since your taste buds are overwhelmed. Having said that it was interesting because of the wet hops and wasn't a one note musical, but many subtle notes that came to together nicely.

The Birth of a Movement

2011-07-18T12:53:00.002-05:00

Well, its been quite a while since I posted anything on the blog. But know that I haven't just been sitting around drinking beer (well ok, I didn't do just that). Instead, myself along with some other Houston Beer enthusiasts have started Open The Taps. I won't use this blog to talk to much about them, but I wanted to post the formal press release here so that you can see what we are trying to do and have the contact information to get to our website.

(Houston, TX) - The recent demise of two House Bills (HB 602 & 660) that would have significantly improved the horizon for the Texas craft beer industry, coupled with the outdated restrictions on the industry, led a few citizens to band together to garner real change in our state laws to benefit the craft beer community. Thus, Open The Taps was born-- not only because the restrictions of the current system are stifling our craft beer community, but from the realization that the Texas craft beer industry could be so much more vibrant.

By approaching legislative change from the consumer side, as opposed to from within the industry, Open The Taps hopes to reach more Texas residents on a personal level in order to bring change from the ground-up, unifying voters and consumers into one voice.

With the recent boom in new breweries and brewpubs in the state, now more than ever is the time to make meaningful change in Texas as it relates to the beer industry. From allowing sales at breweries and lifting restrictive limitations on production and distribution for brewpubs, to reaching outside of our state to make entering the Texas market more feasible by easing antiquated labeling restrictions, Open The Taps wants to advocate craft beer in a complete, holistic sense.

Open The Taps will have a launch party on Saturday, July 23rd, at 4PM at Moon Tower Inn (3004 Canal St.). Moon Tower features a great craft beer selection along with some amazing hot dogs, the perfect setting to introduce Open The Taps to the general public. Open The Taps will also be at the Bay Area Mashtronauts’ homebrew competition, the Lunar Rendezbrew, on Saturday, August 6th, 2011. The Lunar Rendezbrew is an AHA (American Homebrewers Association) approved homebrew competition and a member of the Lonestar Circuit. See their website, http://mashtronauts.com, for more details. Open The Taps will be accepting memberships and the board members will be on hand to discuss their plans for the future of the organization.

The Houston citizens that founded Open The Taps and sit on the board are Ted Duchesne (President) of the beer blog Barley Vine, Leslie Sprague (Secretary/Media Relations) of the beer blog Lushtastic and Chris White (Treasurer/Controller), an avid craft beer enthusiast and home brewer. Also part of the Executive Committee are Cathy Clark Rascoe of the beer blog Brewtiful and John Speights, another craft beer lover and home brewer.

About Open The Taps:
Open the taps is a grassroots, non-profit organization that will act as an advocate for craft beer enthusiasts in Texas within the bounds of the multi-tier system and the legislative process. We are incorporated in Texas and are operating as a 501(c)(6). The organization is headquartered in Houston, Texas, but regional branches will be established as support grows. More information on Open The Taps is available at http://openthetaps.org, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/OpenTheTaps and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/OpenTheTaps.

What are you going to do about it?

2011-06-07T16:37:00.004-05:00

Its been a little over a week since we learned that HB 602 was dead in the Senate and that once again micro breweries in Texas were given the short end of the stick. Its been interesting to see the local reaction to the death of the bill. Many folks are blaming ABInbev. In fact in an article on the Houston Press, they report that some restaurants are removing ABInbev products. That's a great idea only if they are replacing those beers with local Texas Craft ones. But if anyone really things boycotting ABInbev is the answer to all our problems, I think your wrong, we must do more.
I'm also happy to hear that both Brock Wagner of Saint Arnold and Scott Metzger of Freetail Brewing are not giving up, that they are going to continue the fight in two years. I think that's great, but unfortunately I do not believe its enough. If any Texas Craft beer lover out there truly believes that with only the breweries fighting the fight that things in this state are going to change, they are very sadly mistaken, we must do more.
I think the only way things in this state change are if the consumers stand up and demand a change. Its that line of thinking that brings me to this post today. I received some inspiration from this post from the wonderful Cathy Clark (founder of Live It Big, Camp Beer, Monsters of Beer, and Houston Beer Week). Here is a beer enthusiast that gets it, she is involved, and I encourage everyone to read the whole post, but I do want to highlight a few points.
In her blog, Cathy states she would like to see the following done:
Un-elect Those Not With Us: who the heck are these TX legislative people? I’d like to find out exactly how these people feel about craft beer in Texas. If they don’t feel as we feel, let’s start by getting them tossed out. Take it to The Man.
Shame Those On the Fence: since politicians aren’t exactly known for their forthrightness and honesty, let’s ensure their support with ads and active campaigns in their hometowns. It’s easy to lie to someone who isn’t your neighbor. It’s hard to go to church and look at someone you stabbed in the back. Shame, and fear of shame, are pretty good motivators. Again, Take it to The Man.
Commission a Study: let’s get some better numbers behind what we all believe is the truth – that more small breweries/brewpubs = more jobs/income to Texas.

Those are all great ideas, and things we should be doing. I want to add a few of my own.
1) Educate our Legislatures. Here is some talking points: Texas is number 2 in beer consumption. Let's get more Texans drinking Texas beer, and keep more money in state helping local economies. Speaking of the local economy, a strong micro brewing culture can increase tourism. In Colorado alone (a state with a much smaller economy, but much larger craft beer culture), craft beer brings in $12 Billion. You don't think that would help the state coffers some?
2) Support those that support Craft Beer. Now that you've educated your legislatures. Support those like Jessica Farrar that have been supportive of Texas Micro breweries. Fund raise for them, campaign for them, etc. Support the restaurants and bars that support craft beer. I mentioned above that some restaurants are getting rid of ABInbev products, that's OK, but if they aren't carrying Texas craft beer, then whats the point? There are many local restaurants that promote a local, and seasonal menu, yet carry either macro brews, or imports exclusively. Don't let them get away with it, ask them to carry local beer, it will go with their menu much better.
3) Educate your friends. Texas has a lot of folks that drink BMC products. Hey I understand that not everyone loves a Double IPA, Sour, Barrel Aged Quad. Many folks just like lighter tasting beers. Well, thats OK. Steer your friends to something local. Texas Craft Breweries make some great easy drinking, very approachable, sessionable beers. Here is a short list, but if you have others leave them in the comments: Southern Star Bombshell Blond, Saint Arnold Lawnmower and Weedwacker, Rahr and Sons Blond, Summer Wheat, Independence Freestyle Wheat, Live Oak Hefeweizen, No Label Brewing El Hefe to name a few.
4) Invite your friends. Houston is pretty lucky, there are a ton of beer events in this town. Heck Rudyards has a monthly beer dinner (3rd Thursday of the Month). Thinks like Camp Beer, Houston Beer Week, Vic and Anthony Beer Dinners, Flying Saucer or Petrol Station Anniversary parties. There are plenty of opportunities to invite your friends, whether or not they are into craft beers, they will have a good time. Craft beer lovers are good people. We'll make you welcome.

Lastly, a question to you. Will you put your money where your mouth is? Its easy to say that you support craft beer, and that you want the Texas Craft beer scene to be better. But other states, like Mississippi (Raise your Pints) and Alabama (Free the Hops) had Consumer Advocacy groups that banded together to help change the laws in their states. Let me be clear, I believe that is the only way things will change in our state. Texas State laws need to change. They need to be changed to support local breweries, and brew pubs, to get rid of antiquated labeling laws, and to help create an environment that will allow local businesses to thrive. My question then is, will you support a Consumer Advocacy group that worked to change these laws?

Anvil and New Belgium

2011-05-30T12:27:00.002-05:00

Happy Memorial Day everyone. While Anvil is celebrating Texas Brewery Ranger Creek today at 5pm, they have already announced their next beer event. On June 1, they will be hosting a New Belgium event starting at 5pm.
On Wednesday they will be pouring the following beers:
La Folie 2011 -- La Folie Wood-Aged Biere, is the brewery’s original wood-conditioned beer that rests in French Oak barrels between one and three years before being bottled. Our La Folie emulates the spontaneous fermentation beers of the brew master’s Flanders with sour apple notes, a dry effervescence, and earthy undertones.
Fat Tire -- Named in honor of New Belgium’s owner’s bike trip through Belgium, Fat Tire has won fans with its sense of balance: toasty, biscuit-like malt flavors coasting in equilibrium with hoppy freshness.
Super Cru – brewed to celebrate New Belgium’s 20th Anniversary, think “double version” of Fat Tire!

With the exception of Fat Tire the other two are pretty rare to see on tap, so it will definitely be a good opportunity to try some great beers from the third largest craft brewery in the US. Additionally a New Belgium rep (I am thinking a regional sales manager) will be on hand to answer any questions. For a cocktail bar, Anvil continues to put on some great beer events, makes my high hopes for the upcoming Hay Merchant even higher.

A Sad Day

2011-05-27T10:28:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a sad day indeed for the Texas Craft Beer industry when via Twitter, Saint Arnold's Brock Wagner announced that HB 602 was dead. Ronnie Crocker has more on how this happened here. Here is the gist of it though, to get HB 602 through committee, a cap was placed that limited the size a brewery could be and also sell direct to the public. This deal was requested by the Wholesalers Distributors lobbying group in exchange for their support of the bill. It was this same deal though that caused A-B to pull their support of the bill and thereby causing its death. A-B requested the cap be pulled in the event that they wanted to do tours and allow on premise sales. Note though that the A-B plant here in Houston doesn't offer tours and hasn't done so in years and years. Also note that the Texas Legislature, by not passing this bill is supporting a huge international based company over local Texas businesses (don't ever let them get away with telling you they support small local business, its a lie). Lastly note that the Wholesalers would have you believe that they had to pull support because allowing A-B to sell beer direct would hurt their sales (again a lie, the pittance that A-B would be allowed to sell direct would in no way have an affect on their bottom line).

In reading tweets and other blogs, a lot of folks are pointing fingers and wanting to blame someone, which begs the question, who is to blame for this failure and what can we do to help get this to pass next time? Well, here is my two cents. As much as I want to, I can't blame A-B, even if they don't do tours currently, they want the opportunity, therefore they want a level playing field, just as they have in other states (yes you can go to other A-B plants or even Coors plants and buy beer direct, but why would you?). You could blame the Wholesalers for pulling their support of the bill without the cap. I think they do share a bit of the blame, as stated above, allowing A-B to sell direct would not impact Wholesalers at all. In fact allowing tourists to buy beer at local craft brewers would increase demand, thereby allowing Wholesalers to distribute more beer, and increasing their bottom line. How they don't see this is the definition of ignorance. You could even blame the Texas Craft Beer industry. Many folks including me, point to the hypocrisy of Texas Laws that allow wineries to sell direct, but not breweries. However there is one difference. Over 15 years ago Texas Wineries got smart and created a very effective and successful lobbying group. They spoke with one loud voice (and money) and that helped change the winery laws in this state. I have yet to see that with the Craft Brewing industry. It seems to me that the lobbying groups for Texas Craft Brewers like the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, lack focus and cohesion. I believe they do a very pour job of promoting Texas craft beer and helping raise the massive amounts of money that will be needed to defeat the other lobbying groups. Until they do those things, it will continue to be unlikely that laws change. Lastly, and who I think deserves the lions share of the blame is our honored Texas Legislature. They are the ones that continue to promote large international companies at the expense of small local Texas businesses, all the while filling their pockets with the massive donations they receive from those very same companies. They listened to the lobbyists, not the people and that is disgraceful.

Now we've directed blame, what can we do about it. Well we have 2 years to put a plan in place and act on it, but lets not wait, we can start to day. We as craft beer lovers need to promote Texas Beer. Cathy Clark on her blog had an awesome post about how we can do that very thing, especially out side the state borders. I'll add something else. Demand Texas Craft beer at your favorite restaurant. Demand that where you eat carries local beers. In Houston we have a lot of restaurants that talk big about serving local food, but then don't carry any Texas beer. Don't let them get away with it. Write letters to the restaurants, send them messages via Twitter, and Facebook, talk to the manager, do it respectfully, but if they don't listen, then maybe they don't deserve your business. Talk to your friends. We all have those that still drink only BMC products. Introduce them to the lighter side of craft beer like Saint Arnold's Lawnmower and Weedwacker, or Real Ale Fireman's 4, or Southern Star Bombshell blond, etc. Educate your friends and family, the more we educate, the closer we all get to the Texas Craft Beer industry we want. Lastly vote, and really look at who you are voting for. Ask your local rep the tough questions when they are asking for your vote. If they aren't supportive of something that you are passionate about then vote for someone who is. Until we change the mindset in Austin, things aren't going to change. If you do have a local state rep that is supportive of the Craft Beer industry set up a fund raisers, featuring Texas Craft Beer, be as supportive of them as you can be. We can no longer sit on the side lines. If you haven't yet, its time to get off the couch, get in the game do what it takes to get the bill passed next time. If you don't, then you can't complain if it doesn't pass.

Stone Old Guardian Belgo

2011-05-23T15:42:00.002-05:00

Not surprisingly I enjoy Stone's some times over the top beers. They push the limits of being off balance, but occasionally I want that explosion of hops, or booze. One of my favorite beers that they make is their barleywine Old Guardian. Very boozy when young, it ages incredibly well. Starting this year, Stone is doing something a little different. Along with their Russian Imperial Stout they will be releasing version brewed with Belgian yeasts, a little twist on an old standby, that I was excited to see at my local Spec's. Its all the same ingredients before with the exception of the yeast used, which as we've seen with Saint Arnold's moveable yeast series can change a beer significantly.
The beer: This one weighs in at a very robust 12% and pours an orangish amber with a thick off white head. The nose is full of fruity esters, white grapes, peaches, a bit of boozy notes. A full mouthfeel, fruit yeasty notes up front, followed by some malty, caramel, toffee notes, some alcohol burn on the back of the throat, then ending and lingering with resinous citrus-y hops. As expected, this one needs some time. Its boozy. Big flavors which is what I expect from Stone: yeasty fruity esters, booze, hops. A bit on the sweet side, but as it lingers and warms, notes of white pepper show up lending some spiceyness to the beer. Its a sipper to be sure, and I can't wait to see how this one changes over time. A good beer and one recommended to pick up if you enjoy big beers.

News and Notes

2011-05-23T15:28:00.003-05:00

Whew, its been a whirl wind couple of weeks me, but there is some upcoming events, as well as some local beer news that I'd like to finally post on this here blog.
- First up, for anyone looking for something fun to do on Memorial Day, Anvil has you covered. As they did with Jester King a few months back so too will they do with Ranger Creek Brewing. Starting at 4pm on Memorial Day, Anvil will be tapping 8 special Ranger Creek Beers:
1. South Texas Lager - Dortmunder Export Style Lager
2. La Bestia Amaible
3. La Bestia Amaible aged in Port Barrels
4. La Bestia Amaible Cask aged for 5 months in Cabernet barrels.
5. Oatmeal Pale Ale
6. Cask Oatmeal Pale Ale
7. Mesquite Smoked Porter
8. 6 Month Cabernet barrel aged Mesquite Smoked Porter

Additionally Mark and Rob from Ranger Creek will be on hand to answer any questions. That should be enough to get local beer geeks excited.

- Speaking of excited, one of the few things that Houston is missing to make it a top beer city is a good beer pub. Well it looks like that is coming to an end. Thanks in no small part to the local beer community and social media, Freetail Houston has announced its second location will be in Downtown Houston. Read more here in Ronnie Crockers Beer, Tx Blog.

- Speaking of Beer, TX Ronnie also has the latest and greatest on HB 602. Will it pass? Maybe, but I'm not holding my breath, thanks to some interference from ABINBEV.

- Last but definitely not least, Leslie at local beer blog Lushtastic has done an absolutely amazing job posting a round up of all the new and soon to be Texas Breweries. The list is amazing, and shows that Texas has to be on of the best up and coming markets for craft beer. Go check it out, and if you see any missing from the list, leave a comment on her blog and she'll update it as necessary.

Texas Beer Fest Beer Wall

2011-05-06T15:55:00.003-05:00

As mentioned in a previous post this Saturday is the Texas Beer Fest in Spring Texas. Tickets for the event are $34.00 now, or $40.00 at the door. Ticket price gets you 12 coupons for 2 oz tasters. A lot of folks have complained that they don't want to shell out 40.00 for a bunch of beer they can get a lot of other places for much cheaper. A fare argument to be sure. As much as I want to say that this is due to TABC laws for Beer Festivals and that if we don't support the ones that are occuring things will never change, I get the financial argument. However, the beers being served Saturday aren't just any old beers that you can get at your local bar, even if your local is Flying Saucer, Anvil or Petrol. Texas Beer fest has released their specialty beer wall list and its quite a doozy:
No Label Panamanian Coffee Milk Stout
Avery Hog Heaven
Southern Star Jasmine Infused Bombshell Blonde Cask
Petrus Barrel Aged Sour
BrewDog Tokyo
Brooklyn Brewmaster's Reserve Main Engine Start
Thirsty Planet Double Buckethead
Ommegang Rare Vos
Independence Brewluminati
(512) Casabel Cream Stout Firkin
Stone Old Guardian Belgo
Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve No. 11
Dogfish Head Bitches Brew
Cask Conditioned Bear Republic Racer 5
Rahr Barrel Aged Winter Warmer
Real Ale Pheonixx Double ESB Cask

Now some of these beers are available now and then and here and there, but rarely if ever have all these beers been at one place. There is a catch of course, you have to stick around for a bit as these brews will be tapped every 30 minutes. Sounds like a great time to listen to some local Texas Bands, and drink some great beer. Some of these breweries are new up and coming ones from Texas like Thirsty Planet that we have yet to taste in Houston. So have a great weekend and head up to Humble and the Humble Convention Center to drink some good beer.

English Ale Tasting

2011-05-03T17:04:00.004-05:00

I've mentioned a couple of times, but back in February I had the opportunity to spend some time in London, and lucky me brought a few beers back. Since then I've been looking for time to sit down and have a few of them, and well that time turned out to be last week. Joined by fellow beer geek Chris, we sat down to 5 different English Ales.
Adnam's Innovation: First up was this beer from Adnam's who are very well known for their solid best bitter. Innovation is labeled as a Strong Amber Pale Ale and weighs in at 6.7%. Its made with a blend of wheat and pale malts as well as a blend of American, English and Solvenian hops: Columbus, Stryian Goldings, and Boadicea (A welsh hop that I''m not very familiar with). The beer poured a golden amber color with a thin white head. The nose has some earthy funky, citrus, and some wheat notes. The mouthfeel is smooth, citrus flavors, earthy notes, a little bit of funkyness, but I think that's from the wheat malt. Some resiny qualities show up on the finish and linger. Chris thought (and I agreed) that was a Cider like edge up front before falling off into a more hoppy beer. Light bodied, a good interesting beer.
Fraoch Heather Ale: This is probably one of the brews I was most excited to try. Heather ales have a very long history in Scotland. Hops have never grown well in Scotland and therefore most of their beers are very low hopped, but to add some bitterness to brews they would often use herbs, and flowers in making beer. Heather Ale was one of the most famous and there are many popular stories told about long lost Pict recipes that I won't get into in this post (maybe some other time, or better yet over a beer). Fraoch is owned by Williams Brothers Brewery in Scotland and makes a few different Historical Ales, this being just one. This Heather Ale is made in the traditional method, with sweet gale and heather added to the hot wort, then upon cooling its poured into a vat of fresh heather where the mixture is then left to infuse for an hour before entering the fermenter. This is a lighter beer at 5% and pours a pale golden color with a thin head. The nose is sweet syrupy, some roasted malts, some scotch ale characteristics. The mouthfeel is medium, flavors of crystal malts, light floral notes, wine-y notes. Flavors of white grapes, herbal, sweet. A very interesting beer. A weird blend of what we think of a typical scotch ale, with other wine-y herbal notes.
Kernel Brewing Black IPA: Yes everyone is getting into the Black IPA, Black India Ale, Dark Cascadian Ale, whatever you want to call it. This beer is from what has quickly become my favorite British Brewery weighs in at 7% and brewed with lots of American hops. The beers a very very dark brownish black, almost opaque with a taupe colored head. The nose is greeted with a wallop of Cascade and maybe a hint of malts, but its hard to break through all those hops. The mouthfeel is chewy, you get some good English malts like maris otter before being blind sided by American hops. There is some astringency, but its not unpleasant and adds a balance between the plethora of hops and the hint of a malt backbone.
Brewdog Nanny State: This next beer from the Brewing Bad Boys of Scotland has a funny story behind it. When Brewdog brewed Tokio an 18% behemoth it caused the British Government to go into an uproar about responsible drinking and that high abv beers would cause alcoholism, public lewdness, and basically the end of the world. In answer to this outburst the folks at Brewdog released this beer, a 0.5% beer with 1000 ibu's. As much as I was looking forward to trying this beer, I did not hold any illusions that it would actually taste good (foreshadowing alert!). The beer poured a reddish amber with a slightly off white head. Hops and more hops, and what is that, oh yes more hops on the nose. The first sip is hard, its like hop tea, hop tea that's been steeped waaaaaayyy to long. Very tannic tasting. Chris mentioned boiled celery but I couldn't get past the tannins. For reference, take a couple of those hop pellets you can get at the home brew store. Make sure you are really thirsty, and your mouth is dry. Now eat the pellets...don't drink any water. That about sums up the experience. Which it was an interesting one, but interesting experiences don't always make good beer.
Robinson Old Tom: Probably one of the beers I was most looking forward too. Old Tom is widely regarded as one of the great beers of England and at the top of the list for anyone that wants to try a great Old Ale. Hefty for your typical British beer, this one weighs in at 8.8% and pours a dark brown with ruby highlights. The nose has notes of toffee, plum, fruity and some alcohol esters, some chocolate even. The mouthfeel is chewy, notes of cherry, figs, plums. The beer finishes like a port, leggy when swirled in the glass. Dark fruits, concentrated dark cherries, molasses, vinous, and a little coco. This is a wonderful beer and a great representation of the Old Ale style. Some sweetness, but not cloyingly so..

Well that finishes up a great British Ale session. A wide range of English ales. Traditional, historical, cutting edge, and one blending the best of American and English brews. English Ales are some of the best in the world and their micro brew culture is growing in leaps and bounds with folks producing some out standing brews.

Sierra Nevada Ovila Dubbel

2011-04-26T18:03:00.003-05:00

I've always had a soft spot for Sierra Nevada Brewing. Their Pale Ale introduced me to hoppy beers many years ago and the first beer I ever brewed was a clone of that beer. Their Bigfoot is one of the best American Barleywines around and I always pick up a six pack when it comes out. Over the last year they've really upped their game. Last year it was the release of their special 30th anniversary beers. This year they've come out with a series of beers called Ovila Abbey Ales.
Ovila Abbey ales are a collaboration between Sierra Nevada and the monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux. SN's goal is to brew beers based on monastic tradition, similar to many abbey ales in Belgium. While these aren't Trappist Ales (they aren't brewed at an abbey), they closely follow traditions set forth by them. A portion of the proceeds from each Ovila beer sold will go towards restoration projects at the abbey. Its very cool project by a great brewery and its one that I fully support. SN plans to brew a Saison (release in June) and a Quad (release in Nov), but the first release is their Dubbel.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 7.5% and pours a chestnut brown with a thin taupe colored head. Malty, fruity, figs, caramelized sugars, yeast esters on the nose. Mouthfeel is full bodied with a creaminess to it. Fruity esters, caramel, brown sugar, figs, spices, cloves (from the yeast?), peppery. Very fruity a little bit on the sweet side, a little too sweet in my mind. Its not a bad beer, but the sweetness has nothing to balance it really. This one gets a B- from me. Worth picking up, but not sure I would pick it up again.

Texas Beer Fest

2011-04-25T20:12:00.003-05:00

One of the most exciting things that happened locally in beer culture was the amazing amount of beer festivals being held in Texas and locally in and around Houston. It seems that 2011 will be no different. We know that Houston Beer Week and Monsters of Beer will be held later this year, but fret not beer lovers, we don't have to wait that long for a great festival dedicated to our favorite beverage. The Texas Beer Festival is held up in Humble on May 7th however there will be plenty of events in Houston.
- First up will be a Pub Crawl on April 30th starting at 1pm. Stops include:

The Ginger Man Pub (5607 Morningside Dr.)
Liberty Station (2101 Washington St., Houston, TX)
Petrol Station (985 Wakefield Dr., Houston, TX)
Rudyards Pub (2010 Waugh Drive, Houston, TX)
Food will be available at Petrol and Rudyards as well as food trucks at some of the stops.
Ticket price for the Pub Crawl is $20.00 which includes transportation (via The Houston Wave), a special pub crawl T-Shirt, and access to a special selection of beers at each bar. Our first stop, The Ginger Man, will make Real Ale Barrel Aged Highlander and Real Ale Anniversary and (512) Cascabel Cream Stout and (512) Barrel Aged Double Pecan Porter available.

- The following 2 weeks there will be quite a few beer dinners in Houston:
May 2nd, 2011: Beaver’s and Independence Brewing Co. (ticket price: $75)
May 2nd, 2011: Feast and Paulaner HP (ticket price: $50)
May 2nd, 2011: Moon Tower Inn and New Belgium Brewing (ticket price: $50)
May 3rd, 2011: Public House (Katy) and No Label Brewing Co. (ticket price: $55)
May 4th, 2011: Rudyards Pub and Jester King Craft Brewery (ticket price: $75)
May 4th, 2011: Le Mistral Restaurant and Shiner Beers (ticket price: $75)
May 5th, 2011: Brookstreet Barbeque (Missouri City) and Kreuz Creek Brewing Co. (ticket price: $35)
May 8th, 2011: Brasserie Max &Julie and Real Ale Brewing Co. (ticket price: $70)
May 10th, 2011: Bootsie’s Heritage Café and Southern Star Brewing Co. (ticket price: $75)
May 10th, 2011: Quattro Restaurant and Stone Brewing Co. (ticket price: $75)
May 11th, 2011: Backstreet Café and various Texas Beers (ticket price: $72)
May 11th, 2011: T’afia and Southern Star Brewing Co. (ticket price: $55)
May 11th, 2011: Cinq at Columbe d’Or and St. Arnold Brewing (ticket price: $70)
May 12th, 2011: The Tasting Room at CityCentre and Chimay Trappist Beers (ticket price: $65)

- Of course on May 7th in Humble is the actual beer festival itself. The event is at the Humbel Convention center and tickets cost $34.00 pre-sale and $40.00 the day of the event. There will be 70 breweries represented from around the country as well as 17 Texas breweries. Their website is up and running here. The cost of the ticket gets you 12 coupons for beers, with 25% of the proceeds going to Houston Food Bank (drinking for a cause is something I can get behind).

All in all this sounds like a great addition to the Beer Festival scene in Texas and Houston in particular. If this one is as successful as Houston Beer week, it will be pretty nice to have one great beer festival in late Sprint and another in Fall. I am planning on going to some of the beer dinners if I can so hopefully I'll see you there.

Stone Double Bastard

2011-04-24T10:16:00.003-05:00

I mentioned not to long ago, that we are getting a lot of new beers from some very familiar breweries and today is one of those beers. Double Bastard is kind of an iconic brew from Stone. First released way back in 1998, it is for the first time available in Texas. It was supposed to be released in 2010 however due to some TABC Labeling issues (shocking I know), it is just now appearing on the shelves. Note that the bottles you are seeing on the shelf are from 2010 and not a new 2011 release. For those familiar with the arrogant releases of Stone, this is the forth version: Regular old Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Bastard, Lucky Bastard (a blend of the other 3) and now Double Bastard. This is the definition of a big beer weighing in at 11.2%.
The Beer: I actually poured this into my Double Bastard glass that I picked up during my visit to Stone a few years back (you can see a pic here). The beer is a chestnut color with a thin taupe colored head. Very malty on the nose, lots of toffee and caramel, with some hops in the aroma. The first sip however is a punch in the mouth of hops. A ton of flavors, this is now weak or subtle brew. Malts, sweet malts, and a wallop of hops, with a bit of alchol burn. Toffee and caramel, piney resin, Grapefruit pith, peel, and wedges. Lots of barleywine characteristics. This beer is young, and kind of unbalanced. It needs some age, and with it, will be a wonderful sipping nectar. It gets a B from me now, but I have bottles stored and will come back and see how it ages.

News, Notes, and Upcoming Events

2011-04-22T16:48:00.002-05:00

Its been a while since I've done a news round up, but there has been a few things that have occurred this week that I wanted to post on.

- First off, in some awesome news, HB602 has passed!!!! For those that have been reading this blog, this is something we've been hoping for for many many years. Now, this is the updated version of HB602 that answered some of my earlier concerns. It's still tied to tours and there is still a limit, but its worded as such that you can go to Live Oak and pick up a growler of their amazing Hefeweizen. Next up is the Senate, where SB1863 is the companion bill to the bill that passed the house. This bill was sponsored by Ft. Worth, State Senator Wendy Davis (anyone notice that the folks that are championing small business are Democrats?). It is currently in committee, but hopefully it will pass and Governor Perry will sign it in to law. If all goes smoothly, this September, you will be able to go to a local brewery, go through a tour and pick up some beer while there.

- In not so good news, I think that HB 660 is dead. This is the bill that would allow brewpubs to sell their beer through distributors. However this beer is sitting in committee, which in my experience in following these things is code for its dead and the committee is full of too many cowards that won't even put the bill up for a vote. Having said that, those that supported this bill, don't ever give up hope. It took 3 separate session to get the brewery bill passed, and HB 660 got much further on their first try then the original brewery bill did back in 2007.

- In one more example of why I am extremely excited at what Jester King Brewery is doing, they write this post on farmhouse ales. A great post on what farmhouse brewing is, what it takes to make a great farmhouse ale, and how Jester King is going about creating some truly unique Texas Hill Country beers.

- Finally in the upcoming events announcements, Real Ale will be finishing up their local tour tomorrow at Anvil. They've hosted tappings at The Flying Saucer on Thursday, and Petrol Station today. Tomorrow at Anvil, Real Ale brewer Erik Ogershok will be available to answer questions (just as he was at Saucer and Petrol), on tap though is where it gets really exciting: Lost Gold IPA, cask-conditioned Lost Gold IPA and the barrel-aged version known as Empire. So if you want to get your fill of Lost Gold in all of its many different version, head over to Anvil, for its 5pm Tapping.

Left Hand TNT

2011-04-17T15:05:00.002-05:00

Two posts in one day, its catch up day!!! Another new beer from a brewery that's been in our market for a quite a while. This one is interesting: Weizen Dopplebock brewed with Lapsang Souchong tea. From the wiki page (so take it with a grain of salt), Lapsang Souchong is a smoked tea traditionally over pinewood fires. I love Weizen Doppled bocks, one of my favortie beers is Aventinues, however I also feel that it is really an underbrewed style. Very happy to try Left Hands version with the twist of smoked tea added. The Beer: The beer weighs 7.9% and pours a cloudy chocolatey brown, with a thin colored head. A very unusual nose, smokey, notes of tobacco maybe? Then the familiar banana and cloves show up, along with some fruity earthy notes. Medium bodied, but creamy, banana and cloves on the flavor profile. Tobacco maybe? Chocolate, some fruity earthy smokey flavors. As it warms, tea flavors come out, more tobacco, dried leaves, earthy flavors, some more smoked. Not smoked meat like a German Rauchbier, more of a earthy smokiness if that makes sense. A interesting and enjoyable twist to a weizen dopplebock. Its a unique mix of flavors that I've not seen before in a beer. Eye opening. I liked it, but not sure how many of these I could drink. This gets a B from me.

Stone/Port/Green Flash Highway 78

2011-04-17T14:58:00.002-05:00

In the last week Houston has received quite a few new beers, some completely new breweries to the area like Maui brewing (go try to the coconut porter!), others like this beer, new offerings from breweries that have been in the area for years. This particular brew is a collaborative beer from Port Brewing, Green Flash, and Stone, all from the San Diego area. A collaborative effort this Scotch ale was brewed at Stone. I found it ironic that 3 breweries who are known for some pretty hoppy beers, brewed a style with very little hops. In fact this one has around 30 IBU's. As with most scotch ales this one is brewed with some peat smoked malt. The Beer: The beer weighs in at 8.8% and pours a reddish brown with a thin head. The nose is smokey malts, raisins, figs, and a hint of coco. Rich and smooth on the mouthfeel, medium bodied. Smokey peat flavors. Dark dried fruits, plums, raisins, figs. Dry finish, with some sweetness up front from the dark fruits along with notes of caramel and toffee.. A sipper for sure, as its pretty rich, but not overly heavy in boozy notes. I liked this one and it gets a B+ from me. Folks on BA tend to agree with the assessment.

No More Texas Wheat

2011-04-13T17:02:00.003-05:00

A few days ago on twitter, someone mentioned seeing a new Saint Arnold label approved for Weedwacker ale, and that this beer was going to replace Texas Wheat. Well today the Chronicle's Ronnie Crocker posted confirmation, that yes Texas Wheat is gone and Weedwacker will replace it. For those that remember, Weedwacker was the first release of Saint Arnold's moveable yeast series. To brew the beer, Saint Arnold took their Kolsch style beer Lawnmower and changed the yeast to a Hefewiezen yeast. I have some pretty strong opinions on this move, and it has nothing to do with eliminating Texas Wheat. Frankly it was my least favorite of all Saint Arnold beers. I'm not a huge fan of American Wheat beers, and I never could get into this beer. Having said that I don't really get replacing it with Weedwacker. I know in Mr. Crocker's post he quoted Brock as saying "Everybody loves it", but most of the folks I talked to didn't really like the beer. Oh sure they appreciated the educational experience of seeing how yeast changes the flavor of beer, but no one I'm aware every said "Gee, I'd love this to be available year round." I'm a staunch defender of Saint Arnold, and have never understood why some "Beer Nerds" talk bad about them. They make a solid range of regular beers, very good seasonals, the Divine Reserve series is extremely good, and the moveable yeast series is one of two being done in the world as far as I know. All in all Saint Arnolds is a great award winning brewery. But (you just knew there would be one), I really don't get this move. If your going to add a new beer to the line up to replace TX Wheat, why not go one of two routes: 1) I get the desire to have a ligther beer in the lineup, and yes weedwacker does that, but why not produce a wit, something that I think would go great in TX. The only other brewery in TX that brews one is (512) but they don't bottle it, so Saint Arnold would be the first bottled offering by a TX brewery. 2) Why not go big? They just finished brewing a very good double IPA in Divine Reserve 11, why not turn that into a year round offering. The first and only year round DIPA by a Texas Brewery. Offer it in Louisiana where Saint Arnold's is just expanding and really make some in roads into that market. I would bet good money that a well made DIPA sold year round would sell more than TX Wheat did and Weedwacker will. I know its my two cents, and Saint Arnold will do what they want, but that's the beauty of a blog, a place to write down my opinions. What do you think? Did Saint Arnold make the right decision?

Texas Three Step

2011-04-07T17:13:00.002-05:00

No, its not a new dance that you'll see folks doing at your favorite honkey tonk. Instead this post will be about three beers newly available in bottles from some exciting new breweries from Texas. The breweries I'm talking about are Jester King out in the Hill Country and Ranger Creek in San Antonio. Jester King excites me for a couple of reasons. The first being is that they are taking an aggressive approach to being a Farmhouse brewery, starting from day one on developing a barrel program, and harvesting local wild yeasts from the surrounding hill country. Additionally, they are not only making the extreme high alcohol beers that craft brewers love, they are making amazingly flavorful lower alcohol beers. The first up was Commercial Suicide a English Dark Mild ale weighing in at 3.8%. However they are also making a Belgian tafelbier (or table) that I'll be excited to try. Another interesting thing that Jester King does is that all the beers are partially made with harvested rain water which is pretty cool. I'm excited about Ranger Creek for different reasons. They are not only a craft brewer, but a craft distillery as well. My hope for them is that as they produce great bourbon, they'll re-use those barrels to age some amazing beers. Jester King Wytchmaker: A bottle conditioned rye IPA weighing in at 81 IBU and 6.1%. An amazing looking label, I love the art work that Jester King uses. I enjoy that all the ingredients the beers use are on the label, each malt, each hop, each yeast (English ale in this case). Hops used were Warrior, Simcoe, Amarillo, Cascade, and Centennial. Malt bill contained 15% rye. The beer pours a cloudy hazy copper brown, with a thick off white head. Lots of hops on the nose, citrusy with just a hint of pine and some pale malts. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, spicey, grapefruit, citrus peel, piney. Some notes of white pepper, spicey. Lots of rye bread notes. A very good beer, I give an A to. Jester King Black Metal: A bottle conditioned Imperial Stout, yes please! 10.4% and 60 IBU's this beer pours a viscous oily black with a quarter inch reddish cafe colored head. Dark chocolate, coffee, and roasted malts on the nose. Thick chewy mouthfeel, denser than I remember from having this on draft previously. Notes of chocolate, dark and milky. Coffee with creamer, some roasted malts. Earthy hops at the finish. Its a huge beer, but highly drinkable. Another wonderful beer that gets an A from me. Ranger Creek La Bestia Aimable: This is Ranger Creek's take on a Belgian Strong Ale, named after the Aimable, the ship La Salle used, landed at Matagorda Bay to claim Texas for France. The beer weighs in at 9.4% with 25 IBU's and pours a hazy cloudy brown with a thin frothy head. Very malty nose, full of raisins and figs some caramel and yeasty notes. Medium bodied, rich concentrated dark fruits like figs and raisins. Caramelized figs with balsamic. Notes of honey, creme caramel, very smooth and easy drinking. A thoroughly enjoyable beer.

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 11

2011-03-29T15:18:00.004-05:00

Today is the day that Texas beer lovers go insane, its Divine Reserve day. A day that twitter goes crazy with #dr11 hash tags with people informing the world where they could score some of this beer. Its the day that Saint Arnold's releases there inconsistently scheduled special brew. Each DR a different recipe, some based on winning recipes from home brew contests, others like DR11 are done in house. The Divine Reserve release today is a Double (or Imperial) IPA (DR3 also was a DIPA, but this is a different recipe). For those looking for DR you may have more luck then previous releases: production for DR 10 was 1800 cases, for DR 11 it's 4100 cases, so more than double. Also various places around the state will be tapping kegs and/or casks. In Houston I know Petrol Station, Anvil, Flying Saucer, and Stag's Head are tapping tonight. Down in my neck of the woods in Clear Lake, Boondoggles will be tapping a keg tomorrow. Like all DR's this one is higher in ABV weighing at 9% and with a lab tested 76 IBU. Believe it or not the lab tested is an important note. Many breweries that state 100 IBU's or more are basing that off of calculations and not an actual lab test (its more expensive). Lab tests have shown calculated IBU's to be significantly off (there really are a lot less 100+ IBU beers than you think). As it should be hops are the show case here and this DIPA is brewed with Columbus, Simcoe and Centennial hops. The Beer: This one pours an orange-y copper color with a thick white head. Before I even poured it in the glass you could start to get notes of hops. Its massive, tons of grapefruit, just massively hoppy on the nose. The first sip is an explosion of citrus pith, grapefruit rind, tongue coating, sticky hops. Its brightly hoppy, lots of citrus, but underneath, just kinda hiding out there, is some carmel-y notes, that add just touch of sweetness. Its this touch that makes me think the brew will age some what well. Most DIPA's are made to drink fresh and this should be no exception, however, as the hops fade, I think (and yes I could be way off) there is enough malt in the back ground that it will come forward with time and create a sweeter more concentrated beer. Now off of the tangent and back to the now, this is a great DIPA, to me its not Avery Maharaja, but its very damn good. It gets an A from me.

Fight Night Beers

2011-03-25T19:30:00.002-05:00

A little late in posting this, but a week ago last Saturday was Fight Night, and as I'm likely to do, I sat down watched some fights and had some great beer. A local beer, and English Beer, and a barrel aged beer made it a good night.
Real Ale Phoenixx: First up is a local beer, a juiced up version of an English ale, this is Real Ale's Double ESB. The beer weighs in at a very un-English 7.2%, but made with English Malts and English Hops including Phoenix. Phoenix is a high alpha hop that is similar to Challenger. This beer pours a cloudy chestnut brown with a thick taupe colored head. Plenty of caramel malts, on the nose along with earthy musty notes and light on the hops. The mouth is much more hop-centric, medium bodied, with some caramel malt undertones. Earthiness, but some tongue coating resin. Let me repeat, highly resinous. Lots of caramel malts, this one is a great beer, that highlights some great English Ale flavors on steroids. A very enjoyable beer.
Kernel S.C.C.A.NS: Next up the English Ale, this one a version of an American brew. An IPA weighing in at 6.9% hopped with Simcoe, Centennial, Chinook, Amarillo, and Nelson Sauvin. The beer pours a bright golden yellow with a thick white head. Lots of sediment in the pour, but thats OK. All hops on the nose, bright, big hops. Citrus, grapefruit peel, some piney noes, and just a hint of toasty pale malts. Medium body, but the tongue is met with an explosion of hops, tongue coating resinous hops. Like biting into a grapefruit peel and all. There's more, and its hard to pick out all the flavors but this unique blend of hops creates a very complex flavor profile. There is spicy pepper notes along with citrus and earthy notes. A great beer that really shows some of the amazing beers that the English Microbrewer's are producing.
Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout: We end he night with a the barrel aged beer, Bourbon barrel to be exact. This is Central Waters Imperial stout. It pours an incredibly rich dark black with a thick taupe colored head. The nose is heavy on bourbon and vanilla notes, chocolate, roasted malts, charred oak, some caramel sweetness. The mouthfeel is thick, chewy, luscious is a good word to describe it. Lots of bourbon and vanilla and chocolate up front. Some booziness that would mellow with age (which this beer should do beautifully). If I had to compare this beer to food I would say Chocolate vanilla bread pudding with a bourbon sauce. Don't get me wrong though it's not sweet, but there it is rich. Very creamy, milk chocolate is also there, and more bourbon notes as it warms. A great beer, I've really enjoyed the Central Waters beers I've had so far.

Camp Beer VI Recap

2011-03-06T19:37:00.004-06:00

Sunday brought us the sixth installment of Camp Beer. For the unfamiliar, Camp Beer is an organized beer tasting event for charity (yes drinking for charity!!). Camp Beer is hosted by the amazing beer enthusiast Cathy Clark, founder of LIVE IT BIG, and Kevin Floyd, owner of Anvil Bar and Refuge as well as the upcoming Hay Merchant. Cathy brings the beer, and Kevin brings his knowledge to give participants some education. Each Camp Beer gives the participants an opportunity to try rare beers that are many times not available in the state. Each tasting has a theme, and this one was no different. The theme for Sunday's tasting was "From Scandinavia with Love" featuring, you guessed it, beers from Scandinavia. The countries represented Sunday were Norway and Denmark with 4 different breweries between the two.
Mikkeller: Mikkeller brewery is technically from Denmark, however they don't actually own a brewery. Mikkeller is actually a Gypsy brewery that goes around the world brewing beers at a different brewery's. As Kevin pointed out, in 2010 alone, Mikkeller produced 76 new beers. A pretty amazing feat. One of the neat things that Mikkeller has done is produce a series of single hop beers. Each of these beers are the exact same, just with a different hop. This series is where we started our tasting.
The base for each of the single hop beers has a base malt bill of pilsner, cara crystal along with English ale yeast and each weighs in at 6.9%.
East Kent Golding: East Kent Golding is a traditional hop used in many British beers. Kevin points out East Kent is just one of many different types of Golding hops each marked by the location they are grown. This beer as all the others pour a light pale golden color. Lots of floral earthy notes on the nose. The taste is the same, a little sweetness on the pallete, tastes just like many of the British beers I had in London minus the Maris Otter malts.
Centinnial - Kevin reports this is a cross between a Brewer's Gold and another hop variety, a true American hop. Spicey, citrusy, some grapefruit pith in the beer. A very resiny finish.
Chinook - This beer started out with a sweet taste with a very bitter finish. Not overly citrusy or earthy, just very high amounts of resin left over on the tongue.
Nelson Sauvin - A New Zealand variety that gets its name for being similar to Sauvignon Blanc. I didn't know what to think about this one. Its very unusual, some flavors of earthy sweetness, but an underlying flavor that I couldn't place. Interesting.
Warrior: A trademark variety of hops, and another truly American hop. The nose is sweet, earthy, the mouth is lots of grapefruit and citrus at the end. This one really show cased the hop well.
Simcoe: Very intense beer, lots of aggressive floral notes, dry bitter at the finish. This one very similar to the cascade hop.
Nugget: Kevin points out that this one was one of the first hybrid hops available in the states. The beer has a sweeter nose up front than others, not a lot of hop aroma up front. The finish however is all hops lots of grapefruit.

We took a short break here, before moving on to more Mikkeller beers, this time tasting the Beer Geek Breakfast series of beers. This series is all Oatmeal Coffee stouts each with a little twist.
Beer Geek Breakfast - The original weighs in at 7.5% and pours a very rich deep dark brown. Notes of coffee, chocolate and toffee on the nose and mouth. It's smooth with not very bitter coffee (I would guess cold extracted?). Silky smooth, rich and full bodied. This was a great stout.
Rauch Geek Breakfast (AKA Bacon Beer Geek Breakfast) - This version is made with smoked malts and again weighs in at 7.5%. It pours very dark, the nose is incredibly smokey, smoked meats and a semi-unpleasant band-aid smell. The mouth is full of smoked malts, a hint of smoked meats, silky, and it seems just a bit lighter bodied than the original.
Beer Geek Breakfast Weasel - This is an Imperial version of beer geek breakfast, and is brewed with a special coffee. The beer is brewed with the famous Civet coffee. Civet coffee is made from raw beans that were picked up after passing through the digestive system of the civet (a weasel like mammal), so yes this is pooped coffee. Since this is an imperial version it's a little bigger weighing in at 10.9%. It pours a really dark black with a taupe colored head. Some alcohol, coffee, chocolate notes on the nose. There is some acidity on the mouth, just a tad bit of alcohol heat along with roasted coffee beans, chocolate, slightly burnt malts, hints of bourbon and vanilla. This was one of my favorite beers.
Black Hole - A huge coffee stout weighing in at 13.9% made with honey and vanilla. Strong nose, you smell this and know it's big. Very roasted malts (black patent?). The mouth has some astringency, very rich, slightly sweet, lots of dark fruits, very strong, needs some age.
Nogne O: A Norwegian brewery that is known for producing strong unique beers. Nøgne Ø means naked island.
Andhrimir Barleywine - Of course one of my favorite styles, this one weighs in at 10.0% and pours a cloudy amber. It smells syrupy, caramel and toffee, biscuity. The mouth is rich on this one, biscuity, toffee, caramel, syrup, some sugars. Not a lot of alcohol, but it is sweet, I would love to see this with some age.
Imperial Dunkel Wit - If you read my recap of the beer dinner at Catalan, you know I love this beer. This is from the same batch as the ones we had at the dinner, and it has changed quite a bit actually. Much spicier, a lot more coriander and less sweetness than before. Still a great beer. I would compare it to a rich dark bread baked with coriander seeds.
Winter Ale - I've had this 8.5% beer once before. This is good, but its not great. There is some dark fruits, rich malts here. It's similar to a good porter.
HaandBryggeriet: This is a very small brewery out of Norway, its basically four friends who are part time brewers. However they are making some unique farmhouse beers as well as some traditional ales with a Norwegian twist.
Dark Force - This is a 9% wheat stout. Very dark, with lots of roasted malts, and well hidden alcohol. Some fruitiness from the wheat maybe. Also some black patent malts. A smoother beer than I would have expected for 9%.
Norse Porter - A 6.5% porter that is quite good. It pours a dark brown with ruby red streaks, sweet and effervescent. Some vanilla extract and brown sugar notes. Coffee. Its got quite a lot of effervescence which would be the only thing keeping this from being easy drinking.
Akevitt Porter - A beer unlike anything I've had before. The same porter as above aged in aquavit barrels. Aquavit is a Norwegian alcohol that is aged in used sherry barrels. The beer weighs in at 10.0%. Lots of roasted malts, some notes of licorice, and wood. Smooth, licorice notes in the mouth at the front and at the finish. Oaky, vanilla, chocolate and just a tad bit of alcohol heat. A wonderful beer that I would love to have more of.
Beer Here: Our last brewery of the evening. Another very small brewery that does a lot of their brewing out of Nogne O.
Morke Pumpernickel Porter - A 7.5% porter that pours a dense black, spicy, bready with chocolate notes on the nose. The mouth is more of the same, spicy and dark bread notes. But that's about it, there isn't much more complexity and would like a little more oomph on this one.
Dark Hops - A Scandinavian brewery hopping on the Black IPA bandwagon is OK with me. This one weighs in at 8.5% and pours a rich black color. The nose is of massive hops and slight dark chocolate. The mouth is all grapefruit with maybe just a bit of roasted malts. Its mostly crisp bitter hops though. A good version of the style.

Well that wrapped up a great tasting. I enjoyed this one as much as any I had been to previously as I felt it balanced stronger ales with ones that weren't so high in alcohol. I didn't leave this session feeling over served which I have felt in the past. A good time and a big thanks to Kevin and Cathy.
Mark you calendars as the next Camp Beer will be June 12.

Texas legislature Update

2011-03-02T16:23:00.003-06:00

Its been a while since I've posted anything on the Texas Beer bills. I've been out on vacation (more on that in a day or two) and a lot has happened. I hope that you have been able to make it out to one of the rallies either supporting hB 660 or HB 602. The good news is that both bills have been submitted to the appropriate committee for hearings. The oversight committee will be the Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee. Below is the list of each committee member, with a link to their webpage so that if you feel moved you can write them a letter telling them how important these two bills are. Not only for the craft beer movement, but both bills I believe will increase state revenues. I've also added a link to their ballotpedia page that will allow you to see who their top contributors are. You will not be surprised to see that many times big beer distributors or their lobbying arm are filling the coffers of your local politicians.

Mike Hamilton (R) - Serving since 2003 - Chair of the Committee - Click here for list of donors.
Chente Quintanilla (D) - Serving since 2003 - Vice Chair of the Committee - Click here for top donors. Licensed Beverage Distributors was one of his larger donors.
Joe Driver (R) - Serving since 1993 - Click here for list of top donors. Has received money from Licensed Beverage Distributors in the past.
Charlie Geren (R) - Serving since 2001 - Click here for list of top donors.
Roland Gutierrez (D) - Serving since 2008 - Click here for list of top donors. Interesting note is he is for repeal of blue laws, he states that its to help level the playing field for small business...
Patricia Harless (R) - Serving since 2007 - Click here for list of top donors.
John Kuempel (R) - Serving since 2010 - Mr. Kuempel is replacing his father who passed away last year.
Jose Menendez (D) - Serving since 2001 - Click here for list of top donors.
Senfronia Thompson (D) - Serving since 1973 - Click here for list of top donors.

Hopefully this gives you more information on the folks that will be deciding HB 660 and 602. No date has been scheduled but I'll post that once I know. Again I encourage you all to write not only your local representative, but all these members on the board.

Lastly I'd like to point everyone to the Texas Beer Freedom website. A one stop shop for news on HB 660. You can sign a petition to help get this bill passed, you can also donate funds to help lobbying efforts. Obviously the backers behind this bill don't have the money that the big distributors have, so every little bit will help.

Jester King Event at Anvil

2011-02-21T16:25:00.003-06:00

Relatively new brewery Jester King is having a major beer bash at Anvil this coming Saturday, that should be a must go to local craft beer folks.
I've been impressed with JK ever since I had their English Dark Mild a few months back. An amazing beer that clocks in at a very sessionable 3.8%. Since that time, they've released a very good Imperial Stout and a Rye IPA. Anvil was the first place in Houston to get their beers and is hosting what looks like a pretty solid event. I just recieved the press release so here are the details:

And now, on Saturday, February 26 at 4pm, Anvil’s co-owner Kevin Floyd announces a special Jester King Craft Brewery Day, where he will tap six different Jester King brews, some of which are limited editions. Jeff Stuffings, one of the three “jesters” who own and operate the Austin-based craft brewery will be there to meet Anvil customers and to talk beer and the Jester King philosophy of brewing with anyone who wants to chat with him.
What’s on Tap to Drink?
CASKS:
Dry Hopped Wychmaker Rye IPA cask:
This is one of the first Dry Hopped Wychmaker Casks to come out of the Jester King brewery. Wytchmaker is brewed with organic base malt, 15% malted rye and 3 lbs. of hops per barrel. It’s an aggressively hopped rye IPA, but is mashed at a low temperature and sparingly uses unfermentable malts to finish dry.

Black Metal RIS cask:
A big hit when it was released around Christmas, Black Metal is Jester King’s winter seasonal release. Weighing in at about 10% ABV, it’s filled with huge flavors of roast, chocolate, burnt malt and alcohol and carries a hint of leather. This is the second brewing of this Imperial Stout, but the first time the Jester King guys have offered it in a cask.

KEGS:
Boxer's Revenge Farmhouse Provision Ale keg:
A farmhouse-style blonde ale, Boxer Revenge is aged in French oak barrels with wild yeast, heavily dry hopped and about 9% ABV; it is also the first of three authentic farmhouse ales to be brewed as part of Jester King’s year-round lineup. This particular keg is one of a few left over from the Jester King Grand Opening party held in Austin the last weekend in January.

Wychmaker Rye IPA keg:
Compare it to the cask!

Commercial Suicide Oaked Dark Mild keg:
A blend of 70% dark mild and 30% dark mild aged in medium toast, Kentucky oak barrels (new barrels, not whiskey). At 3.3% ABV, they packed as much flavor as possible into a true session ale. The malted barley and hops in the beer are all English.

Commercial Suicide, aged in Whiskey barrel keg:
Aged in George Dickel Tennessee whiskey barrels, and originally released in November, 2010.

HB 660

2011-01-25T19:43:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that there were 2 house bills going to the Texas Legislature this year. House Bill (HB) 660 and 602. Well since that initial article the blogsophere and more have blown up with folks chiming in with their opinions. There has been much more press given to these bills in particular HB 660 than any time I have seen in the past. If you are interested in more information on these bills I'd like to point you to a few sights:
1) This great blog by fellow houstonian breaks down HB 660 and 602. I think its a pretty fair overview and in my mind shows why we must get behind HB 660. I after reading this entry and doing some research of my own, I have some strong issues with HB 602. In reading it, I don't really understand what the bill is trying to do. It only allows breweries to give beer away after a tour and that beer can only be in 12 oz bottles (no large formats, no growlers). However, HB 660 can be applied to any company licensed as a brewpub that produces less than 75,000 bbls to not only distribute direct to consumers but to distribute through distributors.
2) Scott Metzger the man behind the great Freetail brewing and the force behind HB 660 has a blog up and running with information about the bill. Every day is a new entry as he fights to get the bill passed. Check out his thoughts and see the struggles he is facing.
3) There is both a Facebook page and twitter feed for HB 660 that is worth following.

Within the legislature there has been no movement on the bill, but that is not surprising. They have also not named the members for each committee. However if you want to know who your local representative is go here. If you are driven to write to your representative please do so. I won't tell you what to write, but here are a few pointers: Be respectful, tell them what you are asking them to vote for (YES on HB 660!), tell them why its important (industry growth, it will help Texas by increasing tax revenue, tourism, etc), ask them again to vote and then close. If everyone who reads this blog, or follows HB 660 on twitter or Facebook writes their congressman, or writes your local newspaper, this bill will pass. If you care about Texas and craft beer, get off the sidelines and get in the game.

Hay Merchant

2011-01-21T06:35:00.007-06:00

Two days ago a short cryptic tweet by the Houston Press caused Houston craft beer lovers to jump up in joy. The folks behind Anvil Bar and Refuge will be opening a craft beer bar. Shortly thereafter the Press released a short article, more of a tease really. Finally yesterday, the Houston Chronicle's Allison Cook released a full article with much more information: This fall a new craft beer bar will be opening in the old Chances spot down the street from Anvil. The bar will focus on craft beer along with food. It will be managed by Kevin Floyd, while Bobby Heugel will stay managing Anvil. However, none of these articles gave me or other craft beer folks some of the technical information that we would like to know. With that in mind I spoke with Kevin and asked if he would be willing to sit down and discuss his plan for his new venture. Kevin was more than agreeable, so yesterday evening we sat down for a couple of hours to talk about his new bar: Hay Merchant.

First, to answer two questions that I saw asked repeatedly on twitter: 1) Anvil is not going away and it will continue with its small draft craft beer program along with a nitro tap and cask engine. 2) Yes Hay Merchant will have a growler program since they only have a beer and wine license and not a liquor license. If you know the old Chances bar you'll realize that Hay Merchant will be much bigger than Anvil. Anvil is around 2100 sq ft, and the space for Hay Merchant is around 9500 sq ft. This allows many more taps on the wall and a full kitchen instead of the shoebox that Anvil has. Kevin is planning somewhere around 60-80 taps on the wall. The number of taps will depend not only on cooler space, but the amount of people that can fit inside, and how quickly beer can move. Kevin wants to ensure that beer doesn't sit for long periods of time. With that in mind, there is a potential that Hay Merchant starts out with 60 or so taps, and then after a period of time expands their offerings.

I mentioned cooler space earlier, so let's talk about the cold box at Hay Merchant. There will be 3 different and separate cold boxes. The first cooler box will be the cellar held at around 55 degrees F. In this cellar there will be kegs and bottles that Kevin would like to age. There will be no tap lines, just aging. Having a cellar will allow Kevin to host beer vertical events after a few years. The other cold box will be held at 55 deg F and will serve warmer beer like strong ales and casks. Finally, the last cold box will be the true cold box held at 35 degrees and will house, lagers, pilsners, blond ales, wheat beers, etc. Kevin's plan is to have a 60/40 split of ales to lagers. He is going to keep his keg lines as short as possible, straight taps, and short draws to reduce any chance of contamination or stale beer. As with Anvil, tap lines will be cleaned by hand at least between each time a keg is swapped out and sometimes more frequently depending on how quickly kegs are rotated. Each keg will have individual gas regulators as well.

Hay Merchant will be rotating taps in a similar fashion to Anvil. As an example, let's use the number of 80 taps that was mentioned before. Out of those, 30 will be static tap lines. Lots of local brews along with national craft beer. The other 50 would be rotating special ales, seasonals, etc. Of the taps on the wall, there will be 2-3 that are on nitro with the potential to add more if more craft nitro beer becomes available. Now that we've talked about all the taps, let's talk about Cask Ale. I've already mentioned that Cask ale will be kept at a separate warmer temperature, which will make Hay Merchant the only place to do that, and use a hand pump (versus gravity tapping and placing the cask on the bar). Kevin plans on having 3 to 5 casks on engine at any one time. 3 of these will be Texas beer main stays like Saint Arnold's Elissa and Real Ale Rio Blanco. The other 2 will be rotating specials using Kevin's own firkins that he sends out to brewers to fill.

Kevin along with one of his business partners is creating an employee handbook to help educate Hay Merchant employees. The goal is for each employee to know as much as possible about beer, serving conditions, and food pairings. Each beer will have a one sheet created giving details on the beer as well as proper serving vessels and temperature that each employee will need to memorize. Hay Merchant will have different glassware all kept at room temperature. Kevin plans on having at least British and American Pint glasses, Tulips, Pilsner, Snifter, and half pints. Before being filled with beer, each beer will be placed onto a glass washer. The water from the glass washer will be run through the different cold boxes so that the water cleaning the glass will be at the same temperature as the beer filling it.

We've gotten the more technical things out of the way, but a bar can't be successful without good ambiance and so I asked Kevin about that. As he stated to Allison Cook, Hay Merchant is not a gastropub, its a bar that will have good quality, well priced food. Its not a sports bar, but yes there will be TVs. Kevin wants the TVs available but not intrusive, so it will be interesting to see how he does this. Yes, there will be servers going to tables so you won't be served only at the bar like you are Anvil.

Hay Merchant will be open from 3pm to 2 am 7 days a week with extended weekend hours for lunch.

It's clear from talking to Kevin that he is extremely passionate about craft beer. I asked him about his philosophy on serving craft beer and this was his reply: "It is my job to be a steward and a representative of the brewers intentions of their beer when serving it....craft beer is not a business model. You have to believe in it and design your draft system around it, you have to do things correctly" I also asked him what he was most excited about this new adventure: "I love beer, and hope this new bar will give me a platform to positively influencing the beer market and distributor decisions." I asked what he meant by that statement and he said that by doing a larger volume than he does at Anvil and by working closely with distributors (and even other craft beer bars in the area) maybe he can get them to carry beers they otherwise wouldn't. He wants to use Hay Merchant to show distributors that there is a market for certain beers that they haven't been carrying for one reason or another. A noble cause in my opinion.

Hay Merchant will definitely be welcome addition to the craft beer bar scene in Houston. Its managed by someone with a lot of passion who is committed to great beer. Along with Petrol Station, Flying Saucer and Gingerman, Hay Merchant can hopefully make Houston a place to go for craft beer. I'll definitely be following the progress of Hay Merchant over the course of the next few months and as I find out more information I'll be posting it here. I want to thank Kevin Floyd for his time yesterday. I know the man is busy, not only is he planning a new bar, but he's also planning a wedding.

Vertical Abyss

2011-01-19T16:49:00.003-06:00

In the beer nerd world, top of the line imperial stouts are some of the most sought after beers around. More so when they are limited release. One of the great imperial stouts comes from Oregon brewery Deschutes called Abyss. Released each year to much anticipation it comes in black wax dipped 22 oz bottles. Each year Abyss is made with licorice and molasses 33% of it is aged in bourbon barrels. At 11% these beers are meant to be aged. Unfortunately unlike other Deschute beers Abyss has not been available in Texas, well this changed this year. To celebrate coming to Texas I wanted to do a Vertical of Abyss to highlight just how well this beer ages. Lucky for me (and thanks to Monsters of Beer) I just so happen to have Abyss 06-09. With a friend of mine scoring an early bottle of Abyss (I just grabbed a couple today) all was set to do a 5 year vertical this past Sunday. Me and 5 other beer nerds gathered to taste, here are my notes (as well as comments made by others).
Abyss 2006 - This is the original, the first release by Deschutes. As expected it poured a dark brown almost but not quite black, good carbonation is evident in the pour. The nose is of dark fruit licorice, anise. Many at the table were surprised by how apparent anise was on the nose. Some vanilla and bourbon were also there. The mouthfeel is amazing, rich silky. Some roasted malt bitterness not only from the black patent malt but some hops. Very little if any oxidation. Tongue coating and rich with dark fruits like raisins, prunes and figs. At 5 years this is ridiculously good and if well cellared has many years left.
Abyss 2007 - It pours a dark brown with a thick head than the 06. More boozy notes on the nose, but otherwise its not as strong an in your face as the 06. Around the table we agreed it seemed much younger than the 06. We confirmed our initial thoughts upon drinking the beer. It wasn't nearly as complex as the 06, more dryness, less astringent. Lots of roasted malt, but very little fruit characteristics. I mentioned to others at the table that there were more coffee notes in this version and most agreed comparing the bitterness in the beer to over extracted coffee. There was a staleness to this beer. Not bad, but the 06 blew the 07 away.
Abyss 2008 - This was more like it. The nose here is much bigger than the 07, closer to the 06, a little sweeter some residual sugar on the nose. More oak and bourbon on the nose as well. Good mouthfeel, chocolate, some citrusy notes as well as some dark fruits. Lots of roasted malts here some coco as well. None of the licorice notes that we got from the 06. There was a weird graininess that many around the table mentioned. Not that there was sediment in the bottle it was more a feeling of it. A great nose to this beer. While I am not sure how much longer I would age the 07, I think the 08 has many more years to go.
Abyss 09 - This one was the one I was least looking forward to. Unfortunately I had heard many stories that this beer was infected and had soured. As soon as we opened it up the storied I'd heard proved true. While it poured a beautiful black color, the darkest so far with a wonderful head, the nose gave truth to its nature. Sour cherries, lots of sour lactic notes. Strange as it was, it was drinkable. Some (me) liked it more than others. To me it tasted like milk chocolate covered sour cherries. Others got a metallic like astringency almost vinegary taste. Its not bad, but it's a shame this occurred as I can't imagine that this is cellar worthy due to its defect.
Abyss 10 - We end our vertical with the newest of the bunch. It pours dark, darker than all the rest. A rich deep coal black with a thick tan colored head. The head is actually not as dark as others for whatever that's worth. The nose is full of rich vanilla and oak and bourbon flavors. The mouthfeel is dry, so. very. dry. A heavy dose of alcohol as well, and very little fruit flavors. Fruity esters and toasted oak are the big players here. This is drinkable, but definitely needs some age to help mellow things.

As we finished the vertical we kept going back to the 06 and how incredible that beer was. By far it was our favorite and if we had to rank it the order would probably go: 06, 08, 10, 07, 09. What amazed many of us was how different each beer was. There wasn't a gradual transition from one beer to the next. Some were very heavy with dark fruit, others heavy on licorice and malts, and yet others were heavy with oak, vanilla and bourbon. Deschutes has done a wonderful job with this beer and its definitely cellar worthy material. If you can pick up a few bottles of 2010, drink one, and keep the others to try in 5 or 10 years. I want to thank Dave and his wife, Chris, and Casey and his wife for participating the vertical and for bringing other beers to the gathering. It was a wonderful time.

Beer Bills

2011-01-14T15:00:00.004-06:00

2011 marks a year that the Texas Legislature is actually in session (mind boggingly they only meet once every other year). There are many important bills that will go in front of this legislature, but this is a beer blog so my focus of course will be about those bills that will affect you, the beer drinker. In that vein there are two bills that you need to be aware of, and hopefully support. First reported yesterday by Ronnie Crocker of the Houston Chronicle two bills will hopefully be introduced to give breweries and brewpubs more freedom and help our small but thriving brewpub and craft brewing industry grow.
- The first bill HB 660 sponsored by San Antonio Democrat Mike Villareal allows brewpubs to sell to distributors (currently brewpubs can only sell on site). The bill does additional things so please read the bill fully here. That link is also a good indication of where the bill is in the approval process.
- The second bill HB 602 sponsored by Houston Democrat is a bill we should be familiar with. It allows a small portion of beer to be sold on site at breweries. Similar bills have failed in the Texas Legislature in 2009 and 2007, hopefully the third time is the charm. Once again see here for more details of the bill.
If the past is any indication House Committee on Licensing & Administrative Procedures will be the committee where these house bills are heard. It must get a hearing and get out of this committe before going in front of the full house for a vote. Therefore I urge everyone to write to the members of this committee and inform them why it is important to vote for this bill. Many Texas Legislatures, talk the talk about being supportive of small business, low taxes, and that decreasing regulations helps create growth. Well now is the time for them to walk the walk. Get them to help small business, lift ridiculous and unfair regulations to allow craft breweries to compete just as Texas wineries do (in a bit of irony, Texas wineries can actually sell beer on site, while craft breweries can not). So far members of the committe have not been named, but when they are I will post members, and their email addresses. Let's get a grass roots campaign started. Its time for many of us, that are supportive of craft beer in Texas to do more than talk about it and start doing something. Write to legislatures, write to local papers, campaign, raise awareness through education. Show the folks in Austin that they need to pay attention to craft beer lovers.

2010 Year End Round Up

2010-12-31T09:27:00.002-06:00

The last day of 2010 is as good a day as any to look back on what I think was a fantastic year in craft beer, and specifically craft beer in Texas. Look back to 2009 to see what I said about this year.
1) One of the big things this year in Texas was more Texas Breweries opened: Jester King, Ranger Creek, No Label Brewing all opened this year and are producing good beers. In the case of Jester King and Ranger Creek they are producing beers that aren't like any produced in the state. No Label produces one of the best Hefe's I've had. The good news for 2011 is that this trend is bound to continue with many new breweries planning to open. Established Texas brewers continued to put out great beers, notably Real Ale starting a barrel program, releasing popular beers like Sisyphus or Devil's Backbone aged in wine barrels. Saint Arnold released DR 10 a barleywine and started the interesting and educational Moveable Yeast Series where they take their regular beers and brew them with a different yeast. 512 out of Austin continues to expand their line-up brewing double IPA's, Bourbon Barrel Pecan Porter, and a Double Brown Ale. Expect new brews from all these breweries continuing to expand horizons.
2) Unfortunately with the good comes some bad. In a state with so few brew pubs its sad to lose any, and Texas lost two this year: Award winning Covey in Ft. Worth, and the Houston branch of Two Row's. I wasn't a huge fan of Two Rows, but they had installed a new brewer and things were looking up. Speaking of looking up, there is a movement to bring a branch of popular San Antonio Brewpub Freetail to Houston, so look for more info on this in the coming year.
3) 2010 may be remembered as the year that Beerfests finally made it. There were 3 big beer fests this year: Brewmasters International in Galveston, Houston Beer week capped by Monsters of Beer, and Austin Beer week. All were successful to various degrees, but the key is that they WERE successful, lessons were learned and the coming year will bring bigger and better things. We know things will be bigger from this interview that Ronnie Crocker had with Monsters of Beer founder Cathy Clark, going from 10 breweries and 600 attendees to 50 breweries and 3000 attendees. Quite a big step, but I have no doubt that Houston and Texas beer lovers will support it. Plan ahead, Houston Beer week will be the week of November 12.
4) Along with great beer festivals came an increase in restaurants holding beer dinners. There were quite a few during Houston Beer week of course (including this amazing one at Catalan). However other restaurants have stepped up and held other beer dinners most notably Vic & Anthony's where Chef Carlos Rodriguez stepped out side the usual V&A fare and served some amazing food pairing them with brews from Dogfish Head, Stone, and Brew dog on 3 different occasions. Chef Rodriguez promises more to come and has already announced that the first beer dinner of the new year will be on 11 February featuring beers from Colorado's Left Hand.
5) As with last year, more and more beer books are being released, further helping to educate and entertain beer lovers. This was my favorite book of the year, and frankly one of my favorite beer books period.

For next year, besides new breweries, new beers, bigger and better beer fests, one of the most important things is that the Texas Legislature will be in session and hopefully a new bill will be submitted to allow breweries to sell beer on site. Unlike wineries who can sell wine in their on site tasting rooms, breweries in Texas don't have this luxury. 2 attempts have been made, so maybe, just maybe the third time is the charm. The new year promises to be big one for Texas craft beer lovers and I'll be here posting my thoughts. What were your highlights of this past year? What are you most looking forward to? Leave your thoughts below.

Stone Lucky Bastard

2010-12-20T17:24:00.002-06:00

Stone Brewing out of California is one of those in your face craft breweries. They don't do subtlety very well. They've been that way since day 1 and announced it to the world when they released Arrogant Bastard, an American Strong ale that teases you right on the bottle with the phrase "You are not worthy". It packs a wallop of hops and an abv of 7.2%. They are well known for making very hoppy very strong beers, and in fact I count Ruination as one of my all time favorite DIPA's. Its with this knowledge that I was eager to pick up Stone's newest release Lucky Bastard, a beer celebrating its arrogant history, the beer is a blend of Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Bastard, and Double Bastard.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 8.8% and pours a chestnut rusty brown with a thick taupe colored head of dense foam. The nose has notes of vanilla, massive hops, and some caramelly malts. The scents assault you, and in your face as expected from a Stone brew. The mouthfeel is chewy, a bit harsh, tongue quenching bitterness up front. Notes of malt, caramel, a dusting of coco, vanilla. But this are all quickly washed away by a thick layer of resiny hops....so much so that nothing else is left on the pallete than hops and more hops, everything else is washed out. This beer is great as a hop bomb, but I think it fails at highlighting the great individual beers. This one gets a B- from me for that reason. A good but not great beer.

Freetail Houston

2010-12-15T17:10:00.002-06:00

A couple of weeks ago right before Thanksgiving was my birthday and as I am want to do, I celebrated with a special beer. This year wasn't just any beer it was Freetail La Muerta (thanks to Dave for picking me up a couple of bottles). There may be two questions your asking yourself. The first is "Whats Freetail?" Well its a brewpub...no scratch that, its an amazing brewpub out of San Antonio, TX producing some of the best beers not only in Texas but the country. Freetail has become so popular that they are looking at expanding, but instead of just looking within San Antonio, they are looking out to other cities within Texas. This news came at the same time as Houston lost its one and only brewpub Two Rows, so folks in Houston have started a grassroots movement to bring Freetail here. This group of beer folks have started a website Freetail Houston and twitter feed to show the Freetail folks how much support there is for them in this fine brewpubless city. They have even worked to bring Freetail owner Scott Metzger to town to show them the love. Hopefully Scott will see the light and bring an amazing brewpub to Houston.
Now back to the questions. We've answered the first, the second question you may be asking yourself is "What's La Muerta." Well its there once a year brewed Imperial Stout. The beer is brewed in celebration of Dia De Los Muertos and is available only at the brew pub. They have a huge party on release day and you can buy 750ml's then. This year there were 450 bottles of this fine Imperial Stout made. The bottle that I opened for my birthday was number 36. Now that we've answered the questions let's get to the beer.
The Beer: This Imperial Stout weighs in at 10.2% and pours black as coal with a thick dense cafe colored head. The nose is full of thick luscious malts, roasted malt, chocolate, some alcohol, some dark fruit notes. The mouthfeel is full with a capital F. Creamy viscous, literally chewy. Gobs of roasted malts, coffee, dark chocolate, raisins, and some alcohol astringency. With all these strong flavors I'm surprised by how drinkable the beer is now, but really wonder how awesome this beer will be with some age. This beer is simply amazing one of, if not the best, Imperial stout I've had. This is an easy A bordering on the rare A+ from me.
It's a beer like this that makes me hunger for a brew pub that will make rare and experimental beers. While Imp Stouts are starting to border on being over done, this is so well done its not to be over looked. Additionally looking at some of the Belgian and sour ales that Freetail brews just makes me want them to chose Houston even more. So if you live here, support the movement to bring Freetail here.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Grand Cru

2010-12-13T18:17:00.003-06:00

This beer represents a bitter sweet moment for me; the fourth and final installment of Sierra Nevada's wonderful series brewed to celebrate their 30th anniversary. First there was Fritz and Ken Ale (an Imperial Stout), then in July we got the Charlie, Fred, and Ken Helles, followed by Jack and Ken's Barleywine in August. While these beers not only celebrated Sierra Nevada but other founders of the craft beer movement. This last one though is all about celebrating Sierra Nevada, its a blend of Oak-Aged Bigfoot, Celebration Ale, and their flagship Pale Ale.

The Beer: The Grand Cru weighs in at 9.2% and pours an orangish amber with a thick dense creamy head of taupe colored foam. Lots of hops on the nose, some caramel malts and toffee as well. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, with tons of hops present, sweet caramel and toffee, treacle, before leaving lingering hop resins on the tongue. Some notes of alcohol as well. Chewy, very drinkable, but lots of citrus and piney hops. This one is very good now, but I think will age very well. The hops will lessen and the malt characteristics will come to the fore front. Sierra Nevada did an outstanding job with this series of beers and went out with a bang. Here is to at least 30 more years.

More Holiday Beers

2010-12-13T18:02:00.004-06:00

I said in my previous post how much I love this season for beers and so its time for another installment of Holiday Beers.
Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper: A favorite of mine from this gypsy brewer weighs in at 10.9%. The beer changes its recipe every year tweaking each time striving to reach perfection. An ale brewed with spices this one pours a dark brown almost but not quite black with a thick tan colored head. Spicy and herbal on the nose. Notes of spruce and sweet malt. Low carbonation with a full creamy mouthfeel. Rich sweet malts up front, notes of spruce, spice, candied dark fruits, rye bread, ginger, caramel all blend together to create a Christmas experience. Santa's Helper indeed. If you left this out next to your fireplace you might wake up on Christmas morning with Santa happily asleep the empty bottle clutched in his hands. This one gets a strong A from me.
Delerium Noel: From the makers of Delerium Tremens, the last time I had this brew was back in 2008 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A 10% Belgian dark ale that pours a light hazy brown with very little head. Candied sugar, fruity esters on the nose. Medium bodied, some notes of alcohol, fruity, plums, candied sugar, fruity, slightly sweet. Some brown sugar and vanilla notes show up as it warms. Its a little sweet for me and I'd love to see how this changes as it ages. Very plummy some sour cherries as well show up. A good beer that gets a B+ from me.
Samichlaus 2009: This leads credence to the theory that Christmas seasonal beers are the best for aging. Samichlaus is an original "extreme" beer from Austria, weighing at at a robust 14%. Unlike others though this one is a lager, not an ale. Brewed once a year on December 6th, aged, and only then is it bottled. So this one bottled in 2009 was actually brewed back in 2008. The beer pours a rusty brown color with a thin and quickly dissipating head of foam. The nose is of cherries, and alcohol, dried fruit, sherry, dark bread, chocolate. Medium body with very little carbonation. Cherries and prunes, notes of alcohol. I close my eyes and think I'm drinking a fine port. The liquid coats the tongue begging to be paired with a strong cheese or chocolate. This is simply amazing and shows what beer can be. If you have a bottle of this, keep sitting on it, as I think this one can age for many more years. A great A beer.

A Plethora of Holiday Beers

2010-12-05T13:53:00.003-06:00

This year for the first time in a while there seems to be some new Christmas or winter seasonal beers on the shelves. At the very least they are new to me. Instead of filling numerous posts I'm combing my thoughts on a few of these beers. They'll be more of these in the next couple of weeks as I make my way through as many as I can. This is my favorite season for beers because so many beer during this time are cellar worthy as are each of the ones I'm posting about today.
Ommegang Adoration Ale: A Belgian Style Christmas ale from one of the best American brewers of belgian ales. This one has been around for a few years but its the first time I think its been available in Houston in bottles. A 10.% beer brewed with spices like coriander, cardamom, Mace, and grains of paradise. The beer pours a chestnut brown with a thick taupe colored head. Malty, fruity, spicy on the nose. I can smell cardamom and coriander. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy. Flavors of sweet malt, figs, prunes, candied oranges, fruit cake. Spicey, chewy, dark bread, dark fruit. As it warms qualities of scotch show up. Sweet but finishes dry. A very gog complex beer to sit in front of a warm fire with on a cold winter night. An A- from me.
Duvel Triple Hop: While not a true seasonal like others its been released around this time so I included it in this round up. Its your traditional Duvel recipe kicked up a bit. It weighs in at 9.5% and is brewed with Saaz, Amarillow, and Styrin hops, then again dry hopped with Styrin. It pours a pale golden color as expected with a thick pillowy white head of foam. The nose is of pale toasted malts, spicey yeasts. Medium mouthfeel, lots of carbonation, slightly sweet toasted malts, spicey and floral, yeasty bready notes. Letting it warms helps to bring out notes of pears and apples. A great beer that does great honor to the Duvel tradition. An A grade.
Gulden Draak Vintage Ale 2010: A vintaged version of the popular Gulden Draak Belgian age. Weighing in at 7.5% it pours a hazelnut brown with a thick dense head of taupe colored foam. Malty caramel notes on the nose. Brown sugar. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, god carbonation. Notes of Raisins, sweet caramel, malts, a slight hop bitterness. Carbonation is high giving this dark beer an effervescence. Notes of cherry as the beer warms, yeasty notes, figs. Spicey. A good beer that gets a B+ from me.
Golden Carolous Noel: We finish this round up as we started: A Belgian Style Christmas ale, except this time from an actual Belgian Brewery. This one weighs in at 10.5% and pours a rich copper color with a dark taupe colored head. Malty and spicey on the nose. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a good level of carbonation. Flavors of sweet malt, spice, Christmas bread, candied sugar. Dark fruits, raisins figs, rich, rich, malt. Ginger bread, sprucy, slightly sweet. This beer tastes like Winter, it tastes like Christmas. If someone asked me to think of a scene to compare this beer to it would be traipsing through a snow covered forest in search of the perfect Christmas tree, then back at a cabin by a fire sipping on a fine beer. In a nutshell that's what this beer is. This may be my new favorite Christmas beer. A strong go out and get this grade of A from me.

Blue Frog: The Big DIPA No. 3

2010-11-16T16:41:00.000-06:00

I'm fortunate in that my wife gets to travel quite a bit, and she is always more than willing to pile various beers into her suitcase for me. She always brings back good beers, and some that I've never heard of before. This is one of those beers. All I saw though was DIPA, or Double IPA, and you KNOW I like that. My wife traveled to California recently and found this bottle from Blue Frog. Its actually Blue Frog Grog and Grill based out of Fairfield, California. The name of the brew pub is based on the song "I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog" by Peter, Paul, and Mary (click here for the lyrics).
The Beer: A pumped up DIPA that has 105 IBU's and weighs in at 8.4%. The beer pours a partially hazy copper color with a thick head of off-white foam. The nose is massive hops, grapefruit, citrus peel, some caramel and toffee malts. Medium to light mouthfeel, explosive hops, lots of resinous stickiness. Grapefruit pith, caramel, maltyness, but here yes hops are king. They assault the senses from the start through the finish. No alcohol on the finish, smooth. Its a little thin, maybe some more malt to create a little backbone would help. Good, heck mouthpuckering at times, but needs a little oomph for me. This one gets a B from me.

The Tale of Two Ruffians

2010-11-09T06:36:00.004-06:00

If you've read this blog any amount of time you know I have a soft spot for Colorado beers. This is mostly due to my wife being from there and me having had a chance to taste a lot of beers from that state, including some that aren't available in Texas. This is one of those days, where I'm comparing a version of a beer that we get in the state against one we don't. Old Ruffian is Great Divide's barley wine.

09 Old Ruffian: The specs: 10.2% and 90 IBU's, bottled Dec 10 2009. This pours a brownish color with a thick dense head of taupe colored foam. The nose is full of malts, toffee, treacle, caramel, and hops along with a bit of alcohol. A creamy mouthfeel, malty up front then slammed with citrusy hops at the finish. With the next sip you get notes of toffee, caramel, raisins, before finishing even more resinous, sticky. Lots of grapefruit notes, hops are very prevalent but there is a strong malty presence here that does bring some balance. This one gets a B+ from me.

09 Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Ruffian: The Specs: 10.0%, 90 iBU's aged in Stranahn Whiskey Barrels. Hand numbered and I have bottle 375 of 1188. The beer pours a dark cloudy brown with a much thinner head of taupe colored foam. Malts and treacle, toffee, with undertones of oak, vanilla, and bourbon. Hops are very subdued here. Creamy mouthfeel, very little carbonation, some notes of wet cardboard that indicate some oxidation of the hops. Lots of caramel, vanilla, oak and bourbon, again very little hop flavor here. A little boozy. A little disappointing. I was really hoping for a bit more of hop flavor, but the hops have mostly left. A good beer though that gets a B from me.

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 10

2010-11-03T19:46:00.003-05:00

Its been almost year since the last Divine Reserve was released, but finally the time has arrived. As always actually getting your hand on some Divine Reserve is part of the fun and if you want to hear about it head over to Lushtastic for a good story (read the comments!). However this post is not about the hunt, but the beer. DR 10 is an English Barleywine based off of the winning recipe from the Big Batch Brew Bash as brewed by Chris Landis. This Barleywine weighs in at a very hefty 11%. Lucky for me I was able to obtain 2 six packs, but I also headed downtown on Tuesday the release day to try it on draft at Anvil Bar and Refuge which is what my tasting notes are based off of.
The Beer: Served in a tulip glass this beer poured a ruby color with a good sized taupe colored head. Caramel, and sweet malts, mild hops and some alcohol are on the nose. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, very sweet and malty, and a good deal of hoppy bitterness. Earthy, spicey instead of citrus-y grapefruit, I'm not sure what the hop varietal is, but its definitely not your NW American hops. It leaves a resiny finish though. Some notes of cherry as well. Very hot alcohol flavor, raw and young the beer definitely needs some age to it. Its got a great base and the beer is good and drinkable now, but I think it will be amazing in a couple of years. I'm not going to give my final grade on this one yet as I don't think its at its best right now. I think this beer has some great potential though.

De Proef/Terrapin Monstre Rouge

2010-10-29T20:04:00.002-05:00

Collaboration beers when done properly can be amazing, a fusion between multiple different visions, coming together to create a one of a kind elixir. In my opinion one of the more successful collaborative series has been De Proef's "Brewmaster's Collaboration". They have brewed with Lost Abbey's Tomme Arthur and the brewmaster from Bell's in Michigan among many others. They've been unique and more importantly very good. De Proef's latest collaboration is with the masters of rye Terrapin Beer. Monstre Rouge is called an Imperial Flanders Red Ale and is based off of Terrapins massively hopped beer "Big Hoppy Monster" but of course with a twist: Rye has been added to the recipe as well as some brett yeast.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 8.5% and pours a cloudy hazy hazelnut brown with a thick frothy head of foam. The nose is full of malts, lots of citrusy hops, some oaky vanilla and maybe its my imagination but just a hint of horsey notes comes through from the brett. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and my tasebuds short circuit momentarily from the layers of complex flavors. Once they come back on line I get hit by citrusy hops that leave a resiny finish, sweet fruiy malts, caramel, toffee, vanilla, and a dry oaky finish. Just a faint funky, horsey, barnyardy flavor, barely there. As I'm sitting there thinking I'd like the brett flavors turned up just a bit, I let the beer warm and it starts to come through even more. The more pronounced brett flavors start to meld with the more bourbon like qualities of this beer, then mixing with the resinous hops to create an explosion of flavors unlike many I've tasted before. A dry finish and this beer is truly one of a kind, one that I will love to see how it ages. The beer gets a resounding A from me. Folks at BA dig it, but not as much as I do.

Ommegang Cup O Kyndnes

2010-10-27T11:26:00.003-05:00

Ommegang from Cooperstown, New York is one of the best Belgian style breweries in the country. I think their standard line up is extremely solid, and their special seasonal brews some of the best around. Ommegang has a strong connection to Belgium and its brewing traditions in that they are owned by Duvel Moortgaart makers of Duvel and Maredsous beers. Every once in a while Ommegang releases special one off beers that are blends of newer world and older world traditions. Examples in the past have been their Belgian Pale ale, or Triple Perfection. How they have brewed a special Belgian Scotch ale brewed with Belgian yeast and heather tips as well as some smoked malts.
The Beer: This brew weighs in at 6.8% and pours a light nutty brown with a thick dense head of tan colored foam. The nose is malty, smokey notes, floral. The mouth is full bodied, chewy creamy, very malty. Hints of smoke along with vanilla, raisins, figs, dark rich fruits. Spicy notes and floral ones a the beer warms, even more smoke. Some estery notes from the Belgian yeasts and slight hints of cherries. A wonderful unique beer, rich and creamy, but with the somewhat low strength one that you can drink a lot of sipping at night as the weather cools. This one gets a strong A from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Houston Beer Week Recap of Recaps

2010-10-19T07:43:00.003-05:00

As posted yesterday, Monsters of Beer brought Houston Beer Week to a close with a bang. The entire week I think was an incredible success. Many folks, myself included, have been asking about something like this for a long time, looking for a way to put it together. However, it was a small group of people that had a vision and the drive to really put things in place, and to prod and push to make last week a success. Those people for the most part were Cathy Clark and Kevin Floyd. Yes I know that there many others involved, that put in a lot of hours and hard work, but those two were really the face of the effort. After those two, massive appreciation goes out to all the restaurants and bar's that took a risk, held an event and asked to be a part of Houston Beer Week. So a big thanks goes to: Beaver's, Petrol Station, Anvil Bar & Refuge, Spec's, Rockwell Tavern and Grill, Catalan, Divino's, Vic and Anthony's, The Usual, Gingerman, Liberty Station, Whole Foods, Canopy, Alamo Draft House, Fox Hollow, Mucky Duck, and Brenner's. Quite a long list indeed, and I am sure that many of those places had their eyes opened to the beer culture in Houston. Which brings me to my last shout out. You. My biggest fear was that HBW would be well coordinated and put together, lots of restaurants and bars would step up, and then no one would show up . Well Houston, pat yourself on the back, because if there was any doubt about it before, you love good beer, with food, or without, draft, or cask, you packed every event throughout the week. This wasn't a case of the same crowd going to each dinner. I know that most people just picked one dinner to go too, yet each one was sold out before hand. A great job and it shows that here is still some growth potential in this city.

Now for the Recaps of Recaps. I obviously couldn't hit all the events last week, lucky for us there are quite a few other's that put their thoughts down:

Monday's Beaver and Petrol Beer Dinner:
Some thoughts from Lushtastic: http://lushtastic.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/petrol-beaver-dinner-houston-beer-week-monday/

The Chronicle's Ronnie Crocker posts some thoughts on the Connoisseur tasting with Audrey Keifer of Artisanal Beverage Company: http://blogs.chron.com/beertx/2010/10/ginger_man_making_a_splash_dur.html

Of course a couple of folks posted thoughts on the amazing Catalan Beer Dinner:
http://www.allgoodbeer.com/2010/10/beer-dinner-at-catalan-with-kevin-floyd.htm
http://barleyvine.blogspot.com/2010/10/beer-dinner-catalan.html

There also a couple of reviews for Thursday's Pumpkin Ale Throwdown at Petrol Station
http://www.allgoodbeer.com/2010/10/pumpkin-beer-throwdown-winners.html
http://blogs.chron.com/beertx/2010/10/pumpkin_throwdown_made_for_a_s.html

Here's mine from Friday's Anvil Gravity Beer event:
http://barleyvine.blogspot.com/2010/10/anvils-gravity-beer-2010.html

A review of Texas Girl’s Pint Out Rare Beers of the Midwest at Spec’s (sorry I couldn't get in)
http://lushtastic.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/rare-beer-tasting-with-texas-girls-pint-out/
and some pictures: http://tx.girlspintout.com/474/oct-15-specs-tasting-pictures

And finally, some thoughts on Monsters of Beer
http://lushtastic.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/monsters-of-beer/
http://barleyvine.blogspot.com/2010/10/monsters-of-beer-recap.html
http://www.allgoodbeer.com/2010/10/houston-beer-week-ends-with-roar.html
http://blogs.chron.com/beertx/2010/10/texas_breweries_shine_at_monst_1.html

If you have a recap that I didn't include, put a link in the comments section and I will update this post with the information.

Monsters of Beer Recap

2010-10-18T07:23:00.005-05:00

Sunday was the final day of the highly successful Houston Beer Week and you couldn't have asked for a better way to go out than Monsters of Beer. This was an event of Texas Music, Texas Food, and of course Texas Beer. It was a extremely successful 6 hour event with very few hiccups. I'm really impressed by the folks that put this on, the volunteers, and the attendees. Was it perfect? No. Are there things that could go better next year? Of course there are. But for it being year one I thought things went pretty well.

The first thing we noticed when we walked past the giant dragon at the entrance to Monsters of Beer and entered the blocked off area by 13 Celsius was the line-up of 9 breweries where there was supposed to be 10. Unfortunately Ranger Creek Brewing couldn't make it anytime as they were having facility issues. The second thing I noticed was that there was only one food truck when there should have been 3 (Hubcap Grill had their truck vandalized, and Melange Crepes was running late, which left only Sylvia's No Borders Truck), this would of course cause one of the biggest issues but was really beyond the control of the Monsters of Beer folks.

Once we got in line for each brewery you also realized that what was on the handy dandy check off chart was not what was being served so for reference here is what was available from each brewery:

(512) - IPA and Pecan Porter

Live Oak - Pilz and HefeWeisen

Real Ale - Oktoberfest, ESB, and Lost Gold IPA Cask

Southern Star - Burried Hatchet Stout, Blonde, Pale Ale

Independence - Stash IPA, Saison

No Label - Pale Horse Pale Ale, El Hefe Hefeweizen, and Ridgeback Amber

Jester King - Mild

Saint Arnold - Amber and Elissa IPA

Rahr and Sons - Ugly Pug, Salamander Pale Ale, Octoberfest (Imperial Version) and a Cask of Winter Warmer

Even without Ranger creek a pretty solid line up of beers. Although the brewer's couldn't touch the beers, there were some reps around to answer questions and the volunteers were (for the most part) educated about what they were serving. If you go based on lines I think a lot of folks were interested in the new folks from Katy No Label Brewing. I have to say I came away impressed. I thought there Amber was outstanding, and their El Hefe was a great hefeweisen, up there with Live Oak's. Rahr and Son's probably wins the award for bringing the most beer. Initially I was excited to see their new version of their Octoberfest being poured but around 4 pm they tapped a cask of their Winter Warmer which was amazing.

The crowd was great, well behaved and all seemed interested in the beers being served. There were 600 tickets sold, so there times when it got crowded but it was never out of hand. The crowd ranged from the beer folks that I always see at events like this, to folks just curious about what's going on which at 20.00 a pop allowed regular folks to attend just out of curiosity.

Yep it was a great time, but as mentioned there were a couple of minor things that could better. The first thing I already briefly mentioned which was only having Sylvia's Food Truck out there. I know it was beyond their control, but standing in line for 20 minutes for a couple of taco's was not a good time. Hopefully the success of this event will allow more trucks to come and participate. The second issue, was there weren't enough chairs. I know that the space was not huge, but a few more tables and chairs would be nice. There were a couple of things mentioned by other folks that frankly didn't bother my that much. The first was long lines, which admittedly were there, but I don't think I ever stood in line for longer than 5 or so minutes which is a testament to the hard work of the volunteers. The second issue was the heat. Again it was hot, but it was also an outdoor festival in Houston so it could have been cloudy and rainy, cold, or hot. Luckily the clouds came around 3 pm and it helped, but it didn't bother me much. That's it though, those were really the only issues I had, or heard about. Not bad for a first event of this size.

Throughout the day there was a tent set up with items available via Silent Auction, all proceeds going to Friday Harbor. Some of the things available were Glasses from Ranger Creek, Brewer for a Day at Southern Star, 2 each of the Saison Du Buff from Victory, Stone and Dogfish, a Vertical from Stone's Epic series (Can't remember the years), vertical of Dark Lord, and a Vertical of Abyss. I am very happy to say that I got the Abyss vertical! It was a great way to raise money and was exciting to see folks running to the tent at just before 4pm when the auction closed and trying to get one last bid in. Again though even with all the excitement everyone was extremely well behaved even if it was the 4 hours into the festival and a lot of folks had a lot of beer.

I just want to say again how impressed I was by the event, how few logistical issues there were, how good the beer was (nothing lukewarm, everything was served fresh and cold), and how awesome everyone at the event was. Its truly a testament to the hard work and dedication of the folks behind Monsters of Beer Cathy Clark and Kevin Floyd. Great job guys, no pressure, but we are all eagerly anticipating next year.

Anvil's Gravity Beer 2010

2010-10-16T16:45:00.004-05:00

There were a lot of events I was looking forward to at the beginning of Houston Beer Week, and the Gravity Beer Event at Anvil last night was at the top of the list. The dream of Kevin Floyd, Co-Owner of Anvil the idea was to have a bunch of beer's that were either completely unavailable to Texas, or one off's of local beer's that would be special and unique. None of these beers would be available on draft, instead all served in cask and either poured via gravity or Cask Engine. When we arrived at Anvil there were two types of keg's set up. The first the traditional English Firkin (a 9 imperial Gallon keg) filled with unique Texas Craft beers or a German Anstich (5.28 US Gallons) filled Franconian Lager's that until last night were unavailable in Texas. Anvil handed out a nice "Consumption Guide" with info on all the beer's listed and a little bit of info on each beer, some of which I'll use below. I'll also include tasting notes on the beer's I was able to try:
Texas Firkin's
(512) Dry Hopped Two: This was (512) second anniversary beer and an imperial IPA. This was served via a Gravity Cask. I've had this beer before on draft and really enjoyed it. Last night it was great on cask, hoppy, spicy, almost creamy texture, it slaps you across the face with hops. Good carbonation (don't let anyone tell you cask beer should be flat!) some malty sweetness and mild alcohol notes. Great beer.
Jester King Dark Mild: The first cask that new Austin Area brewery Jester King has made. A traditional English Dark mild that weighs in at 3% and was dry hopped with East Kent Goldings. This beer was served on Anvil's cask Engine and one of the beer's I was most looking forward too. It poured a rich dark chestnut brown with a creamy head. Very malty, very easy drinking, but extremely flavorable. Some mild earthy hoppy notes adds to the beer without taking away from the showcase of malt flavors. A great cask ale that should be on regular rotations around town, hopefully it will be in the future.
Independence Convict Hill Stout aged with Anvil Bourbon Cherries: This was the second beer I was really looking forward to. Independence's Imperial Oatmeal Stout with Anvil's house made Bourbon cherries. This was tapped after Jester King's Mild was gone, and it took a loooonggg time, at least it was a long time for those of us eagerly waiting it, crowding around the bar, hoping that every time Kevin went to the ice box he would come out with an empty keg signaling that it was time of this beer. Well when it finally arrived none of us was left disappointed. It was served on Anvil's Cask Engine and came out black with just a hint of ruby streaks, and a thick creamy head. The nose was of roasted malts, chocolate, and maybe just a bit of bourbon. The mouth was medium bodied, lots of roasted malts, a small amount of bourbon up front and just a faint hint of cherries on the finish. Some notes of alcohol which is to be expected for a brew weighing in at just over 9%. I was surprised by how easy it drank. A really solid great beer and a wonderful collaboration between bar and brewer.
Southern Star Cocoa and Madagascar Vanilla Aged Smoked Porter: A very special version of Southern Star's Pro Am beer. Whole vanilla beans and Coco nibs were added into this cask.
The German Beers served in Anstich
Brauerie Bayer: A landbier
Ahornberger: A schwartzbier. This beer poured a rich dark black with an almost bright white head. Lots of dark roasted malts, some sweetness up front before it finishes dry. A creaminess to this lager, very good.
Braueri Beck (Trabelsdorf): Lager
Monschsambach: Unfiltered Lager
Guenther Braeu: Lager

Rightfully so Anvil has a reputation around not only Houston but the country as a top notch Cocktail bar, but last night it was definitely all about the beer. This morning via Twitter, Kevin reported that the Independence Cask was gone in 75 minutes. That's pretty good for such a high octane brew. Speaking of twitter, there were rumors going around this morning that Anvil had broken its single night sales record. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that. A beer night setting sales records at Anvil so I needed it confirmed, so I sent a message to Kevin who replied back with a hearty YES! That's pretty amazing and is one more example of how successful Houston Beer Week has been.

Beer Dinner: Catalan

2010-10-14T06:33:00.007-05:00

Last night just about marked the middle point of Houston Beer Week. A couple of days ago I wrote a summary of the amazing time I had at Flying Saucer's Divine Reserve Vertical Tasting. Well last night I attended the Catalan Beer Dinner, which had Food from Chef Chris Shepard and beer parings from Kevin Floyd of Anvil. This was a 6 course dinner with an appetizer course that left me full, and amazed at some of the pairings. During each course Chef Shepard would come out and briefly talk about the food, before stepping aside and letting Kevin talk about the beer, some history, some stories, and a little about the pairing.

Appetizer Course: I have to admit when they first brought out the beer for this course I thought it was a joke, but later learned there was a good reason for it. The course was Keystone Light served in a Champagne flute with a home made bologna sandwich topped with home made spicy bread and butter pickles. I can't remember the last time I've had Keystone, and there is a good reason for that. Luckily it was served ice cold and the initial sips weren't too bad, but man the finish is horrible. It was a fun pairing as the highly carbonated beer helped cut through the fat of the sand which. Kevin then came out and talked about why Keystone. Turns out this was the first beer that Kevin bough at 21, and he wanted to start off the dinner with your typical American Lager before showing those in attendance (many who had never been to a beer dinner) how far the craft beer industry has moved away from that.

Course 1: The first course brought a surprise, a beer that we don't get in Texas: Saison De Dottignes from De Ranke Brewery in Belgium. Simply this was just a great example of a Belgian Saison and one that we can't get here in Houston, yet. Notes of lemon, yeasty peppery notes, just a bit of funk on the finish. It was served with mussels in a chorizo garlic broth. The mussels were HUGE. Good pairing, spicy broth goes well with the yeasty peppery notes of the beer and its dry finish.

Course 2: The third beer of the evening was Left Hand Polestar Pilsner. A great example of a European Pilsner, poured a very pale straw color with notes of pils malts, a little funk on the finish, grassy. Good beer that was perfect for the dish of fish and chips. Chef Shepard fried up Gulf Hake and paired with malt vinegar potato chips. This was a good dish, and the beer paired well by basically getting out of the way, the beer washing away some of the fat from the batter while not over powering the dish. This was a good dish, but not one of my favorites.

Course 3: Kevin brought out a second beer that we don't get here in Texas, Nogne O Imperial Dunkel Wit. I've never had an Imperial Dark Belgian Wit ale, let alone one that weighs in at 10.0%. This beer was amazing, it blew me away with its level of spices, figs, some alcohol, brown sugar, even some bannana chocolate and a bit of malty sweetness. But it was so much more than what I'm describing, really just an amazing beer. It was paired with suckling pig taco's, pickled onions and homemade hot sauce. A pairing of spicy and sweet, richness of beer, and richness of dish, a really perfect pairing. Kevin reports we may just be getting some Nogne O in Texas, let's hope that we get this one.

Course 4: Kevin brought out a familiar favorite here, pouring Victory Wild Devil and paired with an usual dish called Mofongo, that Chef Shepard informed the eager crowd was a combination Jamacan and Puerto Rican dish. Chef took some plantains and mashed them with some braised pork belly, and then topped it with braised baby goat that had been shredded and mixed with All Spice, cloves, and scotch bonnet peppers. The funky spiciness of the beer paired well with the heat of the dish. Dryness and carbonation of the beer really contrasted with the rich sweetness of the dish.

Course 5: A traditional food pairing here of beer and burgers. Of course you know its more than that. The beer was Lagunitas Hopstoopid, the burger was cooked medium rare and stuffed with cheese, the bun made of pretzel from Slow Dough bakery. The side dish was barbecue baked field peas. A pretty solid pairing, but I wasn't the biggest fan of the burger....maybe it was because by this point I was STUFFED, barely able to eat (should have taken some food home with me!).

Course 6: Yes I'm stuffed, but that didn't mean I couldn't eat dessert especially when it's paired with Stone Russian Imperial Stout 2009. The dish was chocolate ice cream and rich rich dense chocolate cake. A perfect pairing of course the roasted coffee, chocolate, burnt beans of the beer with the sweet dark rich chocolate of the cake. With some encouragement from Kevin a bunch of us threw the ice cream in with the beer....I love beer floats!

Over all last night was incredibly successful. When Kevin asked who had never been to a beer dinner before the majority of the room raised their hands. In fact I'd say only a half dozen folks had been to one. This is what I had hoped Houston Beer Week would do, bring non-beer people to beer events and if last night is any indication that's exactly what it's doing.

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out fellow beer blogger Steve from All Good Beer was at the dinner as well and has posted his thoughts (with pictures) as well.

Book Review: Amber, Gold & Black

2010-10-12T20:29:00.007-05:00

Amber, Gold & Black: The History of Britain's Great Beers by Martyn Cornell is an extremely well researched book that covers all the styles of beer that Britain has produced over many centuries. The book covers 16 chapters, each chapter a different style of beer: Bitter, Mild, Burton Ale, Porter, Stout, India Pale Ale, Golden Ale, Low-Gravity Beers, Brown Ale, Wheat Ale, Barley Wine and Old Ale, Herb and Flavored Ales, Honey Beer, Heather Ale, Wood-Aged Beers, and Lager. Each chapter begins with the history of the beer and the etymology of the style, and then at the end of each chapter it discusses the present and mentions some of the brewer's still producing they style of beer. Its a very well written book and a quick read at essentially 226 pages, although its packed with information. He delves into how styles progressed through the centuries and how they evolved, sometimes going from one style and blending into others. To me especially, it's fascinating reading concerning the impact that the two World Wars had on the beer culture in Britain, primarily creating low gravity beers. Although this essentially killed some styles, it also forced British brewer's to brew very full flavored ales at relatively low alcohol, something that I feel is still missing on this side of the pond. If you pick this book up, you'll see its extremely well written (if a little bit poorly edited) that covers the depth and breadth of British brewing history. Another fun aspect of the book, that anyone familiar with Mr. Cornell's work will know, is the debunking of several beer related myth's (I won't give any away here, just go read the book). Overall Amber Gold and Black is a fascinating read that truly shows the impact Britain and its beer culture had on the beer cultures around the world.

A couple of additional notes that I wanted to make because I think the book itself has an interesting history. This book was originally published as an e-book in Britain a couple of years ago and won huge rave's from beer lovers. It won the book of the year before finally getting published hardcopy and made available over here in the states. Mr. Cornell has a great blog if you are more interested in the etymology and history of words and beer, he is also the founder of the British Beer Writers Guild.

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve Vertical Tasting

2010-10-12T17:51:00.003-05:00

The week to end all weeks for beer lovers is here. Houston Beer week started off with a BANG on Sunday and continues at a feverish pace the rest of the week. Monday you didn't see me at any beer dinners, instead I headed to the Flying Saucer for a very special beer tasting. Brock Wagner, owner and co-founder of Houston's own Saint Arnold was there to lead a tasting of all 9 Divine Reserves (Flying Saucer also provided some very fine cheeses courtesy of the Houston Dairy Maids). Brock had lots of great stories to go with the beer as we all worked our way through these 9 beers. The oldest of which has almost hit 5 years.
DR 1: The first Divine Reserve and the only one that I didn't get to drink fresh (I did have it about a year and a half ago for the first time). This was bottled on 17 October 2005 and weighed in at 10%. It was made with a 100% Maris Otter malts with Northern Brewer and Cascade hops in the kettle. In an unusual twist it was later dry hopped with the German noble hop Saaz. The beer pours a cloudy amber brownish. The nose is syrupy sweet, malts, toffee. The body if medium, some notes of alcohol up front, the hops have subsided, concentrated flavors, sherry like notes. Bread pudding quality, caramel, treacle. Still a good after dinner drink, but I wonder how much longer this one still has.
DR 2: This is Saint Arnold's 10% Belgian Quadruppel, bottled on 18 July 2006. Brewed in two different batches, with two separate yeasts, a Chimay yeast and then Chico yeast. Right at the end of fermentation and before bottling the two batches were blended together before allowing fermentation to complete. The hops used for this one were Perle, Liberty, and Saaz, and its also the first Saint Arnold beer to use an adjunct, in this case brown sugar). The beer poured a cloudy orangish amber, the nose is full of fruity esters from the yeast, pears, grapes almost a Sauternes quality. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, those same yeasty estery notes, brown sugar, some white fruits, really complex and tasty, I loved this beer fresh and still really enjoyed it.
DR 3: A double IPA weighing in at 10% this one is a winner of the Big Beer Brew Bash and was bottled on 21 September 2006. The pours a clear orange color with notes of syrup, caramel, but not a lot of hops on the nose. However this changes with the firs sip. The beer is sticky with hops, resinous, massive hops on the finish, extremely malty as well, caramel, toffee, some hop oxidation that gives it a sherry like quality, makes this beer taste more like an American Strong Ale than a DIPA.
DR 4: This was the first Divine Reserve that I was able to get in a 6 pack and I loved it. A 8% Wee Heavy that was bottled on 20 February 2007. This is also the only DR that has won a medal bringing home a Gold Medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup. The beer pours a very rich dark brown notes of raisins, figs, concentrated dark fruits and a smokiness are all on the nose. More of the same in the mouth. Dark crystal malts, plums and cherry's are all there as well. Surprised by the smoke, as I don't really remember this one having a lot of smokiness to it.
DR 5: This is the one a lot of folks were looking forward to. A 9% Russian Imperial Stout that has won massive raves and was named one of the top beers of the year in 2007. It was bottled on 28 August of that year and has an interesting story as well. Evidently when the beer was being thrown into the fermenter it was under hopped, so to bring the hop levels back up Saint Arnold ended up using hop oils and hop extract. The beer pours a pitch black and smells of massively roasted black malts, chocolate, coffee, burnt malts. The mouthfeel is still pretty full bodied, Chocolate, darkly roasted coffee beans, some astringency, figs, raisins. After 3 years this one still could go many many more and continue to be amazing.
DR 6: A massively hopped American Barleywine that weighs in at 10%. 225 lbs of 100% Columbus hops were used to create this monster, bottled on 6 April 2008. It pours an almost reddish color, some hops on the nose, but lots of malts, toffee, caramel, some piney notes, sugary sweetness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with pine notes a plenty. Some oxidation here as I got notes of sherry, along with caramel, toffee, treacle, some fruity notes as well. This one is still good and probably has another year or two.
DR 7: This one I expected to like the least due to fact I didn't expect the style to age very well. A 8% Weizenbock this one was bottled on 5 September 2008. The beer pours a light cloudy brownish color. No banana flavors, but there is a spiciness, some cloves and chocolate. Light bodied, with lots of spices and cloves. The harshness that was there fresh is gone and this one is smooth if a little light flavored. It's evolved (or devolved) into a light dunkel weissen.
DR 8: At this point my palate was starting to go so my notes aren't the best. This was a 9% Scotch ale bottled on 20 August 2009. It poured a hazy orange color, still some peat-y qualities on the nose some residual sweetness as well. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and good levels of smokiness still present, grapes, prunes, sweet malts, fruity esters from the yeast. A good beer that I think still has some time.
DR 9: Even though this one is not quite a year old I was extremely excited to see how this Imperial Pumpkin Stout has held up. Bottled on 11 November of last year it is the strongest of the Divine Reserves weighing in at 11%. It pours a dark ruby brown color with a lot of pumpkin still present on the nose. Lots of pumpkin pie spice as well along with a good dose of chocolate and roasted malts. Its a full bodied beer, lots of chocolate, spices, pumpkin. This tastes AMAZINGLY still. Lots of all spice, cinnamon, brown sugar. Really Really good. It was at this point that Brock made the biggest announcement of the night: This Imperial Pumpkin Stout will become a yearly seasonal release starting next year! That is great news for any beer lover.

Overall I was really impressed by how well most of these beers have developed over time. The 5 year old DR1 is still really good. Last night shows that Saint Arnold brews some of the best beer around and that DR series has developed into an amazing line up of beers. Remember that DR 10 an English Barleywine comes out November 1.

Houston Beer Week: What are you doing?

2010-10-09T10:16:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow starts a week of celebrating beer in Houston. As I've written before this is something that I've been waiting for a long time for and am extremely excited about. There is at least one event every day starting tomorrow and culminating in the awesome Monsters of Beer next Sunday, however many days have multiple events. Check out the official Houston Beer Week website, or look on the right hand said of this page to see the Beer Events Calendar for whats happening each day.
From dinners, to education events, to tastings there is something for everyone. There are some amazing dinners at places like Catalan, Beavers, and Rockwell Tavern, nightly tastings at Gingerman Pub. There are events for everyone, from activities prices from around $11.00 to dinners up to $100.00. Besides the daily events listed on the Beer Events Calendar there is also events going on all week long: Liberty Station will be having Happy Hour prices on draft beer all week along, and Whole Foods Markets will be having specials on beer throughout the week.
Now that you know what's happening, the question remains, what are you going to do? Beer lovers, this is the event you've been waiting for, now its up to you to support it as much as you can. What am I going to do? Definitely doing the Monsters of Beer event, but I'll also be at the Catalan Beer dinner, with pairings from Kevin Floyd of Anvil Bar and Refuge. I'll also be at the Gravity Cask Event at Anvil on Friday. I'm going to try to hit up one of the tastings at Gingerman and Petrol Station. Next week will be busy for me, so if you see me around, come by and say hi.
I'll be posting my thoughts of the individual events throughout the week, then a round up next Sunday on how I think HBW went.

Lagunitas Lil Sumpin Wild

2010-10-05T06:26:00.002-05:00

I'm a huge fan of Lagunitas Brewery out of California, because they make great beer at a great price. Very few other brewer's release the beers Lagunitas does at 3 to 5 dollars a bomber. It's becuase of this price point that I go and pick up a lot of their beers, especialy when I see one that I think will interest me. Something that interested me on this one was the word wild on the label. Thinking I was getting their popular Lil Sumpin IPA with wild yeast I picked it up to check it out. Luckily I read the label before taking it home so I wasn't too dissapointed. Regardless of what the name implies this is not a wild ale, instead it is an IPA fermented with the Belgian brewery Westmalle's yeast (not sure what's wild about that but oh well). Still this sounded interesting enough for me to check it out.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 8.85% and pours a pale golden honey color with a thick white head that slowly dissipates over time to a thin white cap of foam. Nose is hoppy, citrusy, spicey, peppery, malty. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, very hoppy up front with lots of citrus and grapefruit peel. Finish is spicey, estery, lots of that typical Belgian yeast. Fruity, slightly effervescent. The lingering effect and impression though is of the hops, they are definetely the highlight. A good solid Belgian IPA attempt by Lagunits, just need to change the name so folks aren't confused or dissapointed. This one gets a B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Houston Beer Week Press Release

2010-09-23T06:47:00.004-05:00

I've talked about it many times but I have recieved the press release for the first ever Houston Beer Week. The Press release details all the events currently planned. While the press release is below, please note that there will continue to be additions so remember to check out houstonbeerweek.com, and I will also be updating the Events calendar on the right hand side of the page as much as I can.

One last note before getting to the press release. I've learned that Anvil Bar and Refuge will be hosting "A taste of Houston Beer Week" on Thursday October 8th by tapping some very special beers. I have an idea of what will be tapped and it will be awesome, and as soon as I get confirmation of that I'll post additional details on here. Without further ado the press release:

GET READY FOR THE 1st EVER
“HOUSTON BEER WEEK”
October 11 – 17, 2010

Local bars, chefs and breweries collaborate to create an amazing week of Events, Dinners and Tappings to be held all over the City of Houston in celebration of the Craft Beer Movement.
Co-Chairs Cathy Clark and Kevin Floyd “Monsters of Beer Charity” Grand Finale Event to benefit local charities
Houston TX -- Beer Lovers, start your engines, purchase your tickets, and get ready for the first Houston Beer Week. Organized by a network of local beer-savvy operators, beer aficionados and craft breweries, HBF features a week-long calendar of spectacular beer events and general beer magic that will take place at bars, restaurants and retail establishments all over the city and into the suburbs. The week will conclude with the Monsters of Beer Charity Festival on Sunday, October 17, 2010, organized by Co-Chairs Cathy Clark, founder of the popular Houston Beer Camp and the Live it Big charity, and Kevin Floyd, co-owner of Anvil Bar & Refuge. Proceeds from Sunday’s event will benefit local charities.
Events, Beer Dinners and Hard-to-Find Beers
Every event will be its own adventure. Costs will vary by event. Expect to taste cask-conditioned newcomers, hard-to-score beers, and learn from the best beer nerds in the city at a featured beer dinner each night of the week. While a complete calendar for each day of the week can be found at www.houstonbeerweek.com [updates are ongoing], below is a selection of noteworthy events, including the beer dinners to be featured each night:

Sunday, Oct.10
Kick-off party at The Usual Pub, beginning 4pm; plus A Home brewer’s Tutorial with DeFalco’s Home Wine and Beer Supplies and Southern Star Brewery, also at The Usual.
The Usual Pub, 5519 Allen St.

Monday, Oct. 11
Featured Beer Dinner:
Chef Jonathan Jones of Beaver’s Ice House & Ben Fullelove of Petrol Station
Details: 6pm beer & cocktail reception followed by a 5-course dinner paired with beers hand-selected by Ben. $70 per person.
To reserve, call Beaver’s, 713-864-2328; a credit card is required to confirm your reservation.
Beaver’s Ice House, 2310 Decatur St.

Connoisseur tasting at The Ginger Man Pub with Artisanal Imports
Join Chris Campana of Artisanal Imports of Austin for a tour through his incredible portfolio of international brews including Urthel (Belgium), Malheur (Belgium), Sunner (Germany), Triple Karmeliet (Belgium), Koningshoeven (Belgium) and Tilburg (Netherlands).
Details: $11.25/p; the event starts at 7:30pm.
The Ginger Man, 5607 Morningside Dr.

Tuesday, Oct. 12
Featured Beer Dinner:
Chef Elizabeth Brooks of Canopy and Brock Wagner of St. Arnold Brewery
Details: 5-courses, $65 per person at 7pm
This dinner is limited to 20 people; to reserve, please call 713-528-6848.
Canopy, 3939 Montrose Ave.

Moylan’s Tasting at Petrol Station
Sample the entire line of Moylan’s Brewery (at least those available in Texas).
Movies & a Beer at Alamo Drafthouse
Matinee prices for movies (excluding special events), $3 craft beer pints, and Growler specials. Available at both locations, 1000 West Oaks Mall and 531 South Mason Rd in Katy

Wed, Oct. 13
Featured Beer Dinner:
Chef Chris Shepherd of Catalan & Kevin Floyd of Anvil Bar & Refuge
Details: Hors d’oeuvres at 7pm, followed by a 6-course dinner paired with beers hand selected by Kevin. $100 per person; to reserve, call Catalan 713-426-4260; a credit card is required to confirm your reservation.
Catalan Food & Wine is located at 5555 Washington Ave.,

Stone Brewing at the Flying Saucer
Come visit with Jason Armstrong of Stone Brewing and enjoy specials on pints of 4-5 Stone selections.
Flying Saucer, 705 Main St.

Thursday, Oct. 14
Featured Beer Dinner:
Chef Patrick McCray of Divino and Pike Brewing
Details: Reception at 7pm followed by 4-courses paired with Pike beers
$65/pp + 18% gratuity. Seating is limited to 20.
Reservations can be made by calling 713-807-1123 or via email divinohouston@att.net; a credit card is required to confirm your reservation.
Divino, 1830 W. Alabama St.

Connoisseur tasting at The Ginger Man Pub with Nadine Jones of Brooklyn Brewery.
Nadine will discuss the array of award-winning beers from Brooklyn Brewery, plus there will be a cooking demonstration with beer and instructional lecture regarding designing your meals around your beer of choice.
Details: $11.25 per person; event begins at 7:30pm
The Ginger Man, 5607 Morningside Dr.

Southern Star Tasting at Rockwell Tavern
Plus a dinner special of BURIED HATCHET FISH & CHIPS, showcasing a classic way to cook delicious and creative meals with craft beer.
Details: tasting from @ 6pm – 8pm
Rockwell Tavern, 12640 Telge Rd., Cypress

Friday, Oct. 15
Featured Beer Dinner:
Chef Carlos Rodriguez of Vic & Anthony’s and Brew Dog Brewery
Details: Drinks at 7pm followed by a 7-course dinner paired with beers from this maverick Scottish brewery.
$85 + tax/gratuity. To reserve, please call Stacie Chambers at 713-228-1111; a credit card is required to hold your reservation.
Vic & Anthony’s, 1510 Texas St.

Gravity Cask 2010 at Anvil Bar & Refuge
Featuring beers custom-made for Anvil Bar & Refuge -- you will not find these beers any place else. With rare and unique casks from local and continental European breweries, including Southern Star Smoked Porter flavored with cocoa nibs and vanilla and a Cask-conditioned Independence Oatmeal Stout infused with Anvil’s bourbon cherries.
Anvil Bar & Refuge, 1424 Westheimer

Dixie Cup Homebrew Competition: Strange Brew
The Dixie Cup is one of the nation’s oldest home brewing competitions and is noted for its great mix of irreverent fun as well as its seriousness about beer. or more information, contact Scott Weitzenhoffer by email at dixiecup@foamrangers.com or call DeFalco’s at 713-668-9440.

Saturday, October 16
Brenner’s Beer Festival
Brenner’s Steakhouse on the Bayou will host its first beer festival featuring more than 50 beers from local and regional craft breweries. Many breweries will showcase their fall seasonal selections. Live entertainment will be provided by Ezra Charles & The Works. Jason Armstrong of Stone Brewing will also be in attendance. .
Details: From 2pm to 6pm; only 400 tickets are available.
Tickets are $45/per person in advance or $55/at the door. Tickets are on sale online at www.brennerssteakhouse.com.
Brenner’s, 1 Birdsall Place

Connoisseur tasting at The Ginger Man Pub with Prescott Carter of Duvel-Moortgat Brewery.
Prescott will discuss the renowned family of beers including Ommegang (New York), Duvel (Belgium), Maredsous (Belgium), and the Chouffe Brewery (Belgium).
Details: $11.25 per person and the event begins at 3pm
The Ginger Man, 5607 Morningside Dr.

The Monster of Beer Charity Festival, Sunday, October 17
Houston Beer Week will conclude Sunday, October 17, 2010 with the Monsters of Beer Charity Festival hosted by Live It BIG, Inc, a non-profit who helps provide seed money for local charities in Houston. Proceeds from this event will go to support Live It BIG’s 2010 focal charity Friday Harbour, which provides housing assistance to cancer patients receiving treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Children’s Hospital and their families.
The event will take place adjacent to 13 Celsius on Anita St. Twelve Texas breweries, including 2010 Great American Beer Festival winners Saint Arnold and Real Ale will be in attendance. The festival will focus on Texas craft breweries and the growing Texas craft beer movement. Several breweries will be bringing special cask and firkin beers as well.
There will be live music by Mason Lankford & The Folk Family Revival along with other bands yet to be announced; food can be purchased at Hubcap Burger’s food truck, Melange Crêperie, and from the 13 Celsius menu. A silent auction of aged beers, beer tours, beer paraphernalia, and all things good in beer will raise additional monies for charity.

To learn more, visit www.monsterofbeer.com or follow on Twitter @monstersofbeer.

The Death knell for Brewpubs?

2010-09-21T17:52:00.006-05:00

Houston has been the recipient of some great beer news lately. Whether it's been amazing beer dinners, or the announcement of Houston Beer Week, good things are happening in this city with respect to beer. However, it still very sad when a beer related business goes under, more so when that business is the last brew pub in town. On Monday, Ronnie Crocker of the Chronicle reported that Rice Village's Two Row's will be closing effective October 2nd due to lease issues with the building owner Weingarten Realties. Whether you liked Two Row's beer or not (I didn't) its a sad day when the 4th largest city in the country no longer has a brewpub (I don't count the numerous BJ's around town since all of their beer is contract brewed by Saint Arnold's). Not too long ago I ranted about the fact that there were too few places in this city that truly cared about beer and food. Well over the course of the last year places like BRC Gastropub and Queen Vic's have opened that serve good solid food with a great list of craft beer. Old stand buys like Hobbit Cafe have expanded their beer list (Sunday I was able to get a 512 Double IPA on Draft there). Petrol Station, with their amazing beer list, hosts Eggs and Keggs brunch events where they pair brunch food with beer. Higher end places like Vic and Anthony's have hosted two beer dinners (Dogfish Head and Stone) with plans to host more. As mentioned earlier, huge beer events are occurring in this area: 1st annual Cask Festival hosted by Anvil, Petrol Station, and Flying Saucer, Flying Saucer's Anniversary Party, Galveston's Brewmasers Festival, and of course the upcoming and highly anticipated Houston Beer Week. This event that features beer education, beer tastings, and multiple beer dinners around town proves as much as any others that Houston is becoming a beer town. Some will say its the same folks at each event, and for things like Flying Saucer's Anniversary Party or the Cask Festival, they might be correct, but I've been to the beer dinners, and the people attending aren't all a part of what many would consider the regular beer folk. In fact, Houston Chronicle's Restaurant Critic Allison Cook recently attended the Vic and Anthony Stone Beer dinner and raved about it.
Back to Houston Beer week for a second. The beer dinners will include places like Beavers, Catalan, Canopy, Divino, Vic and Anthony, and Brenner's. I must emphasize how amazing that list of restaruants is and how wide ranging the food being served will actually be. What does this tell us? It is evident that Houston is primed for a place that makes both great beer and great food. Houston has evolved to the point where they won't put up with mediocre beer being served in a brew pub, and the same goes for food. It doesn't have to be complex upscale food; it just has to be good. Brew pub's have come and gone through this city since the early 1990's, but for the first time since 1993, Houston is without a brewpub. Even with all the great beer events occurring in this city, it's still sad to think of a town this size without a brew pub. The question is: will a chef, a brewer, a restaurateur, or someone else step up and fill that void?

Dogfish Head Theobroma

2010-09-08T06:35:00.003-05:00

In these years of posting my thoughts on beer I've said it many times, and it bears saying again: I'm a huge fan of Dogfish Head Ales out of Deleware. Not only do they make great hoppy beers, they also make great unusual styles, sometimes historic, and owner Sam Caglione is a great ambassador for craft beer. The latest beer new to the Houston market is a historic ale, an ale based on a historic recipe. If you are familiar with DFH think a beer like Midas Touch as being a historic ale. This recipe is based on an ancient Aztec alcoholic chocolate drink called Food of the God's (which is what Theobroma loosely translates too). You already know its not going to be your traditional beer and a peak at the recipe list confirms it: Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs, honey, chilies, and annatto (fragrant tree seeds). Well we know some background for this one, let's see how it tastes.
The Beer: It weighs in at 9% and pours a pale golden orange with a thin white head. Just from the color you know its not a typical chocolate ale. The nose is a complex, an assault of different scents. Honey, coco powder, flowers, melon, spice. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, not a lot of carbonation. Like the nose there is a whole lot going on here, almost too much to keep up with. Flavors of honey, coco, honey suckle, green peppers, notes of boozy alcohol. Chocolatey without being sweet which is interesting. There are strange notes that I can only compare to tasting like tea. The individual flavors are incredibly interesting, and together its complex, but it just doesn't all meld well together. I respect what DFH did here, but this is not my favorite offering from them. It's just too discombobulated for me. This one gets a C+ from me. The folks at BA like it more than I do.

Abita SOS

2010-09-03T06:27:00.002-05:00

There are many reasons to love craft beer. The complex flavors, the unusual styles, the "localness" of the beer, etc. Another reason is that for the most part, local breweries, care about their hometown. Few breweries show that love and passion of their community like Abita Brewing out of Louisiana. When Katrina happened and wrecked New Orleans Abita released Restoration Ale with a certain amount of the profits going to help rebuild New Orleans. With the recent oil disaster in the Gulf, Abita has once again brewed a beer to help: Save Our Shores. For every 750 ml bottle sold Abita will donate $0.75 to the rescue and restoration of the environment. Not that we needed one, but Abita has provided one more reason to drink beer. SOS is an unusual beer in and of itself its a Weizen Pils dry hopped with Sterling and German Perle hops.
The Beer: This brew weighs in at 7.0% and pours a golden honey color with a good sized frothy white head. The nose is herbal hops, spices, some banana flavor, toasted grains. The mouthfeel has a creaminess to it, sweet malts, grassy, spicey, earthy....almost herbal. It drinks pretty smooth, slightly sweet from the pale toasted malts. Some banana wheat flavors are there, subtle but there with just a bit of bitterness to the brew to create a very nice balance. Its a solid brew that gets a B from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Jack and Ken's Barleywine

2010-09-01T17:17:00.002-05:00

Today's post bring's us the 3rd installment of Sierra Nevada's amazing 30th Anniversary Beers. For those keeping score at home, so far, we've had the Fritz and Ken Stout, and the Charlie, Fred, and Ken Helles. Each of the anniversary brew's are collaborations between Sierra Nevada owner Ken Grossman and a pioneer in the craft beer industry. The newest beer is not brewed with just anyone, but with someone many call the father of Microbrewery Jack McAuliffe. Mr McAuliffe founded a tiny little brewery in California called New Albion Brewery in 1977. The brewery operated until 1982. Mr. McAuliffe wasn't brewing any extreme beers by today's standards, instead it was full flavored beers, mostly English style ales. Back then that was extreme, it was such a change from the American Adjunct lagers that were pretty much the only thing available. Unfortunately the demand on Mr. McAuliffe was too much, the money wasn't coming in and New Albion was closed. Neat fact: The brewery equipment made it's way to Mendocino Brewery. Since the closure of New Albion, Mr. McAuliffe has stayed out of the public eye, however he did help Mr. Grossman in the brewing of this beer, a Black Barleywine.
The Beer: This Black Barleywine weighs in at a hefty 10.2% and pours a very dark brown with a thick taupe colored head. Hoppy on the nose, citrus peel, grapefruit, roasted malts, sweetness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied. Massive hop flavor, a grapefruit-y punch if you will. It follows with a tartness, milk chocolate, then slams you back to earth with tongue saturating hoppiness. There is a sweetness in this beer, caramel-y, almost notes of creme brulee, some fruity notes, but yes it is the hops that leave the lasting impression on this beer. This is a great beer, so far my favorite of the three. This one gets a strong A from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

The Land of Beer Festivals

2010-08-20T06:14:00.002-05:00

Texas has been called many things, and is a great state showcasing many of the things that makes it wonderful. On any given weekend you can find a festival for most everything. One thing that Texas has not been known for has been Beer Festivals. In fact Beer fests have been notably absent from this state of beer lovers. Well that fact seems to have changed over the course of the last few months and continues through to the end of the year.

The first notable beer fest to gain steam was June's Great Austin Beer Festival. While it seemed that the organizers were still getting their feet under them, from all reports it was an amazing success. Bringing together Beer, Brewers and beer enthusiasts not only from Texas but from around the country.

The next Beer festival that was announced is scheduled to occur over Labor Day weekend, Sept 2-6, the Brewmasters International Beer Festival at Moody Gardens down in Galveston. Admittedly I have been pretty cautious about this one as they didn't release the names of any attendees, however that has changed with this article from the Chronicle's Ronnie Crocker. Now that's a pretty sporty list of beers to get the opportunity to taste all in one place.

But wait that's not all! This week there has been two awesome announcements for beer lovers.

The Texas Craft Brewer's Guild has announced their first event will be Austin Beer Week to be held October 24-30. There is not a lot of information out there yet, but from their website:

This week-long celebration, brought to you
by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, serves as
a showcase for Texas craft brewers as well as
area restaurants, pubs and other businesses
with ties to the craft beer community.

The last announcement though is the one that has me the most excited. Early this morning a twitter popped up: @HoustonBeerWeek: Houston, Beer Week has landed. www.houstonbeerweek.com. Say what!!! The week of October 11-17 will be Houston Beer Week The week will consist of beer dinners, beer education (something that I am excited about), tastings, and many other things. The week long extraveganza will conclude Sunday with a MONSTERS OF BEER charity beer event. A side note that Houston Beer week and Monsters of Beer has been organized in part by Cathy Clark, the same Cathy Clark that has done an outstanding job with Beer Camp. Back to Monsters of Beer, the event is on Sunday the 17th and will feature Texas Beer, Texas Food, Texas Music! The beer will be brought in by breweries from around the state including Jester King, (512), Saint Arnold's, Real Ale, Live Oak, and more including a couple that may not even be open yet.

4 beer huge beer events/festivals in a few short months? Is Texas becoming the land of beer festivals? I don't know about that, but Texas is definitely stepping up its game and as these events successfully conclude will continue to drive Texas in the right direction of increasingly supporting craft beer and all that means. I'm not telling you all to go to everyone of these (I won't be able to) but support as many as you can. Volunteer, attend, promote, etc to help make these a success. The first year out of the gate for many of these festivals may not be smooth, there will be mistakes made, but that just means they can be better the next year, and if they get the support they need will continuously approve. Think about it, in 2009 would you have though there would be 4 huge days long beer festivals in Texas in 2010?

Quick Hits

2010-08-11T06:54:00.003-05:00

It seems lately, no matter how hard I try I feel like I've been neglecting my beer blog. For one reason or another it's gotten harder to write posts. I've been wanting to do something more than just post another beer review (although I do love doing those and have a bit of a back log to get to), but I'm preoccupied with other things or am lacking the motivation to post my thoughts. Hopefully this stops now and I'll get back into the swing of updating this blog more than once a week. With that out of the way, there is news to fit to print (or type into a computer) so here it is:
- Another new brewery? Yup, except this one isn't in Austin, its not even in Houston, its waaaay out past Beaumont. Republic of Texas Brewery will be based out in the southwest corner of Newton Country. The brewery is owned by award winning home brewer John McKissack and his wife Tammy. They also host a couple of Beer podcasts, so they know their beer. They are also going about starting up a brewery in a unique way, trying to do it with out incurring any debt, which obviously means taking it very slow. Nothing wrong with that, if it helps them be self sustaining. Additionally they are trying to do things the right way with respect to the Environment:

including plans to build green houses full of plants that will help scrub the CO2 coming from their fermenters before entering the environment. “Plants take in CO2 during the day and produce oxygen, so in theory it should be possible keep the CO2 from entering the atmosphere, or at lease significantly reduce it,”

Finally, these folks are going to be making big beer, both literally and figuratively. They seem to enjoy higher gravity beers, but they are also going to be bottling in 750 mL's. They seem to be an interesting new brewery definetley one to keep your eye on.

- Another good piece of news is that Vic and Anthony's has announced their second beer dinner featuring Stone Brewing. Head over to the blog All Good Beer for a link to the menu. The first one they did featured Dogfish head and not only was the food and beer pairing amazing by all accounts, they broke out some special beers as well. At 75.00 the price is a steal considering what a normal 6 course dinner would cost you at V&A. The dinner is on August 27th but get your tickets fast becuase it will sell out quickly. I've got mine (thanks to the Houston Chowhounds recent Charity Auction).

- Last news, first reported by Ronnie Crocker over at Beer TX, Saint Arnold will be brewing Divine Reserve 10 next week. DR 10 will be an English Style Barley wine based on a the Big Batch Brew Bash winning recipe. The release date will be later this year. The best news is that there will be a lot more Divine Reserve available this time around, twice as much to be exact. Good news all around.

Dogfish Head Squall IPA

2010-07-30T11:09:00.003-05:00

If you look over the right hand side of this blog and check out the categories you'll see one for Dogfish Head. They one of the few non Texas breweries that have their own category, and that's becuase for the most part I am a huge fan of their beers. Yes they have their misses, but I think they have a pretty amazing line up of beers, and love them or hate them many are thought provoking at least. One of the more highly anticipated releases from DFH of late has been their Squall IPA, a beer that we finally got in the Houston market a few months ago. Squall is basicallyh DFH's 90 minute IPA, bottle conditioned and dry hopped with Palisade, Amarillo, Simcoe, Cascade, CTZ, and Willamette hops, plus it weighs in at a robust 9.0% abv. I love 90 minute IPA and think its one of the best DIPA's around so I was excited to try this version bottled in a 750 ml bottle.
The Beer: Squall pours a golden orange color with a thick bubbly head. The nose is hopppy, grapefruity, citrusy, some yeasty notes as well. The mouthfeel is bubbly, effervescent, full bodied. Waves of grapefruity hops hit the palate. Bitterness slams the taste buds up front, then some slightly toasted malts, a little bit of sweetness shows up. However over and over its hops that take the main stage here. Grapefruit, all of it, rind, pith, nectar, fruit, all of it show up here. Some astringency is apparent, a note of yeasty bready warmth. Delecious, one of the best IPA's or DIPA's I've ever had. Finishing it kind of made me sad, becuase all the stores around here are sold out of it so I won't get any until next year. But this one is definetely worth seeking out. This one gets an A from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Mikkeller Chipotle Porter

2010-07-17T19:15:00.002-05:00

It's always nice to see local breweries do special things for their customers. Whether its making a special beer for an anniversary or special cask ales to tap at local bars it shows that they appreciate their loyal local fan base. However it's quite a different thing for a brewery that's not only not local, but one from a different country to make a special beer for a local community. However that's just what Mikkeller Brewer has done, creating a chipotle Porter that's just for Texas. Now how cool is that? The original name for the beer was going to be Texas Ranger, however for whatever reason (TABC guidelines??) the name was left off, but we have still been blessed with one amazing beer. Mikkeller wanted to brew a beer that represented Texas so they brought together smokiness and spiciness to create this brew.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 6.6% and pours a deep syrupy black with a thick head of frothy milk chocolate colored foam. The first scents of the nose is coco powder, chocolate, roasted malts, coffee. Then another whiff brings smokiness and raw green jalapeno's. The first sip is thick, chewy, viscous. Up front this beer is a great wonderful strongly intense porter. Full of roasty flavors. Then it finishes with smoke and spicy green chilies. Then as you continue to drink the smokiness gets stronger and more intense. The spiciness builds in the back of the throat. Not too intense, nothing over the top, but it balances well with the chocolate notes of the porter base. Reminding me of the chipotle chocolate bars I've had in the past. Lots of green flavors from the beer as well. This is such an usual beer and to me better than most other chipotle beers I have had. This one gets an A- from me. The folks at BA that have had it love it as well.

German Beers

2010-07-15T17:49:00.004-05:00

Man can not live by hoppy monster's, imperial stouts, or other high alcohol beers alone. Of course I love them, but there are times and places for more sessionable beers. I normally don't seek them out for one reason or another but a week or so ago I was paid a visit by some friends from Germany who came carrying gifts for me. Gifts of beer! These were good every day German beers, nothing extreme just extremely tasty! A wheat beer and a keller beer were included in my gift package!
Mönchshof Kellerbräu: Brewed by the Kulmbacher brewery, this is an unfiltered lager that weighs in at 5.4%. It pours a cloudy light brown with a thick dense head of foam. The nose is full of noble hop aroma fruity estersy, pale toasted malts. THe mouthfeel is full, much fuller than I expected. Caramel malts, noble hops, flavors of minerals, earth and floral notes as well. Toasted malts, delicious and easy drinking. Clean and crisp, this one gets a B from me.
Kapuziner Weisbier: Another beer brewed by Kulmbacher this one is of course a Hefeweizen that weighs in at 5.4%. THe beer pours a hazy straw yellow capped with a tone of frothy white foam. The nose is full of bannana, cloves, and citrus. This time around the mouthfeel is a little lighter than I expected. Flavors of bannana, spices, cloves, citrus including strong notes of lemon. Somewhat light, very refreshing, crisp. Smooth and very tasty. The lemony notes make this really refreshing. Drinking this beer makes me think of sitting in a German biergarden on a beautiful Summer day. An above average wheat beer that gets a B+ from me.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Charlie, Fred, and Ken's Helles

2010-07-08T07:14:00.003-05:00

The second edition of Sierra Nevada's 30th Anniversary beers has been released. For more information on the first release as well as info on the upcoming releases check my previous post. This version is a Imperial Helles Bock brewed by Sierra Nevada owner Ken Grossman as well as two pioneers in craft brew: AHA Founder Charlie Papazian, and home brew icon and author Fred Eckhart. The three men came together to brew an Imperial Helles Bock.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 8.9% and pours a golden orange color with a thick head of slightly off white foam. Fruity esters, honey, roasted malts, peaches, and savory spices. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, a little more than slightly sweet on the palate. Honey, fruits, with a mild bitter hop finish. Peaches, sweet malts, caramel, maybe even a bit of butterscotch (which could be an off flavor of Diacetyl, not sure, its not unpleasant at all just pointing it out). A very easy drinking, but maybe too easy drinking. There's not a lot of complex flavors here, and its a little too sweet for my tastes, there isn't another flavor to counteract it. Its good, but its not great, the Frits and Ken Stout was much better in my opinion. This one gets a B- to me. The folks at BA like it a little more than I do, but agree that its not as good as the first.

Tuesday Quick Hits

2010-07-06T16:02:00.002-05:00

The first Tuesday of the month, and the first day of the week for many after a wonderful 3 day weekend. Today also brings us some interesting news from the world of beer today, some of it local:

- In some of the coolest news to come out of Saint Arnold in quite some time, they have announced (as reported by Ronnie Crocker) that they will be doing a series of special yeast relases. Releasing beers that we are familiar with like Lawnmower, Elissa, Brown, etc but brewed with different yeasts. Check out Ronnie's post and article for more information, but here is the line up:
• Weedwacker: A variation of Saint Arnold's best-selling Fancy Lawnmower. All other ingredients remain the same, but the new beer will be fermented with a Bavarian hefeweizen yeast. Available Aug. 16.

• Altared Amber: The flagship beer will be made with Belgian Trappist yeast. Available mid-November.

• Bitter Belgian: Elissa IPA, also with Belgian Trappist yeast. Available mid-February.

• Brown Bitte: Brown Ale, with Alt yeast. Available mid-May.

- July 18th is Belgian Beer Week, and many local bars will be hosting special events. Flying Saucer has announced they'll be doing something (no details yet) while Gingerman has already been a little more forthcoming with their plans for an event on the 21st of July:

Come out and join us to celebrate the country that brews some of the finest beers in the world, Belgium! There will be a special glass giveaway in addition to the regular Wednesday glass. We will also be serving select draught and bottled winter ales to celebrate Christmas in July.
Doors open at 2pm

- Also Gingerman has announced a Belgian Beer and Food tasting on July 31:
Saturday, July 31st at 1:30pm
Enjoy some of the best beers Belgium has to offer paired with food items that complement the flavor of these brews.
Admission $2

Well that's all the beer news fit to print. If anyone knows of other events let me know and I'll add them to the calendar.

Brooklyn Sorachi Ace Ale

2010-07-01T16:35:00.002-05:00

One of my heroes in the beer business is Garret Oliver, brewmaster for Brooklyn brewer. I respect him for many reasons, he's a strong advocate for beer and food, the two times I've gotten to meet him and speak with him he was incredibly nice and willing to answer any questions, and lastly he makes some damn fine beer. Because of all these things I was ecstatic when I saw Brooklyn's newest beer on the shelves Sorachi Ace Ale. An usual name for a beer that is based off the hop used. Many beers are made with blends of hops, few though are made of the single hop variety, fewer even are made with rare and unique hops. Sorachi Ace was created in 1988 by a Japanese Brewer as a cross between British Brewer's Gold and Czech Saaz. The resulting hop variety was unique in that it gave off strong notes of lemon. I'm not sure how many brewer's use this hop in their beer, but I'm pretty sure Brooklyn is the only one to create a beer using only this hop. This beer is brewed with belgian yeast as well as a Champagne yeast strain to create a sort of Saison style brew with the Sorachi Ace hop.
The Beer: This beer weighs in at 7.6% and pours a pale straw yellow with a thick dense head of bright white foam. The nose is of lemons and citrus, bright and floral, yeasty. The mouth of lemony, lemon tarts, sourdough bread. Refreshing, and finishing with that classic Brooklyn Brewery dry finish. Its like fresh baked lemon poppy seed muffins. Notes of white pepper. Its lemony but not overpowering, refreshing, crisp. Very nice summer beer that gets a B+ from me. The folks at BA enjoy it as well.

Haandbryggeriet Hesjeøl

2010-06-28T17:16:00.002-05:00

As American's we tend to think that outside of Belgium we are the only countries making unique beer. Sure England makes some amazing brown ales, stouts, porters, barleywines, etc, and Germany is top notch when it comes to pilsners, Wheat beers, Bock's etc. But neither of these countries are necessrily known for pushing the boundaries (yes there are exceptions, I am speaking in generalities). But more than America and Belgium are making unique barrel aged sour's, or barrel aged anything, other countries are getting in on the fun as well. One of these countries is Norway. I've had beer's from Nogne brewery so I'm aware of some of the things that country is doing. Well during my last visit to Denver I saw another beer from Norway, this one from the hard to say and hard to spell Haandbryggeriet.
This is an interesting brewery, one that is run on a volunteer basis, yes that's right, they don't brew full time. Unexpectedly they are tiny, making 18 bbl at a time, housed in a 200 year old wooden building. Per their website it also seems like they are very environmentally aware. Reviewing their website they make quite a few beers for being so small, ranging from IPA's to Farmhouse ales to of course sour ales. The Hesjeøl that I picked up is a recreation of a Norwegian farmhouse ale made with rye, barley, and oats.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 7.0% and pours a cloudy hazy orange with a thick quarter inch head. The nose is malty, smokey, yeasty, candied sugars, white fruit. The mouthfeel is full and thick, fruity, grapes, pears, smokey finish, a bit of char, a bit of smoked meat. The flavors remind me of autumn if that makes sense. Slightly sweet, honey, flowers, smoked melon, very little alcohol. Some hop bitterness. Smokiness is more meaty less oaky. Candied sugars. It reminds me of a Belgian Pale ale combined with a rauchbier. Very good, very interesting that gets a B+ from me. The folks at BA like it as well.

Busy Houston Weekend

2010-06-28T17:08:00.003-05:00

Well if you were a beer lover in Houston last weekend you had a great time. In the span of 4 days (Thurs - Sun) you had Houston's 1st (annual???) Firkin Fest, an amazing beer dinner at Vic and Anthony's and Camp Beer III.
Unfortunately due to other issues I couldn't make nearly as much of these events as I would have liked, hitting only the Petrol Station's leg of Firkin Fest on Saturday evening. Lucky for me and you, fellow beer bloggers around Houston did make it to some of these amazing beer events.
Checkout Houston Chronicle's Ronnie Crocker for some Camp Beer and Vic and Anthony's Dogfish Head Dinner highlights.
Steve over at All Good Beer has another detailed post on Camp Beer.

All in all this past weekend was an amazing one for Houston. From the reports I heard, every night of Firkin Fest was packed. From Anvil, to Flying Saucer, and then on to Petrol Station all were jammed packed with folks wanting to try unique cask ales. Events like this and the support they received shows that Houston has a strong craft beer scene, and its growing waiting for new things to experience.

Avery Depuceleuse

2010-06-15T20:35:00.003-05:00

Avery is one of my favorite Colorado brewers. They make great standard beers available in six packs, great large bottle higher abv beers, and lastly they have started releasing an outstanding series of barrel aged wild ales. The first of these was released almost a year and a half ago. In Houston it was only available in bottle at a bar (you couldn't buy them at stores like Spec's). Since then all the other ones have been available at your local craft beer carrying store. Each of these beers are incredibly unique, aged in different barrels, different base styles, etc. The latest of this series Depuceleuse,(say that three times fast)is an ale brewed with 100% Brettanmyoces, sour cherries and aged in Red Wine barrels.
The Beer: This one weighs in at a hefty 9.5% and pours a ruby reddish brown with a thin white bubbly head. THe nose is sour, tart, oaky, funky, with some almost wine-ish notes. The immediate impression is an effervescence with a dry finish. More sips reveals a sour funky barnyard flavor, sour cherries, vanilla, sweet malts. With the good level of cabonation one can imagine a funky cherry-vanilla cola. At times its mouth puckering sour but at the same times it's not completely over the top. As it warms you get notes of tobacco, dark fruits. Throughout it all it hides its alcohol very well. Its sour, its funky but there is a nice balance to it that makes this beer appealing. This one gets an A- from me. Lots of love from the BA folks as well.

A pair of Fight Night Beers

2010-06-13T20:17:00.003-05:00

As I do from time to time, I settled down Saturday night to watch some fights on TV. Nights like this are also a good excuse to pop open some new beers (well at least new to me) and last night was no different. Two breweries I'm very familiar with, but beers that I'd never had.
New Belgium Eric's Ale: Now I have actually had this beer, well at least a sample of it waaaay back in 2008 at GABF. This is part of New Belgiums ever expanding Lips of Faith, beers that are usually oak aged, and focus on traditional Beglian brewing methods. This one in particular is named for NB's brewer and is an oak aged sour made with peach juice. It weighs in at 7% and pours a pale pinkish color with a thin bubbly head. The nose is of the barnyard, hay, sourness, peaches, white fruit, grapes. The mouth is effervescent and medium bodied. Tart and sour, notes of cherries, vanilla, oak, reminiscent of a Cherry Sprite. Barnyard notes, hay, funky horse blanket. Peaches, peach bellini. The label says this is a sour beer for those that don't like sours and a fruit beer for those that don't like fruit beers. I gotta say I really dig this one. I do like sour beers but am not a huge fan of fruit beers and this has me wanting more. This one gets a strong A from me.
Boulevard Tank 7: Next up was this farmhouse ale from Boulevard brewing one of their outstanding Smokestack Series of beers. This one though is made with a ton of American hops which raised my eyebrows in interest almost immediately. It weighs in at 8.0% and pours a cloudy straw honey color with a thick dense head of white foam. The nose if of pale malts, grapefruit, and bready yeast. The mouth is vibrant, medium to full mouthfeel. Hoppy, full of grapefruits, pale toasted malts, bready grain, yeasty, chewy, slight peppery notes. Very yeasty, can a beer be doughy? Its good, but I want a little more oomph in this one. This one gets a good B+ from me.

Houston Firkin Fest

2010-06-09T16:15:00.003-05:00

Wow, that's about all I can say at the news that I just recieved. I've known this was brewing (pardon the pun) for a while now, but its awesome to see the final details in print. What are you talking about you ask? Well a colloborative event between some of the best beer bars in Houston holding a three day Firkin (or cask) event, serving special, some never before seen, casks of beer. Over the dates of June 24 to June 26, Anvil Bar & Refuge, Flying Saucer, and Petrol Station will each host a night celebrating cask beer and tapping several different brews. Here's the line up:

Thursday, June 24 at Anvil
Tapping Time – 5pm
Featured Cask Ales:
Real Ale 2008 Barrel-Aged Sisyphus Barley Wine
Great Divide Espresso Oak-Aged Yeti
Surprise Cask

Friday, June 25 at Flying Saucer

Featured Cask Ales:
Avery Maharaja
Left Hand Twin Sisters
TBA: Specialty cask from Southern Star
At least one surprise cask

Saturday, June 26 at Petrol Station
Tapping Time – 4pm

Featured Cask Ales:
Moylan’s Dry Hop Hopsickle
Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Dry Hop
Stone Double Dry Hop Ruination
St Rose Dry Hop Red Ale
Stash IPA

Now that my friends is a great list of beer. I'm going to try and hit up at least one, maybe two of these events. Things like this in this city make me smile. A short year ago something like this would have been hard to imagine but Houston's beer scene has grown by leaps and bounds. Bars are collaborating (see also the Stoned in 6 days event hosted by Petrol and Saucer), Special beers are being tapped all the time, restaurants focused on beer and food are opening, events like Camp Beer occur and many other things are happening making Houston a great place to be a lover of craft beer. However it's now up to you. We've asked for it, some of us have begged for events like this. Now we need no we must go out and support things like this if we want to show the bars/restaurants/etc that there is vast opportunity out there.

Boulevard Dark Truth Stout

2010-06-08T06:37:00.002-05:00

If you've been reading this blog you know that I have been a big fan of Boulevard's Smokestack Series. Its their series of special beers, each packages in 750 mL, corked and caged. During my last trip to Spec's I noticed a new one on the shelf, this time a Russian Imperial Stout. But not just any stout its one made with barley, wheat, oats and rye.
The Beer: This stout weighs in at 9.7% and pours a very dark jet black with a thick dense head of crema colored foam. Cereal grains, I do get roasted barley and some oats. Esspresso, figs, dried dark fruits. Roasted malts. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy. Notes of oats, figs, raisins, plums, espresso beans and coco. Notes of oats. On the finish notes of creme brulee and coco powder sweetnes. Bitter dark chocolate. There is an almost grainy texture to this brew. The beer's not gritty, its just a feeling I get as I'm drinking. Dark Chocolate, dried fruits, oats and creme brulee are all great flavors in this amazing beer. This one gets an A from me. Here's what the folks at BA think about it.

Sam Adams 2010 Longshot

2010-05-27T17:54:00.003-05:00

Some of the biggest supporters of microbrewers is the homebrewing community. They as much as or more than others can really appreciate what goes into making craft beer. It also doesn't hurt that many a craft brewer started out as a homebrewer once upon a time. Conversely many microbreweries support the local homebrewing clubs. From allowing them to hold meetings, having brew days and allowing homebrewers to take some Wort home to brew beer to all sorts of things their is definetely a symbiotic relationship between these two groups. I think one of the coolest things that is done is the Pro-am contest held at the GABF every year. A home brew recipe is brewed by a craft brewer and entered into the contest. We have two local breweries that participate every year in Southern Star and Saint Arnold's, but the most famous of these is probably Sam Adam's Longshot series. Every year Sam Adams picks 3 winning recipes (one is always an employee, the other two are "at large" winner's), enters them into the GABF contest and releases them in mixed six pack's nationwide. It has to be pretty cool to go to your local store and see your face on a bottle of beer. Well this year's Longshot has shown up in my local Spec's so I picked up the six pack to see how they tasted. A couple of notes before I start 1) I had tasted these beers back at GABF, 2) In talking to the maker of DR8 (winner of the BBBB contest) I know that there are many things that can change between the small home brew batch and the larger batch released to the public.
Lemon Pepper Saison: Weighs in at 6.4% and brewed with lemon peel and grains of paradise this is the employee winner. It pours a pale golden yellow with a thin white head. Its spicey, yeasty, lemony with notes of vanilla on the nose. Very effervescent in the mouth, light bodied, citrusy, white pepper notes from the yeast I think. Very refreshing, and finishes dry. There is a slight tartness in the mid-palate maybe even some slight funkiness. A good beer that gets a B from me.
Mile High Barleywine: This one weighs in at a hefty 9.8% and is brewed with 6 malts. It pours a brownish ruby color with a quarter inch taupe colored head. The nose is hoppy, grapefruit, dark fruits, caramel malts. Full mouthfeel, very malty, rich, dried dark plums, raisins, figs, finishing with bitter grapefruit peel. Toffee. On the finish there is a metallic tang and astringency that is off putting. As it warms the alcohol becomes much more noticeable. This one gets a B- from me.
Old Ben Ale: This old ale weighs in at 9% and pours a dark reddish copper with a thick slightly off white head. Very malty on the nose, caramel, raisins, very little hop bitterness. Medium bodied a little lighter than expected. Fruity raisins, figs, grapes, sweet toffee, very caramel-y. Needs something to off set the sweetness. This one gets a C+ from me.

Quick Hits

2010-05-27T17:47:00.002-05:00

Just a few short notes today from around the town in beer.

- First up Saint Arnold's has announced their 16th Anniversary Party will be held on June 13th. See below for details:
What: 16th Anniversary Party
When: Sunday, June 13
Time: 1 PM to 4 PM
Cost: $36
Includes: Barbecue lunch, special glass and the spectacle of the Saint Arnold Olympics
For reservations, please follow this link: http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2wqozfc3ae386f9

- Next week on June 3rd there is a Saint Arnold's Dinner in Galveston at Fisherman's Wharf. Only $50 plus tax and tip. For reservations, call 409-765-5708.

- One other piece of news that's somewhat old but I hadn't got around to posting on them, well until now that is. A few weeks back Southern Star held their now annual Pro Am home brewing contest. Just like last year's winning beer Saison was brewed, kegged, and entered into the GABF Pro Am tour, this year's winner will be as well. The winning recipe was a Smoked Porter. Very excited about this beer. I was very sad to see SS's Smoked beer go the way of the dodo bird so I'm happy that they are brewing another one even if it's not their recipe. No word on when this one will be showing up at your local watering hole, but I would guess sometime around late August.

Dieu Du Ciel Peche Mortel

2010-05-26T06:36:00.004-05:00

One thing I have learned as I increase my knowledge of craft beers is that almost every country has a craft beer culture. When folks think of Canadian beer most think of Molson, or Moosehead but there is so much more. Many are familiar with the greatness that is Unibroue from Chambly Quebec, but that is not the only craft brewer from the French Canadian province. Located within Montreal lies Dieu Du Ciel, a brewery that I've heard of, but never had the chance to try their beers. That all changed when I picked up a couple of their beers when I was in Colorado recently. The first one I didn't post on was called Rigor Mortis, an amazing Quadrupel that weighed in at 10.0%. Dieu Du Ciel has a reputation for making some amazing and unique brews, many of them are higher gravity. Additionally the artwork on the labels is incredibly eye catching, I don't know who the artist is, or the story behind the labels but they beautifully done. Peche Mortel, or Mortal Sin is a bottle conditioned Imperial Coffee Stout.

The Beer: This one weighs in at 9.2% and pours a pitch jet black with a thick dense head of cafe colored foam. The nose is of rich coffee, chocolate, darkly roasted malts and some citrus notes. The mouthfeel is full and creamy, black coffee with cream, roasted malts, slightly understated notes of bitterness. Very little alcohol. Chewy. It is reminiscent of iced coffee, slightly sweet. Some citrus acidity notes of lemon show up as well. Rich and smooth. Notes of alcohol shows up as it warms. Roasted malts, slight roasted bean bitterness shows up, but for the most part its creamy smooth. Figs, and raisins and other dried dark fruits show up enriching the flavor as the beer warms. This may be the best coffee stout I have ever had. This one gets an A+ from me. Here's what the folks of BA think.

Twisted Pine Hoppy Man

2010-05-24T18:06:00.002-05:00

I love going to the liquor store and seeing a beer that I haven't seen before from a brewery that's new to Texas. That's not entirely true in this case as Twisted Pine has been in Texas for a few months with their basic line up of beer's, however last week was the first time I had seen their big bottle offerings like Hoppy Man. Twisted Pine is yet another brewery from Colorado (when on when will Odell's make it down here?!?), this one based out of Boulder. They do make some award winning beers, however my limited exposure to them has been of somewhat solid if unspectacular beers. I was able to taste many of their beers during one of my visits to Denver and a short drive up to their brewery.
This particular beer is a souped up version of their Hoppy Boy IPA. In other words an Imperial IPA.
The Beer: The beer has 3 different types of hops: Cascase, Chinook, and Simcoe, and weighs in at a hefty 10.5%. The beer pours a slightly hazy unfiltered orangish color with a thin off white head. The nose is of citrus hops, some piney qualities, and sweet caramel malts. Big hop impact on the tongue with the first sip, with slight caramel and toasted malts mid palate before plunging head first into a resiny hoppy finish. It was then that I got my first impression of the body of the beer which honestly was lacking. A thin mouthfeel, very little carbonation.
Other notes of caramel, toastiness, toffee, malts on the nose. Yes their is a resin-y finish, but there is also some sweetness mingling with the hops, a little too much sweetness for my tastes. Some spicey white pepper notes come out as the beer warms. An OK DIPA, with lots of hop notes, but with a little too much sweetness for my tastes. This one gets a B- from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

BRC Gastropub part II

2010-05-24T17:18:00.003-05:00

For a number of reason's I've been neglecting this blog for the past few weeks. The good news is that I have a few things that need posting, some are new beers that I've tried, other's are posts like this one about restaurants and bars. You may remember a few weeks ago I wrote my thoughts on Houston's new gastropub BRC. Well one of the things that I didn't focus on during that review was the beer. I thought then that it was a disservice to not talk about my thoughts on their beer menu, beer service and all points in between. With that in mind I headed (with my in-laws in tow) to BRC for an early dinner on Saturday and came away with some good news and unfortunately some bad news thoughts on this new establishment.
The Good news? Well, the food continues to be great. With a large party (6) we were able to try a few different appetizers. My wife, the lover of all things pickled ordered the amazing pickle jar again, while we also ordered the Crab Cake Beignets and the Boudin balls. Both orders were small (3 each) but we were able to split each one in half so everyone at the table got at taste. The Boudin balls were outstanding. They may not remind me of the ones I got in Louisiana, but they were crunchy on the outside and hot in the middle with great flavor. The Beignets were a little bit on the doughy side for my tastes, so the texture wasn't necessarily to my liking, but the flavor was spot on. For dinner I got the much talked about Dr. Pepper fried quail with blue cheese potato salad. Awesome. The sweetness of the Dr. Pepper, I mean you could taste it! It was really quite genius, just very very good. The blue cheese potato salad was mixes of blue cheese tangy explosions, celery crunch, and potato. A great wonderful combo.
Other good things? Well the beer for one. There were things on the draft wall like North Coast Le Merle, and while Bear Republic's Apex was gone it had been replaced with a Beglian IPA, Crazy Ivan from the same brewery. They are striving to have great beers on tap and so far are doing a pretty good job. I also noticed that they had expanded the big bottle list, one of the things I had asked for before.
Unfortunately there are two sides to this story which means there is some bad news to report and that's regarding the beer service and really all that encompasses. The first thing you notice when you open up the beer menu (yes the same one I lauded in my initial review) is there are a number of beers crossed out. Now this is bound to happen at a place that doesn't stock kegs and kegs of the same boring beer, but how does one know whats on tap? My first reaction of course would be to ask the waitress what was available that wasn't on the list, and here of course was the problem: She had no idea. She wasn't rude or discourteous exactly, but she just wasn't up to date with what all was new on the draft wall. So I walked up to the bar to get a look at the tap wall to see what I wanted (Bear Republic Crazy Ivan!), and got it poured into a frosty ice cold mug! What? If your restaurant is touting its great beer list and how it cares about craft beer, it shouldn't be pouring beers into what is essentially a frozen mug. Do they serve ice cold wine too? I doubt it, and that my friends is my biggest gripe. I want restaurants to care about beer service as much as they care about wine service. That doesn't mean I want to take beer to the sometimes over the top pretentious level that wine can be taken to, it means that I want folks to care about the temperature the beer and how the serve it. Is that too much to ask?
So where can BRC go from here? Like I said the food is outstanding, as is the beer they serve. However they need to do a couple of things that I think would really help them out: 1) Post updated beer lists as new kegs are tapped and old ones discarded. How do you do this? Well there are a couple of options here: a) go the Gingerman/Stag's Head way and print out a new beer menu when kegs are turned. Unfortunately this can get costly. b) Go the Petrol Station/Flying Saucer/Anvil route and post new beers somewhere like a chalkboard. This is relatively easy, although you need to do it somewhere that everyone can see it which would be difficult for the folks out on the patio. c) train the waitstaff to know what's on tap at all times. Again difficult to do if there are a lot of kegs that have been rotated since the last update to the menu.
2) Get rid of frozen glasses. As a sticker at a local bar says "frozen mugs are for wimps". Craft beer doesn't need them. At the very least choose what beers your going to serve in them, I can appreciate the appeal of an ice cold beer on a hot Texas Summer day while sitting on the BRC patio.
3) Get more beer glasses than just shaker pints. No, you don't need 16 different beer glasses, but all beer shouldn't go into shaker pints and a restaurant/bar is doing a disservice to the beer drinker if they serve their beers like that. This will be especially true if BRC gets big bottle formats of Beglian Ales.

I love what BRC is trying to do, combing good homey American food, with a great beer list. In the two times I have been there, Chef Jeff Axline has shown how much he cares about the food he is making. I only hope that they'll show the same care to the beer that they are serving. I don't want to be all negative, I'm incredibly impressed by the list of beers they are putting together, its by far one of the best of any restaurant in Houston, but if you are going to do it, do it right, that's what I am asking.

Camp Beer III

2010-05-06T07:05:00.002-05:00

The next installment of Camp Beer is coming up quickly. For recap's of the previous 2 Camp Beer excursions, check out these posts 1 and 2. Camp Beer is hosted by Cathy Clark who founded the Live It Big organization after her good friend passed. The organization hosts events like Camp Beer, or Cocktail Camp to raise money for other charities. Yes you can drink good beer for a great cause. At Camp Beer, Anvil's Kevin Floyd hosts a tasting of around 20 or so beers, these beers are all highly ranked on sites like Beer Advocate or Rate Beer, and many of them are not available in Texas, so its a real treat to get to taste some of the beers. Check out my previous posts for all the beers we've tasted in the past, but to give you a quick example: Surly Darkness, Three Floyds Dark Lords, Smuttynose RIS, 2003 Alesmith Speedway Stout, Southern Tier Pumking, and Russian River Temptation. These were all served at one of the previous two Camp Beer sessions. I happen to know some of the other beers that Cathy has in her beer stash and while I don't know the exact line up for the next session I can guarantee that if you are a beer lover you want to be there.
So what are the details? Cathy announced yesterday that the next Camp Beer will be held on Sunday June 27th. Tickets will go on sale this Friday. If you want to know exactly when they go on sale follow Cathy on twitter, if you don't have twitter check our the Camp Beer website.

Russian River Supplication

2010-05-05T06:54:00.005-05:00

During my recent trip to Colorado I picked up quite a few beers that I can't get here in Houston. I love going to Co for many reasons, but getting beers that are unique to Texas is near the top of the list for me. One of the beers I picked up is from California favorite, Russian River, maker of not only one of the best IPA's in the world (arguably one of the best beers period), but brewer of unusual Belgian style ales as well. They specialize in barrel aging and sour ales. That's a lot to pack in for a brewery, but RR does it all incredibly well.
Supplication is RR's Brown ale aged in French Oak that previously held Pinot Noir. Three strains of bacteria were added along with sour cherries. The bacteria added are Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 7.0% and pours a lightly beige almost pinkish with a dense head of off white head. On the nose its malty, sour cherries, oak, barnyard notes, hay, and horse blanket. The mouthfeel is medium, tons of carbonation. Funky, tart, sour, acidic are the first impressions of this beer. Notes of cherries, oaky, and dry finish. Vanilla and cherries. It gives me the impression of a cherry vanilla coke. Its not a sweet beer. Although there is a cherry sweetness up front the finish is dry enough that there is a great balance. Sour funky and barnyardy. Tons of sour cherries with undertones of roasted malts, caramel, even a nuttiness. This is such an outstanding beer. Every sip adds some new nuance to the flavor profile. I love it, this one gets an A from me. Here's what folks from BA think.

UPDATE: Experienced a mis-type in my entry. Brettanomyces is a strain of Yeast that was added to Supplication, Lacobacillus and Pediococcus are both different strains of bacteria. Sorry for the error.

Restaurant Review: BRC Gastropub

2010-05-02T20:34:00.005-05:00

Ever since I first heard the rumblings about a restaurant that would be celebrating not only good simple food, but craft beer as well, I've been excited. Those first rumblings occurred back in September of last year and I've been following the goings on of BRC Gastropub since that time, waiting for it to open. Well that time has come. The newest 'B' restaurant (joining Branchwater Tavern and Block 7) on Shephard south of Washington Avenue is now open. BRC Gastropub is owned and operated by the same folks that brought you Glass Wall in the Heights. I spoke with Lance Fegan, chef of Glass Wall and co-owner of BRC, about his vision for the food at BRC:

simply put is 'its the type of food a chef would want to eat', it's easy to
understand, easy on the wallet, fresh everyday

Well that sounds good to me, but what about the beer? Well...it has a great selection of draft beers. There are about 25 taps with strong variety, and some Texas Representation in Saint Arnold's and Real Ale. You can get IPA's, Pilsners, Brown Ales, Porters, Belgian Ales... The bottle selection is similar; a very large selection with a few large bottle formats thrown in as well. Larger bottles like Stone's Smoked Porter are available for sharing with the table. All this I knew, but what I didn't know was how it would all come together. How's the food? Are the tap lines in good shape? How's the beer knowledge? I aimed to find out, and headed to BRC for dinner on Friday night.

The full parking lot was a good sign, as we pulled up to the smaller than expected building with the big red rooster out front (I guess this is as good a time as any to explain that BRC stands for Big Red Cock). We headed inside to a well appointed, but small, dining area crowded with tables and booths along one wall. Another wall houses a long bar behind which sits a couple dozen tap handles. Not seeing any tables free, the wife and I headed outside to the comfortable patio and were promptly seated. We were handed the dinner menu and beverage menu. The beverage menu got major bonus points for having the beer list up front with the wine in the back. The beer was well organized into draft, bottle, and large format bottle, with each section subdivided by category (brown, pale ale, IPA, etc...). I selected a Real Ale Devil's Backbone and the wife selected Avery's White Rascal.

Beers chosen, we now needed food. The appetizers looked amazing. Things like Dr. Pepper fried Quail and Blue Crab Beignets sounded awesome, but there was one thing that drew my wife's attention, and that was the Pickle Jar with house cured cucumbers and asparagus. For dinner, my wife ordered the State Fair Griddled Cheese, and I ordered the BRC Pub Burger with Fries. We also ordered a side of Mac and Cheese of the day and Seasonal Fresh Veggies.

The order was taken quickly, and it wasn't too long before our beers and pickle jar arrived. It was exactly as it sounds (and looks). A jar of pickles...crunch, sour, dill...simply awesome. These pickles were divine with sprigs of dill, and whole black peppercorns in the pickling liquid. There were easily 10 or so pickles that we devoured while waiting for our food. Relatively quickly after eating our last pickle, our food arrived.

My wife's griddled cheese sandwhich was stuffed with cheese, steak, and tomatoes. My burger was topped with thick slices of bacon, tomatoes, onions, and a special BRC sauce. My fries came in a neat little mini fryer-esque holder. Our sides were set on the table, and we started eating our way through the food.

Griddled Cheese Sandwich - Texas toast with cheese, sliced steak and tomatoes. A deliciously meaty and cheesey delight. This was well seasoned, not too salty, almost perfect. My only complaint would be that at times the sliced steak was tough to bite through so you would have to take a huge chunk of steak with a bite leaving a lonely pocket of cheese behind. Maybe if the steak was chopped instead of just sliced this would be perfect.

BRC Pub Burger - Tillamook cheese, tomatoes, Maple-y bacon, onions, MEAT, and a BRC special sauce all sandwiched between buns. The bread was creamy eggy deliciousness. The meat was well seared but juicy and just slightly pink in the middle. The bacon crispy. All in all an incredibly well made burger with great textures and high juice factor. I don't know what the BRC special sauce was, and in all honesty I'm not sure what it added, as it surely wasn't overpowering anything on the night I was there. The fries were well seasoned thin strings...simple with large crystals of sea salt and herbs. While they tasted delicious, some were a little too limp and after them touting the 'double fried fries' I expected them to be a little bit crispier. That was a small disappointment that didn't affect their taste.

Mac and Cheese - This dish changes daily depending on what the chef wants to do with his Mac & Cheese. While most times I'm easy to please with this dish, BRC's M&C was truly a treat. Baked with bread crumbs topping the dish, it was hard to tell what the Mac was made with until the first bite....bacon? yep that was there, but something else, something richer, something blue....yep it was blue cheese and bacon Mac and Cheese. This dish was one of my favorites. Yes it was rich, so I couldn't have eaten a whole side by myself but shared with the wife, we were able to do some damage. The crunch bread crumbs added a needed texture to the mac and cheese. It was pretty much perfect.

Seasonal Vegetables - This was probably the one disappointment of the night. A dish of sauteed vegetables. Mainly squash topped with some herbs and what appeared to be a marinara sauce. While it didn't taste bad, it felt like something I'd pick up at a cafeteria compared to the rest of this fabulous meal.

We finished our meals and beers with happy smiles; very content and excited about this new establishment. I didn't talk much about the service intentionally. BRC has been open for such a short period that it was obvious at times that service issues were still being worked out. While our initial orders were taken promptly and the food arrived quickly and hot; after the food arrived we didn't see our waitress much. In fact I didn't get to order a second beer due to her absence, and we had to waive down a busser to pay our bill. This was a hectic Friday, one of their first (if not their first), so for now in my mind its excusable as they get their legs under them. I'll be back for sure and I know that their service will improve (if it doesn't I'll state as much here on the blog).

Other things that I would love to see in the future at BRC:

1) Cask beer - Again I have spoken to Mr. Fegen and they have multiple Cask Engines on order so that should be forthcoming!

2) A larger and more diverse 'large bottle format'. I think this is a way for folks to share a couple of different beers. It can be better to get unusual beers in bottle format vs. draft where you have to worry about long term quality of the beer if patrons aren't buying it.

One idea I absolutely loved that BRC is doing is selling tasters of beers. The tasters were a few ounces and are perfect to give patrons the ability to sample multiple different beers, some that they may not be familiar with before purchasing. Simply a great idea.

BRC is something that I have been waiting for Houston to have for a long time. A place that celebrates not only good simple food, but great beer as well. There are not many places in Houston, if any, with the quality of food and the beer selection that BRC offers which is why it is working its way quickly into one of my favorite places in Houston.

My trip to Colorado

2010-04-26T16:33:00.009-05:00

I stated a couple of weeks ago that I had the opportunity to head to Colorado for a special family occasion. However, while there I was able to visit a couple of breweries just as I always try to do when heading to CO. Instead of writing my traditional: this is what I did, this is where I went etc...I want to take this post in a different direction. I want to discuss the breweries I went to and what I saw, but I want to put it into context as a comparison of what is wrong with Texas law's and how its hurting Texas Breweries, the Texas Economy and yes, even Texas Tourism. The best part? Its an easy fix.

During my visit, I headed up to Boulder to visit some breweries. We hit two that got me thinking about this post, and it's those two that I want to discuss. Both are very different, but very applicable to the Texas brewery scene.

The first Brewery we went to was the great Avery Brewing. Before heading to the tour, we stopped by the tasting room. It was pretty full of customers on a Sunday afternoon. Some seem to be spending the day playing games, drinking one of the many beers on tap, and just hanging out. Others were, like us, there for the tour. It was here that I got a chance to taste Avery's new barrel aged beer Depuceleuse, aged in Zinfandel barrels (I was also able to pick up a few bottles). After a few more tastings and a pint for the road, it was off to the tour. The first stop along the tour was the Mash Tun and Fermenters. I was absolutely shocked by how small Avery brewing is. A single tiny mash tun and not that many fermenters; each much smaller than anything that Saint Arnold's has. When I asked our guide how big Avery was, they replied that they just passed Microbrewery status (15,000 bbls) and are now around 18,000. This is much smaller than I expected Avery to be, but am still pretty happy that we are able to get so many of their great beers in Houston. After the mash tun and fermenters, we headed to the bottling line. Again, this was a pretty small operation and, along with their labeling machine, is run by 2 or 3 people. After the bottling line we headed over to the barrel room. This was absolutely the highlight of the tour. The barrels were floor to ceiling with many different labels. Some originally held Rum, Whiskey (CO local Stranahan's), different types of red wine, and different types of white wines. Many of these barrels had white sheets of paper on the front that carried the history of the barrel and what had been in each one, along with owner, Adam Avery's, thoughts on the beer that was aged in side. It was also in this room that I received the inspiration to write this post. I asked our tour guide about the size of the brewery, and how they planned to expand since they were basically land locked in an industrial complex. The tour guide said that by using the money they make in the tasting room: proceeds from selling bottles, merchandise, samples, and tastings, they were going to be able to buy a place and custom build a brewery in the future.

Compare this situation with that of Houston's own: Saint Arnold's. How were they able to build a new brewery? Obviously not by tasting room sales of beer, but more than likely by their contract brewing agreement with BJ's Brew Pub. This contract has probably allowed Saint Arnold's a much higher in-flow of capital than would otherwise have been possible.

The second brewery we went to was brand new and very tiny: Asher Brewing Company , Colorado's first all organic brewery. Another small brewery tucked into an industrial park, but when I say small, I mean teeny tiny! When you entered the door you came face to face with the bar, a small sitting room to the right, a few taps behind the bar, and then a door leading to the brewery itself. I asked the brewerr, who happened to also be manning the taps, if I could take a step back. I headed through the door. I saw a mash tun and a couple of fermenters among other things, and that was it. No bottling line or anything. I came back to the bar, and ordered a sampler of their beers - A wheat, IPA, DIPA, and Green Monstah (strong Ale). While I wasn't a huge fan of the wheat beer, the other 3 were very good. Extremely hop forward, with the Monstah having a wonderfully balanced maltiness. After ordering a pint of the DIPA, I took a seat at the bar and spoke with the brewer for a little bit. Currently they are keg only, but are using the proceeds from their tasting room and selling to local bars to purchase a bottling line (which they were going to be doing in short order). This brewery is only 3 months old, and already were able to see a huge benefit from their tasting room. While I was there, 5 or 6 people came in to sit at the bar and drink, and a couple of folks came in to fill some growlers to take home.

Now compare this scenario with that of new upstart Austin Area brewery Jester King. These guys are making some killer beer, but to start their brewery up they had to raise tons of money. They couldn't rely on starting as small as Asher brewing and use things like a tasting room to build up funds.

So what simple things could Texas do to help our local breweries?

1) Allow breweries to operate like a bar. They don't have to serve food, but wouldn't it be great to stop by a brewery on the way home from work and have a couple of extremely fresh pints? If they wanted to, they could offer chips and nuts, but you don't need to do much more than that. Neither Avery or Asher did and I would say they were very successful in getting folks in for a pint now and again.

2) Allow breweries to sell their beer on site. Imagine being able to go to a tour of the brewery and pick up a six pack or bomber of special beer to go. This is something that has been in work for many years and hopefully this next attempt it will pass. Not only does this help the breweries, regardless of what you may hear, it doesn't hurt distributors for a couple of reasons: 1) The beer breweries sell is not at a discount. Just like wineries, they do not undersell their sellers. Ask CO, CA, or OR distributors and see if they have been hurt by breweries selling some beer on site. The answer is a resounding NO. 2) By not underselling their beers, the breweries are able to get a higher percentage of profit off of those beers, which increases profit margin.

3) Allow breweries to sell Growlers to go. This works similar to allowing them to sell six packs, but also allows a customer to get something that may be offered keg only. There are some breweries in Texas that are keg only, like Live Oak, that would benefit greatly from this for the same reasons as mentioned above.

By doing these thing's how does it help Texas? States that have a strong microbrewery culture also have a strong culture of beer tourism. By making it easier for craft breweries to succeed, you help the economy and tourism. For example, I can go to the Denver area and hire a Brewery guide that will take me to dozens of area breweries, allowing me to pick up some special beers along the way. The same goes for places like San Diego and Portland. Look at Austin! There are many area breweries and more (like Jester King) on the way. Imagine a beer bus type of touring van that took folks from out of state to local breweries, allowing them to buy some beers, take them back to their home state, and talk about how great Texas Beer is. This brings even more folks back into the state, starting the whole process over. Texas has done an outstanding job of supporting the wine industry, and wine tourism has brought a ton of money into this state. When the economy is hurting, and taxing things left and right isn't the answer, shouldn't the state stand by the craft brewer's and at the same time bringing more money to the state coffers?

Avery Black Tot

2010-04-23T20:27:00.005-05:00

Boulder based brewing company Avery Brewing is widely known for producing outstanding beers. Not only do they have a solid line of beers available in six packs, but there big bottle series like the Reverend, Salvation, Hog Heaven, Czar, as well as their great beer they collaborated with Russian River on: Collaboration Not Litigation, are all top notch beers. In the last year they have developed a barrel aging program, releasing small batch beers, of differing styles aged in different types of barrels. Some of these barrels contained rum, zinfandel wine or whiskey. The first release of this series was the funky Brabant No 1, followed a few months afterward by Sui Generis. The next release was this ale dubbed the Black Tot, an Imperial Oatmeal stout aged in Giddings Rum casks (they've since released a 4th barrel aged beer).

The Beer: This one weighs in at 10.0% and pours a pitch black with a thick head of dense dark tan colored foam. The nose is of oats, molasses, chocolate, coffee, figs, and raisins. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, slightly thinner than expected. Notes of chocolate, coffee, espresso, some acidity at the finish. Vanilla, a light oakiness and some licorice notes. A very complex ale that starts to show some slight funky tanginess brought forth from residual bacteria growing the rum casks. This tanginess gives the beer a presence of sour cherries covered in dark chocolate. This is a wonderful beer, and might be my favorite of Avery's barrel aged line of brews. This one gets an A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Deschuttes Jubel 2010

2010-04-23T14:01:00.005-05:00

Many brewer's these days put out special once a year ales. Most of these are anniversary beers like Shiner's 100, or 101 beers, others are special cult like ales that folks stand in line for hours to obtain (like Three Floyd's Dark Lord). However Oregon brewer has taken this a step further and has brewed a beer that is released in bottles once a decade. This ale dubbed Jubel has been made just twice, once in 2000, and now it has been released once again. However unlike many other special beers, this one while not easy to find, you didn't have to sell your soul to get. So whats so special about this beer you ask? Well Deschuttes takes their winter seasonal Jubelale, a dark strong ale that has some hops at 60 IBU's and weighs in at 6.7%. Above I mentioned that Jubel is bottled once a decade, however it is available on draft at Deschuttes brew pubs. To create this beer, they've brewed a stronger version of their Christmas ale and aged it in Oregon oak Pinot Noir Barrels.

The Beer: This one weighs in at 10.0% and pours a rich dark brown with ruby highlights and a thin line of taupe colored head. The nose is of rich malts, cherry, raisins, figs, plums, and coco. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy. Strong notes of alcohol. Dark Russian bread, fig compote, raisins, prunes, notes of coco, candied sugar, christmas bread, vanilla and oak all show up in the flavor profile. It's an incredibly flavorful beer, with concentrated dried dark fruits as it warms, sticky toffee. This beer is strong, tastes much more than the 10% it is. Alcohol becomes even more prevelent as it warms. Looking at the bottle there is a "best after" date. The date is next year. Glad I got a couple more bottles becuase this one should age wonderfully well.

Port Brewing Shark Attack

2010-04-15T17:40:00.002-05:00

Back home after a few days in Denver visiting the in-laws (details and other thoughts on my visit in an upcoming entry, I promise). As always I picked up a stash of brew and if you follow my twitter feed there were even pictures! Last night after I returned home I cracked open a bottle that I had brought back. This one from San Diego brewer Port Brewing. Shark Attack is Port's Imperial Red ale.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 9.0% and pours a cloudy brown beige color with a thick dense head of slightly off white foam. The nose is hops, hops, and more hops, grapefruit peel, pine tree sap. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and much maltier than the nose. Creamy without a lot of carbonation. Malty up front, notes of caramel, toffee, biscuits, then it finishes with a hammer of hops across the tongue. Citrus pith, tongue saturating hoppiness. White pepper spice. Very good beer well balanced with hops and strong malt characteristics up front. This one gets an A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Boulevard Harvest Dance

2010-04-09T07:07:00.002-05:00

It seems like a long time since I've picked up a brew from Kansas City brewer Boulevard, and what better way to get reacquainted then grabbing a beer from their Smokestack series. This Harvest Dance is a Wheat Wine. Now some of you may be going a what? I've heard for a barleywine, but what is this Wheat Wine you speak of? Well glad you asked.
Like a barleywine, Wheat Wines are strong ales, however they are relatively new to the beer scene where as barleywines have been around for a long time. However they also mix in the complexity of a Wheat beer with many of these wheat wines having upwards of 50% of their malt bill being wheat. I've never had a wheat wine, so this is something that I've been wanting to try for some time.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 9.10% abv and pours an orange copper with an absolutely ginormous pillowy slightly off white head. The nose is full of fruity esters, banana, cloves, bubble gum, spice, just like a great hefeweizen should. The first sips give the impression of a very full mouthfeel, alcohol, winish quality. Then those things part and you start to get the impression of a "heavier" wheat beer. Bananas, spices, cloves, then white grapes, honey suckle-ish quality. A dryness that reminds me of a trippel. Some astringency notes. As the beer warms one can get a "wheat-y" taste that's quite nice. Also much lighter in the mouthfeel than a barleywine is which is very nice. A bit boozy. If I had to sum it up in a sentence it would be like taking a Belgian Trippel mixed with a good Bavarian Hefe. An interesting beer that makes me want to delve deeper into this style. This gets a B+ from me. Here's what folks at BA had to say.

Magazine Review: Beer Connoisseur

2010-04-07T16:25:00.005-05:00

A new magazine has joined the ever growing ranks of Beer publications. There is of course the great All About Beer (one that I have subscribed and can heartily recommend), Beer Advocate (the magazine version of the on-line community), DRAFT (I've heard problems about their subscription, but I've enjoyed picking it up at the news stands) and Beer (a beer magazine for the Maxim crowd). Well now there is Beer Connoisseur magazine one that is released quarterly. But how does it compare, and how does it make it self different than the others?
The first thing you notice when you see it on the newsstand is it's size. This is a large format magazine (think Wine Spectator, the old LIFE, etc) and it grabs your attention. The cursive type of Beer, the big block letting of Connoisseur, the beautiful photography on the cover it speaks to you. It was this that made me pick it up for the firs time a few months back. Now that they have released their second issue, I wanted to write my thoughts and tell my avid readers (I know there's a few out there....I hope I'm not just talking to myself) if it's worth a pick up. The first thing I did was see who was contributing to it. Its different than DRAFT or All about beer, both of which seem to share many writers and frankly many features. Some of the contributors include Stephen Beaumont, Shawn Connely (of Beer Philosopher.com), Martyn Cornell, Evan Rail, Lisa Morrison (aka the Beer Goddess). All of these have a pretty large following on the on-line beer community and many have written wonderful beer related books so seeing them contributing to this magazine gives it some credibility. The next thing I look for is the different features. One thing that they don't have is a "Whats going on in beer" feature. In AAB, DRAFT, or BA mags this the feature that goes over news in the industry, mergers, technology, etc. However, in this day and age of on line news, it seems unnecessary, so I have no issue with it not being in this mag. Its other normal features do include a Style Guideline section where Shawn Connely introduces readers to different styles each issue. These are usually informative, and includes info that you can also find on BJCP.org. The other features include a Travel piece (This month on Czech Republic), an interview (called the Innovator Series, this month with Garrett Oliver), Food and Beer, and of course Reviews. There are other things of course, this month has a very interesting piece on Green brewing and the Accidental Connoisseur discussing things outside of beer (thinks Scotch, Whiskey, etc).
Over all the features are all very well done, well laid out, very well photographed and well written for the most part. The beer and food section is probably the best of any beer magazine I've seen, with great recipe's, great photography, and really utilizes either beer (something more than Guinness or pilsner that many other beer magazines use) in the recipe or as pairings with the food.
The Beer Review section is done very well also and done a little differently than other magazines. For example they do not group beer styles or even state it within the review the style of the beer. I would like at least the latter (my personal favorite method for beer reviews is AAB). But each food pairing comes with a Food Recommendation both a complimentary and contrasting pairing which I think is a great idea. Each review pictures the beer poured into a brewery glass, the reviews are well written and in two issues I haven't found one that I strongly disagree with.
Another thing that separates this magazine from others is that it focuses much more on the south. While I feel that AAB and BA specifically tend to focus a lot of their attention on either the West Coast or north east, this magazine does have southern, and specifically south eastern influence going so far as to do a separate "Southeast Beer Review". Additionally Beer Connoisseur has a wonderful companion website that one can search for food & beer pairings, brewpubs, travel tips, etc, along with an excellent beer forum.
This review has been pretty positive so far, however there are some issues that I have. One is that there is a lot of space taken up by advertisements, honestly no more than other magazines, but its not something I'm a huge fan of (yes I understand you have to pay the bills). Secondly I do wonder if they are being too hoity-toity with the term Beer Connoisseur. Its a fine line between getting folks to respect beer and understanding that it deserves the same respect and place at the table that wine does, and trying to make beer an elitist beverage. I'm not saying that BC Magazine does this, but that they are walking a fine line, it will be interesting to see how they evolve over time. Lastly and maybe most importantly is the price for subscription. This is a quarterly magazine, so 4 issues a year and it costs $21.00, compare this to BA (12 issues/yr for $29.99) or All About Beer (6 issues/yr for $20.99). You can see that this magazine is probably way more expensive than it should be and honestly I think to really sell its going to have to lower prices.
There are a few other things I would love to see in this magazine. 1) Something that has not been done in any "national" beer magazine (but is done in other magazines), is to create a regional review section separate from the main review. So the south eastern US would keep the Southeast Beer section, but other regions would have Southern Beer, Mountain Region, Northwest, Northeast, West Coast, etc (and if they needed someone to review the Southern beer's I'd be more than happy to help!). There is precedence to this, for example Sports Illustrated does have some regional features especially for subscribers. Another thing I'd like to see is styles mentioned in the beer review section. You can see a beer reviewed and have no idea what style it is supposed to be. I think this is important when you also look at their outstanding section on Beer Styles. Lastly and I've mentioned before, they have to lower their subscription price. For only 4 issues the yearly subscription is just too high.
Now to answer the question? Is it worth picking up? Let me preface with this magazine is absolutely a wonderful addition to the line up of Beer related magazines, and along with their website a great addition to the on-line beer community. Taking into consideration it has the best photography of any beer magazine, great contributors, good reviews, good features, I will absolutely pick this magazine up on the newsstand. Will I get a subscription? Not yet, I need to see how this magazine grows, and as I've stated a couple of times already I think the price is just too high.

Lost Abbey Inferno

2010-04-02T09:42:00.002-05:00

I've been extremely lucky as of late to try as many Lost Abbey beers as I've been able to due to my travels to Denver. I know that some in the past have had carbonation or other quality issues, but I have never experienced those and in fact been more than pleased with everything I've had from the. As with most brews Lost Abbey makes this one is another Belgian style ale, specifically a Belgian Strong Pale Ale (think Duvel).
The Beer: This one weighs in at 8.5% and pours a pale golden color with a thick head of bright white foam. The nose is of pale malts, noble hops, small grassy notes. Medium to full mouthfeel Crisp dry, grassy, pale malts, an earthy hop ting, minerally. Very dry. There is some sweetness up front, but as stated the finish is pretty dry. Good level of carbonation. Maybe a note of honey, strawy, hay, grassy, yeasty notes. Great food beer (as is Duvel). This one gets a B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Real Ale Sisyphus

2010-03-30T10:04:00.002-05:00

I always look forward to the release of Real Ale's outstanding Barleywine. So much so, that I immediately go out and buy a bunch of bottles so that one day in the future I can do a multi-year vertical and see how well these things hold up. But that tasting is for later, today we talk about the most recent vintage of Sisyphus.
The Beer: It pours an orangish copper with a good dense head of off white foam. The nose is hoppy, citrus, grapefruit, raisins, malty. The mouthfeel is full bodied, hoppy, grapefruit peel, balanced with strong caramel malty flavors. Raisins, vanilla, toffee, almost a bourbony quality. There is a slight metallic taste to the beer. Sticky. It works towards balancing hoppy with malty sweetness. I must say that this vintage is not my favorite, but I will be interested to see how well this holds up. This one gets a B from me.