Book Review: Beer & Food An American History

A few weeks ago I went on a bit of a book shopping splurge and bought a few pieces on beer. Hopefully over the course of the next month or so I'll finish them all and write up a couple of reviews. The first book that came was the newest by Bob Skilnik titled Beer & Food: An American History. Before getting into the book, a little about the author. Mr. Skilnik has written a pretty well reviewed book in the past, Beer: A history of Brewing in Chicago. Chicago being near and dear to his heart as that is his residence and where he earned a degree in brewing technology from the Siebel Institute. So he has some pretty good credentials, and as I am fan of beer and food pairing, I was eager to crack open the book.
The basic premise of the book is looking at how beer and food have evolved over American History, both in pairings, but more specifically as an ingredient. I think that the author does a good job of meeting the premise, in an authoritative and entertaining manner. The author does covers much more range than Maureen Ogle's book, starting back in the Colonial days. He starts out showing how the women that brewed the beer used it in their dishes, and stews, sometimes using them as preservatives, due to the use of hops. But more prevantly the author shows how people had to make do using other non traditional ingredients for beer in the new frontier than their British Homes were used to. This manner of showing the state of beer, then food, then giving a smattering of beer infused ingredients continues throughout the book, up until Prohibition, where instead of using beer, ingredient pamphlets were created by struggling brewers emphasizing the use of their Malt extracts. Fascinating if not entirely appetizing approach. The book ends with the craft beer movement and recipes from a good selection of craft brewers using their own beers in various unique ways.
Overall I think this is a good introductory book to beer and food. Some of the recipes were redundant, (sometimes that may have been the authors point) I mean how many stews or Welsh Rarebit recipes does one need? The real treat here were some of the current recipes utilizing today's craft beer's as they seemed to be very thought out.
My recommendation is, if you are interested in beer and food as ingredients, this is a good start, if you are more interested in Beer and food in pairings, seek out Garrett Oliver's much more thorough effort.

Allagash Musette

I am always on the lookout for new and unusual beers. Not necessarily extreme beers, but beers that are made in an usual way, beers that show craftsmen ship. The other day in Spec's I found it in this beer from Allagash. Now, I have had an Allagash beer before and been impressed, so when I saw this one I knew or at least hoped I'd be in for a treat.
The Beer: The beer comes in a big bottle with a wire cage closure, its aged in oak barrels, and according to the label was bottled on December 2006! This is one of 518 cases bottled and finally the beer weighs in at 10% abv. The beer pours a cloudy dark amber, capped by a thick white foamy head. The nose is full of sweet malts, raisins, figs, and a hint of burnt wood. The mouth has smoky, oaky, slightly vanillin notes, and caramel. The oak brings out flavors like a good oak aged wine, this beer is dry in that vein too. Very smooth. As the beer warmed more vanillin notes started to pop out creating a beer of incredible depth. Very nice. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.
A couple of other notes, according to Allagash this is a Scottish ale. The oak hides some of this, but I do see it. For more info check out their page dedicated to this great beer.

The Session #3 Announcement

Yes the announcement has been made. We have had a blast with the first two Sessions, that I am pleased to announced Jay over at the Brookston Beer Blog has announced the latest installment.
For those new to The Session, belly up to the bar, its easy. On the first Friday of every month, beer bloggers around the world gather for a virtual tasting, directed toward a specific theme that is supplied by that month's host. Well we know the host is Jay, the theme? Well its Mild Beer. Some out there may be saying 'Huh' I know, but its a pretty popular beer over across the pond in London, so popular in fact that CAMRA has named May The month of the Mild. So what is mild? It is usually a darker beer, slightly sweet, with toasty malts, a bit of hops, but relatively low alcohol, weighing in at around 4.5 to 5% sometimes lower. For more information, check out this sight. It will be challenge for me to find a good Mild to taste, since there aren't many American Craft Brewers making them, and I don't know if I get any of the ones imported. But hey challenges are part of the fun. Plus I am exceedingly happy that Jay chose this as I think it will open a lot of people up to a style they have not tried before. As many beers as I have tried, I have never had a mild, so this one will be new to me, and that's always exciting. So join in, and come back on May 4th for the results.

The Session #2

Wow.....the first session was a great success, this time it might be even better.

Head over to A Good Beer Blog and check out the plethora of Dubbels.

The Session #2: Dubbels

The day is finally upon us, The Session #2 has arrived. The first session was a blast as the theme was "Not your Father's Stout". For those new to the discussion The Session is a virtual Beer Tasting held the first Friday of the month. All the beer bloggers, the world over, do tasting, write up and the host posts every one's tasting in a round up a couple of days later. This month the host is Alan over at A Good Beer Blog, the theme is Dubbels. My foray into this months discussion is Ommegang's Abbey Ale.
The Style: The Dubbel style has its roots in Trappist brewing, although many American Craft brewers are making Abbey ale, which for the most part are Dubbels. These beers are of moderate strength around 8%, but always less that the more robust Trippels. These beers are dark, malty, spicy, with low hops.
The Brewery: Ommegang is based in Cooperstown, New York, was founded in 1997 and is renown for creating some of the best Belgian Ales in the States. Simply put they are Belgian ales. They use traditional Belgian style malts, spices, and brewing methods to create a small collection of reportedly amazing Belgian Beers. Among other things they also promote the greatness that is Beer with Food, something I am passionate about.
The Beer: I searched a long time before selecting a Dubbel that I wanted to taste. At first I was going to go for a Belgian Beer, but most of those I have been lucky to taste, either here, or when I was in Brussels last year. So I decided to search for something new, something I had never tasted. Lucky me then that Ommegang brewery has just started distribution to my fair city! I had heard nothing but raves about this brewery so when I saw their Ommegang Ale on the shelf of my local Spec's I knew this was THE BEER!
The beer came in a large bottle with the words 'Bottle Conditioned' printed on the front of the colorful label. The beer weighed in at a nice 8.5% and poured a deep amber with just small streaks of red flashing through when held up to the light. There was a nice thick, dense quarter inche taupe head capping this amber nectar. The nose was fruity, musty, raisins. The mouth showed good carbonation, smooth, with notes of coffee, dark chewy raisins, concentrated dark grape flavors, leaving a crisp long finish. A bit of espresso bitterness showed itself right at the finish. As the beer warmed the dark fruit flavors showed up even more prevalently, expressing itself in what I would call a thick beer. I really enjoyed this beer and am glad that Ommegang has made its way down here. Can't wait to try their other beers. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.
Now go over to A Good Beer blog and check out the other Dubbel Posts.

MOJO Risin Double IPA

Beyond going to a couple of Brew Pubs this past weekend while in Colorado, I was also able to pick up a beer that I have been trying get my hands on. Unfortunately Boulder Beer Co, doesn't distribute to Texas, or at least not down to Houston so my only other previous experience was during this past years Great American Beer Festival. So, when I went into a local Denver Beer store and saw this beer, it called to me, a big bottle, big beer, double IPA! Sounds good to me!
The Brewery: Boulder Beer Co, was Colorado's first microbrewery which is pretty telling in a state that has quite a few. The brewery was started in 1979 by a couple of professors from the local university CU. There first beers were a Extra Pale Ale, Porter, and a Stout, but I dare say now they are more famous for their MOJO IPA and their Hazed and Confused (a fresh hop infused IPA).
The Beer: This particular beer is part of the 'Look Glass' Series, of which the aforementioned Hazed and Confused is the flagship and comes in a big bottle. The beer weighs in at a potent 10% alcohol. It pours a deep copper color with a nice quarter inch frothy head. Floral hop bitterness with some citrus peel in the nose. The mouth is full with nice carbonation. Its like biting into a grapefruit, skin and all, but the nicest thing is that it ends with a bit of malt sweetness that helps balance the beer and not making the beer unbearable, which it comes close to, but never goes over the edge. I couldn't drink more than one of these massive beers, but its quite nice for being an extreme hoppy beer. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

My weekend

I know its been a few days since my last post, but I do have a good excuse. This past weekend I headed up to the land of beer and mountains, Denver Colorado. My fiance and I were doing a little wedding planning, but since Denver and the area surrounding Denver are infested with Microbreweries I was VERY happy. Amongst the planning we were able to stop by two craft breweries, Estes Park Brewery, and Oskar Blues and have a sample of their fine brews.
Estes Park Brewery is of course located in Estes Park across the lake from the Stanely hotel (the creepy hotel in the Shining). The brewery is a Brew pub serving ok food, and pretty good beer. When we got there we headed to the tasting bar for a few short glasses of beer (since these were small pours I won't be grading the head):
Estes Park Porter: Dark, ruby colored, coffee notes, creamy, smooth with a light bitterness at the end, very nice.
Estes Park Renegade: This is their IPA, oranges, bitter, fruity, balance the bitterness with some malt, good carbonation. Pretty good.
Estes Barleywine: Very nice at 13%, raisins, Roasted sweet malts, chewy, dark fruit. Could use some aging, but already very good.
Estes Tripel: Weighs in at 8.8%, fruity, golden in color, white grapes, like a Riesling, honey suckle, melons, Extremely smooth, no alcohol flavor.
Estes Park Oatmeal Stout: Flavors of roasted malts and chocolate, a tad bit of oaty flavor. Some esspresso notes, with only a bit of mild bitterness. An ok attempt.

Oskar Blues of course is that small brewery that has become famous for serving their beers in cans, something not many craft brewers do. The brewery is a small venture in a Lyons Colorado. They serve food, but we didn't get any, instead we sat down on a Sunday afternoon and ordered a sampler tray of 6 beers:
MoneyShot Cream Ale: Light, lemony, cloudy, crisp, and tart. An ok beer, but I don't have much experience with a Cream ale.
Gordon Strong Beer: Big hops here, no malts, orange peel notes, a little much, but not to bad.
Dale Pale Ale: The flagship beer. Poured cloudy, nice smooth hops, well balanced, refreshing, Very nice.
Bitching Creek ESB: A guest beer from Jackson Hole, that they were pouring. Bitter, some chocolate notes, smooth cocoa-y, very nice.
Old Chub: Another one of their popular beers a Scottish Ale. Dark brown, sweet dark raisins, dark cherry notes, smooth a little bitter, but very nice.

Avery Mephistopheles

Avery is known for making some pretty extreme beers, and they usually make a series of them. From their Dictator series to their Demons of Ales they make uniquely great beers some that I have tasted before. Mephistopheles is part of the Demons of Ales beer, along with The Beast, and Samael (which I tasted previously). This particular beer is an Imperial Stout.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at a stout (no pun intended) 16.03% and pours an inky jet black capped by the darkest brown foamy thick head that I have seen. The nose is of raisins, rum, hops, coffee and just a bit of astringent alcohol. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy, good carbonation, toasty and oaky, coffee, chocolate, raisins, with a bit of that rummy taste showing up as the beer warmed. Not much of that espresso bitterness that I was hoping for though, but on the upside not an overt amount of alcohol taste either. If I could compare it to one thing it would be a dense double dark chocolate coffee cake. Pretty nice beer, here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Collaboration Not Litigation Ale

I first heard about this unique beer while reading a review of it over at Hedonist Beer Jive. By unique I mean that this ale is not one beer, but actually two different beers blended together. This of course is where the name comes in. There are two craft breweries with a Salvation Beer. One is from Avery and is a Belgian Golden Ale, the other is from Russian River Brewing and is a Strong Dark Belgian beer. The litigation portion of the story goes that instead of filing a law suit over who is the true Salvation beer the two beer makers joined up and created a unique blended beer. Brewed and bottled at Avery, the Russian River Brewer flew out to Colorado, brewed his beer there just as he does out in California.
The Beer: The beer comes in a big bottle format and weighs in at a nice 8.99% alcohol. It pours a cloudy brown hazelnut color with a thin taupe colored head. Raisins and spicy fruit on the nose, yeast breadynessPublish. A creamy thick mouthfeel, bananas and bread on the tongue. Low carbonation causes the beer to sit and coat the tongue. Very smooth, with very little alcohol flavor showing up. Very rich, very nice. Jay over at HBJ gave the beer a 8.5 out of 10, I'd say that's about right, here's what the folks at BA had to say.

North Coast Old Rasputin - Imperial Russian Stout

Ever since the recent Session on Stouts, I have been thinking about trying some more since its one of my favorite styles of beer. Last week I was reading Rick's post on Tuesday tastings featuring stouts and got even more of an urge to try some more stouts. So it was with great happiness that I picked up this four pack of stout from North Coast Brewery one of my personal favorites.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 9% (thats the Imperial) pours a deep dark brown with a thick cappuccino color head. The nose has that same cappuccino creamy bitterness, with some coco, and roasted malts. The mouthfeel is thick, sweet and bitter. A wonderful beer with just a hint of the high alcohol at the end. I really like this one, here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Saint Arnold's Lawnmower Ale

I am on a quest of late to find a good session beer. A beer that one can drink a couple in a sitting and not feel completely wasted. Its hard to do that sometimes with craft beer as everyone seems to be moving towards Extreme. Extreme Hops, Extreme flavors and extreme alcohol. A week or so ago I picked up a six pack of the incredible Victory Pils. This week its a six pack of the local Saint Arnold's Lawnmower Ale.
The Beer: The beer is Kolsch Style, so that obviously got me excited as I feel a bit of an expert on the style since my recent trip to the land of all things Kolsch. Having gone to a few of the wonerful Saturday tours at Saint Arnolds I have quite a few of their tasting glasses which are basically Kolsch style glasses, so thats what I poured this beer into. This version weighs in at 4.9% slightly higher than the typical Kolsch which is usually closer to the 4.5 mark. The beer poured a pale golden straw color capped by a typical thick white head. Plenty of tiny champagne bubbles rising to the top. So far so good with Kolsch Comparisons. Sweet malt and floural hops on the nsoe. The mouth was full and bubbly, more sweet malts being the predominant flavor with a nice crips hop bite from the Hallertauer variety used. If I could compare it to anything I had in Cologne it would be Pfaffen. A bit sweeter than the typical Kolsch but still a very fine example. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Beer that's Served Too cold

Americans in general are now learning that they have been serving their wine at the wrong temperature, their red's to warm, the whites too cold. I keep hoping that we are moving towards that trend in serving beer, as for the most part we serve beer way too cold. It may be one thing to serve tasteless swill at ice cold temperatures, freezing your taste buds so you don't realize what you're drinking, but its quite another to do that with a fine craft brew. Just when I think its safe to go back in the water comes news of a new restaurant in the Dallas/Fort Worth are 29 Degrees. Their stchick is that they serve all beer at an ice cold 29 degrees (that's Fahrenheit folks). Now I as much as anyone can appreciate the need for an ice cold brew every now and then, but below freezing! This is so far beyond ridiculous and the way the proprietiers (owners of the Bennigan's chain) are touting this as what the people want is ridiculous. I don't think anyone, regardless of the beer they drink wants their tongues frozen. At the very least they would like to taste their food (hmm maybe the owners ARE trying to hide something).
Whats really interesting in this article are the quotes from Beer manufactures and at what temp they think their beers should be poured at. Even the boys from A-B get in it stating that serving their beer below 36 degrees leads to a "slow pour and little head, less cloudy and little flavor" (no comments please). Jim Koch of Boston Beer company seemed perplexed that anyone would want to serve his ubiquitous Sam Adams Lager at the temperature, but hey that's the plan. The fact that the owners are unapologetic and love touting that their beer is served the coldest in the area further shows their ignorance of what beer and beer drinking really is. It is not about freezing one's taste bud's even in the heat of a Texas Summer, but sitting down, with friends, enjoying good food, and good beer (it would be nice to actually TASTE the beer wouldn't it?)

North Coast Brother Thelonious

In perusing the shelves of my local Central market I sometimes look beyond the sixpack's of quality craft beer and seek out a beer in the Big bottle format, one that can be shared amongst friends and ejoyed. The other day I found just the bottle, one that I had heard about for a while, but had never had the opportunity to try, North Coast Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale. Ahh the reasons why I wanted to try it are numerous: I have really liked the North Coast Beers I have tried in the past (especially their Imperial Russian Stout), its named after a famous jazz musician (Thelonious Monk) and $2.00 of every case goes to the namesakes Institute of Jazz. All very cool, very enticing to me.
The Beer: The Beer weighs in at 9.4%, pouring a nice cloudy amber. Smells of sweet malt, slightly toasted toffe, and hops. The mouth is not that full, but tastes of those same slightly roasted toffee notes, a bit of fruit and a bit of hop bitterness at the end. An ok beer, but something was missing to bring it over the top. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve #4

Success! After having failed three times in the past I finally scored a six pack of Saint Arnold's elusive Divine Reserve. #1 I never tasted, #'s 2 and 3 I was able to taste only at a local bar, it wasn't until this time that I finally got my own to try at home. #1 was a Barleywine, #2 was a Quadrupel, #3 was a Double IPA, and #4 is a Wee Heavy Scottish Ale. I don't have much experience with Wee Heavy's so I don't have a wide frame of reference when tasting this beer, so I won't be comparing it to other's of the same style, only to if its a good beer.
The Style: Wee Heavy is a reference to its strength. Scottish Ales are the Scottish version of a Pale Ale. A Wee Heavy is a Strong Pale ale which will have a stronger alcohol content. Wee Heavy's traditional are sweeter beers, heavy on the malt, with a full body.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 9.6%. Pours black as coal, with streaks of red flowing through, and capped by a quarter inch coffee colored head. The nose is full of sweet roasted malts, raisins and roasted coffee beans. The mouth is more of the same, Very Full flavored, with raisins, espresso, roasted malts. If I could equated it to something it would be those candies you get at the movies, Raisenets (chocolate covered raisins) drizzled in espresso. The nice thing about the beer, is I really didn't taste the alcohol. A heavy beer, and nicely sweet, this would make a great desert beer. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.

The Session: #2

I like to think we all had a blast participating in the first ever Session, an online virtual Beer Tasting. The theme then was "Not your Father's stout." So it has been with eager anticipation that I have waited for the announcement for April's Session Theme (thanks to Alan for the slightly updated version of the Session Logo). Well Alan from A Good Beer Blog has made his announcement, Dubbels. An interesting choice, but a good one for the season. So I'll be going out hunting for a Dubbel that I'd like to taste. Due Date: April 6th.

New Belgium Springboard Ale

I am a pretty big fan of New Belgium. Outside of their Fat Tire, which has become a little less of a beer than it once was, I find their beers wonderful. So when I saw their new spring beer on shelf at my local Central Market I picked it up.
The Beer: The ingredients include wormwood (yes that mystical ingredient used in the elixir absynthe), Goji Berries, and Schisandra. Pretty exotic to say the least, and it piqued my interest. The beer weighs in at a robust 6.2%. The beer poured a cloudy golden color reminiscent of the Belgian Golden ales. Capped by a puffy white head. The nose was full of tartness, and fruit. The mouth was full, with low carbonation so it coated the tongue. White berry flavors showed up first with little bits of hops at the end. There is some sweetness but it is not from malt. There is another flavor that I just couldn't put my finger on what it was. This is a nice refreshing beer, somewhat complex, but missing anything that would make it great. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.

The Session: Roundup #1

Well it was a fun time, and Appellation Beer has posted the roundup of the first virtual Monthly Beer Tasting. Lot's of really great stouts were tasted, so go check it out.

Weekend Quick Hits

As we all have recovered from Friday's frantic postings for the first ever Friday Session (Go over to Appellation Beer and checkout the 23 comments made, official round up to be posted shortly) I thought today would be as good a day as any to catch up on some beer news.

The Perfect Beer Glass? Well that's what Sam Adams CEO Jim Koch thinks he has found. At least for the ubiquitous Sam Adams Lager. After much experimenting with glasses and beer he has found what he says is the perfect glass for his Amber Lager. I can't say that I am surprised that Mr. Koch has found a glass that is perfect for his beer. As a lover of Riedel wine glasses, and knowing the amount of work they have gone through to create a wine glass for every varietal, I can't say I'm surprised. Having been to Belgium and seeing every beer being a different glass, I can't say I am surprised. Not that I think that every beer from every line up needs to be in a different glass, but I think people need to respect the fact that not every beer fits the same glass. You don't put a stout in a Pilsner glass, and I sure wouldn't put a Pilsner in a Belgium style goblet.

A great loss for the beer world. The Indiana Jones of the Beer world dies February 10 at his home in Dummerston, Vt. Alan Eames, the man that was a self described beer anthropologist did great things for promoting the history of beer. From expounding on topics as wide ranging as the first beer ad from Mesopotania, to the fact that up until a few centuries ago beer was the ultimate in feminine drink, always deriving from Goddesses, never God's. Not surprising since it was the females that like baking bread, brewed the local beer. He died at the young age of 59 due to respiratory failure. A sad loss indeed.

Friday's Session: Not your Father's Stout

Its finally that time, the inaugural, Beer Blogging Friday, or as some are starting to call it the Session (with its own logo!). The theme of this first event hosted by Appellation Beer is: Not your Father's stout, or anything but Guinness, Murphy's, etc. I love stouts, so I struggled with what I wanted to do a tasting on. After much searching I went back to a beer that I first drank when I was first being introduced into great beers. Back before I had seen what an Imperial IPA or Imperial Stout even were. To a beer that is easy to find in most every decent liquor store, but is still incredibly good. For this first of what I hope to be many sessions, I popped the top off of Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

The Style: This is a dark beer made with roasted malts. The first use of the word stout when it comes to beer was in the late 1600's. However it didn't have anything to do with a dark beer necessarily but covered anything that was a strong beer (similar to how we use Imperial today). However over time it became mainly associated with a stronger version of Porter, as in a Stout Porter. Then sometime in the late 1800's Porter was dropped from the name and it just became Stout.

The Brewery: The Brewery was founded in 1831 by Charles Young with the purchase of the Ram's Brewery in Wandsworth England. (as an aside the Famous Ram's Brewery closed last year). Now all of Young's beers are brewed at the Eagle Brewery in Bedford. Young's is a pretty popular English beer's with a wide variety available in the states. From Young's ESB to the popular Old Nick Barleywine they are usually quite good quite approachable beers.

The Beer: Yes its what we have waited for, the BEER. The beer weighs in at a nice 5.2%, for this is a beer that can be enjoyed throughout the night and won't knock you on your butt. As expected the beer pours a deep rich almost opaque chocolate brown, capped by a thick dark brown foamy head. The beer is made not only with the traditional roasted malts, but with real chocolate as well, which I found a nice touch. The nose was full of bitter sweet chocolate and espresso. The mouth is the same, rich and thick tasting for all the world like dark chocolate covered espresso beans, wonderful. As the beer warms, some of the bitterness fades leaving a silky smooth chocolatey aftertaste. The head slowly dissipates leaving a nice thin taupe line across the top of the beer. Still such a wonderful beer.

Tune back later this week to a link to the round up

House Bill 1926

House Bill 1926 is the bill that will allow Texas microbreweries to sell a limited amount of beer directly to the public, was filed in the Texas House of Representatives Monday by Rep. Jessica Farrar. This is the bill that I have written about in the past that Brock Wagner, owner of Saint Arnold's has been working valiantly to get sponsored. It is a great thing that Brock has found a sponsor, so Kudo's to Representative Farrar. For those of you that understand how Texas Legislature works, the bill has now gone to the Licensing & Administrative Procedures committee, where it will be voted on to go forward.

While Brock has worked hard to get this bill sponsored, I think the hard part is now coming. The bill needs to get passed. But this is where we can help! No matter where we live in Texas we have a Representative in the State Legislature, its time we make them work for us. I urge everyone to write a letter to their Representative (Brock is asking everyone to state the following items, rewording of course as we please):

-Reference HB 1926.
-You are a supporter of Texas microbreweries.
-It would enhance your visit to Texas microbreweries if you could purchase a pint or six pack, just like you can when you visit microbreweries in other states.
-It will make you even more likely to purchase the beers of Texas microbreweries when you are at stores and restaurants.
-It will make Texas microbreweries stronger.
-Such a change in the law would make it more likely for more microbreweries to open in Texas.

You can email or write a letter.
Here are the Members of the Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committe:

Kino Flores, Chairman (district: the Valley, Hidalgo)http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist36/flores.htm
Charlie Geren, Vice Chair (district: NW Ft. Worth)
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist36/flores.htm
Carl Isett, Budget & Oversight Chair (district: most of Lubbock)
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist84/isett.htm
Tony Goolsby (district: a swath of Dallas)http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist102/goolsby.htm
Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton (district: Orange, Vidor, east Texas)http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist19/hamilton.htm
Delwin Jones (district: areas surrounding Lubbock)http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist83/jones.htm
Borris Miles (district: Houston south inner loop and just south of 610)http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist146/miles.htm
"Chente" Quintanilla (district: east of El Paso)http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist75/quintanilla.htm
Senfronia Thompson (district: NW Houston)
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist141/thompson.htm

NOW GO AND WRITE! Time for us, those that love Saint Arnold's Beer, and all craft Beer from Texas to make a difference.

Choose Responsibly NOT Illogically

As a lover of beer and wine, I obviously like to drink now and then...ok more than that, but it's always about drinking responsibly so I have a high degree of irritation for neo-prohibitionists. Those people that pass nonsensical laws that make it difficult for one to grab a drink. Laws that include now allowing people to grab a beer on election day (God forbid we have a drink after voting!), to not being allowed to grab a six pack on Sunday before the big game. None of these laws are doing anything REAL, i.e. stopping alcoholism, or stopping drunk driving. There are of course tons of neo-prohibitionist lobbyists in D.C. making sure that their puritanical laws are enacted and enforced, but beyond the corporate beer/wine/liquor lobbyists their aren't many consumer lobbyists charged with discussing drinking responsibly not illogically. Until now that is. I've come across a website dedicated to the organization Choosing Responsibly. The organization is run by an former College President (at Vermont's Middleburry College). The goal of Choosing Responsibly is:

Our mission is to promote general public awareness of the dangers of excessive and reckless alcohol consumption by young adults. Through a program of research, publication, education, and related activities Choose Responsibility seeks to engage young people, their parents, and public officials in serious deliberation on the role of alcohol in American culture

This is a BIG mission. One of their more interesting views is lowering the drinking age to 18. While the neo-prohibitionists might be gnashing their teeth, if you look at it logically it makes sense. John McCardell Jr. the aforementioned head of the organization has seen, through his years of working in higher education, an epidemic in binge drinking by underage drinkers. Because these young adults can not legally drink they do it behind closed doors and in copious amounts instead of in the open in a more controlled atmosphere. They also have some interesting facts that go against those that the neo-prohibitionists spout: less alcohol related deaths that they correlate to raising the drinking age, can be just as likely attributed to higher safety standards in vehicles and the increased stigma of drinking and driving regardless of age. The agurement goes on that its not about setting up laws and restrictions that young adults are going to break, but educating them on drinking responsibly and helping ending the epidmic of binge drinking. If we tell our childrent that its ok to drink and we lift that stigma, it becomes less likely that they will over drink. This is not agrigorical, but a fact that plays itself out in other countries where the stigma of drinking is lifted. Having just been to Germany I have seen it first hand, where kids as young as 16 our allowed to drink beer, and at 18 can drink liquor. The binge drinking is just not there as it is here.
Its a fascinating argument and one that sadly will probably not go anywhere due to cowardliness of our politicians. Can you imagine one standing up for common sense? Stating that an 18 year old has all the rights as an adult accept one? That an 18 year old is smart enough to drive a car, serve and possibly die for our country, is smart enough to choose the leaders of our country, but not smart enough to lift a pint of beer, or glass of wine?

Left Hand Warrior IPA

I have a soft spot in my heart for Left Hand Brewery, one they are from Longmont and I have a friend from there, two they were one of the first CO craft breweries I visited, and three, they make darn good beer. I have tasted many of their fine brews. This was my first time trying this a seasonal beer made with fresh wet hops.
The Beer: A brew made with fresh hop flowers right after the Hop Harvest of the fall. Came in one of Left Hand's BIG BEER's. Poured a nice smooth clear amber color with a thick tan head. As expected lots of full floural hops on the nose. The mouth is efferevescent full of hops, like chewing a hop flower, strong, no malt to help balance it out here. Beyond the strong biting hops their is an alcohol astringency here that almost over powers everything. This is an ok beer that with a little bit of balance could have been a great beer. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.

Victory Prima Pils

During my time in Germany I began to understand the greatness that is Pilsner. Growing up and going to college, the only "pilsner" (and I use that term loosely) was Budweiser or Coors or Miller. So going to Germany I found true great pilsner, from the very over produced Bitburger (which for being mass produced is quite tasty) to the regional Jever, and of course the Czech, Pilsner Urquell and Budvar. Now that I am back, I am trying to find a beer that can quench my thirst for a good pilsner. To me the imports don't taste the same here as they do over there so I needed to find an American Pilsner, and that meant a craft brewery. For the most part Craft Brewery's have opted to stay away for Pilsners instead going for Ambers, or Pale Ales as their flagship beers, so I was happy to find out about Victory Prima Pils. I am a big fan of Victory and have tasted a few of their beers.
The Beer: Poured in a traditional Pilsner glass, poured a nice slightly hazy straw yellow, plenty of tiny champagne like bubbles and capped with a quarter inch foamy white head. The nose is spicy, hops, citrus and a bit of stone. The mouth is much of the same, full bodied to the max, hoppy and biting, vibrant I would call it. Reminds me of a North German Pilsner like Jever, very spicy and complex. So far away from the American Pilsners that people think of. This is what it should be. Here is what the folks at BA had to say.

Quick Note

I'll borrow the article from Brookston Beer Bulletin who reports this great news for craft beer lovers. In the year 2006 Craft Beer sales incrased by 11.7% and over the last three years almost 30%. As Macrobreweries lament losing profits and lower sales, it is reports like this that show people may be drinking a little less beer over all, but that people are going towards drinking BETTER beer. And thats always a good thing.

Beer: Business and Financial news

A lazy Sunday morning, allows me to surf around the internet looking for news about Beer. Beer business is a huge market, and involves some of the largest companies in the world so here is just a sampling of things that I found:

Molson Coors profits up: Of course the profits aren't up becuase they have been making better beer, or even selling more beer. Profits are up because they have decreased their costs. That would be business code for they laid off a bunch of employees. I understand working towards effieciency as that should always be the goal, but this is a bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing report to me.

New Global Beer Merger? Thats the report out of Brazil where rumors are starting hot and heavy that A-B and Belgium Brewery Giant In Bev are going to merge. These two companies are the respective leaders in revenue and volume would create by far the largest brewing company in the world. What would this mean for you the consumer? Less choice. The more merging that is done the more the big beers (even if thats Stella Artois and Hoegarden) will fill the Beer cases at your local store, and the less room there will be for your local Craft Brewery.

Miller to Launch new Beer: A beer for the Lime and Corona crowd. Miller will be introducing a new beer in certain markets, that is modeled after the Mexican Chelada, combining beer with lime and salt. A low calrorie beer that will compete against Bud Light, and Coors light. Good luck with all that as I just don't see this as a huge market for such things.

Put your Imperial stout DOWN! At least thats what will be happening in Singapore come next year. Starting January 1st of next year beers will be taxed based on their alcohol content. Beer below 5.5% will actually decrease while beer above 8.0% will increase.

Double dose of Dogfish head

My first beer posts back in the states will be about as far away from German style beers as one can possible get. I sat down this week to enjoy two from the Great Dogfish Head Brewery out of Deleware. I have talked about their beer before of course as this is one of my favorite breweres, and I love the experimentation that goes on there. While not all are successes, I appreciate the effort to do something new.
Chateau Jiahu: One of the most unique beers I've ever had, well according to the label its actually a"malt beverage" not a beer, but whatever. Made with Hawthorn fruit, honey, grape concentrate, Chrysanthemum flowers, this is like Midas Touch, a reproduction of an ancient beer. Go to the website to find out a little more about the history. The beer was packaged in a big bottle, the label an amazing piece of artwork. The beer weighs in at a nice 8%, pours a nice cloudy yellow orange, with plenty of carbonation but minimal head. The nose is full of honey, citrus, orange blossom, and floural notes. The mouth is more of the same, mild, with floural notes, citrusy notes, yeasty, loads of frozen white grape juice flavor, and very bubbly, like a champagne. Very interesting, not sure I would get this again and again, but it has its place thats for sure.
Raison D'Extra: One of my favorite beers is the Raison d'etre so when I saw this at my local Spec's, a Souped up version so to speak I had to grab a couple of bottles. WARNING: as this beer is an alcohol BOMB! The beer weighs in at 18%! Pours a dark rich cloudy copper brown, again with minimal head, and nice carbonation. As expected the nose is full of brown raisins, brown sugar and caramel, suprsingy not a lot of alcohol. The mouth has lots of raisins, maple syrup, not a lot of hops and this is where the alcohol starts to show up hiding some of the nuances you know want to come out. Like the 120 minute IPA, I think this beer will mellow out stretching and concentrating the brown sugar and raisin flavors with a little bit of age.

Its good to be home

Yes, I am back in Houston, Texas from my three month stay in Cologne Germany. I loved my time in Germany and I made a lot of great and wonderful friends, but I am also glad to be back home. Now that I am back I'd like to take a post to write about my thoughts on my stay. Be patient as this will be a bit of a stream of consciousness effort.
My overall assessment is that I continue to be amazed by the variety of beers that German Brewers put forth, from the unique Rauchbier, to Black Lager, and finally the home town Kolsch. All very different beers, but all uniquely German. One of the things that I love about German and to an extent all most of Europe is the regional brews. Cologne of course has Kolsch, Dussledorf has altbier, Bavaria has their bock's, and weizen's, Easter Germany has their bohemian style pilsners. I love that about Germany as each region puts their soul into their regional beer, as its the closest I have seen of beer making matching the terrior that oenophiles talk up so much about in wine. Whereas here in the States no one region has a beer to call their own. The closes is what some have called California Pale Ale's after the style of Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale, but that really isn't' the same as what occurs in Germany.
One last comment on German beers in regards to Hefeweizens. I have not always been a fan of this style in the states, but the ones that I was able to drink in Germany were absolutely amazing, full of banana and cloves. I couldn't figure out why the German versions in the states weren't as good until one day I was talking to one of my German friends. The hefeweizens that are imported into the states are all pasteurized. The thermal treatment of these beers kills some of the flavor profile thereby creating (in my mind) a blander beer. All this means is that I will have to start looking for American versions that aren't baked to dullness.
During my stay I also had the opportunity to become more familiar with Belgium Beers. In this day and age of globalization its difficult to find beers that you can't get over here in the states, but I did my best and think I succeeded.
All in all this was an amazing opportunity for me, both professionally and personally and it opened my eyes to a whole new world of beer experiences.

Review: Microbrews: Ten year Retrosprective

Note: Based on a comment made by Wortwurst the author of the site, I realized that I had spoken too soon. His review is only HALF Complete as there will be 200 total beers.

I have spoken about the wonderful website Microbrews: A 10 year retrospective a couple of times (here, and here), and the project has finally been completed. To review, the gist of this site is that 10 years ago the book Microbrews: A Guide to America's Best new Beers and Breweries, was published, the creator of the site, went about to see how many of those 100 beers mentioned were still around. He finished the project earlier this week and the results are in. Out of the 100 beers published, they were created by a total of 79 breweries. Of those 100 beers only 47 are still active, of the 79 breweries only 47 are still active. I guess its not to surprising that a little over half of the beers and breweries have failed to make it 10 years. As the author states, thats about typical for self run businesses. Its still sad that some good beer has gone to waste. Please go check out the site, and peruse at your leisure.

Floris Chocolate Beer

Cologne has a lot of Museum's. One of my favorite's is the Schokolade Museum, and the incredible gift shop they have. I have a weak spot for very dark chocolate and they have that in abundance. This past week I was visiting the museum with a friend of mine and came across a stash of Chocolate beer. Now this isn't a typical Chocolate Stout, but an actual straight up Belgian Chocolate Beer.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 4.2% and is made with real chocolate. It pours a nice light cloudy copper color, with good carbonation, and no head. There is a thin film skimming over the surface of the beer. The nose is full of chocolate, almost like a yoohoo, and a tad bit of bitterness. The flavors are chocolate, and a tangy tartness that tasted like very rich almond extract, very overpowering. Over all it tasted like carbonated milk chocolate with a bottle of almond extract poured in. Not a good beer at all. I think this is something that could have been very good, even excellent, but this missed the mark by quite a bit.

BIG BEER NEWS

At least I like to think so. I have tried (sometimes failing miserably) to participate in the virtual monthly wine tasting Wine Blogging Wednesday. Now comes the news from Stan over at Appelation Beer that he is going to start (hopefully) a monthly Beer tasting.
Here are the details: "not your father's Irish Stout". Do a tasting of any stout as long as its not Guiness, Murphy's or Beamish. Send Stan the link and/ or your tasting notes by March 2.
Easy huh!
I think this is a great idea for many reasons. It will open the door to many different beers from all over the world, many I probably have never had the opportunity to taste. Secondly I think it will bring the Beer Blogging world a bit closer, which I think is a good thing.
Check back on the 2nd of March for the results.

Schloesser Altbier

As I mentioned this past weekend, I was able to bring back an Altbier from my weekend trip to Dusseldorf. It was tonight that I decided to pop it open and give it a try. The beer weighed in at a nice 4.8%. It poured a rich copper brown, light carbonation, capped with a thick pillowy frothy white head. The nose was hoppy bitterness and copper notes. The mouth had hints of metallic flavor, brown surgar, caramel, and surprisingly low on the hop aroma. You could feel the hops, but they definitely weren't overpowering, in fact it was incredibly balanced with rich malty sweetness. Not a great beer, but a very good one.

My Trip to Dusseldorf

Three months ago, when I first said that I was coming to Cologne for work, Jay over at Hedonist Beer Jive implored me to head to Dusseldorf to taste their Altbier. This weekend I was able to do just that. Before I get in to my journey let me take a few minutes to explain Altbier.
Altbier, also called Dusseldorfer Alt since that is the primary city this particular beer is brewed in means Old, but not in the meaning of a British Stale ale, but meaning brewed in the traditional methods. While many in Germany took their dark beers and made them paler (as Cologne did to Kolsch) due to the popularity of Pilsners, Dusseldorf and the Alt brewer's stuck to their guns. Altbiers are top fermenting ales, that are then lagered for long periods of time. They have intense hop bitterness, but the hop flavor and aroma are mild. Usually full bodied, bitter, (instead of malty sweet), and range from reddish amber to a dark brown.
So back to my journey......a friend of mine took up to Dusseldorf, only an hour or so away for dinner and some Alt drinking. Since I was out, I didn't take tasting notes, but I will give my best impressions of the experience. We tasted three different Alt's: Uerige, Frankenheim, and the aformentioned Diebels. All were Von Fass or from the tap. The Uerige was tasted at the brewery and was by far my favorite. All had that nice hoppy bitterness, but surprising that the aroma and flavor was not overly hoppy, but instead elegantly well balanced between malty and hoppy, with hops winning by just a bit, creating a full bodied, refreshing beer. All were dark reddish amber, with a Start white head, and plenty of carbonation. These were beers that I would love to get to know better, so I am a little sad that I waited until the very end of my trip to try them. The good news for me was that I was able to bring a bottle of Alt back with me and plan to open it up and post my notes on it later this week.

Last of the Belgian Triplets

Over the course of the last few weeks I have cleared out my Belgian beer stash. It was a bitter sweet moment when I drank my last as I knew it was the end of a pretty good experience trying a lot of beers that I have never had, and probably won't have again, at least not until I am able to come back to Belgium. This triplet consists of an Abbey style ale, a brune, and a another Trappist Ale.
Grimburgen Tripple Abbey Beer: I have tasted aGrimburgen beer before in Belgium. This beer weighed in at a hefty 9.0% abv. It poured a honey golden yellow with a two inch head capped by a fluffy stark white head. The nose had some petrol and hop flavors with hints of citrus and honey. The mouth was tart and tangy, with notes of white raisins, brown sugar and a lot less of alcohol than I expected. The beer finishes beery smooth. Low carbonation and low effervescence, so the beer coats the mouth nicely. An above average beer.
Ciney Brune: I liked the Ciney Blonde I tried before and rather enjoyed it. The beer weighed in at 7%, and poured a nice dark chocolate, that was almost opaque, with a thin bubbling taupe head. The nose was choclatey, caramel, and raisins. Low carbonation. The mouth was smooth chocolatey, caramel and notes of raisins at the finish. Thick rich, comforting. Smooth as silk, a very nice beer.
Rochefort 8 Trappist Beer: One of the few Trappist breweries that still exist. I tried a trappist ale previously and it was great so I popped the top off this one, my last beer from my trip to Brussels eagerly. The beer weighed in at 9.2% the highest alcohol of the three. Poured a rich chocolate brown, with a thick pillowy taupe head. Nice carbonation. Loads of raisins, caramel, cocoa, roasted almonds, and molasses. Thick mouthfeel notes of chocolate, and ending in raisins, and figs. Smooth and thick, would make an awesome desert beer. The only thing that didn't make it a top notch beer was the bit of alcohol burn that showed up as the beer warmed up. Still an amazing beer, and not only my favorite of this trio, but also one of the top beers that I had from Belgium.

New Fruit Beers

No, I am in no way shape or form talking about great traditional Belgian Lambics here. Nothing that elegant, instead I am talking about the decision of Michelob's announcement of their new Ultra Fruit beers. Under their line of relatively popular low Carb beers Ultra Light they have created a trio of different fruit beers: Cactus Lime, Tuscan Orange Grapefruit, and Pommegranite Raspberry, billed as Pilsners with natural fruit flavors. I am assuming they are using that term losely as its 'natural flavor' created through a chemical process instead of using actual fruit. This is as indicative as anything that the big brewers are losing ground and will do anything to get some of it back. Again instead of spending money on creating better beer, they go an do this. If you want a fruit beer, go out and get a Lambic, don't waste your hard earned money on this.

2003 S.A. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese

I love Riesling. As with many oenophiles, I find it to be the most food friendly wine there is outside of Champagne or other sparkling wines. Being in Germany has given me the opportunity to try some really great ones. As I mentioned a while back I had the opportunity to try some Alsatian versions. Tonight I tried a traditional German version.
The Wine: The wine weighed in at a surprisingly high 12.5%. It poured the color of fresh straw and smelled of apricots, honey, stone specifically granite, lime, peach and a tad bit of lychee. The mouth was more of the same with a vibrant but not bracing acidity, a bit of a tang, some tartness, and then a nice long smooth finish. A very nice wine and a good example of the sweeter version that is Spatlese. The sweetness was not overpowering, but just present underneath the acidity. I'd grade it a B+.

Quick Hits: Beer Business

A couple of notes from the world of Business, Beer Business that is. Beer has a HUGE market share in American and Global economic impact with such Business behemoths as InBev, A-B, SABMiller, so its only fair that from time to time I'll try and gather some relevant beer business news.

SABMiller profits up: SABMiller profits are up for the third quarter by an astounding 10%. Some of this is due to purchases of new breweries like the South American Bavaria brand. As the big brewers realize that their beer is not selling as well as they would like, instead of trying to create better beer, they have started a trend of buying up other import breweries or as with A-B setting up exclusive distribution deals as they have with Belgian InBev and Budvar.

Scottish and Newcastle losing their courage: British Brewing giant Scottish and Newcastle have sold their production, selling, and marketing rights of Courage Brewing to Wells and Young Brewing company. Courage produces Courage Best and Directors, not anything that I am familiar with, but I thought it was surprising since its an entity they have had for a while. They will continue to keep 17% interest, but as the article states are shifting focus onto their international brands such as Kronenburg out of Strasbourg, France.

Ukraine losing its Beer Interests: Local Ukraine beer interest are more likely to lose out to Global Beer companies than ever before after Ukraine's fourth largest brewing group Samat announced they were looking into selling. One of the groups that seem interested is of course the above mentioned SABMiller. This is a scary time for national brewing groups as more and more are being bought out by HUGE global companies. Already SUN Interbrew (owned and operated by InBev) owns 37% of Ukraine's beer pie, if SABMiller comes in and obtains the 12% pie that Samat currently owns then you have almost 50% of Ukraine's beer business owned by outside interests, which is never an ideal situation.

New Beer business sight: As I was surfing around looking for information I came across this new website all about the Beer industry with some Market Analysis. It is run by Miller Brewing Company so you can expect some obvious slant, but I'll be checking it out from time to time.

More Belgian Beers

I finished my latest trio of beers that I brought back from Brussels. It was a little sad as I only have three more left, but I guess that's appropriate as I only have a couple of more weeks here in Germany before I come back to the good ole U.S. of A. Of the three beers, one was a trappist, the other was a pretty common beer from Belgium, the other a nice Tripel.
Palm: Palm is a pretty big brewery from Belgium. Its a top fermented beer, and came packed in a bright green can. The beer weighed in at 5.2% the weakest of the three beers. IT poured a nice clear amber with a three quarters of an inch head, and little carbonation. The nose was spicey, fruity oranges, a bit of petrol and hoppy bitterness. The mouth was surprisingly mild a bit metallic with just a bit of bitterness and malty sweetness. It was just there, nothing spectacular, and OK beer, but not one that I would go out of my way to try again.
Achel Blond Beer: Achel is one of the smaller of the Trappist Breweries. Along with Chimay, Rochefort, Westmalle, Orval, and Westvleteren. It is the newest member of the Trappist community. The beer came in a bottle and weighed in at 8.0%. It poured a cloudy hazy golden yellow with a THICK Duvel like head. Hops spices, oranges, petrol, white raisins were all in abundance in the nose. The mouth was fruity, full of hoppy bite and white grape sweetness, finishing off with just a bit of alcohol burn. A very nice blond indeed.
Karmeliet Tripel: Again this was a beer at 8%, and the final fermentation took place in the bottle. The beer's ingredients included the typical wheat, hops, and yest, but also oats. The beer poured a nice bright cloudy amber with a two inch frothy pillowy head. Sweet honey, hops, orange, brown sugar, cinnamon on the nose. The mouthfeel was robust, full of brown sugar, hoppy bitterness and twang. Very strong beer but smooth at the end. Low carbonation, but some natural effervescence due to the final fermentation. I picked this as my favorite beer from this group. It was excellent.

Diebels Altbier

Altbier or 'old beer' is indigenous to Germany and specifically to the city of Dusseldorf. It gets its name, not because its an old stale beer but because of the reverent way its brewers work on keeping with the traditional methods of Rhineland brewing. Altbiers are top fermented and have copious amounts of hops.
Diebels is probably Germany's best known brewer of Altbier and is one of the few that can be found on the import market (although not in the states).
The beer: Unfortunately not from a draft but the bottle, the beer weighs in at 4.9 %. The beer pours a nice bright amber color with a bubbling frothy tan head. On the nose hops show up but nicely balanced with the sweet smell of caramel malts. The mouth is full of hops biting the tongue with toasted caramel at the finish. The beer starts with a nice harsh bite then slowly mellows leaving a long soothing caramelly aftertaste. Very nice enjoyable beer.

Beer Quick Hits

Its a lazy Monday, so instead of doing some tasting or a long post on Beer or Wine, I thought I'd give my readers a couple of newsie bits. Enjoy as you will.

Saint Arnold's News: Their sales grew by a whopping 25% in the year 2006! How awesome is that! And if your around and a home brewer (or interested in it) on the 18th of Feb, the great Charlie Papazian will be at the brewery. Check out the AHA website for more details: http://beertown.org/homebrewing/membership.html

If we didn't like beer enough, now news comes out that a beer from Bulgaria will increase a woman's breast size. Nope I can't make this stuff up.

And lastly amongst the news that A-B and Budvar are burying the hatchet (kinda) and are coming together in a distribution deal that gives Budvar access to A-B distributors, comes the news that A-B can not sell their flagship brand as Budweiser in Portugal.

Another Trio of Belgian Beers

Since I have a good sized stash of Belgian Beers due to my trip to Brussels during the holidays I thought that I would just continue to put a few in one post instead of doing a single post on each beer. My first trio was early last week and this will be my second go around. Two Blonds and a Gueuze.
Belle Vue Gueuze: This one was my first gueuze that I ever tried so it was something I have been looking forward to since I got back. Now in an effort of full disclosure I am not the biggest fan of Lambic's so I had a bit of trepidation when opening up this beer. The beer weighed in at a nice 5.5 %. It poured a cloudy light brown with hints of orange streaking through the body. Capped by a cream colored stable foamy head. The nose was tart, tangy, citrusy, small notes of floral hos. The mouth had an amazing effervescence, fruity, tart. It reminded me of the Smartie candies I ate as a kid, but the super tart ones, maybe with a little granny smith sour apple taffy thrown in for good measure. It was quite good actually. Not something I could have a lot with, but a good beer none the less.
Cuvee Des Troll: This beer is produced by Dubuisson, the same brewer that puts out the Bush beers (I had the Bush Noel while in Brussels that was quite good). Their website calls this beer a 'Cloudy Blonde', I'll buy that. The beer weighs in at 7%. Pours a golden yellow (but light on the cloudiness) capped by a thin very dense looking white head. The nose was full of lemon zest, yeast, fresh baked bread. The mouth was lemony, with some bananas, a big of vanilla and ended with a taste of big doughy bread. Very nice, but I would put this more of a witbier than a traditional Blonde. A thoroughly enjoyable beer.
Gordon's Finest Gold - Strong Blonde Beer: They aren't kidding! I had tried the Gordon's Xmas beer in my last posting and had enjoyed it so I opened this super large Can (yes CAN!) with some excitement. The beer weighed in at a hefty 10%. Poured a bright orange with a thick pale cream head. Sweet malts and a lot of honey in the nose. Unfortunately the mouth was all petrol, and alcohol. Really almost overpowering initially. As I drank a bit, and my tongue I think somewhat became used to the alcohol, and the beer warmed, notes of honey and caramel began to show up. I think this is a beer that had some promise but it was just too much alcohol and not enough hops or malt to hide it. Disjointing.

Berliner Kindl Pilsner

A friend of mine picked this beer up while he was visiting his folks in Berlin for Christmas. He knows I like trying any kind of new new beer and this is one of the Pilsners he likes from Berlin. The ABV was 5.1% which when comparing to American Pils is quite high. The beer poured a bright straw yellow color, clear with no haze, and an amazing amount of tiny carbonated bubbles almost like Champagne. A nice foamy, frothy white head capped off the beer. The nose was full of minerals and lime zest. The mouthfeel was light, with the taste of sweet toasted pale malts finishing with some tart and tangy notes that gave the beer a nice zip. A very nice beer.
Its drinking beers like this that irritates me that there is nothing like this in the states. Made with no adjuncts its still amazing clear and crisp, somewhat light bodied, but amazingly tastey. Why can't we make this beer in the states?

Saint Arnold's

Thats right, its Saint Arnold of Metz, one of the Patron Saints of Brewing. While considered by many as the 'Real' Patron Saint of Brewing he is actually NOT recognized as such by the Church. However he was known to extol the healthy virtues of drinking beer instead of water. His famous saying is: "From man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world." He also gave his congregation FREE BEER! His miracles came after his death. His body was being moved from Metz where he was Bishop to the location of his first Diocese. One of the bearers was overcome by exhaustion he prayed to God for beer to slake his thirst. No sooner than the prayer had been uttered when fresh beer poured forth from Saint Arnold's Casket.
The reason that Saint Arnold's has a special place for me is that it is the namesake of Saint Arnold's Brewery in Houston, one of my favorite breweries and by far my favorite in Texas. So when I visited Brussels recently and saw this statue I had to take a picture.

A trio of Belgian Beers

As promised I began this past weekend digging into the stash of beers I brought back from my recent trip to Brussels. They were random selections based on what I felt like that day. There are two blondes and a Christmas ale mized in for good measure. All are from different brewery's and one I can actually get in the states but have never picked it up (I will in the future):
La Chouffe Belgian Blond Beer: This is the one that can be picked up in the states, I've seen it as a pretty standard selection at my neighborhood Spec's. This was a big beer both in size (750 mL) and alcohol (8%). The beer poured a deep honey golden color with an inch or so head that quickly dissipated into a thin film topping the beer. Strong hoppy notes, flowers, honey, melon, citrus and some spice filled the nose. The same flavors filled the mouth with cinnimon and coriander adding to a full mouthfeel. The flavor profile ended with some yeasty bread notes that created a smooth brew that hid most of the alcohol. Very nice beer.
Ciney Blond: My fiance tried this beer while we are in Brussels, liked it so I picked it up. It was a single small beer that weighed in at 7%. The same color of golden honey with hints of orange streaks showing through. Capped by a strong thick white head. Hops, orange peel and spice filled the nose. Same flavors in the mouth, with a bit of alcohol warmth at the end. Amazingly different from the La Chouffe, but something that I liked more.
Gordon's Xmas Ale: Ahh a sad day as this will probably be my last holiday beer of the season. Gordon's is a pretty large commercial brewer in Belgium brewing everything from traditional Beglian beers, to Sweet Scotch Ales. This one is a Strong Brown Ale and it weighed in at 8.8%. The beer poured a dark rich coffee brown with a thick foamy taupe head. Roasted sweet caramel, a bit of toffee and a hint of floral hops on the nose. The mouthfeel was thick with coffee bitterness, light on the carbonation, a bit of chocolate and toffee. Right at the end there were notes of sweet figs. I didn't feel any warmth at the end either so the beer did a great job of hiding its robustness. A very nice beer.

Book Review: Beer: The Story of the Pint

Martyn Cornel’s book, Beer: The story of the pint is not a new novel, having been published in 2003, but it’s a book that I picked up before my trip to Germany. Something that I thought would help pass the time. Its quite an amazing book, with some really strong points, and some other things about the book that drive me crazy. Its an award winning book having won Beer Writer of the year the year it was published from the Britain guild of beer writers. The synopsis of the book is tracing the history of the pint from the beginnings of beer back in the days of Mesoptania, to current day Britain with pub’s that close at 11:00 pm. It’s a pretty big task, and Cornel makes a valiant effort and goes into minute detail on the history of beer in Britain..sometimes too much and I think that’s where a lot of the fault in this book lies. For instance he gives a lot of detail on the price of every type of beer to the point that its dizzying starting from the 1500’s until today. I’m an engineer and it was very difficult to keep track of the numbers and really there wasn’t much of a purpose to it. The other issue that I had with the book, is there are a lot of points that he jumps from topic to topic with zero transition. He will be discussing the history of Whitbread in one paragraph then goes directly into the history of CAMRA with no transition, and it was a bit disconcerting, like I flipped one too many pages. My last complaint with the book was that I felt he dealt too little with CAMRA. For stating (correctly) that CAMRA is probably the greatest example of Consumer Advocate groups ever he only discusses it for 3 pages then its never brought up again.

As for what I enjoyed the details that he went into, the historical perspectives, the stories about the men that created the breweries of yore and the brief story about the men that started CAMRA. One of the best parts of the book is at the end. The author ends hi novel with a series of appendices covering a fascinating range of information. The first appendix covers some popular myths. Basically the author debunks widely reported facts as myths picking them apart piece by piece. Its quite fascinating actually. The other appendices cover beer lexicon, as much of it is British in nature I found it rather useful. All in all a good book, with some very in-depth (maybe too much so) information that is put together in a very easy to read format.