Deschuttes Mirror Mirror

If you know this blog you know that I am a huge fan of barleywines and I am always on the look out for new ones to try. That includes looking for them when I am out traveling, which is how I came across this one, picked up while I was in Denver for the latest GABF. This barleywine is a souped up version of Deschuttes popular Mirror Pond ale. Also 35% of the beer is aged in oak barrels.
The Beer: This one weighs in at a hefty 11% and pours a brownish amber, almost red color with a thick tannish head. The nose is hoppy and very malty, almost syrupy. There are notes of oak, dark bread, vanilla, caramel. The mouth is thick and chewy. Citrusy hops, marmalade, apricot nectar, oak, vanilla, and caramel are all there in various declious quantities. As it warms it becomes an even more complex sipper with an almost bourbon or sherry like quality to it. Shockingly very little alcohol in this beer. Notes of oak help balance the swtrong flavors of malt and hops in this inbcredible beer. This is surely one of my favorites and gets a strong A from me.

Book Review: Hops and Glory by Pete Brown

Everytime I am at a bookstore I was always head to the food and beverage section hoping to find some new book on beer. Some day's I'm lucky others I'm not. And sometimes the best books aren't even at a bookstore. For instance this one I was able to pick up at GABF as its not available in the US at this time. The book is written by British Beer writer (and British Guild of Beer Writer award winner) Pete Brown. It also happens to be one of the best books I've read in a long long time. The gist of the story is that Mr. Brown wants to re-create the journey that the original India Pale Ale's traveled from England to India, but the book is so much more than that.
I think most craft beer lovers are familiar with the story: The British Empire having settled India had a desire for good old British Beer, however by the time the beer arrived it had soured beyond drinkability. Enterprising brewers in London created a highly hopped beer and with the hops acting as a preservative, made the journey intact and was drank in large quantities by the British in India. As with most things this is only part of the story and even that is not the whole truth. Pete Brown's rather large novel takes us on two parallel journeys that help us discover the true story of India Pale Ale, a story that all of us Hopheads should read and enjoy. The book switches from Pete's struggle to recreate the journey (who knew how hard it is to book sea travel?) to the history of the British in India. It is this second story that makes this book much more than just one about beer. This book would do well on any History buff's book shelf and is it takes an unbiased extremely critical look at the British and the East India Company in particular. The corruption and death that they brought to India is quite eye opening and there in the middle of it all is one of the drinks that we love.
As with Pete Brown's other books, one of the fun things in Hops and Glory is the debunking of many myths, from how IPA got started to how it made its way back to the British Pub's (no there was no ship wreck). Its also a very humerus book due to Mr. Brown's self deprecating style of writing. Yes its a thick historical look at the creating of a beer and sociopolitical culture of India in the 1800's, but its also funny, enlightening and well written. I highly recommend this book to any history buff and any lover of craft beer.

While this book is not currently on sale in bookstores in the US there are a few places you can try to buy the book:
UK Amazon
The Book Depository
Abe Books

Boulevard Beers and NFL Football

Sunday is a perfect day when I can sit in front of the TV watch some football and drink great craft beer. This week since my team had a bye week I was able to watch a lot of teams I don't normally see. But enough about Football, the real treat was to sit down with two of the newest beers in Boulevard's Smokestack Series. With the new releases Boulevard brings us a Dopplebock and a Saison fermented with Brett.
Seeyoulator Dopplebock: A dopplebock aged on cedar this beer weighs in at 8.5% and pours an amber orange color with a thin slightly off white head. The nose is malty, nutty, bready, caramel, honey and spice. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and a bit chewy. Malty, yeasty, bready, caramel, spicey, notes of pepper. There are biscuity notes with a bit of honey on it, the cedar is there, but its more of sense of cedar versus a taste. Its very sweet, overly so up front, but it finishes with a competing dryness the helps to offset some of the sweetness. There is also some boozy notes. This is probably my least favorite of the Smokestack Series that I have had. This gets a B- from me. BA folks like it a little more than me.
Saison Brett: This beer started with the Saison I reviewed a whle ago and ended up as a dry hopped bottle conditioned with brett Saison. Sounds good to me. The beer weighs in at8.5% and pours a pale gold straw color with a thick dense bright white head of foam. Very aromatic beer, notes of lemon, yeast, pepper, honey, and hay. The mouthfeel is full and effervescent, hints of citrus fruits, white pepper, honey suckle, flowers, a touch of hay, and some good hop flavor in the finish. No alcohol flavor and finishes pretty dry. A wonderful food beer that I would serve with all sorts of salads, and grilled fish. This one gets an A from me. The folks at BA like it as well.

Odell's Bourbon Barrel Stout

Yet another beer that I picked up in Denver while there for the GABF. This one comes from a local brewery. Odell's is based out of Fort Collins and has been around since 1989. While their beers haven't always been cutting edge or even the most inspired, I've always liked them because their flagship beer was called 90 Shilling and is a Scottish Ale. There aren't many breweries that have that as their flagship. Over the years they've expanded their lines and are doing more things that push the envelop. At GABF I tasted a couple of brett beers by them that were wonderful, and they also have a woodcut series of beers that are rare and hard to find brews. This one of course is a barrel aged beer and while it seems that everyone is doing it, I am continually pleased to see even more breweries do this as I love the flavor that barrel aging imparts on a beer.
The Beer:b This imperial stout weighs in at 10.5% and pours a pitch black with a thick cafe colored head, it pours syrupy. Nose is vanilla, oak, bourbon, coffee. Mouthfeel is chewy, creamy, luscious, milky and all the other adjectives. There are notes of vanilla, and bourbon, chocolate, coffee, coco nibs. There is some woodyness to the taste as well. Its a sipper for sure, but still relatively easy drinking. We paired it with some Bourbon Chocolate pudding (made with Colorado's own Stranahan's Whiskey). It was a rich pairing to be sure, but they played off of eachother and intensified the flavors. A fun dessert. This beer gets an A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Ska Decadent IPA

Another beer from Ska Brewing, except this one isn't yet available in the Houston market. I picked this up while in Denver for GABF. This is Ska Brewing's Double IPA, comes in a big format bottle with the now familiar comic grafics and capped with a red wax seal.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 10.0% and pours a reddish amber color with a thick taupe colored head. The nose is hops, earthy spice, caramel, biscuity. The mouthfeel is creamy and bitter grapefruit peel, earthy spiciness, white pepper, biscuity, syrupy, tongue coating hoppy resins. In the mid palate there is this smoothness with slightly sweet caramel that evens out the intense hops. Very well done DIPA, with intense amounts of citrus and pine needles, biscuity marmalade, pale malts, and sweet caramel create a wonderful experience. This one gets a B+ from me. The folks at BA like it as well.

Schneider Aventinus

The Aventinus is Schneiders Weizenbock, which basically translates to a dunkel-weizen (dark wheat) brewed to doppelbock strength. This is traditionally a dark and rich, made with at least 50% wheat (some contain up to 70%) with very little hops. Its also a relatively new style of beer beer, the first Weizenbock was commercially available in 1907. That first one is what you hold in your hands Schnieder and Sons Aventinus.
The Beer: This Weizenbock weighs in at 8.2% and pours a rich deep brown with a taupe colored thick head of foam. Nose is bananas, cloves, chocolate malt, vanilla, and a slight sourness that tingles the nose. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy, lots of banana and cloves up front, subsiding into chocolate, rich malts, plum flavors. An incredible chewy beer that reminds of chocolate covered bananas and spice. Smooth beer, very smooth. This is a classic and its an amazing one at that. Gets an A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA have to say.

Real Ale Coffee Porter

Real Ale out of Blanco, Texas is one of favorite Texas breweries. My only complaint has always been that they don't bottle enough of their beer's. They really shine in their seasonal's and for the most part those have always been draft only. Well no longer. As reported just a few weeks ago Real Ale has started to bottle their seasonal's, the first being their very popular Coffee Porter. A porter made with coffee roasted by Houston own's Katz Coffee. Made with Organic fair trade coffee and organic barley. Sounds good enough, and I know it tastes great on draft, but how does it taste from the bottle?
The Beer: This one weighs in at 5.6% and pours a dark rich black with bright red streaks when held up to the light. Capped by a foamy slightly off white head. The head quickly dissipates leaving a thin film behind. The nose is roasted malts, chocolatey, burnt roasted coffee beans. The beer provides a medium mouthfeel, smooth almost milky up front. Flowing into bitter chocolate and darkly roasted coffee beans. A tartness underlies the roasted coffee notes. Easy drinking, with a good mix of malts and coffee, with just a tinge of earthy hops. Very nice. Gets a B+ from me. The folks at BA like it as well.

The Session Round up and Announcement

Yes I know I know I missed out on the last Session. I was looking forward to it, but work and personal life interfered and I didn't have time to post anything. Fear not though, the hosts Girl Likes Beer has posted the round up. Looks like it was a fun session with 19 different bloggers participating.
With the passing of one session, comes the announcement of the next one. This month's virtual beer tasting is being hosted by Andy Crouch at I'll have a beer. The theme? Well not sure I really understand it so I'll let the author do the talking:

For better or worse, in everyday situations beer comes with a label. This label very really ‘frames’ the beer inside. The fact that the beer comes commercially-produced signals the presence of investment (if not skill). A style name or tasting notes indicates the general characteristics to expect. If you know the brewery the beer is framed with your past experiences. Even the label art will affect your expectations for the beer.

What role does this framing play in beer tasting, especially for ‘professional evaluators’? Relate an amusing or optimistic anecdote about introducing someone to strange beer. Comment on the role a label plays in framing a beer or share a label-approval related story. I have not done much blind tasting, and I would be intrigued to hear about this ‘frameless’ evaluation of beer.

And drink a beer. Ideally drink something that you don’t think you will like. Try to pick out what it is about that brew that other people enjoy (make sure to properly frame the beer!).

Now this theme seems pretty interesting, but its also extremely frustrating. To join a rant that Alan over at Good Beer Blog had a few months back, wheres the beer theme's? Why can't the them just be beer? Why can't we discuss great Porter's, Stout's, Sour's, Oak Aged, beers from California, Beers from Belgium, etc. Why not make a beer or beer type the focus instead of just an appendix of the session? I support the session, but I want it to be something that focus's on beer and it seems that it meanders all over the place and rarely is the session's focus on the beer itself but instead some sort of background event. Will I participate this month? I'll sure try, my frame for the theme? Not sure yet. Come back on November 6th to find out.

Texas Hill Country Beer

Its been a few days since my last post, but trust me there was a reason. This past Tuesday was my wife and mine's second anniversary. To celebrate I surprised her with a 5 day get away up in the Texas Hill Country, just outside of Fredericksburg to be exact. We've always wanted to spend some time up there and decided this was the perfect chance to do it. The bad news is the weather was horrible, but that didn't stop us from having a great time. Most folks think of the Texas Hill Country as our state's version of Napa, wine, wine everywhere. And for the most part it is, we found some good Texas wine actually. But just like Napa there are some places to get good beer. First off is Blanco's Real Ale which we of course get here in Houston. Didn't make it to the brewery there, but almost every place in the hill country, from the smallest to the biggest had something on tap. I got to try their Octoberfest for the first time in this small wine store that had 5 beers on tap. A delicious slightly sweet caramelly beer that may just may be my favorite Octoberfest I've had so far this year.
When talking about beer in the Texas Hill Country and you are staying in Fredericksburg you have to stop by the award winning Fredericksburg Brewing Co. Located on Main St its a brew pub specializing in German food (doesn't everything in Fredericksburg) along with the usual burgers, sandwiches and salads). They have 6 beers on tap, with a Porter, Red and Pale Ale being their standard beers and 2 to 3 rotating taps. When we were there they had their Octoberfest, Hopnoxious IPA, and a Mexican Lager (Can you guess which one I went for?).
If you guess Hopnoxious you would be correct. An amazingly hoppy beer weighing in at 7.4% and 100 IBU's this was one fine hoptastic beer. A coppery brown ale with good malt balance that was quickly dominated by an over abundance of hops. Quite a good beer.
We also sampled a couple of other ones:
Peace Pipe Pale Ale - A fine fine Pale Ale, with great hop character and balance.
Mexican Lager - Surprisingly good, clean crisp, with a slightly sweet cereal grain finish
Octoberfest - A very good Octoberfest beer that had some surprising hop bitterness to contrast the malty caramel sweetness typical of the style.

Overall Fredericksburg Brewing Co is definitely something to make your way to as they have a very solid line up of beers and are starting to try some new things. The Hill country while known for its wines doesn't ignore good beer. As stated earlier most every place has good Texas beer on tap or by the bottle. Lots of support of Blanco Real Ale. As much as local breweries support the community (see all the great community service Saint Arnold does) its nice to see the community business support a brewery as strongly as the Hill country does.

Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast

Besides going to GABF, one of the nice things about visiting Denver is the opportunity to pick up beers that we don't get here in Texas. Lucky for us we get a lot of Colorado beers here, but there are others from around the country and around the world that Denver has that we don't. So whenever I go into a liquor store in Denver I'm always on the look out for new brews. I was excited when I saw this brew on the shelves. Yes we do get Mikkeller beers here (finally) but not this one, so I eagerly picked it up and the other day my wife and I sat down to try it out. Before my notes though a few words on the brewery itself.
The Brewery: Mikkeller started in 2006 by two Danish Homebrewer's. In 2007 one left and now Mikkel Borg is the sole brewer. One of the more interesting things about this Danish brewery is that they don't have a brewery per se. Instead they travel all over the world and brew their beers at other brewery's. Some of the brewery's they have brewed at include De Proef in Belgium, Brewdog from Scotland, Three Floyds from Indiana, Nogne from Norway, and Gourmetbryggeriet in Denmark. The ones Texas gets are brewed at De Proef brewery, this one in particular was brewed at Nogne.
The Beer: This brew is a strong stout made with oats and coffee and weighs in at 7.5%. The beer pours a pitch jet black with a dense head of caramel colored foam that grabs the sides of the glass. The nose is oaty, coffee, licorice, chocolate, raisins, figs, coco. The mouthfeel is thick and creamy notes of coffee and cereal, espresso, grainy mouthfeel. Citrusy notes, almost slightly lemony. Bitter and rich, multi-layered, vanilla notes, dark dried fruits. An outstanding beer and great introduction to this brewery can't wait to pick up the ones we have here. This one gets an A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

GABF 2009

I'm back in Houston from my whirlwind trip to Denver to attend the Great American Beer Festival. It was an incredible few days capped by my attendance at the Saturday Session of the GABF where I got to see some Texas winners (more on that later). It wasn't all GABF attendance though.
On Thursday lunch was at the famous Wynkoop, the first Denver brew pub where I paired good solid food with a very smooth and delicious ESB on cask. This ale was an incredibly drinkable session beer that was absolutely spot on as an English ale and was made even better on cask. After Lunch I headed over to the Great Divide Brewery for their Open House. It seemed like every brewery in Texas was there. Ran into folks from (512), Indpendence and Saint Arnold's. Even met Phillip Kaufamn maker of the latest Divine Reserve. While there I was able to try GD's Esspresso Oak Aged Yeti. All I can say is simpley amazing. I wish that Texas had gotten this beer in addition to the Chocoalte Oak Aged Yeti. The beer had it all, notes of vanilla, oak, bourbon, smooth silky espresso, some burnt malt notes and yet it was smooth, very smooth.
Friday saw me head out of Denver up to Boulder where my wife and I had lunch at Boulder Brewing. Again I tried their English Pale ale Cold Hop on Cask. Again it was a great interpretation of a British cask ale. A wonderfully tasty session beer. I also went by Twisted Pine's brewery and had a sampler of their beers. The standouts was their Espresso Stout and their Bourbon Barrel Red Ale. Initially the Red was too bourbon-y but as it warmed it got much better. Its a sipping beer to be sure but still a delicious ale.
Saturday of course was the day for me. The Saturday Session. Got there at 11:30, the doors opened at 12:30 and the line was already long. The hour went by fast and as the doors opened we were greeted by the sounds of Bag pipes playing. We grabbed our sampler glass and headed inside. I tried as many beers as I could from all over the country. Yes even some from Texas. I had the tasty Pecan Porter from (512) (oh when will it be in Houston?) to Freetail's La Muerta. Of course I had the beer's I've been dying to try, Russian River's Pliny the Elder, Lost Abbey's Cuvve de Tomme, Troeg's Nugget Nectar to just name a few. I tried to hit as many as I could and still keep my sanity (others will be the judge of whether or not I succeeded). When ever I come to GABF I like to look at the trends, what seems to be the big style of beer. Yes there are tons and tons of IPA's and DIPA's. but whats the up and coming? I can say this for sure, Oak aged beers are not going anywhere as I saw more of those this year than ever it seems. What else? The use of Brett in beers seems to be sticking around and I can't say I'm sad about that. Also and maybe it was jut me, but there were more Rye ales and lager's than ever before. It's these things that get me excited about GABF. Seeing how American brewer's are branching out, not everything is just hops hops and more hops (oh yes thankfully they are still around and as amazing as ever) but brewers are continuously branching out trying new things and in some cases things from decades past and putting modern spins on them. The other thing I love about GABF is meeting folks and we got to meet a ton of people many from Texas. Us Texans are passionate about good beer and I can't tell you how many home brewer's I met. My plans are to get in touch with some of them and watch them do what they do so well.

In finishing as promised a little more on the Texas Winners. Texas ended up with 2 golds and 2 silvers (these from the same brewery):

Saint Arnold Brewing Co. Saint Arnold Summer Pils TX Gold Munich Style Helles
The Covey Restaurant & Brewery Weizenbock TX Silver German-Style Wheat Ale
The Covey Restaurant & Brewery "100" TX Silver Belgian Style Strong Specialty Ale
Uncle Billy's Brew & Que Hell In Keller TX Gold Kellerbier/Zwickelbier

Congrats to Saint Arnold's, Uncle Billy's and The Covey. Keep making great beer.
Here is the complete list of winners.

Moylan's Hopsickle

Ever since I found out that this beer was coming to Houston I have been excited. I mean its a legendary hop bomb and you all know my love of all things hops. Well it finally arrived on the shelves of my local Spec's and I thought to myself this would be good beer to have before heading off to GABF.
The Beer: No IBU's stated but it does weigh in at 9.2%. It pours a cloudy orange color capped by a dense head of white foam. The hop aroma pours forth as soon as I opened the bottle. Grapefruit, citrus peel, hops, hops and more hops. Is that pale malts I smell? Not sure but there is definitely hops. The mouth you ask? Its chewy, sticky, bitter, resiny. Its reminiscent of chewing on grapefruit peel, pine cones, and marmalade. No real malt presence, but notes of white pepper peak through the thick haze of hops. Did I mention the hops? They are there and they are there in force. But for some reason it works. It doesn't come off as a huge over the top off balanced mess like so many over the top (and this surely is) beers can. Its enjoyable, dare I say drinkable? Oh OK, maybe you won't have more than one in night, but you can surely have that one and love it. It gets an A from me. Here's how the folks at BA rate it.

Heading to Denver

Its that time of the year again folks. Time for one of the greatest weeks of the year if you are a lover of craft beer. Its Great American Beer Festival and I'll be making my third trip to Denver for the festivities tomorrow. This year promises to be bigger and better than ever. The GABF has come along way since the first festival in 1982 held in a tiny Boulder, CO hotel room. Back then there were 20 breweries serving 35 beers. This year?
3,362 total beers being entered into the competition
2,100 total beers being served in the Festival hall.
495 different breweries
73 beers beers entered into the Pro0Am competition (two from TX, DR8 and SS Saison)
51 Breweries attending for the first time.
For a complete listing of all breweries attending check out this link.
There are 13 breweries attending from Texas and they are sure to bring home some medals from the competition.
I'll be arriving in Denver tomorrow afternoon and will be attending in various events around town. I'll also be attending the Saturday Afternoon session of GABF where they make the announcements of the winners which I'll put on twitter as quickly as I can. Speaking of Twitter I'll be doing that as much as I possibly can from Denver and then posting my full thoughts on the experience when I get back in town Sunday or Monday.

Quick Hits: Texas Beer Happenings

There's a lot going on in the Houston Area for beer lovers. A whole lot of news has come out in the past week that I thought today a Friday would be a good time to put in one place.
- First of course we had the awesome announcement of Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve 9.
- Keeping with Saint Arnold's of course is their announcement of their Octoberfest Party on

October 3rd. Here are the details:
Admission: $42 per person, includes German dinner & special mug
Band: Sideshow Tramps
For reservations, call or email Ann (713-686-9494 or ann@saintarnold.com). As always, she will need credit card, cash or check to make the reservation.

- Continuing with the Octoberfest theme, our northern neighbors Southern Start have announced the date for their celebration as October 24th. Here are some additional details:

There will be a limit of 225 tickets sold which will include food, band, beverages and a nice ceramic stein. The details are still being hashed out, but we will let you know when the tickets will be available for sale.

- To the east in Beumont the Art Museum of Southeast Texas is hosting an Art of Beer event on October 1st:

Beer-lovers and those new to the brew will find over 80 of the finest specialty and seasonal brews from around the world paired with complementary food dishes, cheeses, beer floats, entertainment and much more.

- Lastly in news reported by the Chronicle's Ronnie Crocker Blanco Texas's Real Ale is going to start bottling their Coffee Porter with a release date of 9 October. I wanted a bit more information about any future bottlings of Real Ale brew and after an email exchange found out that this is just the start. The plan is to release a special six pack every 3 months or so starting with the Coffee porter then moving to Phoenixx, Devil’s Backbone, and our new Oktoberfest lager next fall. Can't tell you how happy I am to see Real Ale bottling more of their wares. Its been my biggest complaint about them and now that's resolved.

Green Flash Barleywine 2009

The weather is turning ever so slightly cool here in Houston and that means fall. It means some of my favorite seasonal beers. Octoberfest style marzen's, Pumpkin beers, then as the weather turns even cooler I'll get to winter warmers and barley wines. There are some breweries especially US craft's that release their Barley wines during the summer, these are normally not as malty as English style ones, but hoppier almost like an Imperial IPA. It is with these thoughts that I reached out for this release from San Diego brewery Green Flash. You may remember that I was able to get the 2008 vintage last year and thought it rather delicious so you can imagine my happiness when I saw this years available.
The Beer: This year's vintage weighs in at 10.9% a little more than last years and pours a shady chestnut brown with a quarter inch head of off white almost taupe colored head of foam. The nose is potent, I could smell it well before lifting the glass to my nose. It smelled of toffee and treacle, bread pudding, hops and grapefruit, citrus, figs. Just like last year's I could bury my nose in this all night and never be disappointed. Yet I had to stop if for no other reason than to taste. The taste now that was joy. The mouthfeel is chewy, creamy, tongue coating hops and flavor. Yes hops are at the forefront for this is an American Barleywine after all. Notes of citrus peel, toffee, treacle, breadpudding caramel, sweet malts, fruity estery yeasts. A bitter finish is complimented by an ever so slight not unpleasant alcohol burn. The hops are resiny along the tongue and linger well beyond the finish. It was a great beer tonight with sharp cheddar cheese, and my bets are that this one ages magnificently. This gets a B+ from me.

The Next Divine Reserve

Wow, fresh off an unbelievable success with the release of Divine Reserve 8, Saint Arnold's has just announced that Divine Reserve 9 will be released in late November or Early December. From their latest Newsletter:

We are brewing Divine Reserve No. 9 next week for release in November or December. It will be unlike any other Saint Arnold beer we've ever made!

So what didn't get announced is the style, but we did get a clue as to where they are going, or rather not going.
First we know its going to be something new, so let's take a look at the DR's thus far:
Barleywine (2x)
Scotch Ale (2x)
Russian Imperial Stout
Quadruple
Double India Pale Ale
Weizenbock

So we know its not going to be any of the above. We also know that Saint Arnold's has Bourbon Barrels as they will periodically have a Bourbon Barrel Stout released to select accounts around town, so it won't be something like that. So what could it be? Its 'going to be different' that's for sure. Will they go the route that many craft brewers are going and create a sour ale, or something infected with Brett? Maybe, although many of those age for a bit whether in wood or something else, so that might be out since we really only have 2 months before release. Although they have done a Quad, could they do another Belgian ale? Yes I believe they could. They also could use those Barrels for something else than a stout. Another option since they are releasing it around the Holiday season is some sort of winter warmer (thinking a higher gravity Anchor's Our Special Ale). Really there are many ways they could go. Anyone else have any thoughts? Or wishes?

UPDATE: As reported by Ronnie Crocker of the Houston Chronicle, the next Divine Reserve DR9 will be an Imperial Pumpkin Stout weighing in at 10% ABV.

This sounds pretty exciting if they can pull it off. My only concern would be the bitterness of the Imp Stout overpowering the pumpkin. My bet is on Saint Arnold to make a delicious beer.

More New Beers coming to Houston

Man, this may end up being a weekly blog post the way new beers are rolling into town. Went by my local Spec's and talked to the beer guy and there is a lot of new arrivals and beers about to be on the shelves.
- Already arrived: Part of New Belgium's Lips of Faith Series. These beers are what definetely more Belgian style that most of New Belgium brews. The beers we have are: The La Folie Wood aged Sour Brown Ale (my review), Biere De Mars a Brett beer, and Le Fleur Misseur another Brett ale.
- Also seen was Magic Hat's Fall seasonal.

The big news though is what is coming soon:
- Moylan's (I've written about them before) Hopsickle Triple IPA will be in the area both in bottle form and on draft. Flying Saucer will have some and will be tapping it sometime soon. Also coming in bottle form is Moylan's Moylander their Double IPA that I had at Flying Saucer's ninth anniversary.
- Also Brooklyn Brewery will have two seasonal's on our shelves. Their Octoberfest a traditional Marzen style of beer and their Post Road Pumpkin ale, an ale brewed with real pumpkins.

I can't tell you how excited I am that both the Pumpkin ale and the Moylans Hopsickle are coming. If anyone knows of other beers coming our way let me know.

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 8

Yes the day is finally here, and after a long and arduous search I was able to secure myself some of this somewhat hard to find beer. What beer you ask? The latest Divine Reserve from Saint Arnold. This irregularly released ale has become cult like in its difficulty to get and the quickness in which it flies off the shelves. Reports of 100's of cases being gone in half an hour were not uncommon on Thursday the day of release.
But what kind of beer is this? From Saint Arnold's website:

This is a bold, malty, smoky Scotch Ale. It pours a deep amber brown. It was quite cloudy at the time of bottling, but will clarify as it ages. The nose is full of smoky toffee notes. The taste opens with sweet malt and spice, then the alcohol comes up with a light residual sweetness on the finish. A balanced smoky flavor is in this beer from start to finish, although it never is the dominant character. It was brewed with 2-Row, Biscuit, Dark Crystal, Amber, Peated, Caramunich and Wheat malt. It is hopped early with Hallertau Tradition and late with Hallertau Hersbrucker. We fermented DR8 with a traditional Scotch Ale yeast. It is unfiltered. Enjoy at 45°F or warmer. This beer was inspired by Phillip Kaufman’s winning entry in the 2009 Big Batch Brew Bash.

Now onto my thoughts.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 9.6% and pours a cloudy hazy caramel color with a thick tan colored dense head of foam. The nose is incredibly smokey, peaty, caramel, toffee, and rich malts. The mouthfeel is chewy, full bodied. Peat, smoke, really smokey, caramel, toffee, biscuity, syrupy. Sweet, strong a bit of alcohol at the finish. I can't get over how smokey and peaty this beer is, it really reminds me of scotch in some of its flavor. My only complaint is that its a bit sweet right now, but that should smooth out as it ages, and this one should age amazingly well. This gets aB+ from me. The folks at BA like it as well.

Session Round up and Announcement

Yes I know I missed out on Summer beers. I was really disappointed in missing this months Session, but work schedule kept me from participating. The good news is the hosts over at Better beer blog have posted the round up.
As one month leaves us another comes, and with it brings the next installment of the monthly virtual beer tasting The Session. This month's host is the blog Girl Likes Beer, the theme is Go East. From the announcement:

I would like you to pick your favorite beer made east form your hometown but east enough that it is already in a different country. It can be from the closest country or from the furthest. Explain why do you like this beer. What is the coolest stereotype associated with the country the beer comes from (of course according to you)? And one more thing. If you do a video or picture of the beer (not obligatory of course) try to include the flag of the country.

This should be interesting. If you point due east of Houston, the next country is Morocco. So I'll have to a little further east I think to get a better beer. Let's see there's Libya, Egypt, China, Saudi Arabia, and India...not a lot of great choices, but I bet in the next month I can find something to drink from one of those countries. Due date is October 2nd.

New Beers In Houston

It's amazing to see the new beers that are coming in to Houston, almost every week something new and exciting makes its way to our stores. This is even more amazing when you consider the ridiculous efforts that brewers and distributors have to go through to get their beer's here. Well fresh news off of a post on Beeradvocate.com, I've learned that this week brings some exciting news.
First gypsy brewery Mikkeller has arrived. Not all of their beers, but some good ones none the less:

Mikkeller Big Worse Barley Wine
Mikkeller It's Alive (their take on Orval)
Mikkeller Monk's Brew

Mikkeller is an interesting brewer in that they do not have a brewery. I mentioned gypsy up above and that's exactly what they are. They travel from brewery to brewery, around Europer and even the US, they visit and use other's facilities to make their beer. But make not mistake about it, the beers are incredibly unique and from all accounts incredibly delicious so I'm excited as heck to try them out.

Secondly, Ridgeway Brewing out of England (you may remember them from their humerous Christmas ales) has brought an expanded line up of their beers:
Ridgeway Bad King John (a black ale)
Ridgeway Export Stout
Ridgeway IPA

Not a bad week here in Houston. Now if I can only get back to day shifts so that I can have a chance to try these beers. Oh and don't forget Thursday is the release of Divine Reserve 8.