Odell Brewing Sabateur

I know I've said it before, but I am a huge fan of Odell Brewing out of Fort Collins, CO, and nothing makes me happier than a rumor going around that they may be coming to TX in 2013. One can hope. Not only does Odell have an outstanding regular line up of beers, but their line of barrel aged beers is some of the best in the country in my opinion. One brew in particular that I have been looking forward to trying is the Sabateur. Odell brewed an outstanding higher than normal ABV Brown Ale, then added Brett yeast and aged it in American Oak barrels. Got your attention yet?
The Beer: This souped up brown ale weighs in at a very unsession like 10.0% and pours a very carbonated dark rich nut brown color. In fact this beer poured so overly carbonated that I was very concerned that the beer was infected. The first whiff gave no indication though that anything was wrong. There were sour notes on the nose to be sure, but I chalked it up to the brett and oak aging. Some mild barnyard notes as well. Then the first sip confirmed that nope, this beer was not infected. The beer was surprisingly smooth, very much the character of a brown ale. Slightly sweet malts, but then undertones of vanilla, pineapple, before finishing extremely dry. There are some wine like qualities to this brew that add a level of complexity. There is a hint of barnyardiness that helps add to the complexity. Many different layers to Sabateur, that gives it a quite amazing character. Rich sweet brown ale up front, before finishing dry and almost wine like. Another top notch offering from this small Fort Collins Brewery.

Brooklyn Brown Ale

After a series of bigger beers, its time to slow it down a little and have a taste of good ole session beer. Now this ones from a new brewery, well new to Texas at least. Brooklyn Brewery joins the ranks of Pike's, Oskar Blues, Summit, Deschuttes, etc that have penetrated the border (and the ridiculous TABC laws) and made their way to Texas. Brooklyn Brewery's head brewer is the great Garret Oliver, the man who helped take my enjoyment of craft beer and turned it into a passion of craft beer and food, with his book Brewmasters Table. So I'm pretty happy that they've made it down this way, as I've always wanted to try his beers. This will be my first beers of his to try outside of GABF, and I chose their Brown ale, mainly for my wife who is a huge fan of the style.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 5.6% and pours a clean brown, no cloudyness, or hazyness here. Capped by a good half inch head, that left plenty of lacing down the side of the glass. The nose is solid roasted malts, chocolate, and mild coffee flavors. The mouthfeel is effervescent, a little syrupy, and very malty. It has rich caramel and burnt coffee bean flavors. Much richer than I expected, along with mild earthy hoppy flavors. Good solid brown ale. This one gets a solid B from me. Can't wait to

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try more of their beers especially more of the special ones. Here's what BA has to say.

The Session #21: My Favorite Beer

Its the first Friday of the month which means its Session Time. For the unitiated here's a link to what the session is. The theme for this month's session is "what's your favorite beer and why", the host is A World of Brews. There are many fellow beer bloggers that weren't thrilled about this month's theme because it's so hard to narrow down one single beer as your favorite. Initially I thought this was absurd, because surely everyone has a favorite 'go-to beer.' Alas, they were right. While I may have a go-to beer that I love (Saint Arnold's Lawnmower) I wouldn't call it my favorite all time beer. While I love barley wines, there probably isn't a single one that I've had that I'd call my favorite beer. So what to do you ask? Of all the beers from all the breweries I've stated I can say that I do have a favorite brewery. A place where they make amazingly different beers. From simple subtle pleasures to ones that are made to literally knock you out. While none of the beers may be classified as my all time favorite beers, there are many that are in my top 10. The brewery is Dogfish Head. From my first sip of Midas Touch, I was hooked to them. To make something that was so completely different from any beer that I had ever had, really opened my eyes to what beer could be. Almost every beer that I've had has continued to challenge that concept. Just when you think all they do is hoppy extreme beers (90 and 120) they make a wit style beer mixed with Pinot Noir and aged partially in Pinot barrels. Beer mixed with wine? How does that work? I don't know but it did. These are just a few of the reasons why Dogfish is my favorite brewery and anytime I see a beer of theirs I haven't tried I always pick it up. Even if that beer isn't my favorite it always challenges my senses. Recently I was walking through a liquor store and found a new beer from Dogfish that I hadn't had but had eagerly been looking for, the Palo Santo Marron. As with most Dogfish Beers, this is not just some regular beer. Sure its called a brown ale, but come one, you just know there's more to it than that. This brown ale is aged in Paraguayan Palo Santo wood tanks. Palo Santo means 'holy wood' and this wood adds some flavor characteristics different from any other brown ale out there.
The Beer: This brown ale weighs in at 12% so yeah you know this one's going to be different. It pours a deep dark brown, that's thick like molasses syrup. Its capped by a thin cafe colored head. The nose is vanilla, caramel, molasses, roasty malts. The mouthfeel is chewy, and thick, coating your tongue. There's extreme woodiness here, layers and layers of wood, with notes of caramel, honey, sweet chocolate, coffee, and spice. Its rich and complex, a beer I'd love to have with snow on the ground outside huddling around a fireplace. inside. This is an amazing amazing beer. It gets an A from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

The folks at A world of Beers should have a round up posted shortly.

Boulevard Brewing Lunar Ale

OK, enough with the InBev deal, time to talk craft beer! Boulevard brewing Co is one of the newest craft beer makers to make its way to Texas (following hot on the heals of Oskar Blues, and leading the way for many many others). They are based out of Kansas City and were founded in 1989. I've heard a lot about them, so I was pretty excited to see their wares at my local Spec's. The packaging is unique as well. The bottles don't come in a traditional 6 pack container, instead come in a full box. A little bit of a waste of cardboard if you ask me, but I'm interested in whats in the box (or more specifically whats in the bottle inside the box). Lunar Ale is their brown ale offering, but its a pretty unique one in my mind. Its bottle conditioned and made with a lot of wheat malt, both unusual offerings for a brown ale.
The Beer: Now that we've been introduced lets get to know each other a little better. This one weighs in at 4.5% making it a perfect session beer. It pours a very hazy hazelnut brown color capped with a good thick taupe head. The hazy comes from the wheat used and it being bottle conditioned. The nose is fruity, bananas, pruney, some malts and little bit of floral notes. The mouth is wonderful. There's a nice thick mouthfeel, with a tart sourness on the tongue followed by malty, fruity, and yeasty notes. This is such a complex "basic" beer. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I feel that I could have multiple of these in one sitting and each beer would reveal itself in a different way. This one gets a very strong A from me. Seems like a lot of folks at BA don't agree with me.

Tommyknocker Imperial Nut Brown Ale

As I've mentioned many times in the past, my wife is from Denver so I get ample opportunity to make my way to that haven of great beer and tour many of its breweries. One of the first I toured years ago while we were still dating was up in a tiny mountain town named Idaho Springs. There I was introduced to the local brewery pub Tommyknocker's. The beer alas was good, but not great. Fairly inconsistent in my opinion, and also lacking in flavor. They were all ok, but nothing that I would go out of my way for. Well last time I was in Denver, we actually went back to Tommyknockers, and in going through some of their beers, I was able to taste their Imperial Nut Brown, a souped up version of their Maple nut brown (made with real maple syrup). It was fantastic, so months later I was extremely excited to see it at my local Central Market. Let's see how it held up.
The Beer: The beer is actually a 10th anniversary ale and weighs in at 9.8% alcohol. Made with Chocolate and crystal malts and a blend of American and European hops. The beer pours a very rich dark brown with a taupe cafe colored head. The nose is malty and raisiny with a bit of roasted malt notes. The mouth is rich, maple sugar, raisins, chocolate, creamy. Put it all together and it's reminiscent of pancake batter with hints of nutmeg. Very smooth over all, if a bit sweet. Only slight hints of alcohol. This would be a great dessert beer, the biggest negative is what you would expect. Its almost cloyingly sweet which would prohibit one from drinking multiple pints. Overall I think its one of their better beers, and I'd give it a B. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Bear Republic: Pete Brown's Tribute Ale

Its been a good time since Bear Republic has made its way to Texas and I have tried four of their beers. My thoughts on those beers are posted here and here. I was pretty excited when I walked into my Central Market and saw a new offering and a brown ale no less. I was pretty excited as the other beers I had were mostly a derivative of a pale ale.
The Beer: A traditional American brown ale made with molasses and brown sugar this beer was a tribute to a member of the Bear Republic family Pete Brown. The beer weighs in at 6.3% and pours a rich dark chocolate brown with streaks of red shining through, capped off with a thick pillowy taupe head. The nose is sweet roasted and caramel malts with molasses. The mouth is rich with notes of molasses and brown sugar. A very solid beer, but it missed that deep roasted malt flavor that I love about some brown ales. Still a good beer one I'd give a strong B. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.

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.

Real Ale Brewhouse Brown

In my quest to taste more Texas Beers than I have in the past I picked a six pack of this Brewhouse brown from Real Ale. Packed in a unique six pack...a simple cardboard container only enclosing the tops of the neck's leaving the lower part of the bottles expose.
The Brewery: Real Ale is located in Blanco Texas, outside of Austin. It has been in business for 10 years, in fact they celebrated their anniversary on June 24th. Like most small breweries they are dedicated to the local community helping as much as they can with community service projects. To brew their beer they use a 15 barrel stainless steel brewing system to create their handcrafted beers. This is the epitome of a small brewery, but they make 4 regular beers, and 2 seaonals, a Barley wine and a Shade Grown coffee Porter that I would love to try.
The Beer: The beer is a light 5.4% and pours a deep rich brown, with streaks of red in the glass. A nice quarter inch tan head settles in, staying a while before finally dissipating to a constantly thin head and plenty of lacing. This is a very malty beer, with hints of chocolate, caramel and roasted malts in the nose. The mouthfeel is very nice, dry, slightly sweet, with the same caramel, roasted, and chocolate malts. This beer is made with four different types of malts, I can get 3 down, not sure what the other is though. My only complaint is the total lack of hoppy bitterness, which reminds me more of a English Brown ale not an American one. Not asking for a lot, just a bit and this would be a great beer. As it is, its a very smooth brew that I thoroughly enjoyed and would pick up again. Here's what the folks over at BA say.
Food for thought: I had this with grilled turkey and hatch chili pepper burgers and it went incredibly well. The sweetness of the malt helped over ride the spiciness of the burger and roasted and caramel malts fit in with the char of the grilled burgers. A very nice match.

Caracole Nostradamus

As I mentioned earlier this week I made a recent excursion to Spec's on a beer run of sorts. Tonight I decided to pop open one of these beers that I have never tasted.
The Style: The style of Nostradamus is a strong Belgian Brown Ale. This is a high alcohol beer with lots of complexity, most likely high in malt and low in hop bitterness with some sort of spiciness usually associated with the palate.
The Brewery: The brewery Caracole was founded in 1990 in the heart of the Ardennes mountains in Falmignoul which is a small village in the South of Belgium. All of Caracole's beers are made in the an 18th Century copper kettles. All ales are bottle conditioned and double fermented.
The Beer: This is by far one of the most unique ales I have ever tasted. I bought it in a four pack of smaller beers not a BIG beer. It pours a nice deep russet brown with streaks of red and nice tan pillowy head. The smell is of sweet fruity malts, and some spice. Initially when I tasted it, I felt only the high alcohol with an underwhelming sickly sweet malty flavor. However as the beer warmed in the glass I could taste the complex sweet malts and cinnamon aftertaste and caramel undertones. This is a s malty beer, the antithesis of American IPA's and their superleaded hops. Unfortunately I am an avid Hop head, so I didn't exactly fall in love with this beer. The first 15 minutes or so I thought I was going to hate it, but I ended up liking it, if not thoroughly enjoying it. At 9.5% alcohol this must be a sipping beer and maybe that's where I initially mess up trying to pair this with some food. Here is what the folks over at BA had to say.