What is Divine?

Twice a year for the past two years or so Saint Arnold's has released a special beer under the Divine Reserve Label. It started with a Barley Wine, and the last time was an absolutely incredible Russian Imperial Stout. I haven't had the pleasure of tasting all 5 Divine's, but I've had the last 4, and posted on the last 3.
It seems as soon as Brock and company release a Divine Reserve, we all start eagerly anticipating the announcement of when the next one will be released and what it will be. While I don't have an answer to the former, I may have found a hint to the answer on the latter question.
In the past Saint Arnold has used the Big Batch Brew Bash Homebrewing contest to get the recipe for their Divine Reserve. The BBBB is the largest single style home brewing competition in the country and is hosted by Saint Arnold's. They set the rules with a specific style, and then homebrewers brew their best version. With their permission SA has used the winner as the Divine Reserve. Pretty cool idea and both their RIS and Double IPA Divine Reserve were brewed in this manner. In their latest newsletter Saint Arnold's announced that the next BBBB will be in May and the style will be a Weizenbock.
Beeradvocate defines a Weizenbock as the following:

A more powerful Dunkel Weizen (of "bock strength"), with a pronounced estery alcohol character, perhaps some spiciness from this, and bolder and more complex malt characters of dark fruits.
Average ABV: 7-10%.

With that higher abv and it being a bigger more 'powerful' beer it sure sounds like this could be the next Divine Reserve. We'll have to see, but I hope so.

Covey Restaurant

This past holiday weekend found me in Fort Worth, Tx visiting with my family. While there, I thought I'd try out a place I've been hearing about for quite some time but never had made it too. With that, one of my best friends, my wife, and I headed to Covey Restaurant and Brewery in downtown Ft. Worth. The Covey touts itself as a Texas wild game restaurant and brew pub. This means that they serve things like elk, quail, buffalo, venison, etc. We arrived around 7 pm, as we entered my eyes were immediately drawn to the small brew room in the middle of the room containing about 5 tanks, along with the mash tun, kettle, etc. On the right side of the brew room was a pub, the other side was a dining room full of white clothed tables. The pub was full so we headed to the dining room and looked over the menu, seeing items like quail quesadillas, wild game stuffed poblano, buffalo strip steak, buffalo burgers, and wood fired pizzas. Prices range from $11 for appetizers to $13-16 for pizzas, and up to $36 for the buffalo steak. Each item on the menu has symbols next to it that correlate to Covey's beer list, helping patrons out with food and beer pairings. We quickly made our appetizer orders, my friend and I split the quail quesadilla, my wife had the wild game lettuce wraps filled with smoked duck, quail, and venison. With the quesadilla I had Covey's Kent IPA made with Kent Hops. It took about 15 minutes but finally our beer arrived. My IPA was about 7.5% abv, poured a cloudy amber orange, with a great foamy frothy head. Good earthy notes, hops, and some toasted pale malts. The mouth was smooth, creamy, hoppy. This is not an overpowering IPA, very subtle, very good, very smooth, a beer I enjoyed. The beer went really well with the quesadilla, filled with quail, Gorgonzola and caramelized onions. It was a pretty good quesadilla, I could have done with a little more quail, and a little less cheese as the cheese flavors tended to overwhelm the quail. My wife's lettuce wraps were pretty good as well, however the sauce again tended to overwhelm the meats.
For dinner I had the Chicken Diablo Pizza that came with Mesquite Smoked Chicken, chipotle sauce, roasted poblano's, and red peppers. With all these smoked flavors I was excite to try the one beer they had that I knew would go with it: Covey's Rauchbier. Rauchbier is a smoked beer, descended from German brewing tradition, specifically from the town of Bamburg. My buddy had the Buffalo Pizza topped with strips of Buffalo sirloin, my wife had the French onion soup. The food again took a while to make it to our table, however it all came with the drinks. My Rauchbier was amazing. Very dark with a cappuccino colored head. Smokey malt's raisins on the nose. The mouth is smooth, smokey peaty, roasty. At 7.0% abv its very smooth. There's a small dusty taste from the smokey flavors, but its understated. A very good Rauchbier. The pizza was great. The dough made with Covey's amber ale, was crisp throughout, not soggy from the toppings. The smokey ingredients on the pizza paired incredibly well. Everyone enjoyed their entrees.
After Dinner as we headed out, we ran into the brew master Jamie Fulton. We got to talk to him a bit, as with most brewer he was incredible nice and was happy to talk beer with us. He mentioned that he was in the process of making a Triple, but it would be a few weeks more before it was ready. I mentioned I was disappointed that I wouldn't get a chance to try it since I was heading back to Houston. He told us to stay put and headed into the brewery for three tasting glasses of the triple. Wow is all I can say. Even though it needed some time, you could tell it was very good, very crisp, clean, white raisins, fruity, very similar to Victory's Golden Monkey. We thanked him for the beer and headed out into the night.
Overall The Covey is a GREAT addition to Downtown Ft. Worth. A very good restaurant, but an even better brewery. The beer's that I tried are not over powering and in your face, they are subtle, full of flavor, and hide their alcohol very well. Now if only we could get something like this in Houston.
Food: B
Beer: B+
Atmosphere: B
Service: B-

Flying Dog Oak Aged Gonzo

When I posted about my stay in Denver over Christmas, I talked about going to Flying Dog Brewery. While there I was able to pick up three great unique beers, first there was the Oak Aged Horn Dog, then Collaborator, and lastly this beer. Its an Oak Aged (for 6 months) Imperial Porter that has been "infected" with Brett. Brett is short for Brettanomyces, and is a acidogenic yeast compound and when grown on glucose the yeast produces a large amount of acetic acid. In the wine world, winemakers will go to great lengths to keep Brett out of their wine beyond very very low levels. At these low levels Brett can create positive sensory complexity, however beyond that the wines can be described as mousy which doesn't really sound like a good thing. However beer behaves differently when Brett is introduced. Certain styles of beer, specifically Belgian styles such as Lambic and gueuze owe much of their complexity to Brett. In Orval for example, the brewers add Brett to the bottles helping to give it its unique taste. With all of these examples you can see that the addition of Brett gives a degree of 'sourness' to the beer.
The Beer: The beer pours a very dark brown with a thick cappuccino colored head. The nose has raisins, chocolate, cherries, vanilla and some oakyness. The taste has an underlying sourness, along with cocoa, raisins, toffee, roasted malts, bitter espresso, and a hint of molasses. The beer is smooth, its an interesting brew, and its not a session beer. I think there's too much going on here, to drink more than one. The sourness is not that overpowering, but the bitterness is. Its a weird combination of sour bitterness, going on but the bitter compounds far outweigh the sour ones. A little alcohol-y too. This isn't to say I didn't enjoy the beer, I did, and I also respect what the folks at Flying Dog were attempting here. I think its incredibly interesting beer, but definitely not my favorite. I'd give it a C+.

News and Notes around the beer world

- An update from Southern Star Brewing, Texas's newest craft brewery. They are a little behind schedule, but they've got their malt and hops on site. They need to complete the boiler room, get their city inspections performed. Hopefully, they'll start brewing in the next month or so. I can't wait as I'm really excited about a new brewery in Texas and what they are trying to do. I'm hoping to go up and see the brewery as soon as possible.

- The New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov covers beer. This week he wrote on extreme beer, however its more of an article on Double IPA's instead of a broad thesis on what is extreme beer. Its a good article, so please check it out, but I think by narrowing his focus so much he cheats his readers a little.

- Published a couple of weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting on it, but Lew Byson writes on 'Malt Disneyland' for Conde Nest Magazine (published on MSNBC's website). A very good read on traveling to Belgium and experiencing their great beer culture. It made me miss being over in Germany and being able to get to Brussels with ease.

- Finally there is this article in the San Francisco Chronicle about Franconian beers. A good article over all about the diverse beers that come from this area of Germany. I've actually had the pleasure of tasting some of these.

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

This weekend I was in the mood for something hoppy, so I headed to Central Market to see what was on the shelves. When not seeing anything that jumped out at me as new, I went for something more familiar to me. While I've never done an "official" tasting of it, this is a beer I've had many times. Great Divide is a brewery based in downtown Denver not to far a walk from Flying Dog, or the Rockies Baseball Stadium.
The Beer: The beer pours an orangish amber capped with a thin white head. The head dissipates relatively quickly but leaves behind plenty of lacing throughout. The nose is all hops, some floral, some piney, and a lot of grapefruit. My first thought as I started to drink this fine brew was "Yup its a hop bomb." WHile thats true it also doesn't mean there isn't some balance here. While grapefruit is in abundance, there is some toasted pale malts, even some toffeness character to the beer. Not a lot of alcohol burn even though its there as I sipped. A very fine Double IPA. I'll give it an A-. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Whats in a name?

A couple of weeks ago I posted on the new beers that Flying Dog will be releasing this year. Yesterday I received their e-newsletter and noticed something strange. They had changed the name of their Tripel Beer.
Here's the label from the original press release:















Now here is the label from this weeks newsletter:















As you can see the beer has gone from Cerberus to Kerberos. Why the change? I spoke with the folks at Flying Dog today and they let me know that as soon as they sent out the press release they learned that there was already a Cerberus Tripel being brewed in Baltimore, so they changed the name of the beer to the Greek spelling of the three headed hell-hound. Mystery solved, but regardless of the name, I can't wait to try the beer. The beer's either been release or will be shortly so hopefully its only a matter of time before it gets to Houston.

Saint Arnolds Winter Stout

I was really happy to see this beer on the shelves when I went to my local Central Market. Last year at this time I was still in Germany so I missed the release. I've really enjoyed the Winter Stout in previous years so I was bummed that I missed it last year.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 5.6% and pours a very dark, but not quite opaque black. A thinnish head caps the beer poured into a pint glass. The nose is full of roasted malts, cocoa powder, chocolately malts. The big flavor here was the roastiness. The mouth was very malty, coco, chocolatey, maybe a little bit of espresso. That may be the only real negative with this beer. I enjoy a little bit of that espresso bitterness in my stouts and this didn't have it. A very smooth beer, easy drinking, low carbonation so it just sits and coats the mouth. The malt is the predominant flavor as hops are nowhere to be seen. Saint Arnold calls this a Sweet Stout and I can't really disagree with its lower alcohol (even though this is a bit higher), smooth and malty slightly sweet. A very good beer, I give it a B. Here's what the folks over at BA think.

The Session #12 Announcement

Its that time again, the 12th time to be exact. The announcement of the Session. For the unitiated, the Session is a virtual beer tasting hosted each month by a different blogger with a different theme. On the first Friday of the month everyone posts their tastings and the hosts posts a round up with everyone's contribution. This months host is Jon at the Brew Site. The theme is Barleywine!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am for this. I love barleywine, its one of my favorite styles, so I am going to try to do something different this month, we'll see if I succeed. Due date for this month's session is Friday February 1st.

Restaurant Review: Beavers

For the second time in a month my wife and I went to the new BBQ/Ice House/New 'It Spot' Beaver's in the Heights in Houston. Owned by Monica Pope (check out her other scrumptious and amazing restaurant T'afia's), Beaver's is primarily pit BBQ joint. It serves only hormone free beef, quail, fish, etc. The first time we went there was when it had first opened and to say it had some kinks to work out was an understatement. The food came out in a disorganized manner. You would get your sides, then maybe an appetizer, then you entree. Or some of the folks at our table would get their Entree before their sides or any appetizers came out. Now the waiter let us know before hand this would be the case but it was still a little chaotic. Thankfully the food was amazing. Smoky, flavorful, and for the most part tender.
We were expecting much better things when we went back this weekend, and we weren't disappointed. We got there around 7 pm and were told it would be a 45 minute wait. Which was fine because I wanted to check the bar out anyways. They are supposed to have some really good mixed drinks there, and I wanted to get one for my wife. The mixologist is a fellow blogger so if your interested in cocktails go checkout his Explore the pour. The drinks were really good, and really well made, my wife had a Mayahaul Fizz. Myself? I partook in one of the 60 bottled beers they offer. They have an incredible selection of microbrews here and their beer list is organized really well dark to light by style. Very well done. Only a few on tap but many bottles from the local Texas Microbrews Saint Arnold's and Real Ale. I started the evening off with a BANG and had a bottle of Real Ale Sisyphus. When we got to the table we ordered appetizers of Campechana Seafood and Sweet Potato French Fries. Both were absolutely incredible. With the food I decided to order a Saint Arnold's Winter Stout (served on Draft). Thinking that the nice sweetness of the beer would go well with the sweet smokiness of the BBQ. For dinner I ordered a Rack of ribs and my wife got the brisket. The brisket was amazing, tender juicy and just fabulous. The rub on the brisket and the sauce were outstanding. The ribs were fairly good. they were dry rubbed and very tasty, however they were not fall off the bone tender which is what I'm used to. They were a little tough at times nearly impossible to pull away from the bone with my teeth. I was disappointed in that because they were extremely flavorful. However the food came out quickly and the service was excellent. We finished the night with a dessert cocktail that Robert made us. It again like all the cocktails we had was fabulous. All in all Beavers is a great new addition to the Houston dining scene, with its own twist on Texas BBQ and Texas Icehouses.
Service: A
Food: B
Beer Selection: A
Cocktails: A

The Session #11: Roundup

Wilson at Brewvana is FAST. He already has his round up of the 11th Session posted. It was a great time and I think exposed quite a few people to Doppelbock's outside of the usual Salvator and Celebrator. I was surprised that there were quite a few that tried Flying Dog's Collaborator along with me. All in all a great Session full of learning which as I've said in the past is the whole point. Check the round up, and in a few days we'll have the announcement for the next session the 12th! Who can believe that its been almost a year since we had our first?

Some new stuff on the Blog

A quick note on some additions I've made to the website that I wanted to point them out. On the right hand side I've added two additional categories.
The first category is Houston area Food and Drink blogs.
'A Cooks Tour' the food blog for the Houston Chronicle's Allison Cook.
'Eat our Word's' the food blog for the Houston Press.
'Explore the Pour' is a great website on drinks from a local Houston bartender.

The other new category is me attempting to promote Beer and Food. Right now I only have one link from Beerdinners.com. So I am asking for YOUR help. If you know of any other websites, blogs, etc that promote beer and food please let me know and I'll add their link.
Thanks.

The Session # 11 - Doppelbock,

Its the first Friday of the month so that means its time for the Session. The Session is a monthly virtual beer tasting, hosted by a different beer blogger every month, each session with a different theme. This month's host is Wilson over at Brewvana, and the theme this month is Illuminator: Doppelbock.
Before getting into the beer I chose for my tasting let's look at what a Doppelbock is. While the birth of Bock beer can most likely be traced to the German town of Einbeck, Doppelbocks originated in Munich, Germany. Bock as a whole are traditionally strong and malty, smooth with toasty and caramel flavors, usually weighing in at 6 to 7 percent abv. Doppelbock's originated from the monk's that were in Munich (which in German means place of the monnks). They were Lenten beers, made to be bigger to help get the monk's through their fasting. The first doppelbock released to the public in 1780, its name was Salvator (meaning Savior). This began the tradition of Doppelbock beers having names that ended in -ator. From a style Doppelbock's are stronger that 7% with a lot of smooth malt flavor, and dark colored.
Now on to the beer I chose. Since no Texas Brewer makes a doppelbock I knew I was going to have to search around for something unique (i.e. not Salvator or even Celebrator). Luckily I was heading to Denver for Christmas and when I went to Flying Dog recently I found the beer I would use: Flying Dog's Wild Dog Collaborator. This is a complex beer before even opening it. Last year Flying Dog started what they called an Open Source Beer Project. The goal of this project was to post a recipe to a beer (in this case a Doppelbock) on line. Then over the course of a few months allow anyone to change and tweak the recipe. Changing malts, hops, specific gravity, how much of those ingredients, etc. The original post with a full explanation is here. The final beer ended up looking like this:
Alc: 8.3%
IBU: 24
Malts: Munich “Type I” 2240 75, Munich “Type II 550 19, Cara-Munich 55 2, Cara-Amber 55 2, Melanoidin 55 2 .
Hops: Warrior, Mt. Hood.
Now on to the Beer: The beer pours a nice amber with a thick head. Malt and caramel even some floral hops on the nose. The mouth is malty, caramel balanced with some pinyness, a little bitter, even something that I equated to cherries on the palate. This is a very smooth very drinkable beer. It hides it's alcohol well. Its not so rich that you couldn't drink the whole bottle in one sittiing. It's a well made drinkable Doppelbock. I give this one a strong B.

Now head over to Brewvana for more Doppelbock posts.

Oak Aged Beers

A couple of days ago while I was in Denver, I picked up the most recent copy of Draft Magazine with Food Network's Dave Lieberman on the cover and I wanted to make a few brief comments on the magazine before getting to the main point of the post. While there have been many mixed reviews on the magazine (including those from me) I think this was its most solid effort. A sign of a good new magazine is that it steadily improves, and Draft over the course of its first year has done that. Its articles are more beer-centric, it always touts beer and food pairings (this edition more than any other), it has a pretty good layout, and a good balance between articles and ads (while other mag's seem to have twice as many ad pages as articles). Draft also has a strong lineup of contributors including Charlie Papazian, Stan Hieronymus, Rick Lyke, and Don Russell that give the magazine a good depth of knowledge. However you feel about Draft though, there is no denying that right now is a great time to enjoy beer magazine's with the re-tooled All About Beer, the Beer Advocate's Mag and Draft, and I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.
Now on to the main point of this post, oak aged beers. Within the aforementioned new Draft is a great article by Mr. Hieronymus covering Oak Aged Beers. The article inspired me to post my thoughts on two such beers that I was able to enjoy during my time in Denver.

2006 Old Curmudgeon: This beer comes from the Englewood, CO branch of the brew pub chain Rock Bottom Brewery. Although its part of a chain pub each restaurant has an independent brew master. There are some standards that the chains have to have, but other than that they are left to their own imaginations. At this particular Rock Bottom, the brewmaster is Rick Abitbol from Germany, and he's also a pretty honored brewer based on the awards that he has won. This particular beer is one of those that has won awards. The beer is the 2006 Barley Wine aged in oak whiskey barrels for 12 months. The beer pours a cloudy brown with a nice head, smelling of oak, raisins, a bit of alcohol and sweet caramel-y malts. The mouth is malt-y, raisins, prunes, thick and chewy, a bit of alcohol, some honey and lychee even. A very rich beer, that was great to have in very cold Denver. This one gets an A- from me.

Flying Dog Wild Dog Barrel Aged Horn Dog: This beer I picked up during my recent visit to Flying Dog. Horn Dog is their Barley Wine that is also part of the Canis Major Series. They took that beer and aged it for 13 months in Stranahan's Whiskey Barrel's. No word on whether or not this will be a regular beer of if this was just a one time experiment. The beer weighs in at 10% and pours a dark brown. There is no head and no carbonation. The nose is whiskey, vanilla, and oak. The mouth is smooth, thick due to the lack of carbonation, rich vanilla, oak, caramel, and a bit of alcohol burn. This beer tastes like a malt bomb if I've ever had one, its thick, bready, yeasty. The prominent flavor for me is the whiskey, in fact with the little carbonation its almost more whiskey like than beer. I could sip on this for hours upon hours though. Its quite amazing, quite complex. As you can tell I really enjoyed this, my one complaint is the lack of head and any carbonation. If Flying dog could get that little bit of additional creaminess I think it would put it over the top. I really hope that the folks at Flying Dog continue with this experiment (I just hope I can get my hands on a bottle since I probably won't be up at the new brewery in MD). This one gets a solid A from me.

More on Flying Dog

Well, my Christmas vacation to Denver is over and I'm back in good ole Houston. I have a few things to write about that occurred during my stay but I first wanted to touch on some additional news I've recieved from Flying Dog. Josh Mishell over at Flying Dog sent me a press release covering the two new beers that I mentioned in my previous post. As a recap, Flying Dog is creating two new beers for next year. The first is an addition to their Canis Major line up and is a Belgium Tripel named Cerberus, the second is their Spring seasonal a Bierre De Garde named Garde Dog. In the press release they sent out the new labels, still done by British artist Ralph Steadman. You can see the labels below. They look pretty cool, and I can't wait to try the new beers. The other cool news is that they will be releasing two new mixed packs of their Canis Major (Gonzo Porter, Horn Dog, Double Dog and the New Cerberus). The first will be a four pack of each of the beers, the second will be an eight pack of 7 oz bottles, so the consumer will have two short bottles of each. A pretty unique idea and a way to try some of these higher aclohol beers without drinking a full 12 oz.

My Trip to Flying Dog

Last week I posted about the recent news of Flying Dog Brewery moving from downtown Denver to Frederick, MD. Since I'm in Denver for Christmas I figured this week would be perfect to make a special trip to the brewery for a tour, a tasting, and hopefully to talk to some of the fine folks there. Well I must say I couldn't be happier with my trip there. All three things happened and it ended up being great time. I spent quite a bit of time speaking with Josh Mishell and Neil Stewart at Flying dog, and had a long conversation with both. None if it was an official interview or anything so I won't get into direct quotes just some interesting news bits based on my discussions with him and others at the brewery.
Flying dog has brewed the last beer in the Denver Brewery, however, they have one more bottling run in January then everything will be moved to MD. Currently the brew tanks are holding the distillers wash for next doors Stranahan's Whiskey. After Stranahan uses up this wash, they will be contracting to another craft brewer to help out in their whiskey making (who this will be is still to be determined). Flying Dog will not be keeping open the tasting room in Denver as its not economically feasible to use that space solely for tasting, however they may work with next door's Blake Street Tavern (whom they already have a relationship with) for some tasting events. One of the big questions I had was why were they heading out East in the first place. It was explained to me that Flying Dog had been doing some contract brewing in the past (Spanish Peaks most notably) however those opportunities have started to dry up and many contracts are trying to go to other brewers for less money. After this Flying Dog looked to expand operations and since they couldn't do that in the facility they were at they initially looked at contracting their beer out east in the Frederick facility. This would allow them to expand their distribution across the US. However after a time the brewery came up for sale for a reasonable amount of money and the folks at Flying dog jumped at the opportunity. This led them to operating two facilities, one in Denver, one in Frederick. This was never good economically, and with the increase in prices for raw materials it became even more difficult to pay lease on the Denver building when it was only making 30% of the product. With that they made the difficult decision to move all operations to Frederick starting January of next year. They are offering all current employees relocation packages, and those that don't accept will be getting severance packages. Its nice to see them take such good care of their employees. While I'm disappointed that they are leaving Denver, the reasons why make sense to me.
In other interesting news I did find out that Flying Dog will be releasing two new beers next year, one will be there Spring Release and it will be a Bierre de Garde, the second will be a Trippel.
Lastly I was able to pick up 3 really amazing beers one of which I will be using as my Sessions Tasting, the other two I'll be writing up when I can. Special thanks to Josh and Neil for being so nice to me and my wife during our visit.
Thanks again to all the rest of the folks at Flying Dog and good luck to you all in MD.

2007 Anchor 'Our Special Ale'

In the recent Session hosted by yours truly there was one beer that was repeatedly written on. From the great taste to the passion that many felt for this particular beer, the amount of writings was amazing. Here is a seasonal beer that's been made every year sine 1975 I believe, every year the recipe is different, every year the label depicts a different tree. I had seen it before of course, who hasn't? I knew I had to buy some and try it for myself, was it really that good?
The answer of course is yes.
The Beer: The beer pours a deep dark cloudy brown capped by an 1/8 inch thick taupe head. The head disappears but there is plenty of lacing left behind. The nose is full of licorice, the smell of an evergreen forest, prunes, maltiness, and some floral hops. The mouth is the same. Its a mouthful of licorice, prunes and plums, cocoa, malts, piney hops, and a spruce-y taste. Quite frankly this beer is amazing, the amount of flavors that are floating all though this beer is incredible. I'm glad I bought multiple bottles since some will be held to age. This ones an easy A. Over at BA 99% of the folks are in favor of it.

Well that's my last post of the year, well at least from Texas. I head to Denver for the holiday's where I am sure that I'll be sampling some local beer. I'm also heading to Flying Dog Brewery on Friday so I'll post my thoughts on that visit as well.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy Holidays.

The Hop Shortage Impacts Local Brewery

Unless you've been living under a rock you've heard about the current hop shortage. There is even a brief mention in the MSNBC article I posted this weekend. Many breweries have already let folks know that beer prices were going to rise because of this. As brewers pay more for hops that impacts the market driving up the price of the six pack you buy in your grocery store. As lovers of craft beer most of us are used to paying more for our favorite beer, and frankly that's OK. I don't usually mind paying a bit more for something that's well crafted, whether it be a nice watch, a nice article of clothing or beer. Well crafted things tend to cost more, they are usually more labor intensive and they are made with finer ingredients.
I know that was a bit of a tangent so let me get back track. Beyond the hike in pricing the other impact to the hop shortage is changes in a beer's recipe. Certain hops are getting harder to find so a brewery may substitute Cascade Hops for Warrior hops or Amarillo hops. This is how local Houston Brewery Saint Arnold's is dealing with the hop issue. In this weeks Newsletter SA reports that although they have secured plenty of hops and malt for this year, they didn't necessarily always get the hops they wanted. For 2008 they will be using Columbus Hops instead of Cascade for bittering in the Amber and Elissa IPA (although as they state there will be plenty of Cascade hops in Elissa in late additions). They promise that the change is for this year only and they will revert to the original recipe next year. Time will tell if anyone can detect the difference.

One more piece of Saint Arnold's related news. They reported in the newsletter that their sales are up 30% for this year. That growth is absolutely astounding. Congratulations is well deserved to Brock and the gang.

News Bits and Beer Quick Hits

I've found quite a bit of news this week in the wonderful world of beer, however instead of posting a few wordy entry's I'm taking the cheap way out and just posting one short entry on a few different news bits.

- First comes news from the Flying Dog Brewery out of Denver that they are moving to Maryland. A while back they bought out Wild Goose Brewery in Frederick, MD and began brewing a portion of their output at that facility. Well over time that output has grown to be 70% of production. With that increase in production and the fact that their current place was not conducive to expansion they have made the decision to move in January. That means the brewery in Denver will be closing down however their administrative duties will still be done out of Denver and won't be making the move. I have a couple of questions regarding this move: Will the tasting room still be open? What will happen to Stranahan's Whiskey next door? They use Flying Dog malt so I wonder how they will continue. The good news is that I am heading to Denver this week to spend Christmas with my wife's family, and I'm working on arranging a tour of Flying Dog, so hopefully I'll be able to find out the answers.

- Second bit of news is this article from MSNBC on the growth of craft brewing. The basis of the story is that craft breweries are starting to be run like a real life business. Instead of just throwing things together they have business plans and such. This organization is one of the many things that is helping craft beer increase their growth potential while the macro brewers are scrambling and seeing their sales drop. While Craft beer only takes up about 7% of the market in the last 52 weeks it has seen a growth (in term of dollar sales) of 17.2% according to this story. Thats pretty impressive. The good news is that as small breweries get smarter with their business structure they become more stable which leaves to longevity (hopefully).

- Lastly is the announcement of The Session #11. The monthly virtual beer tasting is being hosted by Brewvana, the theme is Dopplebock's. Hmmm, I love doppelbock's, especially in the cold weather. This will be a fun one to be sure. Maybe I'll even find something interesting in Denver. The session will be held on the 4th of January.

Quick Hits: A Beer Writer's last Column

Those of you who are regular readers (I think there are some out there) know that I am a weekly reader of the Fort Worth's Star Telegram's Barry Schlacter. He writes two columns alternating between a beer tasting and then his 'Beer Sphere' where he writes on various beer related topics. For example this week's article is on books to buy the beer lover for Christmas. Its been nice to see a main stream newspaper in Texas writing not only about craft beer, but promoting Texas Beers as well. As far as I know he is the only regular contributor to a Texas Newspaper writing about beer. Unfortunately the column mentioned above is his last. Mr. Schlacter reports that due to budget cuts his column (and the weekly wine column) have been cut from the paper. If you appreciate well written beer articles and think that main stream papers should be writing about Craft Beer more, not less, then you're probably ticked off. If you are then you can do what I did and write some of the folks below and let them know:

Executive Editor, Jim Witt at jwitt@star-telegram
Features Editor, Catherine Mallette at cmallette@star-telgram.com
Reader’s advocate, David House, dhouse@star-telegram.com

The Session #10: The Roundup

I sure never realized how much fun hosting a session would be. Its been a blast! We 30 entries from 15 states and 5 different countries. I know that I learned a lot about winter beers, and its given me an even longer list of beers that I want to try.
With that let's get to the entries:

The early bird winner is fellow Houston blogger The Dude. Going local as I did, he chose the very well made Saint Arnold's Christmas Ale. He also made what sounds like a very good Christmas turkey and sausage Gumbo using the brew. Good job!

Stan over at Appellation Beer writes about Colorado's Great Divide Hibernation Ale, a strong Winter Warmer. Stan's idea of a pairing, is the beer, a nice big fire and a plate of cheese. Sounds like a great time.

Rick Lyke of Lyke2Drink posts his thoughts on 6 different holiday/winter beer. Going above and beyond each beer is paired with different foods (or paired with a family gathering, but sometimes that's just as good). Maybe one could make a tasting menu out of this?

Rick Sellers of Pacific Brew News takes us through a list of beers trying to find that one that says 'Christmas' to him. Which did he choose? Anchor Merry Christmas Ale, not a bad choice.

The Beer Nut over in Ireland again tries to find that perfect winter beer. It seems like he has some great choices.

The Barley Blog takes an interesting twist. He has some great winter beers alright, but not from this season, they are ones that he's been cellaring since last season. He chose the session to take a few out of the cellar for a taste and see how his cellaring performed. Sounds like it did pretty well.

Jason over at the brewbasement takes up the cellaring theme as well. This time its comparing this year's version to a past one. Sierra Nevada 2004 vs. 2007. Interesting results to be sure.

Relatively new beer blogger and fellow Texan Josh over at kegs and kitchen participates in his first Session. For this post he posts on two very different beers.

Stephen Beaumont has his post over at Thats The spirit, where he takes us on a journey of 5 different winter beers.

David takes treats us to the Twelve beers of Winter from Matt's brewing out of Utica, NY. Granted its not 12 different beers, only 6, but quite a filling post.

London's own Stonch treats us to two different beers, one of them on cask.

Another Dave, this time posting on Sierra Nevada Celebration and how that beer signals the beginning of the Season.

Captain Hops rewards us all with not 1, but 3 Beer Haiku's on Winter Beers.

Greg Clow's been so busy that he couldn't write up a separate post on winter beers, but instead guides us to an article that he wrote for the Taste of TO. The article's good so make sure to check it out.

Wilson, experiencing a much colder winter that down here in Texas (3 inches of snow and I'm jealous), treats us to two different Winter Seasonal beers, one from Goose Island, the other from Boulevard Brewing.

Buttle writes us from New York about a Winter Seasonal from his local brew pub. Its his first Session and he gets kudos from me for selecting and promoting something local.

Tom over at the brew site has started a Beer Advent Calendar where he posts on a different beer on each day of advent. Great idea, wish I had thought of it. He rolls that theme into this months Session, selecting Wild Goose's Snow Goose Winter Ale.

Christina joins us for her first Session and starts off with a bang, giving us a post with 6 different beers.

Shawn over at beerphilosopher.com posts on a local beer Schafly's Christmas ale. He thinks this beer would do just fine with a desert like ginger spice cake drizzled with white chocolate shavings or even a something savory like spiced ham.

Over at Boak and Bailey they pontificate on what it means to be a Christmas ale. Noting that its different if your asking the question in the UK, Belgium or Germany.

Tim of the Soux city Journal joins us and feels so bad that he couldn't participate in last months session he offers a two-fer.

Josh of Flying Dog Brewery and Beerdinners.com posts on a Do it yourself beer dinner, focused on Seasonal beers. He write specifically on Flying Dog's K-9 and what food will go with it. But this post is much more than that, its where to go for ideas to host your own beer dinner. A great site and one that I might devote an entire separate post to.

Alan from a Good Beer Blog finds a good choice from Western Canada, Faceplant Winter Ale from Nelson Brewing in BC.

Keith doesn't just write about any Winter Warmer, he writes about his. A home brewer, Keith discusses how he made his version of a Winter Warmer, which is based on Houston's own Saint Arnold's Christmas Ale.

Josh from Humps brewing posts his thoughts on some home brewed winter seasonals and those that are commercially available as well.

Snekse over at Gastronimic Fight club takes us through the Sam Adams Winter Seasonal Pack (along with A-B's Winter's Bourbon cask Ale). Having tried most of the Sam Adam's selection I can appreciate the write up.

Lost Abbey's Tomme Arthur writes up on their newest Christmas Ale Gift of the Magi. Its also more as he gives some insight into his thoughts on the season. He also makes sure to get the food and beer pairing with his mention of the cheese plates served with his two Christmas ales. One of these day's I'll make it to his brewery dang it!

J over at the Brookston Bulletin writes his thoughts on the Christmas seasonal beer. His post is also yet another one on the wonders that is Anchor's Christmas ale - or Our special ale(and I have to agree).

Kieran initially thought that this session would be difficult for him. Seeing as he is from Australia (I meant New Zealand , my sincerest apologies Kieran), and its not Winter there, how does one get into the 'Winter Beer' spirit? You do what he did and make one!

Craig over at Beers Beers Beers is our last entry (so far). His is another posting on a great selection of Winter Beers, TEN in fact!

Well that seems to be about it for this month's Session. As I mentioned this was a lot of fun and I hope to have the pleasure of hosting again sometime. Stay tuned as I'm sure that next month's theme will be announced any day now. Till next time.

UPDATE: We had one additional entry that I overlooked in all the emails.
This one from Steve at Summer of Beers, who in Southern California finds the weather as Winter-y as I do. His post is on the Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza, an oak aged Belgian Dark ale.

That makes it 31 posts for this Session.

The Session: Winter Beers

Finally, December 7th has arrived! The first Friday of the month means its Session time and I'm your lucky host. The theme this month is Winter Beers. I think I'm pretty lucky in that there are quite a few local Texas breweries that make good solid winter seasonal beers. With the goal of staying local my first instinct was to go Saint Arnold's Christmas Ale, a beer that I have reviewed a couple of times on this site. However I wanted something a little different so I kept searching. My next choice was for Rahr and Sons Winter Warmer, however I never found any down in Houston. Finally I went to my local Central Market for some inspiration. I spoke to the Beer Man there Caesar and he new just what I should get: Real Ale Sisyphus Barleywine Ale 2007, so that's what I did. The second optional part of the theme was to pair beer with wine or use it in a beer inspired recipe. While Barleywines aren't traditionally used in cooking, they are used in food pairings, one food in particular: cheese, big blue cheese at that. Again I searched for local foods, and found a really nice blue cheese from Pure Luck and their Hopelessly Blue Cheese. Now I had all of my ingredients, its time for write up!
The Beer: Using a sifter shaped glass, the beer pours a cloudy brown with a thin head. The beer weighs in between 10 and 11% abv. The nose is white grapes, sweet malt a bit of floral hoppiness. The hops show up in the taste, but its very well balanced with the malts. This is not an overly hoppy Barleywine say in the style of Avery Hog's Heaven. You get more toasted malts, even a little sweet caramel, a tinge of alcohol as it drips down your throat, more white grapes and a bit of honeyness all with out being cloying. Very smooth barleywine, one that I could sip on all night long. This one is an A- in my book. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.
The Cheese: This is a pretty mild blue cheese, very creamy, with just a little bit of that blue funk that I like in this style of cheese.
The Paring: When the cheese is eaten with the beer the 'funk' as I call it explodes over the tongue really accentuating the flavors. The honeyness and maltiness really brings out the gorgeous flavors of this cheese. Great paring I think.

Well that about does it for my Session Entry, next up of course is posting a round up. I've already received quite a few entries, but if you have sent me yours you can post a link to this post with your entry or email me at ted.duchesne@gmail.com. I plan on posting a round up no later than Sunday. Hopefully that will catch any stragglers.

Music and Beer: A follow up

In a perfect example of 'I wish I had this piece of news last month' I came across some pretty interesting news recently. The follow up bit is a reference to last months Session Theme of Beer and Music. While Houston has a rich music history and actually has quite a few good music venues it is lacking in independent music shops. If one wanted to peruse a local music shop full of not only CD's but vinyl records as well, you headed to the great Cactus Music on W. Alabama and Shephard. You could also get local music acts promoting their CD releases, all in all it was a great place. Sadly Cactus closed last year leaving a gaping hole in the Houston Music scene.
However in wonderful news Cactus is BACK! A new location just a bit down the road from the original (2110 Portsmouth St. in Shepherd Plaza). And who do we thank for bringing Cactus back? Brock Wagner, owner of Houston's own Saint Arnold's. Along with some other fine folks Brock has invested in Cactus and has worked to bring it back. All the investors are local and they have helped bring back a local institution. In this era of local institutions falling by the way side in favor of global corporations its nice to see folks getting together and putting their money where there mouth is, doing something wonderful for the local community. Kudos to all. Having been there a few times already since their opening its a great space, with plenty of CD's, Vinyl and some really great art work. In Saint Arnold's most recent newsletter, they promise good musical acts, along with great refreshments. If that doesn't symbolize music and beer I don't know what does.

Reminder for The Session

Just a friendly reminder that this Friday is the latest Session. The theme this month is Winter Beers, the rules are as follows:

• Pick any Winter Seasonal beer you want. Or a sampler if you’d like (think the Sam Adam’s seasonal pack).
• If you select a single beer, let us know why you choose this beer.
• Extra credit for paring your winter seasonal beer with a winter meal, or better yet a recipe based on the beer of your choice.
• Post your contribution to The Session on Friday December 7th. Send me the links to your post and a few short days later I'll post a round up of every one's contributions.

This month should be fun as the temperature cools I find myself more and more reaching for a winter beer. Once you've posted your write-up you can just send me an email with a link to the post: ted.duchesne@gmail.com

Tommy Knocker Cocoa Porter

This past weekend found me at one of my all time favorite beer places. While not necessarily local (it is a chain) Flying Saucer has one of the best beer selections around, bar none. Usually when I head into my local Saucer my eyes are immediately drawn to the chalk board above the bar, here is where you find what's just landed, whats new on tap and in the bottle. This time was no different, and my eyes were immediately drawn to Tommy Knocker's Cocoa Porter in the bottle. I had heard about this beer and was eager to try it. No sooner had a sat down and ordered one than my friendly waitress set one before me poured into a pint glass.
The Brewery: Tommy Knocker is not only a brewery but a pub in Idaho Springs, CO. I actually went there, well before I had delved deep into craft beer so its a place I want to visit again. They've been around for about 10 years, and while some of the beers can be run of the mill, they do make some interesting fair, chief among them their Maple Nut brown, a brown ale made with maple syrup. In fact they've just released an Imperial version that I'm dying to try but alas I don't think it will make its way to Texas.
The Beer: The Cocoa Porter is a winter warmer made with real ground cocoa. The beer pours an almost opaque with a thin barely visible toffee colored head. The nose is full of cocoa, honey, roasted malts. The mouth is creamy chocolatey, slightly sweet and incredibly smooth. It has a sense of Swiss Miss cocoa mix, and trust me this is a good thing. Its quite amazing in its cocoa-ness. The hop profile is pretty low as this is a creamy malty beer. I thoroughly enjoyed this beer as the only negative I could find was its utter lack of head. I think that would have made the beer even creamier. That withstanding I found this beer to be outstanding, its a strong B+ in my book. While a quite a lot of folks at BA didn't like it, I think they missed the point. This is not a serious Porter or stout, this is drinking hot cocoa by the fire. I believe this is what TK wanted to do, and if it is, its a success.

Santa Fe Chicken Killer

One of my favorite style of beers to have during the Holiday season is barley wine. Its actually one of my favorite style periods, but I sometimes have a hard time finding a really good one, some are either overtly hoppy or just completely unbalanced in another way. Therefore I'm always out searching for more, so imagine my excitement when at my local Central Market I see Santa Fe's barley wine Chicken killer staring back at me on the shelves.
The Brewery: As you would think this brewery is based in Santa Fe, and is New Mexico's oldest mirco-brewery, they distribute to only nearby states. They started brewing beer in 1988 using the former Boulder Brewing Companies equipment. In addition to the brewery they have a tap room and a pub right next to the brewery. While I've never had any of there other beers, Central Market does carry their pale ale and nut brown ale. After tasting this beer I may have to try them.
The Beer: This Chicken Killer weighs in at a robust 10% abv, pours a hazy cloudy amber with a quarter inch off white head. The head dissipates quickly but it leaves plenty of lacing on the glass. The nose is full of toasted malts, rich and complex, raisins and concentrated fruits. The mouth is full of pale toasted malts, raisins, with a lower hop profile than some. Extremely smooth, with little of the alcohol showing up. Caramel malts show up as the beer warms as does something that I could only compare to brown sugar, it wasn't but it had that same taste. Very good beer, one that I could drink all night next to a fire. In fact I did sip on it for a good forty-five minutes and it only got better. This one is a strong A-. A beer that 100% of the folks at BA enjoy.

A Collection of Christmas Beers from Ridgeway Brewing

In my effort to try as many new and different Christmas beers as possible I like trying to find sampler packs from brewery's. So imagine my delight when at my local Spec's I see a collection of four Christmas beers from Ridgeway Brewing. I posted about Ridgeway's elfish beers recently, but this collection was a different sort.
Santa's Butt Porter: This is the beer that got Ridgeway into all sorts of trouble as people thought that if children saw Santa on a beer they would rush to drink it. For a while it was even banned in certain states. Alas not Texas thankfully. This is a Winter Porter and weighs in at 6% abv. It pours a pitch black with a nice tan head, a nose full of raisins and roasted malts. The mouth full of bitter chocolate, coco powder, raisins and a bit of burnt coffee. Very good, smooth aftertaste and highly drinkable, I'll give it a B+. 90% of the folks at BA give it the old thumbs up.
Warm Welcome Nut Browned Ale: Yet another offering with ole Santa on the label. Again this one weighs in at a mild 6&. It pours a golden amber color, which was definitely not as dark as I expected. Nice white head, malty and yeasty on the nose. The mouth was light, fruity with an underlying nuttiness, mild hops and smooth. Not as good as the previous and I'd give it a B-. Over at BA you still see 90% of the folks like it.
Lump of Coal Dark Holiday Stout: I love stouts so I was excited to see this one in the collection. It weighs in at a heftier 8%. Dark, very dark, with a small head on it that quickly dissipates. The nose is rich and chocolatey, with roasted malts, espresso, burnt coffee. The mouth is creamy, with very little alcohol and those same notes of espresso and burnt coffee. There is definitely that sense of chocolate covered espresso beans that I like so much in certain stouts. Very nice, this one gets an A- from me, however only 84% of the folks at BA give it the thumbs up.
Reindeer Revolt English Christmas Ale: The last of the bunch and boy was I sorry to see them go. This beer weighs in at 6% abv. It pours a golden amber with a quarter inch head. Hoppy, pale malts float on the nose. The mouth is almost buttery, with some earthy hoppy flavors, minerally maybe. Again a very smooth very drinkable beer. This one gets a B from me. Still waiting for enough folks at BA to weigh in on this one for the final outcome.

An Update on Southern Star Brewing

I wrote about the Texas's newest brewery Souther Star Brewing out of Conroe, Texas a few months ago. Since that time, the brewery has made a couple of announcements:
The first is that they announced their first beer is Pine Belt Pale, and American Pale Ale. The bigger news is that it's going to be packaged in cans! Now I really like this idea. There is definitely not enough craft brewers packaging in this manor, in fact the only one that comes to mind is Oskar Blues out of Colorado.
They've also announced that their second beer will be a Dortmunder Style Lager, but will be available only in draft in select locations. Hopefully I'll be able to go over to Gingerman's or Houston's Flying Saucer to have a taste. So far I really like what this new brewery is doing. I can't wait to taste their beers. Be sure that as soon as I do, I'll post my thoughts on Texas's newest brewery.

Sam Adams Winter Lager

In my search for the perfect beer I reached out for something widely available. A beer that one can find on most any grocery store shelf. Sam Adams Winter Lager, their regular seasonal beer, is also part of their winter seasonal variety pack.
The Beer: The beer wrapped in a wintery looking blue label, pours a nice deep dark brown with streaks of red and capped off by a huge frothy white head. Note that I used a chalice shaped glass instead of a pint glass. The beer was malty with notes of cinamon and hints of floral hops. The mouth is rich and chewy, roasty malty flavors, with notes of caramel, cinamon, and the slight astringency of hops. I really enjoyed this beer, probably my favorite seasonal from Sam Adams. I'll give it a B+. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.

A couple of no good Very Criminally Bad Elves

I guess you could call it practice, or prepping, either way its fun. The topic for this month's Session is of course Winter Beer, so what better way to uhm, practice, then go out and try as many different winter beers as possible in prep for December 7th? I've been going out scouring the local beer stores for unique winter beer's so imagine my excitement when I saw two very special beers that I had heard so much about. What am I talking about? Shelton Brother's Very Bad Elf, and Criminally Bad Elf beers.
The Brewery: Shelton Bros. is not actually a brewery, they are importers based out of Massachusetts. They import from all over the world, importing from breweries that brew in small batches, and beer that is unpasteurized, and unfiltered. They are all craft beers. The imports come from Belgium, England, Scotland and even Brazil. These two are from England's Ridgeway Brewery, and they are pretty famous for their unique and controversial Christmas beers, most notably Santa's Butt.
Very Bad Elf: The beer is a Special Reserve ale that weighs in at 7.5%, and made with a unique malt and Fuggle hops. The beer pours a pale amber with about a quarter inch head. The nose is full of pale malts, spice, earthy hops. The mouth is toasty, smooth, spicey with a bit of bitterness. It has an unusual aftertaste that I just couldn't place. A solid beer that kept me guessing and attempting to decipher what that taste was. I'll give it a B. Here's what the folks over at BA have to say.
Criminally Bad Elf: This one is a Barleywine and weighs in at 10.5%. This is a bomb of a beer, pouring a pale golden with a quarter inch head. Floural hops, earthy, pale malts all on the nose. The mouth is syrupy, spicey, concentrated white grapeyness. Honey, and a bit of hops round out the taste. Much maltier than most American Barleywines which is exactly what I want. I really enjoyed this beer, I'd give it an A-. The folks over at BA don't necessarily agree as only 88% of the folks give it a thumbs up.

Quick Hits: Beer and Food

Just a quick post on some interesting happenings in the beer and food department.
The first comes from Houston's own Saint Arnold's and involves a new event that they are hosting.
On January 27th, Saint Arnold's will host the first annual One Pot Showdown. The basis of the competition is that everyone is invited to cook a dish, cooked in one pot (think stew, gumbo, soup, etc), and using a Saint Arnold's beer. The top three will receive a prize:

1st place: $500 and a super neat trophy
2nd place: $200 and a neat, but not as super trophy
3rd place: $50 and some other wacky prize

Now how cool is that?
The second cool thing is that the Brewers Association is hosting Savor: an American Craft Beer and Food Experience on May 16-17 in Washington D.C. The goal of this event is to show how well great beer goes with good food. Stan over at Appellation Beer posted about this, and posted the following on how the event will work:

Tickets for each of the three sessions (May 16-17) are limited to the first 700 ticket purchasers. The $85 ticket includes a commemorative tasting glass, souvenir program and Craft Beer Taster’s Commemorative Journal, fabulous food and craft beer pairings, seminars, and 2- ounce samples of specially selected craft beer.”

48 breweries from eight regions will participate.

I know I've said it once already, but how cool is that! It's a great thing that events are being held promoting how well craft beer goes with food. Not only on the local scale but the national scale as well.

The Session #10: Let it snow ,let it snow, Winter Seasonal Beers

This month I have the pleasure of being the host of The Session. For the unitiated, the Session is a monthly virtual beer tasting. Hosted by a different blogger each month, and each month has a different theme chose by the host. Sometimes its more difficult than you think to come up with a theme. I’ve known for quite some time that I was going to be host for this month and I’ve been going back and forth on what this month’s theme should be. Then something happened. The weather became cooler, local markets started putting out their winter vegetables, local restaurants started coming out with their winter menu’s and of course one started to see winter seasonal beers on the shelf. From a food and beer perspective I love this time of the year. The food’s are rich, flavorful, robust if you will. The beer’s are the same way. Winter seasonal’s are usually rich, and darker, but they don't always fit one style. They can be spiced ales, like the Wassail Style, the English style Winter Warmer is usually more malty, with a less hop profile, then there are ales that breweries release as a Winter Seasonal, like Saint Arnold's Winter Stout. All of these beers are made to go with the rich, body warming food of the season. The next thing that kept me in the direction I’m headed was drinking the few seasonal beers that I posted about this week. I think that sealed the deal.

Now that we're finished with the background the theme for this month is Winter Seasonal Beers. This can be any style you want as long as it’s a Winter Seasonal. Don’t limit yourself to just the big heavy beers as so many breweries put out so many different styles there something for everyone. With that, here are the rules:

• Pick any Winter Seasonal beer you want. Or a sampler if you’d like (think the Sam Adam’s one I picked up earlier this week).
• If you select a single beer, let us know why you choose this beer.
• Extra credit for paring your winter seasonal beer with a winter meal, or better yet a recipe based on the beer of your choice.
• Post your contribution to The Session on Friday December 7th. Send me the links to your post and a few short days later I'll post a round up of everyone's contributions.
  

Sam Adams Old Fezziwig Ale

Now that I'm getting into the winter beers, I picked up the Sam Adams Winter Pack. This is variety pack of 12 bottles containing two each of Sam Adam's Holiday Porter, Boston Ale, Cream Stout, Cranberry Lambic, Winter Lager, and Old Fezziwig, named for a Dicken's character.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 5.9%, pours a nice rich brown with a thin white head. Sweet rich malty, caramel-y on the nose along with hints of chocolate and raisins. The mouth has the same rich flavors. Not sweet, but malty and smooth. A bit of the ginger and cinnamon that the label says it contains, but I didn't really get the orange. A very nice winter beer, and exactly what I wanted. I'd give it a nice A-. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

Call it a self imposed restriction, but I just can't start having Winter Ales until after Halloween. To me the start of Winter and all that that means is November 1 (even if its not all that cold in Houston). So once November came around I eagerly went to my local Central Market to see what was on the shelves and low and behold I see something that I'd never tried, and from Sierra Nevada no less. This will be the first winter seasonal of many I'm sure as over the next few weeks I'll be trying as many winter beers as I possibly can.
The Beer: Celebration Ale, Sierra Nevada's Holiday beer weighs in at a potent 6.8% alcohol. It pours a nice brownish amber with a thin creamy white head. Its dry hopped and its IBU's are around 68. The nose is rich, malty, some caramel and a bit of floural hops. However the mouth is BIG on the hops and I guess this is where my disappointment is. When I think of winter ales, I want something rich and malty, not hoppy. While this is a very fine beer full of citrus and piney-ness, its just not what I was expecting, and frankly not what I wanted. As a beer I'd rank it as a solid B +, as a Winter style ale which is what I wanted it would be, I'd give it a C. Here is what the folks at BA had to say.

The Session #9: Roundup

Over the weekend, Tomme posted the roundup of the last Session. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this months theme. I initially wasn't sure how well it would turn out, but I think everyone had a good time with it, and there were 29 entries, which is pretty dang nice.
As for next month? I'm honored to be the host of the next Session. I'll post by the end of the week the theme.

The Session #9: Beer and Music

Its the first Friday of the month so it must be time to open up another Session. This month's session is hosted by Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey Brewery. The theme this month is Beer and Music. Tomme just wants to see how others experience beer and music.
For myself I initially struggled mightily with this topic as its a departure from a typical tasting session. I mean beer and music do go together and not just in the jingolistic '99 bottles of beer on the wall..' but I wasn't quite sure what direction I wanted to go in. I looked for inspiration, thinking it shouldn't be that hard. So I started to think about Tomme's original post, about how you can walk into any brewery and you'll hear some sort of music playing in various styles and various sound levels. My local brewery even has multiple Polka Music Videos posted on their site. Oskar Blues out of Colorado not only brews great beers, have a fine restaurant, they also are home to some killer live blues music. These are just a few ways of how beer and music pair so well with eachother. Both are incredibly artistic endeavors and when a true artist gets involved its a wonderous thing. I'm in the process of reading Eric Clapton's Autobiography, a true artist in music if there ever was one. One of the really interesting things in the book is his discussion about who influenced his playing, from the great Robert Johnson, to J.J. Cale, to Howlin Wolf, he has a passion for the history of music especially blues. He listened to these early masters and it influenced the way he played. How is this any different than the master brewer? Its not. Most brewers of craft beer started by tasting, and experiencing old world beers, whether they be German, British or Belgian it opened up a world of influence. Just as Clapton took what the masters did and improved on it in his own way, so have the master brewer's improved or stepped up the efforts of old. From making extremly hoppy beers, to barrel aging the beers, to any number of things craft brewer's do today, its the artist putting their own stamp on beer making. As much fun as it is to hear an amazing musician like Clapton play, its just as much of a pleasure to sit down at pub and savour the flavors of a finely craft brew, appreciating the artistic energy that went into it.
While I don't have a specific Beer and Music memory or story, these past few days after work, you'll usually find me in my chair reading Clapton's biography, a beer in my hand, listening to music, which is more often then not old blues like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Howlin Wolf, and Robert Johnson. As its fall, I've been reaching for a nice autumn beer, the latest of which was the Abita Pecan Harvest Beer.
The Beer: This is a fun little beer from the Louisiana Brewery. A ale made with Louisiana grown pecans and it pours a nice amber color with a quarter inch head. Not as strong a nose as I expected, but hints of a malty nuttiness make it through along with some floral scents from the hops. The mouth is smooth, very pecan-y, some caramel malty sweetness, a bit of pecan pie here, pretty nice if not a little mild. I'd have preferred it to be a little less subtle, but still a very good beer that I'd give a B-. It was a good beer to have reading the Clapton Book, listening to the blues on an unexpectedly cool Texas night.
Now, head over to Tomme's blog and checkout his story and see how others incorporate Beer and Music.