International Brewer's Day

July 18th, today has been decreed to be International Brewer's day. An unofficial (and hopefully some day soon official) holiday to celebrate those great and wonderful artists that create the drink we love and are so passionate about. International Brewers Day (henceforth IBD) is the brain child of Jay Brookston. This day is used to celebrate brewer's and the idea is for beer bloggers like me and many others to participate by profiling, interviewing, talking about, etc brewers. July 18th was chosen as the date because its the feast day for Saint Arnold of Metz, the patron saint of brewers. If you want more information head over to the IBD's website.
When I first heard about this, I got really excited because I thought it would be a great excuse to get to know a local brewer a little better and to write about the beer he creates and that I enjoy so much, it also didn't help the date for this was July 18th.
It should be obvious by now that I'm profiling Saint Arnold Brewing Company and specifically its owner Brock Wagner. With it being the local brewery in Houston (for a while the only one in the area) I've written a lot about Saint Arnolds in the past couple of years on the blog. For good reason, they are a great brewery and more important good folks.
Let me start by giving folks a little background on how I became introduced to their beer. I went to school in Louisiana where I drank mostly Shiner and Abita,both good solid beers. When I moved to Houston I was trying to find a good local beer, and one day my then girlfriend (now wife) took me to the Saturday tour at Saint Arnold's. I was instantly hooked. The atmosphere at these tastings is amazing. Everyone standing in line for the free beer, then sitting down communal style on these long long benches, talking not only with your own group but everyone around you sharing experiences, and of course food, food that you've brought from home, from the grocery store, or pizza place etc. It's one big family atmosphere. I thought to myself then that this was a pretty cool deal. Well needless to say I've been back numerous times even in the heat of the summer (no AC!!!!).
Another neat thing about the tour is looking at the wall by the long bar and seeing all these letters of thanks from different organizations that Saint Arnold's has helped in some way. They really care about the community there as do many small craft brewers which is one more reason why these folks mean so much to us. Needless to say I think Saint Arnold's is a top notch company so I really wanted to be able to sit down and do an interview with Brock. I'm happy to say that while I didn't have the time to sit down with Brock he was gracious enough to answer numerous questions via email....so with out further ado.
A little introduction to Brock first. He went to college at Rice University here in Houston and got into home brewing during his stay. Once he graduated he stayed in Houston and worked as a financial analyst doing corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions, primarily in the oil service industry. At some point his work was getting in the way of his homebrewing and as he says "one of them had to go." Lucky for us kept brewing beer. So time for some questions:
You chose the name Saint Arnold's to celebrate the patron Saint of Brewing correct?
Yes

What got you into Homebrewing in the first place?
The RA in my college at Rice (who also plays trumpet in the Houston Symphony) introduced me to homebrewing. I'd go over to DeFalco's (then next door to the GingerMan) and get my supplies and brew in the dorm.

Whats the most unexpected thing you have noticed being a brewer?
The way women throw themselves at you. That was a joke. The lack of control we have over the selling process. We control brewing the beer, but once it leaves the brewery, it is a challenge to control the process from then on. We work hard trying to do so.

Whats the hardest thing?
Getting people to be aware of us. As a craft brewer, we don't have the money to advertise and our customers don't really seek out beers that way. The result is the only way to make people aware of us is word-of-mouth. This takes years, which is why the first 10 years are such a challenge for most small brewers.

Whats the funnest thing about being a brewer?
Making beer. Really! At the end of the day, drinking exactly the beer that you want, and you made it to boot, is really satisfying. Now for funniest:
Beer is every-man's drink. There are no affectations surrounding it (or at least there shouldn't be.) As a result, people feel a strong connection to our brewery and that we are part of their lives. This leads people to tell you very funny and sometimes personal stories about Saint Arnold drinking experiences. Some of them fall under the "too much information" category!

One of the really great things about Saint Arnold's is its community involvement. I love going to the brewery and checking out the wall with all of the letters of thanks from the folks that you've helped. From working with the Elissa Project to Buffalo Bayou, you do a lot for the city, why go to all the effort? Do you have a favorite causes? Do you have plans to support any other big causes?
I believe strongly in the community, and in order for the community to be strong, people and businesses need to be involved. We probably do more than we should, but it makes us feel good, so why not? Usually our process is that we look to get involved in things that we like, and then we try to come up with a business rationale. If we succeed (even if it's a stretch), we do it. We plan on doing more things with the Orange Show, partially to support that organization, but more than anything, to make sure that the Art Car Parade is financially healthy. That is a Houston institution that is quite expensive to put on and, surprisingly, doesn't get much support from the City.

So how have those Saturday sessions evolved, from way back in 1994 to now?
They started with 10 to 25 people for the first couple of years. It took about six years to get up to 50 people, then they started exploding. We had over 600 people here last Saturday, and it was hotter than Hades!

I love your every day beers, but your Divine Series is otherwordly, how did the decision to make more extreme beers come about? I know some are made by homebrewers, but what about others?
We just wanted to have fun and brew some beers that we really wanted to make but wasn't sure how large the audience would be for them. Pretty much all of the recipes for our beers are mine, but with the Divine Reserves, the guys here compete to come up with a recipe that we decide to brew up. We don't publicize whose recipe it is, but everybody here knows. For example, when Divine Reserve No. 4 won a gold medal at the World Beer Cup this year, Vince was as giddy as a school girl. Every year one of the Divine Reserve recipes comes from the winner of the Big Batch Brew Bash. That homebrew does get a lot of publicity for winning the competition and having this beer brewed. Also, we enter that beer in the Pro-Am category at the Great American Beer Festival.
You've recently bought new property closer to downtown. Why that property? Was it the location? Size? Price? Or a combination of all three?
It was all three. I wanted to locate the brewery close to town, preferred an older building that had some character, and we were able to afford (sort of) this location.
Besides the obvious expansion to capabilities what other things will having this new place bring?Air-conditioned space for the tours! And more bathrooms. I know it's goofy, but actually owning a place gives a certain feeling of permanence and a greater connection to the city as well.

Any plans to go outside of Texas? Why or why not?
Not at the moment, but I don't rule it out as a possibility. Traditionally beer has been local. It is best when it is fresh. It is expensive to ship something as heavy as beer. I think we would all be best served if we first and foremost focused on our local communities.

Do you have a favorite Saint Arnold's Brew? if so what is it?

No, I don't have a favorite Saint Arnold beer overall, but any given evening, I certainly will be in the mood for one specific of our beers. With this heat, I have been consuming a lot of Summer Pils, but earlier in the summer it was Elissa. I will often finish the evening with an Amber Ale. And I always long for some Christmas Ale, although not usually when it's in the 90's outside, but I did enjoy having some off of our Christmas in July run. OK, so you see my issue.

If you aren't drinking Saint Arnold's what do you reach for?

There isn't one beer I look for other than Saint Arnold's. If I am someplace that doesn't serve Saint Arnold, I will get whatever the most interesting, flavorful beer there is, but it could be many different beers.

There you have it folks. Thanks so much to Brock for taking the time to answer a few questions. And for everyone else out there, have you hugged your brewmaster today? Happy International Brewer's Day everyone.

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.

InBev and A-B

Well it happened. It of course (unless you've been asleep under a rock) is the buyout of Anheuser-Busch by Belgian Super industrial brewing company InBev. The beer blogosphere and main stream media have written numerous stories in the last few days. I wanted to wait a couple of days, see folks reactions before posting my own thoughts. I've had a good time reading peoples comments to other stories and the response is pretty wide ranging. From "this is an outrage how can something so American be bought out" (whats more American than capitalism?) to "Great now maybe someone will make Bud taste good" (they won't, InBev hasn't done great things with Becks and Stella now have they?) and of course everything in between. Now here are my thoughts.
Is it in outrage that a Foreign country can buy an "American icon?" Well first of all let's discuss Bud as an American Icon. What many don't realize or are too lazy to look up is the fact that while A-B may have been run by the Busch family, they weren't necessarily owned by them. They were owned by shareholders, and they weren't all from the good ole U.S. of A, but instead represented people and companies from all over the world, so let's stop the nonsense of complaining about a foreign company buying out Bud. Bud was already owned by companies and people from foreign countries so whats the difference? The Busch family not running things? This is a loss? Now is Bud an American Icon? I guess you could lump them in the same category as McDonalds and Coke, but Icon's? Buying out small breweries, suing small breweries until they can't afford to run their businesses, buying out other breweries from around the world (sound familiar InBev?) and taking them over? That's not how I define an Icon.
As for the comments about InBev making Bud better, again this is nonsense. InBev isn't going to mess with the recipe of Budweiser, the same folks that brewed it yesterday will brew it tomorrow and the next day. Those aren't the employees that have to worry about their jobs. Unfortunately I'm sure that InBev will be consolidating things and that's the saddest part of this buyout.
Lastly, what does this mean for what we care about, Craft Beer? Well there are two thoughts, what I think will happen and what I hope happens. When the possible merger was first discussed I posted my original thoughts on the issue here. Let me expand a bit on my initial thesis. I still think this could be bad for craft brewers. The larger the company the more tentacles they have into distributorships, the more leverage they have. If they tell distributors to only carry their products, and they have a large inventory of said products then the distributor may be enticed to work exclusively with them. This limits the choice for the consumer. Along with the InBev/A-B merger you have MolsonCoors and SABMiller merging their North American Distributors. This means in North America you have two brewing companies controlling (for the most part) beer and its distribution. How does this help the consumer? I don't think it does and that frankly is a shame.
Now I don't want to end on a downer, so let's talk about what I HOPE will happen. Reading the comments to stories, I've seen a lot of folks talk about "well I won't drink Bud anymore, I want an American Beer". Let's forget for the moment that Bud will still be made in America and focus on what that comment can mean. It means people want to drink American. Hopefully that can mean local. For instance here in Texas, maybe people go from Bud to Shiner, and from Shiner to Saint Arnolds or Real Ale, or Southern Star as their taste buds are opened to better beer. Could this happen? Why not? Even if a small percentage of Bud drinkers turn away and switch to craft beer, it could be a HUGE swing in over all sales. Its a unique opportunity for small craft brewers, to tout the localness of their products. As for me, I haven't had a Bud in years and years, I'll keep drinking my craft beer and promoting it, and talking about it as much as I possibly can.
Thanks to Jay for this last little tidbit. Maybe craft brewing is already on the upswing.....with Bud now being owned by a foreign company who is the largest brewer (a company that actually brews beer not contracts it) in the country? Boston Beer Co maker of Sam Adams.

Newsy News Bits on Saint Arnold's

A quick post today just to share some fun information that Saint Arnold's put into their newsletter.

- First things first, Saint Arnold's is doing it again, Christmas in July. One of my favorite times of the year. They are releasing a limited amount of their Christmas beer this week in bottles and a few places will have it on tap. In its third year this is really starting to be a fun little tradition.

- Secondly and more impressively Saint Arnold's reports that their sales were up 30% for the first half of 2008. That's awesome and one more reason why they can go buy the new place and expand a little. Congratulations to Brock and the gang.

Two beers from a Business trip

My wife's business trip at that! My wife got back from a conference on the west coast recently and brought back two beers for me..what a great woman! Although from a well known brewer and one that I'm familiar with, I hadn't had either of this. The beers are Rogue's Brutal Bitter and Eugene City Brewing Triple Jump Pale Ale (also from Rogue Brewing)....hmm pale ale's! Needless to say it didn't take me very long to open these two bomber's up for a drink.
Brutal Bitter: Rogue describes this as an Imperial Bitter with 59 IBU's. The beer pours a cloudy orange capped with a thing off white head. Grapefruit and pine with a bit of earthiness is on the nose. There's also this lemon meringue scent that's really nice and then some toasty pale malts finish it off. The mouth is very bitter hops, its definitely in your face, but not quite to the point of being over the top. Its actually somewhat balanced, effervescent, citrusy, crisp and smooth. Very nice. This one gets a B from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.
Eugene City Brewing Triple Jump Pale Ale: As weird as it sounds I couldn't find much info on this beer. Both BA and Rogue list Eugene City's Tracktown IPA but not this one. Anyway this ones a fine one. Pours a hazy orange with a thick white heads. Hops grapefruit, a lot of citrus peel. The mouth is strongly hops, more than the previous, but doesn't get astringent which happens so often with these over hopped beers. This one is NICE. Great lacing, smooth, grapefruit, zest, creamy. I really liked this one. This on gets a B+ from me.

The Session # 18 Announcement

Fresh off our round up of the 17th Session, we get an announcement of the 18th. The host this month is the Barleyblog, the theme is Anniversary Beer. Here are the details:

Use this as an excuse to celebrate. Open a limited release anniversary beer from your favorite brewer. Enjoy that special beer you normally only open on your wedding anniversary or birthday. Either way, tell us about it. Why is it a beer you may only drink once a year? Why is that brewery’s annual release the one you selected?

Sounds fun, I might have one or two special beers laying around that I could break open. Due date? August 1 will be when every ones posts their take on this theme and shortly thereafter The Barleyblog will post a round up.

The Session Roundup

I thought this month's session was relatively inspired. With a great theme, and going back to a more beer-centric one is a plus in my book. Rob posted his round up a few days ago, and at least 28 (maybe more by now) joined in the fun. So head over to Pfiff and check out the round up. Check back in the next few days for the announcement of the next session.

The Session # 17: Drinking Anti-Seasonally

Its the 4th of July, so Happy Independence Day everyone. Its also the first Friday of the month which means its Session Time. This month the event is hosted by Rob Denunzio over at Pfiff! The theme this month is the Anti Seasonal. We all drink easy going session beers in the summer but every once in a while we have our guilty pleasures, big alcoholic hoppy, malty bombs, that frankly don't go well with the heat of the summer (especially if you live down here in Texas). As I've written about these past few weeks, there's not much better than a nice flavorful, easy drinking beer in this heat, but man (or woman of course) can not live by these beers alone. Nay I say, we must seek out this big flavorful robust beers, even if they don't make sense, our taste buds cry out for them. So it was with that mindset that I went to my recent Spec's seeking out something that's not a session beer, something with a little more PUNCH! What did I find? Well Rogue Russian Imperial Stout, definetely not seasonal, and definetely not some easy going session beer.
The Beer: This is Rogue's XS series so it shows up in a black ceramic bottle with a flip top closure. The beer pours a jet black with a tan colored head. the head reminded me of the crema in an esspresso. Malts are all over the nose, chocolate, burnt and roasty with just a bit of alcohol on the nose. The mouth is strong and bitter, very dry with a bit of dark bitter chocolate flavors. Very little fruit flavor left in the malt as this one is bitter, not from hops but from the burnt malts. Its a good RIS, not too strong of an alcohol flavor. With its dryness it would pair wonderfully with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla icecream so heck maybe this is a summer beer! The only complaint I have with the beer is its maybe a little too bitter from the malts....so this one gets a B- from me. Here's what the folks over at BA had to say.

Stay tuned Rob over at Pfiff will be posting a round up soon.

Texas Beer and Brew Pubs

Just a quick note today, but a good note nonetheless. Lee Nichols of the Austin Chronicle has an article out today on the Texas brewery scene. While noting that it has a long way to go to reach the epic standards set by Oregon, California, Colorado (and many others) acknowledges that the scene is growing and growing every day. The article does a really good job of touching on all the current breweries in Texas, their flagship beers and then the beers you ought to try. It touches on the brew pub scene in Texas (which outside of Austin is really lacking) before giving information on the breweries and brewpub's that are in work. As I've said before its an exciting time to be a Texas beer lover because the situation is only looking better.
Bonus plug for this article is a quote from your truly. Go check it out.

Two Beers from Flying Dog

I'm a huge fan of Flying Dog beers. When they were in Downtown Denver I went to the tour and tasting on multiple occasions, but just because they've moved across country to Maryland doesn't mean I like their beers any less. Walking through my local Spec's I came across Flying Dog's Sample Pack containing 5 different beers: Amber, Wheat, Pale Ale, Kolsch, and Porter. Well not quite...due to the archaic beer labeling laws in Texas we don't get the Porter, instead Flying Dog put their seasonal beer: Woody Creek White a Belgium Wheat Beer. I'm ok with that change (although I do need to try their Porter, heck and their new Triple). So in the process of trying good session beers I figured it would be fun to try two different wheat beers, one the Woody Creek, the other Flying Dog's In Heat Wheat a German style Hefeweizen.
The Beer: Woody Creek White: The beer weighs in at 4.8% abv, pouring a beautiful hazy cloudy gold capped with a thick white head. The nose is spicy, some banana notes, orange zest, spices, coriander. Great thick mouthfeel, really strong notes of citrus; oranges, lemon pie. Very thirst quenching and a great beer on a hot Texas day. This on gets a B+ from me.
The Beer: In-Heat Wheat: This one weighs in at 4.7% pours a good cloudy orange with a good dense head, a little thinner than I like, but its very dense. The nose is full of banana's and cloves. This is what I love in a good German Hefe. This is what is missing in most American Wheat beers so I'm extremely glad to see it here. As stated the nose is good, but not great, I'd like to see the banana and cloves to be a little stronger. Great mouthfeel, thick, good bananas, some citrus notes, just a bit of sourness. All in all a very solid wheat beer, this one gets a B from me.
More from Flying Dog to come as I make my way through their pack.

Siner 99: Helles Lager

Yes its been out a while, but I haven't had a good chance to post on this particular beer. But what better chance then now when I'm trying to highlight good solid session beers. This particular beer has been released celebrating Shiner's 99th Birthday. They've released a few others, two that I've posted on in the past. Unfortunately these have been pretty hit or miss, however one was such a hit that its turned into a regular offering in the form of Shiner Black. Now on to this beer, Shiner 99 a Helles Lager.
The Beer: This one pours a dark straw colored with a decently sized white head, that dissipates relatively quickly. Some hop notes in the nose along with some pale malts. The hops are the nice mild hallertau and that's evident on the nose. Not the big grapefruit you get from American hops and that's appropriate for this style. The mouth has some nice bitterness up front with a mild malty sweetness on the finish along with a mild spicy character. Good depth of mouthfeel, there's no thinness here, which was my complaint with Shiner 98. A mild beer with a good depth of flavor, smooth but with a good amount of carbonation. A very good solid offering from little Shiner, Texas. This one gets a solid B from me. Here's what the folks at BA have to say.

Book Review: Grape VS. Grain

Recently there seems to be a big push to write articles, books, etc comparing Beer and Wine. Specifically promoting how beer is wine's equal. Heck, a few months back, Dogfish Head's own Sam Calagione released such a book with sommelier Marnie Old titled He Said Beer, She Said Wine. This book specifically talking about food pairings. A good book, however a new one has been released recently that goes beyond food pairings and really dives into the differences between wine and beer and what makes beer wines equal (if not superior in many cases). The author of the book is Charles Bamforth who is the Chair of the Dept of Food Science and Technology and Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences at U of Cal-Davis. I know that's a mouthful, but the point is, the guy knows beer and specifically brewing science. This book is not just beer vs. wine, but its purpose is to try and debunk myths of wine's superiority. His thesis I believe is the following quote of the book:

I [the author] seek to compare these two beverages on the basis of their history, technology, scientific and artistic appreciation, and impact on the body. To that extent, and reflecting on my professional speciality the theme of this book is primarily on of demonstrating how beer is a product of an excellence and sophistication to match wine, and I seek to do this my championing beer while being entirely fair to the other noble beverages.

A pretty noble thesis, and one that for the most part I feel he succeeded. The initial chapters discuss the components of wine and beer and then how each are created. This is really where the author hits his stride eloquently expressing how much more complex brewing is over wine making. The middle part of the book covers beer and wine quality and the various types. Nothing earth shattering here, covering things that most beer lovers will know (at least in regards to their favorite beverage). The last chapters of the book cover the health benefits of beer and the author ends on a high note here. Putting many studies all in one place he really does show that while there is nothing definitive on the health benefits of beer (nor truth be told is their of wine) beer is just as healthy as wine and does not deserve the derision it has received from various health nuts.
In conclusion, while many of the subjects within this book are covered in other places, the benefit of this book is capturing everything in one place while at the same time giving one something to fight back against your friendly oenophiles who tout the greatness and superiority of wine. This book gives one ample ammunition to fight back. There are periods of highly technical jargon that can bog down the reader, but over all its a fun and entertaining read. You will definitely learn something, if no more than how good and complex that glass of beer really is.

Local Breweries in the news

Houston is blessed with two breweries in the area. One is the oldest craft brewery in Texas and located in Houston, the other one is one of the newest breweries and is located North of Houston in Conroe. Both have been highlighted in local news outlets.
- First is this article in the Houston Chronicle on Saint Arnold's. Nothing really new other than after the big move next year Saint Arnold's will start holding tours during the week instead of just Saturday's.
- Secondly a feature from our local channel ABC 13 on the guys from Southern Star Brewing Company. Its nice to see a good feature on TV highlighting local craft beer.

Abita Strawberry Lager

Abita has always held a special place for me because along with Texas's own Shiner it introduced me to beers other than those from Bud, Miller, Coors. I went to university in Louisiana and was introduced to the greatness of dark beer with Turbodog, and fruity wheat beers with Purple Haze so I'm pretty familiar with Abita's regular lineup. However, last time I was in New Olreans, I was really surprised by the depth of their other beers Abita has released that never make it to the Houston area. Rumors have been that this is going to change and we are going to see more and more of Abita's other brews. Well it seems the rumors are true and I've seen their seasonal Abita Red (and Irish Red) and this one their Strawberry Lager.
The Beer: This one is a lager made with fresh local strawberry's (hint to TX Craft brewers: great idea to make a beer with fresh local fruit). The beer pours a very pale straw color with a pretty decent quarter inch bright white head. The nose is full of strawberry's along with lesser notes of hay, and lightly toasted bread. The mouth is full of carbonation, and an abundance of strawberry's with lesser notes of pale malts. There is no strawberry color, but the flavor is really there and brings a bit of tartness to the mouthfeel. Its a good beer. I'm not the biggest fan of fruit beers so unsurprisingly I'd liked to have seen some more lager-ish notes within the beer. Its a good crisp clean summer/spring beer. A decent session beer, because while not a potent beer, not sure how many of these I could drink in one sitting just due to the strawberry flavor and subsequent tartness. This one gets a B- from me. Here's what the folks over at BA think.

Session Beers

No this post is not about beers that I have talked about for the monthly Session. Instead I wanted to post on those beers that don't get a whole lot of love in the Beer Blogging universe. Those beers that are not high alcohol, high hops, high malt, heck high everything. These are not bombs of flavor, but relatively balanced flavors. Clean and crisp. Beers that you can have one, two, or even three in one sitting. These beers may not create conversation, but they don't get in the way of it either. They also happen to be beers that are perfect for a hot summer day in Houston. These are the pilsners, ambers, browns, etc that don't get the high rankings on Beer Advocate or other beer websites. I've come realize that while I drink these beers fairly often I have done a poor job of touting them and posting on them. That stops now. Over the course of the next few weeks I'm going to try and write up on as many of these tasty session beers as I can.
The first one just so happens to be local: Saint Arnold's Amber. While their Divine Reserve series is greatness, they also make some pretty solid every day brews.
The Beer: This is the definition of a session beer weighing in at 4.4%. It pours an orange amber color with a decent sized frothy white head. Notes of caramel, some floral hop notes (from the cascade hops used) and notes of copper. The mouth has bitter hops up front, smooth caramel notes at the finish. Great grilling beer and as with any session beer, great drinkability. My complaints would be that the beer is just slightly on the sweet side and I would have liked just a bit more effervescence. Other than that this is a fine beer and gets a solid B from me. Surprisingly the folks over at BA agree and give it pretty good marks

The Session #17 Announcement

Fresh off the round up from the Session 16 we get the announcement for this month's exciting event. For the uninitiated the Session is a monthly virtual beer testing, each hosted by a different blogger, and each with a different theme. On the first Friday of the month, after posting on that month's theme we send our posts to the host where they do a round up of all the tastings. Its a great time to learn about beers that I may never have had the opportunity to try.
With that, on to the anouncement. The host this month is Rob over at Pfiff a blog "about about tasting, brewing, history, culture, and general fermented grain goodness." Sounds like my kind of blog! The theme this month is Going against the Grain (or as I like to call it, the anti-season beer session). In his words:

Think of this as the unorthodox cousin of such topics as "beer and food" and "beer and music". Beer and weather, perhaps? More like beer despite the weather, I guess. Cracking open a Guinness on the beach, finishing a day of yardwork with a Speedway Stout, or whatever else you do that raises an eyebrow (again, beer-related, please), do us all a favor and take a few moments to share your non-conformist tale

Sounds fun, this is definitely one session that I'll be able to join in on rather enthusiastically. Due date is the first Friday of the July - the 4th. So go post and send them to Rob and he'll post his round up a few days later.

Some Big Saint Arnold's News

Fresh off their release of the fantastic Divine Reserve 6 Saint Arnold's put out a press release today concerning the future of their operations. From the Houston Business Journal it looks like Saint Arnold's will begin work on their new brewery starting next week. The new location is a 3 story facility built in 1914 located at 2000 Lyons Avenue. Saint Arnold's will have the capability to increase their output some 400%. While their current brewery has an output of 22,500 barrels the new place will have initial capabilities of 40,000 barrels with the possibility to expand to 120,000. HOLY CRAP, that's a lot of Divine Reserve. Another neat fact is that the new brewery will feature a new brewhouse purchased from a now defunct brewery in an old German Monastery. How cool is that.
I think this will be HUGE, not only for Saint Arnold's but for the city of Houston as this new brewery is much closer to downtown. If all goes as planned the opening of the new brewery will coincide with Saint Arnold's 15th Anniversary next June.
Personally I see only an upside here, as long as Saint Arnold's continues the steady expansion and doesn't try to move to fast, they should be able to keep up with demand while continuing to brew excellent and high quality beers. Great Job Brock and Co.

Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve 6

Well its been a LONG time coming, but the time has arrived. Saint Arnold's released their 6th Divine Reserve today and it just so happened that my local Spec's had some. I was able to quickly run by and grab a couple of six packs right after work (the beer guy there already reported they had gone through 6 cases in 90 minutes). This one is going to go FAST. As for the beer itself? I'll let Saint Arnold's founder Brock Wagner describe it:

This is a big, malty, hoppy barleywine. Yet all of the intense flavors meld together to create a well-balanced big beer. The nose has a strong resiny hop note. The taste starts with a combination of the malty sweetness and spicy hops with both flavors magnified by the high alcohol level. The spiciness carries through the middle and finishes with a satisfyingly dry bitter. It was brewed with 2 row pale, Caramunich and Special B malts with brown sugar added in the kettle and hopped with 225 lbs of Columbus hops including 44 lbs that were dry hopped. We used our Saint Arnold yeast strain which gives a rich, creamy mouthfeel to the brew. It is unfiltered and will clarify with aging.

225 lbs of hops? In this day and age of hop shortage? That's crazy talk. Well needless to say I couldn't wait very long to taste this one, so as soon as I got home today I had to try it.
The Beer: Poured the beer into a nice snifter glass, it weighs in at 10% and pours a cloudy brown amber with a nice taupe colored head. The nose is all hops here, full of citrus and piney notes with just a hint of caramel. The mouth unsurprisingly is more of the same; HOPPY, major grapefruit notes along with strong piney resin notes. However as hoppy as this bomb of a beer is its well balanced with a nice caramel malty sweetness, and vanilla notes. This one is extremely complex, but unexpectedly smooth and balanced. While a big powerful beer there is not a noticeable alcohol flavor. With the beer being unfiltered I think it gives it an almost chewy quality, which creates a nice textural experience. This ones a keeper, and while not as good as the amazing DR5, this one is damn good. It gets an A- from me. It seems like the folks over at BA agree.

The Session 16 Roundup: Beer Festivals

Dang that sure did sneak up on me. I completely forgot that last Friday was the first one of the month, meaning its Session time. I had forgotten because I've been in Florida this past week or so due to a wedding. A quick aside and no offense to anyone from Florida, but I was extremely disappointed in the beer scene there. I was in Orlando and its surrounding areas, but I couldn't find any place to get great beer. I stuck with Yueling (which isn't bad at all) but that's about as good as I could find. Anyways back to the Session. This month's theme was Beer Festivals and the hose was the Geistbear Brewing Blog. So head over there for his post on the round up.

Saint Arnold's Divine Reserver #6

YES! The announcement has been made. I just received the latest newsletter from Saint Arnold's and it contains the release date and style of their latest Divine Reserve. The style is a Hoppy American Barleywine. A little bit surprising to me since we are in the midst of a hop shortage. I do wonder if this will have an effect on the price. While DR's are normally higher than the average six pack, my money is on the fact that this one is even more expensive than others. The release date is the 12th and 13th of June. This one will go fast I'm sure. I can't wait.

Texas Beer Culture

I know I know, two posts in one day. This one is a quick one. Its a topic that I want to write a much longer post on, but in the meantime to whet your appetite, head over to Beer Advocate where there is a good discussion going on whether or not Texas can support a beer culture. (a hint on where I stand, not only can we support one, we ARE, and its growing every day). More to come from me in a much longer post. If you have your own thoughts on our great states Beer culture, feel free to comment below.

Its ok to be bitter

This week I was pleased to see a beer article in the esteemed New York Times. The NYT wine writer/guru Eric Asimov wrote a rather well written expose on Bitter. Bitter is a British term for their 'ordinary' beer. This is not high alcohol, high hop, or even high flavor beer. These are session beers that can be consumed in the midst of conversation. Full of flavor but balanced, these are not extravagant beers, but beers to drink by the pool on a hot Texas day. As with wine, when summer comes we may start to turn away from the big bold beers (or deep dark red's) and turn to more gentle fare such as a bitter (or white or rose wine). One can not live by Extreme beer alone.
The article is a good summation of what is a bitter (even going so far as to take the reader briefly through the difference between cask bitter and bottled).
The rest of the article was the rating of the 25 bitters the panel tasted. The panel consisted of Mr. Asimov, Florence Fabricant, owner of Bierkraft Richard Scholz and Alex Hall who runs the website gotham-imbiber.com. Unfortunately for you and I we can't get all of their top 10 here in Houston. The good news we can partake in their top rated Bitter: Left Hand Sawtooth Ale that's available at Spec's, Central Market, and Whole Foods. Other beers that we can get our hands on in the area include: Fuller’s London Pride (#3), Black Sheep Ale (#4), Fuller's ESB(#5), Morland Old Speckled Hen (#6) Greene King Abbot Ale (#7),.
Good info to have when you're looking for a good tasty beer on a hot Texas day.

Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale

First off hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. I know I did, it was the first real get together my wife and I have had since we moved into our new house. Fun times were had. This is a sad post for me, my last Oskar Blues beer to post on (at least until I get some Ten-Fiddy). But as with the others I've tasted this one is in a can, which is not only good for the beer, its good for the pool patio, no broken glass here. This one is OB's flagship and noted for being the first hand-canned craft beer per their website. Since this beer showed up in our fair market it has quickly become my go to everyday non Saint Arnold's beer. I know that's a mouthful, but the point is its a great every day beer.
The Beer: Beer weighs in at 6.5% with 65 IBU's. It pours a bright orangish amber with a quarter inch head. The nose is full of grapefruit, pale toasted malts, other citrus notes. The mouth is smooth and crisp, great effervescence, hoppy, grapefruity even some orange and apricot notes.. However the mouth has some good balance to it, as hoppy as it can be there are some good bready pale malt notes as well. Its almost a IPA and not a traditional (think Sierra Nevada Pale ale) pale ale. Very good, this one gets a straight up B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA have to say.

Beer News

A couple of quick Beer related news notes on this beautiful Houston Friday afternoon.
- First off an article from MSNBC on yet another Beer Merger. This one's big time folks. In news that could change the global economics of beer, Belgian SUPER Brewery INBEV may be bidding of American Super Brewery Anheuser Busch. If those two giants merge, you have one huge corporation with wide ranging imports, distribution resources, etc. Using A-B's distribution could INBEV's beers edge out some local micro-brewery's at the local supermarket? Bet on it.

- Secondly, I've been talking about Colorado Brewery Oskar Blues lately, so this news is rather timely. Colorado's only Whiskey Distillery Stranahans has contracted Oskar Blues to make their mash. You may remember that Stranahans is owned by Mr. Stranahan who owns Flying Dog, formerly of CO, however when Flying Dog left for Maryland recently Stranahans whiskey was left without someone to make their mash for them. They had always wanted to continue to use a local craft brewery and it looks like they've found a good one. What does Oskar Blues get out of the deal (besides money of course)? They get to use Stranahans used Whiskey barrels, leading me to ask the obvious question. Could a Barrel aged can beer be to far away?

Oskar Blues Gordon Ale

Another beer, another can. I guess I'm on a roll of late, but I'm just getting a big kick out of all the great beer that has come to Texas of late packaged in cans. Its a good trend. Speaking of new beer, there is lots coming to our fair state in the next few months. As the new beers arrive you'll see me posting on them as quickly as I can. Oskar Blues has three mainstay beers, and all of them have arrived in Texas. Old Chub which I tried last week, Dales Pale Ale, and this one Gordon's ale, named after Gordon Knight a Vietnam Vet who lost his life fighting a wild fire in Lyons, CO home of Oskar Blues. Oskar Blues website calls this one a strong ale, a mix between an Imperial Red and a double IPA. Sounds tasty.
The Beer: The beer pours a reddish brown with a thin taupe colored head and weighs in at 8.7%. Big hops on the nose, scratch that, HUGE hops on the nose. Grapefruit and piney. The mouth has great carbonation which I think helps bring down the hop intensity as its not nearly as big as I feared. Citrusy and piney with notes of apricots and pale malts. Not a lot of alcohol flavor but the finish does have some nice hop filled resin notes. Great lacing along the glass. Overall this is a strong showing from OB, this one gets a B+ from me, here's what the folks at BA think.

Newsweek Article on Beer

While perusing MSNBC.com I came across a pretty good article on craft beer from Newsweek. The first part of the article covers the amazing growth of craft beer, highlighting the quick rise and fall of the 90's to the re-emergence that we are seeing currently. However the main part of the article focuses on a very informative interview with Charlie Papazian. Some really good points on what Mr. Papazian and company are doing in D.C. working with The Small Brewers Caucus in helping change laws and tax codes. Recommended reading for sure.

Oskar Blues Old Chub

Well, I guess I must be hitting on a theme, two canned beers in one week. Oskar Blues is new to the Texas market, but I actually made it to their brewery not to long ago and found their beers to be extremely good. The package of course is canned which as I've mentioned before, I really appreciate and am glad that more craft breweries are doing it. Not only does Oskar Blues can all their beer, they were the first craft brewery to do so back in 2002. Not bad.
The Beer: This one is a Scottish Style beer along the lines of a Wee Heavy weighing in at 8.0%. The beer pours a very dark brown almost black topped with a creamy cappuccino colored head. The nose has notes of raisins, coffee, and toffee. The mouth is chewy, smooth. Rich roasted malt flavors abound, little hop flavor here. Chocolately, esspresso. Very nice and silky smooth. Another canned beer, another A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Southern Star Pine Belt Pale Ale

YES! Finally the time has arrived. Texas's newest brewery Southern Star out of Conroe has released it's first beer. If you've read this blog much you know we've followed them since day one, and I've been extremely excited to try their beers. Before I get into the tasting a bit more on the package. The beer is packaged in cans, but not just any cans mind you, but Big Boy cans (for a visual think of the big Young's Double Chocolate Stout can's). I really really love the packaging (even if the primary color is Aggie Maroon, not that I'm from UT or any Texas school for that matter). I like the alternative packaging, getting away from bottles helps keep away oxygen or anything else that could damage the goodness that is beer. Plus its great to take down the Guadeloupe River. OK enough on the packaging, how did it taste?
The Beer: Pouring the beer out of the can into a snifter glass it comes out an orangish amber with a frothy thick off-white colored head. The nose is hoppy, piney, and grapefruity with some toasted bready pale malty flavor. The taste is surprisingly refreshing, notes of hops, but not as strong as I would have thought from the nose. Very balanced, with understated yet extremely flavorful hops. Nice resin-y finish, full of citrus and piney notes living up to its name. Smooth, very nice, this one gets an A- from me. Great job on their first beer, can't wait to try more. The folks over at BA seem to like it too!

The Session #15 Announcement

Its that time of the month, fresh off the roundup of the latest Session, comes the announcement for The Session # 15. For the uninitiated, The Session is a monthly virtual beer tasting event. The event is hosted each month by a different blogger, and each with its own theme. This month's session is hosted by Geistbear Brewing Blog, the theme is Beer Festivals. From the blog announcement:

As Summer approaches we are in full swing of beer festival season, so it seemed the perfect topic for the June Session. Do you have a favorite beer festival you like to attend or a particular memory of inspirational moment at a festival? Or perhaps talk about what you would like to see out of festivals or perhaps the future of them. All is fair game, I look forward to seeing where people take this topic.

In all honesty (and I'm sure I may upset some Session goers here) I'm not so thrilled by this month's session. Not everyone has an opportunity to go to a beer festival. Around here, there aren't any festivals that I've had a chance to attend. There is one or two out Austin way, but that means taking a weekend off to go which I can't always do. Now I've been to the Mecca of Beer Festivals here in the US, Great American Beer Festival, but I've already written about that, so I won't do a retread.
Just a bit of a rant here, but after weeks of non-beer themed sessions, I was hoping for something leaning more towards a specific style (Summer session ale perhaps?) that would give everyone an opportunity to participate in. Oh well, maybe next month. As for what I'll post on this month (if I do), it will probably relate to the latter portion of his post what I would like to see out of a festival.
The due date for this month's session is D-Day, June 6th, so come back and check it out. Even if I may not be excited I know that there will be plenty of good posts.

The Session # 15 Roundup

Well another Session that I didn't have a chance to participate in has passed by. This time the monthly event was hosted by the folks at Boak and Bailey. The theme was a fun one: How did you get into craft beer. This was one I was really looking forward to writing on, however due to my work schedule at the end of last week I was unable to. Ok ok enough with the excuses. Go check out the round up of all the posts for this session, and stay tuned for the announcement of next month's event.

What is local?

Today provides a relatively short post, whose main purpose is to point you in the direction of another blog. News broke over the last couple of days that Pyramid Brewing out of Seattle and Magic Hat Brewing out of Vermont are merging. This will allow Pyramid to be brewed on the east coast, and Magic Hat to be brewed on the west coast (hopefully with some coming down this way). This creates an efficient system where both brewery's expand their distribution, without having to necessarily ship all of their beer from coast to coast. However with this merger brings forth a good question that Stan over at Appellation Beer is asking: Does this make Magic Hat a local beer on the west coast? In other words what's the definition of a local beer? Can I call Budweiser a local beer because it may have been brewed on the east side of Houston? What about going to my local BJ's Brewery? Where does the line get drawn? Check out the post at Appellation beer and the responses it's creating.

How Did I miss this?

After a longer than expected hiatus I wrote a long post yesterday, one of the subjects was the recent representation of Texas Breweries at the World Beer Cup. Well I missed a winner! The great Covey Restaurant in Ft. Worth won a GOLD medal in the Vienna Lager Style category. Congrats to them. They also got a very nice write up in the Ft. Worth Business Journal. I really enjoy what Mr. Fulton is doing up there, and I know I've said it a thousand times, but why the heck can't Houston get a good brew pub?

Yes I'm Back

and no I am not dead.....I know its been a while, much longer than I originally planned between my last post and now. Blame it on buying a new house, blame it on weird work schedules, or blame it on getting a bit burned out with tasting and posting on the blog. Whatever you wanna call it, I'm back, refreshed, and better than ever.
With that intro over and done with there is SOOOO Much news to talk about. This one is going to be a rapid fire post filled with as much newsy bits on beer as I can remember.

- Texas beers kicked some arse at the World Beer Cup: Saint Arnold's wins a GOLD for their wonderful Divine Reserve 4 a Wee Heavy Scotch ale, and a Silver for their Elissa IPA. Our friends up North, Rahr Brewery in Ft. Worth wins a Bronze for Bucking Bock Spring seasonal. Way to go guys.

- Speaking of Divine Reserve Saint Arnold's has announced that Divine Reserve 6 will be a Hoppy American Barley Wine. They are brewing it now to be released in June. Can't wait.

- Over on the Beer Advocate website you can hear all about the new great beers that are coming to Texas - Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale and Old Chub, Deschuttes, more of the XS beers from Rogue, Anderson Valley, Green Flash, and many more. Its an exciting time for Texas Craft Beer lovers, as I can't remember this many new great beers coming in at once.

- Texas's newest craft brewery Southern Star is open for business. They hosted their open house which from all reports was excellent. Their beer should be at local Spec's this week! Can't wait to pick up a six pack!

- Lastly some Session news. I can't believe I haven't had a chance to participate in this great event the last couple of months. I'm a huge proponent of it and I've been with it since the beginning and will continue to promote it as much as I can. With that here is the Session # 14 round up, and over here is the announcement for The Session # 15 hosted by Boak and Bailey, the theme is 'How did it start for you?'

Before I close this post, check out over to the right, as I've added some additional beer links. I'll be back later this week for more beer news.

Collaboration NOT Litigation

I'm a pretty big fan of Avery Beers, and I wish I could have a taste of a Russian River Beer, but this will have to do. What's become a yearly release this beer combines both Avery's beer called Salvation as well as Russian Rivers beer of the same name. Last year's was pretty dang good so I was excited to see it on the shelves of my Central Market.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 8.72% and pours a hazelnut brown with just a little taupe colored head. Very cloudy. Fruity, yeasty, white fruits, peaches, apricots. Low hop profile, sweet malty flavors in the mouth. Very much a Belgian as are their two namesakes. Some strong alcohol notes, but they actually add to the flavor not detract.. White grapes explode on the tongue. Really this is just an amazing beer, so much flavors and so many layers, I just can't place it all. Great Beer, this one gets an A+!

Updates on Southern Star

After two weeks of a hellish work schedule I'm going to try and get back to a more regular posting schedule. My first write up is with Texas's newest brewery, Southern Star. Based out of Conroe, they have already announced their first beer, Pine Belt Pale Ale, served in can's no less, something I'm a big fan of. Well, they've announced a Grand Opening Open House. The even will be on April 5th where there will be plenty of refreshments. Their Pale Ale is about ready to go out to the world and they have a yet unnamed Dortmunder Lager brewing as well. So if you're free on the 5th head up Conroe way and support our newest brewery.

The Session #14

My three hundredth post! Appropriately its going to be on the Session, the monthly virtual beer tasting with a different host and different theme every month. This months host is Stonch, a great beer blogger from across the pond. The theme this month is pretty interesting: Beer People. Write about people or as Stonch puts it:

That person might be a brewer, a publican, someone who sups at your local, or maybe just a friend who is passionate about beer. Let's read some pen portraits of your companions on the path to fermented enlightenment.

Date of the 14th Session will be April 4th. I think this is a pretty fun one as good beers are good beers, but when they're with your friends, or drank over discussions with brewers or publicans they can be come great.

Left Hand Widdershins Barley Wine

Well its that time of the year, March has started and Spring is around the corner. It means it time to turn our backs on our favorite Winter Beers and start to look forward to the rich malty beers of Spring Bock's. But before we do that, its one last look at winter beers and one of my favorite styles, Barley Wine.
The Beer: This version from Colorado's Left Hand is aged 50% in Oak. The beer pours a bright amber with plenty of lacing and low carbonation. The nose is of oak, orange, vanilla, malt. The mouth is oaky, woody, dry, fruity and rich thick roasted malts. Maybe a little cardamon. Initially the hop profile is very subtle, but the aftertaste has strong earthy, grass, stoney hop flavors. Very nice with some pretty good depth of flavor that comes in waves. Thoroughly enjoyable and something I'll definetely be looking forward to next season. This one gets a B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

The Session #13 Organic Beer

Yes its the first Friday of the month, that means its time for the monthly virtual tasting that we've all come to know and love. This month the Session is hosted by Chris O'Brien of the Beer Activist and the focus is on Organic Beer. It seems the new "it" words these days are Organic or all things 'Green'. But with those words one must ask what they really mean. Is organic just the growing of plants, vegetables, and even animals without antibiotics, chemicals or for that matter anything artificial? Or is it something more? Can a massive corporate entity plant a few hundred acres of 'organic' greens, growing them so close together and with no rotation of crops, thereby destroying the soil, be called organic? To me the terms organic and green should be mutual terms. To be organic shouldn't just mean not using chemicals, it should mean trying to be sustainable, helping and nurturing the surrounding environment. Doing as little harm to the earth as possible. In fact using the earth to help cultivate your crops or animals, not damaging it in the process of growing ones food.
The unfortunate issue as a beer drinker is that Organic beers are few and far between. This is not due to brewers not wanting these organic products. In fact I'm sure if you asked most would want all organic products. However for anyone that's visited a Whole Foods, you know that organic isn't always cheap. Therefore the problem is that its difficult to find a large supply of organic hops and malts for a beer. Mostly what you'll find is Organic barley, however Organic hops farming is starting to make some in roads. To put craft beer into my definition of what Organic should mean is to touch on the subject of those brewers sustaining in some way. Whether its on a larger scale like New Belgium who uses wind power to power their operations thereby limiting their carbon foot print, or to a lesser scale to those many brewers that give their used barley to local cattle farmers, thereby limiting waste, craft brewers tend to care deeply about their environment.
So the question that I'm finally getting around to, is what beer to choose for this weeks Session on Organic beers. Well I headed to that holy land of all things Organic, my local Whole Foods and selected a beer brewed specifically for the market. The beer comes from North Coast and is their Plowshare Stout.
The Beer: The beer is made with organic malts, but I'm assuming conventionally grown hops. This is an Irish style stout and weighs in at 5.7%. The beer pours a dark brown with a cafe colored head. Smells of strongly roasted malts, chocolate, cocoa, coffee. The mouth is sweet malts, coffee, espresso, a little of a burnt taste, and also a little watery. The mouth is not as strong as the nose, a little thin. A very tasty beer even if its not as robust as i would like. Easy drinking, highly quaffable. Good stuff, if nothing to necessarily write home about. This one gets a B from me. What do the folks at BA have to say?
Now that about wraps up my post for this months session, so head over to Chris's Blog and checkout his wrap up.

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.

Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale

I've always been a fan of Rogue Beer's. Some may be off, but there's no denying that they make some pretty interesting beers. Among their many beers they have a three part series that's an homage to Food Network's Iron Chef Morimoto. The beers within the series are an Imperial Pilsner, a Soba ale, and the one I picked up recently at Spec's, a Black Obi Soba Ale. The beer is brewed with roasted buckwheat hence the name Black Obi Soba Ale. Soba are Japanese Buckwheat noodles (an Obi is a Japanese Sash, or the strips of cloth that wrap around martial arts uniforms).
The Beer: Pours a very dark brown almost black. The nose is malty, with strong hints of soba noodle soup, raisins and a bit of hops. The mouth is mild, slightly bitter, tastes a lot like a black lager. A fruity taste, fruity yeast. Its very interesting, but there's an off putting burnt taste. It goes beyond the nuttiness I would expect (and accept) from the roasted buckwheat, its more prevalent. An ok interesting beer, but not something I'd reach for again. This one gets a C+ from me. The folks over at BA don't necessarily agree.

Updates to some Texas Breweries

Its been a while so I thought I'd post an update on how the new and upcoming Texas Breweries are doing.
- First 512 Brewery out of Austin is getting ever closer to brewing. Their boilers are getting connected, and they feel like they are only a couple of weeks away from starting brewing. There first beer will be the (512) IPA, not sure how it will be packaged or if it will be tap only). We shall see SOON.

- Second news from relatively local Conroe based Southern Star Brewing. They've started brewing!!!!!! The Pine Belt Pale Ale is in the tank, they expect it to take 3 weeks and state that the local folks should start seeing it around the end of March. I'm EXTREMELY excited about this as its the first new beer from a new brewery in a few years. I've said it before I'll say it again, its an exciting time to be a drinker of local beer in Texas.

2008 Anchor Old Foghorn

Yes, yes yes...time for another Barleywine! One of my favorite styles, from a brewery that makes some pretty outstanding seasonals. As with their Christmas beer 'Our Special Ale' Anchor really helped to introduced this style when their barleywine was first brewed in 1976.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 8.8% which is not the most potent of barleywines. It pours a dee rich brown with a thin taupe head. Malty raisins, figs, caramel with a hint of hops. The mouth is VERY malty, not really any alcohol flavors here. Raisins, figs, prunes and other dark dried fruits, concentrated flavors and a bit of cherry. A bit of hop bitterness at the finish but hops is definitely subdued. This beer is very nice, thoroughly enjoyable, now if I only had a cold winter night to sit and enjoy it instead of the warm February weather of Houston. This one gets an A- from me. The folks over at BA like it as well.

Sam Adams, more than a Patriot

Well at least the owner of Sam Adams, Jim Koch is. Friday, Jim Koch announced a 'Hop Sharing program' that calls for Boston Beer Co to sell 20,000 pounds of their own hops to other craft breweries. At cost. This is not some way for a big brewery to make a buck at a smaller competitors expense. Instead, this is a grand example of how close knit the craft brewing community really is. Jim Koch gets a bad rap from a lot of different folks, but he deserves a standing ovation for this program. So next time your out and about lift a glass of Sam Adam's best and toast to Mr. Koch. Then go grab a local micro brew, because who knows you may be able to drink that beer because of this program.

St. Peter's IPA

Ever since St. Peter's started being sold in Texas I've looked out for their brews, and while not all of them were the greatest ever they're solid beers. Unfortunately for the past year or so, all they've had is the Porter, Cream Stout and Pale Ale at my local Spec's. So I was happily surprised when I saw their IPA at Spec's this past weekend. Needless to say I picked a bottle up.
The Beer: It pours an Orange Amber color with a thick foamy head. The nose is earthy, pine needles. The mouth is smooth, light pale malts, hoppy, earthy, grapefruity. Yup this is really hoppy, especially as it warms up. Some coppery notes start to come out, before the grapefruit flavors really take over. All in all another solid effort that I give a strong B. Here's what the folks at BA say.

Sam Adams Double Bock

I've been interested in picking up this beer ever since The Session #11's and its theme of Dopplebock. I thought I'd give this one a try as I didn't see anyone that had. Sam Adams website describes this seasonal beer as an intensely malty lager. Sounds good to me.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at a robust 8.8 % and pours a rich deep copper brown with a quarter inch taupe colored head. The nose is sweet, raisiny, figgish even, with copious malts, yeasts and a bit of sourness. The mouth is extremely malty with notes of sweet dark raisins, cherry, sourdough bread. The alcohol is there, but not too much. The beer is intresting to be sure, but there may be to much rich cloyingly malty sweetness and sourdough cherry for my taste. With its extremely strong maltiness and almost cloying sweetness I'm not sure I could have more than one of these in a sitting. A good beer to be sure, one I give a B. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

An Update on Texas Breweries

Yes I know that Texas is well behind when it comes to craft brewing. Compared to smaller states like Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and California we have an incredibly small amount of craft breweries in the state. In fact if you want to see a list, scroll over to the right side of the page and you can see the minimal amount of breweries we have. Fortunately that list is growing, slowly but surely.
- First an update from one that I've been tracking, Southern Star Brewing out of Conroe. Unfortunately, they've had some delays in getting their first batch of Pine Belt Pale Ale brewing. Hopefully the delay won't be too long and they can get cranking later this month.

- There is a new craft beer makers in San Antonio expected to open this Summer. A brewpub called Freeetail Brewing, and will focus "on creating exciting, innovative and unique world class beers and wood-fired gourmet pizzas." Sounds very nice, and something I'm excited about as I think its one thing that Houston is really missing. Heck San Antonio has two, all we have is BJ's and the insipid Tow Row's. When oh when will Houston get an independent Brew pub?

- Lastly there is a new brewery that's going to open up in Austin called (512) Brewing. They're making process, their facility is built and they've gotten some of their equipment, but no word on when they're planning on opening up. Something we'll all have to keep an eye on.

Still far behind other states, but its still an exciting time to be a craft beer drinker in Texas where drinking local is getting better and easier.

2008 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

As I mentioned earlier this week, I wasn't able to participate in this month's session, however, always appreciating a good barley wine, I figured I would write up what I had planned to post anyways. The beer I chose was a popular one, but one that suprisingly I had never had before this year. Luckily I bought a few so I'm going to attempt to cellar some and taste them in the next few years.
The Beer: This is the 25th year that Sierra Nevada has made this barley wine which is pretty amazing when you think about the history of craft beer. This one weighs in at 9.6% pours a dark brown with a thin white head. Massive hops on the nose, floral and citrusy notes. Underneath that though there's some bready malty notes. The taste is HOPPY of course, piney, it surrounds the tongue, with a thick mouthfeel. Underlying these hops though is a taste of rich malts, bready and yeasty notes. A smooth beer, with a small amount of alcohol burn (the only real negative comment I have on this beer). Each sip of the beer is a 'JOLT' of hops and gets better and better as the beer warms. This one gets a good B+ from me.

Session Notes

Unfortunately, due to some uncontrollable events, I was unable to participate in the last Session. I really wanted to because I was excited about the theme of Barley Wine. However, if your interested in how it turned out, head over to the Brew Site for the official round up. Since I didn't get to post my contribution to the Session, I may do that later this week.

Now for the announcement of the next Session, number 13, and in this case I think its a lucky number. The host this month is Chris O'Brien at Beer Activist, and the theme this month is to publish a post on organic beer. I like this idea, as it can be any style of beer, its just got to be organic. I already have an idea of what I'll do.

Saint Arnold's Spring Bock

Wow, didn't it seem that I just reviewed Winter Stout? Its hard to believe but brewers are already starting to release their spring seasonal releases. I was up at my local Central Market the other day, and saw this on the shelves, and decided what the heck, I'm feeling springy.
The Beer: It weighs in at around 6.4% abv. As you would expect from a German Style Bock the beer has low IBU's of around 24. German Style Bocks are bottom fermented lagers, however stronger than traditional ones. There should be a STRONG malt character, and the underlying hops should never get in the way of the character of the malt. This spring bock fits well into the category. The beer pours a copper bronze color, with a frothy white head. The nose is sweet malts, notes of roasty flavors, a bit of floral hops are there as well. The mouth is all sweet caramelly hops. Rich and smooth, slightly sweet, but never cloyingly so. The hops are there, but barely detected. Even though I know they shouldn't interfere with the malt, I'd have liked to seen just a bit more hop to this bock, just enough to give it some underlying oomph or 'pop'. Other than that, a fine example of a bock. I rate this one a B+. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.