The Session #24

Its the first Friday of February, and that can mean only one thing....its Session time! A quick recap: The Session is a monthly virtual beer tasting. Each month hosted by a different beer blogger, with a different theme. The host this month is David from Musings over a pint. The theme is Tripels, more specifically a tripel you would choose to share with a good friend or that special someone. My beer is definitely one I would share with that special someone especially since we are coming up on that day of days....Valentine's Day.....So which beer did I choose?
St. Bernardus Tripel: St. Bernardus brewery is located in Watou Beglium, a village in the West Flanders area. They are pretty well known for making some exceptional Belgian Ales. Note that they are not a Trappist Brewery (although they were at one time. In 1992 when the definition of Trappist changed, so too was this beer not longer able to call itself trappist).
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 8.0% and pours a cloudy golden honey color with a thin frothy white head. A million tiny bubbles like a fine champagne spring up from the bottom of the glass to the top. The nose is fruity, yeasty, notes of honeysuckle, floral. The mouthfeel is effervescent, honey, pears, fruity, yeasty. Its really bubbly. To continue the Champagne comparison there is a really nice toasty bready flavor here, very similar to an aged Champagne. An incredible beer that would make a wonderful pairing with strawberries. One of the best of this style I've had. Forget surprising your special someone with a glass of bubbly. This will do the trick and then some. This one gets a solid A from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Stay tuned as I'm sure Dave will have the full Session round up posted shortly.

Southern Star News

Call me an equal opporunity poster. After posting on local brewer Saint Arnold's yesterday, I wanted to give fare share to out other local brewer Southern Star from Conroe. In their most recent newsletter there were two particular topics that got me curious enough to ask some questions.
The first announcement is that Southern Star will be having a Homebrew contest. The winning recipe will be entered into the GABF Pro-Am competition. In addition the recipe will be used as the Southern Star's fall beer. Ahh now this is what got me questioning. I said to myself doesn't Southern Star already have a Fall release? The wonderful and unique Rauchbier? Well I dropped head brewery an email who replied with the following:

I think that we are going to rotate the Fall seasonal. I love the rauch, but it just isn't selling, so no, we won't be making that for the fall next year.

Well this is disappointing. I loved their Rauchbier and really felt it was a welcome addition to the Texas line up of beers. I'm hoping that since their Fall seasonal will rotate that they will find room for this style.
The second issue that got me asking questions was the news that Southern Star would be expanding their distribution outside of Texas, to Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and North Carolina. I'm very torn about this news. On one hand I think its pretty cool that there is enough demand that SS can take their beers outside of Texas, and in doing so will be the first brewery other than Shiner to do so. On the other hand I worry because SS hasn't entered all the Texas markets, so there is a little bit of "What about me?" going on. I specifically asked Dave about when they were coming to South of Houston (Clear Lake Area). I can get their canned beer at my local Spec's of course, but nothing on tap, not even in the great Boondoggles. Dave's reply is that they are working on it. I hope so.

Wish List for Saint Arnold's

As most of you know our local little brewery Saint Arnold's is not going to be so little for very long. If things go as planned this June they will be moving to downtown and to a much much larger facility. A recent article in the Houston Chronicle reported that Saint Arnold's owner
"hopes to grow to 100 fermenters and brew several other styles of beer using a barrel aging room in the basement."
Now this sounds extremely promising and could lead to some amazing things from Saint Arnold's. I love most of their beers, they have a very solid lineup of every day beers, and they've also expanded and made some exceptional specialty beers with their Divine Series. However they haven't done anything too uhm whats the word "out there" No sours, no oak aged beers (at least none for release), etc. Now I think that changes. There was a forum on Beer Advocate a few days ago asking what you want to see from SA. I want to ask you my readers the same question.
Here's my list:
1) Continue the solid regular six pack line up, do something like Boulevard does in having the regular six packs but making a series of beers in bombers.
2) I'd love to see some sours and oak aged beers, other high gravity beers.

So what do you folks want to see?

Pike Brewery Barleywine

This seems to be a theme this week....barleywine..not a bad theme at all though. However before I get to this beer, first let me remind everyone of another theme, the one from this weeks Session. Friday is the due date, and the theme is Tripels.
Pike of course is another recent addition to the Texas Beer landscape having entered our market from Seattle last year. Their beers all come packaged in bomber bottles.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 10% and 90 IBU's. Well right off you know this is going to be a big American Barleywine that's almost as much of a DIPA as it is a barleywine. It pours a cloudy hazy brown with a thin taupe head. Hops are powerful in the nose but surprisingly well balanced with malty sweetness. Notes of caramel, roasted malts, and maybe prunes. The mouthfeel is thick and creamy. Huge bitter hops, grapefruit up front and its powerful, but there is some nice raisin-y, figs, but then it finishes again with apricots orange peel. This is a good one with a lot of hops but surprising malt backbone. Good one. B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA say.

A tale of two Bigfoots

We've gone from Winter and Christmas beers two of my favorite styles to yet another style that I have great admiration for, Barleywine. And when you talk about American Barleywine you have to talk about Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. One of the first American Craft Brewers to brew this style its iconic for very good reason. Its delicious. Well for me one Bigfoot is just not enough, I wanted two, from two different years. I tried the current 2009 release with the 2008 to see how it held up after a year.
2008: Go here to see my thoughts on this beer when it was fresh. The beer pours a cloudy hazy brown with a thin white head. The nose is rich and malty with just a hint of hoppy grapefruits. The mouth is thick and chewy lots of dried fruit, raisins, figs, and a bit of molasses. As I continue to drink notes of apricots and grapefruit start to show up, yep the hop character is still here. Malty up front with a good hop backbone at the finish with mellow alcohol notes. This beer will definitely make it another year or so ands till be quite tasty. Its a B+ for me.
2009: Now for the fresh one. It pours a clear dark amber brown with a thing off white head. No haziness here. As with the previous year it weighs in at 9.6%. Roasted malts, citrus orange peel on the nose. The mouth is similar, roasted malts, tastes of burnt brown sugar. Much stronger hop component here, big grapefruit and orange peel flavors. A warming sensation throughout. Very nice, I actually think I might like this one more, but that could just be my preference for the hops. This one gets an A- from me.

Quick Hits: Beer and Food Edition

Time for some quickfire quick hits, mainly focused on two of my favorite things. Beer and Food:

- I missed it, how did I miss it! Last weekend was the 2nd annual Saint Arnold's One Pot Cookoff. The Houston Press has a great write up so I'll give them all the credit for it. Also they've posted some fun pictures. After reading all this am I the only one that wants to see a Saint Arnold's Cookbook?

- For North Texas folks, it looks like a regular Beer and food feast.
First the Oceanairre seafood room is hosting a food and beer paring with Anchor Brewery. The cost is 55.00. Checkout this link for the menu. Sounds amazing.
Not much food but Idle Rich in Dallas continues to host Monday tastings focusing on different regions of the world or different types of beer. The next one is called Hop Heaven.

My final tidbit is local, and really has nothing to do with food, but I wanted to share it anyways. As most know Saint Arnold's hosts the largest single style home brew contest in the states called Big Beer Brew Bash. The last few years the winning recipe has been made into a Divine Reserve. Well Saint Arnold's has released the style for this years BBBB and its a Strong Scotch Ale. So will this soon be a Divine Reserve? I'd put money on it, although it won't be DR 8, more like DR9. Of course that beg's the question what will DR8 be?

Green Flash Le Freak

Green Flash is one of those breweries that made their way to Texas this past year. I've found everyone of the beers to be very good. From their every day six pack West coast IPA to their Trippel and Barleywine this is one brewery that seems to do it right. So imagine my giddiness when I saw a new beer on the shelf of my local Spec's. A trippel at that...no wait a minute, its an IPA....no no that's not either, its both. A Trippel made like an IPA....interesting doesn't begin to describe it.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 9.2%. It pours a golden orange color with a quarter inch off white head. The nose is powerful, so much so that I could smell the bouquet well before I held my nose hovering over my snifter glass. White grapes, yeasty, oranges and other citurs notes. The mouth is effervescent, candied sugar coated orange peals up front, with grapefruity hops finishing it up. Really great hops at the end here, really leaving that as the lasting memory of this beer. A Belgian Trippel up front with the finish of an IPA. Well that was the first glass anyway. The second from this 750 ml bottle had obtained some of the yeasty sediment at the bottom. Swirling the beer around you get more of the Trippel notes on the nose, fruity, yeasty, apricots and white grapes, balanced with grapefruit hops. Man this is one amazing beer. It gets an easy A from me. Here's what the folks at BA think about it.

Quick Hits

Its been while, and it seems lately if beer related news has been slow. Due to that I'm taken this news bit from a post on Beeradvocate on new beers headed to Texas.

These are some that have just arrived:
Green Flash Le Freak 22oz
Summit Extra Pale Ale 6pk
Summit IPA 6pk
Summit Maibock 6pk
Indian Wells Orange Blossom Ale 6pk
Indian Wells Lobotomy Bock 6pk
Otter Creek Copper Ale 6pk


Others are coming hopefully this year:
Boston's Harpoon may be entering the Texas market this year, as well as Moylan's, Founders, and Alaskan.

It continues the trend of great breweries entering the Texas market. I've said it once I'll say it again, this is a GREAT time to be a beer drinker in Texas as we have more choices than ever before. I only hope that our home grown talent will continue to expand, grow, and be more innovative in the beers that they brew.

De Proef Reserve Signature Ale Collaboration with Port Brewing

I picked this large Belgian beer up at Spec's for many reason's. The first is that I'm a big fan of brewery collaboration beer's. It's an interesting concept seeing two different brewers teaming up together taking their individual styles and entwining them into something new, and hopefully delicious.. One of the few that I have tried Collaboration not Litigation from Avery and Russian River is delicious so I'm always on the look out for more. The second reason is that this is a collaboration that involves Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing and Lost Abbey fame and so far this is the only way to taste anything he does in Texas. Lastly this particular collaboration is a limited time sort of thing. De Proef has decided to do a number of collaborations with American Breweries. This was their first I believe, and their second is with another California brewery, Alesmith (and yes I'm incredibly excited to try that one when its released). This particular beer is an ale made with American Hops and Belgian Brett yeast.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 8.5% and pours a pale golden cloudy orange with a frothy white head. The nose has citrusy hops, with a barnyard sourness. White fruit. The mouthfeel is tongue coating, bretty, white grapes, apricots and grapefruity hops. Notes of lychi. Very yeasty and funky a very enjoyable beer. Very good with a barnyard funk, giving the beer a tart/tanginess to the mouth. Incredibly complex there's so much going on, I need another bottle to just sit, drink and contemplate. This one gets a strong B+ from me. The folks at BA love it.

My Monday at the Saucer

This past Sunday my wife ran in the Houston Half Marathon, and if I may be so bold did a fantastic job. As a reward for her and to help her along the road to recovery from the race, she had a very nice spa day at the Houstonian Hotel. To kill time while she was at the spa, I headed to the Flying Saucer to try some new beers (well at least new to me). It just so happen that all three beer's I had were local Texas products, and all three were wonderful.
Southern Star Buried Hatchet Stout: This will soon be Southern Star's next canned beer, but in the meantime its only available in draft. It weighs in at 9% and pours a deep rich brown almost black with just hints of light shining through. The head is thin, but that may have been due to a bad pour. The nose is strong with roasted burnt malts, coffee, and dark bitter chocolate. The mouth is creamy and thick, dark chocolate covered espresso beans, very smooth and very little alcohol burn. There is some really strong bitterness here, not from hops, but from the malts. It's like eating a 90% dark chocolate bar. Very very nice, I can't wait to try it again. This one gets a B+ from me. It seems the folks at BA like it as well.
Live Oak Primus Weizenbock: Another Texas brewer putting out a Weizenbock. Not to long ago I had never had one, now I've had two from Texas. This one weighs in at 7.5% and pours an extremely cloudy beige (almost unappealingly) with a thick taupe colored head. The nose is chock full of bananas, cloves, roasted malts, and chocolate. The mouth is chewy, thick and tongue coating. It sits on the tongue soaking down into it so you get all the flavors. There are notes of bananas and cloves of course, along with roasted malts, chocolate. Its smooth, its not as bitter as Saint Arnold's version was. Bready and yeast as well from the wheat in the beer. Its a very good beer, but there is some lack of depth in the flavors which is why this one gets a B from me. Good love from BA as well.
Real Ale Sisyphus 2005: Saucer actually had the 03, 05, and 06 on tap. I tried a taster of the 03, but the O5 was what I took notes on. I'm pretty excited to try this one as I have a couple of bottles of the 07 waiting around for me to drink. This one weighs in at 10.5% and pours a cloudy orangish color with a thick dense foamy white head. The nose is sweet malts, citrus orange, and pale toasted malts. The mouthfeel is creamy and dense. Strong notes of orange peel, like I'm chewing on it, caramel, apricots. The finish has a slight alcohol burn and strong citrus hop notes of grapefruit. This is a wonderful beer with strong flavors through out. I don't know what it was like fresh but I it doesn't seem to be very mellowed. A wonderful beer that will probably get better over the next year or two. This one gets an A from me.

Pike Brewing Extra Stout

This is the second brew that I've had from this Seattle based brewery. Of course this is another brewery that has only recently entered our marketplace, but its one that I'm proud to see here. This one as with all their beers that I've seen comes packaged in a big 22 oz bottle.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 7.0% and pours a pitch black with a crema colored head. Not as an Imperial Stout. Roasted malts, burnt coffee beans, and a nice sweetness on the nose. The mouth is smooth, with a slight burnt bean taste, chocolate and creamy. Not very bitter, but then again that's something I enjoy in richer stouts. There is a nice creamy texture here. I wish there was more dark bitter chocolate flavors. A good solid stout, but not a great one. This one gets a solid B from me for being a good solid stout. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Koningshoeven Quadrupel

I start my second week of the year craving something complex, something soul warming, something that I can sip and contemplate. I go to my local Spec's seeking something out that would satisfy my requirements, my eyes darting from shelf to shelf seeking something anything to settle the quench....finally my eyes rest upon a large bottle, focusing on the words Quadrupel..then the brewery Koningshoeven, and it was then that I knew this beer would give me want I desired. You see Koningshoeven is not just any old brewery, it's a Trappist Brewery. And to be even more unique its the only Trappist brewery located outside of Belgium, instead residing in the nearby Netherlands. Its a unique Trappist brewery that only recently regained the ability to display the Trappist symbol on their beers. Luckily the monks have taken a bigger role in the brewery and they are producing some excellent beers. Koningshoeven is also known as La Trappe in other parts of the world.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 10% and pours a copperish red with a thick slightly off white head. The nose is fruity, spices, vanilla, and caramel malts. Mouthfeel is thick and creamy coating the tongue. Sweet caramel, grapes, vanilla, spices dance around the mouth, and all these flavors hide the high alcohol. Smooth and delightful I start to get notes of orange peel, plums as the beer warms and I sip, contemplate and sip some more. Notes of candied sugar. The last glass of this large bottle had bits of yeast floating as I swirled it around, concentrated flavors that reminded me of creme brulee. Yes this is exactly what I wanted and it gets an A from me. How do the folks at BA feel?

Brooklyn Brewery Local 1

A very special brew from a brewery I have a lot of respect for. Brooklyn is one of those that have come to our great state recently and while we don't get all of their beers we do get this one. This bottle comes packaged in a large bottle format (750ml) closed off with a champagne cork and a wire cage. The website calls it a bottle conditioned Belgian inspired Strong Golden Ale. I won't argue with that.
The Beer: Its strong alright weighing in at 9.0%, and it pours the color of honey so they got the golden part right as well. There are a ton of bubbles here, its like Champagne. The nose is fruity, yeasty, white grapes, and honeysuckle. The mouth has lots of carbonation and effervescence. Notes of honey, candied sugar, and sweet fruity yeasts. The beer dances across the tongue like thousands of little pop rock candies going off in your mouth. It penetrates the tongue with intense flavors. This is a great beer and would go great with some cheese. One of the better beers I've had recently, this gets an A from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Rahr and Sons Blind Salamander Pale Ale

The first full week of 2009 and I'm off to drinking local beers it seems. This one comes from Ft. Worth's Rahr and Sons and is a special release. The Blind Salamander is the first of Rahr's Rare Breed series. This series celebrate endangered Texas species with a portion of the sales of these beers going to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation. Bonus points to Rahr for doing something good for the state and the environment. If you'd like to more about the Blind Salamander check out Rahr and Sons site. Ok so the back story has been told, but really whats the most important thing?
The Beer: This one pours a dark copper with a thin head. The nose is of pale malts with some floral hops. They British East Kent Golding hops here so the citrus-y notes we get from American Pale ales is out. My first impression of the mouthfeel is of a smooth and easy drinking ale. Pale malts, caramel, bready with an earthy undertone from the hops. Very low bitterness to this beer, really couldn't even detect any. There is a good sweetness to this beer, light and relatively easy drinking. To me this beer tasted more like a Shiner Bock then a Pale Ale. A disappointing Pale Ale to me, this one gets a C+. Some variance from the folks over at BA but most seem to like it more than I did.

Shiner 100: Commemorator

How's this for my first beer tasting blog of the new year. A post to celebrate Texas's own Shiner and their 100th anniversary. Since 2005 Shiner has been releasing a beer leading up to 2009 and their hundredth anniversary. Shiner 96 was a Marzen, 97 was a black lager that was so good it became a regular part of their line up. 98 was a bit of step back in my opinion with a Bavarian Amber, and 99 was a pretty solid Helles. So what was 100? Well if you know German beer and you've noticed the name in the title its a Dopplebock which is appropriate since Shiner's flagship brew is a Bock. As excited as I am that Shiner put out a dopplebock to celebrate this special year, the question remains, how does it taste? Fear not, I'm hear to help answer that question.
The Beer: The beer pours a rich mahogany with a thin taupe colored head. The nose is malty, rich with raisins, and bready notes. The mouthfeel starts full with rich dark fruits, figs, raisins, and dark rye bread, nicely sweet, and easy drinking. Sometimes easy drinking can be a good thing, but in this case it's almost a negative. Its a good beer don't get me wrong, and up front there is some good flavors there, but it seems very 2 dimensional...meaning there's no depth to the flavor. It hits you and then disappears lost forever. A good beer, but not a great one. I'd pick up more, and I'll seek it out on draft to see how it compares. Its not a miss, but it's not a homerun either. Call it a standup double. This one gets a B- from me.

The Session # 24 Announcement

In one of the quickest turn arounds that I can remember, fresh off of a roundup just two short days go comes the announcement of the 24th Session. Celebrating 2 years this month!! Who can believe its already been that long. The host for this virtual beer tasting is David from Musings over a pint. I must say that after reading the announcement I am extremely excited. First its a fresh return to a more stylistic approach to the Session something that I've been hoping for a while. Secondly its a style I rather enjoy. Here's the announcement fresh from David's site:

the theme is "A Tripel for Two." What Tripel would you pick to share with that good friend, family member, or lover?

If you have a beer or beer-related blog, it's easy to participate in The Session. Pick a Belgian-style Tripel to review. Tell us why it's your pick to share with that special someone. Be sure to include a review of the beer so that others might be inspired to choose that beer for a special moment. Bonus points if the person with whom you are sharing the beer includes their review as well.

As I stated above, I'm thoroughly stoked for this month's session. Due date is Feb 6th so come back on that date and see how it goes.

Happy New Year

Yes 2009 is finally upon us. 2008 has passed. It was an interesting year for beer. Nationally and globally the biggest story was the InBev buy out of A-B leading to a mega-brewery. Somewhat smaller in scope was MolsonCoors merging North American Operations with SABMiller. I would say that 2009 will bring more of the same but I'm not sure who would merge with whom. On a more local scale Texas saw more breweries than ever entering our market. Oskar Blues, Brooklyn Brewery, Summit, Pike, Greenflash, Boulevard, and many more came into Texas providing us with more choices than ever. Locally Houston saw the opening of another brewery in Southern Star, and Saint Arnold's continues to make award winning beer. In 2009 we get to look forward to Saint Arnold's opening its new brewery as well as more canned beer from Southern Star. What new breweries will come into Texas this next year? I'm not sure, but one thing is for sure, they will be many, and they will continue to expand our beer palates and that's a good thing.
From my side of things this has been a good year. I've written 137 posts this year. Not bad, but I want more. I want to continue to do my tasting notes that I hope folks find useful. But I also plan to write more on Texas Beer, and Houston bars and restaurants that serve good beer. Throw in a few interviews from Texas Breweries and maybe even some writings on beer travel and I should have a pretty packed year in 2009.
Since the holiday's occurred it has been a while from my last post so here's a couple of quick notes on what I've missed:

- The latest session hosted by Beer and Firkins and they have posted the roundup from their festivities. Go check it out.
- Lastly NY Times Eric Asimov writes on Barrel aged beer. Good informative article.

The Barleyvine on Holiday Hiatus

Its Christmas time for me so my updates to this blog will be scarce if at all. I'll be doing some traveling, so if I find some amazing beer experiene and have access to a computer I might just post my thoughts. If not, then Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year.

Scaldis Noel

Continuing my study in Belgian Christmas beers, I found one that I had actually tried before, when I was in Belgian a few years ago. Of course there, its called Bush Noel, where as over in the states its called Scaldis. This is one powerful Christmas beer.
The beer: Powerful I said? Try 12.0% and while I tried it in Belgium on tap, this one came in a tiny 8.48 fl oz bottle. It pours a cloudy brown with a thick taupe colored head. The nose is figgy, malty, fruity, yeasty. The mouth is thick and chewy, low carbonation that sits and coats the tongue. As with a lot of Belgian beers, the yeast seems to be the strongest characteristic with bready and fruity notes. Some other notes include apricots, figs, dark fruits, vanilla, and candied sugar. Surprisingly you don't get a lot of alcohol here, its just malty rich and spicy. Very very nice. This one gets a strong A from me. Here's what the folks at BA say.

Belgian Christmas Beers

One of the great things about Christmas and beer is that every country seems to have a style for the season. They are all different, unique and wonderful in their own way. I've been lucky to try some amazing US, British and German versions. Now I'm diving into some Belgian Christmas beers.
St. Bernardus Christmas Ale: This one is from the popular St. Bernadus brewery that makes some fine Belgian ales. This one weighs in at 10% and pours a dark amber with a thick white head. The nose is malty, musty, figgy. The mouth is chewy and rich, with a little alcohol burn to warm up the soul on a cold night. There are flavors of fig, prunes, raisins and other dark fruits. Slightly sweet after taste, slight sour undertones. Dried fruits coming through as the beer warms adding richness and almost cola type flavors start coming out. This one's very nice and gets an A- from me. The folks at BA seem to like it as much as I do.
Delirium Noel: This one from the great Brouwerij Huygh, makes of Delerium Tremmens. This one also weighs in at 10%, but pours a cloudy brown with a thin film of a head. Nose is rich, malty, fruity, and yeasty. The mouth is powerful, thick and chewy with a light sourness. Fruity and malty, with notes of figs, dark grapes, apricots. Smooth with a little alcohol burn. Slightly more sweet than the St. Bernardus, carmaley and effervescent like pop-rocks. This one gets a B+ from only becuase its a little too sweet for me. Again, it seems like I'm on the same wavelength with the folks at BA.

Back from a Hiatus

A week away and its good to be back. A little business trip with some vacation time up in Montreal has kept me from talking about beer. It looks like some interesting tidbits of news has popped up. so with our further ado a catch up addition on some Beer related news.
- First a round up from the most recent session hosted by 21st Amendment brewing.
- Of course you know what follows a roundup, the announcement for the next Session. Beer and Firkins is hosting this months event. The theme will be a 'New Year's' Theme. What does that mean? Well from the words of the host himself:

what will you miss about 2008 (feel free to list your tasting notes, if that item is a particular beer) and what do you expect will excite you most in 2009 , in the "Beer World"?(again, if that is a beer, what about it is special and worthy of being excited about?)

Sounds interesting, but I continue to lament the fact that the session has strayed so far from discussing specific beer styles.
- Speaking of my lament above, Jay over at Brookston feels a similar way, and as only he can do puts words to paper (or computer screen) in an incredibly well written open letter to The Session.
- I'll finish my round up with some local beer news. Southern Star has announced their next two regular beer offerings, both to be canned: The first is the earlier mentioned Buried Hatchet Stout, the latter is a beer they called Bombshell Blonde a blonde ale. Sounds like two amazing ales, both to packaged in can's. One can hardly wait!

Full Sail Wassail

Well I up and forgot that the Session was yesterday. Too busy celebrating the 75th anniversary of the end of prohibition I guess. I think one of the great things about American Beer is the diverseness in our holiday beer's. There are everything from holiday stouts, to IPA's, to rich traditional winter warmers, and of course everything in between. That very reason may be why this season is my favorite for seasonal offerings. It seems breweries go all out for this season, pulling no punches. While I always go back to my familiar favorites, I also am constantly on the lookout for those that I've never tried before. Like this one from Full Sail. Their seasonal offering is actually named after a hot spiced Christmas punch served back in medieval times. This drink was not punch that we normally think of, but instead mulled beer, that would mix rich beer with spices such as ginger, nutmeg, and Cinnamon.
The Beer: This one weighs in at a warming 7.0% and pours a deep rich mahogany capped by a quarter inch tan frothy head. The nose is rich and malty sweet, caramel, orange. The mouth is creamy and chewy, very malty with a low hop profile. Coffee, toffee, licorice, Cinnamon, and just a bit of pineyness. Sprucy even. Very nice winter warmer of a beer. This one gets a B+ from me and has quickly been added to my seasonal rotation. Here's what the folks at BA think about it.

Happy 75th!

What you ask? 75th what? Well today marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition as enacted by the 21st Amendment. Prohibition was one of the biggest social experiment failures of the past century. Not only did it not lead to people not drinking, the increase in crime was tremendous. Luckily the 21st Amendment was passed and now we can all raise a glass of beer today to celebrate. Whether an American craft brew, or an amazing import, neither of which you would be able to get without the 21st, raise your glass and celebrate today.

Quick Hits

A Tuesday evening edition of Quick Hits coming your way.
- As most folks know I'm a huge fan of good beer and good food. I also like seeing craft beer show up in TV shows as it shows good beer going mainstream. We're always used to just seeing BMC products on TV its nice to see something else for a change. Well these two things have merged in the current season of Top Chef on Bravo. For those familiar with the show, at the end of the show while the contestants go in front of the judges table, other's are shown in the back drinking beer. In the past its usually been Michelob products, however this season its being filmed in New York, the chefs are drinking Brooklyn Brewery Beer. That's some amazing product placement those folks have gotten. I think I've seen their Summer Ale and Lager shown the most. I'm really glad the Top Chef folks have moved from Michelob to something much better like Brooklyn's line up. Chef's love good food and good wine we all know that, but I also know that they love good beer and its about time that is shown on TV.
- My second and last note is a reminder that this Friday marks the 75th anniversary of the passing of the 21st Amendment that repealed prohibition. Friday also marks the date of next session, which is hosted by the folks at 21st Amendment brewing. The theme is "What does the repeal of Prohibition mean to you and how will you celebrate?"

Sam Adams Chocolate Bock

The first time I ever had this beer was on draft in a bar in Denver. My wife and I loved it, but couldn't find it in Houston. Then one day while we were in Central Market there it was sitting there waiting to be taken home, and that's just what we did. Alas, that was two years ago and no Chocolate bock since. Well that's now changed. Sam Adams has released the Bock and my local Spec's has it! I of course immediately grabbed it up and took it home to surprise my wife who loves this beer. The formula is the following, take a basic German bock beer and age it on a bed of rare dark cocoa nibs from Felchlin®. Sounds tasty. This beer comes in a big 750 ml bottle with just a silver plate on the front letting you know its Sam Adams Chocolate Bock. Yep its a fancy bottle.
The Beer: This beer does knock your expectations. I think many would see this bottle and expect a high alcohol content, but this one weighs in at only 5.5%. It pours a very dark brown with a caramel colored head. Chocolate coco and roasted malts on the nose. The mouth is thick and rich, it tastes like cold 'hot chocolate'. You can taste the bock backbone of the beer underneath its chocolatey front. Its dark chocolate in a glass. Smooth a little bitter, but not cloyingly sweet. Well balanced beer and as expected this is an amazing desert beer. This one gets a B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.
I wanted to give a little more info on this beer as I would love to give this beer a little higher grade but there are reasons why I didn't. While I think its great that Sam Adams has made an extremely complex tasty desert beer while keeping the alcohol levels low, I think the price for the fancy packaging is a little high (13.99). There are a lot of better beers out there for that price level.

Texas Brewery Quick Hits

Just a few quick notes from Texas Breweries.
- Conroe's Southern Star talks about a new beer they'll be releasing soon, Buried Hatchet Stout. An imperial stout that should weigh in at a robust 9% abv. Can't wait as I love this style.
- In somewhat old news, Austin's (512) has released their newest beer a Pecan Porter. I gotta say I'm sad I cant' try this beer as its a style I think more Texas brewries should be making. Texas has some of the best pecan's around and as other areas of the country are known for their blueberry beers, we could be known for our pecan beers.
- Rahr and Son's announced in early November that they's be distributing more of their beers to Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. hopefully that means I'll get some of their Bourbon Barrel Aged WinterWarmer.
- Lastly, San Antonio's Freetail Brewing is up and open for business. They've got good food and seemingly solid list of brews. One more reason to head over there.

Sierra Nevada Celebration - 2008

Hmm yup its post Thanksgiving which means that its high time to dive into more Christmas Seasonal Beers. When I first had this beer last year, I said it was good, but not what I was expecting. If you remember, I wanted a malty rich winter beer, and what I got while very good was an unexpected IPA. Well the good news is this year, not only did I try it knowing what I was going to get, I wanted it!
The Beer: This one weighs in at 6.8% and pours a hazy orange color with a thick white foamy frothy head. I can smell the hops from a foot away from the glass...and it smells delicious. There are notes of hops of course, grapefruit specifically. The mouthfeel is vibrant with an explosion of Texas Ruby Red grapefruit, with slight notes of toasted pale malts underneath. This IPA is chewy and thick, leaving the soul warmed, which makes this a perfect winter Christmas beer. The only sign left after I'm finished is a coating of thick lacing along the sides of the glass. Yup this is a good one. A B+ from me.

Anchor Our Special Ale

To beer lovers around the country, Christmas Season is here. It's here because Anchor has released its Christmas Ale 'Our Special Ale'. Anchor may have been one of the craft brewers to release a Christmas Ale, and has been doing so since 1975. Every year the ingredients change slightly as does the label for the beer. Each year the label contains a graphic of a different tree. It may not be the greatest Christmas Ale, but its always worth stopping down for and celebrating the season. To celebrate it's release this season I decided to not only try this seasons ale, but last seasons as well. I've been aging it since last year and figured there can't be a better time than now to open it up.
2007 Our Special Ale: Here's the link to my original post on this beer last year. Pours a rich hazy brown with a half inch taupe colored head. The nose is spicy with spruce tips, licorice and some malts. The mouth has good effervescent up front with a chewy finish. Spicy with some malty sweetness, with a bit if spruce tip taste to it. It seemed like this beer had lost a little bit of depth over time. As it warmed some more complex flavors came out like caramel, chocolate, roasted malts to round out the spruciness. Not as much as I had hoped a year later. Not sure if something happened during the aging process or not. This gets a B- from me.
2008 Our Special Ale: This one pours a little darker than the older one, almost black instead of brown. Good half inch taupe colored head. The nose is apricots, spruce tips, brown sugar. The mouth is chewy, dried apricots, caramel, licorice, sweet malts. As it warms I get notes of figs and even more roasted malts. It has some really good lacing. The 07 has the same base of flavors as this 08 but it's lost some depth of flavor. This one is very nice. This one gets a B+ from me.

Quick Shiner Note

I saw this article and just had to write a quick note about it. For the past few years Shiner has been releasing a special brew leading up to their 100th birthday. They've had a Black Lager (that was so good they made it a regular beer), an Amber Lager, a helles, and a Marzen Style lager. This has all led to a lot of speculation of what would the special 100th anniversary beer be? Well the Austin Statesmen has answered that question, it will be a Dopplebock called Commemorator. Release date is to be in January, which is good that its so close as I'm extremely excited to try this beer. Since Shiner's flagship is a bock of sorts I had high hopes that they would go this route and put out a dopplebock. Go checkout the link above and read the article as its a well written one.

New Yorker Beer Article

You know craft beer is getting bigger, when a magazine like the New Yorker has an 11 page article on craft beer. This is an extremely interested article, not only for what it says but for how people have interpreted it (more on that in a bit). The basis of the article is on Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head fame. Now I have made no secret of my love of his beers as I think he's a mad genius so I was happy to see the love he got in this article. Besides going into a lot of detail into two of Sam's latest beers, the already tasted here Palo Santo Marron, and the I can't wait to taste Sahtea it covers some history on extreme beers. From the early days of American Beer we've had beers that some folks would call extreme, however as of late we've taken that to another level. From Dogfish's beers, to Sam Adams Utopia we yearn for bigger and bigger flavors (this is no different than in the wine industry with bigger and bigger Cabs). While I agree with what the article says and for the most part think that its very well written there is one thing that struck a nerve (along with other folks) and that was how it portrayed the great Garret Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery. Again I've made no secret of my admiration of Mr. Oliver as I think he's a fine brewer, but more importantly an advocate for not only great beer, but great beer and food pairings. The article, fairly or unfairly portrays Mr. Oliver as someone who not only doesn't like "extreme" beers, but thinks they are bad for the industry. Now I don't think that's true at all, and sure enough it isn't. This article has created quite the fervor on the Beer Advocate Forums with Mr. Oliver, Mr. Calagione, and the author of the article, clarifying what was said, what was meant, and the context of the quotes. Like I said I thought this article was well written, but at the same time you have to have your doubts if it takes as much as it has to clarify all the issues inside. The lesson here of course is don't believe everything you read. As always make up your own mind and go check out the article, and then go checkout the BA forum (Sam even name drops Houston's own Brock Wagner).

Two Big Beers on Fight Night

This past Saturday was Fight Night, so I figured it was a good time to drink a couple of big beers that I've been holding on to for a few weeks.
Stone Ruination: Ahh yes a big ole hoppy one from Stone. The first time I ever had this was on cask at the brewery, but I've been a big fan of this one for some time. This one packs a wallop at 95 IBU's and 7.7% abv. It pours a clear orange color with tons of tiny bubbles and capped by a white head. The nose is grapefruit rind, citrus, citrus and more citrus, with hints of toasted pale malts. The mouth is unsurprisingly a hop bomb, but there is some malty backbone that helps give it balance. Its bitter, grapefruit, its crisp and clean though. Very drinkable for being so hoppy. A good solid DIPA that gets a B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA think about this one.
Rogue Double Dead Guy: This is a more potent version of Rogue's flagship beer Dead Guy ale which is a maibock. This more potent one weighs in at 75 IBU's and 9% alcohol. The beer pours an amber orange with a quarter inch white head. The nose is sweet malts, caramel, toffee, and a little bit of hoppy earthiness. Not like the other one at all. The mouthfeel is thick and creamy, very tasty, full of toffee and caramel notes. Rich and malty if a little sweet for me. A good soul warming beer as there is definitely some alcohol warmth to this one. There is some yeasty notes that with the sweetness of the beer reminds of a croissant. You don't get a lot of hops here, even with the IBU's, there's just a lot of malt hiding it. A good beer, but like I said a bit sweet. This one gets a B- from me. The folks at BA seem to like it just a bit more than me.

Brooklyn Brown Ale

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

Publish Post

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

Quick Hits: Wednesday Edition

Just a few quick notes on this post Veteran's Day Wednesday.
- An update to my post on Bobby Heugel's new bar Anvil. Knowing that the original opening date was mid-November I spoke with Bobby to get a status on his new endeavor. First off, he's left Beaver's for good, no turning back now. As for Anvil? Well they too have suffered at the hand's of Hurricane Ike. He doesn't have an exact new opening date, but expects it to be sometime around the end of this year, or the beginning of next. I'll be tracking its progress as I think this will be a really exciting place for not only the cocktail lover, but the beer lover as well.
- Houston Press's Robb Walsh follows up on his Texas Wants Beer article, with a short piece on quality beer findings at Texan's Tailgating.
- Finally, the 22nd edition of the Session has been announced. The host this month is 21st Amendment Brewing company. The due date is December 5th and it is also a day of celebration. It celebrates the 75th anniversary of the end of prohibition, which was of course marked by the passing of the 21st amendment. Funny how that all works out. Well if you've been following along you'll probably guess what the theme this month will be. From 21st Amendment's post:

What does the repeal of Prohibition mean to you? How will you celebrate your right to drink beer?

I was hoping that The Session would go back to more beer style theme's, but it seems this is not the case at least for another month. I'm also not sure what the affect choosing a theme that is so US centric on an event that has participants from around the world will be. I will of course participate, because I think its good to have an appreciation for what the 21st Amendment has done for us lover's of craft beer. So come back on Dec 5, and see how it all unfolds.

Oskar Blues Ten Fidy

First off, let me start this post by wishing everyone a Happy Veteran's day, and a Thank You to any vet's reading my blog.
Anyone that's read much of my blog knows that I've been a huge fan of Oskar Blues regular offerings and love the fact they can their beer. I'm also a big fan of stouts, and imperial stouts in particular. So combining my enjoyment of Oskar Blues, and my love of Imperial Stouts, I find their offering Ten Fidy!
The Beer: It weighs in at a hearty 9.5% and pours a pitch black with a thick darkly tan head capping it off. The nose is coco nibs, roasted espresso beans, and spices. The mouth is syrupy, thick and chewy, it coats the tongue. There's bitter roasted espresso beans, and dark chocolate with some figs. Smooth with just a bit of alcohol. There's a lot of different flavors here, but nothing that stands out. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the beer, but down here in Houston there's been a lot of hype on this one, and I'm not sure its all warranted. I'd take the SA Divine 5 and North Coast Rasputin over this one. A fine example still, just a little overrated in my opinion. It gets a B. Here's what the folks at BA think.

The Session #21 Roundup

Its Monday morning, and the roundup of the latest session is on online. Pretty good participation, but many felt like I did, that its not as easy as it sounds to pick a favorite beer. Go check it out, because there were still a lot of great beers tasted. The Session #22 announcement to come soon.

The Session #21: My Favorite Beer

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

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

Southern Star Rauchbier

My Eat (drink) local challenge may be over, but it doesn't mean I'll stop drinking local beers. Last night was no different. Wednesdays at the Flying Saucer is pint glass night, and this week's free glass was from Conroe's own Southern Star Brewery. I figured this would be a good time to head down and try the new beer from our new brewery. Now this is not any new beer, this one is a unique one that few make (although I have had another Texas version), called Rauchbier, German for smoked beer. I really enjoyed this style and ever since the initial announcement I've been eagerly waiting to try it.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 6.5% abv and pours a golden straw color with a thick foamy white head. I was surprised by the color as most of the smoked beers I've had are darker. With the first whiff my mind immediately went to a thick pork shoulder, charred after having spent the day in smoker. The nose was amazing. The mouth was BACON! Well bacon up front, with a creamy mouthfeel that causes the bacon-y flavor to smother your taste buds. At the finish there are some mild notes of pale toasty malts that add a little sweetness at the end. Overall this is a great example of a rauchbier. Now if Southern Star could get this thing canned and make it a year round beer, it would find a permanent place on my menus with smoked or grilled meats. This one gets a B+ from me.

Lost Abbey: Ten Commandments

Speaking of picking up beers at breweries I visit. I got this one during my Hurricane Evacuation to San Diego. This one is a more powerful version of their Lost and Found Abbey ale with an alcohol content to match. I've heard so many amazing things about this beer I can't believe I hadn't opened it before now. A few days ago, my wife and I had a couple of good friends over and I decided to open this one up for everyone to enjoy. I asked my friend who loves photography, to take some photos and some of them are what you see in this post.
The Beer: As with all of Lost Abbey beers, this one comes in a big 750 ml, with a champagne style cork and cage enclosure. It weighs in at 9.0% and pours a cloudy hazy brown, with a little cafe colored head. The nose has chocolate and espresso, maple-y woody notes. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy with notes of raisins, and figs. There is little to know carbonation here, instead is sits still in your mouth and coats your tongue. As one of our friends said the flavor builds and builds, spreading across the tongue before coming down into a long finish of spice and molasses. There are hints of sourness here that my wife compared to a chocolate covered sour cherries with some dark raisins thrown in for good measure. With all the flavor going on the beer does a great job of hiding the alcohol content. This is a great beer with a lot going on. it gets a strong A from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Quick Hits

Just a few notes on this Monday Evening.
- The beginning of November marks the end of my eat local challenge. Or in my case, drink local. How'd I do? Well I made it the month with drinking local, where ever I was I tried to drink local. I also learned that I need to do a better job of picking up beers from breweries that I visit and bringing those back home. Its a good opportunity for me to taste new beers, and its also a great way to savor the memories of a wonderful trip.

- Don't forget this Friday is The Session. The theme this month is to answer the question: "Whats your favorite beer and why?" Stay tuned, still trying to figure out what I'm going to do for this one.

- Saint Arnold's has announced that they are participating in a neat charity event on November 15th. From their newsletter:

VOLUNTEER DAY AT SALVATION ARMY TO MAKE GIFT BAGS Saint Arnold is joining members of the Chevron XYZ Club (this group has volunteered at many Saint Arnold events) to help the Salvation Army by sorting toys by age and gender, creating age and gender appropriate gift bags, placing age and gender labels on gift bags, decorating collection containers, etc.
When: Saturday, November 15, 10:00am - 2:00pm
Where: 10701 Jones Road, Houston, TX 77065

They'll even be serving their tasty root beer.

- Lastly tomorrow is election day, so please exercise your right and get out there and vote. If you don't than you can't complain!

Two Saint Arnold's Seasonals

In a great example of supply and demand and how that can change even the best laid plans, Saint Arnold's has run out of one of their seasonals and had to release another one early. Even though the folks at SA brewed more of their Octoberfest than they ever have, they still ran out halfway through the month of October. This led to SA going ahead and releasing their Christmas Ale. With their shuffling I was able to buy a 6 pack of both and decided to do a tasting.
Octoberfest: This is actually one of my favorite Octoberfests, and one of the only ones made in Texas (the other is from Rahr and Sons). I've had this many times in the past and its pretty consistent across years. This one pours a slightly cloudy orange amber with a thick off-white head. The nose is sweet caramel, malts, burnt sugar, and some bitterness. The mouth is effervescent with a great body, sweet but not cloying. Some notes of caramel, butterscotch, a little bitter kick at the finish. Overall a nice silky honey like texture, creating a very smooth very solid beer that gets a B from me.
Christmas Ale: Its actually been a couple of years since I last posted on this fine beer (well during Christmas that is). The beer pours a reddish copper brown with a thin head that dissipates into a film on top. The nose is malty (as it should be, its made with five different malts). Roasted malts, caramel, brown sugar and a cinnamon-y scent. The mouth is smooth up front before bringing a spicy character. Its malty, bready, brown sugar, and spices. It reminds me of a Christmas cookies. Extremely tasty. This one gets a B+ from me.

2 Very Quick, Very late hits

I know I'm late in posting on both of these things, but I figure better late than never and maybe just maybe some of this may be news to you.
- First news from the Houston Press regarding a new Rice University Biology Study. Rice Biologists are working on a BioBeer to create a "A brew which has modified yeast that creates resveratrol – the cancer-preventing ingredient in red wine that has also been linked to lowering risks of heart disease in lab animals."

- Secondly its Battle Beer time!!! On a recent episode of Food Networks Iron Chef the secret ingredient was Beer. The chef's had 60 minutes to create at least 5 dishes using the secret ingredient. I think its awesome that Beer and food is getting this main stream, however there were good things and very bad things about this episode. First the good: One of the judges was the great Garret Oliver. There was a really nice beer selection: Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout, Bire De Miel (a mead), Ivanhoe IPA, Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, and last but not least Shiner Hefeweizen. Lastly the food made from the beer ranged a pretty broad gamut from traditional Brats, to more complex deserts and cakes. The bad of course was the knowledge of beer by the hosts and the other two judges. Kevin Brauch who has hosted booze related shows in the past said that the Shiner was brewed in Austin! Also the host Alton Brown seemed to know nothing about beer. In other shows he seems extremely well researched and while that may be production and an artifact of the show, why not show the same respect towards Beer that they have shown towards other ingredients? Lastly the other judges seemed to distain the taste of beer, and not really understanding nor appreciating its complex flavors. Having said all that, even with the negatives it was extremely nice to see a show like this focusing on beer and food.

Book Review: Red, White, and Brew

I'm always on the look for a new book on beer. Sometimes this can be difficult at the local book store. It seems you can always find a new book on wine (the aisles are FILLED with 'em) but good beer books can be few and far between. So when Brian Yaeger recently commented to a post of mine, and I found out he had a book coming out, I got excited. Luckily I wasn't disappointed. I finished this book during my trip to GABF (unfortunately I didn't get a chance to catch up with Brian). To start this is as much a book about cross country traveling as it is about beer. Much like the lauded Travels with Barley, this is not a book to read if you are just looking for a book on beer tastings, food matching, or any of the sort. Instead its a deeper look into the breweries, and brewers behind the beer. Brian doesn't stick to just the hard to find craft breweries, although they are there (Bell's, Goose Island, Grand Teton, etc) but he also hits some of the bigger craft breweries as well (New Belgium, Spoetzl, Widmer, D.G. Yuengling, etc). The book revolves around him traveling the country, moving from brewery to brewery and listening to the stories of the founders and workers. Brian's travels start at the Yuengling Brewery, heading west to breweries in the midwest, through Colorado, along the west coast, around through Texas and a visit to local Shiner, before heading back east and finishing up at Brooklyn Brewery. All in all a fascinating trip. The one part that interested me is the stop in Texas where he gets a tour around Shiner, Texas (sure it didn't take long, but its a great little town) and the brewery. Some really fascinating history here, providing me with a little information that I didn't know.
Brian's writing style brings out the good and the bad. The good is that its so conversational, and comfortable that you feel as if you're in the car driving cross country with him. The bad is that at times when writing about the local pub scene he can come across a little frat boyish (she didn't know much about beer, but good thing she was cute, that kind of thing). It's a minor knock on my part I know, and it doesn't keep this book from being thoroughly enjoyable, and making me incredible envious of Brian and his trip. Maybe I can join him on his next one........
Overall this book is such an excellent study in what drives brewers, from the bigger craft beer makes to your local brew pub. Its a strong social study of why they do what they do. There are some that don't even drink beer, but yet are driven to continue a brewery if for no other reason than to support the local neighborhood. Needless to say I enjoyed the book, and hope that Brian continues the work, and produces more writings.
In Summary: Highly Recommended.

Houston Press Cover Article - Texas Beer

This week's cover of the Houston Alternative newspaper is all about Texas Beer. Written by the great Robb Walsh, this is a really great article and I encourage everyone who has an interest in Texas Beer to read it, whether you pick up a paper copy, or read it on-line. Just a few items that I want to point out. The article gives a good history on Texas Beer, how it got its start with German Settlers, and how the three-tier system works in the state. One of the big issues that Mr. Walsh discusses is the stranglehold the distributors have on the Texas Legislatures (try 1.38 million in political contributions, across party lines, so all are to blame for this one). How it makes zero sense that wineries can sell their wares in on site gift shops, while beer (lower in alcohol, so that can't be the reason) are unable to do the same. You may remember a few years ago when Saint Arnold's Brock Wagner tried to take on this stupid antiquated law and failed. Oh he had plenty of folks tell him they supported him, but when it came time to walk the walk the cowardly Texas Legislature wouldn't even put the bill up for discussion. As pointed out in the article do Texas Legislatures not realize that not only will it not impact Beer Distributors but it will bring in MONEY to the state, by not only promoting Texas Breweries (hopefully allowing more to be created) but also promote other Texas Artisan Foods and Texas Restaurants. I guess these laws are what you get when most of the TABC code was written by failed Texas Prohibitionists. As you can see this article got me fired up this morning. Brock has stated that he is going to try again next year to get a fair bill passed to allow small breweries to sell their beer on site. I urge everyone to contribute whatever you can to this cause, whether it be money or letters to your local state Representatives asking them to support your neighborhood business.
Lastly, a couple of other side bars that Robb discussed: His top 5 Texas Beers (year round and seasonal). I can't say I disagree with too much, although I would have liked to see Sisyphus on there, and I'm just not a huge fan of Ugly Pug.
For more information on the Legislative struggle that Brock faced check this link out.

Houston Cellar Classic and Saint Arnold's

Fresh off of the Great American Beer Festival, we enter the week of the Houston Cellar Classic, put on by The Tasting Room. This is a unique week in Houston filled with wine tasting, wine and food pairings, dinners, etc. It also includes a special day for beer, specifically Houston's own Saint Arnold's. That day was yesterday. When it was announced that the HCC would be having a special Saint Arnold's Beer tasting, I can't tell you how excited I was. Remember this was the same group of folks that put together the awesome Saint Arnold's and Texas Cheese pairing afternoon last year. So what was I expecting? This being held at the TTR Midtown location, known locally for its "Grilling and Chilling" Wednesdays, I was expecting small bites grilled of course, and paired with individual Saint Arnold's beers. What did I get? Some small grilled bites (great Buffalo Slides, ribs, and frites from Max's Wine Dive), and Saint Arnold's beer (the regular line up along with their Octoberfest), but no pairing. It was just a grab your food and grab a beer, any beer will do set up. No pairing, no showing how well each specific beer can go well with different types of food.
Would HCC do this and call it a Wine Tasting? No, they would have specific foods matched with each wine, so why not the same respect shown for good beer? You have such a wide range of beers here, from the light crispness of Lawnmower to go perfectly with grilled seafood, to the richness of the Octoberfest, perfect for some grilled brats, or even the grilled ribs they served. To call my extremely disappointed in yesterday's evenings festivities is an understatement as I really think HCC, TTR, and yes even Saint Arnold's missed the boat on this one.