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!