Saint Arnold's Spring Bock

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

What is Divine?

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

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

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

Covey Restaurant

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

Flying Dog Oak Aged Gonzo

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

News and Notes around the beer world

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

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

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

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

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

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

Whats in a name?

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















Now here is the label from this weeks newsletter:















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

Saint Arnolds Winter Stout

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

The Session #12 Announcement

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

Restaurant Review: Beavers

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

The Session #11: Roundup

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

Some new stuff on the Blog

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

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

The Session # 11 - Doppelbock,

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

Now head over to Brewvana for more Doppelbock posts.

Oak Aged Beers

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

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

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

More on Flying Dog

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

My Trip to Flying Dog

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

2007 Anchor 'Our Special Ale'

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

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

The Hop Shortage Impacts Local Brewery

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

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

News Bits and Beer Quick Hits

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

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

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

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

Quick Hits: A Beer Writer's last Column

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

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