What is local?

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

How Did I miss this?

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

Yes I'm Back

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Collaboration NOT Litigation

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

Updates on Southern Star

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

The Session #14

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

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

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

Left Hand Widdershins Barley Wine

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

The Session #13 Organic Beer

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

Tommyknocker Imperial Nut Brown Ale

As I've mentioned many times in the past, my wife is from Denver so I get ample opportunity to make my way to that haven of great beer and tour many of its breweries. One of the first I toured years ago while we were still dating was up in a tiny mountain town named Idaho Springs. There I was introduced to the local brewery pub Tommyknocker's. The beer alas was good, but not great. Fairly inconsistent in my opinion, and also lacking in flavor. They were all ok, but nothing that I would go out of my way for. Well last time I was in Denver, we actually went back to Tommyknockers, and in going through some of their beers, I was able to taste their Imperial Nut Brown, a souped up version of their Maple nut brown (made with real maple syrup). It was fantastic, so months later I was extremely excited to see it at my local Central Market. Let's see how it held up.
The Beer: The beer is actually a 10th anniversary ale and weighs in at 9.8% alcohol. Made with Chocolate and crystal malts and a blend of American and European hops. The beer pours a very rich dark brown with a taupe cafe colored head. The nose is malty and raisiny with a bit of roasted malt notes. The mouth is rich, maple sugar, raisins, chocolate, creamy. Put it all together and it's reminiscent of pancake batter with hints of nutmeg. Very smooth over all, if a bit sweet. Only slight hints of alcohol. This would be a great dessert beer, the biggest negative is what you would expect. Its almost cloyingly sweet which would prohibit one from drinking multiple pints. Overall I think its one of their better beers, and I'd give it a B. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale

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

Updates to some Texas Breweries

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

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

2008 Anchor Old Foghorn

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

Sam Adams, more than a Patriot

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

St. Peter's IPA

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

Sam Adams Double Bock

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

An Update on Texas Breweries

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

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

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

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

2008 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

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

Session Notes

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

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

Saint Arnold's Spring Bock

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

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.