Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thirsty Thursday #14



Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA
Style: IPA
ABV: 6.8%

Oh yeah!!! I love this time of year. Celebration time! I saw this at HEB tonight and snapped it up without looking towards any other beer.

This is the first beer I had after returning from Europe last year. We were in Spain for the last month of our trip and there were no hoppy beers to be found in the entire country (save for the one pale ale I found at a beer bar in Valencia, and even that was a stretch). Towards the end of our journey I was quite homesick and longing for that bitter bite of the hop. This was the beer I pined for. And who knew, it's even available in Brownsville, TX, lucky for me.

Easily one of my all time top five IPAs. Homeless, this one is for you!

Freetail Opening in November



They even got their signs up. Am hoping it's done by the time we are driving through for Thanksgiving.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Thirsty Thursday #13



Deschutes Jubelale
by Deschutes Brewery - Bend, Oregon
Style: Winter Warmer
ABV: 6.7%

It's not even November and the winter beers are rolling out. This is one of the first I've seen in these parts. I had one last night and I am saving the rest for colder winter nights. I find it sort of odd that Deschutes released this beer in Texas when we only get two other beers from them (black butte porter and mirror pond pale ale) and this is a seasonal. They have many other year round beers I wish they would distribute here. Maybe this is a sign of more to come. Or maybe this is being released because it an important beer in their lineup: the first they ever bottled, according to their website.

The artwork on the bottle and the packaging is sick. I wish I took a picture of the six pack carton. About the artwork:
Every year Deschutes Brewery selects a Northwest artist to create an image evocative of the season’s festive atmosphere. In 2008, Pam Jersey Bird, who lives in Sisters, painted a winding, abstract river running through the open spaces of Central Oregon’s desert, surrounded by fluttering snowfall.

It was really unlike any other winter warmers I've had, not a lot of spice flavor. Very malty, which is nice. Super smooth, silky. It reminded me of a porter, almost milky. A bit of a hop bite. Overall not bad, but I was expecting a little more to tell you the truth.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Draught House in Statesman


Blurry Picture totally stolen from Statesman's website. Seriously, what's up with that photo, horrible.

Check out this article on the 40th Anniversary of Draught in the Statesman. I saw this first on BA.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008



Not much goin' on around here. I am pretty much just biding my time until Draught House's 40th Anniversary Party this saturday. I am really looking forward to that. The picture above was my Thirsty Thursday beer that I never wrote up. It was pretty damn good. I enjoyed DR6 more and can't wait until Christmas to pop a few more of those open.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Seen Today...



On BeerAdvocate. Sounds like it is just a homebrewer's pipe dream. I love pipe dreams. Especially beerey ones.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Readin'



Just picked this up from the library. I'll let you know how it is. My first thoughts: the design is atrocious.

Things have been pretty slow lately. I picked up a cold, probably traveling to and from Philly last weekend. Stupid airplanes.

I have been on a steady diet of Zicam and Sudafed. As some of you may know, Zicam trashes your taste buds. Everything tastses the same. I've been doing some experiments and have found double ipas are best at blasting through the zinc encrustment.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Happy Birthday



Just saw this at I Love Beer.

*UPDATE:
Come for the Barrel Aged Treehugger, the Draught House Double IPA, the Southern Star Rauchbeer, the 512 Pecan Porter or the many cask beers. (via BeerAdvocate)

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Lancaster, PA Report

Last weekend I was out of town (missing the plethora of Austin beer events) for my cousin, Chris’ wedding.

We arrived Friday. On our way from Philadelphia to Lancaster we had to stop for lunch. Along the path we were we taking I was not seeing much. Thirty minutes into the trip I spotted a boring looking restaurant with the word “bar” in its name and knew it would be my greatest chance at a good beer. Sure enough, they had a decent tap selection, including the seasonal Victory, of course this month their Oktoberfest. It was delicious, spicy for an Oktoberfest. It went well with steak and egg burger…that’s right, steak and egg burger. Hearty food is abundant in these parts.



Later that night, after the rehearsal dinner (where Stella was my drink of choice, not great, but not horrible by any means), we stopped in one of my favorite Lancaster haunts, Quips. Now I remember this place being better. The best they had to offer on tap was Sam Adams Okoberfest and Fuller’s ESB. I chose to stay local and order a Stoudt’s Gold and Victory Hop Devil. Both great beers. Stoudt’s is my favorite PA brewery. Luckily we can get some Victory beers down here. I also had a Sam Smith’s Taddy Porter later. Not a local, but give me a break, it had been a long day and my ordering got a little fuzzy.





Saturday was wedding day. I so badly wanted to visit the Lancaster Iron Hill brewpub, but was never able to fit it in. Later I found out my cousins and friend went without me while waiting for their tuxes to be adjusted (something I stupidly did the night before). Bastards! Around noon, Chris (the groom and my cousin) had us over the house for “relaxed, chill groomsman photos.” Something I scoffed at before arriving. Bless his heart, we arrived greeted by a couple mixed sixers of Stoudt’s (and some of my grandfathers 15-20 year old scotch). Scarlet Lady, Tripel, Double IPA, American Pale. Quite the lineup. We lunched on subs and good beer.

Chris is the man. He served great beer at the reception. Sam Adams Oktoberfest and Dogfish Shelter Pale Ale were the standouts. Me and select few others did our best to polish them off. We failed, but luckily I was able to bring some Dogfish home with me. Following the reception, we met bride and groom at a local bar called Fenz and enjoyed a few more Stoudt’s Scarlet Ladies.

Sunday, flying out of Philadelphia, our plane was delayed of course. It turned out being a bright spot, because I was able to have the best beer of my weekend whilst waiting. Dockstreet Rye IPA. It was the best rye beer I have ever had. Go to Philly and get one.

All in all a good weekend. I really wanted to visit Lancaster Brewing Co. or Iron Hill, but at last I got to drink a good number of Stoudt’s beers. And that made me happy.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Thirsty Thursday #12



Boon Geuze
by Brouwerij Boon - Lembeek, Belgium
Style: Gueze/Geuze
ABV: 6%

Another killer beer not available in Austin. I sometimes seriously think about opening a distribution company, just to get beers like this down here. I picked this one up from Knightly Spirits, in Orlando. It is so sad that Orlando has this beer and Austin does not. As far as beer culture goes, Orlando is pretty sad. I really can not understand why they have such great distribution. Knightly Spirits, you rock (and only five minutes from my partents).

About the Gueze style (from BA):
A traditional Belgian blend of young and old Lambics, which are then bottle after blending, then aged for 2-3 years to produce a dryer, fruitier and more intense style of Lambic. There is no hop character, some are filtered and force carbonated if not pasteurized as well. Some say that this is the more harsh lambic as the sourness is pretty intense.

Tart, funky, and super refreshing.

Draught House

I gotta go to the Draught House. They have a bunch of new beers:

American Ale Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. Amber Ale Missouri 5.1%

Brooklyn Lager Brooklyn Brewery Vienna New York 5.2%

Divine Reserve #7 Saint Arnold Brewing Co. Weizenbock Texas 8.4%

Eric's Ale New Belgium Brewing Company Sour Ale Colorado 7%

Hennepin Brewery Ommegang Saison New York 7.7%

Logger Southern Star Brewing Co. Pilsener Texas

Lost Gold IPA Real Ale Brewing Co. IPA Texas 6.6%

Oaktoberfest Live Oak Brewing Co. Oktoberfest Texas

O'Hara's Celtic Stout Carlow Dry Stout Ireland 4.2%

Olde Gnarley Wine Lagunitas Brewing Company Barley Wine California 9.7%

Pipeline Porter Kona Brewing Company Porter Hawaii 5.4%

Punkin' Ale Dogfish Head Brewery Spice/Vegetable Beer Deleware 7%

Stone Smoked Porter Stone Brewing Company Porter California 5.9%

The Kaiser Avery Brewing Co. Oktoberfest Colorado 10.3%