Brooklyn Oktoberfest Gets a Facelift

And guess what . . . I don't like it. Surprise, surprise. Come on, they had a good thing going. The colors they are using now are atrocious. They hurt my eyes. Luckily, the beer is still good. I love it, been drinking it since my early beer blogging days.



Old.



New. The colors are worse in real life. The silver is reflective. Ugh.

What is really weird, the Brooklyn Brewery website still has the old design featured. Apparently the web dept likes the old design too.

Things change, get over it. Right. Central Market has six packs now.

Saint Arnold Pumpkinator

Spooky. Who still has some of this from last year? Wish I had saved one. I'm horrible at saving beers.

h/t: beernews.org

(512) ALT Out Now

 

(512)'s latest seasonal is back. If you have not had it, it's good. And this year it may be better:

We’ve released (512)ALT this year and we are very excited about how well it turned out. Our Head Brewer, Nate, and the tireless (512) production crew tweaked it a touch in the spirit of continuous improvement and waited on it a bit longer to give it a look and flavor that’s really outstanding. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the style, check here for our description or just try it and see what you think. If it’s not available yet where you regularly enjoy (512), please ask for it.

PLUS . . . about this year's anniversary release:

We’re excited about the beers we plan to release this summer too. We’re gearing up for our third anniversary beer, (512) THREE (still a secret creation- but a new style), and in anticipation, we’re planning to re-release (512) ONE and (512) TWO in sequence first. Thanks for the continued support and thanks for drinking local fresh draft!

(512) WHISKEY BARREL AGED DOUBLE PECAN PORTER – 750ml BOTTLES

photo: (512) Brewing

It's that time again. Buy them here:

Whole Foods - Downtown (One per person, should have around 1pm Today)
Whip In (2 per person, available now)
Spec's Liquors - Brodie (3 or 4pm today) and Arbor Walk (by 1pm today)
Twin Liquors - bee cave/Hancock and a few others

Independence Brewing Rood

Rood - Independence's new spring seasonal.

Jester King Black Metal Imperial Stout

Bat blood, rat blood, snake blood, malt blood. Introducing Jester King's first seasonal beer:

Black Metal Imperial Stout, a.k.a. Suds of Northern Darkness, a.k.a. Iron Sword, a.k.a. El Martillo del Muerte. Black Metal is a cruel and punishing beer fermented by the sheer force of its awesome will. We are pretty sure that Kreator wrote the song “Impossible Brutality” about this beer while drinking it during their Extreme Aggression Tour.

Black Metal is Jester King’s winter seasonal release. Weighing in at about 10% ABV, it’s filled with huge flavors of roast, chocolate, burnt malt and alcohol and carries a hint of leather. We encourage Black Metal to be enjoyed from a snifter at a serving temperature between 57 and 61 degrees Fahrenheit.

And now . . . my favorite black metal links (What, you don't have "favorite black metal links?" Get on that.:

BLACK METAL THANKSGIVING

(512) Bruin - The Bear is Back!

Reading that description has me craving one. Craving one, and I did not even like it that much last year. I want to sample it a few time this year and see if my opinion has changed. I like everything else (512) makes, so I guess they are bound to make one loser in my eyes. What's that Mick....

Saint Arnold DR #9 to Become Fall Seasonal

Photo from @saintarnold.

We've heard about this before, but now it's fairly official. Cool:

It was at this point that Brock made the biggest announcement of the night: This Imperial Pumpkin Stout will become a yearly seasonal release starting next year! That is great news for any beer lover.

H/T: BTA....via Barley Vine.....via Brock Wagner

An Old Friend Came to Dinner

FYI, this picture is from two years ago. Now I just dream about delicious meat like that, but I do take down plenty Sam Adams Oktoberfests.

Real Ale Oktoberfest

Some nice photos and video of the Oktoberfest bottling going on at Real Ale. I love Oktoberfest beers, but you know that already.


While I am on the subject of Real Ale. And new beer. And lagers:



Have you had the Han's Pils? What, you haven't? What are you waiting for? It is pretty good stuff.

Real Ale Oktoberfest Label

Is it September yet?

h/t: whoneeds8

(512) Brewing Spring Open House, A Recap

From the dudes at Beer Town Austin. I was not their, but they were. So go their and read it, but I can sum it up: Great Beer, Great Atmosphere.

Sisyphus '09

Gettin' bottled son.

Via Facebook

Spotted at HEB Tonight - Descutes Red Chair NWPA

Yum.

Did not catch the price. What a report...

RED CHAIR NWPA

Phoenixx Double ESB Label

Saw this on BeerAdvocate today. I still have not tried the Coffee Porter from the bottle. I hope to by the time this lands on shelves. I can't keep up with all these beers. That is good situation to be in I guess.

More info.

Oktoberfest Sightings

I love Oktoberfest. And the Oktoberfest beer style. Some local versions are starting to crop up.

So far I've had Live Oak's and Saint Arnold's.


Real Ale's first Oktoberfest (and first lager, right?) should be hitting spots this weekend, according to their facebook page.

Have not seen or had Rahr's yet, but looking forward to it.

Who am I missing?

Saint Arnold News

I just received the latest Saint Arnold newsletter.

The big news is the latest info on Divine Reserve #8:

DIVINE RESERVE NO. 8 IS BEING BREWED NEXT WEEK It has been a year since we have brewed a Divine Reserve. Our issue has been a lack of capacity to brew these very time (and tank) consuming beers. But next week we are going to squeeze in a brew of Divine Reserve No. 8. It will take us 46 hours of continuous brewing to get this baby into the tank (one of our regular beers takes about 21 hours). DR8 will be a Scotch Ale and is based on the Big Batch Brew Bash winning entry from Phillip Kaufman. But don't expect to see this beer in the stores this summer. Expected release date is September.

And this:

NEW BREWERY IS PROGRESSING Opening day at the new brewery is drawing closer! Here is a video giving a tour showing the progress of the brewery. (It can take a few moments to load on our website.)

Saint Arnold Video News: Our New Home Edition
http://www.saintarnold.com/mt/2009/06/the_saint_arnold_video_news_ou.html or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5T0GJ7cxI0

Avery 16

Soon. I mean the Clear Lake Specs has it. Where is Clear Lake? We must be gettin it, right?

No Saint Arnold "Christmas in July" This Year

Sort of. From Frank @ Saint Arnold:

Due to capacity issues, moving to a new brewery, etc., Christmas in July is limited to a handful of Christmas casks from 2008 that have been cellared in Hou/Aus/DFW.
Look for it to be back in 2010!

Shiner 100 Review

Not from me. I am looking forward to it. But from tedo. Check it out.