A Halloween Treat: the Pumpkin Ale

A few months ago, my dad and I were talking about the Reinheitsgebot.  If you don’t speak German, then you wouldn’t know the translation means ‘purity order’.  Out of context, ‘purity order’ can mean many things, but in this case the Bavarians were talking about beer.  In 1516, the Bavarian people drafted a law to say that only 3 ingredients could be used when brewing beer: water, barley, and hops.  It was created to protect against brewers cutting their beers with poor quality adjuncts or harmful flavor additives.  It’s a law that shaped the way the Germans have brewed for centuries; ensuring quality at the expense of some creativity.

I don’t remember what exactly we were talking about, but I do remember he was in defense of the Reinheitsgebot, and I was taking against the opposite stance.  He didn’t feel that you needed anything other than water, barley, and hops to make good beer (other than yeast of course).  While you obviously don’t need anything but those ingredients, I feel that you can make great beer with other ingredients too.  A great chef could make fantastic food out of just 3 ingredients, but why would they ever limit themselves to it?

I'm not impressed

Since today is Halloween, and the pumpkin culinary season is in full swing, I figured it would be a perfect day to comment on one of the most Reinheitsgebot defying beers: the pumpkin ale. Some people claim the pumpkin ale to be a gimmick, and it might be to some extent, but one thing it definitely is not is a modern day invention.  Brewing beer with pumpkin has been done since American colonial times.  While I can’t comment about the colonial beers, today’s selection is outstanding.  

In the last few weeks, I’ve done my best to try as many pumpkin beers as possible.  Some have been great, some have been not so great.  These aren’t going to be the most informative reviews I’ve done, just quick summaries; I’m also not going to grade them.  The beers are listed in the order I tried them:

Dogfish Head Punkin’ Ale (7% abv) – Reminiscent of a light brown ale.  Pumpkin bread and sweet malt smells. Caramel malt, butter, molasses, and a hint of spice flavors. Very drinkable.  Coming from Dogfish Head, I expected to be really impressed with this brew, was a little underwhelmed.

Harpoon UFO Pumpkin (5.9% abv) – Hazy golden brown with an orange tinted head. Pumpkin, clove, and yeast smells.  Pumpkin, nutmeg, more yeast and possibly banana flavors.  A good looking brew drinks well on the warmer of the October days.  I think I’ve come to love unfiltered beers.

Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale (5.7% abv) – Light brown, thin looking, light carbonation. Soft wheat and nearly undetectable pumpkin rind smells.  Not much flavor besides the malt, hints of allspice and clove flavors.  Watered down.  Possibly a good gateway beer into other pumpkin beers but seemed so taste censored.  Served ice cold it’s extremely bland, if you want to enjoy it you need to let it warm, but I don’t see many American bars serving anything above 40 degrees.

Saint Arnold Pumpkinator Imperial Pumpkin Stout (10% abv) – Thick bodied, such a dark brown it looked black. Pumpkin, nutmeg, and chocolate malt smells.  Strong pumpkin pie taste: mashed pumpkin pie filling, nutmeg, and cinnamon.  Luscious roasted malt, also a bit of a creamy eggnog taste. Heavy carbonation.  As it warms alcohol and spice note become even stronger.  A delicious beer, wouldn’t recommend to a casual beer drinker though, it may dominate their palate.

Brooklyn Brewery Post Road Pumpkin Ale (5% abv) – Light brown, or dark amber. Slight pumpkin, clove, and coriander smells.  Not much pumpkin in the taste.  Caramel malt, coriander, and bittering hops flavors.  In comparison to the other beers, it seemed the most common. It makes for a very good choice to bring to a Halloween party: not too expensive, not too wacky, and easily sessionable.

These are the pumpkin ales I’ve had to date.  Sorry the list isn’t longer, but specialty beers can be hard to find in College Station, and my budget prevents me from buying too many at one time.  In the spirit of trick or treating, I think I'll award my self with a treat: the last of the pumpkin ales in my fridge. Honestly, I really just need to make room in my fridge because Christmas is coming soon...

And with it comes Christmas ales!

Setting the standard: Live Oak Brewing Co.'s Hefeweizen

When you’re first discovering the wide world of craft beer, you find a lot of new favorites.  That’s not surprising though, considering there are over 1,700 breweries in the United States alone.  It took some time, and a lot of effort from dedicated beer advocates, but the U.S. finally reached the number of breweries seen before prohibition, which is outstanding.  With this many breweries, especially considering most breweries strive to make the best beer possible, the chances of finding good beer is very high.  Every now and then though, a brewery creates something that is stand-out amazing.  If you go to beer rating websites like Rate Beer or Beer Advocate, these are the top picks.  These are the beers people will wait 5 hours in line for, or pay a seller on eBay $100+ for one bottle.  These are consistently hyped to be the best beers in the world.

A bomber of this has a 'Buy It Now' price of $89.99

One neat tool on Beer Advocate is the region filter on the Top 100 list.  Not long ago I went to the list for the Southwest region (the area containing Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas).  Being that Austin is the odd, liberal, creative town that it is, a lot of the beers on the list came from Austin area craft breweries.  This was great news for me; College Station is only 2 hours away.  Still though, I don’t have the time or money to just drive over whenever I feel like it; it would be better for the beers to come to me! These small breweries can’t afford to produce mass volume, or then distribute too far from home.

A few weeks ago, O’bannon’s announced they would be getting a few kegs from Live Oak Brewing Co.  If you’ve seen the list I referenced earlier then you might realize, Live Oak Hefeweizen is rated the #1 beer in the Southwest region.  If you filter the Top 100 list by style then you see Live Oak Hefeweizen is rated #2, in the world.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic to hear this announcement.

This is my excited face 

The official release was scheduled for 8’o’clock; I was there just shortly after.  My buddy behind the bar, Hoffman, asked what I’d be having.  Without missing a beat I said, “I’m here for the Live Oak man.” I felt a little goofy saying it like that, but I was just so excited that I wasn’t really thinking.  He brought it over and told me that it was the best hefe he’d ever had.  Before walking over to my table, I took a quick sip, and from that point I couldn’t stop smiling.

My pint of Live Oak Hefeweizen was a very hazy straw color with just a thin half finger of head.  Lots of bubble columns, definitely a lively beer.  It smelled wonderful, lots of banana peel smell mingling with lemon and a bit of that classic wheat bubblegum.  The taste mirrored the smell, with different emphasis.  The lemon zest was much stronger, the banana taste came second.  A very subtle white pepper flavor developed on the back end and joined a soft yeast aftertaste.  What really tied this beer together was the active carbonation.  It was very fizzy and it let the flavors tingle your mouth like pop rocks candy.  This beer finished crisp and was super drinkable.

There is no doubt about it, Live Oak Brewing Co.’s Hefeweizen deserves 5 out of 5.  I have never had a better hefe, and quite possibly a better beer in general.  If you ever get the chance to come to Texas and try this brew, don’t pass on it.  My buddy Todd was (unfortunately for him) unable to come to the release party and my praise of the beer made him a little jealous.  I told him “now that I’ve had it once, I’ll want it again, and I’d love to visit the brewery.”  Suddenly, a 2 hour drive doesn’t seem that long…

ROAD TRIP!

An organic review: Jester King Brewing Co.'s Wytchmaker Rye IPA

You may recall an earlier post of mine describing a recent trip to Austin.  On this trip I purchased a bottle of JesterKing Brewing Co.’s Wytchmaker Rye IPA.  As excited as I was to try something from these guys, it took me a long time to get around to reviewing it.  In fact, there were a couple of times where I just picked up my bottle and stared at it, but didn’t feel ready to open it up.  My timing was off or something.  My first time going over the bottle, I noticed something interesting.

Wytchmaker is made with 80% organic ingredients and is brewed with harvested rainwater.  They do this as a commitment to sustainability and the slow food movement.  Personally, I’m skeptical about organic foods.  A lot of companies are piggybacking off the recent wave of organic success, and labeling ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ has become a very profitable marketing tool.  As seen in Anat Baron’s movie, Beer Wars, giants like InBev are creating new products labeled as organic to capture a new niche.  I hardly believe these companies are worried about sustainability, they’re just exploiting a new modern idea.

Big fat phonies

Jester King, however, is different.  They are making a personal choice to brew with organic ingredients.  As a small brewery input costs must be staggering, because you can’t afford volume discounts that other macrobreweries enjoy, but Jester King is still making the conscious decision to pay higher prices for what they feel will let them make a higher quality brew.  Like I said earlier, I’m not really jumping on the organic bandwagon, but I still respect Jester King and others like them, for not cutting corners and brewing however they want to brew.

Even the brewery looks organic

Bewytching

My bottle of Wytchmaker poured a powerful 4 finger white head, which I wasn’t expecting at all.  The beer was mildly hazy, with a rusty copper color.  This beer had an extremely interesting bouquet.  The predominant smell of piney hops was also met with thyme, clove, a floral perfume-like smell, and a tiny bit of yeast smell to finish.  This beer had some similar flavors, but it was a tad more balanced than the aroma.  The strongest flavors are that of dry rye bread paired with a strong hop presence.  The hops added a lot of piney qualities, as well as some juniper flavor similar to gin, and a small amount of citrus fruit.  The fungal yeast taste strengthened as I neared the bottom of the bottle because I was getting more yeast sediment per pour.  If you don’t want yeast in your beer, be very gentle when serving this brew.  

I’d rate Jester King Brewing Co.’s Wytchmaker Rye IPA 4.5 out of 5.  This beer was very complex, very tasty.  I’d say this is one of the best IPAs I’ve ever had, one of the more balanced also.  One aspect of the brew I could have done away with was the juniper flavor, that’s one flavor I have never enjoyed.  That’s also why I never choose to drink gin.  Maybe it’s just because I hate looking at Ashe Juniper trees.  Those resinous junk scrubs have littered the Texas plains and they’re too dangerous for us to let burn down.  I say they’re nasty and we could stand to lose a few.

Can't play football in this backyard...

Brewery Ommegang's Three Philosophers Quadrupel

A few months ago, I bought a bottle of Three Philosophers from Brewery Ommegang in New York.  I don’t have any special story for this one; I just saw it and picked it up.  I had no idea what to expect, I based the purchase on recommendation from a few different people.  Even though many people have enjoyed this brew, only a few of people attempted to describe it, I got a lot of different answers.  Even today, I’m not sure how to classify this brew; it really IS one of a kind.

No Tyler Durden, you're wrong this time

Three Philosophers is 98% Belgian-style quadrupel Abbey ale blended with 2% kriek lambic.  Did you catch all that? If you’re a normal person, that sentence meant absolutely nothing to you.  I think I need to break this brew down into its components, take it piece by piece. Let’s start with ‘Belgian-style quadrupel’:

Quadrupel, or Quad, is a strong style of ale originating from ancient Trappist ales.  The Trappists were a certain branch of Cistercian monks in La Trappe, France that formed their own strict order of Catholicism.  One of the guiding rules of the order was the need to have self-sufficient monasteries.   This involved every facet of life, including the need for beer.  These monasteries, which slowly spread across Europe, brewed their own unique styles of ale called Trappist ales.  Many of these monasteries no longer exist; there are only 7 official Trappist breweries today, 6 of which are located in Belgium.  These Trappist breweries, such as Chimay and Orval, are some of the most celebrated brewers in the world.  Many craft breweries attempt to recreate these Trappist styles, however they cannot label themselves as licensed Trappist beer.So that’s part of this brew, what about that other 2%? Well, what really makes Three Philosophers unique is the addition of a beer called lambic.

 

Lambics are fruit beers.  In the brewing process, during fermentation of the wort, whole fruits are added to the mix.  This not only adds a lot of new flavors, this also adds a new sugar source for the yeast to metabolize.  There are several types of lambic; kriek lambic is made by adding cherries.

 

Just saying Three Philosophers is 98 parts strong ale and 2 parts cherry beer doesn’t really do justice to the history and creativity contained in this brew.  Even the bottle it comes in is worthy of admiration.

Unedited photo, believe it or not

One night last week, I just made the decision to pop open the bottle.  The brew poured a velvety dark red color, the word luscious came to mind.  The head was 3 fingers strong with a slight reddish tint. 

This was a very aromatic beer.  I picked up on strong notes of cherry, red licorice, raisins, and roasted grain.  There was also a bit of a sour, spoiled fruit smell.

This was also a very flavorful beer. The three predominant flavors in the beer were sour cherries, irish cream, and smooth barley malt.  A few other flavors that made quick appearances were dark fruits (like raisin and plum) and a medicinal cough syrup taste. The 9.8% abv was very apparent in this beer.  It had the alcohol warmth equal to that of  a dry red wine.

After a lot of consideration, I decided to rate Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers 4 out of 5.  This beer deserves to be slowly sipped from a wine glass, or tulip, and paired with a fine cigar. Its main appeal is drawn from its richness of flavor, and smooth textures.  However, I felt the alcohol was a tad harsh and cherry isn’t always a flavor I enjoy (that's my personal preference).  Even though this beer wasn’t really for me, I can still appreciate it, and I applaud Ommegang for brewing with honest passion. 

Not to mention a sense of humor

Cask Party! Real Ale Brewing Co.'s Rio Blanco Pale Ale

If you’re a College Station resident and wish to become a serious beer drinker, there are 2 places you’ll come to rely on.  The first, of course, is Spec’s Liquor; it’s the best place to find beer in CStat.  H-E-B, for being a supermarket, has a great selection as well.  However once you get into buying the seasonal releases and rarities, H-E-B doesn’t compete with the wide selection that Spec’s has.  In fact, I talk about Spec’s so much I’m starting to think they should be paying me for advertising. Pay me in beer, perhaps?

Nobody ever pays me in beer...

The second place in CStat for the dedicated brew fanatic is O’Bannon’s Irish Pub (which I also mention quite a lot.)  One of the best things about this pub is they don’t try to appeal to the typical American college student market.  Instead of having the nightly specials on domestics (also known as Big 3 swill), they have specials based on new and interesting releases or seasonal brews.  One of the most obvious indicators of O’Bannon’s dedication to beer artistry is their occasional cask parties.  Not many breweries sell small cask conditioned batches of their brews, they’re more difficult to transport and can be a lot of work on the server’s side.  A few breweries in Texas though, do produce some casks and O’Bannon’s is usually lucky enough to get their hands on one.  It’s always an interesting experience drinking a naturally carbonated living beer.  It’s even better when you can taste the same beer pressurized in a keg or bottled up, and get the chance to compare the differing flavors.

Pictured: a creative alternative to the keg

Last Wednesday’s cask party was sponsored by Real Ale Brewing Co. in Blanco, TX.  This craft brewery, most famous for producing Fireman’s 4, is located in the heart of the central Texas. These guys are so dedicated to the brewing tradition of creating ‘real ale’ that they named their company after it.  The team is currently running a 60 barrel system and with it can produce anywhere between 54,000 and 72,000 barrels each year.  A barrel is equal to 31 gallons, according to Title 1: Chapter 1 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code.  All of that volume is matched by a 16 head bottle filler running a daily average of 1200 cases per day.  As you can tell, this little brewery is working hard.

I now own a similar glass

The cask Real Ale brought last Wednesday was one of their original 3 brews: Rio Blanco Pale Ale, a Texas take on English pale ale.  Since the 2011 Great American Beer Fest just happened, I think it’s noteworthy to add that this brew won a gold medal in 2010.  Along with the cask, those awesome folks brought over 100 branded tumbler glasses; buy the beer, keep the glass.  At $5 total, getting to keep the $3 glass, I don’t see how anyone could pass up the deal.

My pint of Rio Blanco was gravity pulled through an agitator to sort of kick up the carbonation.  The result was a finger of thick, creamy white head.  Strong retention with this brew, but I’ll admit I did drink it fast.  The color of the brew was a cloudy burnt orange color, the haze was most likely attributed to the yeast still contained in the cask. The smell and taste were identical in this brew, starting out very strong with zesty Saaz hops, heavy herbal note and some bittering oils.     There was a soft malt backbone that basically acted as a medium for the hops to shine through.  The beer felt oily at first but it does finish clean.

I’d rate Real Ale Brewing Co.’s cask conditioned Rio Blanco Pale Ale 3.5 out of 5.  There wasn’t anything spectacular about this beer. Saaz hops dominated this brew; as tasty as Saaz hops are, they’re really only a piece of the puzzle.  This beer would make for a good casual brew, one I’d surely drink again, but not one I’d rave about.  You should know though, what I'm really looking forward to trying are the Mysterium Verum series, they're so... mysterious. 

Catch up review no. 4: Independence Brewing's Bootlegger Brown

Wow, it feels weird writing again, considering the last time I did was over 2 weeks ago.  That’s pretty embarrassing.  It’s not like I haven’t had time, because if I really wanted, I could cram writing in at random times throughout my day (like I'm doing right now).  I’ve just been so lazy, too lazy to do anything. 

So here I am, finally writing about a trip I took on September 10^th, all the way back…

My sister lives in Fort Worth, Texas; she’s is a TCU grad that didn’t feel like leaving the area.  With her busy with work, and me busy with school, I don’t get to see her often.  Usually, I go to my grandma’s house in DFW for Thanksgiving, but being my senior year football season, I refuse to miss the A&M v. Texas game at home.  Sadly, this means skipping out on my 22^nd Thanksgiving with my family.  My sister though, decided to make a trip home to our parents’ house, and wanted me to do the same.  After a little persuasion, and the promise to bring me some Rahr & Sons beer, I decided to make a quick trip to the Austin area.

The city I love

After my mom got off work, the group of us went downtown for dinner to Guero’s Taco Bar, a mildly famous Austin establishment.  My mom ordered her usual: pork tacos and a Corona.  I ordered some of my favorites as well: picadillo tacos with a Negra Modelo (my go to beer at Mexican restaurants).  After dinner, we headed down the street to an equally famous Austin eatery, Hey Cupcake.  I got a Vanilla Dream (vanilla on vanilla), but I was instantly envious of my dad’s pick.  It’s called the Michael Jackson, cream cheese icing on a chocolate cupcake, and it looked awesome.

Before we headed home, we made a trip to Whole Foods.  Austin has a much larger market for craft beer drinkers than College Station, so I jumped on the opportunity to find some more selectively distributed brews.  After about 10 minutes in the store, I found just what I was looking for: Jester King Brewing's Wytchmaker Rye IPA.  Being a relatively small scale Austin brewery, JK doesn’t distribute much outside of the city limits, so this was practically my only chance of snagging some.  And, snag I did, I found the last bottle in store.  Expect a review soon...

It's so creepy... I'm almost afraid to try it

On my way back to College Station, before I got out of town, I decided to make a quick stop at the grocery store, sort of a last minute double check.  I skimmed the beer isle for a bit, nothing in particular stood out to me, until I was ready to leave that is.  I noticed on the bottom shelf were two lonely 6 packs of Independence Brewing Co. beers, one was their Stash IPA and the other was their Bootlegger Brown Ale.  I’ve tried the Stash before, and although I did like it, I was more interested in picking up the Bootlegger.

Bootlegger Brown Ale poured a solid 2 fingers of light brown head with average retention.  The color was a dark, dark brown; in a poorly lit room you’d think it was black, but the reflection around the base of the glass was telling of the true color. The beer smelled oddly enough like a sweet, dark fruit tart.  There was also the distinctive caramelized grain malt sweetness. On the first sip I was hit with a tart, almost puckering sweetness.  That quickly faded into both raisin and red apple flavors, which were both shortly overtaken by the roasted, dark chocolatey malt finish.  The roasted malt flavor didn’t linger around in your mouth, which I liked.  Sometimes roasted malts can stick and fade into an almost burnt aftertaste, definitely not the case with this brew.  Bootlegger finishes clean and is surprisingly refreshing.

Independence Brewing Co.’s Bootlegger Brown Ale gets 4 out of 5 from me.  A lot of the flavors matched very well together, but the brew could benefit from having the upfront tartness dialed back a bit.  The beer was like enjoying a fruit and chocolate dish; you don’t really need an extra dusting of sugar on the fruit before you eat it.  This is coming from a guy whole loves sugar...

...I've got the cavities to prove it

On the farm: Saison Dupont

Mindy, being an animal science major, gets to take all sorts of neat applied courses.  One of her classes, an animal behavior lab, has her doing a self designed research experiment.  Texas A&M has a massive animal science complex; for the project she can use some of the animals around, as long as she doesn’t mess anything up.  A few days ago, one of the big mama Yorkshires had a litter of piglets (which is the technical wording).  Mindy had already seen the babies in class, but she wanted to show our roommate and me.

Hungry little bugger

Those little guys were awesome.  They were pale pink and about the length of my forearm.  The kept crawling under each other trying to get warm.  The big mama was really docile.  She was still nursing so she was stuck in the farrowing pen. I stood there and scratched behind her ear for about 5 minutes, it’s one of the only spots on a pig’s body that isn’t covered by rough little hairs.  We didn’t stay too long, because there’s really not much you can do hanging out in a pig sty, but it was still an enjoyable experience.  You can’t study agriculture without some real world application.

After we got back home, I decided to pop open my bottle of Saison Dupont I’d purchased a week prior.  Historically, Saisons were made for Belgian farmers and laborers.  So, after hanging out with farm animals, drinking a farmhouse ale seemed so right.  This particular beer is brewed by La Brasserie Dupont, a family owned brewery in Hainaut.  The brewery sits on a farm where similar style beers have been brewed since the 1750s.  In 2005, Men’s Journal named Saison Dupont “the best beer in the world.”  This, along with the overall microbrewing renaissance, has led to increased interest in the style.

Lots of action in this photo

My particular bottle of Saison Dupont was a 750ml green bottle (750ml being the standard size for wine).  You could see the yeast caked up against the side from being stored on its side.  The bottle was corked, not capped.  As I eased the cork off it popped and shot towards the ceiling; Mindy jumped a bit but I just laughed.

I poured the beer into two small glasses, one for me and one for Mindy.  The pour on both of them yielded about 3 fingers of fizzy white head.  There was quite a lot of carbonation in this brew.  The head settled into a cloudy pale straw color with a little yeast sediment swirling around.

The beer smelled very earthy, maybe a bit musty.  It also had a hint of lemon.  The initial flavor note was zesty lemon rind, a little acidic taste.  Following that was a mild doughy yeast flavor, and the last note I tasted was lasting farmhouse funkiness.  The beer was refreshing, attributed to being so heavily carbonated and light in body.  After the swallow, the funkiness leaves your mouth in a few seconds and leaves a clean palate.

I’d rate Saison Dupont 4 out of 5.  The must and funk weren’t flavors I look for in a beer, maybe they’re acquired tastes.  I enjoyed this brew, but I wasn’t amazed by it, which is what I assumed would happen.  It’s the second Belgian beer I’ve had that has let me down a bit.  I really don’t think it lived up to “beer of the year” hype.  I think a little hype can really help fuel demand for a brew and lead to great exposure for a brewery, but sometimes too much hype sets up for a letdown.

Journey to Conroe, TX for Southern Star Brewing Co.'s Walloon

You may recall an earlier post where I mentioned taking a trip to the Southern Star brewery, a trip I completed this past Saturday.  It started off like any other Saturday: waking up early to feed the dogs, eating a quick breakfast, and relaxing.  However, this day I had plans, beer plans.  Around 11 my dad came into town from Austin, and picked up Mindy and I.  About 40 minutes later, we were eating some quick Mexican food in Navasota, and about 40 minutes after that we were entering the town of Conroe, the home of the Southern Star Brewing Co.

Pulling into the driveway, we could already see the crowd.  I wasn’t expecting so many other people to be there, I was expecting just a quiet tour and a small tasting.  If I had to guess, I’d say about 75 other people had the same Saturday plans I did.  Everywhere around the small brewery were groups of people, mostly in their mid 30’s to late 40’s, sitting in their collapsible chairs and chatting away.  My dad noted how strange it was to see such a large group of people gathered here, as if it were a German style biergarten; although, instead of being in a comforting patio surrounded by lush flowers and ivy, we were in a swelteringly hot warehouse surrounded by brewing paraphernalia.  Did I mind the heat? Not really, I don’t mind sweating a little bit.  Besides, we were at a Texas brewery; I was in my element.

Craft beer drinkers, assemble!

Huzzah!

We joined the long line, reaching well past the front door.  After a few minutes, Mindy and I walked up to the front to see what it was we were actually waiting for.  We soon discovered that we were in the refill line, and that we wanted the short merchandise line.  A few more minutes later, and all three of our party had a beer.  If you buy a glass, they fill it up to three times.  I’d say that’s a very generous tasting portion, especially if you buy the tall glass like we all did.  My first selection was their first brewed beer, Pine Belt Pale Ale.  Mindy and my dad both tried Southern Star’s most famous beer first, Bombshell Blonde.

We looked around a bit, and then promptly got back in line.  Since so many people were also waiting, we had time to finish our first brews before we got to the front.  For our second picks: Mindy ordered their Buried Hatchet Stout (which is probably their best offering), my dad ordered Pine Belt, and I tried their summer seasonal which I never knew existed.  The beer, a grisette style, was called Walloon. More on that later…

Around 2:30, an informal walkthrough tour began.  The tour guide Jeff said this was their first ever walkthrough tour, which I was glad to be a part of.  We saw and sampled some of their malt, we wandered through their tanks, we learned about their brewing process, and we saw their canning system.  It was a concise and well-executed tour.  One thing I learned, and was sorry to hear, was Southern Star brews no longer ship out of state (except for South Carolina) due to supply issues.  They once shipped to a handful of Midwest states like Ohio, but now due to increased demand in Texas, they can only handle one market.  Fortunately, with the addition of a new canning system, and a 350% increase in productivity, Southern Star might be able to widen their distribution again. 

I’d really enjoy seeing Southern Star grow, because as a proud Texan, I love Texas beer and want to share it with the rest of the world.  I don’t only like Southern Star because it’s Texan, they make fantastic beer.  The Buried Hatchet Stout is a phenomenal brew (scoring an impressive A- on Beer Advocate).  However, this isn’t a review for Buried Hatchet; this is a review for Walloon.

 As I said earlier, Walloon is a grisette style, which is an old Belgian style of saison or farmhouse ale.  Grisette brews were allegedly brewed for coal miners to drink during the summer months and were lighter bodied than other saison beers.  Walloon uses a measure of wheat and barley for the mash making it similar to weizenbier. All other Southern Star brews are fermented with American ale yeast, but Walloon is different, it uses Belgian Trappist yeast.

The Walloon I had came from the second to last keg in stock, which also happened to be the second to last keg around, and they aren’t brewing any more this year.  I had some of the last Walloon for the year, I felt special.  The beer drew from the tap well, forming 2 fingers of lofty white head with great retention.  I’d describe the color as a warm golden straw.

The brew smelled very refreshing, like juicy lemon and orange.  There was also a bit of a bready aroma.  The beer tasted equally refreshing.  The first thing you taste is pale malt with a very light bread flavor, then more of the juicy lemon flavor.  The last note you get is of fresh whole wheat.  The beer was bursting with carbonation which made it even more refreshing.  The brew was very drinkable, and finished clean.

I would rate that particular Walloon 4.5 out of 5.  I can think of nothing else I’d rather be drinking during the summer, it’s just a shame it’s now gone.  Also, to try Walloon in the hot brewhouse where it was first made really added to the experience.  I’m very glad I had the chance to visit Southern Star, and I’m also very glad Mindy and my dad got to experience it with me.  Sometimes a beer is only as good as the company you share it with.

This one's going on the fireplace

Widmer Brothers Brewing Co.'s Rotator IPA: X-114

Earlier this week I almost broke my Wednesday night tradition of Obannon’s.  Not intentionally, I sort of just forgot.  As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been distracted by school.  Instead of getting ready for a night on the town, I was getting ready for a productive next day.  I look at it like this though: the more work I put in now in school, the more return I receive after I graduate.  Besides, I love being a student.  I love learning new things, and I especially love learning new things about beer, or relating my ag. economics study to the beer world.  I’m talking about viewing the entire marketing chain through beer goggles: from initial grain production and input pricing, to sales and marketing of the finished product. 

This is about as simplified as the chart gets

One trend I’m very happy to contribute to is the decommoditization of beer.  The growing realization, that beer is not a beer is not a beer, and that each different beer is one of a kind. Big beer companies can buy their grain in bulk because their inputs are all standardized grains.  They buy X million tons of barley, X million tons of corn (or rice) all at predetermined prices, and then begin their process.  This is lunacy to craft beer brewmasters.  The subtle differences between grains from one field to the other means something to these small brewers.  Little tweaks make big differences to flavor.  Actually, most breweries buy grains already malted because they lack resources to malt the grain themselves.  Every single bag of malt they purchase is different than the one sitting next to it, individuality on the smallest scale.

They only look all the same

The same definitely goes for hops.  Macrobrewers contract to purchase the same amount of hops, grown as uniform as possible, from batch to batch.  At the same time, craft brewers are searching, all over the world, for something new.  Some brewers, like Rogue, have even established their own farms to gain more control of the entire process, ensuring their quality standard is applied throughout production.  This pursuit of excellence has led some brewers to keep experimenting, funding research into previously nonexistent new hop varieties.  Widmer Brothers Brewing Company dedicated an entire brew to this experimentation.  The new hop was the X-114 Citra, the new brew was the Rotator IPA: X-114.

X-114 (the beer) is an American IPA dedicated to the Citra hop.  Allegedly, it’s the first in a series of IPA releases from the Widmer bros. (the Rotator series) and it’s actually supposed to be finished with at this point in the year.  Due to a large enough demand, they decided to brew a bit more and do a quick re-release.  I guess Obannon’s was lucky enough to receive a few kegs because they put X-114 on the tap for last Wednesday. I hardly ever pass on the opportunity to try either a new or rare beer, so I ordered one.

My glass of X-114 produced about a finger of thin white head.  It was hard to distinguish the color of the brew in a dimly lit pub, but as far as I could tell the beer looked like a brownish copper with great clarity. 

X-114 smelled and tasted of light grapefruit and strong citrusy hops.  I can’t think of a more fitting name for the Citra hops, because it was easily the most citrusy hop I’ve ever been able to distinguish.  There was also a bit of that summertime wet grass note. This beer wasn’t bittering like many other IPAs, or any other strongly hopped beers period.  It did finish clean and refreshing, which fit well in this late summer season.

I’d rate Widmer Brothers Brewing Co.’s Rotator IPA: X-114 4 out of 5.  It was a good example of citrus heavy ale, I did enjoy drinking it, but it wasn’t spectacular, and it wasn’t at all what I expecting.  It seemed a bit watered down and soft for an IPA; it also might have been too citrus oriented and could have used more of a sweet malty backbone.  I hope the next beer in the Rotator series is a little more balanced, but I am willing to give it a shot.

Catch up review no. 3: Stone Brewing Co.'s Japanese Green Tea IPA

This is yet another catch-up review.  When I said I hoped it didn’t become a habit, I had a feeling it would.  This time I have sort of an excuse, A&M classes started this Monday.  I’ve been so caught up with getting this new semester rolling that I’ve put my beer tastings on the backburner.  I had originally planned on writing blog posts at least three times a week, but to be realistic, I’ll probably get at most two done.  I forgot what it was like to be a student; it’s not hard, and I’m not swamped with assignments, I’m just very tired and lazy when I get home.  I’m practically forcing myself to write this review right now.  Today, I feel like drinking beer more than I feel like writing about it.

Now I'm just teasing myself...

Alas, I must continue.  This past Saturday I was invited to a reunion party with some of the people I went to Australia with.   At midday I made a Spec’s run: I was looking for something crisp, refreshing, and sessionable.  My initial thought was an inexpensive lager and the first thing I spotted was Brooklyn Brewery’s Brooklyn Lager.  I looked around a bit more, but nothing else seemed as appropriate for the occasion.  Before I left the store, I browsed over the top shelf, the singles shelf.  Hiding close to the edge was one last little 12oz brown bottle, seemingly out of place.  That bottle was Stone Brewing Co.’s Japanese Green Tea IPA, one of the three 2011 collaboration brews. 

This is a very interesting brew.  It’s an American Double IPA, "dry-hopped" with green tea leaves.  It’s called a collaboration brew because it’s part of a series Stone is doing making odd new beers with other famous brewers.  This particular beer is made in part by Bryan Baird of Baird Brewing in Japan, and Toshi Ishii of Ishii Brewing in Guam.  This brew also serves a noble purpose: all profits from the sale of this beer are donated to Japanese tsunami relief. 

I only own one goblet

This beer poured a radiant copper color with about a finger and a half of bright white head.  This beer is bottle conditioned so I expected some yeast in the bottom, but there was a ton, about half an inch of white sedimentation.  After the pour, there were a lot of white floaters left over in the beer.

The initial aroma note was grapefruit heavy; it is an IPA after all.  I could also pick up a bit of that leafy, herbal tea.

This beer tasted unlike anything else I’d ever had.  The initial hit of grapefruity, citrusy hops is cut and blended by the smooth green tea taste.  I didn’t expect to taste the green tea, but it definitely came through with more of the herbal note, and even a bit of mint flavor.  This beer didn’t have the best mouthfeel, it was a tad too oil sticky.  The hop bitterness lingered in your mouth for a bit after, leaving a skunky aftertaste.

I would rate Stone Brewing Co.’s Japanese Green Tea IPA 4.5 out of 5.  It was a very complex brew, and the green tea leaves complimented the usual IPA flavors remarkably well.  Also, it’s a brew I can feel extra happy about drinking because I’m supporting the Japanese recovery effort.  Hang in there, friends.