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 10th, 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 22nd 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.
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| 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...
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| 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...
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| ...I've got the cavities to prove it |
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