Tallgrass Brewery Oasis:
Greetings fellow beer adventurers and curiosity seekers and welcome to another beer review from your local can do reporter (or reviewer, whatever you prefer).  Today we venture back to the heartland of America for a look at Tallgrass Brewing’s Oasis and yes Virgina, it does come in a tall boy.  This beer is a super ESB or, as Tallgrass calls it, “a Double ESB/IPAish beer” that shows off the greatness of what both types of beer have to offer and also creates some new tastes as well.  The beer pours a malty brown with a khaki head that reminds me of the head on a root beer float and leaves a nearly complete lacing in glass and a nose of citrus hops and bready malts.  The beers initial taste is like that of a creamy malt English beer that dissolves into a mid tongue of an overly hopped west coast IPA flavor (that’s a more mellow IPA for those uninformed readers) that tones itself down to leave a sweet hop cake taste on the back end and, to top it all off, a taste akin to an entry level IPA.  So another great beer from the boys at Tallgrass and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to have a favorite from them but then again is it bad to like everything a brewery puts out?  Probably not but with only a few beers left in the line up this is looking like a brewery that has the rare batting average of 1.000.  Drink up and enjoy. 
 

Ska Mole Stout:
Hello all, and welcome to yet another review of a canned beer but to avoid the pitfalls of growing stagnant lets look a Mexican/non-Mexican beer.  Ska Brewing (yet another Colorado brewery) is a nice little niche brewery that started brewing beer back in the mid 90’s by two under age guys who wanted to drink more.  Not a bad reason to start brewing if you ask me.  So today we look at Ska’s seasonal stout Mole Stout a beer that is well, odd.  Mole sauce is that funky sauce that can taste like spicy cocoa that goes on a variety of dishes in the Mexican cuisine and to make a beer with it is a nice adventurous attempt.  The beer pours a black midnight color with a bit of chocolate colored head that dissipates quickly and a nose of spicy cocoa.  The beer’s taste is very uniform with a cinnamon-chocolate flavor that carries an undertone of a traditional stout and a clean aftertaste that has a very spicy hint that is strong enough to remind you to take another sip.  A very good beer, perfect for a cold night like this and it’s not so heavy that you can’t enjoy it with a meal (it’s only 5.5% ABV people, I think that it can just legally call itself a stout with that ABV).  It’s floating out there for your winter drinking enjoyment so locate it and drink up. Cheers.

Saint Arnold Bishop Barrel No. 1:
Howdy partners and welcome to a special edition of today’s beer review.  Today we look at a the new limited release that was released only to restaurant and bars and has become a sick, twisted, and ultimately fun search for those of us in the distribution range.  Today’s beer comes from the brew crew down at Saint Arnold in Houston and is the first entry in their new Bishop’s Barrel series.  The beer, a Russian Imperial Stout, goes into a used Woodford Reserve bourbon barrel and ages in the warehouse for over 10 months gaining nearly 3% ABV over it’s original ABV.  The beer pours a black midnight color with a slight head that quickly moves to a few random bubbles and a nose of bourbon and chocolate.  The beer’s initial taste is very similar to a really good stout with a smooth clean boozy flavor that is very quickly taken over by the same flavors that dominate the nose and it seems to develop a thicker consistency and begins to coat the mouth in a slight  “bourbon served neat” sense.  The beer has a very whiskey like after taste with bit of semi-sweet chocolate that takes the edge off but the higher alcohol content is really noticeable at this point in your sip (and yes, like any good bourbon stout, this is a sipping beer).  So another home run from the guys at Saint Arnold and seeing what they have coming down the pike for the next entry in Bishop Barrel, I think they might be onto something here. 

Tallgrass Brewering Velvet Rooster:
Greetings one and all and welcome to another day another can, can you dig it?  Ha!  Okay that wasn’t that bad was it?  Wow, rejected by crickets, this has to be a new low.  Well while I try to salvage my comedy career let’s talk about beer, in particular, the next entry in our visit through the Tall grass Brewing fields of *ahem* tall boys, particularly their Velvet Rooster.   This velveteen chicken is a nice strong Belgian Tripel Ale that not only sports 8.5% ABV but lofty expectations since Tallgrass’ 8-bit Pale Ale is one of the best beers I’ve ever had in a can.  The beer pours a nice hazy yellow color with a creamy white foamy head that leaves good lacing on the inside of the glass while the nose consists of a nice hop-malt blend with floral notes.  The beer’s initial taste is akin to most Tripels with a nice rounded malt flavor with a touch of unfiltered wheat that roll together to the mid tongue with a nice balanced addition of booze and a growing fruit taste that turns a subtle sweetness on the back end.  The after taste is a clean and crisp flavor that doesn’t linger and a nice light mellow mouth feel and no coating.  Another great beer from Tallgrass and one worth remembering on those jaunts to states that carry this brewery (not here in Texas, sadly). 

Sixpoint Brewing Righteous Ale:
Hello all and, just to let you know, I’m happy to have you back and furthering your beer knowledge with me. Today let’s continue with another excursion to the land of tall boys with Sixpoint Brewing’s Righteous Ale.  Yes friends, we continue our look at these beers which come out of New York and have garnered a lot of praise online and in beer drinking circles (yes, they do exist).  I haven’t found any real reason to love these beers so far but I keep the faith and will continue to trudge through their line hoping to find one I do really enjoy.  So how did the Righteous one fair?  Read on dear readers, read on.  The beer pours a nice dark orange/amber color with an aggressively building head that is tan in color and settles to a nice finger’s worth on the top of the beer and leaves good lacing and a nose of malts, a touch of piney hops and some mellow spice.  The beers initial taste is very earthy with a mix of herbs and malts that roll into a nutty flavor on the mid tongue but they surrender themselves to a strong and overpowering malt taste.  The malt taste lasts through the after taste while coating the mouth in a slight film.  So I feel this beer is better then the Autumation but still not that special.  Maybe I don’t have the palate for these beers but so far they aren’t hitting any out of the park for me.  Drink at your own risk. 
 

Miller Genuine Draft:
Hello all and welcome to my little attempt to shed some light on the world of the beverage that is credited as to saving the civilized world or, as we know it, beer.  Today we look to fill that area of the beer cabinet that is occupied by the mass produced domestic beers or as I like to call them, The Usual Suspects.   So what do I bring to your attention today?  Well today I bring to you Miller Genuine Draft or MGD, that black labeled beer that for some of us was the first actual beer we ever drank (yeah, not the most auspicious start to what I’m doing now, but we all have to start some where).  MGD is a beer that was introduced in 1985 as a cold filtered, non-pasteurized version of their High Life beer with the intention to allow High Life drinkers to get the same taste profiles from bottle and cans (which are pasteurized) and the non-pasteurized kegs.  So how does the beer taste?  Well, like a High Life but with a noticeable after taste of sweetness that I don’t remember a High Life having.  So when we look at from a distance, this beer is just alternative to a High Life and I bet you $5 that anyone who doesn’t know this history behind the beer will think these are two totally different beers with distinct tastes.  Ah, the uninformed *Sigh* well till next time folks. 

Goose Island Christmas Ale 2012:
Greetings all and welcome to another return trip to the Goose Island and it’s beers (who knew geese could brew beer??).  Today let’s get festive by looking at their Christmas Ale line, a beer that changes “slightly” year to year so you and law enforcement officers can’t recognize it.   This year’s beer was poured from a bottle with a nice dark English Brown coloration  with a nice thick- yet thin - head of tan foam that rarely dissipates and a nose of malts with a touch of Christmas spices and caramel undertones.  The beer’s initial taste is very malt heavy with notes of roasted and caramel malts that blooms to a nice nutty undertone that rides through the boozy mid tongue that last just long enough to be noticed while the back end is full of those loveable Christmas spices combined with the flavor of an English Brown Ale.  The after taste is very mellow and smooth like a good English Brown should be and, in my humble opinion, could easily pass as a spiced ESB.  A good Christmas Ale and good way to kick off the season of winter and Christmas ales. 

New Belgium Lips of Faith Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout:
Howdy all and welcome back to the best little beer review in…well somewhere, anywhere, hell, best little beer review site at least in my mind.  There, that’s settled now on to the issue at hand: cooking a chicken on an open flame. Now first thing you need to do is get a chicken, preferably one you catch yourself and try not to accost the little booger at the local petting zoo when children are present (you’ll give issues to them that might never be solved).  Next you need to…wait, were talking beer here right?  My bad, I have too many irons in the fire to keep things straight at times so I apologize.  Today we look at New Belgium’s craft line of beers called Lips of Faith which has some very interesting styles and flavors including today’s Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout.  This brew, poured from a tap with a nice dark brown coloration and a chocolate milk head with a nose of coffee that would make any java lover swoon.  The beer’s initial taste is very silky with a clean front end of iced coffee that moves to a mellow mocha espresso flavor that adds a back end kick of booze to the whole flavor profile.  The after taste is a nice mellow roasted coffee flavor that lingers but is not offensive.  I’ll admit, this beer surprised me, it was a consolation beer from the bar tender for not having two different beers I came in to try and really, it was probably better than what I was wanting in the first place.  This is a beer you can serve to a crowded home on a holiday evening and it’s heavy enough at 10% ABV to put those with turkey bellies down for a long nap. 

Left Hand Fade to Black Vol. 4:
Howdy all and a hearty hello to all our new readers and, as always, a grateful and happy smile to my returning readers.  I wonder if we should include today’s beer in our little small grouping of music beers?  The beer, Left Hand’s Fade to Black, is a “renowned winter series” that comes in volumes instead of releases and (in at least my mind) is named after one of the great Metallica songs out there.  This year marks the entry of volume 4 which is a Foreign Stout (well every year is a Foreign Stout) that adds a citrus twist to the stout flavor as opposed to the past volumes which have included flavors of molasses, licorice, smoke, pepper and dark fruit. This version came from a tap with a nice black coloring that has a bone white head and a nose malt and citrus notes.  The beer’s initial taste is like a traditional porter with a smooth malt flavor with a touch of milky chocolate notes but the chocolate moves to a coffee note with a slight hop character on the mid tongue that moves to back end of the sip and the after taste is a mild mix of the hops and malts but nothing worth lingering on.  Not a bad beer but I really expected more for a winter lager from Left Hand especially with their other beers.  In my humble opinion, this is worth trying once and if you like it, drink up, but I’ve had my go at it and that’s enough for me. 

Deschutes Hop in the Bark:
Greetings fellow beer travelers and welcome to our little stroll down the dark side of the beer.  Today we venture into that seldom ventured area of the beer world: dark IPAs.  We are going to look at an India Black Ale from Deschutes Brewing called Hop in the Dark (yeah I love the name too).  This black beauty has been on my ”must try” list for a while so instead of being funny, punny, or witty let’s just get down to the brass tacks and look at what really is one of the better beers I’ve had so far this year.  The beer was poured from a tap with a pitch black color, a small chocolate milk colored head and a nose of chocolate, toffee, hints of dark roast coffee beans and subtle hops.  The beer’s initial taste is one of a nice mellow IPA with strong pine notes that bloom into a subtle back note on a growing dark chocolate flavor that finally matures to a coffee back end and after taste.  While all the flavors sound like they would make a heavy beer this beer is more medium bodied akin to a Guinness than a heavy porter.  The addition of the hops allows a nice contrast in the dark beer notes and the carbonation allows the flavors to develop more then most dark beers usually would.  I really loved this beer which, honestly, surprised me since most dark/black IPAs I’ve had so far have been okay but nothing to write home about.  This is a widely available beer so if you run across it, like hops, and want something different but still familiar, this is your beer.  Enjoy.  
 

Rolling Rock Extra Pale:
Hello all and welcome back to your one stop beer review site.  Yes, this is the place that you can find that special beer for that special occasion, well that’s assuming that special someone is a beer drinker and if not, well I hope you are here for my opinion (and witty insight).  Today let’s talk about a beer that has ties to my childhood, Rolling Rock Extra Pale a lager that…what?  No no no no, geez Louise people, get your mind right, I didn’t DRINK this during my childhood, it has other ties.  Lord! Some people.  Okay, so we are all familiar with the green bottle and the random “33” that appears on the bottle but how many of us have tried it?  Well here I am to answer your burning questions and bring to light what I found in this green bottle.  The beer was drunk from a bottle so I can assume it has the normal blond color with a noticeable carbonation and a head that grew half way up the neck of the bottle and which blocked most indications of a smell.  The beer’s taste is very clean, almost smooth which surprised me since the words “pale” in beer usually means some kind of hop bite but I didn’t expect it to taste like this.  The biggest surprise is the mellow sweetness that comes on the back end of this beer and a mellow malt after taste all of which is something you wouldn’t expect from mass produced lager.  So yeah, I liked this beer, so sue me; it’s okay to like a mass produced beer every once and a while, hell even two mass produced lagers is alright with me.  This is a for sure repeater in the beer fridge next year and I might even order it in public too!  Oh and you should get those questions checked out if they continue to burn ‘cause that ain’t natural. 

Sixpoint Autumnation:
Hello friends and neighbors and welcome back.  As we continue our trek through the month of November we keep making these stops at cans, a lot of cans.  Yes I know, it’s an sudden abundance of aluminum in one month but “new canning” technology has allowed beer to move to the can and not lose its taste or gain a metallic taste from the can.  Some breweries like Sixpoint, which is today’s brewery, only can their beers and only in tallboy cans and that gives them a nice marketing point of some kind I’m sure.  Today’s beer out of Sixpoint is their Autumnation, a pumpkin ale with a more hops than anything else (including pumpkin).  The beer pours a semi-transparent amber with a ton of carbonation that produces a dull white head that leaves plenty of lacing and a nose of grapefruit and spice.  The initial taste is reminiscent of a strong pale ale or IPA with hops taking up most of the flavor, in fact, they take up the most of the palate with only a slight hint of spices on the mid tongue.  The pumpkin flavor shows up as an after taste though it does have to compete with the hop/skunk that a hoppy beer leaves you with.  This is a beer with a little too much going on with it, I don’t mind that they used hops with it but they used so much that it ruins what ever pumpkin there is in the beer.  Not a bad beer but not something I will revisit from them anytime soon. 
 

Victory Storm King Stout:
Greetings one and all and welcome back, I hope this review finds all of you safe and happy on this cool and crisp fall night.  When it gets really cold we all change our some part of our diet to foods that fit the season and when it starts to get cold, the heavier beers start to poke their heads out of their hibernation cellars and start to litter the cooler landscape and those heavy beers that are unfortunate year round brews get a new life.  Today’s beer: Victory Storm King Stout is one of those unfortunate beers that is a year round beer; if tried during those unfortunate summer months (at least here in Texas) or during an overly crowded beer season of spring, it would be over looked as being too heavy, too strong, too coffee?  Yep, too much coffee flavor in this stout but it’s got a lot of other things going for it in my humble opinion.  The beer pours a thick slow black with little noticeable carbonation but what foam there is leaves nice lacing on the inside of the glass and it sports a nose more akin to a cup of office quality coffee with a slight undertone of booze.  The initial taste is like drinking iced black coffee with the same sour bite that moves to a dry roasted malt and coffee bean flavor that roll into the back-end.  There is an after taste of dark coca and it leaves the tongue very dry and parched feeling, not something I really look for in a beer but it would keep you drinking it just to stave away that feeling.  I enjoyed my beer but it’s a bit too strong on the coffee flavor for my tastes and that doesn’t allow any other flavors to develop in the beer.   It does sport a very respectable 9.1% ABV and after about half the glass, you begin to notice it.  If you like your stouts more on the coffee side, then this is the beer for you.  

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout:
Hello all, and welcome back to a beer review rooted in nostalgia.  We all remember something that ties our love/passion/devotion to that thing that defines some part of us, no matter how large or small.  Me, despite really negative ties to it, is bourbon.  I love the mystique behind it, the fact that it’s the only unique American liquor, and it’s subtle yet complex varieties (and trust me, I have other passions but this is a public forum and I have to have some semblance of private life). As far as beer goes my passion is bourbon barrel aged brews and, really, there are quite a few of them but none of them are even close to this: Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.  This brew was first tasted by yours truly at their brewery/restaurant a few years ago and it blew my mind on the fact that beer could taste like THIS, little lone the fact that it knocked me off my barstool a lot like my first sip of Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA did as well.  The beer was poured from a bottle into a snifter glass (btw, this is a good thing if you have to drink your beer from a snifter glass) and is an inky black midnight color, no head save for a touch of carbonation bubbles on the rim of the glass and an nose of sweet fruits, chocolate and caramel malts.  The beers initial taste is of a very sweet beer that is based more on a rum cake sweetness than a candy (in other words, an alcoholic sweetness) and it blooms to a very thick boozy caramel sweetness on the mid tongue and the back end is one of sugar notes with bourbon hints that seem to fight with the roasted malts of the beer.  The after taste is a slight burnt sugar taste though there are noticeable remnants of sweetness in there and the thickness seems to develop even further to a cough syrup like level that coats the inner walls of the throat.  I still love my 120 minute IPA but this is a close #2, if not a 1(a) and 1(b).  I so wish this was available here in Texas, but sadly the closest you’ll get to it is Arkansas and Little Rock at that, so a road trip might be necessary if you’re really curious.  One bottle of this does me in for a night and at 15% ABV without any aging, this is isn’t at the 120 level but it‘s still more than enough.  It’s a different type of beer than the 120 starting with the fact that it’s a stout to the fact that its ABV can be attributed to bourbon barrel and not just hops.  So to wrap it up (I could go on but I’ll spare you my drivel) this is a very special beer which is worth trying if you ever travel past an area that carries it in the late November time frame and really, one bottle is more than enough for two people.  I took me over two hours to down this bottle and about 5 glasses of water to help dilute it in my system. Still worth it. 
 

Oskar Blues G'Knight:
Howdy partners and welcome back, and hey, I’m glad you’re here.  Today we continue our little jaunt through the fields of cans and we stick with Oskar Blues and their can line up.  Now I promise I won’t make a “can” joke this time; they are silly, immature, and pointless, after all I can only do one thing at a time, right?  Eh? Eh?  Yeah, still terrible.  Anyway, who here has had a sticky beer before?  Me, not so much. I’ve had a lot of beers described a lot of ways but never sticky.  Oskar Blues G’knight is a sticky Imperial Red beer that is probably one of the more interesting beers that I’ve run across in this second half of the year.  The beer pours a hazy orangeish amber color with lots of carbonation that is noticeable and a stark white head that settles rather quickly with some lacing while a nose of strong citrus hop notes and a touch of malts dominate the glass.  The beer’s initial taste has a strong hop burn of flavor that stays throughout the sip while under notes of grapefruit, roasted malts, and floral notes move in and out of the beer as it ventures through the mouth.  The after taste is similar to that found in a double IPA beer with a strong skunk but it lingers just long enough to not be annoying.  Now the stickiness is something I really couldn’t detect but the viscosity of this beer is syrup-like even though it doesn’t look like it.  Not sure what makes it feel this heavy and thick but it’s a nice and surprising change from what you would usually find in a canned beer.  A good beer, nothing I’d jump too automatically but a revisit every once-’n-a-while is not out of the question. 

Avery Joe's Premium American Pilsner:
Hello all and welcome back, you were most certainly missed.  Tonight let’s see what we can do, shall we?  Damn. The puns still aren’t working are they?  Oh well, I’ll see what I can come up with next time.  Eh? Eh? No, great, off to the wrong foot already.  Well let’s go ahead and do this and talk about Avery Brewing and their Joe’s Premium American Pilsner.  I think I’ve made it no real secret on this website that pilsners really don’t excite me; they are dull, no real taste profile, and uninteresting in their color.  So what does Avery have to offer in the pilsner category?  Well the beer pours a very pale blonde with an chalk white foamy head that sticks around to a subtle layer on top of the beer and leaves some good lacing with a nose of raw malts and grains.  The beer’s initial taste is very malty though an undertone of hops is noticeable (and sticks around throughout the beers consumption), a mid tongue of dry malts with noticeable fizz and a back end that is like most major pale ales with a predominate hop taste.  The aftertaste is very dry and reminds me of the feeling that you get after eating a Saltine cracker by itself and the dryness that follows it.  Not bad but again it’s a pilsner and there are way too many good beers out there and even Avery offers better blondes like their White Rascal whose flavor profile blows this out of the water.  If Avery didn’t have so many other really good beers, I would be worried but luckily I’m not going to lose sleep over this lackluster entry. 

Dogfish Head Chicory Stout:
Hello friends and neighbors and a hearty and happy welcome back to you.  Some days you need a break and a nice night to help wash away the stress of the day and I think today is one of those days.  You want to curl up with something comforting, familiar, yet different and slightly exciting.  Maybe?  No?  Okay, well how about we talk about a Dogfish Head beer which is comfort beer for yours truly and we see where we go from there?  I’m not going to spout about the greatness of Dogfish again and if you’re a regular (or semi regular for that matter) to my reviews you know my adoration for them borders on obsessive.  Today we look at their more traditional stout entry: Chicory Stout. A beer made with what once was a filler for coffee, and now a flavor additive, chicory is really big in New Orleans’ coffee drinks and to anyone who’s ever had coffee and beignets at Café Du Monde knows, chicory coffee is a must.  The beer pours a midnight black with a hint of head that is no where close to the “bone white head” the bottle describes but more of a muddy white with not much lacing to speak of and a nose of a boozish stout with a coffee undertone.  The beers initial taste is a of a very mild iced dark roast coffee that is a medium roast while the mid tongue displays the spicy chicory flavor and a back end of strong coffee.  The after taste is a wet coffee booze combo but it quickly mellows to a dark chocolate flavor that sticks around with a dryness seen in a lot of stouts.  Not a bad stout really, but at only 5.2% ABV, it’s not strong enough to make an impression on me.  I enjoyed the chicory taste when it did show up but if you’ve never had chicory coffee, you’d never notice the taste in this beer.  I enjoyed this but the World Wide Stout is a much better alternative. 

Southern Star Pine Belt Pale Ale:
Howdy partners and welcome back to another chapter in the saga of the beer review. Today we stay in my home state (the Lone Star State to all you who are curious) and look at the brewery that has made probably the best domestic stout out there: Southern Star Brewing. The brewery is based out of Conroe which is North of Houston and is where the traffic begins or ends, depending on your direction of travel.  Southern Star’s Pine Belt Pale Ale is their only year round hoppy beer and in tall boy can.  The beer pours an amber color with a bleached white head that settles to a thin film while leaving nice lacing and a nose of subtle citrus.  The initial taste is a strong bitter hop with a touch of citrus as an undertone flavoring and a mid tongue of subtle hop notes and hints of pine.   The back end is a mellow sour hop that moves to a strong, albeit brief, skunk after taste.  Not the best pale ale I’ve had and after tasting their Bombshell Blonde (review coming soon) and Buried Hatchet Stout (which is so amazing it’s hard to describe with words alone) I wanted more, but I got an entry level pale ale.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a good beer, but not in my taste profile though I’m glad I tried it this once, but I won’t be going back to it without overwhelming circumstances.   

Maui Brewing Big Swell IPA:
Aloha friends and welcome back to a review that we can(!) all agree upon.  Okay, terrible pun but it’s passed  now so lets all move on and not rubber neck at it.  Okay, so the official/unofficial can month continues with a look at our second Maui Brewing beer of the year, this time it’s Big Swell IPA and it’s got a lot to live up to since there have been some pretty delicious hoppy beers in cans during this little beer run.  The beer is touted as being hoppy three times on the front of the can and from the initial pour, I was a believer in that marketing gimmick.  The beer pours a hazy orange with a nice rocky white head that eventually settles to the rim of glass while leaving a nice lacing inside the glass and nose of hops that was noticeable from the initial pour up to the last sip. The beer’s taste is very uniform from start to finish with a nice subtle but still biting citrus taste with a very fizzy body to the beer.  The after taste is a medium sour skunk that really doesn’t linger too long on the palate.  This is a nice beer that has, at least temporarily, saved Maui brewing in my eyes since I was really let down with their CoCoNuT Porter earlier.  This beer is a good IPA for the seasoned hop head but it’s just a touch too much for those who are not used to IPAs or even pale ales but that’s just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions.  Till tomorrow folks, happy drinking. 

21st Amendment Monk's Blood:
Hello all and welcome back to “what could he possibly be drinking now?” and today I have a treat for you.  As we have explored and discovered in the past year, 21st Amendment brewery is a cool little niche brewery out of the left coast and they are making some of the better beer line-ups out there.  Today we look at their Dark Belgium beer Monk’s Blood which combines ingredients of “Belgian candi sugar, cinnamon, vanilla bean, dried black mission figs, aged in oak”- man, take away that whole “aged in oak’’ part and you’re on the way to a hell of a baked good- and puts them in a can for all to enjoy.  The beer pours a reddish brown color with a slightly off white head that starts at double finger in thickness and works it’s way down to a thick film and leaves heavy lacing and nose of sweet dark fruits and malts.  The beers initial taste is one of a smoky sweetness and a touch of mellow dark fruits while the flavor mellows to a mid tongue of carbonation and a mix of spices.   The back end and after taste are very similar with the vanilla bean coming through like gangbusters and hangs around the back of your throat so you get the taste of vanilla with every breath you take- sorry for the Sting reference.  This is an awesome beer but it’s heavy and not one you should drink before dinner (or for breakfast) but for an after dinner drink or night cap this one is perfect.  I really wish this was available locally or even in a near by state but alas we don’t have access to it right now but if I ever get a chance to grab it or any of it’s fellow line up without a second thought. 

Yuengling Black & Tan:
Greetings friend and welcome to a review of two beers/one bottle.  Yes I’ve decided that in these lean times we need to conserve as much as possible so I’ve decided to find a beer that combines an amber lager and a porter to make, wait for it, a Black & Tan.  Ta-Da! Now a real black and tan is probably the only mixed beer most people have ever had since most restaurants carry Guinness and a (pale) lager like Bass and the half and half of each making a tasty beer and there are also many variations on the mix of Guinness and other beers (or ciders) all of which are worth trying.  Well the people of Yuengling have taken their own lager and porter, put them in one bottle and served it up as their own Black & Tan.  The beer pours like a Guinness sans the mesmerizing cascade of bubbles that define that black elixir with an tan head of foam that works down to a film on the head of the beer and nice lacing with a nose of malts.  The beer’s initial taste is one of cream and fresh malts that roll to a mid tongue of a dry beer with a hint of hops and a back end of slightly roasted malts.  The after taste is very dry and feels like it sucks out any moisture in your mouth that you had or were going to have.  The beer is okay, nothing special especially when you can find a real one of these at most restaurants and bars and that’s my recommendation, drink one with the real ingredients, not this. 
 

Oskar Blues Gubna:
Howdy all and welcome to a beer review that not only reviews a beer but touches on one of the greatest comedies of all time.  Yes, today we are going to focus on a beer that has a quote from one of my all time favorite movies on the side of its can and that gives this beer damn near carte blanche on how it came out.  So to get things started off, the movie is “Blazing Saddles” which, in my mind, has two distinctions that no other film may have together: 1. It can NEVER be remade due to it’s content and 2. It’s the funniest movie from start to finish that has ever been put to celluloid. To expand on these points know these opinions from me: one of the movies co-writers was Richard Pryor who helped fill this movie with TONS of racial stereotypes and language that only a Jewish director could get away with making and secondly this movie never drags, most modern comedies tend to drag towards the end but “Blazing Saddles” has some of its most iconic moments in the last act and it ends on the high note (one exception maybe the “Naked Gun” films but that is a stretch there).  So anyway, taking that absolute love and devotion to that movie and making a beer with ties to it is almost a gimmie in my book. Oskar Blues Gubna is an Imperial IPA that not only stands up to the taste test of being a canned beer (like all their beers) but gives one something to giggle about as they drink.  The beer pours a nice hazy amber color with an orange hue along with a brilliantly white head of foam that settles down to a nice thick film and leaves heavy lacing and a candied citrus nose.  The initial taste of the beer is a malty citrus taste that blooms into a full-on heavy grapefruit on the mid tongue with a back end of slight skunk and a touch of mellow cream.  The after taste is an odd combo of semi-sweetness and dry flavor similar to a really good white wine but it mellows to a slightly sour taste after a while of non-continual sipping.  So like most other Oskar Blues beers this beer is way to complex for what a canned beer should be and that’s a good thing- trust me when I say that.  This beer will only have two people to it: haters and lovers and given the fact that the majority of the beer drinking population out there doesn’t appreciate a good hoppy beer when they have one only goes to show that there is that much more for the rest of us.  To all hop heads out there, Harrumph! (if you don’t get that you can get the hell out here right now.)

Bud Light Lime:
Greetings friends and welcome back from wherever you were, I am really thrilled to have you back.  Seriously, I am!  So let’s start this little beer review by talking about French Sparkling Mineral Water.  Yep, you read that one right, French Soda Water (or, if you prefer, French Sewdie Pop), in particular, Perrier.  When I was a wee little child, I remember my mom drinking this funky flavored water and me wanting to be all grown up and mature (which is still debatable if I am either of those) would copy her and I remember really despising the taste.  The fact that it was - and still is- really bitter, funky, and burned my tongue made me never really want to try this again and the taste has apparently never left my sub-consciousness.  How do I know this now, after all these years later?  Simple, because Bud Light Lime brought back those memories in one sip and with two sips, it was for certain.  Do I really need to describe the taste of either of these beverages?  We all know about the odd citrus flavor they both possess as well as the fact that these flavors appeal to a very small niche of our drinking society and I know I ain‘t one of ‘em.  Yep, not for me, but hey, I got it out of the way for some of y’all who were curious…or have masochistic palates. 

Widmer Brothers Drifter Pale Ale:
Ah hello friends and welcome back to another beer review from the road (don’t ask, just trust me).  Today let’s go with what some consider the best pale ale out there and who am I to ignore such lofty praise for a beer.  Widmer Brothers has put out numerous intriguing beers and while the ones that I’ve run across this year have been “ok” at best with nothing really worth trying again but maybe that will change with their Drifter Pale Ale.  The beer pours a nice balanced amber color with a not much carbonation and only a slight whisper of a stark white head and a nose of filled with citrus notes more at home in a good IPA than a pale ale.  The initial taste is one of hops and a touch of malts that combine on the mid tongue to give you a very tart grapefruit taste and a nice dry finish on the beer without the skunk usually found in most hoppy beers.  I found myself actually really liking this beer which is surprising since I really don’t have much of a taste for pale ales.  This beer balances that fine line between being a beer for both beginning drinkers as well as the seasoned drinker for the same reason: the taste.  The flavor is non-offending and complex with enough going for it to be a worth drinking several in one night.  A great find and one worth adding to your normal rotation of beers. 
 

Moosehead Lager:
Hello all and welcome to a review of a beer from our allies North of the border.  Now Canada has a lot going for it despite having a nation of Frenchmen in it; they have tons of maple trees, maple syrup, Duddley Do-Right, “The X-Files” was shot there for all the good seasons, and they have tons of beer.  Not too many of these beers make it down here to us but the ones that do are usually not the best (and I’m sure not too many of our good beers make it up to them either) but occasionally a decent one can be found.  Today’s beer is not only decent, it’s actually good and that beer is Moosehead Lager.  The beer pours a crystal clear blonde color with not much head to speak of but what is there is stark white and a skunk nose that is really off putting.  Yeah, the nose almost sent me to judge this beer as bad before actually tasting but I decided to give it a fair shake since it was Canadian and, hey, they’d do the same for us, right?  Right?? Okay the initial taste is a cream flavor with a touch of fizz while the mid tongue gives us a malty sweetness that sticks around through the rest of the sip and really fades to a dry finish and leaves no real hint of an after taste.  So color me surprised that this was actually a good beer, the fact that it is a lager really didn’t help it’s case in my mind but I was needing to look North for a beer to try and this one was available and I‘m glad I picked it.  Probably best during our summers here in the blast furnace of North Texas but really it’s light enough to drink with any meal and at any time of the year and won’t cover up the taste of the food.  If you’re curious, grab one and give it a whirl, you might be surprised. 
 

Sixpoint Sweet Action:
Hello friends and welcome to a tall tale of a tall boy beer.  Well, this is a place of truthful beer reviews so we can’t do a “tall tale”, sorry.  So what do we have on the tap today, lets see ummm, oh wait, you already know.  That whole picture thing kind of ruins the whole anticipation thing, well then as you probably can see we are looking at Sixpoint’s Sweet Action, a cream ale brewed out of New York.  This tall boy is part of a recent wave of releases here in Texas and comes with a pretty high bar set for it (beer advocate.com rates this beer as a 98 out of a possible 100) so lets put it to the test and see how it does.  The beer pours a amber color that produces a stark white head that whittles itself down to a thin layer on top of the beer with good lacing and a hoppy nose similar to a pale ale.  The initial taste is similar to a pale ale with a hop bite that moves not to the typical skunk on the mid tongue but a creamy taste that is more akin to the initial taste of a milk stout but without the subtle sweetness.  The back end is reminds me of an imperial pilsner with a nice combo malt taste and the hops come back in the after taste and leave you with a grapefruit flavor that really doesn’t linger too long.  If you haven’t figured this out yet, this is a complex beer and with every sip you notice something different about it.  Not the best beer for a cold fall night but come spring or summer, this should be a staple at anything involving outdoor activities or baseball.  Yeah that’s it, this is a great baseball beer.  If you run across it, grab some, I think you’ll be happy with what you find. 

BridgePort Witch Hunt Spiced Harvest Ale:
Howdy partners and a hearty and happy greetings to you all on this fine fall day.  Since we are on the verge of fall weather hitting the area let’s look at a fall harvest beer from Bridgeport Brewery out of Oregon.  Witch Hunt Spiced Harvest Ale is one of those beers that wedges itself in the world of fall and pumpkin beers and actually does things well enough to make itself stand out.  Much like New Belgium’s Red Hoptober , this brew combines a nice hop taste and adds a subtle, but still noticeable, taste of cinnamon and nutmeg.  The beer pours a familiar amber color with a nice finger of white head that dissipates to a patch work of islands on top of the beer and some lacing with a nose of hops and a hint of cinnamon.  The initial taste is a heavy nutmeg flavor with a undertone of hops that develops towards the mid tongue where the carbonation really allows the flavors of the cinnamon and nutmeg to really show up and make themselves known.  The back end taste is similar to a weaker pale ale with a subtle hop taste and the after taste is very smooth and a hint of dryness that won’t allow you to forget it and actually pushes you to crave another sip (like a good beer should).  I was really surprised by this beer, much better than I thought it would be though the beer could be named better (this name seems to evoke more of a stout or barley wine style in my mind) but they didn’t ask my opinion when naming this so I won’t harp.  If you can find one, grab it and enjoy but if you’re looking for that really different fall beer, stick with the Red Hoptober. 

Saint Arnold Pumpkinator:
Hello one and all and welcome back to a very special episode of “What the hell is he drinking now?”   Today we look at one of the rarer beers out there, one brewed by our friends at Saint Arnold's and is one of the more sought after beers in the region (I learned this week that St. Arnolds distributes to not only Texas but our good friends to the East): Pumpkinator.  Now any special edition beer from Saint Arnold's is sought after by one and all but this beer has been special since it was first brewed as a Divine Reserve No. 9 batch (we sampled No. 12 this year just to give you perspective) and became their “answer to how pumpkin beer ought to taste” and I totally agree with that philosophy.  This is an imperial pumpkin stout with is a pretty rare beer in it’s own right since most pumpkin brews are more lager like then anything and by allowing this beer to be a stout, it helps develop flavors that aren’t easy to come by in any ole pumpkin beer.  The beer pours a rich black color with a nice mud colored head that settles down to a good film on the surface and great lacing on the interior of the glass and all of this and a nose of fresh baked pumpkin pie too!  Sorry, got excited there for a moment.  The initial taste is like taking a bite of whipped cream laden pumpkin pie and take that flavor and as it rolls through your palate with a strong alcohol under tone and you understand just how this beer tastes.  The after taste is a light roasted pumpkin flavor that is sans the sweetness and the a touch of malts does show up with the exhale.  A silver medal winner this year in the World Beer Cup competition (Field Beer or Pumpkin Beer), this beer may be floating around at an out of the way beer store but your best bet at finding it is on tap at a bar somewhere here in Texas or Louisiana (my apologies to the other 48 states).  Probably the best pumpkin beer I’ve had this year and yes, that mean’s it’s better then the Dogfish Head Punkin.  Let the sky fall on that news.  

Oskar Blues Ten FIDY:
Howdy friends and Happy Stout Day!  Today we celebrate that dark elixir that scares off the novice and excites the experienced and Oskar Blues brings us a beer that lives up to these standards and is worth remembering.  Now I’ve sampled beers with a number in their names in the past but those number referred to their caloric count, not their alcohol count but, hey, there is a first time for everything and what a first time this one is.  Ten FIDY (named after the alcohol content of 10.5% ABV) is Oskar’s Imperial Stout and it’s brewed to highlight “chocolate-covered caramel and coffee” notes and  has a strong enough alcohol content to knock the inexperienced drinker for a loop.  The beer was poured from a tap, has a black ink color with a cream colored head that is minimal at best but leaves some nice lacing in the glass with a nose of strong booze and roasted malts.  The initial taste is a very dry coffee flavor that develops rather quickly for an imperial stout (usually they take a bit to develop with most of their flavor coming on the back end of the sip), and the mid tongue develops a boozy chocolate taste that also coats the roof of the mouth.  The back end develops a coffee bloom that reminds me of a good cup of robust coffee spiked with whiskey and an after taste that rolls back to the nose of roasted malts and just a touch of coffee.  Probably one of the most noticeable thing about this beer while I was drinking it was the warming sensation that it produced which was very similar to drinking hard liquor neat and it stays with you and this little effect makes this a great winter beer (as most stouts should be).  This is an awesome beer, but it maybe a bit much for the intro stout drinker and there are similarly good stouts to start off with, however, if you want a challenge, look no further than Ten FIDY. 

Dogfish Head Saison du Buff:
Hello once again fellow beer drinkers and welcome to another beer review and this time, we’re taking out three breweries with one beer.  As anyone who has regularly followed this little adventure over the year knows, I love Dogfish Head Brewery.  In my mind they are virtually infallible in their beers (though they do have one that I’m not a fan of and I’ll try to get to it this year to show you that I’m not corrupted by their delicious, adventurous, frickin’ awesome beers) and when they combine their powers of beer making with Stone and Victory Breweries they form Captain Planet!  Well, that and Saison du Buff, a beer brewed with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme and despite my previous encounter with a rosemary beer, this one is actually good.  The beer pours a hazy golden color with a bleach white head that dissipates to a film and leaves lacing on the glass and a nose of mint notes combined with an earthy rose smell.  Yeah, that’s the best way I can describe it and I’m sure everyone would call it something different.  The beers initial taste is very fizzy with carbonation that allows the flavors of sage and parsley to come through first and a mid tongue of hops, malts, and I guess sage (does anyone really know what sage tastes like by itself??) and the back end taste is where the rosemary shines.  Why does it shine?  Well as we discovered in the honey rosemary beer, rosemary isn’t necessarily the best ingredient to have in a beer but here it is in a nice mellow amount that is just strong enough to be enjoyable.  A good beer but not for everyone due to it’s flavoring choices which are just far enough into left field to alienate most people.  If you can sample this before trying, by all means do that because it’s worth a try but, if I remember right, this isn’t a cheap bottle to buy on a straight up guess. 

Abita Restoration Pale Ale:
Hello cats and kittens, and welcome to a review of beer that makes you feel good!  Now I know a lot of you are reading this and y’all are thinking “Wait, there are a lot of beers that make me feel good, actually, all of them do” but today’s beer is one of those beers that actually was made for a good cause.  Back in 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, displaced hundreds of thousands, and reeked havoc on one of the world’s greatest cities: New Orleans.  Abita beer, brewed out of Abita Springs which is North of Lake Pontchartrain put together a fund raising beer called Fleur-De-Lis Restoration Pale Ale as a way to raise money for the restoration of the Crescent City.  Well after raising $500,000 the beer was declared a hit and the symbol of French Royalty was dropped from the name and Restoration Pale Ale was added to the year- round line up.  So how does this beer for a cause hold up 7 years later?  Well the beer pours a nice light golden haze color with a nice white fizzy head that dissipates quickly but leaves nice lacing and a nose of hops, honey, and floral notes.  The beer’s initial sip reveals a beer that has a good amount of carbonation fizz and a sour hop bite that blooms into a citrus floral combo on the mid tongue and a bready back end.  The after taste is skunky but nothing to offensive and it doesn’t linger to long.  I’ve never been a big fan of pale ale beers and throughout the course of this year, I’ve found a handful that are worth revisiting and I’ll be happy to consider this one beer the best of the group so far.  It is around most stores but you may have too look, it doesn’t have the distribution of Turbo Dog or the Amber but if you can locate it, grab some, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.   

New Belgium Red Hoptober:
Hello all and welcome back to my little attempt to enlighten the world to the wonders of the beverage that saved the world.  No not water, but beer!  Don’t believe me?  They’ve made a documentary about this little factoid and you should watch it.  Well before you go to Netflix looking for “How Beer Saved the World”, let’s do a tiny little beer review first.  New Belgium is one of those Colorado Breweries that keeps on impressing and this time they blew the doors off their attempt at a Fall beer with their Red Hoptober.  Now I can make a cheap “Hunt for Red October” joke here but I respect that film way too much and I don’t react that well to bullets (if you get that one, good for you).  This beer pours a dark amber color with a almond colored head that is thick and leaves nice lacing and a heavenly nose of hops.  Yes, hops, that “wicked and pernicious weed” that some of us have fallen for, is something that is noticeably absent from most fall beers and you have to wonder why that is.  Well, that’s a topic for someone else and I’m here to review a beer.  The beer’s initial taste is very hoppy with a strong sour citrus flavor that moves to a spicy mid tongue that is similar to Tabasco but with out the lingering burn.  The back end and after taste is heavy in skunk and leaves a coating on the inner cheeks (trust me, that’s a good thing).  I can only say it’s about time that us hopheads got something we could enjoy in the fall and winter time and I really hop this one makes it to next season because it will be a seasonal staple at the home stead. 

Abita Pecan Harvest:
Howdy all and welcome back to the kind-of/sort-of  second part of my two part Abita fall beer reviews.  As mentioned in the Fall Fest review that while I like the Fall Fest, it isn’t my favorite of the pair.  So what is my favorite you ask?  Wait, why are you asking that?  You obviously saw the picture above this review and you know that I’m reviewing Abita’s Pecan Harvest.  Good gravy people.  So, yes my friends, a pecan beer, and what a beer it is.  This little beer is made from roasted pecans that give it a flavor that is not only unique but very satisfying as well.  The beer pours a hazy deep golden color with a thick and long lasting head of white foam and a nose roasted nuts and malts.  The initial taste is a bit heavy on the pecan flavor with a touch of hops and vanilla which both carry over to the mid tongue to create a light hazel nut flavor.  The back end taste is strong on the malts and the after taste is a bit biscuit heavy but nothing too offensive.  I really like this beer and combine it with a good fall meal (or any meal for that matter) and it becomes, in my humble opinion, quite awesome.  Luckily this beer has a wide availability and should be relatively easy to find if you are so curious to try this one (as you should be).

Michelob Ultra Amber:
Hello all and welcome to a first ever combo here in beer land (or is it beertopia?) and, hopefully- God willing - it’ll be the last.  Yes friends I’m talking about beer and fitness. Yeah re-read that agian folks and believe me, it ain’t no typo.  So Michelob Ultra was one of the sponsors of Lance Armstrong and, while they are not renewing their deal with him (it expires at the end of the 2012), he is still front and center on their web page but that’s not the real absurdity here, that is found once you prove you’re of age.  Inside the Michelob website they have *gulp* fitness challenges…I need to sit down.  Okay, now while was regaining my composure I think I won’t be rushing to challenge my friends on the number of up-hill bike climbs or teach them how to properly tape an ankle (both of which area available on the website) but I will drink the beer so you good people can know what to expect.  The beer pours a slightly darkened blonde color with a lot of noticeable carbonation with a white head and a slight nose of malts.  The beers taste starts off with a slight banana flavor with very noticeable carbonation and a mid tongue of malts and a slight hint of alcohol.  The rest of the beer is very absent in flavor -which really isn’t surprising at all- and there is only a slight hint of flavor that is slightly above mediocre tap water.  Yep, not a good beer, at all.  I do enjoy some of Michelob’s regular lines but this, this doesn’t deserve to even be called an amber beer, little lone a beer.  Now who wants to join me in planning an up-hill bike ride with properly taped ankles?

Lazy Magnolia Jefferson Stout:
Greetings one and all and let’s talk beer shall we?  Great!  So there are tons of beer types out there, fruit ales, hop and rye beers, oyster beers (sorry I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit there), bread beers, and even meat beers and while that is a great selection, what about a  beer made from the great sweet potato?  Well fret no more gentle readers because the good people at Lazy Magnolia Brewery and Chef Steve D’Angelo have answered our prayers and created a sweet potato stout named (drum roll) Jefferson Stout.  Man that was anticlimactic. The beer was poured from a tap with a very thin off white head that very quickly moves to the inner rim of the glass and it did not have much carbonation to accompany it’s oil black color but a subtle nose of malts and baked sweet potato.  The beer’s taste starts off with a mild hint of sweet potato and ramps up to a nice roasted malt mid tongue with a nice mellow alcohol after taste in the back-end and a malt back end with a slight touch of sweetness.  One thing to note that this stout was a nitro infused stout which means that it has a thicker head and, well, that’s about it.  Yeah, great marketing but not that special of a result.  This beer, however, is special and worth the hunt to find if you’re ever in the southern Louisiana or Mississippi area.  I wonder if the nutritional benefits from the sweet potato transfer over?  If so, this would be the world’s first nutritional beer. 

Harpoon Leviathan Quad:
Hello friends welcome to a beer review that includes references to giant radioactive lizards, my childhood, beer, more beer, harpoons and maybe a joke or two.  So today we stroll back into the world of Harpoon and their Leviathan line, this time looking at their quad ale.  The Leviathan line is something we have already visited once with their Imperial IPA and since that beer was delicious and the fact that they have a Godzilla-like monster on the label, the quest to find the other beers in this was on (really anything with that overgrown lizard gets me curious thanks to an healthy fascination with dinosaurs and the big green guy growing up).  The quad is a beer that pours a deep maroon color that produces a head that’s about a fingers worth in foam and a nose of dark fruit and caramel. The beers taste starts off nicely with a mellow flavor of dark fruit and booze which moves into a roasted malt flavor with raisin undertones while the back end taste and after taste is very strong in the area of burnt sugar.  Really the taste profile is part underwhelming, part over bearing with the up-front taste being a bit too timid compared to most quads and the burnt sugar taste is really off putting.  Burnt sugar is not something that I want to have lingering on my palate at anytime, especially after drinking a beer and that is what kills this beer for me.  Not the best beer from this line up and we can only hope that the glories of the imperial IPA are realized in the next one. 

Abita Fall Fest:
Greetings friends, neighbors, and on-lookers and a happy Fall greetings to one and all.  Today lets get festive shall we?  Wait wait, before you go breaking out the bright colors, I was thinking something more…subdue, like Fall festive.  As it really needs no real introduction here, Abita beer is a perennial favorite in this house and the fact that they put out two Autumn beer just makes them that much cooler in my book.  Today we are going to look at the rarer of the two: Fall Fest, which is a Marzen style brew.  The brew pours a nice medium amber with an aggressively building head that is a slight off white color that builds up to about three fingers worth before settling to a splotchy film on the beer’s top and leaving a nice lacing.  The nose is a unlike most of the Marzens that ran through this place last month with a nice sweet, raw malt smell rather that then roasted malts and caramel.  The taste profile is an initial creamy malt flavor that literally balloons to a floral malt flavor that creates a film on roof of the mouth.  The after taste is a biscuit flavor that has traces of hops which give this beer a nice range of flavors and a good balance.  Very enjoyable and it can appeal to a wider range of beer drinkers since it relies more on malts than hops which most popular domestics do in their flavor profile.  Another good beer from Abita and worthy of the beer season with it’s great malt flavor, but still second in my mind. 

Newcastle Brown Ale:
‘Ello luvs, and welcome back to our little jaunt through the land of beer, pretzels, and brats and…damn I’m getting hungry.  Alright, let keep this short ‘cause I’ve got an appetite all the sudden and typing doesn’t fill the belly.  Newcastle, a name that should evoke thoughts of merry ole England with the knights of a table with measured by Pi and a good ole English Brown Ale.  To me this beer is one of knowing how to drink it with most people drinking this straight ice cold from the cooler/fridge/tap and its taste is average at best and gets dismissed as another beer.  You see, the secret to this beer is letting it warm up, hell it even says right there on the bottle to let it warm up to 45 degrees when consuming and really, I say it should be more like red wine and be in the 60-65 degree range in order to let the flavors come out.  The beer was consumed from a bottle and while the dark red amber color is apparent, the carbonation is not that noticeable and the nose, while faint, is of dark fruits and malts.  The beers taste is a uniform semi-sweet raisin and roasted malt flavor that stays just south of the “bold” line and delivers a really enjoyable beer consumption experience with a back end that is rather mellow and malty.  I really try to recommend this beer to as many people as I can but, like Guinness, it divides people like nothing else out there and that’s a shame.  Seriously people, just try this once if you haven’t before and follow my advice (at least let the beer get to the bottle’s suggested temperature) and I think you’ll end up liking this beer. 

Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale:
Well hello friends and welcome back to the best little beer review site in Texas- at least in my opinion.  Today we dip our beer glass into the demonic well of Avery and their Demon series of beers with an entry that is scarily titled: The Beast.  Well, maybe not that scary but just pretend, ok?  This dark Grand Cru beer is a thick syrup of a beer that combines raisins, dates, molasses, and honey to make a dark rum type flavor in the beer.  The brew came from a tap sporting a nice medium amber color, not much head to speak of and strong nose of dark ripe fruit and booze.  The initial taste is that of strong notes from the nose but with a heavier influence on the alcohol while the mid tongue develops a touch of floral notes while still swimming in a bath of molasses (if that may sicken some of you, too bad, you can just keep reading).  The back end is a thick medley of raisins and honey with the molasses flavor moving to a small, but still noticeable role in the flavor profile and the after taste is a silky smooth combo of all three.  This is a friggin’ awesome beer and, as the online rumor goes, if you age this for 3 to 4 years in the bottle and the results are pretty amazing.  Will I do this with a bottle?  Probably, I just need to find the will power not to drink it and a really good hiding place.

Miller 64:
ummm, hi all. it’s me and i’m kind of intimidated about today.  really, i am. you see today is about a beer type that gets a bad rap, but this beer is different, at least in my mind; it’s a light calorie beer and I really found this to be interesting.  oh, why are we whispering?  because we can, it’s my review, and i figured “what’s the harm?”  to play it safe so the neighbors don’t learn of what i have drunk, i suggest we keep the whispering around for a but and then we are all good, hopefully.   today’s beer is miller 64, a light light light light light beer from the land of cheese (and I doubt that niether lavern nor shirley would let this one get by them).  the beer was drunk from the bottle with a crisp and clean blonde color, no head and a slight nose of bananas and hops.  the beers taste starts off like a normal miller lite and moves to the mid tongue where the lightness of the beer starts to be noticed with hints of the banana and hops coming through in the beer.  the back end is very ethereal and vanishes with seconds and leaves just a hint of hops on the tongue. so not the best beer in the world but know this: if i ever had to choose a beer that needed to be under 100 calories, i would choose this one over bud 55 any day of the week.  

Saint Arnold Oktoberfest:
Hello one and all and welcome back to our Oktoberfest jaunt.  Yes, you read that right, I am reviewing an Oktoberfest beer here in the first days of November and it’s totally my fault.  Yes I made a mistake, an oversight, a flub, and whatever else you want to call it, but really there is no excuse, it’s not only an Oktoberfest beer but a Texas brewery at that.  Yes friends, I speak of Saint Arnold, the oldest craft brewery in Texas and their take on this niche beer time frame.  The beer pours a dark amber color with an aggressively building head that dissipates down to an off white film on the top and a nose of roasted malts and strong caramel notes.  The beers taste is mostly uniform from front of the tongue to the back and that of a rich Marzen with an initial cream taste that jumps to taste that mirror that of the nose of the beer with fresh raisins. . The after taste is a lot dryer than I would have expected but there is a rich dark fruit flavor that blooms a few seconds after swallowing.  A very good Oktoberfest beer, I would venture to say that this is the best Texas (yeah, sorry Real Ale).  I would add this to make an awesome triumvirate of Oktoberfest beers with Left Hand and Spaten and just enjoy all or one during the fall festival time, but not too long because winter beers are just around the corner and we can’t ignore that season now can we?

Request Day!!!!:
Greetings all and welcome to our reader request day!  Today is a special day where I, your beloved beer reviewer, listen to the masses and pick out two of the beers y’all are clamoring for my two cents on.  So today we look at two beers: Coors Batch 19 and Pinkus Organic Hefe-Weizen.  Both beer’s are new to me at this point so this is a new review for not only me but for y’all too.  So lets get started shall we?

Coors Batch 19:
A “Pre-Prohibition Style Lager” this brew is- in my mind- Coors’ answer to Bud Light Platinum and I think it does a great job not only introducing a new beer to the market but a beer with a story.  What story you ask?  Batch 19 is the same formula that Coors used before the Volstead Act and once the act was overturned and the repeal of the 18th amendment happened, Coors was already on to concentrating on their Banquet beer.  So knowing that little history lesson, how does it taste? Well Batch 19 is a nice lager with a dark shade of blonde (does that even make sense???) that pours with a bright white head and a nose of malts and hops.   The beers taste is similar to that of a lager but with a “rough edge” of hops, raw malts, and caramel and a slight aftertaste of hops.  This is a pretty good beer, one that surprised the hell out of me and if you combine it with a whiskey back…well, let’s just say you’ll feel tough enough to go hunt bears with your bear hands ala Wolverine.  By itself, not bad, but if you’re willing to throw in a shot of whiskey, prepare for a really great beer for a great night out or in.  Oh, and if you hunt bears with your bear hands, it does help to be a mutant like Wolverine plus the addition of claws and unbreakable bones.  I say stick with stalking your dog(s) around the house for a night.

Pinkus Organic Hefe-Weizeen:
I’ll be the first to admit that this style of beer has fallen out of my favor this year.  In my adventures this summer in the land of wheat beers, I discovered that there isn’t much too much to differentiate one Hefe from another and they all…blend…together.  That being said, I was skeptical of trying a beer that was supposedly tasting “like magic and happy unicorns n shit” but how can you not taste a beer that has that supposed taste profile?  Well folks, here is the honest answer: It is pretty tasty.  The beer pours the typical hazy golden color with a thin stark white head of foam, no lacing, and a nose of bananas, wheat and malts.  The beer tastes like a typical wheat beer but just toned down enough to let the flavors compliment each other enough to be enjoyable and not run-of-the-mill.  Okay I have (like some others I know) sworn off wheat beers for the most part but this beer and a few others, are the chosen few that I will drink if available and, once this little beer odyssey is done, probably buy to stock the beer fridge with.  Maybe not a beer that tastes like “happy” or “unicorns” but still a damn tasty beer that, once summer comes along, will see some playing time.