Saint Arnold Icon Belgian-Style Pale Ale:Howdy all and welcome back to our ever continuing tour through the Texas beer country.  Where is that you ask?  Why it’s everywhere!  Yeah cheesy I know but it’s also true.  So let’s look back at Texas oldest craft brewery and look at their newest line: Saint Arnold Icon.  This first entry into this new line-up is a Belgian-Style Pale Ale that takes the traditional aspects of a Belgian beer and tones it down a few notches to make it more approachable for the average beer drinker.  The beer was poured from a tap and arrived with a light red color with a thin white head of foam that leaves minimal lacing, and a nose of piney hops with a touch of fruity malts underneath it all.  The beers initial taste is like the nose with a predominate hop taste that blooms into a mid-tongue of fruity notes that is quickly dominated again by the hops though they are less edgy than they were at first sip.  A dry mellow aftertaste rounds out this Belgian and it’s relatively easy to drink with it’s ABV hovering around 6% ABV.  A good beer that Saint Arnold has put out though it’s not as daring as the Bishop Barrel No. 1 that was released late 2012 this one does have one advantage over it: availability.  Currently the bottles of Icon that are for individual sale are being slowly rolled out across the distribution area but kegs are going out to local bars and should be available for your enjoyment and consumption while they last.  Enjoy.