Red Hare Gangway IPA:
‘Ello loves and a hearty welcome back to the beer source.  No, not the place where beer comes from (that’s Heaven, btw) but the place where you can- hopefully - find a beer that suits your tastes.  Today we are going to introduce ourselves to a new brewery...more

He'Brew Jewbulation Sweet 16:

Hello one and all and welcome back to my attempt to bring a bit of clarity to the overwhelmingly foggy world of beer and it’s consumption.  Today let’s venture back to a brewery that, honestly, hasn’t really impressed me...more

Lazy Magnolia Gulf Porter:
Greetings and salutations friends, neighbors and fellow beer drinkers!  It’s been a while since we’ve looked into the beers from the Lazy Magnolia...more

Brooklyn Winter Ale:
What’s up one and all?  Hope this blog finds you all well and, for some of you, probably snowed in (or shoveling out) right about now so in honor of that white stuff that causes so many headaches, let’s do look a winter beer today, shall we?...more 

Real Ale Brewhouse Brown Ale:
Greetings one and all and welcome back to my further adventures in the world of beer.  Today let’s stay within the borders of Texas and once again look at another beer from Real Ale and this time we look at their Brewhouse Brown Ale...more

Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Engineer's Reserve:  
 Hello one and all and welcome back to the best little beer website on the block.  Today let’s hop across the pond to the United Kingdom- Scotland in particular- and look at Harviestoun Brewery’s special edition beer: Old Engine Oil Engineers Reserve...more

Widmer Brothers Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout '12:
Greetings fellow beer drinkers and lovers and welcome back to exploratory look at the world of beer and it’s consumption.  Today let’s look at another entry into the realm of Widmer Brothers and, in particular, their big bottle line; this beer, Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout... more

Sixpoint 3BEANS:
Howdy fellow beer drinkers and welcome back the diary of a beer drinker.  Today let’s hop up back north to the Empire State and look at Sixpoint brewring and their 3BEANS beer.   more

Saint Arnold Amber:
Howdy friends and fellow beer drinkers and I bid you welcome to my continued effort to map the world of beers.  Today let’s round out the final beer in the year round line-up of Texas’ oldest craft brewery, Saint Arnold by looking at their original and flagship: Amber.  This brew, had a rocky start while it was being brewed by SA for initial release but the recipe off and an IPA was brewed instead.  Since most people aren’t IPA lovers it didn’t fly that well with the rest of the crowd (who were obviously not hop-heads).  Well, long story short, the error was quickly caught and they corrected the recipe for the beer to what we know today.  The beer itself was poured from a tap with a clear smoky gold color with not much head to speak of and a subtle nose of roasted malts as well as floral hints.  The beer’s taste profile is pretty uniform with a mainly malt dominated flavor that has variation of lightly roasted to bready with fruity hop undertones that seem to show up predominately mid and back tongue.  The beer is refreshing and clean with a light taste profile that doesn’t offend or polarize but that seems to be it’s biggest hand up as well.  The beer is so “safe” that it tends to lend itself into the world of “drink it and forget it” beers but to some of you, that is what you want in your beer and if that is what you want then at least drink a Texas beer if you can.    

Real Ale Rio Blanco Pale Ale:
Greetings fellow beer drinkers and travelers and welcome back to another day, another beer.  Today we stay here in the Lone Star state and once again look at Real Ale out of Blanco, TX and their Rio Blanco Pale Ale (or white river pale ale for those of you who have an undying sense of curiosity).  This beer, a 2010 GABF gold medal winner, is one of the more inviting pale ales on the market.  The beer pours a  nice hazy golden color that has a nice thin head of white foam and nose of mild citrus and some bready malts.  The beer’s initial taste is a combo of tart orange and some roasted malts that work surprisingly well together as they bring out good herbal notes in the mid tongue and settle to a nice sour back-end and a mellow but still skunky aftertaste.  So as we slog our way through the world of beer and the pale ales that dot it’s landscape, we need to recognize this is as one beer that not only is good but different enough to set itself apart from the others.  Not as good as Real Ale’s Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, this beer is definitely worth checking out.  

Clown Shoes Supa Hero:
Howdy partners and partnettes? Hell, I don’t know, that’s a stretch for an opening but, really, who cares?  We’re here to talk about beer, not colloquial greetings.  Today let’s jump back to a brewery that is quickly growing in my positive column in the big ole book o’ breweries and that brewery is *drum roll* Clown Shoes.  Yes, the same people that make Tramp Stamp, Muffin Top, and Let My People Go now bring us Supa Hero, a Imperial IPA.  The beer poured out of a tap arrives a nice cloudy orange amber with a thin white head of foam that leaves decent lacing and a nose of pine resin and mellow sour citrus notes.  The beer’s initial taste is akin to the tartness of a white grapefruit taste that is very tart, sour, and full of memorable citrus notes that roll and builds through the mid tongue and back-end and finishes in the aftertaste as a dry sour skunk that ranks among the best (and yes, I know that a lot of you have a difficult time wrapping your head around something being both “skunky” and ‘good”).  A good imperial IPA, but really doesn’t seem to far off from the regular good IPAs out there and not the double/imperial IPAs that are available.  Probably best severed as an introduction to the world of double/imperial IPAs for those who want something more out of their hoppy beer consumption.  Cheers!

Saint Arnold Elissa IPA:
Greetings and salutations good friends and neighbors and welcome back to the little beer website that could, still can, and did…twice.  For today’s review, let’s stay inside the great state of Texas for this beer examination and look at Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewery and their Elissa IPA.  This IPA might be the first beer to be reviewed on this website that uses reverse osmosis water to help cut the bitterness and make this “softer” IPA for the non-hop head beer drinkers.  The beer was poured from a tap with a nice clear golden color, a thin white head of foam that leaves some lacing and a nose of mellow pine resin.  The beer’s initial taste is a nice mellow mix of hops and a touch of malts but quickly builds to a noticeable sour citrus flavor that maintains its level throughout the aftertaste and finishes with a mellow skunk that gently reminds you that just took a sip of an IPA.  A nice clean IPA, it breaks no new ground as far as IPAs go but it does pair well with meals and won’t washout the flavor of your food like some stronger IPAs tend to do.

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid:
Hello hop lovers and admirers and a hearty welcome back or, if it’s needed, welcome for the first times.  Today let’s skip back to the Golden State and their great little brewery, Lagunitas.  Today we look at a nice hoppy beer from Lagunitas, Hop Stoopid which seems to be a very fitting for a beer that was “massively -dry hopped for your aromatic please” and describes what hops can do to us hop-heads- in other words, it makes us stupid.  Stupid enough to buy overly hopped beers, drink them out of brandy snifters, and sip on them slowly while others pound down mass produced beers like they are water.  Lagunitas hasn’t made a bad beer yet and the trend continues with this one.  The beer, poured from a tap, is a nice golden color with a thick meringue like head of foam that leaves great lacing and a nose of thick grapefruit hops and pine notes.  The beer’s initial taste starts with a medium strength leveled hop flavor and that level of hops just builds to a strong clean semi-sweet resin and grapefruit blend that bites the back tongue and leaves a memorable skunk on the aftertaste.  A very nice IPA, nothing really that blows me out of the water but it’s a great IPA to have with a meal thanks to it’s light 8.2% ABV.  Not bad, not bad at all and highly recommended. 

Howdy one and all and welcome back to my attempt to shed some light on what is worth while in the beer cooler and what isn’t.  Today let’s look at one of the beers that didn’t win Budweiser’s Project Twelve (in case you forgot the new Black Crown “won” the contest).  Today we look at Batch no. 23185 which was a product of Daniel Westmoreland, the Budweiser brewers in Williamsburg, VA and is the result of a lager beer aged with bourbon staves and vanilla beans.  The beer pours a nice amber color with a thin white head of foam, no lacing, and a nose of roasted malts.  The beer’s taste isn’t really worth going into, it’s mainly a mismatch of roasted malts and an undefined sour flavored undertone that really doesn’t fit the definition of being aged with bourbon staves and vanilla beans.  Normally a beer aged with both of these items would have me grinning ear-to-ear and eager to drink the bottle down but, yeah this one ain’t worth the effort to drink this beer.  You’re not missing out with this one, find yourself a good barrel aged IPA instead of drinking this if you come across it. 

Ayinger Brau-Weisse:
‘Ello luvs and welcome back to your one and only website that doesn’t discriminate against beer.  Well, maybe against some, particularly those that say “malt liqour” and “high gravity” on the same tallboy or 40 oz. magnum.  Ugh.  Anyway let’s look at an authentic Brau-weisse from Privatbrauerei Franz Inselkammer KG / Brauerei Ayinger…ummm let’s just call them Ayinger if we need to refer to it again.  This bottle contains one of the most popular beers in the world, an unfiltered wheat beer and I will admit, I do have the occasional weakness for this type of beer, mainly because it carries a great palate pleasing flavor profile.  The beer pours a pale golden color with a finely bubbled white head of foam with some lacing and nose of sweet bananas and subtle wheat notes.  The beer’s taste is very similar to the nose though there is bit more creaminess and lemon notes to the beer’s mid tongue than I’m used in a beer like this and the amount of carbonation keeps things lively, effervescent, and champagne like in it‘s feel.  It does seem odd to me that while I have been doing these reviews that the Hefeweizen style has fallen from a favorite type of beer to one that I’m kind of burned out on but beer’s like this remind me that there are good hefes out there and it makes me want to more until I‘m burned out on them again.   A vicious cycle indeed.  Cheers!

Clown Shoes Let My People Go:
Greetings cats and kittens and welcome back.  So what is your favorite Charlton Heston movie?  I know a lot of people say “Planet of the Apes” or maybe “Ben-Hur” but for me, it’s “The Ten Commandments” and, in case you were wondering, his short little cameo in “True Lies“ is a distant second for me.  I still look forward to every Easter and the playing of that epic on TV and enjoying the size, scope, and amazement of it’s special effects (for the time) and it‘s portrayal of that time period as well as it‘s treatment of the subject material.  So when one comes across a beer that pulls it’s name from one of the best lines in that movie, I was a sucker to try it (much like the whole dinosaurs on the label issue).   Clown Shoes brewing has made an English pale ale called Let My People Go, which purportedly will allow to you lead your real or imagined people out from the yoke of oppression and into two decades of wandering.  The beer was poured from a tap with a hazy gold color with a nice thick foamy white head and a nose of malts, some floral hops and bread.  The beer’s initial taste is very malt like with a thick bread flavor that rolls to the mid tongue with some growing citrus hop bite that full blooms in the back end and aftertaste to a grassy and floral hop profile.  A good ale, one that is great for those looking to stay in the hop realm but to expand their tastes and horizons.  Easily available and most stores that carry craft brews, this is a great summer beer for those warm evenings in the shade. 

Epic Hop Zombie:

Hello one and all and welcome back to another great little beer review and this time, we include zombies!  Yes friends, we here at the beer review institute realize the need to incorporate ALL creatures of horror and since we have touched upon a vampire, a demon or two, gargoyles, and a few animals/human hybrids, why not a zombie?  After all they are huge in popular culture right now so what the hell, let’s hop (HA!) on the bandwagon and join in the lemmings march with zombies in tow to the cliff of overexposure.  Today’s beer is from a nice little New Zealand brewery, Epic, and it is their Hop Zombie, a brew that uses classified hop blends (you ever notice it’s always something classified that leads to zombie breakout).  The beer pours a nice clear golden color with a thin white head of foam that leaves some areas of lacing but nothing serious and a nice nose of medium bodied citrus notes and some pine resin.  The beer’s taste is pretty uniform with the only variation being on the levels of hop notes that you get with most of it building on the mid-tongue after a smooth start and finish with a good solid- though not strong- hop back-end and aftertaste.  Going into this beer I was expecting something that would blow me away hop wise but really it didn’t and while I enjoyed the beer, I wasn’t blown away but then I learned a nice little bit of information.  Here in ‘merica, we are building ourselves into a hop arms race among the craft breweries and while that is good in some respects, it isn’t what the rest of the world does and they seems to keep their hops in more manageable yet still very respectable levels.  Hop Zombie is one of those beers that is a good beer to drink if one is inclined to expand their hop horizon beyond the contiguous borders of ‘merica.  

Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude:
Howdy one and all and welcome to a beer review where we cross an ocean to get a beer and then bring it back and review it.  Okay, I didn’t do all that traveling, someone imported it but I’m glad they did and now I got a chance to drink it and now I bring it to you.  First, full disclosure, I bought this beer because of two reasons: 1) It’s called Yeastie Boys which, I hope, is an awesome homage to The Beastie Boys (and if you don’t love them, you need to get yourself checked) and 2) it’s got a dinosaur on the label which means this is an awesome beer regardless of the contents.  This New Zealand beer from the future (they claim to have been founded in 2015 then traveled back in time with their recipes) is billed as “the world’s first heavily-peated single malt ale” by the boys and that peat flavor comes through in droves but more on that in a minute.  The beer pours a nice clear golden color with a thick bone white foamy head that never really settles in the glass, leaving tons of lacing and a nose of smoky scotch malts.  The beer’s taste is very uniform but make no mistake, it’s delicious.  The taste is a strong silky smooth flavor that, if you don’t know what you’re getting into when drinking it, it’s a shock but quickly grows on you.  Now, if you were not a fan of Shiner’s Smokehouse beer from a few summers ago, this isn’t the beer for you but if you even found it the least bit interesting, this beer is one you should look into.  I’m not too sure what it’s exact distribution area is- I got mine in Louisiana- but if there was ever a beer made for Texas summer barbeque, this is it.  Oh and it’s got a dinosaur on the label. 

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild Ale:
Greetings and salutations friends and welcome back to my attempt to wrangle a beer from the great herd of beers and serve it up to you, my faithful readers.  Today let’s jump back to California and Lagunitas and look at a high-gravity take on their beer A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’, this one called A Little Sumpin’ Wild.  Now after by experience with high gravity beers in April of 2012 (a month that will live in infamy) I would of shied away from this beer like a cat from water but I didn’t know and thus drank the beer , survived and now I bring it to you.  The beer pours a nice cloudy orange color with a bubbly foamed head that leaves really nice lacing and a nose of sour citrus and bready malts.  The beer’s initial taste is actually very malt heavy with a thick bread flavor that begins to share the palate with a growing sour citrus hop flavor that will eventually push out the malts altogether on the back-end and leave the aftertaste with a nice well rounded skunk taste.  A surprisingly good beer, especially since it has that whole high gravity thing working for it, I think I prefer this over the Sumpin’ Sumpin’ but really they are both good beers so which ever is available will be fine with me. 

Brew Dog bashah:

Hello one and all and welcome back to a beer review for the masses, that is if you can find it.  What do I mean by that ominous statement?  Well, sadly friends, today’s beer is no longer in production and honestly I’m not sure why a beer of this caliber was sitting untouched in a local liquor store but it was, and judging by the later of dust on the beer, it’d been a while since someone even looked at it.  So without further ado let me introduce you to Bashah, a Black Belgian style IPA that formed from the collaboration form Brew Dog and Stone Brewing.   The beer pours an inky black with no head to really speak of but there was some outer areas of carbonation while the nose is a nice rounded resin and grapefruit combo with a roasted malt undertone.  Bashah’s initial taste is one a surprisingly smooth combo of cocoa and coffee notes as well as a growing hop note that never really develops to much on the mid tongue but does make it known that this is an IPA.  Probably my biggest issue with this beer is how far into the drink you go before the hops to come out but when they do they do with a strong but restrained sour bite.  A really enjoyable beer and since it has the European influence of Brew Dog (they’re Scottish) the hops aren’t bombastic on the palate like most Double/Imperial IPAs made here in the states.  If you can track one down, grab it and enjoy but don’t fret if you don’t, there are several other good Black IPAs out there for your enjoyment and consumption.  

Magic Hat #9:
Hello one and all and welcome back to my little attempt to show the wider world a little more of the small- but growing- world of craft beer.  Today let’s take a look at Magic Hat…no not sorting hat (damn Potter fanatics) but Magic Hat, a great little brewery out of Vermont that makes today’s brew of record: #9.  Why #9?  No one really knows but 1 - 8 were poor sellers and #9 sold the best so it sticks around and never got named officially.  The beer pours a nice slightly hazy gold color with a bone white head of foam and a nose of fruity and sour hops and some bready malts.  The beer’s initial taste is a similar to a nice clean pale ale but without too much hop bite but moves to a mysterious tropical fruit flavor on the mid tongue though never becoming overly sweet and finishes very dry and clean on the aftertaste.  The beer is classified as a “not quite pale ale” by Magic Hat and as a fruit/vegetable beer (who say’s you can’t drink your veggies?) by all others out there in the beer world and as any good interviewer or investigator knows when you have two different stories (or beer types) somewhere in-between lies the truth.  So call this beer a “pale fruit ale” or “vege ale” or something that fits your fancy but in the mean time I hope you enjoy this tasty beer for many summers to come.  Cheers!

Real Ale Lost Gold IPA:
Greetings and salutations my fellow beer drinkers and welcome back to another beer review for the masses!  Today let’s stick kind of close to home with a beer from that cool little brewery nestled in the Texas hill country, Real Ale, and their IPA: Lost Gold.  Not really sure why the beer carries a title that King Midas would love but I’m certain he’d love this beer.  The beer pours  nice hazy orange/yellow color with a thin white head of foam and a nose of mild hops with a bit of undercurrent of malts.  The beer’s taste is similar to most IPAs that are out there on the market with sour citrus and pine notes intertwining together though it’s back -end and aftertaste that are more mild than one would expect from a beer with this much flavor up front.  With the beer coming in at 6.6% ABV the beer isn’t too heavy so it’s enjoyable during our nice long and hot Texas summers (or our all too brief winters for that matter).  A great entry beer for those not familiar with the Real Ale line-up and it has enough flavor to satisfy most, if not all, experienced hop heads out there. 

Blue Moon Grand Cru:
Greetings, greetings people of all tastes, backgrounds, and beer drinking experience.  Today let’s look a special release from Blue Moon: Grand Cru.  This now retired witbier style brew comes in at a strong 8.2% ABV and was crafted to commemorate the blue moon that fell on New Year’s Eve in 2009.  The beer pours a cloudy orange that builds a very fizzy bone white head of foam that leaves not lacing and enhances the nose of strong citrus and wheat notes.  The beer’s flavor profile first starts off with a champagne like fizz that tickles the tongue and allows the flavors of the beer to bloom much more aggressively than a typical Blue Moon beer while the notes of citrus are already there and don’t need to be added with a slice of orange or lemon while the aftertaste is almost a dead ringer for a sparkling dry white wine then a beer.  I think this beer reminds me more of a Siason style beer then anything else though it lacks the spice that I have found in the really good Siasons in the past.  So, as I mentioned before, this beer is retired but I have seen it floating around out there (check your grocery store, that’s where I found mine) so if this interests you keep an eye out and save it for one of those times you are trying to impress the lady friend that isn’t to sure about beer but love champagne; this is the type of beer that can sway those over from the grape side of the isle.

Tallgrass IPA:
Howdy everyone and welcome to the mad cap hour of beer reviews.  Today let‘s once again take a journey to the heartland of this great country and look at Tallgrass and their tallboy of IPA (or Tallgrass IPA if you prefer).  This beer was the third release in the Tallgrass family of brews but was the first home brew batch in the path to become that great little Kansas brewery.  The beer pours a nice cloudy orange color with a so-so layer of foam that leaves good lacing and a nose of thick pine resin and bready malts.  The beer’s taste profile is much like most IPAs, filled with a sour citrus note that carries from front end to back but it is cut by a bready malt taste that seems to tone down the citrus, which isn’t something I really want in my IPA.  Probably my least favorite in the line-up of Tallgrass beers, it does have a place for people who like want to enter in to the IPA world with something lacking the strong hop bite but still want to experience that wonderful pine resin flavor.  Not a bad beer by any means but, in my opinion, the addition of malts dilute what makes us all hop heads in our own little way, but to each their own and more power to each and every single one them 

Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero:

Greetings one and all and welcome back to a look at the next beer in line.  And what beer is that you ask?  How about something that you wear on your head…and is chocolate…and sports four arms….wait…What??  Yes friends, today I speak of Clown Shoes novel approach to the world of stout beers: Chocolate Sombrero and it‘s multi-armed Mexican luchador.  This “Mexican-style chocolate stout” comes in a big bottle (or magnum as I learned the other day) and is a nice change of pace from the run of the mill stouts out there that seem to be popping up all over the beer landscape as of late.  The beer uses a mixture of roasted malts, chocolate malts as well as cinnamon, ancho chilies and vanilla extract to give this beer a welcome taste change.  The beer pours the familiar dark brown color with a nice light coffee colored head of foam that leaves good lacing on the inside of the glass as well a nose of roasted malts, cocoa, and spices.  The beer’s initial taste is a light burning spice flavor as well as the smooth creaminess of a smooth stout that moves to the mid tongue allowing the cocoa flavor to fully develop but never sweeten all the while carrying through to the back end and aftertaste where the spice and cocoa flavors stick out greatly.  A nice beer, but to call it a refreshing change would be misleading due to it’s heaviness and richness it isn’t refreshing but a heavy beer.  Best drunk as a dessert and, if possible, combine with some chocolate ice cream in-between sips, it’s a wondrous combination.

Goose Island India Pale Ale:
Howdy all and welcome back to a review that once again shines a spot light at a lone beer on the stage of life.  Today we look at a newcomer to the great state of Texas, Goose Island, and while their beers are not unfamiliar to me, it maybe new to you so let’s look at one of their staples: India Pale Ale.  The beer was poured from a tap with a nice clear golden color and a thin white head of foam that leaves some lacing but nothing spectacular and a nose that intertwines grapefruit and other citrus notes.  The beer’s initial taste is a mild hop bite that grows on the mid tongue to a spice bite but the hops come back to dominate the back end and really dominate skunk takes of the aftertaste.  This is a nice middle of the road IPA, it does not break any new ground nor does it lurk in the shadows with other run of the mill mass produced IPAs.  The beer is probably best suited for those who are seasoned in other beer types but are looking to expand their palate.  This beer can satisfy a hophead’s need to scratch that hop itch (not contagious, promise) but also be mild enough not to scare off any newbie. 

Tallgrass Halcyon Wheat:
Greetings all and a hearty welcome back to all you.  Today let’s move to the heartland of America and look, once again, at Tallgrass brewing and their wonderful line of beers which today is highlighted by Halcyon Wheat, an unfiltered wheat beer.  This lone regular sized canned beer in their line up sports a surprisingly refreshing mixture of hops and wheat which make it a refreshing change from most wheat beers.  The beer pours a cloudy haze with a bubbly white head of foam that leaves some lacing and a nose of wheat and some sour hop notes  The beer’s initial taste is similar to most other unfiltered wheat beers with a “cream of wheat” taste that stays with you through the mid tongue where a nice mellow hop flavor takes over on the back end and aftertaste finely balances the taste of hops and wheat.  I have made it no secret that I’ve grown a little weary of all the wheat beers out there but if there was more wheat beers out there like this one, I might be inclined to try them more often.  
 

Real Ale Shade Grown Coffee Porter:
Howdy sports fans and welcome back to our short little jaunt through the best brewery in Blanco: Real Ale brewery.  Today lets look at one of their winter selections, Shade Grown Coffee Porter which is a beer made with Katz Coffee (a fair trade coffee for those who need to know).  The beer pours a midnight black with only a subtle head of brown foam that quickly dissipates and leaves no lacing and a nose of subtle coffee notes and roasted malts.  The beer’s initial taste is similar to most porters with an initially silky smooth taste that blooms to a good balanced flavor of roasted malts and coffee dance along the back tongue and an aftertaste that is more on the roasted malts side than the coffee.  Of all the coffee porters out there, this one has become one of my favorites since the coffee notes are not over done and, most importantly, don’t ruin the beer’s gracefully exit from your palate.

Crispin Lansdowne:
Greetings one and all and welcome back to the lighthouse in a storm of beer.  Not sure how that can happen but if there can be a flood of molasses, there can be a storm of beer.  Speaking of molasses, let’s look at a cider that was not only made with cider, but also with stout yeast.  Yes friends, a combo like that can only belong to the good people of Crispin and their cider, Lansdowne which, believe it or not, is made as a tribute to Irish ruby teams (the name comes from a Lansdowne Road stadium that was torn down in 2007).  The cider pours a nice and surprising amber color with no head or lacing to speak while there is a nose of candied apples and brown sugar notes.  The ciders taste starts out a nice champagne-style dry taste that mellows as it moves across the palate to develop mellow taste of brown sugar that really develops through the back end and aftertaste but is never very sweet, just mellow and dry.  This is probably the best cider I have had from Crispin and it’s unique look and taste is enough to warrant it being tried by any beer drinker who is curious about ciders.  The cider does a good job bridging the gap between the two styles with a palate satisfying array of flavors and sensations that the idea that this is a cider but a good blend between both worlds of adult beverages. 

Sixpoint Diesel:
Hello cats and kittens and welcome back the one beer website with a CAN do attitude.  Did you see what I did there?  Yeah?  No?  I guess I’ve been away too long from our aluminum friends and their frosty goodness. Today let’s venture back to that brewery where I seem to be on the outside looking in as far as those who like their beers: Sixpoint and today’s beer is their hybrid stout/black IPA called Diesel.  This dark and robust beer pours a thick black color with a coca colored head of foam and a nose of thick pine resin notes.  The beer’s taste starts of silky smooth like a good stout but that flavor component is lost quickly in the mid tongue and back end where the strong notes of hops and pine take over and fill the palate along with touches of coffee and dark chocolate that carry over to the aftertaste very well.  So finally I have beer from Sixpoint that I can have not only respect for, but it is also awesome and very drinkable.  This beer is a seasonal winter beer so it may still be floating out there for you attain some if you so desire.  I’m happy I have a beer from Sixpoint that I actually enjoy and I think you’ll enjoy it too if you are so inclined.  Cheers.

Real Ale Brewers' Cut Signature Hop Pale Ale:
Greetings friends and neighbors and welcome back to my attempt to spread the good word about Texas beers.  Today let’s head back down to Blanco and look at Real Ale and their new endeavor Brewers’ Cut which is a series of research beers that have a limited run in the market place only to, maybe, emerge once again as a permanent beer in the line-up of regular beers as a year-round or seasonal.  Today let’s look at their first entry into this line up: Signature Hop Pale Ale.  This beer, made with an intimidating named hop, Hercules, which is born in Germany and carries high acidic value as well as amped up flavors.  The beer pours a good hazy golden orange with a bone white head of foam that leaves good lacing and a nose of citrus with strong acidic undertones.  The beer’s initial taste is similar to a good pale ale with subtle notes of hops and citrus that intertwine between each other while the mid tongue develops a surprisingly toned down hop but a growing sour taste that grows to dominate the back end of the beer and leave an aftertaste that is straight out of a good bottle of IPA beer.  Not a bad start to an experimental series of beers, though I have to admit I’ve looked at the other Brewer’s Cut beers that I have in waiting and they have me more excited than this beer but I’ll pace myself this month with them.  Maybe. 

Budweiser Batch no. 91406 aka Black Crown:
Greetings fellow beer lovers, drinkers, and general fans of the beer craft.  Today let’s look at a beer that made it’s debut the other day in that “big game” in New Orleans: Budweiser Black Crown.  This beer has actually been out for a while, known as Batch no. 91406 and described as “A deep amber lager brewed with two-row and caramel malts and finished on beechwood chips” and designed by Budweiser’s Los Angeles brewmaster Bryan Sullivan.  The beer pours a nice light amber color with a bit of the familiar watered down foamy head, no lacing, ascending columns of carbonation and a slight nose of bready malts and a touch of caramel.  The beer’s taste is very similar to that of a regular Budweiser but does have the sweet aftertaste replaced by a dry caramel flavor that does linger a bit but really the dryness is what sticks around.  As you may have noticed the beer sports a 6% ABV which ties it for the highest ABV for any beer carrying the Budweiser name (Bud Light Platinum also has the same ABV) but a high ABV does not make a good beer.  This beer is decent but nothing to shake a stick at unless you’re a fan of Budweiser and your seeking a change then this beer might just be what you’re looking for in that area. 

Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale:
Hello one and all and welcome back to the beer website that not only give you a review, but an education as well.  Sometimes.  Maybe.  Anyway, we once again look at that great little California brewery: Lagunitas and their take on the American Strong Ale.  The beer, Undercover Investigation Shut-down, is long on both flavor and taste; named for an undercover operation operated by the California ABC which showed that Lagunitas guilty of having a “disorderly house” and shut them down for 20 days.  Well they did the time and as a way to remember their “sins” they made this awesome beer.  Poured from a tap the beer arrives a nice cloudy red amber with a thin lacing of foam that leaves good lacing and a nose of heavy malts and a nice hop nose that rolls in and out.  The beer’s taste is fairly uniform with a good balanced hop and malt notes that carry a citrus and semi-sweet flavor on the front end and mid tongue while the back end and aftertaste replace that sweetness with a thick resin flavor.  Again, another great beer from Lagunitas and you have to admire these guys for not only rebounding from their temporary shut down but also making a strong beer to make it memorable.  Well done, well done indeed.