Divine Reserve 12

Aaaaaaaaaaaand the race was on.  I managed to get about three six packs and a bomber today in the great hunt for Divine Reserve.  Of course, I'll be drinking this beer at every bar I can find for this weekend (assuming any makes it lasts that long).  Twitter was going crazy today with people more doing jokes about the beer than where to find it.

Beer Log: Right now
State: Watching the Russians screw it up on the balance beam, slight heartburn from the crawfish spaghetti

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 12
Pours a somewhat murky ruby amber with a very thin head in my Old New Orleans Rum glass.  The beer tastes very caramel sweet with some  faint hops barely holding on.  I can say things like ruby, plum, raisin, and caramel, maybe a pinch of chocolate all in that order.  But what I can really say is that the beer is probably not all that ready yet for consumption.  I think I'll great out one say once every 6 months and see how it changes.

AC just got fixed in the house

From the Kangs of Austin Beer.

Beer Log: Right now
State: Knees in some pain, sitting in our house which is pretty hot due to our just getting the AC fixed.

Jester King Das Wunderkind
Cloudy orange color with a very low head.  Beer has a great moderate sourness.  I love how the yeast is cultured from the Texas Hill Country!  They've been working on this for a while.  Beer is rather sour but not kick-you-in-the-balls sour.  Has a great light malt and hops.  Is just a fantastic sour beer, though not very complex, which I think lends to its genius.  The beer has a light chardonnay and whatnot.  I'm running low on identifiers as I typically don't frequent the sour beers.  But this one is excellent.  4 stars for the Kangs

Texas Pint Nite at the Sugarland Saucer

Love coming to City Walk on a nice Sunday.  Got the Dressage on the screen, great AC, could always do a little restaurant hopping and shopping.  But most of all it's Texas Pint Nite, and the Flying Saucer in Sugarland is plenty family friendly enough.

Beer log: Right now
State: Hungry, hanging out with the family at the Saucer. Watching the Olympics.

Buffalo Bayou Wit da Eff
A new one from the boys on the Bayou. Anyway, let's see.  Beer has a nice clear tinged straw color with a light head.  Not much of a nose beyond some light banana.  The flavor however has a great banana and spicy character to it.  Will came up to us and tells us it's actually basil.  An interesting spice for a Belgian wit or German hef.  I still remember when someone at Saint Arnold busted my ass on this blog for confusing the German Hefeweizen style with the Belgian Wit style on the first release of Weedwacker, so I guess I'll call this one a bit of both.  This beer however is perfect for the hot summers we've have in these parts.  Kinda wish I had this one while I was kayaking on the Buffalo Bayou.  High 3 stars.

Ok that Dressage was boring as all get out.  Not the beach volleyball women are wearing full singlets (must be cold out there) instead of what they normally wear, next to nothing.  Moving on.

Deep Ellum Double Brown Stout
Big black with a tan head.  When I ordered this puppy I'm thinking I'm getting a brown ale, turns out it's Baltic Porter to Imperial stout.  Not that I'm complaining.  Beer has a great light roasted coffee grounds nose to it, maybe a pinch of sweet chocolate going.  It tastes the same, like a bitter coffee with a dry and chalky aftertaste.  It's very drinkable with low carbonation.  The dry feeling makes one want to drink more.  Otherwise, it reminds me more of a regular english porter than a baltic porter.  But maybe that's just me.  High 2 stars.

Austin Beerworks Flying Headbutt
Slightly cloudy tinged straw with a bubbly yet thin head white.  Kind of like the Brazilian women's beach volleyball team.  Beer has a slightly acidic and grapefruit hop flavor.  Beer tastes very crackery at first, like non-saltine crackers.  After that it's a little hoppy and dry.  I'm not getting much malt here.  Just a bitterness without much backbone. You'll have no CLUE that this beer is 10% ABV until you stand up from your chair, so be careful.  Otherwise the beer comes off kind of flat to me.  First 2 star beer I've had from the Beerworks boys.  The beer gets more enjoyable as a summer drinking beverage the more one drinks it.  Nothing too bold, which may actually be the idea.

Brewery London

So the wife made a trip to London last year and find us some beers to try.  We both forgot about some of this stuff and it's sat in our beer fridge for months.  Looking forward to trying it now.

Beer Log: Right now

State: Watching Chicagolicious with the family

The Kernel Imperial Brown Stout Brewery London

This beer comes in a regular 12 ounce brown bottle.  Going to pour this in my Old New Orleans Rum small goblets. Deep dark brown color with a great full city roast, chocolate, and dark cherry nose.  Beer has a strong bitter coffee and chocolate flavor, strong hops that cut through in the aftertaste.  The drink is even more bitter and hoppy the more I drink it.  The hops have a cascade flavor of all things.  Looks like the Yanks are hanging out in London again.  If they called this an imperial dark IPA, I would have been happy.  Just tons of toasty and coffee flavor.  Low 4 stars.

Beer in Dupont Circle: Early Afternoon

So last week I'm flying into DC "on the hush hush" for my Grandfather's 80th birthday surprise party.  God bless my father's side of the family, but man they are not the best at planning.  I pretty have to book my flight for the entire weekend as I didn't know the time of the party until a few weeks out.  For all I know this is a whole weekend trip.  So the festivities do not begin until 6:30PM on Saturday and I fly into DC on Friday at Noon.  So I figure with all that down time I could probably catch up with some colleagues and do some pub crawling.  Where better than in the DC area than the Northwest area.  I find a hotel as close as I can to Churchkey and get things started.

Beer Log: July 13, 2012
State: hot as all get out, drinking at Pizzeria Paradiso

I hit up my twitter account (@beerbrotha) to ask where I should go first.  Paradiso is the big suggestion and I make my way to the area.  I'm wearing my Dynamo gear to represent.  I belly up to the bar and find myself in a somewhat crammed bar with elegant natural lighting restaurant behind me.  The bartender is a cool guy and I ask what is the good local stuff.  Turns out there are TWO new breweries since the last time I was beering in Washington DC, one is DC Brau and the other is the elusive Chocolate City Brewing.

DC Brau The Public
Comes in a can and pouring into a pint glass.  Amber color with a thin white head.  Bigger than expected malt nose and citrus hops.  Very tasty malt-hop combo.  Something akin to caramel with a cut of lemon.  Great all-the-time drinking beer. I'm not too terribly thrilled at the 6% ABV and I think they would get more traction at 5% or even 4.8%, but that's just me on my session beer kick.  Give me four stars for what would likely be my go to beer.

So at this point my pizza with mussels show up and I'm doing pretty good now.

Hold up

Beer Log: Right now
State: Watching Storage Wars with the wife after work, kind of thirsty

South Austin Belgian Style Golden Ale
Pours actually a nice straw gold in my Stella Artois goblet.  Huge white poofy head with a banana and apple nose.  The nose also has some great sour jolly rancher in there as well.  Beer has a very belgian golden taste.  Lot's of white grape and banana, a good bitterness that does not leave one's mouth all icky (no homo).  The white grape and peach flavor lasts pretty long on the tongue with a moderate residue feel.  The beer is not very dry but has a great shock of flavor every time I take a sip.  Give me low 4 stars.

Ok back to DC.

DC Brau The Citizen
Again in a can poured into a goblet this time.  Light orange and great banana nose along with flavor.  Extremely simple beer with light body and malt.  Fresher and cleaner than Outkast.  4 Stars.

DC Brau/Epic Brewing Brainless Corruption
As I polished off the pizza, I had to participate in the JulyPA3 they were having.  And sticking with #golocal, I took my last beer as a collaboration beer with DC Brau and Epic Brewing.  Huge head on dirty straw color.  The nose is very fruit, like pineapple with grapefruit hops.  Taste is incredibly smooth.  They have a program of special IPAs throughout the month of July, which they call July PA3 (third year in a row).  Great soda and grapefruit hops.  I get a nice moderate banana ester and jully rancher.  Moderate to strong hops.  Just amazing.  At 6.2% ABV I think this is on eof the best beer I've ever had.  Worth the price of admission.  5 Stars!!!!!

Afterward I made it over to Scion as the folks at the bar said they had Chocolate City beer. I hoof it over to Scion and elect to sit outside, as my Best Of app tells me it is one of the best places in DC to people-watch.
I had my paperback with me (The Litigators by Grisham), lay off the food, and get a few 4 oz beer from Widmer.  Nothing big to write about until I see a beer named after Marion "Bitch Set me Up" Berry.

Widmer Marionberry Gose
Bright red with some orange ting.  Not much of a head.  Slight fruity (apple, peach, and grape) smell.  Taste is not very bold.  Has a lemony character with not much else but salt.  Dry and chalky aftertaste.  I still have a lot to learn about gose but maybe later.  2 stars.

Beer Brotha Movie Review: Mint IPA and the Dark Knight Rises

Beer Log:
At Alamo Drafthouse on Mason, watching The Dark Knight Rises, thirsty as hell after Jiu Jitsu class

Dark Knight Rises
DKR is a pretty good movie.  I just don't think ANYONE can match the seductive performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight.  Bane did have some of that Occupy Wall Street feel to it throughout, but whatever. Great movie that had great drama, very dark and very melancholy.  Of course I'm a melancholy guy at heart despite my sense of humor and social nature, so it fits in well with me. Otherwise, the only problem I had was the ending.  In my opinion, it would have had HUGE effect if they just... let's have some beer.


No Label Mint IPA
Amber and cloudy with killer malty and hoppy nose. Had that pine tree thing going on. Taste has a fantastic malt up front, quickly yielding to a serious tangy hop bite. I'm sure there is something like peppermint in there but it only plays a small in the overall pineyness of the drink. Aftertaste is fleeting and the beer finishes dry. A dangerous combo for binging. 4 stars. May be the best No Label yet right up there with Elda M. Milk.  Maybe they really don't need no stinkin' labels.  As a Katy man myself, #GOLOCAL