Spring Bock Beer Tasting

It's the most wonderful time of the year! BOCK SEASON BABY! After the dog days of summer and the 58 minutes of winter we get in Houston, nothing NOTHING is better than late February in Houston, Texas. 70 degrees outside, crawfish are starting to pop up, and I can be found on the golf course on my Friday's off. But that also means that the Spring Bocks are back. Sweet, malty, low hops, crisp, easy to drink, clean, pure. I absolutely love. So let's make it happen.

Beer Log: Right now

State: A little loopy from last nights beering, especially the Saint Arnold Farmer's Brown

Abita Mardi Gras Bock

Clear amber, kinda great malt nose, a pinch raisiny taste, low hops. Has a nice water thing going that Abita is known for. Nice light body, good mouthfeel. Sure could use some crawfish right now. Light bitter aftertaste that barely lingers. High 3 stars.

Boulevard Boss Tom's Golden Bock

Golden, pinch more straw. Good caramel malt and raisin thing going on. Smell something like wheat. Good chewier beer. Has a light bread thing going, seemingly noble hops and whatnot. Nice cookie thing going on. High 3 stars, but not as high as Abita's Mardi Gras.

Saint Arnold Bock

Tinged amber color. Syrup sweet thing smell. Big caramel/cinnamon thing, with a pinch of brown sugar. Great meld of sweetness with crisp crisp aftertaste. After you drink it, it's like sipping a new one. 5 stars.

Breckenridge Pandora's Bock

Even a darker amber, copper color. Head waned quickly, so not much nose. Much stronger sweetness than SA, but a little more cloying. Has some chalkiness to it. I like the way it comes together, just that the water is not there. It's actually great, just came after the SA Bock. 4 stars.

Sierra Nevada 2011 Glissade Golden Bock

Great golden straw color. Nice lasting head. Cookie sweetness thing again. Much softer beer, better taken care of than b-ridge. Has a light hop and light sweetness to it. Extremely drinkable. A little more balanced with the hops. Has a lemony hop I'm getting now. Palate getting low. High 3 stars.

Gordon Biersch Blonde Bock

Very clear straw. Very tasty caramel malt, nice sweetness, low hops. Has a little honey thing going on as well. Great light mouthfeel as well. Has some light bread to it, but more of a oatmeal raisin bread. Funny thing is I don't care for raisins, but I love the flavor in the beer. Kinda running out of taste buds there. No rating right now.

Sports Review: Strikeforce Houston and Sam Adam Harvest Pumpkin

One of the only two advantages of being black in America is that I can openly admit in writing that I root for the black guy in sporting competitions and no one will call me out. (The other is that people selling newspapers and doing promotional stuff at grocery stores exits leave you alone.) So I showed up to Strikeforce Houston last night pretty fired up to see King Mo and Bobby Lashley. And both of them consequently got f7cked up. Lashely just out-and-out gassed and gave up after some serious hammerfists by a guy that looked like a Confederate General. They did screw Lashley by standing him up while he had the full mount, but Lashley was fading to black very quickly anyway and probably would have keeled over and died if they made him go for a third round.

King Mo was doing ok the first couple rounds, but he pretty much tossed out any boxing skill at all and went in to brawl with a Muay Thai guy (bad idea). King Mo fell in love with the body shots, and although they had some stank on it, close range Balrog body shots open you up for the knee to the dome, everytime. Ask Rich Franklin (against Silva) and Rampage Jackson (the first two times against Wanderlei). Mo flattened, then got a single leg, then got elbowed down hard. Fight OVER! And the Texas crowd lustily cheered when the Dallas product was knocked out.

I'm just glad we hit the Saucer before the event for some Blonde Bock and some Stone 14. The Blonde Bock by Gordon Biersch is one of those other beers that is kinda like a combo beer in the style, but not quite. It had a real syrupy malt to it and very drinkable, but the mesh of the "blonde" and the "bock" actually throw it off for me. I'd rather be slamming some Hofbrau maibocks like I have been these days. The Stone 14 Emperial IPA I picked up b/c we were eating some hot wings. The last time I had wings at the saucer, they put some fire on it, but this time the hot sauce seemed to be a little heavier on the butter, which my bloated gut 24 hours later can atest to. But the EIPA was f'n AWESOME! I knew that I could count on Stone to provide a very balanced perfect finishing Imperial IPA. One sec.

Beer Log: Right now
State: Chilling out, eating lunch

Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale
Pours brown and smooth with a tan head. Nose is pumpkin and cinnamon with some caramel. Tastes like a light bitter bread with some pumpkin. Not my cup of tea. 2 Stars.

Moving on, the Dynamo finally won a game last night. Taking big shots from Ching to beat the Chicago Fire. The Flaming Footballers of Chicago tried to come back, but Ching would not be denied despite our goaltender's best efforts. Also, the Texans got mollywhoped by the Saints in preseason, which nobody cares about. Holla.

Beering in Atlanta: Gordon Biersch

August 28, 2008

Finally made it back to where I got my complete arse whoopin, er Graduate education. We were recruiting at Georgia Tech, and one of the guys in the crew (Bud Light Lime Fan) notified the crew that I'm a Beer Connoisseur. I convince everyone to go to Gordon Biersch on Peachtree St. for our lunch. Eating on the company, gotta love it. The only other time I made it to GB was in New Orleans, and I only had their Marzen, as I was a stone's throw away from stumbling all over Market Street and being picked up for public drunkenness, also on the company.

So we hit GB and we're loving the decor and the food was just fine. We went ahead and got the sampler to see what's going on, and I'm still watching my Weight Watcher points (lost 13 lbs as of this post, hells yeah).

Gordon Biersch Sampler

Not a fan of doing samplers, as I like to see how the beer changes as it warms, but we don't have a GB in Houston, so we gotta roll with it.

Golden Export

Obviously something to introduce Bud and Miller drinkers to craft beer. Smart idea. Give them something lighter than a triple IPA to get them used to the idea of trying new beers. Lager smell and clear gold. It's kind of Budweisery, but a little more hoppy. Just what I expected. 2 star beer, by design I'm sure.

Hefeweizen

Yeasty smell (estery) and cloudy orange. It tastes fruity with light banana. Lower carbonation than most Hefs and very nice. Medium body and quick finish with low hops. 3 Star.

Berlinweisen

I don't even know if I'm spelling that right, and I'm having some trouble finding it on Beer Advocate. But the waiter said this was their seasonal. Clear, and kind of looks like tinged water. OMG hits you hard with the spice. A late shocker on spice and sourness. Can't believe I'm doing this, but this is 1 Star for me, a beer that could turn you off from beer. I typically have NO PROBLEM converting folks to craft beer, but my mentor also ordered this beer, and she will probably never touch beer again. The waiter did not care for it, but I don't know about this. A little warning would have been nice. I'll seek it out and try a couple more in this style, as I'm sure this is a style play. There was a time I couldn't stomach a pale ale. But dammit man, this ain't working. We lost a few folks on this one. 1 star.

Marzen

Had it in NO. On point.

Dunkles

Brown and kinda opaque. Chocolate and roasty caramel smell. Tastes roasted and buttery. Medium carbonation. Lite hops. Just not feeling it. 2-3 stars

Blonde Bock

Little malt smell. A clear beer that comes on malty and strong. Medium body and not bad. Bready and nice.

I did not order the Blonde Bock or Hefe as I had to watch the points, but I am disappointed with this adventure. With what I've had a BJs and Zea, I expected GB to be the King Ish. Of course

I'll try another location, probably New Orleans and report back in. But damn, this was not a nice

experience.

Best beer, the Hefe. Loved it, and I know the boys in the ATL would dig it. Especially with the popularity of the Sweetwater Hummer.

2. Blonde Bock

3. Marzen

Beering in New Orleans, Part Duex

The next day we are hanging out and I am copping a few beers at the corner store. I KNOW I grabbed the Abita Strawberry Lager, but I don't see it here in my notebook. Oh well, it was kinda light anyway.

May 24, 2008
State, in the hotel room with single bottles
I just gave my luncheon seminar, and now I'm just kind of goofing off, so grabbed a few of these beers to give them a try

Dixie Beer
Plastic cup. Dixie's brewery got jacked up during Katrina, but they are now back and brewing. Gotta represent. Kinda foamy white head and smells veggie-like. High carbonation and medium bread taste, served ice cold. Head has slight lace to it. It has a light body and hops, and a little bitter aftertaste. There's a light maltiness in there as well. Yes I'm going backwards, but the color is orange straw and very clear. I do have a slight headaches from drinking it up the night before.

Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager
Dark brown, ruby in the light with a tan head. Smells of butter biscuits, chocolate, and malt. Full body with a velvety mouthfeel with a medium carbonation. Low malt and very low hops, with a light aftertaste. No flavors really. Based on the smell I was hoping for more. It gets kinda bready and smoky as it warms up. I'm still just getting into homebrewing, but it may be that Dixie added a lot of stuff very late in the boil or even during secondary fermentation, hence all the nice smells but no flavor to match. They pulled a bait and switch on me.

Abita Restoration Ale

Abita threw together this pale ale to raise money for the Katrina recovery efforts. Could be soured on the smell, with a very strong head. Maybe a little malt on the aroma. Dark bronze and orange color. Offwhite head that is lacy. Mild-medium hops, with low to medium light body. low medium carbonation as well. I would say this is a blond pale ale with some bitterness on the AT. It got more hoppy as it warmed up. maybe even a regular pale ale level. Nice stuff.

Gordon Biersch Maibock

GB is a national chain brewpub, but they do brew their beer onsite. I cannot drink on Monday, so I had to prioritize, but I decided to sneak in one beer from GB before moving on. I think I'll be travelling to Atlanta in September and probably to the DC area one more time before the year is out, and they have chains out there. But I did try their seasonal beer. A little smell on there. Its brown with an offwhite head. It's moderately malty on the first sip, a little dry, little to no aftertaste. I'm tasting caramel malts and low hops. It's a little slippery on the drinkability with low carbonation. A little roasted malts as well. Not a bad beer at all. I had to move to another engagement, so I got this to go.