IPAing at the Saucer

Good to be back at the Sauce for some good ol' IPAs.

Nelson Sauvin Single Hop Mikkeller IPA (say that three times fast)
Nose has an excellent caramel malt on top of a creamy reddish white head (no homo). They actually have this puppy on draft at the Sauce. Kinda hazy beer that has an nice grassy hop to it. The taste is interesting in that I get lots of grassy and bitterness on the hops. Decent malt but it doesn't quite hang on long enough to make it balanced, which is probably intentional to focus one's attention to the hops. Usually not a problem for me but the aftertaste is a little icky. Kinda turns into a bitter grapefruit aftertaste. If this is indeed the New Zealand hop that is in the Sierra Nevada Southern Hemi, then I think it's actually a little better wet. It just doesn't have the depth of hops I like with my beers, and that probably comes with multiple hops. Body is moderately full with low carbonation. The beer is rather drinkable. The beeradvocates fricken love this thing, but that lack of depth and aftertaste take it from a 4 to a three star beer.

Lagunitas IPA
A copper color beer that's pretty clear. Thin lacy white head that did not quite last that long. Taste is a strong hop and almost a little watery in the middle of the palate. I guess I'm so used to Hop Stoopid and Brown Sugga that this beer is rather sessiony. Nice hops all around with more depth than the Mik, though I can tell I should have had this one first. Damn shame. It gets a lot better the further I get away from that Mikkeller. High 3 Stars.

A Dogfish Squall IPA I've already had and I'm ready to rock and roll. Turns out this one has a pinch of roast and something akin to peaches or sweet cherries compared to the beers I've had already today. Nice.

The Best English Barleywine I've ever had???

So I'm having dinner with the Misses while the baby is watching another episode of Diego. I wanted to fire up the Backyardigans Castaway episode, but the baby shut me down. So why not just enjoy some steak and garlic mashed potatoes and garlic spinach (the wife loves garlic), and get some English Barleywine. I can't even remember when we picked up Lagunitas Olde Gnarlywine Twenty Aught-9, but after keeping it on top of our cabinets for over a year and whatnot, I figured this is as good a time as any to drink 'er up.

Beer Log: A few minutes ago

State: Eating the basics, steak, mashed potatoes, spinach

Lagunitas Olde Gnarlywine Twenty Aught-Nine

The nose has an apple, plum, a pinch of caramel malt, and plenty of brown sugar. The color is a solidly ruby in the light and cloudy, with a frothy tan head. The beer is extremely malt, sweet, and reminds me of port wine. I LOVE PORT WINE. For years I would not even get deserts, just port wine. High 4 star. This thing is great with the staek, low bitterness. Moderate body, low carbo, extremely drinkable and I'm about ready to have this stuff injected in my veins directly. You don't even notice the high IBUs, but the hops just keep the malt from blowing you out. You know what, 5 Stars.

This is what we need. While I've been big on American BW, this English stuff is not to be effed with. Lagunitas surprises all by not hop bombing this beer but rather letting the malt take over. Unbelievable. I've found that I am just downing some serious Lagunitas beer in our stock if we don't buy anything new for a while. Especially the Imperial Red and the Brown Sugga. Turns out the wife loves cooking with the Brown Sugga, so not much of that one left.

We have the 2010 Gnarlywine as well but won't touch it for a year or two. Just let it age in the house for a long while and let it rip. Great job 'Nitas. Prost.

Cruising with Ruben and the Jets

One time for probably the coolest beer label around. We got this Lagunitas beer at Specs up here in Suburban Houston. The head is about the same size as the beer. Huge tan head with a dark brown color. Nose is a strong cinnamon and chocolate. Like a cookie. Seems to be a lot of little particles all throughout the beer, and they are not settling. I'm sure that's just th yeast.

Taste is a strong strong malt and chocolate, maybe enough hops to balance but it's hard to tell. The beer is medium to full bodied and very velvety on the tongue. Excellent imperial style, seems like a stout. 4 Stars. Very well done Imperial Stout.

It's beer like this one that are giving Southern Tier and Avery a run for their money in my top breweries of 2009.

UFC Beering: Lagunitas and Boulevard

Ok I'll admit it. I always pull for the black guy in a UFC fight. Unless it's against Clay Guida, I just kinda gravitate towards the brotha (nullus).

Hey, I don't know any of these fighters from Adam, and hardly any of them are from my home town, so I may as well figure out some way to get emotionally involved. So if you are a UFC fan, you can only imagine how much alcohol I've been consuming over the last few months. Lighter alcohol beers have not been cutting it. Rashad Evans and Cheik Kongo have been getting jacked up. The night Rashad Evans got totally destroyed by Lyoto Machida, I was drinking some high gravity stuff as it was evident early that he wasn't going to win...

Beer Log: May 23, 2009
State: Dammit the brotha is losing again!

Lagunitas Undercover
Strong hop nose with alcohol lurking about, thank goodness. Ruby brown color with a white low head. Fruity nose as it warms up. It tastes of strong malt and hops. It is somewhere betwixt an American and English barley wine. Not cloying but moderate alcohol in the flavor. So don't give it to the girl at the bar, she'll taste the alcohol a mile away and you'll never get her... um, nevermind. Bitter and fruity aftertaste. 4 Stars.

Long Strong Tripel
By the Kansas boys at Boulevard in a 22 ouncer which finished me off. Light gold color, high head. Finally a damn tripel. Who do you have to sleep with to get a good tripel around here? Great banana and ester nose. The taste is a nice banana taste, light citrus, and a high champagne carbonation. Cloudy like it is bottle conditioned. A little bitter tasting aftertasting along with being sweet. High 3 Stars.

Of course Evans was destroyed, so that's that. It turns out they'll have the Evans-Rampage fight anyway and have them go through the Ultimate Fighter as coaches. They'll even have my boy Kimbo Slice on the show. I think this is first Ultimate Fighter season my wife will actually watch. So we get to see the Evans-Rampage fight we all wanted to see anyway. Love Lyoto Machida, but he ain't selling no rent.

Victory, Lagunitas, Steamworks & Southern Star. Who you kicking out the hot tub?

You want hops, we got hops. Let's clear out the old notebook for the Fourth. And why not lace in a few of my American Heroes.

Dusty Rhodes


Beer Log: May 15, 2009
State: At the Saucer enjoying life

Victory Hop Devil on cask
Floral hop nose on the low head. Basic copper color. Lots of sweetness to balance the strong citrus hops. A 30-45 second aftertaste of hop bitterness. Medium body and low carbonation. Just a big tank of an IPA. Very smooth and drinkable, and maybe some hints of oak as well. 4 Stars man.

Kurt Angle


Lagunitas Hop Stoopid
The nose nearly had me coughing. The weak white head on this beer was very deceptive. Amber color. Taste has lots of bitterness but not overwhelming, or stoopid either. There is enough malt to balance the hops, good points there. It's just that I've had better hop bombs. Or that I just drank the Victory Hop Devil just before this one and now the Stoopid has hints of bread in it. 3 Star. Don't worry, we'll try this one again with some hot wings or something. Lots of pine needle and grapefruit come out as it warms up. Very smooth, perfect balance. Great name to boot.

Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan


Beer Log May 19, 2009
State: At the Saucer on the way to a 'Stros game

Steamworks Third-Eye Pale
Don't know if this one will make me wiser, but it has a nice citrus hoppy smell. Copper color with a tan creamy head. The taste is a good hop bitterness with a balanced fruity malt, a bready chewy finish. There is no hop bite or aftertaste. Very smooth and mouthfilling with low carbonation that makes you want more. The more I drink it, the more the caramel character comes out. High 3 Star.

Ric Flair


Southern Star Pine Belt Pale
Glad I was able to review this local favorite finally. Piney nose, white head with a orange deep color. Great caramel malt leads off with the hops playing clean up. It's a little empty on the 2nd draught, not cool. It gets a little better with food and I'll take it at 3 Stars. Nice finish with a slight bite. The best Southern Star beer Easy. I know this beer will be a staple of mine as we hit the beach and the pool later on in the summer time. Got to support the local guys, and it's great b/c it comes in cans.

Let's wrap it up with my favorite politician

British Random Beering, Just call me the Black Knight

I don't know what happened, but I had a whole British beer post set up. I post the damn thing, and it comes up empty. Let me try an abbreviated version, b/c I don't feel like retyping all of that.

Drafthouse ESB
From Alamo drafthouse. Malty nose, tastes a bit hop heavy. 3 Star.

Snake Dog IPA
Flying Dog brewery getting 'er done. Balanced heavy malt and hops. Low carbonation. Loving it.

Later on at the Flying Saucer

Monty Python Holy Grail Ale
Name is better than the beer, coming out of Black Sheep. Complex nose (all different versions of malt) but a touch sour and a little velvety on the mouthfeel. Low 3 Stars

Samuel Smith IPA
Smells like bubblegum. Rather hop-forward IPA with some sweet malt in the background. I was eating some kind of smokey cheese and it gets more malty. Looks like the Brits are trying to get all American-like with the hops. 3 Stars.

Lagunitas Pale Ale
Grassy/malty nose. Clear straw color. Taste is hop heavy once again, like the Smith. The malt is just plain missing. Low-med body. 3 Star.

Wife Out of Town Weekend Redux

Sunday I just took it easy and hung with a friend down in League City. I brought a shyteload of craft beer including some Divine Reserve and we just BS'ed around and played Street Fighter 4 and Call of Duty 18 or whatever the hell version they're on. Lots of food on the grill, but like guys we had no side dishes but some Texas Toast.

Man this was a fun arse weekend. And not everything even came to pass the way I wanted to. I managed to put about 600 miles on my car in a 3 day period, which may be more of a comment on how large this city is and how crappy I am at planning. But whatever. I didn't hit nearly the strip clubs I planned on, only one actually for like an hour. Okay 2. I was also able to reconnect with some old friends and maybe have a few new road dogs to hit the mean streets. The little woman was not holding me back, but its hard to just up and smoke cigars with the crew on a whim with a baby at the house.

Lord knows I miss that woman and the baby. I'm sitting here on a Monday night with a dough ball in my stomach (nullus), as I ate nothing but junk all day. I slammed down one Lagunitas Little Sumpin' beer and it's damn near knocking me out. Since I had to drive around and I wanted to maximize the weekend activities, I actually paced myself very well, imbibing a whole lot damn beer. Looking back on it, I probably would have been better served to slam 3 high gravity brews in a couple hours and just pass the f7ck out at someone's house every night.

I'm actually looking forward to going offshore for the mere fact that I will not drink alcohol and will manage to have some balanced meals. Normally I eat pretty well with the weight watchers and all, but I don't even think I had so much as a celery stick since the wife left. I managed to squeeze in a couple 7 mile runs, but I don't know if that going to do much.

And let's talk about Lagunitas a minute here. "Undercover Investigation Shutdown Ale", "A Little Sumpin Sumpin Ale", "Brown Shugga", "Correction Ale", "Hop Stoopid", "The Chronic". These beer names... Either these guys have gone to jail, or they are those white guys that listen to hardcore gangsta rap music. You know those dudes. They're actually pretty cool guys, but when they slap on the underground gangsta rap that would make the Three-6 Mafia sound like Boy George, I can't help but feel a little embarrassed for the race. And you know they want to sing along with the song but it has the dreaded "N-word" as every third word, so they can't say it around you. (Too much paperwork)

Anyway, I don't care who your Daddy is, Lagunitas brews only Double IPAs and puts random ass names on it. "Yeah, this is our Pilsner". But if I was brewing beer professionally and I was comfortable with blowing the palettes of 97% of the drinking population, I'd probably do the same thing. As much as I'm enjoying session beers these days like dunkel/dark lagers and toasty ambers, I say why the hell not. Lord knows we have enough pale ales floating around. Do we honestly need another pilsner brewed to spec? I like Lagunitas... hit 'em and hit 'em hard.

As much as I love having the bed to myself and whatnot, I do miss the fam. I won't see them until I get back to offshore. And I've just found out I may have screwed up some documentation, so this won't an easy next week or so. Well, if you don't do sh8t, you won't have sh8t to screw up. The wife is a great running buddy, but it's even better because I can make sweet love to her without being gay. She knows some her beer, has jumped into the beer world with me, and never fails to pick up maybe a couple six packs and bombers in a week at Specs. Although she does seem to like the dude that stocks the shelves at Specs. Well if it gets me free beer and gives me a pass to get with "Diamond" down at "the club" on occassion, I say let her flirt around with the dude. We're a pretty libertine family. But I look forward to getting back with her as the day I come back home, we are packing to hit the German Texas Hill Country for our anniversary. Busy day tomorrow... Have a good night.

Wife Out of Town Beering: Part 3

So after a three hour nap, I wake up at 7 AM on Saturday to hit the golf course. Apparantly the word got out that I would be getting up early, b/c the wife and some friends decided to call me at 7:05. Anyway, I made it to the course at 8, just in time to see the course under construction. So we make it to another course nearby. I thought I had a club meeting at 10, so I only had time to hit the driving range.

I drove down to Rice Village just to find out the meeting was next week. I was still kinda tired and I went to my friends herbal tea shop. We all sat around and chatted it up for a couple hours and got some food at Ruggles. She gave me a shot of Ginseng and I was ready to roll. I made it back home with the thought that I would have a few hours to catch some zzzz's and relax before hitting the Flying Saucer and then the Dynamo game.

But as soon as I sat down with half a pitcher of Margarita, one of the guys called me saying he's got a case of beer and some cigars. So I jump in the car for the 20 mile ride to Cinco Ranch. The man normally drinks Corona so brought a party pack of beer from my own cabinet just in case. But turns out he had a case of Sam Adams Summer Seasonal. Granted we drank it out of bottles, but the Summer Seas White Ale seemed a lot better this year than what they had last year. We smoke a couple cigars and chat it up with the neighbors, then it was time to hit the Sauce once again.

I had the Lagunitas Correction Ale which claimed it was an American Ale. It was damn near a double IPA, but I don't know if they make a session beer out there. After that, I got some IPA from Ska that was not even as strong as the American Ale from Lagunitas. The Ska Modus Hoperandi was a pleasent yet kind of harsh IPA.

Afterward, my friend and I made it to the Dynamo game. The Houston Dynamo was apparently celebrating the Don Taylor Wife out of Town weekend, as they scored three goals on Toronto FC in like 5 minutes. Very very hype! Afterward, I made my way to my other boy's pool party back on the Westside. I don't know if it ever was a party, but there were a couple of old friends. We drank mostly Modelo Especial and Corona as we traded stories of visiting gay clubs, strip clubs, and generally getting slizzard with each other over the years. I must have been winding down b/c at about 1:30AM the girls wanted to hit a random after hours dance bar but I just wasn't up for it. The more I think about it a day later, I probably should have gone.

After some sobering up, I finally made it back home. An excellent weekend to be sure. One more day to go and I have a couple days during the week to keep it going before going back offshore.

Clearing out my notebook

Date: October 7, 2008
State: Chilling at the Sauce in Houston

Noticed I had some entries in my beer logbook I haven't posted. This one was about a month ago when I still was not into hops. We were at the Sauce before the Dynamo game.

Lagunitas Sirius
I thought they said this was their cream ale. It was rather hoppy well into the pale ale area. Very citrusy hops. A 3 Star beer though I'm still not on the hops.

Ohara's Irish Red
Totally changing styles. This one does not have much of a smell. The player is kind of smokey coming off of a strong poofy head. Light malt and a medium body. Still not one of my favorite styles. 2 Star

Lagunitas Censored
I believe they wanted to call this one "The Chronic", but the Taliban...er...Moral Majority would not permit it. So they slapped "Censored" on the label. It has a copper color, with a nice malt and breadiness. Very nice low hops. It is very drinkable for a copper ale. Low carbonation to boot. Did not write a rating.

It's kinda hard to write in my book peacefully in a bar that is STUFF TO THE GILLS with people on a Saturday night. We couldn't even find a place to sit. So you'll have to excuse the crappy diary entries. Lagunitas has a lot of love in the craft beer community and I keep hearing about it on the old Sunday Session shows. I look forward to trying more of them in the future.

As a side note, the wife and I are thinking of making our 2009 vacation a beer tour of Belgium, with a quick stop in Munich for Oktoberfest. I've found quite a few tours that take you all over the place and into several breweries in the span of 8-9 days. We haven't decided yet, but what is really wild is the bar Delirium Cafe in Brussels. I thought I was doing well with beer bars with massive selections. The Flying Saucer in Houston clocks in with say 250 beers between bottles and taps. I've been to Taco Mac with what I think was 130 beer. The beer bars in Fells Point, Baltimore have over a hundred. These chumps in Brussels have a bar with over 2000 beer. Two-Zero-Zero-Zero. Unbelievable. I think there are over 1000 different beers from Belgium alone. I can see the scenario. I walk into Delirium Cafe, I nod at the bartender as I hear is the proper custom in Belgium, I take a look at the cooler on the back wall and the number of taps, and I just fall the fhck out. Next thing I know I'll be waking up in a hospital with a guy talking Flemish to me.