Lips of Faith Dunkel Weiss

New Belgium Lips of Faith Dunkel Weiss
Beer Log: Right now
State: Feeling good, eating spicy pork chop and green beans

Pours a deep brown with the head falling over itself like a Guiness. Good mix of sweet caramel malt and the banana esters. Head is sticky and lacy, light tan. Also that's some good chop. This one has a nice maple syrup and steely malt thing going on as it warms up. I like how smooth is and whatnot. no homo. Something about Dunkel Weisses just kinda rub me the wrong way (nullus), and I never got over it. After Divine Reserve 7, everything else is blah. I like the light banana and high carbo of the German Wiesse, or the caramel crisp of a dunkel lager. Just can't put them together and put up an elite beer. Maybe someone will prove me wrong. Low 3 stars.

Oui Oui Misseur

Made it in late last from another trip offshore trying to get that oil, the kind that's still in the ground.

Beer Log: Right Now
State: Just got back from Massage Envy and finished off a turkey sandwich, eating some "Belgian Fries"

Le Fleur Misseur by New Belgium
There is a golden haze to this beer with a decent white head. The nose is rather sour with a sugar sweetness to it. Maybe some fruit. Tasting the beer I get a gritty sourness, I imagine this is that "horse blanket" taste people talk about with sour beers. High carbonation and a harsh vegetal/bret thing going on. One of those "purposefully infected" beers. There's a good hop presence as well. Overall I'm still working on acquiring this taste. It's great for cutting through the flavors of the fries with the Sweet Baby Ray's sauce. Maybe there's some honey in there like the website says, put I'm not getting it. No rating.

Fantasy Football and New Belgium Frambozen

I made the playoffs in one of my leagues, and I'm sitting here with 3 players left: Kurt Warner, Crabtree, and Weaver, RB for Philly. My boy Alan has Antonio Gates playing right now and after that only the Cardinals defense. I'm just holding my breath all game while watching the Dallas-San Diego game. I win this I go to our leagues final. Right now I'm up by 5. Just need Gates to have a quiet day and it's pretty much wrapped up.

I went ahead and ate the tickets to the Texans game today. Just too depressed to dragass all the way out to the stadium, especially when I had to keep the baby with me. And wouldn't you know it the Texans blowout the Seahawks. Actually had some measure of aggression. Oh well.

New Belgium Frambozen
Picked this up the other day at the massive Specs at Jones and 290. I'm drinking it in my champagne flute although the beers says it's a raspberry brown ale, not some sort of super Belgium bottle conditioned beer. Nose is malty, toasty, and strong raspberry. Brownish-Ruby colored beer has actually has a nice blend of brown ale and raspberry. Low carbo, nice raspberry all the way through, but backed up by some earthy malty brown ale character. I prefer this much more than the pureblood framboise. High 3 Star. Man this stuff is just plain awesome. I'm drinking it down big time. New Belgium is coming out with hit after hit like Master P in the late 90s.

Live Blogging: The Mighty Arrow

Beer Log: February 20, 2009

State: Chillin, a little hungry, watching UFC Wired.

New Belgium has some new stuff in Houston, can't wait.

Might Arrow

Clear amber color with a great strong head. I poured it in my 22oz Otter Creek glass, so I did it vigorously for a strong head. Nose is malty and rather citrusy that reminds me of Saaz hops. Makes me think of their 2 deg Below winter seasonal.

Taste is much more malty and bready, with a light hop touch. Good session beer that if someone told me was an ESB, I'd believe them. Low carbo and great drinkability. Has a nice quality to it that could make anyone want to drink more. The citrusy nose is rather deceiving. There MAY be a touch of citrus hops on the back of the tongue to round it out. Very nice. 3 Star.

The bottle says it's a Pale Ale with some Cascade and Golden hops. Nice man. Now that I read it, I can get a touch of that Cascade bitterness lurking in the background. Nice to see someone did not OD on the Cascade.

Feeling 2 Degrees Below

Clearing out the old notebook with some winter warmers.

Beer Log: 11/11/08
State: Eating Rosemary Herb Potatoes, asparagus, and ribeye, the wife was cookin that night

New Belgium 2 Degrees Below
Another one from the New Belgians. Smells like flowers and biting citrus. I did not expect that. Light copper color with a strong tan head. The taste is a nice hops but sanz bite. It has some of that sugar sweetness as well. It's a very clear tasting beer, if that makes any sense. It goes down so smooth its ridiculous. A light body beer that is excellent.

What's the deal man? I see "winter seasonal" and I'm thinking this will be a beer more akin to brown ales and barleywines, with some cinnamon sticks and yuletide thrown in the there. But here you have something that kind of reminds me of Fat Tire. Don't forget the Sierra Nevada winter beer which is a lot like a pale ale. Interesting how the interpretations of the seasonal can manifest themselves from brewer to brewer.

Do you know the Gingerman?

A little more beering in Houston. A friend of mine and I called another happy hour for guys in the Oil & Gas industry. "The Oil and Gas Boys Happy Hour". Every time we have one of these, someone decides to bring his girl or something. We are thinking about changing the name to "The Oil and Gas Boys Happy Hour, Bring the Women". Anyway, we always do this at a beer bar somewhere, and this time it was Gingerman.

This a nice pubby beer bar and ranks in the Top 3 in the beer bars of Houston, along with the Flying Saucer. As many pints that I've knocked back at the Sauce, I could see myself spending more time at Gingerman. It's smaller, more intimate, and oodles of taps. They don't have the numbers of beers like Saucer, but they have a lot of different beers there I haven't even seen at the big Specs downtown. The bartender was a cool dude that knew his beer. We talked beer for quite some time, mostly discussing some Belgians and Real Ale. He even let me try a shot of a couple beers as well. When I do my Beer Bar rankings at the end of the year, I may have to put this at or near the top of my own list.

Date: November 5, 2008
State: Chillin, a little irritated, still fired up with the Obama win

The wife stuck me with the baby so she could play beach volleyball, so I got to my own happy hour 2 hours late. A lot of my friends had already left, but I many were still there. I decided to stick to the beer on the chalkboard without any particular style in mind...

New Belgium Giddy Up
The girl at the bar warned me that this has a small shot of espresso in it. I don't really drink coffee or espresso, but with all the coffee tasting beers I've had, why not. It smells and tastes of lemon and coffee, with a nice malt backbone to remind that this is a beer. This is very smooth with a dark amber color. Damn nice beer. I'm sticking this with a 3 star for now. Hella strong flavor. And I was awake the whole night.

Real Ale Dunkel Roggen
No clue what this style was. I see dunkel and I think dark. I see Roggen and I think conservative from California. This one is light orangish in color and smells of that Belgium Bret and fruitiness/banana. I did not see that one coming. And it seems that Real Ale pulls the old switcheroo, as the taste is way more bitter than I thought. It smooth with some Bret in taste near the back of the tongue. The mouthfeel is very interesting as well. 3-4Stars.

Real Ale would easily be the best brewery in Texas if it weren't for the Saint Arnold's Divine Reserves, both of which I put as 5 Star Beers. Then again, do I want to give SA credit for just brewing some ish that a homebrewer submitted. All they had to do was let the guy in the brewery to do his thing and slap it in a bottle and sell it for 3 times the normal six pack.

A lot of the guys were leaving at this point, but a couple of us were still up, so why not some Chimay I haven't had...

Chimay Cinq Cents Tripel
It has that bret smell again and the fruitiness again. I first notice the hops and alcohol, followed by the fruity maltiness. It is hoppy/bitter on the aftertaste. As it warms, the sweet/sour continues to come out. 3Star.

Almost Caught Up, Go Blonde

I like my beer like I like my women: blond that goes down quick.

July 16, 2008


State; Cooling down, taste of clams in my mouth
Actually I'm an Imperial IPA man, but I love that line. Yes, I made that one up myself.

I'm back at the Sauce, and I am at a loss as to which style to sample. I'm still pretty far from the 200 beers needed to get a plate on the wall, so I'm still drinking the beers on the Fire Sale. This means I'm going for the New Belgium seasonal, Springboard. The lady tells me that this is a blonde ale, so blonde ales it is for the night.

I had some crappy clams and pasta at an Italian place down the street, but whatever. We called a happy hour for a few of the guys, calling it the "Oil and Gas Boys" happy hour. Since our happy hour, the price of oil has gone down by about $23, so check us out man.

New Belgium Springboard
Big fan of the New Belgians. I drank a considerable amount of Fat Tire during football season last year. This one is a little cloudy and orange-yellow straw color. Smells a little estery like a wheat beer. High carbonation (like a wheat beer), but with a sudden pleasant sweetness with a dry finish. A little hard to get down though. The sweetness is fruity, yet slightly malty and bready. Another taste and I say the fruit is like apple. It's seems more a wheat beer than a blond ale. With the bread, I say it's like one of those Apple Muffins you can get out of the vending machine. The head is white with some decent lace. A little bitter on the AT. The more I drink it, the more I can taste the Blonde Ale-ness coming out, as well as a touch of spice. Very nice beer, 3 stars.

Real Ale Fireman #4
Been looking forward to trying this one. She poured it in a tall wheat glass. Strong white head, straw clear color. Head is lacy too. Not much of a smell. Bready taste with med-low carbonation. Low hops with a very quick finish, no real aftertaste. A little buttery the more I get into it with some of that emptiness. I love the quick finish however. I'm noticing some spice as I get more used to it, but not as bready. 3 stars.

Coopers Sparkling Ale
I actually used a Coopers kit for my first homebrew, which I need to formally review some time. The can said "Lager" though the instructions had it ferment at around 70 degrees. This one was slightly cloudy with a straw color. White low head. Good basic yet sudden maltiness, then a vegetal flavor like the homebrew "lager" I brewed. The second draught is a little empty, then vegetal. A little wet and rough on the aftertaste. I wrote down "worst of the night". 2 stars.

For clarification, when I say "empty" I'm talking almost watery or just plain liquid. In other words, I not getting any flavor one way or the other, kinda of like the light beers.

These beers are pretty good, and I do enjoy a good blonde ale in the right condition. I'll say the Springboard was the best, followed by Fireman and then Coopers rounding out the rear. Good experience overall and the happy hour was pretty fun as well.