UCLA at UH Live Blog and Beer

So it's time again and it's my weekend to watch the baby. Which means that I have to depend on my chump friends to set something up to watch the UH game. Which means I am at HOME with the baby watching the game by myself. I figured that when I can, I may as well combine my football watching and beer blogging. I thought about reviewing a beer from the home city (or state) of each school for my favorite schools. Since I managed to pick up a potbelly and I just bought some expensive slimming french cuff shirts, I'm back on Weightwatchers. Which means unless I hit Memorial Park hard, I can only have a couple beers a day. So I'll just review the beer of the team in the lead at halftime and at the end of the game.

I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out of Cigar City for FAMU and I think I have enough Sweetwater and Terrapin for Georgia Tech. But here we go.

UCLA (Sierra Nevada) vs Houston (Saint Arnold)
UH gets the ball first and basically throws and runs all over the field like they have diarrehea. Get the BIG touchdown. While I spoon in a couple scoops of rice in my mouth (no homo), UCLA is already punting. UCLA 0, UH 7

2:00 left in 1st Quarter. Hell, U of H is running all over these boys. They make it to the red zone and then stall out of an offsides penalty. Houston's field is good and they have now run 27 plays to UCLA's 3. Damn shame. Funny how they are showing the quarterbacks drafted recently who are Kennum's age. Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, and Matthew Stafford. For me that's 2 busts and a possible, like a bad game of blackjack. Bruins 0, Cougars 10.

14:21 left in the 2nd Quarter. And the Bruins are on the board. After getting an old fashioned mashin in the first quarter, UCLA brings the pain offensively and blasts out with some huge passes to get the touchdown. UCLA 7, UH 10.

12:39 left in the 2nd Quarter. UH stalls out like an old El Camino. UCLA 7, UH 10

Down goes Prince. Down goes Prince!

9:45 left in the 2nd quarter The new QB for UCLA screws it up and UH gets the ball back. UH's defense actually holds but an unsportsmanlike conduct screws it up. Anyway, UH is driving. Same score.

TOUCHDOWN COOGS. These boys are slicing and dicing through UCLA's defense. Looking like it may be a Saint Arnold time at half time. Thinking I'll clear out the cellar with some Winter Seasonal beers. 7:18 Second Quarter. Yookla 7, Houston 17.

The Surfers are not going away. UCLA gets the ball and looks very classy making their way to the end zone. The WR, Fauria, for UCLA is looking like he is going to wreck shop all day. Old boy transferred from Notre Dame, good idea looking at how the Irish are playing against USF. Things are getting a little bit tight now. UCLA 14, UH 17, 2:50 left in the Second Quarter.

TOUCHDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNN! UH just ran the ball right down the Bruin's throughts. This is just an amazing run by Michael Hayes. He must have Juggernauted his way through the entire UCLA Defense, Offsense, Chemistry Department, and Marching Band. Unbelieaveable!!! The Bars 14, Coogs 24.

Halftime in the UCLA/UH game. This is a great game so far as I wait on the FAMU game to start. Houston's offsnse is looking VERY VERY SHARP AND HERE'S ANOTHER TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can tell that I start typing this a pinch early. Oh MY MY MY MY MY MY MY. I'm thinking someone is going to the ROSE BOWL! At halftime the score is UCLA 14, UH 31. And it's not even in HD.

Saint Arnold Winter Stout
"I'll take you shopping out of season, buy you summer clothes in the fall" Nose has a great chocolate, caramel and cherry. I think this one is a couple years old. The deep velvety brown beer has a nice soft dark cherry/malt flavor, followed up with some great light bitterness in the aftertaste. This beer seems to have aged nicely. I'm getting a more nutty flavor (no homo) as it warms up, something like almonds. Kinda like that poison in those Robert Ludlum novels. Hopefully I won't keel over here. If I do, it would be worth it. I'll go ahead and rate the aged Winter Stout at 4 Stars out of Five. Awesome.

Ok, I'm going to see if I can get this Rattler Vision working...

8:28 into the 3rd Quarter and UCLA has garnered a hard fought touchdown. I still haven't finished my beer yet, and I cannot get Rattlervision to work just yet either. Dammit UCLA 21, UH 31.

Sorry, I've been dealing with this online streaming crap. Anyway UCLA just scored and they are down now 34 to 38 after the botched extra point. Butts are geting tight as UCLA is looking for the onside kick with only 1:18 minutes left in the game. While we're at it, I planned on doing the same beer review thing with FAMU taking on Fort Valley State, but I just now got a local radio station online radio as opposed to a streaming service FROM THE SCHOOL THAT I PAID FOR, which is not working. And it turns out FAMU is losing, looks like I may be chugging a bomber of Sweetwater Dank Tank Barleywine if that game doesn't work out.

Anyway UH got the onside kick, so they are kneeling er down in VICTORY FORMATION. HOUSTON WIN HOUSTON WIN HOUSTON WIN. Let's wrap it up with another Saint Arnold Seasonal.

Saint Arnold Spring Bock
The hue is a nice dark copper wiht a sustaining offwhite head. The nose has that steely malt that we like and the taste is much the same. The beer has softened up a bit since I first bought it earlier this year. Nice sweet cookie caramel malt, low hops, and just very well done. Again out of season beering here, but this one has held up pretty well. 4 stars.

Thanks all. I'm onward for the FAMU game. We're up nearly 21-12 over Fort Valley, so it looks like Cigar city is the ticket.

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.

Saint Arnold Altared Amber

Here at Pub Hub out here in Katy. Feeling good that I didn't have to drag so much ass to the inner loop for this beer. For those not in Houston, the Movable yeast series is a series of beer from Saint Arnold where they take their regular line-up of beers with the same malt and hops bill, but with different yeast. The first one I found OK, the Lawnmower with a German Hef yeast.

Beer log: Right now

Saint Arnold Amber

Nice toasty amber ale flavor. The aroma is a touch more metallic than I remember. High carbo out of the bottle, good and tingly. Light moderate hop aftertaste. Has a nice amber color to it, maybe some chill haze but that could be from just bottle storage and whatnot. I always like that English Muffin thing and whatnot.

Saint Arnold Altared Amber

Finally. Ooh that's a nice clear amber color (on draft) with a strong belgian clove and banana nose. Taste is rather belgiany. The American hops with the belgian ester yeast flavor kinda reminds me of those American-Belgo IPA I like so much, just toned down a little bit. Very tasty. Has a nice mixture with the harsh hops and whatnot that sits well on some sips and not so well on others. The body is a touch smoother and the carbo is a little less choppy, but of course that could be attributed to the difference b/t draft and bottle. I lose some of the English muffin and malt character that I get with the unaltered amber until the beer warms up. I would consider the regular Amber of this one if I had to choose which one they continued to keep in rotation.

I'll need to grab a bottle somewhere, but it seems like a stronger version of (dare I say it) Stella Artois. Getting a sampler of Stella right now...

Stella Artois
Crystal clear and simple. Oh no, not even close. Tastes like the Budweiser Movable Yeast series. I can see the belgo influence in Stella, but it won't work. Forget I mentioned it.

Overall impression: I still find it amazing that yeast has THAT much affect on a beer. If someone told me they put some clove in this beer, I would have believed it. 3 Stars for both the regular and altared ambers, though I prefer the regular amber. Keep 'em coming baby.

Weedwacker BABY!!

So I cut out fo work smackdab at quitting time and make a B-Line for downtown to the Saucer for some Weedwacker . As I set up shop at the kiosk to get my beer receipts, I find out that the Saucer does NOT have the Lawnmower beer, so I cannot do a side-by-side tasting of the Kolsch and Bavarian Hefe (not Belg Wit), with the same ingredients but different yeast strains.

Not to worry, I start out sitting outside with some Saint Arnold Texas Wheat, which never really did it for me, and built up to the moment of truth with some Harpoon UFO White. The Saucer is pack led and it's like New Year's Eve in there. Everyone is awaiting 6PM when they tap the keg of Weedwacker, a rare specialty beer from Saint Arnold. I'm somewhat in the wrong as I'm hogging an entire picnic table outside though I'm just sitting by myself and chatting it up with one of my boys from FAMU.

A couple looks all lost and I tell them to sit the hell down with me. Turns out the dude is a Sport Jiu Jitsu fighter (awesome) and his lady friend is a white woman who wishes she were half black (even better). I kept telling her the money is not as good, but whatever. The Weedwacker shows up in a cloudy straw color with a bubbly white head. Much more bubbly than your normal Belgian, much closer to a German Hefe (b/c it IS a Hefe).

I like how the nose on this has the veggie-lagerness of a kolsch (Lawnmower) and the estery-banana of the yeast (Weedwacker). The taste is much the same. I get the crisp lageriness of the kolsch with that banana weisse flavor throughout. Low to moderate hops. It honestly tastes like a combination of the two beers. How about THAT! The body of the beer is such that I would have sworn they put some wheat in that son of a gun, but not quite. (Turns out there is like 50% wheat, like the Texas Wheat. I'm getting better at my beer sampling, worse at Research). Although I enjoy both styles, especially when sitting outside in 99 deg weather, I think I would honestly prefer one or the other. Give me the full on kolsch with that cream ale-lager thing, or go all out with the wiesse. 3 Stars.

Countdown to Weedwacker

Saint Arnold is about ready to release the first of it's Movable Yeast beers on tap. The wife and I will probably be taking the baby with us to Petrol Station for dinner on Monday. But here's a great article on 29-25 listing the bars that will have it available.

"Proving that you can never learn enough about beer, Saint Arnold soon plans to let you do a little taste-test of Weedwacker - the first in its limited-edition Movable Yeast series. Weedwacker, best-seller Saint Arnold Fancy Lawnmower wort fermented with a Bavarian hefeweizen yeast, is being served side by side with the original Lawnmower so folks can understand the difference yeast makes in the taste of a beer."

The only risk is that we wouldn't be getting to a bar until like 7PM, and by then it could run out at most bars in the city. We'll have to see.

The Question we have to ask ourselves...

... is Saint Arnold Spring Bock one of the best bocks out there. I picked up another sixer at HEB today. Automatically puts it at 4 star. And I just can't stop drinking it. Dare I say a 5 Star beer for Saint Arnold that is not Divine Reserve?

The Southern Tier Boys Never Dissappoint

Reddish orange in color with an orangish creamy head. Sweet caramel malt and piney hops on the nose. Oh I needed that. We're talking a strong caramel and raisiny malt just slightly overbalanced on the malt, but the hops make an appearance in the back of the palette. It's more of a barley wine than an Imperial IPA, but who the hell buys barley wine. 4 Stars for the Southern Tier Unearthly IPA.

So it turns out my birthday is this Saturday, my 30th birthday. And I must getting simpler as I get older. All my other birthdays I tried to invite everyone I've ever known for a cookout, beer, and maybe some UFC. Now I may still do all that, but Don Taylor is perfectly happy smoking cigars and drinking high quality beer with some of the boys at Downing Street at night with 18 holes of golf that morning. Otherwise, I'm just going to renovate my wardrobe a JA Bank and leave it alone. Must be old age.

As an added bonus to my birthday week, I made it to the AHA Rally at St. Arnold's Newery just north of downtown Houston last Sunday. Oh so sweet. This place was very spacious, with a drinking room that was lightly but tastefully decked out in brick and cream walls. Has the space to be a killer beer hall. The kettles provided the perfect backdrop. Brock Wagner himself did a one room tour. I bought a couple SA glasses which I used to drink the Spring Bock. I walked around waiting for someone to start speaking. But there was no agenda at all. I just chatted it up with the Foam Ranger boys and the Defalco's guys, as well as some other beer enthusiasts. And you could drink all the beer you wanted until 3PM. Now THAT'S A DAMN POLITICAL RALLY. You pay your money to join, then you drink beer as much beer as you can stomach until they kick you out. If the Tea Parties had this one, I would be right up there with Sarah Palin.

Had to cancel my trip to Toronto (sad face) as the job is more important and my projects come to a head right when I would be on my 5th pint at Volo. So I sent the email today to back out. (crying face). To make things better, I've resolved to drink Imperial IPA for the rest of this week, as I have a LOT of it and the wife doesn't like it. So that's a bomber a night all to myself. Should be fun. Thursday night we'll hit the Saucer and probably Downing Street. If I can get box seats to the rodeo, I'll check that out on Friday night. Saturday and Sunday I'll just visit some friends and relax.

St Arnold Brewing in the Newery Today

Word on the street is that Houston's own Saint Arnold's Brewing will start brewing in their new brewery (newery) today.

I hope to SWIMMING Saint Arnold Amber and Elissa IPA in a few months. And come next winter, just inject the Winter Stout in my veins.

Saint Arnod's New Brewery

So proud of S-A. Great beer and getting better. Sure wish I could have an S-A Amber right now. Well on their way to being the biggest Texas brewery. Spoetzl (Shiner beer) better watch out. Those Rice Owls are a comin'.