religion sucketh

One of the perks of working at a liquor store is getting to try new products. Usually we have tastings on site, but last week I was sent to Marsala Beverage in Monroe to try some new beers from Saint Arnold Brewing Company. Founded in 1994, Saint Arnold claims to be Texas’ oldest craft brewery. For those wondering how they can make that claim when Spoetzl Brewery (Shiner) is over 100 years old, the term “craft brewery” is relative. The American Brewers Association defines a American craft brewery as “small, independent and traditional”, and gives a production size of less than 6,000,000 barrels per year – all of which Spoetzl/Shiner falls under. But, because Shiner was around long before the terms “craft beer”, “craft brewery” and “microbrewery” were coined, many overlook them when discussing craft beers, especially in Texas, where Shiner beers are as common as Bud and Miller products.

I digress; Saint Arnold is named for the patron saint of Belgian beer and had six beers available to try: Amber Ale, Brown Ale, Weedwacker, Fancy Lawnmower, Elissa IPA and Santo. All the beers were available in bottles, with Santo also available on tap. Obviously, the Amber Ale and Brown Ale are just that – amber ale and brown ale. The Amber Ale was similar to Shiner Bock, but with a little more malty sweetness. The Brown Ale was even sweeter, but still light.

Fancy Lawnmower is a German-style Kölsch, which I found to be very light and crisp, almost watery. There was a bit of sweetness from the malt and a bit of citrus from the hops, but not enough to bring any bitterness. If I owned a bar, this is what I would serve to customers looking for something similar to a classic, American, light lager, as those beers are actually based upon this style. This would make a great introduction to craft beer for those who have never ventured beyond Bud Light or Miller Lite.

Weedwacker is supposed to be the same recipe as Fancy Lawnmower, except it uses Bavarian hefeweizen yeast instead of Kölsch yeast. While also very crisp and light, it was much more flavorful than Fancy Lawnmower, with notes of clove and banana. Additionally, it didn’t taste nearly as watered-down as Fancy Lawnmower. While it is brewed year-round, Weedwacker would make a great Summer session beer.

It was about the time I got to Elissa IPA that our Marsala rep pointed something out to me that I had noticed, but hadn’t really thought about: Saint Arnold’s beers, while flavorful and enjoyable, are a bit lighter than traditional beers in the same categories. The Elissa IPA is a perfect example – is it hoppy and bitter? Yes. But is it as hoppy and bitter as most other IPA’s? Not in my opinion. It came across more as a pale ale, than an India Pale Ale.

Last, but not least, is Santo. This was actually the first Saint Arnold beer I tried, and is still my favorite. Santo is brewed using a Kölsch recipe with the addition of Munich and black malts. It has all the flavor of a good porter or stout with the body of a much lighter style, like Kölsch or hefeweizen. One of the few dark session beers I’ve found and enjoyed.

So, after leaving Marsala, on the recommendation of our Marsala rep I headed over to Cotton, located on the corner of the Endom Bridge in Monroe. Talk about bourbon heaven! According to the staff, they have over 70 different bourbons available, in addition to the usual bar staples. I was trying to keep my tab under $100, so I limited myself to Michter’s 10 year old, George T. Stagg and Pappy Van Winkle 20 year old, but there are several more I will be trying in the future. Michter’s is a single barrel, small batch bourbon, and is very flavorful, with notes of toffee, vanilla and caramel, with a bit of spice to balance the flavors. It comes in at 94.4% alcohol, so it is very easy to drink, even for those used to more pedestrian selections. George T. Stagg is an uncut and unfiltered bourbon, coming in between 140-145 proof. You can tell by the photo below that this stuff is strong. The nose is very boozy, but the taste is extremely deceptive. I’ve had 100 proof bourbons that were hotter than this. Flavor-wise, Stagg is all over the place; sweet and spicy, with notes of vanilla, honey, coffee, leather and tobacco. Finally, I tried the Pappy Van Winkle 20 year aged bourbon. This is a bourbon for bourbon lovers. While Cotton does keep the 23 year Pappy in stock, I’ve been hearing for awhile that the 20 year is actually better. At half the price for a dram, I figured I can try the 23 later. The 20 was extremely smooth, no doubt from being a wheated bourbon and spending so much time in a barrel. Vanilla, caramel and toffee were abundant, but didn’t trample over each other or overwhelm the drink itself. While I’ve long said Booker’s True Barrel Bourbon is my favorite, if I’ve got the money to spend, Pappy 20 is my new favorite.

It’s been awhile since I posted a beer review, so I figured I’d give a quick update on the beer wall and a rundown of a couple beers I’ve tried since my last review. We began in October with 54 different beers, and the beer wall has proven to be so popular we’ve expanded to 80 different beers, all while weeding out the bad ones. Here’s a few I’ve tried recently, with some quick notes:

• Mikkeller Black Hole – Bourbon Barrel-Aged: this is a stout brewed with coffee, honey and vanilla, and then aged in bourbon barrels. Black Hole is resembles an imperial stout in appearance, being jet black and extremely viscous. There is a lot of bourbon in the nose, but not so much the taste. Tastewise, this is a typical (albeit, high octane) coffee stout. A lot of coffee and roasted malt, and not very boozy considering it is 13.1% ABV. Definitely worth trying, but at it’s price point it won’t be a regular buy for me.
• Hel & Verdoemenis, by De Molen: this is a Belgian-style Imperial Stout. Black and oily, with a lot of roasted malt in the taste, and a hint of hops (unusual for a stout). Not as sweet as De Molen’s Heaven & Hell, which is an American-style Imperial Stout, but I like sweet, so I prefer Heaven & Hell.
• Southern Star Bombshell Blonde: this is an American Blonde Ale, and a good one at that. I’ve noticed that blonde ales can be hit or miss, as they’re pretty easy to screw up. Southern Star has a great recipe here – not too sweet, not too bitter, just the right balance to create a smooth, easy-drinking beer that packs a lot of flavor. Very bready, with hints of banana and brown sugar.
• Yeastie Boys Digital IPA: this is an IPA from New Zealand. Very hop-forward, but once you get past the initial taste, this is a well-balanced beer. Not my favorite IPA, but it’s price point makes it more accessible than Mikkeller’s Green Gold (which is currently my favorite IPA).

In case you’re wondering what happened to the beer reviews, I’m back with three today; Mikkeller Simcoe Single Hop IPA, De Molen Heaven & Hell and Weihestephaner Hefeweissbier.

Up first is Mikkeller’s Simcoe Single Hop IPA. As it’s name implies, this is an India Pale Ale made from one hop variety, as opposed to a blend of hop varieties. Simcoe pours a cloudy amber, with plenty of sediment (this is an unfiltered beer after all), and has a slight underwhelming piney aroma. The citrus and pine notes are more present in the taste, but still not overwhelming, making this a very palatable IPA. Sitting behind the citrus and pine is a bit of fruitiness, maybe peach. Overall, Simcoe wasn’t as hoppy as I was expecting, considering it is an IPA, but that’s what happens with a single hop IPA – you get to taste each individual hop expression; it’s as if you’re seeing each piece of the puzzle standing alone.

Next is Heaven & Hell, from Brouwerij de Molen. This is an Imperial Stout which pours nearly black with a voluminous brown head that takes several minutes to dissipate enough for the beer to even be drinkable. Heaven & Hell smells very sweet and malty, with hints of vanilla, molasses, coffee and chocolate. The taste is sweet, but not as sweet as the nose implies, with notes of molasses before finishing with a coffee-like bitterness. While it is somewhat thick and oily, Heaven & Hell is still a very easy-drinking beer and is not boozy at all, which is surprising considering it is 10.2% ABV. Personally speaking, I tend to favor dark beers (especially porters and stouts), so this is something I’ll be buying more often, even though it is a bit pricey.

Finally, today’s third review is of Weihenstephaner’s Hefeweissbier, an unfiltered wheat beer. If you’ve seen any Samuel Adams commercials lately, you’ve probably noticed the guys over at the Boston Beer Co. collaborated with Weihenstephaner to create Infinium, a champagne style beer. Being the world’s oldest still-active brewery (1040 AD), I was expecting nothing less than excellence from Weihenstephaner. Additionally, I love a good wheat beer, and hefeweizen is the godfather of wheat beer. Let us not forget, my last review was of Erdinger Hefe-Weizen, so it’ll be nice to see how Weihenstephaner compares. The beer pours a cloudy golden hue with a thick, frothy head which resembles steamed milk. The nose is citrusy, with notes of hops and malted grain. The beer is very smooth and easy to drink with more citrus and even a bit of banana – but not a fake, candy-like banana. It actually tastes a bit like a real banana. The finish is very smooth, with a hint of clove. Simply put – Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier is the best wheat beer I’ve ever had.

It’s been awhile since my last beer review, so here we go again. Up today is Erdinger Hefe-Weizen, a traditional German hefeweizen. Starting off with the pour, the beer a clear, golden hue with a light head that fades quickly. There is a nice lacing which sticks throughout the drink and a light aroma of grain and hops. The taste starts out very crisp and carbonated, almost citrusy, with an unexpected light maltiness which resembles a light-tasting cereal, like Cheerios.

To sum it up, Erdinger Hefe-Weizen is a classic hefeweizen. As such, it isn’t mind-blowing, but it isn’t supposed to be. Hefeweizens are so great because they don’t try to impress you with overindulgent flavors or insanely high alcohol content. They’re content being the beer you drink with dinner or while grilling. In other words, they’re perfect session beers – flavorful and refreshing, but not so intense it takes you an hour to drink one.

I’ve always had the opinion that if you only review products you like, you’re not really providing reviews, but endorsements. With that in mind, anytime I purchase a product with the intention of reviewing it, I try to follow through, whether or not I actually like the product. Since we set up our Beer of the World section at work, I’ve only encountered three beers that left me unimpressed. The first was Wasatch Pumpkin Ale – it tasted as if someone took canned pumpkin flesh and put it in a blender with Bud Light. Think pumpkin pie, but without the spices that make it so delicious. Next was Hofblues – it’s not that it’s a bad beer, it’s just that it’s mediocre, and for the price of two bottles, I can get a six pack of Guinness, which offers so much more flavor. So today we come to the third – Wasatch Polygamy Porter.

The first thing you will notice about Polygamy Porter is the label design. I’ve got to hand it to Wasatch – their labels are always eye-catching and intriguing. In the end, the label is the only thing this beer has going for it. This being a porter, I was expecting a substantial head when poured; instead, all I got was the sound of carbonation. The beer pours a dark ruby shade, reminiscent of cola, with nearly no head. It smells lightly of roasted malt, and tastes about the same – very light, drinkable and bland. Kind of reminds me of late night Waffle House coffee – when the coffee in the pot has been sitting on a hot plate for hours, cooking and burning until someone finally orders it, but it’s so watered-down the burnt taste actually lends some flavor to the coffee. Now that I think about it, Polygamy Porter kind of looks like Waffle House coffee. Except I don’t think any amount of sugar or cream can rescue this brew. Sadly, even though it comes from a legitimate microbrewery, Polygamy Porter has more in common with Bud Light than with actual beer.

Two beers up this time, both from Belgian brewery St. Feuillien.

First up is their Saison, a traditional farmhouse ale, which has won several awards for St. Feuillien, including World’s Best Saison Ale in 2009 & 2010, bronze medal at the 2011 Australian Beer Awards and silver medal at the 2011 U.S. Open Beer Championship.  This is the first farmhouse ale I’ve had, so I really don’t have anything to compare it to. Saison is bottle conditioned and unfiltered, which allows it to continue fermenting in the bottle and adds to it’s flavor. When poured, the beer is a golden amber and produces a moderate head, which dissipates quickly. Saison smells light and floral, with a crisp, lightly hoppy taste that provides an earthy aftertaste. Overall, it’s a pretty good beer and would make a great session beer. As I said before, this was my first farmhouse ale, so I would like to compare it to another, but aside from that, it is something I would recommend.

Next up is St. Feuillien’s Tripel. The beer pours a light gold, with a substantial head and smells floral, with a hint of yeast. The taste is very crisp, much like St. Feuillien’s Saison, but much more complex, with notes of nutmeg and banana. One thing that surprised me is the Tripel doesn’t overwhelm me with flavors the way other tripels have; it maintains all the complexity of flavor tripels are known for, without literally punching me in the face. Like St. Feuillien’s Saison, the Tripel is bottle conditioned, leaving all the flavor and “good stuff” inside. Out of the various tripels I’ve had, this might be my new favorite.

Samichlaus has been one of our bestsellers since opening the beer wall a month ago, so I decided it was about time I tried a bottle. From Austrian brewery Schloss Eggenberg, Samichlaus (“Santa Claus” in Swiss-German) is brewed once a year on December 6 (St. Nicholas’ Day) and then matured for over 10 months before being bottled, making it one of the rarest beers in the world. While technically classified as a lager, Samichlaus is better described as a barleywine, seeing as how it comes in at 14% ABV, making it the second-strongest beer in my store (Bommen & Granaten comes in at 15.2%). Samichlaus pours a translucent amber-orange, with no head and very little lacing. Once settled, it resembles a fine whiskey in color. There was a decent bit of carbonation in the brew, as the pour sounded similar to soda when poured, and there are still carbonation bubbles rising intermittently from the bottom of my glass, even halfway through drinking the beer! The smell is rather light, sweet, malted grain, with a hint of alcohol – not nearly as boozy I was expecting for a beer that is 14% ABV. The taste is also sweet, but not as thick as other high alcohol beers I’ve tried, and again, not nearly as boozy as I was expecting. The alcohol is there, but it is masked by flavors of vanilla, toffee and caramel. I can see why this is such a popular beer at work. It’s certainly not a session beer, and maybe not even an everyday beer (for me), but sitting around a campfire with friends, when the weather is a bit chillier, Samichlaus would make a great beer to have and to share.

Next up in my reviews is Mikkeller’s I Beat yoU Imperial India Pale Ale. I’ve previously reviewed Mikkeller’s Green Gold IPA and was very impressed; after having only two bottles, Green Gold is in my top 10 beers – I would even go so far to say it is currently my favorite IPA. However, after reading Mikkeller’s official description for I Beat yoU, I was actually a wee bit intimidated. From the Mikkeller website:

I Beat yoU is a really hoppy IPA. It is brewed at BrewDog and the instruction for the Scotsmen was clear: we need shitloads of hops in this one! So be it. This is a hop bomb. Lots of bitter and aroma hops and alcohol and just a little bit of sweetness – just enough to provide response to the hops.

That being said, I Beat yoU has six different hops in it’s recipe: Herkules, Centennial, Warrior, Amarillo, Simcoe and Columbus. I guess that’s why it’s described as a “hop bomb”. It is, after all, a Imperial IPA. Anyways, onto the beer! I Beat yoU pour a deep golden color which is reminiscent of a good draft apple cider. The smell is very complex, yet not overwhelming. There are notes of citrusy fruits, floral bouquets, pine and alcohol. The taste is just as complex. The beer is is thick, almost like a watered down syrup (think Southern Comfort). The hops dominate the taste up front, with flavors of orange, grapefruit and mango. The malt comes in next, adding a sweetness that helps offset the intensity of the hops, which return in the finish with a clean, crisp bitterness. Overall, this is a very big beer, but as intense as the flavors are, they reel themselves in just short of overwhelming, allowing this to be a very enjoyable beer. While this is not a session beer, this is something I will be buying more of in the future.