Revolver Brewing Blood and Honey

Finding the right beer for the moment or meal can sometimes be a well-executed plan, or can come together as if by divine inspiration. While I would love to give credit to myself or a craft beer deity, chance likely had more to do with the combination of Revolver Brewing’s Blood and Honey with a late breakfast (that I refuse to call brunch.) As I enjoyed a mélange of sausage, egg, cheese, and salsa, nestled in a tortilla on my mid-week day off, I thirsted for fermentables, and rummaged my decimated beer stores for a suitable ale. Hiding behind a carton of soy milk sat a lone bottle of the first brew bottled by the Granbury, TX  brewery, once lost, but not forgotten.

The beer pours out a light straw hued color, cloudy and bursting with carbonation. A resilient, puffy, white head forms, adhering to the side of the pint with each tip of the vessel.

The essence of the aroma stands true to the ingredients of the brew. Sweet tones of honey, floral citrus, and malt are prominent, and are augmented with clove, and a slight spiciness.

When consumed, the ale imparts a light bodied, full flavored sweetness ranging from honey to a deeper brown sugar, while a refreshing tartness and bitterness added by hops and citrus zest balances the profile. On its own, the beer is really good, but the savoryness of the eggs, cheese, and sausage accentuated a wonderful mimosa like essence of this beer.

The closest beer I’ve had to this ale is Shiner’s Ruby Redbird. While it has its fans, I have to say that the execution of a unique citrus element in the brewing of the beer does not strike better  a balance, and isn’t nearly as enjoyable as Revolver’s Blood and Honey. 

Ranger Creek’s Mesquite Smoked Porter

Well it’s Tuesday, and being the predictable, domesticated man boy that I am, I spent  my mid-week day off with some light cleaning, and heavy duty Sid Meyer’s Civilization playing, peppered with a craft beer or two. Today’s review will look at bottle of Ranger Creek’s Mesquite Smoked Porter that’s been sitting in a cool dark place for the last twelve months. 

 Decanting a beer shouldn’t be too hard for me, being a seasoned veteran of the sobriety wars, however this black as night ale created copious amount of cappuccino colored carbonation (alliteration, motherfuckers!) While in most beers I would give this a few jeers, this  ale is bottle conditioned, and I think helps  give a beer a better mouth feel than the standard forced carbonation most commercially produced beer goes through, craft or not. A somewhat more difficult pour is an easy trade-off for a better beer drinking experience.

On the nose there is a nice roasted coffee and dark chocolate essence accentuated with a slight leather and floral aspect. Now, I first had this beer at the first annual Dallas Winter Warmer (you might have seen me use the taster in prior reviews), where I felt the smokiness was just too much. Now I had it at the end of a brewfest, so suffice to say my taste buds and level of inebriation might have caused an overworked palate, or perhaps the year of bottle conditioning has tamed that tiger. But from this bottle, while the smokiness is still upfront, it seems more in balance with the dark roasted malt and subtle hoppiness. While I have had a few smoked porters, this one has a unique, but not unpleasant, light sourness.

 The finish of the Mesquite Smoked Porter is dry and leaves a somewhat floral, dark roasted coffee aftertaste. These flavors seem to concentrate the more this beer is consumed.

This beer would be perfect with a nice plate of chopped brisket, as its smokiness would obviously pair well with the smoked meat, while also standing up to the sweetness and tang of a good barbeque sauce. 

Without the glory that is barbeque, it still holds its own as an enjoyable ale. I would highly suggest this to the Texas craft beer consumer.   

Hops And Grain "The One They Call Zoe" Pale Lager

Days off for myself are usually distilled into a balance of work and play. I like to spend my mornings toiling with laundry, working on illustrations, and chipping away at whatever projects I might have had to put on the back burners. One crutch modern people have with doing most tasks though is that of electricity. 

While it is true humans have lived eons without the ease of electric living, currently we have built our domiciles on the assumption that it will always be available for us to consume. This hubris leads us into situations that once power is denied us, our ability to complete chores becomes quite limited. As inconvenient as this is, it does also allow an opportunity to sit back and reflect.

With a cold front moving across North Texas, I pulled a beer from the chill chest and walked out onto my apartment’s small patio. The beer du jour is a can of Austin’s Hops And Grain pale lager “The One They Call Zoe.”

Dispensing the ale from its aluminum vessel into my pint glass, a quite beautiful beer is exposed.  As the tangerine hued ale pours against the sides of the pint glass a plume of carbonation fervently builds. A perfect head forms, never appearing too weak or thin, and never builds too aggressively, building to at most a finger’s thickness, and during consumption never dissipating to anything less than half a finger.   It is a head with presence and fortitude, one that laces the sides of my glass with aggression.

As pretty a beer it is, its aroma is an enticing perfume for the craft beer drinker with a hop forward nose. Pine and grapefruit mingle atop a yeasty, bread-like foundation.

The first sip of Zoe, as best described by my wife, is like drinking a grapefruit soda. While offering a sweet body, a mildly bitter citrus and pine brightness and bitterness bring wonderful balance and ease of drinkability.

The brewer’s skill has created a “Goldilocks” ale, threading a needle of flavor. Sweet malts sing, but it’s not too sweet. Hops are unmistakable, but bitterness is restrained.  

The beer’s packaging describes itself as affable,  and given its insanely well balance flavor profile, and wet mouthfeel, it is undoubtedly so. This is a beer that can be enjoyed in quantity, on its own, or paired with just about any beer worthy meal.

Prost! 

Yazoo Brewing Co. Pale Ale and Hefeweizen

It’s been a minute since my last post, I would like to claim more family drama, but no, it has been a much less honorable diversion from my readers.

For some people, er, geeks, World of Warcraft is a monkey that refuses to be shaken. But, for myself, while WoW had its charm for a moment, my gamer addiction comes in the form of a number of versions of Sid Meier’s Civilization. Turn based war and diplomacy has diverted me long enough, so today I shut the game down, and got to work on a number of domestic chores that required my attention on this day off.

With a load of dishes and laundry started, glass and bits of trash swept up, and my desk organized to a more manageable chaos, I think it time to have lunch, drink a beer or two, and finish some graphic design work I am doing for a friend.  

Continuing with the Yazoo brews picked up in Nashville in 2012, I start with the brewery’s hefe called, appropriately, albeit uninspiring, Yazoo Hefeweizen Ale.

The beer, which won a gold medal in 2004’s Great American Beer Fest, pours out a nice tangerine color. Despite a semi aggressive decanting, the ale failed to develop much of a head and absolutely no lacing, despite oodles of active carbonation.

A nose of banana and clove matches the initial wave of flavor that hits the palate. These flavors are paired with a nice tart citrus aspect, however a buttery essence muddles all the parts of the beverage. This detraction on the palate paired with a lackluster mouthfeel make the beer decent, but far from an ale that I would recommend to the casual drinker. 

When it comes to craft breweries, as beer drinkers, where do we begin to gauge the craft worthiness of a brewery? For every beer enthusiast, a different answer exists. For me, the best yard stick is the everyday Pale Ale. No super fancy grain or hop bill, just a mid range, balanced ale is where, in my opinion, a brew master shows their stuff, and after a nice lunch, I am ready to be engaged in my beer drinking experience.  

Just slightly darker than the previously reviewed hefe, I pour myself a Yazoo Pale Ale. Exhibiting a moderate, but long lasting head, active carbonation, and visually tasty lacing, I am primed for the first taste.  

Still thirsting for the first drops, the nose is bready, and equal amounts malty with brown sugar notes, and floral hops. Giving into desire, and taking a large volume of the beverage, I am reminded, of all things, orange Tootsie Pops that I loved as a child. A slight orange citrus flavor dominates the experience, and is augmented by a molasses, maltose body. A “chewy” mouth feel, which is a good thing, helps make the consumption of this beer enjoyable.

Reflecting on this varietal from Yazoo Brewing Company, and on the four or five beers I have sampled, I see a small, regional brewery that is making some very drinkable ale, although not terribly remarkable beer. I don’t see finished work, but a good beginning.

Prost!

Hop Juice DIPA by Two Brothers Brewing Co.

I will not play hooky from work to drink beer. I will not play hooky and…. I will drink beer. I will take a mental health day from my job

.

The New Year is upon us, and this is beer numero dos from relieving my fridge of those ales and lagers acquired in aught twelve. The day has been, well, it has been here, and I am looking forward so much to my three day weekend, and not looking forward to my daily toil, that I have decided to call in and have some much needed Pope time.

Tonight I am popping the cap off a bottle of Hop Juice DIPA from Two Brothers Brewing Co. This bottle came all the way from Warrenville, Il, via Chicago, on a trip my brother took earlier this year.

A nice, burnt orange hue, the ale pours easily with just enough carbonation to form an excellent two finger head without much care. As the beer warms in the glass the head dissipated to a nickels thickness, but never losing a cloud like fluffiness that makes it a pretty sight to behold.

Aromas of floral, ripe grapefruit mingle with hints of bread and a slight malt sweetness.

It’s bottle boasting 100.1 IBUs, I was expecting a bitterness to knock my head off, but perhaps with age, or perhaps a more hop tempered tongue, the bitterness is just enough to make me happy, and not tearing my tongue apart or removing the enamel on my incisors.  Don’t get me wrong, there is a good deal of bitterness in this DIPA, but it finds a good place in front of a well rounded malt body that adds a nice brown sugar quality to the backend.

Also noted on the bottle is a respectable 9.9% ABV, but there is very little alcohol hotness to match.

This double India pale ale combines hop forwardness with a balanced malt body so well that this beer ranks among one of the best beers I’ve had enjoyed to date.  I cannot image a craft beer enthusiast who would find fault with this ale.  

Jailhouse Brewing Company’s Reprieve

Hello readers.

Today Pope, despite the whirlwind of drama that has consumed the past two weeks or so, has had just a wonderful day, filled with intoxicants, good company of my older brother, and a healthy amount of smoked beef brisket, also known as Texas Crack.

Well before I consumed the day away, the morning’s trip to Spec’s, a chain of wonderfully stocked liquor stores, provided an overwhelming abundance of options to dispense with the cash Santa so wonderfully brought to me this holiday. After dropping a fair sum on a total of 14 different varieties of ale and beer and a bottle of rye whiskey I was happy, but my wife, she was a wee bit perturbed.

I don’t need to go into specifics, but needless to say, I had some explaining to do as to why I needed this beer, when I had a fridge of beer that was off limits to my better half. To make a long story short, a promise was made to clear out the older brews, before the new guys found real estate in the ice box.

Tonight’s selection, Jailhouse Brewing Company’s saison Reprieve, is the first in a series of long overdue reviews. Picked up over the spring when visiting Atlanta, this French style ale will be the first sacrifice to Operation: Appease the Missus.

Pouring the contents of the bomber into my glass the beer initially pours out a pale hue that is remarkably clear and full of life in an effervescent deluge of carbonation.  The beer stays quite carbonated, however, perhaps picking up sediment, becomes slightly dull in appearance.  A respectable head forms, but as the beer sits and warms up during my review process, it dies to about a dime’s thickness.

The nose of this 6% abv bottle of fermentables is cider like. Carried with a fruity body, a nice mixture of floral and yeast like aromas mingle above the brew.  These aromas bridge anticipation to experience as the front end of the beer is full of tart, green apple flavors. Offering a slight banana-yeast backend, the ale leaves the palate cleanly, never exuding too much or too little sweetness or bitterness, finding a Goldilocks position on the palate. Never being too much of anything, and just the right amount of this and that, the beer is deep enough to be interesting, but light enough to be consumed in the warmth of late spring or early summer.

This is a decent example of the style, and if you have the opportunity, I suggest giving Jailhouse Brewing’s Reprieve a sip or two. A highly suggested try.   

Mugshot IPA by Jailhouse Brewing Co

Good day folks,

Well, to be perfectly honest, it’s about 1:30am here in Texas as I write this review, so perhaps good morning is a more accurate greeting and salutation.

As I lay in bed I found it hard to quiet my mind, so I thought what better opportunity to play some western swing (not to be confused with country music) and write a review of one of the many beers that made the trip west with me on my return from a recent trip to Atlanta.

A majority of the selection that came home with me, including tonight’s selection were brewed by Jailhouse Brewing Company, a relatively young brewery set up in an old jail located in Henderson, GA, south of Atlanta.

Looking for a more hop forward offering, I passed up a wheat and saison styled beer for a bomber of their Mugshot IPA, with an ABV of 6.7%.

Decanting the beer into a stylish Captain America pint glass, the beer exhibits a pale tangerine color. Clarity is on the cloudy side, and offers moderate carbonation and a healthy, white, half finger head.

The beverage’s offerings on the aroma front are unquestionably hop forward, presenting the drinker with floral and citrus notes that sit front and center. Around the edges of the front line aromas, there are accents of grass and dough.

Hop centric flavors carry, as expected by the aroma and style, on the palate. The frontend of flavor, as in the nose, is floral and grapefruit in nature in a medium full presence, matching the mouthfeel and bitterness also present in the beverage. Augmenting this duo there is a twang of orange zest and a very light malt sweetness that leaves a pleasant, dry finish.

While this beer isn’t earth moving, it is a very strong, well-brewed example of the style. A lot of wonderful, complex, and balanced expression of the flavors available from hops without beating the palate to death with bitterness.

Prosit! 

The Regulator Doppelbock by Rahr and Sons' Brewery

Hello good friends and readers, hope all has been moving along for your fine selves.

I have been plugging away with my usual routine of hunting the elusive job opportunity, doing general chores around the house, and praying at the alter of the Stanley Cup as the playoffs for the National Hockey League begin the second round. Its only a shame that no team I have any vested interest in made it into the playoffs to begin with in the first place.

Tonight, as my wife prepares dinner, I am enjoying a bottle of Rahr and Sons’ “The Regulator,” a dopplebock released as part of their “To Thee Series.”

Pouring the beer, it weighs in on the darker side of the style, with a more traditional dark brown shade, highlighted with ruby red edges. The beer’s crest topped with a light tan head, the beer is opaque in every sense of the word outside of carbonation climbing the inside of the pint glass.

As expected by the style, the nose is sweet and malty, complemented by light dough like accent.

Finally ready to enjoy, the feast of flavors augmented by a wonderful visual aspect and aroma, the first brush of malt on my palate brought elation to my tongue.  On the front-end lots of wonderful chocolate and honey notes define the beer’s malt offering, being sweet and full bodied. While no hop characteristics present themselves in the flavor of the beer, a nice balanced bitterness contrasts the opening volley of flavor on the backend, but the beverage still manages to leave a very warm, sweet finish. 

I am always impressed with the Rahr seasonal and limited time offerings, as they show the skills of the brewmaster’s craft in producing high quality beer. This is a must try for any drinker that craves a malt forward offering.  

Open The Taps! (More fun with Adobe Illustrator)

With nothing but time to search for jobs, waste time, and learn new skills, I have been applying myself to learn Adobe Illustrator, hone dormant art skills, and make myself more marketable for a profession I would like to break into.

Today's image is a play on Grant Wood's American Gothic, in honor of OpenTheTaps.org. Open The Taps is a nonprofit organization which is fighting for change of the antiquated blue laws that hinder the growth of Texas craft breweries, and act as a wall between producer and consumer.

Please feel free to share this image for non-commercial use. For any other use, please email me at intoxicobeer@gmail.com.

Have a wonderful day.
Pope Crisco

Moo Hoo Chocolate Stout by Terrapin Brewing Co.

Over the course of the last 4 days I have had a wide selection of wonderful food and drink in the company of the best friends I have known as my wife and I returned to Atlanta to celebrate her ten-year college reunion. Tonight we will have one last dinner with Sarah, friend to us and blogger of Juicy Bits, and as a pre-dinner beer, I worked my way around her fridge and pulled out a couple bottles of Terrapin Brewing Company’s seasonal “Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout,” brewed in nearby Athens, Georgia.  

The beer pours out a rich black hue that laughs at the suggestion of any translucence, and is crowned with a chocolate milk head that sits about a dimes width atop the brew.

Taking in a large whiff off the top of the beverage, a mild aroma of bitter coffee and alcohol round out a bready nose.

With the first mouthful of this beer, my palate was attacked with a very rich and complex overt chocolate profile.  A milk chocolate front end that was malty and sweet was turned on its head with the bitterness and alcohol hotness of rich dark chocolate. As the second and third sips are consumed, the bitterness subsides dramatically and the beer takes on a wonderfully creamy flavor and mouthfeel with a wet, sweet finish.

This beer is an example of the quality that this brewery brings to the table of craft beer drinkers in the southeast. Moo Hoo makes me go boo hoo for what I miss out on in the Lone Star State.

Celebration Fresh Hop Ale by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Happy beer-thirty my friends.

Only being Wednesday, it feels much later in the week in my head. Maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t had a job in a month, the increased volume of job interviews I’ve had of late, or another factor altering my perception, but I feel physically and mentally drained this hump day. 

As Friday inches closer, as well as the hit counter on my blog getting closer to 15,000 unique hits (which I assume is good?) I feel it’s time to sit down and write a review of Sierra Nevada’s winter seasonal, Celebration.

You might be thinking “But Pope, it’s Spring! Shouldn’t this have been reviewed earlier?” And you would be correct, but as a beer blogger, I get distracted easily by one beer release over another, so a couple bottles of this “fresh hop ale” have been sitting in the cold, dark recess of my fridge conversing with some also forsaken green vegetables whilst I frolicked amongst other ales.  

Today, though, the last two bottles of this six pack will join their four brethren in the hallowed halls of Ale-Halla, and join the beer equivalent of Odin in the fermentables’ equivalent of the afterlife (or become part of the Tarrant county sewer system after consumption, it’s pretty much the same thing to me.)

The beer pours a semi-cloudy, rich carrot orange hue, with a gloriously obscene amount of active carbonation, and a healthy off-white head. In addition to suds off the initial pour, the head remains throughout the beer’s consumption, offering sticky lacing and a cloud of beer that tickles the palate and throat at the conclusion of the drinking exercise.

Tons of CO2 and lacing make this a wonderful beer to look at, as well as consume.

A hop forward nose addresses the drinker with an upfront citrus, primarily grapefruit, introduction, but is rounded out with floral accents and a very light malt sweetness.

This introduction to the olfactory glands is indicative of the follow through on the palate, as a similar hop-forward, grapefruit body is most easily recognizable in the first brush with the tongue. Overpowered by an aggressive bitterness, the first few sips leave much to be desired in complexity, however, as my sense of taste acclimated itself to the beverage, a nice orange and spice accent opened up, and was rounded out by an underscored, light caramel backend.

To distill the beverage in brief, it was a fine beer that would have been better if greater balance could be found on the front end of the beverage, negotiating the brisk bitterness with a medium-bodied flavor profile.

Prosit! 

Fresh Hop by Great Divide Brewing Co.

Spring is upon us in North Texas, and with sunny skies, cool breezes and the agreeable company of my wife, I enjoyed a day running errands, seeing The Hunger Games, and cracking open some craft beer on the patio.

Today's selection from Denver's Great Divide Brewing, is Hop Fresh, a pale ale sporting a mid-ranged ABV around 6.1%. It seemed like something to contrast the malt forward brews I have been drinking recently.

Pouring the first half of the bomber into my pint glass, the ale exhibited a nice golden amber/orange hue with a stark white head. Once the beverage had time to settle, the beer, while slightly cloudy was mostly translucent, and showed a torrent of active carbonation that joined the bubbles of the thick, hearty head.

The aroma of this beer, as advertised by the title and marketing of the label, is hop forward, expressed in a grassy, floral, and citrus forward nose. The floral nature of the nose is not as fully expressed on the palate, as flavor wise, grapefruit and orange notes predominate the medium bodied profile. While the beer exhibits a nice, clean, hop bitterness, a nice light caramel malt backend balances the beverage.

Overall, this is just a wonderfully balanced ale. While exhibiting a wide variety of hop flavors, the bitter essence of the fresh whole hop cones are kept in check, and favors balance over a hop bombastic assault on the drinker's tongue.

Saint Arnold Brewing Co. Winter Stout

Howdy all,

Quick question, what common tie exists between NHL super-star Gordie Howe and Texas craft beer?

Ready for the answer?

The Houston Aeros signed Howe in ’73, allowing him to fulfill a dream of playing hockey with his two sons, and this April, Houston’s own Saint Arnold Brewery will be hosting the 10th annual get together for enthusiasts of craft beer and Aeros’ hockey that will include a pregame meet up at the brewery, group seating for an Aeros’ game, and post game wind down at a local pub (click here for details.)

While I don’t have an opportunity to join the people of Houston for this event, something that I am truly disappointed about, I do have the opportunity to join them in the enjoyment of the quality beer produced by St. Arnold. This afternoon I have decided to crack open a few bottles of this brewery’s Winter Stout.

Pouring the beer, which is a “tweaked” result of a home brew competition promoted by the brewery in the late 90s, the stout is a dark brown, almost, but not quite black, body, while a slight ruby color can be seen in the edges of the pint glass. Atop the body of the beverage, the head is a nice, light tan hue. As strongly as the head forms with a semi-aggressive pour, it is a tad disappointing to see it die down quickly to less than the width of a dime.  

Putting my olfactory glands to work, I experience the aromas of bread, the malty sweetness of candy sugars and caramel, balanced by coffee and roasted aromas. 

Taking my first sip, the wet, medium bodied beverage rushes the palate with a mélange of honey, candy and caramel flavors. On the back of the palate roasted coffee flavor and bitterness, displaying light floral and woody accents, rounds out the malt bomb on the front end.

The best way to describe this beer would be as a unique interpretation on the style, from an equally unique brewery. This is a wicked little wrister that goes top shelf.

Cheers to Texas craft beer, and to Texas Hockey.