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. 

Intoxico Movie Review: Goon (2011)

As the readers of this blog might know, I am a big fan of hockey. In fact, I probably spend a good 3 or more hours a day reading about and watching the sport, not to mention the playing of hockey video games. Needless to say, when I ran across a trailer for Goon, the story of bar bouncer Doug Glatt, who, after obliterating a hockey player who jumps the glass to go after his pal, ends up on the roster of a local hockey team as an enforcer, I was sold on the movie.

Starring Sean William Scott (American Pie), Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up), Alison Pill (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World), and Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Goon’s appeal is as straightforward as Doug’s role on the ice, in that it beats you over the head with simple, juvenile humor, characters that have about as much depth as a the paper that promotes the movie, and fast, violent sport action. In other words this movie isn’t Annie Hall, hell, its not even Slap Shot, but it is an entertaining, turn your mind off excuse to buy popcorn.

This movie seems to have gone to video-on-demand fairly quickly, and you can watch this as I did via Amazon.com’s streaming video service.

A Word To the Critics

Eyeing over the response that critics have made about this movie, it’s obvious that my wife and I enjoyed it more than others perhaps did. What seems more glaring about these reviews is that they don’t appear to understand the game the movie portrays, complaining about the violence that it illustrates, asserting that it is quite obviously over the top for comedic and entertainment value.

To quote Bill Cosby, “I went to a boxing match, and a hockey game broke out.“

It’s a sport that is fast and dynamic enough to require that teams find balance in skill and grit to win games. As much as everyone wants a Wayne Gretzky, you need a Shane Churla or Scott Stevens to have their bodies abused, and in turn to abuse the bodies of others in the name of the stars they protect from injury.

A lot of critics have in the same articles played up the Paul Newman hockey classic Slap Shot, while deriding the violence of Goon. Ironically, Slap Shot is a lot less realistic in portraying the sport. As a fan of the game, I can say only the fringe element is sold on hockey’s fighting element. In Slap Shot the fans and players are distilled to rosters and bleachers filled with blood lust. Goon, much more realistically, has only a few key players who use physicality in their role, and typically only fight as a response to pain enacted on their teammates, not a means to score goals.   

Simply stated, the on-ice content of Goon is much more realistic than that of Slap Shot, and it should be addressed in any comparison of the two movies. 

Molson XXX

In high school I was an odd one for a number of reasons. One thing that sticks out, as I obsess about hockey as I do every spring in the cusp of the playoffs, is my obsession with Canada. As a student I had a Canadian flag hanging over my bed, and I obsessed about Canadian culture from music to general culture. I applied for art colleges in Calgary, studied French, and often joined in Canadian chat rooms during the infancy of the internet for the masses.  Aside from hockey though, currently I am for the most part quite content with my home in Georgia, trading in a southern drawl for the double “O” Canadians are stereotyped with (example, about sounds like aboot). In the spirit of my previous post about hockey players’ beards, I decided I would try an example of a mass produced Canadian beer, not yet having ventured into the great white north for fermented inebriation in my 12 years of legal drinking.  

I wanted to go with a Molson “varietal” based on the prominence of their advertising in the broadcast of Canada’s national sport, and  was drawn ro XXX due to the alluring display of “Import,” “Super Premium Beer,” and most importantly “7.8% abv” on the black and silver sixer.

I’ve never had a ““Super Premium Beer” beer before, and it sounds pretty similar to “craft” so it must be good, right? (Because the internet is not the best tool to convey sarcasm, please understand I am not being serious.) So I let the beer chill, and pop the first top on the patio with my wife on this nice spring evening.

The beer pours with a fair amount of carbonation, but fails to develop more than a half finger of head, and dissipates almost immediately. The color is a straw hue, perhaps only slightly darker than urine.

The nose is very light, and has only the slightest suggestion of adjunct grains and malt.

The flavor is not much different, being very similar to any Miller/Coors/Inbev/Pabst adjunct beer, but with a pleasant fruity note, leaning towards tasting like apples. On the backend there is a nice, slight bitterness paired with a less than desired alcohol note.

Despite being advertised as a “super premium beer” there is no nothing in this beer that makes it any more or less than a standard macro beer other than its ability to get one drunk with fewer ounces of beverage.

Prost!

You call that a beard, eh?

Recently I have lost two things very dear to me, the first being my beard that was removed as a joke and in solidarity for a friends unintentional loss of facial hair, and the loss of my current favorite sports franchise. Pending a review by the National Hockey League’s board will likely approve the sale of the Atlanta Thrashers, and their relocation to Winnipeg, making a lot of Sunbelt hockey fans, myself included, very sad.

As Georgia is poised to lose an NHL franchise for the second time, one of the greatest continuing traditions in modern sport is underway in Vancouver as the Canucks and Boston Bruins are engaged in a best of seven series for the right to raise the Stanly Cup. As the two teams engage in the finals of a long, arduous playoff structure they are not only engaging in grinding body checks, blocking pucks off weird bounces, and otherwise abusing their bodies for our entertainment and their glory, they also throw away implements of shaving to the ice, and grow fantastic playoff beards.

Inspired by my own trek back to being bearded, my obsession with hockey, and most importantly many similar posts on JoffreTheGiant’s website, here is a collection of respectable hockey beards that, in my opinion, are some of the most impressive in all of professional sports. 

Masked Men and Masked Beer.

With a long weekend ahead, and a house devoid of my significant other, I have free reign to do what I want. And what do I want to do? Drink beer, eat meat, and watch hockey. Last night I hit up Total Wine and More and made a six pack of loose bottles of various IPAs. Being kind of a weird guy, I thought I would do a blind tasting of the single bottles.  Because I have no one to proctor the beer selection, to avoid bias with perceived quality, I have spent part of the morning taping up the bottles to obscure labels and will randomly pick bottles for consumption. I will label each 1-6 in the order that I pull them out of the fridge, and do a short review of each beer. Only once all beers have been consumed will I remove the labels to discover what beer displayed what attributes. 

As I prepare for the drop of the puck to begin an afternoon faceoff between the Thrashers and Oilers, I dig my bottle opener under the taped cap and open the first bottle of India Pale Ale .

#1 (Victory Hop Wallop) - The first sip is all bitterness. No balance with any noticeable sweetness. Grapefruit flavors on the front end, with a lemon zest back end taste. Appearance is golden orange and clear, after up front bitterness the beer mellows out a fair bit.

Thrashers lead 1-0 going into the second period, time for another brew.

#2 (Terrapin Hopsecutioner)- Appearance is a nice rich ruby red color with particulate as if unfiltered. Lighter grapefruit nose than #1. First sip is more balanced, while still bitter, sweetness rounds out the beer, making it very palatable. Flavor is straightforwardly grapefruit in nature. The drink also has a creamy mouth feel.

10 minutes into the second, the thrashers are now up 2-0, and you guessed it, time to pop another top.

#3  (Weyerbacher Hops Infusion)- Appearance of the beer  is reddish brown,  and the lacing is better than that of the previous two beverages. The nose is fairly nonexistent for I cannot really smell much more than a slight bitterness. No distinctive smells are apparent. Mouth feel is clean and crisp. A mild flavor of lemon zest brings forth slight bitterness, with a slight malty backend. It’s an okay IPA, but #2 is still more balanced and had a more robust flavor overall.  

                As I pop the 4^th cap of the night, the thrashers are up 3- 1 at the beginning of the third period. As I realize that the beer has frozen, the Oilers notch up a goal on a 2 man advantage power play. Adding to the frustration of my solid state beer, the Oilers get another goal to tie the game, making my wait that much more painful.

                #4 (Bison Organic IPA )-Perhaps too soon, while the beer is still slightly overly frosty, I end my wait and begin to drink. The nose is slightly bitter, with orange and lemon zest notes. This profile continues as I sip it, malt, like last two is present, adding balance and mellowness. The mouth feel is somewhat creamy. Largely the beer is somewhat middle of the road in robustness, leaving a slightly bitter aftertaste, much like watching the Oilers pop another goal, and ultimately a fifth as well with the open net to take the win.   

                With the conclusion of the game I will give my palate a rest and prepare dinner, leaving my last two IPAs as an aperitif to my NY Strip and roasted potatoes. As I consume my dinner I feed my hockey obsession as well, and enjoy jumping from the Ducks/Blues and Leafs/Sens games.  Oh Canada, and oh direct tv.

                #5 (Victory Hop Devil )–This fifth beer is amber in color, and seems to have the most carbonation of the beers I’ve had thus far. Nose is light and reminiscent of grapefruit. The taste is crisp and refreshing, leaving my mouth dry as I swallow it down. The flavor is predominately grapefruit with a delightful apricot note on the backend.  Bitterness is on the lighter side, but present while drinking and becomes more noticeable as an after taste. It appears to be well balanced and full flavored.  Lacing on the glass is excellent. This is my favorite thus far, and ultimately my favorite of the self made sixer.

                #6 (Brooklyn Brewery IPA)– The last beer is also amber, leaning more to orange than brown. Lacing is excellent and will stay present several minutes before dissipating. The nose is faintly orangeish, as is the flavor. Bitterness is on the medium-full side of the spectrum, but just barely, leaving a light bitter aftertaste and a dry, crisp mouth-feel. 

                With each brew, with the exception of the first, which was too heavily handily bitter and sour, all are decent examples of an IPA. All were well balanced and tasty. The fifth, though, was my favorite hitting an excellent stride of hoppyness while being a very good all around beer within the context of the India Pale Ale style.

Happy Drinking –Pope Crisco