I was excited when I saw a lone bottle of this brew I had been dying to try on the shelves at Spec's Arborwalk today. Naturally, I picked up the bottle and rushed home to put it in the fridge.
Upon opening the brew I did the requisite bottle smell to get a taste of how it would smell in the snifter. I was disappointed to find a slightly funky tart smell. Unless the stout you are smelling is Jolly Pumpkin's Madrugada Obscura, this is never a good sign.
The pour proved even more disastrous. While I was using an 8oz snifter, it's probably easier to imagine a pour of about 2oz of beer...and 14oz. of foam in a pint glass. It took about 5 minutes to die down to drinking consistency, where it was confirmed that this brew was definitely infected.
I wish I had taken a picture of this disaster but I was so angered at the loss of my precious beer budget money on 11 bucks worth of worthless brew.
I've had less than stellar experiences with Pike Brewing in the past, and this put me off of them entirely.
Spend your money elsewhere.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Impromptu Beer Weekend
I haven't had a weekend...much less a beer weekend in months. So I took advantage of a weekend off to attend the Draught House 41st Anniversary Party.
10 bucks got me this cool tasting glass and a chance to try 4 beers. Out of the lineup available when I was there I went with the New Belgium Tart Lychee, Bear Republic Mach 10, Hopaloped (512) Bruin, and New Belgium Eric's Ale.
The winner was the Lychee, I usually hate lychee because it reminds me of gewurztraminer but this was nice and lightly fruity and tart. I hate to say it but the loser was the Bruin. Not my kind of brown and I wasn't a big fan of the dry-hopping. I'd love to try it without the hopalope.
While at the festival a fellow BA informed me that Minus The Bear was playing in San Antonio on Sunday. I managed to get tickets and on the way we decided to stop for some dinner. It immediately occurred to us the we had time to go to Freetail.
We were lucky enough to find La Muerta on tap along with multiple other seasonals. Between the 5 of us there we got to sample every beer on tap there. Hopotaneuse A was my personal favorite and it's one of the best DIPA's I have had in a long time. So full of grapefruit it was unbelievable. My second favorite was the 4shadow, a Belgian Smoked Stout.
I liked it so much I brought home a growler.
It was really impressive to visit a brewpub that did not have a bad beer on tap. Not all of the beers were earth shattering but more than half of their lineup was stellar. Great to have this in TX, but I wish it was in Austin.
Speaking of Texas, this was my haul over the past week. Most are beers new to TX and all I am excited to try.
But what's mainly been keeping me company recently is Celebration.
I love Celebration, and this year it's tasting very good. I'm about halfway through my first sixer of the season but I feel sure there will be more in my future.
10 bucks got me this cool tasting glass and a chance to try 4 beers. Out of the lineup available when I was there I went with the New Belgium Tart Lychee, Bear Republic Mach 10, Hopaloped (512) Bruin, and New Belgium Eric's Ale.The winner was the Lychee, I usually hate lychee because it reminds me of gewurztraminer but this was nice and lightly fruity and tart. I hate to say it but the loser was the Bruin. Not my kind of brown and I wasn't a big fan of the dry-hopping. I'd love to try it without the hopalope.
While at the festival a fellow BA informed me that Minus The Bear was playing in San Antonio on Sunday. I managed to get tickets and on the way we decided to stop for some dinner. It immediately occurred to us the we had time to go to Freetail.
We were lucky enough to find La Muerta on tap along with multiple other seasonals. Between the 5 of us there we got to sample every beer on tap there. Hopotaneuse A was my personal favorite and it's one of the best DIPA's I have had in a long time. So full of grapefruit it was unbelievable. My second favorite was the 4shadow, a Belgian Smoked Stout.
I liked it so much I brought home a growler.
It was really impressive to visit a brewpub that did not have a bad beer on tap. Not all of the beers were earth shattering but more than half of their lineup was stellar. Great to have this in TX, but I wish it was in Austin.
Speaking of Texas, this was my haul over the past week. Most are beers new to TX and all I am excited to try.But what's mainly been keeping me company recently is Celebration.
I love Celebration, and this year it's tasting very good. I'm about halfway through my first sixer of the season but I feel sure there will be more in my future.
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