Shiner Birthday Beer Chocolate Stout

Brewery: Spoetzl Brewery
Location: Shiner, TX
Style: American Stout
ABV: 5%

Each year, the Spoetzl Brewery produces a new brew to commemorate it's birthday. This year, for its 106th birthday, Shiner brewed itself a cake. Sort of. Birthday Beer Chocolate Stout is brewed with real cocoa and made to be sweet and decadent. It's a different direction from the German-inspired brews that Shiner typically produces, and I like that they've had a little fun with this year's anniversary brew.

Appearance: Birthday Beer pours a deep chocolate brown hue  (almost black) with a tan and frothy head.

Aroma: There's an interesting nose on this beer. I get a lot of chocolate at first, but then I begin to pick up some bready yeast aromas on the back end. The chocolate smells very sweet, almost like chocolate syrup or frosting.

Taste: This is definitely a dessert beer! Sweet milk chocolate and sugary goodness jump out on the front of the palate. Cake batter and chocolate frosting also comes to mind. Beyond the initial burst of sugar, the flavor dries out just slightly. Again, I pick up bread on the finish, which I tend to enjoy. It helps to cut the sweetness of this stout a tad.

Overall: If there's ever a beer to replace the ol' cake at the next birthday bash, this is it. It's enjoyably sweet and has a drinkable body. However, as someone who doesn't really love cake and sweets all that much, this isn't a beer I would want to keep drinking. It's definitely worth trying, and I found the beer to be quite tasty, but one and done is good enough for me.

Beer Apostle's Final Grade: B-

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Ranger Creek Small Batch No. 3

Brewery: Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling
Location: San Antonia, TX
Style: Barleywine
ABV: 10%

Small Batch No. 3 is an English Style Barleywine in a series of small batch releases from the Texas brewery.  Here's a little more information about the small batch series from Ranger Creek's website:

Our Small Batch Series is a line of seasonal single batch brews designed to be unique, interesting, and often experimental. Each one is made in small quantities and with a completely different recipe. The unique color, number, and QR code on each label identifies each batch, the details of which can be referenced on our website or by scanning the QR code with a smart phone. Small Batch Series releases are meant to age well over time, so drink a bottle now and save others to enjoy later. They will cellar best in a dark place around 50 degrees. Each batch is brewed and bottled by hand and undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Pour carefully so as not to rouse the yeast.

Before I move forward with this review, I have to give this disclaimer: my expectations are low. I'm even a bit wary. After talking to people who have tried this, and after reading several other posts about the beer, I fully expect this beer to be infected and funkified to the max. But despite my wariness, I'll proceed...

This bottle has a hand-written bottling date of 10-8-12

Appearance: The bottle itself is appealing. The label clearly indicates that this is a small batch, limited release. The wax dipped tip is a nice touch. The beer pours a deep copper hue with an explosive head. I poured this gently, hoping to avoid this problem.

Aroma: Smells like a saison, not a barleywine. Brett-like yeast aromas, spicy notes, hints of sweet caramel malt.

Taste: Sweet and fruity with a malted backbone and an obvious sourness on the middle of the palate that follows the flavors 'til the end. The taste isn't as funky as the nose, but it's certainly sour and definitely infected as so many others have posted. The finish is slightly oaky with sweet malts.

And sour.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a decent amount of carbonation. Flavors linger on the tongue for a while, giving it a perceived heaviness.

Overall: There just isn't the depth and complexity that I hoped for. I put this bottle in my cellar in 2012 with high hopes. I can see where they wanted to go with this beer. The sweet malt offers a glimpse of the barleywine that Ranger Creek wanted to create. However, somewhere along the way, the yeast has gone funky and has no hopes of maturing into the beer it should have.

Sadly, I must admit to pouring the remaining liquid down the drain. I drank enough to provide a thorough review, but had no desire to finish what was left in the bottle or glass.

Beer Review: Shiner Bock

Brewery: Spoetzl Brewery 
Location: Shiner, TX
Style: Bock Bier  
ABV: 4.4%

Price: $8.99/6pk

Texas. Pride. These are the two words I think of when I see Shiner. As someone who lived and worked in Texas, I can whole-heartedly say there is no other state that takes pride in its own like Texas does. Shiner beer is very much a part of this pride. The Spoetzl Brewery is located in Shiner, TX, a tiny town "no bigger than a postage stamp in the heart of Texas" as described on Shiner's site. This small Texas town has been producing lagers with German influence for over 100 years. Every drop of Shiner comes from Shiner. That's they way it is and always has been. And there's something about that even an outsider can appreciate.

Shiner Bock is their flagship lager. I see Shiner popping up more and more around the country, and it sort of reminds me of Yuengling in terms of how relatable it can be to non-craft-beer-drinkers.

Appearance: Sweet tea color with a quickly fading head. The beer is obviously filtered and appears lighter than one might expect from a Bock beer (note: this is brewed in the tradition of an American lager, and not necessarily a German bock).

Aroma: Mild aromas and there's not a lot to pick up on. I do get hints of malt, but nothing to write home about.

Taste: As one might gather from my comparison to Yuengling, this is a mildly smooth and unoffensive beer. It has a strong malt base with some nutty characteristics and a caramel sweetness on the finish. The beer has an overall clean feel, as there is little-to-no aftertaste, dryness, or bitterness. Something that I have noticed in several Shiner brews, and it's most noticeable in this one, is a subtle but troubling copper or metallic taste that I get towards the back of the palate. I have had Shiner Bock on draught, from a can, and in a bottle, and the copper flavor is always there. I am not sure what causes this, but it's definitely not pleasing.

Overall: I love the history of this beer and what Spoetzl represents to Texas, but the beer itself is mild and forgettable. It's a cheap beer (if you live in Texas), but not worth the price you'll pay if you're outside the Lonestar State. 

Jester King Gotlandsdricka

Brewery:  Jester King Craft Brewery
Location: Austin, TX
Style: Smoked Farmhouse Ale
ABV: 6.6%
Price: Unknown (Given as Gift)

Jester King is Texas' premier brewer of farmhouse ales. They've put out a variety of creatively inspired beers in their short existence and have built quite a reputation for themselves nationwide.

I received this bottle from a couple of friends in Houston and have been curious to try it, though I didn't know too much about this beer. I checked out Jester King's site, and this is their description of Gotlandsdricka:

Gotlandsdricka, meaning “Drink of the Land of Goths”, is believed to have been the beer of the Vikings. Our rendition of this ancient style is inspired by the traditional farmhouse ales once brewed on the island of Gotland off the coast of Sweden. Gotlandsdricka (6.6% alcohol by volume) is brewed with birchwood smoked malt, juniper, sweet gale and rye. It’s unfiltered, unpasteurized and naturally carbonated through re-fermentation in the bottle.

This beer pours a light yellow hue that's slightly cloudy. It appears to be a light-bodied beer judging from the color and how rapidly the carbonation rushes to the top of the glass.

The aroma is spicy--like a solid witbier. It's earthy and yeasty.

I'll admit, I was immediately turned off after the first sip. The birchwood smoked malt that Jester King brewed this beer with is over-powering and completely takes over. All of the flavors I was expecting to taste from the nose play second fiddle to the deep smokiness of this beer. To make matters worse, the body is so light that as the beer warms, it starts to taste a little skunky.

Unfortunately, the flavors just don't work in this. Although I was able to get past the smoked malt after about half a glass, sadly I didn't even enjoy the flavors that are beyond the smoke. If this is what the Vikings drank, than there's no wonder why they were so aggressively seeking new lands...likely in search of a new beer recipe.

This one's not for me, but I appreciate what Jester King does and look forward to trying more of their beers.

Saint Arnold Sailing Santa

Brewery:  Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
Location: Houston, TX

Style: American IPA/Blend
ABV: 7%
Price: Unknown (Given as gift)

Texas' oldest craft brewery, Saint Arnold has literally helped define Houston's craft beer scene. In fact, Saint Arnold is what I refer to as my personal gateway brewery. I owe my craft beer allegiance to this brewery. I am forever a fan and advocate of this brewery!

I moved to Houston right out of college in 2007 and "craft beer" was not anywhere on my radar. Once settled, there were two Texas breweries that I took a liking to: Shiner and Saint Arnold. Both have important places in my beer journey, but I credit the latter for my love of craft beer.

Unfortunately, craft beer can be expensive and I was just a budding professional on a humble teacher's salary. Luckily, Saint Arnold held affordable $5 brewery tours every Saturday (the brewery has since moved locations, grown significantly, and now holds daily brewery tours for $7). It was at these tours that I began learning about hand-crafted beer; and it was there, in the middle of their brewery tour, standing beside a few hundred pounds of barley, that I became a born-again beer drinker.

Now that we've gone down memory lane and tears have all but dried on my cheeks, let's get to today's review.

Image taken from saintarnold.com

Sailing Santa is a seasonal blend of their Elissa (IPA) and Christmas Ale. The beer pours a nice copper/amber color. The head thins quickly and leaves a minimal lacing around the glass.

The aroma is a great blend of sweet malts and earthy hops. Given that Saint Arnold has labeled this beer as an IPA, I would say the aroma is a bit incongruent to the typical aroma of an IPA.

This beer is malt-forward. Again, I think it's mislabeled. The taste and aromatic profile fit more as a winter warmer in my opinion. The front flavors are all malt, caramel, toffee, and maybe a little maple syrup. The hop profile from the Elissa IPA portion of the blend are mild and subtle. Pine sneaks in towards the finish of this, which is also a tad dry. I do pick up on the cinnamon that was apparently added to the 2012 version. It's a pleasant flavor that lingers nicely.

Overall, this is a solid winter beer, but it's just not an IPA. I understand that Saint Arnold wants to capitalize on the blend which uses Elissa IPA, but it disappoints if being compared to true IPAs. Style aside, this is an enjoyable blend that's highly drinkable and perfect for the season. As I said above, this reminds me more of an earthy winter warmer. I appreciate the subtle hops in this beer, but the prevailing flavors are the heavier malt profiles and warming spices.