Divine Reserve 9 released Tuesday; Saint Arnold asks you to share

I just got the press release below:

Saint Arnold Brewing Company Urges Customers to Limit Purchases of Divine Reserve No. 9

Everyone else has Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but Texas beer lovers have Beer Tuesday

HOUSTON, November 30, 2009 – Saint Arnold Brewing Company (www.saintarnold.com), the oldest craft brewery in Texas, wants to make sure that everyone who wants to try Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 9 will be able to find it. The brewery has asked retailers to limit sales to two six packs per customer and is asking customers to limit their purchase to a six pack or two. Starting Tuesday, December 1^st, a very limited supply of Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 9 will arrive in stores, restaurants and bars in Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.

Divine Reserve No. 9 is an Imperial Stout Pumpkin Ale. It is the latest edition in a highly anticipated and sought after series of high-quality, full-flavored single batch beers, each brewed with a completely different recipe. The batches are identified by the number on the neck label.

“Based on past experience and the fact that Divine Reserve No. 9 will be on lots of gift lists, we expect very high demand,” said Brock Wagner, Founder/Brewer of Saint Arnold Brewing. “We set out to brew the best pumpkin beer in the world and we hope people think we made a creditable effort.”

Black with some ruby highlights, Divine Reserve No. 9 is full of pumpkin pie spices with notes of nutmeg, caraway and vanilla.

“It tastes like a chocolate pumpkin pie. The taste starts with chocolate malt with a hint of spice and rolls into a warm spicy alcohol taste,” said Wagner. “I recommend serving at 50 degrees or warmer because it brings the spices forward in the taste and the chocolate moves to the finish.”

A total of 1,500 cases and 29 kegs of Saint Arnold Divine Reserve were produced. Saint Arnold’s distributors allocate Divine Reserve to stores, restaurants and bars on the basis of how much Saint Arnold beer they have sold over the previous six months.

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 9 is priced at approximately $16 per six pack. More information on the Divine Reserve series is available at http://saintarnold.com/beers/divine.html.

World's Strongest Beer?

A Scottish brewery is producing what may be the world's strongest beer: Jeez, THIRTY-TWO PERCENT ABV? Yeesh. Of course, there are some tightasses whining about it. Never mind the fact that whiskey is even stronger.

Mini-Interview With Travis Poling, Beer News

My semi-monthly beer news column is in this week's Austin Chronicle (which is on the stands today, a day early due to the holiday), as is my mini-interview with Travis Poling, who was at the Draught House recently promoting his new book, Beer Across Texas: A Guide to the Brews and Brewmasters of the Lone Star State, which he coauthored with Paul Hightower. That's Poling in the photo, enjoying something hoppy at Draught House. (photo by me)

If you follow beer blogs and like Texas brews, you're probably familiar with both authors: Poling does the Beer Across Texas blog, and Hightower produces Texas Beer. I recommend the book as a holiday present for the Texas craft beer lover in your life.

Enjoy.

Wanna buy a brewery?

Looks like Mark Cannon at Eola School is looking to sell. For the unfamiliar: He bought an abandoned schoolhouse out in West Texas near San Angelo that once served a wide spot in the road called Eola, and converted it into a restaurant, hotel, and brewery, which he apparently runs as a one-man show. It'll be too bad if it goes under, because I never got out there to visit. Plus West Texans need good beer.

Tip of the hat to Machuca and other Austin beer bloggers for tipping me off to the eBay listing.

An Anti-Endorsement

On the whole, I try to keep politics out of this blog, even though my day job is political reporter for Austin's alternative weekly newspaper. Here, I want us take a break from the bitterness that occupies so many other places on the net.

So I'm not gonna use this forum to tell you who to vote for. But I just got some news that compels me to at least tell you who NOT to vote for. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, running for re-election in 2010, just got the endorsement of the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas. Therefore, that makes Perry the enemy of craft beer lovers in Texas.

If you read this blog earlier in the year, you know that WBDT and its lobbyist, Mike McKinney, single-handedly killed off a bill during the 81st Legislative Session that would have allowed microbrewers to sell their product on the premises of the brewery — a sales-boosting opportunity afforded to Texas wineries, but not to beermakers. They also killed a similar bill in 2007 during the 80th session. The wholesalers have a stranglehold on how beer gets from the brewing tanks to you. Understandably, they don't want that stranglehold taken away, but the legislators (and Governor) ought to be serving the public, not the lobby.

So if WBDT is getting whole hog behind Perry, then you can guess how things are gonna go in the unlikely event an on-site sales bill ever reaches his desk.

Now, I'm not going to be disingenuous here: For what it's worth, I'm a big flaming Democrat, and wouldn't vote for Perry anyway. However, I'm not gonna single out one of his opponents for the official I Love Beer endorsement. If you love good beer, vote for whoever you damn well please, just so long as it's not him.

In the Republican primary, Perry is being challenged by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Larry Kilgore, and Debra Medina. In the Democratic primary, declared candidates are Kinky Friedman, Tom Schieffer, and Hank Gilbert, and Farouk Shami is expected to declare soon. Among Libertarians, you have Jeff Daiell, Kenneth Griffith, and Steve Nichols (no relation to yours truly, as far as I know). Fran Cavanaugh is an independent candidate.

It's been rumored that Houston Mayor Bill White might switch from the U.S. Senate race (to replace Hutchison) and jump into the gubernatorial contest. His campaign firmly denies it, but if he did, I think this photo shows why he would quickly jump to the front for my vote.

Black Star Co-op Unveils Brewpub Location

Exciting news, folks: The Black Star C0-op Brewpub has apparently taken a major step toward transitioning from really neat idea to an actual physical business. On Saturday, they'll host a preview event of what will eventually be their brewpub in the new Crestview Station Midtown Commons development. Sadly, I can't make it, but I'm real fired up about the location, because it's within stumbling distance of my house. Pictured is an aerial rendering of what Crestview Station will look like when it's done; now just imagine a member-owned brewpub in the middle of that.

Toast Fail

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