Notes From the Draught House

Just got an e-mail from the Draught House with various bits of news. The first one was about the hearing at the Texas Capitol tomorrow morning for House Bills 602 and 660, but I've already told you about that. (Try to be there if you love craft beer.) Here's the rest:

-Some of you may have noticed, but we have partnered with Antonelli's Cheese for beer and cheese pairing on Mondays. Each week, I will choose a beer and John will match a cheese with it. The sample is FREE with beer purchase. Tonight we have Chaubier, a French cheese made with 1/2 goat milk and 1/2 cow milk. It is dense and buttery and pairs nicely with Victory Brewing Company's Headwaters Pale Ale, their new soft, floral and very drinkable ale.

-This Wednesday, 3/23, at 5:30pm, we will have Deschutes brewers Tim Alexander and Brian Faivre in the House. Come by and say hi, get the inside scoop on their beers and keep a glass when buying the Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Black Butte Porter or Inversion IPA.

-Firkin Friday's have been sporadic but this Friday, 3/25, we will tap Moylan's Hopsickle, for those of you who can't get enough hops. Coming up, we will have firkins of Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti and Southern Star (Creme Brulee) Buried Hatchet Stout.

Flying Saucer Spring Beer Dinner Featuring Deschutes

Press release from Flying Saucer Austin:

Austin, Texas, Feb. 24, 2011 – Flying Saucer Draught Emporium is set to host its annual Spring Beer Dinner on Thursday, March 10 at 6:30 p.m. at its 815 W. 47th St. location featuring selections from Deschutes Brewery and brewmaster Larry Sidor.

The Spring Beer Dinner, hosted in the Saucer’s Hollandsworth Hall, will feature Oregon’s renowned Deschutes Brewery and a special six-course beer pairing menu. The night’s courses will be served as follows: beets and goat cheese with Mirror Pond Pale Ale; spicy shrimp and polenta with Green Lakes Organic Ale; onion soup with Black Butte Porter; winter bruschetta with Red Chair NWPA; blue cheese and orange marmalade with Hop Henge Experimental IPA; and chocolate mousse and blood oranges with The Dissident.

“We’re excited to welcome spring with a great beer pairing event featuring Deschutes Brewery,” said Ted Rowell, general manager of Flying Saucer. “A great six-course beer pairing led by brewmaster Larry Sidor, the Spring Beer Dinner will be a must-attend event for any beer enthusiast.”

Tickets for the event are $35 for U.F.O. Club members and $40 for non-members. Early purchases are suggested as tickets are limited and the event will reach capacity.

Reviews: A bunch of Magic Hat and one Deschutes

The folks at Magic Hat and Deschutes have sent me several beers to review over the past few months, and I’ve been terribly tardy about reviewing them. Hopefully early July isn’t too late to review the summer seasonals, and at least I’m ahead of the curve on the Autumn seasonal.

Magic Hat Odd Notion Summer '10

Nice seasonal. Unfiltered golden ale. Light, easy drinking taste, very refreshing. Easy on the hops, but noticeable. The real highlight is as you swallow – you get this sharp kick of ginger that’s really delightful. I guess that makes it a ginger ale?

The few Magic Hats I’ve tried haven’t left me real impressed (and frankly, I have some friends who agree, so it’s not just me), but here in the Texas heat, this one does the trick.

Magic Hat Wacko Summer Seasonal

Clean drinking, not a whole lot of flavor, but if you’re looking to put away a few on a hot day, this goes down easy.

Magic Hat Roxy Roller Autumn Seasonal

My initial impression is that the flavor is a bit thin for what seems to be trying for a rich heaviness. It just seems like there ought to be more going on here. I decided to let it warm a bit, which helped. Some caramel notes come out. Toast. Strong hops. A bit of sweet fruit hiding deep within. Still, it just feels like something is missing.

Magic Hat IPA on Tour: Blind Faith

Part of a series of IPAs that Magic Hat has been rolling out. Nice fruit notes, something citrusy going on underneath the hops. Yet, like many Magic Hat beers, it’s just not outstanding. See my comment above about “something is missing,” only even more so.

Deschutes Hop in the Dark

I shared this with friends at a party several weeks ago, and I wish I’d taken better notes. But let me just cut to the chase: outstanding. I can only remember so much, but I just remember everyone going “wow, this is great.” It’s a black IPA, a style that seems to be on the rise (Stone has one as well). I remember it being very mellow, with a very balanced hop bite that is subtle, not overwhelming like some IPAs. A touch of coffee. This is part of Deschutes Bond Street Series, available May-September, and I encourage you to grab some now if you can find it – here in Texas, I think all we get from Deschutes is Black Butte Porter and Mirror Pond Pale (seriously, guys, could you at least start sending some Obsidian Stout down here?).

UPDATE: Somebody with Deschutes e-mailed me to say:

You will be getting Hop in the Dark 22oz bottles in Austin. It should be on shelves in Austin by now and a few of the places where you will be able to find it include: Whip In (S. I35), Spec’s Airport, Spec’s Brodie, and Central Markets. Hope this helps and if you don’t see it on the shelves, please ask for it since it should be out until about August.

A Couple of Summer Seasonals

Good god it's frickin' hot down here in Texas this summer. I swear if it weren't for the great, cold swimming holes we have in and around Austin I'd move. (I've discovered through Facebook that I have about a dozen friends in the much balmier Portland, Oregon; maybe I should move up there. Nah, they already have several beer bloggers.)

Seasonal beers also help me deal with the heat, and I've sampled a couple of good'uns lately.

Last night — as the sun was setting, appropriately enough — I grabbed the Twilight Ale that the nice folks from Deschutes (speaking of Oregon) sent to me. Not quite sure why this is a seasonal — it didn't seem particularly light, but it certainly is flavorful. Not particularly original in taste, it struck me as a Sierra Nevada Pale clone, albeit slightly heavier on the malt. But hey, nothing wrong with that — I love Sierra Pale. Deschutes says it blends four kinds of hops, finished with an Amarillo dry-hopping.

Sorry, not sure if this beer is available in Austin — Deschutes doesn't send all their beers to Texas, and I haven't checked the stores for this one.

Deschutes sent me some big-beer stuff to review, too, but I don't really want to tackle a couple of 11% ABV bombers on my own. Let me round up some friends for a tasting and I'll get back to you on those.

When I really like a seasonal is if it delivers something unique, and Shiner Smokehaus certainly delivers in that regard. I was pretty pissed when Spoetzl/Shiner replaced my beloved Kölsch with that pathetic, watery Spezial Leicht (Special Light) as the summer seasonal last year; they're definitely getting back on my good side by replacing Leicht with this.

I've also opined that Shiner could get on my good side if they'd re-release more of the limited-edition 100th anniversary beers that they've been putting out over the past five years, and they're sort of doing that here. Last year they put out a delightful Munich-style Helles, and Smokehouse revives the Helles, but with a twist: As hinted by the name, the beer is flavored with a pale malt that's been smoked by mesquite wood.

Now, I had some trepidation about that. I've tried "smoke beers" before and have yet to be impressed. And then I smelled it, and I really got worried — it smelled like barbeque! (Texas BBQ, anyway, as mesquite is the wood of choice for how we smoke it down here.) Now I love BBQ, but I'm not sure I want to swish it around in my beer before drinking.

But I was pleasantly surprised. The actual smoky taste was much more restrained than in other beers I've tried, and it went down great. And I'd forgotten how much I liked that slightly syrupy quality of the Helles. Smokehaus' label bills it as "The Perfect Sommer Bier," and I'm inclined to agree. In fact, rather than tasting like BBQ, I think this may be the perfect beer to drink with BBQ. I'll be consuming a lot more of this throughout the summer.

Back to the Deschutes

Okay, back to the Deschutes beers that were sent to me for a review. I've already reviewed the Mirror Pond Pale Ale and the Cinder Cone Red back in May. Also back in May I tasted the Blacke Butte Porter, but didn't get around to writing up. But here are the notes I took: The immediate impression is a strong dose of chocolate. It settles on the tongue nicely, although the finish is mildly disappointing after the excellence of the Mirror Pond and Cinder Cone. There is a hint of licorice behind the chocolate. I'd give it a B.

A few months later I tried the Obsidian Stout, and this was back up to the standard of the first two brews. Obsidian is a smooth, black volcanic rock, and that describes this magnificent stout perfectly: smooth. As I sipped it I immediately imagined the perfect, glassy surface of a perfect rock of obsidian. I lost my other notes, but the velvety wonderfulness of this stout quite firmly implanted itself in my memory.

Then tonight I sampled the Inversion IPA. It was quite good, although I'm not certain what to say about it. Brews like Dogfish Head 60 Minute and 90 Minute, and double IPAs like Breckenridge 471, have raised the standard for IPAs so high that it takes a lot to impress me. Which is not to say Inversion is bad — it's actually quite good, and if you find it, it's worth your time and money.

And now I'm confused. I could have sworn Deschutes sent me a six-pack, but that's only five beers. Maybe they only sent me five, but more likely is I drank one and forgot to take notes. I have a suspicion that they sent me the Green Lakes Organic Ale and I just don't remember it — make of that what you will.

Overall, I'm mighty glad that Deshutes is shipping to Texas, and the Obsidian, Cinder Cone, and Mirror Pond are near the top of my list of recommended beers.

Deschutes Cinder Cone Red

Okay, I'm two for two on my journey through the six beers that Deschutes sent me. This Cinder Cone Red is wonderful. It strikes a perfect balance between the malt and the Amarillo and Tettering hops, the latter of which set my tongue to buzzing and linger wonderfully long after the swallow. It has a mild smokiness. I enjoyed this with a mere salami and turkey sandwich, but I suspect it would perfectly complement smoked meats, especially game like duck. Damn, I wish they'd sent me more than one bottle of this. And I don't normally think of myself as a big fan of reds.

Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

Okay, I swear I started this blog as just a hobby and really was not trying to scam some free beer … but it's starting to happen. Well, sort of. I've recently sort of weaseled my way into becoming The Austin Chronicle's official beer writer, and Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon, wanting to advertise their entry into the Texas market, sent us a ridiculously fancy promo six-pack of their brews. Seriously: It came in this huge, fancy wooden crate. I'll include a pic later.

Unfortunately for them, our coverage in the Chronicle is extremely local in orientation, and yet another beer entering Texas just doesn't quite rise to the level that I'd review them in our pages. We focus more on local brewers. However, I have no such parameters for coverage on this blog and will be happy to plug them here. So for the next few days, I'll review one Deschutes beer at a time. Hey, it's the least I can do if they're sending it to me for free.

First up: Mirror Pond Pale Ale. This is fine pale. In fact, it's exactly what I'm looking for in a pale. (Mentally, I'm contrasting it with a couple of Texas pales I've drank in the past few days that disappointed me.)

A very floral hop taste. You know, I haven't quite refined my palate enough to differentiate between hops, but maybe I'm learning. I've always heard that Cascade hops are highly prized, and I'm wondering if this floral character is the defining characteristic. It's wonderful, and it's a taste that just gets stronger the deeper I go into the glass.

As my friend Bobnoxious would say, it's "effcellent." I give this an A, and I can see why Bill said their move into Texas is good news for us.

UPDATE: Erik over at Deschutes wants you to know that Mirror Pond Ale and Black Butte Porter is available on draft at these fine Austin establishments:

Billy's on Burnet

Trudy's on 30th

Crown and Anchor

Opal Divine’s (all 3 locations)

Little Woodrow's on 6th

Draught House

Dog and Duck Pub

Fion’s

Cool River

The Dig Pub

...also available in keg form at Spec’s Liquor Store...

Oregon's Deschutes now available in Texas

Press release I just received:



Bend Based Deschutes Brewery Expands Into the Texas Market

(March 24, 2008 – Bend, OR) – Deschutes Brewery has recently announced plans to expand its distribution and sales into Texas, the thirteenth state to offer Deschutes brews. Deschutes Brewery’s flagship beers, Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter, will be available on draft at select establishments in Austin beginning Monday, March 24th; beer will be available in the Dallas area as of May 1st.

Black Butte Porter, the number one selling craft porter in the country, was first brewed in 1988 and has become Deschutes Brewery’s flagship label. With the rich and distinctive flavor of chocolate and crystal malts, this porter has developed a loyal and passionate following. Deschutes Brewery’s other flagship beer, Mirror Pond Pale Ale, became a year-round offering in 1996 and uses generous quantities of Cascade hops, offering a lush floral aroma with a balanced malt body.

Look for Black Butte Porter and Mirror Pond Pale Ale on tap at select Austin establishments including: Billy's, Trudy's on 30th, Crown and Anchor, Opal Divines on 6th, Little Woodrow's on 6th and Draught Horse. For more information about Deschutes Brewery and their award winning beers, please visit www.deschutesbrewery.com.

About Deschutes Brewery:
Deschutes Brewery was founded in 1988 by Gary Fish as the Deschutes Brewery and Public House. Over the years, Deschutes has maintained its commitment to innovation and exceptional quality with flagship beers such as Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter, as well as new additions like The Abyss and Hop Trip. This year, Deschutes Brewery celebrates their 20th Anniversary, along with the opening of their new Portland Brewery and Public House.