A long, long time ago (December) I wrote about brewing my first batch of homebrew (part 1 and part 2). Now it’s time to drink the fruits of my labor! After finishing the wonderful bottling process, the instructions recommended letting the beer carbonate for two weeks. With Christmas, illness, and everything else going on in December and January, the bottles had quite a bit longer to carbonate. In case you’ve forgotten by now (and I don’t blame you if you  [ Read More ]

For some reason, every time I see Abita, I think of Scott.  So while having dinner at Boatwright’s Dining Hall, I had to have the Abita sampler in his honor. I’ve had Purple Haze a bunch of times and enjoy it but never had a chance to try the Amber or the Turbodog until now. Amber: They described this beer as a Munich-style lager and I really enjoyed it.  Little hint of caramel and nice and smooth.  According to their  [ Read More ]

You may have been expecting the next installment of my visit to The Avenue in New Orleans, but I’ll get back to that soon. On Saturday I visited Saint Arnold Brewing Company for my birthday; it’s just north of downtown Houston and is located at 2000 Lyons Ave. Saint Arnold hosts tours every day except Sunday. On weekdays they open at 3:00 pm until about 4:15 pm, but on Saturdays they are open from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm. During  [ Read More ]

“…a rich, robust flavored beer with the smooth drinkability of a classic dark-style lager.” Um, no. Okay, fine, I’ll give the marketing person who wrote that line on Dos Equis Ambar’s back label credit for the smooth drinkability. It’s smooth alright (is it possible to be too smooth?), because it’s very easy to drink. On the other hand, water has about as much flavor as this lager. Rich and robust this beer is not. There’s some biscuit flavor in there,  [ Read More ]

Leinenkugel’s signature flavor has a caramel flavor to it that I honestly wasn’t expecting. Not that it’s a bad thing, by any means.  I actually like that it gives it a unique flavor.

This could have been a one word article: “Fail”. Roswell Alien Amber was one of the latest pick six I bought from the grocery store. The label looked interesting so I bought it. I should have seen the gimmick from a mile away. According to the label, Uncle Sam has been trying to keep this ale a secret for 50 years. The only reason to keep this a secret is because you’re embarrassed you drank it. Its taste is almost  [ Read More ]

Pleasantly surprised with this one from New Belgium Brewing. A nice smoky flavor that goes down pretty smooth. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did last night. Definitely a beer I will drink again.

Fat Tire is an amber ale and Lindsay’s self-proclaimed first beer love. It’s a fairly standard amber ale with a hint of spice. Definitely one I could buy a six pack of and have a few at one time. It also just so happened that my TRON and TRON: Legacy Blu-Rays came in the mail the same day I picked up The Incredibles and Cars on Blu-Ray. They made for an interesting background item when I took this picture.

Tonight I’m enjoying a beer called 5 A.M. Saint from a small Scottish brewery known as BrewDog.  The bottle refers to the beer as an “iconoclastic amber ale”, meaning that it is trying to destroy established conventions in the beer industry.  The side of the label can best be described as a rant against the United Kingdom beer industry although its points could also apply here in the United States.  It accuses the drinker of not knowing much about beer,  [ Read More ]

Stop #4, although not a ‘real’ pavilion, you can’t pass up the Outpost for some Safari Amber. Surprisingly one of my favorites of the day, especially put in between Tsingtao in China and the sadly disappointing Altenmünster in Germany.  A little grainy and slightly sweet. Also found out it’s brewed exclusively for Disney (mainly Animal Kingdom).  Pretty cool. And they really need to start serving different sized beers… these big servings are rough if you’re trying to Drink Around the  [ Read More ]