Hornsby’s Hard Cider

This beer is this mounts smash hit. This baby is in the running for beer of the year. The only detractors from this beer are that 12 fluid ounces is not nearly enough, this is like one of those incredible vanishing beers, once the cap is off it is gone, all gone like so many trailer homes after a tornado. In addition to that, it only seems to be best as a drinking beer only, not an eating and drinking beer of which is an important aspect in my reviewing process. The thing that stands out about this beer is that it is refreshing as hell, you just want to drink it, and then you want to drink another. However, with an alcohol content of 5.5%, you may want to take it easy or you might end up feeling like that rhino on the label smacked you, or even worse, you just might end up waking up next to one the morning after. With it’s shiny gold medal color and applelishous refreshingness this beer is like velvet throat candy, with just a little bite at the end, a little yoo-hoo for your taste buds. This is just a great beer and what is better is the fact that my wife loves it as well, and that is saying a lot about the beer because she hats beer like Brett Favre hates punt kickers from gumbo land. So if you are looking for some brew that even the beer hating fans will love, this one is a touchdown. So enjoy the game today.

Hue Beer Export By Hue Brewery, Hue City, Vietnam

It is only now that I am starting to see this beer for sale outside of an Asian restraint and upon further investigation into hue on the internet I learned that back in 2008 in an embargo was lifted on Vietnam and the beer was now being exported to the US. This is an unassuming beer that if you did not know to give it a try you might not. This beer is a good example of one that has a malt flavor. This malt flavor is the full rich creamy flavor that wells up in your cheeks as you drink. Hue, like Lone Star does a good job at including this more tactile aspect to it’s beers overall flavor profile. This beer does a good job at running right down the middle of the taste spectrum. Its flavors are neither conservative nor liberal, but right down the middle, which makes it overall refreshing with a hint of sweet bitterness at the end. This lager beer is yellow in color and reminiscent of a wheat field just before harvest time. The beer works best with typical Vietnamese American cooking, and I say that because when it comes to "authentic" Asian food, nine times out of ten you are getting dishes that the chef’s have purposely concocted to please the American palette. As for the beer the, equivalents I can think of are Lone Star and Lhasa (which was last weeks review) This is a happy medium of the two. The beer has an alcoholic content of about 4.8%, which took some snooping on the net to come up with. If you look at imported beers for example those from Asian countries you will see that the alcoholic contents often is not printed on the label so it is sometimes hard to tell how powerful the beer will be. I have found that most golden Asian beers sit at about 4.5% alcohol. The retail price was $11.29 as Spec’s, which is too damn much to pay for beer. However my first experience with the beer was so positive I decided to splurge and bring some home and do a review for you. However, looking at the retail price and trying to remember what I paid for it at the restaurant definitely makes this a beer one you get when you are out to eat and not one you bring home to drink. The cost is prohibitive of that and not worth it. If you are interested in learning more about Hue you can go to the web page

http://www.huda.com.vn/default.asptype=portal&tab=news&menuID=32&SubmenuID=86&path=Hue Beer

Lhasa Beer by Tibet Lhasa brewery LTD

I am usually a real fan of Asian style beers like Sapporo, Kirin and Tsingtao. However, this is not the case with the Lhasa. The beer does start out crisp and refreshing followed by a swift and bitter finish, the likes of which linger on the back of the tong well after the beer is finished. The beer is touted as " capturing the elemental essence of Tibet and the high Himalayas." Apparently according to Lhasa’ s web page barley is farmed extensively in the region with approximately 3395 different genetic variants of the brewing ingredient used in farming there. However due to the climate and pests, farmers tend to grow many different types of barley in an effort to stack the deck in their favor. If pest destroys one strand then another will have survived the attack leaving the farmer with something to harvest. The bottle also boasts that the "all-malt beer is made from the worlds finest ingredients" including among other things, pure Himalayan spring water of which is not just life’s most important liquid, but beers as well. The majority of beer is water and if the water doesn’t taste right then neither will the beer. This along with some of the other challenges of brewing a beer in the Himalayas such as having so many different strands of barley in the brew makes for an overall mediocre taste profile. Which is hindered the most by the Saaz hops which according to the beers web page is the "gold standard of hops" and is among the most expensive around. Just because something is expensive, like a Mont Blanc pen does not mean it is worth the price, I fear that this is the case with this beer. The overall taste profile is of bitter jasmine flower, the likes of which you find at most Asian restaurants floating around in the teapots. The beer is a Lager with a 4.6% Alcohol content, moderately priced at about seven dollars I found this beer at Whole Foods Market, however on the web page under the distribution tab you can find other places to get the beer. In conclusion I feel that the Lhasa needs lhasa improvement, however the fact that 10% of the profit goes to helping Tibet makes spending money on a beer that I did not particularly care for a little less disappointing. After spending any amount of time on the web page you will see that the Lhasa brewery LTD is an all-round good-natured company, one that I would want to work for, I only wish I liked the beer more. So buy some beer, save Tibet. If you’re into bitterness this is a safe bet.

http://www.lhasabeerusa.com/

Hoogstraten Poorter by Sterkens Meer

The Hoogstraten Poorter is brewed according to the German purity law of 1516 that was originally in acted to ensure that the beer-drinking public was getting pure beer. The law called only for the use of water, barley and hops, which is great. However, in a world in which variety is the spice of life, the purity law is a little passe. For those who know me on a personal level, I am all for holding onto traditions. I am the person who goes on vacation and wants to do what the locals are doing, drink what the locals are drinking and eat what the locals eat, all in an attempt to get to the heart of the culture, the original culture. That is why on one hand I applaud the purity law. However, on the other hand when you adhere to the old in the case of the purity law you leave no room for improvement. When you drink a beer brewed by the purity law you know what you are getting. Barley, hops and water. Nothing more nothing less. If you have not had a beer brewed to the standards of the purity I would suggest that you try one, however after that it is my opinion that you have beer there done that. The first thing I can tell you is lookout when you open the bottle you should have a glass ready to receive the contents. You will see an effervescent smoke emanating from the bottles mouth followed by an eruption of foam. You will then try to cap it off with the stopper on the bottle. After you decide to "try it again" you will open it only to find you have adorned the ceiling with foam. As for the beer, it is slightly hopper than it is malty which comes from the barley. The majority of the carbonation is lost when you open it, which leaves the beer a little flat. The beer starts out over the tong; the beer feels smooth however as you finish off the swig a hint of bitterness from the hops comes right through. All in all this is a solid example of a beer that has been brewed according to the law of 1516 and a great beer to share with friends. Even though it says one pint on the bottle I am suspecting that is what the brewers were expecting you would have left after pissing off most of it when you opened it. This is a slow drinking whopper of a beer just perfect for enjoying during the wintertime that is because this dang thing is so heavy it might crush the hygrometer. You can checkout the Sterkens Meer web page by going to http://www.sterkensbrew.be/sterkens/index.htm
P.s. thanks for the brew bro, I love you

Oak Creek Brewing Co Hefeweizen

So the Thursday posting date was postponed due the BCS game in California. In this years blog I have employed a new tool for helping you decide if what I am drinking is something you are
drinking. The form is called Rate That Beer and it can be found by going to this web page.

http://www.knockknock.biz/catalog/categories/pads/classic-pads/rate-beer-pad/

You can just copy and paste it into your browser bar if you would like to see the format that I will be using to help to better serve you. So with further adieu I present to you

Oak Creek Brewing Co Hefeweizen

To hefeweizen (German for "Yeast wheat") purists, this beer is anything but. However, to understand my description of this beer one must look at where the beer is from, Arizona, a place that is not known for being a part of the breadbasket of America much less a beer brewing state. The folks at Oak Creek Brewing Co have done a good job what I would like to call a regional style of hefeweizen. Arizona is hot and dry, so who wants to drink a wheatie beer in a place like that? No, you want a beer that is easy drinking, refreshing and flavorful. Oak Creek does a good job at filling this order; even the bottle art conjures cool blue tones that is nothing like Arizona. The first thing you will notice is the unmistakable flavor of cloves, yea that Yuletide spice and uncommon brew ingredient has lawn darted itself nicely into this beers uncanny flavor profile. The beers color is reminiscent of morning fog turned golden by the suns rays. The yeast that is in my eyes what makes a hefeweizen a hefeweizen floats like diamond dust in it’s alcoholic atmosphere. This is not a particularly heavy beer, in fact its head was almost nonexistent even after the "rousting" of the yeast from it’s bottom of the bottle bed. The aroma is slightly pine like. However, pine is not in the flavor profile that happens to be consistent throughout the beer, which is nice in any beer you are drinking. The alcoholic content of the beer is 4.5%, which is consistent with the overall lite refreshing aspect of the beer. My overall impression: The beer is great for drinking on a hot as hell Houston day, where were you this summer?

BEER OF THE YEAR 2009 Rock Ice Limon (Costa Rica)

Of all the beers I have had this year, this by far was one of the best drinking experiences of my life. In addition to all of the criteria by which I judge beers (taste, flavor profile complexities, drinkability, easy by which the beer goes with food) one tool of measurement by which I personally use for how good a beer is comes from what I was doing as I was enjoying the beer. Beer is not just taste alone; it is at least for me emotional as well. The events, people, places and smells are all important parts of what makes drinking a beer so special or so miserable, and for me this was an exceptional example of that. I can go back to that moment in time with just the thought of the experience. There that night with my wife and parents in-law at the el Refugio Grill. The air fat with moisture, exotic animals of the Costa Rican jungle calling out from high atop trees in the far off hills. The smells of fresh food of the earth never tainted by packaging, all cooking on a small home stove top just on the other side of a thin wall, all of the small infinitesimal parts that made up the whole of that moment in time. The refreshing lime salt flavor mixing with the fish mixing with the plantain mixing with the everything else, all coming together to make that moment a perfect one. I urge you to take a moment to think of your favorite beer and examine what you were doing the first time you had that beer and see if that has any validity as to why you enjoy that beer so much. Perhaps it was the first time you shared a beer with your Father, or it was your Grandfathers beer of choice. Whatever the reason you like it I am willing to bet that on some level there is a positive emotional aspect involved with it, however small it might be. Drinking should always be a positive experience, one which congers happy memories. However, in a world of stress and overindulgence it is all too easy to fall into drinking for the sake of being drunk. My wish to all of you out there on this Christmas Eve is that you find yourself surrounded by good food, good friends, loving family members and phenomenal beer, whatever it may be. So in conclusion I thank all of you, and remember that Santa Claus is coming to town tonight so don’t hit him. Think right. Drink right, good night.

Steel Reserve

This beer is like the sleeper hit of the year. You have seen it down at the local gas and go and perhaps never even gave it any mind, you don’t see it many places but when you do, give it a try. This is an easy drinking beer. You can really taste the malted barley, which is what gives this beer it’s sweet taste profile which ends in an overall refreshing taste. This is however, a more one-dimensional beer in that it is best as just a drinking beer and not so much one you would pare with food. This is however a fantastic drinking beer. Let me set the scene for you, it is a winter night you find yourself in a semi rural pasture surrounded by old friends, a camp fire is going and you are all standing around recalling stories about remember when, and a Steel Reserve in every hand. Closing out the year with this one being in the running for beer of the year is a wonderful segue to the beer of the year award rundown. In no particular order, 1) shiner smokehaus 2) Rock Ice Limon 3) Anchor Steam 4) Sakara Gold 5) Steel Reserve. All of these beers have been in my opinion outstanding and deserving of the beer of the year. So look out for next weeks Beer of the year, just in time for Christmas and the New Year.