Pinkus Jubilate Dark Lager

The smell of soy sauce is the firs thing the drinker will notice. Besides that, the drinker will also note the flat head and dirty look in the glass. However, as the beer sits in the open air the essence of the beer releases itself from the bottom of the glass upward to form a small head. This particular beer along with it’s soy sauce taste it also has a light choco coffee flavor with little to no carbonation effect on the tongue in the beginning but as the beer continues to sit in the open air it takes on a much more robust body and more of a carbonation in the mouth. As far as the beer going with food, I would say that although this beer comes from Germany the best food for this beer would be a good sweet and sour soup. However, that is a bit of a stretch. This unfortunately is just a so so beer from what I was hoping would be a powerhouse brewer from the fatherland. So to recap this beer from the Pinkus breweries, it is a no go in my book. You cant winn them all can you.

Xingu Black Lager Beer

As November shuts the casket on October’s Halloween and the true dark of winter starts to creep in to the world it is truly time to welcome the dark with this offering from Brazil of all places. I first ran into XINGU Black Lager Beer last year at the beer fest in Galveston and I have beer sitting on this gem for too long. This is a nice chaco treat for those of you who are still suffering from the sweet tooth of Halloween. This is perhaps the first beer I have dubbed as a dessert beer but (no pun intended) it takes the cake. The beer is versatile as well, it would go well with most rich foods like pot roast, salmon, goos or duck as well as chocolate ice cream. This is also a good camp fire sitter. There you are under the stars enjoying the contrast between the cold and heat and reminiscing of the year and drinking this beer. Just forget for just one moment that this beer is from south of the border, real south of the border. This is a well rounded beer that is truly deserving of your time and consideration and along with that, this beer is a real eyebrow raiser when it comes to impressing the guests. In closing, this beer is worth the price 11.04 a case is worth it.

Genesee Cream Ale

Swing and I miss for Genesee Cream Ale.

The beer touts the fact that it was a “World Beer Cup Gold”. However, with that said this does not taste like a gold winner to me. This is a far cry from creamy. This is flavorless and dull at best. I cant really cant think of a meal to enjoy this with at all. This is one of those beers that you just drink to drink. I think this beer is non alcoholic, nope never mind it clams that it is 5.1% ABV, yeah right. Perhaps this beer is best for cooking with, but what I can’t tell you because I have no idea what dish needs help being bland and if you look at the web page the brewer makes it sound like this beer is the best stuff to ever come out of america. This is a classic case of buyer be ware of false representation. You be the judge, I urge you to google this beer and go to the web page and see what it says. I can tell you that in my opinion after having downed one, every word on that web page in regards to the taste and it’s going well with food is a phlegm-flam. However, don’t take my word for how bad it is, make your own judgment. But if you trust my judgement at all, then stay away from this not and save seven bucks.

Pinkus Munster Alt

It is October and that means that it is Octoberfest time and this beer is a fabulous offering right out of Germany just in time for this holy time of the year for beer lovers. Right off the bat I will tell you that this beer is best with food. The best food you ask? German sausage and sauerkraut and where do you get all of this? The answer to the question to is Flying Saucer. Located downtown, this place is a beer lovers heaven. But now on to the beer. This particular beer has a sweet jasmine flower taste to it when you drink it as a standalone and is relatively flat in the carbonation department. However, when enjoyed with the food I mentioned above all the flavors mix so well together like they were meant to be the fats in the sausage play off the sweet almost smokey aftertaste of the beer. The alt style of which this beer is a mixing of two brewing styles, Lager and Ale. The two different styles of brewing which in my eyes are for all intents and purpose are contradictory, really do a nice job of mingling together in this aspect. The only sad thing about this beer is that it is not as well just as a standalone beer, to enjoy this beer to the fullest is with food and in this case it is German food. So while the weather is “nice” I urge you to get out to a place that serves this along with true German food. You will not be disappointed if you do.

Pumpkin Ale

Wow, the first beer review of the fall and I am giving to you all a beer that I first tried almost ten years before. I remember the experience like it was just last Sunday, it was a crisp fall afternoon just after 12pm (because you can’t buy beer or wine no Sunday before 12.) It was a magical afternoon shopping at the local grocer and sitting there in the cooler was an odd looking beer with a pumpkin on it. I being the adventures guy that I am took the gamble and it was a real hum-dinger. Now flash forward to today when I am on the lookout for new beers to try, I see this old classic sitting there in the cooler section. Be forewarned; as the autumn beer season emerges you will be inundated with “pumpkin Beers and Ale’s.” However, it is my opinion that this offering from Buffalo Bill’s Brewery is the pinnacle of pumpkin pouring pleasure when it comes to seasonal beers. This is a well balanced beer and as I mentioned in the last sentence, it is brought to us by Buffalo Bill’s Brewery which I have been blogging about all year. Perhaps I might not have a candidate for beer but perhaps for the first time, a brewery of the year? The beer is excellent for enjoying in the backyard contemplating what makes the birds know to fly south, or for that mater the North American Hobo migrate that way the same time every year. In addition to that, the beer is also fantastic for enjoying with food. My food picks are pork and chicken of most any types. The beer has that pumpkin taste with the beer bite at the end, it also has a refreshing flow through. The beer is just so well crafted from the ground up. please enjoy this beer, it is so good.

Beers and Friends

This is not so much a beer review as it is a tribute to a new friend. For those of you who follow my blog, I usually rip on anything from Anhiser Buch as specially Budweiser beer. However, I found that after a few days in the outback backpacking, a beer by any name is a good beer and this Budweiser was the best beer I have ever had after running around in the mountains with nothing to drink. This is for my new friend ED. As I have said that in the past, beer is made to be enjoyed. Beer is the great common denominator. After my backcountry adventure with my wife, we were back in base camp at Big Bend where the camp host was had greeted us when we first arrived invited me to come sit and have a beer with him. I was dead tired from the hike, but could not pass up the opportunity to sit and talk over a beer. What a magical idea to sit in nature and make a new friend all while enjoying a beer. Something so universal and common, yet so powerful in it’s ability to bring together strangers. So heres to beer, the friend maker. We might not be Budweiser or Coors fans, but we are all beer fans. We will always be able to put our differences aside for the beers we prefer when it comes to making new friends and enjoying a beverage called beer. Ed, thank you fro your hospitality during our stay at Big Bend and thanks for he Budweiser. it was the best dang beer I have ever had.

Beck"s Beer

Beck’s Beer

The beer of Germany and of German U-boat crews. Yes folks, this very beer that I now review is the same beer that 60 years before German U-boat crews were drinking as they patrolled the deep looking for floating targets. This beer is a good soled working persons beer. The beer is a little like a Heineken in the bitterness department but the strong wheat taste that in my opinion is the platform of any good beer comes in strong at the finish. For those of you out there that enjoy a good Heineken, I feel that this will be a good beer for you, in addition to that you will have a good history story to go along with it when you are trying to start a conversation dawn at the bar. To say this is a good solid beer really does do a good job at describing it. This is not by any stretch of the imagination a progressive beer sent to blow the market away in terms of the next big thing in beer, it is what it is and there is not much more to say. However, when paired with food the beer takes on a sweet taste that dwells on the bottom right and left sides of the lower jaw which is a much different flavor profile than when it is enjoyed as a standalone.