Carta Blanca Beer

At first when I started this six pack I did not care for the flavor. The first beer was bitter and uninspired at best and I thought that this beer was going to suck. However, the other night I was having Mexican food and having the Carta Blanca with it and fund that it went very well with the food. A con to this is that the beer go well with the Mexican food and I fear that it only will go with the Mexican and nothing more. As for the beer itself, it is ever so slightly bitter the whole way through with no change which is why it is not the best for just drinking, as for pairing the beer with food, yes it does go well with food, the Mexican food I discussed earlier in the piece. It is a middle to lower end beer and will not be making it into the beer of the year running. So enjoy or whatever you are going to do with this beer. I gave you all the info I can about this beer. This beer stinks like the debt ceiling.

Pearl Beer

“Texas Oldest Brewery” it says right on the can, if this is indeed the case it is time to freshen up the recipe. This beer just tastes old and un inspired. The best way I can describe this beer is that it is like what Loan Star use to taste like before it went off the market before it became the strong brand that it is today. An interesting thing about the brewery, is that it is brewed in Fort Worth which is the same place that Loan Star (which I love) is brewed. This is interesting because the water is what is the keystone of beer because it is the ingredient that is called for the most in every brew and it is also the one major ingredient that differs from region to region, state to state and texas does have some good H2O don’t it water boy. So if you like to drink in the god old days have at it with this slightly malty overly hoppy beer from the Texas.

Enjoy?

Red Hook WIT

Fairly fresh off a trip to Washington state I thought I would do a review on some beer from the Bigfoot state. Let me just say that Mr. Foot would not be pleased in my opinion. The beer in question is from Red Hook and it is called WIT and there is a little saying on bottle and it says “ Made with ginger, but still digs Mary Ann.” The bite that ginger has is not not found in the beer at all. This beer is most like the last beer I did a review on, which was from the west coast as well, but much more flavorful than this one. This is what I call a phone in beer. There is not anything that sets this beer apart, or make it stand out above others. The beer is just bland and flavorless and a real disappointment the overlying taste profile is watery. This is so sad coming from a place that is filled with such natural beauty that it brings you to tears and fills you with curiosity to have such a crap beer come out of it. On a related note, Olympia Beer is not brewed in Olympia Washington like it was, it is now brewed in Milwaukee. The brewery is sitting in ruins at the adders of 3223 Boston St SE Tumwater, WA 98501, look it up no your IPhones google map app or google maps. Don’t be fooled by the bottle, it is outright falls advertising right on the bottle there is nothing “in the water” at least nothing from Washington. However, I digress from the current rant about this beer. This is a no go in my book. A better name for this beer would have been “HET” which is NO in Russian. So if you are into bland beer, try Red Hook’s HET, I mean WIT.

Orange Blossom Cream Ale

I am going to come right out of the gate here and say that this brewery is a powerhouse in the brewing world. The Buffalo Bill Brewing Co has consecutively impressed me with it’s untraditional offerings. Case in point, this latest offering, an Orange Blossom Cream Ale and it is everything the bottle says it is. This is the beer of the summer if not the year! First off the the detractors of the beer and there are not many. The beer is a drinking only beer, due to the sweet taste profile of the beer it is limited to just a drinking beer, but what a drinking beer it is. This is like cream in the mouth, the taste is reminiscent of an French orange cream pastry and an orange cream-sicle with a alcohol after taste. The beer is a well rounded one from start to finish. The beers natural habitat is outside in the backyard on a summer afternoon, bottle sweating slightly in the sun. This is a social butterfly of a beer in that its taste is so different and conversation evoking. Pick this one up for all your summertime backyard BBQ’s and get togethers. despite the fact that the beer is only a drinker, I am adding it into the running for beer of the year.

Thanks to http://www.beermelodies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/BUFFALO-BILLS-ORANGE-BLOSSOM.jpg for the picture this time, I would have done it myself, but time, oh how it does run out so fast. Enjoy!!!

Ruby Redbird

The Perfect Summer Beer it says, well that is up for dispute. However, what is not up for dispute is that this beer is a unique offering from the Shiner Brewery. The beer boasts that it is brewed with Texas ruby red grapefruit and ginger. The primary taste is of ginger and no grapefruit so from a technical point of view the label should be switched. At first glance this beers sounds like it is only a good drinking beer. However as you drink this beer down the grapefruit does star to peek through towards the end. On further thought, this beer would be good with Asian broccoli and beef with ginger. This is a good conversation starter beer, when served to your guests you get to ask them what they think of the beer. This beer is a good attempt at pushing the boundaries of what beer can be and that is a good thing. This is what the world needs in a beer and for that matter, a beer company. However, this try just did not hit the mark as far as being a hit out of the park. However, this is what makes beer brewing an art that has lasted for hundreds of years, it is the continued hunt for something better, something new, something next.

Thanks to thehiddenlist.com and google.com for use of the picture.

Shiner Spring Ale

spring is here and that means a rebirth of everything including beers when I go through my local beer store I see new brews “springing” up everywhere. Case in point, this offering from Shiner Beer Co. it is Shiner spring Ale which is Dortmunder style which in actuality is a German lager that originated in the 19th century so the fact that Shiner says it is an Ale. The little rundown on the back of the bottle is an accurate one. You can taste the bite of an Ale with a hint of light sweetness at the end of the “swig” the light sweet taste is reminiscent of watered down clover honey like what one would find in meat which is a medieval alcoholic drink. The beer is refreshing and is good as a standalone and a food beer. The food of choice in my opinion is grilled chicken with grilled corn as well. Shiner has not broken any new ground in terms of taste or style here but has produced a solid spring time beer. This is not a beer that I would be apposed to drinking on a more regular basis.

Blueberry Oatmeal Stout

This year is not starting like I had expected in the way of getting beer reviews out to the people who do read this blog and for you who do, I thank you for your following me. As you know, I for the most part judge a beer as being good by it’s ability to be good as what I call a standalone and a food beer and when a beer does not fall into both of my categories I tend to dismiss the beer as being “good” and also exclude the beer form the beer of the year award. However, this winter has opened me up to excepting beers that don’t fit into both of my categories. Case in point, this offering from Buffalo Bill’s Brewery, which has been operating since 1983. This is a fine example of what I am talking about, be forewarned this beer is good for the winter and not much else, I am not a stout beer fan. However, for whatever reason this beer, an oatmeal stout brewed with blueberries “and other natural flavors” caught my eye from a bottom shelve in a non beer related part of my local grocer. This beer moved me so much that just before I went to checkout I felt I needed to walk back to the beginning of the store just to pick this one up. This is the the beer you sip as you sit inside in the dark on a stormy winter night as the temp drops outside which makes you want to stay inside all the more which gives you time to notice all the complexities of this beer. Like it’s chalk aftertaste or it’s strong robust initial flavor, the kind of flavor that only a mature individual can appreciate. As for the blueberry taste it is very slight if not at all, despite that fact the fact there is a sweat ending taste to that beer. Overall, this beer is the refined thinking mans beer, the kind of man who reads John Updike or J.D. Salinger books who putters around the house in a smoker jacket with a pipe in hand and who‘s gray hair is coming in so nicely. So to all you aging, I mean maturing beer afficionados out there enjoy.

A side bar: Buffalo Bill’s Brewery also brews another one of my favorites, (America’s Original Pumpkin Ale)

in addition to that, thanks to

http://spiritshopinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/BUFFALO-BILLS-BLUEBERRY-OATMEAL-STOUT.jpg

for the pic.