Raspberry Temptress Imperial Milk Stout

A few weeks ago, i tried the Temptress Imperial Milk Stout from Lakewood Brewing, and really enjoyed the hell out of it.  In my heart of hearts, i am a dark beer kind of guy, though the summer heat here in central Texas certainly tries its best to push me in the other direction.  But, when it's late at night, the sun down, and the air cooling ever so slightly, i'm still wont to pour myself a strong stout and relax for a little while.  And Lakewood's Temptress hit the spot.  So, i was very happy to find out that the brewery offers up seasonal variations of this wonderful imperial milk stout with their Seduction Series, which brings us to the Raspberry Temptress, a sweet and strong delicious brew to stare at the moon and stars to.  The beer pours a dark black with a foamy, light tan head, and smells of chocolate, malts, raspberries, and some hints of vanilla.  The raspberries and chocolate are at the forefront, a medium bodied brew, with those hints vanilla here and there, and ending with a sweet finish on the back end.  And the 9.1% ABV hits you just right in the center of your chest.  Skip dessert and have one of these instead.

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Circle Archetype Historical IPA

Now this is an impressive brew, from creation to consumption.  Circle Brewery's Archetype Historical IPA is a beer four years in the making, going through several trial runs in an attempt to create a kind of beer that would have been imbibed 300 years ago, brewed in the UK and then shipped by sea to India.  Go here for a rundown of the whole process.  And all that work was definitely not in vain.  The beer poured clear and crisp, a light gold with a fairly frothy head.  Slight earthy aromas abound, with some really subtle hints of lemon, and the flavor was not what i was expecting.  Either through the recreated British malts used in brewing, or the secondary fermentation in the brett-carrying barrels, the beer does not taste like the kind of IPA i'm generally used to.  That being said, West Coast IPA's tend to dominate that market, with their hops in the forefront.  The Archetype really dialed back the hoppiness with much more balance with the malt, creating something that, to me, felt and tasted much more like an ESB.  Either way, it was a delicious, 7.5% brew that i certainly will be revisiting all summer long.

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Sam's Daily American Cream Ale

It gets hot here in Central Texas, and sometimes you just need a beer to beat the heat.  Sam's Daily, an American Cream Ale from Houston's Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co. will do just that.  The brew pours gold with a frothy head and smells simply of hops and malt.  As far as flavor goes, the beer tastes like something you'd drink on a June day at the ball park, or resting on a lawn chair after a long afternoon of yard work.  Sam's Daily is a sessionable brew, but at 5.8% ABV, it will still let you know it's there.

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