Founders Highball Drifter

The second release from Founders' Bottle Shop Series is here, and it's a whopper.  Highball Drifter basically serves as a beer version of the cocktail and it served as a delightful addition to my weekend evenings.  The 11% ABV brew pours a dark, kind of amber-ish brown with an off-white head and smells of orange peel, cherry, vanilla, caramel, and bourbon.  The taste follows the nose with some added notes of brown sugar and bitters.  While it's certainly prevalent, the booze can still sneak up on you with this one, so take your time, sip, and enjoy.

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Cigar City Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale

I'm always stoked when we get some different stuff from Tampa Bay's Cigar City Brewing here in Central Texas.  They're one of the best brewers in the country, and anything they deem worthy to send here is always welcome.  And so, i spent Saturday with the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale, a 5.5% ABV English Brown Ale.  Pouring a dark, blackish brown with a white head, the beer smells of malts, chocolate, toffee, cinnamon, and dark fruit.  The flavor is a lovely mix of said chocolate and toffee notes with raisins and some hints of cinnamon and oatmeal.  It really does taste like a cookie.  A delicious, alcoholic cookie.

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Rahr & Sons Den of Sin Pumpkin Ale

They're vanishing from the shelves now, giving way to Christmas and winter ales, so i figured i should get one more pumpkin ale on the books before 2019 eventually wraps up.  And the Den of Sin Pumpkin Ale from Fort Worth's Rahr & Sons is a wonderful example of the style to end on.  Pouring a dark brownish amber, the 7.8% ABV ale smells of clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and pumpkin.  Flavors of pumpkin and holiday spices abound with notes of brown sugar and malt, a sweet libation to ride out the fall season to.

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(512) Wild Bear

I missed posting last week, but i'm back again with an absolutely wonderful beer from (512) Brewing here in Austin.  The Wild Bear is a double brown ale with Brettanomyces yeast and Pediococcus bacteria cultures added after primary fermentation and then aged in oak barrels for 10 months.  Pouring a nice, dark brown with a foamy, white head, this 8.5% ABV brew smells of oak, cherries, and hints of vanilla with an overall tartness prevailing.  The flavor is full of sour brett funkiness with a nice malty backbone and notes of vanilla.  This is a tasty brew wrapped together in a badass bear package.

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Goose Island Festivity Ale

It's Christmas time, so let's all drink some Christmas ales.  Festivity Ale from Chicago's Goose Island Brewery is a nice place to start.  A 7.7% brown ale doused with not-your-regular holiday spices, the beer pours a dark brown with frosty, off-white head and smells of malts, molasses, and hints of dark fruit.  The flavor is sweet, but not overly so, the caramel and dark fruit flavors meshing well with just a hint of bitterness on the back end.  Tasty.

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Hop Brownie Brown Ale

Dig on that pacifier in the background.

Beer brewers certainly do get creative when concocting their wares, with a seemingly endless array of hybrid and specialty brews at the ready for your taste buds.  Austin's Independence Brewing offered up an interesting and tasty beer back over the holidays that i'm just now getting around to writing about.  The Hop Brownie Brown Ale is essentially what happens when stoner meets brewer, a brown ale brewed with chocolate malts, cocoa powder, and some dank hops to create what is basically a beer version of a pot brownie.  It is surprisingly delicious, the chocolates and hops playing off each other, vying for your attention and dorm room memories.  Pouring a nice brown (go figure) with off white head, the beer smells of cocoa, malt, and spice, with the aforementioned chocolate and dank hops at the forefront as far as flavor goes, though there are some subtle hints of citrus and toffee in the mix too.  At 6.13% ABV (i guess making it 4.20% would have been too on the nose), the brew is great for a late afternoon wind down.

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Rapture Fusion Brown Ale

Last week, i was able to try a beer from a brewery i had not heard of yet, Rabbit Hole Brewing out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  Their Rapture Fusion Brown Ale is a delicious beer, a brown ale that's malty and roasty but with a citrus and hops bite.  Pouring a dark brown, the beer smells of malts and hops that are evident to the tongue as well.  Some bready notes are there as well.  What surprised me most was citrus and spice, giving the beer a way different character than your regular brown ale.  Nice stuff.

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Ol' Oi Barrel-Aged Sour Brown Ale

Sometimes i feel like i'm the only one, but i love a good sour beer every now and then.  Austin's Jester King Brewery often seem to be the master purveyors of that kind of thing.  While visiting the brewery a couple of weeks ago, i tried their Ol' Oi Barrel-Aged Sour Brown Ale...and loved it.  The brew comes in at 6.3% ABV, and uses a variety of wild yeasts and souring bacteria to give it its kick.  It pours a lovely brown with a light tan head and smells of wheat and spices.  To me, you can practically smell the sour on it.  Aside from the prevailing strong sour notes of the beer, their are also hints of bread, citrus, and some subtle malts.  All in all, this is a great beer if you dig on the sour.  And i do.

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Abita Pecan Harvest Ale

I think it's wonderful that you can tell the change in seasons by the different kinds of seasonal brews that start to hit the shelves.  Pumpkin ales and Oktoberfest brews signal the start of Autumn, while Christmas ales and beers brewed with pecans or other nuts or spices start making the rounds for Winter time.  Louisiana's Abita Brewing's Pecan Harvest Ale is a tasty treat for weather that's starting to get a bit nippy.  The beer pours a nice, brownish amber with an aroma of roasted nuts and malts.  The taste is sweet with hints of caramel throughout, recalling the candied pecan dishes that begin to make the rounds this time of year, but not too sweet.  Overall, a very well-rounded beer.  Cheers.

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