Austin Beerworks Lechedor Horchata Stout

I just can't help myself when it comes to desert-y stouts, and i recently enjoyed the Lechedor Horchata Stout with rice, cinnamon, vanilla, and lactose from the good folks at Austin Beerworks.  The 8.5% ABV brew pours black with a dark tan head and smells of cinnamon, vanilla, and some roasted maltiness.  The flavor is a nice mix of said cinnamon, vanilla, and malt in a lighter bodied brew than your usual stout.  It's definitely a great brew for early fall when it's still pretty hot outside...which is the norm around these parts.

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Austin Beerworks Peak Physique Triple IPA

I got to play the role of single dad this weekend with my two boys.  We went swimming.  We ordered pizza.  We watched "Predator."  Good times.  And i ended the evenings with one or two of these bad boys, the Peak Physique Triple IPA from Austin Beerworks.  The 11% ABV brew pours a nice golden color with a white head and smells of citrus, tropical fruit, pine, and hops.  The flavor is a good balance of pineapple, grapefruit and pine that lingers on the tongue well after the beer is finished.  Really a great brew all around.

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Austin Beerworks Malt Dämon

Bringing in the Spring with a wonderful new brew from Austin Beerworks and their 7% ABV Maibock, Malt Dämon.  The beer pours a nice coppery brown with a white head and smells of malt and hops along with some floral notes.  The flavor is a sweet mix of malt, grain, and caramel that goes down smooth and feels like it needs to be drunk in a big beerhall or garden with a bunch of fellow revelers.  Get your vaccines so we can do that kind of thing again.  Prost!

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El Sputniko Imperial Stout

While this pandemic has certainly been a bitch, and we've lost some great breweries along the way, the folks over at Austin Beerworks have managed to tread these waters by releasing new and excellent beers on an almost weekly basis since March.  They've all been delicious, and they've all sold out.  One of the most recent is El Sputniko, a variant of the brewery's Sputnik Stout.  The 8.5% ABV El Sputniko is an imperial stout with coffee, ancho chile, cocoa nibs, and cinnamon, a beer take on Mexican chocolate.  The brew pours a dark blackish brown with an off white head and smells of chocolate, cinnamon, and spice.  The flavor is a nice and surprisingly smooth mix of said chocolate, cinnamon, and spices.  It's kind of Christmassy in its own way, and in general when you slap a luchador mask on something, you've piqued my interest.

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Austin Beerworks Please Scream Inside Your Heart

It's still a scary year.  And small businesses are still in trouble.  Texas brewers have projected that up to two thirds of independent craft brewers in the state could shutter before year's end.  And that's going to be heartbreaking.  The only bit of light i've really noticed is that all the local beer nerds seem to be trying to do all they can to keep folks afloat.  The breweries are still dropping new releases, and those new releases seem to be selling out.  So that's good.  One of the more recent releases i was lucky enough to snag a 4-pack of was a tasty imperial stout from Austin Beerworks.  Donned with 2020's unintentional motto, the 10% ABV Please Scream Inside Your Heart pours a brownish black with a light tan head and smells of chocolate and orange.  The flavor is a swirling mix of said chocolate and orange along with notes of coconut, vanilla, and malt.  A wonderful nightcap, my wife wanted me to go and get more...but it was already gone.

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Austin Beerworks Incognito Cowgirl

Over the weekend, a bunch of breweries and Texas beer people put together an event called The Great Texas Beer Run, the idea being to pick up as much beer to go from your favorite local brewers as possible.  I've pretty much been doing this every weekend since the lockdown began, but it was nice to participate in more of an official capacity this time around, hitting up 5 breweries over the last couple days.  I wish i could have done more...but i'll be back.  My favorite score of the weekend was the brand new Incognito Cowgirl from Austin Beerworks, a delicious, 8.2% ABV double IPA.  The beer pours a murky straw color and smells of pineapple and tropical fruit.  The flavor is that same mix of tropical fruit, the pineapple up front and center, with some dankness on the back end and a juicy mouthfeel.  A really wonderful beer for the Spring.  Hopefully someday we'll all be able to share one together.

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Austin Beerworks Sakuma Sour Ale with Cherries

Still doing what i can to help out as many breweries in the greater Austin area as possible, my most recent beer-to-go purchase came from local mainstay Austin Beerworks.  The 5.99% ABV Sakuma Sour with Cherries pours a mix of red and brown and gold and smells of cherries and tartness and just a little bit of funk.  Flavors of tart cherries abound in this barrel aged brew with a lovely all around sourness that never gets to be too much.  I'm going to have to get more of these.

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Austin Beerworks and Sun King Brewing Body Spray Brut Double IPA

I'm sick today, body aching and throat scratchy, and have spent most of my time in varying degrees of sleep.  Quite honestly, the last thing in the world i want right now is a beer.  That being said though, i did enjoy a few over the weekend.  And the Body Spray Brut Double IPA, a collaboration (collaberge) between the folks at Austin Beerworks and Sun King Brewing, was a wonderfully strong libation to enjoy before the plague found its way into my home.  The 10% ABV beer pours a nice golden straw color with a bubbly white head and smells of tropical fruit, floral hops, and resin.  The flavor is a dry mix of floral and citrus hops with some subtle notes of sweet and tart and some warming alcohol notes that hit hardest in the chest and stomach.  Someday i'll be well enough to drink again.

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Ski Jeans

I love when different brewers around the country get together and collaborate.  It generally leads to some pretty unique creations.  Case in point is the fantastically named Ski Jeans, a limited release 7.5% ABV Colorado-style session IPA from the brewers at Austin, Texas's Austin Beerworks and Ft. Collins, Colorado's Odell Brewing.  During the brewing process, the hops are infused with liquid nitrogen, causing them to burst, and then said remnants are used for the beer.  Science!  And aside from some excellent can art, the beer is pretty damn good too.  Pouring a slight hazy gold with a frothy off-white head, the beer smells of citrus, fruit, pine, and florals with just a hint of spice.  The flavor is sweet at first, notes of pineapple, grapefruit, and more citrus hitting the tongue before bittering up a bit on the back end, the notes of pine and malt smoothing things out.  Hops abound.  And considering that 7.5% ABV, the beer is remarkably smooth, perfect for drinking in a lodge on the mountain...or in your living room while your kids watch episodes of "Sesame Street."  I write from experience.

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Austin Beerworks ACTION! Anniversary Ale

It's kind of hard to believe it, but Austin Beerworks has been around for 6 years now.  In fact many of the local breweries here in Central Texas are starting to hit all kinds of milestones, and while it's kind of making me feel old, kudos to all the little guys and their tenacity.  Anyway, to celebrate, ABW just released their ACTION! Anniversary Ale, a hoppy little brew that, fittingly enough, weighs in at 6% ABV.  The beer pours gold with a foamy white head and smells of citrus, fruit, and light, spicy hops.  Notes of citrus, pine, and grapefruit abound, all with a slightly dank, but bitter crisp finish.  All in all, it's a pale ale pretending to be an IPA, and it's delicious.  As a bonus, the beer comes packaged in 6 different can designs, each playing like an old drive-in, B-movie poster.  Happy Anniversary!

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Austin Beerworks Con Beer

A couple of weeks ago, i made it out to Mondocon III, the third annual festival of pop culture art put on by the good folks from Mondo.  Aside from all of the wonderful and awesome prints and soundtrack LPs available from a plethora of great artists, the convention also garnered up a specially made brew from Austin Beerworks, the Con Beer.  This hoppy lager comes in at 5.5% ABV, and kicks it like a lighter, smoother version of an IPA.  Aromas and flavors of citrus and hops dominate, but in a sessionable kind of way, a great beverage for these endless central Texas summers.  Mondocon is over until next year, but the remaining kegs of beer have made their way to local Alamo Drafthouses here in the Austin area.  Get to it.

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Austin Beerworks Montecore Oktoberfest

I was fortunate enough to hit up this year's Texas Craft Brewers Festival on Saturday for an afternoon without kids, plenty of sunshine (and some rain), and a slew of great beers from all over the state.  It's kind of hard to pick a favorite, as i had a lot of good stuff and i have a penchant for forgetting what i've imbibed as i'm not writing anything down, though No Label's Off Label Peanut Butter Chocolate Time and Big Bend's Marfa Light are close contenders.  But, being as it's that time of year, and it was my first taste of the day, i'm going to give it up to Montecore, a collaborative marzen-style (Oktoberfest) brew from Austin Beerworks and local beer garden Easy Tiger.  The 6% ABV beer was crisp and gold and clear with light aromas of malt and Bavarian hops, and was smooth and tasty, said malt and hops running down the palette like a cool elixir on a hot central Texas autumn day.

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Austin Beerworks Heavy Machinery Black IPA

The ongoing Heavy Machinery IPA series from Austin Beerworks continues to impress and delight my taste buds with each subsequent release.  The latest batch is a Black IPA, that pours a dark, leathery color with a light, quickly dissipating head.  The beer's aroma consists of some floral and pine elements mixed with some lighter malt and coffee smells.  The taste is a bitter and hoppy one, a good mix of pine, citrus, and malt.  It's interesting, but instantly drinkable if you're an IPA kinda person.  Kudos.

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Austin Beerworks Heavy Machinery Half IPA

Austin Beerworks generally stick to their tried and true canned libations, but of late, they've unleashed a series of different IPA's on to our unsuspecting yet appreciative populace.  The third batch of their Heavy Machinery series is a Half IPA, a light-bodied concoction of hoppy goodness...in a tall boy no less.  The beer is golden with a thick white head, a delicious aroma of pine and citrus, and a nice bite from the hops in the brew.  It tastes like an IPA, but feels lighter and cleaner overall, hence the "half" designation.  I dug it.  A good IPA is like a good stinky cheese.  It's not for everybody, but there's just something about it that keeps me coming back for more.

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