La Trappe Trappist Tripel

Nothing like diving straight into the beginning of the hot part of summer with a struggling air conditioner.  It's the house's original unit, which makes it almost 30 years old, so it's had a good run, but man...it's hot in here.  And it's only going to get hotter.  Beer might just get me through it all.  And so we have the La Trappe Trappist Tripel from The Netherlands' Koningshoeven Abbey, an 8% Belgian style Tripel from a place that's been churning out the goods since 1884.  The brew pours a beautiful gold with a white head and smells of grain and light notes of pepper, apple, pear, and spice.  The flavor is a pleasant mix of fruit, apple and pear in particular, along with some subtle notes of clove, pepper, honey, and a little bit of bread.  It's a really good example of the style and very drinkable.  It almost made me forget my AC is on the fritz.

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Lazarus Blushing Bride

I wish i could do more.  I wish i could go to every brewery in Central Texas every week and buy beer to go.  I wish i could help keep the lights on indefinitely.  I'll do what i can, but we've already lost at least one brewer to the virus (RIP NXNW).  Just try and stay afloat.  Anyway, Lazarus Brewing is doing what they can too, beginning to can some of the beers for easier access as well as setting up some collaborative brews that we will hopefully be sipping very soon.  They've also got bottles of their Blushing Bride, a delicious, 10% ABV Belgian Tripel with orange blossom honey and aged in white wine barrels.  The beer pours a nice straw color with a white head and smells of orange, fruit, and white wine.  The flavor is dominated by the white wine notes but with hints of orange and pear and a dry finish.  It's a wonderful beer, and i'll have to procure some more of it soon.

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Strange Roots Experimental Ales Ancient Vortex

One of the things i asked for for Christmas last year was a rare beer club membership.  Nobody got it for me.  So i just got it for myself.  And so far, one of the wonderful brews that's been sent my way is the Ancient Vortex, a Belgian style dark ale brewed with raw cacao and candi sugar from Strange Roots Experimental Ales out of Pittsburgh.  The 9.2% ABV beer pours a dark, brownish black with a tan head, and smells of chocolate, dark fruits, and Belgian yeast.  Flavors of dark fruit, malty caramel, and notes of dark chocolate abound in a beer with a light feel and medium body.  And it's surprisingly easy to drink too.  Bring on some more rare brews.

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Sound Ursus Speleus

Back in September, a good friend came to visit and brought me some beer from Washington from the gone but not forgotten Sound Brewing.  And on Christmas i finally enjoyed the Ursus Speleus, a 10% Belgian strong dark ale brewed with coffee.  The beer pours a dark black with a tannish head and smells of malts, chocolate, coffee, and notes of fruit and spice.  The flavor is full of those same chocolate and coffee notes with splashes of dark fruit and Belgian yeast to keep it balanced.  Sound, we will miss you.

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Hitmaker Accidental Trappist Belgian Tripel

Managed to get out into the hill country again yesterday to give one of the new brewers on the block a good try, and found the lovely Accidental Trappist Belgian Tripel from Hitmaker Brewing.  The 8.8% ABV brew pours gold with a white head and smells of molasses, spice, and a hint of caramel.  The flavor is a mix of molasses, spice, and yeast, with some notes of banana and alcohol in a lacy mouthfeel.  Good, good stuff.

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Devil and The Deep Over Current Belgian Tripel

At the start of the summer i decided it would be a good idea for me to attempt to go to 40 different breweries by Labor Day (the kinda sorta official end of summer).  Well, i ended up hitting #40 a week ago when i was in Galveston with a whole four weeks left to go.  So now, i'm sitting at 44 and shooting for 50.  Anyway, #40 was a brewery i've never been to before, the relatively new Devil and The Deep Brewery, and i really dug their Over Current Belgian Tripel.  The 9.5% ABV brew pours a nice gold with a full white head and smells of spice and Belgian yeast with some notes of banana and some floral hints.  The flavor has those same banana notes meshing with the other spices in a beer that tastes and feels strong, yet is still very easy to drink.  I'll have to come back next time i'm on the coast.

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Celis Waller Kriek

I've been on a fruity and sour beer kick of late, so much so that i actually had to decide which one to write up today.  I settled on the Waller Kriek, a Belgian Kriek Lambic from Celis here in Austin due to the brewery's recent financial struggles.  The 5% ABV beer pours a pink hue with a white and quickly dissipating head, and smells of tart cherries and a slight funky spice.  The flavor is sweet and tart, the cherries up front with a sour finish, a great Saturday afternoon kind of brew.  Get it while you can.

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Strange Land Grand Cru MMXVII Belgian Quad

I am a big supporter of Belgian Quads, and i've got to admit that the style is probably my favorite kind of beer.  And so, i try as many as i can find.  Austin's Strange Land Brewery's Grand Cru MMXVII Belgian Quad was one of the more recent.  Clocking in at 8.7% ABV, the beer pours an almost rose-tinted, transparent black, or deep, dark amber with a white head and smells of cherries, dark fruit, molasses, and some hints of oak and cognac.  The flavor is sweet, the fruit notes up front and center with some secondary yeast and malt flavors behind.  Not a bad little brew.

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Hole Lang Syne

Here we are, a week into the new year, and while i didn't really do much on New Year's Eve (stayed in with my wife and kids, a fire, some football, and some kind of serial killer hunting game after the kids went to bed), i did have a fantastic beverage in hand as the proverbial ball dropped.  Hole Lang Syne, a Belgian strong ale brewed with raspberries and blackberries from the good folks at Rabbit Hole Brewing near Fort Worth, was the perfect libation to ring in the new year.  The 10% ABV brew poured a lovely amber with a white and quickly dissipating head.  Aromas of fruit (raspberry and blackberry of course), sugar, and some mild spices were prevalent, while the flavor was sweet, but not too sweet, fruity, but not too fruity, and with just the right amount of subtle tart and alcohol notes.  May our 2019 be as great as this beer was.

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Real Ale Magnum Trux

Real Ale has been putting out quality beer for a long time now, and some of their best and most interesting brews arrive to us via the brewery's fantastic Mysterium Verum series, small batches of barrel aged and sour beers that are variations of their usual year round or seasonal fare.  My favorite beer the brewery makes is their Black Quad, a lovely Belgian Quadruple ale that's been one of my go-to beers for at least half a decade now.  So, i was pumped to see it used as the base brew for Magnum Trux, a 10.3% ABV barrel-aged sour quad with black currants.  There's a lot going on there.  After primary fermentation, the beer is then aged in oak barrels for four months with some added house culture yeast, and then come the black currants.  Pouring ruby black with a quickly dissipating white head, the brew smells of currants, dark fruit, and some overall sourness.  The flavor is a mix of sweet and sour, notes of currant, fig, other dark fruit, and some slight hints of spice, all in a smooth and drinkable mouthfeel.  All in all, it's a complex yet very drinkable sour brew.

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Ommegang Stormcrusher

Cooperstown, New York's Ommegang Brewery tends to keep it interesting with their releases, and their more recent, a collaboration with Houston's Brash Brewing, is interesting indeed.  And pretty delicious too.  The Stormcrusher is a 9.7% ABV Belgian quadruple ale brewed with blueberries and coffee, and it's about as complex and tasty a brew as your liable to come across.  Pouring a slightly purplish brown with a bubbly off-white head, the beer smells of coffee and blueberries with notes of caramel and malt in the mix as well.  The flavor feels heavier on the coffee at first before giving way to sweeter blueberry notes and then leveling off with a sweet and malty full-bodied mouthfeel.  What a wonderful beer.

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Cigar City Florida Cracker

Last week, i spent a few days in the happiest goddamn place on earth, as the family and i made our way to central Florida for some high times with the Mouse.  Yeah, we went to Disney.  Anyway, the daily visits to the theme park was not about me.  It was about my kids, and they loved it.  But in the evening, back at the condo, watching the sun go down as my feet ached and ached, well...that was about me.  And what better way to wind down than with some tasty beverages from one of my favorite breweries, Tampa Bay's Cigar City.  The delightfully named Florida Cracker, a Belgian-style white ale with orange peel and coriander, was my go to for the trip.  The 5.5% ABV brew was light, crisp, and sweet, notes of orange and coriander layered against some slight spiciness from the Belgian yeast that hit both the nose and the tongue with zesty aplomb.  I could quite literally drink it all day long.  So, if you ever find yourself in the magic kingdom, be sure to equip yourself with some wind-down libations to ease the pain and dim the noise.

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Anthem Golden One

I spent the last few days in Oklahoma visiting my sister, and aside from visiting the zoo, swimming with my sons and my nieces, watching some thunder storms roll in on the patio, and splashing around in the puddles that ensued, i managed to have a couple of beers.  And the Golden One, a Belgian-style blonde ale from Oklahoma City's Anthem Brewing was the perfect accompaniment.  The beer pours a hazy gold with a foamy, but quickly dissipating white head and smells of grains, yeast, and fruit, with a subtle hint of hops.  The flavor is light and sweet with notes of banana, pineapple, and a subtle punch of spice, and the whole thing comes in at 7% ABV.  What a wonderful patio beer.

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Whitestone Quadrivium Series #4

With all of the ups and downs that 2018 has provided us so far, a veritable roller coaster of awfulness, one constant good note (in Central Texas anyway) has been the Quadrivium Series, a string of barrel-aged Belgian Quads released by Whitestone Brewery over the last few months.  The Quad is one of my favorite styles of beer, and these bottles have been delightful, aged in bourbon barrels, rum barrels, or a combination of the two for three months.  The fourth and final bottle in this series was aged for six months in Madeira wine barrels, and is a wonderful way to finish things off.  Pouring a dark, dark brown with an off white head, this 10% ABV darling has an aroma of oak, brown sugar, and hints of fruit and wine.  The flavor is a strong mix of the aforementioned oak and sugar with some dark fruit notes and an underlying sweetness that never overwhelms.  I need more of these, and i'll be making sure to procure them for as long as they last.

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Celis Raspberry

I've been pretty stoked since Celis Brewery came back from the dead to start making delicious Belgian-inspired brews again here in Austin, and their latest is a fruity take on a classic.  The Celis Raspberry combines the brewery's original Celis White with a whole lot of raspberries.  Pouring a pinkish/reddish hue with light pink head, the beer smells of...you guessed it...raspberries, along with some floral notes, spices, and a wheat-y breadiness.  The flavor is tart, a mix of sweet fruit and spice with dry and crisp finish.  This beer is certainly not for everyone, but if you're looking for something a little different, this 5% ABV concoction is a great summertime brew.

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Whitestone Quadrivium Series #1

I've been meaning to write about this brew for a while now, but for some reason kept getting sidetracked or distracted the last few weeks.  So today's the day...and it's probably not even available anymore.  Anyway, back at the start of the new year, i was fortunate enough to score a bottle of Whitestone Brewery's Quadrivium Series #1 (of 4) from the taproom in Cedar Park.  The beer is a 10% ABV Belgian Quad aged in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels...and it's fantastic.  Pouring a dark brown color with some amber hints and a white head, the brew smells of malt, molasses, oak, and bourbon.  The flavor is a lovely mix of brown sugar, caramel, malt, and some notes of booze, but much smoother than anticipated.  A perfect beer for the end of winter.  I wish i had bought more.  In the meantime, i should probably get myself back there to get bottle #2.  Great job Whitestone.

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Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad

With so many different styles of beer out there, each with its own pros and cons, and each with its own suitable weather for optimal drinking, it can be kind of hard to choose some days, especially here in Central Texas where it's hot all the time.  That being said, i think anytime is a good time for an abbey-style quadrupel, particularly when it's been aged in bourbon barrels.  The Bourbon Barrel Quad from Boulevard Brewing is a great way to start or end an evening or afternoon, but should be treated with a little caution, as its 11.2% ABV can certainly make things hazy.  Pouring a a dark brown with white head, the beer smells of dark fruit, oak, yeast, and booze.  Notes of toffee, spices, and bourbon abound with some slight hints of cherry all in a medium bodied brew.  It's quite tasty.

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Celis White

Although i was too young to be able to really enjoy, and i was not nearly versed enough in beer outside of your standard American lager when i first made my way to Austin back in the late 90's, I was really bummed when Austin's Celis Brewery closed down back in 2000.  It was part of a larger wave of change in the city at the time, with many of the old stalwarts, bars, clubs, stores, and more, shuttering and making way for the oncoming gentrification and commodification that would come to Austin in over the next 15 years.  Celis ended up being acquired by Miller, and then just kind of disappeared here in Texas.  As the trademark passed hands over the next few years, it somehow, by the grace of whatever higher power you want to have faith in, ended up with the daughter of the original owner here in Austin.  And now it's back.  And i'm stoked.  Kicking it off with an old classic, the Belgian-style Witbier, Celis White pours a light, slightly murky gold with a quick dissipating white head, and smells of wheat, orange, and coriander.  The beer is crisp and tasty, the notes of orange and coriander never overpowering the brew, and meshing well with hints of spice and sweetness.  And it all comes in at 4.9% ABV...and it's hot here...so...drink this all day.

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Silver City The Giant Made of Shadows Belgian Strong Ale

Still celebrating the beer i enjoyed in Washington a month ago, and still wishing i'd smuggled some of it back to Texas, my possible favorite from my time in the Pacific Northwest is another astounding brew from Silver City (quite possibly my new favorite brewer from the region).  Encouraged by their delicious creations brought to the Bremerton Brewfest, i snatched up a few samples of their wares to drink with my friends before vacation ended, highlighted by the fantastic and wonderfully named Belgian strong ale, The Giant Made of Shadows.  Pouring dark with a slight crimson hue, the beer smells of dark fruits and malt, with those same dark fruit flavors swirling nicely with notes of toffee, coffee, and molasses.  As a fan of dark Belgian ales, this one was right in my wheelhouse, and the 9.9% ABV kept me nicely sated.  Please start selling this in Austin.

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Sound Brewery Bombshell

Pretty much every trip i've made to Washington over the last few years is at least somewhat influenced by the wares of Sound Brewery.  And while Silver City is quickly becoming my favorite from the Puget region, the good folks at Sound are dear to my heart and make some damn fine beers.  The Bombshell is a Belgian style blonde ale and pours a beautiful gold that just captures the sunlight.  Aromas of yeast, citrus, and spice abound and mesh nicely on the tongue with some very subtle hints of grass and banana.  And it's surprisingly easy to drink, considering its 7.3% ABV.  Think of it as a kind of light Tripel if you will.  Good summer drinking.

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