Saint Arnold Old Fashioned

A thing i've discovered about myself over the last year is that if a brewery makes a beer that's modeled after the Old Fashioned cocktail, i'm probably going to drink the hell out of it.  Back at Christmas time, it was the Old Fashioned Holiday from Bell's, and now it's Saint Arnold's Old Fashioned, a rye whiskey barrel aged barleywine with orange peel.  The 12.9% brew pours a nice amber hue with a white, quickly dissipating head and smells like an Old Fashioned, notes of molasses, dark fruit, oak, and whiskey.  The flavor is also very much like the cocktail, those same notes of molasses and dark fruit mingling nicely with the oak from the whiskey barrels, along with some other hints of toffee and spice.  Here's hoping this kicks off a new trend in craft beer.

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I Love You This Much Commitment Imperial Stout with Raspberries

So whatever Valentine's Day plans my wife and i may have pretended to have yesterday were pretty much eliminated by ice and snow and freezing temperature.  That's okay though.  Chili and hanging out with kids and watching Nicolas Cage battle animatronic robots in "Willy's Wonderland" was probably what we would have ended up doing anyway.  I did get a Valentine's Day beer though with the delicious I Love You This Much Commitment Imperial Stout with Raspberries from the good folks at Saint Arnold.  The 12.8% ABV brew pours a dark brownish black with a tan head and smells of chocolate and raspberries.  The flavor is similar, lots of chocolate notes on the front with the raspberry flavor getting stronger as the beer warms to room temperature.  It's a warming brew to end a cold day.  Lovely.

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Saint Arnold French Press

The folks over at Saint Arnold Brewing in Houston never disappoint, and they really kill it with their French Press, an imperial coffee porter.  The 9.4% brew pours a dark blackish brown with a tan head and smells of coffee, chocolate, and malt.  The flavor is similar to the aroma, but well balanced and never too sweet from the chocolate notes.  This one will be a wonderful Christmas treat.

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Saint Arnold Commitment Imperial Stout

Spring Break is over.  The kids are still home.  And we're working from home.  And we can't go anywhere.  The next few weeks are going to be stressful, and admittedly scary.  Our leaders are either complete morons, wholly corrupt, or nowhere to be seen.  It's going to get worse before it gets better.  So, yeah i'm going to drink.  And it's all going to go straight to my head, particularly when it's something as tasty and strong as the Commitment Imperial Stout from Saint Arnold Brewery.  The 13.4% ABV brew pours black with a brownish head and smells of chocolate, molasses, and spice.  The flavor is a mix of dark chocolate with subtle notes of vanilla, cherry, and dark fruit, with a hint of alcohol.  And it's easy to drink too.  Probably too easy.  But these are strange, stressful, and scary times.  So enjoy.

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Saint Arnold Not A Collaboration IPA

Is it a collaboration with Brash Brewing Company?  Is it not?  I don't know for sure, but the Not A Collaboration IPA from Saint Arnold Brewing is a pretty tasty, double dry hopped New England IPA.  Pouring a hazy straw color, the 7.1% ABV beer smells of citrus, pine, and spice, with those same notes combining with hints of fruit to round out the flavor, all finishing with a dank, bitter bite.  Bring on the haze.

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Saint Arnold Bishop's Barrel #19

Still trying to sneak in the more holiday-esque brews before springtime really gets up and running, so here's the absolutely wonderful Bishop's Barrel #19 from Saint Arnold.  This lovely 8.9% ABV concoction takes the brewer's Christmas Ale as the base, and then ages it in Chardonnay barrels with added cherries and three different strains of brettanomyces.  Pouring a kind of ruby gold, the beer smells of fruit and yeast, with some definite funky notes, and an overall tartness.  Said tartness is also prevalent in the flavor, a mix of sweet and tart cherries, Chardonnay, oak, spices, and the ever present brett, all in a medium bodied brew.  Top notch.

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Saint Arnold Pub Crawl Pale Ale

Have i mentioned that we like sessionable beers here in Central Texas?  The coasts seem to give us big hops and big alcohol, but here in the heat and humidity of a the Texas hill country (and beyond), we tend to like our brews when we can drink them all day long.  The Pub Crawl Pale Ale from Saint Arnold Brewery in Houston is one such beer.  Pouring a light, hazy gold with a large and foamy white head, this 4.7% ABV brew has aromas of spicy hops and subtle malts.  It's crisp and carbonated with some slightly dank hoppiness abounding, and easy drinker for sure, but just hoppy enough to keep it interesting.  I think i'll have another.

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Saint Arnold Sailing Santa

The holidays are upon us, and with them a wonderful assortment of special holiday brews.  This year, Houston's Saint Arnold Brewing gives us Sailing Santa, a blend of their Christmas Ale and Elissa IPA with some added spices for extra oomph.  The two styles of beer compliment each other quite well, making for a delicious holiday treat.  The beer pours copper with a nice frothy head and smells of nutmeg, cinnamon, and hops, and the flavor is fantastic.  The Christmas spices mix pleasantly with the slightly botanical hops of the IPA, creating a beer that's warming, refreshing, complex, and different.  I loved it.  Get it while you can.

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Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #15

Houston's Saint Arnold Brewing Company will occasionally put out small, one-off batches of different kinds of beers they are tinkering with.  These batches are called the Divine Reserve, and number 15 in the series was released a couple of weeks ago, this one being a tasty and smooth Russian Imperial Stout that weighs in at 10.1% ABV.  The beer is dark and black with a tannish head and smells of spices, molasses, and dark fruits.  Those dark fruits are very evident in the brew's flavor, added in with some maltiness and some notes of toffee, chocolate, and subtle hop spices.  This beer is delicious, and its limited nature makes it a pretty hard brew to find before it's all gone.  Lucky me, the corner store near my house has had it in stock the last three times i've been there...but screw you.  Go find your own.

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Saint Arnold Winter Stout

It's starting to get a little warmer around here, so this will probably be my last winter tinged brew until later in the year, but it's always good to go out strong.  Houston's Saint Arnold Brewing Co. consistently puts out one great beer after another all season long, and the Winter Stout is no different.  The subtle chocolate and coffee flavors abound in this dark and creamy brew, mixing damn near perfectly with the spicy hops that give it its kick and underlying bitterness.  The aroma the beer gives off is wonderful too, a malty mix of sweet and spice.  It smells like Christmas.  Great stuff.

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