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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Live Oak Pilz

I actually wrote about Live Oak Brewery's Live Oak Pilz way back in 2012 (read here), and as it stands, it's still my favorite pilsner.  Nothing new to report there.  Somehow though, i failed to realize that the brewery started canning a couple of its mainstays earlier this year, the phenomenal Pilz included.  I used to have to go out to bars to get this brew, or at the very least, fill a growler somewhere.  Looking forward to drinking this delicious, 4.7% ABV beer in the backyard all summer long.  Hooray!

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The Temptress Imperial Milk Stout

I love me some stouts, especially the strong ones, regardless of the time of day or the season or the weather or whatever.  I keep branching out to try new kinds of beers, but i always come back stouts...the lifeblood.  Lakewood Brewing out of Garland, Texas (greater Dallas area) has a strong and tasty offering that i tried for the first time over the weekend, their full-bodied and delicious imperial milk stout, The Temptress.  The beer pours dark, dark black with brown head and smells of malt, chocolate, vanilla, and some alcohol notes.  The flavor is a mix of the aromas, the malt, chocolate, and vanilla pairing with each other perfectly, the sugars making their presence known, and the 9.1% ABV giving you that warm feeling in your chest.  I want to drink this while eating good cheese.  All in all, I really enjoyed this brew and will have to grab some more, though i also have a version brewed with raspberries waiting for me in my fridge too.  More on that delight at a later date.

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Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter 2016

One of my favorite limited beers from the last few years has been the Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter from Houston's Karbach Brewing.  Each year, the brewery does a subtle variation on this imperial porter, and each year, i tend to love it.  Living in Austin, they can also be kind of hard to come by.  They sell out around town pretty quickly, and then they're gone.  I was fortunate enough to snag two bombers this year, the variation this time around being the addition of chocolate.  It's delicious.  The full bodied brew pours a dark black with a good tannish head and smells of coffee, chocolate, and the always lovely bourbon.  The flavor is rich, swirls of chocolate, alcohol, coffee, and malt mixing wonderfully in an 11% ABV dream.  It looks like the Jaguar Shark i'm saving for next year has a buddy now.

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Jaguar Shark

I was pretty bummed out this weekend when Levitation (formerly known as the Austin Psych Fest) was cancelled due to bad weather.  I missed out on a ton of great bands...too many to dwell on here, but needless to say, a cloud hung over my 3-day weekend for the duration.  All that being said, i did get some pretty bitchin consolation prizes out of the deal.  I got to hang out with an old buddy who was also here for the fest, my amazing wife scored two tickets to one of the unbelievably difficult to get into makeup shows that the festival organizers were able to put together at various venues around town, and i scored a couple of bottles of the limited and elusive Jaguar Shark, a bourbon barrel aged, imperial dry Irish stout from Pinthouse Pizza, their second(?) ever bottle release.  And it's a tasty one.  Pouring dark black with a tan head, this 10.7% ABV masterpiece smells of bourbon and oak, a heavy brew that dwells on the tongue with notes of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and a bit of heat from said bourbon.  It's a dry and sharp wonder, and i'm totally aging one of those bottles for a year at home.

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