Good to be the King

Wow, so last Saturday was Jester King's grand opening. Situated on a little dirt road in the middle of nowhere in Bee Caves territory, Jester King's grand opening drew a ridiculous crowd, even burgeoning to the point where the roadway was becoming a hazard and local authorities had to step in and turn people away. Jester King's blog reports that the crowd might have reached 5,000 people.

The event was still small when I arrived at 1:00 to report to my assigned table to pour beers. Less than 100 people were there, some up the hill at the Beer Advocate tasting on the brewery patio.




(Left to right)
Struise Cuvee Delphine, Lost Abbey Judgement Day, Cascade the Vine, Rochefort 10, Pliny the Elder, New Glarus Belgian Red, Cantillon Gueuze, Cascade Bourbonic Plague, Westvleteren 12, Bell's Hopslam, Bourbon County Rare, Coton, Imperial Stout Trooper, Ivan The Terrible, Three Floyds Dreadnaught, Jackie O's Dark Apparition, The Bruery Loakal Red, New Glarus Rasberry Tart, COAST Event Horizon, Hoppin' Frog Bodacious Black and Tan, Southern Tier Choklat, Struise Black Albert '0', New Glarus Cherry Stout, Fantome Black Ghost.

Jester King used this opportunity to introduce their newest beer, Boxer's Revenge, a Farmhouse, or Saison style beer aged in french wine barrels. The taste is warm and bright with some fruitiness to it. Smells great, with a hint of hops. I'll admit to having a little buzz at the time I tasted this, so I'll have to give it a full review soon. I enjoyed it a lot, and it's a great addition to the already solid lineup.

Though there were kegs upon kegs lined up, it just wasn't enough for the thirsty crowd. The Boxer's Revenge was the first to kick at about 4, then the Wytchmaker bit the dust, and within another hour, the last of the Black Metal had been poured, and only Commercial Suicide was left. (The firkins of whiskey barrel Commercial Suicide finished somewhat early, too, but not before i had a couple of tastes.)

Having spilled beer all over my shoes and pants from the hysteria that was the beer line, I was relieved of my duties at about 5:30 when the next shift of volunteers filtered in. I grabbed my snifter and had a few delicious beers while walking the grounds and bullshitting around with the other BAs that I know. We took a little look around the brewery, then sobered up and drove home for a couple more beers.



Thanks again to Jester King for hosting this event, and everybody who came out. You're awesome! I hope to review all of your beers on this blog in the future.

October and November in beer years

October and November have been especially good for beer! For one, Jester King opened up big time with their beers Commercial Suicide (A whiskey barrel-aged dark mild at 3%ABV) and Wytchmaker Rye IPA (7% ABV). I got to taste both during Austin Beer Week at the Draughouse.














Though the Wytchmaker was a spectacular Rye IPA, it was the Commercial Suicide that really won me over. These guys are going to be doing great things for the Texas beer scene. Putting a mild beer in a whiskey barrel for aging is nearly unheard of, but it tasted excellent. From what I have heard, these guys are going to be doing all sorts of experimental brews with barrel aging and wild yeasts. I've even heard people at the pub saying they are going to be the next Russian River. We can only hope so. If any of Austin's up-and-coming breweries can put us on the proverbial 'beer map', (exclude Live Oak Hefe) then these are the guys to do it. I'll be keeping an eye on Jester King in the upcoming months and hopefully include them in an upcoming Texas Beers segment.

Besides the excitment of Jester King and La Muerta day, the October beer tasting was a success. Some of the highlights of this past month include a growler of Freetail Rye Wit, New Glarus Rasberry Tart, Darkside Fermentation Mark of the Yeast (Funky), Steel Reserve, 07 Storm King Stout, 09 Sam Adams Imperial Stout, Voodoo Brewing Black Magick Stout, North Coast's Brother Thelonious Belgian Abbey Ale, Sierra Nevada Black Barleywine, Real Ale Octoberfest, New Belgium Mothership Wit, a mini-vertical of 09/10 Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, and my personal favorite: this year's Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale!

To start with the beer at the tastings, the Black Barleywine and Black Magick Stout were big hits. I'm glad I waited for a tasting to crack the Black Magick. The stuff poured like sludge and tasted like the blackest, roastiest, malt-bomb of a 15%ABV monster that it is. No way could I have finished that bottle in a sitting.There is no telling how old the bottle was, but considering the previous owner, I would have to put at between 3-6 years old. Highly recommended.

Putting the New Belgium Mothership Wit against Freetail Rye Wit in a side-by-side had some surprising results. Though I would prefer the Freetail Wit by a long shot, (freshness and the use of rye take it home for me) the Mothership held her own. Mothership was much sweeter and spicy, while the Rye Wit was dry and much of the flavor was attributed to the rye characteristics.

The 07 Storm King aged incredibly well, and at about 4 years, this is nearly perfect. There is not a hint of alcohol presence and it is very robust and smooth. The 09 Sam Adams Imperial Stout aged well also. Though I would have liked to let that one sit for a few more years. The 09/10 Palo Santo vertical was very surprising. It was like they were two different beers even after only a year. The 10 was boozy and harsh to the extreme, while the 09 was very gentle and smooth. Even the mouthfeel was much different. The woodiness seemed to come out more (probably because it's not fighting with the alcohol for attention). I think everybody there agreed that it's much better after a year.

The Steel Reserve 211 was especially nice. For this bad boy, we brought out a wine glass for sampling. Swill that it is, it really wasn't as horrible as I remember it to be. For the next month's tasting, I'll be picking up a Four LOKO, and if you don't know what that is, it's a malt-liquor with caffiene added. Clocking in at 11%ABV, it also contains as much caffiene as four cups of coffee. It's being banned by the FDA currently, so now's a good a time to try this fruit-flavored wretch of a beer.

I got the chance to share some beer and dinner with a couple of friends, Andrew and John, who were generous enough to show up with New Glarus Rasberry Tart, North Coast Brother Thelonious, and Darkside Fermentation Mark of the Yeast. Lucky for us all, John was able to snag a 'funky' bottle, whatever that meant. As it turns out, 'funky' meant delicous! The beer was sour and dark with lots of sweet licorice and dark fruits. One of the few Belgian style beers that I really like. Thelonious was great as well. Surprisingly my girlfriend (who hates beer) liked the Bro. Thelonious and loved the Rasberry Tart. She has since taken an interest in Lindeman's Framboise and similar beers. I think I may have a reason to buy more sour/wild ales.

And my very favorite for last: Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale! My favorite time of the year is when I can go and buy as much of this stuff as I want. It's the perfect beer in my humble opinion. It's full of in-your-face citrus and pine needle hop flavor backed by a solid caramel background. There is an everlasting debate about whether or not to age Celebration. I've decided to test out whether there is any benefit to aging this beer. For the Nov 27 tasting, I'll be cracking an 09/10 mini-vertical. I'm sure the fresh version will be much better, but I thought this beer was excellent at 6 months also. I'll post the results soon.

And that concludes a couple months in beer-time. Hopefully December will find me coherent enough to blog about it, and if not, then that's okay too!

Dia De La Muerta and related excursions

Freetail brewpub held the release of La Muerta Imperial Stout on November 6. A few lucky Austinites were able to get the alloted 4 bottles apiece. This is their epic story.



John, Luke, and I arrived at about 9:00AM to find that the bottle share on the patio was already in full swing. Scott(the proprietor of Freetail) was on the patio to stick our numbered labels to our shirts. (I was number 39). In the freezing cold (alright, it wasn't THAT cold...but it's Texas) I shivered as I poured myself the first few samples of the day. There were tons of beer that I had never tried before and many that I have, including: Bell's Batch 9000, Surly Furious, Wet, and Darkness, Chocolate Yeti, Oak-Aged IPA, Weyerbacher Insanity and Heresy, Samurai IPA, New Glarus Belgian Red, New Glarus Pilsner, 09 and 10 Palo Santo Marron, a growler of Real Ale Coffee Porter, Cuvee Delphine, Pliny the Elder, Founder's Backwoods Bastard, Divine Reserve 09 and 10, Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S., World Wide Stout, some great homebrew including a wee heavy, an irish red, and a milk stout, and one of my personal favorites: Duchesse De Bourgogne and many others that I have a hard time remembering for obvious reasons.






Scott and his crew were especially helpful, bringing out pitchers of their Cherry Ananke, Ate, and Dubl Octoberfiesta for everyone. Thanks especially for the bottles of 09 La Muerta and 09 Barrel Aged La Muerta. the BA version was sour as hell and delicious!

At 11:30 it had begun to warm up a little. We all lined up in numbered order to recieve our allotment of beer. Everybody in my group got the 4 beers and we carried the case proudly to the car where we took pictures and reveled in our own awesomeness.

The party was dying down, and patrons were ordering food inside, or otherwise heading back to Dallas, Houston, Austin, and every other corner of Tejas. Yea, there were a good number of people from San Antonio but I was amazed at the folks that woke up at 6AM or earlier to drive in from around the state. Kudos to you!


I helped myself to the half or mostly-empty bottles still on the table, while I listened to Scott and Silas (brewer of Darkside Fermentation) chat about labels, beer, and general brewer comraderie ensued. Somehow we agreed to visit Darkside in San Marcos at 5, I'm not really sure how as I was busy stumbling around the patio mumbling at the other patrons.

Next stop was the Ranger Creek Brewery and Distillery, where we got to walk among the equipment, watch a demonstration of brewing beer, and got to try the
Oatmeal Pale Ale, which was pretty damn good.
















We left San Antonio and headed for San Marcos for The Root Cellar/Darkside Fermentation, where brewer Silas played excellent host and popped bottle after bottle of his old, new, and experimental brews including the Pale 2, the Pale 3, Mark of the Yeast Quad, Lambic, Dubbel, and Tripel. Good times were had by all and our group wiped out Silas' stock. We even got a few unreleased beers. Many of these will be shipped elsewhere in the country, namely California and Florida.


We ended the night with some Jester King Commercial Suicide and Draugthouse's Malt Ball. Luke got a growler of Live Oak Hefe and we called it a night.


Overall I think everyone at Freetail, Ranger Creek, and Root Cellar had a great time enjoying Texas beer. Thanks especially to Scott, Silas, Nathan from Ranger Creek, and John and Luke for the great time! I hope to see you all again next year!