Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 18 pours an inky black and weighs in at a beefy 13.4% ABV | Photo: Josh Frink for Houston Beer Guide

DR18 pours an inky black, with a very narrow ring of foam from the initial pour. This is black hole dark – I think it might actually be absorbing light. The aroma is a little figgy with dried fruit (prune and raisin), but it’s decidedly sweet with smells of toasted sugar and dark chocolate. Alcohol is definitely notable. As it warms in the glass the vanilla starts to bloom out.

The flavor hits hard with the dark roasted malts, tons and tons of plum and more raisin, a slight alcohol burn and something akin to the astringency of the peel of a stone fruit and the striking bitterness of a nibble of baking chocolate. Some Belgian-like yeast esters are behind all this I think, not so much earthy and peppery as stone fruit and green apple – but just a hint of that latter. I get the vanilla quite a bit more as I breathe out through my nose between sips – but in the beer itself it’s a flavor component and not a dominating element. The alcohol comes and it goes rather than just heating up the entire experience, which is pretty amazing considering the ABV. As it warms it gets decidedly better. The chocolate/roasted malt flavors really pick up, and the beer really rounds out at just above room temp, as it gets warmer the alcohol just takes over. Those magical moments at just the right temperature are really something special – all of the fruitness, a deep, rich dark malt experience and just a hint of vanilla – but they don’t last long!

My overall impression of this beer is mixed. Admittedly, whenever I drink a massive American imperial stout I can’t help but think of Deschutes Abyss and Avery Czar, which are my personal hallmarks. With that in mind, I want a little more dark roastiness than this beer gives me through the entire experience. The vanilla does a heck of a job of helping this beer wring as much of the ‘house’ character out of the Saint Arnold yeast as must be possible.

I am left wondering if all this fruitiness and heat are going to meld together into a greater whole as this beer ages and the vanilla falls away. Maybe in 6-12 months this beer will bring these big flavors together and deliver that transcendental experience I’m looking for. Given how previous Divine Reserve releases have improved over time I’d bet on it!

The Divine Reserve 18 bottles come with these special caps celebrating Saint Arnold winning Mid-Sized Brewing Company of the Year at last years Great American Beer Festival. | Photo: Josh Frink for Houston Beer Guide

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Photo: Saint Arnold Brewing Company

I haven’t had loads of Baltic Porters in my drinking life. Like most of you, my first taste of the style came from a homebrewer’s version (via Beeriac/Mike Heniff at a long ago Foam Rangers meeting, I think), and my commercial experience is with Baltika 6. The new Divine Reserve 17 offering from Saint Arnold squares nicely with what I know and have tasted before – roasty and malty, easy drinking and clean, almost dry, but with tons of malt flavor that stands out. In my experience, it’s a hard style to get just right, as it demands precision in ingredients and technique. Fundamentally it’s imperial stout for lager drinkers, but without the benefit of debittered malt that makes a schwarzbier hum. Making Baltic Porter seems a lot like the end of Jenga game where you have to start taking out side pieces and balancing them on top to push the tower higher.

Did everything come crashing down with Saint Arnold’s play on this style? I don’t think so.

I took a 12 oz bottle out of my beer fridge and poured it into a bubble glass to warm a bit. In the glass, the beer is an inky brown with a dark ruby undertone. It formed a khaki brown head that dropped back to a ring around the edge of the glass that hung around with me through the entire session.

The aroma out of the glass is a mix of chocolate malt with vanilla and a faint fruitiness, somewhere between plum and sweet cherry, and a whole lot of straight up roastiness. Not that I’m in the habit of smelling bread – but the aroma of this beer sure seems a lot like what it would be like to huff warm toast.

There was lots of bitterness on the initial sip, almost sharp. This immediately gave way to a burst of sweet roasted malt – the same chocolate-driven flavor as in the aroma. Not much caramel, just a little sweet and bready, with a strong bite of roasted malt at the finish. Not chewy or thick in any way; you could almost describe it as thin, as though it seems to have just the minimum amount of body it needs to carry the flavors through. As the sip warms up, the alcoholic heat (~9.2%) drives some more sweetness from the beer and keeps going. I didn’t notice any heat at all until a few minutes after the sip. Aside from the immediate first taste, I don’t get any significant hop bitterness. No yeast character at all; it’s very clean.

This is a good beer. The flavors are on point, it has a really nice malty backbone that is nuanced – part chocolate, part roasted, part heavily kilned malt that adds bitterness. None of those component flavors dominate any of the others. It drinks smoothly – the use of lager yeast keeps the beer focused; this is a malty brew and there aren’t any distractions from that. With the exception of the bitterness on first sip, none of the other flavors are overwhelming. There’s a nice vanilla component and some fruit (mainly in the aroma), but no serious heat and nothing that touches the clear roasted malt flavor that comes through after each sip.

So as I finish this admittedly good beer why am I not excited? Why am I not clamoring to open my next bottle? I’m not entirely sure, but I think it has something to do with the maltiness, which just reminds me of the wonderful flavors of Avery Czar – an Imperial Stout. On second thought maybe it’s that the slight booziness and fruitiness on the finish that is makes me think about the incredible bourbon flavor that comes through so strong in The Bruery’s So Happens It’s Tuesday. Again…another Imperial Stout.

I’m sensing a pattern here.

My bottom line? As a fan of big imperial stouts, DR 17 just makes me want to drink those. Perhaps, like Santo this is the ‘dark beer’ that can convince the members of the SA Army that don’t like Impy Stouts to come to (heh) the dark side.

What I am intrigued by is what the monkeys in the barrel room on Lyons could do with this brew. Could this wobbling tower of taste go just a little higher with the addition of some bourbon barrel character? Could this recipe be turned into something crazy good and funky with an inoculation of bugs and some fruit (can you say Almanac? I knew you could). This is two DR releases in a row where I’m more interested in what it could become in barrels or as a variant than what it is right now. Turning a lager like this into a palette for further experimentation could be a fool’s errand, but that’s just what the first floor of the brewery was built to do.

The post Divine Reserve 17 Is an Imperial Porter That Makes Me Want to Drink Imperial Stout first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Divine Reserve 17 Is an Imperial Porter That Makes Me Want to Drink Imperial Stout appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

There was a definite buzz of excitement in the stairs as the crowd waited for the taps to open on Sunday, June 12. I was at the first of two sessions, along with fellow Houston Beer Guide writers Nathan Miller and Jose Luis Cubria. For a $65 entry ticket each entrant received a commemorative (and adorable) 4oz pilsner style tasting glass and a punch card good for 2oz pours of each of the specialty beers below, along with a cheese plate from the Houston Dairymaids and a couple ‘break beers’ from the regular lineup.

Photo: Saint Arnold Brewing Company

The Setup

As in previous years, the brewery had stations set up around the main beer hall, each serving two of the beers on offer on tap through a jockey box or bottles. As tickets were limited the crowd was thin, and getting beers (or cheese) was rarely more than a 60-second wait. There was also plenty of space at the tables in the hall to spread out. This also allowed plenty of time for my favorite part of events like this – chatting with the brewery employees pouring the beers, who in many cases were the brewers who created or contributed to the beer they were pouring.

The Beers:
– Cask Conditioned Divine Reserve No. 13 (Quadrupel)
– Bishop’s Barrel No. 12 (Christmas Ale aged in Sauvignon Blanc barrels with Brett and Cherries)
– Divine Reserve No. 15 (Russian Imperial Stout) aged in Stranahan’s Whiskey Barrels
– Bishop’s Barrel No. 8 (Russian Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels)
– Bishop’s Barrel No. 10 (20^th anniversary barleywine aged in bourbon barrels)
– Bishop’s Barrel No. 13 (Divine Reserve 13 (Quadrupel) aged in bourbon barrels)
– Virgin Monk: Bishop’s Barrel No. 13 with Cherries
– 20th Anniversary Ale (barleywine — 2 years old)
– 20th Anniversary Ale aged in Cognac Barrels
– Pumpkinator aged in Bourbon Barrels
– Pumpkinator aged in Bourbon Barrels with Coffee, Vanilla Bean and Cocoa Nibs
– Dubbelganger: Sorachi Ace Dubbel with Brett
– UrbanHouse Saison: Belgian Farmhouse/Saison
– Raspberry Boiler Room Berliner Weisse
– Blackberry Boiler Room Berliner Weisse
– Boiler Room Berliner Weisse with Syrups

Overall Impressions and Tasting Notes

Where the two previous Rare Cellar tastings were more of a full tour of everything going on in Saint Arnold’s barrel room, this year’s event focused on variants of a few of the things touching wood in the lower levels at 2000 Lyons Avenue. I’ll be honest — my first reaction to this beer list was disappointment: where were the experiments with tequila and gin barrels that were my favorites from years past? Where were the ‘funkified’ versions of the standard lineup or Icon series? Where was at least a taste of the barrel-aged versions of DR16 that I haven’t been able to quit thinking about since February?

These questions and any disappointment quickly faded away as I began to experience the depth of flavor on offer with the beers. Below are a few of my thoughts on the the beers I thought were real highlights:

Boiler Room

I love Boiler Room, and it was perfect for my palate as a ‘break’ beer between tasting of the other variants. The raspberry syrup was awesome — just a small splash (maybe half an ounce) in my full 4oz pour was more than enough to give a slightly sweet and fruity bite against the bready tartness of the base beer.

20^th Anniversary

Full disclosure – I am a barleywine fanatic and have been in love with this specific beer since release two years ago, but in my my own experience aging barleywines over many years, there are times when the beers go through down periods where the flavors break up a bit, only to return to form in future years. In my opinion 20^th Anniversary is in one of those down cycles. The base beer is good right now — the caramel flavors strong and pushing through the heat — but I don’t think it’s drinking quite as well as it was last year. The barrel variants (cognac and bourbon/BB10) suffered the same fate. Good, not great. I firmly believe it will return to form with a little more time, and hope to have it again next year.

Russian Imperial Stout (Divine Reserve 15/Bishop’s Barrel 8)

This beer, the only Divine Reserve brew to make a repeat appearance (it was originally brewed as Divine Reserve 5 way back in 2007), is aging and tasting incredible. What I personally love about this beer is the chocolate note — it’s so rich, almost sweet, and I don’t notice any of the (10%) alcohol. The Woodford Reserve aged version of this beer is BB8, and it was an absolute star. It stitches the strong vanilla and stout oak notes into the already classic base beer. It’s good. VERY good.

Divine Reserve 13

I thought BB8 was going to be my standout winner of the event — and then I started into the quadrupel variants. I wasn’t a fan of this beer on release. Man, was I wrong. The base beer is full of nuance. A real sipper — the fruity esters typical from the Belgian abbey ale yeast play around with the big full malt backbone in different ways as it warms. This beer is now as good if not better than my personal icons of this style, St. Bernardus Abt 12 and Rochefort 10, and I think it can still get better given how excellent the barrel variants were. As with BB8, the bourbon barrel again added vanilla and just enough tannic oak to this great tapestry of flavors. Virgin Monk, the bourbon barrel aged variant with cherries added, layered in a slightly astringent sweetness of tart cherry to this symphony of flavors. Just wow! However, as great as all these barrel versions were, it was the cask conditioned base beer that was my overall favorite. The delicate carbonation enhanced through the beer engine faucet (with a sparkler) added an incredible creaminess that I just couldn’t get enough of.

All in all, the experience of going deep into aged variants of the same beers was incredibly fun and a testament to how rich and interesting Saint Arnold’s cellar program has become. I can’t wait until next year!

The post Saint Arnold 22nd Anniversary Rare Cellar Tasting first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Saint Arnold 22nd Anniversary Rare Cellar Tasting appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

As much as “DR Day” and the hullabaloo that surrounds each one has become a part of the DNA of the Houston beer community, a similar type of recurring pattern emerges with the immediate reaction to the beer itself. No matter the style, reactions seem almost always binary: love or hate. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Untappd… they all fill with opposing reactions.

Nothing reinforced this for me as much as my own attempt to get the latest release — the 16^th in the series — for this review. As I was traveling for work on release day, I came back to town and just couldn’t find it in my usual hunting locations in the Clear Lake area. Quick discussions with Houston Beer Guide friends and social media helped me get on some, but not before I was bombarded with the same type of messages — and I’m paraphrasing here to protect the guilty:

“I’ll give you some just to get the stuff out of my house.”

“Already into my second one tonight! Delicious! Can’t wait to get more!”

So was there something unique about this 10% alcohol by volume Adambier that inspired this type of reaction, or is this just the typical DR release dynamic? My opinion, after enjoying 12 oz of the beer over a few hours of a lazy evening, is that it’s a little bit of both.

First off, if you’re like me, the only experience you’ve had with Adambier has been a taste or three of one of the more famous examples from the US craft brewing scene — Adam from Hair of the Dog in Portland. Quite honestly, my tastes of that beer came at shares or festivals, and so my own knowledge and memory of even this is limited at best. I knew it was a smoked beer based on a style from northern Germany, an ale (vs. the smoked lagers from Schlenkerla I am more familiar with) and one of the seemingly unending sub-styles and sub-sub-styles of beers that are being revived from this beer-rich region of north-central Europe.

That’s a long way of saying that I’m ignorant to this style and how it “should” taste. So the description from the Saint Arnold page is about all I had to go on. Does that matter? I’ll come back to that in a following post along with some Q&A I had with the brewery on my own reactions to the beer.

So, to the pour! Beer came out of the fridge at, by my estimate, about 40F, as I’d put a room temperature bottle in for a few hours. I poured about 8 oz into a shaker pint and let the rest stay in the cold bottle. The beer itself was a deep dark brown with a ruby tone when held to the light. Pretty. Looks quite a lot like a robust porter, albeit with limited head retention. The slightly taupe-colored foam dropped away fast, and there was little to no evidence of CO2 releasing after that initial pour.

I could smell the smoke from the neck of the bottle and just more than a hint on the nose of the beer in the pint. Just a little bit of a peppery aroma — I’m guessing from the hops. Not a trace of yeast esters or phenolic elements (fruit, clove, that type of thing).

The first sip was pretty smoky, but that flavor was replaced with a bracingly bitter hoppiness and these two alternated a bit, slowly giving way to a long malty finish that was sweeter than it was roasty or caramelly. The smoky, bitter, and malty flavors echoed on each other for at least a minute. A complex beer for sure with a lot going on. As I got a little deeper into the beer and as it warmed, I really began to notice the smoke flavor building. With that came a slight astringency, I think from that same smoke. On the first sip I didn’t notice it, but on the second I started to perceive it: first on the back of my soft palate and eventually (with more sips) across the whole roof of my mouth. This wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as the nice malty finish either, and it became a major part of how I was experiencing the beer. The hop bitterness and a slightly fruity finish that emerged as it warmed were interesting elements too. I didn’t notice any of the alcohol.

My bottom line is that this beer is incredibly interesting to drink and got me thinking about all these components as I drank it — smokiness, maltiness, bitterness, astringency — but I couldn’t reconcile all those elements into a single taste profile. The beer just isn’t the sum of its very interesting parts for me. Yet.

Why yet? This DR reminded me quite a lot of DR8, a Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy. I found that beer hard to drink on release. As I remember, (it was in 2009) it inspired the same type of endpoint-style like/hate reaction among the beer community at large. It was a smoky beer. And it’s continued to get better year after year; in fact, it’s probably my second favorite Divine Reserve release ever. Lots of my friends gave me their then-5-packs of DR8 with a scowl on their face: “Yuck, you can have this gross stuff!” (again, I paraphrase). Thanks, great friends!

So is this a good Adambier? Is it a good DR release? If you like to drink interesting beers that are unlike anything you’ve probably had before, find some. If you want a beer that will probably get more incredible with age as the component parts come together, find some. Do you absolutely, positively want to #DrinkNow? Share it. 4 oz would have been enough for me: that’s about where the astringency began to build up and become a little distracting. I’ll definitely be opening one of these every 6 months for the next couple years.

This DR fulfills the expectation for the series. Challenging for the drinker. Interesting as a standalone beer. Probably will age very well. DR is part of Houston beer culture, and this release is a worthy add to that list.

The post Divine Reserve 16 – A review and commentary first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Divine Reserve 16 – A review and commentary appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

Divine Reserve can be found at your local store, while supplies last. Photo courtesy of Saint Arnold Brewing Company.

If you’re like me, you might be wondering: “What is an Adambier?”

According to the Brewers Association, Adambier is a pre-Reinheitsgebot style that has been making a slow comeback in the U.S. and internationally. It was a historically smoky ale, thriving in and around the Dortmund, Germany area. Adambier was a strong (about 10% abv), dark, sour beer, which was top-fermented and then aged in wood for long periods; it was always aged for at least a year, and often for longer.

DR 16 is a unique release for Saint Arnold as it’s the first time they’ve used smoked, or “rauch,” malt in one of their beers.

The pre-opening line at Spec’s Smith Street for the DR 16 release on Monday, February 29th.

Rauchmalt is best described as German wood-smoked malt that contributes a smoky flavor to beers. The brewing operations manager from Saint Arnold, Stephen Rawlings, wanted to create a smoked beer, as German-style beers are in his brewing wheelhouse.

Saint Arnold describes the beer as follows:

DR16 is a full bodied beer with a prominent, but not overpowering, smoked wood aroma (almost like a campfire), which comes from the use of Rauchmalt. It’s the first time we’ve used smoked malt in a beer. There is a subtle Noble hop aroma and a slight caramel character that becomes more prominent as the beer warms up. The smokiness dominates through the crisp, Kölsch yeast inspired, finish.  DR16 has a moderately-high bitterness that is balanced nicely by its residual malty sweetness, and there is no lack of alcohol warmth as you easily finish a pint. DR16 comes in right at 10% ABV.

               Cheers from the staff at Spec’s Smith Street and Saint Arnold Brewery.

Here are some locations around Houston that you will find the beer on draft:

Monday, February 29
J. Henry’s Draught House & Kitchen, Clear Lake
Union Tavern, Clear Lake
The Ginger Man at 6:00 PM
Hop Scholar at 6:30 PM
Tuesday, March 1
Front Porch Pub (plus Trivia Night)
Baker St. Pub & Grill, Cinco Ranch at 5:30 PM(also featuring DR15)
Mo’s Irish Pub at 6:00 PM
Friday, March 4
Valhalla
Saturday, March 5
Dak & Bop at 7:00 PM

The post Divine Reserve 16 Release first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Divine Reserve 16 Release appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.

21 years of Saint Arnold. Photo courtesy of D.J. Delarosa.

Last year, in a celebration of 20 years of business, Saint Arnold held a special “cellar event” that included special beers that were new, rare, or created for that event alone. It was marvelous, and a really nice way to celebrate two decades of craft beer in Houston.

This year, Saint Arnold decided to hold the event again, this time celebrating 21 years, and did so in a marvelous fashion, not at all as sloppy as most of us celebrated 21. The event once again held beers that hadn’t been seen in some time, beers that were yet to be publicly released, and beers that wouldn’t be seen outside of the event. And once again, cheese from the Houston Dairymaids was provided.

Highlights included a Cognac Barrel Aged 20th Anniversary Ale (a year and some cognac later turned this into an extremely complex beer), the Bourbon Barrel Aged Divine Reserve 12 (Quad) that they also had at last year’s party (just phenomenal), and Bishop’s Barrel 2 with Brett, a beer that most around me agreed is one of the best the brewery has ever made.

Some of the more interesting beers that were available included a cask of Pumpkinator with Coffee and Cocoa (the coffee dominated, and the spice – evident in both the Bishop’s Barrel 9, Pumpkinator 2014, and to a lesser extent, Pumpkinator 2011 – was almost non-existent), Divine Reserve 11 (a once proud and mighty beer is no longer very drinkable – the fresh Endeavour on tap nearby was a strong reminder of how amazing DR11 once was), and two different syrups for Boiler Room (The blackberry was my preference – though I generally drink Boiler Room straight and in large quantities, sometimes I enjoy it mit schuss.)

It’s crazy to think that Saint Arnold is 21 years old today. All around the room on Sunday stood workers, volunteers, friends, and family of the oldest craft brewery in Texas. There was a buzz in the air, not just because of exciting beers and tasty cheeses, but because in many ways, this celebration wasn’t just about the brewery – it was about craft beer in Texas, in Houston, altogether. In 1994, when Saint Arnold opened, when the first sip of Amber poured, no one could have predicted how mature the beer scene in Texas would get over the next 21 years. And now, we’re all very thirsty – it’s time to enter Houston beer adulthood.

Congratulations to Saint Arnold, godfather of Texas Craft Beer. Here’s to 21 years, and here’s to many, many more.

The post Celebrating 21 Years of Saint Arnold first appeared on Houston Beer Guide.

The post Celebrating 21 Years of Saint Arnold appeared first on Houston Beer Guide.