Archive for Beer a Day
ZiegenBock Amber
Posted by: | CommentsMy second night in Dallas found me at Jakes Old Fashioned Hamburgers, where they had a decent beer menu — and by that, I mean the beer at the top of their list was Flying Dog Pale Ale. They also had a Widmer Hefeweizen and Fat Tire, but the remainder of the menu consisted of simple, mass-marketed lagers.
I settled on Anheuser-Busch’s answer to Shiner Bock, called ZiegenBock. ZiegenBock’s label proudly boasts the beer is “Brewed in Texas, Made Only for Texans” — which strikes me as an obvious attempt to beat Shiner at its own game.
When I asked my waitress about ZiegenBock, she screwed up her nose and said, “It’s like Shiner, but worse.”
Alas, my goal is to try new beer and if ZiegenBock is only available in Texas — giddyup!
Shiner Bock
Posted by: | CommentsI announced over Twitter that I would be spending a few days in Dallas on business, and I asked for beer suggestions.
Good suggestions came through, including Rahr & Sons and beer bars or restaurants such as the Flying Saucer and The Covey. (These last two are both in neighboring Fort Worth.) But the one beer everyone told me I should drink while in Texas was Shiner Bock, from the Spoetzl Brewery.
The conference schedule kept me on a tight leash, so I largely drank my one beer each day based on where I was having dinner. And Shiner Bock was EVERYWHERE.
I drank it on my first night in Texas, at a barbecue joint that served Shiner in 32 oz mugs. It was easily the biggest single serving of beer that I’ve had all year long — but as they say, everything’s bigger in Texas.
Lakefront IPA
Posted by: | Comments
Milwaukee, WI is almost synonymous with beer, so I’ve been looking forward to trying the products of the Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery.
Could there be a better way to start than with Lakefront’s IPA?
Lakefront IPA has a kind of cyclops logo, with a thick letter “I” upon which an eyeball is superimposed, quite similar in style to the pyramid on the reverse of the US dollar. There’s little else on the label to suggest more about the beer.
Ah, but so often it is what’s inside that counts.
St. Bernardus Tripel
Posted by: | Comments
“Bringing heavenly nectar within reach”
– from the back of the St. Bernardus Tripel
For Easter, I decided to head back to Belgium for an abbey ale. Beer produced by monks, I reasoned, would be quite appropriate for the holiday — and, at least in taste, St. Bernardus Tripel rose to the occasion.
But St. Bernardus isn’t produced by monks at all. Technically, this is an “abbey-style” ale.
I’m not alone in my confusion. Many people think of St. Bernardus as a Trappist brewery. And the confusion may be justified, because — for more than 45 years — St. Bernardus licensed the Trappist name to produce beer.
Hitachino Nest White Ale
Posted by: | Comments
Since beer number 100 was a stout of stygian blackness, I decided to follow up with a decidedly lighter brew. For beer number 101 I chose Kiuchi Brewery of Japan, and its Hitachino Nest Beer White Ale.
The Kiuchi Brewery’s website describes this Witbier as:
A refreshing mildly hopped Belgian styled beer with a complex flavor of coriander, orange peel, nutmeg.
Not what I think of when I consider Japanese beer — the description certainly sounds a lot better than Sapporo, so bring it on!
Hitachino Nest White Ale poured hazy and pale yellow, with a pronounced but brief head. The beer allowed light through, but the body was hazy enough that I couldn’t even see my fingers on the other side of the glass.
