BeerBent.com

The title is a little deceiving. The fest will actually happen in Humble, just north of Houston. Also, EVERYONE across the globe is welcome to join. Even so, it’s happening here, close to home!

If you have no idea what I am talking about, save the date of May 7th, head over to this website and grab your tickets.

For those of you that continued reading and did not heed my advice, I am writing about the Texas Beer Festival happening on May 7th and the Humble Convention Center Arena.

For $34.00 you can fraternize with other beer nerds, taste rare beers, and learn about craft beer. That is a deal. Book your ticket now, because they will cost you $40.00 at the door. Might as well save six dollars now!

The list of breweries attending have been growing exponentially since the inception of the Festival. You can view the list here.

If great beers weren’t enough, there will be live music as well.  Robert Ellis and the boys will headline.

Grab your tickets now, this is sure to be a great event.  I am just happy this is happening around my home town, making a stronger case that Houston IS indeed a craft beer town.

I was wandering around the beer aisles in my local Specs’ looking for a beer that I have never had. (Almost all the beer there falls into this category.) I realized that I am a noobie when it comes to craft beer. I mean I’ve been drinking and enjoying craft beers for a few years now but I usually have stuck to the main stays. You know the Stones and the Rogues and the Dogfish. It was not until recently that I began to become more adventurous.

Since I am such a noob when it comes to beer I felt as if it would be safe to say that my beer palate is also noobish. I mean I know what I like. But my dream is to one day open a brew pub and I know that I need to expand my knowledge. So I came up with an idea. I was gonna review one beer a week that is rated 100 on ratebeer.com .

I will look up and research what 100 rated beers are easily available in Houston and review them as I can get my hands on them. This way I can train my palate to what is considered to be the best of the best craft brews. After I sample all the 100 rated beers that I possibly can I will work my way down the number scale to 90.

My hope is that after I am done with this little project my palate will be well adjusted and I can write and drink a little more knowledgeably.

My first 100 rated beer is Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye:

Here is the horses mouth version of this beer taken from the Bear Republic website.

Hop Rod Rye™
Rye IPA
ABV: 8.0% IBU: 80 Color: Amber
A high gravity IPA brewed with 18% rye malt. Hop Rod Rye has a floral hop aroma and subtle caramel notes with a slightly earthy and spicy rye character.
12oz. 4 pack | 22oz. | keg

I poured this American IPA into a plain pint glass. Probably should have used a snifter but oh well.

The pour was a lightly aggressive pour which produced a 2 finger head. Right away you could smell the citrus and pine hoppiness. The color was a beautifully dark brown at the center and light amber edges. Pretty dark for an American style IPA. The head stayed nice and thick and left a light lacing around the glass.

On the nose I could pick up citrus, pine, leather, sweet caramel and licorice, and just a tiny hint of the rye malt.

The taste was fantastic. But somewhat backwards to me. It punched me in the face with an upfront strong citrus flavor then mellowed in the middle to reveal the rye malt and definate sweetness. At the back of the tongue was a strong pine hoppiness and it finished clean with a pleasant non overbearing fresh taste.

The mouth feel was great. Slightly thicker than water with a mild carbonation. Chewy for an IPA but I don’t mind that at all.

My overall opinion of this beer is that it is probably in my top 10 of all time. Guess it rated 100 for a reason. Definitely would buy this great American Style IPA again and again.

Thought I would change things up a bit and list a list of the 10 worst beers I have had. So this will be a top 10 worst tasting beers edition. I am sure you will be able to guess 5 or 6 of these already. Since this is kind of a reverse top 10, I will start at number 10, and work my way down to number 1, being the absolute worst beer I have ever tried.

Without further adu:

10. The “Light” Trio
Yup, I went there, and I had to put all three into one; because I can almost guarantee you that Coors, Bud and Miller Light all are made from the same water, corn, barley, rice and hops. Probably even in the same location. They are all the same, and taste like beer flavored water. It’s too bad that most people drink this and call it beer.

9. Bud Ice
I am not even sure they make this crap anymore, but when I was in college I bought a 6 pack of this right after I turned 21. Let’s just say that after I drank one I put the rest in the community ice chest for others to enjoy.

8. Landshark
Macro brew trying it’s hand to be authentically Mexican, and failing.

7. Bud Light Lime
Really? Never did I want a lime flavored popsicle beer.

6. Red Dog
I have’t checked, but is this still around? I don’t remember anything about this beer except how horrible it was. Was another one I tried in college. I guess that is what happens on a college budget.

5. Natural Light (Natty Light)
For some reason this was the go-to beer in college for everyone besides me. It was one of the cheapest, and I am guessing that is why it was so. Another beer flavored water, except the beer flavoring wasn’t even remotely good.

4. O’Douls
Not sure why I, or anyone would want to drink a beer that tastes like yellow water, and then had absolutely no alcohol content. Oh the mysteries of this world.

3. Busch
This was the first official beer I bought the day I turned 21. I never bought it again.

2. Chelada
Another brilliant idea from the creators of Bud Light. Bud mixed with Clamato. I know people do this by themselves. I always thought it was just because they were masking the horrible taste of Bud with something else, but Bud’s rendition just makes this even worse.

1. Olde English 800
Before I was into good craft beers I was attending a party. I was just out of college and still dirt poor. My boss at the time had told me that he buys 2 of these when he goes out and he is good to go. So I obliged, bought a couple, and proceeded to my destination. I cracked my 40 open and took a sip. Spit it right out. This was absolutely the worst beer (err malt liquor) that I have ever tasted. It was so bad. I just didn’t drink beer or anything that night. Tap water it was!

What beers have you had that were just plumb terrible that were not on this list? Make a comment below or let us know via Facebook or Twitter!

Following the 5-7-5 syllable format

Texas beer is good
cannot wait for Wytchmaker
bottle conditioned

- Jason

I am not sure where to start with this review. I passed on buying this for a while now. I am not even sure why. I finally decided to pick up a bottle of this beer after reading a little about this historic brewery. I found out that this beer was first brewed in 1896, and was intrigued. I wanted to taste history, for lack of better words.

Let us first start this out with some words from anchorbrewing.com:

San Francisco’s famous Anchor Steam^®, the classic of American brewing tradition since 1896, is virtually handmade, with an exceptional respect for the ancient art of brewing. The deep amber color, thick creamy head, and rich flavor all testify to our traditional brewing methods. Anchor Steamis unique, for our brewing process has evolved over many decades and is like no other in the world.

Anchor Steam derives its unusual name from the 19th century when “steam” seems to have been a nickname for beer brewed on the West Coast of America under primitive conditions and without ice. The brewing methods of those days are a mystery and, although there are many theories, no one can say with certainty why the word “steam” came to be associated with beer. For many decades Anchor alone has used this quaint name for its unique beer. In modern times, “Steam” has become a trademark of Anchor Brewing.

This beer is unique.  I can safely say that I have never tasted a beer like this one.  I am still not sure how I feel about this beer, and it could be my lack of a beer palate.  I will be the first to tell you that my palate is not near as developed as many other craft beer drinkers, or reviewers.  But that is ok.  This is my review of the beer, my opinions and thoughts.  Take them for what they are worth.

I always like to smell the beer still in the bottle after popping the top.  Not much of a smell there.  No biggie, I am still excited about pouring this and giving it a try.  It pours a beautiful golden brown.  The head on this beer is amazing and very creamy.  The head hangs around for a good while too.

The smell after the pour was not much to talk about, but that makes sense with this being a lager.

The first taste was different.  Almost a little rubbery.  First impressions were honestly not that good.  This has happened to me on many occasions though, and I end up liking the beer as it warms a bit and my palate gets used to the style of beer.

I start to take notes on this beer while I try to come up with something interesting to write.  It is definitely a very complex beer, but I still cannot put my finger on what I am supposed to be tasting.

After a couple of minutes I come back to the beer, and the taste is already much better to me.  The lager yeast is now roaring and I can taste lightly sweetened grains.  Little hop taste, but enough to balance the beer well.

As I continue to drink, I can now taste a light vanilla flavor, and the smell is the same.

This beer goes down well, the drinkability is amazing.  With a 4.9 ABV you can have plenty without the fear of over doing it.  By the end of the bottle I was very glad to have purchased Anchor Steam, if not for the beer itself, but to be able to taste a historic brew from a quality brewery.

Honestly this was not my favorite beer.  But lagers are not my favorite style of beer either.  I generally stay away from them for the most part.  However, if lagers are your thing you definitely cannot go wrong.  This is a very complex beer with a really cool brewing process.

My official rating: Enjoyed this beer for what it was, but won’t buy it again

Here is what others had to say about Anchor Steam:

BeerAdvocate

RateBeer

Random Beer Blog

Another Beer Blog

Random Youtube Video Review

As I will always say, do not take my, or any other review for gospel.  This is a quality brew from a fantastic brewery.  Make your own opinions, and when you do, let us know what you thought.

If you have tried this beer already, let us know what you thought!

Cheers!

This is a list of my favorite women in the beer world.  I know that there are more and I apologize if I leave your favorite out of the list.  These are the women that I feel have been most influential in the beer scene as of late.  I will not count them down.  I present the list  in no particular order.

<

Julia Herz-Craft Beer Program Director for the Brewers Association.

Anat Baron has started a great conversation and debate with her documentary Beer Wars.

The Beer Wench, Ashley V Rouston, is a self proclaimed craft beer evangelist.  She seeks to spread the craft beer gospel by educating and inspiring people with her writings which I totally enjoy.  Her blog is drinkwiththewench.com

Kim Jordan, Founder of New Belgium Brewing (makers of Fat Tire).  She and her brewery makes some of the best craft beers out there right now in my humble opinion and is one of the most successful small breweries ever.  Check out her story.

Marketing Communications Manager at Boulevard Brewing Company.

Moylan’s Brewery and Restaurant in Novato California is making some great and exciting beers for Cali beer lovers.  The genius behind the brews is Denise Jones.  Check the website here.

Anne Fitten Glenn blogger and columnist.  You can find her blog here.

One of my favorite quotes from her is

:I’ve flirted with wine. I’ve flirted with vodka. I’ve even flirted with tequila (which didn’t flirt back). But I fell in love with beer–craft beer, specifically. Then I started having brewgasms. Here is where I share tales of my brewgasms with you.

The beer chicks,Christina Perozzi and HalIie Beaune.  Craft beer bloggers, lovers and authors of “The Naked Pint”.  Their book, The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer, was published in November of 2009.

Rhonda Kallman has had a rough go of things as of late.  She was the co founder of the Boston Beer Company. She now is trying to get her own beer company off of the ground and things are not going so well.  She has met a laundry list of opposition from investors and the government.  Read the story here.

So those are 10 of my favorite women in the beer world.  Did I miss your fave?  If so comment and let me know.  Also be sure to connect with us on facebook and twitter by clicking on the icons above.

See you all out and about and remember to keep it craft beer.

Slante and tight lines

eZe

We at BeerBent.com, do sincerely apologize for the lack of content in the past few weeks. Without trying to make excuses, life has a way of getting busy with career changes for both e-z and Jason. But, over a couple of brews this weekend we have rededciated and decided to not keep this on the backburner anymore.

You can expect a new Top 10 Tuesday, a new beer review, and very soon a new brewery spotlight, with other snippets as well.

We also would LOVE to hear from you, what you would like BeerBent.com to cover!

Cheers to beer! To make up for the lack of content, I present to you a random picture of a LARGE BROWN CUPCAKE!

Prosit!

I am a craft beer evangelist.  I believe that some of the best art today comes to us in form of craft beer.  The true folk artist of the day are the lunatic fringe brewers who do not care so much about industry as they do about making a great product that they are proud to call their own and hope others will enjoy as well.

Brewers like Jeff and Michael Stuffings of Jester King Brewery use malt, hops, and yeast as Van Gogh would use  oils on the canvas of our palate.  We at beerbent would like to thank you Jeff and Michael and the rest of your crew for making some of the best beer Texas and the world has to offer.

Here is some info on the brewery and beer direct from their website.

Located in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, Jester King Craft Brewery is an authentic farmhouse brewery committed to brewing artisan ales of great depth and character. Drawing influences from the world beyond traditional brewers’ yeast, Jester King sets out to create a unique sensory experience with each beer. It takes advantage of the special characteristics of the Hill Country environment by allowing natural wild yeast from the surrounding vineyards, orchards and groves to ferment the beer, thereby creating a distinctive terroir with a range of complex flavors. Jester King’s beer is not rushed to market but allowed to mature – often in oak barrels – to create the most enjoyable, interesting and exciting beer possible. An additional layer of complexity is added to Jester King’s bottled beers by allowing a second fermentation to take place in the bottle with wine yeast. As part of its commitment to sustainability, the slow food movement and central Texas, Jester King beer is brewed with collected rainwater and uses as many organic and local ingredients as possible.

Commercial Suicide Oaked Dark Mild

What can be better than a refreshing beer on a hot summer day in South East Texas? How about a ton of good food, live music, and lots of refreshing beers on a hot summer day in Houston? Sounds good to me.

Enter the Houston Beer Fest. Mark your calendar for June 11 from 2-11pm.

“Welcome to the Houston Beer Fest a one day festival of Beer and Fun. There will be a variety of beers to sample and purchase from around the world. Outside of imports there will be a number of your hometown favorites and new ones for you to add to your collection.”

Looks like a great time to be had at the Herman Square Park. According to their website there will be beers to sample from around the world, and plenty of local selections as well. So far there are more than 10 bands that are slated to play through out the day as well.

There is no beer list just yet on the site, but is said to come.

Sounds interesting to me. I plan on trying to make it out!

Check them out:
Houstonbeerfestival.com
Facebook Page

For our next installment of “Top 10 Tuesdays” I am going to list my top 10 beer quotes. Easy as that.

You can find all of these quotes if you “google” beer quotes all over the web.  These just happen to by my favorite ones.

Did I miss your favorite?  Let us know in the comments!

As always be sure to keep up with our brewnanigans by following us on twitter @beerbent and join the discussion by “liking” our Facebook page.