Deep Ellum Festivus - Revisited

Deep Ellum Festivus is a black IPA.  Last time I tried this beer, I equated it to being the love child between a porter and a scotch ale.  This years beer was very different.  It was totally a black IPA.  It had a huge floral hop nose and a nice hop flavor.  The roasted malts came through to help balance the hops.  It was served in this years Flying Saucer Christmas glass.  Notice how one side is upside down, so when you hang it up by the stem, it is right side up :)

Inventory

Y'all already know how much I love porters, stouts, and, well, just about any dark beer (possible exception here - a black IPA...but I'm open).  We're currently beer fridge-less, and there are so many of these wonderfully delicious beers in our possession, they're beginning to take over.  

So Joe had the brilliant idea of getting a cooler, filling it up with some of the beers from the crispers and upper shelves, and putting it out on the balcony.  It's about 22 degrees here in Denver today...I think they'll be comfortably chilled!

Anyway, while we were rearranging, I decided to take a quick inventory.  We have 68 beers - almost all bombers; here's what we have:

brewer - name - style (number) (status, if noted)

8 Wired Brewing – Ø is for Awesome – Imperial Amber Ale


Alaskan – Smoked Porter – American Porter (2)

Allagash – Four – Quad (Belgian) (2) (retired)

Allagash – Victor – Belgian Strong Pale Ale

Back Country – Peak One Porter – American Porter

Bear Republic – Black Stout – Imperial Stout

Breckenridge – 72 Imperial Chocolate Cream Stout – Milk /Sweet Stout (2)

Brouwerij Van Steenberge N.V. – Witches Brew - Tripel

Clown Shoes – Eagle Claw Fist – America Amber

Crabtree – Oatmeal Stout – Oatmeal Stout (2)

Crooked Line – Cockeyed Cooper – Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine

Dogfish Head – Fort – Belgian Style Fruit Beer

Firestone Walker – Wookey Jack – Black Rye IPA

Fort Collins – Incredible Hop – Imperial India Pale Ale

Harpoon – 100 Barrel Series Island Creek Oyster Stout – English Stout (retired)

Hoppin’ Frog – Barrel Aged BORIS – Russian Imperial Stout

Jester King – Black Metal Imperial Stout – Russian Imperial Stout

Jester King – Le Petit Prince - Saison

Jester King/Mikkeller – Drink'in the Sunbelt – American Pale Wheat

Lakefront – Pumpkin Lager – Fruit Beer (2)

Left Hand – Black Jack Porter – English Porter (6)

Mikkeller – Big Worse – American Barley Wine

Odell – Friek – American Wild Ale

Odell – Pond Hopper Double Extra Pale Ale – Imperial IPA

Ommegang – Gnomegang – Belgian Strong Pale Ale

Paradox – Heralded Nocturnes – Apple Harvest Saison

Saint Arnold – 2011 Pumpkinator – Imperial Stout (3) (retired)

Saint Arnold – 2012 Pumpkinator – Imperial Stout (3)

Sam Adams – 13th Hour Stout – Belgian Dark Ale

Sam Adams – Griffin’s Bow – American Barley Wine

Sam Adams – New World Tripel – Tripel

Santa Fe – Imperial Java Stout – Imperial Stout

Santa Fe – Kickin’ Chicken – Bourbon Barrel Aged Barley Wine

Shipyard – Smashed Pumpkin – Pumpkin Ale

Twisted Pine – Ghost Face Killah – Chili Beer

Twisted Pine – Imperial Hoppy Knight – American Strong Ale (2)

Unibroue – Grand Reserve 17 – Belgian Strong Dark Ale

Upslope – Christmas Ale – Belgian Strong Dark Ale (2)

Weltenburger Kloster – Asam Bock – Doppelbock

Weltenburger Kloster – Hefe Weissbier Dunkel – Dunkelweisse

Widmer – SXNW – American Strong Ale

Wynkoop – B3K – Schwarz Bier (11)

Parade of Darks

One of our favorite local brewpubs, Wynkoop Brewery (also a pretty good restaurant) hosted a beer festival this past weekend featuring a parade of dark beers. Here's a list of breweries that participated and some tasting notes for your reading pleasure.


Arvada Beer Co.
Jolly Holiday Ale - a tasty, winter spice-driven ale. Delicious. Especially when combined with Twisted Pine's Pearl Street Porter...you know I love chemistry!
Foreign to Me Stout - big, bold, Guinness-esq.

Avery Brewing
The Czar
Old Jubilation
Out of Bounds Stout - big coffee flavor without too much alcohol (a favorite component of Avery)

AC Golden
Blueberry Sour - Joe tried this and made a face
Plum Sour - a girl in front of us commented "That's just nasty!" as she dumped the remainder of her tasting glass into the spit bucket.

Bootstrap Brewing
Worthog Stout - a little on the light side with not much to it.
Boomer Brown - Joe had this one and liked it

Boulevard Brewing
Bully! Porter - I've had this one before...a very nice, robust porter
Dark Truth Stout - deep plums, prunes, dark fruit, warm alcohol...sneaks up on you

Breckenridge Brewery
Oatmeal Stout - their BBQ joint makes their sauce out of this stuff...sooooo gooooood
Vanilla Porter - I have a hard/fast rule about this beer: Never. Never in the bottle. Never.
Extra ESB
Christmas Ale - a lovely little beverage...good caramel-y brown ale

Bull & Bush
Big Ben Brown Ale - a fine exemplar of the style
Stonehenge Stout - I got a huge taste of briquette from this...ick.
Punk Up The Yams - a tasty seasonal warmer
The Legend Of The Liquid Brain - I had such high hopes for this, but it was more like taking medicine...Ack.
Captain Funk
Captain Midnight

Caution Brewing
Toaster Bat Black Smoked Porter - it tasted like someone shaved a lump of coal into the vats...no thanks
Dunkel(er)Weiss - sweet malty dunkel. yum!

Copper Kettle
Mexican Chocolate Stout - like Mexican Hot Chocolate in a beer. Please, sir, may I have some more?
Pumpkin Porter - lovely, spicy pumpkin porter...not much of a kick, but good

Denver Beer Co. (editor's note: I don't really like many of their beers)
Graham Cracker Porter - while it sounds really good, it's not much to write home about.
Chill Out Chocolate Chili Stout - they just try too hard...hot, but no flavor

Dry Dock Brewing (we visited their tasting room on Friday and had their Roasted Marshmallow Sweet Potato Stout...hard to top.)
Wee Heavy Strong Scotch Ale
Raspberry Porter

Elevation Brewing
Apis - a quad made with caramelized Colorado honey. good god.
Lil Mo Porter - another fairly lightweight porter

Firestone Walker
Velvet Merlin Oatmeal Stout - smooth, creamy, yummy...very well done
Walker's Reserve Porter - full of toffee and bittersweet chocolate
DBA - double barrel aged barley wine

Fort Collins Brewery
Double Chocolate Stout - had it before, and I had it again. Rockin'!

Great Divide
Yeti Imperial Stout - Big. Big. Stout
Espresso Oak Aged Yeti
Claymore Scotch Ale
Hibernation

Green Flash
Double Stout - meh

Grimm Brothers Brewing
Master Thief German Porter - too hoppy for me, but Joe liked it
Fearless Youth Dunkel
Riffraff Dunkleweisse

Jolly Pumpkin
Bam Noir - an uber lightweight dark farmhouse ale...tasted more cocoa powder than yummy chocolate notes.

Left Hand (love this stuff)
Fade to Black
Milk Stout

Lone Tree Brewing
Acres O Green Irish Red
Toots' Full-bodied Oatmeal Stout - darn good oatmeal stout, but I've had better
Chili Beer Collaboration #2
Old #99 Rauchbier

Lost Abbey
Judgment Day

Maui Brewing
Coconut Porter - Joe loves this porter...me, not so much...I'm not big on coconut

Mountain Sun Brewery & Pub
Megatron Imperial Stout - Joe liked this one...big hop finish
Oatimus Prime Imperial Stout - this is one of those better oatmeal stouts!

Odell Brewing
Mountain Standard
Isolation Ale

Ommegang
Three Philosophers - ahhh, the classics!

Port Brewing
Old Viscosity - motor oil pour, cold coffee...wow

Prost Brewing
Doppelbach - a fine exemplar of the style
Dunkel

Pug Ryan's
Brain-teaser Barleywine
Barrel-Aged Leap Year Trifecta

Sierra Nevada
Narwhal Imperial Stout - overpowering alcohol...rubbing alcohol
Wine Barrel Aged Dubbel

Ska
Steel Toe Stout - big fat-bottomed stout, tasty, but kind of a nothing finish
Nefarious Ten Pin - love this beer - dark rich flavors, nice alcohol touch
On The Sly Again

Strange Brewing
Pumpkin Porter - the best pumpkin of the bunch on this day
Cherry Bomb Stout - I liked it, but I wanted a piece of chocolate to go with it
Gingerbread Man - loads, loads and loads of ginger...dare I say, too much?
Vanilla Rum Porter - now you're talking my language

Twisted Pine
Espresso Stout
Honey Brown
Pearl Street Porter - this is the one that mixes nicely with Arvada's Holiday Ale

Upslope Brewing
Christmas Ale - one of my favorites - currently in my fridge
Brown Ale - their flagship ale

Wynkoop Brewing
Gingerbread Stout
2012 Barleywine
Cowtown Milk Stout
B3K Black Lager
Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout - yes, it's brewed with rocky mountain oysters - and, yes, it's very, very good.
Colorojo Double Red

I love a parade!

Maui Beer Dinner

The Flying Saucer in Addison recently had the Maui beer dinner. I loved that Garrett Marrero, the owner and head brewer of The Maui Brewing Company was the speaker.  He flew in from Hawaii.  He was fun and interesting to listen to.  I will admit that while I enjoy Maui beers, they haven't been on my top favorites list.  But, when Garrett explained about the breweries sustainable practices and how all the special ingredients are local, that bumped them up in my book!

We started off with the Big Swell IPA as the social beer.  I forget what a nice IPA this beer is.  No special ingredients, just a solid IPA.

Next, we had Maui Mana Wheat, served with an ahi tuna poke on a crispy wonton with grilled pineapple and watermelon on the side.  I think this was not the original beer pairing for the course, but it still worked together.  The pineapple infused in the beer was a nice complement to the grilled pineapple.

The next course was coconut lobster bisque served in a coconut, served with Maui La Perouse.  I don't remember having this beer before.  It is a nice Belgian wit made with mandarin oranges and I really liked it.  But, the star was the soup!  Presentation was incredible and I stopped using the spoon and just drank from the coconut!

This was followed up with a BBQ pork shoulder sandwich with a cherry-chipotle sauce with apple-bleu cheese slaw and herbed potatoes and served with Sobrehumano Palena'Ole.  Another beer I don't think I have had before.  It is described as a Liliko'i and cherry red ale.  It is a collaboration beer with Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales.  The beer was a great pairing with the BBQ sandwich.  The chipotle added a touch of heat to the sweet cherry in the BBQ sauce.  I didn't taste any of the bleu cheese in the slaw, but the apples were a nice sweet taste with a nice crunch for texture. Herbed potatoes, how can you go wrong?

We finished with a coffee infused chocolate mousse served with Maui Coconut Porter.  I love porters and have only had the coconut porter previously in a can.  This time it was on tap and honestly, I liked it better.  This could be of course because the chocolate mousse was FANTASTIC!  It was capped with a dark chocolate layer.  YUMM!

Kevin is the man behind the food and pairings.  He just gets better every dinner he does.  And all this is without a real kitchen!  I know the real reason why, but ... PLEASE GET THE ADDISON SAUCER A REAL KITCHEN.

Colorado's Plethora of Beer

"Amazing" would be a word I would use to describe it.  In just the last three weeks:

Three weekends ago we were in Vail and went over to Crazy Mountain - small, but full of great beer! Joe had a flight (he almost always does), and I had their summer kolsch. We brought home a growler of Cara de Luna Black Ale...slurpee black goodness in a 64 ounce bottle!

And yes, we've dusted it.


Last weekend we went up to Fort Collins and visited four breweries...it was a great day! We started at Fort Collins Brewery. We had lunch at their restaurant Gravity 1020 (a nod to the gravity at which they brew their beer) and then headed over to the tasting room. They have an incredible selection of really, really good beers. We sampled several but came home with a growler of Oak Aged Maibock. We're planning to fire up the grill and make some spicy pecan chicken to have with it.

Our next stop was O'Dell's - a righteous brewery that just so happened to be having a cornhole tournament. No, that's not a prison game...it's like toss across...but on a professional level. It was a beautiful day, so we stayed outside enjoying the sun, the beer and the competition. I drank up a Honey Baron, and Joe inhaled the double pils. Yum!

Just up the road, we stopped at New Belgium (of course). That place was hoppin', but we found a spot at the bar and made friends with the bartender (like I've never done that). I don't recall what Joe had, but I had their peach porch lounger - totally refreshing, slightly peachy, really delicious and a good break between big beers.

Finally, we went into Old Town (Fort Collins' quaint little downtown area) and visited a new brewery called Pateros Creek. Joe had a flight and I had Cache la Porter, a big chocolaty porter...right up my alley!

Now if that's not enough, and don't you think it ought to be, this past weekend we stayed in town and went to the Copper Kettle. We had never heard of these guys until we went to the Denver Summer Beer Fest a month ago. They have a Mexican Chocolate Stout that's even better than Clown Shoes' Chocolate Sombrero. Wow! It won a gold medal at last years' GABF...that's impressive, but even more so when you find out that they just opened last year! They also have a Scotish Brown Ale called Great Scot! that's got just the right combination of nuttiness, caramel and bacon...oh, mama!

Of course we made friends with Justin Gill the head bartender - great guy!

Another brewery we'd never heard of until the Summer Beer Fest is Renegade. Renegade is about four blocks away from Breckenridge Brewery (which we go to a lot, both for the beer and the BBQ). Joe had an amazing flight of the eight beers they had on tap...geez!

I had their Sunday Morning, a coffee-infused strong ale...way good! And then I tried their Banana Split, an Imperial Dunkelweizen - mighty tasty...even got a hint of vanilla whipped cream on the finish.

Needless to say, we're not lacking for good beer up here, but we do miss the beer goddesses at the Flying Saucer.  

We want something else...

I drank Olde Hickory B's Nuts at the Flying Saucer in Charlotte, NC, and it was good! Really, really good. Like a pecan sandie in a class.  Get your bad self on up to Nawth Carolina and get you some.

The AmeriCAN Beer Dinner at the Addison Flying Saucer

Last night we went to a truly unique beer dinner.  No particular brewery was featured.  No particular style of beer was on tap.  It was all about the cans. 

More and more breweries are reverting to shipping their beer in cans.  And I am sooo for that!  It keeps light out, it helps the beer keep longer, it costs less for the brewery to ship - so you don't get as much pass through costs added to your purchase price - and, with the upgrades and refinements in aluminum, no funky metallic taste is added to the beer.  Add to that cans are much, much cheaper to recycle!  It's a win win all the way around. 

So what did we have? 

We started off with a PBR.  Pabst Blue Ribbon was a pioneer in the craft brewing industry...really.  Starting off in small batches, its popularity grew, and by 1977 Pabst was brewing 18 million barrels a year.  If you haven't tasted it in a while, try a cold one.  (editor's note - don't let it get too warm...or maybe that's just me.)

Our first pairing was Avery White Rascal and a tomato, watermelon, and tarragon salad.  White Rascal is a Belgian Wit, and a mighty tasty one, at that.  The sweetness of the watermelon and the savory of the tarragon really brought out the tang of the Rascal. 

Next came Santa Fe Happy Camper, paired with loaded potato fritters, fried okra and jalapeno cream gravy.  Now, y'all know that I am NOT a hop head.  I take one sniff of a hoppy beer and out comes my ACK face!  Let me tell you something.  The smokiness of the bacon, the creamy potatoes and the spice of the jalapeno mellowed that hop right out and totally made it a drinkable beer for me.  A really nice surprise!  I'll have to try this again.

Next came a duo of beers: Stevens Point 2012 Black Ale and New Belgium Shift.  We were served a grilled honey glazed pork chop that was fabulous with the black ale - the sweetness of the honey glaze melded perfectly with the malty, nutty backbone of the ale.  YUM!  Alongside the chop was a serving of collard greens (frankly, I passed) and a heaping mound of mac n' cheese, made with costwold cheese - a perfect compliment to the cranky/tangy/hoppy Shift.  Actually, I liked the mac n' cheese with the black ale, too.  To be totally honest, I'd eat the mac n' cheese with a PBR.  Or day-old milk.  Or mud.  Yeah.  it was just that good!

Finally, it was time for dessert.  A masterpiece in my book.  Southern Star Buried Hatchet (one of my favorites, anyway) paired with a bourbon banana pudding served in a mason jar.  I believe the words we're looking for here are, "God Damn!!"

And, yes, that's a PBR photobombing the picture.

It was a great dinner.  The food was downhome and yummy.  The beers surprising.  And the Saucer staff, as always...the best!!

Dogfish Head Beer Dinner

Tracy, Joe, Judy and I met at The Lake Flying Saucer in Garland (overlooking Lake Ray Hubbard) for the Dogfish Head Beer Dinner tonight.  It was a six course dinner.  The "social" beer was Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA. 60 Minute is brewed with a slew of great Northwest hops. A powerful but balanced East Coast IPA with a lot of citrusy hop character, it's the session beer for hardcore enthusiasts! You would expect this to be a terribly bitter beer since it is hopped for 60 minutes during brewing.  But, surprisingly, it is not.

The second course was Midas Touch.  This sweet yet dry beer is made with ingredients found in 2,700-year-old drinking vessels from the tomb of King Midas. Somewhere between wine and mead, Midas will please the chardonnay and beer drinker alike.  It was served with champagne brie soup with sourdough rounds.  We heard through the grapevine that there was 4 pounds of brie in the soup.  I can only imagine as it was just a very nice cheesy, yet light soup that went well with the Midas Touch.

The third beer was Red & White.  Red & White is a big, Belgian-style witbier brewed with coriander and orange peel and fermented with pinot noir juice. After fermentation, a fraction of the batch is aged in one of  10,000-gallon oak tanks.  I accidentally caught some as I was breathing and had a mild coughing fit.  The upside was how I got a great sense of the pinot noir juice.  This was served with a cherry tomato and basil tart with gruyere crust.  The tart was so fantastic.  Tracy noted that while it was a nice pairing with the tart, it would also go well with something dark.  I broke off some of the edge crust of the tart and tried it with the beer and you know what?  Tracy was right! (don't let her know or it will go to her head)

The fourth beer was Indian Brown.  This is a hybrid style.  It is a cross between a Scotch Ale, an India Pale Ale and an American Brown, Indian Brown Ale is well-hopped and malty at the same time.  Seriously, each beer was better than the first and we started out on a HIGH plane!  The paring was a beef and vegetable pot pie with cheddar biscuit topping.  This complex beer went well with the beef and veggies and cheese crust.

The fifth beer was Immort Ale.  This beer is brewed with maple syrup, juniper berries and vanilla. Immort is fermented with a blend of English and Belgian yeasts, then aged in the big oak tanks at the brewery.  The food pairing was brown sugared pork spheres. Judy said they were pork balls.  Rebecca Keiffer said in her house they were called Ham Balls, but she didn't want to call it balls on the menu.  No matter what you call them, they were pretty danged tasty and then served on a little bed of mashed potatoes.

The sixth and final beer was Palo Santo. An unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this beer comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. Palo Santo means "holy tree," and its wood has been used in South American wine-making communities.  A very unique beer that is fantastic and it was paired with bourbon pecan tart with bourbon whipped cream.  This was your mamma's pecan pie just taken up to a new level.  If you have ever had the commercial whipped cream with alcohol that almost burns your mouth from the alcohol, then you have NO idea how good this whipped cream was.  She added some very nice smooth bourbon to a homemade whipped cream and it was AWESOME.

The manager at The Lake, Daniel, did the presentation of the beers at dinner.  He was a reluctant, but excellent narrator for the dinner. The original Dogfish Head rep who was scheduled to come had turned in his resignation and was absent.  Perhaps we would have had more insight into Dogfish Head with a rep, but Daniel did a fine job on his own.

And let me throw out another great shout out and huge kudos to Rebecca.  She is one of the managers, a chef and cicerone who does a fantastic job on these dinners.  I know she worries about the pairings, but seriously girl, just keep up the good work.  You make it look easy, but I know agonize over it.

Northern Beers

There was an article a few months back about the 8 top porter beers in the US.  Two of them I hadn't enjoyed yet were a Michigan brewer and a Ohio brewer.  The Michigan brewer was Founders and their beer is Founders Porter.  As luck would have it, my sister and brother-in-law's event center, Seven Steps Up, had Founders Porter on tap.  That beer was so awesome, so I wanted to find the other yankee beer, Great Lakes Brewing Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.  My brother-in-law suggested we try a place down the road in Spring Lake called The Corner Market & Spirits.  It looked like your regular liquor store and the beer selection was OK, but nothing exciting.  We looked around the corner and found a wall and cooler full of craft beers!

The really cool thing is that you can mix and match your beers in a 6 pack.  So, I was looking around and found many of the Great Lakes Brewing beers and voila, Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.  I picked up two of those.  I also found Dark Horse Brewing out of Marshall, Michigan.  The beer I picked up was Too Cream Stout.  I picked up two of those.  Lastly, to fill the last two remaining spots I found O'Fallon Brewing out of O'Fallon, Missouri.  I picked the Black Hemp Black Ale.  If I lived here, this would be a store I would visit often.  The guy working there was pretty knowledgeable about beers.  If I would have been alone with some time, I would like to have picked his brain for other Michigan craft beers.

On to tasting of the beers.

I have to say that I am totally unimpressed with the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.  Since this was on a list of top 8 porters, I am going to assume that there was a problem with this beer.  Something tasted off to me, but not in a skunked way.  My brother-in-law also was unimpressed, but he hasn't had many porters to compare with.  His comment was that is was bitter.

Next I tried the Dark Horse Too Cream Stout.  This was a nice stout.  Not one you take and say Dayum!, but a nice stout nonetheless.  Always happy to try new beers.

Lastly, I had the O'Fallon Black Hemp Black Ale.  Although it isn't highly carbonated, there was a fizzy sensation on the tip of my tongue as I drank it.  All in all, not a bad little beer.  I wish I had something more to say, but I would drink this one again for sure.

This means I will have to have another glass of the Founders Porter to finish off my trip here!

Jonathan's 4th Plate Party

I realized I have never posted about my 4th plate party! I claimed the date for my plate to be 2/29/2012, leap day! The party was on March 24th. In attendance were Joe, Tracy, Judy, Lisa, Kelly and Ashley. Lots of good beer and food was consumed. I left very happy!

Now on to my 5th plate so I can be an M.O.U. (Master of the Universe)

Addison Flying Saucer 16th Anniversary

Sunday, February 26th, the Flying Saucer in Addison celebrated their 16th anniversary. From 1 to 8 PM, they tapped two special beers each hour. They also were doing raffles. You received 1 raffle ticket 2 cans of food donated. There was also trivia and some special food. Joe, Tracy & I had our trivia team named, "We Sucked Last Year" (true statement). We also sucked this year too. Enough that we received a $10 bar tab certificate for last place. Oh well, we won something :) We will use this in conjunction with my 4th plate party that will be coming up soon!

The celebration was fun and the special philly cheese steak sandwich with coleslaw and sweet potato fries was awesome. The place wasn't as packed as it was last year, but there was a pretty good turnout nonetheless.

A good time was had by all!

Brooklyn The Companion

I am getting close to my 4th plate at the Flying Saucer, so I had to go this afternoon to get a few (read 3) more beers. One of the new beers on my daily email of new beers (go me) was Brooklyn The Companion. I was shocked and so very pleasantly surprised that this was the fire sale today. Since it is a wheat wine at 10% ABV, I never expected to see it discounted. I made it my last beer for the day. I started with Affligem Blonde (a nice Belgium Ale), then Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale (a Strong Ale) and then finished with Brooklyn The Companion. I didn't know or have any expectation for this beer, except that it was a wheat wine at 10% ABV. I was surprised that is was such a light color. Then even more surprised that it tasted sweet and just a little light. But not surprised at the buzz I had after those 3 beers!

The write up on the Addison beer list had:
This brew is a wheat based equivalent to a barley wine. With 55% malted wheat, this beer has a surprising;ly light and crisp affect on the palate, but don't let that fool you! At 10% ABV you should be able to taste plenty of heat.

I didn't taste the heat, but I sure feel it. I would LOVE to have this beer again.

Peticolas Velvet Hammer

There is another brewer in Dallas, Peticolas Brewery. As luck would have it, they are serving one of the beers at the Addison Flying Saucer. The beer is called "Velvet Hammer" and it is an Imperial Red Ale. They describe it as:

9% Alcohol by volume / 85 IBUsA tribute to our favorite Brewmaster, Greg Matthews, the Velvet Hammer appears as a dark, ruby reddish-brown ale beneath a sheath of protective off-white foam. It is malt-forward with elements of caramel and the sweetness of light brown sugar, balanced nicely by a combination of floral hops and a noticeable alcohol bite. It's a sturdy brew with a smooth character which belies both an inner strength and a slightly full body, along with a moderate bitterness to round out the taste.This beer pairs nicely with any and all spicy foods. The high hop character of this beer helps cut the spice in the food dish.

I was just surprised at the body of the beer and the huge caramel front end. I am also surprised at the IBU rating of 85. It didn't seem that high, but there is no doubt it is hoppy.

I can't wait to try some more of their beers. Get more information at:
http://peticolasbrewing.com/home.php

Deep Ellum Brewing Co. - Festivus Black IPA

The Deep Ellum Brewing Co. is the newest brewer in Dallas (as far as I know). They have been open for several months and I have been thinking about going to Deep Ellum just to try their beers. Finally, the Flying Saucer is serving some of their beers. The Lake Flying Saucer has Festivus, a black IPA. My server was interested in my opinion as they weren't sure it was a black IPA. Let me start off with, I like this beer. My first taste was more of a scotch ale. She said some thought it was more of a porter. So, my next beer was Avery New World Porter, so I did a side by side taste and I came to this conclusion: If a scotch ale and porter beer were to have a baby, this would be it!

Next to try is the Deep Ellum Double Brown Stout at the Addison Flying Saucer. Hint, it is classified as a brown ale. Hmmmm, will all the Deep Ellum Brewing beers be hard to classify?