I quite enjoy a good IPA; prefer the balanced ones, but an occasional jolt of serious hops can be fun. Fortunately, Houston area brewers are offering some variety.
5’o Clock Pils from St Arnold.
Truly refreshing & not too strong. Especially appreciated on a hot & steamy October day here in Houston!
When that cold front finally arrives, there’s Buried Hatchet Stout from Southern Star up in Conroe. None of Guinness’s smoothness–but it’s a good change.
And they both come in cans!
I’m pretty sure that the big hurdle is that the laws and required licenses/permits governing distilling are far more onerous and a pain than the laws governing brewing. Combine that with a relatively small market for fruit eau-de-vie type products, and a pre-existing large, well entrenched distilling industry, and it’s not a surprise that nobody’s going to all the trouble of setting up a distillery just to try and sell something that’s not popular in the US anyway.
Now why existing craft distilleries don’t do more of it, that is something I don’t know. I’d guess that somewhere like Tito’s in Austin could proably easily branch out and make peach eau-de-vie from Fredericksburg peaches, or grappa from the Hill Country wineries’ pomace if they felt like it. Seems to me that the market just isn’t there to begin with, or is already saturated with imports.
And Bridget Burke… I’m a big fan of Southern Star’s Pine Belt Pale Ale. It’s a great, well-balanced ale in my opinion- hops AND malt in plenty.
Eau-de-vie. That’s the word I was looking for. Well, dammit, make the market so I could be a happier man! :)They’ve been able to do it with sours. I’m surprised our local distilleries here in Chicago don’t at least give it a shot. There’s plenty of Central and Eastern European stock here, plus they were able to make malort a popular enough drink of all things! It can be done. New. Different. Old world, but local. The drinking cognoscenti and hipsters should drink that right up!
That’s a great perspective. Though I’ve been avoiding IPAs for years, I’d never thought of it like that. Thanks for the chuckle.
I fully embraced craft brews for a while (though, not IPAs) but have relaxed lately. They’re great to meet and talk and sip over, but if I want refreshment or a buzz, I’m probably going for something more commercial. I like `em dark and Mexican.
The peak of the IPA book was a couple years ago, IMO. Right now I’d say the big fad is sours, although that might have passed as well. I do hope porters are the next one. Or perhaps stouts that are more drinkable than the big Imperial stouts. I love them, but not all the time.
Yeah, I’d really be up for some middle-of-the-road Guinness types of stouts (4.2%ABV) with different flavor profiles like Guinness any day. You are probably right that the peak has passed, but looking at the shelves of a well-stocked beer store or what new breweries that seem to be popping up every other week here in the Chicago area are putting out, you wouldn’t know it.
Not sure what sours are, however frutty including citrus IPA’s are taking up a significant portion of the IPA’s offering.
Sours are beer that are, well, like the name states, sour. They are either spontaneously fermented (in the classic manner, which means only the yeast in the air and on the grains are what ferment the beer, no cultivated yeast is pitched) or, for a more controlled result, are innoculated with various microorganisms which give the beer its characteristic sour and funky/barnyard flavors like brettanomyces, pediococcus, and sometimes lactobacillus or acetobacter in addition to a brewer’s yeast.
How about this?
the grapefruit one is quite tasty with grapefruit LaCroix bubbly water. Very nice on a day when it’s 109 outside.
That’s not quite it. Those look like they are liqueurs infused with fruit flavor, not spirits that are distilled from fruit that has been fermented.
I’m talking stuff like this. They are not sweet at all. It’s basically a clear spirit, like a vodka, made by distilling fermented fruit. Unlike a vodka, they retain their basic fruit flavors and aromas. It tastes like the alcoholic essence of the fruit they are made from. No sweetness whatsoever.
ty
You’re welcome. You can think of them as the sourdoughs of the beer world. The analogy is fairly accurate.
I’ve definitely seen a spike in sours, which I’m enjoying. But I hope it doesn’t get overdone like the IPAs. Or too gimmicky.
The last three years I’ve attended a sours tasting held at a local beer place. For $50 - $75 you get to sample a hundred or so sour beers, some of which go fo $80 a bottle.
Except grappa, which tastes like some sort of petroleum distillate filtered through the remnants of a dumpster fire and then given the faintest hint of grape flavor at bottling.
You forgot the running socks.
Second.
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is about has hopped as I generally enjoy.
I’ve been focused on lower octane beers that are more in the 3-4% alcohol content. IPA’s are often double if not triple that. And while I’ve tried about a dozen Session IPA’s, they universally taste catty to me (catty may be the official tasting term, but for those of you that need a translation it tastes like a combination skunked and cat piss to me). And most clock in as “low alcohol” as being under 5% with the rare one at a “low” 4.5%.
I have gotten sampler cases with IPA’s. I find to make them generally drinkable I have to water them down by adding 30-50% sparkling water to get them to a reasonable taste.
No worries if y’all enjoy a strong IPA but it ain’t for me. I’ll need a pretty awesome recommendation to even try another Session IPA.
Yeah, I was having a hard time remembering much beyond the kerosene/naptha overtones that were prominent in the grappa I’ve had. It was godawful stuff, and I was even in a place in Rome that supposedly specializes in grappa, and asked them for their newbie recommendation.
I shudder to think of what the connoisseur’s version is like.
Founders All Day IPA
I would link to the Beer Advocate page, but it’s just a bunch of beer snobs going on and on.