The Beer Chaser

Last weekend I went out to Dallas, Texas for a business trip. I got to stay in a pretty swanky Four Seasons Resort at Las Colinas (home of the Byron Nelson Championship). Shortly after checking in I went downstairs to the hotel bar to wet the whistle. I started off with my old standby Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I also inquired about any locally brewed beers available. I was in luck. They had a few for the tasting.

Like I mentioned before, I started off with a couple of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale’s — delicious! Okay, so I quenched my thirst and the palate was tingling. What should I try next? There were two bottled beers that were brewed locally. The first one I tried was called Rahr & Sons – Ugly Pug, based out of Fort Worth Texas. This one was a German black lager or a schwarzbier. For some reason I thought this was going to have the texture and taste of a stout but I was way off the mark. This smoky, black beer had a fizzy head and medium body. This 5.5% brew had a slightly metallic finish with a long smoky duration. It was a little strong for my liking but I manned up and finished the bottle. For me, this is one of those beers that I can say I tried but likely will not order it again. Too bad they didn’t have some of their other beers available like Stormcloud (IPA), Buffalo Butt (amber/red lager), Blind Salamander (pale ale). Maybe next time.

Next, I tried the  Amber Ale from St. Arnold Brewing Company. They claim to be Texas’ oldest craft brewery. This was a damn good beer! This great brew had an amber orange body that was slightly cloudy with a nice creamy head. I can’;t say anything bad about this brew. It was very balanced with incredible hop aroma. I subconsciously chewed each sip in my head before I took a swig. Apparently, the Amber Ale is St. Arnold’s signature beer and they only use premium ingredients in this fine product. With a light fruitiness and hints of floral and citrus, this craft beer definitely impressed me. I will be inclined to pick  up St. Arnold’s products the next time they cross my path and I highly recommend that you do the same.

On a final note, they did have one local brew on tap called 19. I forget who brews it, but it was a blonde lager. My girlfriend ordered a couple and she liked it. I took a couple of sips and it was ok, but not as good as the amber ale (I ended up downing 5 or6 of those our last night there). Salud!

Tags: amber ale, black lager, brewery, craft beer, German black lager, Rahr & Sons, schwarzbier, St. Arnold Brewing Company

This entry was posted by Mike on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Informational, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.