Saint Arnold Stout and Sailing Santa are not inspiring a miracle on 34th street

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for a chubby mouse, because I was out delivering gifts to family friends, who then graciously invited me in to drink their beer and eat their cheese. Warm houses and friends and round bellies, that is the Christmas spirit. The Hamels, who I'll be skiing with next week and whose wedding I went to last year (the reference below on the napkin), offered me a brew I had seen on local shelves but had not acquired.

The Saint Arnold brewery is for the moment, the only local Houston brewery, and we visited it around this time last year (St. Arnold Brewery Tour). From what I can gather the Stout is one of their newer additions and a departure from their typically German style of brewing. It's billed as a seasonal 'Winter Stout' and clocks in at 5.6% alcohol. There is subtle roast aroma and the body is light, giving credence to debunking the myth that all dark beers are heavy. Only Guinness tastes heavy people, and it still has fewer calories than Bud Light (give or take). This Stout has flavors of coffee and a hint of chocolate, but otherwise this is more of a beer to consume rather than enjoy because it lacks a robust character. If I'm out at a bar this week and it's on tap, I'll enjoy ordering it, but don't go out of your way. ARMAGEDDON rating.

This is the first entry I will have posted since drinking a beer every day for 400 days. Since I'm no longer drinking on the straight and narrow, I can drink on the far and wide, which makes for a poor saying but a truthful fortune; i.e., drinking multiples of large beers in one day will make me F-A-T like Jolly Saint Nick.

Speaking of, leave it to me to only just now decorate the Christmas tree with my personal ornaments the night before Christmas. Fortunately, I have found just the man to help me get far and wide tonight.

Sailing, surfing, Santa does it all. Saint Arnold is also attempting some dexterity with their Sailing Santa, which is a blend of their fantastic Elissa IPA and their delightful Christmas Ale. What rating will the Sailing Santa receive for Christmas?

Well, Santa likes to party with a heartwarming 7%. The IPA really shows through with grapefruit and citrus flavors following a subdued hoppy bitterness. This combines with an unfortunately light spice from the Christmas ale. I'm not feeling the greatness of an inspired blend here. What made the Elissa IPA so fantastic was the clean, razor like bitterness of the hops. And the spice in the Christmas Ale, like Rudolph's Red nose, was the star of the show. Here, St. Arnold has combined the two only to mute the best characteristics of each.

Like the stout, Sailing Santa is a fine drinking beer, but why drink a dull combination when you can drink a smaller bottle of each, right? Maybe use a straw and can mix them together in your mouth? That doesn't make sense but neither does a surfing Santa. Board shorts in the Arctic? Come on! Where's his dry suit? ARMAGEDDON rating and Merry Christmas to all. 

The Bruery 4 Calling Birds spices up my last night in San Francisco

I partied hard last night to celebrate the end of school at a Christmas themed party, where there was Maker's Mark and Fernet on tap, which is David's wet dream, but arrrgh. I hate it. Fernet is the worst. The hipsters up in San Fran love it with ginger ale, but I still can't handle the licorice and spiced fused concoction. Spice seems to be the theme of week though.

Today I turned in my portfolio, outlining several campaigns I helped create over the last three months during school. The lead campaign in my portfolio was actually a personal one, this blog. It was really interesting looking back on the year and why I initially began the blog. The retrospective has my wheels turning. I finished an epic year of beer every day, now what happens? How do I approach writing the blog now? My goal last year was simply to finish the year, and after beer 365, I decided to continue until the round number of 400. 3 months have passed without a post. This is the beginning of a new era, the renewal of my exploration of craft beer. What is my goal now? I have ideas but will hone in on something more specific in the new year.

Until then, I return to my favorite brewery and one of its most epic beer series, The Bruery's 12 Days of Christmas. This year it's 4 Calling Birds. A Partridge and a Pear Tree was before my time with The Bruery, 2 Turtle Doves was a tour de force, 3 French Hens was a powerful dark belgian strong ale, but how will 4 Calling Birds deliver?

An astronaut playing the banjo is my portfolio cover. It seems odd but it says what it needs to.  For instance, Space is awesome and I'm a nerd. Deep stuff.

4 Calling Birds is an 11% dark ale brewed with gingerbread like spice. You can age it for 8 years but I couldn't let a Christmas go past without at least trying it. In the Christmas spirit, I want to say I'm thankful for having a completed portfolio, to be enjoying my favorite craft brewery, not being a student any longer, and seeing my family tomorrow in Houston. I appreciate the indulgence of Christmas like spices here, but after a half a glass down, I'm not thankful for the spicy qualities, which are overwhelming.

A couple more sips gulps later and the brew still isn't integrating with the spices well. This is an example of The Bruery doing what they do well, a dark strong belgian ale, like their Cuadruple (made with agave), but the spices could definitely be more subtle. The Two Turtle Doves was orgasmic, it was so complex. This year they went more Christmasy and less belgian, and the result is a 'spirited' brew. With the robustness of this spice, this is a beer to share with others and not alone, but I'll finish it all the same. The Bruery rocks, unfortunately, this is not The Rock. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper Imperial Stout is a Christmas in June

We picked up Port Brewing's Christmas beer at their brewery during our San Diego trip because we knew it wouldn't be around long. I'm glad I did. I love the look of a good stout and this one pours beautifully. The label is pretty cute as well, I must say. Included in this picture is one of my favorite Christmas gifts from years ago, a Kangroo Testicles Beer Opener from my brother's semester abroad in Melbourn (this is actually Testicles 2, as our favorite dog sitting canine Kalmari ate the Testicles 1). Still, I had 5 minutes to gather all my things before the great tsunami came, this would be on my list to grab. 

At 10% alcohol, this is more than a little helper. There is a rich oak taste that reallly smooths out the roasted malt flavor. When we visited, their brewery was filled with barrels, much like The Bruery and their oak flavor scratches this stout the right way. Stouts tend to have a bitter taste thanks to the roasted and chocolate malts, but thanks to the oak barrel aging, Little Helper is strong, smooth and rich. As the beer warms, I can taste the alcohol just a snosh. This warmness would be very welcome in the winter. For Christmas in June, it simply tastes awesome. This is one of the better stout's I tasted this year, BAD BOYS rating.

Probst! says the Elf

This is one of those beers which inspire me as a home brewer to try something new. In this case, aging strong, bitter ales made with roasted malts with some oak chips. I've had many barrel aged brews this year, but this one was eye opening. As soon as the summer's heat is over, I'll look forward to brewing something like this for Christmas!

Widmer Brothers Brrr Seasonal Ale should be used as a penalty drink in our Kings game

We're playing an epic transcontinental game of KINGS up in Big Bear with Abrye (in Australia) after a great day at Big Bear and Snow Summit. Whoever pulls a king has to take a shot and fire the trick pistol, which electrocutes you. It's so strong that each person who has tries it immediately flings the pistol across the table. It really sucks. Thanks Jay!

The Widmer Brrr Seasonal ale has a TON of spices. It's as close as I will get to chewing a bag of all spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. I'm not enjoying this at all, in fact, it's going down as a TRANSFORMERS 2 rating.

Aaron B however, prefers this over the Infinium that David opened up as his beer of the day, so to each his own.

St. Arnold Christmas Ale is on par with TIME COP

Home after having dinner with AJ and Nic, where we watched EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP WINDOW, a really fascinating documentary about street artists that was directed by Banksy. You should check it out on Netflix streaming.

We poured the St. Arnold Christmas Ale just as TIME COP started, NICE.

I found a plethora of animal pornography under David's bed and this was the least graphic

It smells like cereal, like toasted Cheerios. It's a brown ale with a caramel and slight spice profile, but it's a little sour like Jeanne Claude Van Damme's accent. It's decent, but not my favorite. ARMAGEDDON rating.

Also, Van Damme's character in TIME COP is Agent Walker, so thanks to Van Damme and his choppy English I now have a great new voice-mail message. Great success

Abita Christmas Ale for Houston Sunday Funday

Went to midtown to meet Kelle and some old friends for NFL Sunday Funday. We tried buckets of seasonal beers, including many solids Southern brews but I settled on a Louisiana Abita Christmas Ale for my beer o'day.  It's an amber ale, nutty and malty but it didn't really strike me as anything above THE ISLAND rating.

Here are two other beers I liked:

Stash IPA -  it's a dark ipa, fairly well rounded and solid brew from an Austin brewery I'm unfamiliar with but I certainly enjoyed it. Damn Dirty Hippies done good!

Real Ale Full Moon pale Rye Ale (touch of rye malt) - not a fan of rye malt but the 'splash' at the end adds a nice touch to finish, and it smooths out the beer. Dig it.

Also, I discovered that Chuck Norris' ranch in Andersonville Texas is named the Lone Wolf Ranch. My day is complete.

P.S. For the first time I witnessed a bottle being thrown at someone. 1 guy had spilled beer into a girl's purse and didn't apologize, so she chucked a Miller Lite bottle at his back from across the room, which connected and exploded. It was one of those, 'holy shit, did that just happen?' moments. Then we laughed about it later. Oh you crazy ass Texans

YuleSmith Holiday Ale helps my bottle King Moonracer's Revenge

Returning home after a double dose of Mexican food and cupcakes - a rough life I lead - David helped me transfer and bottle my first home brew, the winter seasonal King Moonracer's Revenge! Two weeks more in the bottles and it's ready to drink, but we did sample and both believe it'll turn out well. The flavor profile is in the ballpark of what I wanted and as a first time brewer, I'm a happy man. Can't wait to taste final product!

YuleSmith Holiday Ale from AleSmith with my KMR home brew in the background.

A very intense hoppy nose which is not reflected in the taste.YuleSmith has a grapefruit, piney taste. My pants are still on but it's not a poor choice for a holiday brew if you chance upon it in the beer aisle. ARMAGEDDON rating

Corsendonk Christmas Ale ushers in the holidays deliciously

David prepared a holiday feast and we had about a baker's dozen over for the meal on the balcony and to watch the Marina Christmas Boat Parade.

Per his excellence, Karl brought over a Christmas Belgian to ring in the holidays, and it was nothing short of fantastic. Please meet the one holiday beer you should definitely have this winter season, the Coresndonk Christmas Ale.

Now that's the spirit!

The fellow is a Belgian Dark Strong Ale (high alcohol). I always find a beer remarkable when a dark malty ale can also be so light, sweet and delicious. After David's feast, the wonderful company and this beer, I must have a wonderfully stunned expression on my face. A really well-crafted beer. BAD BOYS rating

Anchor Steam Xmas Ale helps me read good and do other stuff good as well

Nick G, David and I caught up on our various escapades over a few $2 Dos Equis at La Cabana (their Thursday night special which might become a regular stop) before heading over to the Library Alehouse (which is actually next to the Library for Dyslexic's, or Yrarbil rof s'Cixelsy as it's known to it's constituents).

Derek Zoolander would totally support this library

This is a dark and moody Christmas Ale from Anchor Steam, a malted with strong notes of dark fruits and licorice thoughtfully laced with peppermint candy. This is a beer purposed to keep you warm during the holidays, so it couldn't hurt to you to pick up a sixer and enjoy with the family. TRANSFORMERS rating.