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. 

Rogue Chocolate Stout is a wholesome all american dessert beer

Rogue's Chocolate Stout was released Valentine's Day 2001, and I could probably guess why; why buy your darling chocolates when you can buy her chocolate desert that can get her drunk?

My favorite coffee table book has some competition from my new favorite sweetheart. 

This brew has 69 IBU's. All the Rogue beers have really high IBU counts, which is really interesting because none of their beers are hoppy. I think it's great they label their beers with an ingredients list, which informs me they use their special in house Pac-Man yeast on all their beers. Rogue also makes it available to home brewers, which is twice the cool. This is the first American yeast, that I've run into, that doesn't accept hops very well and produces a very neutral profile. It's really cool discovering its potential across a wide array of different styles.

Thanks to the addition of chocolate syrup, this flavor dominates the beer and overwhelms any bitter roasted flavors. It really does taste like Hershey's syrup, but what's unique, is there's also hints of vanilla in the flavor profile which this taste like ice cream with chocolate sauce. The flavor, you can tell is added and thus has a 'manufactured' or unnatural feeling to the beer, but I can't deny it's deliciousness. TRANSFORMERS rating. 

Left Coast Voo Doo is a black magic woman who's got a spell on me

Andrea and Sarah arrived from Chicago last night and we've been transversing Venice and its beach since (almost) sunrise mimosas. It was a fantastic day filled with sun, sand, beer and crazy Venice locals. Everything you want and hope for.

I also discovered that Rose Cafe may have the best huevos rancheros I've ever tasted. If you've ever seen ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, the sequel to DESPERADO directed by Robert Rodriguez, you'll know that Johnny Depp's character orders the same pork plate at every restaurant he visits and if that plate is the best he's ever had, he goes back to the kitchen and shoots the cook so no one else will have it. Huevos Rancheros are my Johnny Depp pork plate, only I don't own a gun. I simply go back and shake the guy's hand and ask his mother out for a fine meal.

Beer for breakfast action

Anyway, we're back from our adventure buzzed and sunburned. Andrea's cooked up some mashed potatoes and lamb kebabs. For the last week, I've been dying to try this stout but have been waiting for a big meal. Waiting's over!

Welcome to the City of Angels Chicagoans!

This is a well made and goes well with food. It's only 6.8% alcohol but it seems higher. David and I had one of those looks moments that have happened all too many times this year, where we sip a beer, look across the room and nod enthusiastically. Yep, this is a good stout to compliment a meal because it's tasty but it doesn't overwhelm your palate or divert your attention from your food. It's damn good. THE ROCK rating

Marin County Brewing Stout kicks off Aaron's All Denim Party

Tonight kicks off a birthday filled weekend and nothing says P-A-R-T-Y like an All Denim Party. Aaron B, the man with the largest Jewfro in three surrounding counties, is the genius behind the event and is celebrating his birthday tonight.

Berfday kids! Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, because I'm pretty sure that's a nip-slip on the left.

We had a wheat beer from Marin County the other week and it wasn't so tasty. If this one fails as well, my friends Mr. W Turkey and his fruity cousin Caprisun are going to follow the Stout down my gullet.

I take that back, this beer is awesome! It's everything I want in a stout. This has a rich aroma with dark chocolate and nut flavors. It's incredibly well balanced. If you like dark beers, pick this up at Whole Foods. You will be the opposite of disappointed. THE ROCK rating.

That's how we roll

A small part of the whole denim group parties on! Who knew people owned so many denim shirts and vests.

All I can say is, I quickly switched to hard alcohol and sooner rather than later, the party really got started. It was wild.

There is fairly long video somewhere of David and I dancing to WHAM! that will undoubedtly torpedo my political career and mostly likely hurt my friends, after they laughed hard enough to fall down after viewing my incredible dancing. PARTY

I went to sleep closer to sunrise than I planned to, but that was partially due to a 3am beach excursion and that I had to make a yeast starter (brew a small batch of beer for the yeast to grow) around 4am. Now I'll be all set for making beer beer on Sunday. Hell of a birthday weekend kick-off!