Beer Town Austin

Because You Like Beer You Like Summer Beers

Posted by Chris Troutman on 7/23/09 • Categorized as Because You Like Beer...,Blog

Twitter tells me that our 2009 Texas summer has been dubbed the “Summer from Hell.”

OK.

Well if the summer from hell came with complementary beverages these would be a few of our local favorites.
DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT PRETEND TO HAVE PROFESSIONAL OR TRAINED PALATES; ONLY OPINIONS BASED ON OUR PERSONAL TASTES AND EXPERIENCES

More than once these past few weeks the great folks at Live Oak have provided us with heat relief after plenty an ill advised bike ride with their delicious Live Oak Pilz and Live Oak Hefe Weizen. For effective heat relief, find a bar that has a Texas beer special and rotate between the two. The light hop crispness of the Pilz followed by the body and citrus of the Hefe then repeated makes an outside biergarten bearable.

(512) Brewing Co, describes their Wit as a “hazy ale with coriander and domestic citrus peel aromas,” which, I believe citrus=grapefruit. Yup. These guys got something good going on in the Wit department. They’ve even received the stamp of approval from Austin’s previous Wit authority, Pierre Celis.

Nextly is Real Ale’s bringin’-home-the-bacon Fireman’s #4. This is a blonde ale that, even if they don’t know what they’re drinking, even you’re most unexperienced of beer drinkers have prolly had. It’s a good beer, and what makes it just a little better then the previous few is that it comes in bottles. Yup. It’s portable heat relief. A solid bring to a bbq, a yard party, a basketball game, a beach, a bonfire, a weekend brunch, a sneak into a summer blockbuster movie beer. Pretty much good for most events when beer is expected and even not. Maybe more often appropriate to show up with a sixer of this than not. I’m sure there’s some situation where Fireman’s #4 doesn’t fit, but I’m drawing a blank. My only criticism, and this may reveal some personal denseness, what’s with the bike gear?

Uncle Billy’s Hay Stack Hefeweizen, Back 40 Blonde, Agave Wit, and Belgo-a-Go-Go all just made the team. Maybe being around flames, smoke, and hot sauces have influenced Mr. Peters to crafting tasty beverages of the heat reducing type. If you’re lucky enough to find all four of these on tap at once (only the Back 40 Blonde, Agave Wit, and Belgo-a… were available last time I went) then, well, you should drink them. Cause you’re lucky. Especially the Hay Stack Hefeweizen. Let me put it this way, the HSH is to beer as bread is to your mouth (yeah, I scored pretty high on the SAT/GRE). It’s like drinking the most spritzy glass of bread ever. Refreshingly chewy. And the Agave Wit, Back 40 Blonde, and Belgo-a-g… are nothing to scoff at either. Not glass of bread good. But still excellent with their own unique merits. And if you didn’t catch it, the Belgo-a-… is a Belgian style pale ale. Yum. You may be thinking, “What!? It’s too damn hot for a Belgian!” And I say, “Yes. But it’s gots hops in the end so your mouth feels refreshed.” So try it.

This post is getting long [read: I'm losing endurance, well into a few beers, and getting distracted by Adult Swim] so I’ll just list these with a little bit of commentary.

Saint Arnold Summer Pils- The tie-dye and sunglasses says it all. Crisp, delicious, a little bit sweet, ice-chest ready. Get it on draft if you can find it.

[whoa- the first ever episode of King of the Hill just came on!]
Saint Arnold Fancy Lawn Mower- I heard this beer was made on a bet. Some craft beer lover said he still liked to drink college beer when he mowed the lawn. He called it “Lawn Mower Beer”. So the guys at Saint Arnold took that as a challenge and made a “Fancy Lawn Mower” beer. This rumor is unfounded and I may be making this story up or confusing it with something I saw on TV. Either way, it’s very good- for lawn mowing and other things. It’s a crisp, malty Kolsche styled beer. Almost apple juicy.
Shiner Smokehaus- I tried this for the first time with a vegetarian friend. At least he was refreshed.
Shiner Blonde- BeerAdvocate doesn’t like it much, but I do. On certain occasions. Like that one occasion that I went to a friend’s house and he had a keg of it on his fancy pants kegorator. It was good that time. But last time I got a twelve pack of it when they were $8.99 at HEB it took me 3 weeks and a pool party to finish them.

Lone Star- Hells yeah. I’m not too good to drink it. Neither are you. Being a can (and a tall one at that) it’s good for all kinds of can only activities, like disc golf and also sneaking into movie theaters.