After a false alarm in which spring appeared to arrive, but then was followed by more weeks of winter, and after I got through a whole raft of St. Patrick’s Day beers, and then having a cold for a week or so… we have finally hit warm weather and baseball’s opening week. So it’s time to get back out on the grill and dig into a backlog of craft beer sent to me for my comments. I may have to take them on two at a time, like right here.
First of these is an appropriate beer for spring: Shiner Golden Ale from the Spoetzl brewery in Shiner, Texas. They describe the spirit as having been made with Mosaic hops, and with a tropical flavor. As with any lager beer from Texas, I suspect it would probably go down a lot better on the back porch when it’s really hot in the summer but I can’t keep this beer fresh that long. So let’s put some filets on the grill and pop the cap today.
As befits the golden ale style, it has a rather sweet smell but not overly sweet and yes, there is a little bit of fruitiness to it. It is notably sweeter and less hoppy than the Pilsner or lager which it might resemble.
Perhaps it’s partly the power of suggestion from their own description but the Mosaic hops do add a note of papaya, or a little grapefruit note. Otherwise, the taste is lightly malty. It will be very recognizable to anyone who prefers the usual backyard lager.
The hop bitterness is noticeably low, but there is just enough of it to keep the beer from getting overly sweet. It’s well balanced: not too dry, not too sweet, goes down easily, and it’s a fully carbonated so it will fill you up a little faster. It is definitely the product of a brewery with a long heritage in German lagers.
It’s worth consideration as one of many beers you want to put in the cooler for tailgating this summer. Those filets Mignon in my picture? That was my first try at grilling them, and I found they’re pretty goof-proof, as well as very tender and flavorful with just a dash of salt as seasoning.
So this cold-brew coffee thing. I get how it is popular, but I don’t quite understand how a 10 ounce can of cold-brew at the grocery store can cost more than a 12-ounce can of, say, a coffee-infused beer. Be that as it may, I’m always willing to try a coffee beer, combining as it does two precious life-giving fluids.
Shiner has also sent me their 108th Birthday Beer, a Cold Brew Coffee Ale. They also sent a bottle of cold-brew coffee and a burlap bag with a pound of coffee beans from Austin’s Chameleon Cold-Brew, their collaborator in this release.
The pour is brown like a lighter porter that makes up its base. A foamy head fizzes away like a soda, leaving a slight trail of foam. Smell has some lightly-roasted coffee ahead of some similarly roasty malt. There’s a bit of chocolate in the aftertaste at the finish. Coffee is a good match with a porter or stout. With dark malt adding to the coffee’s taste, you do run the risk of being kept up the night after some coffee beers, and that kind of happened to me, too. So let that be a lesson about pacing myself.
