LOOK. I've been plenty down on Saint Arnold in the past. I'll even admit that I rarely choose to drink much of anything from their standard line of beers, with Endeavour being the obvious exception. But as of late, everything in their Icon series has been - for me - above average at the minimum & most have been really good. The Bishop's Barrel series has been excellent as well.

Say what you want, but they've won me back over with Icon, BB, and now the new Berliner Weisse as well. Haters gonna hate, man. WHATEVA.

Oh.. And Karbach. For starters, nothing on their regular line does anything more for me than StA's does - and perhaps less. I don't care for Hopadillo, I think Sympathy is mediocre at very best, Weisse Versa is a nice intro craft beer sure but so is Lawnmower, Weekend Warrior is alright, and Endeavour blows Rodeo Clown out of the water. Mother in Lager I did indeed enjoy, but that's balanced out by Barn Burner which I do not think is a good beer and frankly had absolutely no business being barrel aged and turned into Roll in the Hay (that's a big miss, for me).

Hop Delusion was excellent when it was out & hopefully that's the case again soon. Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter is quite good as well.

But take the Icon series and the Bishop's Barrel series and stack those up against the FUN series? It's not even close, for me, but to each their own.

I could rant for a while about Karbach and will happily do so over a beer sometime.

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Endeavour blows Rodeo Clown out of the water.

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Hard to argue with that.

But back to número uno, what's everyone's plans on Jester King this weekend? I'm either going at 4:00 today (have dinner at 6:00 so I need to be back at Bee Cave area) or tomorrow around noon.

I'll be by tomorrow around 2. I don't know if I'll hang out for a while or pick up my beers and go.

I might roll through JK tomorrow. Didn't get a chance to pick up my bottles when I was in Austin last week.

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Had a Victory at Sea from Ballast Point tonight. I liked it. Had it on tap. Is this bottled?

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Yes, I picked up a bomber of it at my local HEB last week. Haven't had it before so I'm looking forward to trying it.

Prairies distributor just tweeted out that Bible Belt will hit TX 4/14

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Oh.. And Karbach. For starters, nothing on their regular line does anything more for me than StA's does - and perhaps less. I don't care for Hopadillo, I think Sympathy is mediocre at very best, Weisse Versa is a nice intro craft beer sure but so is Lawnmower, Weekend Warrior is alright, and Endeavour blows Rodeo Clown out of the water. Mother in Lager I did indeed enjoy, but that's balanced out by Barn Burner which I do not think is a good beer and frankly had absolutely no business being barrel aged and turned into Roll in the Hay (that's a big miss, for me).

Hop Delusion was excellent when it was out & hopefully that's the case again soon. Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter is quite good as well.

But take the Icon series and the Bishop's Barrel series and stack those up against the FUN series? It's not even close, for me, but to each their own.

I could rant for a while about Karbach and will happily do so over a beer sometime.

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All of this.

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Say what you want, but they've won me back over with Icon, BB, and now the new Berliner Weisse as well. Haters gonna hate, man. WHATEVA.

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I always wondered if these would even exist if there wasn't the growth of actual competition in the last 4-5 years with Karbach and others, maybe even some regional ones like JK.

St. A. had the same base lineup, with the exception of the changing DR series, for well into the 2000s, when craft beer around the rest of the country was well into exploding.

THEN word of a big name in brewing pops up in Houston, and St. A starts making additions and changes.
They were never threatened by southern star, with it's quaint 3 beer lineup and small scope, and no label, with it's homebrewer scale.

Just my opinion anyway. Never understood why such an established brewery waited sooo long to adapt and change with craft beer growth. They just kept selling the same old beers, albeit more of them. Only reason I can come up with is.. they didn't have to, there was no competition.

Agreed. For many of us who wanted to support local craft breweries, it was all we had here in Houston.
I think once Karbach came in and hired some of the St A talent, Brock realized he had to do something to keep people coming back. Enter the BB and Icon brews and they brought some fresh excitement to their lineup.

Hey guyz

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LOOK. I've been plenty down on Saint Arnold in the past. I'll even admit that I rarely choose to drink much of anything from their standard line of beers, with Endeavour being the obvious exception. But as of late, everything in their Icon series has been - for me - above average at the minimum & most have been really good. The Bishop's Barrel series has been excellent as well.

Say what you want, but they've won me back over with Icon, BB, and now the new Berliner Weisse as well. Haters gonna hate, man. WHATEVA.

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I liked DR11 quite a bit and tried the first batch of Endeavor and did not like it. I have had a couple of the Icons and they were decent, but I still can't get over the aftertaste of their yeast which tastes like bad home brew. I am excited to try the Berliner but I have a feeling it will be the same result. I enjoyed BB4 a lot actually, but I think BBHF is better than BB1 and 3, and BB2 was awful. I haven't tried BB6 because I don't like Pumpkinator and because the distribution model for the BB series sucks.

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Oh.. And Karbach. For starters, nothing on their regular line does anything more for me than StA's does - and perhaps less. I don't care for Hopadillo, I think Sympathy is mediocre at very best, Weisse Versa is a nice intro craft beer sure but so is Lawnmower, Weekend Warrior is alright, and Endeavour blows Rodeo Clown out of the water. Mother in Lager I did indeed enjoy, but that's balanced out by Barn Burner which I do not think is a good beer and frankly had absolutely no business being barrel aged and turned into Roll in the Hay (that's a big miss, for me).

Hop Delusion was excellent when it was out & hopefully that's the case again soon. Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter is quite good as well.

But take the Icon series and the Bishop's Barrel series and stack those up against the FUN series? It's not even close, for me, but to each their own.

I could rant for a while about Karbach and will happily do so over a beer sometime.

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I will admit that I am biased towards Karbach because my favorite style of beer far and away are IPAs, and Karbach loves their hops, but I think if you looked at a direct comparison of their regular and seasonal line ups (excluding DR, BB, and FUN) Karbach takes it. Sorry I had to force some comparisons but I tried to get them as close as I could



StA - Amber
Kar - Sympathy for the Lager
WINNER - Sympathy for the Lager

StA - Brown
Kar - Weisse Versa
WINNER - Weisse Versa only because Brown tastes like dirt to me

StA - Weedwacker
Kar - Barn Burner
WINNER - Weedwacker

StA - Lawnmower
Kar - Weekend Warrior
WINNER - I was looking for leftover year round offerings, and this is what was left. I like IPAs so Weekend Warrior

StA - Elissa
Kar - Hopadillo
WINNER - Hopadillo

StA - Santo
Kar - Mother in Lager????
WINNER - Forced matchup, but point Mother in Lager

StA - Endeavor
Kar - Rodeo Clown
WINNER - Rodeo Clown is more of a Barley Wine than a DIPA IMO and apparently I need to try Endeavor again. No winner.

StA - Spring Bock
Kar - Hop Delusion
WINNER - Hop Delusion

StA - Summer Pils
Kar - Love Street
WINNER - Summer Pils - I only had one Love Street and I don't remember it so point Summer Pils

StA - Oktoberfest
Kar - Karbachtoberfest
WINNER - Oktoberfest

StA - Christmas Ale
Kar - Yule Shoot Your Eye Out
WINNER - Yule Shoot Your Eye Out

StA - Winter Stout
Kar - Hellfighter
WINNER - Hellfighter

StA - Pumpkinator
Kar - Krunkin Pumpkin
WINNER - Krunkin Pumpkin

9-3-1 for Karbach in my opinion. If anyone has any comments on how to change the comparisons, I can change them and even create a survey if anyone else is interested.

The problem with your matchups is that sometimes, both beers aren't very good, so there really shouldn't be a winner. Neither puts out a good IPA or a decent session beer. I'd rather take a look at their best beers to determine the winner.

Hop Delusion is probably the best beer between the two breweries, but I think Saint Arnold has the better overall when you include Endeavour, Pumpkinator, and some of their BB, Icon, and DR series. Karbach has some pretty good FUN series stuff too, but not the quantity yet (especially since the majority of their releases are just BBA Hellfighter).

Yeah, Beer and I is right. Matching things up like that doesn't really work out for me. You can't try and pair Hop Delusion - one of if not the single best beer Karbach has ever made - with a fairly average spring seasonal from StA.

And all of those are personal preferences, just like mine were. I'll take Amber over Sympathy cuz frankly I think Sympathy is a terrible beer. I don't think Brown tastes like dirt at all, and give me Elissa over Hopadillo too. And Krunkin Pumpkin over Pumpkinator?! I think we maybe should just agree to disagree on this one.

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I have had a couple of the Icons and they were decent, but I still can't get over the aftertaste of their yeast which tastes like bad home brew.

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Oh. Just saw this. Yeah, I'll go ahead and back out of this debate because I don't even remotely agree with this statement and obviously your mind is made up too. Which is totally fine. You have your preference, I have mine. Again, agreeing to disagree.

Anybody tried lenin's revenge from buffalo brewery? I thought it was pretty good

Fwiw, I just passed on free Lone Star and PBR in line at La barbecue. Looking back, I should have brought a Pliny. I suck.

I am going to have to agree with Beer and I and aggiejz on this one. Karbach no doubt has some great beers, but I think the breadth of St. Arnold's lineup recently has to mean something in the comparison as they've really been pushing out more creative and quality beers in my opinion.

Again, it really is to each his own as all of us like different flavor profiles in our beers. I know that I for one am glad that we have so many breweries pushing each other to make higher quality beer on a more consistent basis and use creativity to stay ahead of the rapidly advancing competition.

Sidenote: I can't help but disagree wholeheartedly on thinking that Krunkin Pumkin even comes close to the same level as Pumpkinator, but I digress.

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Sidenote: I can't help but disagree wholeheartedly on thinking that Krunkin Pumkin even comes close to the same level as Pumpkinator, but I digress.

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Of all the things said on about the comparisons, this one stuck out to me. Gotta hit him with an old fashioned GTFOH on that one.

There's a lot of TL : DR on this page.



[This message has been edited by ncoloradoag (edited 3/21/2014 12:23p).]

Holleman HEB has a prairie noir and several vanilla noirs on the shelf.

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I enjoyed BB4 a lot actually, but I think BBHF is better than BB1 and 3, and BB2 was awful. I haven't tried BB6 because I don't like Pumpkinator and because the distribution model for the BB series sucks.

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I really liked the BBHF, but in head to head comparison BB 1 and 3 win every time.

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Weisse Versa only because Brown tastes like dirt to me

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You may honestly think Brown tastes like dirt, but that makes me discount everything you have to say about beer. As for the rest of your comparison, you could have just said "I like hops, so Karbach wins". That would be a valid opinion, take up less space, and rely less on forced match ups.

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Oh. Just saw this. Yeah, I'll go ahead and back out of this debate because I don't even remotely agree with this statement and obviously your mind is made up too. Which is totally fine. You have your preference, I have mine. Again, agreeing to disagree.

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Works for me. I picked up an Endeavor bottled in March to give it another shot this weekend.

Fresh Endeavour is really, really good in my opinion. I think it's one I overlook sometimes and definitely shouldn't, especially when fresh.

Interesting debate, but if anyone is interested, New Republic is doing a tasting event at the Spec's in CS tonight from 5-8.

At the end of the day, probably 9 out of 10 breweries, if not 99 out of 100 at this point, put out bad to mediocre beer. Due to laws of big numbers, TX just doesn't have my of the 1%ers yet. Maybe JK is world class with not only quality, but variety.

Not every state can have a deschutes, russian river, odell's, avery, dogfish head, stone, etc.. where the base line up as well as experimental/bombers are all just really good beer..

Even the beer mecca of Denver has a lot of average breweries. I have 3 or so within a few miles of my house.. am I going to be hearing anyone on here in TX talking about them? No. Let alone they even distribute out of the area.

But because this state has 200 of them, there are bound to be some standouts. Same with the other big players like CA, OR and WA.

As I said, I think Karbach gave a good stiff kick in the St. A, and maybe others, to get in the game and try and one-up your competition. Eric is a big name in brewing, and no doubt in my mind Brock was one of first to know he was coming to Houston to open a brewery, and reacting accordingly.

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Holleman HEB has a prairie noir and several vanilla noirs on the shelf.

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Harvey Washbangers still has both as well.

Yep. The expansion of craft beer will bring along a few things...more bad local beer, more national breweries with great beer, and hopefully push the locals to brew more good beer.

Just made it to Jester King. Montmorency vs Balaton and RU-55. These are my March beers.

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Just made it to Jester King. Montmorency vs Balaton and RU-55. These are my March beers.

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Enjoy! I think we can mostly agree that JK is amazing.

Probably buried a few pages back, but if you get a chance on the way back, hit up the Twin liquors in the hill country galleria. The beer selection is pretty awesome...

Had Odell freik yesterday on tap, not too bad.

My buddy is building a house on a golf course near that Twin Liquors so we stopped by there last night at 8:59pm to get wine...didn't have a chance to check out the beer though.

On another note, just saw Prairie Coffee Noir on tap. *****it. I've been good!

Also, does JK brew their own stuff or do they contract brew?

I think they brew their own...or they've got a wicked meth lab going:

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Just made it to Jester King. Montmorency vs Balaton and RU-55. These are my March beers.

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How's the new sour?