Wanted to post about a couple of their beers I've tried recently and there really weren't any good threads.. so here's one for everything. Had Darkest Hour on tap at the downtown Houston Flying Saucer today. So very, very good. I was really impressed. 11% alcohol, but it wasn't overpowering at all. Plenty of stouty goodness. I've also recently tried the Double Brown Stout.... which is a Baltic Porter.. I don't like it as much as Darkest Hour, but I'd like to have it again.. Their IPA is also really solid.. and the new cans look awesome... hoping to see more of their beer in Houston this year.
I had their IPA at Brew's Bro's a while back it was pretty tasty. Had the Double Down Brown as well and was pretty good. I would buy each again. The Brown was acquired in a trade with SVTGreg.
Had batch one of dark Kest hour, thought it was amazing... had the recent one, thought it was just OK...
Saw that they canned their IPA for the first time this week - looking forward to grabbing a sixer of them in the near future.
I haven't tried any of their offerings yet, but I got family that lives in Carrolton so I should be able to get my hands on some. And hopefully get some Lakewood and Peticolas also.
Yeah, I knew that, separate venture for john... so they have a bottling line too? Seems like a waste to be honest... also if they do have a bottlng line, forcing the brewery to can with an outside company while the bottling line sits idle seems... wrong and extremely wasteful as a startup.
Here is an article I found on the subject. It seems the bottling line was causing a lot of problems so they decided to venture into canning instread. http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/cityofate/2012/11/tx_canning_in_dallas.php
Yeah, separate company. So... the brewery owns a bottling line and is now using an independant canning company. Seems like a huge waste. Granted, don't know anything about the bottling troubles, but it could all be construed as pocket lining....
Mobile canning and bottling companies are happening here and there across the country. Now all we have to is get TX Canning to come down to Austin and spend a day at Live Oak, (512), Thirsty Planet...
I was just trying to answer your question on how and why they are canning. It does sound as a waste to have both unless they are just completely abandoning the bottling line all together, or they are using the canning truck to continue production while they try to troubleshoot and correct the bottling line issues.
I'm a fan of DEBC's brews in general. They offer a quality product easily available across DFW but unfortunately at times they have outgrown their staff (the horror I know..being too successful). The canning thing seems strange and I'm concerned with any brewery that ceeds control of this process. I would be interested in seeing the contract between companies or at least the liability sections. I thought I had heard they had always planned on canning and the bottle line was to hold back the tide until then but that is conjecture. They should have their BA Barleywine coming out sometime soon..on the heels of Wealth and Taste my expectations are very high for their BA projects. And every single one off cask of their IPA has been simply outstanding. The one with Zythos pellets worked really well
Just came here to say HOLY SHEET does Whole Foods Downtown Austin have a lot of DEBC Rye Pils. It was practically stuffed into every crevice of the store including in the beer shop, butcher shop, dairy department, and front of the supermarket. I don't know if they overordered or what. Yet none of the IPA. Sigh.
I'm interested to see if their canned IPA achieves consistency that I haven't found in their IPA on draft, even when I get it from the same bar. Each batch has been different, and none as good as the first I tried. If they can figure that out, they will do very well over time.
Ya consistency might be an issue. When it's on it's great, when it's off it's sadly average. Are bars holding onto these kegs too long or is it consistency? I've always believed ipas fade a lot slower in kegs but maybe the debc ipa is one that fades exceptionally fast?
The bitterness, much like Stone's IPA, fades really fast it seems and hasn't been present with many of my bottles. The hop aroma on the other hand seems to stick around a bit longer and makes for a tasty pint but it is very similar to (512) at that point. I know they use a hop back..and I thought I remember hearing that they use it for their bitterness addition and that flavors added thru this system have a short half life. Someone with brewing knowledge can speak to the voracity of that statement, I've been known to just make shit up that sounds intelligent but is total BA..I mean BS
We received around 20 cases on Friday and I can honestly say it was the best of their beers/ips batch I have tried! Down to just a few cases as of this morning, and hope they will continue to keep up the quality they had in these cans! rick lonestarbev carrollton, texas
I had their dry-hopped IPA from a firkin a few weeks ago and thought it was fantastic. I wound up filling a half growler of it.
I haven't tried this, but would certainly like to. Hoping they do a fresh hop pale/IPA this year as they seem to have a good grasp of what a good hoppy beer can be.
I would have preferred your idea over Hopseeker...something about that one just didn't quite work. I think that's the only one that has been wet hopped
Deep Ellum tweeted that Houston should be getting some next week, and Hay Merchant said it's a good chance they will have some. hopefully they will have the glassware to go along with it.
They did a very limited release of Dreamcrusher last year in bottles that I believe was Dallas only... maybe some at Lonestar in Carrollton? It was released late February, early March last year.
I do not get the hype for any Deep Ellum beers. Haven't had a single one I ever wanted to taste again. Wealth and Taste was ok but I can pour a little white wine in a crappy BGSA at home if I could find a crappy BGSA at home. Oh well, more for those of you who enjoy it.
The IPA has had it's issues but when it's on it's great. The current canning is phenomenal and I expect dreamcrusher to be very nice when/if it's released this year. I encourage you to give the barrel aged barley wine they're putting out in a month or so. It's easy to hate on DEBC but they do put out some quality brews here and there.
I don't think there is any big BA hype over any DEBC beer. Yeah a number of them are pretty good IMHO (the IPA being well above average but I love hops). No one ever posts ISO or FT their beer like sixer of Zombie Dust or the like. It's a great beer to send as an extra and everyone I've sent a bottle of it to has appreciated it. For a year old brewery to be pumping out a full line of entry craft beers has us excited for things like their barrel program though..so if that's hype then so be it. What I personally appreciate is how easy drinking most of their beers are..I can bring a couple sixers around BMC drinkers and they can enjoy a couple without being challenged by a Barrel Aged or Sour beer. So I can get a little craft fix without coming off as a total beer snob.
No, not necessarily BA hype. Just general homerism about the beers locally. If they were coming to us from another beer market I don't think people would be nearly as excited about them. I haven't liked a single beer from them. I don't see any reason to keep torturing my mouth with their beers. There are technical problems with some of the beers but I don't care for the intended flavor profile of any of them. If it's easy to hate on them it's only because the products give people good reason. But like I said, my dislike is just more for people who are fans.
