Capt Keith's Beer Blog

Today is the second annual Stout Day, (or Tempranillo Day, for the oenophile) and people all over the country have their smart phone in one hand and their pint glass in the other.  Just like IPA Day, Stout Day is a social media driven beer holiday and is focused on not only drinking a stout, but celebrating the stout and spreading its good word.  We have teamed up with Untappd to produce a special badge for those that use their great beer tracking app.  All you have to do is check into the Saucer and a Stout Beer and the badge is yours.  Our Saucers and Moth are all celebrating in different ways, and some are taking it to the next level by celebrating Stout Week and even Stout Month.  Check in with your local spot, everyone has great things planned.

Many people are getting fed up with these “National” holidays (eg. Talk Like a Pirate Day, National Cheeseburger Day, and plenty other even more rediculous made up holidays) but since our little Craft Beer thing represents barely over 5% of the national market, it is up to us to spread the word and get “Lite” Beer drinkers to drop their Macro products and pick up a craft beer.  The stout and the IPA are two of the most misunderstood styles, so to me it makes sense for these two styles to be the first to earn their own day.  How many times have you heard someone say “I don’t like dark beers” only to find out they have never even tried one?  So many people are too quick to judge books by their cover and don’t understand the versatility the stout can have.  Watching someones eyes light up the first time they sip a Milk Stout sweetened with unfermentable lactose, or even a thick and chewy Imperial Stout, perhaps aged in bourbon barrels or on a bed of cocoa nibs never gets old to me. That’s half the fun of craft beer.  Sharing our knowledge and understanding of this craft along with a couple ounces of our favorite beer we might have smuggled back from a vacation wrapped in a sweater we took to the beach simply for the padding.  There are so many people out there who do not understand what we hold so dear, and in some cases take for granted.

Remember, today is not only about the stout (or generating web traffic for the various websites built around capitalizing on this opportunity, most of which I think are spreading the good word for the greater cause) but is also about sharing.  Invite someone from your office who doesn’t drink good beer to your favorite beer joint for Happy Hour today.  Spread the word through your social media outlets that you live the good life and enjoy beer made by hands and not machines.  Proudly exclaim what you’re drinking, who your drinking it with, and where. Open the door for another to become as enlightened as you are.  Help those who are drinking rice/corn beer loaded with chemicals to find out there is more out there.  And as always, tip your server well for letting you have all the fun.

Time for fresh new week of beer celebration in San Antonio and this time we are celebrating FRUIT BEER!  Starting August 6th, they will have fruit beers on Fire Sale and special tappings or glassware giveaways every day Monday through Saturday.

Special tappings will include Jolly Pumpkin/Maui Brewing Collaboration Sobrehumano and Dogfish Head Black and Blue among others, and will all start at 6pm.

Check out the stores social media outlets on Twitter @FlyingSaucerSA or “Like” The Official San Antonio Flying Saucer page on Facebook for updates

Last year we had some great success with a few #IPAday celebrations and this year we are getting behind it full force.  Every Saucer will be having some really great, and unique, IPA day experiences.  Tons of special tappings, casks, and of course discounts on India Pale Ales on draught and in bottle.  Come out and see us today and help celebrate the India Pale Ale.

We are also teaming up with Untappd, a web based social beer app that helps you track and share your beers with your friends.  Last year the Austin Flying Saucer had the most Untappd IPA Check Ins of any #IPAday celebration in the world and this year we want to fill up the top ten with Flying Saucers!  If you use Untappd, help us accomplish our goals by checking in a getting a special “IPADay: Saucer Style” badge as well as your IPA Day 2012 badge.

Our top Beerknurds descend upon the mecca of all beer festivals again this year. This time of year, Denver is overflowing with great brews and special events. Robert Wynne – plate holder in every single Flying Saucer on the planet, pictured here with Frank “the Tank” Sullivan from San Antonio. Frank has THIRTY FRIKIN SEVEN in San Antonio – dude loves beer.LAKFS Brewdog Tactical Nuclear. Frank is on the left….

We will release the Edge of Darkness on Wednesday the 11th in San Antonio. My friend Rusty Woodland will be there with me to make a toast. This is the beer we helped create at  Sierra Nevada beer camp #12. It is a robust brown ale that has been wet hopped as well as dry hopped. We released a few kegs at the Fall Beer Festivals, both in Fort Worth and in Austin. The beer was well received. There are only a handful of kegs left and we have only two in SA, so this will likely be your only opportunity to try this unique brew.

We will feature Edge of Darkness and other fine Sierra Nevada brews during Brewery Night, so come and prepare to lift a glass with us and then take it home with you.

Cheers Keith

Emmanuel “Manu” De Landsheer, owner of Malheur told me the story behind his small, artisanal brewery. His family has been brewing beer since  the 1600′s in Bougenhout, Belgium near Dentermonde. The original brewery was called Sun Brewery. In the brewery’s tasting room, the walls are adorn with historic photographs of each family member working in the brewery or the hop fields.

All of their beers were living ales – sour ales.  They grew their own hops, they used the well water and their yeast was of the wild atmospheric sort. Over the years, the well water became contaminated with nitrates and the landscape changed as well. The beer was not the same, so they halted brewing and began bottling for others. Today, they are no longer bottling but they do maintain a distribution company as well as an import-export company. In fact, they are the #1 exporter for Westmalle Trappist.

Manu resurrected the brewery and called it Malheur, which produced its first beer in 1997. It was Malheur 4 and it was 5% abv. Malheur is a French word that translates to “misfortune” – maybe that is a strange name for a brewery – maybe not. Apparently, students from the University gave this name as a class project & Manu described it as “hard times or positive disaster” It could be fitting, since it took almost 400 years to evolve into what it is today – through a series of disasters that turned out a positively unique artisanal brewery.

The US imports the 10, 12, Brut and Dark Brut from Malheur. 2000 saw the birth of 12, which is a terrific Dark Belgian Ale (Quadruple). I think Manu called it a brown ale. I tasted it on draft at the brewery and it will rival St Bernardus Abt 12. It’s THAT good.

In 2001, Malheur’s first Brut beer was made. This fantastic beer endures 3 months of bottle fermentation at cave temperatures. After the first three months, they angle the bottles in specially designed racks while turning the bottle clockwise over the course of two weeks – called method champenoise.  When all the yeast settles, they freeze the top portion of the bottle and the extra cO2 built up from secondary fermentation blows this sediment out of the bottle. Afterwards, they cork it, add the wire cage and glue the foil on by hand.

The ingredients are pure and no shortcuts are taken. No sugar or adjuncts are added. The beer quality speaks for itself and if you haven’t tried one yet, most Flying Saucers have Malheur. Bring a friend and share a bottle – this will ease the sting of this high end beer’s price tag.

Lucas, Manu, Sam & me – with a 12 in hand.