by Brain Wall
Texas Big Beer is a relatively new brewery that most have not heard of in the DFW metroplex. It might be due to the limited amount of brews, seven on their website with one of those in planning and two awaiting label approval, or it may be due to the location being northwest of Houston in Buna, Texas. Their website reads like a home brewer that decided to start up a brewery, the wish of almost every home brewer out there. Nothing excites a home brewer more than the thought of starting a brewery and making beer that everyone loves to drink. I would imagine it would be similar to watching your child win the spelling bee or score the winning point.
This week’s beer sampled from Texas Big beer was the Czar of Texas, a Russian imperial stout. I have tasted another of their beers in the past, the Texas Crude, and enjoyed it immensely. Texas Crude is a big heavy porter with strong sense of flavor and a heavy feel, exactly as a porter beer commands. This Russian stout already had the potential to being a good beer knowing it was from Texas Big Beer.
Russian imperial stouts have a special place for most beer lovers. They offer a wide variety of flavors depending on how the brewery decides which route to go during brewing and what additions are decided upon. Some choose to go with a fruit avenue by adding cherries; others add vanilla for a slight marshmallow hint. Even more may add heaping amounts of chilies to give it some heat bite or drop in cocoa nibs to accentuate the chocolate malts to give it a chocolate explosion. It is even possible to mix and match or add a blend of all for a choco-fruity-mallow-chili bite that can be such an explosion of flavor that only the most experienced and serious craft beer lovers can truly enjoy to the utmost limits.Well, the Czar offered a strong coffee-malt scent straight from the bottle. The pour showed a nice thick, black color with a chocolate foam head.
Perfect carbonation levels and the head lacing lingers throughout the sample being drunk. The flavor is like a roast coffee with a small hint of chocolate on the back of the tongue. No hop note and no serious alcohol presence or bite. While this beer is a strong one at 9.0%, it does not really show any serious alcohol flavor. Upon letting the beer warm a bit, the roasted malt flavor and coffee flavor is even more pronounced.Texas Bog Beer is a brewery to not pass on nor is this beer. While it is slight light in variety of flavors that some Russian imperials offer, it is still nice to find a nice, simple Russia to enjoy for its higher alcohol content and its roasted malt flavors. This is listed as a limited so be sure to try it while supplies are available. Slàinte.
