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Lately I’ve been feeling as though I should probably use my blog a little more often, but struggling to come up with things to share that might be of interest to others. A few folks suggested I blog about something I enjoy a lot, as I have in the past. If you’ve read my blog much, you know I blog about my guns, music, photography, and motorcycles pretty often. Now, we’ll add beer to the list. Hopefully, as I do more blogging about beer I actually increase my knowledge of my favorite thing to drink (next to water).

To kick off December, Saint Arnold Brewing Company released their Divine Reserve 9 – an Imperial Pumpkin Stout. The mad rush to find a six pack, or a keg on tap to fill a growler, was on. Quite a few of the folks I follow on Twitter are also beer fans, and #DR9 filled my feed. For release day in Houston, I drove my truck (a rare event in itself) all over town in search of a store with Divine Reserve 9 in stock. I found none.

A day passed, and snow paid a visit to Houston. If you know me, you know this was the last thing I wanted to happen. Cold and I do not get along, at all. A friend visited, and we made our way to the local grocery store. As I always do, I made my way to the surprisingly well-stocked beer section. For the first time ever, I was greeted by one of the beer and wine associates. Sarcastically, I said “Divine Reserve 9″ when he asked if I needed help finding anything. He responded by bringing me the store’s limit of two six-packs! Best. Surprise. Ever. Finding the Divine Reserve 9 was awesome enough to make me forget the miserable weather. I ran into my parents in the store, and got my Mom to buy another six -pack to bring my total to three (one will be a graduation gift for my long-time friend Joseph).

On to the relevant beer bits.

Color: Dark, very.
Head: Thick and dark tan
Major flavors: Chocolate Malt and Pumpkin spices
Aroma: Pumpkin spices all the way.

The beer drinks smoothly, as one would expect from an Imperial Stout (pumpkin or otherwise). I was too eager to drink the beer, so I did not let my first one warm to 50°F as the brewery recommends. Chocolate malt dominated the flavor of the first beer, but the second had a more pronounced pumpkin finish. The 11% ABV will definitely lets you know you’ve finished your beer. The spices and the alcohol finish together for a pretty warming effect, which was quite welcome given the freakishly cold weather.

If you can find this on tap anywhere, or know someone with a six pack, it would be well worth your while to try it out.

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 9

Worst passing decision ever. That sums up Keenum’s play on 1st and 10 at the ECU 39 with 47 seconds left in the game.

Prior to that pass, this was probably the best game UH had played all season. There were some hard breaks – including letting an interception stand when ECU had 12 men on the field – but all in all that was one hard fought conference championship game. UH had come from behind several times this season, against tougher teams, and was poised to do it again to bring home the trophy. In the final set of plays at the usual UH pace, Keenum decided to go long to a receiver that was not open. This would be his final interception of the season, and the play that lost the game.

The Cougars are a young team, and hopefully learned from their (many) mistakes this year. Next year, if they put what they’ve learned to proper use, they’ll be unstoppable.