Feature Beer Friday: Tin Roof's Voodoo Pale Ale

By Eric Ducote

Tin Roof's Voodoo Pale Ale

Good morning everyone!  It's Friday, so let's talk a little beer.  Originally I wasn't planning on going back to back with the Tin Roof beers, but that was before the news broke last Saturday that Tin Roof Brewing captured the first ever gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for the state of Louisiana with their Voodoo Pale Ale!  They won in the Juicy or Hazy Pale Ale category, which featured a whopping 132 entrants.  

Voodoo has been around in some form since Tin Roof's beginning, originally labeled as the Voodoo Bengal Pale Ale it was one of the original flagship brews next to the Perfect Tin Amber.  The original recipe was more of a balanced pale ale, with caramel and crystal malts providing a base and plenty of bittering hops throughout.  A few years ago the recipe was changed up completely and the "Bengal" was dropped from the name, giving us the Voodoo Pale Ale and the current look of the cans and tap handles.  Chuck P even wrote a blog post about it! Since then the recipe has undergone a few more tweaks until you have the current iteration of the Voodoo Pale Ale, which can now add GABF Gold Medal winner to its resume.  

The current recipe is even simpler than the interim version, with pale malt serving as the lone base malt and then malted oats, flaked oats, and wheat malt added as specialty grains to give some body and contribute to the haziness.  The hops were reduced to a simple combination of Citra and Simcoe, giving a combination of citrus and tropical fruit flavors from the Citra (duh!) and pine flavors from the Simcoe.  It's a sessionable 5% abv and a palate-pleasing 20 IBU with the vast majority of the hops going in as later additions and dry-hopping.  

I'm sure most of you out there reading this have tried Voodoo and plenty of you likely keep some around in your beer fridge on a regular basis, but if you haven't had one recently, don't hesitate to grab a 6-pack and give it another try.  Winning any sort of medal is a huge deal at GABF, but winning a gold in such a highly contested category should absolutely be celebrated.  

So congrats to Tin Roof, and Cheers! 

Feature Beer Friday: Tin Roof / Gnarly Barley's Liger Juicy Pale Ale

By Eric Ducote

Good morning everyone!  It's another Friday and that means another featured beer here on Bite And Booze.  I'm going with a local collaboration today, the Liger Juicy Pale Ale which was brewed by Tin Roof and Gnarly Barley to celebrate last week's LSU vs. SELU football matchup.  Tin Roof brews the Bayou Bengal, a licensed LSU beer, and Gnarly Barley out of Hammond brews the Lion Up, a licensed SELU beer, so it only made sense for the two to combine forces for a Rivalry Edition beer.  

I'm a huge fan of local breweries collaborating together on beers like this, as well as local breweries collaborating with regional and national breweries.  It's a great way to get new ideas, new beers, and new exposure for these craft breweries that support a lot of local jobs.  This beer sold out quickly in cans at the brewery last weekend, but as of Wednesday night there was still plenty on tap, and they were selling crowlers of it to go.  So, as I'm an LSU fan, I grabbed a Tin Roof glass and gave the beer a try...

Tin Roof / Gnarly Barley's Liger Juicy Pale Ale

The first thing that hit me is the hop aroma as soon as I popped the can, citrus flavors dominate due to the galaxy, citra, and mosaic hops used.  The color is a pale yellow, not quite orange juice color, but hazy and vibrant.  The aroma out of the glass is more of the same, strong citrus hop flavors which invite me in for a sip.  On the tongue the hops continue their dominance, with a medium body and a minimal malt presence.  This is basically a toned down pale ale version of a "juicy" NEIPA and they nail it.  At 5.5% but bursting with hop flavor, this would be a great game day beer or perfect for breaking out after mowing the lawn, which is exactly what I in the picture above!

Here's hoping this makes it into the regular rotation for either Tin Roof or Gnarly Barley, I know I'd drink plenty more if it was readily available.  In the meantime, hit up the Tin Roof taproom and grab a crowler or two for the weekend.  Cheers! 

Feature Beer Friday: Parish's Envie Pale Ale

By Eric Ducote

Good morning again, and whatever time of day you're reading this, if you're in or around Louisiana, it's almost certainly HOT.  Extremely ridiculously hot.  And humid.  And being outside just in general sucks and it will for several more months.  However, we can't (at least not easily) live out lives entirely inside so when grills need to be lit, wings need to be smoked, sausage needs to be grilled, and lawns need to be mowed, we brave the elements and look forward to a tasty beverage to make us feel a little more whole afterward.  

This past weekend was one of those times as my friend Blake (who you might remember brewed the Southern Craft Three Generation Tripel) invited me over to fire up the BBQ and watch some World Cup action.  I needed a few brews for the day in addition to Blake's homebrew, so I grabbed some Jucifer and then noticed the canned Envie from Parish Brewing.  Not too long ago (I think January or February of 2018) Parish started contracting out the brewing and canning of their three flagship beers to Brew Hub out of Lakeland, Florida, a city just to the East of Tampa and the spring training home of the Detroit Tigers.  Lakeland is also home to Florida Southern College, whose campus contains a large concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings.  Fascinating stuff, really.

Parish Brewing's Envie Pale Ale

Back to the beer though... the first Brew Hub batch of Envie wasn't very well received locally, but since then Andrew and the Parish team have worked with Brew Hub to ensure that subsequent batches meet the same quality as the bottled and kegged Envie that comes out of Broussard, LA.  After hearing from many people that the more recent canned batches are all coming out exceptional I had no hesitation buying a 4-pack of the 16 oz. cans for a hot day.

My first thought is that I love the 16 ounce can packaging. I feel like more breweries should offer it, as it's great for a sessionable beer like Envie (or Canebrake) if I'm drinking it solo, and it's more to go around for bigger beers that I'm sharing.  This can was dated 05/09/18, but even though it's getting to be 6 or 7 weeks old, I still expect tropical hazy goodness.  The appearance certainly delivers on the expectations, hazy orange-yellow color with a frothy white head.  The aroma is full of fruity hop flavors, a little more exotic than the Ghost In The Machine I tried last week, but still familiar flavors like passionfruit and guava.  There is a little more bitterness and less fruit note on the taste, but still those tropical flavors dominate, leaving a finish of hoppy mango.  

This doesn't pack quite the hop punch as the Ghost, but this is also far more suited for a backyard BBQ in the middle of the summer heat.  Or the cans are perfect for a trip to the pool, the beach, or a canoe trip.  Stay safe out there, stay hydrated, and save room for a few beers! 

Feature Beer Friday: Saint Arnold's Pub Crawl Pale Ale

By Eric Ducote

Hello again everyone!  Today I'm featuring another Texas Brewery, Saint Arnold Brewing, to go along with recently featured Rahr & Sons and 11 Below.  Even though they weren't my first Texan brewery featured, Saint Arnold claims to be Texas's oldest craft brewery, shipping out their first keg on June 9th, 1994.  As they approach their 24th birthday late this month, I figured it would be appropriate to try out one of their newer releases, the Pub Crawl Pale Ale.  

This beer debuted in January 2017, but the 6-pack I picked up at Robert Fresh Market were dated 03/05/18, which is well within my comfortable freshness range.  It's described as a bright and sessionable pale ale with a 4.7% abv and 48 IBU.  

Saint Arnold's Pub Crawl Pale Ale

At first, the pour... this certainly fits what I would expect out of "bright and sessionable" with a luminous yellow color and a frothy white head.  On the nose I get mostly citrus hop flavors with perhaps a bit of a floral note and a backbone of crackers or bread from the malt.  The taste has more of the same citrus notes, coming strong from the Centennial bittering hops as well as the Amarillo and Galaxy used in the back end.  All three of those hop varieties showcase citrus flavors so it's no surprise that the beer tastes like it does.  The 4.7% abv makes this one an easy drinker, just a little stronger than a standard light beer, with a clean slightly bitter finish.  

This is a really good option for a summer poolside beer, at a backyard BBQ, or just relaxing after some yardwork.  The weather is heating up, and we could all use a cold beverage or two, right?