Categorized under: Advent, beer

Day 10: St. Arnold Sailing Santa by Mark Bond

@SaintArnold @bondedbrewing

To celebrate the Holiday Season, we have teamed up with beer bloggers and craft beer enthusiasts around the country to host the fifth annual beer advent calendar. This is the season of sharing and we intend to share our love of beer with you.

During the 31 days of December, we will be sharing our favorite regional/winter seasonals/holiday beers with the help from our fellow beer enthusiasts. We hope that you tune in every day, to hear our stories and share our holiday cheer.

StArnold SalingSanta_2

St. Arnold Sailing Santa

Blogger: Mark Bond
Website: http://www.2beerguys.com
Twitter / Facebook  / Instagram: T: @bondedbrewing / F: Mark Bond / I: bondedbrewing
About Me: I am a home brewer, craft beer lover, traveler, athlete and I now live in one of the world’s greatest beer cities; Austin, Texas.

Beer: Sailing Santa
Brewery: Saint Arnold Brewing, Houston, TX
Website: http://www.saintarnold.com/
Twitter: @SaintArnold
Facebook: SaintArnold

StArnold SailingSanta_1

Commercial Description: Sailing Santa is a blend of our Christmas Ale and Elissa IPA with spices added. The result is a pleasantly hoppy strong dark ale with spices. The genesis of this beer came from our customers on tours asking to blend the two beers. Eventually, someone came up with the name Sailing Santa. We have now added spices to the beer, changing the mix slightly from year to year, to add to the holiday experience of enjoying a pint. We actually brew a batch of Christmas Ale, then a batch of Elissa IPA and blend them in the fermenter. We add the spices at the end of fermentation.

For the 2015 version, we were able to get our hands on a brand new hop, called Snap, which is actually a blend of hops, spices and botanicals. What exactly is in there? We can’t say. How do you blend hops with spices and botanicals? We can’t say. We can tell you that the new hop, added at the end of fermentation, adds a ginger snap aroma and a complexity that makes Sailing Santa taste like the holidays.

Our Sailing Santa is pure, with no additives or preservatives. In order to maintain the freshest flavor possible, we do not pasteurize our beer. Many of its subtle flavors are delicate and would not stand up to the heat of pasteurization. We recommend that this product be stored cold to avoid any degradation in flavor. You will notice that the spice notes decrease over time.

Beer Details:
-Style: Winter Warmer
-ABV: 7.2%
-IBU: 45
-Malted Barley:A combination of pale 2-row, Maris Otter and caramel malts are used in these beers.
-Hops: Cascade is the dominant hop although two other American hops are used in the brew. Snap is added at the end of fermentation.
-Yeast: Saint Arnold ale yeast

Why I selected the St. Arnold Sailing Santa:

When I start to see the transition from Oktoberfests and Marzens into Winter Warmers and Stouts I get excited that the Christmas season is here. To say it was a hard choice to choose a single beer that reminds me of Christmas is an understatement. Even with the warm climate, we are starting to get into those crisper nights that beg for a strong and flavorful beer. Texas is on a beer boom and with so many new breweries coming online in the past year it was hard to choose just one that exemplifies what Christmas should taste like; but I was up for the challenge.

In contrast to all of the new breweries, I chose the oldest craft brewer in Texas; Saint Arnold out of Houston. This beer is part three of their four part Winter seasonal series (two of which are Christmas beers) and is somewhat hard to get as they brew only one 120 barrell batch and it goes quickly. I was able to pick up a bottle (or three) from my local Whole Foods and got to opening it as soon as possible. The beer is a blend of their Elissa IPA and Christmas Ale that is blended in the fermenter, giving this beer a unique start. Once poured you immediately get a strong scent of cinnamon and clove; made possible by the new Snap hop that is added in at the end of fermentation. Think a gingersnap in a glass. The beer drinks very easy, and when sharing with friends everyone exclaimed how much the flavors reminded them of Christmas. Where the beer starts to shine is when it starts to warm up and then notes of warm cinnamon toast come about as well as some deep caramel flavors. Get your hands on a bottle or two of this great beer and pair it with good friends, a great Christmas party and Christmas cheer for all to hear!

Bond_MarkBond

About Mark
I am a New Hampshire native and love that I have the opportunity to live in Austin and enjoy all it has to offer. I have been into craft beer since my early 20’s and enjoy to brew my own when time allows. Beer is a big passion of mine and in having a job that allows me to travel the country, I try and visit a new brewery in each city I visit. Have a suggestion of a brewery that I need to visit? Contact me at the above and let me know!!! Cheers and Merry Christmas to all!

St Arnold_1About Saint Arnold Brewing:
Saint Arnold Brewing Company, located in Houston, is Texas’ Oldest Craft Brewery. Our goal is to brew world class beers and deliver them to our customers as fresh as possible making them the best beers in Texas, Louisiana and Florida. Our customers are beer lovers – people that appreciate great, full-flavored beers.

Our small crew does everything at the brewery: brew the beer, filter the beer, keg the beer, bottle the beer, sell the beer and drink the beer. For us, this is a passion, not a job. We believe that this comes through in the beers we make. Our beers have soul.

We brew several different beers; some are year round, some are seasonal and a few are single batch brews. They are available in bars, restaurants, grocery stores, liquor stores and warehouse stores throughout Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

Our first keg of beer was shipped on June 9, 1994. Founded by Brock Wagner and Kevin Bartol, we chose Houston because, other than living here, this was the largest city in the country that did not have a microbrewery. Brock was a longtime homebrewer and had considered opening a brewery as far back as college, although that was quickly dismissed as a silly idea. Seven years after graduating, Brock revisited the idea, enlisted Kevin’s help and the brewery was off and running. Kevin has since left the business after a bitter battle. (Just kidding – but don’t you wish people wrote that when it was the truth?).

For more information, please visit http://www.saintarnold.com/.

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