From Saturday, August 29, 2009

I was in Houston for a few days, so I had to try to find some debauchery with my good friends down there, Paige and Petty. So the three of us headed to a friend of Petty's to "pre drink". We stopped at an extremely ghetto convenience store to pick up some beer. There was, for instance, a random black and white polka dotted suit case in the corner, next to some random, off brand electronic gadgets and some porn mags. Was it for sale...? Anyway I got the variety 6 pack of Shiner again (last drinking in Texas for a long time!) because, for one thing, my girlfriend had had some of the ones I wanted to try. Also, there was a different kind of Shiner there - Shiner Spezial Leicht - I hadn't tried, so I exchanged it for the regular Shiner Bock in the 6 pack.

We got to the friend's house, greeted by a familiarly dismal scene: 2 guys playing Rock Band and a girl petting her two chihuahuas on the couch behind them, drinking a beer and alternating her sounds of encouragement between the two animal species in the room. I started to drink.

I started with the Shiner Black (Schwarzbier, 4.9% ABV) as I knew I like that one fairly well. Not bad, not bad.

Second up was a Shiner Kosmos Reserve (American Pale Lager, ?% ABV). It's not really my style of beer: mild, too carbonated, not much head, not very creamy or thick. It wasn't bad or anything, just kind of thick and unremarkable.

Next up was the Shiner Blonde (American Pale Lager, 4.4% ABV) that my girlfriend had yanked for her own consumption the weekend before. This whole Shiner variety pack became decidedly pointless about the time I got to this one. The head on this one was even more airy than the Kosmos. It tasted pretty much like any ol' lager. I almost would have been just as well drinking a can of Budweiser.

It was at this time that the girlfriend of the house opened her fridge too quickly and spilled my three remaining beers all over the floor. At least she knew she'd be cleaning it up. Well, perhaps that's the karma I get, considering that the only one of the three I really cared about and probably would have gotten around to drinking anyway was the one I semi-stole. Whatever, another time maybe.

So I had one of Paige's St. Pauli's Girl (German Pilsener, 4.9% ABV) beers. Well, as you can see, there was a lot of head, but that's about it. It was kind of crisp and bitter, kind of metallic. It just tasted like a cheap, generic Pilsner to me. I probably need to do a horizontal Pilsner tasting 'cause I just can't find them interesting and distinct from one another so far. Then again, we're talking about a 6 or 7 dollar 6 pack here.

After these and a tiff between the girlfriend and the boyfriend about whether or not they were going out, we went out (without the boyfriend) to a local bar. I had actually never been to a bar in Houston or the surrounding areas, so I was down for whatever. The bar was hoppin', if you will, but not too packed. It was being patronized mostly by hicks and trashy people (we were in Rosenberg, Texas after all), but they had Ziegenbach, and one of my goals had been to have some before leaving Texas for Florida, so I was happy. I got a glass, and then everyone wanted some, so we got a pitcher. I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to find a picture of the stuff on the internet, or else I would've tried harder to get a better picture of the stuff.

Well at least you can see a bit of lacing. Anyway, maybe it was just that I was tipsy-bordering-on-drunk, but this was the most drinkable beer I've ever had. Not only smooth but tasty. It was very enjoyable. It's not the most sophisticated beer by any means, but the perfect beer for mass consumption to get drunk. I will miss you, Zieg!

After this we went to Denny's for some horrible, tasty food of which I ate every bite.