February visit to Dueces Wild
This week is an unusual week for our brewery visit. Normally, we head out on Thursday, but this week Valentine’s Day happen to fall on a Thursday and Mike, being the prudent man that he is, suggested that we move our visit to Tuesday. This worked out well for three reasons; one, we don’t have annoyed wives wondering why we are spending Valentines Day without them and, two, Thursdays at Wild Dueces is live music and finally, Tuesday is “All you can devour” taco day. In the interest of full disclosure, Mike and I have been to this brewery a few times in the past. One of those times was on “live music Thursday”. Unfortunately, the place is small enough and the musician (or beer) was popular enough that we had to take seats about 3 inches from the speaker. While the music was good, it was simply too loud and drove us out to another brewery.
At any rate, such was not the case this time and we had our fill of good conversation, decent tacos and excellent beer.
Shocker Brown – 5.2% ABV 36 IBU – I was in the mood of something malty and this fit the bill very nicely. It has a very malty aroma but only a slightly malty flavor. I thought it had a slightly boozy finish, but Mike disagreed. Either way, it finished very nice and mellow.
Nanner Amber Weiss – 6.3% ABV 15 IBU – This is a good wheat beer. It had a slight banana flavor to it. Just noticeable, at least to me. Not much more to say. I would certainly drink this one again.
[Mike]
I was super excited for all you can eat tacos, and I have to say that I was expecting the “all you can devour” tacos to be from a food truck or something, they had:
- Taco Shells (both hard and soft)
- Meat (both Chicken and beef)
- Cheese
- Lettuce
- pico de gallo
- A tasty cilantro / lime (?) sauce
So really, what more can you ask for. I had 7 tacos, and was satisfied with my $10 investment 🙂
As for my beers, I had:
Warning Sign Ice Bock (eisbock?) – 10.4 ABV, 30 IBU – This was pretty tasty. It had a bit of alcohol heat to it, but also slightly malty and sweet.
Par 3 Porter – 5% ABV – 40IBU – Slight roasty coffee flavor to it, almost a smokey character. The thick mouthfeel that you would expect. Not to shabby, and pretty easy drinking for a porter.
Banana Hammock Hefeweizen – 5.3% ABV – 12 IBU – I had this once before and was a bit disappointed because it lacked much in the way of banana flavors, but not this time. Really nice banana in the taste and nose, pretty light, and overall a really nice hefeweizen.
Blood Orange Pale Ale – 6% ABV – 56 IBU – People kept telling me how good the blood orange pale ale was at dueces, and let me tell you, I was not disappointed. This is such a tasty beer! Lots of orange flavor, which I think gets accentuated with the hops. Finishes with a slight citrusy bitterness on the tongue.
Distance Runner Kolsch – 5.2% ABV – 25 IBU – This kolsch is really fricking good! Seriously, I think it may be the best Kolsch I’ve had to date, if not, easily top 3. If you’re a regular reader, then you’re probably tired of hearing me say that I think a Kolsch is like a litmus test for a brewery. There’s nothing strong to hide flaws with, and if it isn’t just right, then it’s obvious. This one was perfect, even had a slight grain or biscuit flavor to it that I absolutely love.
