Day 162, June 11 / Shiner Ruby Redbird

Day 162  /  June 11, 2011

Shiner Ruby Redbird Summer Seasonal Beer

Spoetzl Brewery  /  Shiner TX

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

The Good, The Best? and the Nasty

OK, we’ll go a little out of sequence today.  I went out to dinner with the family last night to Fire Works pizza in Arlington.  Fire Works Arlington is a relatively new location of the well reviewed Leesburg location of the same name.  I have heard about Fire Works’ beer selection before but had yet to sample it.

Fire Works has 33 beers on tap, including 2 cask ales, plus over 100 bottles to choose from.  I chose the Passion of the Pale flight, which included four 4 oz. glasses of pales and IPA’s, including Sierra Nevada, Old Speckled Hen, Terrapin Rye Pale Ale and Evolution Primal Pale.  I embarrassed my daughter (my calling in life) by snapping a picture of the beer flight (below).  All were quite tasty, but none were summer beers – we’ll get to that later.

We ordered 3 individual 10” pizzas – my daughter got her usual, pepperoni and mushrooms.  And my wife and I split a pizza with goat cheese, tomatoes, roasted peppers and spinach, and another with the works – sausage from a local farm, pepperoni, olives, etc.  The pizzas are baked in a wood fired oven and were very good.  And we’ve got leftovers for dinner tomorrow!

The Good:  The beer, pizza and atmosphere at Fire Works in Arlington.

Before we got our pizza, we split an appetizer pot of mussels with a white wine chorizo broth and croustades (toasted bread slices).  Wow!  These were some of the best mussels I’ve ever had.  The mussels were melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the broth had lots of shredded sliced smoked chorizo, chunks of onion and tomatoes and was just wonderful (that’s not a word I use often).  It’s just a little spicy, but scoop some up with the bread (make sure to soak the bread in it first) and it’s just delicious.  I think I’ll have to order these every time I go there.

The Best?  Hot Pot Steamed Steamed Maine Mussels at Fire Works

I actually had my summer beer of the day before we went out to dinner.  I have been curious about this beer since the first time I saw it on the shelf, and today was the day to put any questions I had to rest.

In the last few years, the Spoetzl Brewery, makers of Shiner, have become pretty creative in their offers, putting out specialty brews for each year leading up to (and after) their 100^th anniversary, and offering a more complete line of seasonal.  Back in Febrarury, I gave their Shiner Dortmunder Spring Ale a VG rating.

So I had high expectations for the Shiner Ruby Redbird Summer Seasonal Beer (that’s the full name and it has Summer in it!).  Ruby Redbird is flavored with Texas red grapefruit and ginger, and I noticed both of those smells as I poured it into the glass.  I also noticed a lack of any head to speak of.

You can definitely taste the grapefruit and ginger, but you can really barely taste the beer.  It had a bit of sweet tart taste to it that was not really enjoyable at all.  I asked my wife for her opinon, and she said, “Oooh, that’s nasty!”

The Nasty:  Shiner Ruby Redbird Summer Seasonal Beer

Today’s summer tune is true now for some kids, soon for others, and was given new life recently by its inclusion in the Rock Band video game.