Houston: The Hay Merchant

I took a quick weekend trip to Houston to catch an Astros game and a concert, and while I was there, I discovered one of the best craft bars I've been to in a long time.  The Hay Merchant is a craft brew bar on Westheimer Road in Houston.  It wasn't much to look at from the outside, but as soon as I stepped inside, I found myself in beer heaven complete with nearly 50 well-thought-out taps (most of which you cannot find in Louisiana). For research sake, I did my best as tasting nearly every single delicious draft.  Below there is a short review (complete with shameless baseball puns) of each beer I tried while visiting this heavenly hoppy bar.

I'll lead off with the beer I thought was a home run...

Bavik Petrus Aged Pale (Brouwerij Bavik, Belgium)

This was a perfect example of a sour Oud Bruin:  Color of straw and had a nice white belgian head.  The aroma was funky, but in the way you expect from a good Belgian sour.  One taste of this and I was blown away.  It had a nice tart sourness, but not overpowering, which allowed the strong flavors of fruit and malt to come through nicely.  The mouthfeel was good and it drank very smootly.  This was a very complex and well crafted beer.  

Score: 4.8 / 5

Live Oak Schwarzbier (Live Oak Brewing, Austin, TX)

This was a very tasty Schwarzbier.  Schwarzbier is German for "black beer," and they are usually lighter in taste than their dark beer companions, Porter and Stout.  Live Oak's Schwarzbier had good dark brown color to it with a strong foamy cream head.  You get the flavors of roasted malt, bread and biscuit.  You also get some strong hop bitters.  The mouthfeel was crisp and clean; a very easy-to-drink dark beer.  I
Score: 4.0 / 5

Our initial seats at the game:

Our new and improved seats at the game:



The game was fun, but it was too bad the Astros lost. (I think they will lose a lot this year...)



Left Hand Polestar Pilsner (Left Hand Brewing, Longmont, CO)

This was probably my least favorite.  It had a great golden yellow color with a nice thick white Pilsner style head, but when I tasted it, I thought it was too aggressively hopped for a Pilsner style beer.  This may have been more of me expecting one thing and tasting something else though...both of my friends enjoyed this beer.  It had good light malty notes and drank crisply and smoothly, but the hop choice turned me off from this beer.
Score:  2.5 / 5