Texas Brew Review: It’s time to salute the OG’s of the craft-brew revolution

In the day and age of choice that we are live in, it’s easy to pass over the best in favor of the newest. It’s a common occurrence for almost any consumer. New restaurants, new exercise trends, new technology. We live in a society where new choices abound every day. Many of those new things are great and deserve the attention that they get. However, to lose sight of the greatness from the past would be foolish.

Obviously, the same is true with beer — and specifically for the purposes of this conversation — craft beer. The newest breweries and beers get the publicity, but there are so many beers that we simply take for granted. You reach past them to try the new flavor. Well, it’s time to start revisiting those and quit reaching past them. This is the first in an occasional series called Taken For Granted.

The first unofficial member of this list was the first Texas Brew Review in DFW.com a year and a half ago. Saint Arnold Elissa is a phenomenal IPA that gets forgotten about among all new more aggressive IPAs on the market.

One such brewery that makes one of those more aggressive IPAs — and a certainly delicious one in that — is Community. Its Mosaic is perhaps its most popular beer and has drawn quite the following in these parts.

While Mosaic is great, it’s Public Ale that is the true crown jewel. English-style beers in general don’t get the American beer-drinking masses jumping up and down. However, an artfully done English-style extra special bitter is a treat like no other. Bready, sweet malt, a clean bite from subdued hops and a satisfying finish, a well-made ESB like Public Ale is both refreshing and complex. It’s a rare beer that provides such a depth of flavor while still staying drinkable and low in alcohol.

Public Ale does well in sales for Community, but isn’t its top seller. To its infinite credit, it’s won back-to-back gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival and with GABF 2015 coming up in four weeks, it’s not impossible to imagine it winning another.

Either way, Public Ale deserves your respect and your patronage. Don’t pass it up next time.

Quick sips

Karbach cans coming soon: Fans of Houston’s Karbach Brewing have seen the brewery’s beers on tap walls for a couple of months now, but cans and bottles have yet to surface in North Texas. Originally planned to arrive in late August, it looks like it won’t be until the end of September until cans of Hopadillo, Weekend Warrior and Karbach’s other beers hit store shelves.

Have a questions or tips for Scooter? Shoot him an email at texasbrew@dfw.com. And for more beer columns and news, visit www.dfw.com/beer.

This story was originally published August 26, 2015 at 7:31 AM with the headline "Texas Brew Review: It’s time to salute the OG’s of the craft-brew revolution."