The Big Texan

The Big Texan is a huge tourist attraction in Amarillo, Texas, where you can order a 72oz steak and it's free if you eat the whole thing (sides included). This place is just all around America and Texas at its finest. Little did we know, it also has its very own craft brewery! We had seen the billboards all the way from Santa Rosa and had been informed by LWS Brewing that there was in fact a brewery at The Big Texan, but nothing could have prepared us for the twelve beers on tap to pair with steaks and barbecue of plenty.

The flight had a variety of beers for a variety of palates and had a broad range in colors and flavors:

The Honey Blonde

Whoop Your Donkey DIPA

Palo Duro Pale

Texas Red Amber

Bomb City Bock

Whiskey Barrel Stout

The Honey Blonde had a great unfiltered haziness to the golden color and smelled of what could be described as beer. The honey flavor was prominent right off the bat, and the overall beer taste was feel and flavorful. This was a great patio or beer garden beer, very easy to drink and refreshing to the palate.

The Whoop Your Donkey was an incredibly good double IPA. This beer, at 9.1% ABV, was a very smooth, easy drinking, strong beer. The hop character was fantastic, the mouth feel was smooth and creamy, and the beer was just bursting with greatness.

The Palo Duro Pale on the other hand could use some work. This pale was really lacking in hop flavor, or any good flavors at all, this was a pretty watery beer. It may have been the order the flight was served in, but we do our best to cleanse our palates between beers. This beer was pretty disappointing after the first two. We had originally thought it was their Mexican Lager, but we got this all cleared up later on in the flight.

The Texas Red Amber, like all of the beers so far, had a very similar smell the the honey blonde, a very sweet and honey-like smell. The aroma of the beer typically translates into the flavor, but not always...this beer was also a little watery like the Palo Duro Pale, but not bad. The maltiness came through on this beer and it was very drinkable.

The Bomb City Bock was much light in color than we expected and helped through us off the order of the flight until we solved it with the brewer. This bock was a good beer, it had a decent malt characteristic and was slightly sweet. Very easy to drink.

The Whiskey Barrel Stout had all the characteristics of any stout you could find; it was meaty, smokey, lightly metallic, and very coffee, all rolled into one stout. This was a very good stout, just not quite a great stout, mainly due to the variety of flavors instead of a focus on either the coffee, the meatiness, or the smokiness.

The second part of the flight consisted of some very flavorful beers as well as some special releases that had not been made public until the brewer invited us to his laboratory:

Pecan Porter

Rattlesnake IPA

El Hefeweizen

Raspberry Wheat

Tres Hombres Mexican Lager

Pale Rider IPL

The Pecan Porter was very sweet and smelled and tasted like pancake syrup. The pecan flavor was bold but not overpowering and sweet, however, the beer was a little watery. The color was a light brown and much like the bock, had us a little confused on the style categorization.

The Rattlesnake IPA was another beer that had the honey aroma which lent to the mild hop flavor; mild in a good way! This IPA was very sweet and hoppy but also very easy to drink and not at all bitter like some IPAs.

El Hefeweizen had the common bubblegum flavor typical of a good hefe, but that's where the good stopped on this beer. There was a lemony flavor that almost tasted like a cleaning solution of some kind and left a bad flavor in this beer.

The Raspberry Wheat made up for its wheaty counterpart and was a very delicious, refreshing wheat beer. The raspberry flavor, although clearly from concentrate, was just right and made for a deliciously "girly" summer beer. This is another brew that's perfect for that porch/patio/beer garden setting.

The Tres Hombres lager was very crisp and extremely refreshing. At first, we had thought the pale ale was this Mexican lager, but we're very glad we were wrong; not originally served in the flight, this sample came decorated with a lime that assisted the flavor in all the right ways. Typically we're not fond of fruit served in beer, but in this case, it was very good.

The Pale Rider IPL was  also not originally in the flight, but at the insistence of the brewer, we gave it a try. This Indian Pale Lager was very smooth and easy on the hops which made for a refreshingly hoppy brew. It had a slightly buttery taste, somewhat like a good chardonnay wine. It was very easy to drink and another good summer-time beverage.

Finally, we had the Rustler's in the Rye. which the brewer, Tom, tapped specially for us! This was a fantastic rye ale that swiftly moved to the top of the list. The rye flavors came through perfectly in this beer and the smoothness left us wanting more. This was a great beer and should be tapped soon after this post.

Megan's overall opinion: I really enjoyed The Big Texan, not only was it entertaining, but the beer was awesome. I think we were just as fascinated by this place as they they were by us; the staff and Tom (the brewer) made sure to pay special attention to the tourists taking notes! We had a lot of fun with review and it was a real treat to have a private tour of the brewery, even if it was some pretty homemade engineering. My favorite beer was definitely the Rye; I like rye ales to begin with, but this one was great. I also really enjoyed the Mexican Lager, the Raspberry Wheat, and the Whoop Your Donkey DIPA. I wasn't much of a fan of the Palo Duro Pale or El Hefeweizen, but the rest of the flights definitely made up for those two.

Randy's overall opinion: The Big Texan... never been there and wasn't about to try the 72oz steak (maybe next time, Stomach...maybe next time). Very touristy place but it's one of those where you just need to go. Go once, go twice, whatever but just go. We did see the signs of the brewery for miles away and figured we would try it, not knowing what to expect exactly. Yes, I was very surprised as well! There were a few beers that I really enjoyed and impressed by. The Tres Hombres, Whoop Your Donkey, and the Pecan Porter were my favorites. Very impressed by that Pecan Porter as typically those have way too much pecan flavor that makes it hard to drink for me but this one was spot on. I'm not sure if I was more impressed by the beer or the fact I liked it that much! Flip side.... that Palo Duro Ale needs some fixing. Not sure what it was exactly but bottom of my list.

Special Bonus!!! We got to meet the brewer and got a tour of the facility which was very neat to be treated like that and to talk beer and learn the history of how the brewery came to fruition at the Big Texan. Yeah, the system has got a some "redneck engineering" but it seems to be working just fine. Rumor has it that there is an expansion coming which would include an updated brewery system (Big Texan owners... take note that it is needed!). 

Double Special Bonus!!!! Early tap of the upcoming beer Rustlers in the Rye, just for us (Thanks, Tom!). That beer was really, really good and I'm currently finding myself craving another as I write this. All in all, we were impressed with the selection and quality of the majority of the beers. It was really a pleasure meeting and talking with the head brewer, Tom, and learning his thoughts and methods, and especially the story behind it all. 

To say the least, The Big Texan was not what we expected. We expected great steak and great spectacles, but we weren't prepared for great beer on top of all that. This tourist attraction/brewery was definitely the highlight of our trip to Amarillo, Texas.

http://bigtexan.com/