Cypress Street Brewery Open for Business

The wife and I had a chance to stop by Cypress Street Station on Halloween before "The Shining" played at Paramount. To our surprise, the Cypress Street Brewery was already open for business. They listed three brews on the menu: a blonde or pilsner, wheat, and boch-style.

When we lived in Fort Worth, Laura and I were fortunate enough to visit the Rahr Brewery for Saturday tastings. The Rahr crew has brewed numerous award-winning beers, and that made us more adventurous in always trying new beers, so we like to think we're "experts." What we discovered at Cypress wasn't amazing. It definitely wasn't bad either.

We ordered a beer flight that showcases their three brews and a fourth which was a combination of the dark and wheat beers. Each glass was probably 3 ounces and the flight ran $4.50: comprable to the price of a single beer. Here were our thoughts:
　
Pilsner: a little hoppy with a slightly bitter after taste. It seems like the flavor is okay but needs refining.

Wheat: I hate wheat beer, so I was ready for this to be bad...and it really wasn't. It tasted like a richer version of some other wheat beers I've had. I've had bad wheat beers with unpleasant aftertastes and this was not one of them.

Boch/Dark: not a lot of taste but what it has is good. This brew has some chocolate tones and was a little bitter in aftertaste.

Mixture (random fourth beer): not bad, not great. It didn't have the bitterness of some of the other beers.

Bottom line: I like having this new option in Abilene. I don't think I could drink this beer on a regular basis, but it's definitely worth the ocassional visit. If you'd like to check it out for yourself, I'd recommend the wheat or mixture.

Cypress also offers some unique beers you won't find anywhere else in town (except for H&H). My favorite choice is the Dog Fish IPA brew...talk about a hops party in your mouth!