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Saint Arnold ICON to feature quarterly releases of a wide variety of beer styles

HOUSTON, December 3, 2012 – Saint Arnold Brewing Co. (www.saintarnold.com), the oldest craft brewery in Texas, today announced the upcoming release of Saint Arnold ICON, a new line of rotating beers that will complement the brewery’s year-round and seasonal offerings. A different Saint Arnold ICON beer will be released quarterly, with some styles returning from one year to the next and other styles replaced as the brewery continues to experiment. 

The first Saint Arnold ICON, which features a striking metallic red and black label, will be a Belgian-Style Pale Ale. It will be introduced on tap and in 4-packs of 12 ounce bottles in Houston only on December 10, 2012. It will be available on tap in bars and restaurants throughout the rest of Texas and Louisiana beginning December 17, 2012. In January 2013, the brewery will release Saint Arnold ICON in 4-packs of 12 ounce bottles throughout Texas and Louisiana.

“We started working on ICON six or seven years ago, but it has taken us this long to have the necessary capacity to add a permanent line of new beers,” said Saint Arnold founder/brewer Brock Wagner. “Some of the ICON beers will be traditional styles and others will be experimental, but all will be different from beers we currently brew.”

The Belgian-Style Pale Ale has a distinctive Belgian yeast flavor with rich malty sweetness and a soft floral quality from the Noble hops used. While not a traditional Trappist ale, Wagner calls it a ‘cousin’ to a Belgian dubbel. 

Saint Arnold ICON is named for the icon of Saint Arnold of Metz that was painted in 2001 by the Rev. Andrey Davydov, a Russian Orthodox priest and icon painter from Pskov. He used an encaustic technique with pigments hand-ground from minerals such as lapis lazuli, malachite and cinnabar. Rev. Andrey also painted the fresco that greets visitors when entering Saint Arnold’s brewery on the north side of downtown Houston.  Once complete, Father Davydov blessed and consecrated the fresco in a brief ceremony.

Other Saint Arnold ICON facts:

• While a limited amount of Saint Arnold ICON is being produced, several batches are being brewed and it will be released continually throughout the quarter.

• While Saint Arnold ICON consists of four quarterly releases, scheduled in December, March, June and September, they will not be traditional ‘seasonal’ releases and will not interfere with Saint Arnold’s rotation of seasonals, which are the brewery’s top-sellers (combined). 

• The next Saint Arnold ICON, scheduled for release in April, will be a Cascadian Dark Ale with a metallic blue and black label. Its recipe was inspired by the winner of the 2012 Big Batch Brew Bash homebrewing contest.

Editors: download the label art for ICON at http://www.saintarnold.com/images/icon_belgian_style_pale_ale.jpg. 

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About Saint Arnold Brewing Company

Saint Arnold Brewing's 16 brews are made and sold by the company’s staff of 43 dedicated employees. Ranked 43rd on the Brewers Association list of top craft breweries, Saint Arnold was listed by USA Today as one of the “10 great places to see what’s brewing in beer,” and Smart Meetings magazine named it among the “Top 5 breweries to host an event.” Saint Arnold is located at 2000 Lyons Avenue and its brewery tour and tasting is offered every weekday at 3:00 P.M. and Saturdays starting at 11 A.M. For more information on Saint Arnold's five year-round and five seasonal beers as well as root beer, log on to www.saintarnold.com.