HOUSTON, April 20, 2005 – Award-winning Saint Arnold Summer Pils, a crisp and refreshing pilsner, is returning to store shelves throughout Texas. Saint Arnold Brewing Company, the oldest microbrewery in Texas, will have the 2005 batch of Summer Pils on store shelves and on tap across the Lone Star State by late April.

Saint Arnold Summer Pils is a Bohemian-style pilsner with a delicate, sweet malt taste complemented by an abundant hop aroma and flavor. True to tradition, it features fine German pils malt and two central European noble hop varieties: Czech Saaz and Tettnanger. It is a sweet, delicately flavored golden lager with 4.9 percent alcohol by volume.

“Even though the pilsner is the most common style brewed today, few breweries in America offer consumers a taste of what a pilsner was originally meant to be,” said Brock Wagner, founder of Saint Arnold Brewing Company. “At Saint Arnold Brewing, we prefer to present our customers with beer with lots of taste rather than brew for the lowest common denominator.”
 
Saint Arnold Summer Pils won the Silver Medal at the 2003 Great American Beer Festival in the Münchner-Style Helles category. It took first place at the 1997 Colorado State Fair in the European Pilsner category.

When first brewed in the 1840s, the pilsner style of beer represented a significant shift in appearance and flavor away from the dark, heavy beers that were common at the time. Saint Arnold Summer Pils pays tribute to these classic pilsners, first brewed in what is now the Czech Republic, by featuring the same strong hop bitterness and floral, spicy hop notes as the original.

Working to satisfy record demand, this year’s batch of Saint Arnold Summer Pils is bigger than ever, with 660 barrels, which translate to 9,095 cases, being produced and shipped. Saint Arnold Summer Pils already is available on tap and in 12-ounce bottles sold in six-packs and cases in parts of Texas. It will be available throughout Texas at grocery and liquor stores, bars and restaurants by month’s end.

Saint Arnold Brewing Company’s ten brews are made and sold by the company''s staff of 15 dedicated employees. The brewery is located at 2522 Fairway Park Drive and its free brewery tour and tasting is offered every Saturday at 1:00 P.M. For more information on Saint Arnold''s five year-round and five seasonal beers as well as root beer, log on to http://www.saintarnold.com.

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