23 Oct Sigma Burial In Space With Coffee

Sigma Burial In Space With Coffee

Sigma Brewing Company

Houston’s 2nd Ward
Double Imperial Stout
ABV: 14%
IBUs: N/A
Packaging: Draft, 500ml Bomber

Blaring metal, several Sega Genesis, and passionately crafted beers is what you’ll find during your visit at Sigma Brewery. Heard about the brewery but haven’t been or even know about their existence? Let me briefly shine some light on them.

Sigma Brewery is located in Houston’s 2nd Ward, located near the light rail on a street that you might drive past a few times when you’re looking for them. Trust me, happened to me a couple times on my first visit. This industrial brewery was founded by local Houstonians and best friends Matt Peterson & Nick Sorenson, and opened the brewery doors on September 2016. The brewery is not only passionate about brewing craft beer or blasting heavy metal, Sigma is a compilation of several meaningful things that sum up of who they are and what they share with the community.Sigma Brewery recently had their 2nd year anniversary a few weeks ago that turned out into a major success! Axe throwing, corn hole, food trucks; you know, the works! But my favorite part of the event was the VIP tasting that consisted of eight different beers!

Photo by Josh Olalde

Their Hazy IPA collaboration with B-52 Brewing “Brother Shamus”, their triple Hazy IPA variant “Triple Shamus”, the milkshake IPA version of Shamus “Brother Seamus”, their newly released brandy barrel aged old ale with cherries “Exhume”, the manhattan cocktail inspired variant of exhume “Manhattan Exhume”, their 14% ABV returning double imperial stout “Burial In Space”, their bourbon & rye barrel aged variant with Orange and Chocolate “Orange Chocolate Burial Space, and my personal favorite; the one that stole my heart and made me love this brewery even more, their Burial In Space with Coffee.

Mind if I go into an impromptu review of the beer? No? Cool.

The delicious aroma of bourbon barrel aged stout immediately jumps at you and  runs through your nasal cavity as if it were aromatic crack. If you’re worried that the smell of coffee will overpower the stout, it doesn’t. It has a subtle smell of coffee, making the stout characteristic the highlight of the beverage. As you drink Burial In Space, it does pack a punch of heat on the initial sip, but slowly cools down as you consume it. Usually stouts have somewhat of a thick consistency to them, but not in this case. Sigma Burial In Space’s consistency is smooth as hell and has a great balance of barrel aged stout flavor and coffee. It has a flat feel to it, making the beer tolerable to handle with a delightfully warm finish. In my opinion, the after taste of Sigma Burial In Space is where the beer shines the most. The chocolate-coffee flavor leaves a tingly sensation on your tastebuds that you cannot ignore.

As a person that isn’t too fond of stouts, I have to say that Sigma Burial In Space is one of my preferred stouts in Houston. I just wish that the coffee taste was a bit more present in the beer.

Photo by Josh Olalde

I recently had the opportunity to visit Sigma Brewery again a week after their 2nd anniversary party, and had the pleasure to finally meet Matt & Nick in person. Let me tell you, these guys are super passionate when it comes to beer, treating each brew as if it were their actual children.

While we were hanging out, I had to fanboy to them about Sigma Burial In Space. I asked Matt what were some thoughts and history about the beer and why this brew is particularly special to them?

“Sigma Burial in Space was originally created as something a little different than its final incarnation as a barrel aged imperial stout.” Matt stated. “It started as a homebrewing experiment about how we could hop a beer with cannabis. But that’s where the name comes from – basically making a beer that would send you to space, and ruin you while doing it.”

I asked him “Why make Burial In Space such a high-light this year?”

Matt replied, “Last year we only released the base barrel aged version. When we made one slim keg of burial with coffee last year, we were blown away by it and decided that we wanted to produce more of it for our second anniversary. It was kind of funny how that beer took the path that it did, but we’re really happy at where it’s ended up.”