New Beer Sunday (week 473)

Bottling date nowhere to be found. A bit pricey at $2.69 a single, but it was recommended. Poured into a Sam Adams Perfect Pint (naturally...).

Appearance: Very hazy with some floaties going around. A burnt orange sort of color. The head is insane... three fingers of a fluffy, sand colored head with the texture of Fluff, and it seems to stick around. Clumpy lacing. Good start so far.

Smell: As advertised. Hoppy with a good amount of rye in there. A sweet, mildly fruity hop aroma with a bit of pine, and then the rye. Not a lot to say about it other than that this beer has a great aromatic.

Taste/feel: Welp, first thing I notice is a full-bodied mouthfeel. HIYR is thick and creamy (TWSS) with about a moderate carbonation. As for the flavor, almost better than the aroma. Rye all the way through mixed with piney hops and a sort of bready flavor from the malt. Really nice balance, and really not all that bitter (then again I just had a quite bitter DIPA). As it warms a bit, some nondescript fruitiness comes through with the rye and pine. Delicious beer.

The rye is clearly present in here, but it's not overbearing. The combination of rye, pine, fruit, and the great mouthfeel might make this the best rye beer I've ever had. Saugatuck underwhelmed me at first, but after having Neapolitan and then this, I have to give them some credit for brewing some very nice beers.

4.05/5

Listening to le Led Zeppelin!

 

Dogs and Boats from Beer'd Brewing Co. Citra and Mosaic hopped. Nuff said.

 

GOD DAMN! I love going to Ratdog shows! Have a great time!

 

Awesome steins brah- do you have more of em? I just started my collection I'm at 1 so far lol but it's dope it's a Christmas one -

 

I had One the other day, and had previously bought Too. I got Tres and Fore yesterday. Looking forward to all of them after having One, which I really liked.

 

New Belgian Strong Dark Ale Sunday

Greetings All,
Good to be back after a week off. Average March here with a thankfully slow thaw going on so as to limit spring flooding. First weekend in a very long time that seemed to have just the perfect balance of duties to complete and fun to have. I hope to have more as I launch my final kid this fall and my wife and I can enjoy the opening phase of empty nest. Congrats to those with new family members. We got to babysit our 6 week old grand daughter (and 4 year old grandson) this weekend, which really went quite well. And peace and contentment to those surviving health scares. Joys of life generally revolve around others (and sometimes really flavorful beer).

Today I have one of those. So many established high scoring beers (those with over 1000 reviews) that I still haven't tried. I liked this one, but I thought I might like it more.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/180/1421/?ba=garymuchow

Have a great week everyone.

 

I liked One, but I know they can do better for style, so I hope to try some of the others.

 

I definitely wanted more out of it in terms of flavor but I still enjoyed it.

 

Sunday Taste off: 2 Creamy hoppy ales, neither over hopped. The HopHeadRed 4.0 wins over the Fisherman's IPA - Cape Ann Brewing Company 3.5:

Hop Head Red Ale 4.0
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Hop Head Red Ale - a must try, for APA and Hop heads.

I love Hoppy APAs as well as IPAs. For example: Green Flash and its Red Ale is up there with Dales Pale Ale and Stone Pale Ale.

Amber / Red Ale sweetness balanced by fresh, bitter, flowery, grassy hops. Another coastal hike.
A: Red amber body with creamy sturdy head that laces and lasts.
S: I could use more. It's pine, grapefruit, fresh cut wild grass above toasty malt.
T: Follows smell, but is ample, juicy, balanced, refreshing.
Very clean finish.
MF: Creamy carbonation, medium body, great feel and finish. Leaves you in a great place (wanting another…)
Must try from great brewer. (anybody else a fan of their Rayon Vert? - reviewed last Sunday?)

Fisherman's IPA - Cape Ann Brewing Company 3.55
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Perfectly fine every day IPA. It's actually made under license in Saratoga Springs (as was the east coast version of Red Tail Ale). Cape Ann is not it's origin.
A: pours a hazed dark orange with a dense 2 figure head that produces great lacing. A looker 4
Smell: Weaker aroma, will let it warm. I can see the salt air here, and a long voyage, with caramel malts, floral hops and faint citrus. Not too hoppy, a bit mass produced in aroma? 3.25
Taste: Follows the smell but better, main stage is bready caramel, with very mild floral bitterness, citrus rind, and some creamy tea with honey. Like the finish, creamy. 3.5
Mouthfeel: lightly crisp to start to a medium bodied, creamy finish. Great food beer. Complementary, inviting, and I could drink another - though I'd not seek it out. 3.75
Drinkability: easy drinking, very much an APA, or an intro IPA, or maybe an English IPA. Malty. Good work, solid mid-tier beer.

 

As for every Sunday is new beer day for our hero.. and ho boy what a surprise this was:


Devil's Backbone - 16 Point India Pale Ale by imbibehour, on Flickr

Review:

Poured from the bottle into a Spiegelau Dogfishead IPA glass.

Easily one of the most perfect IPAs I have ever seen. An unbelievably crystal clear body, of shiny gold and orange, literally the perfect hue of orange and lemon yellows. Thin carbonation comes up, not overly excessive, slow at the bottom, faster at the top. It moves like liquid honey in a glass. Head is a perfect three to fingers tall, clumpy off white foamy and large. Not too big, not too small. Goldilocks just right. Basically the perfect looking IPA.

Real interesting nose. Dank aromas at first, and a hint of mushy over ripe fruit. Hints of faint tropical hop notes, papaya mango also. Some woody like character to match. Real varied.

An extremely large and in control IPA. Large almost hop pine and dank aromas, with just the perfect amount of caramel sweetness poking through. Large hints of grapefruit crush on the finish, zesty, oily and long aromatics. Wonderful controlled honey like sweetness that doesn't get too boozy either, and brings out the liquid grapefruit in spades. Large controlled bitterness on the finish, and real lip coating soft sugars.

This is easily the best beer I have had from this brewery to date, they absolutely just nailed this. I am a fan of some of their Scotch ales, and they make some decent lagers, but I was never expecting them to nail this style so well and more importantly so uniquely. But for me they did... already thinking about getting more of this.

Look: 5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Final BA score 4.59

 

Greetings NBSers! Another chilly day but as matt said signs of spring showing up! This week I was at the grocery store and saw this beauty just calling my name. Never had it under the old name so I needed to try it given all the great reviews I have been seeing!

Beautiful color, a deep golden amber almost with not much in a way of head retention.
Great sweetness on the nose. God I love mosaic hops. No hint of alcohol present in the smell, impressive given the 9.4%
The taste on this beer is just absolutely phenomenal. One of my favorite double ipa's I have ever had. I dont want to say its better than Heady but I thoroughly enjoy this beer.
Taste is sweet, hints of berry (have I mentioned I love mosaic hops) a slight bitterness, but balanced with the sweetness of the honey malt. Maybe a tiny tiny hint of alcohol on the back end up of the finish but again it is very well masked.
Truthfully besides Ed Fitz I am not normally one for most of Great Lakes brews. But this was like a giant eye opener that those guys and gals up in Cleveland really are making some dang fine brews. If your an ipa person and haven't had any of this yet, it needs to be at the top of your list. Later I may crack the BCBCS I just picked up so I may be back later with that. Cheers everyone here in NBS!

 

First time posting here and I was holding off to due so until I cracked into this guy.



Hill Farmstead Port Barrel Damon.

This is an interesting brew to say the least.

A) Jet black with a dark brown head that leaves nice lacing.
S) You get the stout, slight roastiness with a bit of booze. Then you get the port.
T) Very similar to the nose. Very smooth and the port is more prominent. I get a bit of sweetness in there too. Going to love to see how this develops as it warms.
M) Smooth with slight carbonation. Fairly viscous but not too thick.
O) First ever HF stout and it is good. Can't wait to try more.

Cheers.

 

Good NBS everyone! I have two new beers today that are also new styles for me! My entire family (except for me) was down and out this week with illness. It was up to me to get everything in order. Mission accomplished and now everyone is doing much better.

This Westbrook Gose is terrific. If you enjoy lemons and salt, I recommend this beer to you. It is very refreshing and I am going to try and convince a WI brewery to brew this style. Make it a great day everyone!

 

Ok, ok... it's a little late for Christmas Ales but this one was in the dollar bin at the bottle store so I had to grab a few. They were still good, and the weather still sucks for the most part so it seemed fitting. It is quite delicious and easy drinking. A bit sweet with honey with nicely balanced spices. I will look for it next year when it's still Christmas Should be out in July or so...

 

Beer #30 from New Glarus. This Dubbel is delicious with notes of Belgian candied sugar, thick caramel, spiced dark fruit and some banana esters. First Dubbel I have ever had and I am a fan. This went down quickly and I think I will take a break.