New Beer Sunday (week 483)

Ok time to haul... I say.. what 2+ years ago.. I said right here, I swear I did.. why don't you brewers all make more of this style. And then fast forward and suddenly... it's all over and everyone is making them... and talking bout em..

It's crazy... it's like they listen to me or something... this is really scarry.

With that we gonna try to ball horn some mo!

Is this the longest name ever for the shortest beer style on the planet? Probably not but ergo

The Kimmie, The Yink & The Holy Gose - Anderson Valley Brewing Company


Anderson Valley - the Kimmie, the Yink and the Holy GOSE ALE by imbibehour, on Flickr

Linked review here or read below between the lines: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/193/99790/?ba=smakawhat

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look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 3 | Final Score: 3.54

Poured from the can into a wheat ale glass. Foam UP! right off the pour, oh yeah let's do this wheat ale buddy, right off the pour.

Into the glass thick giant soapy bleach white head, nice and fist full tall but not out of control. Big swiss cheese retention and slowly falling. Very clear slightly dark brass body, with slow rising numerous carbonation. Serious eye candy she is a looker here.

Lots of briney and salty notes. Minimal wheat sensing grain, but an almost herbal sense of bubblegum aromas. Really impressive kind of odd but in a fun way. Not sure where this is going.

Palate comes off a bit of a disappointment for the most unexpected reason. Lots of fruit apple like tartness and aromas. Nothing off though. Crisp finish and some more apple like fruit just comes out as well. Good carbonation and mouthfeel to go with it, but no chewy sense of wheat here either.

Overall, this tastes ironically way too much like cider. That unfortunately doesn't do it for me, while being ok otherwise, but I would pass this up again on the store isle.

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I am usually quite a fan of A-Valley, love their cream ale, their amber, I love their simple solid line up, but this just so reminded me of drinking bottled cheap cider. Really kind of a letdown, it started off with such a great pour and nose I was sure this was going to be one of the best domestic Goses I ever had. I don't think this was hit by acetaldehyde though regardless. Oh well..

There's always

THE NEXT BEER!!!

Onward!

 

New even more disappointing Michigan sour beer masqueriding as an Imperial Stout Sunday​

After being unimpressed with the Moa beer I had earlier, doing some house cleaning & spending some quality time listening to the dulcet tones of GBV, I decided to bust out my first beer from Michigan, which I expected to be a Belgian-slanted Imperial Stout:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9897/28309/?ba=woemad
It turned out to be a sour, green appleish tasting beer that happened to have enough roasted malt to give it the appearance of a stout. I'm not opposed to sour beers at all, but what I expected was leagues from what I actually had!

Enough of new beers for today. It's off to making dinner and I'll probably be drinking wine from here on out.

 

New Oatmeal Stout Sunday

For my 2nd and last new beer of the day, I had a Rooie Dop Double Oatmeal Stout:





I thought it was a good brew overall, not surprisingly it was a strong version of an oatmeal stout. Here's my review: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28944/82461/?ba=bluejacket74

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!

 

New Smoked Porter Sunday

Greetings NBS,

Looks like another action packed day following Dave's fine intro.

Southern CT offers flat out gorgeous weather today. Last Sunday evening my wife and I welcomed our newest family member into the world, a son named Andy. As you can imagine most of our time has been dedicated to getting he and Mom back up to speed. We did get to spend some QT outdoor time together today and I even escaped for this quick check in.

The chipotle/pepper beers intrigue me so I couldn't resist this from Stone:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/36707/?ba=CHADMC3



And a special thanks to all that serve this fine weekend.

 

Congrats on the new one, and that mother and child sound like they are doing well!

 

New DIPA

It's an awesome holiday weekend in West MI. Blue skies, temps around 80, make for a great day to get outside and enjoy the day. After some work and family fun in the yard, I took the time to enjoy this hefty brew before heading out to a cookout.

Decent, not great. Admittedly, I'm not into really biting hop profiles.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22564/120883/?ba=GRPunk

 

Have seen a lot of fellow ba'ers posting this and I'm a big I.S. fan, so I've been curious...found it today

Gorgeous dark toffee colored head. Sexy
Great roasty, chocolatey nose and flavor.
Lacing sticks around just how you want it to.
Really glad I was able to find and try this. May have to get one for the cellar.

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! A rainy day here in the Fourth Corner, as it usually is for the annual Ski-to-Sea ( http://www.skitosea.com/)race here in Bellingham. I generally avoid the street party near the finish line (too many people, too many douche-bros getting ripped on Red Hook, too many crappy cover bands) but a new brewery was doing an open house in the neighborhood, so I went. Stones Throw is hoping to be open in late August-early September, and doing a bit of "analog kickstarter-ing" today. It's going to be in the garage of the owners house, and after some modifications, they hope to put a 7-bbl system in. I sampled a Pale, IPA, and smoked almond brown today, and all were solid-to-good. In other beer news, Aslan Brewing opened the doors to their pub this week. I'll give 'em a couple weeks to settle in and then go try their food.Their brews have been in local bars for a bit over a month now.

My first new brew is a pretty nice Tripel from PDX: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16353/110140/?ba=beertunes . As long as I was down in Fair Haven, I went to the finish line beer garden (a different experience from the above mentioned shit-show), and had a S2S ESB from Boundary Bay. I mention this because, if you pay attention to the following video, you'll get a quick glimpse of my meaty paws helping with the canning process:

As if that isn't enough linkage for you, and assuming y'all like awesome guitar players, here's this:

 

Happy Sunday everyone! Pretty hot down here, as the humidity is seemingly relentless. Thank the lord for AC and pools...and cold beer. Today's first new beer comes to me from Japan. A nice porter, Tokyo Black was light bodied for the style but still enjoyable:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3553/27506/?ba=Mikecap

Definitely a nice beer, but not worth the $5 I paid for a single can...hate when bottle shops don't list prices.

I also tried a Flying Fish Extra Pale Ale. No review, but it was pretty meh to me. Not much bitterness or citrusy tons I'd expect from the style. I suppose the "extra" in the name made me think it'd be more American IPA, but to me, it tasted more English Bitter or Pale Ale. Oh well, on to the next beer!

Cheers to all!

 

Greetings, everybody! What a perfect day we had; I just got home from visiting friends at their apartment complex's pool. Between the incredible weather, good food, fun conversation and all-around great spirits, time just seemed to fly on by.

Tonight I'm starting (yes, I said starting, because I'm not counting those Corona Lights from earlier , even though they seemed to do the job at the time) with what I had hoped would be a nice American-brewed Dunkel-


Two Brothers Polar Vortex

My sister gave this to me because she knew I was looking for the Sly Fox Dunkel the last time I was at her place in PA. As it turns out, that's actually a seasonal, so I have to wait for that one again.

This one, unfortunately, is about par for the course when it comes to domestic takes on clasic German styles- overly caramelized and under-attenuated. There are some nice hints of figs and nuts if you look deep enough for them, as well as a slightly toasty finish; and if you handed it to me and said it was a 'Scottish Ale' I'd give you no argument. And that's the frame of mind I'm using to knock the rest of it back. But, ultimately, it's a disappointment- I wasn't expecting something along the lines of Ayinger Altbairisch, but something in the ballpark would have been nice.

 

Stone Collective Distortion IPA

Typical double IPA appearance (golden amber) with a sticky lacing and minimal head retention. It has sort of a muted nose, but you can tell there have been berries and spices used. The elderberries are very delicate and the coriander gives just the slightest touch of spice. Well hopped! Mouth feel gives you a dry bitterness and a finish that lingers for 45+ secs or more. Overall, after reading the reviews, I can't understand why people are knocking on this more than liking thisI Very enjoyable! 4.2

 

Up next is a beer that is helping me understand the rabid fanboys the brewery has: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1304/118581/?ba=beertunes

 

Mm, I guess it's my turn to say . . . New Belgian IPA Sunday? (Not "New Belgium," but actually new Belgian IPA.)

Brewery Vivant Triomphe was in my glass up until just a few minutes ago. It was some pretty tasty junk, too, I must say:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24678/65517/?ba=fmccormi
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3.94/5 rDev +4%
look: 2.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Straight pour from a 16oz can to a teku; no canning or freshness date visible, but I picked this up direct at the brewery about a week and a half ago. Oughta be plenty fresh.

Appearance (2.75): This pours with about two fingers of cream-colored foam capping a rich amber-colored body with deep orange highlights. It’s nearly perfectly clear. The head doesn’t stick around all that long, but retains a nice collar on the surface throughout. As it dies off, it leaves just small amounts of very thin splotches here and there. The initial pour is great, but the lacing is very much lacking.

Smell (4.0): A moderate amount of nice hop aroma is clear right out of the gate, with some piney and citrusy, sweet orange scents. Malt and yeast esters meld nicely, blending nutty, toasted bread with a little toffee, herbal spice, and mellow stone fruits.

Taste (4.0): A bit more bombastic than the nose, the flavor is immediately dominated by tangy limeade, followed by herbal spice and grassy bitterness. Underneath all of this, there’s warm spice, biscuits and rustic multi-grain bread, straw, starchy plantains, apples, and small amounts of clove, pepper, and coriander. Some slightly medicinal phenols and herbal bitterness blend to characterize the finish, which offers a lasting bitterness shifting from grapefruit zest to grassy hops. No booze present; the boundary between the yeast character and the malt and hops (in turn, not in tandem) is seamless.

Mouthfeel (4.0): The beer’s got a medium-weight body borne on a soft, easily foaming and only lightly tingling carbonation that fills space quickly but not fully. In other words, its feel matches the size and richness of the palate. It finishes nicely dry, asking for more.

Overall (4.0): This is interesting to me because it kiiind of breaks the mold(s) of other “Belgian IPAs”. Most are some combination of American IPA with nominally Belgian yeast, legit but over-hopped saison, or hoppy tripel/BSPA. This is more like an amber-ish Belgian pale ale with a moderate but well-placed load of mixed American and classic noble hops. That’s how it comes off to me, anyway. That said, it’s not phenomenal by any means—just solid to very solid in almost every way (though I am a sucker for lacing). Definitely worth trying if you’re into the “Belgian IPA” thing.

Serving type: can
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Basically, in my eyes most Belgian IPAs I've had more or less fall under the following categories:

1. American IPA that incorporates some nominally "Belgian" yeast strain that produces way too much bubblegum, banana, and clove esters. It's usually a gimmick and not well-executed, with its different parts not meshing very well.
   
2. Classically-styled saison with a large dose of bittering and flavor hops, but the alpha acids and yeast phenols don't seem to play nicely together in a lot of these examples. I dunno, it just doesn't come out as nicely as it seems like it could.
   
3. Tripel/BSPA with moderate bittering and large amounts of aroma hops, which seems like it should be a big flop but evidently can be pulled off beautifully. Usually my favorite Belgian IPAs fall under this category, like Houblon Chouffe and GF Le Freak.
4. Brett/wild IPA. Anchorage Bitter Monk, Evil Twin Femme Fatale (especially Yuzu), etc., enough said. When done right, these are downright transcendental like fucking Walden.

This beer, however, feels like an organic iteration of the style, more or less seamlessly blending moderate bittering and flavor hops with an authentic, amber-bodied Belgian Pale. Maybe like a lighter, unspiced Rare Vos with fruity American-type and continental-type noble hops.

From what I've had from them so far, Brewery Vivant has a lot of potential, and is making some solid brews. But they might just be able to explode some brains in the future. Let's wait and see . . . :-)

 

It's because people get weirded out by coloring outside the lines. Remember Stone's 16th Anny DIPA? The one with rye and lemon verbena? That beer was fucking outstanding, but the adjuncts got some people's undies in a wad. Meh, oh well.

This beer sounds great to me, man.

 

You guys didn't think i'd miss NBS, did you?

The week was pretty good weather-wise in the ol' Seattle metropolitan area. As usual though, in comes the weekend and the weather changes to gloomy and rainy, oh well. It was a great week beer-wise, got a couple of fantastic boxes through trades and got myself 2 Stickee Monkees at a local shop. There was another beer that i'd been hunting and it wasn't until today that I casually walk into one of my regular stores and see a clerk with one of those "fresh off the truck" carts - so I casually ask him "you don't happen to have Hoptimum in there do you?" and he says - "actually I do, we got some 4 packs in today - do you want one?". Of course I immediately grabbed one and left the store thinking "it came! it came!".

My brain is fried after a day weathering the rain at a festival and then shoe shopping with the wife - so my review will be short and sweet.

Poured from bottle into Stone IPA glass, color is a beautiful golden orange and forms a huge snowy white head that makes you want to take a bite!

Smells of fresh pine, citrus, cannabis and fruit (peaches and pineapple). The taste is quite citrusy with notes of tropical fruit (some faint coconut?!?) and a typical DIPA bitter finish - the kind of finish you enjoy and makes you want more. Right before the bitter finish kicks in though, there's a sweet honey-like presence that connects the fruit and the bitterness quite well.

Mouthfeel - pretty good consistency on the beer, light carbonation - feels right, enjoyable.
Overall - I am very happy I got this and will definitely enjoy the rest of the 4 pack myself

Cheers BA - here's to all the veterans, armed forces and everyone who puts their life in danger in the service of others. Thank you!

 

Its New Gose Sunday for me!

AVBC Kimmie Yank GoSE. Really liked it. Tart, sour, slightly brined. Grabbed another 6er today because the stores are closed tomorrow

 

It's Nighttime, also it's rather late in the evening and I'm drinking good beer watching goofy movies and heading off any minor disasters caused by my 4 year old daughter having her best friend spend the night for the very first time. So while they are finally falling asleep (hopefully) and watching Frozen for the 3rd time tonight I'm enjoying this beauty.

As some may know I am big fan of porters and stouts and I have to say that I have had a few where the roasted maltiness (is that a word?) did not follow through half so well as what this shows. A bit of sweetness and a bit of wood remind me of sucking on sugar cane at a Jamaican restaurant not too long ago, while the hops and smoke bring in the finish with a very clean presence. Neither overpowering the other but a beautiful balance that I have not heretofore had the pleasure of enjoying.

 

Yesterday was a long day spent in Vermont in which I drank full pours or tasters of at least twenty new beers all the while avoiding Waterbury and not waiting in a single line. Interestingly enough I was near sober throughout it all.

Today in the adirondacks I ticked a single new beer but as I write this I'm legitamitely buzzed. One new beer but a lot of Vermont classics too. Today's newbie was the Amager/grassroots collab "black nitro," which I picked up at beverage warehouse in winooski. I have to admit Shaun Hill's name on the bottle was a deciding factor in my purchase .

This was a rather straightforward black ipa, med-full bodied and creamy with an impressive head. Assertively roasty and bitter with a strongly piney hop profile. Mouthfeel really stood out but ultimately this kind of wore out it's welcome by the end of the 500ml bottle- just too much acrid bitterness after a while, rendering this a little bit of a chore to drink .

 

New APA Sunday


Pouring ~15oz resulted in a head that rose an inch over the rim, but if you've used this glass you know that isn't very hard to do. Nose is complex and full of floral and subtle fruitiness. Taste is similarly complex; l I can never put my thumb on El Dorado. Cherry candy, a little bubblegum. Then some caramel malts, and finally the clean hoppy finish. Highly attenuated. Not too bitter at 6.6% and 30 IBU.

This ones a winner for me. Very easy-drinking yet very flavorful. If 4 Hands continues their plan to start canning all seasonals, I see myself drinking a lot of this stuff next summer at $10/6. Cheers NBS

 

14 Hands Winery