New Beer Sunday (week 505)

Happy sunday everyone! So for my first New Beer Sunday post I figured I'd better attempt to review something special. This amazing beer was sent to me by @Roguer along with some great extras...he's the man!

Alright, I usually don't write down a review because of my weak beer vocabulary, but I'll give it a shot.
This beer is crazy dark and poured very thick with a small tan head. On the nose I'm getting loads of Kona Coffee with a hint of chocolate in there as well. As for the taste, its just incredible! Roasted chocolate and coffee flavor that go together perfectly. It's spicy and sweet at the same time with more sweet coming through in the after taste. The feel of the beer is thick and creamy and really makes me want to accompany this with some bacon and eggs. Overall incredible beer and I can't wait to go thru the other three that I have left.

Cheers BA's!

 

That label is awesome. Although I enjoy pumpkin ales, I have not cared much for the porters/stouts that I have had. I thought Red Hook porter was decent, but did not like Warlock. I will give this one a try if I see it though (for the bottle if nothing else). oddly, I have not seen Elysian stuff around this year, and I know we get distro. Was hoping to revisit Night Owl too.

 

It's been a nice week around here, beautiful weather for this time of year, almost 80 degrees yesterday. My Aspens still have some green leaves on the trees! Anyway, my son got a new pair of skis yesterday- obviously he's pretty jazzed about them!

What the cool kids will be skiing on this year!
And for today's NBS:
Beer Camp Electric Ray

I forgot I had one more Beer Camp Across America pack, finally cracked it open this past week. First time drinking Electric Ray, a collab IPL between Sierra Nevada and Balllast Point. The beer is an orangish copper color, not quite clear with one finger of fluffy eggshell colored head. Very nice retention and lacing. Aroma is somewhat muted, which is not surprising considering it's age. I do get some faint bready notes, along with a whiff of citrus. The taste is pretty malty up front, but I get some nice grapefruit and slight pineapple in the finish. The mouthfeel was pretty light, with just a touch of carbonation. Overall, this was a dang good beer considering it is probably well past it's prime. Sadly, I didn't get to taste one of these fresh (shared the other Beer Camp boxes), I'm thinking it was pretty good when fresh.

Not really "new" beer, kinda old actually, but new to me. Prost BA's!

 

This is a beer I really want to try and your quality review has only added to the desire! Spicy, chocolate, coffee! It all sounds amazing!!

I'm glad I just found a site in the UK that delivers FBS so I shall be wrapping my gums round it very soon!!

 

Thanks! It's very nice to be here, everyone has been very welcoming and I love hearing about the great beers you guys are trying! Sad to say but American beers are not well represented in UK stores thank God for the internet though!

Enjoy the BBA you have stashed away I can't wait to hear your review!

 

New American IPA Sunday

Hello all!

Lovely weather this weekend in the Milwaukee area! I can't believe that in about a week and a half I will have been in Wisconsin for a whole year. Time flies! I'm still trying out "new" Wisconsin beers. There are many, many!

Today's selection was from Three Sheeps - Really Cool Waterslides. I drank three already, and the others will be gone by nighttime, for sure.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28879/87217/

Cheers!

 

OK, these aren't new beers for me, but I am tasting them in a new way. Don't disqualify me!

It's a blind taste-off!


I'm pretty familiar with both of these beers, and I think they are definitely aiming for different compositions.

But how easy is it to distinguish them without knowing which is which? And what will I like better?


Hmmm.



OK, I have my suspicious.

One opens with a pretty clear—although subdued—citrus, and then ventures towards earthiness, introducing a touch of bread toward the end and finishes cleanly. The body is pretty light.

The other immediately offers—how else to describe it?—the 'torpedo' aroma. A little bit of medicinal, herb-y bitterness, and then bread! bready malt, a little bit of sweet citrus, but mostly persistent bitterness and malt. It's more hefty, and it lingers.


Here's my guess; feeling pretty confident, and now that the yeast is settling a bit, there are other visual cues.


Yep!

Both are well done, but in the end I find I actually prefer the Lagunitas IPA. I'd thought Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale might be more well-rounded, and I'd remembered the 'The Lagunitas Brewing Company' beers as being a bit one-note, even if it that was one delicious note. But tasting them this way really brought me to notice a lot of beguiling quality to the hoppiness that just makes it really enjoyable—much more complexity than I'd expected from a non-imperial/double (or even than I get from some imperial/doubles!).

 

Enjoyed it greatly Rog! Easily one of the top 5 stouts that I've ever had, and after trying a few more of them it might become a contender for my favorite stout. Now onto some more of your pack with a Mass Rising.

Its a real clean and crisp DIPL, one of the few beers I've had of this style. Pours out a fluffy and enormous head with a light golden color. Hint of lemon/orange on the nose. Taste is citrusy and piney but its light and easy to drink. Definitely some bitterness that comes through on the after-taste which makes it remind me more of an IPA than a Lager. Great beer! Would be perfect for some BBQ'ing or a quality beer to drink on a hot day. Thanks brutha!

¡Salud!

 

Happy NBS Sunday BA. My new beer for the day is another local fresh hop ale. Port Jefferson Fresh Hop ale. Again, cool concept with the use of local fresh hops. This one features, Cascade, nugget, and Chinook.

Amber, cloudy pour with subtle hops on the nose but I found it to be mostly absent. Earthy and bitter initial taste. Some floral notes but again the hops really don't shine enough for me. More earth on the finish and malty. I'm not overly impressed with it at all. BA lists the fresh hop ale as retired but this was just released and is marked as bottle #475 (Not sure how many they bottled). Overall a very average pale ale that I would put in the low 3's.

 

Hi Friends! I have to admit that I am a newbie to NBS, I usually reside only in WBAYDN (and as such this is a cross-post in that thread)...but @utopiajane does such a nice intro that I feel compelled to share my beer du jour.

I have long been a fan of Hill Farmstead IPA's, finding them to be big and resinous and right in my wheelhouse. Legitimacy is from their Grassroots label, procured from the source this past Wednesday. As soon as we popped the growler lid we were assaulted with that amazing piney and fruity hop scent, it almost lingers in the air. They say this beer is hopped copiously with Simcoe hops, and I definitely get that, but I taste Citra and Galaxy as well. It has such a creamy mouthfeel, starting with tropical fruits and finishing juicy and resinous. We had a 2L growler but I can only drink one glass today, it has a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Overall, I'd give it a 4.25/5. An amazing Sunday for sure!

...did I do this right? I didn't write a formal review so I can't link it here, I hope that's ok

 

Absolutely picturesque fall day here in NJ. It's been a weekend full of family visiting and the trend continues today. Just took a walk around the block and it reminded me all of the reasons I love this time of year. Leaves turning color and falling, the smell of fireplaces burning, and a chill in the air.

I had been looking for this beer for several weeks now but was unlucky in my searches. I took a trip to the store yesterday to pick up a few bottles of wine and there it was on the shelves when I was least looking for it.

Great off-white head on this beer and a murky amber color. The aroma is more subtle than I was expecting for a beer of this strength but plenty of banana and clove. Great flavor that falls somewhere between a hefeweizen and a dunkelweizen with a medium to full body. Very drinkable as the alcohol is well hidden.



Great beer from Victory here. One that would be enjoyable all year round but is just perfect for today. Cheers BA.

 

Hi Jane and all other fine Advocates. I'm drinkin a Java stout, from the Santa Fe brewing company out of New Mexico. Poured from a 12 oz can into a tulip. Dark wit a head that lasts forever. Nice coffee aroma. Nice stout aroma. A very fine beer. Is it FBS? Dunno. But it is very good and has a superb balance. Good stout.

 

New Barley Wine I Can't Pronounce Sunday

Cheers NBS friends! Enjoying the nice warm weather here while waiting for the leaves to fall off my tree, but she is a late one. Just now changing colors. Which kind of sucks, because I could be putting Christmas lights on it in shorts and a t shirt. Hit a few small local breweries the other night. Visited one just because I saw they got a new crawler canning machine. Honestly, every brewery should do this. Not as much of a timetable to consume you fresh purchase, plus super easy to ship to all my new friends around the country. As usual, very friendly people at each stop. Here is the 32 oz ass kicking can. Dear Columbus Brewing, pleeeeeaaasse get one of these for Bodhi. I also had a couple of new beers of interest this week. Founders Dark Penance and Sierra Nevada Flipside. Both were very good, but I was disappointed by the Dark Penance. It was very unbalanced to me. If you were expecting it to be on the IPA side, you will be happy. I thing it is going to be a pretty divisive beer. Scores seem to reflect it. I was looking for Lagunitas Nighttime or Deschutes Hop in the Dark in 4 packs.Here is a bonus review
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/127483/?ba=WesMantooth


Homestead Brewing. About 5 minutes from my in-laws and on the same old Air Force base where my wife and I had our wedding reception.

They had an IPL that was a Vienna style. Excellent beer. Still not sure where to add it in data base if anyone has a suggestion. I posted a thread about it the other night that got moved to the "help" forum, where it will never be seen by anyone.
Also found out this week that the Jackie O's beer I have been waiting for is finally ready. It spent 14 months in Willet barrels

…which leads me to this weeks brew

I grabbed this one due to Peache Mortel. It was $5 for the bottle. This is an interesting beer. I did not know it was an American style (according to BA listing at least) until I looked it up. I already had some scoring ideas in mind, but I was expecting an English style. You don't really notice any hop presence until you taste it. That being said, it seems to me that it falls somewhere in the middle. I started reading some reviews and @StonedTrippin mentioned the same thing. "right between the english and american styles, how Canadian" Funny. On one hand, I think I would score it better as an English style (my preference), which I think it more closely resembles overall. On the other, it is not bad at all for an American style. I kind of split the difference as it seemed appropriate. This is something that Bigfoot lovers would probably enjoy fresh, and Sucaba people would sit on for a little bit. Excellent either way.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1141/14735/?ba=WesMantooth
I broke in my new Dogfish Head snifter with this one. Speaking of, I leave you with this pic they posted on Twitter

Fontana (Brian?) Fredda cellars in Italy

Edit: I guess I could have read the label...

 

New Sweet Nutty Stout Sunday

It's a wonderfully sunny 85 degree day here in central AR and I'm loving it. Watched a little early morning football, and then proceeded to mow the yard for the (hopefully) last time this year. I can't not take advantage of the unseasonable weather, so time for a smoke and a new stout courtesy of @SS114



This is my first taste of Jackie O's and I can see what all the fuss is about. It's not as heavy on the walnut as I expected, but it's also a lot sweeter than I expected. It's holding up well to the strong nutty/woody cigar I paired it with. Have a great Sunday everyone!