New Beer Sunday (week 512)

Greetings fellow NBSers! I'll be back later with my usual nonsense, but I'd like to expand a bit on the BIF cavedave mentioned above. First, a BIF is a "Beer It Forward". Basically we each send a box of beer to someone, and someone else sends us a box. There is a BIF forum in the Trading section, feel free to take a look over there to get a better idea of how these things frequently work.

Ours is going to be a bit different, for several reasons. 1 is that the whole BIF will be kept within the NBS thread, instead of doing a separate thread in the BIF forum. The reasons for this are the facts that we mostly already "know"each other, I want to keep this first one on the small side to see how it works, and to encourage folks who haven't traded before to participate. The fact that we'll all be watching should help reduce any anxiety someone may have about sending things to strangers. Reason 2 is that NBS is our little weekly hangout session, and this is an opportunity to help each other try some New To Us brews. 3rd reason is, I've never even participated in a BIF, and now I find myself hosting one, and I'm hoping y'all will be gentle on me when I make mistakes.

OK, here's how it will work:
*If you're interested in participating, "like" this post. That'll give me an idea of the interest level.
*Which brings us to the number of participants. Since this is the first one I've done, I want to keep it to a number I feel comfortable with. I have a number in mind, but I'll wait to see where the interest level is before making a decision.
*If there is more interest than I feel comfortable handling, I will cap the BIF, and some of those interested won't get in. Please, do not take it personally if you're not chosen. I want everyone who wants in, to get in. I enjoy seeing every one of you each week, and I'm sorry that I can't get you all in.
*Basically, everyone will be shipping 66-ish ounces of beer to your "target". Since this is NBS, you will have to look at your targets profile, find beers that you can get that your target hasn't had, and ship the beer off.
*Once I have the group set, I'll send a group BM with details, and a personal BM with your targets name.

Everybody got the basics? Feel free to reply to this post with any questions.

 

Gloomy day in S. WI, so I will enjoy a beer or two and watch the Packer game.

Let me start off by stating Santa's Workshop is not a true porter. During the brewing process a batch of Standing Stones Scotch ale was oxidized. A mash of dark malts was added to the already fermented Scotch ale along with vanilla extract to create this beer.

The aroma of prominent vanilla along with the roasted malts. It does remind me a bit of what a scotch ale would smell like. The flavor is rather malty, but not sweet. I pick up hints of the smokey scotch ale and it is very easy to know that vanilla extract was used to flavor. The flavor is good, yet simple and no flavor overpowers. I do not find any of the typical porter notes of coffee or cola in this beer.

It was an interesting experiment, the taste was fine, but it was not a porter. Make it a great NBS!

 

Great idea beertunes and cavedave- I'm definitely in, and looking forward to it!

 

Greetings Pale Ale Adventers and you angelic hosts of hops, it’s time for another verbose and mellifluous review by your up-and-coming cicerone, John. It’s bleak and overcast here in NWNJ, though there’s a nasty rumor going around that I’ll be traveling up to Angry Erik’s Brewing in the middle of the afternoon. You can envy me, starting now.

Today’s docket: Newburgh’s Cream Ale

Poured from a pint can with vigor into a Stibinger Bros. Brewing Company Pint Glass.

Sight: A clear golden straw brew with a stark white head. The beer lets out casual bubbles from the bottom of the glass. Once the head settles down, a nice soapy, thin cap rests on top. We’ll call this one about 5 SRM. Lacing forms in gentle rings down the glass; upset only when I take another swig.

Smell: I get a bit of spicy and floral hops plus a twinge of crackery-bready delight. Simple and clean aroma.

Taste: Crisp cracker and piney hops play a duet in my mouth. There is not a huge amount going on with the taste, but I admire beauty in simplicity. Upon further reflection, one might detect a little twang from the ?wheat? the brewery used to provide a little lift on the palate, but more on that in a moment.

Feel: Soft, fluffy, smooth. Good carbonation- that among the elements of its taste keeps one going back for more. Couple this with the moderate abv (4.2%) and taking down two pints of this is an absolute pleasure, not to mention a piece of cake.

Overall: Hats off to you, Newburgh. I feel fortunate to try what is now my favorite beer of this style. Keep up the good work.

An obvious choice to pair with cream ale… I give you the super-trio…

 

Today is the day of Whitewater. The Brewery in the Mountains of Mourne...

This range is on special in my local supermarket... yum

first up is Copperhead a fine English Pale Ale

3.91/5 rDev +10.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Appearance - Good pale golden amber colouration appropriate amount of foaming head that has sticky lace.

Smell - Good malt sweetness of light caramel and prune but this is then balanced by good hop aroma that seems to promise decent hop punch in the taste.

Taste - The hinted hop punch comes out swinging here and, as in the smell, balances well with the malt sweetness.

MF - Full and creamy this beer has a drying finish and ample linger.

Overall - A really rather pleasing EPA with good flavour and balance. Not massively complex in terms of its flavour but then again it is not really meant to be.

So I recommend this one for a try but it is not a beer I go out of may way to drink...

Enjoy.... Guid Forder

 

I'm cautiously in - got lots of financial things exploding in my face now and for the next couple of months, so can't promise any whales - but it sounds like fun.

 

Second for tonight...

Hoppelhammer a beer BA would have you believe is retired but down my way it is very much alive and kicking...

4.33/5 rDev +17.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Appearance - An almost tea like colouration similar to Darjeeling or Ceylon with a thick foam head that has very good retention and leaves a nice amount of sticky lace in the glass!

Smell - Toffee and biscuit almost like sticky toffee pudding some floral and leafy tones similar to cherry blossom. then there is a wonderful hit of dark chocolate!

Taste - An amazing sweet and bitter balance between the malt and the hops. Lots of woody elements and floral leafy flavour punchy bitter dark chocolate notes all balanced with the toffee pudding character. A wonderful balance.

MF - Creamy with a bitter dry end and very very good linger.

Overall - Another winner from the brewery in the mountains that sweep down to the sea. Great balance and complex flavour. The notes here say it retired, but where I come from this bad boy is alive and kicking so Drink up BAs!

So This one I like very much and would say to you all if you come across this makes its acquaintance!!

Now a very good tune which I and my new born son love... guess which one loves which version...


Happy NBS all...
Guid Forder

 

This is something I'm going to address in detail in the group BeerMail, but the general idea is to send locals, so that your target has new brews to enter on NBS. And I'm probably going to be using geography as one the major points in deciding who gets who as a target, making it easier to find stuff other NBSers haven't had. So, don't worry about finding walezbro. If someone wants to send walez, fine, just remember that the point of NBS is to try beers that are New To You. Sending local shelf beers seems an easy, and relatively inexpensive, way to help each other out.

 

Cheers everyone and Happy New Beer Sunday. I have to say I am very pleased with the wintry weather we have had lately here in upstate new york. It's snowy but not terribly cold. So peaceful. Thought it would be a good day to open this beer. Southern Tier Rum Barrel Aged Pumking. I am not crazy about it. I think it's a bit too sweet and loses some of it's natural exuberance from an obvious lack of carbonation.

Meh



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3818/144099/?ba=utopiajane

 

Decided to give a Pilsner a try for once. Pretty expensive for the six but really what I am craving right now (its been unseasonably warm in Indiana).

Appearance - Beautiful really, my picture didn't do it justice. Clear as a bell, with light carbonation a decent head that went away pretty quick-I pour pretty easy.

Smell - Light biscuity malts, decent noble hop presence, and some grassiness. It smells really good and I almost get some sweetness.

Taste - Rocks my world, pure and simple. It's so clean it almost forms a taste on its own. Opens up with the noble hops that just make a light impression on the tongue. Gives way to a wheaty taste before dropping out with an almost mineral water taste.

Verdict - This a world class beer pure and simple. One of the best beers I have had, and I would rank it up with belgiums and double IPA's any day of the week. It is also nice that I can have one at 5.2% and still do something with the rest of the day. You get a lot of flavor for that low of an ABV.

 

I haven't been this anxious to try a new beer in a while. After reading the reviews, my expectations were high, yet at the same time I am not a fan of the American Strong Ale. Enter: Brown Shugga'

An excellent deep copper body shoes off slowly rising bubbles under a foamy cream topper. The aromatics are super spicy and laced with cedar and brown sugar. Some piny hops are found as well. All of a sudden, the American Strong Ale isn't so intimidating.

The tongue is met with cedar, cinnamon, brown sugar, and pine in the finish. Quite frankly, it's delicuous. It's one of those great beers that has a lot going on under the surface. And it's a great beer for December, in my opinion.

This is a very Lagunitas beer -- you recognize the aroma and taste patterns in their other brews. That's not a knock on them because it's all good. And the price -- $9.99 for a sixer of Brown Shugga' ... I think Rogue have a lesson or two to learn from brewers like this. Excellent beer. Oh, and the 9.9% feels like 4% so good luck with that. Damn.

Okay, time to go watch the Chiefs continue their spiral into chaos as they will lose to the Raiders ..?

 

Truffle v Butternut Squash v Pumpkin - New Beer [sunday] of 2014

Having tried two new fall releases from Carton, I wanted to share my reviews on Pumpkin beers.
Gilded Lily may be my beer of 2014. Limited release...

Carton Gilded Lily < 2014 new release
4.64/5 rDev -3.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75
Enjoyed this first release at the TEDxNavesink holiday party.
A: Creamy head, lasting lace, pale Tripel body.
S: Truffle aroma is prominent and at the right level. Melded with the classic Beligian esters and yeast and grass of a Tripel. ABV is well hidden.
T: As a reviewer wrote "Gourmet Beer", I agree. This beer should accompany James Beard event or win an award. The fecund, fertile, perfume of white truffles is a perfect accompaniment of beer. It proves beer's versatility to be a canvas on which to play.
F: Creamy, right-noted. Long finish. Invites more, but definitely a meditation beer and sipper.
Cant wait to try it again. Let it warm.

Carton Rav < 2014 new release
4.08/5 rDev +7.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
This is work in progress, or I think it might earn a higher rating.
Move over pumpkin ale, make way for butternut squash, which if you think about it, or taste it, may be a better gourd match for beer. But Rav doesnt stop there, it goes on to add fennel, sage, butter, and crushed biscotti - all local. All cuisine inspired.
A When she sticks more lace she's gonna go 4+, but for now the highlight is the COLOR which is more golden amber like the flesh of a butternut squash.
S while hard to pick out all the ingredients from the cupboard in the smell, they definitely contribute and are fun to pick out on the tongue. Still solid malt base spread with butter nut squash butter.
T: Follows the smell but offers more! A great sweet - to - pepper arc. Appetizing. If you focus you can detect the sage and fennel, not at all cloying. yet sweet. The right balance for a fruit beer.
MF: still a bit thin, but great finish.
Look forward to seeing Rav 6 graduate into production. I'd take this over most any pumpkin ale.

Pumpkin Ale reviews:

ABV My rate
Night Owl Pumpkin Ale 5.9 4.2
Elysian Brewing Company
Pumpkin Ale
Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale 5.84 4
Smuttynose Brewing Company
Pumpkin Ale
Hipp-O-Lantern 8.1 3.7
River Horse Brewing Co.
Pumpkin Ale
UFO Pumpkin 5.9 3.7
Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall
Pumpkin Ale
Post Road Pumpkin Ale 5 3.7
Brooklyn Brewery
Pumpkin Ale
New Holland Brewing Company 5 3.7
Punkin Ale
Dogfish Head 7 3.7
Triumph Brewing Company
Pumpkin Ale
Imperial Pumpkin Ale 8 3.5
Weyerbacher Brewing Co.
Pumpkin Ale
Wolaver's (Organic) Pumpkin Ale 5.35 3.2
Otter Creek Brewing / Wolaver's
Pumpkin Ale
Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale 5.7 3.2
Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams)
Pumpkin Ale

 

Hey what's going on!

What a week.. It was my birthday a few days ago, and there was an insane amount of great food and drink the past days. It's always like this around the holidays, too many parties, too many events, too much food. Cookies and stuff left at the galley at work, restaurants to dive into... so good.. and so feeling fat

Put up some more outdoor lights, and was up in Baltimore yesterday at a fantastic place for dinner too. Getting burned out on stouts for the winter... luckily been able to mix it up with just some solid pale ales of late to bounce around. Trying to plan a Christmas food shopping list, and it's going to be intense...

So what is new for our hero today? Cause every day is like a new beer day!! Just like Saturday!

Lot's of interest I hear about this animal... lots of Maryland talk about it.... Was up in Baltimore, hit a shop and there it was... of course easily found being only 5 minutes from the brewery itself... so does this deliver?????

Double Duckpin - Union Craft Brewing Company


Union Craft Brewing - Double Duckpin Double IPA by imbibehour, on Flickr

Review ramblings here, or just read below! http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29377/103875/?ba=smakawhat

----------------------------------

Poured from the can into a Spiegelau IPA glass.

Classic orange amber body, with a real creamy forming head. Manages to glide up at four solid fingers with a soupy and wet looking appearance. Off tan, to bone white and color, with good staying power. The body color manages a mix of clarity and opaqueness to it, with a classic amber orange and small rising carbonation.

Very nice hop and subtle aroma. Hints of juiced tropical fruit and a caramel malt that hangs in the balance. Soft tea and orange with a mix of juiced herbality as well. Extremely varied with a lot of ccomplexityit seems, but not a giant bomb either. Very nice.

Big juiced body on first sip. Some interesting prickly and unexpected carbonation that really brings out the bitterness. Stinging needles a little bit on the tongue, but with a juiced tropical front that coats with a slick malt and butterscotch like coating. Lots of airy pine and spruce like finish on the aftertaste. Resiny and oily coating quite a bit throughout the palate, with a sweet honey lip smacking coating. Very well masked abv for drinking, seems like you could pound these.

A fun solid DIPA, it sort of reminds of Bootleggers Knuckle Sandwich particularly the sweet angle on the malt used with the hops, but not as aggressive. Fun DIPA, but not a hop heads beer, unless you like subtlety and complexity and taking your time.

final verdict....

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25 | Final score: 4.26

---------------------------------------------------------------

A good fun brew, one that will make beer geeks happy, and may even draw in some other regular beer fans as well.

 

Great good morning and early afternoon,
Today is one of those crystalline days that offers no clouds. Pure deep blue and warming after a week of wind and cool/cold that the sun seems to solve nicely. Today we took a long walk with the hounds and we're all ready to rest a bit and watch some football, or maybe an old movie!
The Pisgah Valdez is a coffee stout canned on Tuesday and it is amazing. Big rich multi-layered malt with aromatics that taunt you way before the first sip. This is like a cup of excellent coffee that just happens to be an excellent beer. Extremely smooth, beyond easy to drink, and at 6.2% carries more weight than one may suppose. This is a first class stout that needs no barrel in any way.
A little bluegrass for the great mountain beer. Cheers all!

 

Good Sunday to you all, after a week of battling snow in northern VT at work,
I am happy to be in WMass on this fine day, the annual fresh cut tree is in the living room
warming up and now to share a little New Sunday Stout.
It comes from our friends at Cambridge Brewing Co, Will Meyers and Co have a delightful Stout
that should be sought out for sure. Enjoy your Sunday!
Cheers everyone.

YouEnjoyMyStout
Cambridge Brewing Company
Russian Imperial Stout / 10.00% ABV

4.05/5 rDev: -5.2% | rAvg: 4.27
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a bottle into a Hill Farmstead tulip.
A - Dark matter here, neutrinos are the particles getting through. Delicate carbonation
leaves a gentle ring of fine lace around the glass.
S - 75% cocoa, light vanilla, toffee, dark fruits , some mint and a whiff of bourbon. The smells are so delicate and precise, the efforts of the brewers shine on this element.
T - A true delight, not hot with alcohol, but present, the roast of the malts are displayed quite well. There is some sweetness that carries through and leads into the bourbon finish.
F - Not large bodied, by no means thin. Starts with that coating from a fine stout, gently traipsing across the palate, lead by sweetness, pushed along with gentle carbonation, leaves with a warm bourbon finale.
O - What a true delight, pitch perfect in form and flavor. The bourbon notes do not weigh
this beer down. The malt bill and gentle hop use only enhance the whole experience. As the name suggests you will relish not just enjoy this stout.

Cheers all

 

As an addendum, in case anyone wants to participate but has serious hang-ups about getting left in the lurch, I'll offer to anyone (1 person) that gets shafted by their sender that I'll make it right.

I know none of you know me, but I'm pretty invested in the BIF concept, and I don't want anyone to sit out because they're worried they won't get anything in return, or to end up with a negative opinion of the concept because they took a chance and got screwed.

I've been considering joining the NBS group, but in case I don't start spending time with you folks, I'll ask that anyone who is left without beer, or @beertunes on their behalf, BM me in the off chance someone needs to take me up on my offer.


And by the way, though I hope this doesn't need to be said; this is not an invitation for someone to shrug off sending beer to their target; a BIF target is NO different than a trading partner, screwing them is stealing beer, period.

 

It took me a while to come around. I used to be a dark-beer-only kind of beer geek, including - God forgive me- when I was in Germany, but I had just enough Jever where I was for it to lodge in my brain. Nowadays I love a well-made pilsener. Haven't had the Weihenstephaner one but they're a great brewery, so I imagine it's great.

 

Great idea, one of those times being north of the border will work against me.

 

Oh, and I might as well do a review while I'm here, I am drinking a new beer and it's Sunday, after all.

Divine Reserve 14
Saint Arnold's
Belgian Strong Pale Ale / 10.00% ABV
Bomber into an Odell tulip snifter

Lovely golden color with a finger of white head, leaves tons of Belgian lace
Aroma is very sweet, a little malty but nothing overwhelming
Flavor is that of nice Belgian yeast esters; a slight amount of bubblegum, which I usually detest in beer but this is subtle enough to not be offensive. A little bit of banana but mostly sweet malt.
Mouthfeel is smooth but very sticky, clings to my mouth as much as the lace does to the glass.
Overall a pretty nice Belgian strong ale, nothing terribly adventurous but definitely well executed.
3.75