New Beer Sunday (week 520)

Dvorak! My favorite, just before Smetana. Czech composers represent.

 

Happy 10th Anniversary, NBSers. Though relatively late to the party, I feel blessed to participate in the occasion. It’s a sweltering 34 degrees F out here in NWNJ. Too much snow, not enough blow(ers). Felt I should celebrate with a 10% brew, so all hands on deck for my boisterous Ballast Point review… Victory. At. Sea.

Poured with force into my new favorite luxury-beer glass, my River Horse snifter. This hippo sports a cowbell and blotches belonging to the Oatmeal Milk Stout I’m very fond of.


Sight: Big bold black body like the ocean depths, with orange hues poking through. Tan head that sits firmly atop, persisting at 1 finger in height. It eventually settled down to thin cap of ½ finger. Lacing is thick and bandy.

Smell: Coffee and vanilla bean play a duet. Hops slept in and decided not to show up.

Taste: Wow. Just, wow. Coffee, coffee, and a bit of coffee (almost green coffee as opposed to roast... or I might be crazy from months at sea). I can parse out the other aspects after a few sips. I do get the vanilla, and a storm of roasted malt. Perhaps a bit of dark chocolate, perhaps not. I texted the hops, but I think they’re still sleeping. I do get a bit of heat, and after just a few sips, I’m starting to feel it, I swear. Wait, I think the hops are showing up late in their pajamas, but they definitely didn’t shower.

Feel: Oily, like a treated canvass sail. It coats your tongue and gives you a smooth, luxurious impression, like the interior decorating of the chicest cruise ships. Not as full as a high-abv stout though, which makes sense if it’s a porter. Had enough of the nautical references yet?

Overall: I feel very fortunate to try a single bottle of this much sought-after brew. I like it. Now, I can cross it off my list. Calling me a ticker? Fine, I’ll walk the plank.


And now, continuing with the aquatic accoutrements:

 

You're still a lucky bastard. I've STILL yet to have one.

 

Happy 10 years NBS. 10 years ago I was not enjoying the beer I have been over the past 3 years.

I have been hearing about this beer for almost a month on the radio station I listen to. It's really cool how breweries are teaming up and paying it forward.

We teamed up with 105.5 Triple M Radio to bring you HuMMMane India Brown Ale in support of our friends at Badger Honor Flight. Every pint purchased is a delicious way to pay it forward while tipping one back. -Ale Asylum

HuMMMane India Brown Ale has pleasant aromas of roasted malt, coffee, hint of brown sugar and some piney citrus hops. It tastes of sweet caramel malt, roasted malt, some coffee and a mild citrus pine flavor from the hops. It is a pretty good hopped up brown as I have only had Dogfish Head India Brown to compare.



Cheers to the next 10 years!

 

Greetings all,
It's a beautiful cloudless bright blue day edging towards 60 degrees. Every dog has his/her fool out on a walk, and I was there with my wife and trusty Walker Hounds. The red tails, kingfishers, herons, and many various ducks were loving the sun!
Today's beer is Elysian Dragonstooth Stout from Seattle and kemoarps and his unbelievable BIF generosity. This Seattle beauty pours beyond opaque, to a deep, sultry darkness that broods and grows- the big frothy head dissipates very slowly to a very nice lace and islands of roasty tan. The nose is muted at first, but with activity rises up and asserts a nice roasted dark maltiness and chocolatey/cocoa aroma. This is a dry, toasty beer that weighs in at 7.5%, and is imminently drinkable. This is a nice dry stout that would be a great accompaniment to stews and roasted meats. I love it! The only thing that could make this beer better would be to consider- in the future- adding a pumpkin and peach component to increase hypocrisy....er, I mean complexity!! Thanks again Kestrel!


Nostalgia alert!!! Here are two that evoke strong memories. Freshman year at The University of Richmond November (1969). Homecoming weekend with Percy Sledge and Steel Mill on the bill at ancient Millhiser gym. I had stepped right into an Animal House scenario, playing freshman basketball, loving life, keeping a real life Niedermeyer at bay and the honor code close to my heart.
Steel Mill was amazing and we had no idea who Bruce Springsteen was or would become. They opened to a cloud of smoke in the old tiny gym, back in a corner, and blew the crowd away. Percy Sledge had trouble following, but found his feet and enchanted everyone completely! It was a great show. I had seen The Allman Brothers the year before (1968) as a high school junior at The End Zone, across the street from Bestway Grocery (modern beer destination) in the old Lindley Park neighborhood. Back to Georgia! Damn.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUwaWHUmSs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq2P8pTrDvw

 

G'day BAs of the NBS kind !

Sunny, not all that windy in Casper today.

Well, after putting off opening the beer you see in the pic above, I finally have done the dirty deed.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/179/125862/?ba=Bitterbill

Again, a huge Cheers to Toby for his immense generosity!
Happy Anniversary, NBS!

 

Opened this at 12am PST and had the second half this morning, so hope it still qualifies for NBS!
Imperial Oatmeal Stout, can definitely taste the chocolate, molasses and for sure the Jack Daniels but for being 12.5%, it is warm and not overwhelmingly boozy. If anything, I kind of wish it was a bit 'muddier'..haha if that makes sense..This is only my 2nd post to NBS, but do read the posts regularly, happy anniversary NBS.

 

Not really "today" to me, but it was around midnight last night... so I technically did have a new beer this Sunday. XD


I'd been looking forward to this one ever since I heard it announced, and now I finally picked up a six-pack. Kind of an odd story behind me getting it--after work last night it was still decently warm out so I figured I'd go for a short walk before driving home. Around the point where I was going to turn around and head back to where the car was parked, I came across the local Kroger and thought I'd stop in and see what all they had. Originally the plan was to check the "super discounted beer cart" that they have out in the aisle, but nothing in the cart last night really looked all that appealing (after getting a few bottles of Negra Modelo for $1 each last time I was there, spending $1.10 on individual bottles of Miller Lite didn't really seem like that great of a deal...) so I wandered through the refrigerated beer section a bit and spotted these six-packs. Ended up leaving the store with one and then carrying that six-pack all the way back to my car, about a 10 minute walk away crossing streets and walking in little grassy spots off the side of the road since there was no sidewalk.

But yeah, really liked this one. Smell and taste were both lots of roasty almost-coffee-like stuff, blending into chocolate and with a bit of nuttiness showing up every now and then. Something about it reminds me a bit of a chocolate milkshake, oddly enough. The description on the label (coffee, chocolate, and almonds) sounds about right--New Belgium seems to have a pretty good track record with these, just about every beer I've had from them tasted a lot like how the description on the bottle said it would.

And today I'm getting my car back. Was driving one of my dad's that he let me borrow while the old Rabbit was waiting for new glow plugs in the mail this past week... and of course, right when I get used to driving this one, that's when I get my own back, heh. I think I'll miss that car... it was kinda nice having something with enough horsepower to keep going the speed limit even when driving up a hill. XD

 

NBS...Congrats to all on #10

Feeling very fortunate to be a late-comer to this parade of goodness...BA's/WBAYDN/NBS...all of it very life-enriching...

as was/is this exquisite offering



I know many/most BA's have seemingly sampled this in one way or another...I have not been so fortunate. However, thanks to a new market/pub...geographic proximity close enough...they secured a finite # of bottles....and I happily/luckily scored

I won't wax poetically on the finer points of this stellar brew (because I don't have the talent and much has already been aired/shared...). However, I can tell you how I feel/think re: impact---dark, abundant viscosity, roasty and smooth...initial and after tastes hit on multiple levels, feel the ABV% without overwhelmingly tasting it...beautifully balanced...simply beautiful overall

Thank you for the awareness and opportunity provided....

Celebrating the "10" with "Ten"....as P. Jam seems to be the vibe flowing today...





Cheers to all of you on this most excellent Sunday...

 

I love a great Framboise!

 

Missed Percy, sorry!

 

Good afternoon all fellow NBS participants from what again is a cold and snowy afternoon here in NH. About 8" on the ground so far with another foot or so predicted. The temperature has been dropping all day and hovering around 9 degrees right now. So what better to do than sit inside and watch the snow come down and enjoy a new beer.

This Sundays beer is from Candia Road Brewing, Manchester NH. This is their Shire Stout I'm glad the bottle says American Dark Ale in small print or I would have been greatly disappointed. This beer pours a dark black color with very little head on top when poured into my favorite tulip glass. There is very little aroma from the glass but perhaps a little bit of malt comes to the nose. The first taste was a little bewildering, I really wasn't sure what I was tasting perhaps a little malt taste but mostly there was a nothingness to this beer not a lot taste. Definitely not what I was expecting from a dark ale or stout. I managed to finish my glass but the whole time it left me trying to find something that stood out about this beer. All in all it wasn't a drain pour but not something I could recommend to a fellow BA. I had bought a second bottle to send to fellow BA in a local for local beer trade but I couldn't bring myself to send it to him. Too many good local beers to send him this one.

Well time for be to brave the cold and snow and fire up the snow blower and clear the drive way so that the storm doesn't get to far ahead of me. When I've finished the first round of snow removal maybe I'll break open CCB beers that came on Friday from a friend in FL.

Cheers to all!

 

Not quite up to the quality of most of the stuff posted here. Since I will be working on my vehicle it works. I like the warmth it gives me while working outside. Not a lot of spice and a pretty decent overall malty warmer.

 

Good afternoon NBSers. Headed to local brewery to make it up to my girlfriend for sitting through 2 hours at the range, although she was happy it was nice enough to sit outside and read. Most of the beers on tap we've had, but these two are new to us:


That's Native Son on the left (a Belgian Pale Ale despite what it says in the beer profile, I have requested a correction) and Tripel on the right. The Native sun uses all-Virginia ingredients and is pretty straightforward-lightly floral/herbal taste, but not much nose. You can guess the style of Tripel, and I will need to add the beer here shortly. This beer is a bit more fruity up front, pear, apple, maybe some peach. Those flavors fade to a lightly dry farmhouse funk taste that isn't too strong. Feel is a bit weak, but a decent beer to enjoy today.

UVa pulled off a nice win last night with some solid D (again), helped by some offensive misfires by Louisville. Down the stretch they started hitting and I feared it was the Duke game all over again. Let's hope there's no letdown against NC State, now. Lastly I'll say I was never a fan of Dean Smith from a basketball perspective and being a lifelong Cavaliers fan, but all the things I've heard, especially on his passing, have impressed me. That said, UNC is still only one notch above Va Tech at the bottom of my list.

 

Starting my day with a late breakfast. Two eggs over easy with scrapple and hot sauce paired with a great coffee stout.

Sierra Nevada Coffee Stout
4.13/5 rDev +1.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

12 oz bottle poured into a pint glass

A- Black with four finger mocha head.

S- Roasted coffee and malts, some dark chocolate.

T- Rich roasted coffee, some bitter sweet chocolate, hints of dark fruits and caramel malts, very nice.

M- Smooth, creamy, medium body.

O- A great coffee stout, definitely worth trying. Perfect For breakfast!

 

New, in a retro kind of way, American IPA Sunday.

Greetings from another great day here at the Jersey Shore! The weather, not bad. No matter, it's always groovy around here.
Anyway, what's old is new again: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/447/134337/?ba=NiceTaps
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2e3ww1f&s=8#.VNe0I8J0yos

Good Stuff!! I ran a couple of errands and popped into one of my favorite local dive joints. It was nice to enjoy a beer without the football crowd, if ya feelz.

Any implication that I may have had this beer some 30-plus years ago will be adamantly denied! Then I'll plead the 5th!

All the best!

 

NEW WILD ALE SUNDAY

Hello NBS, hoping this Sunday finds you well. We are just back from lunch with friends and I amazed at how well our 22 month old behaved! Nice to see old friends that we hadn't seen in far too long. The little guy is enjoying his well earned nap while I enjoy this-

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18316/147889/



That beer is smiling, right?

This ties in well with my beer and it shows that you old timers who have been here all ten years that the elderly can still rock!

 

Greetings, NBS explorers! Though we have a foot of snow on the ground east of Cleveland, the temperature is almost 50 so I was able to make a grocery run without a jacket! The cold will be back tomorrow unfortunately.

My local beer shop decided February was going to be IPA month and did a tap takeover at their growler station. Why not dream of warmer weather in February? I decided I'd join the theme for this week's edition of NBS.


My first new beer today was not one they could offer, though it fits the theme I love the name. The nose on this is indeed taking me away to warmer places with tons of tropical fruit. Only three months old though I feel it may have lost a bit of freshness as the flavors are mostly herbal/bitter and don't have any of the fruitiness of the aromas. Not my favorite FFF DIPA but the nose was great and I'll have to try it fresher.

Next, no picture but I took home the new Sierra Nevada Hop Hunter in a growler. I like whatever process SN uses for this. I feel like it could really showcase single hop varieties well. My only complaint is there's no malt to augment the hops. That aside it does show the hops well and both fits the above theme and is worthy of a try.
Cheers!