What beer are you drinking now? #862

Sunday selections:

Bell's Amber Ale
Bell's Porter

 

Bourbon neat means just bourbon (no ice). You are drinking on the rocks sir.

What are you having?

 

NBS X-Post! Finally stopped slacking and made a white IPA today. Took a nap in the afternoon yesterday, and ended up staying up all night; so I rode my trainer bike at 2 in the morning and watched Chuck on Netflix for 2 hours haha. Laundry was done as well at 5. Brewed it at 8 am. I've accumulated 4 cases of bottles now and they need filled. Once again I am not happy with my mash efficiency, and it is putting me towards the last straw to buying a barley crusher. Anyways, it is a standard witbier malt bill, and I used Hallertau Blanc and Belma hops in it. Wort tasted extremely unique not like anything I've ever tasted. Strawberry, melon, peach, pineapple, grapes, and some herbal/grassy earthy notes. It almost tasted like a creamsicle or something. It was really interesting. I'm sure that's not all, after it ferments I will be able to taste them more distinctly and of course get some nice wit yeast fruity/spiciness along the way. https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/belma-blanc-white-ipa


Had a nice selection beers lined up for tonight, another milestone to share with everyone.

This is a great Helles. Nice head retention and some lightly spotty clinging lacing down the glass. Nice prominent and balanced aromas of lemon, cracker, biscuit, herbal, straw, grass, light pepper, and a small amount of yeast earthiness. Taste follows the same as the aromas state. Fair amount herbal/spicy bitterness on the finish. Very nice robustness and balance of pale malt and earthy hop flavors; well balanced bitterness. Very smooth and crisp finish, with some light bready creaminess and hop stickiness. Medum bodied. Very clean with minimal yeast ester presence. Maybe just a slight bit hoppier than I expected, but not by any seriously detrimental margin. Seriously just really spot on, I'd totally drink this again.


This was really nice. Not quite opaque, dark brown in color. Clear with good head retention, and light spotty lacing. Prominent aromas of milk chocolate/cocoa/coffee with some caramel/toasted bread notes, light smoke/dark fruit, and a bit of herbal hops. Really well balanced. Taste of milk chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, molasses, toast, brown bread, light smoke, light dark fruit and some herbal hop earthiness. Light herbal/roast bitterness on the finish. Very nicely robust flavors; good bitter/sweet balance of roasted character with nice bready/molasses malt complexity. Light-moderate carbonation; with a moderately creamy and very smooth mouthfeel. Overall really well balanced and enjoyable. I will definitely pick up a six, after I drink the last of my Big Mountain APA.


This is outstanding. Wonderful aromas with tart lemon, lime, green apple, peach, pineapple, mango fruitiness with pepper, hay, straw, grass, white viniegar and musty funky notes; with some light wheat/cracker malt presence. Great strength and balance. Great hop and yeast complexity. Taste of tart lemon, lime, green apple, pineapple, peach, mango, pepper, hay, straw, grass, white vinegar, musty funk, and light wheat/cracker malts. Moderate earthy yeast spice and fruity tartness on the finish. Really good prominence of yeast and hop flavors; even with the light pale malt presence, it doesn't really feel watery or bland. Very smooth and crisp finish; nicely balanced acidity as well. Just really all around very awesome stuff here. Feels a lot like a sour saison for sure; with the prominent peppery spice in the aromas and taste. Love it. I'd drink a growler of this, the acidity has nice prominence but causes zero palate fatigue. They really nailed the idea of a sour table beer right here.


Review #3000. 2014 vintage. Head retention was decent, I wasn't expecting much at this gravity; but the color is a nice deep ruby red, moderate haze. Very nice aromas with raisin, plum, fig, caramel, toffee, brown sugar, coconut, toast, bourbon, oak, vanilla, leather, and some slight chocolate. A light-moderate amount of booziness appears as it warms, seems to muddle some of the darker complexities, but no complaints otherwise. Taste of huge raisin, plum, fig, butterscotch, caramel, toffee, brown sugar, toast, coconut, molasses, brown bread, bourbon, oak, leather, and light chocolate. Absolutely amazing flavors. An intense wide array of complexity all around, and very well balanced malt and barrel flavors. As it warms the initial booziness subsides, but you are left with a fairly lengthy warming finish. Dense/full mouthfeel and light carbonation; with very creamy/moderately slick mouthfeel that is never cloying. Very smooth slow sipper for sure, and the deep malt complexity is simply amazing and balanced. Outstanding.


Cheers!

New Track from Slice the Cake. This is incredible. They fell off my radar for a while, but I have all of their other albums

 

Ah. Can't be right all the time! Four roses small batch, which I actually prefer to the single barrel.

 

Up next...cheers BA!

 

Nice, good stuff. Cheers!

 

The weekend went by too quick!

 

Bear Republic: Racer X Double IPA


Shameless double post from NBS. But in my defence I deliver a different song for LNBA. (and in my opinion a better song) I saw them on this tour as well back in the day.

 

I always look forward to your reviews. I envy your palate...or at least your ability to describe what you are experiencing on said palate so well. It's also been a dream of mine to homebrew for a while now. I finally took the leap and ordered an all grain kit this past week. Amongst other ambitions, I'm hoping that the process of brewing and tasting my own brews will give me a better understanding of what I'm tasting in other beers...thus, providing more sophisticated reviews. Keep doing what you do best my friend.

 

Easily available. Cheap. Very drinkable. Just a good DIPA.

 

I might have never had this before. I know I've had substitute, but don't recall this one.

 

DFH Aprihop


PERFECT FOR SALTING

LNBA4LYFE

 

Next up...



Enough of the prelims BA. Turn it to dime. Cheers!

 

didn't take a pic but I am starting a Backwoods Bastard! Been long overdue!

 

I'm mentally shot. Tons more homework to do, but the brain isn't working. Earlier Lagunita's Nightime Black IPA & now some Stone Delicious IPA with some Walking Dead...

Kids are off school tomorrow, kind of hard to believe, but the roads will refreeze & turn into a mess I guess...

 

Bitter Brewer & a half pepperoni, half ground beef pizza make me happy!!!!

 

Thanks a lot man. I have been brewing for 4 years now, and it certainly does help in understanding malt character and hops as you can always experiment with hops or malts on your own by designing recipes and drinking them. But you can still expand your knowledge of malt and hop characters by trying some single hop styles, and also looking up the malt and hop bills of certain beers you've enjoyed before. Most bigger breweries will give you their malt/hop catalog without percentages; so you can get a general idea of what certain malts and hops tend to attribute to the beer. Stuff like Centennial, Citra, and Simcoe are so obvious to me now because I love those types of hoppy beers. Same goes with porters/stouts and munich malt.

Finisher beers:

Pretty much my favorite local white IPA, not many else around here in the style at least. Fresh release from New Holland this week. Bright grapefruit/lemon/citrus hops, with balanced coriander/orange peel spice, and spicy/fruity witbier yeast flavors. Great stuff every year.


Great just like last year. Balanced citrus/pineapple/piney hops and dark chocolate/cocoa/coffee malts. I always have Lagunitas in the fridge regardless of style. Never been disappointed.


My go to IPA. Juicy bright grapefruit/tangerine/pineapple/lemon citrus and piney bitter hops with light caramel/bready malt balance. Always crisp and sticky hoppy flavor. The reason I never buy two hearted is this beer, the better almost twin beer whilst only really being related in late hop scheduling and a slightly different malt bill. I love Centennial hops.


Cheers

 

This is the "I finished my driveway and 3 neighbors driveways" beer.

LNBA4LYFE

 

Instead of Walking dead, I'm watching this ESPN feature on Austin Hatch ( Miraculous ), what a tear-jerker. Stone Cail-Belgiue (sic) next...