New Beer Sunday (week 524)

This beer sounds like an antidote to the disappointment I felt when I had the Voodoo Doughnuts Bacon Maple Bar beer from Rogue.

 

I am also envious of said ice cube mold. Someone else on here has a han solo in carb. bottle opener, of which I am equally envious of. The glass I chose has the rebel sign which I thought would be more fitting for my beer of choice and the TG stands for Toppling Goliath. They are making some outstanding beers in the pale ale department. Now, if I could only get my hands on one of their stouts

 

Looks like yr doggy is enjoying yr beer (not that I blame him/her).

 

Here's to hoping yr back in top form for next week's NBS (hopefully sooner, really). Not much worse than having great beer staring at you and knowing your tastebuds aren't up to enjoying it.

 

Sunday begins (or does it end?) with this beer:

Omnipollo Magic #411 - Wild Strawberry/Rhubarb/Vanilla Smoothie IPA (18/11/15)

This is fresh on the tails of, Omnipollo Magic #42 - Passion Fruit and Key Lime Wit, from a few days ago.

Here is the 411 on this beer:

I was quite surprised to spy their small-batch number series here in the States. The appearance leaves much to be desired;however, it does have everything but the kitchen sink in it, so that's to be expected. Nasally, it disappoints as well and is quite subdued, with just fits of light, floral hops and a hint of fruit. This is what I expected #42 My guess is that the rhubarb, kind of made it all earthy and dulled everything down. Taste is a bit more complex, but still not able to distinguish out the individual flavors. That's a smoothie for you though. Nice level of carbonation that lends this a good overall mouthfeel. Overall, I like it well enough, but it's not worth the price point of $7, but that's international Shelton Brothers stuff for you. Not something I would seek out a bottle for, but luckily they put a date on the cap, which must be a Best By date, but they probably have a year expiration for it, so this is already nearly four months old.

I'll give this a C+/B- to borrow from @Shroud0fdoom's scale.

 

Had a couple of new beers today, starting with this Funky Gold Mosaic (I actually had a Funky Gold Amarillo before this and enjoyed it more...but no pic):



And I'm calling it a night with this Extremely Angry Beast:

 

Samuel Adams Rebel Rider Session IPA http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/154050/ is my new beer for today. Not a bad beer at all, but not super amazing either.

 

I Tried 2 new ones tonight:


One was Kern River's Class V Stout. this is an excellent stout

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14064/35609/?ba=SammyJaxxxx

 

Having the same one, right now. I'm getting less dank, with some tropical. I think this is lite on the hops. I expected a bit more. Not bad, but a bit more in the profile from the hops than the malt is what I expected.

 

Sharks, Blood Oranges, Citrus and Cane Sugar:



They should have waited for Shark Week to release this beer, it would have sold out immediately (like IPAs, should).
[Apparently, this is a Winter release beer that has been around since 2011. But I swear this is the first time it hit MD. Perhaps it was the first time it was canned!?]

I just get a tiny weird tinge of citrus pith, but nothing really fruity at all. Just a weird combination with the maltiness of this DIPA. Smells a bit better than it tastes, but that's about it.

The can date on the bottom was off center and thus is just a black smudge on the edge of the can bottom.

I'm really just waiting for Maui to do something that I like. I pretty much avoid them for the most part, unless the description of a beer intrigues me (like this one).

 

I don't get much malt and found it hop forward, now blow me away hops. 1 friend raved about it it saying it's his favorite MT beer and another that said pretty much what you said. It's a good but didn't blow me away.

 

Yeah, I find Galaxy to be a befuddling hop. It has more than just a tropical note, it's earthy to a point, and then heads in the direction of Nelson. So, maybe I'm not the best guy to listen to for this one.
Where you at in Cali? I'm in OC.

 

The first new one I tried tonight was Crooked Stave St. Bretta Citrus Wildbeir.


Really great funky sour
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25191/139977/?ba=SammyJaxxxx

 

Great song

 

Had Modern Times Booming Rollers before their Galaxy forward Protocosmos.
The Booming Rollers is pretty good. Citra hops show up, but not very strongly.

Moved on to another Modern Times beer. Protocosmos. Not my cup o' tea. I should've switched the order. At least I could've finished the night with some Citra, but alas I have this earthy tropical thang going on.

 

President & Parliamentarian Clinton approved?

 

Funny you should say that about galaxy as it's always been a hop i have a hard time describing. I love in OC too, Laguna Niguel. You?

 

Stumbling distance from the Bruery. Shoot me a msg next time you're heading up.

 

Ha! Will do, cheers!

 

Seeing the same beer show up on the same week is one of my favourite phenomena here in NBS. Getting to see the exact same product filtered through multiple different peoples' experiences is fascinating to me: revealing much about the beer, and a little about each reviewer as well! Neat stuff. Anyway.

This is going to become delicious pulled pork in several hours.

At this stage it's almost as pasty as me! Bad puns come for no additional cost (void where prohibited, some restrictions apply).

It's been such a mild and, frankly, beautiful winter up here that a: I forget how rough most of the rest of the country has had it, and 2: I worry about the summer/the reservoirs/etc. I took my Porter up to the roof when I woke up, as I do so I can let her off her leash and let out some energy; toss her ball, chase her around the planters, etc. My neighbour and his girlfriend showed up soon after to enjoy the the sunset (god DAMN it is a beautiful view up there. The mountain was REALLY popping tonight). They decided they should get a puppy as well, since Porter is so damn adorable. We sat around the fire pit and shot the shit for a couple of hours while Porter ran around, and the roof slowly filled with other randoms. The first time I'd seen so many people up there independent of one another. Good times.
Shamelessly swaggerjacking our very own @Greywulfken

My beginning-of-the-evening brew is, as promised, another random collab anniversary brew. Fremont teamed up with Bartell's to produce a DIPA celebrating the latter's 125th anniversary. Available not even at the brewery, but only at Bartell's (which still seems so random to me), Spring Elixir pours a crisp clear gold with a massive white head. The nose is the weakest link of the whole, bringing forward a conofusing mix of tropical fruits, yellow citrus, grainy malts, and spicy pepper. There's nothing wrong with any of these things, and the smell is still enjoyable, but the rest of the brew is really fantastic and this seemed a little less put together to me than the rest. Flavour jumps whole heartedly into the tropical fruit basket to start with sweet juicy pineapple, mango, papaya and even guava dominating the first impression. Citrus comes in later and there's an interesting swell about 2/3 through that isn't quite flavour, isn't quite body, and feels more like a bump than a feature. Roll with it. As much as the lead was sweet and innocent, the finish commits whole heartedly to the pithy grapefruit bitter hinted at previously. Another successful collabo for 8 March!

I believe there was some mention previously of real world superheroes (vanity/post-ception!). I love my job. It's literally exactly what I've wanted to do ever since I had a something I wanted to do. For this reason, every time anyone asks me about it, or I end up talking about it for whatever reason, I feel guilty, like I'm bragging or something (the fact that speaking positively about something associated with myself makes me feel bad is a whole another psychological issue to unpack at another time...). That being said, I love where I work. Fairly frequently we get 'special visitors' who come try and perk up these kids going through an unfathomably tough time. I walk past the sign shown in this picture almost every day (night. Whatever [also, I'm a little ashamed to admit that it took me a while to realize that that was StarLord on the red side. The first couple of times I walked by I thought it was Magneto getting hit by Miley's wrecking ball or something. My bad Austin!). These two are far from the only ones who come stroll our hallways, and there is undoubtedly a cynical PR-level angle involved as well, but I can personally attest to the benefit that such visits instill in the patients. That's why I used the teaser of real-life super heroes. That sign has been up there for quite some time (side note to give some love to the child life office who makes a similar sign for each and every BMT patient we have, customized based on whatever that kids specific interests/loves are: those guys are amazing) - ever since just before he received his transplant, actually (I already feel like I'm tiptoeing close to HIPAA, so specific time periods necessitously remain a mystery) - and so when I heard that the Chris' Pratt and Evans decided to visit SCH (even though Pratt lost the bet... still pretty raw...), I had my fingers crossed that they would make sure to swing by this direction. I'm rambling. The point is: even if there is personal/PR gain to be had by those making the visits, the effect they have is still tangibly real (literally: you want to talk about pain scores/opioid usage before/after having met their heroes?). Somewhere in there %10.5 snuck up on me and I lost the gist of what I was trying to get at. The point, I suppose, is that even this old(~) cynic appreciates some of the actions of the succesful, and in particular when its something that lines so neatly up with my own little world. Kudos to Pratt and Evans (especially since he came in costume!), and next time, you should come during night shift!

Last but not least to @rgordon: I'm glad you enjoyed them! I had a hell of an enjoyable time putting the box together, so I'm glad that some of that transferred. And I'm glad you were able to enjoy some of them cross-generationally. My Opa doesn't drink, but the first time I shared a full beer with my dad (growing up, he'd occasionally give me a small sip of his [ostensibly] either Full Sail IPA or SNPA) was a can of heineken I believe on a little sailboat with my dad, his dad, and my little brother, after sailing in a regatta that my Opa flew out from Greensboro specifically to take us kids out on the water. Good times!


Since it's too late to worry about going overlong, here's an encore!


Soon...