New Beer Sunday (week 545)

yes, life can be a bitch, but it's the rising up and not being defeated by it that counts. Also, knowing who your friends are.

 

Good afternoon NBS'ers! It's looking like another hot one in northeastern Kentucky today. After spending all day in the garage yesterday, I'm ready to kick back and enjoy a relaxing day in front of the tv. Luckily, I happen to have a new beer to try today as well. A little background on this beer, from my understading...

My buddy from work who got this beer for me is good friends with the fine folks who own and operate Country Boy Brewing in Lexington. While I've met them a few times, my buddy is down that way fairly often, and always manages to bring me a little something back. This particular beer, he explained, was brewed in celebration of Nathan Coppage's (brewer at CBB) wedding. Evidently these bottles were sent out as wedding invitations and were never available for sale, per say.

To me, that makes this one of the coolest, most special beers I've ever had. To say it's a limited release would be putting it mildly I suppose! This beer is an American IPA. There are no specifications such as abv, ibu's, bottle capacity, etc. listed on the bottle, but according to it's BA page, it's 7.00% abv, which seems low to me. It tastes like a much bigger beer. It's obviously a 750 mL format, and if I had to guess the ibu's, I'd say it's somewhere in the ballpark of 80-90. Big beer.

I'm not even entirely sure this beer has a name! It's listed as "Matromony Ale" on BA. But, never the less, this is the *takes deep breath*...

Country Boy Brewing Dr. Jessica Howard & Mr. Nathan Coppage Request Your Presence at Their Celebration of Matrimony on May 23, 2015 at Country Boy Brewing in Lexington, Kentucky...Ale







Review

750 mL bottle into a snifter. Pours light gold and settles a vibrant gold/orange in the glass. Reddish-orange when held to a light source. A semi-aggressive pour resulted in 1 finger of bubbly, soft white foam which faded down into a bubbly lacing after a couple minutes. Huge aroma of citrus and tropical fruit with a hint of bready malt in the background. Quite sweet with notes of grapefruit and citrus dominating. Dank onion on the nose as well as it warmed. Medium-light in weight with a smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Very dank and citrusy up front with strong notes of blood orange, pine, and citrus. A surprisingly amouth of alcohol on the taste, give the (relatively low) 7% abv. Lots of sweet malts middleways and through the finish, which is crisp and slightly sharp due to the alcohol.

Overall, a pretty darn good IPA. Beautiful color in the glass, and had a wonderful aroma. Taste-wise, a bit oniony for my liking and somewhat boozy. I would've guessed this was in the 9-10% abv range. Very malt-forward especially on the back end. Seemed to balance out as it warmed up a bit. Very good, and I'm glad I was able to try it.

Rating

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Weighted score: 4.21/5 (+0% rDev (only 2 ratings!))

 

First new beer of the day, and it's pretty f@#&ing incredible. Big shout out to @LehighAce06 for making it possible to drink this. He mentioned to me at the time that it was a good candidate for pairing up with Weyerbacher's Sunday Morning Stout for a side-by-side comparison, and I held onto that idea for quite a while, but never could quite pull the trigger on opening up two BA coffee stouts at once, especially during this hot summer.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/19960/?ba=woemad
Intellectually it would have been a great exercise in seeing how two different beers of the same style and strength are similar and different, but I'm I glad I gave up on that because I think it would have detracted from how much I enjoyed this beauty of a beast - plus I'd have been too drunk to type.

Science be damned!

I'll be back later with something totally different.

 

What's up nbs players. Hot and hazy here on the island. Another lazy Sunday with some light yard work. Looking forward to the mets getting the brooms out tonight.

My new beer is sliced nectarine ipa from Moody Toungue. Seems to be such a popular trend to citrus out ipas especially for the summer. Here goes,

Starts with a pretty, and gleaming orange pour with hazy clarity. Nose is decently floral with citrus and of course nectarine is there. Initial sip goes down tangy with plenty of citrus tones. Hoppy on the finish but really smooth throughout the drinking. Has very much a fruity and juicy feel to it. I really start to get the nectarine qualities the more it warms. The fresh sweetness and even that fuzzy fruit skin feel.

Overall, a very easy drinking and enjoyable ale. Not nearly as powerful as gf sculpin. At 5.9% it's almost sessional. I think the 85 ba score is very fair. I'm in the mid/ high 3's,

 

Good afternoon NBS, @cavedave thanks as always for the start off, I really appreciate the
suggestion of the big table we share here at NBS. Great description.
Our oldest son is home this past week and we have been loading that schedule up with live music shows and family time. Tonight some live outdoor theater at Double Edge in Ashfield. A wonderful theater troupe/community in a fabulous setting.
Yard work is completed and now time for New Saison Sunday, courtesy of Mystic Brewing.
Flor Z is billed as saison ale with Lacto and wild yeast, The body is super soft, and skips over some of the traditional saison elements. That said, I very much enjoyed this recent offering from a talented brewer.

Cheers all

Flor Z

Mystic Brewery
Saison / Farmhouse Ale

3.9/5rDev n/a | rAvg: 4.16
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Poured from a cage and corked 750 ml dated 121114. Into an HF goblet.
A - Young sunflower yellow, slightly cloudy, very fine carbonation lifts unrelentingly in support of a very loose foam cap.
S - Calla lily, mint, very floral, warm cantaloupe, hints of grass all blend well. An added element from the yeast is quite hard to pin down, a bit of vanilla mixed with spring orchard in blossom. Very delightful nose.
T - Honeysuckle, green tea, a trace of lemon zest, shortbread all run in a narrow, refined lane. very little deviation. Pleasant addition of the Lacto keeps things together. I do miss that saison peppery bite,
M - Soft, really soft feel. I am reminded of Fantome's texture in ways. The palate is evenly coated, the carbonation is no match for the base body, the linger is pleasantly floral not vegetal
O - A wonderful stretching of style, the softness caught me off guard, but the experience in total was quite nice. Worth seeking out

 

Hi all, really digging this Old Raspy XV. So good. Cheers.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/112/87756/?ba=cindyjeffsmith

 

Somehow I managed to consume most of my new beer choices on Friday or Saturday including Sixpoint's 4 Beans. If you haven't grab that one yet, run to the store and get some.

I decided to stop by the local bottle shop and grab some Sierra Nevada's Scotch Ale. I had intended on bringing home a howler, but the keg was almost empty so I settled for a glass, and got a nice local IPA in the howler instead.

This one is very easy drinking with a nice combination of caramel and burnt sugars, bready malts, and a slight smokey peat. The sweetness is very well controlled and balanced. For me, it almost spreads more like a brown ale than a Scotch ale, but tasty none the less.

Hope there is a great new beer in your glass!



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/159230/?ba=richj1970

 

I don't know the kind of bee or hornet it is but sure as hell don't want to get stung by it!

 

Dogfish Head ~ American Beauty
Imperial Pale Ale ~ 750ml and 9%ABV

I was never a Deadhead. My musical path took me Close to the Edge, past the Court of the Crimson King, around to the Dark Side of the Moon, forever In Search of the Lost Chord, munching on Brain Salad Surgery, and prowling the streets of NYC while the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, among other musical diversions.

But the Dead's album cover art was hypnotic and light years away from Hipgnosis, Phil Travers, Roger Dean, etc.

This big beer's label design honors the 2015 Dead Shows. Dammit! I could not find my Paper Tiger / Rick Griffen or Kelley & Mouse books! Plenty of images online though...and lots of Dead music...

I'm almost halfway through American Beauty, and it is starting to work it's magic on me. Sweet and complex. Crispy. Excellent head. Picking up herbal granola in the long lasting aftertaste. Welcoming. Purifying.

I could drink this all day whilst relaxing in the cool grass under an old tree with my female companion lovely Miss Chelsea Morning. She's strumming a guitar even though she can't play very well and she smells funny, but she's soooo beautiful. A few others have joined us and we all share the warm summer breeze, beverages, assorted paraphernalia as we teeter together on the threshold of a dream...

I'm loving this American Beauty Imperial Pale Ale!

I can taste the granola and smell the pachouli! Yes! The incense and the flowers and the bees and the butterflies are all starting to talk to me.

"What's that Honey? Sure Chelsea, go ahead and fill my glass, while I contemplate you and the sky and start growing a silver ponytail..."

Peace Love and Light To All




This post is dedicated to my Uncle Jack who died earlier today.
A 92 year old WWII veteran who never had children other than
his nieces and nephews. The last from that era in our family.

 

Howdy to very one, been a long couple days back from vacation, but I'm stateside now. Downfall ...... I'm on some killer antibiotics for an infection I got the last couple days overseas which means no beer for the next 4 days still. Double although I had a good one lined up for today I'm afraid I cannot join the shenanigans today. For sure I'll be back next week. See y'all then. Happy Sunday

 

I'm still nursing the Jackie O's Oil of Aphrodite from hours ago.

Sorry for all of the mess....but these big dark beers on hot days take their toll.

 

*****

 

In high school and afterwards I was a big prog rock geek (while somehow simultaneously a fan of Seattle grunge. I'm a weird dude, no question), and never got into the Dead, so I hear you on that. I've actually been thinking I might need to give 'em another try, though.

BTW, I think the place your feet are hanging out turned up on a Roger Dean cover!

 

This beer is pretty new because it was first introduced in bottles in July 2015. Squam Brewing Moose Ale. It is an 8% ABV Wee Heavy from Holderness, NH. Squam has been around for 5 years but they have not put a new beer out in at least two years. Squam is an interesting brewery. It is very small but they focus on special orders for weddings, birthday parties, you name it. They brew special batches on demand.

This is a lovely Wee Heavy, which is meant to be full of malt sweetness. And it is. The aroma is malts, sweetness, brown sugar, and a hint of peat moss. Ironically the taste has a kind of unexpected bitterness happening. Earthy bitterness would be a good description. But the malts are the are the main feature here as a good Wee Heavy should be. A kind of twist. 8% ABV. Hardly noticeable.

This photo was taken at Northwood Meadows State Park in Northwood, New Hampshire.

 

The only thing more enjoyable than reading that right now is knowing I've got one of those in the fridge.

 

Trying this Sweetwater Pit & Pendulum. Very nice but guessing it'll be really something with some time on it. Cheers.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/273/171476/?ba=cindyjeffsmith

 

Greetings NBS crowd! It's a hot and windy day along the southern shore today, so what better beer than Brewery Vivant Tropical Saison? Label states pineapple and mango with natural flavor with an abv. of 6.5%. No canning date present.



Tropical aroma of grapefruit, flavor is very sweet up front with grapefruit and lemon zest. Very thin mouthfeel. Not a terrible beer by any means, but it could be so much better with some tweaking. Dialing back the sweetness would be a great start.

Going to finish this and debate what to open next? Enjoy your new beer endeavors!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24678/182007/?ba=Prager62

 

Agree! Whether you like the Dead or not, they are certainly talented, groundbreaking, passionate and sincere about their music. Much like Yes, Floyd, Moodys, Crimson, etc.

I pretty much live in Roger Dean Land...at least between my ears.

 

New American Pale Lager

It's a crazy day in West MI. Skies are blue and temps are in the low 90s. However, there's really heavy wind and forecasts of thunderstorms for the evening.

The weekend was full of family, friends, and canned beer while camping on the shores of Lake Michigan. This morning we packed up camp, visited with my brother-in-law, and headed home. After getting everything put away, and cleaning myself of the inevitable dirt that comes with nature, this tasty entry from Bell's outpost in the UP came as a refreshing treat.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/37433/143732/?ba=GRPunk

 

Good Sunday afternoon NBS BA's. Amateur plumbing mishaps and some errands held me back but have been waiting to try this all morning. I was delayed a bit more by reading the great notes and reviews for today. I love reading reviews of people who try for the first time something I love, like Prairie Bomb! and reading how it blew their mind like it does mine every time I have it.
So, for right now:


New Oatmeal Stout Sunday
Mikkeller Beer Geek Vanilla Shake 13% ABV

Pours almost completely black with a slight tan ring on top. The smell is definitely dominated by vanilla and coffee.
First sip, Boom! Wonderful. Vanilla Shake is the correct name for this! The vanilla hit me as soon as it touched my lips, but doesn't flood out the flavors underneath. Creamy coffee, molasses and there is something beautiful in there that reminds me of slightly burned marshmallows. I am savoring every sip, and I am starting to get some of that nicely masked 13% ABV as the beer disappears, which is fine by me because it compliments the creamy texture but doesn't overwhelm the other flavors. I am now on the hunt for the Bourbon aged version. My compliments to the chef!
Cheers!