New Beer Sunday (week 559)

Needed to polish off the last pumpkin beer so another new beer for Sunday. Kept it light: Greenport Harbor’s Leaf Pile Pumpkin Ale. I’ve had Greenport's Porter and IPA and enjoyed them both (not world beaters, but very solid).



L: Pours dark amber. Small slightly off white head that dissipates rather quickly.

A: Toffee, mild pumpkin spice and maybe cream soda? Catching some fruity smells as well.

T:/M: Tastes like it smells but maybe a bit more muted: Clove and cinnamon are predominant along with some nutmeg, and that cream soda aroma carries over to the taste. Leaf Pile's taste ends rather abruptly and fades. It’s pretty muted and watery and isn’t super-balanced. On a positive note I can’t taste any alcohol and I'm not catching any really off putting artificial notes, the cream soda taste notwithstanding. As it warms up it gets better so glad I sipped slow.

O: Needs a little more kick to the back end. Just hints at the pumpkin spices with the clove and cinnamon. It does get better as it warms though so all is not lost. The body was just a little too watery.

The last 4 pumpkin beers I’ve tried have progressively gotten lighter (and I've liked them less) : Smuttynose > Wolavers > Ithaca Country Pumpkin > Leaf Pile. Not a BAD beer just needs a little kick in the ass to amp it up a bit. I don’t like “fake” tasting pumpkin beers and this one qualifies. I certainly wouldn’t turn this down if offered. Still not finding a better pumpkin beer than Schlafly’s and I think the bar is set pretty high.

3.61/5.0

Enjoy your Sunday all!!

 

Happy NBS on another beautiful November day in WI. I look forward to some leaf raking, trail hiking, and football watching later on. Decided to go with Big Ricc from Tallgrass this morning.

Poured 12oz can into a snifter. Appearance is black as the abyss and it has a creamy tan 2 finger head. Retention was on par and it formed a thin collar with small waves of lacing. The aroma is a deep roasted malt, light espresso, and a hint of bitter bakers chocolate. The taste follows the nose for the most part, with the exception of it having some earthy and bitter hop flavors. The mouthfeel is thinner, but creamy and smooth. The alcohol is well hidden. Not quite outstanding as many RIS stouts, but overall it's a pretty delicious offering from Tallgrass.

 

Welcome! Nice to see you cross over and tell us a bit about some of the incredible beers you enjoy! Cheers!

 

I have been keeping an eye out for this one, but I have passed over Black Ops for 3 straight years at $20, so now I am torn. Seems strange because the Hand & Seal that I picked up in TN was $15 or $18 I believe. I think I will just pull the trigger on it now to justify this future purchase to my inner conscience

 

Garrison City Beerworks Handlebar Smoked Porter from Dover, New Hampshire. This is very new. It was released in October 2015. A bit different for this new nano-brewery that specializes in hopped up IPAs. Dark brown. Milk chocolate and sweet aroma. No hop profile on the nose but it is there in the taste, which tends to end bitter and dry.

 

New Belgium + Ben & Jerry's Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale (6.25% ABV)

I'm on my second glass. The beer is the darkest brown imaginable yet when held up to the light, a ruby hue emerges. The light khaki head leaves a constant thick film -- perhaps getting help from the nucleated glass. Really interesting lacing remains. I'm currently looking at a group of lacing that looks like the Southern Hemisphere, and earlier I saw a camel. How fun!

The nose starts with loads of salted bread, and in a weird way I can smell some booziness. Caramel and faint toffee notes are hidden in the middle, finishing with a prominent chocolate fudge note.

If only the beer tasted just like the aroma. Bready and salty up front is where the comparisons end for the most part. I'm having a hard time finding caramel sweetness or decadent fudge notes because of a sourness that carries salt, metal, and a tangy hop bitterness that covers up everything.

Mouthfeel is somewhat thick and sticky.

Overall: Not my thing at all. The aroma was okay, the taste was the proverbial Hot Mess. So now I have 4 more bottles to wade through

The worst part about this beer is the aftertaste. It's absolutely sour and just stays in the throat for a long time. Quite disgusting.

 

hello BA's , here is a beer I picked up for 9 bucks , and is from destihl in central Illinois.
and be an average beer for the style given the price. but wait!...

pours brilliant orange haze with medium white head 4/5

get fruit scents , bready yeast and some pungency and maybe the clove. 4/5

the clove is just there, not overwhelming the taste, I like that.pineapple as well. I want to say melon hints too. 4.25/5

good carbonation level.not a big alcohol presence considering the abv.coats the tongue with a semi-sweet finish. 4/5

turns out the price doesn't reflect the beer, great beer that I put at top of my destihl beers cheers! 4.25/5

 

Happy birthday! Daisy turned 12 last month.

 

That's a good one.

Cheers!

 

Hello, NBS folks. Today I'm trying new beer #600: Vapricot, a ginger/apricot imperial IPA collaboration from Terrapin and Cigar City.

Gotta admit I wasn't expecting to like this one (so why'd ya buy it, right?), sounds like too many fussy things to put in one beer, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Pours a slightly hazy amber from a 12 oz bottle into my go to beer glass. Half inch of slightly off-white foam. The nose is ginger, big time ginger! Maybe some hops in there, but who can tell with all that ginger! Many things to mention in the taste: big ginger, a bit of fruit juice (the label says brewed with apricot purée), just enough hops to remind you it's an IPA, even some malt to support the 9.05 ABV. Surprisingly, all these flavors are somehow distinct and not all mushed together, which in this case is a good thing. I'm glad I tried this, and look forward to trying the second bottle in a week or two to see if I have the same impression. Do wonder, though, if it would work better, and be more refreshing, at a lower ABV? Not a beer I'd go back to very often, but worth a try if you're up for something different.

Cheers!

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thatks to @utopiajane for getting our herd of beer cats underway,

It’s 48 degrees, cold, gray and wet in the city where Gonzaga basketball fans are stirring themselves from their off-season torpor. Yesterday I chose not to watch my favorite college football teams because I had made plans to see The Martian with a friend. I chose well. My teams lost in frustrating manner, but the movie was great and for the most part faithful to the book (still, it was LONG – about as long as I care to sit in a theater).

Today I have to fill-in at work, so my beer intake will be slight, at least until sometime this evening. Fortunately, I planned ahead! Yesterday I had a grunt of a “Cascadian Dark Ale” (the brewer prefers this term) from Bellwether Brewing, a local brewery that’s been open for less than two months : http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42837/198357/?ba=woemad

Possibly the most well-balanced Black IPA I’ve had, with equal focus on the hops and the dark malts.

I also picked up a grunt of their Albion (essentially a heather strong ale brewed with no hops whatsoever) that I’d had a snifter of on my previous visit. Not a new beer but I haven’t reviewed it yet. I plan to do so tonight after I get home.

Not enough? Well, I did have some new beers that would have been mentioned in last week’s NBS, but I as unable to take part as I was on the other side of the state hanging out with my brother’s family and my parents. I wasn’t able to do much beer tourism but I did manage to pick up a couple bottles of Silver City’s Fat and Whoop Pass at the Haagen’s near my bro’s place. Both are beers I’ve had before but really dig, and they’re not available where I live.

Iron Goat does a “community hop ale” called Spo-Hop each year, where anyone who grows hops in their backyard can turn up and donate them. They have a party just for those folks on the delivery day, all the hops are thrown in regardless of variety (in some cases no one knows the variety) and the result is a beer of unknown amount of IBUs. This year’s version was pretty tasty, and I managed to get a grunt-fill consumed the night before I left town: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29334/140644/?ba=woemad

I also had a really unique sour ale from River City called TW Frankensour that requires a bit of explanation, so I’ll let the local media do that : http://www.spokane7.com/blog/2015/sep/17/making-monster-sour/

Probably the most unique tasting beer I’ve ever had, like two different takes on sours fighting it out in your mouth – tart, fruity sweet-sour and sharply acidic prickly-sour. Limited to an 8oz pour, that was enough for a sitting for me, but I was very glad to have gotten a chance to try it. It’s since run out (I stopped by again Friday in the forlorn hope they’d still have it on so I could write a proper review, but no such luck), so I’m not sure there’s a point in putting it into the database.

I might still squeeze in something light, as I don’t actually need to show up to work until noon, but if not, I’ll be back sometime this evening. Cheers!

 

I refuse to end my vacation with a bad New Beer. I only had one more new beer in the fridge, and it was a no-brainer to end on a good note.

Tallgrass Bourbon-Barrel Aged Vanilla Bean Buffalo Sweat Brewed With Cinnamon

This weighs in at only 7% ABV -- I say "only" because it goes down like a 4% hard root beer!

It pours like dirty motor oil (classic) and the cream colored head disappears quickly leaving only a trace of anything on top with no lacing. This beer is a bit thin, like soda.

Aroma is dominated by delicious cinnamon and a vanilla bean aroma that has some cheesecake creaminess to it. So delicious, but it covers up a lot of the bourbon-barrel notes which I am not complaining about.

The taste mimics the aroma. Cinnamon and vanilla up front, with light coffee roast behind it. Bourbon-barrel wood tang in the finish.

Mouthfeel is the weak spot as it is a bit thinner than I'd prefer. Only slightly heavier than a soda.

Overall -- I got this in the Tallgrass Bourbon-Barrel Aged 4 pack of cans. I liked the other three beers but this one is by far the tastiest and let's be honest, it's a good beer for folks who are intimidated by bourbon-barrel aged beers. This almost doesn't even seem barrel aged at all except for the taste in the finish.

 

Whoa, holy spoiled beer, Batman! You must have got a can that was quite old or sat somewhere and had a nice long cook. Your results are defintely not typical, but when I've had it I've been considerably closer to the source.

 

I think I said it on your first NBS post, keep posting like this and I doubt anyone will kill you. Also, I just recently stopped sleeping on Dark Hollow.

@WesMantooth - my initial reaction was that the beer was weak, but I appreciated it more and more as I worked through the glass. I think I might have to grab one myself now, after this "discussion" .

 

A Surly Sunday
I just got done cleaning out the gutters... my absolute favorite fall activity but I've found I do a better job than any commercial group I've hired thus I suck it up. Not literally. But that means it's time to relax with a beer!
My cousin just got married in Minnesota so I got to sample many fine Surly brews. There was a keg at the reception, it was on tap at the hotel bar and I stuffed a few cans in my luggage to take home, thus finally sampling their flagship today.

And quite the flagship it is! 4.5 in each category
A: Orange/amber color with a one-finger head that lingers until the bottom of the glass
S: A deep mix of multiple hops- grapefruit/orange, tropical fruit, pine with a nice toffee/malt backbone
T: Great malt/hop balance. The Scottish malt (can almost taste a bit of peat) forms a nice base then the hops add tropical fruit and citrus
M: Medium+ bodied with a slightly sweet malt underneath the bitter hops
O: Complex and delicious. Fantastic beer
If you can get to MN or find a trading partner who can acquire this, it's definitely worth it. Not quite Pliny or Heady but I'm mentioning it in the same sentence.
Cheers!

 

My first NBS beer today is from Foley Brothers Brewing. These guys are every bit as good as the big three. If you are Beercationing it in 802, be sure to seek their beers out.



Pieces Of Eight

Foley Brothers Brewing
American Double / Imperial IPA / 8.00% ABV

4.31/5 rDev -2% | Avg: 4.4
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

L-Clear and golden with a modest half inch of bone white head. Very clear for a Vermont IPA.
S-As soon as you pop the cap you are hit with huge citrus aroma which is fantastic.
T- Citrus hits first and aggressively. There is some piny dankness further in that lingers with a moderate amount of dry bitterness.
F-The carbonation is light. The beer finishes dry due to the bitterness and makes the overall mouthfeel light.
O-The combination of a top notch aroma, mouthfeel, and excellent citrus/piny flavor makes this beer a real treasure. Yes I went there.