New Beer Sunday (week 561)

Hello once again, buff bock buffs in the buff, duly daffy dunkel downers, and all in-between, it's time once again for my favorite time of the week, after Sunday church service, NBS. It's cold and overcast up here in, say it with me, Nuh-wen-jah. The sun sits tucked securely behind the clouds, the grey sky rules, and the beer chills in the fridge for rounds 2-6. I thought I'd get a jump on the last month of the year and try out this guy. As always, visit my blog to read my review. Also- I tried to make it easier to sign up for a subscription notice, and put the widget at the top of my blog, rather than below. I expect there to be at least 3 more followers from this community. Ask Maria (@utopiajane ) about how easy it is to subscribe. I've also enabled a comment section for each of my posts, so please, stop by and leave a note. Maybe you've had the same beer and feel the same, or differently about your findings.

Cheers!

 

I think of the 'dank' aspects of mosaic to be similar to if you had put some pineapple chunks in Tupperware and left in in the fridge for a couple days. The smell you get as soon as you reopen the container is similar to the 'dank' juiciness that mosaic gives me.

 

Not just a new beer for mw but a new beer for everybody. Yuengling IPL. @JackHorzempa has already written a review of this today in post # 8. I only have a few things to add. Most AALs have a thin fast disappearing head, this brew has a thick head that lives to the bottom of the glass and leaves a nice lacing. There are 4 different hops in this beer Bravo, Belma, Cascade, and Citra and they work very well together making this a very enjoyable beer to drink. At $6.99 a 6 pack this is just about as good deal as the $7.99 that I paid for a 4 pack of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout I picked up at the same time.

 

Poured into my 13 oz tulip glass canned on 294 day of 15. Pours a dark yellow with a two inch fluffy white head that leaves behind plenty of lace. 4.75

Smell is mango, pinapple, fresh cut grass, and grapefruit. 4.5

Taste follows nicely very tropical up front with a huge shot of pine and grapefruit in the bitter finish. 4.25

Overall this reminds me of the DIPA's coming out of Vermont, very well done. 4.25

 

Trying a bottle of my latest homebrew which was meant to showcase the flavor and color contribution of Munich malt, an experiment of sorts. The malt was a mix of 20% pale ale and 80% Munich. Hops were Saazer. Fermented with Safale US05. The initial flavor is dominated by the hops with a strong bitterness (I'm guessing 45+IBUs) and moderately strong hop flavors from the Saaz. The beer is also very dry similar to my previous batches, starting gravity was 1050 and the finishing gravity 1010. Once the flavors of the hops subside however there's a really nice breadiness which is alot different from the taste of my previous homebrews using only pilsner malt. This is really the flavor that I was after, and I typically associate beers that use some Munich malt with breadiness. The color is also quite nice, I wanted to see what kind of flavor would be possible to get out of a basemalt without using coloring malts. All in all it's been an eye opening experiment, I'll be using alot of Munich malt in future batches where I want some nice breadiness and color.

 

The word for the weather today is crappy...yep right here in paradise it cant decide whether to rain or drizzle or do nothing. One of those kinda of raw days that remains undecided.

Grocery shopping is done and we arent hosting Thanksgiving, so a light load dominated by pet food. Ground turkey chili will soon be simmering, so we are feasting on the sports-gasbord. With no vested interest for Sunday, channel flipping football and waiting for the race to decide it all in that damned fool format NASCAR has devised.

Well, why don't you have a beer... Thank you very much, I think I shall... A Stillwater Artisan Ale fills my glass. A Stateside Saison to be exact. It pours a rather deep gold for the style, in my opinion. The nose is fairly weak, lightly spiced, lightly bready, faintly funky and floral. The taste is decent enough, nothing very interesting, but it meets the saison category adequately. Mildly spicey and floral notes, a touch of citrus, an almost too much bitter bite. So it meets the style characteristics, but I would call it a pretty typical saison which in my imaginary math will land it around a 3.25 or so. Good beer, decidedly middle of the road. Worth trying, not really worth seeking out. Even in the "plain old saison" category, there are alternatives I prefer.

 

Had some chili for lunch and this fresh hopped Citra Pilsner from Schells.

Color is a clear light yellow with a pillowy 3 finger white head. Excellent retention and perfect lines of webbed lacing on glass. Big floral, spicy hop presence along with a very clean malt scent. Some grain and citrus notes. For a Pils this one starts off with the hops. Bold with a green floral and spicy citrus taste. A very clean, cracker malt with grains finish this off. Well carbonated and quite dry for a Pils. Very crisp and refreshing. The citra hops are more green and citrus than you would expect for this style and I like it.

 

Hello all! Big thanks again to all who helped and participated in our Beer Turkey Day/MST3K Simulviewing yesterday on WBAYDN; I had a ton of fun all day long.

The gist of it for today is essentially that I hope to make up for all of the bad beers I drank yesterday . Let us be thankful for how good we have things these days, after all. That brings me to what I hope is another very fine offering from Almanac.

Dark Pumpkin Sour

It starts out with the nose of an assertive and well-made wild ale. Great spicy/acidic aroma out front balanced by a deep woodiness. Underneath is slight choco roast and the vague impressions of gingerbread/molasses. The first sip hits me with an initial sour twang, that immediately subsides into that woody roastiness. Molasses comes on mid-palate, and it ends with an incredibly long finish of toasty oak. As I drink more of this beer the gingerbread character becomes more apparent, along with a vaguely dark fruit/roasted squash-like presence. I probably wouldn't guess pumpkin if it wasn't on the label, though; this seems to be more that I am actively searching for it. 3/4ths of the way through it is pleasingly reminding me of dates and tamarind, still spicy and sour, and the long oaky finish isn't budging.

Honestly, it's just plain old delicious. It also doesn't have any evocative pumpkin pie qualities at all, so I'm not sure how to evaluate it. As a beer it's a solid A (4.65), complex, deep and interesting. As a 'pumpkin beer' it doesn't succeed nearly as well. I was over that by the second sip, though, and am just enjoying the ride it's giving me.

Cheers, all!

 

I have more classic big pineapple notes with Mosaic these days with those latest Mosaic brews .. one of those "it" hops ...

All the cool kids are doing it..

That's just me the though

 

You know, now that you mention this, I remember seeing Hop Eruption bottles when I was in Eugene, OR last summer.

 

That's why I prefer Mosaic to be a small portion of the flavor profile. When a beer is very Mosaic forward it goes past dank for me (which I like) and heads toward oniony (overwhelmingly so).

 

Would like to try it!!! Thanks for sharing on NBS!!!

 

Really can't get enough of this brewery. This beer is so complex. cheers all.

 

I thought it was odd at first, but then I came here and found lots of people who love bourbon barrel beers but don't drink/dispise bourbon. Obviously still in the minority for sure.

Also, I have a dog intelligent enough, but waayyy to lazy to put forth the effort

 

Doing some Christmas decorating and drinking an Uinta Yard Sale Winter Lager. Light and refreshing. About to head out to a Holiday parade downtown and plan on stopping by Craft Beer Cellar to try Evil Twin Even More Jesus.

 

New Beer #2 this Sunday is Kane's One Thousand Four Hundred Sixty, "a blend of barrel-aged Belgian-style ales." It's phenomenal.







Here are my thoughts:

4.53/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

750mL bottle served into a goblet.

Pours thick and viscous, brown and amber from the bottle, but appears nearly black in the glass. Frothy oatmeal head looks chewy before it recedes to a lace and film over the body. Excellent look here. 5

Oak and bourbon hit my nose from a distance. I didn't know this was barrel-aged. Sure smells like it. Beyond awaits dark chocolate, sticky figs and vanilla. Strong with the deep fruit here. 4.5

Goddamn that's tasty. Rich, bold flavors abound. Oak and bourbon intricately weave through dark chocolate, figs, plums and dried cherries. Kane should be commended for the delicate balance of barrel-aging achieved here that introduces all that is wonderful in a barrel---oak, leather, vanilla, spice--- while still putting forth a remarkably tasty base beer that showcases all that makes a good quad. The lingering floral flavor is a testament to the latter. 4.5

Rich, elegant, creamy, velvety mouthfeel. Light spice. Light yeast.Well-buried booziness, meaning I get none of it at all. Damn. That alone is so impressive. The way this drinks may be the best part of it. 4.5

This is fantastic. A true gem. So damn delicious.

 

Scotty Karate by Dark Horse

 

I've had that one. What do you think? Was it pretty pleasing to your palate? How would you describe it?

 

Last year I homebrewed a Mosaic IPA where I solely used Mosaic for late hopping (2 additions) and I dry hopped with 2 ounces of Mosaic. That beer was solely fruity (berry fruit flavors) to me; zero dank/onion. I am starting to think that Mosaic is one of those hops which has differing flavors for differing palates.

Cheers!