New Beer Sunday (week 571)

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @utopiajane for getting us rolling along today. I made another massive beer haul today because I was getting lowish on singles, so I am overstocked past my normal allotment, but that will change . Not much else going on here, more work this week as always. Did some laundry earlier.

Today's new beers:

This was a very good session IPA. Aromas and flavors of grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, lemon zest, orange peel, citrus rind, pepper, and pine hops; with some light caramel/toasted bready malt and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Medium sized piney/spicy bitterness; smooth/crisp finish with moderate stickiness and light bready creaminess in the mouthfeel. Good amount of dryness, but not bone dry. No hop astringency. Light-medium bodied. Very easy drinking and good robust flavors, does not feel watery at all. I really enjoyed it, the Columbus hops are definitely the star of the hop show in this one. 3.78


Damn good Flanders brown! Aromas and flavors of big tart raspberry, cranberry, cherry, red grape, apricot, green apple, hay, straw, brown sugar, toasted oak, light chocolate, red wine vinegar, vanilla, and light pepper/funk. Light-medium fruity/acidic tartness and yeast/oak spice; great balanced finish; fairly acidic and lightly creamy in the mouthfeel. Light-medium carb/body. Light-medium dryness from acidity. Very easy drinking with the balanced acidity and malt sweetness. Nice presence of oak as well. Just really zero complaints, this is extremely well done for the style. Delicious. 4


This was a damn good hoppy black saison. Aromas and flavors of big grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, lemon zest, orange peel, pear, apple, peppercorn, and pine yeast/hop notes; with some chocolate, toasted bread, and light cocoa malt flavors; herbal/floral/grassy hop and yeast earthiness. Moderate amount of peppery yeast spice and light pine bitterness; smooth and crisp finish; touch of malt creaminess and hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Moderate dryness from carbonation and yeast spice. Medium-high carb/medium bodied. Super drinkable for 7.9%, minimal warming ABV. Took me a minute to get acquainted with this one; very unique, but very well balanced between all flavor components. Not too heavy on the malt character, but solid presence. No brett or other wild stuff going on here. Pretty standard saison strain, plenty of citrus/tropically hops, and clean roast/bready malts with no burnt/acrid character. Delicious. Will probably buy this again. 4


Never had an IPA from North Coast before, but today I have. Just bought this today actually, 9/11/15 bottle date. Very nice standard IPA. Aromas and flavors of bright grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, lemon zest, orange peel, light pepper, and pine hops; with some moderate honey/toasted bread malts and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine/spicy bitterness; nice sticky hop mouthfeel with light balancing creaminess. Light-moderate dryness. Really enjoyed this as lot. Nice juicy hop flavors with a good sized supporting malt backbone with going overboard. Very enjoyable 3.9


Cheers, have a good night NBS.

 

Good evening NBS BA's! Re-writing the review since Firefox decided to crash.




20th Anniversary Encore Series Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
Stone Brewing Co.

Pours a rich black with a creamy tan head that leaves some nice lacing throughout. The aroma is very much that chocolate, a bit of coffee roast with a nice smokey malt scent and faint amount of vanilla. First sip: The bitter chocolate dominates, with that nice coffee/malt roast and that bit of vanilla. This is more bitter chocolate than oatmeal, but pleasantly so.
The 9.20% ABV is nicely masked, but you do get a little taste of it in the feel along with some nice bitterness.
Overall, this is a pretty good chocolate stout and I would buy it again, maybe to pair with a mild Mexican dish that has charred poblano peppers..yeah! Cheers!

 

SOSUS wasn't on my radar...but it is now. Thanks @cavedave .

 

Greeting NBSers, nothing like starting your day off drinking with a new-to-you-brew after a long work week. To mark the occasion I pulled something out of the crawlspace (I'd say 'cellar' to sound more upper echelon but enjoy how vile and filthy the truth sounds) from the generous courtesy of the infamous @5EKF.



Smells wonderful with a bourbon vanilla nose layered in chocolate, mouthfeel is slick and silky... at first I thought it was a bit thin with almost no carbonation appearing when poured but out of the glass I enjoy a bit less on the palate and it's spot on. It's a tad thin but that's something no one who wasn't chasing whalez for the last year would notice off the top. Taste is very good with all the dessert beer notes I've really locked onto in my searches. Overall a very pleasant specimen one doesn't need to bend over backwards with bottle releases and ridiculous shipping expenses from the trade forums. Rated a 4.5 across the board. Cheers everyone! Hope that the first month did and the 11 to come of the new year treat us all well.

Rocked this today on repeat for a few hours and the boy enjoyed it too as he performed acts of 'magic science' with the Wacky Lab we opened today that he received for Christmas... yes we still have much more unopened too, the only child of an only child He was singing Free Fallin' to himself alone in his room getting his pj's on tonight


his first feat was making that hat out of a purple piece of paper and some star stickers

 

What is a plethora?

 

Don't know, never had an anatomy class!

 

Lizard King from Pipeworks Brewing.





Pours a hazy wet yellow straw color. little carbonation upon opening. The head on this beer is very thin with almost no lacing whatsoever.

I'm getting a good grapefruit & citrus sweetness on the nose with a slight hint of bitter hops. I use to drink an energy drink by NOS and this beer smells JUST like it, I was surprised by that lol.

Mouth feel on this is on point with the nose, lots of grapefruit undertones with some slight citrus sweetness with a slight bite of the bitter hops on the tongue.

I'm really loving the balance of Mosaic hops in this beer. I would buy this all the time if it was available to me locally.

I'd rate it a 4.45/5

 

Finishing up with this Lakefront Todd (Thank you to @BSiegs!)

Appearance- Dark cola with cherry red hues and a cream colored 2 finger head of soft and slightly bubbly carbonation
Smell- sugar, caramel apple, figs, dates, plums, some bread and a bit of Belgian yeast
Taste-Same as the nose with a light-medium body
Overall- Good quad but a little sweet for my taste. It says it's a Belgian style-quad but the Belgian part was very minor.

 

Good to hear. I've been sitting on a bottle of this for almost a year. I might have to pull it out for next week's NBS.

 

Well Hello NBS Friends of Fine Fermentations. It's time for NBS - the Late Night edition.
Thanks to Maria for breathing the wind beneath our wings.

Life is busy as all hell here. Had the pleasure (ahem) of dealing with outside "experts" who are making some good coin trying to "help" us turn our school around. Ah the life of the consultant. They tell you what you need to do better, you do it, and then they find something else...repeat. I guess it's the nature of the beast. If they didn't find something to tell you, they'd be putting themselves out of a job.

Anywho...We have beer.

Ballast Point Pineapple Sculpin

Looks great, like Sculpin does. Golden to copper hue, off-white head.
Smell is, well, less hoppy than the base beer, with some pineapple scent, slight citrus in the background. Flavor has a pineapple juice quality to it, but all the hops seem to be diluted. It really comes off as a watered down version of Sculpin with some pineapple juice thrown in. Finish even seems a bit thinner. I don't know about this. But I feel this one is a bit of a letdown for the famed Sculpin. Not bad, but just doesn't seem like Sculpin. Overall, I'm thinking I'll give this one another shake in the next few weeks. It has to be better than today's experience.

Well at least Founder's is here on the Left Coast. Centennial IPA is lovely. Redeemed my palate from the tropical fruit palette that was the Pineapple Sculpin. Maybe it sat on a pallet too long. <--A little homage to our @cavedave

 

I saw your earlier comment about Mosaic hopped beers. My favorite by a long shot is Yellow Rose from Lone Pint out of Texas. That should be on your radar as well. Probably by favorite IPA if we're not counting my homerism that still favors Elevated IPA.

 

I was anxiously awaiting the launch of Late-Night New Beer Sunday (Week 571), but given the absence of anyone else lighting it off, I am hereby going to do so:

Inception of Late-Night New Beer Sunday (Week 571)

My Whovian day was spent in the recent (Fall 2015) past, but I wanted to wait until my bitter end to add this one, a (hopeful) homage to the forum that pointed me in the CANrect direction in the first place. Carry on smartly upon my departure!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9797/33497/

 

2nd new beer!!!! 2014 Barrel Aged Ivan the Terrible which made its way to me by the famous @JayWhitson!!!!!

Appearance- dark as night with a surprisingly 2 finger length of head with lots of bubbles. No light passing through at all and no hues either
Smell-Oak bourbon goodness with some cocoa and a little vanilla and alcohol
Taste-Bourbon is the dominant flavor here and as it warms up, the cocoa makes its presence felt as well as nuances of coffee and vanilla and the body is relatively thin and very smooth with a little alcohol warmth at the end
Overall-One of the most easy drinking BA stouts I have ever had with enough barrel to still be good. Goes down easy and gets better with warmth.

 

I'm here!!!!!

 

Dude!!! My brother is in Las Cruces, and he KNOWS to bring me Elevated EVERY time he comes home. I love it!!! Thanks for putting Yellow Rose on my radar.