New Beer Sunday (week 578)

Greetings, all. It seems that the weather is mocking me today. After seeing the reports of the expected snowy day I hurriedly rearranged my weekend plans by Friday afternoon, and now there isn't a flake in sight. With sunshine like this it's hard to get too grumpy about it, but still, some important things did get pushed off. Oh well...

At the moment I am enjoying a wonderful DIPA sent to me by the very generous @Josholson666 as part of our NBS BIF #3. Many of my upcoming Sundays will be spent exploring this great box of Minnesota/Midwestern goodies.

First up are the crowlers, and by random chance I grabbed this one by Sisyphus-

Juice is Loose- a hoppy behemoth of a beer (9.5%).

For the gravity, it's surprisingly light on its feet. The nose is very fruity (mango, papaya, peach) yet balanced by just enough pine and dank hoppiness. On the palate it's certainly rich, but it never veers into heavy or cloying territory, and it finishes with a sharp enough snap of bitterness to keep everything in line. The fruits definitely hit you first, but that pine also comes to the rescue on the swallow. After a few sips I'm starting to get a nice caramelized pineapple quality mid palate, and the finish turns to grapefruit zest- it's really nice to see a beer like this with more than one trick up its sleeve. Alcohol is barely discernable on the palate, though my head and legs are starting to feel it .

It's beautiful stuff, and this crowler genuinely does make me feel like it was just pulled from a tap in Minneapolis and handed straight to where I'm sitting. A very satisfying and happy A- (4.3).

 

Thanks for posting that song! I haven't heard that one in ages

 

Drove down to Straight to Ae's taproom to see if I could put the finishing touches on my BiF box. It wouldn't be right if I didn't try out a new beer while I'm here...

This is their Chamomile infused saison. One of their small batch experiments.

The tea really comes through nicely and cuts the sweetness of their base saison. Very nicely done!



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22655/220854/?ba=richj1970

 

Hey, at least WISCONSIN is still in!!!

 

I can't thank @SawDog505 enough for sending a can of this stuff, this beer is pretty amazing and without his help, 'wouldn't have a chance to try this otherwise!



4.24/5 rDev +2.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

A - Pours a hazy medium orange color with a thin, dense, white lacing ring.

S - Pungent sweet citrus aroma.

T - Dank citrus resin from start to finish. Tropical/citrus fruit rind, spicy peppery, juicy red grapefruit, some papaya, and ends with a bittersweet bite of pine and citrus. Bittersweet finish lingers for a long time.

M - Coats the mouth with a massive amount of fruity citrus resin, so much, that it turns the inside of your mouth to a cottony textured feel. Finishes very dry.

O - A little bit of alcohol starts to emerge but not enough to detract from the goodness of this beer. The description calls this "balanced", I disagree; this beer is very hop forward and that's not a complaint! Hop heads seek this one out.

 

The IPA sounds good, but those lobster salad sliders look/sound amazing!!!

 

One more from the STA taproom. This is Sour Red - an oak barrel aged version of their Irish Red.

Nice tart cherry aroma and flavors. Excellent introductory level sour. I'm looking forward to more like this once their new brewery opens up soon.



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22655/220861/?ba=richj1970

 

After Maria's and your post, my mouth's officially watering!

 

Missed the AM action as I was at the Chocolate and Coffee fest here in Albuquerque... Something each of you should consider if you like coffee or chocolate (or both...or......... beer!):









But let's talk new beer. As you might recall, I've spread a vertical over three weeks and today we reach the conclusion of the Stone woot stouts. Here's the original lineup again:



And today's version 1.0, the original:





And the scores and alla that:

3.97/5 rDev -2%
look: 5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Bomber into an oversized cognac glass.

Starts with a nice and thick viscous pour, deep brown in color with blonde hues. In the glass it's black with a khaki-colored, plentiful and sudsy head. Lace is light but the thick film over the body is good to look at. 5

Gooey chocolate brownies and almond or hazelnut sweetness meet my nose. Weird that 2.0 smelled plenty of barrels, but 1.0 doesn't as was the case with 3.0. There is a boozy aroma but it's subdued and seems to have found its place within the beer. Some floral notes appear as does a roastiness with a coffee component. 4.25

Chocolate continues to figure prominently on the palate, but there's a fruity component that didn't appear on the nose. It's raisin, plum and cherry-like. I continue to get a yeast-y presence on this beer that I noticed on 3.0 that I associate more with Belgians or brown ales, although I've noticed it in some bourbon heavy beers. Funny thing is, there's no bourbon, barrel or anything of that sort showing on this flavor. Or if it is there, it's manifesting itself in a syrupy, nutty, Frangelico-like flavor. It's cool, but I don't completely love how this is tasting. I don't crave another sip to be frank. 3.75

Hits the tongue thick, sweet, sugary and with a kiss of yeast and carbonation. A lot of sensations but all in concert. It's definitely on the bigger side but whatever the ABV, it's settled in nicely and doesn't harm the beer. Nothing to quibble about here really, although like the flavor, I find myself searching for something more. 4

2.0 wins of the three. Not sure what to attribute that to, but it really stood out of the bunch. This is good and I prefer it to 3.0 although it does have the advantage of 2 years of age (I suppose some would say that's a disadvantage, so hey). In the end, this is a fun vertical and I'm glad to have done it.

 

Happy Sunday, fellow Beer Avocados!

Here we have Holy Mountain Witchfinder, a new saison that follows in its esteemed predecessors' path. Gently funky, earthy, rustic ... it reminds me a bit of myself. Honestly these days I see little reason to buy saisons from anywhere farther away than Washington and Oregon. And isn't that kind of how it should be? Cheers!

 

Sounds delicious. I'm a Real Ale fan. Will have to seek this out.

Sisyphus highly impressed me during my August 2014 visit. Glad you enjoyed.

Holy Mountain was the stand-out in Seattle when I visited last August. Possibly the best place I visited in 2015.

 

@utopiajane I was drooling over your pic in here. The beer for sure, but the food, wowza!

 

Currently working through another something new...

Bottled December, 2015. 10.8% abv.

Avery's Vanilla Bean Stout, aged in bourbon barrels with vanilla beans added...

Poured translucent brown but as you can see, it presents black in the glass. Medium-bodied, a little thin for my tastes in an imperial stout, but I attribute that to the bourbon barrels and vanilla. Ample vanilla notes on the nose and tongue, with an expected presentation of dark roasted malt and molasses-like sweetness. Bitter black coffee lingers.

Drinking pour 2-of-3 - room temperature now, the vanilla is far bolder than the bourbon. More chocolates come through, and the sweetness lingers longer... I'd say its a decent imperial stout, recommendable if you're partial to the style and flavor profile, but not something I'd personally return to.

Nothing new for the night after this, so cheers, NBS...

 

Here is a beer style that I am not very familiar with, Summit Sticke Alt.

Aroma of burnt toast, grassy hops, and a touch of caramel. Flavor is very prominent with toasted malt, burnt caramel, ans some grassy hops. There is a sweetness to it, a bit of toffee. Feel is medium, with prickly carbonation, and no stickiness. It is pretty decent.



This also just popped up on my weather radar... Not sure how I feel about a snowstorm this week... Hopefully it will just be rain.

 

Meh, you'll be fine. Maybe a little immobile, but stock the fridge well before the procedure and have a beer runner on hand.



Sitting on the couch at home after shoulder surgery, when the anesthesia started to ware off ... I washed a Darvocet down with a DoghFish Head 120. No-oooooo pain.

 

Who let this guy in here? I keed, I keed!

 

Good afternoon, all, and Happy New Dortmunder / Export Lager and Glassware Sunday! Thanks to @cavedave for another great kickoff... er, tipoff today. I'd been looking for this DAB for a while, and it finally reappeared on the shelves here. I picked up a pint this morning, along with this Loewen Weisse glass ($1 at Goodwill). Now, the last thing in the world I need is another beer glass, but this one really enhances the appearance of the beer. It looked almost like a snow globe on the first pour, with seemingly endless clouds of bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. The beer itself is a pale straw color, clear as crystal and quite striking in appearance:


This picture was taken through the bottom of the glass. You can see the source of the cascade:


I get a little funk along with light malts on the aroma. Taste is clean, with a pleasant bitterness and a dry finish. I wanted to do a side-by-side with GL Dortmunder Gold, but I think the one I was saving found its way into a bottle share. Anyway, 3.5/5.

Prost!

 

Happy NBS everybody! A friend of mine and fellow beer lover came down from Connecticut yesterday to visit. We took a ride out to Weyerbacher Brewing and it was a great time. It seemed like they had every single beer they brew available on-tap with a few special treats that do not get bottled, including Line Street Pilsner (a Czech pils), Insanity 365 (barleywine aged for an entire year in oak barrels), Sunday Morning Stout w/ cacoa nibs and lactose, and Sunday Morning Stout w/ espresso. Not to mention, a food cart outside selling tater tots. Can you say cheesesteak tots?!

Switching to the task at hand, today's new beer is not from Weyerbacher, but instead a collaboration from Dogfish Head, Victory, and Stone. I have to admit, I am not always the biggest fan of collaboration beers. I think it's awesome when breweries join forces, but in my opinion there is a greater chance for the end result to be disappointing since they do not always take time to hone the recipes and processes. However, this beer has been brewed since 2010, with the three breweries taking turns brewing it each year. Stone was in charge for the 2016 version, which they "infused the beer with a blend of locally harvested sage, lemon thyme, rosemary and parsley, and then dry-hopped it with Citra hops for a citrusy, refreshing finish."

Dogfish Head / Victory / Stone Saison du BUFF



12 oz bottle, bottled on 2/18/16.

Pale gold in color and clear with a frothy, white head. The aroma really "pops" on this, with huge notes of fresh herbs. You definitely get lemon citrus fruit in there and banana as it starts to warm. Again, you get more of the herbs in the flavor than anything else. There's some light malt providing the base for the hops and herbs. Lively carbonation keeps it effervescent and wanting to come back for more. It finishes extremely dry and clean with a little peppery spice to it.

I think this could be a very polarizing beer. I love it but I could see people being turned off by it. The herbal and floral notes are really strong, borderline excessive, but I am ok with that. It would make a great beer to pair with lighter foods like fish or poultry. The bottle notes say it's a candidate for cellaring, so I'm going to toss a bottle from the 6-pack in the basement for a year or so and see what happens. Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend. Cheers, BAs!

 

That is a standard 500ml bottle. New Glarus uses those for all the brewery R&D releases.

 

Does this count as a new beer?





The espresso I use/brew is usually fruity and smooth but gosh dang if it didn't become bitter as all hell when added to the ice cream and beer. The ice cream is impressively smooth and creamy for being soy. The beer? Hell, it's disappeared in this medley of ingredients. But the combination of all is pretty nice.