New Beer Sunday (week 588)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, BA! I hope everyone is relaxing and remembering someone who gave the ultimate sacrifice so we have the freedom to have the greatest melting pot of beer styles in the world! I'm posting today from Rochester, NY rather than the usual CLE where it's sunny and unseasonably warm out. Of course being in NY means drinking a new NY beer.

What better to eat and drink during spring than fresh strawberries? This beer started out with a gorgeous aroma of brett, sour notes and strawberries. Unfortunately those didn't make it through to the palate. The palate still has nice Brett/funk and sour notes which I always enjoy, but those need fruit and/or malt which they enhance; on their own I don't find them nearly as intriguing. Unfortunately this beer lacks the fruit on the palate it says it's made with (though it was there on the nose) and it only has the faintest malt. So a bit disappointing after the nice nose, but I'm still glad I tried it as it's a new beer and one that isn't distributed back home.
Cheers!

 

Whoa! Now that I know @beertunes is packing heat I guess I'd better be a bit more careful what I say to him.

FUTURE CONVERSATION:
Him: What did you think of <hypothetical spoiled Whatcom county beer>?
Me:<gulp >Uh, it was delicious.
Him: Glad you liked it. Here's an entire case. I'm sending it C.O.D.
Me:<sigh >Great. Can't wait.

 

Screw the cases! I wanna be the Q.A. guy for his homebrew!

 

Vacation began for me a few hours ago after a whirlwind of a week at work ... literally, unfortunately. A tornado touched down about a mile from my house on Thursday and did a number on a few homes before leaving us. When I look at the line it ran on a map, it's freaky --


My home's on the west side of the map about where the "Rd" is on the first full "Boonville Rd" by the green half squarish plot that borders the road (that's a historic cemetery where I take Huevos the Puppy Dog when he comes to visit). Assuming the tornado ran in mostly a straight line, it got as close as about half a mile from me.

I got off easy. Lost electricity for about 20 hours and deadlines at work got pushed up early, but the lights came back on and early deadlines means early quitting time, so you could argue I got off too easy.

New Beer Sunday started early for me again this week. Opened up this new-for-me gose earlier this morning after getting off the late shift:

Prairie Artisan Prairie Flare


The review:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30356/196618/?ba=Premo88#review
4.25 (+7.9% rDev)

Funny beer in a way, for it starts off like a classic Prairie Artisan farmhouse ale. BIG foamer ... I didn't get a picture of it, but the original pour almost filled the weizen glass with foam, a head at least 5 inches tall. That happens often with Prairie Artisan in my experience. They bottle-condition for distance. And the aroma had a BIG musty barn lead note, almost funky but definitely dusty and musty.

But once I started sipping and the beer warmed, it settled into a more classic gose set of tart, salty notes with some coriander/spice showing through. If the label didn't say it had orange in it, I might not have known. Only at times is there an orange-like aroma, and while it is sweet, it also isn't. What would orange slices with salt on them taste like? That's kind of it, and that note showed up more in the nose than in the flavor.

Eventually Prairie Flare took on that grainy gose thing that reminds me of a yeasty pizza crust ... in this case, it even had a slight tomatoey zing to it, like eating the last bit of a thin crust pizza slice. It's a flavor profile much closer to Sixpoint's Jammer than Sierra Nevada's Otra-Vez, for reference.

Good gose. Pricey, but if Jammer doesn't show up around here soon, having another bottle or two of Prairie Flare in the fridge is going to seem like a fantastic idea.

Cheers, NBSers!

 

Hello NBS! new Belgium finally came here and I like them so far. This is the first beer from them I have tried; the iconic Fat Tire. I paired it with Chicken with Stone Fruit and Citrus and it went well because of of it's citrusy hop and good bitterness. it was nutty and accented the chili powder that I used to fire up my dish and honey has been a theme of mine all week. Use thai basil leaves on the plate only. The salad is pea shoots, nectarine, zucchini, grapefruit, avocado.



Biscuity with a crisp hop. Soft and earthy with subtle fruitiness. The malt expands softly to the palate with a freshness to the hop in the middle. Nuts. Sweetly nutty. Earthy dry finish with a resounding hop bitterness.



Today I am slow getting started but I am planning on enjoying this beer some more. Happy New American Amber Sunday! Cheers!

STP Down

 

A cooler start to the day, put me in a stout mood before the afternoon warm up.

Poured 22oz bottle of SOB into snifter. Dark brown with a 2 finger sand colored head. Thin collar and spotty lacing on my glass. Aroma is pleasant with notes of mocha and bakers chocolate. Flavor is a lighter coffee roast with some chocolate notes. There is some earthiness to it, but the flavor is quite good. Medium feel that is rich and creamy. I really enjoyed the coffee/chocolate balance blend in the stout base.

 

Greetings my fellow NBSers, and thanks to @cavedave for getting us underway,

Low 50s right now in the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis, and partly sunny.
@cavedave rightly brought up the true meaning of Memorial Day. For all of you who have served, Thank You!
Normally, having a rare 3 days off during a holiday weekend, I'd have made the approx. 150 mile drive to my folks place, ate a lot of good food and paid my respects at the cemetery, but the pic I got from them yesterday suggests they're not home.

As of right now, they should be onboard a cruise ship going up the coast of Norway. It's possible might be a little jealous.

Back with some beer a little later. As always, y'all are bringing it!

 

For clarity, I wasn't actually carrying that day. It was just what came out of my mouth, so then I was stuck with it, and I walked it up the scale. The other volunteers looked at me like I was crazy.

 

Sorry to hear about it touching down in your community, but glad you and yours sound alright.

 

Maybe they were just wide-eyed with admiration. I suspect you weren't the only one fed up with those clowns.

 

I use to open carry alot a few years back in UT. Especially when OCing, you need to choice your words wisely, and act very carefully.

Cheers!

 

That sounds really great. I don't know why I don't drink more beers from Epic. Maybe it's a subconscious revulsion thing triggered by Utah's asinine alcohol laws, but I tend to dig both Epic's and Uinta's beers.

 

My second and last new beer today. Since I broke my Boulevard tulip glass last weekend, I'm stuck with my Nutcracker Ale shaker Everyone is getting heat in their neck of the woods, Kansas is thankful for two days without rain. The temps are mild here but we've been under flood watches since last week. Today is beautiful, warm, sunny. Thankfully.

Look: Perfectly clear copper body with a light cream colored head that recedes to a wisp with a collar around the edges. Light spots of lacing.

Aroma: Citrus, and lots of it. Mostly grapefruit.

Taste: There's a nice soft malt backbone that drives this beer under a lot of lemon, orange, and grapefruit zest. The malt bill really makes this drinkable, and the citrus adds great flavor. It's brewed with passion fruit and grapefruit, and upon retrospection I suppose there's some sweetness from passion fruit in this. This is the typical "balanced" pale ale I always look for.

Mouthfeel: Medium weight, piny and clean.

Overall: Not tropical in the sweet fruits we assume, mostly citrus in this but really well done. Not bitter at all, but I can still enjoy the hops. Rating: 4.31. Maybe one of my favorite Boulevard beers ever. Will buy more.

 

Uinta's brews are pretty tasty, and I think Crooked Line: Labyrinth Barrel Aged Quadruple Black Ale is their best brew. Epic, I choose not to drink, for personal reasons.

Cheers!

 

@beertunes may have been bluffing, but I've known of a few Scotch ales that could easily provide impromptu courage! He may have sampled the goods.

 

Greetings! My new beer today is Reuben's Gose. Pours a clear yellow from a can, two fingers fluffy white head. Nose a bit acidic. Fresh slightly tart taste. Not as much salt in the finish as other gose I've tried.

Nice, refreshing beer for a hot afternoon. Cheers!

 

Greetings NBSers from Canada's capital city! It is forecast to be a sweltering 31 degrees Celsius here in Ottawa today (88 in F) with a humidity index near 40 (um...say 104). What's the solution for that? Air-conditioning and a cool refreshing beer.

Last weekend my buddy byronic was in Vermont and picked me up a load of goodies including the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Across America sampler. Today's new brew for me is Moxee-Moron Imperial Session IPA.



I have to say, I enjoyed this one. It was a bit of a mystery at first, as it does have those session qualities, but there are also some Imperial IPA qualities to it too. Hmmmm...what to make of it. In the end, I would call it a lighter IIPA. Worth a shot if you are interested.

I hope you all have a happy Memorial Day down there in the USA.

Cheers!

 

I believe I've tried more beers (42 currently) from New Belgium than any other brewery. I'm hit or miss on them -- I either love them or not. I tend to like their beers that aren't so Belgian-inspired, but Fat Tire is a classic and I owe my craft journey to it. Follow your folly!

 

It's hard to believe it is New Beer Sunday once again. Thanks @cavedave for starting things off right, and hope you are hydrated enough later to join in.
So, where to go from here? I guess the beer is in order.

Saison du BUFF.

This beer is insanely complex. So many flavors competing in it, but it works out well.
And my review here
4.02/5 rDev +4.7% | Avg: 3.84
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

This beer pours a nice golden color. It is very bubbly, but the head was minimal. The nose is very interesting: There's a lot of aromas that I can't describe, but it is very pleasing. The taste is very light feeling at first, then the flavor kicks in. There's a slight tartness to it, very slight. There's a citrus feel as well. This is a very complex beer, with a lot of flavors I haven't experienced before, but I do like it.

And in a few hours, my next project.

Grilling all this. There will also be another NBS entry from me while doing that. It will, more than likely, be Patio Crusher from LTD Brewing.
I'm already drooling over the beer can chicken, with the beer of choice Lord Chesterfield Ale.

See you all on the flip side.

 

Back with my official first beer of the day, plus a couple from earlier in the weekend that were new to me as well. For those keeping score at home, it’s now about 10 degrees warmer than my last post. I think we’re supposed to top out somewhere near 70. I think I’m going to try to take a nice long walk this afternoon, as that might be a more profitable way to spend the time I’d otherwise spend listening to the Mariners allow themselves to be swept by the Twins.


Yesterday afternoon I finally got rid of a beer I lugged down to my folks’ place, where it sat in the garage fridge for several months, then brought back up to my place in early April when it became clear it was never going to be drunk by my Dad and I together. My Dad loves carrot cake, but I think the idea of a beer tasting like it creeped him out:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/186802/?ba=woemad#review

Actually, I found it to taste like a really good Belgian Strong Golden Ale, but maybe all that time had smoothed the rough edges of it’s weirdness off. I didn’t get anything carroty from it, but I liked it a lot.

Last night, while watching a rerun of SNL pretty much just to see how lousy Russell Crowe actually was at comedy ( I think the relatively low ratio of skits involving him at all spoke volumes), I had myself a 14 month old bottle of First Nail, and it was fantastic:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/20680/157882/?ba=woemad#review

I don’t know if the cinnamon and licorice would have been more brash had it been a fresh bottle, but I found it amazingly well balanced, with the two adjuncts enhancing but not dominating the flavor. Great stuff for a seemingly old bottle randomly encountered in a grocery store in the Tri-Cities.

For today’s first NBS adventure, I’m starting off early for me, as I awoke rather early after going to bed late due to my on-and-off insomnia issues. It’s a beer from a local brewery that started bottling about a year ago. Although their address officially puts them in Mead, WA, Big Barn Brewing/Bodacious Berries and Brews is located on a farm in Green Bluff, an unincorporated area northeast of Spokane that specializes in farms producing a wide array of produce, most of which is available on a you-pick basis. I think Big Barn was started as a part-time adjunct to one of those farms, but has grown into being pretty much a full-time concern for the owners. I believe they started bottling around a year ago at most. I plan to hit the brewery sometime later this spring or summer. This is my first beer from them, and I just added it to the database:


http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35970/232849/?ba=woemad#review

An okay beer, but my local stout of choice will still be Iron Goat’s Goatmeal. In it’s defense, it is possible this has been sitting at Total Wine for a while, as it’s a pretty unknown brewery and there are no dates on the bottle.

I’ll be back later with a canned PNW IPA and will be finishing up with my second and <sniff> last beer from Tyranena, courtesy of @Ri0’s now mostly depleted box from NBS BIF #3.