New Beer Sunday (Week 599)

#2 .....



My first sour stout! It pours a dark brown (looks more like a porter, IMHO) and the minimal tan head disappears almost immediately. The aromas are dar chocolate, roasty char, and sour - lots and lists of sour.

The taste has waves of sour, all the way through the taste - and then some dark chocolate and roasty flavors at the end to rein the sour in just a bit. The feel is over the top, just wave after wave of effervescent magnificence.

And now I've gotta search for more sour stouts. Rated 4.26.

 

Happy NBS!!
Off early this Sunday. Was hoping to watch some football but I guess it's on some channel I don't get or some BS??
Been doing some trades lately getting some amazing beer. Getting that package and opening it is the best feeling ever Haha.
Anyway this is a beer that came as an extra and surprised the absolute hell out of me!
Parish brewing- Envie pale ale.

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L: Super hazy orange. Looks like juice. Finger of head left some nice lacing.
S: Pinneapple, manjo..passion fruit juice.
Amazing. Maybe even some coconut?
T: Nice touch of some sweet malts with tons of hop juice character just like the smell.
F: Very nice mouthfeel soft, juicy...velvety. very slightly sticky.
O: Probably one of the best pale ales Ive had..from the look to feel it surprised me.
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Be back in a bit with another from parish!
Cheers!

 

Greetings All:

Checking in from the Columbia Basin with the last of my recently acquired Canadian brews. The Griz Pale Ale from Fernie Brewing:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3795/12724/

One of the better Canadian beers I've had, a light crisp clean pale ale with a lot of flavor. Fernie is on the travel list, probably for next summer. We really enjoyed our trip to BC last month. We will put the brewery on the itinerary.

Seasonal and warm here today. Temps in the low 90's. Wheat harvest is wrapping up and early in the morning there is a hint of fall in air. I saw some SA Oktoberfest in a grocery store this week, but it's way too early for that.

Until next time,

Happy Trails!

 

Back again NBS-ers! Couldn't let this one sit in the fridge until next week!

Stone Farking Wheaton W00tstout


Let me preface this by saying this was a surprise find at the store yesterday! Went to go pick up my 1 bottle allotment of CCB Marshal Zhukov's...and lo and behold! 2 bottles of W00tstout on the shelf! Done!


So let's get at it!!



Bottled on 07/06/16.

Poured into my Snorkel glass and the body is a deep dark brown, hinging on black. Some reddish mahogany along the edges of the glass. A 1/2 finger of head, that dissipated to a then cap that lives along the edges of the glass.

Of course there's bourbon on the nose, but also getting some vanilla and coconut and some spiciness. Roasted malts. Espresso.

Bourbon up front, vanilla, roasted malts. Getting some bittersweet chocolate, some nuttiness, tons of sweetness. Wasn't expecting this to be as easy to drink as it is. 13% abv? Sure doesn't drink like it...to easy.

Mouth feel is light and thinner than expected for an Imperial stout. Has kind of a syrupy-tacky kind of after taste/feel. Again, 13% abv is not really there to me; dangerous as this is easy to drink.

Overall, I think this is a fairly decent Imperial stout; great aromas and taste, however it is a little thin and I was expecting something a little bit...bigger. Something to punch you in the palate with big roast and spiciness from the rye. I do get some of that pecan taste to it like a smooth addition right in the middle. There's just enough bourbon barrel presence as well. It is really easy to drink, no doubt, but...I wanted more. This is not to say I think this is a loser, by no means is that the case, but I was hopeful for a lot more. Not upset that I bought 2 bottles either, it's still a top notch brew!

Cheers!

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @utopiajane for getting us rolling this morning. Not much going on here, my desktop has been having overheating problems for some reason. Need to build a new one soon. I have an overwhelming number of new beers I need to review. Seems like getting to 5000+ will be easier than I thought. New beer keeps popping up every week, and Michigan just got more new breweries as well.

New beers for today:

This was pretty nice. Aromas and flavors of tangerine, apricot, peach, pear, pineapple, mango, papaya, berry, lemon zest, orange peel, pepper, and pine hops; honey, light caramel, toasted biscuit malt; and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Moderate piney/peppery bitterness. Medium bodied with balanced sticky/resinous hops and grainy malt creaminess in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing resinous dryness; minimal lingering hop astringency. Very unique IPA. This uses all Aussie hops; but I think Oskar Blues did it better than this, with the Blue IPA. Still very enjoyable. 3.68


To Ol Gose with rose hips. Really nice! Aromas and flavors of tart lemon, lime, peach, pear, green apple, berry, guava, citrus peel, sea salt, pepper, wheat, and bread dough; with some hay, straw, floral, and light lacto funk notes. Light-moderate tartness/spice on the finish. Medium bodied with balanced wheat creaminess and lactic acidity in the mouthfeel; with light stickiness/salinity as well. Light-moderate dryness from acidity. Really well balanced for a Gose. Not as sour as I expected, but there is still a nice amount of acidity. Extremely refreshing and smooth, due to balanced flavors and tartness. 3.9


3.5 year old BBA RIS. This was excellent!! Aromas and flavors of big milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, caramel, vanilla, toffee, molasses, coconut, toasted oak, and bourbon; with lighter notes of leather, tobacco, dark fruit, coffee, and smoke. Bittersweet balanced roasted finish. Medium-full bodied with a nice creamy/silky mouthfeel; with light sticky/chalky roast, and minimal dryness. Extremely smooth with minimal warming for 10%. The integration of barrel notes with the roast malt is pretty much perfectly balanced at this point. Very well rounded in stout complexity with big barrel presence; and no associated booze from the barrel. I was a big fan! 4.1


Cheers, have a good night NBS

 

Greeting NBS peeps...thanks for another great start from @utopiajane as always setting the standard.

Has anybody mentioned that it is hot and humid here in the kingdom? Well, it is. There have been thunderstorms bracketing the castle to the south and north. Watching the radar, it has been like we are in a little alley between storms the past couple if days. We finally got a little rain last night/early this morning with minimal thunder and lightning. After a brief respite yesterday, though, the sauna is back in full force.

We now have new floors in the kitchen and TV room, cabinets installed, counter top template done and waiting the call to say it is ready...finish line is in sight. Paint...easy. Sort out 30 years of accumulated kitchen crap, figure out what we really need and where to put it..freakin' impossible. One minimalist and one gadget lover...aint working. As if his wasnt enough...what do we do? We go order flooring for the next two rooms. Thank God above it is a month out... Furniture...a life time of hand me downs from various will-intentioned sources needs final disposition. And lookng for a home for an empty 135 gallon aquarium that I can't possibly move and no longer want to set up and maintain...heading to Aquarium Advocate shortly.

Plain old hot dogs for Sunday dinner, garden fresh tomatoes on the side. Livin' the dream, baby.

Enough of that nonsense...what be in the glass? Pretty tame by the standards being set previously, but I am enjoying a Dogfish Head Festina Peche for the first time today. The beer poured into my tumbler a perfectly clear straw color. Fizzy, short-lived head. Pretty decent looking, similar to others in the berliner style that I have tried. The aroma is very mildly funky, pretty good level of peach, slightly yeasty, and a bit grassy/herbal. The initial taste is a moderate sourness that morphs into a sour peach, I would almost say more towards apricot. There is just enough malt presnt on the back of the swallow to give it just a touch of sweetness and a bit of bitterness. It does start to cling a bit, but not syrupy. Like a peach, I suppose. The feel is lively, drying, and a sensation of eating fruit that makes no sense and I can't describe it any better. Maybe it is the way the taste progresses that gives me that feeling. Certainly a refreshing brew, tasty enough, that I feel coming down in the 3.75 landing zone.

Cheers, folks!

 

One more before I go. This Spencer Trappist sat around my son's house for a while, so I wanted to see if it was alive. I have read varying reports on this one, and was curious if age might diminish the beer. I had instant qualms when this spewer needed a beer whisperer to settle it down...enter Martha, who says, "It's like one of those Chouffe beers, or Otter Creek Imperial IPA". Nailed it. I thought the beer would be awful, but it did settle down and looked nice in the glass. I enjoyed my taste, noting very Belgian yeastiness, a certain richness, bright aromatics, with that balance of sweet and dry that defies words. But not for me. It was an easy drinking and better beer than I ever thought. But she drank this one.
I was going to provide a link to Bobby Kennedy's speech in Indianapolis, letting the crowd know that Martin Luther King had just been assassinated (1968). Just check it out if you will.


I was scheduled to intern with the RFK group later that Summer and Fall, but this is the music we were listening to shortly thereafter...and still love.

 

OK - I have had this beer before, but before I got into craft - this is the beer that got me into craft. Had it 5 months out of season and loved it, could not find it for 7 months, then when I found it in season, I hated it. In the effort to find it I found out about craft and found this site and you folks. Figured I would have another go and do a real review...

Odell Mountain Standard Double Black India Pale Ale, 9.5% ABV, IBU 65, style is American Black Ale. Pours medium viscosity and black, one finger of tan head, some lacing. Nose is fruity hops, malt, and alcohol. Taste follows, with some bitterness. I should mention that this was bottled in January so some of the bitterness I disliked fresh has been muted, as with the first time I tried it. Good mouthfeel. Overall decent - can't say it's a favorite but if I get this again I would age it.

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! A beautiful, hot, sunny day here in the Fourth Corner. I'm house-sitting for friends, so did some yard stuff, and walked the dog a couple times. Managed to catch some of the Mariner win over the A's, and am now settling in with my Cards taking on the their arch-enemies, the teensy ursas.

A new brewery finally opened in my town Friday, and I was able to stop in to Gruff Brewing, officially, for a few brews yesterday. Then I opened some bottles with friends last night, so I wasn't exactly bright-eyed and bushy tailed this morning.

In a bit of a change of pace, I'm ticking some more "mainstream" brews today, and the first was a gift from a coworker that I likely wouldn't have chosen myself: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/579/104508/

Got a couple more on deck, be back later.

 

Back with a second new beer!

I was actually fortunate enough to meet the brewer of this thing and man was he a class act. I was checking out at a hole in the wall brewery and started shooting the shit with this old dude wearing shorts and a tommy bahama shirt. This old dude ended up being Ken Schmidt and it was very cool hearing his story and how different the beer industry was when he first started out. He brews a mean beer and his Hawaii influence makes me like him even more! Here's the review I ended up with...

4.31/5 rDev -0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours completely black with a head that vanishes very quickly. No lacing whatsoever. Smell is heavy on roasted coconut, macadamia nut, and vanilla. Taste is sweet as shit! Coffee is the predominant flavor combined with coconut flakes and roasted malt with big vanilla on the aftertaste. Some cinnamon and brown sugar is in there also. This thing is a straight dessert. It would be amazing with some vanilla ice cream. Feel is a bit on the thin side but it still drinks very nicely. Overall a solid beer but you need to have a sweet tooth for this one!

 

New Beer Sunday: A new German style Pils.

Evenin' NBSers with special greetings to those pursing possibly enjoyable Pils beers to enjoy.

Well, I did manage to get back with a 2nd new beer. The weather here stayed "nice" today as the heat index didn't get over 107. () Fortunately the Central Air performed well so we've been comfortable most of the day, except for occasional trips outside. (But even then errands that had to be run were run in a car with "central" air as well. )

This evening's new beer is the Arrogant Brewing's Who You Callin Wussie? German style Pils.

As usualy my review is in progress and subject to revision until the beer is finished. The review appears here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/43153/225609/?ba=drtth#review

For me this is an enjoyable beer with its aromas and flavors filled with lots of grassy, floral and spicy hop character. The malt shows but plays a supporting role to smooth out any roughness and provide a bit of bready sweetness. As for having it again, the "1st world" problem I'm faced with is that SEPA is an area with lots of high quality Pils beers brewed pretty much locally, so I suspect this beer won't bump any of the five currently in my regular rotation (Stoudts Pils, Victory's Prima Pils, Troeg's Sunshine Pils, Neshaminy Creek's Trauger Pils, and Sly Fox's Pikeland Pils). (However, I think I may have to do a side by side with the Pivo Pils if I decide to buy more of a "foreign" Pils. )

The music on the player tonight is part of a Rossini Opera and it is also music for people who think they don't like Classical music or Opera. The link below is to a performance of part of the Overture to a fairly well known Opera and has been used in what might be affectionately described on TV or in the movies as a "horse Opera." I suspect anyone who takes the time to take a listen will recognize having heard this bit of music before.

Music alert--from a Rossini opera.

Cheers, all!

Edit: One of the valuable things about this site, for me, is what I can learn from other people. My morning beer was a Grisette from Sly Fox. In the post I made a very brief mention (cause I didn't know anything more ) of something about the history of Saisons and Grisettes. Not long afterwards @zid posted a link to a post he'd made in his rapidly-becoming-epic thread about his exploration of Saisons. In that post he describes a great deal of historical and other detail about Grisettes and their history as part of the family of Farmhouse ales along with their kin the Saisons. After reading through his long post the first thing I did was to "like" it. I would certainly recommend it as reading for anyone interested in Saisons, Grisettes, and Farmhouse Ales in general.

 

This kind of post would have had a nice home this upcoming Thursday .

 

Hello gang, wasn't sure I was going to get around to a review after a long day of paddling the Galien River, hitting up Greenbush for lunch and then stopping at my bro's for our Sunday session. Internet connectivity sucked which kept me from posting something from location which I love to do. Here I am on the patio watching the Cubs-Cards and feeling content that I made another day of life count. Life and summer have a lot in common as they're too fleeting. Let's continue today's positive experience with a new beer!

A stop at my favorite place around the lake known as Greenbush yielded today's new beer. Let's pop the crown on this 12oz. bottle of Phd that's dated 07/11/16 listed as a malt liquor, has a abv. of 8.8% and pour it in the 13oz. Greenbush snifter/tulip for the Sunday evening drive.

It pours a nearly transparent gold color leaving a couple centimeters of white foam. The smell is sweet corn syrup, cereal, and something along the line of allspice. Taste is sugary sweet with cereal grains, cardboard and mild spice. Feel is medium bodied, slick, wet and very drinkable for the abv.



While it's nothing reminiscent of the malt liquors I drank in my misspent youth which tasted more like cheap perfume, I was intrigued by a craft brewery version of the style. The release said it was brewed with Frosted Flakes which sealed the deal. They're Great after all! In short it tasted like water seeped in Frosted Flakes with a slight hint of spice. Not bad, pretty drinkable for the high abv., but didn't take me down malt liquor memory lane. Worth a shot for fans of the style and the curious. It does make me want to revisit the style now. My score was 3.32 / rDev -8.0%.

Have a great week, here's a couple pics from the float this morning and the official scorecard below.





https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/misc/quick-navigation-menu

 

What's happening Thursday?

 

Wow, Kona...

Haven't had one of their beers since I don't know when, and not a whole lot ever. I don't dislike them, in fact I tend to think of them as a safe choice if in a bar with a crappy beer selection. However, much like you, living in this part of the country, and in a decent-sized city, I'm happy to say that this particular scenario hasn't happened to me in a number of years.

 

Happy Birthday!!!

 

Perhaps I'm not advertising enough :

 

Up next is a beer from a brand that is generally brewed in a Miller factory in LA, yet this one was brewed in an Inbev facility in Washington. Very incestuous, now that Inbev owns Miller, and Pabst owns so many old school brands: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/447/237102/?ba=beertunes#review

 

I'm gonna do three quickies here.



Troegs Nimble Giant

I know I'm late to the party with reacting to this beer now. I also feel like my impressions of it are waaayy different than others. There's a syrupy malt sweetness that's just intense. It's followed by some strong pine bitterness and a little fruitiness, but it's always on top of the malt sweetness. I found this beer to be too much. Perhaps the weather worked against it. I loved the carbonation on it - it was actually a little reminiscent of a nitro feel.



Empire Slo Mo'

I've had mixed results with Empire. I've liked some of their beers. My last draught beer from them tasted like a something went very wrong but they sent it out anyway. I think six packs are new for them. This one is a Falconer's Flight and Mosiac IPA. The color of this beer seems very different from what some reviews here described. Frankly, the beer feels like a disjointed bitter mess.



Empire White Aphro

The next Empire brew was no better. It doesn't taste like anything went wrong, but it tastes like the brewers have no self control. This is a "Belgian Wit" with added lavender, ginger, and lemon peel. You taste the wit underneath, but this thing just explodes (in a bad way) with lemon, ginger, and especially lavender. I like some floral flavors. I like lavender in certain foods. This beer just feels like I'm eating a soap dish in a bed and breakfast with a lot of doilies.

Apologies for all of the negativity.

 

Cool tunes. All I know of Fleetwood Mac are a few songs from the Peter Green era that I've got on some random compilations of British "blooze", and the radio hits from the "hit factory" era of the band after Buckingham and Nicks joined (the latter's songs I've never been a fan of. I know, I can feel the hatred of all you who love those songs; I don't care).