New Beer Sunday (week 606)

Maria, the Tired Hands folks made no mention of Equinox hops; they only mentioned Citra hops.

FWIW I homebrewed an Equinox IPA last year and I did not perceive any green pepper flavors in that beer.

Cheers!

 

Absolutely! They have two locations that are walking distance (a few block walk) from each other. They now call the original location the Cafe and the new location is called the Fermentaria.

They get the most 'buzz' for their hazy hoppy beers but they produce other high quality styles as well (e.g., lots of different Saison brands, etc.)

Cheers!

 

Hey there. I've been working my way through the O'Fallon Pumpkin Pack this weekend. 4 new pumpkin beers for me. Can I be honest? I don't think any of them are good

1. The apple cinnamon pumpkin beer tastes like an overly spiced cinnamon cider with no pumpkin.
2. The peach pumpkin tastes like a cloying peach syrup bomb.
3. The Jack O"Latte tastes thin, too sugary, overly carbonated, and again -- no pumpkin.

So that brings me to this: O'Fallon Vanilla Pumpkin. 5.6% ABV

Look: Burnt orange body, semi-clear. The head is light cream colored and retains well, thanks to my nucleated Samuel Smiths nonic pint. Little to no lacing, but good head retention.

Aroma: Earthy pumpkin, finally! Lots of spices follow. Clove, cinnamon, subtle light pepper. Where's the vanilla?

Taste: There it is. The beer starts off with a distinct vanilla creme taste. Hence the ice cream cone on the label? The beer then heads off into spicy cinnamon land. The earthy pumpkin surprisingly holds firm, and appears again in the finish. I'll go ahead and say this is probably the best beer in the bunch.

Mouthfeel: Creamy and carbonated.

Overall: This is probably a cream ale dressed up for Halloween. A bit weak on the vanilla but at least the pumpkin tastes earthy and real. It's still kind of a hot mess. I'll say 3.75 overall rating.

On a side note, I'm making a rather large life choice. On October 31 I'll drink my last beer for the unforseeable future. I'll be turning 40 on Nov. 1 and I've spent the last 18 years or so binge drinking and getting drunk every single Saturday (and Sunday ) It's time to change and be more responsible. I cannot have just one beer. There are no other options. I drank 19 beers yesterday. That's a normal Saturday for me. This has been weighing on my mind and heart for a few months. Don't feel sorry for me. Be happy. Because I'm going to be. I'll become a tea and coffee snob, and I'll be a better parent. I wish I could control my absolute lust and love for beer, but I can't. It's easy to be sober mon-fri, but not on the weekend. Just wanted to give you a heads up when you never see me on here again starting in November. I appreciate your likes and beer fellowship. I'm not sure I've ever seen a Beer Advocate come out and put his/her problem out there openly, but I have and I'm not ashamed. I feel awkward, but it is what it is. Cheers to one more month of indulgence.

 

Oh, and I forgot to show my work for this week: http://www.taptrail.com/kulshan-brewings-fresh-hop-pale/

http://www.taptrail.com/aslan-brewings-azacca-fresh-hop/

It's Fresh Hop time, there'll be more reviews next week.

 

You can still do Throwback Friday on the 21st (though I am guessing your beer won't get into your normal rotation) .

More seriously, I wish you... is "luck" the right term? Probably not. I hope you find the balance you are looking for, and maybe at some point in that unforeseeable future you can find the time to join us for just one or two at this virtual bar. Cheers to the next month, at least!

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @cavedave for a great kick-off, as always,

Well into the 70s in south central Washington, where I am visiting the parental units. Been a good weekend for football thus far, with the Dawgs knocking off Stanford on Friday and my Eags overcoming a disastrous 2nd quarter to win in convincing manner with my avatar setting another record. Now the 'hawk's need to step up.

No new beers today, but I grabbed one (a White Bluffs Oatmeal IPA; Quite assertively hoppy but refreshing) yesterday with my Dad, at a fairly new place in Kennewick that will be going into the BA database shortly.


As you can see, our method of travel did not suck.

I've got a couple Bottomcutters I brought down with me, but that'll probably be it for beer today. During the week I had several new beers courtesy of @gopens44 and @beertunes, which I'll try to post later today. If I don't manage to do that, have a great week!

 

Ironically, I'm only about 75 miles from you, but there's no chance of any FH beers for me today (mainly cuz I didn't think to bring any).

 

Poured into my Lost Abbey long stim tulip glass bottled on 9/26/16 very fresh and 7.6% ABV and 80 IBUS! Pours a beautiful bright orange with a solid 1 finger sticky white head that leaves behind plenty of lace. 4.75 Smell is loaded with grapefruit, tangerine, mango, papaya, pine, passion fruit, and some lime. 4.25

Taste follows grapefruit upfront and in the finish, mixed with tangerine, mango, papaya, passion fruit, pine, and lime.4.25

Mouthfeel is medium slightly sticky, plenty of life, maybe a little dry, and crazy drinkable! 4.25

Overall this is a great beer, why they didn't get it out in the summer is confusing, but what ever. Long Trail have 12 pack cans of this next summer and you will this like crazy. 4.25

 

For today's NBS, I had this winner:



You can read my thoughts about it here.

It's great to be able to squeeze this beer into the NBS thread. Things have been so hectic recently. It's important to slow down a little.

@JuicesFlowing , your honesty with yourself is admirable. Best of luck to you!

 

Good afternoon NBS, thanks to @cavedave for the introduction and the colorful categorization of our esteemed colleagues on this fine thread. My first Sunday (any) day off in 6 weeks. Glad to join you again. Cool and damp here in WMass, we are enjoying the early autumn transition. Today's offering is from the Peoples Pint, a quite nice French Style ale using local grains and hops. I like the effort and focus that the brewer uses. The farmhouse label is tossed around quite a bit, if this offering were more carbonated you could identify it as saison, in this format a Bier de Garde maybe, rich and quite nice, while keeping the ABV at 5.5%.
Cheers all


Franklin Farmhouse

The People's Pint
Saison / Farmhouse Ale / 5.50% ABV

3.88/5 rDev n/a | Avg: 3.88
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Poured from a 500 ml bottle procured from the brewpub this week (No date on the bottle) into the modified tulip glass.
A - Apricot colored backdrop, gentle carbonation steadily traipses upward. Loosely knit cap quick to dissipate moves to the edges and leaves patches of cirrus style lacing.
S - Warm peach skin, 3711 French Farmhouse yeast, start things off. Honey spread on warm toast is next and with a quick rise in temperature a wonderful floral thread is next, orange blossom and lily. Very nice.
T - The taste spectrum is right in line with the nose, very well balanced flavors. Apricot marmalade, summer tree fruits and again that nice honeycomb flavor are dominant. There is a gently applied hops component that adds to the earthiness that I really enjoy.
M - A bit slick, the low carbonation allows for a lingering oiliness to coat the full palate uniformly. This is not a detractor.
The exit is highlighted with a quick hop bitterness snap.
O - Labelled as a French style ale, seems spot on, the base is more than solid, nice complexity. The offering is round on the palate and flavorful. Increased carbonation might improve the overall experience. The offering is brewed in support of the Franklin Land Trust which does great preservation work in our area, so high praise for the Pint for their continued commitment to our community.
Cheers

 

I appreciate that, thank you. I wish my brain chemistry were different, I really do. I'll see how it goes.

 

Good day fellow NBS'ers. I'm getting my morning/afternoon started with Jungle Boogie, an American Pale Wheat Ale w/ rooibos tea from Marz Community Brewing.

For those that don't know, rooibos tea is typically a fruity flavored red herbal tea made from the rooibos plant that grows in the South Africa regions. I've had one or two different brands of rooibos tea in my day, as I was a bit of a tea fanatic for quite a while before my craft beer days. This beer is also brewed with mosaic hops, and maybe some other undisclosed ingredients.

The first thing noticed on this beer is the beautiful red-orange pour with a creamy off-white foamy head. The smell is very citrusy up front with some ruby red grapefruit, orange, fruity rooibos tea, mild bready caramel wheaty malt, perfectly blended with the tropical fruit and dank woodsy earthy herbal grassy notes from the hops. The taste of this beer is mostly rooibos tea-forward, with some light bready caramel wheaty malts interplaying with tropical fruit and citrusy notes, balanced by some woodsy earthy herbal grass and pine. The beer goes down slick and smooth, medium bodied with a fair amount of carbonation. Overall this is a really tasty beer that utilizes the rooibos tea very well, while still maintaining a nice malt backbone and hop profile. If you like tea and hops, then check out this beer. Cheers!

 

New Mosaic Eruption Sunday
Today's beer is from @ovaltine and Toppling Goliath and was a part of my NBS BIF #4 "Monkeys with Knives" edition box.
I was going to be extremely disappointed if this didn't feature Mosaic Hops based on the beautiful label. I was not disappointed. Refered to as "citra on steroids" by many, these hops are on full display here





4.25/5 rDev -2.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a non dated 22 oz bottle right down the middle into a tulip glass, it is a very vibrant/bright, ever so slightly transparent, gold color with a bit of an orange hue. It has a moderate, soapy, egg shell colored head. Retention isn't great, but it does leave some spotty lacing.

There are aromas of pineapple, stone fruit, and floral hops. There is a strong mineral water/limestone overtone. What I/we usually refer to as earthy. There are some light, sweet toasted malts. Smells a bit like Honey Nut Cherrios. It smells excellent, but I really have to shove my nose in there to smell it too.

I am shocked that the aroma isn't stronger based on the flavors. It comes at you like a spoder monkey as soon a it hits your tongue. The mosaic hops really shine. Spicy pineapple, orange rind, stone fruit, a flowery boquet that evolves into a solid, lingering bitterness, light bready grains with just a hint of honey like sweetness, and some mineral/spring water. All of the deep, rich flavors all fade leaving just that earthy, well water taste to linger.

The body is maybe a hair on the light side of medium. It has a decent amount of oily resin and is very drinkable. Getting through a bomber is no problem at all.

If I had to nitpick, it is a little bit watery for me, but otherwise it is an outstanding IPA, if not world class.

 

I following up the Victory Festbier, with a SN Oktoberfest, wow what a startling difference. The Victory so much more on the creamy malt influence, the SN I'd say not at all. I'm getting a lot of lemon citrus with the SN, enough to be off putting, the finish is painful.. So glad I didn't spend on a 12 pack. My first sixer I thought it over carbonated, it's still there, but there isn't enough malt in this one to be a great Fest beer.

 

Wicked weed is day. Go 49ers! A nice saison, which is not my style, but more character.

 

Do they sell beer to take out on the premises? It's the other side of Philly so it's not an easy drive. I'd want to take some to go.

 

I got my early chores done and sat down to watch how the Lions can lose another one. I'm ready for some beer.
2 Crowlers in 2 days thanks to @boralyl 's
NBS MWK BIF. This one is Ripe from Great Notion Brewing Company. As soon as I cracked the can, I was hit with huge aromas of pineapple, dankness and citrus.
Oh man! So much fruit! Grapefruit, mango and papaya, orange and lemons. Dankness and pine come into play too. So much flavor with the right amount of bitterness to tip the scales for this hophead.
I'm having a hard time not crushing this beer. Thanks man!

 

They sometimes have bottled beer for takeout. Below is what is available today at the Fermentaria:

“***Bottles to Go or In-House!***

(an additional $1 added for in-house consumption)

Individuation: Florid

Blended orange hued saison 750 mL

18

Clourison

Oak fermented saison conditioned on clementines 750 mL

For in-house consumption only, 23

Ourison, Batch #7

Our bottle conditioned house saison

15

Shambolic

Dry hopped spelt saison 500 mL

12 “

http://www.tiredhands.com/fermentaria/beers/

As you can read above these bottled beers are not cheap.

If you were to show up for the day of their weekly can releases (typically Wednesday at 4:00) you can buy their canned beers (16 ounce cans – 4-packs). Typically those canned beers sell out in a few hours. Those beers are not cheap either.

Cheers!

 

Good afternoon NBS, hope everyone is doing well! Out to brunch, was going to get Bell's Black Note but the restaurant only had a case and this sold it all....Helldorado is a nice consolation prize. Definitely getting honey and some nice barrel/oak, pale malts, caramel, and hints of sweet light fruits. Somewhere between 4.25-4.5, cheers!

 

Happy NBS. Sadly WI could get it done in MI yesterday, but they certainly battled it out. I am really looking forward to seeing the sun again, as it has been gloomy for almost the entire week! I think sunglasses are in the forecast!

Enjoying a fun beer and my last beer that @jhavs sent to me.

Crusher has a cloudy deep orange color with 2.5 finger white head. Fantastic retention and lacing. The aroma is dank and very hoppy with tropical fruit, grapefruit, orange and some bready malt sweetness. Flavors of tropical fruits, grapefruit, pineapple and hints of mango with a bit of dry pine and malt sweetness on the finish. Medium body that is stick, but finishes nice and dry. Just another superb IPA and not one that I recommend you 'crush.'



I'll return later with a brand new beer from Central Waters.