New Beer Sunday (week 607)

Just waiting for the Dish guy to come install new equipment, doing laundry (just misspelled laundry and the spell checker suggested "doing landlady"!), and doing a rare early NBS; Bell's Special Double Cream Stout, 6.1% ABV, 25 IBU. Pours medium viscosity and black, with a two finger tan head which lift little lacing. Nose is malt, coffee, and chocolate. Taste follows, a bit sweet, malty, not much coffee or hop bitterness. Good mouthfeel, smooth, overall a pretty decent stout.

Was going to open this thread, but thought I'd leave it to one of the regulars.

 

Well howdie doodie and a good fine day to you all!
Maria, I appreciate the enthusiasm, knowledge, and -- for lack of a better term -- professionalism that you open our weekly reprieve from the world. I feel like I always learn a little bit (a lot) when I read your posts; and between yourself, Dave, and the occasional guest-hosts it is a much looked-for much-needed, and much-appreciated introduction to our surrogate pub here on the digital wild.

Thank you.

There has been much debate* about the weather around these parts this weekend, and I for one gladly welcome our cloudy overlords.
In case anyone anywhere was unaware, today is the grand unveiling of the beverages pinballed around the country via Monkey, preferably defended by Knife in the fourth iteration of the NBS BIF.
@TongoRad was kind of enough to grace me with a bevy of brews from New Jersey (and elsewhere), and todays brew is so pertinent to the topic of this thread that not only is it a beer new to me, not only is it a brewery with which I was previously unfamiliar, but it is a beer that was not even in the BA system until I cracked this crowler a wee bit ago. Thanks Michael for the great beer and for following the intention of the rules further than I imagine you even realized!

Tonewood is a newish brewery (opened early last year if I read their social media right) on the Jersey side of Philadelphia-ish. Their Extra Pale Ale is heavily hopped with Citra and masterfully executed.


______________
The body is an incredibly crisp and clean golden amber with not much head, though that little remnant force exerts its will on the glass as I drink in the form of lacing.

Nose presents with a bright hop presence that defies specific categorization, but provides a broad appeal harkening back to classic profiles. It is brought to rein with a biscuity(?) malt presence.

Flavour similarly captures a bright jaunty Citra character without many distinctive flavour roots to trace balanced by a similarly nondescript but undeniably classic malt supporting cast.

Medium thin dry body with light sprightly carbonation brings it all the way home as a beer that does not particularly jump out at me on any specific metric, but flexes and stressed its seams ith with an overwhelming sense of competency and execution. This is a clean, well made beer.
The locally made beers it most reminds me of are ones that don't see a lot of fanfare, and don't make the ISO/FT forums, but that become well earned staples and go-tos for those who have been around for a while. Much respect to Tonewood, and much appreciation to @TongoRad for the crowler. Thanks Michael!
(also check out the sweet glassware he sent. BE JEALOUS!)

(funny** story: the handwriting on the 'ABV' of the crowler is... bad enough it could be my own. I am embarrassed to admit that it took me until writing this stuff all up to realize that the listed value was "6.2%" and not... "Gidi." I was trying to figure out for the life of me what the fuck Gidi meant. Good times.)

**story is not actually especially funny.

 

Did they change the label for that recently? I swear I always used to get that one and.... shoot I can't remember which specifically but there was one other that I would always mix up with Old Coast, and had to double and triple check the pack to make sure which of the three I was grabbing.

This was of course back when I lived in Missouri. We don't get Bells in WA.

 

Couldn't tell you when it changed as this is new to me and Bell's has only been in distribution here for a few months. It is different from the picture in the reviews.

 

Fair. Well, I hope you enjoy the distribution, because Bell's makes some delicious brews!

 

Good morning BAs and happy NBS!
I will break away from the "running" theme of stouts and porters and verve towards THE Vienna Lager. I just came back from a busy 12 hour shift and I wanted nice and crisp drinking.
Never realized what an awesome fit this slightly golden colored lager would be in the backdrop of a crisp autumn morning !
It pours with a short lasting creamy head. I'm guessing that it may have lasted longer had it been a fresher bottle. I smell some mildly spicy bready aromas.
Tasting it takes me of a few years back when I had discovered the subtle flavor of brown butter. I would make it again and again just to practice getting better at it. Then one day I applied some a nice load of local Italian white bread.
Bready, slightly nutty and somewhat floral and mild mild spice.
Bright cries and slightly spicy.
Delicious.
Prost!!
Great start this Sunday by @utopiajane !

 

What's up BA?

The rest of the house is still sleeping, so it seems like a perfect time to grab a new beer from @smanson56's MWK BIF. A box that was filled with tons of exciting new IPAs for me to try.

First up Mastermind from Fiddlehead with matching glassware.

Typical appearance for the style, but I was a little surprised by the lasting head retention. Aroma brings lots of dank citrus hops. Pineapple, mango, and tangerines - nice and juicy. Flavors follow suit with tropical and citrus juicy goodness. Resinous hops with some soft bitterness.

This is crazy drinkable. An excellent IPA and looking forward to tracking down some more Fiddlehead beers in the future. Big thanks to @smanson56 for everything. I'm certain that I'm going to thoroughly enjoy all of the things he sent!



https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/27919/99011/?ba=richj1970#review

 

Good morning and thank you, Maria, for the great start (as always) to New Beer Sunday.
Three or four years ago I got a beer mail from a guy in Ohio who comes to Maine frequently and wanted to know if we could get together for some beer drinking. He also mentioned that he played a little golf. Sounded perfect to me: a golfer who enjoys good beer. We decided to meet at my golf club on a Saturday, play a round of golf, then hit the beer joints. And that is the first time I met Dave, aka @SomethingClever. Since then we've played a few more rounds of golf, drank more than a few beers, and enjoyed each other's company. Dave is, simply put, a fun guy to be around. He is here this Columbus Day weekend (without clubs however) and we had a great get-together at York River Landing on Friday. Dave brought me some Ohio beers, and for NBS I will open one.
This is Clear Sky Daybreak from Wolf's Ridge Brewing in Columbus. It is described as a coffee vanilla cream ale, and the description is an apt one.
I poured it into a snifter and took the picture with our yellow lab Sparky.
The beer was a pretty gold color with no head to speak of.
Aroma of coffee, vanilla, and sweet malt.
The taste followed the nose. Coffee, vanilla, cream, with some late mild hop bitterness.
Very smooth and easy to drink.
Thanks, Dave. See you in the spring!

 

Thanks for the kickoff @utopiajane and its NBS MWK so I expect this tread to blow up. My sender was the generous @thebeers and I'm kicking off with Draai Laag, Aureus, a Belgian strong pale ale at 8% ABV and a nice 500 ml bottle which I just love. The beer was brewed with orange and vanilla, I got a very sour, tart green apple, some orange, no discernible vanilla. Have not explored many beers of this style, but very enjoyable offering.

 

I didn't get any vanilla in that one either -- then I read that they add vanilla beans for mouthfeel only. Supposedly makes it a touch heavier and creamier. Seems a lil bit deceptive to list vanilla right up front in the label there, but I like that one nonetheless. May be cracking open one of yours this afternoon.

 

Good morning New BSers! It's an oddly sunny day for this time of year here in NW PA and I'm going to get something more accomplished here around the outside of the house before the bipolar bears start migrating through. Right to the point:



Received from @Josholson666 in NBS BIF #4 – Thanks man!
Undated bottle at 42 degrees into a hand washed and dried JK snifter
Aroma - Grapefruit
Head large (Maximum 4.5 cm, semi-aggressive pour), off white, frothy, diminishing to an irregular two to four mm ring and a heaped rocky island
Lacing – excellent – multiple rings of tiny to small bubbles which connect by short thin stalactites
Body – very cloudy, light yellow, almost glowing
Flavor – grapefruit, grapefruit, grapefruit! One of the best grapefruit IPAs I’ve ever had! No malt, no alcohol, no diacetyl, just hops, hops, hops!
Palate – medium, slightly oily, lively carbonation.

Appearance 4.5, Aroma 5, Flavor 4.5, Palate 4.5, Overall 5. Rating 4.72.
Avg 4.31, rDev +9.5%

Wow! Iowa just got added to my beer run destinations! @Josholson666 is an extremely generous BA - had he sent just Todd and ZeeLander I'd have been happy and satisfied, but he went 'way above and beyond,as will be shown in upcoming NBSs. Cheer Josh!

 

Autumn of Pilsners

So here is the story:

Over a week ago I brewed a Wet Hopped Harvest Ale. I had three friends come over to help: they picked the hop cones from my hop plant in my backyard as I boiled the wort. It doesn’t get any fresher than that!!

Two of the friends brought beer with them which we enjoyed with our lunch (grilled burgers) and one of the beers provided was Southern Tier Pilsner. I have never had this beer before; apparently this version was first brewed this year (2016) and below is how Southern Tier describes this beer:

“When we set forth to brew a Pilsner, we wanted to pay homage to a region that is legendary in its brewing tradition. This beer is brewed the German way, and you can taste the difference. We even sourced the hops and malts from Germany! It’s light, easy to drink, and it goes just as good in a boot as it does in a stein. We use German Pils malt, 2-Row malt and wheat to create a firm malty character with a crisp finish. This traditional Pilsner malt bill is complimented by German Lager yeast and German noble hops. Pilsner’s 40 IBUs help it finish dry, the way a German Pilsner should.”

Time to drink!

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

Straw colored with a white head.

Aroma:

A moderate amount of bready malt aroma with an enticing hop aroma (predominantly lemon aroma)

Taste:

The flavor very much follows the nose. A pleasant bready malt flavor accompanied by engaging hop flavors (again, mostly lemon).

Mouthfeel:

Medium-thin bodied with a nice crisp, dry finish

Overall:

I really enjoyed drinking this beer. It is a very clean and tasty German Pilsner.

Cheers to Southern Tier for crafting a very good German Pilsner!

@zid @rotsaruch @RobH @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @Ranbot

P.S. I am only kidding about the Autumn of Pilsners banner (I think).



And a photograph of the hop plant used to make the Wet Hopped Harvest Ale:

 

Good Morning, NBS! Happy GABF weekend to all, especially those attending. As I posted yesterday, I was happy to see VA breweries win 13 medals (their second highest total), including a win for one of my favorite local brewers (though not in the style they focus on - those reading yet another thread about the ubiquitous state of the style might guess their focus). The most recent AB InBev purchase in this state also took home a golds for their Vienna Lager and Danzig Baltic Porter (both damn good beers). The rest of Central VA did okay as well, with Blue Mountain/South Street grabbing a few, along with Starr Hill winning a silver in the pro-am for Starr Hill and homebrewer Gary Layton.

How about you guys? Perused the winners yet? Gotten Tweets from you favorite brewers about their successes? Don't want to sidetrack this thread into the GABF discussion thread, nor do I want to debate the merits of a GABF medal. I was just curious if you are happy about any news from it that you want to relate as you drink your new beer for today .

Anyhow, typing that up has allowed my first entry today to warm a tad. I am happy I held of cracking this until today, as I can enjoy it on the appropriate day (not that it matters, of course ).

So I really, really enjoy Sunday Morning Stout by Weyerbacher, so I have hopes for enjoying Sunday Mole Stout as well. I didn't take the leap and buy more than a four-pack at first, though. Tipping the bottle, I can say the liquid does not present itself as thick as the sauce in its name, but then again, that would've been weird. However, it was a thick pouring beer that generates a nice brown head. The thick creamy head doesn't last forever, but has a nice stay before congregating at the glass' edge.


The nose reminds me of SMS a bit, which I'm not surprised at given the name, and even less after reading:

The nose is indeed roasted coffee first, then a bit of unsweetened chocolate. It doesn't come to me until I swirl the glass a tad, but there is some notes of the hot peppers in there as well.

Ok, the taste (also unsurprisingly) does not remind me of SMS. The bourbon barrel notes that help define that beer are purposefully missing. In their place is a fairly sharp tangy note, which was a bit unexpected. This taste appears to be the mix of the coffee, stout, and something I can't place. The coffee itself doesn't come across as deep roasted as the SMS.

[note: at this point, I decided to stop going from memory, though this bottle is last year's]


And therefore, I must correct myself. There is a little tang in the SMS, but the influence of the bourbon barrel aging quells it a bit. The Sunday Mole stout allows that tang to linger a bit, and as it slowly fades, a creamy chocolate note comes in. With warmth, the initial tanginess starts to bring with it a sweet pepper note to it (more like a red bell pepper than any hot pepper I've had).

The liquid is fairly thick, and there are very small spikes in pricks upon my tongue as the beer washes over it. This may be a little heat from the peppers, as the carbonation is fairly light. Eventually a little tickle of lingering heat and dare I say pepper skin sticks at the top of my throat.

This beer had a slightly unexpected flavor to it, but a quite enjoyable one. I would've maybe liked a little deeper roasted bass to go with the higher pitched tang, and maybe to see a tad more of the pepper heat. I cold see a little aging balancing the notes and giving me my first desire. Definitely think I need to grab another four-pack to enjoy, regardless, if the store still has any.

 

Mornin', Utopia Jane! That's a good beer!

 

From Benedictine monks in Germany to you! 4.8% alcohol.

4/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Andechser Vollbier Hell has a thick, white head, a hazy, golden appearance, some individual ascending bubbles, and heavy lacing left behind, on the glass. The aroma is of rich, yeasty, herbal white bread and some dried fruit. Taste is of those elements, with even more of a spice zing coming into play. Mouthfeel is medium, and Andechser Vollbier Hell finishes medium dry and easy drinking.

RJT

 

You just hush on up now!!!!

 

Rather happy choice this morning . . .



Score 4.14
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

A rich, dark reddish brown color with good cap and lacing.

There is a zippy fruitiness to the aroma of this beer that reminds me of ripe dark cherries. There's other stuff working in there as well. I don't really notice much in the way of caramel, molasses, or roasted malt in the aroma, yet there's a rounded fullness implying there's some depth to be found in this glass.

Taste is good, surprisingly good. One expects to find a rich sweetness from the brewer's description (caramel, roasted malt, molasses) but what I found is a rich fullness similar to a Belgian Dubbel. Rather dry in fact, considering the expectations going in. Dark malt forward on entry with that flavor sustaining and building in richness toward the end with a bit of the same in the aftertaste. There is some toastiness, just like the man said, yet the sweetness remains restrained. Bit of vanilla at the end and it's got some hops but they're so far back in the chorus you need balcony seats to spot them.

Full texture, no doubt about it.

Overall this is an interesting choice for the Fall variety pack. It reminds me more of a Winter Welcome Ale than a Bock Lager but that may be because Iittle hints of Yuletide spiciness keep popping up while swimming around in a complex brew. Nice one and all the better because it's fresh and didn't have to traverse the Ocean to get here. I suspect some of my fellow BA members may find a greater degree of sweetness than I did but it's difficult to pack this much flavor in a dark malt brew without roasty bitterness intruding more than it does here. A good effort and one that I would buy as a stand alone product.

 

Good mornin' NBS BIF #4, Monkeys With Knives participants, and other assorted lurkers! Today is the big "Share" day here on NBS, so expect to to see lots of fresh input from around the country. My sender was @superspak, and here's the list of what he sent me:

12oz can Blackrocks Coconut Brown
22oz bottle Petoskey Cosmati Mosaic
12oz bottle Arcadia Ales BA Shipwreck Porter
12oz bottle Thirsty Dog Wulver BA Wee Heavy
16oz can Latitude 42 Party at the Moon Tower
12oz bottle Saugatuck Neapolitan Milk Stout
22oz bottle Perrin Unfinished Business
12oz bottle Great Lakes Oktoberfest
12oz bottle Dark Horse Plead the Fifth BBA Imperial Stout
16oz bottle Oddside Touch of Red
12oz bottle Roak Devil Dog
12oz bottle New Holland The Poet
12oz bottle Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald (a long time want, looking forward to seeing if it matches it's reputation, and how it compares to Deschutes Black Butte, my personal standard for the style)
12oz bottle Smuttynose Baltic Porter (I love Smutty, and I love Baltic Porters, so this the early front-runner for most eagerly anticipated beer in the box)
And, intriguingly, a 12oz bottle of Wild Turkey/Oak-Aged Barleywine (clocking in at 10%) Homebrew!!!


I cheated a bit, and got started after work yesterday with this:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40894/176051/?ba=beertunes#review

I have to work for a bit this morning, then steward a judging for the local Oktoberfest, then I'm making a run out to a brewery out in the county to obtain a beer to send to my target (and, hopefully, drink their Fresh Hop brew), and I should be back later to delve deeper into the box of Michigan goodies I received.

Also this: http://www.taptrail.com/wander-brewings-cascade-coolship-fresh-hop-ale/

 

Since I didn't wanna go with any of the more "special things" I have currently in my Kasten der Kuriositäten (like the Ritterguts Gose, Backwoods Bastard, a bunch of Lervig and Pöhjala stuff) I went with the Ratsherrn Historic Ale - this is supposed to be some kind of "Hamburger Weisse"-inspired beer (no idea whether this style actually existed) with some other influences of older styles mashed in - unfortunately it doesn't say which ones.

Pours a witbier/Berliner Weisse-esque color, head dissipates pretty much immediately. On the nose, the sourness comes through the strongest. The other thing I'm smelling, I can't really define. Mouthfeel is a light medium I'd say, carbonation is not too strong on this one. The taste is kinda light, similar to a Berliner Weisse but somewhat different. There is a taste in there that I can't really define. A certain aftertaste, same as the smell. Can't put my finger (or tongue) on it, honestly. Beer is a 3.25/5 - like most Ratsherrn beers this is nice but honestly nothing special to write home about. In regards to local breweries I prefer Kehrwieder and Buddelship.

Again, excuse the poor picture. The battery of my camera still has to load.



Edit: I know what that strange aftertaste reminds me of, bananas.