New Beer Sunday (week 615)

Lessbay ouyay.

 

My birthday was a few days ago and my five year old son gave me a gift that really touched me - a card that had two bucks in it and a note:


So I took him to the beer store today and told him to pick out a beer for me. The smart guy picked a beer that had a bottle cap he wanted so I could add it to his collection:


Shock Top Twisted Pretzel Wheat



This beer has artificial flavor in it and it actually tastes like it does. It's based on a witbier but it bears no real resemblance to one. The beer is surprisingly dark. It tastes like a really well baked soft pretzel with a hard brown crust... and no salt. When this beer came out, many were saying that pretzel flavor was the last thing they'd want in a beer, but I am actually very fond of beers that achieve that melanoidin hit through means that don't involve artificial flavors. The beer is very thin. If someone handed it to me blind, I'd guess that it was a Dunkel. While it doesn't resemble a wit, you can taste the wheat imparting a disconnected sharpness. One gets the feeling that there's only wheat in this for cohesive branding. Nonetheless, the beer works well according to its own criteria except that the artificial flavoring causes the beer to be very strange. Imagine a beer with no malt impression but with fake malt flavor. I bet that if a "craft brewer" attempted this they would aim for higher salinity.

Cheers!

 

Yes, there is another new beer tonight. That Mint Coffee Stout went down stupid fast, becase it was so good. Well, the next beer is even better, but it will go down slowly, because I'm savoring the beer so much.

I have never seen this beer before at my local liquor store. Since I'm such a fan of smoked beers (and I'll explain why in a bit), I had to pick it up.

The reason I love smoked beers so much is it brings me back to childhood. When I was a kid, we visited my aunt and uncle in New Ulm. There's an amazing meet market in Nicollet, MN called Schmidt's. When you enter the market, the smoke smell from the smoking of the meat wafts on you. It was always a fun stop, and the meat we got there was amazing. It still is.

Whenever I get the chance to go there, I do. It would be easier if they were open on Sunday, but they aren't. If I'm lucky, I make it once a year, but walking in there brings me back to being a kid, but this kid spends a shit ton getting delicious meats to bring home to wow my friends. My aunt is going to be 90 next year, my uncle is gone, but the memories linger. This style of beer hits my memories, and is special to me.

So, the review.

4.71/5 rDev +15.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

This beer pours an abmerish color. The head is frothy, 1 finger, but long lasting. The nose is like heaven to me, I love the smoke smell. That smoke smell takes me back to childhood, when we went to visit my aunt and uncle, we always stopped at a meat market on the way. The smoke smell in that market was, and still is amazing. That's what this beer's nose reminds me of.

The taste is, well, I wish I could convey the noises of joy I was making drinking this. The smoke is very noticeable. It feels good going down. Smooth. Easy drinking, not watery. Just an all around good beer. Damn good.

★ 594 characters

 

And there you go, NBS hopefully helping on beers send 'round the world. I found Pacificmost a very enjoyable, yet somehate restrained Gose. I had trouble rating enjoyment and style (as I understood it). My rating (no review) as 3s + a 4 overall, to indicate my difficulty.

Hmm.... you and @Roguer both giving this high ratings make me want to revisit it. I somewhat inadvertently led @Roguer to hopefully try regular Black Marlin. Have you had that? What did you think, if so?

That's a wonderful story! (from a BA's POV)

I appreciate the review from you of a beer that I think we wouldn't normally see on NBS.

 

Frankly, I've found this to be much better now then when it was fresh.

 

Ok, been a long week, and somewhat long day. I actually forgot to take a picture, but I am finishing a Sam Adam's White Christmas right now. The GF go this to take to a party, and the sixer didn't get fully consumed, so we had one for a review.

Looks a bit like a Witbier, no shock. Mostly hazy, nice frothy head, though I'd expect a little more to it given the etched glass.

Nose is a very interesting mix of the witbier light tart note, banana and wheat combined with a generic holiday spice impression (earthy notes, including nutmeg and a few other classic notes). Lemon actually seems to interfere slightly with the balance that is almost achieved.

Taste is okay, and up front seems fairly standard. However, there seems to be a lean towards a coffee/spiced blond that just doesn't seem to work completely. The flavor isn't bad, and actually blends together well enough, but still seems odd in a way that doesn't work completely. But it's also not off-putting. I can't claim to find a good thing, but can't claim to find a distinctly bad thing, either.

Maybe that's the crux of many SA beers - not crazy enough to be good, not poorly crafted enough to be bad. Or maybe not. This one is a Witbier-warmer that comes across as weird as that dichomatic style sounds. I think it's a tad better than it's low rating on this site indicates, but isn't a big winner, either.

 

CJ, it's been over a year since I've had Black Marlin, but I thought that it was a great porter - I gave this slightly higher marks as I thought the coffee was very well-balanced with the base beer. Foggy memory and I didn't give it a full review, but I rated the taste very high. The great balance swayed me with this one.

 

Ok, so I had this beer at a party and posted it on WBAYDN. This is a beer I skipped once but said party gave me a chance to try:


I enjoyed it much when I didn't have to analyze it for NBS. My initial thoughts were that it was vaguely similar to GBS from Hardywood (interesting side-by-side available). Now I'm looking deeper, here's my thoughts:

Decently dark beer with a medium tan rim that has a bit of lacing.
Nose has a stale ginger cookie note to it. This aspect has room for improvement, for sure. There is some chocolate, it a bit of cola note.

Taste leans more towards a combination of ginger, cardamom, and stout. It has a nice heft, medium, but brings enough carbonation to make it drinkable. The oatmeal stout nature is not hard to find, but also gets overlooked by me - but I think oatmeal stout fans will get it decently well. Funny thing is that I'm getting a concept of the cardamom spice (or maybe its interaction with ginger) that I'm temperately enjoying. Not quite near GBS, but an enjoyable beer to try.

 

Lost Nation Vermont Pilsner

The branding around this beer has some serious identity issues. It's a "Vermont pilsner" with a picture of Bamberg (Germany) on the can. What's wrong with Pilsen? When one thinks of Bamberg, they don't generally think of pilsner. I looked at the brewer's website to solve this mystery. The brewer actually calls it a "Franconian style Pils." OK, that explains the can art, but is a Franconian Pilsner a distinctive thing? @Lurchus might know. To further complicate things, if someone bought this "Vermont Pilsner" hoping for a pilsner / Northeast IPA hybrid, they might be disappointed.

I loved this beer. It's soft and creamy. The malt character shines. It's gold and slightly hazy. The grassy hops are clear and on top, but they are not overbearing at all. There's a bit of corn flavor. This is the kind of pilsner more small brewers should be making. A delight. The only problem is that this is fresh now, but it feels like the kind of beer that I'll never ever see fresh again.

 

Not gonna make it today, kids. Falling in and out of sleep and certainly dont want to waste a great beer and not be able to appreciate it and write about it, so Kiwi Rising will go to WBAYDN tomorrow evening.

 

Wow. What an eloquent, evocative, and pure sharing you graced us with. I wasn't going to partake tonight. It's been a wickedly busy, exhausting weekend. But I will raise a glass to you and your friends, And a second toast for that road trip story. While I'm a bit younger than you, I've had a few memorable road trips to see the Dead. And a few sounded remotely in the vain of your glorious trip.

To lifelong friends. They are worth more than gold.

 

As always, great pic Jim. A bit of weather today?

 

Hello Late Night NBS
Weather has been nice and cool lately. We had some strong, dry Santa Ana winds Thursday, followed by some really strong ones on Friday night. Lost a few shingles.
Went to a Bruery blending competition on Saturday. (They let you pretty much drink as much as you want. Feed you too. So I was pretty shot out today. My idea of a Thai Lemongrass soup inspired blend of Rueze and Frederick H (Hottenroth) was decent, but we tried for a Melange 1 with a lot of blackberries. It was really good, but so were many of the other teams' entries.

Here's to Bob and Joe, the friends of @rgordon . His story really touched me. I've lost a few friends over theyears. Some who I've shared some great experiences with. But as for my lifelong buddies, of which I have 3, thankfully there still with me. I can only imagine.

Bosque IPA by Bosque Brewing in Albuquerque, NM.
4.31/5 rDev +14%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Thanks @hophound
Dear Lord, what a glorious color. A burnished copper. Turbid rise of hay colored foam rises 3 fingers high. Settles to a nice consistent foam cap. Lacing is loose but sticky.
Aroma invites. Citrus gives way to a caramel malt and resiny pine. Some sweet grassy notes come through as well.
Taste is a step up from the nose. A glorious waltz all around the mouth. Citrus notes begin with a zesty orange, then romp toward the malt backbone. Caramel notes, some biscuity flavor and feel, sage honey, then pine. Yes, a resiny pine that finishes a tad weedy. Weedy in a sweet way. All these flavors sway to and fro. Really makes one appreciate the depth that a great malt bill and hop profile can deliver. Sooo much going on here. And it's all sooo good.
Mouthfeel is fairly full for style. Beautifully so.
Overall, my only suggestion for improvement would be distro to my neck of the woods. Seriously, this would be a constant in my fridge.

 

Lol, yes, I have said around here many times that the typical distinction "nothern german" and "southern german" pils is highy misleading and that one could argue for more regional german pils substyles. And the first one I always think of is "franconian Pilsner": With strong malt presence, but can be as, or sometimes even more, hoppy than your typical "nothern german" Pilsner. I also said that Bamberg, for me, is ironically the best german city for Pils. Pils is also quite popular throughout franconia. So yeah, to me, that label and marketing makes perfect sense.

Plus, czech pale lagers are quite different to what I would consider "franconian Pils"

 

Thanks for sharing the story of your son's gift.

It's also nice to hear about this beer since it isn't all over the place to be easily found (at least around here).

(Also, if you're a bit of a style ticker, you may not have noticed yot, but thanks to that generous son you've just ticked a reasonable example of one of the moderately difficult to find beer styles listed on this site. That American Dark Wheat Ale category doesn't include many beers in it's top 100 list. That one may be #18 out of 18, but it does make the short list. )

 

Thanks! A few inches of wet snow that clinged to the trees. I'm not the biggest fan of the white fluff, but it was beautiful.

 

Thanks to many for the kind words about the passing of my friends this past week. On another note, while walking the dogs yesterday in drizzle and 38 degrees we ran across Santa deep in the woods. Otis, my wily and very smart Walker Hound was spooked, jumped back like he'd seen a ghost. We kept moving along, but he kept peering backwards, looking for the weird little red man. He'll remember the spot I'm sure. Santa fear to dogs I hope isn't like evil clowns.