New Beer Sunday (week 621)

New Mild Sunday



Forest & Main Snuggle Hitch

Happy three-day-weekend Sunday, BAs. Used the opportunity to finally make it out to Forest & Main in Ambler, PA.

Great spot. Pub is crammed into a cute and cozy Victorian. Food was fantastic. Staff were friendly, knowledgeable and quick enough. Beer is really good -- mostly English ales and saisons.

Snuggle Hitch is a dark mild served on cask. There was a thread on milds recently that inspired me to start with this one.

It pours a pale chestnut brown (which you can just see by looking at the bottom of the pic above) with a finger of lasting, creamy off white head.

It has a refined nutty malt aroma. Similar taste -- an unsweetened ice tea flavor combined with the weak nutty malt.

Fairly heavy bodied with an additional creaminess from the head. Very pleasant.

I followed this one up with a bitter, and my wife had a saison and an old ale that I also tried. All great stuff. Will definitely be back.

 

Happy New Flying Dog Sunday (Week 621)!

What a great few days this past weekend has been!

I was in Philly to attend The Grey Lodge's Friday the Firkinteeth # 34 on ... Friday! My FerMentor, Lew Bryson, was in attendance, as was Stephen Beaumont, who graciously signed two editions of his "The World Atlas of Beer". The festivities were overseen by Lodgemaster Scoats & it was like old home week.

I awoke on Saturday early enough to make the 1100 start time of Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant (Lancaster, PA)'s "Make It Funky" sour & funky tasting, led by Pim "Dutch/Butch" Harmsen & overseen by Mlle. Rasputin, my sister in monk's robes. I really dig that she is a Russian expat & is teaching me to read Cyrillic. I kid you not! One of my FGBS tasting group members gave me a timely ride to Isaac's (Downtown Lancaster) for their monthly second-Saturday Brew Review, where we feasted handsomely. I wrapped up by going to see Back In Black, a Mass.-based AC/DC cover band at The Village, where they affectionately know me as "The Metal Monk".

I awoke today at the crack of Noon, anxious to watch Th' Stillers' game in KCMO at 1300, only to find out that it has been postponed until this evening. No problem as I have beer to drink! The Chez Woody Bottle Backlog has led me to a Flying Dog horizontal as follows:

(maybe an early entry) https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/243764/?ba=woodychandler#review

then I got into the Saisons: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/182923/?ba=woodychandler#review & https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/182926/?ba=woodychandler#review

before things got Naughty: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/184832/?ba=woodychandler#review

and it turns out that I am a Horn Dog: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/2678/?ba=woodychandler#review

ending my Flying dog run. I may return if time allows & I can get my act together.

 

No idea about the dating. Maybe this brewery is new to the import shelves.

 

Maybe it's just me and my mood today, but I'm feeling like there are so many great glasses in today's thread.

 

Forgive me all. By now I'm sure you've figured out I posted this in the wrong thread . I've had this beer before, but I'll give a quick review anyhoo, just to be legit.

This pours and amber orange with an obviously rediculous fluffy white head. Smells of citrus, pine, and a simple and sweet malty graininess. Flavor is dominantly citrus, but somewhat artificial flavored. Pine and sweet breadiness follow. Feel is light, bubbly, but a tad harsh due to overcarbonation, and on the bitter side. Overall, this is a decent flavored IPA, but nothing to write home about. Cheers!

 

Overhung IPA from McCall Brewing. Decent, drinkable, nuthin that will knock you socks off. The book in the background DID knock my socks off! Coffee table style book of Elliot Landy's pictures of The Band 1968-1969. Full of never before seen pictures that are just timeless. No other band I can think of photographed like The Band. The pic look like the could be from 1869 or 1969. A wonder visual archive of one of the most unique bands of all time. And GO STEELERS!!!!

 

New Imperial Sour Stout, India Pale Lager and Gruit Sunday

Happy NBS everyone! Lucky we didn't get the ice this weekend here in Columbus that they expected we could get, so that's good. Just going to be an evening of watching football since I don't have to work tomorrow. Started off with the New Belgium/Clutch collab: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/71774/?ba=bluejacket74#review





Then had another collab ale, the Against The Grain/Hoof Hearted brew that @zid had today too:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26850/255763/?ba=bluejacket74#review




And then for my last new brew today, had a nice Koyt/Gruit from The Netherlands: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/514/4897/?ba=bluejacket74#review



Those are my only new brews today, figured I'd just put the all in one post. Cheers everyone!

 

Here's the last of the day. Haw River Farmhouse Ales St. Benedicts Breafast Dubbel 7.2% Saxapahaw, North Carolina
Pours deep mahogany, reddish to the rim. Tosses a huge rocky frothy topping, very promising all at once. This beauty has rich caramel brown sugar roasty light coffee focused aromatics. Taste follows, very smooth with an easy acid twang, back to roasted coffee leavened very smoothly with oatmeal. Damned breakfast in a glass, no shit! This is called a dubbel, but it's more like a great cross between and English Oatmeal Stout and a fairly big Belgian Dark Ale. This one is to leave in the glass over some time, to revisit several times. St. Benedict's Breakfast Dubbel is a very generous and contemplative beer.

Here's a Gaelic bit. Rhiannon Gidden's is truly amazing!

 

Ok, halftime when I started getting this beer ready, it's already starting as I get deep into it. This is a new beer to me from a brewery I've had quite a number from, Adroit Theory. We usually head to the brewery on the weekend once in a while, but I saw this on the shelves of a Total Wine. I have had the base beer Love of the Damned, which I thoroughly enjoy, but not this variation.

The base beer is brewed with Port grape musts, and this bottle contains beer that was further aged in Pinot Noir barrels. I really enjoyed their B/A/Y/S (one of their flagships, more or less) in Pinot barrels, so I am hoping this beer provides similar enjoyment.



When pouring the beer, I definitely got an initial little impression of a bold, fruity red wine being poured, though I got used to it or it faded fast. The beer is a deep amber to rusty brown. It appears to have maybe a bit of haze, but I can't tell for sure with a full beer.

The nose is very interesting - it definitely has that sweetness from the old ale - a light brown sugar to caramel note. This sweetness evokes some thoughts of bourbon barrel beers with a light vanilla note as well - wonder if the barrel wood itself is influencing my thought.

In my initial whiff, I also got a decent berry wine note, though subsequent sniffs where I was focusing on the sweeter side pushed these notes from my senses. Working back to them, they do seem slightly less wine like and more fruity, and definitely have taken there place as a secondary note.

The first note is that of the caramel and vanilla notes from the base beer - and again an impression of a nice BBA beer. It comes off as a little sweeter than I recall the non-BA version, but is countered by some weak wine notes, including a faint tannin note. Instead of adding to the flavor, however, it seems to stifle it. It's different than being a bad flavor, it's just a disappointing one.

Overall, I don't feel the wine barrel added anything, and might have detracted from the beer. The nose was more interesting than the flavor. I am not sure of the age of this beer (as I rarely trust TW to have the freshest stock), so that could be a factor. I'll give it another shot at the brewery if they have it, but going forward I'll stick with the base beer over this one.

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @utopiajane for getting us going. I know exactly what you mean about weather making one insular.

It's 15 ° in the city where Gonzaga fever is even higher than usual. I'm neither a big 'zags or, more generally, basketball fan these days. Football more or less ended for me yesterday, however, so I think I'll start paying more attention to B-Ball.

Today I'm starting with an IPA from Portland, from a brewery that does beers that are generally pretty good but rarely outstanding.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16353/222665/?ba=woemad#review
Meh.
I've got at least one beer that's almost certainly better than this, but I'm feeling a little beer ennui at the moment, so I may not be back with another today. I'll almost certainly miss next week's edition, at least as a contributor, due to family obligations, so I'll see y'all on the weekend of my birthday, which will be a more auspicious day for a (hopefully) memorable beer - or several.

 

Now up Night Shift Whirlpool. A tasty beer, drinks more like a session IPA than a pale ale based on the how hop focused this is.

4.19/5 rDev +1.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

16 oz can poured into a snifter

A- A slightly hazy golden straw with a two finger white head.

S- Peaches, hints of tropical fruits, citrus, piney.

T- Citrus, grapefruit, some peaches, some tropical fruits, pine, touch of malts.

M- Smooth, light body.

O- A tasty beer. Seems more like a session IPA compared to a pale ale since there isn't much maltiness to this. Still a great beer worth seeking out.

Cheers!

 

Back now after dinner with a howler of Einstock Icelandic Wee-Heavy.

Rich mahogany brown with a soapy tan head. Moderate retention and some light lacing.

Very nice blend between brown bread, caramel, and dates mixed with an spicy, herbal note that I'm not familiar with.

Smooth and silky feel. Very easy drinking.

Excellent twist on a wee-heavy. Glad a grabbed a 32 ozer, and would pick this up again.



https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/27839/239920/?ba=richj1970#review

 

Hello all, and Happy New Beer Sunday! Yesterday we were at my parents celebrating my dad's 81st birthday, and that always seems like a continuation of the holiday season. This time around my brother brought along some beers that he received in a VT care package, so I was able to finally get to try the Alchemist's Crusher and Focal Banger, which are very fine beers indeed- I even enjoyed them better than Heady, myself, to tell the truth.

Tonight I'm enjoying what's being called a Pilsner, but could also fall into the IPL category-

Greenpoint Rabbit Island- dry hopped Pilsner, featuring New Zealand hops.

As to the Pils qualities, it's nicely dry and lean, moderate body, with a ton and a half of clean bitterness in the finish. Bready flavor is at a minimum, though, and the malt really comes across as fairly neutral. This all plays second fiddle to the hops, though, and that's where it's not really working for me. The overbearing aroma and flavor is of lemon Jolly Ranchers, as in a dead ringer and not merely a suggestion; some mango and grassiness fleshes it out underneath. But every time I raise the glass to my nose those candies come flooding right back, and it's so disorienting and annoying that it "sours" the whole experience, no pun intended. If you would enjoy very bitter lemon Jolly Rancher soda, this is the beer for you, though . For me, not a drain pour, but a big miss anyway. C (2.4)

 

Alright, last NBS entry for this week! Cheers to all of the other posters so far; lots of cool stuff here, as usual. This one is exciting for me because it's something I've been hoping to try, but when it was first released about 9-10 months ago, the price it was sitting on shelves for was abominable. I think I remember seeing it for the low, low price of $35 at some stores. Well, who would've thunk it wouldn't move at that price, cuz I just got one for only $12 a few days ago! If this is good, might as well grab some more and age 'em cuz 66% off is a pretty sizeable markdown!



Comes in a sturdy, heavy, 2-piece cardboard box enclosure. The bottle itself is matte black and the label has some nice textural embellishments, likely meant to recall the oak this was matured on. Speaking of which, this apparently sat for eighteen months(!) on wood "from storage vats in the Old Vat House." These are allegedly the same wooden vats that Guinness' Foreign Export Stout was aged in during the 1800s before shipment to other countries. Kind of a cool piece of history here.

The cork popped with a surprising fervor and the beer poured a very heady, pure black color with a sinister-looking mocha cap. Lace is spectacular here, with a lot of tiered yet loosely-defined foam gathering around the inside of my glass.

The nose brings me back to my first few sips of Guinness' Foreign Export, right down to the licorice-like maltiness crossed with notes of vanilla, chocolate and blackstrap molasses. A light, playful herbal hop is noted but of course remains in the background, behind a veil of roasted barley and savory elements. There was a thread about "soy saucy stouts" on BA recently (one which is probably still going, actually) that very much appealed to me because I occasionally enjoy the rare "umami"-forward stout. Evil Twin's imperial stouts usually display some of that, for instance, and I enjoy the interplay of savory with sweet and dessert-like aspects. This has a bit more licorice and molasses, but still does retain some elements that remind me of, for instance, an aged bottle of Founders Imperial Stout or something.

Flavor is pretty much like a slightly-woody, fortified version of Foreign Export, with the solid herbal notes from the hops combining effortlessly with roasty, chocolate-y malts. Definite licorice and molasses, slight espresso-like acidity and a definite stiff tannic note toward the finish. Slight dark fruit is present as well, with a plum-like quality that comes across toward the back of the tongue, right before the finish. Wish I got more woody notes, as they really only come towards the end of each sip... doesn't feel like it has 18 months of wood aging behind it, but whatever. I also appreciate that they didn't make this 11-12%; as a beer that drinks a fair bit heavier than it actually is, this feels very fairly strengthened to a solid 9%. This has some slick chewiness to it, and definitely does carry some savory/umami notes on the tongue.

Mouthfeel is very, very smooth and easily drinkable but there is definitely more than a hint of ethanol here. Fruity esters are pretty apparent as well, as any fan of Foreign Export who drinks this will likely recognize. There's nothing about this that makes it worthy of its exorbitant release-day price tag other than its luxurious packaging, but for the $12 and change I got it for, I'll likely go back and get a few more before it disappears forever. Given that this is almost a year old already, I'd say it ages pretty well. Worth a look if you can get it cheaper than its hideous original MSRP, especially for fans of Foreign Extra (a bona fide classic beer, in my opinion, and one of my first and original favorite dark beers).

 

Greetings All from the FRIGID Northwest.

Today we have Guilt Coffee Porter from Selkirk Abbey.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28798/109761/

More of an imperial porter in my book. Long on booze flavors, and I'm not much on the style. But it is appropriate for a day like today.

Brew kettle was boiling this afternoon, a Biere de Garde in anticipation of spring, which can't get her soon enough for me. No trouble chilling the wort, since it is 9 degrees outside, off the day time high of 11. I just need to remember to haul the kettle in off the back porch before the temp goes too low.

Next week I plan to go over to the lighter side. I think I have an IPA or a Blonda Ale stashed around here somewhere.

Until next time,

Happy Trails!

 

I would certainly enjoy a beer with you at your retire party! Post Job? Beer delivery or brewery janitor is my goal.

 

So glad for a day off tomorrow after today's onslaught of skiers and their Heady inquiries. Also glad for this gift.



4.24/5 rDev +2.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Moderate pour yields a one inch head that recedes down to a ring with nice lacing after a few minutes. Yet another murky yellow, hazy-bodied IPA. Nose of tropical fruit, mandarin orange, and a little mineral aspect as well. Taste follows nose with a nice, slight bitterness. Very nice feel which masks the bitterness well. After warming a bit, I raised the nose, taste, and overall scores by .25 each. Well done!

 

First time having any Duvel beer. This pours very foamy clear golden color. The smell was funky like wet dog or bad citrus. High carbonation and crisp mouth feel. The taste for me was lime and something bitter, anise maybe? It finished kind of dry. It might have been me but I drain poured it, something seemed off. It might have been that it wasn't what I expected and this is what it was supposed to be. The best by date was 1/2018.

 

Thanks! Would love to buy you a beer, let me know when you're up. After Feb. 1 that is. I hope next batch of Divided By Zero won't be released until then.

 

On the road this weekend at a tournament, so I've got a special hotel edition for NBS, glass hotel glass and all.



I also wanted to feature the $6.00 bottle of Fiji water. Now THAT'S a markup.....

Evil Twin Imperial Simcoe Slacker

Even in a diminutive glass of questionable washing, this one gives a decent white foamy head and a little bit of fizzy lacing. Otherwise, hazy and yellow tells the rest of the story.

Nose has a pleasant amount of fruitiness and surprisingly little pine despite the featured hop. Taste is big time tangerine vibrant straight away until it tapers off to dandelion and a hint of that pine I was expecting.

Mouth feel is resiny and dry, with an entirely bitter finish and aftertaste from this medium bodied beer.

Enjoying this one quite well, as I feel it's worthy of a bit better an overall rating than the 86 it's holding at. At least an 87......