New Beer Sunday (week 622)

I was at a beer and bourbon event last Thursday. The had this beer, and I never tried it. Now I regret my decision.

 

Sorry to hear about the pup. That's tough. He's a handsome old fella.

 

This was delicious stuff! This is supposed to be the base beer with caramel added. Aromas and flavors of big milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, toffee, fudge, vanilla, cream, toasted dark bread, and light nuttiness/coffee; touch of herbal hops. Light herbal/roast bitterness on the finish. Nice medium bodied creamy mouthfeel; slight silkiness and chalky roast. Minimal dryness. Really enjoyable. Tastes like those chocolate fudge/caramel hard candies you can buy; but doesn't quite get into butterscotch territory. Great balance with the base beer. 3.9


Bit of a gusher can this one, lost one drop. Really great sour stout! Aromas and flavors of huge sour raisin, plum, prune, cherry, fig, date, lemon, green apple, chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, molasses, toasted biscuit, and light nuttiness/smoke; with some hay, straw, musty funky; and light leather/vinegar notes. Moderate fruity/lactic tart/sourness and light roast/char bitterness on the finish. Medium bodied with high carbonation. Balanced acidity, creaminess, and lightly chalky roast in the mouthfeel. Crisp and refreshing. Never overly sour or puckering. Really impressed with this one. Really great balance between lactic/wild yeast, stout, and fruit flavors. Great sour and stout complexity. I expected the carbonation to ruin this one, but it ultimately made this insanely drinkable, I love it. Will buy again. 4


Wild ale #3 for the day. This is farmhouse Lichtenhainer, with Brett(as expected of Stillwater). Really nice all around. Aromas and flavors of big tart lemon, lime, green apple, pineapple, pear, melon, white wine, peppercorn, hay, grass, sea salt, wheat, and cracker; with light hints of leathery funk, and building wood smoke on the finish. Moderate fruity/lactic tartness and peppery brett spice on the finish. Light-medium bodied; balanced acidity, grainy wheat, and light salinity in the mouthfeel. Moderately crisp/dry finish; refreshingly tart and drinkable. Was hoping for more smoked wheat notes, but they do start to trail in lingering on the finish. Regardless, as a brett wild ale, this is delicious as anything else Stillwater has made. 3.9


Cheers, have a good night NBS

 

Stubbornly happy is a great description. Our 17 year old chocolate has seveal ailments, can hardly walk, yet the tail wags every time we are near her, and of course nothing has interfered with meal time. She has a new trick...let her in the door and she pins you against the wall until she gets patted. They are tremendous dogs...we just get the privilege of living in their world.

With her personal kitty.

 

Hi dear NBSers!!
What an amazing start by @JackHorzempa and equally enlightening discussion by others. Truly a joy to read!
On a side note, it boggles my mind how @superspak still finds new beers to review!!
I'm enjoying Six point's 5BEANS Porter.
A 10% ABV Porter brewed with coffee, vanilla and cardamom: nod to Turkish coffee.
This was very interesting for me as I'm very familiar with cardamom, coming from India, where most of it is grown.
We use it in deserts and also many savory curries too. It imparts a wonderful floral character. And we (as in Indians) use it in our coffee, masala chai also.
This beer pours a nice brownish black with a transient tan head. Some lacing is there for the namesake. Body appears quite thin.
It smells predominantly like a coffee Porter with roasty coffee notes mixed with toasted barley. One can pick some other notes but hard for me to pin point what exactly.
It tastes quite delicious with upfront coffee and then loads of floral notes contributed by vanilla and cardamom.
For what it promises to be (Turkish Coffee,) I have to say it delivers.
Mouthfeel is way lighter and wish it was tad more richer.
Overall, it is a very enjoyable Porter with coffee and floral balance.
Cheers.

 

Hello again NBSers! The gridiron games were a bit of a disappointment for me, but congrats to you fans out there of the winning teams. Alrighty then...Round 2 for the new tonight, and my second from Off Color courtesy of @FBarber .

Off Color Brewing- Dino Smores
Russian Imperial Stout brewed with all kinds of goodies! (See pic) 10.5% abv





A: There is a good 1/8" of sediment compacted in the bottle that I optioned to decant from. Pours a deep dark brown with hints of auburn in the light. A thin khaki head dissipated rather quickly into a ring around the edge.

A: Roasted malt, almost a cola like sweetness, vanilla, and some alcohol.

T: Lots of vanilla, almost like a vanilla cola as well. Some roasted malt and molasses follow along with hints of slightly bitter bakers chocolate. Alcohol is well concealed. Actually a pretty good balance of sweet and bitter, and a good aftertaste of heavily toasted bread lingers.

F: Medium bodied, medium carbonation, slightly slick and coats the mouth. Smoother than expected.

O: Overall, this is uniquely delicious Imperial Stout, but wouldn't exactly call it a Russian Imperial Stout. It lacks the intense roast, texture, and bitterness to be such.

Cheers everyone, and I will see you all soon!

 

So sorry to hear this.

 

Clear bright aroma. Mellow citrus aroma with pine, resin, and general dankness. Also mangoes. Taste is pretty mild with a crackery malt background and very light aroma. Smells better than it tastes.



Earlier the day had an Equinox Harvest Moon Brown Ale at the brewery.

 

Been watching a few more episodes of Beer Hunter, and here's a little part about wood barrels (start at around 3:30) - also Pilsner Urquell, circa late 1980s:

 

Good to hear from you Mr. Maine! I myself am a big fan of cardamom as well. Maybe you saw my bit on Christmas Day about Aebleskivers . Hope to shoot the shite with you like the good ol' days back on WBAYDN soon! Cheers!

 

Rochester Mills Bananas Foster.



Nice banana runt aroma with some trailing vanilla ice cream. Flavors of vanilla wafer, banana, banana pudding, whipped cream, and graham cracker all rolled up into a blanket of coffee and slightly burnt malts. The feel is thin for the style but this beer is no slouch. Full of flavor!

 

God, I would have loved to have a beer with that man.

 

Ok...one more and I think I am glad I saved this one for last.



This poured black and thick, zero head, but a few bubbles rafting happily on top. The smell is incredible. Espresso, chocolate, raspberry like tea, and I think a hint of tobacco. The taste is easy going initially, a little chocolate and coffee and the raspberry note floating over it all. Then it builds in intensity, growing more coffe-like with an underlayment of sweetness, definite presence of dark malts followed by a sharp, intense bitterness that fades quickly. There is a lingerin combo of the lighter fruit and tobacco. Wonderful surprise there. The texture is delightful. It is silky and smooth, leaving a little chalky residue after the taste finishes. Low on the carbonation, not quite as thick as it looked on the poor but medium to heavy body. What a fabulous stout! It is going to land between 4 and 4.5 for me. Worthy.

 

Sorry about that bad stuff, happy for the fast swimming kid and enjoy your time with that sweet puppy dog. She's a beaut.

Such a cool pair ... give that sweet puppy a pet from me (and her watchkitty ).

 

Hey... so glad you got this... and that you liked it.
Looks like I was right (you're name was on it):
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-582.407559/page-2#post-4697783

 

I got lots of apple in it too. Your glass definitely looks like it had better carbonation than mine. Victory claims that it is a highly carbonated beer. My pour might have been atypical, but I was even aggressively trying to get more head on it.

 

Wow, that was a while ago. This was the first time I saw these at Cable Beverages, and the owner even suggested that they recently got it in. I guess it took a while to find me, but I'm really glad it did .

 

Yes, can definitely say visible carbonation by way of a large head was not an issue with my pours. I did keep thinking apple cider most of the pour. I also did start getting a little more alcohol as it got near room temps (but not much early).

 

I'm so sorry to hear about the bad news concerning your dog. Congrats to your son on his accomplishments in the pool!

 

Thanks for the posts Jack! I get what you're saying - that back in the day it wasn't customary to put beer in wood in order to gain any tannic quality etc. I don't disagree with you, I'm just adding to your picture. It probably is fair to say that brewers were doing this to gain acidic quality though. Currently, you'll get a brewery like Traquair and their use of oak along with claims that their beer has a certain oakiness... but my gut tells me that this is more about marketing and differentiation after the fact than intentional beer design (but what do I know?).

I'm not drinking beer today, so if you'll permit me, I'd still love to add to the thread along the lines of your theme. I'll talk a little about a beer I've never had, but in a way I have had.

Greene King's Old Crafty Hen is a beer I have had. It's made by blending Old Speckled Hen with a beer called 5X. It's 5X that I wanted to talk about.

5X is a 12% beer that Greene King traditionally brews for blending. 5X is aged in three 100-barrel oak maturation vats for at least two years in a deep tunnel at the brewery. The lids of the vats are covered in marl (a sandy gravel or soil). The weight of the marl stops the lids from opening due to secondary fermentation (or to deter bacteria depending on what you read). The supposedly sherry-like aged beer is then blended with younger ales. I'd sure like to try some undiluted 5X. Here's a pic of a vat: