New Beer Sunday (week 625)

Congrats to your swimmers, an good luck in the District Championships!

 

Dropping into a collaboration IPA. I have plenty of experience with both brewers, so I'm excited to see what they turned out together.



Stone + O'Dell + Marble's Megawheat Double IPA.

Pours a clear bright, light orange with yellow shining through the edges of the beer. Head foams up to a mere finger in height, and white in color. Retention is okay, with a little lacing at the start, but not much as the beer warms. Aroma is sopping wet with hops - citrus, spicy, earthy, and grassy. Biscuit and bread malts are strong. Flavor profile features spicy and citrusy hops right out front. Earthy and grassy hops stand in reserve, and add to the bitter hop bite. Biscuit malts and wheat add to the complexity. This beer follows the west coast IPA style with bitter biting hops. Mouth feel is a little thin, with a slightly watery feel. It has a fizzy feel on the tip of the tongue. Overall, a hoppy, west coast style IPA. Hoppy here means bitter, so be wary.

Score: 4 | 4.25 | 4 | 3.5 | 4 | BA Score: 4.01 | rDev: -0.5%

Personal reflection: I think I'm becoming less and less of a Stone fan. Their IPAs were some of the first I tried, and I always found them to be bitter to the point of being aggressive. While this IPA may be a little different, it still holds true to the west coast bitter IPA style. Bummer for my taste buds. Your enjoyment of this beer may vary.

 

My wife and I had a great week in Florida, where it was 80 and sunny every day. We came back a day early in anticipation of the snowstorm forecast for New England. When I got up this morning I found that our original flight had already been cancelled, so I think we made the right decision.
We visited family in Florida (in-laws, sister/brother-in-law, daughter) ate too much, drank too much beer, and stayed up too late playing cards. So that meant we had a great time! I got to play three rounds of golf: one great, one mediocre, one terrible. We also visited a couple breweries in Bradenton with my sister and brother-in-law.
Right now it is snowing heavily and we might be in blizzard conditions tonight/tomorrow. I hit my beer store when they opened, so now I can hunker down, watch snow fall, and drink beer. This serpentine path leads to my new beer for this Sunday, Frootwood. It is described as a cherry ale aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels.
In my Smuttlabs glass the beer is a clear cherry amber color with a small off-white head.
It has a sweet fruity aroma, with a hint of vanilla. No bourbon noted.
It tastes of sweet cherries and maple syrup. I catch a glimpse of bourbon in the aftertaste.
This is a good beer, but way too sweet for my taste. Dessert beer, maybe?

 

Time for me to enjoy a Tiny Giant.

It is a golden yellow with a 2.5 finger fluffy white head on an gentle pour. Good retention and some spotted lacing on the glass. A yeasty aroma with a good amount of pepper notes and citrus. Starts off with a nice amount of yeast along with a citrus zest. Faded herbal notes with plenty of grapefruit and orange, maybe a hint of lemon/lime. Finish is a peppery spice. Dry and inviting with soft carbonation. A light feel that is easy to consume any day/night. Enjoyable and would be very refreshing in the summer months.

 

Happy New Sunday!

Been a good weekend here, spent yesterday catching up with an old friend over a few brews. He's in a rural area and doesn't have as much access to breweries so whenever I'm in the area I try to make it a point to bring over what's new and good. Yesterday leaned more towards IPAs. As a man who has spent the better part of 30 years drinking AAL's, he's always amazed at the flavors that craft breweries bring to the table.

Hit mid-70's here today so we spent the morning and early afternoon out and about, but with darker clouds rolling in and the forecast of a steep temperature drop being the perfect recipe for thunderstorms to roll in, we decided to head home. Rainy Sunday afternoon, perfect time for a bad movie and a good beer.

This Sunday it's Hardywood's Ruse, an imperial stout barrel aged in wine barrels.



look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5 rDev - 2%

Gorgeous beer, thick and black with a solid, tan head. Smells of chocolate, malts, and red wine, I'm thinking either merlot or pinot noir. Taste follows the smell, red wine up front, quickly followed by a dark chocolate flavor, brief hint of malts, before morphing to milk chocolate. Creamy and thick, it still finishes quickly and cleanly on the palette. Just the slightest hint of alcohol at the finish.

 

Good afternoon BAs! Today's offering is out of pure curiosity. How could I not buy a bottle of golden stout brewed with beets and chocolate? Plus the bottle artwork is fantastic:


Red Velvet - Ballast Point Brewing Co.



look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Interesting look to the beer. A nearly translucent strawberry-copper color but only a small light-pink head despite an aggressive pour. The nitro produced a delicate and creamy cap that stayed around for quite a while. The nose was certainly unique: if I had been blindfolded I might have guessed that this was chocolate milk, but some vanilla and floral notes were also there. The flavors were all there: chocolate, vanilla, cake batter. The hops really came through on the finish, and I was left with a ringing floral bitterness that seemed to erase all of the cake notes. It was a bit thin and light-bodied, so I did not come off as too sweet or syrupy. The nitro and oats produced a creamy, pillowy feel that help offset the thinness. All in all, an interesting beer but I think that a heavier imperial version might carry the flavors more convincingly. Cheers!

 

I think many of their beers are brewed down here. Always feel a little hometown pride seeing Grimm beers highly touted. Grimm is quite overt about it (from what I've seen), and they apparently are highly participatory on brew day, but trust the contract brewer to meet their standards until the brew becomes a product for you to enjoy.

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@Greywulfken and @THSdrummer - I had your NBS on tap a couple weeks back and think I fall between your thoughts and ratings. I seem to recall it worked itself towards a decent, if more mellow by Stone's standards (not as in tune with Odell or Marble) IPA.

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We moved down the road, and I grabbed and English IPA from Ocelot, Acquiesce:

(on left)

My review indicates that I am curious if wheat was involved in this beer. It has a hazy look, nice head, grainy nose, and soft feel... but no indication around here if I'm getting 5 from the addition of 2 and 2.

Jester hops seem to add a floral to tropical note as the bitterness phase comes in late. Honey wheat is the impression early. English IPA (BA lists it as American, though the board here clearly says "English") Ehh... American pale ale? I'm thinking maybe yes??

A nice approachable beer, ignoring all styles. Maybe that "wheat" helps .


P.S. Always enjoy how @TheIPAHunter brings his personality to this thread while keeping with the thread's concept.

 

Wow New Beer Sunday has been going strong for 12 years today and thank you @smakawhat for starting it in style! AND for starting two threads today. That is very BA of you and I had a wonderful Sunday to spend with my son for his 24th birthday. I can't tell you how much I love this thread. You can see from the regulars that it's become a tradition. I came in long after Matt and Malty had started something truly addictive. I don't think most people realize how old the thread is. Happy Anniversary New Beer Sunday and thank you to everyone who stops in here regular on a Sunday to share a new beer.


Happy New Beer Sunday


Jacks Abby Saxony Lager.

This is a single malt beer made with Vienna malt and Bavarian hops. They used decoction mash.

Pours golden and with a creamy head to notice. It is slow to fall and the beer is vibrant amber and very clear.

Nose is biscuity malt kissed by a touch of sweetness and a light sweet breath from the hops. The beer is clean and you can discern a light fruitiness form those hops but they are sweetly herbal. The malt is the scent here though . It smells delicious. Taste follows the nose. Pleasant and with a hearty fullness to the malt. It is at once soft, creamy and breaddy. It is as though you have the perfect biscuit with the browned and crunchy top, the creamy middle and all the sweet dry goodness in between. Hops are gentle and the simply lean towards the finish of this beer. They add an herbal sweetness of their own and vibrance. There is no bitterness that you can describe but it is impeccably balanced. The flavor is hearty and satisfying. The light sweetness that tempts the nose also tickles the palate but this beer is dry. Drinks so pleasantly and so easily I was finished with the whole sixpack before I knew it and I frowned a little. I'll have more of these. Cheers and Happy New American Vienna Lager Sunday!

 

Certainly not a bad brew, just not my thing. NE IPAs are in right now, and I must admit, I prefer them to the west coast style. That said, I think I have some bad memories with Stone's IPAs from when I bought a few Stone IPA offerings and put them in a mix six. Their bitter taste really left a lasting impression in my taste buds, and it wasn't a pleasant one. Still, I'm glad I got to try Megawheat. I'm also very appreciative that Stone gets their beers into and out of distro quickly enough to enjoy a week old beer a thousand miles away from where it was brewed.

I do have a soft spot for O'Dell's since it's one of the breweries I toured with my dad when I was a kid. Even with their label on it, I couldn't palate Megawheat well.

 

Anderson Valley - Blood Orange Gose

I'm still dipping my toes in the sour thing, still not entirely sure that I get it. This is my first gose, and while it's good, it reminds me of a citrus cider. Anyone have any tips for interesting sours, or similar styled beers? I think I always assume they're going to be funkier / more saison like than I think they are.

 

Greeting NBS friends from the sunny and unseasonably warm but extremely windy southern shore. It was a beautiful morning to run a local 5k today as the winds were absent at race time. While I didn't run my best, it's the healthiest I've felt in probably a month after battling through a couple of bugs that have sidelined me and limited my training. I'm hoping this is the start of getting back on track! Enough about my other life and time to get on to what we're here for. New Beer!

I picked up a bomber of the Stone Megawheat collaboration they did with Marble and Odell a couple of weeks ago. The garage has kept it chilled well even with the warmer weather. Let's pour this 8.4% DIPA in my Stone pint glass for the occasion.

It pours a dark transparent gold leaving a very generous two fingers of creamy white lingering foam. Moderate lacing is left as it settles and tiny carbonation bubbles can be seen surfacing. The smell is quite spicy along with floral and heavy pine notes. Taste is spicy along the line of being rye-like to start. It follows with floral notes and heavy pine. A bit of grapefruit and malt in the finish. The feel is rather thick and creamy to start, finishing quite bitter and semi dry.

A good beer that may have been better suited for 12oz. bottles in my opinion. It drinks heavier than the 8.4 percent and that heavy spice/pine taste started to fatigue even this hopheads palate. My score is 3.87 / rDev-3.7%. I'm good giving it a try and will move on.

A shot as the wind blew the cap away!

With no football on TV, I'm not sure what to do with my Sunday afternoon today? Beer will probably be involved though! Have a great Sunday and enjoy your new beer adventures. Here's the official scorecard......

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/256151/?ba=Prager62#review

 

It should be pointed out that when people here think of Altbier, they are thinking of the famous Dusseldorf-style Altbiers. The Pinkus beer is a Munster-style Alt - which is quite different with some lactic sourness. The Pinkus beer is much paler than a typical Dusseldorf Alt. I did not know any of this the one time I had the Pinkus beer and let's just say I was unpleasantly surprised - don't you just love style expectations This is why Michael Jackson can call the Pinkus beer a "world classic" but the reviews for the beer here claim that it's not to style. This is a problem with the classification system and rating according to it. Now that I know what to expect, I'd love to try the beer again with a better perspective. If someone only tried the Pinkus Alt and Uerige Doppelsticke (which is relatively extreme), they would think that there was nothing unifying within the style. Here's a nice style article that also includes pictures of the Pinkus beer and others.

 

Your post made me realize I might or might not recognize this particular beer from Hardywood. I'm thinking it hasn't made it up north. You review has me intrigued, though.

Gose and Berliner, IMO, rely on a decent sour note. Gose add salt and coriander for your consideration. American versions can tend more towards lemon sour to be "bold." Enamel-wrecking styles can get the hype for their extreme nature, but you seem you might be more attuned to more subtle versions (if at all).

If I could offer one option that may or may not be available to you, Ithica's Cayuga Cruiser. I'm sure others can offer alternative and/or better options, but this beer is the best "beer-like" "sour" I can offer up from memory.

Also, just had one of the best TIPAs I've ever had: Ocelot Talking Backwards. Avoided that uber-oniony note and alcohol burn while being tropical and bitter.

 

New Amer. Wild Ale Sunday (week 625)
Greetings fellow NBSers from on the ridge in Mid Hud Val, NY Snow has stopped here. In my dreams it won't start back up, but have this feeling we are in for some more. Guess we got 14 inches from the last storm and about 6 more today. Def. enough.

Happy 12 NBS anniversary, which I wouldn't even have realized if @malty hadn't messaged. Hopefully he will pop in today and say hello, he does check in on us. 12 years and still going strong.

Today's beer is from @LeRose as part of an incredible box of beers, and this is one of the best so far, Hive 56, from Allagash

Very light in the mouth, yet substantial, super complex, just tart enough, highly attenuated, and really delicious. Get this if you see it for sure. Here is the whole story

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4/216617/?ba=cavedave#review

Hope you also have a Great American Beer in your glass. Cheers!

 

Flying Fish Exit 13 Chocolate Stout

A. Black with a short light-tan head. 4/5
S. Chocolate, roasted malt. Rich and slightly sweet aroma. 4/5
T. Taste is surprising. Orange and pineapple notes up front, which then mix with the chocolatey flavors, which works nicely. Aftertaste starts sweet with caramel, vanilla, and chocolate, then combine with some piney bitterness. 4.25/5
F. Feels medium bodied with a nice smoothness yet nicely carbonated. 4.25/5
O. Pleasantly surprised. I experienced a lot of different flavors in this one. Cheers! 4.25/5

4.18/5. rDev. 7.2%

 

Just another day in paradise, kids. We are apparenty straddling the rain and snow line as today's weather event starts making things miserable. I have joined @cavedave in the green brigade for the time being as the snow blower continues to malfunction. What started as heavy wet, big flakes of snow has now progressed to rain with itty bitty snow flakes mixed in. Sure...things look all ooh-aah pretty and I would be very content to just sit and wait for it to melt...

The plan was to paint our living room today. We picked out color for the kitchen and TV room about four months ago. Took the cans to the store for a good shake. Moved stuff around, devised a plan, opened up the paint...test swatch..and both of us went WTF is this color? According to the tags, both colors are what we picked, but they just look grey...so painting scrapped. The color we picked for the kitchen is far too light for the light colored counter top, so we get to go pick colors again. Thank goodness neither of us like the colors. I cant say I am sorry to be sitting on my butt drinking beer instead of painting...or shoveling.

On to New RIS for today...



Part of a holiday gift pack that was reasonably priced at $13 including the spiffy glass. The pour is dark-as-can-possiby-be coffee, with the nice, tight tan head. Very dense foam and so far very persistent and extremely clingy on the glass. The look is faaabulous. The aroma is coffee, chocolate, and roast malt with a Belgian influence...there are some yeasty phenols and some spice notes, maybe even a bit peppery. Interesting....maybe a bit of licorice, dark fruits more figgy and date versus cherry. Taste...mmmm...kind of a melange as I guess the aroma implied. Kind of mocha with the chocolate and coffee up front. Nice roast malt. Then the whole Belgian thing gets going and I find it quite different in the mid-palate. Assertively fruity (maybe even some banana) and phenolics, a very bright taste in the middle. Then another abrupt shift to quite strong, roast coffee with a decent jab of bitterness, The finish is kind of soft...it just kind of fades away, leaving a bit of peppery fennel on the tongue. The feel...not so sure about this aspect. It is creamy, but quite thin for an RIS. It is pleasant, but it seems to depart from the style here. Smooth, though, and nice drinking overall.

So what to do? Overall a good experience, but an RIS thru a Begian lens for sure. I am feeling this landing just short of the 4.0 mark on the ol' BA rate-o-rama, but that is gonna be heavily weighted by the outstanding look of this beer and the overall "I dig it" feeling I am having as I work my way through the glass.

Cheers, NBS family.

 

That sounds really good!

 

Hello gang. And thanks to @smakawhat for hosting today. We've been suffering through some freezing rain today and I don't relish what tomorrow's commute will bring but I'll set my anxiety aside for NBS. Today, I'm reviewing Left Hand's Smoke Jumper, a smoked Imperial Porter. I tried this several years ago, before I was reviewing beers on BA. I remember having a positive reaction. I did today, as well. It's complex and tasty. The smoke and char do not overwhelm the other flavors which include some dark fruit that I didn't remember. I really enjoyed it! Here's my review:

4.25/5 rDev +4.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

2016 vintage. Poured into tulip glass. It pours jet black with dark walnut hues, and a full finger of creamy, khaki-colored head and extensive lacing with excellent retention. It smells of wood smoke, char, tobacco, burnt coffee, roasted malt, and a whiff of caramel. The smoke and char dominates the taste, along with burnt coffee grounds, baker's chocolate, and a hint of hops at the finish. There is also a slight taste of dark fruit that provides a note of sweetness. The taste becomes more complex and interesting as the glass warms. For a porter, it has a thick, creamy mouth feel, with mild carbonation, and its 8.8% ABV gives it nice substance without being overly boozy. Overall, this is a thoroughly enjoyable American Porter. The smoke is evident but it doesn't overwhelm the other flavors. I'll seek out Smoke Jumper again!

I hope you're all enjoying your new beers today. I'm enjoying your reviews!

 

I've finally found time to sit down and get together a review for todays addition of NBS. It has been snowing here in central NH since about noon time. I've had to run the snow blower the last for days for one reason or another and it seems that to stay ahead of this predicted blizzard I'll need to spend some time behind it again tonight. Our gardens don't look quite the same all covered in the fresh snow. Having some problems with my snow pictures from today here so time to move on to the review.
My review today is of a new release from the Burlington Beer Co. and it is Beekeeper aged on Yellow Birch.



This a new reiteration to an previously released beer. Not sure the purpose of aging this beer on Yellow Birch but I find it did no real harm to the base beer. Not that my palate is able to taste the difference from the base beer either. Perhaps if I was drinking the two side by side I would be able to pick up the differences in the taste. I enjoyed the original beer and well this is another good beer from the boys at Burlington Beer Co.
4.16/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Well we are well prepared here for anything this storm throws our way tonight and tomorrow and I hope all the others in it's path stay safe.
I see the sign-ups have started for the next round of the NBS BIF and I for one can't wait for the fun to begin!