New Beer Sunday (week 628)

I'm back for another from the box of @jhavs goodies as the clouds start to move in. I could use a Sip of Sunshine! I thankfully have a can of Lawson's Finest Liquids 8% appropriately named IPA to come to the rescue. Let's see if it chases these clouds away?

It pours a transparent brilliant brass color leaving a thick finger of creamy white lingering foam. There's some moderate lacing left in it's wake and some tiny carbonation bubbles can be seen. The smell is grapefruit, pine, mild passion fruit and spicy floral esters. A hint of butyl and cheesy yeast is hiding in the back of that huge hop aroma. The taste is dank and weedy with grapefruit, passion fruit, pine, fresh rubber and spicy floral notes. Feel is resiny thick, but very crisp and clean with a bitter dry finish.



I'm two for two in love today! The opposite side of the IPA clarity spectrum, but proves that world class beer comes in all colors and clarity. There is a dank and spicy taste to this that's reminiscent of a wet hop ale. It does indeed taste like a sip of sunshine! My score is 4.68 / rDev+2.4%. Thanks again Jon for expanding my beer experience!

I started a corned beef by searing it on the fire with some mesquite wood before wrapping it in foil with some Perrin Lil Griz barrel aged brown ale and veggies. Flying by the seat of my pants with this concoction!



Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, here's the official scorecard for that fine beer.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17980/117177/?ba=Prager62#review

 

Ha! Was gonna "argue" and say that I recall really enjoying this one and then saw you rated it essentially the same as I.

Was gonna "argue" here, too, but I enjoyed this beer so much, I'll be happy if there's less "competition" for it in the future .

 

Beautiful pic. Your house is made for pics like this in the winter. This is my favorite beer. Enjoy these times. God bless. Cheers!

 

Half Acre Navaja DIPA 10% ......first time having anything from this brewery and 'tis is a great beer

 

New Stout Sunday



Spring House Planet Bean Coffee Stout

Afternoon, BAs. I join @cavedave in my excitement for the latest NBS BIF. Picked up lots of goodies this weekend.

Planet Bean pours cola black with two fingers of tan head that leave decent lacing.

Creamed coffee, nutty malts, chocolate and a hint of vanilla compete in the nose.

The nutty malts are front and center in the taste. Greasy spoon-quality coffee grounds are up front, too, fairly stale with a slight cherry note. It has a dry, milky, woody finish, without a whole lot of depth. Not particularly creamy, chocolatey or robust.

Relatively thin bodied with strong carbonation.

Worth a taste, but too dry and too thin for my taste. Sort of reminds me of a coffee Guiness. If that sounds good to you, you might enjoy it more.

Debating whether or not to include this in my box. If there's room, I probably will. My target has reviewed a good number of beers, and has already ticked many of my local favorites. Like this, a lot of what I just bought is new to me, too.

 

Good afternoon, everyone. I just got back from lunch at Mellow Mushroom with the family. My wife and I took part in their Bloody Mary bar, which was excellent. Now I'm back home. The kids are playing and I have a fridge full of beers from very generous BAs to get through.

This first beer is from @jzeilinger. The story, as he tells it, is he was recently traveling through New England on a mid-February color tour. After hearing so much about the beautiful leaf colors in NE, he was frustrated to discover that it didn't occur year round. As he was driving the countryside, he noticed a small brewery, seemingly run by a farmer trying to make some money during the color off-season. This farmer appeared inexperienced as all his beers were cloudy and overly hopped. @jzeilinger felt bad for the guy and bought a few of his beers anyway. However, unable to palate them anymore, he sent a couple to me. The name of this soon-to-be out of business brewery was Treehouse. The beer is uncreatively called Bright. My review is below.



Poured from a pint can dated 2/2/17. The beer pours an opaque orangish-amber color with a small, thin white head the quickly dissipated and left some moderate lacing. The smell is incredible bright hops - orange, grapefruit, and some lemon. The taste follows with a nice, slightly bitter hoppiness that showcases citrus fruit, although slightly less than what I expected from the nose. The mouthfeel is medium carbonation and slightly thin and oily. Overall, this is excellent with great, bright hops. I'd love to try it at the source.

 

Hello everyone. Well, last week's temps were really a tease. It's beautiful but it feels like early January here in North Jersey. My review today is Troegs' First Cut, an IPA brewed with Mango. I've liked almost everything I've had from Troegs and was looking forward to this offering having read some positive comments on WBAYDN. While it's an attractive pour and nicely aromatic, I thought the taste was oddly sour. I'm glad I only bought a single. Here's my complete review:

3.61/5 rDev -0.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Poured from bottle into IPA glass. It pours a honey-orange color with one finger of milk-white head and significant lacing with good retention. It smells of mango, pine needles, floral hops, and a sweet malt. The mango is at the forefront of the taste followed by a rather sour lemon and finishing with a blast of Simcoe and Comet hops. I'm not certain whether the sourness is intended or not but I find it distracting. It has lively carbonation and an easy-to-drink ABV of 6.2% I'm usually a fan of Troegs but I find the sourness of this ale a little off-putting.

I'll cleanse my palate and move on. I hope you're all having a better experience with your new beers today. Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Bone chilling cold here on the island with a good 20+ degree drop from last Saturday and an overnight temp of about 5. Really looking forward to some warm spring weather to lounge on the deck. Didn't do much of anything today just keeping inside and watching movies/tv.

My new beer today is Big Unknown II : Attack of the Cones, an ipa brewed with citra and equinox, brewed in collaboration between Big Alice brewing in queens and Destination Unknown brewing in bay shore. No canning date but it's just a few weeks old from it's release date. An abv of just just 5.4%.

A soft and hazy amber/orange pour with a fluffy white head. The nose is citrus and pine and decently floral. A crisp and fluent hop burst on the very first sip. A nice and smooth flow that finishes slightly bitter on the back of the throat. Lots of nice fruit flavors abound. Notes of orange, peach, lemon, grapefruit, and melon. The mouth feel is on the lighter side but still maintains full flavor. An almost fuzzy feel to it with all the fruit.

Overall, very nice stuff. Impressively flavorful and yet still very session-able. I'm in the low 4's here,

 

Rogue Roguenbier Rye Ale, 5.5% ABV, 25 IBU. Pours medium viscosity and light black, with a one finger tan head that left decent lacing. Nose is sweetness and rye, taste is sweet rye, with some breadiness, and no notable bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel and overall excellent. Very drinkable, going down fast. I always expect rye to be bitter but this sure isn't - very nice.

 

Now this one looks fun. Owl's Brew Short and Stout.



Weird color for something on the stout category. Like raisin colored. Then again, it's apparently a beer and tea tasker
This explains perhaps, the head which reminds me of a root beer float head. Lacing is sporadically sticky as well.

Nose is massive Chai and perhaps a noble hop quality.

Taste is sweet as all hell and really, REALLY raisin flavored. Like dead on raisin bagel. Seriously. This is not good. That's all I really have to say about this soon to be drain poured aberration.

 

Just getting back from a winter weekend trip with some buddies. It's winter 4 hours north of me at the tip of the lower peninsula of Michigan. At home, not so much. Plenty of beers were had this weekend but I didn't want to miss a NBS opportunity today.


Deep rich black with chestnut highlights. Short lived cappuccino 1 finger head.
Smell is milk chocolate, raisins, prune, ethyl alcohol. Taste is baker's chocolate, cocoa, dry chalkiness, light prune. Thin body for a 9% oatmeal stout.
Astringent finish. I'm disappointed based on these 3 companies experience.

 

Just looked and realized that photo does no justice for that beer. I need @Prager62 to take pictures for me. Trying again and still not great.

 

Word to the spots that sell singles.

 

Well here it is. Typical Bell's, balanced and well made. There will be plenty of space in my fridge for this.



Review below...

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/270243/

 

I think that extra week could make a difference. Did you use enough priming sugar? On my first brew, I didn't, and I think that contributed to less carbonation. Also, at what temperature are you storing your beer?

 

Greetings all. And a hearty second to CaveDave's sentiments in the opening! The variety of beer I have in my fridge right now that I attained with no effort and (relatively) minimal cost is really kind of staggering compared to when I came of drinking age in the 90s. And hell, it's impressive compared to as recently as 2010.

This week I've got another German Import: Schneiderweisse Aventinus, which proudly claims on the label to be "Germany's original wheat Doppelbock".



This is a really interesting looking beer. It's fairly dark, but it's *just* light enough to show that it's also quite hazy. When I top off the glass I get some healthy sediment that quickly falls to the bottom (or dissolves) and doesn't seem to change the taste much if at all. It also has a luxurious, thick, frothy head that I'm finding out is a mainstay of a lot of German beer. There's a german/english focused brewery near me that makes a delicious zwickel and a dark mild that both have these same sort of amazing heads and I now can really see what he's aiming for.

Smell is interesting too. Deeply malty like brown bread, but also a bit spicy (clove/nutmeg), a bit like a hefeweissen. Some raisin/dried fruit too and I swear I get a hint of root beer as well. The taste is lots of sweet malt, but not the same sort of thick caramel malt like sweetness of say, a brown ale. This again brings to mind a heffeweissen sort of sweet spiciness, but it plays well with the maltiness here. I'm not a fan of heffeweissens but I feel like that character which I don't like much about them is much more pleasant with these darker, maltier flavors. Mouthfeel is very soft, smooth and full with only a moderate carbonation. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that this is an 8.2% ABV beer which to my palate is almost completely hidden. This may have to do with my love for straight bourbon though so your mileage may vary.

Quite a tasty brew! And this is another example of flavors that aren't necessarily my favorite working much better for me in a darker beer. I've found the same is true with a lot of Belgian ales in that the sweet yeasty taste works better for me the darker the beer is. I can't say I'm going to specifically seek this out a lot or anything, but if I find myself in the vicinity of one it's certainly something I'll be glad to drink.

Cheers all

 

AMEN!

 

Very happy to move on from that last one. This one has pedigree, so.....

Deschutes The Abyss



Looks proper for style, pitch black with a massive mocha colored head that falls back behind incredible sticky lacing.

Nose began with bourbon and dark fruit, them meandered towards coffee and sort of stays there.

Taste begins with coffee, then invites bourbon and molasses in. The coffee element lends a touch of smokiness that mingles with dark chocolate, which contributes something of a sweet yet ashy finish.

Silky smooth body, very smooth. Maybe just a little more thin than I had expected, but no real issues with it. Alcohol is masterfully hidden, it's a touch dry, and the aftertaste is a well balanced bitter and sweet.

 

The Great Dane's Velvet Hammer Bock. Color is mahogany with garnet highlights and a single finger of off white head. Fair retention and minimal lacing. The aroma is sour dough, cherry skin, grain, and toffee. Not as heavily caramelized malts as I would typically expect in a bock. Flavor is bready malts, dark fruit (such as plum and raisin), black cherry, grain, and some toffee. Feel is medium and smooth with some carbonation on the finish. It's a decent bock

 

So much rain in the Brazos Valley/Gulf Coast of Texas these past couple ... but no lightning nor thunder, so activities continue happening:


Texas Amateur qualifier in six weeks ... good lord help us but we're running out of time!


first layer of mulch just laid down at my best friend's place in Houston, TX the little spot has some growing in to do, but we all have high hopes

I got a new beer, and of course, after @cavedave's inspirational open, mine was not brewed in the 48


Xingu Black Beer

As schwarzbiers go, Xingu lacks complexity and that roasty wood/earthy flavor the best ones have. As beer goes, Xingu is packed with light-malt flavors, loads of fruity sweetness, and honestly it is one of the better English pale ales me and my sweet tooth have come across.

But it's not a pale, so how do we score?



The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2480/1314/?ba=Premo88#review
4.0 (+15.6% rDev)

I cheated and strung 4s across the board, something I never do, but I don't know what to do. It's so tasty, like a peach kolache to begin with then warming into a plum/date fruitcake, and all at just 4.6% ABV ... and I'm a sucker for lower ABV brews full of flavor.

Drinking this makes me want to go side-by-side with Kostrizer (which I gave a 4.76 and will marry when male-beer marriages are allowed in the States) just to see ... but in the end, I can't deny how good the malt flavor is in Xingu.

Hope your Sundays are going well!

Cheers!