New Beer Sunday (Week 637)

Thanks, friend! I probably won't be as active on the day to day threads and chit chat but I'll definitely chime in with the NBS and some Saturday night shenanigans on WBAYDN. It's amazing how many new beers have hit the shelves since I've been gone. We have Founders now in Kansas. Never thought I'd see the day.

 

Happy New American Wild Ale Sunday!

Did a nice little hike today, cloudy, thunder, hail, rain, around 60. The hail was pretty big, stung on the head, shoulders, arms. This is my first from this brewery, job well done. Thanks goes out to @thebeers for this brew, via NBS #5. Watching the Blues game, they have to win today. Maybe will be back with another new brew.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/32615/266315/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Good afternoon NBS and thanks for the excellent kickoff again @cjgiant. Great history lesson. I wasn't here that far back. My 3 year anniversary will be coming up very soon. I know I got hooked on NBS early on. It then added so much fun and creativity to being a BA. I looked forward to every week and have missed very few. Looking at all the great pics, listening to stories and importantly learning about beer and what people's tastes are. We have some very talented people here and I am privileged to be a part. It's really helped me sharpen my skills in tasting, analyzing and putting it all down in print. Thanks to everyone that participates for that. The names are all so familiar now and almost like I can match beer/pic/writing with the BA! I call it "the need to beer".
Today's is:
Finback-How Soon is Meow? Hoppy rice Pils. (Collab w/Kings County Brewers Collective)
Pours a hazy lemon yellow with a bright white and tight bubble foamy head that disappears rather quickly to a thin ring.
Aroma is white grape, lemon, grapefruit, floral/grassy with a touch of peppery spice.
Taste is vinous white grape, tart lemon/citrus, light tropical fruit and an herbal note I just can't quite put my finger on. Nice crisp bitterness with a white pepper finish.
Body is medium to light with fine carbonation that is crisp and clean on its super dry finish. The body is deceiving because it supports a super burst of flavor that lingers.
Overall a super refreshing and enjoyable brew. With its flaked rice base I'm definitely reminded of a clean and crisp Japanese style lager like Sapporro that's been super amped up with Hallertau Blanc. For you wine drinkers like a scientists only seen stainless and no wood. The basic characteristics of the ingredients are allowed to shine without anything holding them back. Super food brew.
Would I pay almost 5 bucks for another can of this? Yes I would. Sometimes simplicity can be beautiful....and tasty. Have a great night and week and as always thanks for taking the time.

 

Having a flight of three at the Prairie Berry/Miner East Bank taproom in Sioux Falls, SD. The beers are Miner Belgian Dubbel, Belgian Tripel, and an Inner Humility Lager - all new beers to me, though I don't review flights beers. All very good. Miner Brewing is in the Black Hills, and is a subsidiary of Prairie Berry Winery. In Sioux Falls they have a Wine tasting room and taproom. We were sitting out on the patio on an 82 degree South Dakota day, after having the (hopefully) final snowstorm of the season on Monday May 1st. Snow was gone by Monday afternoon, and we've had beautiful weather since. Joined today by my wife, our daughter, and a friend.

 

Happy NBS. Trying this wonderful Zhukov's Penultimate Push. I love a BBA Stout as much as the next big beer freak, but Cigar City don't need no stinkin barrels. This is just fine as is. Ok, i'll run out like a madman to land a barrel aged version, but this is great. Cheers.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17981/71806/?ba=cindyjeffsmith#review

 

Me either, but I just happen to have a stash of Québécois beers that need to be reviewed.

Pale Ale Anglaise de Microbrasserie Pit Caribou

From a 500ml bottle, undated. Served in a really quite elegant Les Trois Mousquetaires long-stemmed tulip.

Pours a deeply-hazed, rich, burnt caramel colour with a finger-and-a-half of creamy, bubbly, ivory-coloured foam. Retention is very good, ending with a thick collar and sticky chunks of lacing. A handsome bière.

A nice, clean nose of toasted malts and British hops, flowery herbs, apple peels and tobacco.

Taste follows the nose, with burnt-and-scraped white bread toast, some earthy, spicy grain, caramel and apple peels, tobacco, lemon seeds and bitter, medicinal herbs. Nicely balanced sweet maltiness with heavy-handed fruity-floral english hop bittering.

Feel is smooth and mouth-coating, medium-thick bodied lightened with fine, bright carbonation and mildly astringent.

Overall, a right-fine, mighty tasty and substantial beverage. This is, I think, along the lines of an export-style English inasmuch as it is thickly malted and generously hopped. It's also so radically different from the NEIPA style I'm usually drinking that it's hard to believe they're both IPA's. A delicious and refreshing change of pace - I must get my palate out of these New England hills more often.

4.25 across the board. rDev +14.9%!

 

Miner Honey Lager, 5% ABV. Pours thin and orange, with no head on a careful taproom pour. Nose is sweetness and malt, taste follows with a slight bitter close. Excellent mouthfeel, and overall excellent.

 

New Brew number two today. Allagash Brewing Dawnlander amber saison.



Pours a slightly hazy pale amber with a one finger head, moderate retention, little lacing.

Aromas of spicy esters like coriander and clove, a little bubble gum and juicy fruit, maybe a hint of fresh mint.

Tastes of coriander, grass, bubble gum, clove, pepper, a little banana. Light bready malt. It's sweet up front but has a quite spicy finish. Light bitterness.

Medium bodied, a little rough around the edges, ample carbonation, dry.

Overall it's a Saison, there's nothing particularly stand out about it other than the prominence of the spice. It's good and drinkable, but not wowing anywhere.

Cheers!

 

Hey what's going on?!

Time for more new beer for our hero..

Scotch On Scotch | Boulevard Brewing Co.


Boulevard Brewing Co. - Scotch on Scotch by imbibehour, on Flickr

Poured from the bottle into a wee heavy ale glass. Best by July 11th 2017.

Light tan topped and creamy like head, almost toffee like in color and manages an easy simple tall two finger height. Body color is a little opaque mahogany with touches of red, even a bit of ruby to rose color with a bit of light just barely getting through. Makes a nice accent.

Nose and aroma is a touch mineral and different than your average Scotch Ale. Kind of a rocky mineral water smell with faint toffee angles kicking in just on the end. Senses fairly wet, with a little malt presence, and quite clean. Different and a little unexpected.

Palate hits nicely but differently. Quite sensing toffee and malt, but a more interesting fruit angle. Hints of light cherry but also a much lighter texture on the mouth as well. Washing fast and with little oak quality that the bottle mentions to experience. A slight bit of drying tannic quality a bit but not strongly.

A decent wee heavy but seems to land on the lighter malt side, and unfortunately not much noticeable advertised oak character either. Still a decent beer though.

look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75 | BA Score: 3.77

 

Miner Black Hills Cream Ale, 4.5% ABV. Pours medium viscosity and gold, with no head. Sorry, forgot to take a picture right away, so anxious to get into the beer. Nose is malty freshness, taste follows with no discernible bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel and overall excellent.

 

Really cooling off here NBS with the growing threat of rain. Will be firing up the grill for the first time this season in a bout an hour. A little filet mignon with grilled/baked potatoes.

Anyway, my second new beer today is another beer from Moustache brewing. It is Get Up On Outta Here, a dipa brewed with hull melon, mandarina bavaria, and motueka hops. It checks in at 8.5% and again a 5/4 canning date.

A pale and hazy yellow color on the pour with a fluffy white head. The nose is all fruit. The initial sips display a much softer hop and bitter presence than my previous beer. A really smooth, creamy, and juicy flow that finishes subtle and soft. Big time fruit flavors of melon, berry, mango, grape, and tangerine. The mouth feel is moderate to full bodied. Juicy, dry, and fruity that almost has a sort of white fruit punch feel to it.

Overall, this is different but I like it and would favor this over my previous beer of DJ Night. I really like the mix of the hops and strong fruit notes. Very easy drinking despite it's abv. I'm in the 4.2 range here players.

 

Ok, so I ruined my taste buds with the Mother of all Storms, brought them back down to earth with a couple session hops brews, and now it's time to destroy them again. Happy New Bamberg original Sunday. I know I might get some shit for this, but I have had this beer before. In Bamberg, in 2010 . So that, along with never officially reviewing it, excuses me of this heinous crime, right? If not, send me the damages bill. I'll gladly pay it.

Aecht Schlenkerla-
Rauchbier- Maerzen





I'm admittedly no stranger to Aecht Schlenkerla biers, but haven't picked up a bottle of this one since before that pilgrimage in 2010. I'm happy to report that their Doppelbock, which had eluded me for years, finally touched my lips late last year for the first time since that religious experience at the brewery. It was delicious. Ok, here we go...

A: Deep dark brown with garnet highlights when held to light. A thin off white head leaves a minimal foamy surface coverage and patches of lace on the sides of my favorite handled tankard.

A: Beech smoke dominance over a slightly medicinal and metallic aroma. Oddly reminds me of a campfire at Christmas up in the mountains.

T: Smoked honey glazed ham. A touch of roasted nuttiness and sweet caramel compliment the intensity of the smokey embers of wood.

F: Light and surprisingly thinner than I remembered with minimal carbonation, and assumedly balanced. Hard to detect any sweet or bitter dominance behind its smoke.

O: There's a reason this bier is rated so highly. It's phenomenal and at the same time proof that a beer doesn't need to be 10+ percent abv, or 100+ ibu to be intense or unique. It's modest 5.1% and smooth body suit me just fine.

Prost everyone, and I will see you all soon!

 

A rare bottle share with my wife, the Pilsner Queen.

Kent Falls has made a reputation in the sours market. They are branching out with this lager.

Pours slightly cloudy with classic Pilz style lacing.
Aroma is a little tart for the style, kind of Czech funk on steroids.
Taste is fine though, a little heavy on the diacetyl, but acceptable considering I favor German Pils. Not too buttery though, there is some acidic note that seems to balance it out.
Mouth feel could use a little more carbonation.
I would purchase this again for the right food pairing.

 

I'm excited to join in on NBS today, with my line up featuring hops, hops, and hops. Two are via a trade that landed yesterday, and the third (if I get to it) I picked up this week having only seen one six pack of it. Enough banter - it's time to drink!



Old Nation's Boxer N.E. IPA.

With "N.E. IPA" scripted across the can in bold letters, this beer pours exactly what that style would indicate - a deep orange with a turbid, hazy, opaqueness to it. Head formation is short, with a half a finger of height, and very little retention. A few strings of lacing are left behind though. Aroma opens with orange in huge quantities, followed by clementines, bananas, and biscuit malts. Flavor profile is orange through and through, with the start and finish both providing strong orange notes. Strong orange flavors part in the center to reveal clementines. There is a strong yeasty, protein presence throughout the entire flavor profile as well. Mouth feel is medium in thickness, with a fine, fizzy grain to it keeping it from being smooth. Overall, this beer packs a presence via strong orange notes, but the small head pour and strong yeasty, protein notes were a little disappointing. It's certainly worth a try, even if it's just to smell it.

Score : 3.75 | 4.75 | 4.25 | 4 | 4.25 | BA Score: 4.32 | rDev: +2.1%

Personal notes: Shout out to @drunkenmess for this one! While our trade was mostly for what I may, or may not, review next, I wanted at least one can of this just to give it a go. I certainly don't regret it, but it does have that yeasty, protein flavor note I've read about, but never had in other exceptional NE IPAs. I do really enjoy the look of this can though. For one: it's simple and yet eye-catching. Two: it includes what ingredients are used in the mash! I love being able to read what malts, and hops are used in my beer. Most breweries that do include any ingredient info just list hops. Old Nation listed malts and then which hops were used in the boil and dry hop process separately. Well done. If there was a category for "labeling", it'd get a 5/5.

 

A slip of your musical mind. That can is a silver machine.

 

Thank you. When I saw the bottle I said "Oh please let there be a Kill Bill clip".

 

Cool can. I'm only sort of following the directions.

Santa Fe Brewing
Imperial Coffee Stout

The beer pours a deep brown with a thick tan head that left a lot of patchy lacing.

The smell is tons of coffee and light roasted malts. I'm also getting some deeper char further down.

The taste follows with tons of coffee up front and some nice roasted malt for balance.

The mouthfeel is great. It's been thick and smooth. This is what I expect an 8% stout to feel like.

Overall this is a very nice beer, although the coffee is a little too burnt tasting for me.

 

Embarrased to admit that I was rating the wrong beer and the reason it doesn't taste like an IPA is that it is not, in fact, an IPA. I fixed my rating and review but my NBS doofism abides.

 

You are having my kind of day at that place. And such pretty beers too =)

 

Hey NBSers! Another Sunday, another new beer in my glass. The weeks feel like they're flying by these days, but that's alright with me because we're definitely, finally seeing warmer weather in Massachusetts. About 64 today and sunny... I'll take it. That late-hitting Winter was pretty brutal.

Today's new beer is a brand-new offering by Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. I've had a few of their beers before (Golden Delicious, I need you back in my life!), but this one certainly intrigued me. A dry-hopped IPA fermented with Brett and aged in oak foudres. Sounds intense!



American Funk pours a beautiful deep orange color with some lighter amber overtones. It's capped off by a dense and rocky bone-white head that, in true Brett-fermented fashion, quickly builds up to ridiculous heights before settling down over the course of a few minutes. Pouring the rest of the contents of this 12.7 oz bottle into my glass yielded a slightly smaller head formation with a lot of sticky lace appearing after it sank to a few fingers in my glass, about the amount that's still there, 10 minutes later. This beer is opaque as hell with a lot of sediment inside it, mostly conglomerated around the outer edges of the glass. It's kind of green meaning it might be leftover hop residue from the dry-hop process. Really good looking stuff, though, overall.

Nose is heavy on the funk and herbal, green hoppiness, that much is certain upon first sniff. It has kind of a cleaning-product-esque note to it, as some hoppy Brett beers can have, but I quite like that aspect for some reason. It's not overpowering, though, and I also get some mustiness, overripe tropical fruit (mango and pineapple) and citrus fruitiness as well. Pine and more grassiness evident as it opens up a bit. A little cheesy and, of course, rustic. Complex but definitely not for everyone. I feel like this beer had a pretty long aging period, as it's far funkier upon first impression than many other Brett IPAs I've had.

Tropical fruit and strong pine/grapefruit on the tongue with a bone-dry finish that brings out some floral notes. Backbone of slightly toasty malt and caramel towards the mid-palate, switching over to tangerine and mango right before each sip concludes. Oak roundness is a bit missing here, probably due to the sharp and bitter hoppiness, but the foudre aging seems to provide some texture here and there. Almost feels like a really dry white wine at times, for instance. The Brett is truly a star player here, though... its trademark funk mingles with the hops really well, and kind of recontextualizes them. Even though I get the Citra/Simcoe dry-hop to some extent, they take a backseat to the complex wild yeast esters and phenolic notes. Pretty crisp as, as mentioned before, quite bracingly dry. Interesting and fun beer, but its price was a bit hefty ($10 for a 12.7 oz botle). I'm well-aware that lot of work goes into beers like this, though, so I definitely don't feel even the slightest bit ripped-off! Cool stuff.