New Beer Sunday (Week 641)

Back with a New Beer and New Brewery for my second entry, courtesy of @SammyJaxxxx

De Garde Brewing: Foeder d'Or


Poured from a 1 pint, 9.4 FL. oz. bottle into a Snorkel glass.

Appearance: Slightly opaque golden-orange body with a bubbly thin cap of head.

Aroma: Astringent aroma with a spiciness, hints of vinegar, mild fruitiness, oak and a little bit of funk.

Taste/Mouthfeel: A lot of spicy rye and wood and funk with a little bit of, what I get a taste of, is banana that lingers on the end. A little acidic and carbonation that ends nice and smooth.

Overall: A really tasty beer. Beautiful looking and funky sour aroma and a taste that really comes through with enough oak and funk to match the aroma.

Cheers!

 

Honestly in my top 3 for cheap beers

 

A "new" beer this afternoon, one I have seen posted many times, but only falling into my hands for the first time this week - Lawson's "Sip of Sunshine":





A pillow of thick tight white foam sits atop pale amber (9) liquid; long lasting cap;moderately heavy lacing and solid ring; excellent clarity. 4.75



Aromas of grapefruit, mango, passion fruit and fresh hops fill the room. 4.5

Grapefruit juice, lemon rind, bitter green hops, mango, passion fruit and peach flavors; lite caramel malt base; fruity, bitter finish. 4.75

Medium light body with moderate carbonation; light stickiness from the hops. 4.5

Overall a perfect balance of malt sweetness, hop bitterness and multiple fruit flavors - everything works in harmony and no one flavor out does another. I could drink this daily. A world class IPA. 4.75

The sun has briefly poked its head out from behind the storm clouds, so I'm going to see if I can get Mrs. Z out of bed to go downstairs and get a few minutes of vitamin D. Cheers all, and enjoy your beer!

 

Next up, a beer that I was so excited when I received, I just knew it would end up right here on NBS. My last of the overly generous @WesMantooth and a beer that I know is a personal favorite of @Beersnake1 and several others that have mentioned so.

Jackie O's
Oro Negro- Stout brewed with walnuts & conditioned on spices





A: Pours pitch black, looks rich and somewhat oily, with a two-tone tan and khaki foamy head that dissipates into a ring around the edge of the glass. Minimal strands of lacing.



A: Smells of sweet chocolate, lightly toasted bread, nuts (walnuts), vanilla, oak, and my favorite wild card aroma...olives. Yup! I get olives (perhaps from the habanero?), and I love it!

T: Nice blend of coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, oak, caramel, and roasted nuts. Everything you'd love and could ask for in a non bourbon barrel aged stout.

F: Rich, smooth, inky/oily, minimal carbonation, a mild and pleasant amount of spicy heat. Wow.

O: This is a wonderful beverage that I am so happy to have tried (and am still indulging in ). Outstanding stout overall, and one that I will well remember. Cheers and thank you Corey!

After my official review, I rated this a 4.71 with an rDev of +5.8%.

Cheers everyone and I'll see you all soon!

 

Final brew for the day, at least for NBS. Hitting some malts and coffee, brewed in Missouri.



Side Project's Coffee Shop Vibes - Peru.

Pours black with a tiny fizz of motor-oil head on top. Poor head retention and no lacing left behind. Aroma is dark, and complex, with notes of roasted and toasted malts, coffee, dark chocolate. There is a lovely smoothness to the aroma. It's extremely robust. Flavor profile is roasted and toasted malts, with coffee. Coffee is robust, and firm. Dark chocolate, and milk chocolate with a touch of vanilla add a little sweetness. Mouth feel is huge, with a thick presence, and a huge, velvety texture. Overall, this coffee beer is extremely robust, with an impeccable smoothness. It's a world class stout with coffee added - and not burnt, or charred, or sub-par coffee - world class, robust, morning-cup-worthy coffee.

Score: 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.75 | BA Score: 4.62 | rDev: -3.7%

Personal Notes: I enjoy the label, but man is it dark. Really tough to read except for in bright light. Almost like a mystery bottle if you're pulling it out of a dark cellar. Not much love for the look, but I'll admit, rating RIS looks are tough. I still see head formation and retention as an important differentiation between a world class and good RIS look. Beers like BA Ten Fidy and Jolly Russian (yes, both Barrel Aged) have an incredibly robust, and fantastic look. Where as this beer looks flat. King's other brews certainly prove that a more inviting look can be delivered with a robust stout. Never the less, this beer is profoundly robust, and tasty. That robustness does not degrade the pleasure of drinking this beer in the slightest. Still incredibly excited to try this, due to my love for coffee and Missouri beers. Just hits shy of my other top rated stouts due to look.

 

Old Beer Sunday! Well, why don't we say vintage or aged instead...has a nicer ring to it. Could you imagine if Patrick Dawson's classic book was actually called Old Beer? Yeah.

Anyhow - You Enjoy My Stout, BBA stout aged in Buffalo Trace barrels, bottled about 18 months ago by the criminally underrated Cambridge Brewing Company in MA. What makes this brewery so underrated you ask? Well, sadly I've never even been there and this is only my second beer from them...and they're located about 10 miles from me. No explanation. Shame on me. Any BAs have similar experiences with nearby breweries?





Pours like a beer-lion out of the bottle: huge head erupts from the bottom of the glass and lifts straight up. Bubbly, puffy and foamy before it sags and craters above the viscous black body. Gorgeous. The aroma is dark chocolate, oak, bourbon, figs, char, vanilla. The barrel characteristics shine. Although there's a fig-like fruitiness it's less pronounced than when fresh. Seems to be the oak and bourbon have filled the gap, which is right up my alley. Velvety smooth and marshmallow soft - the liquid allocates tastes of chocolate, roasted grains, char, oak, vanilla and toasted coconut. Nice alcohol warmth but a far cry from what the ~11% ABV is capable of. Outstanding brew which only makes me more confused as to why I don't reach for their beer more often.

 

Got a few new beers for NBS today, folks, but before that I'll post a quick update regarding the New England style IPA my buddy and I brewed last week. Tuesday last week (3 or so days since pitching yeast) my buddy threw in an ounce each of Summer and Nelson Sauvin hops for dry-hopping during the tail-end of primary fermentation. Took a sample of the beer yesterday to see how it's coming along and if it's done fermenting. Nailed FG (1.020), making it about 8% ABV. Threw another ounce of each of the aforementioned hops in to double dry-hop it.



Tasted very juicy with mango and grapefruit flavors, some tangerine notes and a bright berry note from the Nelson dry-hopping. We are happy with it for sure and can't wait to condition it and drink it again in a few weeks after we bottle it!

On to today's first new beer! This is Garrison City Beerworks' 6 Miles of Mud, a chocolate raspberry porter weighing in at 5.5% ABV. Cool idea for a beer and its concept and creation was inspired by an all-female 10K race that happened earlier last month in Albany, NH. The beer was poured after the race, apparently, but some cans made it to Craft Beer Cellar in Nashua, where I picked this up earlier today. This will be my first dark beer experience from Garrison City, who are well-known for their NE-style hazy IPAs and pale ales.



Nice looking pour on this one with a retentive head of khaki colored foam building up atop a very dark brown beer that borders black everywhere but around the edges. Not much lace to speak of, but I really like the color. Slightly swirling my glass re-rouses the head a tiny bit each time.

Nose is chock full of dark berries and comes across not only with raspberry but also Concord grape, strawberry jam and boysenberry-like notes as well. Dusty chocolate underneath with the requisite roasty and slightly caramel-like elements I expect from a porter. Smells really decadent, actually, but it was a little more plain when I first poured it. At this point I've been nursing this glass for about 20 minutes. If allowed to warm a bit, this opens up considerably.

Flavor is very spot-on to the description... wow! Big time raspberry flavor that sticks around throughout each sip. It's balanced pretty decently by the cocoa and the base beer does puncture through here and there, but damn, this is really fruity overall. Very jammy and sticky with a super natural flavor. If I had to guess, I'd assume they used puree and not juice, as it has a consistency about its fruit flavor that I enjoy. I bought this for the fact that it had a fruit addition, in all honesty, and hoped it would highlight the raspberry more than some other darker beers w/ fruit additions that I've had. I'd say I got what I wanted here. At 5.5%, this is a nice modest beer to sip at and enjoy in a session, too. Worthy of some contemplation too. I would love to try an imperialized version of this, too, if they ever decided to go for it. Good first impression on GCB's dark beer game, and a rather experimental one at that.

On my way out to pick up new beer for today's NBS, I stopped by the record store to see what new stuff came in. As many of you know, I love buying new music and am an avid metal fan with a rather sizeable CD collection. I can't wait to one day be one of those "physical media for die, get off my lawn!" assholes. I picked up the new Obey the Brave album, which is a fun chunk of modern heavy hardcore/metalcore, but I also picked up the new album by DC based blackened sludge/death metal band Gloom. Never really heard of them before, but I thought I saw their name on a tour flyer on Facebook recently, and they're on a solid record label, so I blindly purchased it and am actually really impressed. Great shit!

 

Okay, I was going to avoid using my SN Beer Camp Across the World for NBS, but if its good enough for Utopia Jane, its good enough for all.

Let me start with preconceptions. Coriander in ale makes me think of Magic Hat. Nutmeg makes me think of creamed spinach and pumpkin ales. Yuzu..... WTF is Yusu? Find out here ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_junos .
Additionally, I have not been happy with anything yet out of this 12pack yet except the Tree House collab. Having said that, I want to state that I REALLY appreciate SN going out on a limb putting this together. It is a bunch of wildly experimentals with no worry about long term commercial viability. Even if I don't like some of the beers, its great to have the opportunity to try these kinds of experiments all put together in one package.
On to the White IPA. Pours medium gold with great multi-sized bubble head. Why its termed a "white IPA" I don't know. Aroma is strong coriander and citrus rind. Taste is bitter grapefruit rind with a hint of what I can only describe as reminiscent of a Belgian yeast. Is this possibly the nutmeg? Mouth feel is medium, coating the tongue, maybe a slightly too much carbonation pushing that rind around though.
Not real bad. I can drink this. Had to drain pour the vanilla-honey porter.

 

"White IPA" is a term used for a wheat based IPA, usually with spices and flavorings found in witbiers. Some more info is available here! There aren't too many widely-available commercial examples, but surprisingly, Saranac and Blue Moon have both made decent-enough ones that I feel are a bit underrated.

 

It's Sunday, I'm having a new beer.
Weyerbacher Finally Legal. Bourbon barrel aged stout brewed with cocoa and vanilla. Bottled 03/31/17. Review.....

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

L. Opaque black, looks pretty beefy. Small tan head didn't last a minute.
S. Smells really good from a foot away, not even kidding. Alcohol becomes evident as I get my nose in there, chocolate malt, caramel, really nice vanilla, cocoa, oak-y bourbon, and in the background is all manner of fruit from figs and dates to berries. Darn good aroma.
T. Flavors are very well balanced and smooth. Warm sweet vanilla, rich smooth dark chocolate, and a nice bourbon flavor are right up front. Vanilla, chocolate, bourbon, caramel, dates, wood, increasing warmth, all to the end. Cocoa bitterness lingers long after each sip.
F. Fuller than medium body, mild carbonation, pretty smooth, warm, a bit chalky and dry on the finish.
O. Delicious beer right here. Cheers!!

 

This one is fairly new because it was originally released in the Fall of 2016 and I had not had it until now. This is Red Hook Bi-Coastal IPA. This is brewed at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire location. It is a limited release that is 7.1% ABV and 65 IBUs. Unfortunately for me, I picked up a mixed 12 pack that was dated at the end of March 2017 so now that it is June - a lot of what I had hoped to experience has faded with age.

Still this was not a total loss. Although the expected tropical fruit character had faded I still got a boisterous sweet malt character. And in reality, that was the whole purpose behind the original India Pale Ale where the hops were used as a preservative rather than a flavoring ingredient. So in that regard, I would have been a happy camper out in India when this one arrived because it still had a nice malted sweetness to it.

 

Coming back to revisit my score here. I reviewed the first glass poured from my bottle, which was fresh out of the fridge. The second pour, with the bottle sitting out up until this point, has changed one category in my previous rating. Keep in mind, I poured straight into the glass, hard and fast for this bump up in point. Still, I only got a bit more head formation out of this beer. Head retention is still poor, and still no lacing left behind.

Previous score: 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.75 | BA Score: 4.62 | -3.7%

Updated score: 4 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.75 | BA Score: 4.62 | -3.3%

 

New American IPA Sunday!

Hello all! Mid-ninties and sunny here in Tucson, Arizona. Today's beer is from Golden Road out of LA, California. My first beer from this brewery - the Ride On IPA. It's a solid grapefruity IPA. I like how the pale malt adds balance without interfering in the citric hop character. I scored it 4's across the board, landing it +3.1% over the current average.


https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26932/171723/?ba=jwc215#review

Cheers!

 

10% Brews. New to me this week. Try ‘em. Ranked in top down order: Mad Bitch, All Orange, Nice, and 1zenuff.

De Dolle Dulle Teve (Mad Bitch) | Brouwerij De Dolle
4.5/5 rDev +8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

This mad bitch of a beer is in the upper reaches of all triple beers.

A) Open carefully as it's sure to over spill the precious brew. When poured forms a rocky lasting, seemingly alive head of off white meringue, over a clod-filled sediment shrouded golden orange body. Sticks & laces.

S): Orchard side apple peels, and cider press with lemon grass and wet earthiness. Floral hops, sweeter hop oil, and flower store atmosphere. (humid and perfumed but attenuated, not cloying)

T) Follows the complex flower store aroma. Fruit flavors of melon, overripe tangerines with their perfume balanced by the sweet spicy alcohol that warms. Spice in play: cinnamon, anise, black pepper and bitter greens. Keeps a good acute see saw from sweet to dry.

BIG! Rare. Worth the $7 price.

All Orange Everything | Carton
4.3 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Great collaboration in this orange period under the orange man in the white house.
A) At the brewer, on tap, pours a brilliant, mostly clear, pale orange body with a finger of white cap that lasts and laces.
S) Bursts: Grapefruit, tropical fruit, orange zest, mango and dank grassy hops.
T) Again big and bursty, jusicy: Orange zest, grapefruit, passionfruit with grassy, hempy and floral notes in the finale.
F) Light hearted and juicy, but sexy and well-bodied and dry on the tongue. Hides ABV well.
O) I want more time with this (last beer of the evening) But a "try 24" for sure.

N'Ice Chouffe | Brasserie d'Achouffe
4.13/5 rDev +1.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

As complex and crafted as this is, it's too sweet and too fruity to be a great beer.

A - Nut brown, large tan head, a persistent island cap, and lots of lacing.
S - Yeast, spice, berries, apple, orchard, and caramel malt.
T - Malt base from which springs fruitcake spiciness and yeast. The spice, berries, apple, orchard are then balanced with sharp alcohol notes but not much hop.

M - Complex mouth feel. Tangy, wine like, astringent and sweet at the same time, more of an AFTER Dinner than before.

O -Nice Belgian Dark Strong, a bit too sweet. Definitely winter December beer.
1ZENUFF | Revolution
3.9/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Love brewer but this is their over-done one - 1 is enough.

A) Crystal clear dark, amber body sports a thick, lasting and sheet wall lacing head.

S) The smell is amazing and perhaps one sniff is enough. Starts with big floral hop nose, pine and tight grapefruit. Amber shellac and sun-baked paint shed, and alcohol too.

T) After dinner drink, cognac entry and the 100 IBU of bitterness burn too fast, too soon. Lots going on, more pine shellac, and shell-shocked tongue. Lots of warming alcohol and a long, bitter aftertaste that makes one long for cheese to balance the acid.

F) Burning, intense, palate wrecker. The most extremely hopped bomb?

O) Burning now, but you must try for the sensation. Too paint can for me. Too much alcohol.

 

Happy NBS, everyone. Mrs. Mac and I just returned from our college reunion. The weather was beautiful in Central Penna. and we had a great time visiting with classmates. We even squeezed in a stop at Selin's Grove Brewing. Today, I'm following @muchos in reviewing Weyerbacher's Finally Legal, a big 13.5% BA Imperial Stout. It's really nicely crafted and while you can't miss the bourbon it isn't overpowering. Here's my review:

4.29/5 rDev +6.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Bottle dated 4/3/2017. Poured into Weyerbacher tulip glass. It pours virtually black with dark cola hues when held to the light, and a finger of creamy, mocha-colored head and lacing. It's a very attractive pour. On the nose I'm getting roasted malt, dark fruit, chocolate, burnt coffee, and a whiff of caramel. I'm really liking the taste! There's rich, sweet cocoa and a hint of vanilla up front along with a hint of black cherry. And then there's the bourbon: it's not really subtle but it's not hot either. I'd describe it as a mellower version of the bourbon taste in Sunday Morning Stout. The flavors blend very nicely. This stout has a pleasantly viscous, creamy mouth feel with moderate carbonation and there's no mistaking the 13.5% ABV. This is a sipper for sure. Overall, I like this a lot! I'm a fan of BA Stouts but sometimes I find SMS to be a little too hot. Finally Legal isn't. It's extremely well-balanced and enjoyable. I'm looking forward to enjoying more of it. Great job, Weyerbacher!

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

 

It has been an unapologetically lazy Sunday here - trying to recover from an action-packed Saturday that included a visit from Duvel, a work-related function that overlapped with the Preds game, and thankfully some post-game mayhem. People outside of Nashville are probably sick of hearing it, but this city has never been more fun. No matter what happens next, it's been one hell of a ride.

TailGate is a local place that is known for aggressively experimenting (last year they had 20+ pumpkin brews on during Halloween) and carrying a huge tap list. They have grown and installed a canning line, so they are now putting out new packaged brews at a rapid clip - some hits, some misses - but always interesting. This one caught my eye with some cool artwork, so I picked up a 4-pack. A "Northeast-style" all Mosaic IPA:



Look: a hazy golden-amber color with a few floaties that held my attention. A thick off-white head kept me company and slowly settled, leaving splotchy laces. 4.0
Aroma: tropical fruit hit my nose as I opened the can - always a good sign. Mango, berries, and a hint of dank resin. 4.25
Taste: A bit grassy up front, then transitioning to hits of blueberry, pineapple, and pine resin. Very fruity but it did seem a bit green. The bitterness built and was most prominent on the finish, in a clean way. Very easy drinking for a 7.5% beer. 3.75
Feel: pretty damn light in the NE style. Very nice. 4.5
Overall, another strong offering. I love Mosaic and my favorite notes came through in this beer, but it seemed a bit green, maybe from the hopping or something else. I'm interested to see how this is in 1-2 weeks but it's a keeper IMO. 4.0

Also, some nice artwork, captured using my poor iPhone pano skillz:

 

One of my favorite porters, it's just phenomenally well done.

 

Small world, Woody. My Dad was on Sperry (AS-12), from 66-68. He, too, spent most of his time onboard sitting upon their mound of coffee grounds, though in San Diego, but his ship did find the time to ram a highway along the Columbia and catch fire off Port Angeles.

 

Subliminal Imperial Stout, a collab with Stillwater, this Buxton brew features barley, oats, and wheat... 3/1/17 bottling, 10% abv... Pitch black pour sits under a thick finger of dark foam that left smidgens of lace behind... Aromas appropriately dark and roasty, with lots of char... Way more bitter than sweet, full of char, dry chocolate and cold espresso; hints of alcohol slip some astringency into the mix; has just a bit of sweetness to take some of the edge off... Full-bodied and smooth, big on the bitterness and roast; little bit of stickiness lingers in the corners of the mouth, but an otherwise dry, roasty, and bitter finish...

Cheers, NBS - here's to that new beer in yer glass...

 

Cheers All and happy Sunday!

This week my first NB is courtesy of @Dragginballs76 . Many thanks!

This is NODA brewing Hop Experiment Session Ale (ales for ALS). I normally don't care for "sessionables" but this one hits it out of the parks!

Appearance- Clean, crisp slightly darker than an AAL and a nice finger of head with good retention.

Aroma - big hop aroma. Smells like it needs to be drank.

Taste- really nice hop bite without any of the overbearing bitterness accompanied with typical sessionable.

Feel- smooth, crisp, clean and hoppy

Overall- I generally HATE sessionable ipas but this one is outstanding. Instead of the typical watered down hops with huge bitterness , this one is huge hops with the proper bitterness of a sessionable. It is the exact opposite of all other sessionables that I've had!

Final official rate yielded a 4.31. If we rate by style that seems pretty spot on to me..