New Beer Sunday (Week 648)

I would also like to thank @lordofthewiens for his lovely start to this hot and sticky day.. Friendship is many things. Some are better at it than others. My best and most enduring friendships go back 60 years. My best friend died in 2001 at 49 years old. We met in college and we communicated without effort, and often without words. My oldest friend lives less than a mile from here, less than a 1/2 mile from where we first met. We were five and I had a dollar. I bought us both a hot dog and a Dr. Pepper at the snack bar at the lake where we still both live. Man, do we love that story!

 

Two ratings, two reviews, both in general agreement with each other for this beer. Go NBS!!

 

Moving right along here NBS. Just finished watching the mets season continue to crash and burn into a fiery mess. The winds have started to pick up and I'm getting ready to grill up some filet mignon with some local corn on the cob. Will either be deck lounging the rest of the evening or catching up on some movies if the rains force me inside.

My second new beer today is S'muttonator, a double decocted double bock, from Smuttynose brewing. The brew checks in at 8.2% abv and has a 3/21/17 bottle date.

A dark amber pour with lots of carbonation and a fast dissolving white head. The nose is full of malt and sugars. A rush of sweet malts upfront, on the drinking, with a very smooth flow and finish. Tons of sugar, malt, and candied notes. I get bread, nuts, vanilla, honey, caramel, cinnamon, ginger, and syrup, along with dark candied fruits such as plums, and raisins. The mouth feel is moderate with a sort of lush/silky feel to it. The flavors are bold and they really saturate the palate with even a slight sticky quality to it.

Overall, a bit on the sweeter side but still pretty good stuff. A nice price tag too at 8.99/4pack in ny. I'm right around a 4.

 

To Øl You Shall Nut Pass!, 7.2% ABV. Pours black with medium viscosity and a three finger tan head. Nose is coffee, roasted malt, hazelnuts, and chocolate. Taste follows with some sweetness, and slight bitter close. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent. The hazelnuts are there, but not overpowering.

 

Probably my favorite Session IPA. Great review.

 

Black Note. Damn...this is really, really good. Cheers all.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/37265/?ba=cindyjeffsmith#review

 

Happy New American Barleywine Sunday!

Really nice day here on the Western Slope, went on a hike, sunny, some clouds, around 90. Having a pretty tasty brew, never had this variant before, very nice, maybe a little bit heavy for a hot day. Picked up some marinade pork tacos. Watching a little bit of the Rockies game.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/34129/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Happy "family of 5 skunks living under my deck, how do I get rid of these " NBS Sunday. Thanks @lordofthewiens for the friend story and kickoff.
Probably waited too long on Nightshift
To Helles and Bock German style Maibock
Pours a cloudy orange/gold with a orangey tinyed head that springs up and dissapates rather quickly leaving a little lacing.
Aroma is bready malts, tomatillos (yes), some orange zest, german yeast with slight banana/clove/bubblegum aromas.
Taste is yeasty, green bitter hop, orange/lemon pith. The bitterness kind of takes everything over- very green tasting. Not getting much of a malt character. Dissapointing. May (haha) have faded canned 6/2 - brewery only.
Body is light/medium, carb is good. Cant get this bad "green" off of my tongue.
Nightshift has had some really nice German style beers- Furth and Pfaffenheck. This one falls short IMO.
Cant all be winners though....

How about a little Beatles to brighten your evening. Have a great week and thanks for taking the time.

 

The posts have been on point as always today on NBS, but we're nowhere near Page 3. Is it just the heat that's slowed down this edition?

It *is* hot:

(i posted that in part to tell @utopiajane that here in the blast furnace, we don't water our plants daily, we watch them burn up ... that, of course, doesn't help *you* any, and sorry to hear about the tomato plant -- hope it hangs in there!)

I'm grabbing another new beer if this thing doesn't pick up. No way we don't get to Page 3 today/tonight.

 

Since the theme today is old friends, one of my very best friends, Jeff, with whom I don't spend nearly enough time (despite our lifelong predilection to drinking beer), has a sister who, back in the '70's and 80's, dated the bass player for a Hoboken-based band called The Bongos. They were the house band at Maxwell's in Hoboken, and cut a couple of well-received, but not very commercially successful, albums, and we used to go there to watch them play and help them load their instruments into the cars. Mambo Sun is one of my favorite Bongos songs.

 

Good afternoon NBSers! I've had to work most of the day, but I'm happy to get to at least one new beer today. Thanks for @lordofthewiens for another great opening. I'm reminded of my oldest friend, whom I have known now for almost 46 years (we met in preschool - damn I'm old!!). We have lived far away from one another for the last 25 years, but we've always managed to stay in touch. We both share a great appreciation for good beer (and bourbon) so our get-togethers are always fun. These days, we send obnoxious and unprovoked insults to each other via text 1-2 times a week so not much has changed! Onto the beer:

Flanders Red - Charleville Vineyard Microbrewery, Saint Genevieve, MO

This was one of a few random local beers given to me from another generous BA last week when we were visiting Saint Louis.

Looks like a typical Flanders Red - a muddy copper-brown color but with a nice ruby hue when the glass is held to the light. A vigorous pour produced a small and fleeting tan head that left leaving no trace of foam. Nice aromas of cherries, oak, vanilla, and raisins. The vanilla really stood out. Very tart tasting as expected. Nice layers of flavors from the oak, and cherries, accompanied by a smooth funk with leathery and raisiny notes. I really enjoyed this. Cheers!

 

Definitely. We'll get to 3. Need some dinner, but afterwards I'll try to help us get to 4

 

Nice start by @lordofthewiens,
Today's new beer takes me to mynew watering hole, District 96 in New City. For those who haven't yet been in on the fun, this is an amazing brewery next door to the The Burger Loft on Route 304(same owners). They are putting out amazing NE-style IPA's along with some other solid offerings. My new beer today is Magic Pudding Pale Ale, a juicy American Pale that is bursting with tropical hops aroma.


pint-sized pour (tulip glass)in their lovely taproom
L- looks like pudding, a bright orange-y mango color with a quickly dissipating white head
S- tropical aroma just jumps out of the glass, really enticing, some pine as well
T- slight wheat-y malt, followed by grapefruit, and some tropical mango as it warms, with a piney finish
F- soft smooth mouthfeel, light bodied, but intended to be
Overall another great offering from District 96, a sessionable Pale, with slight above average ABV

Cheers!

 

My next beer on NBS is a beer I picked up for my wife, she loves these Dragon's Milk variants. I actually had this one last week when I picked these up, she liked her beers ice cold I really did not care for this beer when I tried it straight from the refrigerator. I have been trying to convince her to drink beers at proper temperature and today I think I succeeded. She liked it last week but today I had mine in my beer fridge where I keep stouts that should be drank warmer and she tried this one and said wow the flavors really come out more. I completely agree with her, this is a liquid S'mores in a glass.

Appearance 4 - Pours lack with nice tan colored head that dissipates pretty quickly to a thin ring around the glass. Spotty lacing.

Aroma 4 - Marshmallow, fudge, light vanilla some light cocoa and graham cracker. Just a hint of oak and a light bourbon aroma. Seems to have a pretty sweet aroma.

Taste 4.5 - They hit the mark with this one it pretty much taste like and has the feel of a liquid s'mores. Lot of marshmallow, dark chocolate, graham cracker and some nice heat from the bourbon.

Feel 4.25 - Full bodied creamy full feel like you took a bite of a mouth full of s'mores it almost feels your mouth with flavor.

Overall 4.28 - Really hit the mark with this one lots of great flavors the aroma is a little sweet but the flavors are great.

 

If timing and restraint can be exercised I should be checking in consistently for a while.
Had high hopes for this as it is only 10 days old and had the appropriate glassware although a Nonic would seem to be more fitting. I did not research the name so I am trying to set aside any judgement on it.

Very clear copper colored and with a fairly heavy pour was able to generate a respectable beige head that diminished to an incomplete layer and very little lacing. 3.25
Wet grass, hay aromas are understated - certainly no brightness 3.25
A general bitterness with a little smokiness. 3.25
Feels slightly thick and clingy. 3.25
If it was a blind tasting I would put it into the ESB group. 3.25

Have the ba version as well. We'll see how we make out with that one.

 

This just became available at the local bottle shop. Not sure if they've canned this before, but it's the first time here.
Given my experience with 4 other GN beers, I expected to like it, but was still surprised by how much. A new favorite! It was gone before I was even done with the review. :O
ps : Did we lose our emojis, replaced with YouTube style, or is that just a glitch? : (




4.43/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Hazy orange-gold, with long-lasting creamy(color & texture) white head, and moderate lacing. Looks like a combination of pineapple juice + tangerine juice + cider.

Fresh hop smells of (red) grapefruit juice,tangerine, candied lemon, and a touch of bready malt.

Flavor is essentially that of the aroma, with grapefruit (the sweeter end of that spectrum ) being the most noticeable. Very well-balanced. A light finishing touch of pleasant bitterness, on the tip of the tongue.

Moderately creamy feel, as suggested by the head, with fine carbonation, that gives a kiss of pleasant prickles on the finish.

This is my first time with this, and I can see it becoming a regular. Another fine brew from Good Nature.

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @lordofthewiens for getting us started off this morning. Not much going on this week, just another normal Sunday. Got the laundry taken care of and got a nice new beer haul yesterday afternoon on impulse. Beer review 5600 is on Tuesday. No idea what it will be at the moment.

New Beers:

This is a nice stout. Aromas and flavors milk chocolate, cocoa, nutty medium roasted coffee, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, vanilla, toasted oak, and dark bread; with lighter notes of bourbon, coconut, smoke, raisin, cherry, and slight herbal hops. Light herbal/roast bitterness and slight bourbon/oak tannin spice on the finish. Medium bodied and light-medium carbonation; fairly creamy/silky in the mouthfeel; touch of sticky/chalky roast and oak tannins. Touch of increasing roasted dryness. Very smooth, minimal warming 8%, no barrel booze. I enjoyed it, more of a "beginners" BBA stout I guess. Very approachable. The barrel isn't too heavy, but you get the nice levels of associated barrel complexities(not much bourbon). For being brewed and aged with coffee, there wasn't a ton of it. Really well balanced and easy drinker. 3.68


Very nice sour. Aromas and flavors of tart lemon, lime, plum, cherry, peach, apricot, red apple, green grape, pear, white wine, hay, straw, herbal, and grass; with moderate wheat/crackery malts; light musty funk and pepper. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tartness and light yeast spiciness on the finish. Medium bodied; balanced grainy malt and lactic acid in the mouthfeel; a touch tangy/tannic. Lightly increasing lactic dryness with no pucker. Very drinkable. Nice complexities and very well balanced. This grew on me through the glass, it was out in left field from what I was expecting. Massive amounts of pome/stone fruits with mild funk; and nice levels of tart/sour character in balance with pale malts. A really nice effort. 3.88


Have been a big fan of everything else from La Rulles. Glad I found this one a few weeks ago. 2017 vintage. Excellent BSPA! Amazing lasting head retention, and thick lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of big lemon, orange, peach, pear, apricot, melon, red apple, white grape, peppercorn, and light banana/bubblegum/clove yeast; with balanced lightly toasted biscuit, light honey/nutty malt sweetness; with some herbal, floral, grassy hops and yeasty earthiness. Light-moderate yeast spiciness and herbal/grassy bitterness on the finish. Medium-plus carbonation and body; balanced creamy/bready malt and yeast/hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter/spicy dryness. Never astringent. Dangerously smooth sipper. Mildly increasing warmth of 10%. Perfectly balanced yeast and malt flavors; with very well rounded complexity. Really spot on for the style. 4.03


Cheers, have a good night NBS!

 

Great start today, everybody! Here in the great wilds of northern NJ interesting things are afoot in the garden. On the good side, my tomatoes are starting to ripen already, so I'll have to let @Lingenbrau know that I no longer have that 'early tomato envy' I was feeling not too long ago

Sorry to hear about your bad luck @utopiajane - I hope yours gets back on track soon. Mine would be overly 'pruned' by the deer if I didn't surround them with plastic netting.

I think I'm a bit better off than @tasterschoice62 when it comes to a family of animals-

although it does answer the question "where did my parsley go?". I'm really hoping that the momma comes back for these little guys soon; I put out some water and grass for them, but they didn't seem to know what to do with it.

Tonight's new beer hails from Ommegang-

Brunetta Oud Bruin.

The aroma is rich and nutty with occasional waves of cherries, grape soda, malted milk balls and maybe a twinge of cider vinegar. I'm not really getting anything vinous and/or woody, though. The flavor is appropriately tart and demi-sec; could definitely be drier. Again, it's more 'malty' than 'vinous', even though it does hit a lot of the right flavor notes. Some oak does come out on the finish. My overall impression is that it's a bit too callow and unsophisticated to really hit the next level. Granted, this is not a pricey 4-pack, especially for the style, but I'm still left wanting more anyway. B+ (3.75)

 

Hello New Beer Sunday!!!

I had a day off work today. Yeah, I know, insane! So what do I do? Well, beer, of course.

I had to go to the cities for some business, so I see that Barrel Theory in St. Paul is doing a 750ml growler release of their Tear Drops IPA. Well, you don't have to ask me twice where I'm going after the business was done. There is a problem with it though: it's in downtown St. Paul. I HATE driving through big cities. I can deal with the outskirts, but downtown is a different monster. I have a bigger car now, which was my dad's, and I'm not good at parallel parking. I drove around, and around, hoping to find a spot where I could try to pull into. I finally gave up and parked in the pay parking lot across the street, quite stressed driving in downtown.

So new beers. First up

Barrel Theory Purple Lamborghini

Nice and tart, but also a berry bomb. I know some others who have gone there didn't like it as much, but it worked well for me. It was quite delicious in my book. It seemed well balanced, and I'm glad I tried it.

4.06/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

This beer pours a rich red color. Red head. No lacing.
The nose has a hint of the berries. Slight, but there.
The taste is nice and tart up front. Nice berry flavor to complement the tartness.
Nice body to this beer. Not watery, at all.
Delicious and refreshing overall.

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Next up, and I screwed up. I forgot to take a picture of the beer. I'm sorry. I went to Wild Mind in Minneapolis after, and it was a whole lot less stressful, because it's not in downtown. I enjoyed their Northern Bloom and, since they still had crawlers of it left, I bought 2 for some friends back home. Here's the review:

4.1/5 rDev +5.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Nice murky golden color. Minimal white head. Some nice lacing. The nose is funky, like being outdoors, that's what it smells like. The taste is dry,slightly tart, some fruit (peach). Nice bodied beer. Damn delicious overall.

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Finally, I'm back home, and on to the main reason I stopped at BT, Tear Drops


Holy crap! I've never had a NE IPA from the source. I've read about what you all have posted about them. I've seen the beer **** you have posted about them. I'd say that BT has hit the mark with this beer. So juicy. So thick going down. So damn good. So glad I got 2 and they are all mine.

4.63/5 rDev +3.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

This beer pours a very beautiful, very hazy, very murky golden color. Very dank looking. The head was 2 finger, white, and very frothy. Beautiful lacing on the glass as the head recedes.
The nose is very juicy. I get a sweet grapefruit aroma from this beer. It's quite pleasing to the nose.
The taste is OMG! Juice bomb! This is a NE IPA! Juicy, It's like drinking a citrus juice.
Thick, is the best word for it. It's feels like it's coating my throat all the way down to my stomach.
DAMN! This is the second beer that I've had, that have stated that they are a NE IPA, that hits the what is describes as this style. BT and Disguntled here in Minnesota have hit the bullseye with this style.

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Will there be another beer? Maybe a glass of Teacher's Pet might be on deck. We'll see.

 

From the discount rack at Western Beverage for $9.

A - beautiful amber color with lots of floaties

S - smells like a great quad with a little funk

T - dried fruit, molasses, and Belgium yeast followed by some tart cherry funk from the wine barrels. No bourbon or oak. A tiny wisp of vanilla at the very end.

M - creamy with champagne like carbonation. Very easy to drink at a little over 10% .

O - A very good quad with a twist and a good deal at $9. Might go grab some more, but wouldn't buy more then one at full price.