New Beer Sunday (Week 652)

Heigh-ho, NBS folks. On vacation in the lovely state of Maine. We are staying on Trickey Pond this year and so far, so good. No fish have chosen to sacrifice themselves yet, but we have drowned a few worms.

Son, lady, and grandson were up yesterday and today. Son is a disc golfer, so played a couple of courses yesterday. But the grand baby...what a great time he had just taking everything in. He knows boats go by on the pond, saw loons and ducks, caught a tiny doesn't count pumpkin seed with Nana...fun. Daughter and her hound dog are now here until Tuesday, I think.

On the trip up Friday, we stopped at Notch Brewing. Nice room, beers were OK. Next stop was Earth Eagle Brewers in Portsmouth, NH. What a find. Six beers in a flight. Two different gruit style beers stole the show, followed by a beer brewed with chagga. Chagga, apparently, is the fungus that grows on birch trees. Odd ingredient, but very earthy but in a bright sort of way. The obligatory IPA was OK. A spruce beer...well, I liked it a ton but have to agree with @JackHorzempa that the actual flavor is hard to describe. Food looked awesome, but we were between meals. Pretzel was tasty though. This is the kind of local I could get behind.

Enough of that. Today's victim:



Pours a slightly cloudy gold color, the head was about two fingers, pure white. Fell fast though...maybe the Bucky tumbler needs a better rinse. The smell is herbal and floral, a little citrus fruit in there as well. Bready, biscuits. The taste...surprising bitterness, but mainly some sweetness with very herbal hops, floral over the top. Some tangerine comes in as the beer warms up a little. The mouthful is very soft and quite smooth. The bitter is pretty noticeable.

So. It isn't a juicy NEIPA in my opinion. It lands somewhere in between. Juicy but not a juice bomb, bitter but not really a face splitter. Decent brew, feeling it will be in the 3.7 plus/minus a tad.

Love the dog stories and pics. We have one aging adopted lab left at the moment. My daughter adopted/rescued the Walker coonhound. Our two favorites were our Boston terrier and Cavalier King Charles, both adoptees but not really rescues. My last yellow lab was a fantastic pet as well as a good gun dog. She trained me...pretty sure of that!

 

They have a blonde, pale, black, and saison. Are you referring to the blonde? It's the only other one I've seen bottled.

Would love to compare notes with others, there were no other written reviews that I saw.

 

I do. I think it's good the way it is but historically the decotion method has all but disappeared. In it's place are the malts that GI is using in my beer today. ( I think - you know I am just talking off the top of my head most of the time) caramel and crystal malts which have by definition those flavors. If the caramel is the off flavor that's not really subjective in this case.

 

There's only one thing you can do.

You have to move.

 

On to my second new beer of the day, Invisible Creatures by The Tap Brewing Co. I've been a big fan of The Tap for quite a while and have found stuff like Intergalatic Acid (Berliner weisse) and Solar Plexus (hazy DIPA) to be extremely impressive. Found a fresh can of this new one a few days ago at my local Craft Beer Cellar.



This is billed as a New England Pale Ale and clocks in at 4.9% ABV. Pours a juicy sunburst orange color with a small head that sinks down to pretty much nothing after a few minutes. Pretty weak pour with no lace to speak of... not impressed, though the color and haze are nice.

Nose is tangerine, guava and bready malts with a little weird diacetyl note. This reminds me a lot of Exhibit 'A''s The Cat's Meow a few batches back. Slight citrus (mostly ruby red grapefruit and orange) notes and bready malts. Some kiwi and passionfruit once it warms up. Pretty interesting nose. Not sure I like the perceivable diacetyl here... hope it doesn't come across on the palate.

Flavors of kiwi, orange, red berries and tangerine with a strong citrus and tropical fruit element. Very fruity, as expected, with a biscuity and slightly sweet malt backbone. Surprised this is under 5% ABV considering the rather hefty feel and intense hoppiness. No diacetyl on the tongue, so that's good. It's actually faded a bit from the nose too. Interesting. Actually really good and has grown on me over the course of the can. Not sure I'd want more than a couple of these at any time, but it's actually pretty good.

 

from a home brew forum which is how I feel about those malts and the flavor they give -

I've never done it, but here's what I think will happen if all you do is replace the C60 in a recipe with half its weight of C120:

-The color will be about the same.
-The beer will be way less sweet and candylike, but have slightly more heavily caramelized flavors (I picture replacing a medium-rare steak with half of a well-done one).
-Your gravity will drop.
-Your attenuation will increase.

If you want to keep your gravity constant, you'll need to increase your base malt and readjust how much C120 you use to compensate for the resulting color change. If that's what you end up doing, the cost savings will be tiny.

These are sweet to a style that i snot supposed to be sweet. they leave behind sugars.

 

To clarify, I was ruminating more on the inclusion in the malt bill versus at all, not knowing what a traditional Kölsch recipe would call for and figuring you might have a thought/opinion.

You are correct, I mis-spoke, it was the Blonde. I'll definitely try to get to mine tonight.

 

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 here this weekend. Did my usual Sunday bottle returns and just finished up the laundry for the week. Was hoping to find some solar filter glasses for the eclipse tomorrow, but there are none anywhere now. Guess I should have planned way far ahead for that. Even Amazon is sold out of them. Oh well, we will see how tomorrow pans out. Another work week ahead, shouldn't be too busy. Review 5700 is on Friday. Still have plenty of new beers in stock. Not sure what it will be just yet.

New Beers:

Very nice helles. Amazing head retention and thick lasting lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of cracker, biscuit, and white bread dough; with light-moderate herbal, grassy, light peppery Noble hops. Light herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium-plus bodied and medium-high carbonation. Nice bready/grainy creaminess and slight hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Slightly increasing bitter dryness, no astringency. Clean and refreshing finish. Fairly clean lagering, getting mild hints of fruity/yeasty notes. Very flavorful for 5%. Spot on to the style. Clean malt flavors and just enough hops to balance sweetness. 3.81


This was fantastic! Aromas and flavors of big tart lemonade, lime, raspberry, grapefruit, tangerine, passion fruit, papaya, mango, lemon/orange peel, light pepper, and pine hops; with some honey, biscuity, light caramel malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel, grassy, spicy bitterness; and fruit tang/tartness on the finish. Medium body/carbonation; balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Light resins, rinds, and fruit acidity; increasing tart/bitter dryness, no astringency. Very refreshingly drinkable for an IPA. Awesome vibrant citrus/tropical hop complexity with perfectly balanced lemonade flavors; and nice malt backing, without being sweet. Nailed it. 4.2


Port barrel aged stout. WOW! Pours like crude oil, thin head(second pour was a little better), minimal lacing. Aromas and flavors of huge dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, toffee, molasses, licorice, raisin, prune, fig, black cherry, date, port wine, vanilla, toasted oak, and dark bread; with light notes of smoke, leather, tobacco, and soy sauce. Very mild roast bitterness and wine/oak tannin spice on the finish. Minimal carbonation. One of the fullest bodied beers I have ever tasted. Insanely creamy, rich, silky, velvety, and slightly slick/syrupy. Minimal chalky roast, oak tannins, or dryness. No cloying sweetness, mildly increasing warmth of 14%, no barrel booze. This is just an absolutely mind blowing-ly decadent treat. Super rich malt complexity, with awesome balance between fruity yeast and port barrels. A slow sipper from body, not from alcohol. I spent a good half hour on this. Room temperature it is sublime. 4.52


Cheers, have a good evening NBS!

 

Ok so my last thought for the day is this I don;t brew so bear with me. caramel malt leaves behind unfermentable sugar by definition so the sweetness it contributes to the oktoberfest is always wrong. That isn't subjective the list of ingredients. When people struggle with off flavor the two main points are style and the history of the style which is included in the bjcp and the idea that something can be observed empirically. Oh and some crystal malt is ok but it should not be too much. it's for color and body . cara pils is for head retention and it does that with sugars. So decoction is the method that historically is being lost to the over use of these malts and the style is changing. nutty and breaddy. If I had to say here's a line. Breaddy is good in the oktoberfest nutty is caramel =)

 

Happy Sunday NB. S players. Another perfect summer day here on the island. Spent the day watching baseball, and binge watching some Defenders. Then hit the beach in the later part of the afternoon. Home for the evening and about to light the grill and do nothing until tomorrow. The lunar eclipse will make tomorrow interesting. I guess just don't look at the sky and you'll be fine?

I am a pet person in general but have been much more of a cat person. I had an american cocker spaniel for a good 15 years but had to put her down in 2004. Since then I have had a total of three cats spanning the past 10-14 years. The last of which was put down this past June at 14 years. Currently taking a little break but I will be taking in more soon for sure. Been told I need to work on my wedding thing first.

My new beer today is Tweak, a bba stout with coffee added, from Avery Brewing. Got this bottle in a nice box from @foundersasap this past week. We get plenty of Avery distro on the island but I've just never pulled the trigger with the price. Thanks Jeff for solving that problem. The brew checks in at a whopping 17.5% with a jan 25, 2016 bottling date.

A slick, black pour with a caramel foamy head. The nose is very floral with tones of the coffee and bourbon. The drinking starts big with rich malt and a rush of sticky sweet flavor notes. A rather clean and smooth flow that finishes dry and slightly bitter. Nice notes of sweet coffee, caramel, maple syrup, vanilla, chocolate, rich bourbon, and dry oak. Boozy as all hell and the brew lets you know it on every sip. The mouth feel full bodied. Nicely sticky and it leaves a flavorful, sugary, and lingering coating all over the palate.

Overall, just excellent stuff. I'm going to sip and ponder on this for a bit but this might very well be a 5 for me. The abv and price tag are a bit nuts but it really delivers on all fronts for me with no complaints.

 

Happy New Saison Sunday!

Thanks to @lordofthewiens for the nice start to NBS. Pretty nice day on the Western Slope, at the trailhead 91, sunny, big clouds heading in from the south. Having a pretty tasty brew from @larryi86, it took a hit, but still pretty tasty, looks suffered probably the most. Watching Ray Donovan. Might be back with something else.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28383/84193/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday, new beer imbibers and commentators. I'm late to the party today. It's been a rather depressing day despite the really nice weather. The long time (35 years) Pastor of our Church died unexpectedly this week and his funeral was this afternoon. I'd been dreading today all week and, while it wasn't as bad as it could have been, it was still pretty emotional. Pastor Mac enjoyed a good beer! My review today is the latest from Magnify's Uncharted Territory series, a "hoppy pilsner fermented in oak." It was released on August 17th so it's nice and fresh. The glass needs to warm before the oak becomes noticeable and it drinks more like an IPA than a pilsener with a bitter, hop bite at the end. Still, it's a nice crisp summer beer with a manageable 5.2% ABV. Here's my review:

4.07/5 rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Canned 8/17/2017. Poured into pilsener glass. It pours a hazy, golden straw color with a thin milk-white head and lacing. The nose is lemon forward with an oaky smell that was initially faint but grew stronger as the glass warmed. The taste is interesting in that it opens with a lot of fruit, mostly lemon but finishes with a big dose of hoppy bitterness. As with the smell, the oak becomes more prevalent as the glass warms. It is tart, tangy, but quite bitter. It drinks more like an IPA than a pilsner. This is a light, crisp beer with moderate, pleasing carbonation, and at only 5.2% ABV you can drink a couple of these without feeling it. Overall, it's a really nice summer beer. IPA fans will find it a nice bridge to pilsener style.

I hope you're all enjoying you new beers today!

 

Did you mean the last exclusively United States viewable eclipse?
Interestingly enough, the U.S. only one like the one in 1918 crossed the Pacific, so there were probably a lot of people who viewed it from ships like you did.

 

I grew up with English Setters. My Dad didn't do a great job of training them to point and retrieve birds but they were great family companions!

 

Is it St. Patrick's Day already??

 

I hope I get to see it! 2 soemthing in the afternoon I think. =)