New Beer Sunday (Week 652)

People who adopt older dogs are the best kind of people.



Pours coffee brown with lovely ruby hilights when held to the light. Smells of sweet roasted malt and char. Less char on the taste, with more bitter chocolate and a slight cola quality. Creamy mouthfeel and oh so easy to drink. Bottled 3/28. Tasty porter; reminds me of Tumbler, for those who will be missing that this year. My girl makes a photo appearance above the bottle. Nine years young!

 

Sheeben Brewing's (CT) Golden Imperial Honey Ale (aged in Onyx Moonshine barrels)
-amber bottle pour with some haze and 1/2 cm of very fine, tan foam. Okay, not golden, but I don't see a bottle date so perhaps there has been some oxidation. The aroma is slight; sweet malt dominates. The flavor has moderate hop bitterness and is sweet too, but the 10% abv is largely hidden. Oak and whiskey fill the mouth. There is a slight sharp note in the finish. I'll continue to try Shebeen's brews as I find them.

 

Back after dinner with another one.

This is Anderson Valley's Pinchy Jeek Barl - a barrel aged pumpkin ale.

Enjoyable enough, but thin and overpowered by the bourbon.



Poured from 22 oz bomber.

A: Very dark crimson red with 1-2 finger off white head. Lasting retention and leaving moderate lacing.

S: Bourbon, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and all spice.

T: Bourbon, pumpkin, cinnamon, and vanilla. The bourbon is a little overpowering. I wish the pumpkin was more pronounced.

M: Light to medium body with average carbonation. Thinner than I woudl like, and a little hot; this might benefit from aging a bit.

O: Good BA pumpkin beer, but misses the mark that might take it to the next level.

 

New beer #2 surprise!
Steamworks Flagship NE IPA
Pours a cloudy orange with an off white head and leaves spotty lacing.
Super aroma-tropical fruits; crushed pineapple, passionfruit, mango. Citrus; red grapefruit, tangerine, lemon. Multiple layers of fruits. I could smell this for hours.
Taste full of all the tropicals and citrus. Gentle malt backing with just the right amount of caramelized malts. Sweetness in the mids but perfect bitterness that rounds out the medium body and coats the tongue slightly with oils- carb cleansing the palete. Really nice.
Never heard of them but Ill be back for more. Canada starting to give NE a run for its money. Honestly if I had a blindfold on I may have thought this to be one of the heavies from the Northeast. They nailed this style. Great brew.

 

That is because 'back in the day' malts were undermodified and decoction was a necessary step. Contemporary malts are fully modified and consequently decoction is not a requirement. Some breweries still choose to conduct decoction mashing because that was the way it was done and some brewers think there is a benefit from doing this.

As you know from your palate a Spaten Oktoberfest of 2016 (or 2017) tastes good even though decoction was eliminated about 10 years ago.

Cheers!

 

Bostons are wonderful dogs! You can witness behaviors of their antecedent breeds. They rise up on their hind legs and grab you with their front legs, like a boxer; they play tug of war like a bulldog; and they shake their toys like a terrier. We lost our nearly 15 year old BT, Burnside, in April. We'll be getting another before long. One problem with Bostons is they tend to get cataracts. We're thinking about a FrenchTon, which has the attributes of a Boston but without the bulgy eyes.

 

Back with one more new beer before dinner - a big barrel aged imperial milk stout from Against the Grain. I really cringe at some of their artwork but I do like this one. Overall an outstanding beer. Cheers!

look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Deep black color, viscous on the pour like motor oil. The pour produced only a thin, fleeting head with minimal lacing. This is a huge beer but with great balance. Beautifully mixed aromas of milk chocolate, bourbon, cocoa, and roasted malt. Same on the taste. The bourbon played really well with the sweetness of the lactose and was balanced by the chocolate. The feel was big but not overly sweet - not dry either. A bit boozy on the finish but not more than I would expect at 13%. Overall, a fantastic beer.

 

Lets say one more thing too. That the awe of the style and the helles type appearance is the big historical point the German brewers might be trying to make. Lets say freestyle used to mean lighter not darker. The oktoberfest is toasty. The elegance is referring to the malt being soft and rich without being caramelly.

"Domestic German versions tend to be golden, like a strong Pils-dominated Helles. Export German versions are typically orange-amber in color, and have a distinctive toasty malt character. "

So again the spirit is haus beer. Saranac put out a helles. Riegeles hoppy success was due to the fact that they hopped that oktoberfest the same way they hop their lager. Maybe a little bit more for style. The next beer from mahrs was much lighter in color and less hoppy.

 

Final NBS beer for this week! At least... I'm pretty sure I haven't had this one. I've had some of CS's petite sour beers but, having seen this on Paste Magazine's list of best sour ales in a blind tasting (in a very high spot, natch!), I picked one up earlier today for about $10.



Pours a beautiful deep rose/pink color with a somewhat thin yet long-lasting head of white foam. Some pretty decent soapy lace forms as it dissipates, and I love how insanely long the head sticks around. Rivulets of carbonation rise up from the bottom of my glass with intensity. Great looking shit.

Nose has a lot of really pure raspberry, of course, with a bit of funky lemony acidic twang. Some blackberry elements as well here. Darker berries and oak barrel tannins with some subtle sweet vanilla... probably from the barrel as well.

Tart yet sweet raspberry on the tongue with some grapefruit/citrus peel character, lemon and sour candy. A somewhat malty, wheaty backbone kind of brings everything together, but the fruit is extremely prominent. Super juicy and fruity with extremely genuine raspberry, as expected. As someone who reviewed this one for Paste said, '“Raspberrybomb? Is that a thing?”' Agreed. It's a definite raspberry bomb of a beer, but I like the flavors that work alongside it as well. The sourness is perfectly developed and the 4.5% ABV seems insane for how much flavor is packed in to this one. Feel is honestly in the realm of medium, but it's almost high considering the fruit presence and jammy qualities going on here. Excellent beer. Not surprised it ended up as a contender for top sour/wild ale in a blind tasting!

 

Greetings and salutations, NBSers, and a special thank you to @lordofthewiens for his rousing start and tribute to humanity's best friend, the wonderful dog. Ranger gives his seal of approval from our backyard in McKinney just a few minutes ago .....



On to my first beer and sticking with the Oktoberfest theme (which I almost love as much as the dog theme - Mrs O and I are definitely "dog people"), I humbly submit this very nice Marzen Lager from Ballast Point .....



3.91/5 rDev +6.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

The pour is a mahogany-hued copper color, and a light tan head. Looks like a combo of a Marzen and a brown ale.

The aromas are toffee and butterscotch. Yummy. The taste has the toffee and especially the butterscotch, which is normally a taste I associate with diacetyl, but not here - the butterscotch provides a counterpoint to the noble hops, leaving this not too sweet (huge props to @utopiajane for her contributions on that topic today). Very nice.

The feel is a little too spritzy for the style, but overall, I really like this.

 

Nailed the actions To the T. We are considering getting Yoda a companion. A seeing eye dog for a dog so to speak. Unfortunately, our daughter has allergies to dog hair, so we are looking into the lower allergenic breeds. One such happens to be the Schnauzer which are one of my personal favorites. We'll see... (No pun intended.)

 

That's another nice breed!

 

Minute Man IPA from Three Notch'd

L; Poured from a 12 oz can dated 08/02/17 into a teku glass. Amber color with a large head (about 3 and a half fingers worth.) The head fades quickly but leaves nice lacing around the glass.
S: Malt along with some tropical fruit.
T: Noticeable malt up front and hop flavors on the finish, very little bitterness.
F: Medium body, smooth.
O: A very enjoyable IPA. Only 20 IBUs makes this an easy beer to have a few of. This would be a good introduction to the IPA style for those who don't enjoy the bitter beers but this should also please seasoned IPA drinkers.

 

Samuel Adams Rebel Grapefruit IPA
American IPA - 6.3%



3.97/5 rDev +6.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

12oz can poured into a Samuel Adams pint glass. This is one beer purchased along with the Samuel Adams Rebel IPA series mixed 12-pack with three other Rebel variants. Upon first whiff, the grapefruit stands out immediately on the nose. The taste is your standard IPA with that extra grapefruit-like bitterness in the finish. Overall, I think this beer nails what it is trying to do pretty well. A decent IPA with a good amount of grapefruit notes and flavor. I enjoyed the one can, but this is not something that I would want to drink more than one can of in a single sitting.

 

Ok, let's see here...
I actually poured this into two glasses and noticed one had a little more "haze," which came about with the last of the bottle. A hazy to cloudy orange-tinged golden, with a little more sustaining head sustained in the cloudier glass. Lacing is micro bubbled sheets that fall slowly.


I am getting something like wheat in the nose (as I recall MBC uses wheat in a lot of its beers). I get a little mix of citrus rind and light tropical notes, maybe even a little pineapple, but there is a a certain clay-like earthiness over the scents (could be the yeast, as it's stronger in the cloudier glass).

I do get the malt in the taste as well, with a citrus bitterness that is not uncommon in APA/IPAs. Pithy grapefruit initially, there is a pine wood aspect that gains some strength as it warms (and nearer the end of the taste).

I'd definitely agree this is an APA, and is fairly balanced for most of the taste. It seems it may be a little brighter is you are more careful with your pour. The back end does build up a fairly decent bitterness with warmth.

It has a vague reminiscence of some MBC beer - fairly clean, but not quite as light as I perceive the Vermont brewer's brews. It also doesn't seem quite as well put together. As @Riff mentioned, they're a new brewery, so we'll see if they adjust moving forward (hopefully with their prices in a downward direction, also)

 

#2, this beer has been eyeing me from the beer fridge for 5 months. Time to jump in the ring with this 14.9% ABV gorilla and see who's left standing. I think I need a hug.



4.42/5 rDev +1.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

The pour is jet black, dark tan head, no leakage anywhere. This beer has body in spades. The aromas are the barrel, rich dark chocolate, the barrel, some char, and THE BARREL. Did I mention The Barrel?

The taste has The Barrel, of course, and the requisite alcohol burn, but it's not distracting, and the rich chocolate flavors come through, along with the oak and char. This is really any excellent BA RIS - my only regret is I didn't buy a couple more bottles to age, because as hot as this is now, I think in a couple of years, this would be more extraordinary than it is now.

 

So many new beers crossed my path this weekend at work, now it's my weekend to drink. Alas, this will probably be the only new beer for NBS this week as I have a date with a huge plate of pasta with red sauce (which I have to finish now) and GoT! I'll save some for next Sunday? Ha!



As it says in its notes/commercial description:
"nice and a little fucked up."
Moderate pour yields a 1/2 inch light pink head over a dark pinkish purple body with no lacing. Nose of berries and very slight funk. Taste of slightly tart berries and finishes with more tartness. Overall, an enigmatic collaboration; though after awhile, I'm getting used to it and it's rather good. Cheers!

3.94/5 rDev -3.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

 

I think your taste in dogs has refined over the years. (Hopefully women as well?) We were dog people with a lot of Labrador and Golden Retrievers in our past. Our last Lab (a chocolate) died a week after our youngest went off to college. So we took it as an omen not to have dogs (or kids) any longer. Now we are cat people. Same kind of unconditional love, but in an aloof sort of way. And they have this ability to take care of themselves if we hitch up the trailer and take off for a few days. ;-) Just one wife here. 30 years in December.

 

Merci @lordofthewiens .Dogs is my favorite plural subject. They really are. I grew up with two Mikes, both American Pointers. Stunning dogs both, wild at heart, but so kind and gentle. The original Mike literally waited for me to come home from school....we were then deep in the pre-suburbs, dogs were loose because no one knew better, and the peril they daily faced was huge. Mike was once gone for several weeks and came home with another collar on. He found me at Sternberger Elementary from at least three miles away when I was in the 2nd grade and sat beside my desk. My brother was a sixth grader in Mrs. Carr's class and came to the rescue. This is one of my single strongest and most meaningful experiences. These two Mikes have made me a person that cares about dogs completely. I have bred and loved Goldens, had an amazing found Akita, several decades of sharing my life with Labs, and now am being taught the truth by a Walker Hound, Otis. I love Otis as much as any dog that I have ever been around.
I mowed the grass today after walking the dogs, about 11:00 AM and it was already very hot. I had to come in twice for water and iced green tea. That's a little bit of a fib: I bought a six-pack of DFH Sea Quench yesterday, thinking about The Wyndham here in Greensboro this weekend, watching some great golf. Those six babies went down fast. My son had brought a lime from his backyard by, but it wasn't necessary. Limey, tart, perfectly simple, this is a remarkable HOT weather beer that is awesome! Cheers friends.