New Beer Sunday (Week 664)

Getting an early beer in today, I may be the only one that hasn't had this one before but in anticipation of the BA version coming soon I thought I'd give it a try.
As for cooking I keep it pretty simple when I do, usually it involves meat being cooked slowly over a wood fire. I'm a self professed grillmaster. I also do chili, stews, soups, and make some damn good beans and cornbread (substitute half a rack of smoked ribs for the fatback or hawg jawls).
Anyway today's first beer,

Pours black with a surprisingly large dark tan head that took 5 minutes or so to settle into a splotchy cap.
Smells dark, roasty, getting more dark fruit than coffee and chocolate.
Taste follows, a touch on the bitter side with the dark fruit, burnt malt, some dark coffee notes as well. Pretty dry finish.
Feel is thick, a bit chewy with a good carbonation level.
Overall a very tasty stout, enjoying this one and looking forward to the BA version.

 

5 New beers this week that think different. I’m excited about because they pair well with food.

Deep Space | Half Acre

4.2/5 rDev +1%

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


Love Chicago and this particular brewer, and no surprise. This one is 4.25 for originality.

a) Pours a dark, deeply hazed, (hence deep space), with buoyant and lasting cap that slaps rings of lace on the glass.

s) Extremely original and complex aromas, that offer up over ripe tropical fruit, pine resin, sugar cone, belgian waffle, syrup, and wheat malt.

t) Big, complex, original, flavorful, bold DIPA...with wads of over ripe pineapple, shellac, varnish, pine resins over a deep, dark, almost rye and malt underbelly...10% is obvious.

f) Sticky, luscious, worthy of contemplation or worship.

o) Give me the odd, complex DIPA like this once a month (and no more often) in between my 5-7% ABV APAs / IPAs / Stouts. Exciting!


Rare Vos | Brewery Ommegang
4.1/5 rDev +2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25


Rare Vos = Sly Fox in Flemish. Love this brewer.

a) Pours a cloudy dark amber body supporting a creamy, sturdy lasting head that amply laces. Starts as a tan lumpy cap.

s) I find aroma starts with fruit, spice, orchard, yeast, fall fallen fruit, cellar stairs, up which waft crusty fresh baked bread.

t) Taste follows smell and adds: apples, dates, figs, and dried fruit spiced with coriander and white pepper on a yeasty bake shop backdrop.

f) Creamy see saw from sweet, ripened fruit to a nice drying finish.

o) Great Belgian craft at reasonable price. Drink at cask temperature. With Fish of any kind, sushi, raw oysters.


Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier | Brauerei Heller-Trum
4.1/5 rDev +3.5%

look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4


Amazing to find a beer that's so different and original: it earns high marks on the first go.

A) pours a clear, dark pale golden body, with a thin cap that films and laces a few dots.

S) Pleasant fall damp air tinged with campfire smoke. Plus pale malt, honey lathered on crackers, and floral hops.

T) Follows smell, with MORE smoke, as in smoked salmon or bacon, honey, on malt and white crackers, and landing in a fall flower bed mixed with fallen, earthy damp leaves and forest floor. Delicious and complex, perfect with raw oysters.

F) Feel is soft, medium weight, smooth, finishing off-dry, and with lingering resonance.

O) My first experience of a great smoke in beer. Must try. Must try them all now!


Devil's Path | Catskill
4.1/5 rDev +2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Wonderful, fall flavored east coast strong IPA. Enjoyed at LW Oyster NYC at their 930pm happy hour with oysters and tuna mini spring rolls with mint sauce.
Poured on draft at LW Oyster 28th & 5th NYC - a favorite place.
A) Pours a super hazed cider-amber, gold with short-lived and no lacing head.
S) Aroma offers apple orchard, fall grass and leaves, sweet honey with a floral and fall earth grassy hop flavor.
T) Follows the smell, with more apple, cider, fall leaves balanced by honey sweet / tempered by grassy, hop bitter finish.
F) Med body, low carb, nice weight.
O) More than sum of parts, more east coast and fall-flavored than west


Wilco Tango Foxtrot | Lagunitas
4.04/5 rDev +3.1%

look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4


Brown Ale is meant to be imperial, this is my favorite. On Rattle N Hum tap NYC.

a) finger of tight, tan frothy head with plenty retention and lacing on a deep brown hazed body. Serious.

s) Dark fruit over caramel malt with unsweetened coffee and toffee notes.

t) Follows smell with more dark fruit and hoppy, floral notes.

f) Fine feel, pungent and perfect weighted: medium body and moderate carbonation.

o) Nice hoppy kick, amplified by the heavier body and ABV and power. Loved it. Try 24.

 

I'm not typically a morning beer guy, but I woke up early and got some things done, so I thought that I would relax with a nice drink. Also, this glassware from @Wasatch has been goading me all weekend! Thanks also to @thebeers for this one. Apparently it takes 2 BAs to help me on this Sunday morning!


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

This poured like motor oil - very dark brown and opaque out of the bottle into the glass. Only a modest head but some wispy tan laces stayed in the glass. The aroma was mainly cinnamon and peppers on a chocolate background. Maybe a hint of coffee and roasted malt. The booze was hidden as well. The taste brought the chocolate to the forefront - a deep, dark flavor with a chocolatey bitterness rather than a floral one from a standard RIS. The spices were there but were restrained, which I like. Just a tiny bit of heat on the finish which melded with the alcohol. Full-bodied and a great sipper. A well-done beer that I really enjoyed. I now want to do a side-by-side with Xocoveza, which I suspect will be richer in the spices and less on the chocolate. Cheers, and hope to see you back later today.

 

Nice start to NBS this week @lordofthewiens. Will be back later on with a new brew.

Cheers!

 

This isn't my pic above, but I just bought a Schlafly Bonfire Box - their fall mixed pack. Two of these are new to me, so kept them for NBS. Note the handy pop out SRM chart above. When you look at SRM charts online, they seem to be very inconsistent. How good is their usefulness if people are using different charts? Imagine if every ruler had a different size for an inch.

I was very happy to see the contents of this box. It's pretty close to old-school in a 90's brewpub way. Pilsner, pale ale, brown ale, coffee stout. Ouch, the coffee kinda ruins it. Remove the coffee from this stout and this box would be killer. I've had that beer before, so I'm not opening one today. If you want a 5-6% stout with dominating coffee flavor, this one would be a good candidate. It's not what I bought the box for.

I was mainly excited for this one:



Schlafly Pilsner

Loved this beer. Wonderful yellow color. Malt is very present. Hops are Hallertau, Tettnang, Magnum and Lublin. There's a heft to this beer but it still drinks incredibly easy - that's a wonderful combo. Hops are spicy and are really in perfect balance here.



Schlafly House Brown

This "American brown" is near-black at this volume. Thin and easy drinking. There's some coffee flavor but not too much. A slight twang in the back. Very nice. I drank this one quicker than I could think about it... and that's a complement. I look forward to having another.

Cheers.

 

A- A very clear golden yellowish color with a slight head and decent lacing.

A- Slight hints of citrus with a nice balance of herbal, floral, undertones.

T- A pleasant citrus taste with herbal and floral hints.

M- A light bodied smooth drinking finish.

O- Well beer, good balanced enjoyable beer.

 

-My new beer this Sunday is Olly, a blended, sour brown ale from Free Will Brewing. I very much appreciate the time and effort involved in producing aged sours.

-ruby-brown bottle pour is murky with almost no visible carbonation. Aroma is sour with some musty notes and Brett funk. The flavors are of sour fruit: apple, raisins... There is a pronounced vinous quality and a soft contribution from the oak barrel aging provides smoothness and balance. This is not overly acidic. The mouthfeel is somewhat thin with appropriate carbonation. I very much like this and look forward to another find from Free Will.

 

Not just a new beer today, NBS, but a new beer store...

New York's first Total Wine... I made my way over there first thing this morning *priorities* introduced myself to the store manager, and asked permission to take some pics as I explored the store.

This place is fantastic. I added it to the BA website, too...

More pics and details over in WBAYDN...

But of course I saved some pics for you guys...

Aisles of beers with the emphasis on NY products...

Special and seasonal releases...

Many refrigerated doors of craft...

And foods, from chips to meats and cheeses...

I picked up some pastrami-style salmon from Acme in Brooklyn...

Eating that as I post...

And of course I grabbed a new beer or two...

*reusing pics from WBAYDN!!!*

Started off with Barrier's 6.8% IPA, Reverse...

Double dry hopped with Tahoma, Amarillo, Waimea, and Summit hops, canned 10/30... Floral and herbal fruity aromas previewed a moderately bitter and only mildly sweet beer with a soft, smooth feel... Presented suggestions of muted citrus fruits, with hints of tannic cedar and vague herbal spice, and a subtle undertone of a pine-like element... The malt body does not give way to the hop profile and asserts a grainy, bready backbone to the experience. Fairly distinct profile overall, and a very enjoyable drink...

Great way to start the day: new store and new beer, with lots of food and football to come...

Cheers...

 

Great opening Doc. I had to laugh as I had just thrown the last ingredients in a beef vegetable soup before I picked up my phone to check on NBS.

As luck would have it, I was gifted a perfect beer for this occasion last week. Looking forward to it.
I work six nights starting tonight so I'll be back with a beer in a couple minutes.

 

I started a beer and food pairing thread, Sharing Your Pairing, over in the Beer & Food forum back in 2012... In 2016 it got closed, kinda incidentally, but was then re-booted shortly after by @BalancingBrooms (cheers, bro)... The current thread, Sharing Your Pairing #2, is still live, but also kinda tucked away in the subculture section of the forums...

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! @lordofthewiens food talk got me thinking about this beer early this morning. It's the one where the Veil dumped several dozen pumpkin pies into the mash (or maybe after?) to see what would happen. A collision of a food I love with a brewery I also love. This thing better be good!

Creep - The Veil
DIPA - 9% abv
Canned 10/30/17 (13 days ago)
Score: 4.04 (-2.2% rDev)



L - 1-finger eggshell head is quick to fade, leaving no lacing. Body is a murky orange. Looks very appealing in the glass.

S - citrus, booze. I don't get anything resembling pumpkin or pie spices in the nose.

T - candied grapefruit, citrus rind. Alcohol is present more than usual. Surprisingly bitter finish.

F - medium body and carb. Perhaps a slightly creamier body than usual?

O - The pies they dumped into this had no detectable effect on this brew, apart from maybe a slightly heavier body. Still a treat to try it, though.

 

Nice! I actually seem to recall seeing or hearing about the thread (maybe in one of your WBAYDN posts). That actually seems like the best option for food and beer posts. Cheers!

 

Good Morning NBS
Today I have a new beer from a brewery in Hammond, Indiana. My wife's first teaching job was in Hammond, but I can't say I have any fond memories. The culture shock for this country boy was too much. Anyway, to the beer...

12oz canned 10/24/17 poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp no ABV listed on can. The beer pours hazy, light amber in color with off white head. The head recedes to a thin ring and paper thin island with some lacing. The aroma is subtle with citrus being most prominent. The taste is spicy rye mixed with citrus and maybe a bit of evergreen. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, lightly carbonated and semi dry. The can states oats and crystal rye are used in the malt bill which add body and mild sweetness. The Pacific Jade hops are new to me and present citrus and evergreen very different from American hops. Overall, very good.

This is a unique and enjoyable beer. I don't drink something and get that sensation often anymore, especially the enjoyable part. The best part is, I'm liking it more as I drink it. Cheers!

 

What a coincidence! The executive board has decided to do Beer Turkey Day on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, which is the day before (November 25th). Consider this an NBS Preview .

The official announcement will come as soon as the Board can get its act in gear.

 

I was pretty impressed with the Total Wine I went into in Atlanata last Summer. I left +$100 poorer at least... Looking at thosue pics again in the other thread. This one is nicer!

 

I love cooking. I do almost all of it in our house, and find it cathartic. Rough day? Cook a fancy dish while enjoying a beer and sitting down to eat it (usually with a second beer) makes everything better.

I had been eagerly anticipating trying Spencer ever since I heard they were making Trappist ale stateside, and finally stumbled across it in Ohio.



Definitely unfiltered pouring a hazy orange (with a lingering head). Both the aromas and flavors are fairly dry, full of yeast with esters but no specific fruit flavors and a malty finish. Medium-bodied, overall I rated it about on par with its average giving it straight 4s as it's true to the style but overall I would like it better if its flavors were a touch more nuanced. Still an enjoyable beer I'm glad I finally got to try.
Cheers!

 

Poured with my new friend, canned on 10/12/17. Pours a very hazy yellow, with a bunch of floaties and bountiful lace. 4.25

Smell is pine, guava, papaya, and grapefruit very solid. 4

Taste follows piney, tropical, with a nice healthy shot of grapefruit. Really well balanced and tasty. 4

Mouthfeel is a solid medium, plenty of life, a tad dry from the oily sticky hops, and excellent drink ability at 6.4% ABV. 4.25

Overall this is just another solid IPA from a very impressive Brewery. Well done. 4

 

Total Wine is Toys 'R Us for Beer nerds. I start smiling when I'm in the parking lot, walking up to the store.

You know you're a beer nerd when you can identify a brewery by its label(s) from 50 paces.

 

Well here is the bomber I’ve been sitting on for two weeks. The reason I decided to crack it open is because of the weather. I walked outside under the grey clouds, and abundant leaves with the refreshing 48 degree temps and was in such a joyous Autumnal mood that I said “The time is now for The Yeti”. I love hot tea, and I appreciate a good Chai tea but I generally don’t do tea with milk like a lot of people do.

4.18/5 rDev +3.7%
look: 5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured into a Great Divide balloon glass.

This beer is a shade lighter than dirty motor oil black — mix in some bitter dark chocolate bars and you get an idea with a dark khaki head that is almost worth a paragraph of its own. It is thick, bubbly, soapy, and without even taking a sip, it leaves massive spotty lacing on the glass as it recedes on its own. Head retention leaves a thick bubbly film.

Aroma: I’m afraid to say the chai spices are secondary to the roasted, rich malt aroma. Dark, bitter coffee grounds explode with a following of fresh cinnamon, black pepper, and vanilla.

Taste: The taste is more of what I expected: Yes it starts out with dark roasted malts and bitter rich coffee, but there are a lot of spices coming in such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and a smooth vanilla note in the end.

Mouthfeel: Thick and rich, this is definitely a sipper.

Overall: I was expecting the spices to be a bit bolder but they do offer some cinnamon spiciness and subtle notes over the typical imperial stout flavors.

 

Howdy all and NBS sundry!

It's not even 11 a.m. in my neck of the woods, and we're nearing Page 2? Holy Early Morning NBS, Bat Man!

Plenty good news from here in the Brazos Valley, where the weather has settled into classic Texas fall. That means cool to hotter than hell then back to cool then down to almost cold then back up to hot and on and on. Looks like we're going to get a good run in the 70s for a week or more, and the timing is perfect (I know, when is 70-degree highs a bad thing? never! obviously). Doc says my knee/hamstring thing that's had me on the shelf for about three weeks has calmed down enough with some daily "treatment" that I can head back to the golf course. So I'm a-heading.

In the meantime, I got home off the late shift early Sunday morning and couldn't help but partake of a New American-brewed ESB Sunday:


Spindletap's Honey Hole ESB

It does, in fact, have honey in it. Has to. I can't find an ingredients list on the brewery's website nor anywhere else, but I've had beer with honey in it before, and this one tastes like that to a small degree. It's sweet, sweet from the honey and sweet from a load of malt. Flavors of peach, apricot, dried peaches and some butterscotch/caramel swirl thing dominate, followed by a pinch of earth hops struggling to be heard from. It's a small pinch, but the aftertaste does have a slight lingering bitterness that reminds me of bigger earthy hop bites. Without it the beer would be way out of balance and cloyingly sweet; with it it's pretty tasty.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/43368/203087/?ba=Premo88#review
3.68 (+4.2% rDev)

That's not a big number because the honey/sweetness is too much to my ESB liking. Or loving ... LOVE a good ESB. This isn't a good ESB, but it is a decent beer and one I might revisit in the future.

Cooking, cooking, cooking ... yes. Cooking is fun, and in my single-human household it has become necessary over the past year and a half since I've become serious about cleaning up my living/eating/health habits. I'm not a vegan nor vegetarian, but I did invoke a one-meat-meal-per-day rule (seafood also counts as meat in this house — if it breathed oxygen, it's "meat"), which has forced me to learn more about vegetables, and it's been a blast, a big puzzle to solve. So I'm always on the lookout for new vegetarian/vegan recipes along with the meat-involved recipes, and I, like Dick, don't create my own recipes. Don't know enough about food yet, but learning is fun.

And I have to add: Watching @utopiajane's magic, among others' here in BA.com, truly helps motivate me to get in the kitchen and make good stuff happen. Maria's photos always remind me that it can be done — if not to her level at least to *a* level. Her stuff is amazing looking!

Cheers!