New Beer Sunday (Week 668)

That kinda stuff is insanely tough to get around here. I do have a trade partner with a bottle of Bourbon Paradise though. I don't think he's to the point of being able to appreciate that just yet, haha. I'm hoping to bring him more to the dark side with some more readily available Prairie, and a few things in my cellar, should he want to share them.

Nice! That's great. Trillium's Dusk Trill Dawn and their Day and Night stuff is on my want list. Sounds great!

 

This is my first post in new beer Sunday. A little nervous about reviewing but here goes nothing....
Shiner Holiday Cheer
L- its a brownish red (amber she says)
S- peaches and Malts
T- follows the nose with some tart and spices
F- light to medium light body
O- not what I was expecting but not bad. More of a lawnmower beer I would think

 

I AM STILL NOT NOTICING ANYBODY SENDING ME ANY BEER GIFTS!!!!.....

NOTHING ON MY DOORSTEP.... NO BEER MAILS.....

HELLOOOO????

BUELLER!!!

reference that will go over 80% of the BA demographic I am sure...

well fine then...

I guess I'll just have to have a BETTER beer... and a BIGGER can..

well I guess I will then..

ok then...

Maude | Waredaca Brewing Company

Waredaca Brewing Company - Maude Dubbel by imbibehour, on Flickr

Poured from the crowler into a tulip glass.

Deep dark burnt walnut red, with an excellent shining ruby tinge under the light. Light khaki and creamy forming head, with three easy fingers and fine swiss cheese bubbles in its makeup. Excellent appearences all around.

Not your average dubbel on the nose. The amount of roast and particularly nutty quality on this is delicious. Hints of soft chestnut and roast, with touches of milk chocolate, more porter classic like in aroma. Soft sensing coffee as well. Not really sensing Belgian character at all, so I gotta deduct some aroma points here.

Palate sticks to much of the same nose. A bit of sweet quality and estery tone, but more of the same nose highlights. Soft coffee body, and very milky tasting. Excellent char like finish and a roast bean like pop gives even some nice bitterness in the mix as well. There's a touch of fruit hiding in here, but it's a slight yeast touch that doesn't give too much to the overall flavor.

It's not really a dubbel by much, seems like a straight up porter recipe replaced with Belgian yeast. That being said I am not a big Belgian dubbel fan, and this tastes like a solid porter. So I am alright with this.

look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | BA Generated: 4.02

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Cheers!

 

Good job. Welcome aboard, hope to c ya next week.

Don't be nervous, we don't bite. Or maybe I'll speak for myself at least.

 

Good afternoon/ evening and happy New Breaking the silence Sunday. It's been a great weekend so far, and we've been very lucky to have such clear skies this past week in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Cold, but wonderful. Perfect for another walk among the giants at Hoyt Arboretum in Washington Park with the family:







But before I get too off topic again, it's time to have a beer and work off all of that fresh outdoors and exercise yuckiness.

Fort George -
1000 Years of Silence- Mexican Chocolate Imperial Stout





1000 Years of Silence pours a very clean dark brown with hazelnut highlights. Barely a notion of tiny espresso foam colored bubbles cap the liquid, and gives no attempt to stay around. In the end, it looks like flat cola.

Perhaps cola is the theme here, as it's the first thing I'm reminded of with the initial scent. Some cinnamon and chocolate flirt around a slightly metallic or mineral like aroma and some lightly toasted grain and used coffee grounds.

Cinnamon and nutmeg pour the foundation for burnt toast and milk chocolate. There is a pinch of cayenne pepper and a mild lactose sugary flavor that rounds it out.

The feel is surprisingly thin, with very little carbonation, a good balance of sweet and tingling spice, and a moderate alcohol warmth.

For the first time, I'm a bit disappointed with Fort George. It needed more. More everything! Enjoyable, yes. Am I going to buy more? No. Well, maybe next year.

After my official review, I gave 1000 Years of Silence a rating of 3.85 with an rDev of -4.2%

Salud everyone, and I'll see you all soon.

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @lordofthewiens for getting us started off this morning. Another normal weekend over here, nothing too exciting. Got some snow yesterday, but nothing significant. Did my usual bottle return and beer haul this morning. Got more new beers from my Sunday store. Finished up the laundry for the week. Been really busy at work, have to manage 3 vehicle programs til the end of the year. A bunch of people will be on vacation. Hopefully things don't get too out of control. Review 6100 will be at the end of the week sometime.

New beers:

Delicious fruit IPA. Great head retention/lacing on the glass. Gusher can. Flavors of big grapefruit, guava, tangerine, peach, pineapple, mango, melon, lemon zest, orange peel, light pepper, and pine hops; with moderate toasted biscuit, light caramel malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Similar, but muted aromas. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body; balanced creamy/bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Slight resins/rinds, increasing dryness, no hop astringency. Refreshingly drinkable, never aggressive. Great balance of juicy guava and dank classic C hop complexity; balanced bready malt backbone, never sweet/heavy feeling. Can was a bit old @ 8 months, but I was a big fan. 3.93


Awesome sour! Great head retention/lacing for the style. Aromas and flavors of big juicy honeydew melons, tart lemon, lime, orange, peach, pear, pineapple, mango, green apple, fruit peel, white grape, hay, straw, oak, wheat, and cracker; with lighter notes of pepper, leathery/musty funk and white wine vinegar. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tartness, fruit tang, and light yeast/oak tannin spice on the finish. Medium carbonation/body; balanced grainy wheat, lactic acid, fruit tang, and light oak tannin in the mouthfeel. Increasing tart/tangy/tannin dryness, zero pucker. Super drinkable. 7.4%. Absolutely outstanding Brett showcase, with balanced melon fruit. Nice oak foeder presence and malt balance. Never overly lactic, just the right amount. Love it. 4.15


Small size, so I grabbed 2 cans. Some random Canadian brewery I've never even heard of. Awesome braggot! Nice head retention/lacing. Aromas and flavors of big juicy peaches, apricot, pear, pineapple, mango, melon, lemon, orange, citrus zest, fruit peel, floral honey, white bread, and mild herbal/grassy hops. Mild herbal/grassy bitterness and fruit tang/tartness on the finish. Moderately crisp/clean finishing. Medium-high carbonation and light-medium body; balanced grainy malts and fruit tang/acidity in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing tart/tangy fruit dryness; no cloying/astringent flavors. Refreshingly drinkable, 7%. Really damn impressive. Perfectly balanced honey, peaches, and pale malt flavors; with just enough balancing earthy hops. Braggots come in many colors and character. This focuses mainly on the honey and fruit. I've had others with more darker malt sweetness and such. Super clean flavors. No yeast esters, all honey fruitiness. Spot on stuff. 4.1


Holy crap this is amazing. Great head retention/lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of huge milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, toasted coconut, caramel, fudge, marshmallow, toffee, and dark/brown bread; with light notes of vanilla, coffee, almonds, smoke, char, and herbal hops. Very mild herbal hop and roast/char bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full body; very creamy, silky, velvety, rich mouthfeel. Light sticky hops, chalky roast, and dryness. Super smooth, zero warming 9.4%. I love the regular beer, but this is definitely a huge step up on richness. Super fudgey and dessert like, but never cloying or overly sweet. Perfect balance of coconut, cocoa nib, and base porter malt complexity. Incredible. 4.35


Cheers, have a good evening NBS!

This album is better than sex right now.

 

Well beer #5 for this Sunday, lol so much for not drinking a lot today yep.....

Beer #5 is "Christmas Bomb" from Prairie Artisan Ales.

4.34/5 rDev +5.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

A: Jet Black with 1/2" head and sticky lacing.
S: Spicy goodness, lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, chocolate, sugar, and some burnt notes.
T: Follows the nose, deep flavors rich in spicy goodness, I swear this tastes like a amped up version of Stone Xocoveza.
M: Medium to full feel.
O: Outstanding beer, really nice mix of flavors and nothing overpowered you, just a rich awesome beer.

 

One more for review tonight.



Revolution Brewing's Deth by Cherries.

Pours black with two fingers of hearty, caramel-colored head. Head retention is good with good lacing left behind. Cherries are huge in the aroma while roasted and toasted malts form a firm foundation. Cherries are a mix of bright and tart. Flavor profile is a huge slug of cherry, both bright and tart. Roasted and toasted malts help deliver this slug of sugary flavor, although ultimately end up on the sugary side. Sugary cherries balance well with the bitter malts. Mouth feel is thick, heavy, and dense with a velvety, grainy texture. Overall, a robust stout with cherries stuffed in every crevice of the aroma and flavor profile. It doesn't taste artificial, which gives it wonderful one-dimensional depth.

Score: 4.5 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.5 | 4.25 | BA Score: 4.29 | rDev: +3.4%

Personal notes: Super glad @KCUnited sent this my way. Originally, I thought it would just be 2 of either the base stout for this, or 2 of this stout, but I'm stoked I got to try both Revolution Deth beers. This is a good and interesting stout. Previously, I hadn't thought I'd be interested in a cherry imperial stout, but this beer has swayed me a little. Nice strong notes of cherry over a firm imperial stout base create quite the brew. Cheers.

 

Not bad, feel free to stop back by and cut your teeth with a few more reviews. We are mostly a rapt audience that appreciates all efforts. Feel free to express yourself, because...

@lordofthewiens and I commissioned a study once (don't ask), but we did find that 85% of NBS doesn't bite, with a margin of error of about 20%

 

Please forgive me if you've answered this before, but what do you use to shoot your photos?

I've always admired your work and how it's consistent, and consistently good, among all your photos. Obviously lighting plays a part, but there has to be some decent sensor and lens behind some of the magic.

 

Crooked Stave "Hop Savant" enjoying it but like Trellis Buster much better. Still trying to recognize all 5 attributes for a review, doing my best.


Look: Golden yellow-orangish in color w/white fluffy head.

Smell: Pretty mild to my nose, light pineapple, tropical funk.

Taste: I like it, (Trellis Buster a bit better), hop flavor w/high carbonation, bitter finish, lemon hoppy flavor.

Feel: Carbonation, light on the palate and then gone.

Overall: I'm enjoying it, well made beer, pretty easy to drink.

 

Three Floyds beer number two.

Alpha Klaus

In keeping with the theme today, here's a Christmas beer on the day of the first snow fall here.

The patented garish label is the stuff of nightmares. Love it. The first sip of this feels luxurious. It doesn't take too long to feel like they overdid the chocolate malt. It's bitter dark chocolate qualities begin to morph into acrid coffee. This sounds bad, but the beer is still a delight. At first, I felt like the hops were just there for balance against the malt, but in hindsight, I was ascribing the bitterness to the malt due to the chocolate/coffee vibe... but who knows where the malt ends and the hops begin. Either way, there's a slight orange quality and a nice bitterness.

It's a great change of pace to drink a porter like this. Seems like the porter specialty market demands that all personality has to come from various additions and/or barrels. What about malt and hops? This beer was brash but a pleasure.

@Brutaltruth

 

Thank you! I'm not particularly artistic.

 

Nikon D5100 with a 35mm F1.8 prime lens. Coming in on 5 years old on this camera now. I shoot at F3.5 aperture with no flash to get good clarity and solid bokeh. Took me a bit of time to dial in my brew photos. Always use manual settings on shutter speed and ISO sensitivity. Thanks for the compliments. Cheers.

 

Alright on to number 3, my last NBS entry this week. Lots of great posts this time around! So glad to see people finally slaying the CBS "white whale"... I've only ever had it on tap, never really bothered trying to seek out bottles, but I'm proud of those with the tenacity to do so. It is a rewarding, awesome beer! One of the few I've had that lives up to the hype...

Alright, so... Solemn Oath Brewery. We now get them thanks to Night Shift Distributing bringing them on board to distribute in Massachusetts. On Friday night, I had Death by Viking, a fantastic "triple IPA" which I reviewed here. Last night, I split Kidnapped by Vikings (the "small beer" of the series, a 6% IPA) with a buddy, and was not a huge fan at all. Will Ravaged by Vikings be in the middle of these two quality wise as well as ABV-wise? Let's see!



Pours a very-slightly-hazy medium-copper/amber color with a nicely-compact head that leaves behind some splotchy lace. The surface is almost completely covered by foam as well. Kind of a semi-sloppy, weird appearance, but I dig the color and nearly-clear body here. Speaks to a certain level of professionalism, even if the head isn't as stable as I'd like.

Nose is heavy on papaya, orange and light coconut interestingly enough... has some tannic notes and grapefruit underneath. They definitely don't shy away from the caramel malt character here, either, with some sweet aspects that feel like a good balance for the off-kilter hoppiness. Almost molasses-like. Slightly vegetal along with some sweaty passion fruit and mango notes behind the malt. Kinda all-over-the-place but not bad. Better than Kidnapped but worse than Death so far. Amusing but not really too surprising, somehow.

Flavor is deeply caramel-focused with an almost "amber ale"-like malt profile combining with interesting tropical elements and the requisite pine toward the finish. Definitely a lot of (almost overripe) papaya on the tongue with grapefruit rind and orange backing up the proceedings. Pretty sticky like an old-school "imperial amber" as well... hmm. A few shades darker (perhaps changing out the C-60 malt for like a C-90 or even a small amount of Carafa I) and this would be a lot like, say, G'Knight by Oskar Blues.

Feel is full-bodied with a medium carbonation and lasting bitter finish. Pretty good stuff here. I probably won't go out of my way to get it again, but it's solid as hell. Death by Viking is the best of this series, though, and one of my favorite TIPA experiences so far, so get that one if you have the opportunity to get these beers.



This album is just fantastic. Female-fronted hardcore punk kinda compounding post-hardcore with poppy, catchy sensibilities and funk/dance elements. I'm addicted to it... it's so damn hooky.

 

Welcome aboard. This is a fun group of beer drinkers and reviewers. We look forward to your impressions!

 

Hello all. Sorry to be so late but I just got back from a day in the woods. 27 degrees with light snow, 20 mph winds and no deer. Today I have a bottle I have been saving for a treat. It is a 12 ounce bottle of Eternal Rest Stout from as best I can tell is Norway. Not much English on the label. It says 19 month old stout aged in Armagnac barrels (whatever that is) and Imperial stout aged 25 months in bourbon barrels. Then aged on fresh vanilla beans and toasted coconuts. Now while I have been typing this the opened bottle has been sitting in front of me. It smells fantastic without me even trying to take a whiff. So here goes.... Poured into a 12 ounce tulip glass at cellar temperature. A distinct fizz that leaves no head at all. Smells of rich molasses, raisins, vanilla, brown sugar and bourbon. I can taste the vanilla and toasted coconut with a rich stout base. It reminds me of BCBS with a more heat. An excellent treat from across the ocean. I wish I had a case of it to put away to see how well it ages. A great barrel aged stout that has just a little to much heat. Not a problem for me but it is 14% ABV and does not hide it well.

 

Hello, NBS friends, and thank you to @lordofthewiens for the snowy launch. As a former resident of Minnesota for 18 years, I share his appreciation for the 4 seasons and the beauty of a fresh snowfall. .

I have a couple of new beers tonight for your perusal and (hopefully) enjoyment. First up is a biere de garde from Atwood Ales courtesy of that beer nerd extraordinaire, @beertunes in BIF #5 - yes, #5, not #6. Iam methodical in my beer nerdery, as you can see from pic #2. I’ve only had 5 biere de gardes prior to this, so I’m very excited to try this.





4.03/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Pour is a hazy copper color, supporting a fluffy light tan head. The nose is VERY malt forward, wth caramel and toffee notes as well as a bit of rye, and there’s also some sweet fruity aromas. A lot going on.

The taste is all about the caramel at first, but the rye sneaks in the side door, and the fruit is present as the slightest touch of esters.

The feel, though, is where this shines. It has the richness of a malt-forward beer (say, a really nice Oktoberfest), but it also has the lighter, “spritzier” feel of a saison. A really well-executed beer, IMHO.

 

Welcome! Don’t feel nervous here, we all appreciate any description of a new to you beer.

 

Greetings NBS faithful! It's been another busy weekend that began with a trip to Grand Rapids for the CBS release Friday and a visit to Revolution and Half Acre in Chicago today. Like many around the nation we saw our first measurable snow yesterday, but thankfully with the exception of a morning run, I spent the day at home. My travels emptied the wallet but netted some new beer! Let's check out one that I scored today.

A collaboration IPA that I purchased at Half Acre featuring Tired Hands called American Elder. The pint can is dated 12/04/17 with an abv. of 7.7% and I'm drinking it from my trusty Half Acre IPA glass. Here we go.....

Pours a slightly cloudy yellow producing a generous finger of creamy white foam. It settles ever so slowly revealing moderate lacing. The smell is passionfruit, dank weedy floral and spice, white grapes along with fresh rubber. Taste is passionfruit, dank floral/weed, white grapes and fresh rubber. The feel begins thin and slightly creamy, turning bitter and very dry in the finish.

If you like them dank and weedy this is the beer for you. It's like drinking lupulin oil! It's a little more bitter and dry than I would prefer, but it didn't detract from what was an overall positive experience. My score is 4.3 / rDev-2.5%.

I'm not sure if there's another review in me tonight? This guy is beat and has a date with his couch and TV next! Have yourselves a great week, here's the official scorecard......

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18006/316151/?ba=Prager62#review