New Beer Sunday (Week 686)

Good morning, fellow NBSers, you armies of ale aficionados and legions of lager lovers (it's been a while since @cavedave turned over his reins, so I thought I'd toss some alliteration out there).

Yes, @lordofthewiens, it takes hard-won judgement and maturity to make a relationship work. Sounds like you got a handle on it. I'm still working on it!

As for beer relationships, I've got plenty of them still to form. I've already had relations with a couple new beers this week.

Starting off the task of dealing with the enormous box of mostly canned beers that @beerloserLI blighted my building with (and probably made my address a postal leper colony) was tough. Where to begin? I decided that since we're slowly emerging from the gray cave of winter into the slightly less gray and WET cave of spring, a Sip of Sunshine was in order:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17980/117177/?ba=woemad#review
I was very surprised by this. I was expecting what has become the norm with IPAs from New England-a haze bomb-but this is just a great, old fashioned IPA. Now, I am not opposed to the hazy IPA
but my first meaningful relationship with IPAs were with the west coast variety, so I'm always happy to drink something similar to that, which is what this reminded me of. I'm very happy to have received two!

Yesterday, also courtesy of @beerloserLI, I had my first Jai Alai, my first beer aged in White Oak, my first beer from Cigar City, and my first Florida beer all in one go:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17981/59173/?ba=woemad#review
One of the most unusual beers I have ever had. Like some sort of fruity, coconut dessert with a dollop of vanilla sweetness. Not sure I'd want to session it, but that one can was utterly delicious.

While gathering beers for my target in the current (and very much ongoing NBS BIF), I decided to begin a relationship with a Seattle brewery that was new to me. One day, cans from Counterbalance just sort of appeared on local shelves with no advance warning or anything, like the monolith from "2001: A Space Odyssey." To this day they seem very much under the radar. Well, for science, I finally took the plunge:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/38615/159509/?ba=woemad#review
Ever been in a relationship and wonder why you didn't make your move sooner? This is a really good RIS. I wouldn't go so far as to put it on my absolute pedestal of the style (Old Rasputin, at least in terms of big, hairy, hop bomb RISs, which is what this aspires to be), but it absolutely blows the doors off the local, similar alternative. Really good stuff!

Once I finish my coffee, I'll work out what beers I'll be forming relationships with today.

 

Howdy, all!

I didn't end up having to work today which is nice. Since it is probably my last Sunday off at home for a decent while, I might as well spend part of it with you fine folks. I have a lovely relationship with my wife, who is a spectacular girl if there ever was one; and I have some good relationships with a people I have met online through beer. Never thought I'd say that before a few years ago, but here we are. It's truly a weird and cool time we live in...

My beer today is a brown ale from Vox Populi. Browns are among my favorites and they were indeed some of my first "fancy beers" that I really dug (Samuel Smith Nut Brown and Rogue Hazelnut Brown). I feel like it's a style that doesn't get the love it deserves. Hopefully this one is worthy of that love.



It pours dark brown, fairly clear, with a nice big head. Both the aroma and flavor are about what I expected. Some nutty roast flavors, a hint of chocolate, drinkable. It is a little thinner and a little harsher than I like but it is by no means a bad beer on the whole. Well-balanced, tasty. Would have again, but I likely would not seek it out or anything.

Here is my review if you care to look.

Hope you all have a nice rest of your Sunday.

Santé!

 

What a great story! Love hearing success stories like that, especially ones that take place over time and across borders. Sounds like a great love and marriage and it was inspiring to read it

Funny, my second wife's last words to me before finally moving out after I divorced her, "You know, you're gonna die alone." I won't repeat what my last words to her were as she walked out the door. Thing is, she said it as a curse, but since then I've realized I love to be alone most of the time, it's a blessing, not a curse, and also came to know the most alone I have ever felt was the last ten years of being married to her.

Here's to a long continuation of your love and marriage, Derek. Cheers!

 

First up today an tasty tart beer from @y2kawakami Bruery Terreux Frucht: Raspberry!

4.15/5 rDev -1.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Thank you y2kawakami for this
375 ml bottle poured into a a flute

A- Ruby red with a two finger pink head

S- Raspberry jam, slightly sweet, tart, some lemons, touch of lacto, oak.

T- Lemons, tart raspberry, some oak, some wheat, some lacto.

M- Smooth, light body, crisp.

O- A very nice raspberry Berliner.

Cheers!

 

KBS 2018
..solid black color
..thick creamy feel,above average body,light carbonation. To me it has a great feel,prefer low carbonation with a thick body for stouts
..aroma is all barrel and booze first,followed by coffee and vanilla.
..taste is very similar,the bourbon barrel really dominates,occasionally it almost is to heavy and has too heavy of a bourbon sweetness.
..ovetall it's a fantastic beer that I'm glad I picked up a few. I think choosing when to drink it and what to pair it with is really important. I had to just drink it alone as it just didn't work with what I was eating and the flavors were better appreciated by themselves

 

New beer #3. Thanks @larryi86 !

Secret Machine - Dewey Beach
Strawberry, Mango, Passionfruit Lactose Sour - 6% abv
Score: 4.12 (+3.3% rDev)



L - 1-finger reddish white head atop a translucent orange body.

S - super tropical. Lots of strawberry and mango.

T - follows the nose. Quite tart with high salinity. No bitterness, moderate sweetness, no booziness.

F - light body with high carb.

O - it’s no Jream, but enjoyable on its own merits.

 

Did you ever figure out the ABV?

 

Sounds like an intriguing beer.

And, yes, I immediately thought of the song you linked when I saw it's name!

 

My son the brewer is not certain. Untapped lists it as 11%

 

Thanks to @lordofthewiens for another great start to NBS today. As usual, I'm enjoying everyone's posts and musings. Like @Gobearswalter34 and @ONUMello, I met my wife when I was young - the first day of college as a matter of fact. We were actually dating other people at the time and we became instant friends, leading to a deeper relationship a year later. Over 32 years later (holy shit!) and after 26 years of marriage, we are going strong. I'm very fortunate that she has put up with my antics all these years. She has even become a casual beer lover, preferring hoppy DIPAs and barrel aged stouts. Here is one of my favorite pics from a beer fest last year:


On to today's beer, courtesy of @beertunes. After reading about this one, I wanted to save it for NBS as the story behind it is so cool. The Willows Inn is a world-class restaurant on Lummi Island at the very top corner of NW Washington, and Wander Brewing in Bellingham did a collab beer using all locally sourced ingredients: "The beer’s namesake comes from the use of unmalted wheat that was harvested on Loganita Farm on Lummi Island. This is the farm that The Willows Inn uses to source much of its local ingredients and the same unmalted wheat that they turn into flour for use in dishes on their menu. We coupled that with malt that was smoked over peat harvested from the Olympic Peninsula and other grains sourced from Skagit Valley Malting and fermented with our Wander farmhouse yeast strain."

Poured into proper glassware (thanks, Derek). A crystal-clear golden straw color with a very large and fluffy white head. Constant streams of bubbles from the bottom of the glass, like Champagne. The aroma was sweet floral esters, faint lemongrass, wheat, and just a hint of peat. The smoked peaty flavor is more prominent on the palate, but well-integrated with the beer. Other flavors including lemon, black pepper, wheat, and grass mix well. The wheat also shines beyond the smoke. Light bodied and effervescent. Really enjoyable. I have had peat smoked beers that went sideways, and this one has the perfect amount IMO. I could see myself enjoying this with a great meal any day. Cheers!

 

Central Waters Brewery in Amherst WI has 20+ inches of snow on the ground and it is going to snow into the later afternoon!!!

There is about 2-3" of snow covering the ice in my neck of the woods. We will probably end up with 4" on the ground when it is over with. I'm not even going to shovel since it is April and will quickly melt away. These flowers were full bloom last year on April 15.



Watching the Brewers play the Mets in NY while I enjoy a new beer. Ayinger Ur-Weisse seemed like the right beer on a snowy spring day. It pours a light mahogany brown with a 2.5 finger creamy white foam head with traces of lacing on my glass. It has a nice fruity sweetness with bread, hints of mature bananas, yeast and esters. Flavor is bready malts with some fruity banana notes, light caramel in the middle, and finishes with some yeast and spice. Feel is medium-bodied with a creamy feel and excellent carbonation. A terrific beer for any time of the year.

 

Guinness Antwerpen Stout. This is an interesting beer. It's not usually sold in the USA. It's only exported only to Belgium. It was first brewed at the end of WW2 because of a beer shortage in Belgium. It was imported here as part of a verity pack. It's quiet unlike any other Guinness brew I've tasted.. It clocks in at an Imperial Stout like 8% ABV but does not call itself an Imperial Stout just a Stout. It look just about any other Stout Black with a thick tan head. The aroma is roasted malt with a bit of smoke The taste is dark fruits with hints of vanilla. The mouth feel is creamy and very thin for a Stout. The finish is sweet and lingering. I guess the store where I picked broke up a 12 pack to sell the beers as singles. Anyway it's good stuff and worth the $1.99 this bottle cost.

 

Happy New Beer Sunday everyone! In my opinion relationships are one of the things that make being a human and living life so unique and interesting. I'm still quite young and have never been married but have learned a lot from the relationships I've had (both romantic and between friends / family). Having someone you trust, can share everything with and always look forward to seeing and being with is a wonderful thing. Also I have learned a lot about myself from the challenges that arise when you spend so much time with one person. Anyways, today I am drinking an export beer from Augustiner Bräu that they call "Edelstoff":



The appearance is a crystal clear, yellow / gold with a foamy, white head.

The aroma is dominated by sweet malts and accompanied by some herbal hops.

The taste consists of sweet malts and some herbaceous flavors that probably come from the hops. The beer is extremely well balanced and there is a slightly dry, bitter aftertaste that comes from the hops.

The mouthfeel is quite thin and the carbonation is perfect for drinking.

Overall it is an extremely (perhaps dangerously) drinkable beer. It's not necessarily a complex beer but is a clean tasting, flavorful, well made beer that is perfect for quenching any beer thirst that you might have. In my opinion it's a bit sweeter / more herbal than the classic Helles from Augustiner. The beers from Augustiner always impress me and I'm glad to have been able to try this beer today. Hopefully everyone else is enjoying a new beer on this fine Sunday!

 

Wow, your life experience with relationships (at least seemingly) mirrors mine big time, though I'm not yet in my 30s. I feel essentially exactly as you do about the whole thing and even have the same general experience with women. I'm not desperate for a relationship; in fact, I rather enjoy being single and having a lot of time to myself. I'm going on about three years being single at this point; before that point, I had been in several long-term relationships, but none of them have really lasted a very long time.

Anyway, I think many people rush into relationships because they want to fill what they perceive to be a void in their life, especially if they are used to comparing themselves to peers. I tend to be overall uninterested in how others perceive me and prefer to be true to myself first and foremost. I think accepting oneself is much more important than trying to fit in with others, and, indeed, may actually be the most necessary precursor to eventually finding someone who is a good relationship match for you. I know way too many couples who have sauntered blissfully into unworkable or largely-flawed relationships merely out of fear of remaining alone, only to wind up feeling heartbroken, seemingly lacking the self-awareness necessary to work out why the relationship fell apart in the first place.

I am not perfect in this regard myself, mind you. I have struggled with the mental blocks associated with not wanting to blame myself for the complex situations that can end up terminating relationships. However, I think this struggle is very important to self-actualization and the realization that, oftentimes, interpersonal romantic relationships are only possible when both people involved are aware that these take real, hard work from both sides and are nothing to remain complacent about.

Wow, I'm actually really surprised I got all of that out. I've been kinda hung up on relationship-related stuff for a while now, honestly, despite how nonchalant I probably seem about the idea in my first paragraph up there. It's complicated, for sure.

I'll be back with two new beers soon! Working on some cleaning, laundry and continuing education stuff for my pharmacy technician re-certification today aside from a few beers. It's snowing and shitty outside, so I'll just be prepping for the work week for most of the day, I suppose. Thanks to the good doctor for the thought-provoking original post!

 

On Friday, I revisited this guy:


For me, it's one of the best American saisons. It's not quite as lovely as some beers from Belgium or France, but as an American offering, it's impressive. If only it wasn't so damn expensive... and/or had bottle dating. I can be more willing to pay such a premium if I felt like I wasn't taking a chance on how old the beer was. I'm not a fan of old saisons. When a "better" European beer is cheaper and has a bottle date, it's awfully hard buying into Blackberry Farm, but I still do so because I like the beer. Today, for NBS, I've opened the "Wild" version of their "Classic Saison." One can see in the pics that it's almost easy to confuse the two. The wild version seems to be the same as the regular version but with the addition of a honeysuckle yeast harvested from the farm.



Color is deep gold/light amber. Hazy. Big head but soft carbonation (a nice combo). The beer is light bodied and dry. Taste is lemon/pepper. The soft bitterness is very pronounced without being too much or harsh. It's not what I'd call sour and there's some funk but it's not heavy by my standards. Is this any different than the regular version? That's the million dollar question. I wish I saved some of that beer from Friday to make a direct comparison. Just going from memory, it really doesn't feel all that different at all. Perhaps it's a smidge lighter and more bitter... but I couldn't say that with confidence without having them side by side. I feel like one is probably a decent substitute for the other if one was fresher or cheaper.

This one goes out to @utopiajane

Cheers.

 

I am so sorry to hear, and I am so glad we didn't get it too! You are in a colder environment than are we. Our latest snow (not measurable though) was May 9, but there have been some killer April dumps.. Our earliest snow (which dropped 30" in the mountains but we only got a foot) was Oct. 4. So neither one of us ought to be surprised, really, I guess is what I mean. Stay safe, drink lots of beer, my best advice for us both this chilly day. Cheers!

 

Yeah, I love that beer. The smoke is just there, not overpowering at all. I've sent that to folks who don't like smoke beers, and they like this one. The rare times it's on tap at the brewery, I drink several.

If anyone is thinking about a beercation in the PNW, and really wants to impress the person they are in a relationship with, be sure to book a night or two at The Willows: https://www.willows-inn.com/

Lummi Island is an easy day trip from Bham, and it's worlds different than the mainland. It's less than a ten minute ferry ride, but the cycling and hiking is good, the Beach Store Cafe has good casual eats, and you can have a nice little picnic looking over the San Juan islands: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lummi_Island