New Beer Sunday (Week 704)

8=O I'm looking, I'm looking! 8=O

Do you have plans for the (eventually) spent CANs? Jeff Lebo in York Haven, York County would <3 to have them for his CANlection. I CAN arrange to pick them up or he CAN come to you or if you want to see his amazing CANlection, these would undoubtedly serve as your entrée. Let me know your thoughts via Beer Mail so as not to clog this thread.

 

I'm sure it's just me being me for better or for worse, usually worse, but when I hear El Dorado I think of John Wayne, and it sounds like a movie title.

 

A-Pours a nice clear amber color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has citrus and hoppy hints
T-The taste follows the nose with citrus and hoppy flavors
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A nice DIPA

 

This new beer is Ella Ella, an IPA from Icarus Brewing ( Lakewood, NJ).
This yellow-orange can pour has a deep haze and a thin foam cap that dissipates quickly. The aroma is of orange blossoms. The flavor includes tangerine and green grapes with moderate hop bitterness. The mouthfeel is tingly and the bitterness persists pleasantly. I like this very much.
Cheers to all!

 

New beer #2.

Softstyle - The Veil
DIPA - 8% abv
Canned 8/7/18 (12 days ago)
Purchased for $17/4 at The Veil
Score: 4.24 (+2.2% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/41018/363430/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Mild in hop flavor, but well balanced and easy to drink, especially given the 8% abv. It’s not the Veil I love, as the taste is restrained. Almost as if they are now trying to brew ipas that won’t offend anyone. I miss the Veil ipas that would force you to take notice with their aggressive hopping. Hopefully they return to form after a mediocre summer.

 

Dunno. This guy: cansmartbeercans.com/ ? I don't usually append the adjective "The" to his name. I'm sure that he would be flattered.

The Woody ChANdler sends.

 

A-Pours a hazy orange/amber color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has tropical citrus, most notably mango, kiwi and passionfruit, and hoppy hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a tropical citrus mix of mango, kiwi and passionfruit, and hoppy flavors
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A nice DIPA with a nice bitterness

 

NBS beer #1 for today is new to me, but anything but new.



Dragonhead Stout

Orkney Brewery
English Stout / 4.00% ABV

3.83/5 rDev -0.5% | Score: 3.85
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

L-The beer pours black and glossy. The head is a tan two fingers of thick foam that looks like the surface of your hot chocolate on a cold winter day. The head recedes to a thick film leaving light lacing behind.
S-The nose is dark chocolate with a bit of mustiness. Hints of light coffee and smokiness underly the chocolate.
T-Smokiness is more prevalent on the palate than in the nose. Dark chocolate and coffee blend together well. The smokiness outlasts these elements and linger on the tongue.
F- Mouthfeel overall is medium. Carbonation is restrained.
O- A decent low abv stout option. This will appeal more to those fans of smokier beers than it does myself. Worth a shot.

 

The last new one from my birthday haul.

I may be a bit of a sediment-phobe and neipa noob so its goldenness may be less murky than it ought to be. Still enough to generate a healthy meringue-like head that was replenished eagerly by the escaping carbonation.
Pungent, fruity sweetness with stone fruits the dominant aromas but a little bread yeast in the mix.
No discernible flavors but the tart 'n' tangy sensation is encompassing and long lasting. Any wild component is overshadowed.
Full-bodied with a bit of tongue coating at the end.

I am glad that the non-beer drinking people I know who have exposed me to this and other Marz beers were not only not put off by their shtick but compelled by it. Very impressed with this brewery's creativity.

 

Happy NBS, all, and thanks for the intro @lordofthewiens. Glad to hear you’re comfortably adapting to the beer scene in your new home.

My new beer this morning is Smuttynose Oktoberfest. I’ll put my full review up later , but here are my first impressions-

Look is brilliant clear gold with a nice foamy head that leaves behind sheets of lacing.

Nose and taste are full of slightly sweet doughy bread and floral hops. Also getting some mild fruity melon and herbal notes in the taste. Balance is a little skewed towards the hops in this one. The feel is medium-bodied and soft with a modrately bitter finish.

Overall, this is decent, but the melon notes and substantial bitterness make it not ideal as a fest Lager as I couldn’t see myself wanting to have more than one of these in a sitting.

 

I think your taster is right on. I got notes of orange marmalade when I tried it. Only one way to find out, drink another one!

 

My favorite beer of 2017 was a Veil IPA (Fire Emoji). I don’t see that happening this year.

 

I still have not had another ipa that I would say is very close to the flavor of that one. Very unique tangerine-orange flavor. Still enough hoppy/bitterness though. It’s an easy beer to fly through 6 of

 

In Las Cruces, Spotted Dog is quite good my friend. And High Desert has improved with the brewer that joined about a year ago. And of course, Bosque has a tasting room, which usually has new stuff pouring.
My brother lives there, and I hope to head out there and meet up with you at some point.

 

Hey what's going on!

Time for tasty beers, and time to cap off the end of this weekend. Feeling pretty good, and I am ready to let this rip... Literally.

Today.. I am a man of few words. Any questions?

What's new for our hero today!? Oh this is gonna be fun...

Oliver / Stillwater - Whipped Volume 2 (Nitro Double India Pale Ale) | Oliver Brewing Company



Poured from the can on a very quick shake and dump into a nonic. Playing it safe for spillage instead of the Spiegelau glass.

Yikes! What a mess, that was fun! A bit of spray but then a big oozy mess of white luxiourous nitro foam filling the glass, and I mean FILLING it… Lovely run up of bubbles as an upside can sits, while the body color reveals a peachy like orange, and opaque appearance. Creamy nitro white head, very big one too, easily over two fingers, and has good staying power like a rock. Neato looker! Definitely the right choice of glass for this brew, good call on our hero.

Aroma seems to continue the peach theme. Peach like fruit on the nose, a soft puree, and minimal sweetness. Touches low acidity and a bit simple store brand, with luckily dialed down sweetness.

Well this is a different animal on the palate. Biscuit malts and touches of peach puree, with a hint of fruit cocktail in the mid palate. Soft expected nitro body that doesn't take away from the cookie like flavors. Minimal hop bitterness and more of an English bitter to pale ale quality, touches a little apricot sourness in the mix as well.

This is nice but comes off more as a fruited ale than anything. It's a good one though.

4s across the board.

Cheers!

 

New Happy Anniversary Sunday

This one seemed appropriate for this week as my wife and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary in a few days. I saved a bottle of champagne from our reception that has survived a few moves for the occasion. We also moved our oldest son into his dorm for his first year of college about an hour and a half up the road on Friday. Only about 8 weeks till his swim season starts.

Speaking of which, he was also honored, along with his fellow lifeguards, with a commendation from the County Commissioners for a boy form their high school they saved last month. One of the guards saw him laying at the bottom of the 12’ part and blew her whistle. My son wasn’t actually working, but was in the pool at the time so he got to him quickly and brought him up (the hard way, without a flotation device). He wasn’t breathing and had no pulse that they could find. The others did CPR for 2 minutes until the EMTs got there, and by that time he was talking. A bunch of very level headed kids. They weren’t even shook up. That’s a lot of weight for 15-18 year olds to have someone’s life in their hands. Anyway, back to the beer.




4.67/5 rDev +8.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

A 12oz bottle into a snifter

It is a dark cola color with just a tint of mahogany red. A little bit of a cola like fizzy, tan head too that receded quickly into a fine soapy ring. It is very opaque.

The aroma is fantastic and you can smell it from 2 feet away. The first thing that I noticed is a smell reminiscent of Bourbon County Barleywine. A real smooth bourbon and oak with candied/caramelized sugars. There is also a noticeable rum, chocolate, roasted dark malt, and just a hint of soy sauce.

The flavors really follow and live up to the aromas. Rich dark fruits, caramelized brown sugar, toffee and bourbon up front, then some oak, sweet chocolate and oats, and a slightly bitter char, a subtle hop bite, and some nuttiness. Lingering vanilla and canided sugar with a touch of chocolate.

Every subsequent drink, especially as it warms, becomes even more integrated and doesn’t follow any particular order. The only seemingly consistent thing is the lingering flavor spiced rum, which also becomes more noticeable in the nose.

The body is excellent. Enough of an oatmeal stout like creamines to keep the body from being more thin like Helldorado is to me. Just a touch prickly from what seems like a hop toward the end. If nitpicking, I would take just a little more heft.

I tried to avoid the breakdown until after reviewing, but the brown ale was definitely hidden in the background and I couldn’t pick it out so I checked and sure enough, Bravo makes up 14% of it. I think it may actually be the thing that ties it all together too. I can’t stress enough how wonderfully balanced this blend is. I’m surprised the scores are not higher. I always thought Clown Shoes did a real nice job at blending, and Jackie O’s might be the second best around, but this is on another level.

 

I’m drinking a new beer at home after church while watching the little league World Series. It’s crazy to watch these kids at 10-13 years old be more athletic than every person I played slow pitch softball with Friday night. Anyway, on to today’s new beer:

Trim Tab brewing- the original 006

Look is a golden mango orange color which is very turbid and almost opaque with a two finger head from a moderately aggressive pour.

Aroma is ripe pineapple, mango, and grapefruit along with some sweetness.

Taste follows the nose with no bitter and is ALMOST too sweet. ALMOST.

Mouthfeel is medium full and soft. Exactly what you would expect from a NEIPA.

Overall a very tasty brew that I wish had more hop flavor and less sweetness.

Edit: just noticed this beer is 8.7%. Holy crap you’d never know it. Drinks like 5%

 

Bells 2017 black note stout
..solid black color
Slight creamy, thick above average body. Carbonation is below average with an overall very pleasing feel
..aroma is malt, bourbon, black coffee, it sort of smells like coffee/bourbon candy
..taste is sweet with a mild bitter finish. Sticky sweet bourbon coats the tongue and lingers. Some coffee and espresso shows up as well
...Overall this was an excellent beer, one I can and would recommend to anyone who likes this style