New Beer Sunday (Week 708)

Nelson Sauvin from Mikkeller, brewed with oranges, passion fruit and aged in chardonnay barrels. Picked up a singe at $9.99. Pours a clear dark amber with orange hues. A very thin white head that settles quickly to a thin ring and leaves ample spotty lacing. Aromas of citrus fruits, chardonnay, oak, yeast and some sour funk. Tastes of orange, orange peel, oak, chardonnay, passion fruit, yeast and a sour funkiness (not at the level of a sour but very prevalent). Light to medium bodied, lightly carbonated and a very dry, lingering finish. Certainly a very interesting and unique beer and glad I tried it but not worth the price in my opinion.

 

The version I heard said, "that dog would bite youuu!"

 

NBS beer #1



Black Note Stout

Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store
American Imperial Stout / 11.20% ABV

4.36/5 rDev -4% | Score: 4.54
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Bottled 10/05/2017

L- The beer pours black (duh) with a half centimeter mocha head of fine bubbles. The head recedes to a thin ring leaving no lacing behind.
S-The nose is bourbon forward, demonstrating that oaky vanilla characteristic. Behind the bourbon is a dark chocolate which seems almost sweet due to the bourbon.
T-On the palate the sweetness of the nose is far better balanced. Up front you get roasty coffee like presence. Thankfully I don't get any of that charred flavor I get with some stouts. Bourbon rises in the middle sweetening the bitter coffee presence and lingering into the finish. A chocolate aftertaste is left on the tongue after the bourbon subsides.
F-Mouthfeel overall is medium. It's smooth, but could be a little thicker. Carbonation is light.
O- An excellent bourbon barrel aged stout, that may not quite live up to all the hype. It's good don't get med wrong. I'm not sure it's good enough at the price point it commands.

 

Avery's Raspberry Truffale imperial stout...

Bourbon barrel-aged, 14% abv, featuring chocolate and raspberries...

Pours appropriately black with a slim finger of tan foam on top... Notes of chocolate with a berry-like brightness on the nose preview more of the same on the sip... Rather slim-feeling for an imperial stout - not uncommon for barrel-aged beers, but also not my preference in a big beer like this... Bourbon booze and vanilla comes in more on the sip than the scent, smoothing out into more of a chocolaty syrup flavor... Berry notes, bright and tart and sweet, poke through reliably, so the beer definitely delivers on its paper profile promise... All of that said, I have become less enamored of the berry stout with time (ditto for the "Mexican" stout BTW), as I feel the style has become overdone and relies too much on the big hit flavors without creating anything really nuanced or original... And as I just mentioned, I want a big beer to have a big body, and this has a medium-weight fell (not too far off, mind you) and a certain syrup-like consistency, but nonetheless, falls a bit short of my personal ideal... $13.99 at Total Wine is fair and par for the course, but it isn't something I want any more of... Fans of berry stouts and/or folks not averse to medium-to-slim-bodied bourbon barrel aged stouts will undoubtedly get a lotta bang for their buck on this one...

7/27/18 bottling...

That's all I got today, NBS, so maybe I'll see you over in WBAYDN as the day goes on - if not, as always, here's to new beer in your glass, cheers...

 

Allagash Map 40

Continuing with Allagash, this is their “Belgian stout” with coffee. This dusty bottle dates back to January - so it’s not a good look for me for NBS, but it was a totally pleasant drink nonetheless.

First impression is that this one does what it says on the tin. It feels like Allagash’s Belgian stout with coffee. Simple as that. The result is a nice beer though. The fruitiness of their stout balances with the coffee better than the typical bitter and roasty craft stout employed by others.

The power of suggestion doesn’t get enough credit around here. I know it’s a super powerful thing for me, but despite that, a brewer’s tasting notes don’t typically push me in their direction. This beer was an exception.

Once you get acclimated to the stout, the elements morph into a harmonious blend (which is a rare blessing for a coffee beer). The resulting impression is that the beer tastes a lot like dark chocolate with raisins. This is totally in synch with the tasting notes on the bottle. The power of suggestion was big with this one.

 

New Beer Sunday: An American Pale Ale

Afternoon NBSers, with a report on an APA that surprised me with the realization that I hadn’t tried it yet.

This afternoon’s new beer (while prepping for lunch) is the New Dogtown Pale Ale from Lagunitas. Not sure why I’ve never tried this beer before, but….

As usual, my review, subject to revision until I finish the beer, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/44896/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas/flavors have lots of grapefruit zest and resin from the hops backed up a light biscuity malt. There’s an enjoyable balance between sweetness and bitterness but with the bitterness being solidly present all the way to the smooth dry and crisp ending that invites another sip. Good solid APA that is worth trying if you haven’t yet but, that said, it isn’t anything that you should have FOMO over if you never find it.

Cheers, all!

 

New beer #2 (or 3 if you count the drainpour)

Me - Finback
IPA - 6.8% abv
Canned 8/15/18 (32 days ago)
Purchased for $6 at Threes’ Bottle Shop
Score: 4.36 (-1.6% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33901/365684/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
This is Finback’s highest-rated IPA, and now I see why. Blissful tropical fruit flavors, with a lovely hop bite that burns (just a little) on the way down. @larryi86 like Mago Tago taken down a couple of notches in intensity. I like this way more than any other Finback beer I’ve tried.

 

I use imgur and it has never given me any trouble. Just make sure to paste the "direct link" when you open up the add image button here on BA or your picture won't show up. Also, if you don't want any yahoos besides the yahoos in this thread to see your image you can upload it as hidden which is nice I think.

 

That sounds like a really good beer. I agree with you about the power of suggestion.

 

Thanks Doc

 

Peter's Brand, a Dutch Style Pilsner. Picked up a single at Trader Joe's for a buck and a half. Not a beer that I would normally save for NBS but I wanted something light.
Pours a crystal clear golden color with a one inch white head that dissipated quickly to a ring and left spotty lacing. Lots of lively carbonation. Smells of bread, straw, lightly roasted malts and some noble hops. Taste follow the nose with additional notes of sweet malts and grass. Light bodied, highly carbonated, clean and crisp. Flavor falls apart quickly as it warms though. Cheers!

 

Foreign Objects Future Sight IPA

Happy Sunday, BAs. I’m looking forward to some Oktoberfests and football soon, but also wanted to test if this one makes the grade for a BIF box. It does!

Future Sight pours a cloudy, pale yellow-orange color with a finger-and-a-half of airy, off-white head. That dissipates fairly quickly and leaves modest soapy lacing.

There’s a refined aroma of peach flesh, light citrus, a little must and a little white pepper.

A flash of juicy peach shows at first in the taste, replaced quickly by dully bitter hop water. Grapefruit pith, lime zest and pine sap linger in the aftertaste.

The beer has a creamy, full-bodied feel for the style, with some zippy carbonation punching through.

This is a decent brew. At 4.2%, this comes across as a big APA — delicate nose, hop water taste, but a huge mouthfeel. It’s tasty. That said, at $22/4-pack I’m not liklely to buy it again. (I would and hopefully will buy Founders Better Half again at that same price. IMO, Better Half is better than the considerably more expensive CBS.)

Here’s the @utopiajane video review I mentioned earlier in the thread.

Guessed the song yet? Here’s an appropriately cheesy version.

 

Founders better half
..dark amber /ruby color
..Just above average body
..aroma is as advertisedmolasses, maple, and bourbon with some alcohol
..taste follows the nose almost exactly. It's sweet but not cloying , sugary, or artificial tasting. As it warms the maple starts to dominate a bit
..overall it's an interesting beer that makes for a great sipper if you are just trying to relax and savor s beer
.

 

A-Pours a hazy brown color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has cocoa, caramel, malt and hop hints
T-The taste follows the aroma with cocoa, caramel, malt and hop flavors
M-A light bodied moderately carbonated beer
O-A nice brown ale

 

I got that in the Troegs Fall Pack (with Perpetual IPA, Hop Knife and Java Stout), all good beers in the pack.

 

Howdy NBS folks!
It has warmed back up here and is shaping up to be a beautiful day today. I am back from a brief trip into NE last weekend and have been devoting my time not spent working to enjoying the lead-up to the NBS BIF and trying to whittle down all the hoppy beers I got while stateside before they become husks of their former selves or turn into pumpkin beers or whatever happens to them when they get too old.

I have to say, as much as I love the big juice bombs I am nigh-on burnt out on them. They are all good but since they're all different shades of the same good, I find myself drinking them and occasionally asking myself whether they have fallen off or whether my tongue is no longer as sensitive as it once was to waves of lupulin lusciousness. I think it's a combo of both. However, on that note, I'm 90% sure I picked up fairly old Alchemist at a store in Burlington. What a time to be alive! HT just moldering on the shelves. I'm gonna try to take today off from IIPAs that and see if maybe it was that my tongue and nose needed calibration.

For my first new beer today I'm going to have a beer from Hill Farmstead that I'm very excited to try. Mary, an unfiltered German-style Pilsner.

This is a very nice Pilsner that manages to do what truly excellent lagers do. That is, it is able to be crazily simple and drinkable yet very complex with many different subtle flavors. It is not a wow-you beer right off the bat, but in sitting and taking the time to drink it I realized just how lovely and balanced and restrained it was and I honestly feel like there was perpetually lingering malt/hop flavor in my mouth between sips. It has a lemon-zest aromatic thing going on and some nice noble hop character. Basically it is just what you would expect/want out of a beer like this. At a glance, it is a solid representation of the style; taken as a sum of its parts I thought it excellent. Obviously, as I am a bit over the average for others who have had it.

Here is my review, for the curious.

Prost!

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Looking at a much needed nice long week of vacation time. This week will be a staycation but I've got a full week off for each month till the years end with some actual trips planned. Getting ready for a full day of football action and waiting for the Jets to kick off at 1. Other than that I'm pretty much just relaxing all day long.

I have a few new brews today but we'll see how many I actually get to. My first new beer today is Super Cluster ale, a citra-hopped mega ale (ipa), from Lagunitas. The brew checks in at 8 % abv .

A rather murky amber pour with blonde highlights and a big fluffy white head. The nose is full of tropical fruit. Pretty hoppy and sweet upfront on the initial sips. A very smooth flow that finishes with a bitter finish. Rather fruit forward with notes of orange, lemon, lime, and grape. Additional notes of pine and resin at the end of each sip. It has a good amount of malt backing which seems to add to the sweetness. I would really rather they just feature the hop. There is also a sort of slight medicinal/chemical flavor at times which is rather off-putting. The mouth feel is rather light to possible moderate body.

Overall, I'm not that impressed here players. It's quick and easy to drink and the abv hides well to provide a nice buzz but the depth of flavor is lacking and the overall quality just doesn't deliver for me. I'm in the 3.5 range here players.

 

A-Pours a nice clear light amber color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma haslight malty and bready hints
T-The taste follows the aroma with light malty and bready flavors
M-A light bodied moderately carbonated beer
O-A nice Octoberfest beer

 

We're up here 50 miles from the Virginia border and 200 miles from the sea. We have had it easy compared to those further south and east, but Florence is a monster with tentacles moving through the region. We definitely see it and feel it. My brother in law lives on Oak Island, just south of Wilmington, where Florence first broached land He got the hell out!
Anyway, here are some pictures from the far northern Piedmont showing the reach of this beast.



This hickory took out a favorite Japanese maple, a fig, some azaleas, possibly a rhododendron, but we'll see. Beer time!