New Beer Sunday (Week 714)

Alright so first and foremostly i want to thank @FFFjunkie for this wonderful beer. Ive been wanting to share it but some of the guys schedule didn't line up, but finally we had a day. A couple guys were very excited because they new what it was. The others were excited because it was of course bourbon county and didn't know there was a proprietors stout. These guys have been drinking craft beer since it first hit the scene and have been making it for just about as long. They travel the country drinking beer and they said this was probably the best beer they have ever had. I would say it's the best adjunct beer I've ever had. It's just hard to compare a flavored stout to a bare bones stout. Anyways thank you so much again Daniel. I wish this was a common beer because it would always be in my fridge and i will never forget this beer. Amazing how you made so many peoples day with your kindness.

4.65/5 rDev +2.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours black. Short, thick, brown medium head Fades slowly.

Smells liquid banana bread, banana, cinnamon, chocolate, vanilla and bourbon.

Taste sweet chocolate, Roast malt, banana, bready, caramel, vanilla and bourbon. Finish is semi-sweet with a bourbon and chocolate linger. Medium body and creamy medium carbonation.

 

They're their own thing rather than a simulation. Not that I'm necessarily disagreeing, but it's generous of you to call it a "style."
Thanks (I'm always honestly surprised when anybody says anything complementary about my take on a beer). Cheers.

 

New Beer Sunday: American IBA

Afternoon NBSers with an alert for seekers of IPAs with citrus and rye.

This afternoon’s new beer is the Rival IPA from Yards Brewing in Philadelphia.

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

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/450/251521/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas/flavors are well controlled and show off lots of complex citric character, a bit of bready spicy rye along with some caramel malt sweetness. This is an enjoyable, drinkable seasonal I’ll be looking to have again both this year and in the future.

Cheers, all!

 

Thank god for beer store employees that give sound advice! I actually think I liked the asterisk better than 2x4 even though that's the one that they're more known for. Definitely keep an eye peeled for Hubert, too. It's a really nice pale ale and probably my favorite from them.

 

Imperial Brown Ale?

 

A-Pours a hazy golden color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma had citrus and resin hints
T-The taste follows the nose with nicely balanced "somewhat funky" citrus and resin hints
M-A medium bodied beer with nice carbonation
O-A nice take on a sour IPA

 

Henry I’m glad you all enjoyed it! Cheers!

 

Bait.

 

Sorry to hear about the foot there! Broken bones are no fun. I always figured I was the yang balance to the yin of folks like yourself who had never broken a bone... I've broken enough that I can only barely count them on my fingers, highlighted by three(ish) collar bone breaks, and a pretty rough leg break in my younger years.
And that's not even counting the various sprains and ruptured organs and the like.

The unifying theme for my morning is Porter. Wait. Are porters. I mean Porter is there as well, and she makes everything better, but the two beers I will be side by side-ing for this here post are both porters (small p).

@Dragginballs76 sent me Pluff Mud, a porter from Holy City out in his home state of South Carolina, and I picked up a sixer of Dark Darkness from Boundary Bay up in The City of Subdued Excitement, home of our very own @beertunes because... I don't know, I saw it and have poor impulse control?

I intended to start with the Pluff Mud, seeing as it had a slightly lower abv (I had to come up with some reason to do one of them first!).
I promise I did not mishandle either of these cans as I took them from the fridge where they'd been sitting for the better part of the last week awaiting today's application to my digestive tract, but opening the Pluff Mud yielded a pent up burst of carbonation and exultance a the freedom to be found without the constraints of aluminum and time that seemed to be trapping the CO2 and liquid in the man made metal cylinder. I tried to pour gently, but it still yielded little more than a cm or two of liquid and a glass threatening to overflow with light brown foam.





So I let it settle down and let the Dark Darkness go first. The pour there was much more true to the alternate name of its hometown laid down above (subdued is the word to which I allude. I realize I'm all over the damn place here, this is the end of a stretch at work and I'm tired and a little bit loopy. Any maybe peering into the edge of mild inebriation. Go figure). A light body yields a glass that could be easily mistaken for a nonalcoholic cola, with the middle brown body, lightening to an almost golden brown at the edges when held up to the light. Maaybe a half a finger of washed out khaki head decides this world isn't that exciting after all and recedes to little more than a ghost on the liquid (spooky! Halloween reference!).



The nose leans towards the more bitter nature of porter life, with cold black coffee reminding me that I should caffeinate myself after the beers have done. There's warm chocolate to give some balance there and roasty nuttiness. Perhaps some hints of ashy smoke as well.

Sipping leans more into the bitter and dry nature presented above: acrid coffee and bitter dry ash push the nuttiness and roast into supporting roles, and the chocolate becomes, if not an afterthought, at least no longer a leading lady. As I work through the glass the grim exterior of coffee and smoke belies a bright mildly sweet spark lurking just beneath the surface. I find this playful little character to be compelling, though appreciate it's limited role as well.
Thin dry body with plenty of carbonation.



Turning back to my original target I see the head has settled back down and there's actually some liquid in the glass. The Pluff Mud is darker than the Dark Darkness (irony!), and while the head still recedes after its initial swell, the texture and shade are richer and more aesthetically pleasing to this particular goober.

While the DD shaded over to the bitter side of things, PM was immediately and decidedly sweet, like molasses cut with cane syrup (I mean not that sugary/quantity of sweetness, but that type/quality of sweet). Actually kind of reminds me of a beer my brother and I brewed that was trying to be an oatmeal/maple/brown sugar stout. Warming up it almost takes on an apple juice/cider character, like the good cider that only comes out around autumn time, not like hard cider (which can also be good!). Huh.

Flavour initially presents similar sweetness to the nose, but working slowly through it reveals depth and nuance not previously revealed. Under the sweet exterior lays several different manifestations of chocolate: cocoa, and almost German's chocolate cake type chocolate, and a fudge in sweetness if not richness. Finish gives a bit of bitterness that is similar to the ashy bitterness of the DD, but without the coffee.
PM is even a touch dryer, while the carbonation, though still quite active, is not quite as dominating as the DD.

My final comparison was to mix the last couple inches of each glass to see if the disparate notes clashed or came together to create an even more intriguing that much more diverse melange of porter-dom.
Verdict? I would give it to the latter option. A pair of solid if unspectacular porters mix together to create a chimera with the same characteristics.
Glad to have gotten a chance to have tried these both, so thanks to Mike for making that possible!

Bonus: My favourite Porter of all time (it's her name)






That's the one that was stuck in my head, though maybe this one is more appropriate

 

Troegs lagrave
..cloudy gold orange
..just above a medium body with a nice amount of almost champagne like carbonation
. Aroma is a really nice mix of citrus fruit, citrus peel, malt,yeast, and a slight floral hop aroma
..taste is almost dry,some hop bitterness shows up in the middle and lingers. Otherwise there's a slight sweet maltiness,floral and citrus
..overall it was really good,I think the hop bitterness didn't need to be there but it still workedupload img

 

Evil Twin/Prairie collaboration Even More Bible Belt. Another share with my daughter. quickly to a ring and left minimal spots of lacing. Smells of roasted malts, coffee, chocolate and vanilla. Tastes of dark roasted malts, bittersweet chocolate, vanilla, coffee, tobacco and a bit of smoke with the slightest hint of chili peppers. Full bodied, moderate carbonation, slick and oily mouth feel and very mild dry and bitter finish. Pairs great with chocolate babka.

 

Sorry to hear the news @lordofthewiens - I had a similar experience last year and it left me quite stir-crazy while the injury healed. I have a rescue dog who tends towards the skittish side - we were out walking past a baseball field last May, and someone playing got an amazing hit or something (wasn't watching, can't say what happened), and everyone started screaming and shouting. My dog bolted and took me with him - rolled my ankle quite badly and heard an unpleasant "pop!" I had about a mile to walk home on an extremely painful ankle, so I didn't think about whether the ankle was broken or just sprained. It puffed up to about twice it's normal side, and my foot likewise turned purple. I picked up a brace, which helped, but the pain persisted, so I finally saw a doctor. Predictably, it was broken - couldn't walk much or put any real strain on it for about four months. I'm sort of a creature of habit, so skipping daily walks with the dog was pretty frustrating (for the both of us).

Regardless, I can absolutely relate. Hope your injury heals rapidly!

 

I mean if 'NEIPA' or 'brut IPA' is a distinct style from other IPAs (but other tweaks to the style aren't), then it makes sense that 'blonde stouts' would be a distinct thing from 'standard' stouts. One uses the same paints to yield a different texture on the canvas while the other uses different media to yield the same (or similar) image on canvas. *shrug* styles and delineations tend to have a largely subjective element to them anyway, yeah? How do you define the bigger delta between a traditional stout and a blonde stout vs a traditional stout and a big porter? Vercors

 

Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass canned on 9/24/18. Pours a hazy orange with a 2 plus finger sticky white head that leaves loads of thin lace behind. 4

Smell is apricot, papaya, mango, hard candy, and grapefruit rind. 4

Taste follows apricot, papaya, mango, and a very nice balanced shot of grapefruit lingers on the tongue after every sip. 4

Mouthfeel is a big medium, soft gentle carbonation, not dry but a tad sticky for sure, and at 8.6% ABV goes down extremely easy. 4

Overall a very nice NEDIPA, but not as amazing as I was hoping. They dazzle me normally and this is just a nice solid one, no wow factor for me this time. 4

 

New beer #3. Getting harder and harder to find new Other Half beers since I’m there so often (I’m up to 100 rated/reviewed now), but this one is new to me.

DDH The Other Day... - Other Half
IIPA - 8% abv
Canned 10/10/18 (18 days ago)
Score: 3.97 (-5.7% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33510/374841/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Fucking weird. Vegetal, floral, earthy, and cheesy. A little citrus but not much. I’m enjoying the cheesy hops but wish they pushed into meaty territory. This is less brisket and more blue cheese. I would be shocked if old Citra hops were not a primary dry hop in this, since I usually pick up on that immediately. Definitely not my favorite from OH, but it’s tolerable.

Edit: to clarify, barbecue is my favorite food. I love St Louis ribs, Carolina pulled pork, and Texas brisket. So beers that taste like these meats are winners for me. I also like stinky cheeses, but beers that taste like stinky cheese are less appealing.

 

Good morning, NBS friends!

I'm cooking breakfast while I recover from a bit of a hangover - friends and I had our second whale share last night, and I'm reaping the rewards of too many barrel-aged stouts. Nevertheless, feeling decent this morning, and bacon and toast with strawberry jam are helping.

The starring vert from my evening:



All I can say is, I'm having some regrets about trading my orange wax bottles away - the bottles are stunningly different from tap: much thicker consistency, rich chocolate, and completely missing that dark fruit note that I disliked. But, it's nice to finally understand the hype behind these beers - even the gold wax bottle, showing some signs of oxidation, was tremendous. Consensus was that purple wax is the best of the three at this point in time - I suspect that orange will age very well.

I am definitely ready for something a little less rich and expensive this morning...

Beginning the day with a beer from @Franfab - I'd reached out to several BIF groups in search of a VSOJ, and Frank helped me out very graciously. He even provided me with matching glassware. Again - thank you, Frank. I really appreciate it. One of the extras he also sent along was this Strawberry Marbles by More.



I haven't had many of More's IPAs, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. I flip-flop on milkshake IPAs anyway - the lactose makes my stomach unhappy, but man, some of these beers are absolutely delicious. Hardly sessionable though - they're just too filling, for me at least.

Regardless - this particular specimen is a winner. The strawberry puree quite forward - it's quite sweet, creamy, and lightly acidic. The finish surprised me in how clean it is - I'm accustomed to beers like this lingering unpleasantly, leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Maybe it's the puree? Nothing artificial about this. I really like this beer.

Thank you again, Frank - really appreciate the box. I'll be in Florida 11/17-11/24 - expect a box from my vacation!

Cheers, all - be back later. Many, many leaves to rake today... enjoy your Sunday, folks!

 

My knee-jerk reaction is that it's not a great analogy. If someone thinks that NEIPA and Brut IPA are variations on the American IPA, then those are branches from the same tree. On the other hand, taking a pale ale and adding coffee (for example) doesn't make the resulting beer a branch on the tree of porter. When you say, "a traditional stout and a blonde stout vs a traditional stout and a big porter," if you are equating a traditional stout with a stout porter, then the difference is that three of those four beers are porters and one is a spiced pale ale. Your beautiful dog (seriously) is called "porter," but I'm not going to argue that because of this name that she's a beer. She's a dog. What does "Vercors" mean?

 

Happy New Beer Sunday everyone! Halloween is just around the corner and things have really started to cool down here (today we had a high of 38!). In an attempt to get a bit in to the feeling of the Halloween season, I am drinking a beer from Fantome, their Dark White:



The appearance is hazy, dark orange, nearly brown with a fluffy white head.

The aroma is dominated by notes of citurs and wild flowers, with some spice and classic fantome yeast.

The taste is quite complex. Lots of spices / wild flower / herbal notes dominate at first with some bitter orange and a slight sourness eventual leading to a yeasty, slightly bitter finish.

The mouth feel is quite thick and similar to the standard fantome Saison.

Overall it is quite an impressive and intricate beer. There are so many different flavors involved and they all work very well together. Something I find quite impressive about it is that it that it is so similar in terms of aroma, mouth feel and taste complexity to the other Fantome beers; most of which have an ABV of 8%. This manages to fit all the intense flavors into a beer that has only 4.7% ABV. Hopefully everyone else is able to enjoy a delicious beer on this fine Sunday!

 

Cheers Doc and happy New Beer Sunday. I was lazy and did not get out for any new beer yet so I am afraid I will have to lurk and just enjoy you all.