New Beer Sunday (Week 719)

Hey what's going on?!

Hope everyone is well.. I am battering down the hatches on this stupidly yet again... RAINY day..
Easily the wettest year ever on record down here.. it's insane!

Till then I've been drinking a few new brews, and boy is this one a real fun one!

Let's check it out shall we...

What's new for our hero today?!

Bourgogne Noir 2017 | Bruery Terreux


Poured from the bottle into a Bruery tulip glass.

Deep red currant color, almost inky dark pink, with no head creation, and a little bit of bubbles but minimal. Pours like a good pinot noir but quite a bit darker, and certainly blurring the lines here between beer and wine.

Aroma is fairly subtle. Somewhat closed nose but not entirely. Slight grape must, a bit twiggy and woody smelling though. Small touch of acidity with a little bit of flatter sensing body. Touches a little sour cherry just slightly, maybe some plum, and a touch of soft oak.

Palate makes more of a beer inroad, and greater surprise. More malt depth and body, but with a wine like flavored palate. Light berry acidity, with mixing of cherry and raspberry on first sip. Plum like flavors in the aftertaste and a bit of interesting malt sweetness coming from somewhere. Extremely berry fruity, and a total blast.

Real style blur and a big gulpy full bodied fruity wine… I mean beer!

Salud!

look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25 | Generated Score: 4.19

 

New beer #6. Thanks @thebeers !

Raphius - Free Will
RIS - 16.6% abv
2018 Vintage
Score: 4.29 (-0.9% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28091/100566/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Decadent and thick. Boozy, but subdued for a 16% monster. Tons of chocolate, coffee, and wood. Thanks again Arthur!

 

I was certainly surprised by how much I liked it. Partially because I prefer regular Harvest to the other cask aged versions, and partially because of the hate that I've seen this beer get. It was easily my favorite of the day (against the Hardys and the Anglo Mania). One thing though, I'm not sure that a beer like this needs to do any justice to Lagavulin, but rather, I think it needs to do justice to Lees Harvest.

 

Tired Hands Waiting for the Gloom

Still home alone so sneaking in one more new beer.

This one contains “activated carbon” and the brewers recommend lightly agitating the can before pouring — which I did.

It pours a murky green-hued gray color with close to three fingers of similarly-tinted white head that’s much rockier and well-formed than many Tired Hands offerings. The head leaves clumpy, messy lacing. It’s ugly, but honestly, I’d be disappointed if it were any less charcoal-colored. Not sure where the green hue is coming from.

If you close your eyes, it has a lovely aroma of spicy pine, Italian herbs and distant tropical fruit.

Sweet peach and mango-type fruits show up front in the taste, with a little pie crust and pine behind. Less herbal elements show than the nose, but some definite spiciness does carry over. A little lime-like citrus mixes with pine in the finish.

It’s medium to heavy bodied with peppery carbonation.

I’m with @CanConPhilly on this one (weird, I know). This smells and tastes good. It’s not a top-notch Tired Hands IPA, but is much better, IMO, than many of their more gimmicky beers.

 

Good lord! I've got no problem with floaties but that's ridiculous

On a related note, that glass looks like how I feel today, so I'll be sitting this one out. Everyone's beers look delicious so far though for what it's worth.

 

I'd be willing to give it a second try, palates change a bit.

 

Glad you enjoyed it, you opened yours before I have opened mine. Need to do that soon.

 

It wasn't discernible on the palate, but that's what the end of my glass looked like. It's also worth noting that I had the second half of the bottle warm versus the person I was sharing with made his pour maybe an hour before at fridge temperature from the upper half. It had a lot of time to settle and mellow before I poured and consumed it.

Hope you feel better!

Cheers.

 

Poured into a 13 oz Weyerbacher tulip glass canned on 11/12/18. Pours a very hazy yellow, with a finger and a half of white head that leaves webby lace all throughout the drink. 4.75

Smell is passionfruit, tangerine, a little hint of spice from the rye, and a little grapefruit and pine resin. 4.25

Taste follows tropical, rye spiceyness , with some bitter piney grapefruit that actually lingers sip after sip. 4.25

Mouthfeel now this is the first time I have seen a rye IPA so hazy and orange, normally it clear and amber and not so soft, bigger than medium, a tad sticky but not dry, and at 6.7% ABV goes down very easy. 4.5

Overall this is a big surprise, not what I was expecting at all. Hazy rye and really a tasty beer. Thanks @jzeilinger for this can. 4.25

 

Egads. That color. I'd try it.

 

Hi NBSers
My new beer this week is an America Stout called Double Shot from Treehouse Brewing
9.1abv

There is a bit of a story about how I got this beer. My wife is not a beer drinker and has stood in line with me in the past so I could get double allotments, its rare and I don’t wait in lines much anymore.
We finished our errands early and I talked her into going for a ride a couple of Saturdays ago just for the heck of it. We mysteriously ended up in Charlton, Ma. We Had a nice lunch at a local place and happened to drive by Treehouse and I asked her if she wanted to grab some swag for Christmas gifts. I told her the grounds were beautiful and at sundown there are nice sunsets. Long story short is I tricked her into going to the brewery to get a double allotment of this beer. She gave her 2 away to my son, payback is a bitch.
My notes.
It’s billed as a coffee/ chocolate flavored stout. Coffee from a roaster called Gracenote-Ethiopia Misty Valley. With that being said I felt the coffee part was a tad bland.

Aroma was a bit boozy and chocolate
Poured from a bottle into a tulip style glass it was dark brown with a thin head
I got a milk chocolate vanilla taste, pretty close to chocolate cake with a light mocha frosting.
Pretty light for a stout with a thinnish mouth feel finish to a slight bitter taste that did not linger.
I liked it, it was a mouthful of flavors, pretty smooth drinking with out being heavy, very easy drinking.

 

Good afternoon and happy New Bliss Sunday BAs. Not a lot going on this week or weekend. Got the tree up and the house is decorated. Hoping to get a chance back out hiking again next weekend perhaps. But until then, guess I'll just rake some leaves and drink some beers.

As Craig mentioned in the opener, we got to meet up a few times last week to share some good times and even better beverages! Haha. I managed to save a couple gifts he bestowed on me, including this here. A beer that instantly grabbed my attention and scaled to the top of my “wants” list a while back. Thank you once again @cjgiant for making this possible.

von Trapp
Trösten- Smoked Lager





The burnt brown body showcases gorgeous edges of dark brick red. Despite its deep tones, an excellent clarity is given away by the hazelnut shimmer at the bottom of the glass. A thin and creamy lightly tanned head rests above, leaving a thin sheet over the surface and a mountain range of lacing.

The aroma is in fact "comforting". More milk chocolate than anything, but that is accompanied by a deeply rooted toasty brown bread and the faintest hint of smoked nuts.

A well integrated trinity of flavors follows the aroma to a t. Surprisingly, the chocolate does take first stab but is quickly replaced by a squaw or even dark rye bread thanks to a hint of peppery spice. The toasted crusts carry smoothly and perfectly into a lingering sweet smoke. Subtle, but indefinite.

I am blown away by the texture. It's smooth and creamy, yet the lager cleanliness along with its crisp dry finish is perplexing and absolutely perfect. Spot on balance with a sweet start that gradually turns the dial to a toasty and smokey balanced bitter finish.

As with von Trapp's other offerings that I've been lucky enough to try, this is one outstanding beer. It seems much like their Dunkel with that minor smokey tweak. And yes, that to me means better. In fact, perhaps the only thing I'd like from this is a bit more smoke. Otherwise, as close to perfect a beer for me.

After my official review,I gave Trösten a rating of 4.48 with an rDev of +12.3%, and damn proud if it. Prost!

 

Whole Lotta Lupulin, 8.6% abv DIPA from Smuttynose...

Dark gold color, hazed, with a coupla fingers of head on top... Presents a citrus and pine-kinda pairing, with sweeter tropical fruit suggestions underneath, and a hint of something kinda sharp, almost spicy, popping up every now and then... Medium-weight, modest carbonation with moderate bitterness and mild sweetness... A nice double IPA but pretty much par for the course as far as the style goes... 10/19/18 canning...

Cheers...

 

Crane Small Ball Saison, 5.2% ABV, American Brett style. Pours pale yellow with a four finger white head on a careful pour. Nose is malt, citrus, and clove. Taste follows, with a light touch of brett tartness, and slight bitterness. Outstanding dry mouthfeel, overall outstanding.

This is style #111 of 111 for me, accomplishing my all-style goal (until they rework it again) and earning me the steak knives! Shout-out to @Harrison8 for providing my final two styles that I wasn't finding around here, and what a great example to wrap up my goal with.

 

Makes sense. Hell, it was probably the healthiest part of the beer.

 

I'm with you there- it's my favorite beer that they make.

 

Good afternoon, NBS! Nice to see you all!

This has been a bit of a trying week - it was my first back at work after a week of vacation in Florida, and a particularly trying one as I have been quite sick ever since I got on the plane home from Punta Gorda. Always a great sign when your nose starts running as soon as you sit down on the plane.

I've been on the mend since Friday afternoon, which is good timing as I was bound and determined to make it to the BA Black Lotus release at Barrel Theory on Saturday morning. I got there bright and early at 7:25am and was probably ~50th in line. My friend Sam and his girlfriend Hannah had already been there since 4:30am... competitive, a bit - dude's a runner, so that should provide some context.

After three hours of drinking with hundreds of people in windy, 25 degree weather, I'm not feeling amazing again... we do stupid things for beer, don't we? The plus side is that BA Black Lotus is AMAZING - probably Barrel Theory's best BA stout thus far. I'm really looking forward to future releases - this is such a promising indication of the future.

I'm a little tired today still - I spent a few hours shoveling snow this morning (we had a couple of inches last night, high winds, lots of branches down around my yard), but mostly it's still recovery mode from my week of sickness. I ate probably one meal a day, so I have a bit of catching up to do - definitely lost a little weight, which was much needed!

Anyway. Today's new beer is a brewery first for me as well: Jack's Abbey Graham Cracker BA Framinghammer.



Firstly - why the fuck didn't I pick up more of this stuff when I was in Boston?! Shelves were bursting with Jack's Abbey bottles, and people gave me the eyebrow when I asked about it. I haven't cracked a single bottle since then, because I was skeptical. Seriously, guys - I'm obviously not tremendously bright and could really use a hand sometimes.

Even with a persistent congested head, the nose on this beer makes an impression - there are hints of vanilla, bourbon, graham cracker, and chocolate. The taste has a ton of depth and complexity - the vanilla still surprises me, but the graham cracker and cinnamon are spot-on and tremendously well done. The bourbon is present but isn't boozy, hot, or unpleasant - I suspect that's where a lot of the vanilla is coming from. The barrels aren't all that forward, but there's a light dryness to the finish - I like how clean it is. The mouth feel and consistency is surprisingly thick for a porter - whie the hop bill doesn't reveal itself in the taste to any noticeable degree.

I will say that it does have an odd sort of... numbing taste to it. Not exactly like rubbing alcohol or anything, but the beer seems to number my tongue and cheeks a bit. It's very odd, and one of the few times that I can recall this sensation. I can't really think of another beer that has imparted this feeling. Anyone else? Ideas what's going on here?

Regardless, I'm still surprised by how terrific this beer is - I only wish I'd brought a case home with me.

I'll be back for more later.