New Beer Sunday (Week 724)

It would be easier to wait in line at the DMV and get your weight updated to the new beer drinking, Harolds eating you.

 

Good morning New BSers! Thanks, @lordofthewiens, for today's start! I don't make NY resolutions - they are generally meaningless and too easy to break. I noticed at the YMCA at 0600 on Tuesday, an entire herd of people I'd never seen before. By Friday, most of them had disappeared - mostly just the same hardcores already. I, however, have motivation - Monday I'll hit two miles every morning and will be trying to cut my time down - getting ready to go back to Bamberg in May - contact me if you're interested in tagging along. Today's New Breakfast Beer:



Received from @Bum4ever in NBS BIF #8. Reviewed 1/6/18. Thanks Josh!
“Bottled on 06/14/18” stamped on label. Stored at 42 degrees and served at 54 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 4.
Body – Dark brown/black, opaque, slight effervescence. When held to the light, penetration occurs at the rim.
Head – Large (Maximum five cm, aggressive center pour), tan, medium density, average retention, diminishing to a five mm ring fed by effervescence, and a thin complete layer.
Lacing – Fair - Wide bands of tiny bubbles, stalactites.
First pour – Dark brown, clear.
Aroma – 3 – Weak chocolate and a hint of bourbon barrel. Rapidly fades to nothing.
Flavor – 4 - Begins moderately sweet with weak cocoa and ends slightly bitter with cognac notes and alcohol (13.6% ABV) as the overwhelming flavor. Between the beginning and the end, cocoa occupies the flavor profile. Oddly, as the temperature exceeds 56 degrees, the alcohol disappears. No hops, no diacetyl, no dimethylsulfide.
Palate – 4 – Medium to full, creamy, soft carbonation.
Impression and interpretation – 3.75 – Promise unfulfilled. The nose rapidly dies, cocoa rules the flavor, six barrel-aging seems as superfluous and inutile as a sixth finger (Apologies to anyone with polydactyly). No gastric warming. The flavor isn’t repulsive but hardly justifies the rating. I’ve had the base beer many times and found it always to be a reliable go-to whenever the selection is lacking. I think Deschutes is trying too hard to produce a unique anniversary brew.
Rating 3.71, rDev -13.5%.

 

Haha.

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! @lordofthewiens my beer resolution for 2019 is to drink less, but better. Put on 10 pounds last year, so I’m resolving to cut out the middling, cheaper 6-packs and mix-12s that I only buy to extend my sessions. Gonna try to drink the good stuff slower. And no more chugs @JBowenGeorgia . John you’re a bad influence!

Starting today with an ipa that is far from middling. Thanks @Bum4ever for giving me this one last weekend!

Sssappp - Tree House
IPA - 7% abv
Canned 12/6/18 (31 days ago)
Score: 4.19 (-4.1% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28743/308012/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Has the look of a new-school ipa, but smells and tastes a bit more traditional than most in the style. I can actually taste pine here, which is rare for me these days. But the expected citrus hops lead the way. Quite earthy too, but in a complimentary way to the other flavors. Bordering on full bodied...this thing is thick and sticky! (That’s what she said.) Thanks again Josh for the chance to try this!

 

Your first mistake was like mine earlier. Making a resolution......

 

It cracks me up to see a beer share the same name as a minor threat song...

 

Thanks goes out to @lordofthewiens for the great start to this weeks NBS. Will be back with a new brew later on today.

Cheers!

 

I've been wanting to do a black and tan with this and the chocolate stout youngs makes. However, having never had either beer, it's pretty easy to just keep walking by the two on the shelf.

 

But if dear old Ray falls off of the non-smoking wagon, he may have to resort to Gregorian Chantix, despite the even more vivid dreams.

 

Good morning, NBS folks!
It's cool and snowy here and I am enjoying my last day of vacation before work again tomorrow. It's been a really nice break, but I'll be glad to get back to it.

I am absolutely not a resolution guy, but I did notice that this past year I reviewed and tried far fewer local beers due to quite a few trips back to the states intermingled with a couple trades. I thought about it frequently and missed going to local shops and buying expensive beer to basically play quality-Russian roulette with. So, I am going to make an effort to do more new-to-me locals on here if I can. Obviously it won't be everything, but it is nice to do beers that I am the first or second to review and that have to be completely added to the system. So brace yourselves for middlin' beers that you'll likely never see in your local store!

My first today is a Nelson Sauvin SMASH IPA made by l'Hermite, an apparently well-loved brewery up here that I can't remember ever having tried. However, looking at my ratings I see that I have had another SMASH IPA of theirs and liked it pretty well. They have just started canning and are now much more available than they once were. And what says new Quebec locals like a can that warns me to make sure and drink it fresh but doesn't include a fucking date?!

It pours a brass color with a little haze and a nice finger+ of white head that settles to a ring around the glass. The aroma is a touch muted from what I expected but it definitely comes through. White grapes and tropical bubblegum with a hint of malt supporting. Really interesting, unique aroma (as usual with this hop in my experience). The flavor is decidedly more forest-floor-bitterness-centric. It is dry and bracing and easy to drink. It is a pretty solid beer that if definitely have again. Date your cans Hermite!

Here is my full review.

Last day of vacation, so I'll be back later. Cheers!

 

In Califas? So like, did that beer cross the country twice?!

 

I love that beer. It's one of the ones I always make an effort to drink while I'm back home visiting. It really does remind me of sweetgrass too. I always thought it was uncanny until I tried a beer up here that is actually made with sweetgrass and it makes me wonder why more people don't use it as an ingredient. Especially in the West where it is so plentiful and tastes and smells so much like the summers there.

 

New beer #2. Thanks @thisischuck01 !

Lucid Dream Wave - Equilibrium feat. Other Half
DIPA - 8.2% abv
Canned 11/18/18 (49 days ago)
Score: 4.03 (-7.6% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47536/385572/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Nose is underwhelming, and the taste is all over the place. Bubblegum sweetness at first, then some citrus, then a wave of dank, then a ton of earthy hops. This strikes me as being the victim of having too many cooks. It’s rather tasty, and the body is great, but it doesn’t come together into a cohesive finished product.

 

MA -> CA -> PA, so yup!

 

You just gave me an idea for my homebrew names...

 

Garvies Point Sea Worthy

Just got back from having a weekend brunch out with the family. As usual, I asked to see the beer list. As usual, I got dirty looks from people at the table for ordering beer before the evening. If it was a "brunch cocktail" it would be acceptable, but 8 ounces of a 5% saison is verboten. The funny thing is that the person next to me ordered the plate of food below. How is it that food like this is "acceptable" instead? Whatever. I always marched to my own beat.



The beer is a local saison "brewed with Motueka hops, Pilsen malt, Vienna, flaked wheat and acidulated malt." It's very dry, a bit spritzy, light, and a touch funky. There's Belgian yeast character, some minerality, a bit of sharpness, and a bright lemony aspect. It's OK.

 

Lagunitas NightPils
Not sure about the bottling date because Lagunitas bottles are hard to read.



Look: Pours with a medium brown stream that forms a dark brown body. Lots of head formation with about two fingers of a khaki-colored cap. Head retention is pretty great, and there is a lot of lacing left on the glass.

Smell: Weird, unlike the beers I'm used to. Upfront, it smells like a normal pilsner. But almost immediately, coffee notes also become apparent, and in-fact overtake the aroma. Smell is not overly pungent, but pleasant.

Taste: Wow, very interesting taste too, that follows the nose. Very pilsnery-bitter upfront, with a great complement of coffee notes. Again, I don't think I've ever tasted anything quite like this, but I love what I'm getting here.

Feel: Medium body, with more feel than normal pilsners. Of course, that is to be expected with a high ABV of 8.1%. For that, alcohol is well hidden, with just a tad of warming. Medium to high carbonation.

Overall: Unique and pleasant offering, especially as a breakfast beer. I think that both lager/pilsner fans and porter/stout fans would enjoy this equally. Frankly, I believe that at its current BA score of 3.72, NightPils is severely underrated.

4.25 | 4 | 4.25 | 3.75 | 4
Overall: 4.09 (rDev +9.4%)

 

New beer #3. Thanks @FlintB ! Brian sent me this as part of NBS BIF #8.

Hazel’s Nuts - Oddside
BBA Stout - 11% abv
Bottled 9/5/18
Score: 4.36 (-0.2% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22564/201499/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
The nose on this is amazing. All nuts and coffee. Taste follows suit, with the barrel only coming in as a subtle player at the very end of the taste. This absolutely destroys the peanut butter Victory at Sea I had last night...barrel-aged or not. This would be in my regular rotation if I had access to it. Thanks again Brian!