New Beer Sunday (Week 727)

Peanut butter? Glad you picked that up from it and not me! I'm allergic to the stuff! By the way, you might be seeing something else from Bale Breaker very soon...

 

Alvarado Street Brewery — Motor Oil No.3
Canned on 01/16/19



There's an inscription on the bottom the can that reads: 10W-40. We will see...

Look: Pours with a dark brown (not black) stream. Strong head formation; there was originally a finger of head in my glass, but I added a bit after that before taking the picture. Head retention is quite good for the ABV. There is also a bit of lacing left on the glass, again more than expected.

Smell: Some of the first reviews on Untappd complained about too little maple in this beer, but I'm definitely picking up on it. On the nose, coffee is truly dominant, but notes of maple are there as well.

Taste: Here, coffee and maple are much more balanced. This drinks very pleasantly, even if I did sort of wish for a maple bomb. Maple does begin to dominate the coffee as the beer warms. I'm getting a little chocolate as well, again, especially as the beer warms.

Feel: Definitely the weakest category for this beer. At 11.5% ABV, this is light, and I don't like that in big stouts. It's not terrible, just far from being as good as it could have been. That being said, carbonation is on point, and the alcohol is hidden incredibly well.

Conclusion: I'm enjoying this beer very much as it is. Coffee and maple are blended well, and it doesn't taste boozy, which is important for me. At the same time, I can't help but complain about the relative thinness of the body. It's no 10W-40, that's for sure. A good buy, but there's room for improvement.

4.25 | 4 | 4.5 | 4 | 4.25
Overall: 4.27 — I'm proud to be the first to review of this beer.

 

Disappointed with that first Cascadian, good thing I’ve got another!

Hop Noir from Peak



3.84/5 rDev +1.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Huge, billowing, fluffy beige head with a nice steady lacing. Nose is really sweet and malty with the bitterness supplied by just a hint of piney, which is quickly supplanted by candy orange. Taste is a touch more earthy and less sweet, therefore I think it’s in pretty good balance. So it starts out with a black olive thing before the malt pops in, supplying a steady sweetness that cuts the bitter. On exit is a nice bitter dark chocolate before the gritty, dry bitterness remains on the tongue. For being a high ABV beer, there is virtually no heat at all, like none. Body is deceptively thin as well.

 

Zipline White Stout, 6.5% ABV. Pours dark orange with a 1.5 finger off-white head, that dissipated quickly, leaving no lacing. Nose is vanilla, some malt, and a hint of chocolate and coffee. Taste is tangy, with slight sweetness and very little bitterness. Aftertaste of chocolate. Mouthfeel is excellent, overall excellent. Wasn't sure what to expect from a low-ABV "white" stout. Pretty good, but not sure what's tangy.

 

Yea Mon I got Exodus Porter with Jamaican Coffee from Sweetwater.

3.7/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Poured from a 12oz can with a best by date of 1/31/19 to a diagonal cut tumbler.
Black and completely opaque, even when held to a sunlit window. Cream colored, multi-sized bubble head, laces the glass nicely during the session. The nose is mild, hint of coffee and malt but not much.
Taste is of a good black coffee with a strong malt backbone. Coffee flavor comes back long after the swallow.
The mouthfeel is a little disappointing. Light and a little too much carbonation. I know its labeled a porter and not a stout, but I could use a little more body and a little less fiz.
Overall, can't complain about the flavor, but the body is thin.

 

Cigar City distributes here but I don't remember seeing Marshal Zukhov other than on a trip to Charleston last year. Hope I'm wrong as I would love to have some on hand. All I remember from buying it is some anxiety over spending $14.99 for a bomber.

I think I had some notion about saving it to share at my birthday party. Thing is, the friends I party with are lager and weizenbier drinkers. So this bottle sat in the fridge until this afternoon. I'm stuck in the house doing chores and playing nurse, so no time like the present.
Review: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17981/45973/?ba=Reef#review

Pours an inky ebony with scant head. The aroma is intoxicating dominated by coffee, molasses, stone fruit. Wonderful flavor mirroring the aroma. Cigar City says that Engish hops should lend a floral note bit it is too far buried for me. Mouthfeel is full and slick. Alcohol on the nose and taste still strong. I don't drink enough RIS to make comparisons, but this is very enjoyable and I plan to bring some back on my next trip to Florida.

 

It feels odd to be able to to do this so early in the day. Usually I get to my first Sunday beer around 10:30 PM. My wife spent yesterday commiserating with her now former colleagues, all of whom are now out of work. A rival bought the company she worked for, only to close all offices save the ones in New Zealand and Australia. Apparently, it is easier to get into those markets by buying in, than to try to start up despite having to shutter the Canadian, UK and US operations at the same time. The severance looks to be good and she’ll be able to stay home for the next six months or more with the kids, so all in all, not bad.

Today’s bonus was that because she was out all day yesterday, I got to walk around the corner to a pretty good BBQ joint for lunch and a break from looking after the two year old twin terrors!!



The taplist at this place is limited, so I went with a beer I’ve seen for years but never bothered to try, all for NBS purposes. The beer is : Spearhead Hawaiian Pale Ale. Spearhead is one of those contract breweries that are fairly common up here that seem to be more concerned with marketing than beer. I’ve had other offerings that were decent, so my hopes weren’t too high or too low.



Clean copper with enthusiastic effervescence and a light lacing as the beer is consumed.

The nose is bereft of pineapple despite that being an ingredient. Mild floral hops

Slight and pleasant sweetness on the tongue with a broad spectrum of floral, mild grassy and tropical fruit notes. Still, no distinct pineapple presence.

Medium bodied with bright carbonation.

A middling to good Pale that is dissaponting if only for the lack of pineapple that is expected. It went well with the fatty BBQ brisket and garlic mashed potatoes I ate with it. Middling as expected I guess. I doubt I’d ever revisit.



Cheers!

3.58

 

Poured into my new favorite Hopslam glass canned on 1/11/19. Pours a fairly cloudy yellow, with a 2 finger sticky white head, that leaves huge rings of lace with excellent retention as it slowly settles into a thin layer of bubbles. 4.5

Smell is loaded ripe honey dew, orange rind, passionfruit, herbal earthy notes, and just a tiny hint of grapefruit very nice! 4.5

Taste follows a really nice Mellon thing going, orange, passionfruit, once again some herbal thing I can’t truly explain but it is nice, pineapple, and very mellow balanced grapefruit this stuff is not a joke at all. 4.5

Mouthfeel is a solid medium, gentle soft carbonation, not dry but a little stickyness for sure, and drinks a tad bigger than 6% but dangerously crushable. 4.5

Overall I am trusting digging this one, balanced and truly a tasty treat. Highly recommend this guy. 4.5

 

This sounds freaking awesome. Glad you got some, and that Troon is out and about and not just doing their Tuesday hyper limited Crowler releases (tho they do share a site with a GREAT restaurant that serves the stuff on tap, so for those in or around Princeton, I would definitely check it out

 

A joyous last NBS in January to one and all!
It is a little less frigid and snowy here today than it was last week. There is still a decent amount of snow and after it turned to rain and flooded the streets (!?!) there is now a solid coat of ice to go with it. I am doing my usual Sunday thing of prepping for the week and just generally hanging out. As usual, I'm more than happy to dedicate a part of it to bullshitting about beer with random folks on the internet.

My first (and likely only) new beer today is a new and different one from Maltstrom. They are a fairly new brewery up here that mainly makes new-fangled IPAs (IPLs for the most part, though I can't taste the difference). This one seemed interesting because of the rye and I am happy to see they've started dating their cans. Truth be told, though, I didn't notice it was aged in red wine barrels. Or how old it was.... If I had seen either of those things I probably would have skipped over it but I am still open to trying it and imagine it will be at least better than a pole in the eye with a sharp stick.

This was a nice beer and was both was and wasn't what I was expecting. It looks as New Englandy as could be in the glass. Great head. The aroma is fruity (overripe peaches) but is very rye-forward. The flavor follows. Spicy, peppery, dry rye with a hint of stonefruits. Both the aroma and flavor have a hint of tannic wine barrel in the finish. It is pretty drinkable and the assertive character of rye clashes less than I would have expected with this type of beer. Is have it again. Also I am glad to see that not only is their addition of dates awesome, but you can tell that their canning is more dialed in than it was (which makes sense since they were among the first to can on their own). I'd have it again.

Here is my official review.

Cheers!

 

I had a load of new beers this week so I decided to write about 2 brews. The 1st is a beer I've been wanting to try for a long time. Bells Hopslam Ale a 10% DIPA brewed with honey. Worth the wait IMO. Pours golden orange with a thick white long lasting head. There is both Honey and spice in the aroma and hints of bread. The taste is awesome an almost perfect blend of malt. hops and honey. There is no hint of the 10% ABV. The finish is honey sweet but not overly so, A brew that lives up to it's Hype great stuff.
The 2ond beer is from a brewery that just opened yesterday In New Providence NJ where I live.
Untied Brewing East Coast IPA This beer served in a Tulip (as are all pints there) is a hazy gold with a nice white head. The aroma is malt and hops as is the taste mouthfeel is full finish is dry and lingers a bit. Overall a very nice IPA well done. Other brews tried yesterday were pretty good also. I hope they do well. They are pricey and many drinkers that mentioned that. Bad news for Untied Brewing they posted this AM closed today broken sewer pipe. Bummer
A 3rd beer that I am drinking now, picked up a 6 pack of Sierra Nevada Brut IPA earlier today with no intention of drinking it until next weekend. However at least 4 Ba's have written about it in this thread today. They all seemed to find it to be a top shelf beer, so I decided to drink some. The other BA's are right Sierra Nevada as another home run. It's their Spring Seasonal but I hope it makes it Summer It is a perfect hot weather beer.

 

Been busy this weekend with a continuing education course out of town so this is only my second beer of the weekend. Given to me by someone I work with, this is both a new brewery and beer tick for me. This is Shotgun Wedding by Country Boy brewing.



The look is different but I like it. Burgundy red and translucent with a minimal amount of off white head which recedes quickly. When held up to the light this joker is bright ruby red and I dig it. The aroma is big grains up front, some chocolate and a little sweetness. This is where the train went off the tracks, the finish was pencil shavings. A scent in very familiar with. Big malty bastard it tastes like. Some chocolate and vanilla sweetness. The mouthfeel is a little thin for me, on the thinner side of medium with a tad too much prickly carbonation. Overall this Is a middling effort. They had a great idea but average execution as far as what I was looking for.

 

Captain Lawrence smoothie dreams
Milkshake ipa w/ raspberry vanilla lactose

Pours nice hazy light pink with clean white head
Smells like raspberry juice
Drinks creamy, smooth and surprisingly light
Raspberry is out in front and dominates, vanilla if at all is very subtle lactose sweetness and makes the mouthfeel pretty creamy
Raspberry is too much just overtakes everything
3.25/5

 

New beer #6.

Moments of Ballooned Psychic Progress - Tired Hands
DIPA - 8% abv
Purchased for $20/4 at Tired Hands
Canned 1/11/19 (16 days ago)
Score: 3.59 (-4.8% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28383/393998/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Another miss from TH. I can’t get past the butter taste. Not sure if this is diacetyl or something coming from the hops, but it greatly detracts from the taste. Even beyond that, though, this is a vegetal hop showcase, so probably not what most are expecting when they open this. I love the can art at least!

 

Good afternoon fellow NBSrs!

Thought I’d share a quick one with you guys before I settle down with a proper one later. Anyways, it’s still pretty chilly out here but this beer added a touch of warmth today.

Army of hops from FFF. It’s a completely new beer in their Pig Destroyer series. Permanent Funeral (amazeballs) was the first in the series. This one is the second beer in that series.



And my feeble review



Hope you all are enjoying this fine Sunday!

 

Evil Twin Brewing— Poetry is What Gets Lost In Translation (what a stupid f*****g name)
There's that weird code date on the bottom that I'm too lazy to translate. Hope it's fresh.



Look: Bright yellow murky body (though not an absolute murk bomb), 2 fingers of head on a semi-aggressive pour; great head retention and admirable lacing.

Smell: Very tropical, with hints of papaya and tangerines. Pungent but not the smelliest NEIPA either.

Taste: Interesting. I'm getting big hints of melon, as well as the expected papaya and tangerines. It's a bit of a weird taste, but it's tasty.

Feel: Decent, relatively spot-on NEIPA. Creamy texture, medium carbonation.

Conclusion: I'm not the biggest Evil Twin fan, but this is a perfectly good NEIPA. It's hoppy, juicy, and refreshing. A perfect winter beer, right?

4.5 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.25
Overall: 4.27 (rDev +5.4%)

 

Good Afternoon NBS crew, I have taken a few weeks off from drinking trying to hit the gym again and lose some unwanted weight. A friend gave me a couple of IPAs so I figured it was time to get back in the game. Starting with a NEIPA from Columbia Craft Brewing in Columbia SC, I have been a fan of the sours I have had from them but this is the first IPA. This one Batch 100 is a NEIPA clocking in at 6.4%and while tasty and good it seems to be a cookie cutter NEIPA and not much really takes it from the pack. I guess it is a great world we live in when we can say that, not much to complain about I guess!!! Cheers.




Appearance 4.25 - Pours murky burnt orange with a nice thick soapy off white head that settles to a think cap. Lots of lacing all around the glass.

Aroma 4 - I like that tropical fruit does not dominate, floral hops, orange some light pine, mango and a touch of lemon. The aroma seems to be pretty well balanced nothing really over powers.

Taste 4 - Taste is more tropical with mango, pineapple and orange being the most dominate flavors. It does finish with some nice floral/earthy hopiness and a slight bitterness.

Feel 4.25 - Medium bodied, slightly creamy feel with a touch of dryness on the finish.

Overall 4.04 - A good example of the style flavor wise and mouthfeel wise. I like the balanced hops in the nose I also like that it is not super sweet.

 

It’s not that hazy and it’s not that many floaties, I kinda froze it after losing track fighting with the garbage disposal my wife killed putting too much shit down it.

This week I found a few new beers, just saved this one for today. A brewery I’ve never heard of before Fat Orange Cat out of Ct this one is Someone in My Head. It’s a NEIPA imagine that, they use Citra,Mosiac, Simcoe,Apollo hops, and clocks in at 8.75 abv.

Tons of fruit on the nose, first sip is really fruity as well, but I think the use of Mosaic and Simcoe ground it a bit, gives it a bit of an earthy finish. Not super bitter obviously, but there’s certinly enough here to keep it from being an overly sweet OJ bomb. Love these kinda multi hop brews and imo Citra and Mosaic make a terriffic combo. Really a nicely done NEIPA, there’s balance between the bitter and OJ. If I could add here, it would lean to just a tad more bitter, but you can easily drink Multiple cans. BA rates it at just under 4.2, I’d rate it a bit higher, maybe 4.25 - 4.30. I’d definitely buy this again.

 

NB#2S-
Goat Milk Stout from Omegang.

3.67/5 rDev -0.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Poured from an undated 12oz bottle to a diagonal cut tumbler.
Very black opaque with fine lacing bubbles.
Don't know if it's me, but the aroma is almost non-existent. Maybe a slight floral/honey smell, but I could be imagining that.
Taste is subtle chocolate malt, bitter in front with a unique subtle sweetness at the end. Maybe unfermented goat's milk (which I've never tasted, so have no reference to).
Medium body, but nice mouth coating.
Nothing off about this beer and its pretty unique. I would have it again if offered, but I would not seek it out.

 

Two year old twins. Wow! My hat's off to you.