New Beer Sunday (Week 727)

Happy New Beer Sunday!
My first black IPA in a while. Hopped with Centennial.
Notes of pine, grapefruit, lemon, blueberry, burnt toast, dark chocolate, and black coffee. All hops upfront, which transfers to a malty middle, and it finishes bitter with both burnt and roasted malt and pine and grapefruit peel.
A solid black IPA, very characteristic of the style.

Good Nature is one of the most underrated upstate NY breweries. I'll have to buy this if I see it.

 

Happy New American Strong Ale Sunday!

Pretty nice day on the Western Slope, some sun/clouds at the trailhead, around 5300 ft., still a bunch of snow up there. Having a very tasty brew, glad I saw this at the shop, hopefully there will be some left next time I visit. Watching some more Sopranos reruns.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/20680/55401/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Back with one more new beer before dinner. This is a local one from the Embrace the Funk series at Yazoo. It's a "dark strong ale was fermented with a blend of Belgian and Norwegian yeasts, along with our house mixed culture, while aging in our French Oak Foudre. Then spent 2 months conditioning on Blackberries and Raspberries."


Look: my picture doesn't do this justice. There was a muddy dark reddish-purple color that looked dark plum in the glass. really nice. A standard pour produced a fairly large pink-tan head that lingered throughout the drink.

Aroma: bright fruit - blackberries and raspberries. Also prominent oak and funk, especially on the back end.

Taste: tart and mouth-watering. Mainly raspberries with blackberries and tart plums on the finish. Less funk than on the aroma, but the wood and funk was there throughout, acting like a backbone for the fruit. Great balance between the two.

Feel: medium-bodied and slightly sticky. Lively carbonation.

Overall: Fantastic. The fruit mingled extremely well with the oak. Complex and delicious. One of my favorite ETF sours.

 

First beer for NBS; Pipeworks Genuine Bock checking in at 6.66% ABV, cheers to @FBarber for this. 4.17 overall score

Pours an effervescent chestnut with 3+ fingers of tan head ( vigirous pour ). Pretty nice lacing above averqage head retention

S: Malty, bready

T: Follows the nose, nice cakey sweetness, a little dryness & woody hop as well up front. A little brown bread, cakeyness & dryness as this warms, just a little woody biterness as well. Dry finish with plenty of malty sweetness

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation

Nice take on the style, drinks fairly easy

 

Hey everybody! My garage lights are working beautifully, even though it was a bit of a pain in the ass to pull off. For whatever reason the original electrician in this house used small light switch boxes in the ceiling instead of a round lighting box, and the mounting holes didn't line up at all, so it took some cajiggering. Those LEDs, though- wow, they were worth it and the output is so freakin' bright. And I didn't electrocute myself, so win/win overall.

My celebratory beer is another mystery beer from @FlintB . My favorite part of doing these is going into something with no preconceived notions whatsoever (well, except for whatever knowing the abv in advance does.) With that being said, I figured it was about time to hit the strong stuff:

It's a rich chestnut brown beer clocking in at 12.5%.

The aroma starts out sweet and rounded. I'm getting toffee, dates, berries, vanilla, and a touch of wood. Swirling rearranges things, and brings out a deep melanoidin soaked malt character to the forefront. Overall, though, this is very cohesive, and suggestive of a barleywine.

My initial sips seem a little disjointed from the aroma- much more toasty and angular. It's also drier than expected, but ultimately that's actually preferable to me. But as I go along it gets rounder and maltier. Big brown sugar, toffee and dates dominate. Woven within are hints of vanilla, dried flowers and subtle wood. If this is barrel aged it's more along the lines of rum than bourbon.

After a slightly rocky start it developed into a fantastic strong beer, and the last sips were an expression of near-pure malt heaven. Solid A (4.5) here, and definitely recommended!

If I had to guess I'd say it was an English-style barleywine given a short while in rum barrels.

And here's the reveal:

Kuhnhenn Dark Heathen Triple Bock Lager

Well, that explains the pure malt part, but they really did coax some great subtle complexities out of it as well. Hats off to Kuhnhenn, they continue to impress me with their quality brews. Thanks again Brian!

 

Good evening, NBS friends. I have a couple of beers to share tonight. The first is an exotic DIPA from Sixpoint, in a glass courtesy of our beer nerd friend @TongoRad.





4.1/5 rDev +4.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

The pour initially has a brownish tint to the orange color, but that fades as the beer settles. Appearance is murky, but not a milkshake, and there’s a nice light tan head.

The nose ..... is an adventure. First note I pick up is coconut. There are not many DIPA’s that have a coconut aroma, but this DIPA definitely does. There’s also a cornucopia of tropical aromas, with oranges, really ripe grapefruit, passion fruit, mango, guava - a striking array of aromas to sort through.

The taste settles down a bit, though. The coconut nut is present, but it plays nicely with the oranges and the grapefruit, and the other flavors mentioned above lend this an exotic note that leaves no room for any hop bitterness.

The mouthfeel is a bit creamy and full, giving this beer an almost creamsicle quality. The can describes this as “experimental,” and that is proof that proof in advertising still exists, because this beer straddles multiple lines. I’m glad I got to ride this flavor roller coaster.

 

Happy End of the First Half of My New Sierra Nevada (& Maybe Some Others) Beer Sunday (Week 727)!

I am actually impressed with myself in that I got through the whole thing. I often set a high Sunday bar for myself & ocCANsionally meet my goal, but it often ends in my drifting into Snoozeland, only to pick up either the following day or the next week.

My seCANd of the day was:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/337412/?ba=woodychandler#review

followed by:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/337411/?ba=woodychandler#review

but sessions make me want an ENTIRE session, so I CANtinued with:

That was MUCH more like it, but I still had:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/337414/?ba=woodychandler#review

& https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/387939/?ba=woodychandler#review

to go. Well, that much is inna books …

 

It is very tasty.

Cheers!

 

More new Moonraker, which is anything but a bad thing!
Moonraker - Citra Double Crush

Clocks in at 8.5 AbV. The hop of the evening - everybody’s favorite Citra.

Canned 1/15/19. Consumed from a teku glass.
L: Pours a murky golden straw yellow in color. About a finger of a dense off-white head that retained nicely. Heaps of residual sudsy lacing clings to the glass as I partake. The lacing bumps it up from 4.25 to a 4.5.
S: Citrus and tropical fruits definitely comprises the majority of the smell, but I am getting a decent amount of flaked oats aromas. Heavy on citrus- primarily grapefruit and orange, along with passion fruit, guava, papaya, banana and mango. The oat presence lends a bready sweetness that makes my mouth water.
T: Damn delicious, and the citra undoubtedly shines. The perfect combo of citrus and tropical fruit flavor reminding me of pink starburst candy. The citrus flavor is most prevalent initially, but the tropical aspect kicks in towards the finish. Beginning is orange and grapefruit, while the finish is guava, passionfruit, mango, pineapple, papaya and oat flavor. Very low bitterness overall, making this a straight juice bomb. Aftertaste has a long life span, with lingering fruit sweetness and bready residual oat flavor. Hop presence is minimal, bar-none.
F: Perfection to me. Soft, pillowy, smooth and outright heavenly. Carbonation resides somewhere between low to moderate, providing the slightest fizzle on the tongue. ABV is not detectible, allowing me to drink at a rate of 1 oz per minute.
O: Second stellar IPA from Moonraker today, again topping my list of favorites from them. The feel honestly is the icing on the cake. Can't get enough of that pillowy goodness. Citra is a winning hop in the NEIPA category.

4.52/5 rDev +2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

 

New Dark Horse Pumpkin/Cookie porter. This was fantastic! Lasting head retention/thick lacing. Aromas and flavors of huge milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, toffee, pumpkin, cookie dough, fudge, roasted nuts, and toasted dark bread; with lighter notes of vanilla, cream, licorice, dark fruit, smoke, charcoal, herbal, grass, pepper, pine, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate pine, herbal, grassy, peppery hops; and roast/charcoal bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full body; very creamy, silky, velvety, bready malts; some sticky hops and chalky/char roast in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering hop/char bitter dryness; no acrid/astringency. Super smooth, minimal warming 7%. Very rich body for the ABV. Amazing well rounded malt complexity, with balanced pumpkin, chocolate chip cookie flavors, and earthy hops against sweetness. Spot on American style porter. You can really taste the cookies! 4.28


Cheers

 

Bunker - Don't Look Back

This IPA is hazy, apricot in color, and full bodied. Tastes of overripe papaya, sweet orange marmalade, leafy bitterness, and woody tree sap. There's nothing really negative about it (except perhaps it's volume... or it's indistinguishability), but it's also made me decide to stop buying these big Bunker IPAs. There are many songs that could appropriately pair with this IPA's name, but I've decided on this one despite the poor video quality:



Bob Dylan would have been a more iconic choice though... which reminds me: @rgordon and @TongoRad - there's a fabulous documentary on PBS right now called Rumble that's about the Native American influence on modern music. It's a must watch.

 

Nice- thanks for the tip! I'll have to see if I can DVR it. And with that title you just had to figure that Link Wray plays a central role in it . Rumble is indeed iconic, but I always had more of a thing for his 70s output:


ETA:
you also could have gone with Pere Ubu

but I'll never turn down a chance to watch Tosh and Mick again.

 

But Mick has those Rudy Giuliani eyes! Great song.

 

You would be correct in the strawberry rhubarb sour.i figured you'd get it

 

Sometimes “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

 

Link Wray is a North Carolina native and is remarkable. This piece sent along by@keomoarps a good while back is a piece of my life. For the longest time we thought Redbone was a southern beach music group....until we saw them at a few festivals and had our heads straightened out.

 

I like reading your blind reviews. They’re really excellent reviews and it’s fun to guess the style based on your impressions of the beer. Yes, I do that! It’s called a lurking beer review. Cheers!