New Beer Sunday (week 729)

It's a quick turnaround with new beer #2. Another one from Bearded Iris' release yesterday:


This one looked old-school. Only moderately hazy, on par with Double Homestyle. There was a golden color with a modest white head that lingered for a while. The aroma was pungent with tons of blueberry, orange, peach, and herbal resin. Very much like their Double, but... more. Same with the taste. All of the above described flavors were there on the palate - a true Mosaic bomb. In addition to the berries and orange, stone fruit made an appearance late. It was slightly sweet on the finish, but less so than Hopslam, for comparison. The double-digits ABV was hidden until the very end, when a gentle warming gave it away. Medium bodied and carbonated. Overall, a killer "triple" which I will gladly buy again if they release it. Cheers!

 

Evenin', folks - getting a very late start here today...

Enjoying a Burial collab with Ancillary Fermentation beer from my friend and fellow NBS participant @Dragginballs76 - I was running quite low on hops, and Mike generously dropped a fantastic box on me in spite of the cold and snow in MN. Very welcome care package - thank you again, Mike!



I'm liking this one quite a lot - the nose and taste are quite sweet, but it's also fairly dry with a bit of tropical fruit. It finishes quite clean, which is exactly what I want in an IPA. This is one of those few collab efforts that is a success - I like it.

This week has been all hibernating and avoiding the cold - I've been shoveling or snowblowing just about every day, and am pretty low on groceries at the moment... so a few beer calories are no sweat.

Really hoping things warm up and the snow stops soon... no hope in sight at the moment (another 5 or more inches in the forecast this week when last I checked), but we can hope, right? Hope everyone stays warm out there!

 

Thank you to our Hall Of Famer beer nerd friend @cavedave for the launch today. I have a couple of beers for your perusal today, the first from a brewery that I've never danced with before that is semi-local to me.





4.09/5 rDev +4.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Pours a beautiful copper color, with just the slightest bit of haze, and a soapy light tan head. Lovely beer. The nose has some piney notes, but the citrus aromas are more prominent with tangy tangerines at the forefront, and there's also a substantial malt component that adds some caramel flavors.

The taste is led by the tangerine flavors, which are substantial and really nice, and the malt flavor helps cut the bitterness really nicely. This leans toward the West Coast-style, I just wish the mouthfeel was a bit drier per that style.

 

Here comes Tree House!
Super Sap up first.
I've had Sap before and hoping this is super.
(Jeez, what a corny line that was.)
Sorry...



Not sure of smudged canning date 02/??/19.
Moderate pour yields a 1/2 inch white head over a cloudy/murky body with some sticky lacing. Nose of orange, tangerine, and grapefruit. Taste of said fruit with added citrus pith. Bitter finish of said pith with added pine resin. Nice feel and overall, I'm glad I got the chance to try a can thanks to my TH muling buddy.
Cheers to Rob!

 

This was fantastic! Dense oil pour, great fluffy head retention/spotty lacing. Flavors of huge milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, dark roasted coffee, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, toffee, vanilla, bourbon, coconut, toasted oak, roasted nuts, biscuit, and dark bread/crusts; with lighter notes of licorice, raisin, prune, fig, date, smoke, char, leather, tobacco, herbal, grass, and yeast earthiness. Similar aromas, a bit more fruity/yeasty. Mild herbal, roast, char bitterness; and bourbon/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and fairly full body; very creamy, silky, velvety, rich mouthfeel that is fantastic. Light slickness, sticky hops, chalky roast, and oak tannins. Lightly increasing lingering bitter/tannic dryness; no cloying, acrid, astringency. Dangerously smooth, minimal warming 9.1%, no barrel booze. Perfectly balanced rich malts, fruity/nutty coffee, cocoa nibs, lactose, and bourbon barrel presence/integration; with mild fruity English yeast, and earthy hops against sweetness. Another spot on imperial sweet stout as expected. Looking forward to finding more stuff from them soon! 4.25


Cheers

 

Witch doctor brewing
Bunny patch strawberry malt shake neipa

Pours super light with a tinge of pink almost no head
Smells fruity sweet with a little bitter back
Drinks light with a medium carb to it
Very sweet not cloying super smooth and clean with a nice strawberry finish 4.25/5

 

#2, this is the BA big brother of Saugatuck's Neapolitan Milk Stout, a beer that I really enjoy, so I'm exceptionally excited to try this, so excited I allowed Mrs O to photobomb my beer pr0n.



4.29/5 rDev +3.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

An aggressive pour reveals a beer that is black in the body with some leakage to mahogany on the edges and a dark tan head. Check for the style.

The nose is char, milk chocolate, THE BARREL (caps on purpose), and a fruity aroma I'll say is strawberry, though I don't necessarily get that note no matter how hard I try.

The taste ..... decadent. The barrel is up front, but the milk chocolate cuts that immediately, and then the strawberry joins this big beer dance party. I didn't get it on the nose, but it is present and accounted for on the taste. The vanilla also makes a guest appearance, courtesy of the barrel.

The mouthfeel is to style, which is imperial stout masquerading as a dessert beer. I'm glad I bought a 4-pack of this, because it is worthy of visiting again and again.

 

Poured into a 13 oz Tired Hands Teku glass canned on 12/27/18. Pours a slick black with a 2 finger dark tan head that leaves thick patches of lace as it slowly settles into a thin film of khaki bubbles. 4.25

Smell is cocoa nibs, leather, pipe tobacco, vanilla bean, roasty dry coffee, dark fruit, and molasses. 4

Taste follows dark chocolate, vanilla, coffee, dark fruit, pipe tobacco, leather, and molasses. 4

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, creamy with gentle carbonation, a tad dry, and goes down rather easy, but with its complex nature drinks much larger than its 8% ABV. 4.25

Overall this is a very nice and far from one dimensional Porter, you can get another flavor after each sip, old school Baltic Porter and I appreciate that. Well done. 4

 

That's pretty wordy. How's this?

NBS x2. Continuing the sour theme.

Agrarian
Aristaeus- Kettle Soured Rye and Honey Ale





Unexpected, though not knowing what to expect, I was pleased to see this beautiful toasted chestnut body. Orange and brown highlights converge with beautiful clarity. Above lies a lively white froth that puts up little fight to stick around, but manages a burm throughout the duration.

Acidity is made well known, but what comes from below is intoxicating. Individually, the rye puts on a spicy bread note. The honey, well, sweet honey obviously. Together, they form a brown sugar or molasses like aroma coating dates and fig. There is a bit of a dirty and "catty" finish, but it works.

The first sip confirms the stone fruit and molasses. The dirtiness comes off more as like biting a piece of paper and chewing on it a bit. Brown paper bag to be more precise. It matters. The rye is definitely noticed more in the end contributing a perfect spicy linger. From beginning to end, a sour grape element just a hair above subtle, but constant.

Likewise, the acidity is constant. Sweet, spicy, sour, savory. The finish is difficult to put into words. It is dry from a sharp and lively carbonation along with the fermented out honey I presume, yet still has a contradictory light syrupiness to it.

I knew I was in love with this the second I poured it. Almost Oud Bruin like all around. This was an unexpected surprise. Delicious and unique. So far Agrarian continues to impress with such offerings that always hold true to that very ideal.

After my official review, I gave Aristaeus a rating of 4.44.

Cheers.

 

Hello New Beer Sunday!!!

I was somewhat shocked when I opened up BA this morning and sat that @cavedave starting the thread. I was wondering if I went back in time to when he was co-host to NBS. It's good to see him pinch hit the host duty, and hopefully @cjgiant enjoys his vacation.

I wasn't here last week. I just had no desire to drink at all, so I took some time off, about a week and a half in total. After work today it just felt right for a beer, so here it is.


Junkyard Brewing Super Slurp - Guava Passion Fruit - 6.6% ABV

Damn, this is a juicy beer, and not from the hops. It is juice from actual juice. Just a nice, slightly tart juicy beer. I can just imagine how this would taste on a nice, hot summer day. Another thing about the beer: Junkyard has FINALLY decided to stop in St. Cloud on their way to the Twin Cities, and give us central Minnesotans some love. I can't thank them enough for doing this. They do produce some damn good beer.

Review

4.25/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a murky, very dank golden/orange color. The head is 3 finger, quite frothy, and long lasting. No lacing on the glass as the head dissipates.
The nose hit me when I was pouring the beer. I'm not too experienced with guava and passion fruit, but I'm guessing these aromas are hitting me hard. Up close, they hit me harder. Just a dank smelling, tropical, fruit aroma. Very pleasing.
Taste - The guava and passion fruit hit up front, and they linger throughout, though, it hits harder on the backside. Just a fruity all around flavor. Not much with hops or malt, just fruit with just a hint of lactose.
The body is just smooth. Slides down my throat.
Just a outstanding, easy drinking beer. So juicy from the guava and passion fruit. Solid offering from Junkyard.


One and done tonight. I'll see you all next Sunday.

 

Lawson's Maple Nipple

I'm following in @woodchipper 's footsteps here (I only read his post after I drank my beer though). I'm surprised to see this beer classified as a "herb and spice beer" on BeerAdvocate. I don't think it's a good fit... and that's surprising too since I tend to view that category more liberally than most. Maple syrup as a herb or spice in brewing? I think the category might have confused people too since reviews are commenting on the spices in the beer. Maybe I'm wrong about what's in this beer, but is this a new version of Celebration Ale?

The beer is a gorgeous Les Paul sunburst color spectrum that settles into a dark amber / red / brown. Dear me... this one is sweet. Overbearingly sweet to the point of it dominating the drinker's relationship to the beverage. Caramel, caramel, and more caramel... without the body of some thicker strong ales... and without the malt complexity. There's a little bit of bitterness in the finish. To me, this is ham-fisted and one-note, but it improves as it warms.

My NBS beer before this one was a Two Roads beer and I liked that one much more. Two Roads brews a few beers for Lawson's, but not Maple Nipple. The normal beer-nerd narrative is that the Lawson's beers coming out of Two Roads are lesser beers than the ones coming out of Lawson's own facility. There might be some truth to this, but you'll never see the reverse of that narrative become the normal conversation because it's not a good craft beer narrative. I know that if I had more of both of these NBS beers in my fridge, I'd open another of the Two Roads brut IPA right now. Obviously these beers are opposites of each other though.

@woodchipper 's description of the beer feels spot on for me... but I'm just much harsher in my subjectivity. His mention of sausage and cabbage is fantastic and is almost making me reconsider my judgement.

 

Awesome IPA. Fantastic rocky head retention/thick soapy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big red grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, berries, citrus peel/rind, wood, peppercorn, and pine hops; with moderate honey, caramel, toasted biscuit malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body; balanced creamy/bready malts, sticky hops, and some resins/rinds in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter dryness, no hop astringency. Very smooth, not aggressive, minimal warming 7.6%. Feels like Columbus, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo, Citra, Simcoe. Very juicy, vibrant, and fairly dank/earthy hops; with a great balancing dark/bready malt backbone. Mild residual sweetness with lingering resin dryness. Spot on Midwest style IPA. 4.13


Cheers

 

Everything about that can label is great. If Mayflower makes a bunch of those that look the same except for the different beer style on the "spine," I can imagine someone lining a bunch of them up on a shelf with the spine out like a book set.

 

Next up, TH "Bear, with a hint of coffee."
Lackluster reviews of this beer are rather perplexing.
C'mon, Hazybois!



Bottom of can:

"Just a wee hint
02/01/19."

Moderate pour yields a one inch tan head over a brown body with some lacing. Head dissipates after a few minutes but comes back nicely with a vigorous swirl or two. Great nose of coffee, dark malt, vanilla, caramel, and chocolate. Taste mirrors nose nicely and as it warms, the aromas and flavors become even more pronounced. Good feel and overall, I am diggin' this beer, even though it is a tad thin.
Cheers to TH (and my connection, Rob!!!)

 

I recently had a beer from Strike Brewing in San Jose, CA that was made with Kviek. Overall, I thought it was "dirty" and "woody" but very enjoyable.

Here's the link if you're interested:

>Oslo And Away<

 

New Beer Sunday: English Sweet / Milk Stout

Evenin’ NBSers with a wake up call for fans of Coffee Milk Stouts.

This evening’s new beer is Arabicadabra from Bell’s Brewing.

My review, subject to revision until the beer is finished, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/307229/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas/flavors of this beer are mostly about the roasted coffee which is backed up by some milk chocolate and dark roasted malt. Even the bitterness in the ending comes from the coffee and the dark roasted malt. The flavors are nicely balanced in that the coffee and malt are both up front and backed up by the sweetness that softens the bitterness and smooths it out. While I’ve enjoyed having this beer and would be willing to drink it again if offered I’ll probably not make any special effort to seek it out since I enjoy milk stouts but they are not among my favorite styles. (I suspect that is, in part, because I prefer my coffee black.)

The music on the player tonight is to complete the “back to Bach” series of Brandenburg Cnceretos with the Concerto No. 5.


Cheers, all!

 

I want it for the beer, but I agree, that's a really outstanding label.

 

My one & only beer for NBS this week; Haymarket's Clare's Thirsty Ale, a BA Imp Stout ( 12.5% ABV ). 4.2 Overall

Pours an effervescent jet black with on finger of caramel colored head. So-so head retention & lacing, plenty of viscosity

S: Chocolate, rapsberries, figs. fades a touch once warm. Boozeyness then surfaces

T: Raspberry & dark chcoclate, raisins, roastyness & barrel dryness up front. More dark chococlate, barrel dryness & raspberry as this warms,a little raisin as well. Finishes with rapberry sweetness & tartness, a touch of breacing booze & barrel dryness, plus plenty of dark chococolate

MF: Fairly chewy, moderate carbonation

Pretty darn drinkable for the style & ABV, but enough heft to command respect

 

Very good Polish Euro pale. Fantastic rocky head retention/soapy lacing. Flavors of big cracker, white bread dough, lightly toasted biscuit, light honeyed malts; with mild herbal, floral, woody, grassy hops. Similar/muted aromas. A bit of fruity/diacetyl aromas, but not overwhelming. Mild herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation, light-medium body, and fairly crisp/clean finishing. Bready/grainy malts, and light sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing lingering bitter dryness, no cloying/astringency. Very flavorful/refreshing for 5.6%. Very clean lager flavors, minimal fruity/yeasty notes. Really well done for the style, other than the slightly off aromas. Very clean pils malt showcase, with solid earthy noble hop presence/balance. Was a few months past the best before date, so probably over a year old. Not bad at all. 3.81


Cheers