New Beer Sunday (Week 730)

My condolences. ‘Twas a fine glass.

 

A-Pours a golden color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has some spices hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a slight spice flavor
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A nice Belgian witbier

 

Great name for a beer.

 

Cote de Champlain from Zero Gravity,is presented as a "Belgian Style Specialty Ale. This pale golden bottle pour is capped with a 1/2 cm foam pillow. The aroma is light with Brett and lemon. The flavor is straight-up saison. The lemon and pepper are typically prominent. The tartness is low to moderate. The finish is considerably less dry than many others of the style. This is refreshing and quite pleasant.

We will visit their brewery/bar/cafe on our next VT trip, in April I hope.

 

Just curious. What’s the date on that.

 

Checking out Other Half's Berliner Weisse-styled...

Double Mmm... Fruit Dream... 2/6/19 canning...


Nearly-opaque fuchsia/guava-colored beer kicked up just a brief white foam in the goblet... Featuring dragon fruit and passion fruit, coconut and vanilla, it smelled and tasted like the ingredients it presented... Tart and tangy with tropical fruit up front, the coconut and vanilla softened the blow considerably, and smoothed out the prickling of tingles from the acidity... Not a true Berliner weisse owing to the IPA-like 7% abv, this is however exactly the kind of Berliner weisse I would drink more of...

Here's to new beer in your glass, cheers...

 

Really?

Well, you can't have mine.

 

Next up is one I’ve been excited/curious about trying since I saw they were doing it.

Bells Brewery - Official

A hazy IPA from Bells. And I’ve got to say, I love the simplistic and elegant artwork.


Pouring from a 10 day old, 12 oz. can into a whiskey tumbler glass, this beer pours out hazy, as it should, and a deep golden straw like color. It forms a pinky of eggshell colored crown that holds well. Leaves lacing throughout. 4.25

The nose brings notes of lemon, tangerine, oranges, some zest, slight melon, floral, and a straw/biscuit like backend. 4

The taste follows the nose up well and delivers a candy like lemon with other notes of tangerine, mango, melon, oranges and zest. It does show a floral element at the end as well. It can be a bit underwhelming, but really balanced. 3.75

The mouthfeel is very smooth with a nice creamy nature. Hardly any sharpness or hop burn and finishes soft and dry. Well carbonated. 4.25

Overall, this might not be anybody’s favorite hazy ipa, but it brings a great balance and I could see Bells being one to be able to keep up this consistency. Because those are two things I’ve come to know from Bells, balance and consistency. And I respect them getting it out into the market this fresh! 10 days old and I’ve had it a few days already. 4

Cheers NBS!

 

New beer #4. Thanks @vabeerguy !

The Grid - Triple Crossing
DIPA - 8% abv
Canned 1/23/19 (24 days ago)
Score: 4.12 (-5.7% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34442/366940/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
A little too dank for my liking. After that, though, there are lovely grapefruit and orange hop flavors. Great look and feel too. Thanks again Mike!

 

Good afternoon NBS
Ticking my 104th style today. I'm not typically taken with sours, so I've been stalling on this one.

The review:
22oz bottle vintage 2015 poured into a tulip glass at fridge temp. The beer pours bright in a very light copper color. The head is restrained with nearly white soapy bubbles and quickly fades to a thin ring of bubbles around the glass. No lacing. The aroma is strong with a cheesy funk first and notes of white wine and fruit beneath. The taste is strong with acidity first, revealing bits of apple cider vinegar, cherry, white wine and very faint oak barrel the longer you hold each sip. No perceptible bitterness. Mouthfeel is thin bodied, adequately carbonated and dry in the finish. Overall, I won't offer a value as I'm drinking this to tick a style that I'm not comfortable with. If you like complex beers that smell like blue cheese and taste like vinegar, here's your beer.

I've reviewed over 700 beers on this site in the last couple years and nothing prepared me for this. I would probably try a world class Belgian example if it fell in my lap, but I wouldn't have high hopes. Cheers to those with discriminating palates and cheers to those, like myself, who would rather have a Budweiser...
Enjoy the new beer in your glass today friends!

 

7 weeks old.

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Another cold winter day here on the island but with a mixed sky of sunshine and overcast with building clouds. Only a few weeks till March so hopefully we'll be onto warmer weather soon or at least done with the risk of snow. Not doing much of anything today and will probably just kick back with some movies. Looking at some nice time off this week so I've actually got a few new beers today. We'll see if I actually get to them both.

My first new beer today is the ddh version of Green Islands, a tropical ipa, from Sloop brewing. I have not had the non-ddh version either. These guys have been blowing up here with new cans hitting on the regular. So far, I've had juice bomb and ddh pixie dust. The brew checks in at 6.5% abv, and has a 1/22/19 canning date.

A murky off-yellow color on the pour with a fast white head of bubbles. Decently floral on the nose with a mix of hops and tropical fruit. A rather clean start on the drinking with a big rush of tangy and fruity hop flavors. A smooth flow that finishes dry and with very little bitter to it. I get decent notes of berry, melon, lime, orange, and lemon. A moderate mouth feel with lots of lips smacking tang to it. Rather juicy but not terribly sweet or creamy.

Overall, nothing game changing but its pretty easy drinking and enjoyable. I'm right around a 4-high 3’s but since I've got three more that might change.

 

Today I have a growler of 11 Below's We Be Pubbin'. A draught only Oatmeal Stout that is 5.5% ABV. Growler purchased from a great little bottle and growler store in my neighborhood, Premium Draught.

Pours opaque black color, with a dense beige head that forms with excellent retention. Aroma and flavor are much the same, that is simple and very enjoyable. Roasted malts, coffee, chocolate and a touch of char. A little bitterness lingers on. Good body and carbonation that is ultra smooth. Definitely something I will come back to when I see, and pretty spot on example of the style. My rating came out to 4.04, and probably my favorite I have had from this little Houston brewery. Full review below:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/39953/338482/?ba=champ103#review

 

Toppling Goliath - Dorothy’s New World Lager

They call this a California common. That label makes me want to give this one a shot even though the label is pretty close to meaningless for me at this point. This one is a hazy yellow. There’s a really nice smooth malt character here along with some mild tangerine juice and pith... but once again today, this one just isn’t coming together either.

 

Good afternoon all. Celebrating Hockey Day Across America by watching the Pens Rangers game and drinking a little beer. Heard something about some race or whatnot going on as well, but whatever, lots of hockey happening.

First up is an anniversary DIPA from Legend



3.78/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Not a lot of head, what does erupt is mostly a thin beige layer that falls back to fizz top and spotty lace. Nose is immediately bright with tangerine and honey but it’s a relatively thin nose. Taste is quite similar with a good up front sweet tangerine that turns into a big earthy bitter before a little caramel steps in to offer some decent balance. Medium bodied beer finishes a little watery while leaving a ton of gritty bitterness behind.

 

New beer #5. Thanks @smanson56 !

Quest - Kettlehead
DIPA - 8% abv
Score: 4.14 (-3% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50850/309177/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Quite a floral ipa. But there’s enough citrus hop flavors to make this a balanced, enjoyable brew. Thanks again @smanson56 !

 

Chimay doree
..cloudy gold color
..medium body with above average carbonation
...aroma is spice,apples,orange,very earthy, yeasty dough
.taste really follows the aroma, not sweet nor dry,.
..can't believe I'm just trying this as I'm a big fan of chimay but this was an excellent beer

 

Happy New Unfiltered, Cloudy Heller Ur-Bock Sunday, BA!

Been a fine day so far. Bought my daughter a build your own Ukulele for Christmas. Turns out it came with no instructions and no adhesive for parts that will clearly need to be adhered!



We started painting it today in what we’re calling “rainbow buzzsaw.”



Jetzt fangen wir an...!

Einbecker Ainpöckish Bier 1378







A new German lager on the shelf. Always going to pick that up. Not entirely sure about the date, but my sense is that as a new beer here and the flavor /aroma that it’s probably fresh (4-6 weeks).

Appearance: This beer pours a golden amber color in my 11oz Stella Chalice. Translucent and hazy. A couple fingers of densely packed bone white head settles to a thin layer across the top of the glass. Leaves some lacing in its wake. Some visible carbonation rising up from the glass.

Smell: Full aroma. Light fruity esters. Cooked pineapple and apple, apricot. Lemon tea. Bready malt profile.

Taste: This is a full flavored lager. Bready with dried fruit including apricot and some white raisin. Semi dry in flavor. There is a defining slight grassy bitterness on the finish.

Feel: Smooth mouthfeel with low carbonation. Semi dry.

Overall: I like this beer. It’s a full flavored fruity and bready lager.

I don’t know much about this beer other than the description from the website above. I’ve had Einbecker before, particularly the Winter Bock, and I thought it was fantastic. So, it seems I like this brewery.

Does anyone know what “Original Extract Content 16,4% G/G” means? Are they brewing this beer with malt extract?

@TongoRad