New Beer Sunday (Week 742)

We have a bunch of "morel seekers" around here, apparently the mushrooms are rare in these parts, and they tend to grow a little better across the river in Iowa. I've never gone hunting personally, but they sell for a lot per lb. I've heard they have a buttery, smooth texture and a better flavor than most mushies.

 

I love em like a hobbit does, eat 'em till I fall down. They are full of woodsy, savory, deep and fruity notes, with impossible to describe flavors no other foods possess. I like them almost as much as chanterelles and black trumpets, but they are more versatile in that almost every meat, egg, or cheese recipe you can think of benefits from their addition. Lately there have been morel seekers here too, even though we really aren't prime territory for them like we are for other species, and I think one of my best spots was discovered by one of them.

I would never sell any, I was taught if you sell them you will never find another, if you give them away you will find them always. Thirty five years later this has always been true for me. I give away two thirds of all the mushrooms I find all season.

 

NBS beer #1



Peril

Lawson's Finest Liquids
American Imperial IPA / 11.10% ABV

4.28/5 rDev -2.7% | Score: 4.4
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

L-The beer pours a light amber with a 1 finger off white head. The head recedes to a thin film leaving legs along the sides of the glass.
S-The nose is primarily resin and what seems like a bit of onion. As I swirl the glass there is some sweetness coming from the malt.
T- Resin meets your palate first on the sip. Then just a touch of oniony sweetness in the middle. As the sip fades away your left with a little burn from the alcohol and dry hopping. The sweetness is pretty well balanced for a beer of this ABV. As the brewer states on the label it's pretty smooth.
F-Mouthfeel overall is on the higher side of medium. There is a slickness to the beer which coats the tongue. Carbonation is on the lighter side of medium.
O- The ABV of this beer should make it a sipper. The heavier mouthfeel should also. The reality is that this beer drinks easier than may 8% DIPA's I've had. It would be easy to get in trouble if not for it's limited format. A great beer to share with a friend, but a bomber alone could get you in trouble. Well made beer that lives up to it's name. Recommended.

 

Happy Mother's Day to all BAs who are Moms and al Moms of BAs! We're happy to have our daughter visiting with us this week. And our son called earlier today. It's been a nice day for Mrs. Mac. Except for the miserable weather, that is. It's rained continually since last night and it's a cold, unpleasant rain. More rain is forecast for tomorrow. A perfect Sunday afternoon to review a barrel-aged Stout. This is Silk City Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels with Vanilla Beans brewed by Brix City Brewing here in North Jersey. Every winter, Brix City releases its base BA Stout and several variants. It's my first time with this one. Initially, I was a little disappointed by the taste - it seemed too bitter. But as the glass continued to warm the vanilla started to open nicely and I am now really enjoying it. Here's my full review:

4.28/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

2019 Release. Poured into a Silk City commemorative glass. I took it out of the fridge approximately two hours before pouring so it is slightly cooler than air temperature. It pours a very dark mahogany with a large, foamy, medium khaki-colored had and thick, creamy lacing. The first thing I smell is the bourbon, along with roasted malt, vanilla, cocoa, brown sugar, and a whiff of molasses. The taste is bourbon-forward and the taste isn't as sweet as the smell would indicate. There is chocolate and vanilla bean but also significant earthy char. It's quite bitter throughout. However, when I swished it in my mouth I began to notice the vanilla bean. It has a rich, silky, creamy mouth feel with low/moderate carbonation. I'm glad the ABV is 10%; if it were higher, then I think it would be distracting. Overall, this is a well-crafted and tasty Imperial Stout that grew on me as I sipped it. I've enjoyed all the Silk City variants and this one's no exception.

I hope you're all enjoying your new beers today. Cheers, NBS!

 

Thanks for the intro, Doc! The important thing is that you're enjoying retirement and can play in these tournaments. You'll get your groove on!

 

LOL! Dave, I'm going to post that quote on my desk at work. By about 9:30 tomorrow I'll be reading it and chuckling. Cheers, my friend!

 

Been a long while since I've participated. I'm coming back with a side-by-side I've been meaning to do for months now. Both of these beers are new-to-me as well.

Surly's Darkness regular vs. Barrel Aged Darkness (2016 vintage).





Surly's Darkness (2016)

Pours black with a finger of dense, khaki foam. Head retention as a whole is moderate, with the final ring lasting a long while after the pour. Aroma is roasty, toasty, nutty, caramely, bready malts with heavy raisins, molasses, brown sugar, and toffee. It smells sweet, and nears on a sickly cloying level of sweetness straight out of the fridge. As it warms, the heavy raisins and dark fruits subside a touch, and with the gritty roasty malt bitterness, reaches a more favorable balance. Flavor profile is raisins, plums, molasses, brown sugar, toffee, caramel, and smoke. Malts hit notes of roasty, toasty, nutty and caramely adding depth and darkness. Initially at fridge temperature, the balance is skewed towards a cloying level of sweetness, but as the beer warms, melds into a more favorable balance. A bit of residual malt bitterness helps taper the sweetness off the tongue at the end. Mouth feel is medium-thick, and turns to thick as the beer warms. It has a silty, very fine granular texture that adds to the weight of the experience. Overall, a stout with depth that remains dynamic every degree or so of temperature change. At the colder temperatures, it’s not much to talk about it, but as it nears the suggested serving temperatures, it really opens up and reveals its personality.

Score: 4 | 4.5 | 4.25 | 4.5 | 4.5 | BA Score: 4.37 | rDev: -2.5%



Surly's Barrel Aged Darkness (2016)

Pours black with a finger and a half of dense, caramel foam. Head retention is moderate, with a long lasting ring of foam. Surprising amount of head out of a barrel aged stout. Netted just a little bit higher than the regular version of the same year poured alongside this one. Aroma is roasty, toasty, nutty malts with hints of caramel, molasses and toffee. Booze comes through a touch by way of bourbon, and is curtailed by a light dab of char. It smells lightly sweet, but the minute heat brings it back to center. Flavor profile is roasty, toasty, nutty, caramely malts with bits and pieces of toffee, molasses, brown sugar, chocolate, and dark fruits and raisins in between. Bourbon and whisky come on slightly at the end, turning the furnace up a few degrees right before the flame gets blown out. Complete dynamic is a malty, heavy opening, sugary center and a lightly hot finish that seals up the experience. Mouth feel is silty, spreading very fine grit over the tongue each sip. It’s washed away by the thick consistency, like a heavy tide on a fine sand beach. Overall, the barrel does well to keep the beer’s sweetness from running away, complimenting the base beer magnificently, with its final form coming out well balanced.

Score: 4.25 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | BA Score: 4.49 | rDev: +0.4%

 

A week of new beers: Mothers Day May 12 2019

Planning Jersey
Carton Brewing Company
American Wild Ale 4.80% abs Rate 4.24

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
A joy to be first reviewer of Planning Jersey, enjoyed fresh by V and me at the brewer.
a) Hazed, lacey bright white suds, sticks around long enough.
s) Similar to Intermezzo. Amazingly big and complex. Wasabi, blue cheese, green apples, funk, feet, sour fruit pits. earthy hay. The most cheese and cellar nose I've ever encountered, and in a good sweetened, tempered way.
t) Follows smell and more. Not as funky. Tastes sour green apples, wasabi, sour fruits, fruity malts, funk, earthy hay, floral shop, barnyard floor. Lovely arc. Wine like. complex. My favorite sour thus far.
f) Light body, moderate carbonation. Crisp and it is easy to drink. Astringent. Surprised how much we wanted another.
o) Worth checking out if you like sour beers. Rare. I'd buy this often.

Mexican Coffee
Carton Brewing Company
American Cream Ale 12% abv 4.1 +0.2%

MIA-EWR
Carton Brewing Company
Berliner Weisse 3.90& 4.1 


Son Of A Baptist
Epic Brewing Company
American Imperial Stout 8% 4.1

Tropical Bitch
Flying Dog Brewery
Belgian IPA 8% 3.9 +2.9%


No Brainer
Victory Brewing Company - Downingtown
American IPA 6.8% 3.9 +2.9%

Saint Archer IPA
Saint Archer Brewing Co.
American IPA 7% abc 3.75 -3.6%

 

Let it be known then that the man you quote was a giant of a man who pushed me into becoming a ridiculous skiier so he wouldn't have to ski the stupid stuff by himself, and died from a forty foot head man fall climbing in Utah in 1988. Cheers to you as well my friend!

 

Just got back from Gettysburg and 6 hours of driving in the rain, I’m beat. Needing a beer a Cape May Triple IPA, Snag and Drop. So Triples usually isn’t my thing, they just tend to me to come off a bit sweeter than I like, this one clocks in at 10% abv. Once it settled down from my pour a fluffy 2-3 finger head of dense foam, nice color too. I can usually take a whiff and make a pretty good guess if the taste follows. So no real fruit on the nose, taste follows, they say dank, pine, resin, I taste too much malt and not enough bitter. For my palate these really big ipas come off as a bit clumsy, a bit too sweet, and kinda messy, full bodied as well which makes it a bit brooding. I really like a simpler, clean and fruity beer. It’s still a very good beer don’t get me wrong, my preferences really go more to DIPA. I’m super sensitive to malt in ipas , and I just think beers that push to this limit are very tough to pull off cleanly.

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @lordofthewiens for this week's introduction. Another typical weekend with nothing going on other than me doing site work backlog. Got a big beer haul yesterday with a box from a friend. Will be set for a while. #8400 was last week. I had a Sherry barrel Dark Lord, it was expensive.

Beer:

I like trying pale lagers. This was excellent. Fantastic rocky head retention/thick foamy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big lemon, cracker, corn, white bread dough, lightly toasted biscuit malts; with lighter notes of herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery hops. Light-moderate herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium-plus carbonation, light-medium body, and moderately crisp/clean finishing. Balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel, Moderate increasing bitter dryness, no hop astringency. Very flavorful/refreshing, not watery for 5.2%. Perfectly clean lagering, not fruity/yeasty notes. Really impressive. Great clean pils malt/grain showcase, with nice noble hop presence/balance for the style. Not overdone on adjuncts. Big fan, would purchase again. 4.03


Cheers

 

I have zero experience with shrooms. But I remember reading that deer love mushrooms and a guy used to use mulch or sawdust to kinda prime the area for mushrooms to grow. Also thought I saw that the Pa commercial farms use like slabs of plywood etc, that are essential to consistently grow mushrooms. Is it cheating to use saw dust as an accelerant or do you need to fairly hunt them naturally?

 

Seriously, sorry to hear of his demise. He sounds like someone I would like to have met!

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! a semi-cloudy day in the upper 60's here in the Fourth Corner today. had a couple of not-new brews whilst watching the M's lose to the Red Sux (I don't actually mind the Sox, but, they have the most obnoxious fans in sports. Even worse than the Cowboys, notre Dame, and Blue Jays combined), which is par for the course.

My first new brew comes from Eugene OR (speaking of obnoxious teams and fans....), and a tasty Raspberry brew: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16068/269966/

 

I, too, am a huge fan of Iron goat, when I can get it over here on the Wet Side.

 

Truffles and the good morels (there are 17 morel varieties, including ones possible to cultivate but don't taste well) are almost impossible to cultivate, and must be gathered from the wild. You can actually cultivate truffles by planting oak trees and innoculating them. Twenty acres of trees is required to be planted, however, with each tree innoculated, and if you're lucky truffles will grow beneath one out of twenty trees. They say you can do the same thing with morels under twenty acres of elm trees, but I haven't heard of success. Shiitake and oysters are the opposite, easy to cultivate, and more delicious than in the wild.

 

Kuhnhenn Solstice Stout, 16% ABV. Pours thick and black with a real nice two finger brown head that left some lacing. Nose is sweet toffee, bourbon, and malt. Taste follows, quite sweet, plus fruit, very slight bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel, overall world-class. Tastes so great that it is all to easy to drink fast, dangerous with that ABV.

4.56/5 rDev +0.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Another kickass beer sent to me by @drunkenmess.

 

Good evening NBS and thanks to @lordofthewiens for the start today, glad to here the golf game still vexes and is satisfying! To the Moms a fine day all. We had Son #1 on Skype announcing his engagement to his long time girlfriend and Son #2 surprised with a spontaneous ( I knew) visit.
Today's stress free offering is from Honest Weight in Orange MA, an experimental IPA with Kveik, Brett, and lots of Moteuka, and Vic Secret.
Quite a complex offering and pushes the IPA to a space between, Farmhouse, and NEIPA. Excellent on the palate, aromatics are delightful. I love the Brett so delicately applied.
Cheers all
And Yeah Go Bruins!!
Odd Seasons

Honest Weight Artisan Beer
Belgian IPA / 7.20% ABV

4.19/5 rDev 0% | Score: 4.19
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured from a bottle dated Spring 2019 into the test glass
A - Murky (in a good way) deep golden color, loose knit white froth resides throughout the experience. Carbonation is tiny and marauding.
S - Orange, tangerine, some white pepper, lime zest, warm white toast.
T - Full on with the tropical , again the orange, and passion fruit, add a beautiful tangerine element, with a snappy spicy thread from the Brett.
M - Soft texture from the amount of oat I suspect, start has a spicy tension with all that citrus in the flavors, the palate is dancing with another partner, Carbonation is determined and plays a role in keeping that spicy, cheese rime thread in the mix. Quite a delight.
O - Well this makes you pause, excellent citrus profile, add the dance between Brett and Kveik yeast, you have a deftly executed delight.