New Beer Sunday (Week 751)

Sorry for the confusion.

I did not call them that, you did.

I respect the Brewery for their effort and rate accordingly (I also added decent), but it’s just not to my liking, therefore...

ps-the ones that were good went down my pipe

 

Great review and notes, as always. I, too, thought this was nearly indistinguishable from a DIPA. Fieldwork is really hitting their stride.

 

The family is out by the pool today enjoying slightly cooler temps after a brutally hot and humid Saturday. This beer is perfect for my current situation:



Poured into a tulip glass. A fairly hazy golden amber color with a medium sized white head. Great foam retention that left complex lacing on the glass. Big barrel aroma with vanilla, apricot, serious funk, and lemons. The moderate tartness allowed the apricot to really pop on the palate. The wood, vanilla, and funk all complemented the beer. A fairly big mouthfeel which only increased the flavor. An outstanding beer. Highly recommended if you like apricots. Cheers!

 

Yup. I was thinking of the mola mola. That little guy is a beautiful fish though!

Cheers

 

American Barlywine, compliments of @JBowenGeorgia and NBS, pours a nice ruby red, with vanilla head that receded quickly, aroma is wonderful, desert, caramel, butterscotch with taste that follows, very nice fruits, vanilla, and light bourbon notes, this is a magnificent well brewed beer. Greatly enjoyed this one, John, thanks my friend!

 

Greetings all from a beautiful (looking) and dreadful (feeling) summer day in Boston! And thanks to our host for the good conversation starter question. The only local(ish) brewery I can think of closing is Smuttynose, and they didn't really close but rather changed hands in a high profile and non optimum fashion (bankruptcy auction). It was quite the shock at the time but the info that came out in the aftermath about their business decisions made it seem predictable in hindsight.

Today I've got a beer from a quaint local(ish) brewery that some people might have heard of: Treehouse. I hadn't been there in about a year and so was assuming the furor that accompanied the opening of their newest, hugest, brewery 2 years ago would have died down some. Nope. One hour long line for cans at 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon and probably a 15 minute line for drafts. Not something I'm interested in doing regularly but since it was on our way to a destination in Connecticut it wasn't too bad as a special occasion.

I don't drink Treehouse very often but I've generally found their core IPA offerings differentiate themselves fairly well (Julius, Sap, Green, Haze, Bright) while the rotationals and one-offs taste mostly like variations on those themes to me. We'll see what we've got in today's DIPA offering of 'I Have Promises to Keep' which is promising a 7.9% ABV.




Look: It pours an attractive hazy, honey-orange with no sediment or floaties present. A 3/4 inch white fluffy head recedes quickly to a ring. The head jumps right back to life with a gentle swirl, even towards the end.

Smell: This has what I think of as basically the canonical treehouse nose. Lots of apricot, mango, citrus, some melon, some honey, and a mild yeasty wheatiness that I've never quite been able to put my finger on. It also has a little bit of what some folks have been calling a "vitamin" smell and which finally gave a name to something I've sometimes detected myself. Mild, pleasant alcohol is present as well.

Taste: Taste is a bit flatter than the nose, which I often find is the case with big dry-hopped bombs. I'm getting more of a lemon/orange rind flavor with some pineapple maybe? Toward the end there's a refreshing, gentle pine/resin note with a pleasing, mild bitterness. The malt is very mild as is usual but to the extent it's there it provides a wheaty, grain-like flavor.

Feel: Has the soft mouthfeel down pat and finishes on the dry side with that tight, mild bitterness in the back of the cheeks. Carbonation is lively and spot on to cut through a big DIPA.

Overall: My IPA sweetspot is closer to the Alchemist than to TH, but if I want a beer like this then I really do think TH lives up to their reputation as masters of the style. Never murky in my experience, and none of that "over-ripe" fruit flavor that pops up too often in other NE IPAs. The mild bitterness at the end nicely balances the thicker fruit and grain flavors at the beginning. If you gave this to me blind I don't think I'd know that it was something other than one of their core offerings, but it's an extremely tasty beer nonetheless.

Next I get to dig in to a "Sap" which is my favorite of theirs. Picture the above description except with a giant dose of Chinook in place of the more tropical hops. Yum

Cheers all!

 

Uncomfortable heat wave in the upper Midwest this weekend. Of course, the weather forecasts are all full of dire warnings, but having grown up in the humid southeast, I wonder what all the hubbub is about. Yes, it is uncomfortable, and you shouldn't be stupid, but otherwise, it's just hot and humid.

Beers today are from the Cigar City Mixed Pack. These will be my first beers from them. Given the weather, I thought I would start with...

Cigar City Florida Cracker Belgian Wit
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 18



Aroma is pretty true to style Belgian Wit. Banana, coriander, biscuit. Touch of lemon.

Cloudy golden straw with abundant bubbles rising to a tall, thick, white head, leaving rows of good looking lacing as it slowly recedes.

Taste is coriander, lemon, banana. Biscuit & wheat malts. Initially some bittering presents, but this recedes to a smooth, mellow middle. Finish is slightly sweet and sticky, but still crisp (if that makes any sense at all).

Mouth feel is medium and smooth.

Overall, I enjoyed this beer. Nicely done American interpretation of a Belgian Wit.

BTW, if you go to the Belgian Witbier page here on BA, they recommend serving the Belgian Witbier in a tulip. Nothing against the tulip, but I think the Belgian wheats look better in the wiezen glass. JMO, of course, but I like the tall curved glass's ability to show off the color, haze, and head of these beers.

L:4 | S:3.75 | T:3.5 | F:3.5 | O:3.75 | BA rating: 3.64 (from my spreadsheet - no review posted yet)

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Swiggers and commentators. Another hot, sunny, lazy summer afternoon here in North Jersey. I finally finished a book I started reading in March, packed up a box of beer for an esteemed BA, and took the dog for a long walk. Now, it's my favorite time of the week. Yacht Jams is a collaboration between two of New Jersey's up and coming brewers, Brix City and Icarus. It's a perfect example of a Milkshake IPA, intended to simulate coconut cream pie. It opens with those flavors: coconut, banana, and graham cracker. At mid-sip there is orange and lime. It's hopped with a great bill of Mosaic, Citra, Motueka, and Cashmere. Motueka is a personal favorite of mine. While it starts like coconut cream pie it finishes more like a pina colada but with orange instead of pineapple. It's satisfying on a hot day without being overly gimmicky; a perfect beach beer. Here's my full review:

4.43/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

A collaboration between Brix City and Icarus Brewing. Reviewed two days after release. Poured from 16 oz. can into a tulip glass. It pours a dirty orange color with a half finger of foamy, bright white head and a thick coating of creamy lacing inside the glass. The aromatic smell features coconut, banana, orange/tangerine, graham cracker, and lite floral hops. It is supposed to taste like coconut cream pie and it passes the test opening with coconut, banana, and graham cracker. It's sweet but not overpoweringly so. There is also a nice burst of tangerine, lime, and lemon peel. You can immediately taste the unique, plush taste of the Motueka hops (one of my favorites) , along with the Mosaic, Citra, and Cashmere. In fact, is a wonderful blend of hops that provide lots of flavor but little bitterness, except and the finish. The taste is can best be described as between coconut cream pie and a pina colada. It has a rich, thick, creamy mouth feel with moderate carbonation, and it drinks easily at 8% ABV. Overall, this is a tasty and enjoyable milkshake IPA; the work of two very fine New Jersey brewers.

I hope you're all enjoying your new beers today. As always, the reviews are informative and entertaining. Cheers, NBS!

 

Demented provides a cautionary tale for new brewers. It started canning much too early and its beers sat on local shelves until they were stale. Other than a Wee Heavy and a Russian Imperial Stout, I never thought their beer was very good. Although it's apparently better capitalized and thus more likely to succeed, Untied in New Providence exhibits the same pretensions. They opened in the Winter and started can releases in May despite the fact they really hadn't brewed anything memorable. Contrast to Twin Elephant which rarely canned during its first few years but perfected its craft and relied on loyal customers stopping by to try the new offerings. The beer it cans is now are excellent and the other beers it brews are uniformly quite good. It reminds me of Conclave.

 

NBS x2 comes courtesy of the recommendation by @DefenCorps . Warm weather calls for something unique and refreshing. This is just that.

Occidental
Grodzilla- Grodziskie



Looks like summer in a glass. Straw yellow with that wheat haze touch. Clean, refreshing looking beer with a massive white froth that simply plasters the glass with lacing.

Light smoke, slightly medicinal aromas. A touch of dried grass in the finish.

The flavor boasts a soft wheat sweetness, beechwood like light smokiness, said grass, and a mild metallic and tart finish.

As stated above, sweet and smokey, but when it comes to feel, those come second to the superbly light, watery and crisp, bubbly carbonation. A perfect feel for a warm summer day.

Not well versed in the Grodziskie ways, I can still say this is a very enjoyable beer. I assume after a light and quick education of the style, this hits all the marks: light, sessionable, smokey, wheat. Sold.

A solid 3.9.

Prost!

 

One reason I look forward to retiring at some point is so I don't have to hear one secretary tell another "her and me are going to the mall tonight."

 

Well, I am back home in PA right now but I was in NS a week ago.

We visited the Breton Brewing taproom as well and I ordered a flight (4 small beers). My favorite beers from that flight was the Pale Ale and the IPA (Black Angus). After the flight I ordered a 20 ounce glass of the Black Angus.

The 'funny' thing about Nova Scotia (and the rest of Canada?) is that they use the metric system for gas, food items, etc. but for draft pours at the breweries they use the English system (12 ounce, 16 ounce, 20 ounce).

I think the lager you discussed was one of my four sample size pours but I am not 100% certain. Needless to say but this brand was not a 'favorite' for me.

Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday, everybody! Things are starting to get back to normal for me after returning from a Tampa vacation last weekend. What a wonderful city- food, beer, people, vibe are all fantastic, and I look forward to returning soon. It was just two Sundays ago I was sitting at a table at Coppertail Brewing, sharing many fine brews with the very gracious and generous @MHorridge and his buddy Jeff. It was great to be able to experience many of the very fine beers coming out of Coppertail, as well as Tampa/St Pete in general. That day I was able to get an excellent smoked helles lager and a very tasty beet gose, among other things, that I would happily make regular purchases if they were available near me.

And that wasn't the only smoked helles I had on that trip, either. Maybe somebody knew I was coming . The one at Green Bench was also exceptional, as were their crazy-good farmhouse ales and ciders. And you can get pitchers of beer there! Hell, yeah- my kinda place!

I came home to the same kind of issue @Smakawhat was dealing with- the deer are eating the garden again, so, yeah, time to protect what I can with netting and whatnot. The poor cucumber plant pictured here seems to be rebounding, at least. I'm honestly surprised that the deer were able to get to it, too- I specifically located it between a retaining wall and stairs to be out of the way. Maybe I actually have a mountain goat problem, too .

So it recently occurred to me that I haven't had Jack's Abby Sunny Ridge Pilsner yet; today seems like the perfect time to remedy that situation.

It's a fine brew- I'm particularly digging the deep malt base, baguette-like breadiness, and initial sweetness that quickly resolves to a crisp dry finish. Complementing it is, naturally, a solid punch of noble hop aroma and flavor. These lean towards the spicy end rather than grassy, and even suggest hints of orange marmalade and lime peel. Bitterness is on the high side, even lingering a bit, but mostly clean, save a touch of citrus pith astringency. Overall, the balance of malt to hops strikes me as more "German" than we tend to get in the US, and with a few tweaks it could even stand with the likes of something like Rothaus Tannenzapfel. Very good stuff, A- (4.3).

 

Haha funny you should say that, as lately I have been trying my poetic hand at rantpoem/rap style with heavy use of vernacular and the bad grammar that goes with it. Sometimes themes demand it, I have come to appreciate.

But yeah, I usually am a silent grammar **** when confronted by folks like those secretaries you mention.

Plenty of time for reading and everything else after retirement, that's for sure.

 

I did not have any beers from those two breweries.

We only spent one night in Saint John. We visited the Big Tide Brewery and my wife and I both ordered a 'NEIPA' they had on tap. I thought that beer was pretty good but it had a tiny bit of a chalky quality that was a tiny bit bothersome for me. My wife really liked this beer.

We then visited the Saint John Alehouse which had a lot of beers from New Brunswick breweries (20+ taps). I had a Wit from some brewery which was good (I can't recall the name of the brewery at the moment). I had a Pilsner from Petit Sault that I thought was very good. And a 'NEIPA' from Trailways which I thought was very good as well.

Cheers!

 

I totally agree with you!

 

4 Best July 2020 4+ New Beers

Ruination 2.0 Sans Filtre | Stone | 4.34/5 rDev +6.4% | CA
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Pleased to be 16th review of Sans Filter Ruination.
a) Sports a big, frothy white head; good retention; lively golden body. laces a bit.
s) medicinal pine and resin foremost with modest citrus with peach and mango.
t) Bitter upfront, but not palate wrecker. Shellac, resin, pine predominate. with honey, citrus, flowers, and grapefruit rind. f) bitter dry finish, clean. Will win many blind taste offs.
o) 2.0 excels.

Smoke & Dagger | Jack's Abby 4.25/5 rDev +8.1% | MA
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25\
Like Jack's and smoke beers - so had me at first whiff.
s) And what a whiff! Wood fire, charcoal, malt, chocolate, cocoa, grass, fall earth.
a) Over a brown-black body, that keeps a tan cap and laces dots.
t) "smoky chocolate" as a BA-er wrote Layers of wood fire, peat, coffee, chocolate, cocoa, irish whiskey - much more going on in a 5.8% ABV makes for taste heaven. Finishes clean with grass and wood hops and peppercorn at the camp fire.
f) creamy but drying in finale
o) 4.25 across the board. Winner.

Blossom | Carton | 4.16/5 rDev 0% | NJ 6%ABV
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
everyone was talking about Blossom release today at brewer.
I enjoyed it after the re-release of Dune Fruit which was 1 tiny notch better, cleaner.
That said this hybrid is excellent and just what a post-kayak summer evening ordered.
a) Light golden energetic clear body, sports a loose saison head and spots of lace.
s) Wild yeast indeed, fresh local harvest.
t) Saison dominates, Lemony, limey with funky, hemp-like, wet flowers, salt water PFDs now dried in the sun - nuances.
f) Bright, crisp, refreshing, inviting conversation and another.
o) Thanks to Ingrid for the pour.

Luponic Distortion: Revolution No. 012 | Firestone Walker | 5.9% | CA
4.09/5 rDev +6.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
U gotta love when great brewer produces a clear, clean IPA that outpunches its ABV weight class.
a) Clear, steady head and scads lace all the way.
s) Bright, simple, hemp, strawberry, sun baked grass.
t) Follows smell w wild strawberry, melon,
f) Finishes dry with pepper clean balance.
o) Complex, multi-layered excellence.