New Beer Sunday (Week 758)

Congrats to @lordofthewiens on his grandson's accomplishment! I'm in a religiously mixed family and both of our kids had their bar/bat mitzvahs several years ago. They were special moments for everyone in the family with significant impact.

Today's new beer is a longtime want, fulfilled by the inimitable @TheGent. I must say that it certainly met my expectations and served as a perfect late-summer beer!

Poured into a very cool pint glass courtesy of @zekeman17.
A hazy bright yellow color with a thick white head. The foam slowly settled and left splotchy tracks on the glass. Aroma was a blend of bready, crackery malt and citrus. Mainly lime and orange. The citrus elements were more prominent on the palate with lime and grapefruit notes. Bread and cracker malt flavor. I found the body to have more heft than I expected for a sub-5% beer. Not too dry on the finish. Overall this was a fantastic session beer with a great mix of citrus hops and German malt flavor. Thanks again, Anthony!

 

Whiner Elevator. Excellent saison. Great fluffy head retention/spotty foamy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big lightly tart/tangy peaches, fruit skin/pits, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, citrus peel/zest, pineapple, pear, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, red apple, berries, white grape/wine, wood, peppercorn, clove, pine, and light banana/bubblegum; with moderate wheat, cracker, white bread dough malts; herbal, floral, grass, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/zest, herbal, floral, woody, grassy bitterness; peppery yeast spiciness; and light fruit/wheat tang/tartness on the finish. Medium-plus carbonation, light-medium body, and fairly crisp/clean finishing. Balanced bread/grainy malts, sticky hops, and light fruit tang/acids in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter/tart/tangy dryness; no pucker/astringent. Very flavorful/refreshing, 5.5%. Awesome balance between juicy peaches/citrus zest, vibrant Citra/Loral/Equinox, Belgian yeast, and a clean pale/wheat malt backbone. Minimal residual sweetness with crisp dryness. Spot on style, no complaints. 4


Cheers

LMK when this will get boring, because it's not happening yet.

 

This was supposed to be a review of Double Two Hearted from Bell’s, a beer that is making itself elusive to secure thus far.

But I secured three bottles Friday, so I had this all tee’d up to review today. And then I discovered I had already had it, on tap at the brewery last July with Mrs O and Little O. You CANNOT be serious (in my best Johnny Mac voice, courtesy of the US Open).

On to Plan B (because I am a beer nerd professional). And a magnificent Plan B it is indeed.



4.35/5 rDev +7.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a hazy golden copper color with a a pasty white head. The first note on the nose is passion fruit, then a healthy dose of coconut, followed by ripe pineapple, some banana, and a bit of tangerine. Wow.

The passion fruit and coconut vie for pole position on the taste, and they are truly a dynamic duo - but the pineapple does not cower in the corner, instead it launches a fusillade of flavor punches to balance the passion fruit and coconut.

And then, Mr Banana (thank you, Kviek yeast) arrives and, accompanied by the tangerine flavors, guides things to a tropical paradise of an , fruity flavor finish.

I don’t know if it’s my palate on this particular day, but this beer is absolutely knocking me off my feet. Really well executed, IMHO.

 

Yet another new-to-me West Coast sour recently distributed in Vermont. Ghosts in the Forest - Guava!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18149/389764/



375 ml. bottle.
Moderate pour yields a one inch white head over a slightly hazy golden body with some nice lacing. Nose of (in order) oak, guava, and lemon. Taste of (in order) guava, lemon, and oak. Outstanding experience all around as this Lost Abbey offering is smooth from start to finish. Very nice feel and overall, every sour beer lover needs to try this. You will not be disappointed. Cheers!

 

Next up is one that is huge for me to be able to finally try. It’s been a long time wishlist item. Thanks to @TheGent for this.

Beer: 2018 Coffee Cinnamon Barrel Aged B-Bomb
Brewery: Fremont
ABV: 14%

From a bomber into a PAA Dino glass, this beer pours out with streams of dark brown, wood like highlights that are fighting off a blackness that wants to cast it out. Once formed in the glass, the slick blackness wins the prominence and only shows a thin ring of wood highlights along the top when held to light. Almost two fingers worth of well packed, khaki colored bubbles of all sizes. Crown slowly recedes, leaving no lacing behind, and settles into a ring clinging to the glass while a misty fog covers the rest.

The nose carries a light, milky chocolate that seems silky in nature. I’m getting a somewhat piney, slightly resiny hop presence mixing with lighter roasty grains that show through as crusty edges of baked bread. The backend consists of cold brew coffee and just a kiss of cinnamon before finishing with a greatly balanced dry oak.

The taste brings in the spices with much more prominence; cinnamon with a tingle. It then turns its attention towards a creamy, cold brewed coffee along with silky, milk chocolate notes. Oak and a light molasses linger in the background. No bourbon to be detected, and almost no barrel presence at all for me.

The cinnamon provides just enough tingle and warmth in the mouthfeel. It’s silky and creamy with an ABV that is insanely hidden. Roastiness fades off to show way to that silkiness and creaminess more and more as it warms.

Overall, this really is a greatly integrated, well made and blended brew. Solid all the way around while introducing you to different aspects throughout, with great balance among them all. But as great as this is, I find it hard to rate. As I have sat with this for an hour at this point, I recognize these balances and great nuances, I can’t help but want more from it at each and every turn and would like something that is labelled as barrel aged to show more barrel presence.

Thanks so much for the chance to try this, Anthony. It’s much appreciated!

Cheers NBS!

 

New Beer Sunday: American Pale Ale (APA)

Evenin’ NBSers, back with a new APA that shows off lots of classic APA aromas/flavors.

This new beer is from Port Brewing and is their Summer Pale Ale which they bill as a West Coast Style.

My ongoing review can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13839/124197/?ba=drtth#review

Not surprisingly the aromas/flavors of this beer are almost entirely about the hops. There’s resin, citrus a bit of peach, some grapefruit and a bit of orange all against a very light malt backbone that softens the rough edges just a bit. Drinkable, enjoyable, would be happy to have this one again.

Tonight’s music on the player is a collection assembled by a friend and that features different artists all singing the same song, The City of New Orleans. It’s interesting to listen to the similarities and differences by the various folks who have recorded this song.

The song itself is one I’ve long liked for a couple of reasons. Some associated with having once lived in central Illinois and with my wife and I using the Illinois Central Railroad going north from central Illinois to connect to a train called the California Zepher for a long ride out west in a kind of leisurely comfort not available on a plane. The Railroad folks time the departure of the Zepher so that you wake up in the Denver area at about 7-8:00 am when the train and its observation car get run through a train wash before heading over the Rockies. (Amazing and memorable views.) That journey was, for me, a trip back in time to when Rail travel was the normal and was all the things that were once part of the experience of travel in comfort. (Instead of travel by air.)

Four of the recordings, in particular, stand out to me both for listening to the approach of the very different artists, as well as some of the reflections they offer on travel by train. (I also suspect this sort of nostalgia thing was a driver for why I told my wife that she could pick any house we could afford so long as it was near a Regional Rail train stop and I could take the train into the city to get to work. )

The song was written by a fellow named Steve Goodman who, with his wife, rode on The City of New Orleans from Chicago to visit his wife’s relatives down South. Goodman took notes and stored up his impressions of the passing scenery and this song is the end result when he recorded it for his 1971 album.

Steve Goodman — The City of New Orleans



Not long after Goodman’s recording, The City of New Orleans was recorded again by Arlo Guthrie in 1972 and it soon became a pop hit.

Arlo Guthrie — The City of New Orleans


Then in 1974, Johnny Cash included the song as part of a Documentary film called Ridin’ the Rails, which is basically about the decline of the Railroads in the US and what has been lost to many of us as a normal part of travel.

Johnny Cash — The City of New Orleans


About 10 years after Cash’s documentary, in 1984, Willie Nelson recorded the song and it quickly hit number one on the charts and became Country Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards ceremonies.

Willie Neson — The City of New Orleans


Cheers, all!

 

Interesting to see you were able to review this so shortly after I did. I might agree the body was not as watery as some, but not sure if that’s what you meant by “more body than expected.” End of the day, though, I think we both found it a nice light pale ale.

Rare follow up post. The GF insisted (seriously) that we stop by Solace on the way home. So I’m trying the draft version of my opening beer, Gute Nacht.


My earlier review very much holds up, in this case. There’s actually a little less spice in the nose, but it’s still in the taste. This draft is also a slight bit heavier/sweeter than I found the can earlier today. I’d say the differences are minor, subjectively. I have 3 more of the cans from earlier, so adjustments can be made, if I deem necessary**


** everyone has this same “power” to change their original review

 

Who hasn’t fell into this conundrum before. Kudos on the shift to Plan B.

 

#2, the base beer (Sumatra Brown) is a favorite of mine, so I’m really fired up to try this.





4.58/5 rDev +1.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Looks like the world’s greatest glass of Coca Cola (or Pepsi Cola if that’s your party of choice), which is what I’d expect an imperial brown ale to look like.

The nose is a treasure trove of magnificent aromas, including earthy coffee, caramel, and toffee, but the winning vote here is cast by the oak and vanilla notes from the barrel.

The taste ..... there’s a little burn from the alcohol, which is to be expected given the 11.9% ABV, but it’s actually a great complement to the caramel and toffee flavors, and it allows the oak and vanilla to pump fake you that they’re the deciding votes on the taste - and then the coffee sneaks in at 5:59 pm on Election Day to cast the deciding vote.

There’s a subtlety and nuance to this beer that is a marvel to observe. The mouthfeel is just s smidge “soft” (watery), otherwise this beer is worthy of every bit of praise it receives. Truly world class, IMHO.

 

Cheers, man. Glad you enjoyed!

 

Arbor Oktoberfest. Will have to clean up that beer list soon with all the brewery/beer names. This was awesome. Lasting fluffy head retention/soapy lacing. Crystal clarity. Aromas and flavors of big honey, brown sugar, brown bread dough, toasted biscuit, light caramel/nutty malts; with some herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery hops. Light-moderate herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; very creamy/bready/grainy malts and some sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter dryness, no cloying/astringent. Very clean lagering, minimal fruity/yeasty. Very smooth/soft, zero warming 5.5%. One of the best new O-fests I've had in a while. Awesome clean/rich Pils/Munich malt showcase, with great noble hop presence/balance for the style. Light residual sweetness with lingering dryness. I will be picking up a pack for sure. 4.13


Cheers

 

Cheers man. Glad you enjoyed and nice review!

The malt profile on this beer is what puts it over the top for me.

 

Last one, this was part of an NBS BIF, but I am flummoxed to identify the sender. Whoever you are, you are a swarthy bastage (I believe this was an LIF or something along those lines - if you don’t know what an LIF is, you are not going to like GIF’s).





4.5/5 rDev +1.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Hazy sunshine color with a white head, the nose is consumed by the tart aromas that leap from the bottle and include the obligatory funky Brett and fruits that include peaches, apples, and apricots.

The Brett is the conductor on the taste, keeping the fruity flavors in line, but the caboose is directed by the oak flavors. How so much flavor is packed into a beer at 4.3% ABV is beyond me. This is truly magnificent.

 

This will be great paired with my leftover salmon!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33018/377098/



750 ml. bottle.
Moderate pour yields a one and a half inch white head over a hazy, light golden body with some nice lacing. Nose of slight funk, citrus (lemon), and the slightest pine resin. Taste of white grapefruit, lemon, a tad lime, and bit of oak. Finishing fairly dry and inviting another sip. Tastes more like a dry hopped and/or wet hopped Belgian Saison, but what do I know? Overall, refreshing and quite delicious. I'm glad these guys finally shipped to Vermont as this is my first taste of any of their offerings and I'm impressed.
Cheers!!!

 

And she's a big girl to play with, that Melange 3.

 

What a great song/video! Thanks for the link.

 

Cycle Brewing / Toppling Goliath - Home State. 5/2017 bottling. Incredible Black English Barleywine. Lasting fluffy head retention/soapy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big caramel, milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, brown sugar, molasses, raisin, plum, prune, cherry, fig, date, apricot, vanilla, toffee, bourbon, toasted oak, roasted nuts, biscuit, and dark/brown bread/crust; with lighter notes of coconut, licorice, smoke, oak char, leather, tobacco, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast earthiness. Mild herbal, grassy, roast, charred bitterness; and bourbon/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and fairly full body. Very creamy, silky, velvety, bready malts; light slickness, sticky hops, chalky roast, and oak tannins in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering bitter/tannic dryness; no cloying, acrid, astringency. Dangerously smooth/soft; mild increasing warmth of 11.5%, minimal lingering barrel booze. Perfectly balanced between super rich malts, fruity yeast, and bourbon barrel presence/integration. Not overly sweet/heavy from lingering dryness. Highly impressive, spot on style. 4.28


Cheers, have a good night NBS.

Sorry if redundant, this is still going on.

 

OK. I am searching this one out. I am SO searching this one out.

 

I gotta search this one out for me and the Mrs.!