New Beer Sunday (Week 782)

Happy New American Impy Stout Sunday!

Pretty nice day on the Western Slope, cloudy, around 45 at the trailhead. The trails are starting to dry out nicely at this elevation. Made some chili. Having a very tasty brew, awesome taste. Watching some The Munsters reruns. Should be back with another new brew.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47802/464726/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Back again after feeding the dogs and prepping dinner for the humans. My son bought me this beer. I actually think I've had it before, but did not make any record of it.
For those of you that can't make the connection "Hart" is a reference to Hartford, our state capital.

3.9/5 rDev -1.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from 16oz can dated November to a Nonic.
Bright orange body under a stark white medium head that partially laces.
Musty dank aroma.
Mango taste with some of the dankness.
Mouthfeel is medium-light, carbonation is appropriate.
Overall, not bad, not a stand out.

Both dogs are asleep now under the kitchen table. It's their usual mode for this time of day. Creatures of habit as you all probably know.

 

My second entry from Trillium today is QDHIPA ...Planes, Trains and Automobiles...not really but its easier to remember.
Pours a golden orange with lots of floaties and yeast sediment. Head settles quickly to single ring with spotty lacing.
Aroma is overripe pineapple, mango, tangerine, papaya and a touch of dank, dark berries. Touch of alcohol.
Taste follows with tropical fruits, peach, melon and tangerine. Juicy sweet fruit ending in a soft bitterness.
Feel is full bodied but softer than you would imagine with a light carbonation. A little hop/alcohol burn.
All in all we now have Quad IPAs. If this is your thing youll dig this one. Personally I dont hang my hat on them but when I stumble upon a Triple/Double whatever, and its able to achieve a hoppiness without being overly malty and sweet I can reapect that. I think this hits that spot. Shits strong though. Cheers!

 

It does seem to be there. Anyway, he's handsome, cool, very smart and he's amazed by high flying jets, con trails, the moon, and things lost deep in time that I'll never know. He's a fine puzzle to know every single day.

 

Really fantastic thread so far, everyone! I absolutely love the dog stories and pics, and am enjoying following along even though it doesn't look like I'll be posting any new beers today. My latest shopping trip only yielded a bunch of old faves and no newbies...

 

Beer #1 tonight, Jack’s Abby rocks. No further explanation required.



4.17/5 rDev +6.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Pours a slightly hazy golden straw color with a foamy white head. Gorgeous lager. The nose has lemongrass and bready malt aromas for your sniffing pleasure.

The lemongrass is significantly more prominent on the taste, whic I really enjoy, but the bready malt is definitely a contender at the end of the taste. A truly magnificent, crushable lager.

This is the third beer I’ve had from Jack’s, and all three have been perfectly executed. I need a whole lot more of this brewery in my beer nerd life.

 

Lagers are my main love in the beer world if I had to choose and I am buying more and drinking more, as unfortunately some local ones are starting to vanish. I am also making it a point to drink more lower ABV beers and many fit the mold there too.

@JackHorzempa recommended a beer available at Sly Fox called Reading Premium Lager. The description:

Light American Lager
10.8 OG 18 IBUs 4.5% ABV

Updated for a refreshed drinkability, this pre-prohibition classic pale lager is semi-dry and clean with bright carbonation. With each sip you’ll experience notes of citrus, honey, and a subtly sweet finish. Enjoy the history and taste the future of Reading Premium.
https://www.slyfoxbeer.com/beer/reading-premium

I picked up a six pack of 16 oz cans for a great price even though I have never had it before, as I rarely dislike any Lager and on the very slim chance that I do, they are always a hit with family/friends. For the price this beer is excellent and I could see this being in my regular rotation, especially during the summer.

Later tonight I will be cracking open a Black Lager, a style that I wish there were more of. This one is extra special for me with the recent sad announcement that Stoudts will be ceasing brewery operations.

Collaborative Black Lager
12.5 OG 30 IBUs 5.5% ABV

Hazies be damned! We’ve been brewing since before craft beer was cool, and our latest release embraces the punk spirit of those early days. We teamed up with some original beer rebels at Stoudts Brewing to bring you a beer that bucks the trends. What’s more punk rock than a black lager in a labeled 16oz. can? We don’t know. But we do know that this beer feasts on the souls of line mules, spits them back out, and laughs in the face of haze bois everywhere.
https://www.slyfoxbeer.com/beer/black-lager

 

Avery Double Digit Hazy NEIPA, 10% ABV. Pours hazy gold with a nice 5-finger foamy head that left lots of foamy lacing. Nose is pine, fruit mashup, honey, and citrus. Taste is grapefruit, apricot, honey, pine, some sweetness, moderate bitterness. Decent mouthfeel, overall outstanding. I prefer this DIPA over the Bell's Hopslam I just tried.

4.45/5 rDev +12.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

 

Had a good Sunday at the Field Museum. Family participated in a workshop presented by some University of Florida professors who have an educational website on flagellate plants. Told the one man in their group, who is a beer fan, to buy some PseudoSue in the museum gift shop. They apparently have a new Toppling Goliath beer named Dancing Dinos, but it was sold out.

Came home, grilling burgers now, and drinking a new Phase Three beer, Lost in the Moment. Poured into Phase Three Willi Beecher Glass. Gold/bronze hues, frothy head, light creamy lacing. Smell is weedy, piney, bitter hops and slight citrus. Taste is mildly bitter hops, pine, and a citrus undercurrent. Feel is medium bodied, mouth watering, slightly boozy, crisp, refreshing, and really easy to drink. These guys really embrace New England style, as it seems like almost all their pale ales are cloudy and juicy. This one proves they can expand their horizons, as it’s a very good traditional West Coast style IPA.

L: 4.25 S: 4.5 T: 4.25 F: 4.5 O: 4.5 Total: 4.39



New Sunday music.

 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these beers. Last night I had another draft pint of the Black Lager at the Sly Fox brewpub (third pint on three different drinking occasions).

Cheers!

 

Dang, that's really a tough episode to unfold so quickly, just in front of you! How old was your friend? Generally speaking I love dogs way more than people. We just re-read The Call of the Wild and White Fang. I've never not had at least one dog.

 

So many handsome boys and girls in this thread, and some stories that got things a little dusty in here....

This is Cobb, my previous rescue dog, about 6 months before he succumbed to Hemangiosarcoma (a particularly nasty form of cancer) at the age of 10 when he was otherwise healthy as a horse. He's exhausted here from his favorite activity - swimming half way across a lake to retrieve a stick. A glass raised to all 4 legged friends past and present!





Back to beer! I recently grabbed Bell's new "Official" IPA which the can describes as a hazy IPA that clocks in at 6.4% ABV. This particular 4 pack was canned on 12/3/19 and the price was right at $12. Unlike a lot of other far-flung regional beers on our shelves, it's been great to have Two Hearted here so I'm hoping this might be another well priced IPA option to add to the rotation.

Look: Pours a light golden color with a frothy 1 inch head. The beer is indeed moderately hazy, but it appears as a haze within a thinner beer rather than the big, thick sort of haze you'd expect with a stereotypical Treehouse sort of beer.

Smell: Big nose right out of the can and smells at first more along the lines of what you'd expect from a west coast IPA. Big whiff of pine and grapefruit rind, but then there are those fruity notes too - and not in the way that Two Hearted has fruity notes. These are definitely more in that newer school fresh peach/apricot vein. The malt notes are light and sort of "wheaty".

Taste: Follows the nose with some dank flavors coming through now. Really pleasant balance of the pine and fruit flavors. Those wheaty malt notes remain light but present. Bitterness is on the low end of moderate. Finish is pretty clean, though that wheatiness lingers a bit in the aftertaste more than I might have liked.

Feel: very interesting. It does have a certain softness compared to something like Two Hearted, but it doesn't have any of the "thick" feel that haze bomb style IPAs would have. It's crisper and lighter bodied than that, with more noticeable carbonation.

Overall: I'm really digging this. It's got a great combination of attributes from different eras of IPAs and just comes together really well. This will indeed join the rotation of well priced hoppy 4 packs.

Cheers all.

 

#2, courtesy of @Ozzylizard in NBS BIF 007 two years ago.



4.34/5 rDev +5.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

An aggressive pour reveals a dark blackish beer with a lot of leakage to mahogany on the edges and a substantial tan head that doesn’t track a whole bunch, probably due to the high ABV (13.5%).

The bourbon is REALLY forward on the nose, leaping from the bomber to assault your olfactory senses. Yet it’s a polite enough host (because it is the star of this show) to allow some chocolate notes to emerge, and some vanilla as well.

The taste defies the look and the nose - the bourbon is certainly a significant presence, but man oh man is the chocolate/vanilla flavor on point, and there’s some woodiness as well that imparts an oak flavor. Wow, is this a magnificent flavor bomb.

The mouthfeel is surprisingly full given the appearance - it’s not creamy, but it lives in creamy’s neighborhood. When I popped this open and the look was so thin and the bourbon was whackin’ me upside the head with a 2 x 4 (NOTE: I am NOT a bourbon drinker), I was a bit concerned, but this is an outstanding BA RIS. I’d drink this any day.

 

I decided to go for 3 today. At least this last one is only 5%... I guess...

Toppling Goliath Dragon Fandango American Wild Ale
ABV: 4.2-5.0% (brewer doesn't say, so it depends on which web site you believe)
IBU: 10



Hawaiian punch aroma: tropical fruits galore, pineapple, mango, dragon fruit, very, very tropical.

Dark cherry red body with an airy pink head that lasts all of a few seconds before it disappears completely, resulting in a Hawaiian punch appearance as well. No visible carbonation. Can't say I'm all that impressed with the look, but it is probably exactly what the brewer intended. So that is just me.

Taste, as expected from the aroma, follows on with the Hawaiian punch theme, but is much tastier than the aroma led me to expect. Only just tart, so not a mouth pucker-er, but tart enough to offset the sweetness of the fruit flavors. The fruit flavors are much deeper and with more gravitas than the aroma. Quite enjoyable (for a beer that doesn't taste like a beer!)

Feel is moderate with a tingling from the tartness.

Overall, a very well done and enjoyable wild yeast fruit ale. This would be a great summer thirst quencher, but also it would pair well with a rich dinner.


L: 3.5 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.0 | F: 3.75 | O: 4.0 | BA rating: 3.89

 

She was 10 yrs old and seemed to be in great shape. I also had my old man Magic cat who was 18 die on my lap. But I think of it as a blessing rather than a curse since Ive also had to be there when letting dogs go by injection.