New Beer Weekend #4

Second pour today is from Other Half's July Chicago drop. I have had Other Half before, primarily in Vegas where @BeerZombies1 does a great job securing several pours from across the country for his beer festivals.

The pour I'm having now is Other Half's Forever Ever.



Tale of the tape: 16 oz, canned 7/10/20 poured into a nonic glass. 4.7% Double Dry Hopped Session IPA.

Drinking.....

Aroma: Rich creamy lacing last for several minutes leaving generous soapy lacing. Murky orange yellow pour. This is a really good looking pour. 4.5

Appearance: Somewhat light sweet orange citrus dominates, tangerine and mango back well. 3.75

Taste: Nice dry and bitterness is the first impression, the aroma sweetness contained Citrus taste leads, pine and pepper back well. I like this pour because the sweetness tingles the tongue, while the bitterness provides excellent balance. 4.25

Mouthfeel: Medium creamy body, no carbonation, very light and easy drinking, consistent with the lower ABV. 4.0

Overall: This is a very good light DDH session IPA offering, glad I picked this up. 4.25

Time to read the reviews posted since the early morning. Cheers!

 

I certainly hope so

 

Good evening NBW
I was looking forward to a good Marzen, but that's not what I got.


12oz can stamped CMB2 0209 poured into a mug at fridge temp 5.4% ABV 21 IBU per can. The beer pours less than bright, but not hazy. Color is deep copper with light khaki head. The head recedes to a thin ring and little else. The aroma is dry toasted whole grain bread with a slight hint of sweet caramel. The taste is sweet and tart caramel with a tinny note throughout. The mouthfeel is thin bodied with medium carbonation and a dry finish. Overall, awful. I assume this is a leftover from last year as I bought it in an unfamiliar bottle shop. If not, they should be embarrassed.

If anyone is familiar with Christian Moerlein can coding feel free to clue me in. These were right beside the Mad Tree O-fest plainly dated 7-30-20, so I made an assumption. I bought a CM festbeer several years ago at Jungle Jim's that I know was fresh and it was disappointing also. You win some, you lose some!

Cheers all and enjoy the new beer in your mug today!

 

One of my all-time favorite beers! I'm jealous!

 

Stockard oatmeal stout
...solid black
..around medium carbonation that seemed a little prickly and too much for the style. Body was also around medium and not very thick or creamy compared to other oatmeal stouts.
Aroma is roasted malt, coffee, dark bakers chocolate.
Taste is slightly bitter burnt coffee,roasted malt and dark bakers chocolate.
...its easy to be critical, especially compared to others in this style. Then I think of the fact that this was insanely cheap as a trader Joe's beer then I have to be more fair.
It isn't awesome,but its a decent bargain beerpicture to url

 

Moving on to a beer from @ovaltine from the last BIF. I'm a huge fan of saisons / wild / sour / farmhouse style ales, and he sent me quite a few from Transient Artisan Ales that I'm just now starting to crack open. The first one I chose is Turning Radius, which is a collaboration between Transient and another top notch brewery, Speciation Artisan Ales, that I was first exposed to by @FlintB as part of a different BIF.

I'm fairly sure this is the first Biere de Coupage I've tried. It's an interesting style...a blend of their house saison and a spontaneously fermented barrel. Overall this is quite tasty. Definitely looking forward to trying out more of these Transient beers.

3.96/5 rDev -2.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Appearance is a dull, almost rusty copper with little to no head, implying low carbonation levels. Smell is fairly generic and typical for a spontaneously fermented beer. Some sour and funk on the nose, but more subtle, not overpowering at all. Taste is where this beer starts to shine (which if I could only pick one attribute to shine in, taste would obviously be it). Nice bit of funk, and mildly tart, with an interesting mix of flavors. Very smooth and easy drinking. Very low carbonation levels. Feel is definitely a bit thin for my tastes.

 

Let's try something new again! just like every other great beer journey.

Collective Arts Brewing w/Aslin - IPA no. 13



Poured from the can into a Spiegelau IPA glass.

Muted body appearance of a dull lemon yellow, quite opaque and nearly flirting with a turbid look. Head creation is rich big and grand. An easy thick rich four finger height of bright white edge and lacing. Thin pill like cling to the glass, and a big bubbly mound of staying power as the beer settles. Solid IPA in looks department.

Interesting hop aroma. Very powder like sense of hop flavor on the nose, almost litteraly like crushed pellets. Earth, must, sweet chalk and melon character which is kind of vibrant. With the powder though comes a dryness that is also fleeting and becomes tiring on the senses. Very solid, but with minor faults if you could even call them that.

The palate at least opens up considerably. First sip hints of juice, but then the malt dry and powder character takes over the hop flavors. Juice turns to a flour like dust of earth and tropical sweetness that tastes pretty good, but also manages to dry things out a bit, and slightly take away the enjoyment. Considerably drying aftertaste, but with a good airy almost neutral hop aromatic finish.

Decent IPA, with some unique character, but doesn't quite bring the amazement of really great IPAs.

look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | 4/5

Cheers!

 

Drekker Bumbleberry Pie Slang Du Jour Sour à la Mode, 5% ABV. Pours purple and thick, with no head, left puree residue. Nose is sweet berry, with a hint of brown sugar. Taste follows plus lactose, cinnamon and nutmeg, slightly sweet, slightly tart. Excellent mouthfeel, overall world class.

4.52/5 rDev +8.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

I should have realized that bumbleberry isn't a real berry. Looking at the contents, I am allergic to blackberries and the slight itch tells me they use real blackberries. The brown sugar and spices really make this world-class. I get a kick out of Drekker's ingredient list, particularly "Gimmicks". Mia agrees that it smells great, though she didn't want to try it.

 

Well, some people are color blind so....

Cheers!

 

I'd be totally guessing, but I'd suggest it was canned in late July given the stamp: 0 being 2020 and 209 being the day of the year.

 

Next new beer for me this weekend is a cellar pull that I forgot I had until I just recently found it looking through some beers. Right now I'm drinking Allagash - St. Klippenstein



Brewery notes:

This was probably better fresh, but it's still not bad right now almost 4 years later. Pours pitch black with maroon red brown highlights and a dense creamy tan brown foam head with good retention and lacing. Smells like dark chocolate, creamy vanilla, dark caramel, toasty toffee, molasses, coffee roast, sweet bourbon oak barrel, char, mild smoke, roasted malts, hint of dark fruit like plum, raisin, with earthy herbal floral hop notes. Taste is a little more complex and nuanced, with potential additional aged components. It tastes a little less dark and chocolatey than the aroma right now, though still very much dark, roasty and chocolatey but with other prominent elements as well, lots of lighter malt flavors like toasted bread, dark caramel, toffee, sweet smoke, molasses, dark fruit, stone fruit, plum, raisin, fig, dark berry, spice, coffee roast, dark nutty roasted malts, creamy vanilla, coconut, char, oak barrel, sweet bourbon, hint of leathery tobacco, mild graham cracker, with earthy herbal floral piney hops. Feels medium bodied, creamy with smooth moderate carbonation. Overall a nice Belgian-style stout aged in bourbon barrels.

This is tasting pretty good right now despite being over 3 years old, possibly with help from the trappist-style yeast, 11% abv and being a strong dark ale aged in bourbon barrels. I don't have a ham but I am looking forward to pairing this with dinner. Cheers everyone, and happy New Beer Weekend!

 

I didn’t really want to believe that the 25th highest rated O-fest on this site could be that bad fresh. Checked their website and their website and taproom are closed. Facebook says they are still brewing. I have another beer from them with a similar date. We'll see how that turns out. Ohio brewers have had a hard way to go this year.

 

First time I’ve had this 4.7% saison from Holy Mountain. Nice and grassy, earthy, light funk, pear and apple. Super drinkable and refreshing. I love saisons (and most other Belgian styles) but I’ve gotten away from them lately as I’ve been trying to drink down my cellar, which is mostly 10%+ stouts and barley wines. This one is definitely hitting the spot on this warm Saturday afternoon. Cheers!

 

4.18/5 rDev +1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Founders makes good specialty brews, and this ain’t no exception. Pours a nice medium gold color with decent head, some lacing. The smell is coffee, vanilla, chocoltae and clean malt. The taste is ditto: Heavy vanilla but not overpowering or cloying, some coffee and chocolate in the background kind of intertwined, and a nice blond ale, malt base. I’m glad they didn’t go too light on the base as the 8% is pretty spot on. A unique beer, drink it, you’ll like it!

Another muy excelente Founders specialty beer. I only bought one but would like to get another if not a 4 Pack next trip to the big city. I bought a 4 pack of KBS and I nevvver regret that Hotter than hades in the High Desert today, will stay hydrated and cool while sipping liquids and watching sports, cheers!

 

Found a new offering from Blue Point. I find this more like iced coffee and not the roasted coffee flavors one might expect in a porter or stout. Still, a fun take on a blonde ale.

 

This new-to-me brew is Collective Arts’ Audio/Visual Lager, a 4.9% ABV American style lager.

Poured with a towering white head that stuck around for a while, with aromas of bread and crackers. Exceedingly crisp with just the right amount of carbonation, this went down the hatch nicely, especially after returning from a trip to the zoo with my 4-year old. There was a hint of lemony citrus that really hit the spot.

Overall, another fine brew from Collective Arts that I’m unlikely to revisit due to the price in my province...$4.99 for this tallboy.

Cheers to a great weekend, friends.

 

It’s here, the launch of NBW BIF #12. My first BIF (NBS BIF #4) was back in the fall of 2016, and we were in the process of moving from Minnesota to Texas.

Nearly 4 years later, I’ve been in every NBS BIF except for one since (fall of 2017), and we’ve moved to Texas - and then to Northern Indiana, where we’ve been since January 2018.

I don’t want to make this an NBS/NBW BIF infomercial, but I will say this - I’ve been in 7 BIF’s, plus one mini, and I’ve probably received 200+ beers that were new to me, and they’ve ranged from very good to world-class. The beer nerds that participate in these events are generous beyond belief.

And I haven’t even addressed the best part of a BIF - the “Hints & Hauls” thread. I’ve already given the first haul hint.

And we’re nearly a month away from “launch protocol.”

I’d suggest reinforcing your porch if you choose to participate.

On to tonight’s new beer. My target in NBW BIF #12 will receive a plethora of beers from this brewery.

That’s right, I said it - plethora.





4.31/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

An aggressive pour reveals a very hazy, perhaps even turbid, mango colored beer. There’s a little citrus on the nose, but there’s a LOT of passion fruit, mango, and papaya. Quite an exotic mix.

The papaya and passion fruit are the most notable flavors, and there is some tangerine and mango as well. I don’t normally think of 8% DIPA’s as refreshing, but this is refreshing.

The mouthfeel is very soft, approaching watery. I prefer a little more bite, but the style suggests I’m off. Still, this is a really enjoyable offering from a magnificent brewery.

 

Cape may white belgian wheat
...cloudylight gold color
..medium light carbonation with about a medium body. Has that slightly slick,creamy feel I find in wheat ales
...aroma is wheat and sour orange,malt yeast and coriander
..taste is very similar to aroma with an odd mix of very mild tartness,mild sweetness, and just a tad bit dry
...overall its a very refreshing beer from a local brewery that I would try again