New Beer Weekend #8

Alright I finally gave in and bought an “italian pilsner” the people keep raving about. From a brewery I love and I’m glad I did, it’s tasty...made up style or not.



It’s a very pretty straw colored beer the lighting makes it look light than it is. Zero head retention or lacing on it, the head that’s there quickly dissipated to nothing.

Aroma is very earthy and it smells a little sweet and like straw oddly a enough, but I guess that counts as earth. The taste is very good and similar to the nose but earthiness shines most on the palate. It actually has a really nice mouth feel, medium carbonation, low bitterness. It goes down super clean and finishes incredibly clean as well. Causing me to drinking more than half in the time it took me to write this. I’d say that’s a very good thing. I’m glad I bought a single of this for NBW. Do I wish I bought a four pack, probably. What I like most about this is the earthy smell and taste combined with such a crisp and clean finish. This is a very good beer and I’m just gonna call it a pilsner Love making a point to grab something new each week for this. Maybe see you all tomorrow, if not, can’t wait till next weekend.

 

I had a Wild Leap beer that was labeled Fresh Hop but wasn't very fresh hoppy in flavor and wasn't the right timing to be believable. I had Crux's fresh hop beer Pert Near on tap the other day, and it was neither hoppy nor fresh hoppy, and it was disappointing. Now I consider the season started. Breakside's Fresh Hop 2020 did not let me down.

I'm staying at an oceanfront AirBnB with my in-laws, and beer + BA is my shelter from the storm...

16oz can served in a hideous green-tinted glass that is the best available at my AirBnB. Bought it two days ago at Malt & Vine.

Pours a very slightly hazy amber color with a pretty respectable head. Smell is fresh hop cones. I might be a sucker because it's been a year since my last real fresh hop, but it smells so goooood...

Taste is hop cones and hop resin with a moderately grainy-sweet background. Fresh hop flavor builds with more tastes, and it's quite nice.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied to a little heavier than that, modest carbonation. Overall...first good fresh hop of the year. Thank you Breakside.

 

Founders Underground Mountain Brown - bottled on 08/27. This beer is as wonderful as I thought that it would be and has everything I enjoy in one beer...and the Brown Ale is there, the coffee is there, the Bourbon is there, the oak from the barrel is there. It's smooth, delicious and complex and while I will try to make the four pack last, there will be no guarantees

 

Enjoying another sour from @thebeers. The only beers my wife tends to enjoy fruity sours so I’m splitting it with her.

4.39/5 rDev +3.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Thank you thebeers for this
750 ml bottle, 2019, poured into a flute

A- A somewhat hazy bright red with a two finger pink head.

S- Tart, cherries, some blackberries, oak, touch of bourbon, mild funk, hints of grapes.

T- Tart, cherries, lemons, some blackberries, hints of bourbon, mild funk.

M- Smooth, crisp, light body.

O- A very nice and easy to drink sour. Not as complex as some of the other beers I’ve tried from The Referend but still very enjoyable.

Cheers!

 

Here's to your brother and the memories!

 

Great Raft Oktoberfest, 6.0% ABV; 3.59 overall

Pours an effervescent honey color with 2+ fingers of eggshell colored head, Not much head retention & less lacing

S: Very bready & a little bit of grassyness

T: Follows the nose, toasty & dry, some pear & leafy hops up front. More toastyness & dryness as this warms, just a little caramel. Finishes dry, toasty with some brown bread & a little brown sugar

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation, good balance

Decent take on the style, a little less dryness/toastyness would've helped drinkability

 

Hello New Beer Weekend!!!

Well, another work week in the books, finally. I'll start off with one tonight, but I will be back tomorrow. I'll be on the road to enjoy my day off, and I can't wait. Now I just have to figure out where I'm going. You will find out tomorrow - it will either be South Dakota or Iowa.

But now on to the new beer, and I had to get it into the system.


Backpocket Brewing Tipsy In Tijuana - 5% ABV.

They call it a Mexican Lager, but we don't have that here, so I hope an Adjunct Lager fits.

So , how is it? Actually tasty. The hint of lime really adds a nice kick to this beer, and I see from the can it's Key limes, and I'm a big fan of them. The salt is also a nice surprise to this beer. Works well together. I could see pounding the crap out of these on a very hot day, which today wasn't.


Review:


3.75/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours a clear golden color. Less than a 1 finger head. The head retention is fairly poor, and there's no lacing on the glass.
The nose is malty and sweet, but a nice hint of lime in it. That cuts the sweetness a bit in the malt.
Taste - Yes, there's malts. That is nice, but the star is the lime, and just a hint of salt. These really ramp up the flavor and work well together.
Crisp and easy drinking. Nice body, but not too thick.
A solid beer of this style and easy to drink. Tasty.


See you all tomorrow.

 

American Solera Foederville IPA, 6.2% ABV, 3.86 overall

Pours a bright & effervescent gold with a thin & rapidly falling beige head. No head retention or lacing

S: Wet hay & light breadyness

T: Grassyness, tart & sweet lemon & lime upfront, pretty damn dry as well, from the oak aging no doubt. Oaky dryness, lemons & grapefruit as this warms. Finishes with sweet & tart lemon, some lime & much oaky dryness

MF: Medium body & moderate carbonation

Drinks alright, needed either more hops or funkyness, possibly both to push this next level. Refreshing enough

 

Bottle Logic Space Jam this evening.


2020 Release

Appearance: Very dark brown bordering on black with a modest sized dark beige head which faded fairly quickly to a nice ring. Good looking Imperial Stout.

Smell: Moderate Bourbon aromas, raspberries, coconut, mild brown sugar aromas, and modest roasted malts/coffee aromas. The beer has a good nose.

Taste: The palate features modest bourbon, raspberries, coconut, and and moderate roasted malt notes. The taste profile is very cohesive with all the individual elements notable but no particular one standing out in comparison to the other notes. The beer starts semi-sweet but dries out somewhat in the finish. The taste profile is nicely balanced with the individual elements complementing each other very nicely. The beer has a mild alcohol presence for the listed 13.99% ABV.

Mouth-feel: On the light side of full bodied with a moderate level of carbonation that works well in the beer creating a nice mouthfeel in this beer.

Overall: A very well done beer. The taste profile does a good job in balancing all the flavor elements resulting in a very cohesive taste profile. I should have bought more but at least i have a couple left.

 

Tonight is a new beer to me.

Phase Three Brewing - DDH (Citra) Double Pixel Density.

The beer is listed as a Double Dry Hopped (Citra) Double IPA



There is no canned-on date, but I am 99% sure I was sent this very fresh.

The beer was removed from a 40ish degree temp fridge after having been refrigerated for approximately 10 days. Beer poured into a 16oz willi belcher glass.Beer consumed while writing review, and review written on/off over a 1 hour period to give the beer a proper chance as it is fully consumed.

First Impression: When I opened the can, that wonderful hop smell poured out, all the way to my nose before I ever poured it. Fantastic. Wonderful hazy, yellow-orange pour. No bitterness on the first sip. I can tell this can will be a delight.

Appearance: Beautiful. This is pretty much what I always think a NE style IPA should look like. A mix of yellow-orange; very low on the "brown" tones. Perfectly hazy. 4.75

Smell: This beer is not extremely aromatic, but that's totally fine with me. To be honest, I'm not sure what the style should be - should it jump our, or should it be more subdued? The smell is very mildly hoppy; mostly I get a very green smell. It's not vegetal per se, but it is vegetal in the way that green vegetables have that sort of "green" smell to them. Perhaps a little dill. There's perhaps a touch of pine, but very small. No grass, no dank. I'm inclined to say that what I am smelling is citra, but I haven't had enough IPAs to really be able to pick out the hop varietals. 4.35

Taste: I don't think that I have as good of a palate as perhaps some on BA. I struggle to identify individual flavors, despite when cooking being able to identify individual ingredients very well. Perhaps it's about exposure. Regardless, beers like this (which, to me, are actually quite perfect) make it very difficult for me to pick out flavors.

There are no hard edges. There's no hop bite (up front, or lasting). There's no bitterness to give me palate fatigue. There's no series of 9 flavors that punch me in the mouth; instead, it's like a cuvee; a perfect mixture blended beautifully, artfully together. If push came to shove, I'd say there's a little bit of that dank/grassy taste, mixed with a lot of that fresh juicy flavor. No grapefruit to be found. No pineapple to be found. A little of that more rind-like bittery-orange flavor mixed with other "tropical" flavors. Perhaps a small bit of mango mixed in.

There's no real aftertaste - and for me, that's actually a win. Too frequently with IPAs I'm left with this sort of semi-dry, bitter, green, grassy, piney aftertaste that won't go away. All that remains on my palate is minimal, but it's actually very similar to what I described in the smell.

This really is the perfect level of bitterness to me. Trying to rate to style, but I'm sure my bias is influencing the rating. 4.60

Mouthfeel: I think the mouthfeel is great, but it's definitely not as pillowy as some of the absolute top tier NE IPAS out there. It lacks that truly cloud-like effervescence that would allow it to truly float over the tongue rather than roll. By comparison, it's considerably heavier. Consistency, etc. is correct, otherwise. 4.25

Overall: This is great. I'm really loving this. If this was local for me, I'd be the guy grabbing one or two 4-packs to drink over a month, and enjoying every last can. It's certainly a great IPA, and it's certainly "up their," but a few key elements prevent it from transcending to the top tier. My favorite part is how minimal the bitterness is and the lack of hop-bite. I feel like I could drink two of these with virtually no palate fatigue, which is rare for me. I really, really am enjoying this. 4.80

BA Review Score: 4.55

My review has been added to BA, and can be found here: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/55985/498721/?ba=Beer_Economicus#review

 

The whole west coast is on fire, the air quality is shit, and there's no end in sight. Some of these fires will burn for months. The CA fires have already burned a combined square mileage the size of the state of Connecticut. Hiding indoors as much as I can, drinking beer.

To start, I'm having a beer sent to me by the fabulous @Roy_Hobbs !



Hill Farmstead - Wheat Blanc - 5.0% abv - saison

From the brewery - "a lively, delicately tart, oak-aged ale with a malt bill comprised of 90% wheat and 10% barley, and hopped exclusively with hand-selected Hallertauer Blanc hops from Seitz Farm...Bottle conditioning since early 2018."

L - pale murky lemonade, soapy white head that dissipates leaving a thin ring

S - barnyard funk, oak

T - lemon spritz, white wine, hint of oak in the dry finish. Tartness and oak increase as the beer warms.

F - light body, refreshing fizzy tingles, dry finish

O - delicate, light, refreshing, tasty, drinkable. Would be great on a hot day... one without smoky skies. Lovely beer. Thanks, Ross!

 

Had 4 new beers earlier today. They were all The Wolf from 3 Sheep's w different coffees added to them. All very good 4+. They have been added to the database.

 

I remember when I used to get up there for training & such. 3 Sheep's Territory

 

They do make some good brews !!

 

Good day BAs and welcome to the NBS portion of NBW, already started by @SawDog505. Today's New Breakfast Beer is:




Received 9/8/20 in a Ninja box from @foundersasap. Reviewed 9/13/20. Thanks Jeff!
Date on bottom lip of can “08/07/20”. Stored at home at 42 degrees and served at 45 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Pale straw (SRM 2), slight haze.
Body – Straw (SRM 3), murky. When held to direct light, hazy and translucent, slight effervescence.
Head – Large (Maximum 4.8 cm, aggressive center pour), chalk white, high density with a few rocks, average duration, diminishing to an eight to twelve mm crown, and a partial cap of varying thickness.
Lacing – Fair. Wide band of tiny to small bubbles with a rare window.
Aroma – 3.75 – Weak nose, somewhat peachy. No malt, no yeast.
Flavor – 3.75 – Slightly bitter with a hint or two of Simcoe hops. But then there’s a transitory brush of citrus fruit. No alcohol (6.7% ABV, as marked on the label) taste or aroma. Ends with a bit of dankness. No diacetyl or dimethylsulfide.
Palate – 3.5 – Medium, edging into syrupiness, soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.75. Decent IPA but seems a bit thin in aroma and flavor to be yclept a New England style IPA.
Rating 3.68, rDev -3.2%.

 

I’m Okay, You’re Okay, from Nod Hill Brewery, is a dry hopped pale ale ( Citra and Simcoe).
This cloudy, pale yellow can pour hosts a 3 cm foam cap and a faint aroma of grapefruit and orange.
The flavor is citrus with grapefruit zest most prominent.
The finish is dry. Flavors persist.
This is a light-bodied, flavorful pale ale, well executed.

 

Pours a murky light lime golden color with a slight head and lacing
Aroma has abundant tropical and citrus hints
The taste follows the nose with well balanced intense tropical and citrus flavors
A light bodied decently carbonated crisp beer
A well done easy drinking light NEIPA

 

A coffee IPA for breakfast? Let’s check it out!

Stone in collab with Modern Times - “Wizards & Gargoyles”, described as a Hazy Coffee IPA:



Two fingers of fluffy white foam sits atop a hazy deep gold (once some of the suspended yeast particles start to settle); long cap retention; heavy ring; medium heavy lacing. Grapefruit lemony nose. Citrus entry, grapefruit and lemon, followed by coffee; bitter dark roast coffee finish. Medium light body, moderate carbonation; slight astringency; no warmth from 7% abv; yeasty kinda feel. Odd, to me, combination - like I poured grapefruit juice into a cold cup of leftover coffee; really not thrilled with the hazy suspended yeast look or feel; one and done.

4.25 | 3.75 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.75
Score: 3.86 rDev -1.8%