New Beer Weekend #12

Started out sipping this, but my glass is getting empty quickly watching this abysmal display by the 49ers defense. Today's offering, new to both BA and myself, is from Three Mile Brewing in Davis, CA. Red or Blue Pils, 5.1%, labeled as a light lager with rice and pilsner malt with Citra hops.



Can dated This Is The One 08/18/20 into a pilsner glass.

L: Pours straw yellow with 4 fingers of variable density pillowy white head with great retention which left spotted lacing.

S: Pleasant, grain and tropical fruit (hopped with Citra).

T: Follows the nose, but the hops have much greater prominence. Finishes with mild bitterness and slight acidity, acidity lingers.

F: Low-medium bodied with high carbonation, lively on the tongue, tongue tingles from the high carbonation, slick on the swallow.

O: Feels like this beer is a mesh of styles that don't necessarily work well together in this effort. The use of rice with pilsner malt leaves a super light base, that I feel the Citra overpowers. I've had similar beers that've used Mosaic, and I enjoyed those much more than this (though they all had slightly heavier base malts too). I'd drink again on a super hot day, but nothing I'd seek out again.

BA score = 3.77, rDev = 0.0%

 

Shackleton English Premium Bitter from Lazarus Brewing in Austin, TX.
32oz crowler purchased at the brewery 10-5-20. Filled 9-27-20. Opened 10-11-20.
3.75/3.75/3.5/3.5/3.5
3.58 +0.8%
Look
2 finger sand-colored head...pillowy foam with very good retention. Settles in at a 1/4" and holds.
Tea colored, reddish-brown and mildly opaque. Thin, short-lived lacing.
Smell
Bread and biscuit, tea/herbal notes in the aroma. Some fruity-yeasty esters as it warms.
Taste
Tea, biscuit and honey, leafy/earthy astringent hops.
Feel
Somewhere in between light and medium body. Carbonation is medium plus.
Earthy, lightly bitter - extremely lean and very dry finish.
Overall
Good.

 

Indie Brewing Black is Beautiful,
Motor oil black with nice frothy head generation, aromas of dark malts, cocoa, bakers chocolate, taste follows, nice rich creamy texture with moderate bitterness, well executed, thanks @2beerdogs

 

My sister who I lives in Delaware took me to Jim’s. She said I would like it better than pat or geno’s, she was right. Brauhaus Schmitz is also a great German restaurant around there. And, then there is Monks cafe...

 

Up next is Castle Island's limited release Maple Barrel-Aged Sweet Brown, a 6.5% ABV brown ale brewed with sweet potatoes, aged in maple bourbon barrels.

The pour here is a rich-looking, syrupy, dark brown that really comes close to looking like an inky-black liquid once it all makes its way into my glass. A slightly beige-tinted head weakly forms on top, retaining at a quarter-finger after the initial dissipation. Not much lace show to mention. I don't remember ever having the non-BA version of this one, so I'm not in a place to note how differently they appear in a glass, but I assume the aging process removed some of the gusto from the pour. A bit stagnant and unexciting, to be frank.

The nose is sweet, rich maple syrup (maybe B grade?) with a big hit of bourbon warmth, light dark fruit, treacle, herbal hops, a bit of chocolate, and caramel. In other words, this is heavily biased towards the malty side of things. I get this weird feeling it's not going to be a super-satisfying drink for some reason, but maybe I'll be proven wrong.

My fears are... eh, moderately-realized upon first sip. It's thin-bodied and a bit weak-feeling, though it tries to flex bigger flavors than it can follow up on. I get more of the treacle and caramel from the nose with a bigger hit of whiskey than I expected along with some molasses, dark fruit (plum/raisin), and sticky maple. A touch of earthy bitterness intrudes on the sweetness, but the beer mostly finishes dry and odd. Some light tannic structure among the maple, but it doesn't amount to much. Definitely a one-and-done for me.

 

Dale, Mayflower is a small brewery in Americas hometown of Plymouth, Mass. Pilgrim themed brewery and it is the 400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims landing. The town was all decked out and set to go and then the pandemic hit. They have some good beers and I like their Alden. This is probably a one off and one of their better IPA’s. I hope you enjoyed this one

 

Very enjoyable stout. I’d have another. Thanks to @foundersasap for introducing it to me

 

Thanks for the compliments. They're not always so agreeable to being photographed, but I may have bribed them today. I'll keep an eye out for your review. I thought it was really good, but I got inside my own head when I started speculating. I should have gone with my gut on the guess.

 

I did, it’s hard going blind when you have a lousy nose and palate. Mosaic hops are always tricky, they have many faces. I was challenged, no clue in the first, kinda hit on beer #2. Been a pleasure thanks for the great beers.

 

Jim’s is my place as well, better than Pats, never had a Genos. Brauhaus Schmitt is only 4 blocks away too. You a Wiz, provolone or American guy?

 

I’m all about the provolone. Like the substance over the “liquid” of the wiz. I also recommend Termini Brother bakery for Italian treats

 

Vitamin Sea and Equilibrium are two of my favorite breweries. When I first poured Two tickets to Pellet Ice Is as blown away by the color. Definitely get the coconut from the Sabro, not a fan of the spirulina taste but love the visual. I knew I had my mystery beer when i first tried that beer. I wanted to offer something memorable. Glad to have supplied you and @Roguer with your first blue beers.

 

903 Brewers Trojan Horse English Barleywine, 14.6% ABV, 3.64 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut with 2 fingers of fast falling tan head. Zero head retention or lacing

S: Doughy, cakey

T: Toffee, cakeyness, dryness & woody hops upfront. Woody hops, boozeyness & cakeyness as this warms along with dryness & brown sugar and a little bubblegum flavor, weird. Finishes dry with woody hops and a little bubblegum

MF: Chewy, slight carbonation

Solid take on the style, the ABV is noticable, but doesn't drag the beer down. The strange bubblegum flavor is a detractor

 

Moving on to my first sour/saison from SARA, thanks @Dimidiata! I am really enjoying this Saison Bernice. I am slightly surprised I didn’t rate this a little higher, but I guess I have tried high end saisons that this didn’t stand out in all areas against stuff like Hill Farmstead. With that said this probably has the best mouthfeel I’ve had in any saison, they seem to perfected the light soft fluffiness that I always enjoy in Tired Hands most saisons.
4.52/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

Big thanks to Dimidiata for this
750 ml bottle, batch 24 5/20, poured into an Ourison glass

A- A hazy copper with a three finger white head.

S- Sour, pears, lemons, wheat, floral, wheat, mild funk, a slightly sweet sap like earthiness.

T- Sour, lemons, pears, wheat, mild funk, floral, nice earthiness.

M- Smooth, soft, fluffy, light body.

O- A wonderful saison and very easy to drink. I would have liked maybe a little more funk and a little less sour. Definitely leaning hard into how some American breweries have made saisons more sour than funky, but that doesn’t take away from how good this is.

Cheers!

 

Bosk's A Woman's Place Is in the Brewery, a dry hopped Vienna lager. A Pink Boots Brew, I guess, celebrating international women's day.

12oz can served in a tulip. Dated 06/29/20. Don't remember where I picked it up, but I think it was Bottleworks.

Pours dark amber with a big head and lots of carbonation. Smell is rich, malty, toasty.

Taste is toffee, caramel, nuts, a surprisingly strong bitterness.

Mouthfeel is light, kind of crisp. Overall, nice beer. Not sure if it's to style or not, but I like it.

 

it was the best beer of the bunch. But............
You might like this one if can get it fresh.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40409/240451/

 

Was coconut an adjunct, or was that shop only?

 

I’m a wiz freak I could eat it as a meal, my wife’s a provolone fan too.

 

Happy Sunday everybody! I'm closing out a beautiful weekend spent in the western Catskills, NYS, visiting my parents along with my 18yo son. The foliage may not have been at peak yet, but it was close enough to make for some beautiful scenery. The lake near their house looks like a Bob Ross painting:


But more importantly, perhaps, is it's the share date for our insane BIF. I don't have my mystery beer yet, but will be sure to make it a priority when I have it in hand. Instead since @beertunes was nice enough to send plenty of fresh hop brews it only makes sense that I partake of one of those tonight...Wait, is it Fresh Hop (?) or Wet Hop (?)...bah, I'm sure it doesn't really matter...


Hop Works Ace of Spades

Boy howdy, is this a beaut! A caress and a slap in the face all at once. Bracing pine and bitter grapefruit peel dominate, but pulling up into a clear second place are some nicely balancing demi-sec meyer lemons and pale caramel. There's some residual sweetness there, but it stays focused on mitigating that serious bitterness and doesn't stray too far from that job. Flavors are also really lush and nearly saturated, but also stay clear enough to stand alone as well as play well with one another.

My favorite part is the finish, where a hidden gem of a quality makes itself known while coasting that nice bitter wave. If I wasn't familiar with paw-paw thanks to my brother-in law who grows them I'd describe it as a kind of crenshaw melon type thing; but since I am, yeah, it's paw-paw.

A really nice beer that flirts with disaster a bit (in terms of residual caramel sweetness and over-extracted flavors), but still comes out on top due to some nimble dancing and graceful-enough construction. A very enjoyable A- (4.2), and I kind of wish I had a second can right now.