New Beer Weekend #13

Fertile Ground, a west coast IPA brewed by Everybody's Brewing in collaboration with Yakima Chief Ranches, using experimental hop HBC 692.

Canned 08-05-20. Gifted to me yesterday. Within my three month window for IPAs, but not by a lot. Don't know if this is a series or not -- the one that I'm drinking is HBC 692, collaboration with Yakima Chief Ranches.

Pours mostly clear light amber with a fairly small head and medium carbonation. Smell is lemon and pine but leaning towards the old hay smell I associate with old IPAs.

Taste is lemon and pine, cedar leaves probably more than pine needles. Something somewhere in between honeydew and mango. Has some of the old hay flavor, but not dominated by it.

Mouthfeel is medium, smooth, maybe a little still. Overall, not bad, but not great.

 

Poured into a 16 oz tulip glass canned on 9/24/2020. Pours a hazy yellow orange with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves massive streaks of lace as it slowly settles. 4.25

Smell peach, mango, tangerine, pineapple, and apricot. 4

Taste follows peach, mango, pineapple, tangerine, and apricot really balanced. 4

Mouthfeel is almost medium, a tad sticky but not dry, soft gentle carbonation, and at 5% ABV it drinks a tad bigger. 4.25

Overall this is a nice low ABV beer, not really a session type of guy. Glad I got the chance to try a can given to me. 4

 

I have a couple of beers tonight. The first one is a product of NBW BIF #12 and is very special to me - my first Cantillon, courtesy of @Roy_Hobbs.

What a wonderfully generous beer nerd he is, a trait common to all the participants in this BIF - there are some crazy good boxes going around North America ( yes, North America - Canada is in the house in this BIF!!!).





4.5/5 rDev +0.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Pours a golden copper color, nearly clear, with a finger’s worth of sudsy off-white head that dissipates in seconds. This beer literally glows.

The nose is tart and funky, with white grape and barely ripe Granny Smith apple aromas. Wow. I believe this is gonna be a “puckerer” of a Gueuze.

There is some pucker on the taste, but not nearly as much as I thought would be present. I get the white grape and green apple flavors, and it is indeed very tart and funky, but there’s a tannin-like quality to this - it’s very acidic, almost like champagne (without all the bubbly), and there’s a little salt as well.

The mouthfeel is very dry, which I expected. What I did not expect is the aftertaste - this tastes like a beer in the way back of my palate. Magnificent.

This is my first Cantillon, and I see what all the hype is about. Truly world-class, IMHO.

 

Good evening everybody. @beertunes was nice enough to send me not only 1, but 2 mystery beer crowlers. My gut is telling me to split them up over the whole weekend, so for today I'm just getting started on #1:

The aroma is fruity yet gentle- a very pleasant blend of mango, applesauce, fresh fig, tangerine. It reads more like hops than the actual fruit.

The palate is quite similarly fruity with just a touch of evergreen on the back end. Despite the hazy appearance these flavors are really clean and clear, not saturated at all. Bitterness is fairly low, and the body is fairly rich, especially for what I'm perceiving as a low-ish gravity beer. The finish is nicely dry, too, especially for something that comes off like a fruit salad .

I'm digging it; it's a fairly simple yet refined beer. My first impression- pleasant- is probably the best way I can put it.

If I had to guess it would be a fresh hop pale ale. I'll continue to work on it and post back later with any new feelings and the answer to whatever the heck it is.

 

As of now, mine is the only review for that beer.

 

Another tasty brew from @Dimidiata, Firestone Walker Molé Merkin. I am a big fan of Firestone Walker’s barrel aging program and this is good, I just wish the base beer was bigger for the barrel aging.
4.34/5 rDev +6.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Thank you Dimidiata for this
12 oz bottle, 2019, poured into a tulip

A- Black with a two finger light tan head.

S- Bourbon, cocoa nibs, some milk chocolate, chili peppers, cinnamon, caramel.

T- Cocoa nibs, cinnamon, caramel, bourbon, some kick from the peppers, milk chocolate.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- A tasty milk stout, easy to drink. Like Velvet Merkin I feel this isn’t as big or stand out like most other vintage Firestone Walker, but it’s still worth trying.

Cheers!

 

No reveal yet, but I'm midway through the second glass and it's getting less fruity and an interesting spice quality is making itself known, almost like a chutney kind of thing happening. I'm enjoying it more as it goes along.

 

#2, I picked a couple of these up early this summer from Transient and sent one to @Roguer in this BIF. He reviewed it a couple of weeks ag, I’m joining him today.

PS: there were three in this series/release, and #1 was the only one which you could purchase more than one. I reviewed #3 a couple of months ago, and it was probably a “Top 5 of 2020” beer for me. Let’s see how this one goes.





4.06/5 rDev -1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Pours purely black, swallowing up any light that ventures its way, and there’s a thick, creamy dark tan head that lingers. Gorgeous beer.

There’s a lot going on with this beer (vanilla, Tugboat coffee, black tea, cinnamon, and Chai spices, aged in Parker Heritage rye whiskey and Blis bourbon maple syrup barrels), and the Chai spices dominate this beer like the ‘85 Bears dominated the Patriots in Super Bowl XX - the other aromas/flavors are literally scared to even enter the game for fear that the “46 Defense” (or the Chai spices) will literally annihilate them.

I’m kidding - a little. I get no hint of coffee or vanilla, but I did get a little cinnamon and black tea, a smidge of maple, and the barrel as a warming at the end of the taste. But the Chai is VERY demanding of your attention, cloyingly so at first, then a bit less as the beer warms.

The mouthfeel is full and creamy, and this is a fun flavor ride that I’m glad I tried, but this beer would’ve been better served with a little (LOT) less Chai.

 

Bale Breaker's Pilsner.

12oz can served in a big snifter. Canned Aug3120.

Pours a clear light yellow with a smallish head. Smell is light, mostly lager funk and a bit skunky.

Taste is mild, grainy, a little skunky. Grassy bitter finish.

Mouthfeel is very light and crisp. Overall, not great, but not bad.

 

Ommegang philosophy and velocity
...solid black
.. medium light carbonation with a just above average body. Has a thick creamy feel to it.
..aroma is a mixed bag of yeast,candi sugar,spice,floral hops, black coffee,bakers chocolate,espresso.
..taste isnt as complex as aroma with spice,candi sugar,foremosr followed by everything that one would associate with a stout.
...it was good but a combo that made me wish I had each element separate. Again it was good but the stout part was weaker and not sure it was a marriage that shouldn't have happened. Kind of like my sister and her ex-husband

 

Drekker Peach & Black Currant Braaaaaaaains Double Fruit Smoothie Sour, 7.3% ABV. Pours thick and pale murky red with a one-finger off-white head. No lacing, but plenty of puree residue. Nose is peach and black current, taste follows, slightly sweet and moderately tart. Excellent thick mouthfeel, if a bit under-carbonated. Overall excellent. I've had a number of variants of this, but this one wasn't my favorite, though still excellent.

4.18/5 rDev +1.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

 

Man, all the clues were there but I didn't exactly put it together:

Gruff Brewing Kveik Hazy IPL

It was the yeast! Not an ale after all. Very well played @beertunes !
I'm guessing that they actually lagered with Kviek yeast, and maybe even fermented low? That would explain the IPL term, although I still think it was more of a pale ale analog in terms of bitterness and gravity. But the dryness, spicy complexity, clean mellow flavors...it all makes sense now.

And it was very enjoyable to the last drop. Thanks a lot, Terry, for a very interesting experience.

 

Howdy NBW’s
New to me
Alpha King from 3 Floyd’s 6.66 abv APA


Poured from can dated 10/5 into a can glass
Aggressive pour results in a fluffy off white head and a deep amber color
aroma is sweet and citrus and slightly earthy
Taste is caramel sweet and citrus rind tart, nice combo. There is a slight lingering earthy ness
There is a lot happening with mouthfeel. Medium carbonation, sticky, chewy and a lingering astringent citrus that goes from the roof of your mouth to a tingle on the tongue
Overall it’s a well balanced beer, one thing doesn’t over shadow another, it’s well layered. Cheers

 

I saw that on tap and thought it was exactly the type of beer that the Mystery Beer segment of these BIFs was designed for.

 

I want to give 5 likes for Angie!

 

I am still enjoying the Oktoberfest season, especially since the hot weather finally subsided, if only briefly, here in Florida. I used to enjoy this one every season but somehow lost interest. Shame on me as this is an excellent example of the Marzen style: refreshing and thirst-quenching yet with just enough malt to know you are drinking an authentic German Marzen. I remember this one used to be available year-round; no so where I am located.

 

A new brew for me from the elderstatesman of Bham breweries, and one of the new cats on the block; Boundary Bay/Beach Cat collab, Old Man & The Cat, a CDA. I don't know if there's actual coffee in it, but man is it a coffee bomb, and I hate coffee.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/701/513465/?ba=beertunes#review

 

Precisely! And I should have been more on guard knowing that .

But I bet even if the bitterness was higher I still wouldn't have thought IPL; I most likely would have guessed Brut IPA.