New Beer Weekend #33

Small Step and Giant Leap from Ferndale Project, both new to me. Here are individual notes, I'll head over to the side-by-side thread to compare them.

Both 16oz cans bought from Tavour, Giant Leap dated 01/05/21 and Small Step dated 01/06/21.

Small Step:
Pours a light whitish-yellow, super hazy, medium sized head. Smell is pith and mango, resinous flowers.

Taste is light, creamy tropical smoothie, zesty. Nice.

Mouthfeel is creamy and smooth but light and dry. Overall, nice beer.

Giant Leap:
Pours a hazy orange-amber with a medium sized head. Smell is a little boozy, very ripe tropical fruits.

Taste is quite boozy, more rich, ripe tropical juice flavors.

Mouthfeel is thick, rich, smooth. Overall, very good beer.

 

I’ll join the IPA parade today with this excellent beer. It showed up in my (better) local this week - I actually yelped when I saw it. Let’s do this!





4.35/5 rDev +4.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

This beautiful beer pours a golden color with that nice subtle touch of “suspended animation” haze I associate with the best WCIPA’s and sports a dense white head that provides ample lacing. Dank citrus notes including grapefruit and lemon at forward on the nose, and there’s also some resiny pine, melon, and berry aromas. Nice!

The grapefruit, berry, and melon flavors are most prominent at first on the taste, but what makes this beer for me is the combo pack of lemon and nicely bitter pine flavors on the finish. A magnificent interpretation of the WCIPA flavor profile.

The mouthfeel is dry and fairly crisp, fitting the style very well. I’m a WCIPA fanboy, and this is a fantastic example of the style, IMHO. Truly a pleasure to drink.

 

I tried a new local beer this weekend. As much as I hoped to like it, and as much as I would love to give positive feedback for a local beer, this did not do it for me. The main problem is it is cloyingly sweet IMO. Cheers.

 

Finally getting around to this gem!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4/513782/



Bottled on November 18, 2020.

Gentle to moderate pour yields a 3/4 light pink head over a translucent reddish-pink body with some sticky lacing. Nose of all raspberry with just the slightest funk. Taste mirrors nose with tart raspberry and a bit of lemon on the finish. Simply delicious! Very nice feel and overall, a damn good raspberry wild ale and worthy of much praise. Cheers to the crew at Allagash for yet another standout offering!

 

Didn’t feel great yesterday so I didn’t have any beer, but luckily today I feel fine so one quick new beer before the week. This one was given to me by our very close friends in vermont, we had a great peaceful stay with them for a few days in early November. Good measure brewing - black is beautiful, their version a 10% adjunct free imperial stout.



Has a super bubbly almost soda like head that goes away super quick. You can tell how big the bubbles are in the picture. Pours pitch black and viscous.

Smell dark chocolate, roast and maybe some cola type smell going on.

Taste bitter chocolate and espresso, but finishes with a fudge like rich chocolate.

Mouthfeel is full, creamy but with an aggressive carbonation. Touch of bitterness and also the tiniest touch of heat from the ABV.

This is a nice big old imperial stout that is made for sipping and warming up. Have a good week everyone!

PS, I haven’t read much but I will catch up tonight and tomorrow. Looking forward to see what I missed yesterday from everyone.

 

Anytime bro my pleasure

 

Hey, kids - cold but enjoyable weekend here. Extended mine to four days by taking Thursday and Friday off. Needed the break, but I dread looking at my e-mail tomorrow.

In the glass:



Jack's Abby Pride and Parquet...OK, so this has pretty obvious local ties making it a must try. It poured pretty clear initially, but there must have been some yeast in the last of the pour. Deep gold, lively white head.

A little pine, some floral smell, lemony, grassy, and light grains on the nose. Not super intense for a hoppy lager but pleasant.

The taste leads in with fairly mild hop notes. Kind of a mixed little of this and that. Pine, floral, grassy herbal, lemon. Definitely a lager with very slightly sweet malt and some earthy yeast. A bit of bitterness on the finish but not much and a little spicy.

It is smooth, clean, and a quick hitting taste. It's pretty light bodied and the carbonation is lively.

This is a nice, drinkable lager with a bit of extra hoppiness. It's mild-mannered, so if you are thinking this is like Mass Rising, it isn't the same species. Not even close. Pleasant drinking beer that you could down a couple watching the Celtics - yup and I think that is the intent. Thinking this comes in around 3.75 as a decent brew.

 

Ok, I have been MIA for BA for a little bit, but getting back into things.


I kinda of whish my 1st review back as stronger beer, but hit up a new to me brewery and add a new to BA beer so fits this thread.

Next weekend, I will get a pic of my beer

Meet Me At Doo Wops
l: tan/sand colored, has a hazy for sure, pale yellow comes off murky
S: pure hops, light pine and hints of citrus
T: nothing really stands out, little to no malt which one would hope would leave way for the hops to shine, little bitterness and some resinous notes but they are faint.
F: prickly , which gives way to nice creamy finish
O: it drinks a touch like a pale ale and and nothing stands out

 

Been on the fence of grabbing this as I i have a love /hate thing with JA beers. But might have to try this since not like Mass Rising

 

White Elm Vanilla Whole Latte Imperial Milk Stout, 8% ABV. Pours thin and black with a half-finger medium-brown head that dissipated quickly, leaving no lacing. Nose is vanilla and lactose. Taste is coffee, vanilla, and lactose, slightly sweet, slightly bitter. Mouthfeel is thin but smooth, owing to the lactose, and undercarbonated. Overall most excellent. This isn't a pastry stout, but pastry-stout-adjacent.

4.15/5 rDev -2.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

I've reviewed 29 White Elm stouts, six of which I rated 4.5 to 4.77, but this one was a bit underwhelming. It is a good solid milk stout, just didn't knock my socks off like many of their stouts have.

 

They typically aren't cloudy at all. I had recent pics on my phone of Palatine, Cabana and State and all three are very clear. Certainly possible that the two weeks it took the USPS to get that "Priority Mail" box across the country didn't do the beer any favors.

I'm going to keep any eye out for this and grab a can if possible. Would be a very rare miss for Kent Falls. I like smoked beers enough that I figure it's worth the gamble. If I can find one, I'll post a review in a future NBW.

 

And, all the JA stuff from @WunderLlama , that I expected to be crystal clear, also had that light haze/cloudiness. All were wonderful beers that I'd happily drink again, that one aspect had me wondering....

Le shrug.

 

Val-Dieu Abbey Triple, 9.0% ABV; 4.67 overall

Pours a slightly hazed gold with 2 fingers of billowy cream colored head. Fantastic lacing & head retention

S: Pears, yeastyness & appleskins in ample amounts

T: Follows the nose, also Golden Delicious appleskins and dryness up front. Some breadyness & rubber band as this warms along with dryness & appleskins & a little lemon. Finishes with Golden Delicious Apple, dryness & a little juicy fruit ester

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation

Just a well put together Tripel, the only flaw I really found was it needed to be a little more hoppy

 

It's much more pleasant writing one of these when we've finally been able to have our windows open all weekend in Central Illinois.

Triple Crossing Less Than Alone



Poured from a waxed bottle that @Cubatobaco generously gifted me for being a proxy.
Pours a nearly black, thick body with almost no head at all. What little head was there was a cola color and dissipated quickly.

Smell was light barrel and not much more. I've held onto this for a while, so I could see that taking a bit away from the vanilla, but hopefully keeping it in a fridge the entire time helped. I did notice a bit more vanilla as the beer started to warm.

Taste was similar to the smell, as the barrel was there, but not overwhelming. The vanilla definitely shined through which was perfect for me. I'm starting to appreciate well-crafted barrel-aged beers, so this was a nice step.

Mouthfeel was medium. I thought it would be thicker from the pour, but it wasn't overly thick, which again, was good.

Overall, a nice beer that I would have never gotten to try had it not been for @Cubatobaco.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34442/412846/

 

All right, back home after an amazing day in South Dakota. I always like going there, and sharing new beers with friends is also a damn good thing.

Now that I'm home, time to pop open something I got today.

3's Company from Eponymous Brewing in Brookings, SD - Kettle Sour - 5% ABV

Man, this is a beautiful beer. I just love the color of it. My friend had it at the brewery, and he loved it - his wife, not at all. Her face of shock and horror from it was somewhat amusing. She thought it was too sour. He disagreed, and he also got a 32 oz can of the goodness to take home with him.

I'm really enjoying it a lot. This place really is crushing it with their sours, and barrel aged sours, and this is no exception.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/52668/537968/

3.96/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a 32 oz crawler - Fill date 3/5:

Pours a nice murky, hazy red color. 3 finger lighter red head. Good head retention, and nice lacing on the glass.
The nose is a nice berry aroma. There's a hint of a sour/tartness to the aroma.
Taste - A beautiful combination of the berries. The tartness hits up front, that smooths out to a sweet flavor on the backside.
Crisp clean feeling. Good body for this ABV.
Damn delicious sour.


Will I be back after this one? I don't know. It will take a good amount of time to finish this beer, and I do have to work tomorrow. We'll see.

 

As promised, my Sunday Stout.
Local brewery, met these guys at a Makers Fair some years ago but this is the first one I’ve seen canned and not just at the brewery.
So without further ado;
Poured very nice black coffee dark with a (literally) sweet looking caramel colored head and the aroma was malts and coffee and just a little bitter in there. But the taste- the primary point- I will admit to picking this up out of curiosity and to support a local brewery, and the text on the can states “Unapologetically hopped as Russian Imperial Stouts are meant to be made” and I just don’t enjoy hop forward stouts. And I have had many over hopped RISs in my time, I just avoid them going forward. This one I will not be avoiding. They nailed it. The malts are primary and plentiful and just as you think it’s going to get sweet, the hops kick in and finish the swallow, ideal balance IMO, obviously your taste may differ. But they did good, definitely need to get some more.
Cheers all!

 

Good evening NBW
I am at the midway point of ten consecutive work days and need a diversion. I picked this oddly marketed beer up from a very hit or miss brewer recently, so here we go...

Rochester Mills Soul Snatcher Black Imperial Irish Style Red Ale

16oz can stamped 01/25/22 (presumably 6 weeks old) poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp 14.2% ABV. Here's the info from the can:

Aged for two years in Bourbon barrels, this Imperial version of our Irish Pub-Style Ale features a rich, malty flavor profile, full-body, and low hop level. Filtered to present clear and clean. Best served at warmer temperatures. A true sipper.
IBU: 18
ABV: 14.2%
Malt Blend: pilsner, dark crystal, aromatic, white wheat
Cooperage: Woodford Reserve Bourbon Barrels

The beer pours a light cola color and only appears red with a bright back light. The head is khaki colored and recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles. Minimal lacing. The aroma is sweet, with bourbon and caramel plus tannins and vanilla. The flavor is semisweet, bourbon first, with caramel, oak barrel, more bourbon and some ethanol heat. Mildly bitter. The mouthfeel is medium plus bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Not sticky, yet mildly sweet with the barrel smacking down any lingering sweetness in the aftertaste. Overall, very, very enjoyable Imperial Red Ale. Oddly, nothing Irish here.

Well, 16 ounces times 14.2% ABV equals bedtime for this guy. Cheers all!

 

Dessert!!!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44548/516936/



16 oz. can.
Canned 02/23/21.

Moderate pour yields a one and a half inch tan head over a near black body with sticky lacing. Nose of bitter chocolate, milk chocolate, cocoa powder, slight vanilla, and slight peanut butter. Taste is where the peanut butter comes forward a bit with the vanilla extract lagging behind until the stout warms. So, chocolate foremost followed by peanut butter, vanilla, and waffle cones. Nice feel and a pleasant experience overall; not too sweet, not too strong and quite tasty.
Cheers to our friends at Lone Pine Brewing Company for this one!!!