NBS BIF #13: Peninsular Envy 2 (The Rocket-Ball Inception)

Wow...what a game. But even better, What a beer!!!THANKS Rob!

The Queen's Pawn by Tin Barn
Canned 03/05/2021 "Checkmate" Thanks to MacMalt for this gem
Pours a subdued, slightly cloudy orange. White fluffy head pumps up and easily breaches the glass with 3 fingers of head. Solid retention with plentiful cloudy wisps of lacing.
Nose abounds with zesty orange and lemon blossom, hints of pineapple, honeydew, grass, and sublime dank weedy note that makes way for some herbal onion notes.
Flavors follow the nose beautifully with a tad of sweetness in the citrus leading off. Grass, pineapple, and more subtle dank weed notes follow. A mild peach/apricot begins the finish, with a smooth bitterness closing it out.
Mouthfeel is just a tad shy of medium, carbonation is spot on, and the pillowy feel is sublime.
What a treat!
4.39/5 rDev +2.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

 

Things are not going terribly well for the Zags right now. This is helping take the sting out of that fact:

Great stuff, @JayORear!

 

I'll probably recruit my wife to shave a few ounces off of each can. I'm sure her input will be helpful as well. She'll probably end up getting most of the chocolate, so it seems like a fair trade.

I don't want to commit to Sunday until I know how Saturday goes. A random day may work best. Nothing like a midweek barleywine.

 

I wasn't planning on having one tonight, but New Beer Monday had a nice ring to it. I pulled out one of the last hoppy brews from @Dimidiata - Humble Sea's Double Boatloads of Riwaka. I've only had one beer with their name on it and it was a collab chocolate raspberry stout they did with Dancing Gnome. This one boasts not only a double dry hopping, but also something they call a hop fusion. There isn't much info on what exactly that is, but I'm always interested in trying new processes.

It pours a nice yellow moderately dense haze with a delicate head that reached higher than it could support. The aroma was a citrusy mix that was difficult to discern specifically, but I did get unexpected notes of lime intermittently. The taste was full of those citrus notes with a leaning towards tangerine and orange. A bigger bodied beer with a soft mouthfeel. Nicely done. This beer is much more exciting than tonight's NCAA Championship. Thanks, Christine!

 

The chocolate doesn't precisely match up to your mystery beers, but it might be a helpful guide.

Also, as a reminder, on Sundays, we drink barleywine. I had five different barleywines yesterday, with 2014 Anchorage A Deal With the Devil and Private Press Life Is Round being the two standouts, so you boys can certainly handle a 12oz of Summer Life this weekend, right?

 

I can't wait until I can visit Tired Hands again. There's nothing like sitting in the Brew Cafe, eating candied bacon, and having some weird beer on cask. It's so nice having @JayORear around to provide Tired Hands goodies while we wait for the world to get back to normal.

 

I shouldn't have revealed my susceptibility to peer pressure so much in my last post. I'm a go for Sunday, @Roguer!

 

Just time for a quick nightcap/dessert before NBM expires here on the east coast... this from the truckload of beer dropped on me by @kemoarps (thanks again! It’s gonna take awhile to get through all of these!).

Really tasty raspberry, strawberry and dragonfruit flavors, tangy and tart rather than outright sour, and goes down more like a 3.5% than a 7.5%. Yum.

 

Riwaka has become a favorite of mine lately. It's like Nelson, but not quite as intense. Humble Sea is not far from my favorite brewery (Sante Adairius) in Santa Cruz, and they've really stepped up their ipa game in the last year or so. Their taproom is just a few blocks from some of the iconic surfing locations in Point Break (which @BBThunderbolt's boxes tend to have few beers that reference Point Break), and it's just a great location to hang out and have a few beers.

 

@Dimidiata and @FBarber Amazing Hits!!!

 

The Pliny bottle was an impulse buy since it was just over a week old at my local grocery store. Can't got wrong with a fresh Pliny. And you'll be getting a few dark beers to put in that Modern Times glass soon. It's a nice tasting glass, allowing a good swirl and aroma. Gods know I don't need more glasses, but I bought a couple to add to the collection. Russian River beers being so iconic, you can try to guess what -ation beer I sent.

And all the Revolution barlewines are damn good. I'm rather jealous!

 

Well. More fermented fun from @MacMalt here... A TIPA! Dang. Pretty tasty. In fact, dangerously so with a well hidden 10% ABV.


https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/48768/541055/

 

Yeah, that part makes sense, but does that then mean that their target just has two senders? Nothing wrong with that, but logistically, is that the way it works?

Yeah, the folks at Georgetown are big Point Break fans, it would seem. My best friend is originally from Soquel, so we've explored Santa Cruz a fair amount and it's also got some tasty food and that as well. Looking to make a roadtrip down the coast later this summer, and looking forward to popping in there.

Can confirm.
Followup incoming.

 

So, as promised, here's the followup with @FBarber 's latest salvo:



One of the boxes looked like the delivery person was having a bad day, but despite the breach in external defenses, the contents were all in perfect array, with nary even a scratch. No dents in the cans, even!

Look at those beauts:


(my first attempt at that picture seemed like it was missing something, then I realized I didn't have the toque in there, because I was wearing it!)

So before we talk about the incredible selection of midwest beer on offer there, and before we get to the swag (not actually THAT huge a fan of the song I posted above, personally, but I love the background to the group [Darryl Jenifer from Bad Brains, MURS from Living Legends, and Sacha Jenkins from Ego Trip], and the constant repetition of the term swag was what prompted its inclusion), and even before we get to the food itself, I have for you a joke:



What's the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts?
.
.
.
.
.
.
One cost $1.99, and other is under a buck!
*rimshot*



With that out of the way, what's actually in the box?

So, the afore-alluded-to Beer nuts, x4 different varieties!
A barreled hot sauce
and a bag of Dark Matter coffee, with an awesome bag, who's design reminds me of the A Piece of Strange album cover, from above. (I'm sure the contents are excellent as well, but I haven't cracked into it yet, so as such the focus on the aesthetic, ha)

SWAG
Half Acre frisbee
collection of various brewery stickers
Half Acre refillable lighter, with removable tamp-er.
Black Horizon glass
The aforementioned Half Acre toque

and then the main event...

MYSTERY BEER
???
MYSTERY BEER
???
MYSTER "BEER"
???
Bell's Black Hearted CDA
Bell's Expedition 35th Anniversary Stout
Pipeworks Brewing Co Twin Speak DIPA
Odd Side Double Barrel Dino S'Mores BA Stout
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout Weller's BA Stout
Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Propietor's Blend Stout BA Stout
New Glarus Nectar Ale Fruited Sour
New Glarus Raspberry Tart Fruited Sour
New Glarus Serendipity Fruited Sour
New Glarus Triple 5 Tripel
New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red Fruited Sour
Haymarket Beer Company Cold Dark Night Dopplebock
Pollyanna Brewing Company Orenda Vol. 2 Quad
Pollyanna Brewing Company Orenda Vol. 3 Tripel


Wow.
Frank. I...
Wow.

Thank you!!

 

We're starting to get a few Riwaka beers showing up around here, but I can't think of any single hopped ones. Lots of Nelson and Galaxy lately, and the crops taste like they've been excellent. My only time in the Bay area was in 2018. I was there for a wedding, so I didn't have the amount of time I'd have liked to explore on my own. My friends lived in Oakland, but the wedding was closer to Santa Cruz. We spent one night wandering the pier and boardwalk and hit up some multi-level arcade. It was a super cool area, and I can't wait to return. My wife and I are possibly planning a fall trip to the west coast. We have friends in Portland and LA. The current plan is to fly to Portland for a few days, and then taking a week to drive to LA then fly home from there. If it goes according to plan I'll be hitting you up for some recommendations.

I will always drink a fresh Pliny. I'm going to need to get a new shelf/cabinet for my glass collection soon, or retire a few. I'm a sucker for a style of glass that I don't have yet, and that Modern Times glass definitely fits that bill. Plus it's just beautiful looking.

<insert @ovaltine Costanza gif here>
My only corked Russian River bottle I've had has been Jannaemie. It was excellent, but I was hoping for any of the -ation beers.

Barleywine? There's a local barleywine that gets released once a year that you may or may not have seen pop up in this thread. In the next few weeks it'll be released again with a few surprise variations. Maybe that box @FBarber ninja'd me with will find its way home, or maybe I'll need a bigger box.

Damn, @FBarber was busy landing boxes all over the country yesterday! Beautiful stuff there! Also, any band with Murs and a Bad Brains connection seems worth checking out to me.

 

The artillery keeps raining down-
Nice hit Frank!

 

See, y'all, this guy BIFs... He's even got the four legged family members covered!
And, yes: I'm sure they've both showed up somewhere in the pics at various points, ha. They're sneaky like that. The older one in particular is a pro-level photobomber

 

Probably hit by a Patriot missile trying to defend his porch.