New Beer Weekend #78

Now I have to drink one to see if I sent you a bad beer! Don’t think sour was what they had in mind.

 

I'm glad you liked it. I have been impressed with de Garde. And I am a sucker for berries, ALL berries. Cheers, L.

 

"People assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff" - Moffat

 

Have two beers from a new to me brewery lined up, picked up earlier this weekend.

Fat Head's Head Hunter IPA



Can Notes: 12 oz canned 1/3/22 @ 9:44. 7.5% ABV, 80 IBU. Aggressively Hopped West Coast IPA. Brewed and canned by Fat Head's Brewery, Middleburg Heights, Ohio. Purchased on store shelf at Total Wine & More in Indianapolis on 1/15/22 ($9.49 six pack plus tax), refrigerated or stored in cooler since purchase.

Appearance: Clear golden caramel base, medium carbonation, creamy reach egg white head, leaves clumpy lacing throughout. 4.25

Aroma: Beautiful full rich aroma, pine leads followed by lemon grass, light grapefruit, hops front and center. 4.75

Taste: Even stronger than the aroma, same wonderful components with a bitter pine front and center, lemongrass and grapefruit follow, somewhat dank, hitting all cylinders,. Malt negligible as it should be. 4.75

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body, light carbonation, dry and bitter in an excellent way, easy drinking much lighter than the abv throughout, dry light bitter aftertaste. 5.00

Overall: This is an excellent WCIPA, worthy of all the praise I've heard before cracking open my first. Came in with high expectations and they were exceeded. Grab them fresh and grab them often, will be making recognizance trips into Indiana to pick up more in the future. Please expand distribution into Illinois! 4.75

Going to catch up on the thread before bringing up a second Fat Heads which hopefully delivers as well as this one.

 

Just cracked open a Brewdog Punk IPA. A first for me. So far not bad, even though I am not a Session IPA fan normally. hey a little after 12:30 east coast time. Better late than never

 

We were for years - way back to the original B&W William Hartnell episodes. "Our" favorites were Tom Baker and Peter Davidson, but personally I liked John Pertwee. We dropped off after Davidson and only caught a few episodes here and there, so we have a ton of catching up to do...but it is winter in New England and football is done...

 

Well! I just discovered that our weekend thread is still active!

how nice! I do hope everyone is enjoying their time, but I also do know that many people still work on this day, so I hope they are good too.

With that said, I have had a real stunner lately, and what nice opportunity to share this nice nugget which was a great surprise. This is going to be disappearing quickly (and sadly) from my possession very shortly I am afraid!



Poured from the can into a nonic(k) pint glass.

Dark rich walnut brown, with hints of red mahogany color in a dark opaque appearance, and hits a little chestnut clear on the edges also. Creamy rich light tan head colored head, reaching easy three fingers with rings and sheets of lace on a slow settling.

Very surprising aroma. Light touches of husky grain, even a bit of char, but an excellent estery mix that hints of strawberry cream, and pitted dark fruit. Clean whispy almost smokey ash in the mix with an excellent fruity ester that doesn't come off sour like many baltics I have had, and very delicious on the nose.

Absolute gangbusters palate. Porter classic rich lightness but also with hinting creamy and smoke like qualities. Mid palate is a bonanza of surprising and mixing flavors. Creamy but also mineral rocky tasting rich, huge amounts of char and controlled ash with a light smokey bitterness, and an even more surprising fruit palate. Literally tastes like pitted cherries. Skin and earth touches of cherry fruit, mixing with soft vanilla sweetness and rich dark malt making for a light an aromatic black forest cake without a lot sweetness. Lager like clean finish, rocky touching water tasting like bubbly nearly.

Shockingly diverse and unique for the style, unlike anything I have ever had. Easily the best Baltic Porter I have ever had to date.

look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.75 | 4.55/5

Cheers!

 

Very glad that one was better than the last!

 

You can tell how much you loved this beer through your post. It was like I was reading giddy excitement and you portrayed it so well. I felt that way about one of my new beers this weekend but I feel like my enthusiasm was not as well written as this. Next time I visit my friend in Balitmore I know what brewery I should give a try if I see them in a store.

 

Well shit I just looked them up @Smakawhat I guess they’re not in Maryland after all. I just went by your location, haha.

 

Hope you get a chance to try it, just like any other beer.

Not to sound like a downer on the parade here though, I purchased this on a Christmas holiday trip by stopping by the actual brewery which is located in Kittery Maine.

That's not really local to where I live, so I don't know what their footprint is outside of Maine, let alone that area.

Still beers like that fill me with joy and also sadness because I know my chances of drinking them again are going to be slim to none.

I bought many of the different beers from my visit, and that brewery produces exceptional stuff, at least what I have tired and reviewed lately.

 

Hello all,
Went to lunch at Founders (it had been a while) and tried a flight as there were many I had missed and wanted to try.
Note one, their Porter is good in bottles, sublime on tap.
Breakfast Stout on Nitro is so smooth you may not recognize that you are drinking beer.
Their Imperial Stout is better on tap as well, which is what I finally went with.

I’ve had it before from the bottle but it is a different beer on tap
The roasted malts and chocolate and coffee really come through, the depth is impressive and the aroma doesn’t stop.
Really tasty and just what that pretzel needed.