New Beer Weekend #132

Choking down my 1st home brewed beer, using a reused Founders bottle and Lagunitas mason jar glass, a session IPA that checks in at a paltry 3.7% if I did it correctly. I was surprised how it turned out, decent color and clarity, nice frothy head left a nicely laced glass, aroma was mildly "citrus like". Flavor was mostly just bitter. I've had worse beers than this........a b-day gift from my beautiful sisters-in-law!

 

The phrase, "I find myself more often embraced in the grip of reminiscence", as a nod to aging, stopped me in my tracks. It is so true. That was a quality essay/short story delivered for free.

 

Are you seeing many foeder fermented lagers in your area?

I remember reading about foeder fermented lagers a couple/few years ago but I have not seen many (any?) at my local beer retailers. I am wondering whether this is still much of a 'thing' these days.

I would think that proper maintenance of a foeder for a beer which needs to be cleanly fermented (e.g., a lager) would be a challenging task.

Cheers!

 

Congratulations on your first home brewed beer @ZebulonXZogg ! Looks a lot better than that weather on Griswold Lake. Hope you enjoyed the process and come back with more offerings!

 

Congratulations!

And with continuing practice your homebrewed beers will get better and better and...

Cheers to you!

 

Happy Birthday

 

Didn't have a chance to pick up any Duvel yet, but here's something wonderful from HORAL's latest member.

4.39/5 rDev +6.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Bottled March 2021, enjoyed January 28th, 2023. Poured from a capped-and-corked 750mL bottle into my Drie de Fonteinen tumbler.

Clear orange peel liquid supports an active papaya whip fist, receding to a rouse-able fine cap. Even soapy lacing; superior retention.

Malt, fruit, and funk compliment one another in the nose. Floral, barnyard, and blackberry with a hint of acidity.

Sweet core with crackery malt, rock sugar, and lots of fruit. This quickly is surrounded by a puckering tartness and a complex lasting funk. Finishes dry and bright with the blackberry emerging in the aftertaste beneath a wave of Brett. notes (pepper, alpine cheese, wild mushrooms,etc.).

Medium-light bodied, creamy, yet fairly crisp. ABV reasonably well concealed. Full carbonation.

Wonderful wild expression.

 

I haven’t seen really any in a while; Tonewood does a yearly or so pale one and they did a czech amber in foeders back in the fall. Other than that I haven’t really seen many advertised as of late.

 

You’re braver than I am. Our son bought me a Mr Beer kit 7 or 8 years ago, and I brewed an amber ale, going so far as to buy bottles and a capper and brewed enough for a 12-pack.

After the beer was “ready,” Mrs O insisted on having the first drink. She was an inveterate Miller Lite fan at that time, and said that anything I suggested for her to try in the “craft” world of beers “tastes like Beck’s,” including a really good APA from Indeed Brewing Company out of Minneapolis (Day Tripper) that nearly started a fight at a craft beer show in Mankato MN.

She took a drink of my home brew and announced, “This is good - tastes like beer,” which was the first indication that it was NOT good, and indeed it was terrible - it tasted like watery barley sludge.

The rest of the 12-pack was unceremoniously drain poured, and my brewing career was thankfully over, with the lesson learned that some of us are beer producers and some of us are beer consumers.

I am most definitely the latter.

 

I have a couple of beers this evening from the Extreme Beer Box: BIG STOUTS (2023) to share, the first an RIS with persimmon from a brewery from Brazil. Big thanks to @Todd for putting this magnificent event together.

I’m so excited to dig into this box, I could cry.





4.35/5 rDev +5.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Pours a dark cola brown that settles as black with mahogany brown on the edges and the most luxurious, creamy light tan head that laces the glass beautifully.

Roasty char notes lead on the nose, with rich caramel notes, and some stonefruit/apricot notes (persimmon?) for good measure.

The roasty char and caramel flavors are forward on the taste, along with a bit of smoke, with the stone fruit flavors providing a refreshing balance to the gravitas this big beer wears well.

The mouthfeel is full and verges on creamy. I wish I had a second pint of this to enjoy.

 

Single Hill - Overstory Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout aged in Westland Distillery American Single Malt barrels

500ml bottle served in a curvy Fremont glass. Bottled November 2021. Bottle number 208 (or maybe 203).

Pours dark, almost black, with a fairly small dark tan head. Moderate amount of very fine head. Smell is lots of roast, some coffee, maybe a bit of char. Make that a lot of coffee.

Taste is still leaning into heavy bitter coffee, but now it's got a bit of a dark chocolate and maybe a little bit of a milk chocolate note to it as well. Char isn't quite the right word, maybe dark toasted wood? Not that that's a nuance I've experienced specifically but it's somewhere between charred wood and fresh sawn wood. A bit of booze if I look for it, surprisingly not much in the way of sweetness. What's there is slightly vanilla and maple.

Mouthfeel is somewhere between medium and thick. Not sticky. Maybe just a hint of grittiness. Overall, this is a nice beer.

 

@AzfromOz you are the Henry James of BA.

 

Here's a back-of-fridge lurker that I've neglected long enough!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47666/611644/



500 ml. bottle.
Brewed Jan. 2021.
Bottled Sept. 2021.

Moderate pour yields a nearly one inch creamy white head over a slightly hazy, light golden body with sticky lacing. A thin head remains for the duration with sheeting lacing from each swirl and sip.
Beautiful!

Nose of citrus (lemon), earthiness, and slight funky oak.

Taste mirrors nose and is slightly tart with a tiny bit of grapefruit sweetness just before the crisp finish.
Wow!

Very nice mouthfeel (as expected from all of Vasili's offerings.)

Overall, another gem from the wizard of Albany, VT.

Cheers!!

 

Did you try restarting?

 

Brilliant!

 

#2, the brewery describes this beer as a peanut butter cup without the pesky brown wrappers.

Sign me the fliggity flock up because I absolutely LOVE peanut butter cups.





4.5/5 rDev +4.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Pours black with mahogany brown tinges on the the edges and a rich, creamy tan head that literally clings to the glass. What a beautiful stout this is.

The nose is led by creamy peanut butter and rich milk chocolate aromas. For a beer described as a peanut butter cup without the pesky brown wrapper, that is what you get on the nose, and it is magnificent.

The taste is also all about the peanut butter and milk chocolate, but what distinguishes this beer from many of the pastry stouts out there is that it’s not cloying in any way on my palate - balance is critical to this big stout and it delivers.

The mouthfeel is rich and peanut butter cuppery, perfect for this pastry stout. I could drink this until it came out my ears.

 

Car radiators, soldering computer parts, what's next?? aviation repairs? boats?...Is there anything @snaotheus can't do?