New Beer Weekend #179

Lost Forty St. George LvI Laser Lotus...what a name. This is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, 10.9% ABV. Picked this up at the brewery, and enjoying it at my parents house this afternoon while one Christmas Vacation.



Pours a dark mahogany red/brown color. A dense beige head rises with good retention, and lace left behind. This is a looker.
Aroma is big Belgian candied sugar aroma up front. That leads to dark malts of baked bread and dark fruits of cherries. A really inviting aroma.
Taste wise, like the nose, the Belgian candied sugars are noticeable. Along with some toffee and caramel, which is certainly sweet but never cloying for my tastes. That leads to dark brown breads, and fruits. With some cherries, but also more apple skins. Some warming alcohol as well.
A full body with moderate carbonation. With the appropriate amount of malty chewiness that becomes ultra smooth and like silk. A nice warming sipper.

Really enjoying this one. Well made for the style, with lots of malty characters going on. The sweetness never gets too much in the way for me, though it might for some others. I think the fruity flavors, apples especially, help balance that. Recommended.

Overall score is 4.04, A-
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/38015/682923/?ba=champ103#lists

 

I wrote my review kind of fast, after sipping on this some more, banana and clove come out. Mixed with the apple, really enjoying the fruity esters that balance the big and nuanced malty sweetness. Might up my score a little...

 

Hey Jack,
At one point in my beer drinking escapades while in PHX, i swore Xocoveza would be my go-to holiday season brew. The first few years were great but because of palate shift maybe or knowing Stone's financial woes they maybe are not using the same recipe so sadly am not buying any more. Glad you liked it!

I am going into the BBA version of Gratitude, an American Barleywine from East End in Pittsburgh. Thanks to @DIM for the can!

4.49/5 rDev +7.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Beer poured similarly to regular Gratitude, tea-colored brown with a very nice off-white head that is leaving some lacing behind.

Nose enhances regular Gratitude with notes of vanilla and leather combined in with dark fruits and fresh citrus.

Taste is very well executed! The large malt base gives me notes of caramel, figs, and brown sugar. The barrel gives me a distinct vanilla addition on top of the generous hop bill which is still a strong dose of orange and grapefruit. Finishes with a very nice combination of vanilla, a touch of bourbon and pine bitterness. This beer is nowhere close to being sweet with the hop and barrel presence!

Mouthfeel is medium to large bodied with each sip being silky smooth.

Overall the barrel aging did enhance things nicely once my palate acclimated. Glad i got the opportunity to try, thanks Dan!
Cheers!
Tom

 

Unglaciated

13.2% stout aged 17 months in Old Fitzgerald barrels collaboratively made by Jackie O's and Dancing Gnome.

Poured from a 12.7 ounce bottle, the body is an opaque dark black with a small, brief head that quickly retreats to the glass edge. No lacing.

Aroma is bourbon barrel, sweet and heavy, charred malt and vanilla.

Taste follows nose but is not as sweet. The barrel is present but moves to the background. Tones of dark fruit, malt and chocolate. Only a hint of ABV at finish.

Mouthfeel is soft with low carbonation.

An enjoyable stout and perfect for a winter day's enjoyment.

 

When did Gratitude change to cans, instead of the wax paper wrapped bottles? I'm probably way out of the loop on this ha, but always loved those bottle designs, or is that just for the barrel aged version?

 

Stone - Old Guardian (extra hoppy bleh) 2015



Tannic and funk. Boozey. Heady and disconcertingly loud. Some sort of orange peel. Hay? Tree bark and resin perhaps.

Walking through a Northeastern forest in late fall just as the dew begins to disappear.

Interesting. Sharp and punchy. It actually tastes young. Sweet. Malt sugar. Toffee. Resin. Caramel. Feint cough syrup. Pine. Oak.

Wow. I think I might love this, to be quite frank. I had. 2015 old guardian last year, it was not “extra hoppy” however. It was good but mundane.

This is loud and unexpected. It has this seawater, campfire wetness about it not unlike laphroaig 10. Thoroughly unexpected.

4.54/5 rDev +9.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

 

Social Project Brewing Color Like a Bomb Triple Hazy IPA w/Rakau, Nelson & Motueka Hop Kief, 9.6% ABV; 4.58 overall

Pours a very hazed gold with & one fine finger+ of pearl colored head. Pretty good head retention & lacing

S: Tons of tropical fruits some citrus, passion fruit & papaya, plus peaches. Perfect nose

T: Green melon, pomelo, lime, pineapple & a touch of coconut up front, a little nectarine as well. Oranges, pineapple, green melon & a little dryness as this beer warms up, plus nectarines. Finishes with plenty of pineapple, pomelo, & green melon, plus dryness

MF: Medium body, smooth carbonation, some bity acidic notes, lovely balance

Found this as a lone single at a store. Need more of this! Possibly the best I have enjoyed from these guys

 

Had a rare meal out with my wife this afternoon at a new to us Bhutanese restaurant. Afterwards we walked for a drink.



Had a lovely hand-pumped pour of an English barley wine, Blotto, from Our Town this afternoon. Thanks @Spade for telling me it was there!

The presentation was perfect, served at 50 degress. Loads of slowly ascending tiny bubbles formed a firm looking, long lasting cap of dense, bone white foam. The taste was lightly spiced dates and sweet nuts with hints of black tea and honey up front, drying toward the finish of potpourri and faint heat.

Most of this batch is resting in bourbon barrels, can't wait to try that.

 

Happy NBW everyone! Started off today with a couple of this years recent Braxton Dark Charge variants. First their Peanut Butter one:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35568/683674/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



And then their Molé version:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35568/334760/?ba=bluejacket74#lists



Cheers!

 

And then finished today's new brews with Fat Orange Cat's Purrkatory Mexican Coffee Stout:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/45814/676270/?ba=bluejacket74#lists





No new brews for me tomorrow but I'll have at least one new brew on Christmas Day so I'll post it here if NBW is still around this Monday. Cheers, Merry Christmas and happy NBW everyone!

 

I’m familiar with both sources (I have more books on Varangians than most libraries) and Grendel, well, she’s just special.
Didn’t know that book was based on those accounts, now I have to read it.

 

Cheers to that!!

 

Well, this was my first drinking experience with this beer. I have read other BA's 'complain' that the flavor profile is more muted compared to previous versions. I have no reference point(s) here.

Cheers!

 

Wish I'd picked up more of this...cheers!

4.41/5 rDev +2.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Packaged on 11/21/23 - consumed on 12/23/23 - poured from a pint can into my Ayinger Celebrator pokal.

Brilliantly clear mahogany body with faint sandy brown highlights and a creamy bone cap; fine sandy lacing; fast running legs; recedes to a popped collar but retention is decent from there.

Lovely malt-forward aromatics, toasty/bready with faint caramel. Restrained and inviting.

Wave after wave of malt hints at caramel and brown bread with an earthy, woody, medium finish. Light noble hop quality contributes just enough bitterness for balance, though vanishingly little flavor. Cleanly lagered and free from burnt elements, with complexity likely coming from a long boil and perhaps a decoction (or at least a multiple step) mash?

Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Soft yet sufficiently crisp to draw you back in after each sip. Gently warming.

Brewed impeccably to style, and rated as such. Perfect for the season.

 

O’Clock Brewing (France) ‘Baden Power’ Imperial Stout aged in Calvados barrels.,.

3.74/5 rDev -0.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

33 cL can, poured into my Firestone Walker taster’s snifter, in Toulouse, France, at 50°,..
Flat birth, —-/—-/—, with nary a whimper of enthusiasm., just.,. —-darkness —-.,
Interesting nose: whispers (shhh.,.) “dark toasty malt and grape juice”.
Taste is confknfounding. Maybe the base Stout carries little roundness or volume., and the aging in Calvados barrels adds nothing but a fleeting vinegar tone. I chewed on it for several minutes., I did.,.
Mouth is competent, and there’s mid carbonation that just can’t hit second gear.
Overall, I’ve tried ‘Calvados’ here in France. But, with so many versions and blends and techniques involved, it’s hard to tell what the brewer is actually trying to tell me. Thus, it may be better than my t-budz say.,. if I was in like.,. Normandy.,, and I hope for a lesson in what is actually in this glass., Props for using 4 ingredients and a French oak barrel though.,,

 

Hey friends, exciting weekend with the holiday and the extra day on Monday. I asked our friend @snaotheus to help out with a few long time wants from Alaskan Brewing. He filled up the box with all sorts of other goodies. He even convinced the store to break up six packs of this and another RR beer for

This is my third RR beer, first two came from the one and only @beergoot a ways back. This is my first lager from them, excited…

Russian River - Velvet Glow (Helles 4.75%)



Pours clear and pale, very light; head is white with decent retention and touches of lace.

Nose is hay, touch of DMS, light yellow citrus character; wonder bread.

White bread, light crust presence, appropriate light sweetness with some grain character, lightly zesty, dried grass on the finish.

Light body but with solid malt presence, the sweetness is low and diminishes quickly as this one dries out very nice; nice little hop bite on the finish, just enough to say high, doesn’t verge into pils territory.

A very well balanced and solid drinking helles. This one does a nice job showcasing a light pale malt sweetness that quickly dries out and is incredibly drinkable and clean on the finish. Thank Ryan.

Which beer for tomorrow…

 

Good evening all, and thank you @DoctorZombies for kicking us off!
So I went beer shopping today, looking for some good local beers to put in the cellar, and darned near struck out.
But I did find a few really good beers and a couple I’d never seen before. This is one,
from Panama-

Poured stout black with a huge light brown head which took its sweet time dissipating.
The aroma is sadly lost on my Covid damaged nose.
The taste though, wow, coffee is strong in this one. I thought with a “milk chocolate stout” that there would be some smooth chocolate flavor but this is all about the Elida Catui Coffee.
There is a little of that milk chocolate that shows up after warming up a little.
Which since I was drinking it at room temperature to begin with, rather perplexed me.
The feel is quite appropriate for a milk stout, light viscosity with a smooth finish.
OA, this is a surprisingly well done coffee forward stout, and a milk (chocolate milk no less!) stout at that.
Cheers all!