New Beer Weekend #205

Today's new beer is Husk, an oak aged Grisette from Fox Farm.

4.09/5 rDev -2.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
Batch 1 bottled June, 2018

This is a nice looking beer that's light orange in color with plenty of light shining through giving it a very bright appearance. It had plenty of carbonation in the bottle (would have overflown if I had waited any longer to pour it), but the head in the glass was fizzy and short-lived.

Aroma has a really nice musty funk with hints of lemongrass and freshly mown hay.

Taste is similar to the nose. Light funk, slight hints of citrus, and just a bit of oak barrel. This is very light, easy drinking and refreshing.

Overall, very tasty.

-----------------
@Roguer glad you enjoyed Helmhold. I just double checked and it is my top rated beer (4.49) of the year so far.

 

It's an American Lager, so not eligible for the tasting. The three local solid easy drinking (4.8%-6.0% ABV) year round beers I enjoy and recommend are:

• Haymarket Brewing's Chicago Tavern Beer (European / Dortmunder Export Lager)
• Spiteful Brewing's Alley Time (American Pale Ale)
• Revolution Brewery's Cold Time (American Lager)

I will be securing mostly or exclusively AALs and Light Lagers for the tasting.

Late start to New Beer Sunday #1009. Need to catch up on the threads after reviewing this third and final offering by Hop Butcher For The World, which will need one more review or tick after mine to cross the 10 threshold and become alive in the BA rankings.

Hop Butcher For The World Soapboxer

3.55/5 rDev -15.1%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5



Overall: Very sweet, but still enjoyable for me. If you are looking for starburst like tropical fruit flavors, this one will satisfy. Will enjoy the four pack, but likely not a regular purchase when this returns. 3.5

Look forward to catching up with the rest of the weekend, and returning with three from a local suburban brewery I need to hit sometime soon because I really enjoy their food and their beer is typically good.

 

Does it have corn in it? There are quite a few beers that are american lagers with corn that are not listed as AAL in the database here. I've had a few updated but I'm sure there is plenty more than are wrong, partly because of the bias to those three letters. If it does have an adjunct in it I would 100% say it qualifies since not every entry in the database is correct, at least that is my take and how I choose to, and will, look at it.

 

None of the local beers I recommended above, nor the Hop Butcher offering I rated Saturday, contain corn or other adjuncts as far as I'm aware.

Southern Indiana's Pre-Prohibition AAL Champagne Velvet brewed by Upland is the only available Midwest "Craft" AAL that I've had and enjoyed over the years.

When I looked at my rated beer lists (in my phone, here, on my PC) which I am trying earnestly to consolidate on BA and RateBeer, I was surprised at how many AALs I haven't formally rated even though I have definitely enjoyed (or not) over the years.

I'm hoping to kick off Thursday with my current favorite (and my highest rated AAL) King of Beers on Thursday, and then try to get eight more to conduct two a day cross posts between the fourd day holiday New Beer Weekend/Sunday thread and the AAL/Light Lager / Cream Ale thread. I will try to find a new to me Cream Ale as well.

Really looking forward to your tasting event!

 

I skimmed back in their social and found the post, no corn in it, I added their notes to the database.

I hope to read about the above beer, I was tempted to add a pre pro pils from Jack's Abby to my line up but did not, this one is not classified as such on BA but here is the releveant Jack's Abby piece that would qualify it for me:

"A unique double mash corn decoction"

It had a heftier abv of 5.8% though and was a little pricey so for now I didn't buy.

I'm really looking forward to this tasting too and to read about your favorite King of Beer. So far my lineup is exclusively 5 craft examples, 4 of them NJ beers. I will probably add another NJ AAL and probably my favorite macro...but we'll see. I'll get the planning thread started Tuesday or Wednesday, but leaning towards Tuesday to spread the word a few extra days.

 

Ocean's Hidden Giant. A Cape May collab with Giant (local grocery chain). Not real sure what Giant brings to this, but it's my second 4- pack this week so somebody's bringing something.
The thing is there are no outstanding parameters to this. No overwhelming aroma whence the can is opened, not overly hopped on the taste. The thing that comes to mind is...balanced. Everything is in the right place. A bit of hoppiness on the nose about the only thing that stands out. And then it hit me: 5 cans in and I'm thinking...Hopslam. Just without that little extra edge that their honey brings.
At $13/4- pack a great price and a great deal. I could drink this all summer.

 

Cross- post from NBW. What a surprise find. I've been taking a flyer on some new to me beers lately. All good choices and this one tops the list. A "pour mans" Hopslam...

 

You cross posted a NBW cross post in NBW…say that ten times fast

 

"I musta been stoned" (Jodie Foster,Taxi Driver)

 

Happy NBS!

Having a very juicy/tasty local brewery (CO) NEIPA.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/38773/707159/?ba=Wasatch#lists

Cheers!

 

Groceries and gardening with rain going north of us. Humidity was high despite a fairly decent breeze. Better luck than Nascar had today - what a fiasco. Saw the replay of the John Force wreck - how someone in their 70's basically walks away from an explosion and 302 mph side impact...testament to engineering or luck...

Another brewery exclusive from Jack's Abby that I am going to enter as an American Amber - it's much more red-hued than I thought it would be. Could go Czech dark, maybe...



Collective Journeys Pumpernickel Lager brewed with rye and ginger. There's more to the story about Collective Journeys being an homage to Framingham history. Beer- relevant from the JA web site:

"This lager is drawn from a nearly 200-year-old recipe book crafted by Elizabeth Carlisle Gordon of Framingham, featuring notes of rye and ginger, two beloved ingredients in Gordon’s repertoire."

Pours a rich, red copper color. Totally clear. Incredible light tan foamy head that thankfully subsides to about a 1/8 inch cap.

The smell is bready malts with some rye. It takes a while for the ginger to show up and it is spicy and earthy.

Oh my...the flavor is soooo much more than the nose suggests. Not more complex, just big. Loads of rich, bready malt up front. The ginger floats through mid taste along with a nice tang of rye. Slightly sweet - I'm thinking toffee type of sweet. The ginger rolls back in post- swallow with the aromatics and a slight lingering spice. Just a bit of the earthy side of ginger. Just enough bitter to notice.

Feel is light, on the edge of being highly carbonated but not quite. Pleasant fresh ginger spice tingle sticks with a little residual sweetness.

High liking factor here - the flavors are hitting a lot of just right happy spots for me. Clean, well-defined and kudos to the brewery for finding an historical recipe that came out so tasty. Easy 4.2 ballpark for me. If you get to the brewery put this one on your list.

 

This beer seems magical; the historical piece is the icing on the cake.

 

Good evening denizens of NBS. Tonight I had one that I picked up in that near mythical (to me anyway) Binny’s in Gurney Mills (north Chicago) while there to see our grandson graduate from Naval basic training. So much pomp and such. Even had our car searched for heaven knows what, but the dog they used seemed happy to be working, so I didn’t worry.
Back to the beer-

Poured stout black with a short and shortly lived brown head that left zero lacing.
The taste is typical of bourbon barrel aged stouts, smooth and almost sweet. Any bitter or rye bite is barreled away. If you like that sort of thing (I really used to) then it’s likely one you’d really like. I was hoping for more rye presence.
The feel is lightly viscous, in a mouth coating sort of way.
OA, good, just not what I was hoping for.
We used to get rye whiskey barrel aged Old Rasputin here but haven’t seen it in years now. I was hoping for something more along those lines. A nice sharpness to cut the sweetness.

 

I did not try this one on tap and I am glad I didn't. No expectations and a very pleasant surprise. Definitely different but in the best way.

 

I'm getting into it...Augustiner Hell
Two remain...

 

A new-to-me beer/brewery and a fine example of an Irish Red Ale, making its BA debut,
Mo Chara by Banded Brewing Company of scenic Biddeford, Maine. Sláinte!



4.31/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
A medium-strong pour released two fingers of creamy light beige foam which quickly sunk to a ring and a thin cap with no lacing. Clear and shiny reddish copper body, red orange in front of flame.

Bold smell of toast, biscuit and cracker greets the nose with medium-low floral hops. A general, fruity smell tricked me into anticipating a sweet taste.

Neutral taste with surprisingly high hop flavor sporting added herbs and spice. Bready malt (wheat & barley with caramel trying for sweetness) is in control. Apple cider, lemon, baked apple and pear appear as dryness kicks in. The finish is malt flavor falling off quickly with hop bitterness reaching above average, a dry spicy bitter aftertaste lingers a while.

Medium-light bodied with mysterious carbonation; it takes a sturdy pour to get things started, it looks like it goes flat but a swish brings back head throughout the drink. Very well balanced, as it dries and becomes bitter the balance remains. True to style, smooth at first with a nice bite at the end.