New Beer Weekend #301

Alltech's Brewing & Distilling Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Toasted ( Imperial ) Stout, 10.0% ABV; 4.27 overall

Pours an effervescent chestnut/mahogany with a thumb+ of mocha head. Above average head retention & stellar lacing

S: Iron, coffee, cocoa, caramel. Cola notes once warmed up, faint booziness/Bourbon

T: Coffee, iron, roastyness & caramel up front, some oaky notes & the faint hint of sour mash up front. Some prickly booze once warmer, vanilla also surfaces and dances with plenty of coffee, some charred grain & oakyness. Finishes with plenty of coffee, some caramel, roastyness & a little caramel

MF: Medum body, fairly firm carbonation, pushes all the flavors along

This one vastly exceeded my expectations, not a ton of Bourbon involved here, but still a great take on the style. Their stronger beers are pleasing me as I stumble across them. Coffee forward & on point

 

Up next, a Breakside IPA collaboration with Fremont Brewing of Seattle, WA. That right there is a solid combo.



Breakside Unplugged
16th Anniversary Pacific NW IPA

Deep gold body capped with tall white foam that falls rapidly but works overtime in the lacing department. The nose is loaded with grapefruit peel, a spray of sweet orange, and a sticky punch of pine resin. The flavor opens with semi-sweet malt spiced with orange and black pepper. It dries out in the middle as woody notes rise up with a respectable earthy bitterness. The finish is a gratifying alliance of pine needles and white grapefruit pith on top of low-key malt sweetness. Medium-bodied with scrappy carbonation.

This is the IPA you'd expect from a couple of PNW workhorses. Strong citrus and pine with a pinch of dank and a proud bitterness. Enough malt to provide a counterpoint. A little old school, but not yelling at clouds. Satisfying. Recommended

 

Locking in my New Beer Sunday #1105 pour in case I’m delayed getting home later today. This is my second international offering, a real one not brewed in Kentucky, from one of my favorite breweries across the globe. I believe this is a new to the world beer over the past few months, as it was added here on January 21, 2026.

Schlenkerla (Heller-Bräu Trum) Aecht Schlenkeria Rauchbier-Pale Edition

4.76/5 rDev +10.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75



Full review linked above. If you like Rauchbiers, this is an excellent selection. Maple bacon and smoked oak compete for supreme flavor satisfaction. Aroma excellent as I was pouring through conclusion. I love this style, and this brewery is its master. Buying more for me and others, so glad I came across last weekend.

Look forward to reading your entries later today, and hope you each have an excellent experience to close out your weekend!

Cheers!

 

As much as the leafs fans I know up here want to see the Lightning lose, actively cheering for the Habs is a bridge too far for them!

You just knew Crosby couldn’t let that happen.

 

Seems like a beer made for our king of flowers @mactrail.

That is good news for you, that was such a cool and rewarding beer to experience and I thank you again for the opportunity.

————

Yea I kind of knew that @Coronaeus, I think I even anticipate another Pens win before they hopefully get the fork stuck in em.

 

Well it is Sunday, the last day this virtual bar is open. Time for my last call.

Let The Good Times Roll - Paddlefish Brewing - St. Peter, MN - Belgian Trippel - 8.5%

It looks quite nice. The beer smells quite good. The beer feels awesome. The flavor, well, it's lacking. There's little there. Nothing bad or offensive, just lacking and weak. A shame.

Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/67203/798554/

3.47/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.25
From a 750ml crawler. Canned on 04/20/2026

Well, this is an interesting looking Belgian Trippel. It is quite clear looking in my glass. No haze or murkiness at all. It has a nice dark golden appearance to it. I do like the steady, fast moving stream of carbonation bubbles rising to the top of the glass. There's a thin 1 finger white head. The head is fluffy with tiny bubbles, and is long lasting. There's no lacing on my glass.
The nose is full of Belgian yeast notes. There's strong bubblegum notes. I get notes of candy sugar. There's a nice floral hint to the nose.
Well, this is also interesting - there's very little flavor here, or not much as I expected would be a better way to put it. I do get a faint bitterness to start things out with, and I'd say it's from the hops used in the beer. I do then get a faint bubblegum flavor that hits after the bitterness fades. I do get some brown sugar notes later on in the flavor. The finish is slightly earthy and floral.
I do get a good clingy feeling in this beer. It does coat my throat for a while. It has decent depth and thickness. Nice bodied beer.
There's no offensive flavors in this beer, the beer does taste good. The beer is just lacking in flavor, and it is a total shame. Every other indicator of this beer was leaning toward a very positive experience.


See you all when the bar reopens. Cheers!

 

Look: deep amber, cloudy, creamy head, heavy lacing

Smell: apricot, peach, resin, pine

Taste: pine, apricot, pineapple, berries, resin

Feel: med plus body, moderate carbo, piney resinous bitterness

Overall: 9.5%abv. To me this brew is just flat out great. It gave me the kick in the tastebuds I was looking for. Heavy on the pine and resin. The first few whiffs and sips reminded me of Bigfoot a bit, but the strong citrus notes kick in, and it becomes its own beast. I picked up apricot, pineapple and berries. There's a piney, resinous bitterness that lingers which I love. Great hop saturation! Pairs well with Mouth for War by Pantera. Cheers!

 

Greetings NBWers - the pun and can art were perhaps more enticing than the beer itself, but this is an easy drinking brew enjoyed on a cool and quiet Spring morning - cheers!

3.6/5 rDev -6.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Packaged on March 3 - enjoyed on April 26, 2026 - poured from a 12oz can into a 10oz mug.

Brilliantly clear candlelight body with a finger of weak soft peaks up top. Fine soapy lacing; good retention.

Crackery aroma with hints of flan, corn pudding, and white tea.

Pleasant layered malt character - light but with some complexity (hints of toast and chestnuts around the edges). Very low bitterness with a whisper of white pepper from the hops. While largely clean, there is perhaps the barest suggestion of diacetyl or DMS at the edges of perception suggesting imperfect lagering. Hints of stone fruit and green olive in the dry finish.

Light bodied, soft, yet refreshing with sufficient carbonation.

Though not at the top of the pack, this is a pleasing domestic take on the style and would make a good picnic beer.

 

Ha! That's a terrific label design.

 

I was searching for a NBW canidate Friday and grabed this, Beer'd Brewing's Matter Of Time a 7% NEIPA. I've never seen this beer, but the BA database entry is way back in 2021. Here we go.



3.96/5 rDev -5.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Purchased cold at a store 2-days ago and kept cold until served. Poured from a 16oz undated can to a nonic. Maybe they tried to date it, all four cans have a blue ink splotch on the bottom.
The body is opaque apricot. The 3/4in/18mm head is bright white. The head fades but not entirely, a significant amount stays on the surface as islands. Lacing is generous.
The aroma sweet hoppy goodness, notes of stone fruit.
The taste is similar in the front, but there is a resin/pine finish.
The mouthfeel is rather light for the appearance, carbonation is appropriate.
Nothing wrong with this beer, but it's not amazing.

 

What's going on with pictures???? Inserted this pic the way I always do????

 

Postcards from Clearwater...

Happy new beer weekend to everyone!! Good to be back and thank you @Whyteboar for getting our weekly thread started. Long week finally came to an end, addition did have a little hiccup due to misordering but interior framing, etc. all moving along great, rough electric and plumbing should be going in this week.

All sporting events went well, wins or ties, lacrosse team continuing to make me proud applying what they've been learning. Been so exciting watching the Flyers play such great playoff hockey, and those Habs and Sabres!! I just wish I could watch all those late west coast games too, enough with sports, on to beer...

Our parents never stop being our parents, and I assume I'll do the same as my kids turn into adults. My dad still travels for business and always offers to find beer for me if he has time, and checks luggage. I took him up on that opportunity since he was by Tampa Bay this past week. It stemmed from our friend @JackHorzempa who talks about CAP quite a bit. When I saw Green Bench out of Tampa has one as a flagship, yes, I confirmed its classification via DM with Jack, I asked if pops could bring a can back for me. Well he came through even bigger and said "fuck it" and just grabbed me a six pack, and it is fresh!!!!...a sub 5% american pilsner with brewed with flaked corn, mt hood hops with 37 IBUs, yes, please...pops coming through as he has always.

Green Bench - Postcard Pils (Classic American Pilsner 4.7%)



Pours yellow gold, cloudiness that is best described as chill haze, average white head with pretty decent staying power; swirls lead to good cling and spotty lacing.

Nose is quite attractive to me, foreshadows a beer with good bite; aromatic clean grain, woodsy spice that’s blackened by delicate herbal and floral character; light sweetness lingers in come and go fashion.

Taste is very pleasant; definitely that same pleasant grainy malt, then that woody spice…finishes cedar like; lingers very nicely along with substantial stem and grass.

Body light, but full; there is a pleasant residual sweetness that vanishes on the finish; firm and long lingering bitterness, leads to enhanced dryness and parched feel that begs for another sip; carbonation is that good balance of smooth yet effervescent.

This is a really tasty beer for me personally; it’s pils all the way the addition of corn and use of an american hop make this distinctly different from its euro counterparts but it also has that clean bitter dry bite of it’s counterparts; really great stuff.

I wish this style was more common, or becomes more common in the future. I think this is the first CAP beer I have ever had, give me more. I'm super happy to have more cans, I bet it tastes even better outside in the sun when its warm and not cool and dreary like today.

@JackHorzempa

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I'm chomping at the bits for Friday to arrive, already, yes; guess we gotta wait 5 more days but I can't wait to share more beers together then. I'm excited about the beer I have in mind for next weekend, eight weeks of school to go, hopefully 6 weeks until we back at home, I won't hold my breath yet, I know how construction goes but its still looking promising.

Thanks for letting me rant and I hope you all have a good week. Looking forward to whatever else everyone is drinking and to whoever opens us up next weekend, until then friends...

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators

It has been a long time since I reviewed a new beer from Magnify on NBS. From its founding in 2015 until Summer 2025, Magnify's brewery/taproom was located in Fairfield, New Jersey, in the northern part of the state (Essex County, just west of Newark). When Magnify opened it was the only good craft brewery in the area except for Ramstein, which specializes in German beers. So for many years I visited Magnify at least once a week. Pre-Pandemic, the small taproom resembled a college frat party. Last year, Magnify shifted its base of operations to Medford in South Jersey. They built a new building with a much bigger taproom. Fairly or not, to many of us up north, Fairfield became an afterthought. That changed earlier this month when the longtime brewer in Fairfield started brewing beer under his own label, "2nd Favor." I've enjoyed those beers so far and I've visited the rebranded Magnify/2nd Favor taproom every weekend.

This week, Magnify released a new DIPA called Heavy Duty. The hop bill is Maui Nelson, SubZero Hop Kief, Citra DynaBoost, Citra Cryo, Nelson Cryo, Strata, and Nectaron. It is brewed in both Medford and Fairfield (in New Jersey, they cannot ship beer between the two locations). I tried it yesterday and enjoyed it so much I bought a pack. This is my 280th review of a Magnify beer - by far the most beers I've reviewed from any brewery. So I pulled out my 11 year old Magnify glass for the occasion.

It pours an opaque, pastel orange with a big, foamy, bright white cap and swirls of heavy lacing. It has a robust smell including lemon, lime, pineapple, and a hint of white wine. It drinks like a fruit punch with a good balance of sweet fruits, including pineapple and peach, and tart lemon and grapefruit. In addition, the the Nelson Cryo adds a hint of Pinot Gris and the Strata contributes grassy, herbal notes that play against the fruit. The result is great depth of flavor with mild, clean hoppy bitterness. I had a draught pour at the brewery and I note greater earthiness and less overt sweet fruit from the can pour. This ale is well-bodied with pleasant carbonation, and the 9% ABV gives it a nice pop.

4.28/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Sorry for the long-winded post but I like the story. Cheers, NBW!

 

I like the story too, hopefully you share some 2nd Favor beers here eventually; I saw them share that news recently. Still have yet to try and Magnify beer but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time now given medfords proximity.

 

Yes, Mt. Hood is an American hop but it provides noble hop like qualities. That hop is featured in Sterling Pig Shoat Pilsner which is a German Pilsner. More details about this hop:

"Mt. Hood is a US-grown, triploid aroma-type hop released in 1989, known as a "noble-type" cultivar with4.6%–6.5% alpha acids. It offers a mild, delicate aroma profile of herbal, spicy, and woody notes, making it an excellent substitute for German Hallertau and a staple for lagers, bocks, and pilsners.”

Hopefully sometime soon you will be able to try the King’s Road Brewing CAP, which they brand via Pre-Prohibition Lager.

Since we are talking CAP beers, a few days ago I tried my first bottle of my annually homebrewed CAP and while still ‘young’ it was quite tasty. One more week of further conditioning then: party time!

Cheers!

 

The reason for the move to Medford is that Magnify's owner's wife is from the Philly area and they live down there. I was hoping this story would have a happy ending and maybe now it will.

 

Had no date on the can purchased a single at a bottle shop, I assumed it was fresh. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat,