New Beer Sunday (week 484)

Good morning, all!

Starting my day with some breakfast and sunshine...

(Yes, I threw chopped up bacon all over my syrupy buttered waffles )

Picked up a howler of Ballast Point's Habanero Sculpin IPA for today's NBS...

Took it outside for a post-breakfast pour...

Sunny and mild (s'posed to get warmer as the week wears on; sucks for me - no air-conditioning at work )

But that's why I make the most of my time off from work, with good beer and an easy livin' approach

The Habanero Sculpin's gonna be a hit-or-miss ale, for the simple reason that the chili heat is not subtle. I love spicy foods and have found that I enjoy the same in beer. I am one of those rare birds that enjoyed Stone's Crime and Punishment (both notably hotter than the Sculpin, BTW) - that said, you'll find the heat in the Habanero Sculpin more pronounced than in most stouts that included chili pepper heat (e.g., Indra Kunindra and Mexican Cake) and much stronger than the heat in a pale ale like Theobroma. So it's up there, heat-wise. If you like Sculpin, and you like the sting of pepper, you'll dig this for sure.
Otherwise, you're probably better off taking a pass.


Crucified Barbara, "Acid Rain," off The Midnight Rain


Crucified Barbara, "Shut Your Mouth," off The Midnight Rain

 

NEW DOPPELBOCK SUNDAY

Hey guys, perfect day here in Lancaster county. I hope you all are as fortunate. Looking forward to a picnic and a ride on a rail to trail when the lazy little monkey wakes up from his nap.

We spent last weekend visiting my sister and her husband in western Mass. Awesome visit with lots of great beer, some of it new. Brought some good stuff home including this one. I'm up at 4 on friday and saturday to work 14 hour days and I often still have trouble sleeping on a Saturday night. Oh well, its a grear time for a beer and rereading an old favorite, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. My copy is in absolute tatters.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26520/76396/?ba=DIM

 

Happy NBS! @utopiajane thank you for kicking it off today.
@Greywulfken nice pics as always!

This morning I got up and made flapjacks with maple syrup and bacon. I had to mow the lawn quickly as a small storm appeared to be heading our way. Now I get to indulge on a beer that came out of nowhere. 3 Sheeps is a WI brewery that does a decent job with most of their offerings, but this one is a home run!

Hello, My Name Is Joe may seem like a rich coffee stout, when it is in fact, an imperial wheat black ale. The first thing you smell are the deep roasted coffee notes. Taste is rich coffee, espresso, dark chocolate, and hints of buttered wheat toast. The mouthfeel is as silky smooth and rich as any coffee stout I have had to date. I'm not sure how they pulled it off, but I should be enjoying more of this beer!



I'll have another one of their offerings for later today. Cheers!

 

Went out this morning and had pancakes and bacon. Stopped by my favorite gourmet market for pork chops and beef tenderloin, and since they have a fabulous beer/wine section, I grabbed a six-pack of New Holland Monkey King (saison) and a bottle of Argentinian malbac for sangria later.

Can I just say that I hate the blue laws around here? I had to put the wine back, but I was allowed to buy the beer. Go figure. I guess I shouldn't complain too much, since I at least got the beer, but that's just really, really stupid.

 

Good Morning from WMass, trying Off Color brewing Apex Predator Saison.
A bright nose loaded with what I think is french saison yeast, slightly cloudy apperance.
A mild mouth feel, with a fine, grain quality.
Some citrus and a bit of hop bite.
All in all a good example, seems like a lot of saisons out there so enjoy them.

Cheers all

 

I have retreated to the basement for my next beer. The humidity has climbed considerably and rumbles of thunder can be heard afar, though it has yet to storm at my house.

My next 3 Sheeps beer is an Oaked IPA. It was aged on 3 types of oak spirals. This was released months ago, but my experience with oaked IPAs with a bit if age has been pleasant. I was correct as there is a sweet taste of bread and malt, with some oak notes. This is quickly cast aside to let the bitter citrus hops into play, with grapefruit, some pine and hints of earth. Great beer and I am glad I decided to purchase it.

 

Hey what's goin on!?

Big weekend for our hero here in the DC area. Gorgeous weekend weather for it too, normally by this time it's humid and hotter than hades, but it is absolutely wonderful. Been busy, yesterday was at a festival hanging out to hear some music, also bottled the kit homebrew which I tweaked the recipe a bit.


Finished with bottling day IPA by imbibehour, on Flickr

Excited about this one, but I had to bottle perhaps a bit early on the dry hop schedule, but we'll see how it turns out. I feel good about it.

I got birds too! Love feeding them every morning, they are pigs I must say, but I got cardinals as always, and strangely I've been getting a lot of Blue Jays lately.. they are bullies by the way.. The guy at the hardware store told me that people who buy bird seed often have excellent credit scores. Did you know that? Really?!

I am getting off topic...

So what's on the agenda now for our hero? I am a big Belgian tripel/strong pale ale fan, so I was very keen to see how this guy would turn out.

Bruges Tripel Ale - Wild - Brouwerij Straffe Hendrik / Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan


Brouwerij Straffe Hendrik / Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan - Bruges Tripel Wild Ale 2013
by imbibehour, on Flickr

Review here or read below: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/268/110453/?ba=smakawhat

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look: 4.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25 | Final score: 4.24

Poured from the bottle into a tulip glass.

An absolutely gorgeous looking beer. Deep bronze orange body with an orb glowing clarity. Very visible distinct lines going up the glass, and a roaring column of carbonation right in the middle. Head is a simple creamy two to three fingers tall, and very well repopulated. Minimal retention and lacing. Nearly perfect, very wowed by this beers appearance.

Very mild sense of brett, a little bit of dryness, but more hinting towards floral and mild sucrose sweetness like a solid classic Belgian tripel. Hints of penny and jolly rancher candy as well.

Palate is wonderfully sharp and crisp with a big matching amount of mineral champagne carbonation and dryness. The malts still manage to cut through this in the mid palate, with thick controlled sweetness, hinting at honey a little, but also finish with some nice dry baked white bread on the finish.

Real solid simple tripel, with just a mild hint of wildness to it. Very enjoyable.

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Always keen on this brewery, as I didn't mind there regular tripel, and my beer seller also had big raves to say about their oak aged quad. Not a brett heads beer, but it's well integrated simply in a solid tripel here, without anything getting too crazy or unexpected.

Cheers to NBS!

 

Good morning fellow NBS'ers. It has been a great weekend weather-wise in Seattle with beautiful sunny days in the 70s and cool nights in the 50s (I love this weather). This week was pretty crazy at work but still managed to get a couple of trades through to stock up on NBS ammo On top of that the little one is beginning to stand-up all on his own and is taking his first steps solo (ie- no furniture surfing) - pretty exciting and terrifying at the same time.

This week - hoping that the NBS gods will be forgiving, I'm bending the NBS rules slightly... I'm drinking KBS. And while I've had KBS before (review) - I've never had an aged version of it. So, last night - between 11pm and 1 am I drank KBS '09 and KBS '10. This morning I'm enjoying KBS '11 and KBS '12. As you know, it is very true that aged beers are "different beers", hence I'm counting these for NBS!

All of these have been perfectly cellared and were briefly refrigerated prior to consumption. All poured into KBS Snifter and straight (90 degrees) into glass.

KBS '09
First impression is that the beer is definitely past its prime. Its still quite tasty though - there's a strong char (an enjoyable type of char) taste, some very faint bourbon and an even fainter trace of chocolate. The beer still feels thick, although it lacks in flavor to texture balance IMO. Perfect example of why people should try FRESH beers prior to aged ones. Probably couldn't identify as KBS in a blind tasting.




KBS '10
Very different beast than the '09. Much sweeter - bourbon, chocolate, espresso/toffee notes and dark dried fruits. It boasts the BBA aroma of a brew that's a few years old - reminds me of a milk shake. Balanced - and it only gets better as it warms up. I wouldn't have imagined that much of a difference from one year to the next, considering these are 4 and 5 years ago respectively. Could probably guess it's KBS in a blind tasting. Note - this vintage formed the biggest head out of them all.




KBS '11
Much hotter than its older predecessors. First impression is "ooh, I caught this one in its transition stage from fresh to aged". Bourbon burn is the first thing that hits the palate, followed by faint yet sweet notes of chocolate and dark fruit. Faint coffee in the finish. Feels like there's something missing, the taste drops very quickly from what would seemingly lead you into a flavorful explosion. Mouthfeel is great, though. Definitely KBS - although a weak KBS.



KBS '12
I have to say that going into this I pre-selected in my head '12 as my favorite just because its 2 years old and in my experience that's the prime age of BBA stouts. I wasn't wrong although I haven't had the '13. This is beautiful. The bourbon has receded enough to give way to molasses, dark fruit, coffee, brown sugar and spices - yet, the bourbon still makes its presence felt almost as a binder between all flavors. Mouthfeel/Texture is perfect, thick & viscous, full of flavor.
Best KBS so far.



I'm enjoying '11 and '12 side by side...



Here's the lineup so far:





I'm planning to crack the KBS'13 tonight while watching GoT and complete the aged vertical!
Cheers to all!!

 

Tried my first New Holland Monkey King (saison). Smelled really good, very peppery. The taste, though...it doesn't really taste like much of anything, actually. It's rather bland.

 

New Saison Sunday
It's sunny and in the 80s today in Cleveland. We opened the pool yesterday though sadly as perfect as today would be for a swim the water is stuck in the mid 60s.
It's always nice to see some FFF make it into the Ohio distribution channels and while this is far from my favorite from them one of my summer goals is to try more saisons so this is the perfect start to the summer months.
As for the beer itself, the initial pour is gorgeous with a full, lingering head despite a slow pour. It fits the Saison style well though nothing earth shattering; being from FFF I honestly think a unique and possibly improving spin would have been to hop it a bit more.

Cheers!

 

@HoppySeb Very interesting, thanks for the write-up!

 

Prairie Okie. Just found out that this is at least 2 years old, since they don't cork their bottles anymore. Amazing stuff! Figs, raisins, prunes, figs, oak, bourbon = bourbon infused dark dried fruit jam. Cheers! Strongly recommend.....if you like DIABEETUSS!!! LOL

 

Greetings from the Buckeye state on this perfect Sunday afternoon. Been working since 8 am on what has become the longest ongoing construction project at my house, having eclipsed the previous record of 8 months spent on my Man Cave in the basement. My limited carpentry skills may have met their match. I have enough built in seating for at least 15 BA s though, so come on over. Had to stop because I ran out of lumber. Luckily I haven't run out of new beers yet.

Enjoying this one at basement temp.

Smells pretty good. Bourbon, molasses, slightly roasted malt and coffee. Does not have much coffee flavor too it for those who are not a fan. More of a smokiness honestly. Also has a very sweet taste. A little too sweet for me. Comes across like a Dopple or dark Belgian in that regard. I do give them credit for having a nice barrel characteristic. Paid $6 for a 16oz. The only other Hinterland I have had is the Maple Bock, which ranks about the same for me. Not a bad beer at all, but as a "stout" I would give it around a 3.50 overall. This one makes me want to try their Bourbon Dopplebock more than anything else. Enjoy your evening. @utopiajane can rule on the face melting selection.

 

New IPA

Another awesome Sunday in West MI. Skies are blue, temps in the mid-upper 80s. I got in a ton of yardwork before the heat got too unbearable. Now I'm chilling with a brew and the USMNT on the television, before friends come over to hit the pool and grill out with the kiddos.

This was a very solid IPA from a UP brewery that's new to me. May have to check things out on our family trip this summer.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25045/99602/?ba=GRPunk

 

Good afternoon everyone! Finally got home after returning from the second wedding we’ve had to attend in as many weekends. This was a very special one as it was pretty much a college reunion with all of our best friends. They also had Bells Two Hearted, Star Hill Love, and Yuengling at the open bar as well as Jefferson Bourbon...

The wedding venue was absolutely beautiful set in the mountains of Leesburg, VA at a vineyard. The vows exchanged made me tear up as the two exchanging them are some of the best people I’ve ever known. When you see two people who are truly in love and admire one another in that scenario, it’s a touching thing

Anyway, now we’re home and enjoying the evening watching some golf and having a CCB Jai Alai White Oak. I’ve had some (older) Jai Alai while on vacation in Florida and found it to be “meh.” This version was caned 5/13 however and seems to be a totally different beer. The beer is still very hop forward and has a nice pine and citrus presence but the white oak smooths it out and adds quite a bit of vanilla character to the beer. Overall I really enjoyed this brew.

 

While I've never been a saison fan, maybe it's because I didn't try enough of them (two or three I think) or maybe my tastes have changed but really enjoying this, bottled 5/2.

Crisp, light and refreshing. Reminds me a lot of a Savignon Blanc on a hot day...same color, crispness and very enjoyable.
Like how NBS has challenged me to drink outside of my usual stuff and styles as otherwise I wouldn't have grabbed this. Though FW does everything so well, so winner winner chicken dinner!

 

I have a local Shebeen Brewery German Cerveza (Wolcott, CT) and a recommendation - Victory Dirt Wolf Double IPA. Both great! Hubby's drinking Berkshire Steel Rail in cans - he's in the hammock! LOL!