New Beer Sunday (week 487)

Well another Nbs, and another new beer to try!! As I promised to @cavedave I would enjoy something special for him. Here it is, Shebeen Concord grape saison. I've been saving this for a couple weeks now and tried it first thing this morning. As much as I don't want to say it NOT IMPRESSED. Color was off as most saison a should be a straw color, almost no head when poured from growler to glass, no lacing on glass, taste almost like welchs grape juice with a little fizz. Although I am glad to help out a new brewery here in the state and carry all their product at my store, this one was a miss. Sorry Shebeen

 

For now, it is no beer Sunday, but we are headed to an Allagash beer dinner. Since I have had but one Allagash brew and it is seven courses, I am expecting a few new beer experiences tonight! The question will be...do I want to geek out and takes notes?

 

Good Sunday everyone. Tried Maple Tap Imperial Porter by Harpoon,
some day I will learn the whole linking thing, until then cut and paste!

Cheers all

3.45/5 rDev -5.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Poured from a bottle into a modified tulip glass.
A - Translucent brown, light carbonation, very little lacing.
S - Harpoon ale yeast, tinges of caramel sweet, chocolate malt with some fruity esters.
slight alcohol not offensive.
T -The taste is of an English porter, light bodied and sharp edged. The maple adds a slick sweetness. This could easily be an English northern brown ale. The flavors are muddled some.
M - Light body, moderately carbonated, so the mouth feel can seem thin. I like the edges in the finish.
O - The beer is interesting, the maple adds to sweetness. The body could be rounded up a little. Harpoon does many things well and this could be improved on.
I will set a bottle aside and revisit in the fall.

Cheers

Serving type: bottle

06-22-2014 16:34:20

 

Good afternoon BA dudettes and dudes! For this week's new beer I decided to add one I had in 2006 at Tiffany's in Frankenmuth, MI. While that's technically not new, I haven't had it since then and I wasn't part of BA until nine months ago. My data base says, in 2006, that it SUCKS. Retrying it today, maybe with a new palate or a maybe a new formulation since then, or maybe just because I like Belgium beers better now:

I would not drink it in a bar,
I would not drink it in a car,
I would not drink it in a box,
I would not drink it with lox,
I would not drink it fancy or plain,
I would not drink it @utopiajane!

What is this dystopian delight? Why it's



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/335/6157/?ba=Ozzylizard

I'm so confused - does I likes it or does it suck?

 

Can't talk... game on... World Cup... me go..

Also dropping by friends house for the big game later, exchanging a ton of homebrew and beers. Maybe we'll crack open something nice when we get the "W"!

What's new for our hero today?

Evil Twin Brewing - Even More Jesus Imperial Stout


Evil Twin Brewing - Even More Jesus Imperial Stout by imbibehour, on Flickr

Review here or read below: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24300/81067/?ba=smakawhat

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look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5 | Final Personal Score: 4.56

Poured from the bottle into a snifter glass.

Just motor oil thick coming out, and creating one of the darkest heads I've ever seen. Big dark chocolate colored head, maybe two fingers tall, and quite creamy looking. It settles to a solid thin creamed collar and simple top. Body is black midnight and completely shunted and opaque. Nearly looks like liquid thick chocolate in a glass, aggressive and impressive.

A real varied and complex nose. Tobacco notes and sweet roast. Hints of light smoke and embers. Bitter dark cocoa and chocolate. The smoke notes is coming out larger and is really nicely played in here. Really like this angle, not for everyone though. Virtually no detecting sweetness, and a thick aroma, just great.

Palate just brings the goods. The near perfect mouthfeel is toned down by a lighter body than the big aromas indicate. Still a big coating of thick chocolate washes the palate but is easier to cut through with some lighter fruit contrast. Big notes of dark chocolate which is controlled in sweetness with lots of fudge and nice sugars. Big milkshake quality, with a hint of fruit sourness slightly to match the chocolate. Hints of roast coffee linger on the finish, but most of the flavors hit in the mid palate. Luscious. Smoke dissipates quickly under a wash of large malt and sweet roasted base.

Overall people can complain about how much these ET beers cost, but when the goods are delivered they get delivered real well.

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I keep getting shocked by the large Imperial stouts Jeppe here has managed to dream up. They are real impressive and a nice treat once in awhile. Looking forward to hopefully more of these in the future on my radar.

 

Of course you want to take notes - if they're like mine, by the end of the dinner they'll be illegible!

 

Thank you @utopiajane for getting us started on this glorious first Sunday of summer!
I am having the Hoparillo Triple IPA from Knee Deep Brewing courtesy of @JayORear. This is a monster IPA. The first taste I got was buttered caramel popcorn followed by a dazzling display of tropical goodness--tangerine, mango, grapefruit. This is an enormous beer--11.1% ABV and I am definitely tasting every one of those percents! This reminds me a lot of my first bought with FFF's Dreadnaught--it's a bit overwhelming in that it is both a hop and a malt bomb all in one. I like it, but it is an effort to drink it and probably not the best choice for a hot afternoon of garden weeding!

 

What a shame, but the sentiment is appreciated. Hard to imagine Concord grape working in a saison, but hey some brewers can do amazing things with surprising ingredients. Thanks for the kind thoughts, man. Cheers!

 

I can't remember which beer it was, but I had a Concord grape Saison once, and while it was way too grape-y for me, if they used a lighter touch, I thought it would have worked well.

 

Take notes?
It's an Allagash beer dinner!

Take pics, too!

 

***New Imperial Rye IPA Sunday!!!

G'day chaps and chapettes of the NBS family!

Road Warrior, the flick, was a pretty good flick so when I saw 4 packs of Road Warrior from Green Flash, I had to give it a go.



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2743/118987/?ba=Bitterbill

As Riddick said in Pitch Black....Not for me!

 

I guess I could've saved Sucaba and Labyrinth fo today, but oh well...I just might dig something new out today.

 

Good morning/afternoon aficionados of new adventures as every beer unknown to us before most certainly is. As I stumbled around my local Total Wine in Tucson yesterday I came upon the highly regarded FIS and knew I should snap up a few bottles since it won't be available till early next year. It was 107 degrees out and the girls still had a lot of shopping to do at the mall so I bought them and crammed them into my space challenged cooler after a prior visit to Costco returning for the rest of my booty after the sun went down.

FOUNDERS IMPERIAL STOUT (FIS)
10.5 abv, 90 IBU's.

Pours very black and thick much like its exalted brother, KBS. A very small amount of tan head that dissipates quickly, virtually no lacing.
The smell is of roasty coffee and chocolate, but the nose is pretty mild overall.
The taste at first is roasty coffee and chocolate working together in tandem with a fairly strong hop presence that lends outstanding bitterness; good thing I'm a hophead! This beer really shines as it warms up as the hoppiness and roastiness demands that you sip it. Dark fruits and slight vanilla flavors start to poke through, with the aforementioned bitterness and coffee/chocolate.
The mouthfeel is medium thick, certainly up to par for a good stout, and it has almost no carbonation.

In closing, this is a really good RIS that will taste great when the evenings are cold and the rattlesnakes go back into their dens this winter. This reminds me a lot of Old Raspy, a good thing, and I would love to do a head to head with the two next fall!
4.5/5

 

That's a tough one to find on any online store. I had it back in 06. My palate has changed so much since then, I'd reckon I would rate it more than a 3.95 now.

 

And to paraphrase Eric Idle, "Road Warrior is a good beer for laying down, and avoiding.