New Beer Sunday (week 512)

This brew is VERY Worthy!

 

I spent the last two weeks in Germany, where I was able to find Vitus just about everywhere, for about a dollar per bottle. When one can buy a world-class beer like Vitus for that price, it simply has no rivals! Needless to say, I drank a whole bunch of them. Prost!

 

Guess I'm the second person today to make my new beer a Weihenstephaner Pilsner. Sometimes you don't want anything fancy, just a good pilz, and this fits the bill.

 

Happy Birthday to you!

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! A foggy morning here in the City of Subdued Excitement, the sun came out and burned off most of the fog from town, but Bellingham Bay seems to have stayed socked in. We had a weird weather week, we set a new record high of 66 on Tuesday. I like it!

A pretty chill week for me personally, the highlight being Trivia night at Kulshan Brewery on Monday. Teams can be up to 6 people, but I play as a solo. Generally I tend to finish somewhere in mid pack (movie and pop culture categories are what kill me), but this week, the 2 teams that tied for first had 35/42 points, the 2 teams tied for 2nd had 34/42, and lil ole me was all alone with 33/42, good for fifth place, out of 17 teams.

My first entry today seems a bit ironic, in light of recent events. A craft brewery puts their version of an AAL, then gets bought out by the largest brewer of AALs. Hmmm: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16873/95838/

And a big Hoppy Beerthday to Dickie Betts:

 

A brand new beer from Straub Brewing: Helles Lager.

Straub Brewing is an ‘old school’ PA regional brewery which opened in 1872. Maybe they are the second oldest PA brewery in operation behind Yuengling? Straub is principally known for their AAL beers but for the past few years they have periodically produced non-AAL beers (craft beers).

On the 12-pack package it lists:

“Helles

Color: Pale Straw

Malt: Pilsner and Carapils

Hops: Perle, Tettnang and Hallertauer

IBUs” 20

ABV: 5.5%”

On the bottle neck label: "This beer is subtle in flavor, with light malty notes balanced by spice and floral hop bitterness.”

Everything reads like an authentic Helles beer (but just a bit more alcohol then I would shoot for if I were to homebrew a Helles).

But as the old saying goes: the proof is in the pudding.

This beer is very good! A tasty malt flavor of the Pilsner malt with just the right amount of Noble hop flavor to provide some balance.

Another very good beer from Straub Brewing!

Oh, and a photograph of this beer in my Spiegelau Lager beer glass to show off the beautiful pale straw color and fluffy white head.

Cheers!

 

G'day to all of my NBS friends!

After very fall like weather, I am now looking at snow falling.

My new beer is a Black Ale from Alaskan.




http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/429/61144/?ba=Bitterbill
Cheers!

 

Happy NBS everyone! It's just been one long day of watching football for me. First some football of the English variety this morning, starting with Manchester United/Liverpool, and then Spurs/Swansea. Once that was over, it was time to watch the Bengals beat the Browns which was a nice surprise. Now I have the Seahawks/49er's game on, but at this point I'm really paying more attention to what's in my glass than the game. Speaking of beer, I'm starting off my all local NBS with some Seventh Son Mr. Owl Double India Brown Ale: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31408/112323/?ba=bluejacket74





I thought it was a pretty good hoppy brown ale, Seventh Son has been making some good brews lately! I'll be back on here in a little while with my other new local beer review. Cheers!

 

New CHRISTMAS BEER Sunday!!!

Been waiting for this one for about a year:



Bought this bottle just after last Christmas, I think in January, and figured I'd sit on it until Christmas 2014. With possible conflicts next week, here it is ... St. Bernardus delivers a solid beer that is everything Belgian abbey ale -- big carbonation, lots of candi sweetness smoothed out by loads of darker malt flavors of the dark fruit variety.

This picture doesn't do it any justice, but St. Bernardus Christmas Ale is one thing the quadrupel typically isn't: clear.


As it sits in the chalice, it clears up to the point of German-lager quality at the bottom. Rochefort 10, this beer is not.

Another thing: the foam. The head on this beer isn't huge in the chalice because that glass is so wide-mouthed, but look at this --->

That's a full 10 minutes after the pouring, and that head is still super thick and creamy-looking. Looks like a nitro-can pour. Amazing! (and no, the Orval chalice is not scored with a nucleation point ... although I admit this long-lasting head forced me to triple-check it)

The review:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/259/39286/?ba=Premo88
4.04 my rating (-4.5% rDev)

Technically I underrate it a bit, and maybe I do. It doesn't have that super cool yeasty pop that Rochefort 10 has, but it's still very, very good.

@beertunes --> I "liked" your original BIF thread because I am very much interested in participating. I'm also more than willing to sit out this go around and so how it works out while I gather beer packing knowledge and materials. My fear is very opposite of the good points @Lehighace06 makes, which is not getting screwed but sending a box of beer that leaves the recipient feeling screwed. I not only can't promise any whales, but even with my best effort, I can't promise that all of the beer would be as fresh as a hardcore hop-head would like.

Still, personal worries aside, I love the idea and thanks to you, @cavedave and all the NBS parents for bringing a great idea to the NBS family.

Midnight the Cat says Merry Christmas!

(look right ... Mids is in his customary spot)

Cheers!

 

I'm hoping that one sticks around through January. I checked with my sis, but she can't get it to me before the end of the year. From the last sampler I had, I have faith that they have done a very nice job on the new one, too.

 

New Porter Sunday!

The work day was fun and exciting...again (sarcasm). I don't want to talk too much about my day, I want to save my energy for this brew. Thanks to @SomethingClever for shipping me this! The New Brew is this!



I'm going to cut the chase here and describe what I have in front of me meow..er I mean woof. First off,this brew pours accordingly to the Porter Style. Dark brown body with a nice huge bubbly light khaki head. Looks pretty bomb! Let's get down with fumes from this cute little puppy! First waves hit with a nice roasted malt dominance with a nice background of toasted hazelnuts and bitter cocoa. This brews fragrance is beautiful! I want to smell this brew for hours! We all know what's next, don't we? The flavor starts of light bitter-sweet roast and subtle bitter-sweet chocolate. This brew finishes slightly bitter yet clean and a decent amount of dryness. There's an aftertaste of roasted nuts that is damn enjoyable for this time of year. Pretty decent. The feel is light carbonation is high, that's not a bad thing.

Overall: This brew is simple yet enjoyable. Not a complex creature by nature, but the dryness does ache your tastebuds for a next sip. It's highly drinkable, not horrible in flavor, just not adventurous or reaching new horizons. It's balanced and well crafted. This brew is worthy!

Grade: B+

Cheers my Fellow New Beer Sunday Crew.

@beertunes I would be most interested in the BIF program. I just don't like to send beer out in Winter months due to freezing temps and or winter storms. Also the amount of holiday gift traffic, I wouldn't want my gift to be sent to the wrong address and my IPAs become a BarleyWine. If the weather looks clear and the holidays are over, count me in!

 

@TongoRad recommended this to me as well. Then Max's had a German beer fest, jumped on that bottle, wasn't even disappointed! Actually, I loved it! German's know what they're doing.

 

Up next was a pleasant little brew from a brewery in Carson, WA. Where the hell is Carson, WA you ask?, Hell, I had to look it up myself: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29765/101660/

 

I had to clean my kitchen floor too, had been putting it off since yesterday.
I *like* some brown ales a lot, but trying new ones sets me up for disappointment often enough. That's the case with this, Nut Brown ale by Bluegrass brewing - - forward on the malt, and hops far from evident. Like Newcastle pretty much; and I had been excited to try this because my boyfriend had brought it by knowing I'd been complaining about not seeing more brown ales on the shelves and also knowing I liked to try new stuff.


Well here's to getting cleaning done and, I'm having company tomorrow; maybe one of the guests will be curiously pleased w/ the Brown by Bluegrass. (Is that wrong, to hope will be the case?...)

 

Molotov Cocktail Single Simcoe Hop Edition

Beer's got a lotta fruit - tropical and sweet, sprinkled with citrus and cut with bitter pine resin...

Some snacks...

Roasted Garlic Melba Toast, Extra Aged Asiago Cheese, Bresaola Cured Beef, and Supremely Spicy Hummus

Cheers - hope yer beers are good to ya!

 

New Cincinnati Made IPA Sunday

Bitch of a month, and self sustained damage from last night so this will be brief. My wife just asked if we can put "IOUs" under the tree, so I know things are out of control.

I have neglected many of the Cincinnati breweries so far. Not intentionally. We just have a crap load in state now. This is a pretty highly regarded IPA. "Psychopathy"



Mostly clear. A golden, morning pee color (sorry). Fairly frothy head with moderate lacing.

Bitter hops up front. Floral and very grassy. I imagine kind of what my yard might taste like in a blender. Followed by a sweet bready taste. Bitter again on the back side with a grapefruit punch.

A bit disappointed. Not balanced very well. A lot of high and low points. A solid palate wrecker. Maybe I have had too many of Ohio's DIPAs or IPAs that taste like doubles/imperials... Not a bad beer, but this will likely be my only purchase.
I've got a final tally of 3.69
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31093/92198/?ba=WesMantooth

 

Glad you enjoyed it. Black Rajah is no slouch either. My only knock on them is no bottle dating, which prevents me from buying it a lot of places because it is on shelves. I do cooler only unless in place where it moves quiker.

 

I thought it was good, but I wouldn't put PsycHOPathy on the same level as Columbus IPA, White Rajah and Head Hunter. There are a lot of good Ohio IPA's out there, so one has to be pretty good for me to buy it again.