New Beer Sunday (week 515)

I purchased this ($5.99) at Rouse's on Veterans' Blvd. in Metairie, Louisiana on Jan. 3, 2015. Ridgeway Lump of Coal has a thick, creamy, beige head, a dark brown (ruby red brown, under light) appearance, and substantial lacing left on the glass. The aroma is of sweet cream, bread crust, and malt. Taste is of sweetness, cream, dark roasted, and almost burnt, malt, char, and acidic bitterness. Mouthfeel is medium, and Ridgeway Lump of Coal finishes semi-dry and boozy in the head. You will feel this one. RJT

 

“I like "earthy" as it can cover a few things.”

The fact that earthy can “cover a few things” makes it a less desirable descriptor from my perspective as regards discussing a particular beer.

In my opinion descriptors like citrus, tropical fruit, piney, are ‘better’ since in my opinion there is less ambiguity with those words. I feel more confident that a citrus aroma/flavor has similar connotations between you and me. I don’t feel as confident in that regard with the word “earthy”.

We also have the additional challenge that you and I can drink the exact same beer and you might say the flavor is dominated by an aroma/flavor of cat pee while I will give you a strange look and say: this beer is dominated by tropical fruit aroma/flavor. We all have our own unique palate and consequently we can perceive differing flavors from the same beverage.

Cheers!

 

I had the wild hop ipa the other week, I got a little citrus in it, but it was more earthy, dank, and.. wild. Had an overripe fruit note to it, but undiscernable of what kind.

If you've ever had Comet hops, I believe those to the best example of wild along with them. Just pungent with descriptors I find hard to quantify other than citrusy and weed like. It's the smell you get from cutting wild brush I guess.

 

“I got a little citrus in it, but it was more earthy, dank, and.. wild. Had an overripe fruit note to it, but undiscernable of what kind.” I personally did not pick up any citrus. I am typically sensitive to dank (I personally do not like dank in beers) and I personally would not use the word “dank” to describe this beer. As I have discussed, I do get “earthy” from this beer. As Maria further expounded on it: “herbal and rich but not necessarily pungent”. I really don’t know how to comment on the descriptor of “wild”.

I have never tasted a beer with Comet hops. Are there any commercial beers that are easily available that feature Comet hops?

Cheers!

 

I don't usually drink new beers on Sundays, but I'll give this one a go. My lady picked up a growler of Samuel Adams JP Stout at the brewery yesterday so I decided to have some with some playoff football. My review is listed below the picture.

And this beer is so new, I had to create it on the site.



3.58/5rDev n/a
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Brewery description says that this 4.4% Stout was brewed with Galena, Aramis, and Centennial hops, this stout has notes of roasted chocolate and coffee.

Poured from a 64 oz growler capped on 1/3/2014 into a Samuel Adams perfect pint glass.

L: Pours a deep brownish black color with a towering khaki colored head. The head slowly fades to a slight covering on my glass. Lacing is also very present.

S: A roasty smell is pretty much the only thing that I catch. The hops aren't picked up at all. Judging by the smell, I can tell that this beer is 4.4%.

T: Some nice roasted chocolate comes through. There's a tinge of bitter coffee at the end and I also pick up some bitterness from the hops. It's a bit thin which kind of takes away from the taste.

F: As I said, this is a thin beer, which is definitely what it's meant to be. Drinkability is off the charts and I could easily down this 64 oz growler in about an hour or so.

Overall: This is a nice drinking low ABV stout. The flavors are nice, but not as pronounced as I'd prefer. Still waiting for that brewery to perfect a potent tasting stout with a low ABV, but I'll take this Samuel Adams stout and enjoy it.

 

New Quadrupel Sunday-

Busy day today, what with football and cooking, and I don't want to be too distracted, but I also want my first beer to be the new one on a fresh palate. With that in mind, I just popped this beauty-


Cerveceria Wals Belo Ipé, from Brazil

I was recently reminded that I wanted to grab this one one night when @superspak posted about it on WBAYDN. I made damn sure I got one of the few remaining bottles before they were gone. It's a quadrupel aged on cachaca (Brazilian rum) oak chips.

The nose is elegant and gorgeous- nothing really stands out too much, instead it's beautifully blended together. Brown sugar, dates, vanilla, oatmeal-raisin cookies, toffee, and even a hint of rum all play together perfectly. The palate is strong, but not forceful, mostly dates and brown sugar right away, but then the spices and malt start to come to the fore. It's on the sweet side, but not overly so, with just enough bitterness to keep it in check. The finish is a lingering soft landing of gentle woody notes, inviting another sip. Great stuff, and I will be going back for more! Solid A (4.65).

 

Good to be back on NBS! I have been absent over the past two or so weeks but now with everything dying down, I can settle in and have a new beer. I will be trying out a Brewery that is new to me, Four Fathers brewing right here in my new hometown in Northern Indiana.

As for weather, it has been snowing since 5:30 this morning, so this transplanted southerner has been thrown to the wolves. Go figure. So on this blustery, wintry day, I will return later with pictures and a nice review.

Cheers NBS!

 

Hi NBSers, how GOSE it? It's a dreary, rainy day in Lancaster county. Perfect weather for my doctor prescribed 5 walks a day! My wife and son are enjoying a nap while I enjoy Anderson Valley's Blood Orange Gose after my latest jaunt.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/193/132073/?ba=DIM

Cheers!

 

Well Old Man Winter finally found us. I've been busy doing things I haven't had to do all December. Thankfully there isn't too much snow to shovel, but this week will be a treat with below 0 temps.

Last year Lakefront brewed a Black IPA that was only released at the brewery on Black Friday. I wanted the beer, but had no luck in obtaining it. Fast forward 13 months later..


Some awesome BA happened to have a few that he cellared. Now, you typically wouldn't cellar a BIPA, but this one clocks in at 10% ABV. He let me know it really didn't lose too much of the hoppiness it had when it was fresh. So today, I am enjoying the beer I was unable to get last year!

After pouring the beer I pick up roasty dark malts with a light note of burnt chocolate on the nose. Even at 13 months old I pick up the citrus hops in the aroma.

The flavor starts off with sweet malts and moves into muted hoppy flavors of citrus, pine, and earthy tones. They yield to the darker roasty malts on the palette along with bitter chocolate and some sweet caramel. The bitterness and hops complete the finish. I can't imagine this with too much more hop flavor, because it is excellent right now.



Cheers to a new year and new beer Sunday!

 

Beautiful beer....and citation/quotation/recognition of S. Scott...a man who had life priorities and philosophies properly aligned and strength abundant

Stuart Scott, a longtime anchor at ESPN, died Sunday morning at the age of 49.

Among the features of the new ESPN studio in Bristol is a wall of catchphrases made famous by on-air talent over the years. An amazing nine of them belong to one man -- from his signature "Boo-Yah!" to "As cool as the other side of the pillow" to "He must be the bus driver cuz he was takin' him to school."

 

Allagash Nancy.

 

Today im trying Founders Black Rye, their new addition to the seasonal rotation.

Aroma is a very nice mix of spicy rye and piney hops, plays well together both adding their own unique bittering elements.

Taste does follow the nose quite closely, again a nice piney hop character with spice notes of rye. Laying underneath there are some nice roasted malt notes. Feel is quite silky for this one.

Overall, i think this is a very nice offering. I have not tried Red Rye IPA (which this replaced), so i cant say which i prefer, but this is very nice. Kind of a black ipa/rye ipa hybrid. Much more easy going than Dark Pennance.

I rated this a 3.93 on the BA weighted scale

 

Welcome to the 'Region' as the locals call it! It's been a year pretty much absent of snow until today. Cross your fingers that the lake effect snow machine doesn't kick in.

I've been to Four Fathers and they seem to get better with time. Ironwood Brewing down the road has bottles of their Black Friday BA Russian imperial stout on sale this weekend. A bit pricey at 20 bucks, but a real solid beer and worth buying in my opinion.

Cheers, and enjoy everything the region has to offer. Get to 18th Street if you haven't!

 

Hello all my NBS friends,

It was an uneventful week at work, got a lot of the framing done in our twin bathroom remodel and it all looks great. An interesting self-supporting wall mounted sink is being delivered next week. Never done one like it, looking forward to the challenge.

New Years Eve was pretty sweet. My electrician holds a Christmas tree burning party every year. This year we had 67 trees collected from all over town (last year was well over a hundred). Every year I'm amazed how many people want the thing out of their house as soon as possible (although when you see what a fire risk they can be it makes some sense). It was a cold night, but the massive fire and plenty of good beer made it all better.



For this week's NBS I'm going big. Big stout, big bottle. One I should have tried long ago.....

AleSmith Speedway Stout...



It pours a deep black color with a tan one finger head that lingers for a long time. It is very aromatic with a strong coffee and deep boozy scent. Taste is bold chocolate and high quality coffee beans. There is a slight spiciness on the finish. I keep waiting for the same blast of alcohol I got on the nose, but it never comes. It just finishes smooth as can be with no burn (surprising given the ABV). Feel is that also, smooth and velvety/creamy with an adequate level of carbonation. Overall, a super impressive brew. Wasn't sure I'd want the whole bottle to myself, but halfway through my first glass I'm already looking forward to the second. It's a bit pricey, but not out-of-this-world expensive, and certainly worth picking up now and then.

Cheers!!!!

 

Thought I would start out 2015 on the right foot with my first post in the New Beer Sunday forum. I've enjoyed reading all the great posts in this thread for some time now and look forward to being part of the fun!

My new beer on this snowy first Sunday of 2015 is the Mocha Abduction from Pipeworks Brewing Company. The label looks like a chocolate bar version of Han Solo frozen in carbonite being dipped into a coffee mug by some crazy drunk Jaba the Hutt character. Like all Pipeworks art, it's eccentric but fun. The contents of the bottle pour a deep, midnight black with a thin lacing of sandy colored head.
The aroma is heavy on dark roasted coffee and chocolate. Compared to the Coffee Break Abduction I enjoyed previously, this one smells considerably drier and more on the bitter, dark chocolate end of the spectrum. None of the vanilla or caramel sweetness that I expected.
Similar to the smell, the flavor is dominated by Sumatra-like dark roast and rich dark cocoa. The mouthfeel is pleasantly creamy and smooth with low carbonation.
Overall, this is a great coffee stout but perhaps a bit one dimensional. It falls right in the middle of the wonderful Abduction series for me. I did not enjoy the fruit truffle iterations nearly as much but I absolutely loved the toasted nut and coffee break abductions.
Thanks for letting me share! Wishing you all a fantastic New Brew Sunday!

 

For this, my second NBS, I attempted to recapture some magic from early in my BA career. My highest-rated beer on this site is Old Rasputin XII, a beer I remember with great fondness, and recently I was able to pick up a bottle of XVII. Today I decided to see if the new brew matches up to the old.

Frankly, it was going to be a tall order. I gave XII a stellar 4.83 back in 2010. XVII is a delicious beer, but it's kind of rougher around the edges, especially with respect to the harshness of the wood in the finish and the somewhat high heat of the alcohol. XVII got a 4.3; still a fantastic beer, but not one about which I'm likely to wistfully dream in the future.

Picture cross-posted to WBAYDN, because I am indeed drinking it now.

 

If it's giving people tripels, I'm all for it. I'm sad I have none in the beer fridge today

 

smells / tastes like a pad of paper with hints of pepperoni sounds like pizza hut

 

Later today my friends are bringing me a growler of Agitated Aardvark from Horse and Dragon Brewing in Fort Collins. Looking forward to it. I've never had anything from the,.

 

It's cold! When the Cowboys kicked off in D.C. last Sunday, it was colder here in Texas than there in the District. A week later? STILL COLD! I'm going to be swinging my golf clubs by the wrong end next time I get to go out if somebody doesn't do something ...

With that, on to:

New Can Something Created in USA be Called "Scotch" Sunday?

I had big hopes for this one (a craft classic I assume many to most have had):



Odell's 90 Shilling ...

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/267/740/?ba=Premo88
3.1 rating/ -20.1% rDev

It tastes mostly like corn, alcohol and dirt. There's a hint of malt sweetness under that, even a taste of caramel, but it is wee light to nonexistent. The brew is possibly quite old (best by date is March 2015, I think, so it shouldn't be, right?) and full disclosure -- I'm coming off a cold/cough, which does screw around with my palate. But my light experience with Scotch/Scottish ales and longtime love affair with the English pale ale family plus hearing word about this brew had me expecting a malt bomb of some sort.

It's not. The more I drink, the more I taste dirt. But it's not the cool earthy hop bite balanced by malt sweetness of the English pale ale. I'ts just dirt.

Damn. I'll order this on tap sometime down the road just to give it a second chance. And I'll try more Scotch ales because it's a style I'm curious about.

On a more positive note, I shipped out my BIF box a couple days ago. I'm a bit worried my recipient will be let down, for the Texas brews I sent him/her are solid but nothing I'd enter in a contest. In fact, don't tell him/her, but I'm secretly planning to send him/her a second, smaller box of a much more prized example of our Texas beer (when I can get my G.D. hands on it -- hard-to-find beers are f-ing hard to find!!! )

Happy NBS to all and cheers!