New Beer Sunday (week 515)

Hey what's goin on?!

Been lying low a little bit, trying to take it easy. Honestly a little stressed out still and trying to just unplug a bit. You didn't think I'd forget about NBS? now did ya! Well I was planning on going cold turkey for today... shocker I know....

That being said though, I do have something new to my palate today, and even though it's a pumpkin ale I still of course gave her a go. It was after all a gift... so what's new for our hero the usual non pumkin ale fan??

Samuel Adams - Fat Jack Double Pumpkin Ale


Samuel Adams - Fat Jack Double Pumpkin Ale by imbibehour, on Flickr

Review here, or just read below: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/73731/?ba=smakawhat

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Poured from the bottle into a large snifter glass. Sure why not, go big or go home.

Real nice creamed thick yellow and orange to tan head, real creamy appearance with two finger tall height and soupy retention. Body color seems to go for more of brown on the spectrum, with a chestnut orange rather than a red or so. Quite good clarity and some scattered real leggy and whispy thin lacing, quite a nice looking beer actually.

As far as pumpkin ales go, pretty solid and unexpected. Clove notes, slight squash and good amounts of nutmeg as well. Seems to hint more to hotter spices almost kind ok a sensing mule wine coming off of this actually, as opposed to a big sugar rush or something. Very solid.

Palate actually delivers interestingly. Very toned down sweetness and a surprising angle. Has more of a fruity cherry and spiced winter warmer character than hinting at pumpkin. Clove and mid palate, and a good spiced cinnamon finish. Hints of mild cherry and soft fruit, but no bread crust or pumpkin pie to be had here.

Overall this is actually a decent brew, and the aroma seems to indicate a true pumpkin brew, but this really doesn't taste like one. For that it's more appealing to me, but this really tastes like a winter warmer, or perhaps a pumpkin aroma version of Old Fezziwig? Hard to score this one, decent, but to style not really? So I'll be on the fence.

look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5 | Final score: 3.91

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So there ya have it

 

Trying Cluster's Last Stand. Stone and Smuttynose, I had to see what they would come up with together.

The flavor profile is different from the IPAs I usually dig and yet I keep craving another sip. It doesn't have the sweetness and slick malt backbone of my favorite double IPAs and, it is not fresh and vibrant like my go to IPAs; yet I am enjoying it more and more further I get into this bottle.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/141/97184/?ba=Chickenhawk9932

 

New Lambic/Gueuze Sunday

And here's my 2nd and last new beer review for today, Cantillon's Cuvée St-Gilloise: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/388/21683/?ba=bluejacket74





I thought it was good, full of fruity, tart, and the word of the day for NBS, "earthy" flavors.

Have a good night and week NBSer's!

 

Need another few bottles of this. Perfect mix between barrel aged stout and barleywine. Very good price too (I paid $4 for the bottle). Def gonna grab more
Bravo Duclaw!

 

New Adjuct Lager Sunday

Good Evening NBSers with a special nod to all you Lovers of Light Lagers.

Today was the second of two dreary weather days of scattered or heavy rain interspersed with periods of just gray skies. It wasn’t a particularly exciting day so I went grocery shopping and restocked both the freezer and some of the essential snack foods.

Tonight I’m exploring a very traditional beer, but one that is a new beer for me (I don’t remember ever having tried it before), the Rolling Rock Pale Ale, which once came out of the “glass lined tanks of old Latrobe.” The beer was left behind by a holiday guest who preferred to bring his own beer rather than take a chance on he might find in our fridge, and one thing I learned many years ago is to never pass up either free beer or free.... (we'll just leave that to your imagination )

Anyway, I realized I'd never tried this beer when reading through this thread:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/has-rolling-rock-changed.237739/

where one of the BAs who posted mentioned having lived in PA for several years and never having tried this iconic beer that for most of its life came from the “glass lined tanks of old Latrobe.” Since that was true for me tonight's choice was an easy one. So, the review is in progress and the current draft can be found here:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/174/567/?ba=drtth


On this first Sunday of the new year, while tasting one tradition, I’m also looking at/listening to the sounds of a unique Philadelphia New Years Day tradition. Here for those who’ve never had a chance to see/hear the Mummer’s parade are a couple of nice samples of the music of the String Bands.





Enjoy your New Year!

 

Here is my new beer. It is from Pipeworks - a brewery that almost uses NBS as its business model.

Alcohol forward, and lacks complexity. Got two for Christmas so the battle will have to rage on for a year or two.

 

OK, not gonna tell you anything you don't already know, but this was my first time having BCBS. An extremely well crafted beer. I think I still prefer Parabola, but I could drink this on a regular basis. I should have had my son grab another 4-pack for me on Black Friday, even at $7/bottle.

Bad thing is that my wife also thought it was the best one of my beers that she's tasted, so not all of it went to me. Oh, well, sharing is caring!

 

This years Lagunitas Brown Shugga delicious I will add this to my list of yearly releases to not miss

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! Very dark gray, windy rainy day here in the Fourth Corner has given way to a black, rainy, windy evening. I'd like to encourage those of you who didn't join in the NBS BIF to check out the Hints thread, there's some fun stuff happening.

A pretty mellow week for me, my last 2 beers of 2014 were Happy New Beer by Wander Brewing. It was one only firkin (talk about rarezbro!) of a blend of their Barley Humbug winter ale and a soon-to-be released wild ale. Nice beers with which to end a year. I never drink on the Amateur Hour holidays, so I worked on NYE. We had a pretty mellow band, so a pretty chill crowd. Much fun was still had though.

After a couple different tries, I finally got a new brew for today, an ImpIPA that most others seem to be more impressed with than I am: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19378/60332/

One of the things about being m age is, the folks who created the "Modern Culture" that you grow up with, and that stays with you, pass away at pretty much a weekly, and sometimes daily, rate. This week we lost a trueGiant of old-school country music. RIP Little Jimmy Dickens:

 

New Old Ale Sunday



Kuhnhenn BB4D

I had regular 4D on draft a few months back and ever since I've been looking forward to trying the barrel-aged version. I made it out to this year's Winter Solstice release and picked up a couple bottles. Might've had a few pints, too, but the bottled version is new to me

A: Pours a dark, rusty shade of copper with some bright ruby and russet tones

S: Burnt sugar, candied dark cherries, boozy oak, sherry-soaked almond cookies, and coconut

T: Lots of dark cherries and plums, sherry, toffee, and oak. Really nice, somewhat harsh alcohol burn on the finish. Alcohol presence became more pronounce as the beer warmed up (that was a good thing!)

M: Thick and viscous without being heavy

O: A fantastic, top-tier old ale. Loads of caramel, toffee, brown sugar, and booze, with some nice fruit undertones. It's a lot like some of the best English-style BA barleywines, but a good deal sweeter and more sherry-forward. I think I favor 4D over BB4D. The regular has a lot of the same aromas and flavors as BB4D, but it was slightly less sweet and lacked the boozy sherry punch that BB4D delivers. I would've liked a bit more bourbon presence - for whatever reason I am picking up a lot of sherry or some kind of sweet liquer - but I'm not complaining.

Cheers,
Mike

 

NBS isn't WBAYDN, we take a moment to talk about ourselves, and especially our New Beers. Next time, share a little. Cheers!

 

New American Wild Ale Sunday (week 515)

Greetings fellow NBS ers from on the ridge in Mid Hud Val NY. A horrible two days weather wise which required me to soak and try to dry my 4 sets of work gloves, have water slosh into my socks through multiple sock and shoe changes, and getting soaked to the bone with chilly sleet and rain through the top of my poncho while working. As bad as it gets on the roads and at work around here, snow is a blessing compared to this crap.

Weather like this does not deter my neighbors, and the remnants of Christmas made it into the recycling roll-offs in abundant supply.

Sorry no pic or formal review, I no longer post reviews from memory, and no pictures were taken today. It was a memorable beer though, and I still can taste it now.

Today I tasted one of the beers I have wanted to taste for almost as long as I have known the word whale could refer to beers, Duck Duck Gooze. Thanks to @Oldladyfingers for popping this delight, and to @doomXsaloon for hosting the impromptu get together. There are few things I enjoy more than sharing fine beer with these men.

I don't review from memory, and the half hour we spent enjoying this beer deserved not to be lessened by writing notes to describe the bliss of DDG as it was enjoyed. Memory paints a delicious picture I will now relate.

The nose is full of bugs and brett, but not the harsh sour sometimes thrown by lacto, nor the hormonal smells thrown by the more lambicus bretts. It was a genius array of light, rounded tart, fruity brett aromas, hints of a grainy character, earth, and a juicy sweet holding it all together. No sharp edges here, just pure enticement through the nasal passages.

It tasted every bit as good as it smelled, the citrus notes expanded to include some delicious flavors. I had trouble putting name to them as I sipped, and now in memory they seem to be a generic basic citrus element blended with an earthy element, and hints of aromatic floral herb within. The sweet seemed at first to be overpowering, but after a few sips it became a clean counter point, with no sour candy, really clean and wonderful. It was perfectly balanced, bright yet blended.

Fucking delicious is my two word review encapsulation.

The warmer this beer got the better it got, as the deeper brett aspects became more pronounced, and the sweet more a light pleasure that coats palate with goodness.

Normally beers don't impress me well enough to bring back this clearly 3 hours later. Duck Duck Gooze is an impressive beer.

Hope you also have a Great American Beer in your glass. Cheers!

 

Good evening,
Enjoying my first De Dolle Arabier


31 months old, liked this one.
Beautiful look and feel, taste threw me off a bit. A flashing sweetness of malt and stone fruit that was quickly overpowered with a hard bitterness. It really grew on me though, and I would certainly have again.

 

Hello and a Hoppy New Beer (Sunday) to y'all!
I spent the day doing the last glorious nothing I anticipate for a while and determined to enjoy it. Tuition is due tomorrow for my first semester at UAH (and just when did they start sending babies to university? I swear some of those young men have less beard than I do.) and I feel I've sold my soul to SallieMae.

Disastrous for wallet and waistline but as ever my resolution it to win the lottery and buy more beer and larger pants.
Jesus wept this is a tasty beer. No doubt all of y'all have had it before bu I don't know why I waited so long. Almonds, red apples, apricots, caramel, toast, and could it be? Marshmallow fluff!
Will I drink it again? I sure will if someone else is buying.

 

Howdy NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend. I took a break over the holidays from reviews, but now I am back into it! Here is today's new beers:

This is a delicious Kolsch. Taste of lemon, pear, apple, wheat, cracker, bread, herbal, straw, grass, and yeast earthiness. Light earthy herbal bitterness on the finish balances bready malt sweetness. Really great balance of the pale malt, earthy hops, and yeast esters all around. Nicely robust on flavors with a pretty clean finish with no overly estery notes from yeast at all. Smooth and fairly crisp finish. A bit of a creamy/bready feel is present as well as expected. Would drink again. 3.9


Bourbon barrel Doppelbock. Awesome! Taste of big chocolate, caramel, toffee, toast, raisin, brown bread, vanilla, coconut, oak, bourbon, and oak/toasty earthiness. There is a light tannic oaky bitterness on the finish that provides some nice sweetness balance. Not quite as heavy as I expected for a 11.5% doppelbock; but the mouthfeel is nicely creamy and a bit slick. The bourbon barrel complexity and balance with the malt sweetness is just plain outstanding. Extremely awesome integration of barrel flavors in nose and taste. Very smooth sipper for the gravity as well, with no booziness and only a light warming alcohol presence after the finish. I love it! 4.23


Great scotch ale! Taste of caramel, toffee, toast, raisin, plum, fig, apple, vanilla, brown bread, and light oak. Some slight oak tannic bitterness on the finish. Really well balanced complexity of dark/bready malts with yeast fruitiness and fruity cognac complexity. Very smooth sipper for 11% with a medium body and a fairly creamy/bready mouthfeel. Not as full bodied as I expected given the gravity, but I don't have any complaints. Zero booziness or alcohol warming on the finish which was surprising. Overall this is all around delicous and well balanced scotch ale. I still think the Bordeaux Barrel aged is the best, but this is better than the Port barrel one. 4.1


Cheers, have a good night NBS!

 

Busy day as usual, finally setting down to enjoy a beer and after a false start (see WBAYDN for details) I decided to go with a Thirsty Dog Wulver for NBS.



What an excellent beer, I like the Wee Heavy style but it's not on the top half of my favorite beer styles list as I'm not a big fan of sweeter flavors that are typical. This is more my speed. It starts of dark and sweet like a standard Wee Heavy but on the back end the smooth bourbon flavors really kick in to mellow things out. Love this beer and recommend everyone tries one if they can track it down.

On the way home from taking the kids to visit my parents Sirius/XM was re-playing an Allman Brothers Band concert, good stuff.