New Beer Sunday (week 516)

Still way too early for beer for me, but some friends will be coming over later, and I've got my eye on a 750 bottle of a new (for me) saison from France: La Blonde D'Esquelbecq.

Plan to enjoy it later in solidarity with my French friends.

Je suis Charlie.

 

Just giving NBS a bump so you know that our gracious host was johnny on the spot this fine morning when he had to go to work. =) Cheers and Happy New Beer Sunday everyone.

 

Good Morning to all you NBS folks. Thanks Dave for getting things started.
And good luck with that reconstruction!
This morning brings me home from working away all week. It is still cold in WMass,
but not nearly as it was in northern VT. I have the pleasure to have a little Troublette from
Brassarie Caracole.
Cheers all.

Troublette
Brasserie Caracole
Witbier / 5.00% ABV

4.44/5 rDev +11.6% | rAvg: 3.98
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Poured from an 11.2 oz bottle into a modified tulip glass.
A - Lemon drop gold colored, beautifully hazy with a steady stream of delicately dancing, champagne sized bubbles. All lead into an snow white thick frothy cap.
S - Grain husk, wrapped in lemon. Pineapple and spicy white pepper, rising bready yeast finishes the experience. What a delightful dance this beer presents in the nose.
T - Spicy lemon, wonderful graininess, light wheat and citrus fight it out, that nose carries right across the flavors. So very delicate in each area. The distinction seems to by the spiciness. There is a clear line to the coriander, all the flavors have a "pop" to them that is quite fun.
F - Light across the palate, charge of the light brigade for sure. Carbonation cleans the trail upon departure. The start is edgy on all fronts, almost prickly. With a bit of linger
on the spices to round out the experience. Refreshing in its body, this is another wonderful element to this beer.
O - I am delighted to have tried this beer. From the look to the last sip, a wonderful
Belgian White from Brassarie Caracole. Strongly recommended.

Cheers

 

My beer of choice for today’s NBS is Furst Wallerstein Zwickel.

Now, I recognize that for many BAs Zwickel is not a preferred beer style but please stay with me here. One of the ‘features’ of the Zwickel (or Kellerbier) beer style is that it is unfiltered and unpasteurized. IMO, by not filtering and not pasteurizing, this beer style has the benefit of not having flavors stripped or altered (by the ‘cooking’ of pasteurization). There is an ongoing thread discussing the pluses (and minuses?) of unfiltered and unpasteurized beer: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/unfiltered-and-unpasteurized.154542/

I will provide a spoiler alert to the above linked thread: I am personally a BIG fan of breweries not filtering and not pasteurizing their beers.

So, back to Furst Wallerstein Zwickel. The Wallerstein brewery is located in the German region of Franconia. Some BAs who participate on the Germany forum refer to Franconia as the beer Shangri La of Germany.

So what is exciting about a Furst Wallerstein Zwickel (Kellerbier)? For me the excitement is the pleasant bready/doughy aspect of the malt backbone of this beer with just enough Noble hop flavor to provide some balance. The fact that it is unfiltered means that there is no flavor stripping that can occur from the filtering process. No effects from pasteurization either. Nothing but wonderful bready/doughy malt flavors with some herbal/spicy flavors from the Noble hops. Very simply: a beer of beauty.

My other favorite German brewed Kellerbier is Mahr's Ungespundet-hefetrüb which I find to be particularly appealing when served on cask via gravity pour.

There are not many US craft brewed Kellerbiers but some of my favorites are:

· Urban Chestnut Zwickel

· Sly Fox Standard Pils

· Sly Fox Keller Pils

· Sly Fox 2nd Street Pils

· Sly Fox Tettnang Keller Pils

· Brooklyn Gold Standard Export Kellerbier

· Victory Braumeister Pils of various ‘varieties’: featuring Saaz, Hallertauer Mittelfruh, and others.

· Voodoo Pilzilla

· Tired Hands Yellow & Green

· Triumph Aldstadt Lager

· Southampton Keller Pils

· Etc.

In fact I had two Willi Becher glasses of Sly Fox Tettnang Keller Pils last evening at the Sly Fox Brewpub.

This has been an excellent Kellerbier weekend!!

The other pluses of Furst Wallerstein Zwickel are the cool bottle they use plus it is just plain fun to say the word “Zwickel”.

Cheers!

 

I'm in the process of transitioning to night shift, so I'm actually about to go to bed. My beer today is one I toyed with throwing in the box (not literally throwing: I don't need to be sending broken glass!!), but ultimately decided I had enough dark stuff already.
I finished my last orientation day on Thursday, and now it's just a couple of night orientation shifts and then I get to be a real boy and take care of the cue balls completely on my own! Huzzah! I'm really excited.
Weather has turned back to the Pacific Northwest I know and love: mid-40s and misting. The CAN unit is on the 7th and 8th floor, and the one upside to getting there before dawn is that if you happen to have a moment as the sun is coming up, you get to see the mountain, the space needle, and the sound all painted against a backdrop of beautiful pastel sunrise. Even when it's too grey to get an effective sunrise, you can see the fog sneak in and wrap the city in its woolen embrace, then simply vanish like extricating yourself from someone comfortable sleeping on your arm.

I trekked up to the roof of my apartment building this morning, ostensibly to watch the sunrise, but really just to snap a nifty picture of my chosen bottle. Got my scene all set and... realized my phone was out of battery. Balls. Still enjoyed the misty view of overlit cranes rising out of the milieu and the deuling red and white of the I5 bridge rendered through droplets, but felt secretly disappointed I didn't have an awesome picture to kick things off. Get back to the apt, plug the phone in, and realize it had 51% battery, it just didn't want to turn on. Technology.

Anyway, Snoqualmie is a beautiful area and they produce a tasty Porter. It's one I know I've seen dozens of times, but always looked over for a combination of always seeing it and figuring it will be there and (admittedly: not overly proud of it) that they tend towards the generic/boring type local labels that never really stood out. Don't let simple labels dissuade you my friends (the rest of you either)! This porter pours that deep black we all love in our big dark beers, with a nice thick rich head. Nose started off a bit faint, but as it warmed, roast lifted the chocolate and char to the forefront. Taste follows similarly. This is a drier porter: there's chocolate and warm toasty notes in there, but there's a fair amount of east side winter as well: dry cold and bitter. The two dominant flavours I get are the same as on the nose: chocolate and ashy/char. I happen to like these flavours. Very smoothe, and light without being lite, if that makes sense. Even if it doesn't. Whatever.

Alright. Enough wall of text from me. Have a wonderful Sunday everyone. For those involved: the time is ticking close for the boxes (that haven't already gone out) to go out, and I hope everyone is as excited as I am. Both to be receiving and to be sending. I like sharing things I love, and this is a perfect opportunity, so I want to thank our gracious host once again, along with the Mountain Hawk Ace for putting this whole thing together.



And since it was an exciting game for this fan to watch I'll leave you with this (apologies to my target you know who you are...)

I've never seen this happen before. But the REALLY crazy thing is, this was the second time IN A ROW that he was able to pull this off perfectly.

He jumped the line and missed the block the first time and the kicker made it, but they called a false start (I think?) on one of the linemen. So they back up a couple of yards to try it again, and he times it perfectly and makes the jump AGAIN!! this time he blocked it (refs said he didn't get the ball. I'm biased and want to believe he did), kicker misses, but his momentum nudges him into the kicker and they call running into the kicker. He almost went for it a third time, but pulled off at the last second. the gif above sums up my reaction nicely.

Cheers everyone!

 

It's supposed to get up nearly freezing today with most of this week being in the double digits - heat wave! Today I'm opening the last of my Clown Shoes reserve, and its OK - not exceptional. Maybe my expectations are just too high because of the reviews and general gracious remarks on here. This is somewhat watery and just doesn't taste that good, attested to by it taking three hours to finish this bomber while watching MST3K, reading email, etc.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22951/129552/?ba=Ozzylizard

 

Help me choose a new Minnesota beer for today.

Fulton The Ringer (APA)
Summit True Brit IPA
Badger Hill MSB

 

Sorry about the porch, @cavedave! Not looking forward to that bill.

You know your drinking patterns, tastes and moods best, but I might gently encourage you to try that double IPA Whipsaw first ... before it becomes a barleywine. Or save it for last and we'll call it a funky adventure! I love that beer at the brewery, but it might be a fast de-hoppifier in the bottle. Hadn't tried it that way yet.

Hope you enjoy them all, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our big BIF fest here on NBS works out great for everybody involved. I can't wait to get my brews and try something new.

Be back soon with some birra ... cheers until then!

 

one vote for Badger Hill MSB

 

We're lazily moving along through a cold January here in Kansas, which calls for dog naps by the fireplace and beers such as this: Breckenridge 72 Imperial Chocolate Cream Stout -- Barrel Aged.

Black as night, this beer leaves what I like to call world map lacing -- I can almost make out certain countries until the foam dissipates. The aroma is subdued -- but bourbon and oak come through quite well with sweet cream. The taste is downright flamboyant compared to the aroma. Bourbon and oak tart (is that the right word?) immediately emerge. Underneath the barrel come a subdued sweet cream and chocolate profile. But that BA tart! Chocolate and cream are subtle but improve as the beer warms. The mouthfeel is pretty smooth and dry. I do prefer the non-BA version of this.

7.2% ABV. It's not perfect but I do like it. I rated it 4.1 which is 0% rDev, so I am spot-on with the few others that have rated this. I feel this review is very basic and vague, but I'm not getting a lot of variety in this beer. Oak, cream, chocolate. It's simple but it's good. Cheers!

 

I've had good things from Fulton. So one vote for The Ringer.

 

Cold and getting cloudy; snow persists from some action we've seen the past week or so.
Love dat winter.


Stumbled upon this when I went to a different beer store than my usual - last one on the shelf.

I knew it was gonna be a perfect way to start Sunday.

--> Westbrook makes the legendary Mexican Cake

In base body and flavor, very reminiscent - but with a different direction in its featured flavors...

Spot-on - nails the smooth creamy chocolate, almond-milk feel and tastes, hints of coconut...
Super smooth - smoother than Mexican Cake...
Review: 4th Anniversary Chocolate Coconut Almond Imperial Stout...

Meanwhile...

Totally called yesterday's games *pats self on back*

Today I'm seeing GB barely beating the Cowboys, but I'd hate to be an invested fan of either team today
Andrew Luck is a true hero, but he has no supporting cast for his talents. Peyton Manning, on the other hand, is a legendary QB with much better support from his team; plus he's on home turf...

Big new TIPA later - I'll see you then...

Cheers

Soundtrack to this post...





...iTunes just randomly strung these together for me...

\m/ \m/

 

Getting ready for the Packer game and enjoying Über Joe.

Sensational aromas of rich pressed coffee, espresso, dark chocolate and cocoa. Subtle notes of vanilla, caramel, and buttered wheat toast are also present. Not much of the maple wood is present.

Fresh brewed coffee, espresso, dark chocolate and caramel. Hints of vanilla and hot cocoa. A nice roasted flavor with the black wheat and if you pay attention you may pick up a bit of the maple wood on the finish as it warms.



Happy NBS!

 

Today im trying Ommegang Art of Darkness, 8.9% Belgian Strong Dark Ale. It is about 7 months old which is fine for me, brewery says you can age up to 2 years. I obtained this 750 ml bottle in the holiday gift pack which included this beer, a 750 ml of Three Philosophers, a 750 ml of Hennepin, and a ommegang glass. I thought it was a good deal at 21 bucks.

The aroma is very subdued, its like you have to try hard to draw anything. There are some sugary sweet malts, with hints of darker fruits like plum and raisin. Taste almost follows the nose in that its hard to get much! I'll say one thing, there is a very dry and astringent bitter flavor on the back end which is quite pleasant. Almost a woody, earthy, oaky flavor. You also get the sugary malts that were in the nose, as well as some brighter fruits like oranges that werent.

Im middle of the road on this i guess, i love the brewery but this is not one of my favorites from them. I rated this a 3.63 on the weighted BA scale. I'll take my time getting through this 750 ml.

Cheers everyone and enjoy your day.

 

Greetings to all on this new Sunday,
Damn, it's been cold! Here's a view across the lake from the trail just below my house. Hamilton Lake will freeze over, but not that often. 6 degrees the other morning gave it a good start. To the right and below the heron on the fence are a mix of ducks- mallards, shovelers, buffleheads, ruddy ducks, and others- that are moving about to keep the water open from the ice. They are working hard for a place to swim!
Today's beer is Ritterguts Gose. A hard pour and quickly dissipating head gives way to a very active larger than usual bead of carbonation. Big malty German nose with sharp notes, maybe denoting sharp acidity. Yep. This is German through and through, rich, deep golden, cloudy, and tart, but not sour sour. A very full flavored beer, spicy, distinctly tart, and another great beer for a match with baked white fish-Cod! A very unique German specialty that well showcases the diversity of German brewing expertise. Highly recommended!
Here's an 18 year old Steve Winwood with The Spencer Davis Group and a few years on with Traffic and Glad. Both of these tunes are on my all time play list and I love them! Cheers! I will follow with another German specialty, but I need a bit of a rest.

 

Veterans United Hop Banshee IPA from Florida. This is not in New England. A friend of mine brought this along for an in-person trade. Slightly cloudy copper with tremendous head as is seen in this photo. Grassy and fruity hop notes take things over in the aroma and in the taste. Finishes bitter.

 

• NEW DUBBEL SUNDAY

Hey everyone, hope this slightly less bitterly cold Sunday finds you well. I'm not quite myself today. An offensive (to me at least) Sunday message left a bad taste in my mouth that apparently has lingered. No way Troegs makes a beer this bad.

[URLhttp://s1285.photobucket.com/user/dwsweger/media/Mobile%20Uploads/1420997727536_zpsf31f9ccc.jpg.html][/URL]


http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/694/135762/?ba=DIM

I have to say I am shocked by this one. This can't what the brewer intended. Oh well, have a great day NBSers, cheers!

 

First bottled batch ever, so you know it is fresh. Had it on cask with Fuggles at the brewery during their Anniversary party. I definitely preferred the cask version, and it made me want to try more session IPA's on cask, since the wateriness, texture and temperature of the cask seems to go well with that of session IPA's.



Slightly odd flavor that I can't quite place here. Not like what I remembered from Beer Camp and not like most hoppy lagers that I've had. Must be that SN flavor changing things up.


Had a back spasm out of the blue at work today and have some nasty lower back pain on the right side, whenever I do any later movement (twist). Ibuprofen (while at work), cold packs, and alcohol will be my friends today. Time to buy a new bed as well.



p.s. @Shroud0fdoom needs to take a listen to this. It is technically, Tolkien metal. Since Tolkien never expanded upon Black Speech outside of the inscription on the One Ring, these guys invented their own neo-Black Speech and their own orc tribe. There is a series of 3 albums all following an orc warrior. It is basically a black metal/ambient/soundscape album that takes place in Middle Earth. The best Tolkien metal band, IMO.

This was a great song. I always love clicking on the songs in this thread. Gonna check out some more of her stuff.

I still want to find a bottle, but perhaps I will look out for that batch. Got a bottled on date or number I should avoid?

 

I still want to find a bottle, but perhaps I will look out for that batch. Got a bottled on date or number I should avoid?[/QUOTE]

Purchased recently with a very smudged date on the bottle. Best guess is bottled in November 2014. @stakem had a similar review a few days ago. It's only 4-5 bucks but maybe wait for a new batch? I'm looking forward to trying the next batch, something clearly went very wrong with this one.