New Beer Sunday (week 517)

My first (official) NBS beer from the NBS BIF! Boundary Bay Safety Break Session IPA

It took me 5 solid minutes to get the electrical tape off the howler, worse than a wax cap! There was a slight hiss when I unscrewed the top. The beer pours a deep golden color with minimal head and carbonation. I think this might be due to the time spent traveling the rails. I won't factor that in the review.

Aromas of sweet clementine, lemon peel, pine and cattiness. Taste is similar, citrus rinds and pine are the dominate flavors. This beer is all hops and I love it! It finishes dry and astringent. Similar to Founders All Day IPA but with a touch more body. A plus in my eyes.

No formal BA review yet...waiting for @beertunes to add to the database.

I'd rate it close to a 4 if I could.

 

Good day NBS peeps!

My new beer today is Against the Grain, The Brown Note. It's an American brown ale, the Abv. Is 5.0%. This was given to me as a Christmas gag gift because the person thought the label was funny. I'll admit I've bought a few beers on blind faith because the label was cool. We'll see how this one goes?

Pours a hazy dark reddish brown with ample white foam that quickly dissipates into a ring. Seems nicely carbonated.

Aroma is nutty sweet caramel reminiscent of a Taffy Apple. There is a faint bit of spice that I can't put my finger on.

Flavor is a nutty caramel mix with a bit of spice on the back. Perhaps nutmeg? There is also a slight sourness that isn't off putting. Mouthfeel is fizzy and dry.

Admittedly I don't drink many brown ales because I'm not wowed by them. This one seems right in the wheelhouse for the style. Easy drinking, low abv., interesting enough aroma and flavor. All said my rating was a 3.54.

Have a great week!

 

Hello everyone,

It's rainy and cold, wind is blowing like crazy....good day to drink beer in front of the television. Getting ready for some football, got some chili in the slow-cooker and my girl is making corn bread to go with it, can't wait for that. Lovin' this lazy Sunday.

I'm starting my NBS with one of my BIF beers from @cjgiant , an Alewerks Bourbon Barrel Porter.

Drinking it from my new snifter, been waiting to give this glass a go.

A: Pours a deep black color with almost no head. Small patches of caramel colored foam manage to cling to the side of the glass.

S: The aroma is that of strong bourbon vanilla and oak notes, with roasted malt in the background.

T: Hits with an initial bourbon heat that subsides into a fantastic coffee/chocolate experience with subtle vanilla and oak hints. More bitter then sweet, but very well balanced.

F: Feel is smooth and creamy, full bodied, with a surprising little carbonated tingle.

O: Super pleasant to drink, I'll have no problem finishing the bomber in no time at all. A little more bourbon forward then some of its counterparts, but in a good way. That heat would probably fall off slightly if given more time, but I see no reason to go there when it's this smooth already. Very impressive.



Cheers!

 

I've got a fresh can of The Crusher from The Alchemist today. It's exceptional, with big notes of pine and raw, fresh grapefruit and just a little mint leaf. It's surprisingly balanced for such a hoppy beer, and the 9.6$ doesn't let you know it's coming. I'd like a few more of these, but I think they would probably knock me out, especially in these tall cans. I'll try to link a picture later when my tablet's charged.

 

Now enjoying a bottle of Kind Rye IPA while cooking fish for dinner.

4.13/5 rDev +1.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

12 oz bottle poured into a snifter

A- A hazy golden amber color with a two finger white head.

S- Spicy rye, citrus hops, floral notes.

T- Rye, piney and slighly dank finish, citrus, nicely balanced.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- A nice rye IPA, definitely will seek out again.



Cheers!

 

Happy B-Day!

They're not too far from me, might have to go check em' out. How's the atmosphere over there? Decent place to hang out and kill some time?

 

Glad you like it, and I think your use of smooth is about what I think about it. Like a lot of darker beers for me, I enjoyed it more as I sipped it and as some warmth came to the pour. Cheers!

 

Good afternoon denizens of the doppelbock! Glad to be back for another round of NBS!

My NBS BIF box is set to arrive tomorrow from @JNForsyth and Im beginning to get excited. In addition, I secured the last beer for my box yesterday and it is shipping out tomorrow. But now for today...

Had a friend from TN come into town this week and he wanted to go to a little place about an hour away in Munster, IN. So I grabbed a take home beer or ten...

Any way, it's NEW DIPA SUNDAY! Permanent Funeral by Three Floyds


Pours a deep golden orange color with a fluffy, chalky white head. 3.75

Smell is very citrus forward, but faint. Lots of orange and grapefruit, some mango. Also a decent amount of bready, maltiness on the nose. 3.5

Taste follows the nose. Bitter orange peel and grapefruit. HUGE bitterness. Like holy cow this is bitter. Big malt backbone too, but no real sweetness except for a slight candied orange flavor that is getting beaten into submission by the massive hop bitterness. The finish is malty and bitter (if that makes sense) and lasts quite a while. The ABV (10.5%) is not hidden. 3.75

Mouthfeel is very creamy for a DIPA in my opinion. I prefer my IPAs crisper, with some nice weight, but damn this is heavy for an IPA. 3.25

Overall a good beer, but I will probably stick to other IPAs in the future. Glad I got to try it, but for the same price I can get a 4 pack of headhunter. 3.5

PS. I know there are a lot of metal heads on this site (I am honestly not one of them, but I don't mind some good metal from time to time. More of a blues hound myself), but does anyone else find some of the FFF labels a little off-putting. I picked this up because it was highly rated, and a buddy wanted one, but I would probably not usually go after something this graphic. I love the comic book inspired ones (ZD, Gumballhead) and some of the others, but some are just too much. But hey, if they're going for shock value then kudos. You win.

 

No picture because I didn't bring my camera along, but I did indeed try a new beer today. My dad was in town to visit and after talking and fiddling around with my car a bit (checking the oil, making sure the alternator belt hadn't gotten loose, filling it up with coolant) we ended up going to The Palms, one of the local restaurants that we used to eat at a lot back when I was still living at home. This place has a bar-type seating area along with the regular tables and booths, and they have around a dozen different beers (plus one local hard cider) on tap all the time--I think they may actually rotate their taps every now and then rather than always having the same thing, because I spotted a few beers on the draft list today that I don't remember seeing the last time I was there.

Had a buffalo chicken sandwich and split a plate of onion rings with Dad (all the food was really good, by the way.) Also had a glass of Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale, the first pale ale I've tried. I've seen this in the stores around here but never tried it before now. The hops were definitely the dominant flavor there (piney, and at some points almost minty, which is a flavor I haven't really picked up in beer before) but without the more extreme bitterness of an IPA, and I could still pick up a faintly sweet breadiness here and there (mostly after the first sip, and after a couple near the end) too so it wasn't like pure hop juice--though it wasn't far off. This actually didn't seem bitter to me at all, despite being drastically more hoppy in flavor than most of the beers I've tried. Pretty nice!

 

I said I was a blues hound, and honestly some good blues rock too. I'll leave this here... One of the great Cajun blues players. I've seen him in concert and it was easily the best concert I've been to.

 

Place is in the back of a warehouse. The guys there are cool, but their space is like the size of a two car garage. I'd definitely go back again though.

 

Hey come on Jack! I got my lights down but the beer has to keep flowing!

 

I'm having another new one at halftime, this one courtesy of @SomethingClever - Pizza Port Swami's IPA:


Nice gently fruity nose of tangerine, pineapple, maybe a hint of peach and pine. Very dry palate with fairly high bitterness level; the taste follows through on the nose, with the citrus up front and kiwi and pine following though on the finish. This is a nice crisp, clear and bright IPA, low malt presence- more of the classic west coast style rather than the newer saturated fruit bombs. I like the style, and like this beer; it's pretty textbook, but delivers all the same. A- (4.1)

 

New Coffee and Vanilla Porter Sunday!

I am glad that my work day went fast, and smooth. Raining outside and bored inside...what am I to do? Why not drink a new beer and discuss it with the rest of you Fiends... er I meant Friends. The new brew is this!



Courtesy of @SomethingClever thanks Brother!

Let's get down to business, this brew pours aggressive. I mean the head on this beast was colossal, I let it sit a few before enjoying. Now that the cloud of foam has subsided, let's give this brew a review. First this brew pours a nice deep brown body (looks like Iced Tea really). Big frothy off white head/khaki head that just dominated the rest of the beer, I even Tilted too! Nice to look at really. Now forth with the aroma! Picking up first sweet roasted malts with a cocoa nib overtone. There's hints of coffee with a vanilla edge in the background. Pretty pleasing to my nostrils! What's this brew taste like you might ask? Rich malt sweetness hits then follows through with cocoa and vanilla. Theres a kiss of coffee roast that flourishes before the finish, very nice! This finishes sweet and dry with lingering coffee roast, vanilla and toasted nuts duking it out in the aftertaste. The feel on this brew light with very decent carbonation.

Overall: This brew is a straight up enjoyable Porter. It's not trying to be the most complex or outrageous. It's humble and has the right amount of sweetness that keeps you coming back for more. The flavors are balanced with each other making sense on your palate. This brew is light and doesn't leave you exhausted to where you only want to drink one. I could crush these in a session where I want coffee, vanilla and toasted grains all at the same time. This brew is Worthy!

Grade: A-

Musical Narration:



Cheers my Fellow New Beer Sunday Crew!

 

It's like some Dank Peaches on that Aroma.

 

While I'm a Metal Head, I find this Label Art atrocious!

 

What else is new???

König Ludwig Weiss (Royal Bavarian Hefe-Weizen) - Kaltenberg International / König Ludwig International GmbH & Co.KG


König Ludwig International GmbH - König Ludwig Weiss by imbibehour, on Flickr

Review here or read below: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3900/4847/?ba=smakawhat

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Poured from the bottle into a wheat ale glass.

Opaque and classic unfiltered yellow to dingy orange at the top. Nice amounts of carbonation, capped with a classic foamy slightly cream yellow vanilla tinged head of about three fingers. Frothy just a bit as it settles, with virtually no lacing. Pretty solid looking hefe.

Straight forward aroma and solid as well. Real nice wheat subtleties, but also a good creamy milk sweetness, hints of clove as well. Real neat cream smelling angle on this, with a sense of light body perhaps coming.

Boy I can't seem to kick that cream either on the palate. Really great washing coating palate of milk and vanilla. Spiced finish and mid palate that fills almost hop forward with a bit of bitter kick. Decent malt body with a hint of chew but a real nice controlled sweetness to match.

Seems to let go of real high banana and bubblegum esters, and stays away from chewy texture. Has a real great sense of controlled creamy light sweetness and spice though unlike other hefes though. Real interesting brew.

look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4 | Final Score: 4.05

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Howdy, howdy!

The cold temperatures down here in Central Texas have given way to some glorious weather. And if you wonder if it ever really gets cold in Tejas, ask these two sweethearts:




Poor puppy dogs. That was the daylight (before) and midnight in the cold (after) photo from last Sunday when a fellow neighbor and I "rescued" these two pooches. They were wandering around the neighborhood enjoying their freedom, wearing collars, tags and somewhat decent manners in an obvious tip that they belonged to someone. I did the best I could making them a bed of blankets and other soft things, for it got down into the 30s that night. They dried out by midnight and seemed to be doing well, but the morning dew had them shivering in their sleep.

Anyways ... we got them back home Monday happy and healthy.

On to the new brew:



That is Rahr & Son's bourbon barrel-aged winter warmer served on-tap at College Station's brew-pub Blackwater Draw (BWD). I try to stick to BWD brews when I visit their establishment ... I figure they go to all that trouble to brew some beer in-house, I should probably try it. But this one has been on my radar since trying the base brew a month or so ago, and it's a definite improvement.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9969/42917/?ba=Premo88

Gave it a 4.16 (+1.2% rDev).

It could easily score higher, for it is a perfect example of what careful hands can do with a decent beer and some empty whiskey barrels. It tastes like bourbon minus the alcohol burn ... period. There's plenty of vanilla and oak in the aroma, but the taste has little of the extras and sticks to almost all bourbon. Over time you start getting a pretty bitter (earthy/burnt malt) aftertaste going, but that doesn't hurt it. Doesn't necessarily help it, but it does sort of highlight the fact that this particular winter warmer has no tricks in it -- there's no spices or extra ingredients added, just barley/water/yeast/hops.

My BIF experience should begin next Sunday and I'm like waiting. Thanks a bunch to @TongoRad for keeping me posted on my incoming shipment!

So was the NFC Championship *this* week or last week? Looks like a good scrimmage for the Packers today but not much else ...

Hope y'all are enjoying your Sundays!

Cheers!

 

Hey Mike! Haven't see ya around lately, what's up? As a note, here on NBS we take a minute to talk about the beer, and what we've got going on. Doesn't have to be a full review, just give us some thoughts on what you think about that beer (and, since it's from Ft. George, it's bound to be tasty!). You may have noticed several beers today from a BIF we're doing, I'll let ya know when we do the next one. Bham can represent with double trouble!