New Beer Sunday (week 518)

Loved that book - had to read it in college and did not enjoy the professor/class. Re-read it last year - un-put-down-able. . . Nolite te bastardes carborundorum

 

That appears to be quite a dinner. A worthy distraction.

 

Final beer for my NBS BIF, Brau Brothers Moo Joos Oatmeal Mild Stout. Have to give one last shout out to @Stillyman11 for this great tasting of MN beers. To rank them in order of my personal enjoyment:
Surly Eight
Bent Paddle 14* EBS
Surly Overrated IPA
Bent Paddle Venture Pils
Indeed Midnight Ryder
Brau Brothers Moo Joos
All are solid beers that I would enjoy to have again!

3.84/5 rDev +0.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thanks Stillyman11 for this
12 oz bottle poured into a pint glass

A- Black with a two finger tan head.

S- Burnt coffee, cocoa, some lactose.

T- More roster coffee than burnt coffee, lactose, fairly sweet, bitter sweet chocolate.

M- Smooth, fairly creamy, medium body.

O- A nice milk stout that I would really enjoy with breakfast. Not really a beer I would seek out again, but I wouldn't pass up given this. I would like to try this if there was a coffee version of this brew.



Again, thank you for the awesome box @Stillyman11, cheers!

 

Nice Haul!!! Props to @Stillyman11

 

Have a day off work tomorrow, conveniently when it's supposed to snow.
My beau brought some Hop Manna over last night but we went to a brewpub and didn't get around to me trying it. I saved it for today, but only just got around to pouring it.
It's very inviting in color, I'm glad I used a glass; I don't always.
A little sweet for me on the initial sip. Not high in carbonation; definitely the hops have a kick that is welcome. As I continue sipping it seems to *want* to go flat - - I've been cooking and doing house/busywork and not drinking it continually. If its flavor would settle a little more briskly as it loses its refrigerated chill, I'd find more to write about -- but the best I can do is say "I wish it would settle more briskly" which is an oxymoron of sorts, so rather disappointedly I conclude: Not much to write home about.

So I'm returning to the other brew he brought over, Headwaters by Victory - - funny, he preferred Hop Manna almost exuberantly praising it while I find Headwaters the more appealing of the two. Cheers~

 

Happy New American Porter Sunday!


http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/10607/148037/?ba=MadCat

So first off, I must say I'm glad I'm returning to New Beer Sunday after a long hiatus. My daughter was born in that time-frame, so I really haven't had the time for a whole lot of beer, or reviews, or really much. She has been a wonderful blessing and so much more important than beer, but I am glad to start to balance personal interests with her again. So yesterday while I was putting her down for a nap I sent my wife out in search of some new releases. She struck out on two counts, but succeeded with Sixpoint's Beast Mode. I was happy to see that, and wasn't feeling up to drinking one last night, so it got to be a NBS for me. Today has been a busy day, as yesterday and today we were preparing for the impending snow storm, which is currently forecasted for 24+ inches (in an area that is used to no more than 4 at once). So I have my bread, milk, and beer. Snowblower still starts and runs. Now all I need to do is hope I don't have to head to work in the morning before the worst part hits.

But anyways, on to the beer! This is a fantastic beer, but it does take some latitudes with the American Porter style. Not quite as dark as porters usually are, and a little higher alcohol, but its got the right feel, and it gets hops right up in your face. Very aggressive grapefruit hops, not overly bitter. It is worthy of the name Beast Mode.

Cheers!

 

Good evening NBS once again. Round 2 of NBS BIF Reviews for me this week from @ZebraCakez. Going to be a bit of glassware and Brewery repeating, but that's just fine with me.


A damn good amber lager. Nice citrus/piney nose with some toasted bread malt presence. Taste of big grapefruit, lemon zest, orange peel, pine, light caramel, toasted bread, and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Fair amount of spicy herbal/pine bitterness on the finish. Great balance of malt and bitterness. Very clean lagering with zero yeasty ester notes present. Very smooth, crisp, and sticky mouthfeel and finish. Zero alcohol presence. Delicious. 4


Great rauch/schwarzbier. Nice nose with balanced wood smoke and chocolate/coffee/dark toasted bread notes with some herbal hops as well. Taste of chocolate, cocoa, coffee, wood smoke, toast, dark bread, herbal, and roast/smokey earthiness. Fair amount of roast/herbal bitterness on the finish. Great balance of the roast malt and smoke flavors; with a nice bitterness/sweetness roast balance. Just a tiny bit dry on the finish. Light-medium bodied with a fairly crisp and lightly bready/chalky mouthfeel from the roasted malts. Once again this is extremely clean lagering with zero yeast notes present. It's delicious. It was everything I expected out of a schwarzbier. Great munich and roast malt presence. 4.1


Nice and pleasant session APWA. Pleasant nose of lemon/orange zest/pine and light banana; with herbal/grass/light pepper and wheat/biscuit/cracker malts. Fair amount of herbal/spicy bitterness on the finish. Well balanced pale malt and citrus/earthy hop notes. Some light yeast fruitiness/spice as well, probably an american wheat strain. Light-medium bodied with a smooth and crisp finish; a slight touch of hop stickiness as well. Never watery on flavors either, really solid robustness. It's nicely enjoyable. Cut and dry pale wheat ale just as expected, but I have certainly had better in the style. 3.68


I've been loving porters lately so I chose this for the next bomber. Only 2 bombers left!(I like how they are all low ABV though so I can knock out a few for reviews) This is a damn nice porter! Nice pronounced aromas with deep chocolate malt notes with some toasty/breadiness and some herbal hop notes. Taste of big chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, toast, dark bread, light smoke/char and some herbal hops. Fair amount of herbal/roast bitterness on the finish. Great bitterness/sweetness balance of roasted flavors. Tons of munich malt flavor going on here, I love munich in porters. Very smooth with a fairly creamy/bready mouthfeel with some slight sticky hops. Zero alcohol presence. Really nicely robust considering 5.2%. Impressive and seriously delicious. 4


Cheers! Have a good night NBS

 

I tried this last night at the brewpub I visited, it was on tap, very enjoyable. This and the other beer I tried on tap by Evil Twin, "Femme Fatale" were my favorite new discoveries this week~

 

Congrats!!! Daughters are awesome!!! We'll give you a pass.

 

New IPA Sunday

Hey NBSers,

I was sorry to be kept indoors today, as it was gorgeous and a sunny 60+ in Central Oregon. It will return to more winter before we're really on the warming trend, but the next week or so looks prime.

Judging for the Best Of Craft Beer Awards was this weekend in town, and Friday night's reception afforded me the chance to rub elbows with beer nerds from Bend, Portland, and beyond. The venue had recently hosted Gigantic Brewing from Portland and still had several beers on tap from them. I was pleased with their Baltic Porter and Double IPA, but the star of the show was a gin barrel aged IPA which had gin botanicals for days in both the aroma and taste.

Grapefruit Sculpin by Ballast Point Brewing Company of San Diego, California



This beer just now showed up in our market, but I've been anticipating it for a while. Regular Sculpin is great, if more expensive than similar or better local options. The grapefruit element is pleasant and balanced, but it's a separate "thread" from the hop and other beer flavors. I don't consider it a negative, just interesting that it seems distinct from the citrus character from the hops. Regular Sculpin gets a 4 from me, and this version does too. While the grapefruit does add something different, I'm hard pressed to see it as being "better." 4/5

 

That's what she... Oh you know how it ends!!

 

NBS BIF# 1
My box is still in transit so I forwarded this beer to myself

Carton Brewing Shipwreck Porter
This Rum Barrel Aged Porter is homerun from Atlantic Highlands


Here is my review:
Poured from a 32 oz growler that was capped and sealed with Orange wax at the brewery

Appearance: Deep Dark Mahogany brown beer with a fluffy cocoa head. It dissipates to a slight ring that sits on top of the beer and leaves good lacing.

Aroma: Rum, molasses and brown sugar. The nose reminds me of a dark spiced rum.

Taste: Rum is at the forefront, followed by dark chocolate, vanilla , molasses, burnt sugar. You can taste the 10%. The underlying beer tastes like a barleywine.

Mouthfeel" Very smooth sipper It is sweet, but not too sweet, chocolaty Very smooth but offset by a slight alcohol burn. The rum subsides and leavves the cocoa, vanilla, burnt sugar flavors in your mouth.

Overall: This is a great beer from a brewery that never fails to impress me. This beer reminds me of something that DFH would do (and I mean that in a good way) The perfect accompaniment to this cold evening.

It is still Sunday somewhere, so get those new beers open

 

Glad to see your enjoying the brews!

Cheers!

 

Thanks for checking out our beer.

Thanks for checking out our beer. Great choice of stemware as well. Is that a Schott Zweisel? We use those in the brewery for tasting along with our Zalto stems. As for the beer, I have to say it's tough to highlight the IPA style in this beer due to the brightness and acidity of the peppers. While definitely squarely in the typical IPA IBU range, the malt must be rich enough to hold up to the bitterness and acidity provided by the pepper. I'm glad you were able to determine our intent on this one as we work very hard to remove the heat from the pepper and pay homage to the flavor. It's a rare bird for sure in this day and age where most pepper beers are fairly extreme in their aim to burn the buds right off the palate.

As for your experience with our Big Punisher, I've posted in the forums prior that we had some oxidation issues with some earlier batches which we've since recalled. We pulled about 700 cases from the market and have since resolved the issue. It sounds like you experienced one of these batches that caused the beer to age prematurely. I apologize for the disappointment as you put out your hard earned money and the product didn't provide you value for your dollar. I can only assure you moving forward that we will continue to focus on quality control and continue to improve upon our product and processes. Please do give the Pun another shot as I think you'll find that it's a beautiful beast when it's showing properly.

Thanks again for providing feedback. When the consumer speaks, we listen. Not only do we listen, we react and continue to attempt to marry our own "visions" for our beers with our customer's preferences. While we rarely conform to the norms when concocting our little creations, we try to keep them somewhat inside the lines of what most might consider reasonable. And while our operation is only 10 months young, we maintain very strict parameters in regards to the products we send to market. If the beer is unacceptable, we dump it.....no questions asked. With that said, we continue to improve each beer with each batch knowing that while we'll never achieve 100% perfection with any beer, perfection is the goal. Bittersweet, unattainable perfection.

 

Know this beer well and loved it from the first. Also remember clearly having the chance to chat with the owner of the brewery at a tasting event, and having the chance to tell him my reasons for wanting them to back off their original plan to do all the Exit series as 750 ml, one-off releases only. Was very happy when I saw they did that for a few of them and I've been able to get this one and at least one of the others in 12 oz bottles.

 

Nice finish with some Mississippi John Hurt Maria.

 

Porky Pig wasn't bad either. Cheers.

 

Excellent choice for your selection to send! For me the Exit 16 also demonstrates clearly that the use of Rice as an adjunct in a beer is indeed a way to enhance flavor. What I've still not sorted out is the contribution of the Wild Rice itself to the beer. The real rice has the expected effects I'd read about in advance, so I'm thinking the Wild Rice may have been just to establish the connection to that Exit of the Turnpike and may have been the original inspiration for the use of regular rice in the DIPA.