New Beer Sunday (week 520)

4.6/5 rDev +3.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

375 ml bottle poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass

A: Pitch black, no light coming in, tan head, lots of lacing, the head stuck around for quite awhile.

A: Big bourbon, chocolate, getting a lot of alcohol burn on the nose, smells great.

T: Big bourbon up front, some toasted coconut, chocolate, definitely picking up the oak from the barrels, big alcohol on the end that lingers, finishes semi-dry on the palate, lots of flavors, really good.

M: Viscous, dry, not much carbonation, very nice mouthfeel.

O: This is a world class barrel aged stout, very complex, lots of flavor, oak, coconut, chocolate, my only complaint is that it's very hot, for 12% I am surprised how much burn lingers, but with some age I bet this mellows out really well. Definitely worth a try but at $14.99 a 375 ml bottle, might give some second thoughts. Warms up really nice, the alcohol subsides as the temperature rises, cheers!

 

Still waiting for the Grammy's to Get good on this New Beer Sunday

Just got a chance to try Pseudo Sue for the first time thanks to @SaulTBauls

Great Beer

Here's My review:
4.71/5 rDev +2.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

Bomber that I acquired in a trade with @SaulTBauls poured into my SN IPA glass.
A: Beautiful golden/range hue. Effervescent foamy heady that leaves enough lacing to get me from NJ to Iowa.
S: Plenty of Orange, grapefruit pear with some hints of pine.
T: This is so juicy that it should come in a box with a little straw. Loads of grapefruit, pineapple, pear, apple, Slight sweeetness and a little but of resiny pine in the background. Very little bitterness.
M: Easy drinking, light body, moderate carbonation. Refreshing, smooth and creamy everything I want in a beer.
O: Great Beer. Maybe even reason enough to go to Iowa.

The best part of the Grammys was this
https://www.youtube.com/user/Beggin

 

Got this one as part of a trade and really happy it was included since I can't get it here in Chicago.

The aroma is a nice wet, dank, grapefruit, pineapple, citrus with a slight floral underlying component.
The taste is a big pop of bitterness which surprisingly mellows out at the back end with some malt. Finishes slightly dry.

I am really happy I got to try Head Hunter finally and would buy it frequently if it was distributed here.

 

4.36/5 rDev -3.1% | rAvg: 4.5
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

375 ml bottle poured into a Belgian style tulip glass

A: Amber color with some light coming through around the edges, lots of carbonation streaming off the bottom, looks pretty thin, no head.

A: Big sour tart aromas up front, getting some of the spice and Cabernet coming through, smells great.

T: Big sour upfront, some spice, tart, funk, definitely picking up the Cabernet, oak, very dry finish, alcohol is well hidden for 10%.

M: Mouthfeel is very dry, watery, not much on the feel.

O: Very good beer, the quality just comes through on this, not as sour as I thought it would be, very dry, alcohol is well hidden, I don't have too much experience with sours but I am hoping to sample more to get a better grasp on them.

Santa's Little Helper snuck in, cheers!

 

Tried another new one tonight Monkeynaught IPA by Straight to Ale

Good IPA but nothing special.

 

NBSS NEW BEER SUNDAY STOUT

Trying another new one courtesy of @RocketCityVol
Good People"s Coffee Oatmeal Stout


Here is my review

4.18/5 rDev +1.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

A - Pours with a dark coffee color with a tan head that subsides to a couple of millimeters. Plenty of lacing on the glass

S - Coffee and roasted malts are up front followed by an aroma of figs and some dark chocolate.

T - Coffee and dark chocolate upfront. There is a hint of hops with some fig and licorice flavor.

M - A little thin but smooth and plenty of layers of flavor.

O - A very good beer. Definitely an upfront coffee flavor but the coffee allows some other flavors room to breath. A real nice stout.

 

Took a while but I got around to another new beer in today (or rather tonight) thanks to @Ozzylizard.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13371/31548/?ba=woemad

One of the more bitter, coffeeish examples of the style that I've had that wasn't explicitly a coffee beer, but I prefer that to Imperial Stouts that are overly sweet. It makes a nice nightcap, and is surprisingly unboozy for a 12% beer. I'd definitely drink it again if it were local!

 

Just got home from the company "holiday" party (which are always more fun when you work at a brewery). My nightcap:

 

Kadigan isn't a beer bonanza festival but still one of my favorite grain bombs here in Texas (so far it's not gotten overly sweet/creamed corn on me). Pretty awesome seeing that little ol' Texas beer resting comfortably in a cool glass in Yankee country.

Boy have I had quite the little beer run over a mini-vacation. Started it with St. Bernardus Prior 8 after work Thursday, took Friday off, dove into a couple of super-fresh pints at Lone Pine Brewery in Magnolia (a sour wheat ale!! sooo good!!) on Saturday, then spent Sunday at the Houston Zoo visiting this dude before finding a couple three pints out and about:



So many cool cats and so many good beers this weekend. The *NEW AMERICAN PILSNER* I'm sharing here way late on NBS is Live Oak Pilz:



That's a fine Texas-made Czech pilsener by our friends in Austin with some good friends in Houston earlier this Sunday.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/383/1061/?ba=Premo88

Above is the review link, and the short version: Live Oak Pilz is a very restrained, Old World style pilsner like our Czech friends intended it to be. Not overly hoppy but the hop flavor here is fantastic -- it's almost like they sucked all the bitter out of a big batch of green/grassy hops and left you nothing but flavor. Oh, there's a slight bitter bite, but it's more a teaser to all the flavor. There's some nice grain notes, too. Love that beer.

Back to @TongoRad's awesome NBS BIF box next week when I'm at home with the smaller kitty cat and a puppy dog I'm stealing for a couple weeks from his mommy in the picture above.

Until then, as I sign off WAAAY late I'll leave you all with a bit of Jedi beer love (from a dive bar in Houston):


Cheers!

 

Hey NBSers,

This week proved fruitful for beer in the High Desert, and even more to look forward to. I finally made two long overdue acquisitions: a book on Bend beer by a local blogger, and a Central Oregon beer calendar. The book has been fantastic, with great research about Central Oregon's frontier breweries and the region's culture from then up through last year. The calendar, put together by local beertographer Bend Brew Daddy, eschews traditional holiday notices in favor of local beer events. The month of February features Bend Brewing Company, and I was tipped off to a stealth beer release for Friday. The brewer was offering a sneak peek of a beer designed for their 20th anniversary party. They dosed Lovely, a cherry Baltic Porter (and one of my favorite beers), with Lactobacillus. If the other beers they have planned for the party are half as good as this, they are going to blow the roof off the joint. I also got a chance to taste Deschutes Jubel 2015 before picking up a bottle, which was excellent. With some high octane activity on Fri and Sat, I had to atone with NBS.

Lunch Break by Breakside Brewery of Portland, OR



Listed as an India Session Ale and 4.7%, this beer managed a good balance between malt and bitterness, successfully lowering the alcohol without sacrificing much mouthfeel. Breakside's hop mastery is present; tangerine and other citrus in both aroma and flavor. It's hard not to draw comparisons to the gold standard in this ABV range, Bale Breaker Field 41, and while Lunch Break stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of the national examples like Easy Jack and Go-To, it can't take the throne. 3.75/5

 

Happy Month of the 10th Anniversary of NBS!!!
Does that cover all the mathematical formulations?

It got a bit hot today in So Cal. But less moisture in the air made for some nice celestial scenery tonight. (At least by our suburban standards, light pollution and all). Earlier in the day was better with Indiana taking down Michigan in Bloomington. Helluva game. I'm just a little worried that the Big 10 is not going to be well represented in this year's tourney. We're going to have Bo Ryan's Wisconsin Badgers there, and maybe Indiana, but...Michigan St., Purdue? I'm not so sure.

Anyway. NBS BIF #1 brought me this beauty, courtesy of the highly regarded @WesMantooth

Yes, there is hype. But I really liked this one.
Willoughby Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1154/45072/


Pours a rich mahogany roast that roils forth a mocha colored froth that bursts with peanut butter aroma. Oh My God! <cried out like a school girl hearing juicy gossip> The smell is amazing.
Flavors inclide a slightly chocolaty malt, a nice gentle roast, some coffee, and a tad of peanut butter that leans toward malt powder.
The mouthfeel is fine, just under chewy. And the finish leaves a melange of the chocolate, peanut butter, malt, and subtle roast.
But...going back to the nose. Thankfully this is a big can. (Of which I want MORE). So I poured some more, a hard pour. Let that bad boy foam up a good 3 fingers. Ahhh, bliss. I could smell this for hours. But, now the experiment: I start sipping pure head, and it's mainly like it smells. Wow! Peanut Butter with malt in the backseat.

I wonder how snorting this would be.

Thanks @WesMantooth!

 

Hello and nice to meet you! Can I speak for myself and everyone too and say Well YEAH! It would be so awesome =)