New Beer Sunday (Week 527)

Greeting All from the Great Northwest.

Today it is SnapShot from New Belgium. A nice wheat ale for a nice spring day.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/110447/

Sunny with temps into the mid 60's. I did the first lawn mowing of the season today, which means I have a date every 10 days to 2 weeks until October.

Now I'm watching Gonzaga vs Duke in the NCAA Tournament. We'll see if the Zags can take that next step into college hoop lore?

Until next time.

Happy Trails!

 

I've seen this beer so many times in WBAYDN threads that I was not going to pass it up if I saw it. I knew it would be a winner.


4.25/5 rDev +1.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

2014 12oz bottle picked up at Goebel's in Wichita, KS. Poured into a Belgian style tulip glass, this beer looks great - black/brown with cola highlights topped by a quarter inch of mocha brown foam. Scant stringy lace is left behind as the foam rolls off like the tone knob on a Fender Telecaster. Nose is ramrodded by big doses of brown sugar, baker's chocolate, and sweet chilled booze. Flavors follow the nose with the addition of sweet milk chocolate woody vanilla on the back of the tongue. Medium heavy body, smooth oily carb, and warming alcohol is near perfect for this stout. Impressive. My first beer from New Holland, but certainly not my last. Bottoms up, beer lovers!

 

Luv the Narwhal----Cheers Brotha!

 

I'll be there and grab the second round. Should be a good time.

 

Rueuze
The Bruery
Gueuze / 5.60% ABV
4.33/5 rDev +3.8% | rAvg: 4.17
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Bottle poured into a Belgian tulip glass

A: Cloudy, bright orange, had a nice creamy white head that quickly vanished, some carbonation coming off the bottom, no lacing.

A: Tart funk sour upfront, slight champagne aroma, white grapes, not picking up any barrel or alcohol on the nose.

T: Sour, funk tart goodness, picking up a nice white grape flavor, slight barrel on the backend, taste really good, impressed.

M: Medium mouthfeel little to no carbonation, finish is dry.

O: Very nice, this is tasting great on this 90 degree day afternoon, thirst quenching, a balanced beer with a nice sour tart funk goodness up front, some nice fruity flavors in the middle and finishes really good with a slight oak flavor and nice dry finish, good beer but at $20 a bottle I might need to reserve this beer for special occasion.

 

Last new beer today...

Anglo Mania

...an English barley wine ale collaboration...

...between Buxton Brewing (England) and Evil Twin (Denmark)...

Single English hop, single English malt... has a very English profile, 'natch - some of that leather and resin, sweet like molasses and brown bread... reminiscent of an old ale and an ESB on steroids - sweet but with a mellow bitterness and a lingering aftertaste that dries out the sugars and leaves a little tackiness on the tongue. Quite enjoyable.


Cheers, NBS

 

Birthday beer#3. NBS entry #2
Spring House Brewing: Simcoe Must Be Destroyed!

Pours a crystal clear golden yellow body.
Getting a lot of malt on the aroma with a little bit of tropical fruit.
Malty sweetness up front with a big bitter bite in the middle. Resiny hop taste.
Smooth and easy drinking beer with no hint of the 10.5% abv at all!
Overall a tasty beer and one helluva bitter beast but enough malt sweetness to even it out! If you find this bad boy ya pick it up!



Cheers Big Ears!

Cross-posting with WBAYDN#890

 

New Rye Beer Sunday

Hello all! Cold, overcast day here in Milwaukee. Today's selection is from Bell's - "Smitten"...While I wasn't exactly "smitten" by it...I found it to be a solid Pale Ale with a subtle hint of rye. Good - but nothing particularly special, IMO.
Here's my review:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/43223/

Cheers!

 

Well looks like Duke is going to the final four once again. I think they're the only team with a legit chance to beat Kentucky but I'm sure Wisconsin will put a good fight. Michigan State is quite the wild card but I don't see them advancing past Duke. Anyway, back with one more offering from Hofbrau!

This pours a very hazy and murky yellow with nice lacing and solid head retention. Aroma is heavy on banana peel and some fruity malt in the background. Taste is pretty similar to the smell. Breaded fruit flavors along with the dominant flavor being banana on the aftertaste. The feel of this beer is very nice. I was expecting it to be more on the crisp side but it's actually more on the thick side to me. Great beer and I would put it right up there with Weihenstephaner's hefe, although admittedly I am no hefe connoisseur whatsoever.

4.03/5 rDev +3.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Some more lovely vibes for you geeks!


Cheers all!

 

Welcome to the club. An outstanding, overlooked because it is year round, bourbon barrel stout. New Holland is solid across the board. If you are at all into barleywines, dont pass up on Pilgrim's Dole if you see it.

 

Picked up a growler of Cheef IIPA after a Founders tour where I met @FaradayUncaged. FYI, totally worth the extra cost for the tasting. We had a Curmudgeon's Better Half and a '12 KBS.

On to the NBS. Pours a lot darker than expected. Smells a lot like Hawaiian punch and sweet malt.
Tastes like tropical fruits and caramel malts. Smooth, soft mouthfeel. Easy drinking. Interesting DIPA.

 

By the end of the can, I was pretty convinced it was diacetyl, fwiw. It has a way of building and becomes fairly distinctive at a certain point.

What I was getting at before, though, is different from what you're talking about here. If it is intentional, then we can get into how it fits with the overall profile or how it is perceived. I was just trying to ascertain whether it should be in there in the first place.

 

First time for this brew. Remarkably well balanced with sneaking bitter edge.

 

Exactly- and that's a big reason why I am hesitant to give a final assessment, until I am sure that it's not a fluky thing. I am only talking about this particular sample at the moment, and not generalizing.

My own experience, though, is that even big breweries can have an occasional issue with 'd'- all it takes is for some of the precursors to be present and then interact with whatever oxygen was introduced during the packaging process. So it's not all that unusual to see these kinds of mistakes, unfortunately.

 

New Beer Sunday: Local Cream Ale

Good Evenin' NBSers with a special greetings to Consumers of Cream Ales.

The weather here today was bright, sunny and on the chilly side, so running errands and attending to some of the things on the "honey-do" list was almost enjoyable.... :=)

Tonight's beer is a local beer, the Neshaminy Creek Croydon Cream Ale.

Why a cream ale? It turns out that this is an evening for remembering things almost forgotten. Back before there were so many craft options, one of my standby’s was the Leibotschaner Cream Ale. But I’ve not found or seen that beer in some years now and guess its either not being distributed here or may not be still made. The Neshaminy Creek Croydon Cream Ale reminds me of that Leibotschaner that I’ve not seen or had in years.

As usual, the review which is in progress (and subject to change as I finish the beer)and can be found here:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29021/84788/?ba=drtth

But the big reason for tonight’s choice of a new beer is the revival of some old memories. During some spring cleaning earlier in the week I dug up a DVD not seen or watched in several years. This DVD is a retrospective look at an event that has been a long standing tradition in Scotland, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It was once my good fortune to be in Edinburgh at a time when I had a chance to watch the Tattoo in person from an excellent seat. Seeing that DVD produced a wave of nostalgia....

But what you may ask is a Military Tattoo? The answer is something which is better understood through watching than through reading. So here are some scenes and music from Edinburgh.


After the formal opening ceremony conducted on the Edinburgh Castle Parade Ground, the massed Pipes and Drums at entrance onto the parade ground may look something like this:





During the Tattoo there are often performances by representatives of a single Unit:




The larger, massed performances will involve several Units as participants and will look something like this:




Often the finale looks something like this:




Now if you weren’t inside watching the show, here’s how you know when the Tattoo has ended: (BTW, Malt Whisky lovers, when the camera backs up at about 30 seconds, the first building on the left is the Malt Whisky Heritage Centre which should not be missed if you go to Edinburgh Why? Imagine a bar where you had your choice of over 300 different Malt Whiskies by the glass.)



(I also suspect @Zimbo could tell us more about the Whisky Experience and the gems and rarities to be found in the Heritage Centre.... )

 

I wonder what the draught is like, then- that might make for an interesting comparison.

 

Decided to go with a second new one tonight from @egrace84 while firing up the grill.

This one is Velveteen Habit from Ale Asylum. My first one from this brewery. This is a very nice IPA featuring Citra and Casacade hops with a strong malt backbone. Some nice citrus aromas and a decent amount of sweet flavors to help offset some of the hop bitterness.

One unexpected note was the crazy head retention. Three minutes after pour, there was still a 1-2 finger head, and one chunk that hung around on top half way down the glass.





http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13837/152208/?ba=richj1970

 

Excellent review. Keep coming back to NBS! Cheers.