New Beer Sunday (week 528)

Wow! I never thought in my life I would have found someone else in the world who had heard of Happy the Man. I have both this album and the first one on vinyl (bought in the 1970's). I also picked up their "Best of" compilation that features 4 songs from their limited release third album. Plus I have a few solo CD's by Kit Watkins.

 

Well taking care of a couple of errands... just gorgeous out.. and I mean everything is budding... and that includes my allergies..

I am sticking with the Baltimore angle for the next brew so let's see what we got...

The Cask - Baltimore-Washington Beer Works USA


Baltimore-Washington Beer Works - The Cask of Amontillado by imbibehour, on Flickr

Review and meandering thoughts below!

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Poured from the bottle into a Libbey style pilsner glass.

Real deep and very dark mahogany, with an almost blood red tinge to it, probably one of the darkest doppelbocks I've seen to date. Good clarity towards the lighter chestnut and orange bottom, but with barley a tan finger of head which disappears to a simple thin tan collar. Real dark top on this, almost could be mistaken for a stout, very interesting looker indeed.

Aroma is a little subdued on toffee but has some good qualities. Light caramel and lots of toasty brown to dark bread crust. Minimal sweetness and sugars on the bouquet, but a real nice nutty character if extremely light sensing. Clean, almost too clean as it hints at being perhaps a little wet. Palate shall reveal all.

Mid palate is kind of empty but the aftertaste seems to contain all the action. Light bodied with not much malt sense, but some clove and almost peppery to mineral tasting carbonation. Lots of dry grain but not much flavor. Swallow brings more of the hinted nut but also more of the dry qualities. Toasty and crackling grains on the finish, a dry airy aroma permeates the swallow, almost like an alt bier than a doppel. Not much caramel or toffee or hinting malt thickness for a backbone to stand on. Clean with a spicy quality, but also not letting much of the base malts stand out and there's a bit of cheap boozy warmth that catches up.

A decent tasting beer that seems to come out like and alt and doppel cross, but that unfortunately doesn't come out as being that tasty or particularly memorable for myself.

look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5 | Final BA score: 3.53

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Onward!

 

You are welcome my fine friend. Had a great time Friday night. Fantastic beer and company!

 

I agree, like the Live version of Pink Floyd's Ummagumma. That part of the Album is Flawless!

 

As someone who had an avatar of Dave Gilmour for years, I can't help but agree!

Edit: and was that portion mono? If so, it's a fantastic example of what can be achieved with it. I haven't gotten that album out for a long while. The live portions are usually what I listen to. Some bits of Ummagumma I've played exactly once (Nick, Rick, looking at you, and lets not even talk about "Several Species...").

 

I grew up on Happy The Man, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Yes...etc. I love Progressive Rock it's one of my favorite Genres ever...next to Progressive Metal of Course.

 

The pre Easter Dinner new beer. To be shared with my Son and Dil. This is fantastic. If you love it really sour. I am glad I have 3 other people helping me or my stomach would not be ready for any dinner later.

 

Happy Easter everyone. In the quaint scenic town of Huntington, Vermont sits a recently opened brewery called Stone Corral. This is their Big Belgian Draft, which is a 7/4% ABV Belgian Style Dark Ale. Bottle conditioned. This is just about my favorite beer style and when someones does it right I really want to let everyone know they did so. And so...here is my New Beer Sunday contribution for Easter.

Deep dark brown color with a tremendous, tan head that sits lightly on top and never quite fades off. A little lacing collects on the side of my Innis & Gunn glass. And if you love those Sweet Belgian malt and candied sugar aromas you are going to like this. Also a bit of brown sugar and raisin to give it some extra character. Medium to better than medium body but the oiliness of it really penetrates and coats the back of my mouth as I feel every drop slide its way down my throat. No booze on the nose but it is the booze burn that might be doing that to my throat. Sweetness abounds as does satisfaction.



With a nod @shroudofdoom here is a Kit Watkins solo piece. Ambient, space music, New Age. Call it what you will but it is a relaxing and that's what matters to me. "The Time and Space." From 2007.

 

I can only imagine this is how the tomb felt two thousand years ago...


Happy Easter to all those who celebrate, and as always happy New Beer Sunday to everyone!

I must say I wish I had Even More Jesus in my life right now, unfortunately I haven't found a bottle. I had it on tap once and it was great, unfortunately having Even Less Jesus is leaving me disappointed.
My "Overall" from my review: I've had several sours recently I'd describe as wine-like. Unfortunately even with 'burgundy' (I just now noticed it's not capitalized so likely just red grapes not true Burgundy, France) on the label this is more like grape juice than stout. While that could make an interesting addition to a stout, here it's the main player and the stout notes are hidden in the background. Glad I tried it but I'm not a fan

 

Starting with Stillwater Surround, oak smoked imperal wheat stoit.

4.14/5 rDev +2.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

12 oz bottle poured into a teku

A- Pitch black with a three finger thick mocha head.

S- Smoky, oak, roasted coffee, dark chocolate,hints of caramel and toffee.

T- Very smoky, burnt coffee, dark fruits, dark chocolate, oak, some caramel malts.

M- Smooth, mudium body, but a little on the lighter side.

O- A pretty good smoked stout, worth pick up.

 

We had 0 idea about was happening. Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, The Blues Brothers... I remember having to stick my head under a desk to prepare for nuclear attack- I remember looking over at Carol Potter and having new thoughts. There was an amazing explosion of music and expression that was way better than any bomb and we are still learning.

 

Geetings NBSers
Happy High Holidays to All Peoples of Faith.
Weather has been getting hot here. And, I'm already getting tired of it.
Had a sad afternoon watching Michigan State fall apart against Duke, but the evening was quickly redeemed by Wisconsin!!! What a win. Celebrated with many good beers. Hopzilla was a nice malt meets hops nectar to chew through. Thanks to @krl2112 . Sticky going down. But the hilite of my late night/early morning was Deth's Tar by Revolution (courtesy of @Kevinpitts ). This is a beauty, pours as dark as Calipari's heart (just kidding) and has a big, chewy, feel to it. Caramel, bourbon and some roast bring this solid Impy Stout to a legendary appreciation.

Well, now I'm recovered, and I'm going to grill. So we'll see what shows up next.
Cheers All

 

I was soo pumped up last night after that brilliant game. Now, let's hope our Badgers stay composed (as usual) and beat Duke!

 

Back for another new beer round with this one:



Couldn't pass it up too many more times when building a "pick six" because I was dying to find out if the folks from BBC could make a compelling DIPA.

Nose is just a touch tropical, then decends to malty. Tastes almost identical. Bitter and grapefruity straight away, sweet and malty in the middle and oddly enough, a teensie bit salty somehow?

I've had FAR worse DIPAs by breweries that people make fun of a lot less. If I am really Jonesing for a DIPA like away on business or something and this is available, worse things can happen. Seriously.

Ok, enough with the easy listening.....

 

Greetings & Happy Easter, fellow NBSers,

He is Risen. If I had one, I’d be RISin’, but I don’t, so I’ll be cracking open a somewhat high octane stout from Portland in a few minutes, then I’ll be back later with a gem received as part of an epic cross-state porch bombing from our very own @beertunes.

Partly sunny and in the low 40s in the Marmot City. Now that it’s spring, the weather has become colder. Typically obstinate & contrarian Spokane behavior, and I know something about being obstinate and contrarian.

For those of you jonesin’ for new beers, here’s a couple from the aforementioned Bellingham box of awesomeness that were consumed last night – a Vienna Lager from Chuckanut:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18879/52038/?ba=woemad
…and an Imperial IPA from Boundary Bay:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/701/21563/?ba=woemad
The Vienna Lager was a wonderfully tasty example of a style that doesn’t get enough credit. The only caveat I would give it is that the body was just a tad too much to envision myself sessioning the hell out of it (but given the chance I probably would anyway!).

The IIPA got an overall 4 from me despite it being one of the stranger examples of the style I’ve ever had: Cloudy, russet color, bitterly hoppy but not much citrus, and with an underlying sweetness that reminded me of strawberries, of all things. Reccomended if you can deal with a beer of the style not featuring a big blast of grapefruit.

 

you and I need to crush some tripels together being big fans of the style!

 

I've had that as well, and it's one of the few I felt did well in the barrel http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/21193/58022/?ba=smakawhat

Curieux is probably the most well known one, and I find it hot out of the bottle, but much more nicer on tap and preferred it that way