New Beer Sunday (week 533)

This brew pours a 50% transparent straw color with a lot of carbonation and a one finger white head which lasts along with very light lacing.

The smell is malty, grassy, cracker like along with spicy hops. It smells like there is a lot of caramel and sweet malts.

The taste follows the nose with a well blended hop/malt combination. The malts are both sweet and caramel. There is a light cracker like taste along with a slight grassy taste. The finish is dry with spicy malts in and just a little gritty.

Overall this is a nicely hopped Pils. It compares nicely with, say "S.N. "Beer Camp; Hoppy Lager"

 

EvilTwin Citra Sunshine Slacker Session IPA 4.5% ABV

It's a drizzly, grey, gloomy day here in Kansas so why not break out some Sunshine Slacker on a day for the Champion Mothers out there. I let my wife sleep in this morning as she has her hands full with our 3 children every single day. She is our hero.

Citra Sunshine Slacker looks like most other session IPAs I've had -- it has a slightly opaque light colored burnt orange body we'll say under a frothy white head (the lighting makes it look darker in the photo). Head recession is slow and ultimately leaves a nice thick film. Thick sheets of lacing during the beginning stages of drinking

The aroma is pretty straightforward with tons of citrus in the way of grapefruit rind, and a touch of tropical fruit hides in there as well. Some piny hops for good measure, but not a lot of woodiness overall. Citric and floral abound in the nose. Faintly spicy.

The taste is much the same if not a little more on the piney side. I think this is very well balanced between the citrus bitterness, pine, and fruitiness. Tropical fruitiness seems to be the less evident element in taste profile but enough to appreciate.

Mouthfeel is medium to light, and yes there is a little bit of a "thinning" factor at 4.5% ABV. However, that does not take any of the taste away.

Overall: This is a good session IPA with plenty of IPA flavor at a low alcohol level. It's about what I hoped for. Like last week, I haven't rated this yet, but I'm eyeing a 4 as an overall score, maybe a touch higher. Cheers and Happy Mothers Day!

 

New Milk Stout Mother's Day Sunday

Another beautiful morning on the deck.




3.55/5 rDev -0.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5

Poured from a 12 oz single. No date.

All black. Thin, somewhat fizzy tan head that vanishes within seconds. TONS of debris. You would swear this was a 5 year old Trappist that I hard poured. The bottom of the glass looks like congealed fat from a pork loin.

Smells very good. Lots of sweet chocolate. Like a Nesquick chocolate milk with a few extra scoops of powder. Faint roasted coffee hidden in the background.

Taste pretty much follows. A condensed milk sweetness that makes the chocolate taste like a Tootsie Roll or a Milk Dud. A little stronger roasted/ashy aftertaste than the aroma.

The carbonation seems to be on the higher end of the spectrum than lower. It is also very thin bodied. It does not shine in this area.

This milk stout is nowhere near Left Hand or Moloko, but it does smell and taste good. It is one of those beers that starts to slide after every sip, and towards the end you really don't like it anymore. I think it is just the intensity level of the flavors combined with the feel. Very watery. In all fairness, it really does taste good, and I have no idea how old it is. It just isn't one I would go back for in today's market.


Pairing tunes cross posted on WBAYDN. Remember, no wire hangars. Enjoy your day.

 

Greetings to All,

Expecting to be back this evening as my wife and I have a few Mother's Day things planned during the day today with the family. If by chance I don't make it back I'll save my Anderson Valley Gose for next week.

As for starting the NBS thread each Sunday, I'd like to "vote" for having a designated starter each week if one of our hosts can't make it.

Its good to have a few words up front explaining that the purpose of the NBS thread is more than just reporting that one is having a new beer and then just showing off a picture, etc. before disappearing.

Part of what seems to make NBS threads unique is the idea that folks also share a bit about their day, perhaps some sort of recent memorable events in their lives, and maybe a report (but not a link) on any music they are enjoying along with sharing their reactions to the new beer itself.

Cheers, all!

 

My first Hard Root Beer!

I should first confess that I am not a soda pop drinker today but I sure drank a lot of it when I was a kid.

My favorite Root Beer growing up was Hires Root Beer and I loved to drink Root Beer Floats. I thought it would be fun to try an alcoholic Root Beer so I bought a 4-pack of Sprecher Fire Brewed Hard Root Beer.

Poured into Three Stooges Mug.

Appearance:

Looks just like a Root Beer: brown color and tan head (which fades quickly)

Smell:

Has the aromas you expect from a Root Beer: vanilla, herbal, etc.

Taste:

It tastes just like a Root Beer.

Moutfeel:

Sharp and prickly like a Root Beer on the first few sips. As it opens up it becomes more smooth and silky.

Overall

This really tastes like a non-alcoholic Root Beer. I really do not perceive any of the alcohol aspect.

I am thinking that maybe the next step is to try this with some vanilla ice cream to recreate a Root Beer Float?

I doubt that I will ever re-purchase this but it was a fun exercise for what it is.

Cheers!

 

So Jack, imagine you were talking to someone who'd never had a root beer in their whole life (say a neighbor kid). What would you tell them to expect from the flavors?

 

A bit earthy, a slight funk, rooty, and nicely sweet with an obscure medicinal balance.

 

Shhhhh. No coaching from the audience. :-)

 

I made that up. I'm a professional!

 

Good morning New BSers! Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there. Thanks Maria for starting the thread and for updating us on the previous issue's resolution.

Well. My wife's on another quilting excursion - left Thursday and won't be back until sometime this afternoon. The construction guys finished everything they could and are gone until the rest of the stuff comes in. Now the fun of moving into the new room begins - we've got stuff stored all over the house, our son's house, two rented storage sheds, etc. We also need to buy a new oven, the light is burned out in the refrigerator so my wife wants a new one (refrigerator, not light), I'm moving my clothes to my son's old room so my wife can have even more closet space, and on and on and on.

To celebrate my few days of independence, my son and I headed east to enjoy some good beer and food. Lunch Friday was a couple of beers at Union Barrel Works, dinner was a couple of Eddie's steaks at Stoudt's (along with numerous rye stouts, Scarlet Lady ESBs, and Fat Dogs), and lunch yesterday was at Victory Downingtown. Oddly enough, they had no Kirsch Gose, neither on tap nor in bottles. The guy in the gift shop told me more was being brewed, but they should still have some left out here in my area of the boonies. After we got home last night, my son stopped at my local distributor on his way home and scored a case each of Kirsch Gose and Flying Dog Kujo. He dropped off a mixed six for me so I finally got to try the Kirsch Gose.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/345/156202/?ba=Ozzylizard



To me this tastes more like a kriek than a gose - I'm not noticing any saltiness. This has a definite American kriek beer taste - distinctly cherry, kind of sticky, soda pop feel. Not to say that it's bad, it isn't: it just isn't what my taste buds were expecting from a gose.

 

Good Morning All. Thanks again to Maria for hoisting the colors to get us started. I for one like a designated point person(s). I don't like the idea of NBS becoming something less intimate that has lost it's warm, communal ambience. I'm glad to hear that Todd was proactive and prompt with his assistance. Thanks @Todd . This is a special little corner of what has become an über successful BA. Many of us are grateful for BA, and has it has evolved on a grand scale, it's nice to have this little gathering spot.

 

There's a big piece of weather off of the Carolina coast that I can feel...in my knees, feet, and elsewhere. It's dark and dreary, not really rainy, but it's quiet and calm and brooding.
Yesterday Preyer Brewing Company opened in Greensboro. It is a beautiful facility, no expense spared, and in a great location near the ballpark and new downtown housing. I had a Preyer Rye Pale Ale on draft. It poured a rich burnished amber with a spiky white head. The aroma was pure rye and other rich malts. While not distinctly hoppy, this beer actually pulls off that ethereal balance that is malt and hops marrying well. A damned good beer for sure.
The Preyer family legacy is Vick's VapoRub, invented in Greensboro in 1891. Richardson Preyer was a US Congressman for six terms and was exemplary in every way. We need more men and women like him.


I apologize in advance for the music, but this piece just makes me feel great and I wanted to share. Cheers all!

 

With a little help from my friends

 

Cheers, BA! I hope you all have a ... BA Mother's Day. Eh? Eh?? Eh...

Beer #711


Appearance: Poured aggressively from basically seventy-six feet above the glass down the center to get a head -- I wound up with one about half a finger in size, creamy in texture, and with a pale brown color. To my surprise, Choklat isn't pitch black: it's very dark, but a clear ruby black color when held to light. Lacing is patchy, but decent. (4/5)

Smell: I doubt many people have had it, but Choklat smells a lot like Chocolate Manifesto by Flying Monkeys. An incredibly rich, sharp sweetness from the chocolate makes this smell almost identical to Hershey's syrup -- take that as you will. It's a very, very sweet aroma that smells like a chocolate syrup and nothing else, at least at fridge temperature. (4.5/5)

Taste/feel: Luxurious. Again, my comparison is to the not-too-well-known Chocolate Manifesto -- quite similar, but Choklat is better for one simple fact: it has an unexpected depth of flavor. Obviously there's massive chocolate, but there's a roastiness on the front with the subtlest black licorice sort of vibe, the finish is predominantly chocolate, but the roast and a super slight accent of black licorice is there as well. Choklat starts with a creamy mouthfeel, but then there's a prickly carbonation that seems to highlight a little bit of bitterness, because the finish on Choklat is super unexpectedly... bitter? Not very bitter, but moderately, I'd say. (4.5/5, 4.5/5)

I don't know if Southern Tier has tinkered with the recipe at all, but I don't think this is ridiculously sweet beer -- just a phenomenal chocolate stout with fantastic balance. Chocolate Manifesto, when I had it, had the body of chocolate milk, the smell of chocolate milk, and the taste of chocolate milk or ice cream. Super delicious stuff, but cloying at a certain point. I'd prefer Chocolate Manifesto if I were drinking less of the beer (hence me giving it the higher rating), but with Choklat, I see myself having no issues going through a decent amount of this. Well worth a purchase, especially at the price of $9 a bomber.

(4.5/5) (+4.9% rDev)

 

Damn man, get well! I cherish your thoughts and wish you well.

 

Wow- not good! Hope it isn't that respiratory stuff ("flu" or otherwise) that's been going around - otherwise expect about six weeks before you're feeling nearly normal. The rest of us will continue to hoist a few in your honor!