New Beer Sunday (week 533)

New Beers!
Comparing 5% Pale Ales/Summer session lagers...
Little Creatures (Australia) (new) and Bitter American - 21st Amendment (SF, CA) are a tie at 4.06.
Also to like is Goose Summer Ale at 3.93. (new) All recommended.

I found every brew in OZ to be summery, lower ABV, refreshing which is a great fit to their endless summer, especially in Sydney and Brisbane....

Little Creatures Pale Ale

4.06/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
My favorite beer in Oz so far. Down under hops.
A- Lasting head and lace over a cloudy apricot body, a beautiful beer. Great retention and stick.
S- Original grassy and fruit, soft green hops aroma couple with fresh pale malt aroma getting better as it warms.
T- Follows smell. The pale malt gives way to the grassy hop snap in the finish with a slight citrus note to it. The hops have are a dry pungent almost far east feel. Great with asian food. This pungent hop is earthy, dirty, chalky. (one review named sulphur)
M- Great chalky mouth feel and weight, lovely finish. Want to keep drinking this.
O - One unique pale ale. Best of Oz? Must try!

Bitter American - 21st Amendment
4.06/5 rDev +5.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
My new every day beer in a can. I love this brewer, and I love this session ale.
12 ounce can poured into a wine glass.
Appearance: Pours a slightly hazed, dark apricot body with a proud tan head. Lots of lacing on the way down. Looks great, like a much sterner beer than 4.4%
Smell: IPA light. Good starter hop ale. Starts with mild maltiness, with welcoming scent of flowers, grass, herbs, and citrus. Appetizing hop aroma. Great with food.
Taste: Follows the smell with a cracker, sweet malt, then toasty, floral hops, lemon and grapefruit. Medium bitterness. Drying, lemony finish with a lingering citrus presence. Great finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium body. Medium carbonation. But good mouth feel, great with any summer food.
Overall: Why would you not make this your every day, early day, and summer ale? Great stuff. Great brewer.

Goose Summer Ale
3.93/5 rDev +1.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Lovely APA, my favorite style, so biased. Been looking for a 5% APA. (My fave is Dales Pale Ale - which is boisterously hopped.
A -- Bright, clear coppery golden with a white head that settles slowly, leaving lots of lacing.
S -- Plenty of nose for a summer session ale, which is what I seek. Large citrus nose up front -- with pine sap and caramel.
T -- Follows smell and is the best part. Citrus up front with pine following on a layer of caramel biscuit malt. Finishes with power: spicy bitterness with tangerine rind and pepper.
M -- Great feel for a 5% beer, soft, relaxed, mid-palate weight. Clean peppery finish.
O -- Overall this is a great summer beer. Hoppy, peppery, refreshing. As good as any summer ale I have tried.
Shiner Kosmos Reserve - Spoetzl
3.27/5 rDev -1.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
Have not been woo'd by Shiner, or any TX beer yet.
A - Pours clear, golden amber color with large white head of esp bubbly foam. Dotty lace.
S -Mild aroma, malty and floral, with a bit of chemical noise.
T - Follows smell with more bready malt, lots of grain, & sweet caramel. A bit of bitter bite, but would like more colors and finish. Again that slight metallic back drop lowers the score.
M - Lean, sharp and smooth. Light bodied lager with a drying finish.
O - Worth a try - interesting history - feels grainy and mass compared with its betters.

 

Cheers that is a perfect description for that period. I'm a history lover and what I'd like to call a musician although I've made a living of it before its been many moons. Now I'm just a beer drinkin basement banger. Very nice piece. TY.

 

Beautiful. How about a story? I would love to hear some more.

 

One of the better beer days I've had for some time now...we started with a bottle of Dorothy (new iteration) with dinner but that wasn't a new beer to me so nbd, right? Moved onto something a little more serious post-dinner...

Flora Plum.



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22511/163263/?ba=zoober911

Following the Flora, we decided we had waited plenty long enough for this next one.





Le Sarrasin.



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22511/112082/?ba=zoober911

I think the best part of today was more than just the beer. They were great, don't get me wrong, but convincing my mom to try them and how great they are was the best part. Watching her smell it and say 'no' it smells sour, and convincing her to try it anyway because it's a new beer is funny every time. She smells it, sips it, puckers like no other and says 'ugh...that doesn't even taste like beer.'

Happy New Beer Sunday to my mom! Cheers!

 

Sea Legs Baltic Porter by Unita Brewing

 

Welcome to NBS! Look forward to seeing you on a regular basis.

 

What about it? NBS is different from WBAYDN in that here we don't just show off our stuff. What did you like,or dislike about this beer? How's the weather where you are? Do anything cool this week? Got plans for a road trip? We take a minute to share what's going on with our lives here. We've shared births and deaths, weddings and divorces, great beers and drain pours with each other. We know who walks the hounds every day, and who has to change his daughters oil before he can have a beer. Welcome aboard, please participate.

 

Today I got off work a bit early (not a bad thing in this case, as I'm ahead money-wise at the moment so losing half an hour's pay isn't a big deal at all), went over to the store, and saw that the big green Foster's cans were randomly selling for under $2, so I picked one up along with my other groceries.

That's not the beer I'm drinking right now, though (...maybe later tonight after I've gone for a walk and have some laundry going?) I've opened up the Kona variety pack again (speaking of which -- looks like I lucked out a bit when I bought it for $13.99, as the Food Lion I found it at has now bumped the price into the mid/upper $14 range! which is still a pretty great price for a variety pack, just not as great as $13.99 was), and am now having my first bottle of this one:



The Castaway IPA. It's kind of interesting to think about how far I've come as far as IPAs go -- waaaay back last September or so when I was first starting out trying various new kinds of beer (well, it was all new at the time, heh) I was kind of afraid to try IPAs because I'd heard they were really bitter and I wasn't sure I'd like them at all. Then a little later I tried one and yeah, there was a lot of bitterness compared to other beers I'd tried, but not to the point of being overwhelming or unpleasant -- and the abundance of hop flavor was something I hadn't experienced before, so the positives outweighed the negatives. I still wouldn't have bought a full six-pack of one at the time, but I no longer shied away from variety-packs made up mostly of IPAs and would pick up a bottle or two to try if I had the option -- IPAs became a "sure, I'll have one every now and then" beer rather than an "uh-oh, those sound scary" beer. And since then it seems I've gotten more used to the level of hops and bitterness involved, to the point where I definitely would pick up a six-pack if there was one I wanted to try (...or a 4-pack, in some cases... one of those Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA packs that recently appeared in local stores for the first time may just end up in my fridge before the summer's over.)

And now on to this one specifically. Definitely looks like what I expect an IPA to look like after having a variety of them -- dark golden color, bubbles rising up, with a lot of nice bubbly foam on top when poured, eventually shrinking down until it's just a little bit covering the surface. Really liking the smell on this one -- there's a bit of something almost piney, but also a good bit of tropical fruitiness that makes me wonder if that pine isn't actually closer to pineapple or mango or something along those lines. There's definitely a tropical fruit sort of thing going on in the hops in addition to the bit of pineyness. I suppose that'd be an appropriate sort of thing for a Hawaiian beer, heh. Tastes pretty good, too -- similar to the smell overall, though the pine comes out a bit more in the flavor. Not a great deal of bitterness, it's present but doesn't hang around quite as strongly in the aftertaste compared to some others in the same style (not as much of the lingering leafy/herbal bitter thing; there's a bit of that too but what hangs around is a bit milder and almost seems to have a bit of a fruitiness to it, too.) Occasionally I pick up a little bit of an almost bread-crusty type malt flavor, too, mostly nearing the end of the glass. But, as expected of an IPA, the hops come out a lot more.

Well, that definitely worked nicely as a "relax with a tasty beer after work while writing about it" beer. I just got home around 9:00, so that glass emptied out pretty quick -- I suspect I would easily be able to have two of these in one sitting just like I did a while back with the Devil's Backbone Eight Point IPA. Think I might like this one more, actually -- the smell makes the difference I'd say, I remember the smell of the beer being Eight Point IPA's weakest feature, while that "little bit of pine/more fruit" thing this one has going on is really nice.

 

NBS: I'm Just Projecting!

I've been absent from the forums for quite awhile now, but that doesn't mean I've not had some great beer or hung out with some great BA's in that time.

Things have settled down a bit and I've gotten into the groove of my new job and the schedule it entails.

Had this today after work and was blown away (despite having said that I wouldn't buy another Stillwater beer after the Arcana debacle [those 27 reviews are all wrong]):




His American brews are just phenomenal but I'm not about to drop $10 on one of his C&C green glass 375 ml. Belgian bottles.

This was ridiculously hoppy and had a new fruity flavor for me. Just a great brew with a great label. Not sure exactly what the rice did to this beer, but it did have a great body.

This is an A for me and is a buy!

Imperial Rice India Pale Ale!

p.s. Happy Mother's Day to all the mama's out there!

 

Good evening NBS. Hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. A really wet rainy weekend this week, so I didn't do much other than relax this weekend. I got a mild cold but can still breathe. I need to keg an English porter within the next week and get more CO2 for my kegerator; and I was thinking about making a cherry cyser draft mead for my last keg as a quick brew for myself. The batch is going to cost upwards of 100 dollars for a 6% beverage, but a Zombie Killer keg costs 220 per sixtel so that's less than half price .

Here are today's new beers:

This is an excellent Irish red! Aromas and flavors of big caramel, toast, biscuit, brown sugar, and light nuttiness; with some herbal hop earthiness and light pear/apple yeast fruitiness. Light herbal/earthy bitterness on the finish. Really nice malt complexity going on with nicely restrained yeast ester notes. Really clean and balanced. Very smooth finish with light-moderate creaminess. This one really surprised me. Exactly everything I expected for the style with a hefty amount of flavor. I think this is my new go-to for the style. 4.1


Excellent DIPA as expected. Aromas and flavors of bright grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, lemon zest, orange peel and pine; with light-moderate pale crackery/light honey malts with the usual floral/grassy hop earthiness. Good amount of pine/grassy bitterness on the finish; with a very smooth and crisp finish with light-moderate stickiness. Very drinkable for 8.5%, seriously smooth with minimal alcohol presence. This is a spot on execution of a west coast DIPA. Nothing but bright hops with only pale malts to balance out bitterness. Absolutely zero complaints. I love the hop bill, pretty much a classic lineup for the style as well(Amarillo, Centennial, Columbus, Simcoe). I'd take this over Pliny every day of the week, it's extremely similar and even has less malt presence than it. 4.1


Really nice black saison. Aromas and flavors of lemon, orange, plum, pear, apple, caramel, cocoa, brown sugar, toast, dark bread, and peppercorn; with some herbal hops and yeast earthiness. Nice peppery/spicy finish; with well balanced dark/bready maltiness with the fruity/spicy yeast flavors. Very smooth finish with some moderate creaminess and a bit of hop stickiness. A unique and well executed dark saison for the style. Actually not as malt dominated as I expected, a lot of fruity yeast going on with a very well balanced amount of the darker malt flavors. A unique twist for Ommegang because there are no spices in this at all. Really enjoyed this one. 3.9


Cheers! Have a good night NBS

 

That gave me chills. I guess I'm truly a beer nerd.....

 

You beat me to it.

 

Huzzah!!!

 

And now I'm back from a nice walk around town (getting to be great weather for walking at night now -- cool enough that you don't roast, warm enough that you don't need a jacket, and a bit windy.) Time to have my second new beer for the day...


...yep, it's time for that giant Foster's can I mentioned finding for an even-cheaper-than-usual price at the store. Specifically this is the Foster's Ale in the green can (the Lager in blue, oddly, was still the normal price.) What appears to be a best-by date on the bottom says September 2015, so this wasn't old beer they were trying to unload -- wonder why the price drop, then? Hmm.

And immediately I'm reminded that pouring from a can is not as easy as pouring from a bottle. A bit of an "oops" happened, and a little bit ran down the side of the glass and onto the paper towel below. I did figure out how to properly pour from a can a bit later, but it took several attempts. Well, so much for the extra 0.4 ounces (...okay, yeah, I didn't spill that much, but still. XD)

Color is reminiscent of Yuengling, an orangey light brown. Lots of whitish foam on top, but I'm guessing that's mostly as a result of my way-too-fast pouring at first, as it's definitely died down a lot now. Had a bit of a funky smell to it (a bit of hair-salon chemical funkiness -- also reminiscent of a smell I sometimes get from Yuengling Lager -- and just a little bit of something almost sulfur-like at first) but that has died down along with the foam and now I can't smell much at all, just a faint trace of that weird chemical smell and some sweetness.

And... well, to put it simply, it isn't great. It's far from tasteless, I'll give it that, but there's just something odd about what flavor is there. Sweet, grainy, and something that sort of seems "off" in a weird sort of chemical way -- kinda like that "hair salon" aspect of smell except, unlike in the other beers I've had where I picked that up, it unfortunately does transfer to the taste as well. Wouldn't be too bad without that "off"/"chemical-like" element, and it does seem like whatever that is has been growing a bit weaker as I drink more, but... yeah, unless this becomes dramatically better as it warms a bit, I don't think I'll be buying another one once this can is gone. Feels very thin for something with such a dark color and so much foam when pouring, too... just comes across as all-around less substantial than other beers in similar ranges of color and ABV that I've had. Really odd.

 

I am going to make one final appearance in NBS, this is my 1,000th beer rated on BA, and I wanted it to be a special one, and I think I picked a winner. I was skeptical of this one, but it has absolutely lived up to whatever "hype" it may have had.



4.62/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

2015 Vintage No. 006
22oz Bomber served into 16oz tulip

A – Pours a deep and rich brown, opaque, head is coffee cream colored and thin, leaves behind sticky, spotty lacing, and thick legs coat the inside of the class, quite thick.

S – Warm oak, buttered toffee, coffee, licorice, creamy caramel, rich bourbon, cinnamon, rich mocha, chocolate roasted malts.

T – Deep layers of flavor, bourbon dominant, rich and spicy bourbon notes, cinnamon, spicy, leads way to rich and decadent notes of chocolate, cocoa nibs, coffee, espresso, caramel, vanilla bean, licorice, anise, spice, warming, wonderfully rich.

M – Thick, rich, and sweet, coats the inside of the mouth and has a long and lingering finish that warms you to your core, very enjoyable and decadent.

O – Excellent beer, very nice balanced notes of coffee, chocolate, bourbon, oak, vanilla, caramel, toffee, just amazing, this absolutely lives up to its "hype" grab it if you can.

 

Roughtail: Wee Heavy


4.23/5 rDev +1.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Pours a beautiful orange with no head as would be expected form a 11% abv. Smell of oranges and honey. taste of sweet caramel and toffee with just a hint of hop bitterness on the end. mouthfeel is thick and chewy.

Wow, what a great Wee Heavy! It really brings out the malt beast in me, like a good wee heavy should. Tons of caramel and toffee malts.dominate showing It is primarily a traditional wee heavy in style. But has just a hint of hops and big abv thrown in just to say it was brewed in America.

The can remind me of the Old Heavy Metal Movie, not that they are that much alike. Just a personal thing maybe.

 

Welcome back @gillagorilla

 

This newly bottled offering from Great Lakes is my new beer on this Mother's Day 2015 http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/73/75829/

 

I just awakened. I's 2:08 AM and my hounds, the big bulk of them (both), were sleeping between my wife and I, but they were nuzzling her because she really is perfect. I have decided to repair to here for a bit of sanity? Yes. This is a very lovely place and the intelligence ripples through the seemingly simple posts. I thank all of you for making something that is real. I do not want to define what it is that I like here, but I know that it is truly good.
I lost my Mom over a year ago, and it was a terrible descent into dementia that totally baffled her. We (my brother, his wife, my wife) couldn't handle it either. My Mom and Step Dad were taken advantage of by a career criminal for about 80K. I had to clean out the old family home and it completely broke my heart. My brother just wanted it done and I wanted to preserve what I knew to be important for all of us going forward. An old house after 60 years has revelations everywhere. The letter to my Dad from George C. Marshall made all of it matter to everyone.
I apologize, but I think of my Mom when things were right and savor them. Sailing in this world offers no perfection but my attention and curiosity never wanes. Cheers. I'll have one Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and sleep well!