New Beer Sunday (Week 534)

Happy Njorl's Beer Sunday!

This weekend has been non-stop, getting the estate ready for a big event in less than a month. The rain killed my major plans, which was to paint the deck, but at least I got the furniture spray painted and some plantings done. More cleaning, cleaning, cleaning as well. Here's hoping the weather cooperates next weekend, or the tasks will start to pile up on top of one another...

Anyway, it's time to relax, and I kind of needed a pleasant surprise. Thankfully the good folks at Einstok came through with their dandy of a White Ale. It starts out floral and bready, with a gentle spiciness and sweet orange peel coming through on the finish. The palate is superb- dry and velvety smooth with a moderate fullness. As I make my way past the first bottle and on to the second, the spiciness comes to the fore and gets a bit more focused; I'm getting aspects of cumin seeds, peppercorns and coriander seeds. I really love beers like this- they are easy to take down if that's what you are looking for, but also pack enough subtle complexity to keep things interesting if you're in the mood for something like that. 4.25 (A-)

 

A journey back in time to update a classic (and props to the BA who beat me to this today, but I still had to sample this and review this) to post in my favorite thread every week .....



look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Look: the classic DIPA look - 2 fingers of white head, body is a slightly hazy golden beautifulness.

Smell: some pine, TONS of citrus, maybe some pineapple?

Taste: a little sweetness on the tip of the tongue, then the dankness slams into your palate. As it warms, the sweetness returns in the back of the mouth. Simply outstanding.

Feel: pretty dry, until the dankness whips dry's buttocks. Well carbed.

Overall: the Citra-ization of DIPA's continues, but Stone adds in some other varietals to stir the pot a bit. I'm not comparing this to the original, because I loved it as I love this. Both were exceptionally well-executed in the space and time they lived in. Overall = 4.42.

And here's another 2.0 that may (or may not) have surpassed the original.

 

Man, sfogliatelle, coffee, naps, and a big chunk of the Ninkasi lineup—you are having a great day!

I would be all over the first sfogliatelle I came across in the US.

Beats the hazelnut-chocolate filling out of any croissant! Colour me jealous!

 

Oh, now all we need is some Molly Hatchet tunes!!!

 

Some Danny Joe Brown Molly Hatchet tunes!

 

New Many American Beers Sunday (Week 534)

Greetings fellow NBSers from on the ridge in Mid Hud Val NY. A beautiful day following a stormy night, perhaps a bit too warm for me, as I spent the morning scrambling to accommodate my neighbors as they desperately attempted to set new records in recycling used products. Probably 2 tons each of cardboard and steel were deposited in the 4 hours I spent at work this AM.

Thirsty work this, and afterwards I gladly went to the home of @doomXsaloon to quench this thirst in the best way.


Here is Mr. Doom Saloon himself, toking an Undercrown, and holding one of the wonderful new beers we tried today, this one a Braggot from Harpoon, a part of their 100 Barrel series. The nose was pure honey. The taste was honey, floral hop, and the nicest bit of herbal bitter to dry what would otherwise be an overly sweet finish. Even though the label says it is intended to be a IIPA(?) Braggot, it is more like an easy drinking strong ale with honey notes. Alcohol is well hidden in this baby, and we all agreed it was refreshing and clean. I recommend it if you see it, the 5.99 price is a good one for a beer this delicious


That's right, the Montmorency Cherry from Jester King! Thank you Ken for popping this great one, and Sgt. Traxler (who sent it to us). What a marvelous beer! It is like an Upland fruit sour with the delicious flavors of fresh picked fruit, but picture if it had less of a sharp sour, more of a rounded tart, with bright cherry notes that were as if fresh fresh cherries were in a glass of perfectly balanced spontaneously fermented beer. The Brett in this baby is lightly funky and full of earth and overripe fruit notes that turn this into a fantastic and interesting treat that rivals many Krieks I have tried.


Otherside is a Long Island beer from Greenport Harbor that wants to be a West Coast IPA. It has that clean fermented mouthfeel that lends so much refreshment to a beer that is all about perfect bittering and nice grapefruit and pine in the finish. Consensus was that it is not top tier but another great LI offering from an area in NY that once was made fun of, but now puts out legitimate delicacies. Not as full bodied as your favorites from out west, and less dry hopped aroma than many, it none the less held its own in a tasting that included world class hop masterpieces, such as Billy Full Stack.


Both of my friends did not care for this beer, but I really enjoyed it. Tasted more like an English IPA, as the yeast gave a bit of a tart note to the aroma and taste, and the hops were more like the rooty herbal goodness of a beer hopped with
Goldings or Fuggles. I expected more of a Belgian IPA taste and mouthfeel, but it drank much cleaner than that with less of viscous linger that we expect from those done in Belgium. Strange to see Ommegang doing an IPA, but it must be hard for this Western New York brewery to see so many American breweries competing with them on their turf, and they probably wanted to return the favor. It is refreshing and delicious in a way many of the more well regarded hoppy beers are not.


We finished our session with a IIPA from the same brewery that contract brews Sip Of Sunshine for Sean Lawson, Two Roads. While this is a nice beer it is hardly as good as its more popular first cousin. It is very thin, and though it is clean and refreshing there is little of the hop greatness that other beers we enjoyed had. Light nose of citrus, grass, and light pine leads to a sip that is all of these flavors, but not brightly nor harmoniously. It is more a drinkable beer that won't ever be an award winner. In a world of equally priced better beers I doubt I will try it again.


Hope you also have a Great American Beer in your glass. Cheers!

 

I tried the Ommegang Nirvava on Friday, and am still undecided about it. It seems to sit right on that border between 'refined' and 'overly subdued'. I started to detect a nice light goldenrod honey/mead character midway through the second bottle, so I'll put that on in its favor, but overall that seems to be one of those beers that will take me a whole sixer to get a handle on.

 

For graduation dinner, only beer on the menu worth drinking and it was a very tasty version of the type - first time with this one, crisp and clean and delicious - cheers!

 

New Beer Sunday: New IPA

Evenin NBSers, with special greetings to all you Hop Bine Huggers out threre.

The last couple of days here been warm and muggy, but fortunately (or unfortunately) they have been temperate enough to allow yard work and other chores. Got my Trader Joe's supplies laid in and also took some time to visit a newly opened bottle shop (which is very PA in that it is embedded in a large grocery store building and has both a separate cash register and places to sit and have some food as well as a cold beer). The place definitely has potential so I forsee a shopping trip there in the not too distant future.

I've not been around BA a lot this last week since I have been indulging one of my other passions. Using and writing with a good quality fountain pen. There is a picture of the brand new pen I've been working out with to be found here:

http://www.gatecitypen.com/pens.htm#dunn

This pen is a modernized version of a vintage pen first made back in the 20s at the beginning of the "golden era" of vintage fountain pens. Not only is this updated reproduction of the New Dunn pen a joy to write with, the amount of ink it holds with one fill is more than a bit mind-boggling. It fulfills the promise of the Engergizer bunny, it keeps going and going and going....

This evenin's new beer is the Heavy Lifting IPA from Boulevard. This beer is a new year round offering in their line up and is definitely worth a try. The hop flavors are nicely complex and there's enough malt backbone in the background that you still feel like you've a functioning tongue when you are drinking it.

As usual my review can be found here (and is subject to revision until I finish the beer):

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/423/155437/?ba=drtth

For music tonight I spent some time digging into some of the vinyl I have on loan and in doing so happened across the music of a guy by the name of Tennessee Ernie Ford. Among those recordings there was the perfect song to go with a beer called "Heavy Lifting."

Since we've been asked not to post music video links in the NBS thread I did a post in that other thread (WB....) and two links to the music are active there if you'd like to hear (or for some of the old farts among us, hear again) his signature song.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...u-drinking-now-939.292934/page-9#post-3657160

Cheers, all.

 

So I'm just now getting around to posting...and reading the rest of the posts. I've been absent for a little, but decided to come out of hiding this week. So I figured I would do a double post (kinda sorta).

I'm recovering today from a nice trip up to Chicagoland. Picked up a few things that I'm excited about, and managed to have what is now one of my all time favorites, Galactic Double Daisy Cutter (still dreaming about that one). Since that was my new beer for Saturday, it doesn't quite qualify (though I wish it did).

Anyway happy NBS!

Today I present Grapefruit and Habanero Sculpin! (No I didn't mix the two)



Pictured is the habanero. I'm going to preface these reviews by saying that to me sculpin is not really my cup of tea (shoutout to @cavedave ) Not worthy of the hype it seems to get. Again just my opinion. But I will go into these unbiased.

First up the grapefruit.

Nice floral, fruity smell. Slight bitterness perceived, but overall a nice juicy smell. Taste has a mild bitterness with a mix between what I would expect if I ate a grapefruit and then drank an IPA. Overall a good beer, especially if I were sitting out on a porch by the lake. These would them become a favorite. This one has definitely made me want to rethink my opinion on sculpin for the 5th time though.

Now the habanero.

As soon as I poured this one I could smell the heat. It began to waft around the room. Spicy peppers, and floral hops. Taste is pretty mild until BLAM! smacked in the face with habanero heat. The peppers take over completely, masking any other flavors that I can get. Maybe some citrus, but damn the peppers are strong. I like pepper beers, but want a complementing pepper flavor to other flavors mixed in. This tastes a little too overdone.

Cheers NBS! I might return later with some more new postings.

 

Good evening, BAs - it was unintentional, but my new beer today was already mentioned in the OP. This is also my first foray into the official New Beer Sunday thread!



I was pleased to be able to have this beer - since Ninkasi sadly does not distribute to Indiana, a good friend of mine in California (who is a true Beer Advocate, despite not being a member of this site) sent me this particular beverage. The beer had a strong malt base, and I got lots of caramel and brown sugar flavors in addition to the heavy rye character. I found the finish a bit weak as the flavors fell off, but not enough to bring down my opinion much.

Cheers!

 

Drinking a Pipeworks Pastrami on Rye. It is brewed with 11 herbs and spices traditionally used in curing pastrami: mustard seed, bay leaf, red pepper, coriander, ginger, allspice, clove, curaway seed, tellichery black peppercorn, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It is also brewed with rye, dark candi sugar and smoked malt. Wow, this brings the term liquid bread to a new level. Fantastic brew!

 

Super late to the NBS party as family obligations have been keeping me busy. I miss my early morning beer! Reviewing Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin today. I've had it on my radar, and came across some in my search for Hoptimum. Let's see how it goes?

Pours a dark, but very clear gold color with a two finger soapy white head that lingers around. Visually appealing!

Aroma smells oddly enough like blood orange as opposed to grapefruit, with a hint of faint perfume and some pine. A bit strange?

Taste starts out along the line of orange zest, then morphs into a meaty mouth puckering grapefruit flavor. There is a bit of wet cardboard or wood hidden in the back.

Mouthfeel is bitter and dry.

My synopsis? This one is appropriately labeled and tastes as advertised. I like grapefruit flavor in my IPA's, but I never eat grapefruit as I find it a bit acidic and not to my liking. This beer is very one dimensional in that aspect. I guess I was hoping for a bit more balance. Perhaps some sweet malt backbone? With that said my rating came out to a 4.14 / rDev -4.8%.

The sun has set, my eternally miserable Cubs while they lost today are at least a fun to watch. Have a great week!

 

Holy cow are there some good-looking beers in here!

Lakes are filling back up here in Texas, where the dreaded "drought" label is coming off most of our counties. The rains are testing us in the Brazos Valley, where it has rained almost once a day for three weeks. I've not seen anything like this since my years growing up in El Campo in the Gulf Coast region of the state. It's amazing, a bit frustrating as a golfer and outdoor-type, but after the summer of 2011, I dare not complain. Let it rain. We might have a few blades of green grass come August, the way this spring is going.

New American-made Wee Heavy Sunday:

Real Ale's Real Heavy


I wish I would've poured this into a tighter tulip ... the head possibilities are interesting:



The review:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/458/41752/?ba=Premo88

4.12 (+3.5% rDev)

Real Ale's Real Heavy is a wall of malt ... and it tastes and smells like that in-between area on the malt spectrum where you're past the English pale ale family but still a bit short of porter. Nothing is even close to burnt here, but almost everything is toasted. Caramel, toffee, fruitcake, raisin bread (almost) with the slightest pinch of peat ... it's only drawback might be a bit of medicinality at times, mostly in the taste, for the nose seems to be forever sweet (and "lighter" than the taste).

Real Ale recently began a new line of beers sold strictly in bombers ... Real Heavy is one of them, and it's good enough to get me interested in the rest of that lineup. And at $5.60 a bomber, why not? Even the anti-bomber in me can't resist a good beer in a sub-$6 bomber.

Hope y'alls' upcoming week goes well ... and if you need some rain, holler. Maybe we can send you some.

Cheers!

 

First time with this beer, let alone this brewery (hence the post).
Nose and first taste remind me of Juicy Fruit. Golden color in the glass, great taste throughout the mouth, nice creamy lacing...who said nothing good comes from LA (see Dodgers, Lakers and Clippers)

 

Loving how good and how widely available this is.



Awesome example of a solid AWA. Honestly, Boulevard is becoming a favorite brewery of mine I think.

 

Just got home from a pretty good day at work, helped tremendously by the fact that the one coworker I hated finally quit and he won't be coming back this time (he was scheduled for today, but... nope, quit Friday, so I hopefully won't ever see him again.) Also made a brief grocery store trip afterward (as I was out of milk), and now I'm having my first bottle of the fourth and final new beer from the Kona variety pack:


Fire Rock Pale Ale. I like pale ales generally (haven't had one I didn't like so far, at least, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in particular is definitely on the "will most likely buy again many times in the future" list) so I'm honestly not sure why I saved this one for last.

Nice orangey color to this one. Reminds me of Sierra Nevada's pale ale which also had a very orangey look to it. Not a whole lot of foam on top, and (like the Big Wave ale I had a couple bottles of yesterday) what's there disappears pretty quick, though it does leave some trails along the inside of the glass. Smells... maybe a little piney, but not picking up nearly as much hops as I was expecting from a pale ale. Taste is similarly lacking in hops -- there's a very nice bread-crust/bran-flake sort of thing going on with the malt flavors, but I'm only getting a little bit of leafy bitterness and maybe just a faint hint of a spicy sort of thing as far as hop-based flavors go. Seems like a different sort of pale ale from the others I've had in the past.

I do like that "bran-flake-like" flavor I'm getting, but it seems like it's missing a bit in the hops department, considering that from what I've seen/read/tasted pale ales are generally supposed to be in the "balanced, but leaning toward hoppy" area if not going all the way into full-on "hoppy" (just not to the extent of an IPA.) Not bad overall, but maybe a little disappointing after how surprisingly good the others in the pack were. Really wasn't expecting a pale ale to seem the least-hoppy of the four beers in a variety pack, especially since only one of the others is an IPA!

 

Good evening NBS, hop everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend again. My A/C compressor died on friday night so I have been sitting here in the 85 degree apartment humidity all weekend. I kegged my Porter I brewed 3 weeks ago, and I made a draft strength hyromel last night with MI Tart cherries in primary. I am going to rack it for a month of conditioning on more tart cherries in a week or two when I am sure the fermentation is complete. It seems like wine yeast is a lot less vigorous on speed for fermentation vs my lengthy beer experience. Also great thing I have a ferment chamber, it's bubbling along at 65 just fine.

Here are today's new beers:

Really good Berliner weisse. Very poor head retention on this with zero lacing. Aromas and flavors of tart lemon, lime, green apple, pear, apricot, wheat, cracker, herbal, grass, and yeast earthiness. Fair amount of fruity/acidic tartness on the finish. Well carbonated and crisp finish with a great balance of malt/acidity with good robust flavors. Has a bit of a wheat creaminess in the mouthfeel as well. Very drinkable and actually has a lower amount of acidity than I am accustomed to in others I have had, while still having a refreshing amount of tartness. Really enjoyable. 3.82


Really damn nice Black IPA. Aromas and flavors of big grapefruit, tangerine, lemon zest, orange peel, pine, chocolate, cocoa, coffee, toast, and light smoke/char; with floral/grassy hop earthiness. Nice sized pine/citrus rind/charred bitter finish; with a nice balance between the malt and hop flavors. Very smooth and moderately sticky hop oil finish; with light roast malt chalkiness in the mouthfeel. Really impressive stuff. Plenty of citrus/piney hop flavors with classic dark roast/char malts for the style; while I am not actually seeing much if any smoked malts(labeled as a smoked beer), the charred black barley flavors certainly do give a bit of that impression. Really delicious. 4


Really nice Belgian IPA. Aromas and flavors of bright grapefruit, tangerine, lemon zest, orange peel, pine, light banana, coriander, pepper, candi sugar, and toasted bread; with herbal/floral/grassy hop and spice earthiness. Some light-moderate pine/grassy bitterness with yeast spiciness on the finish. Really well balanced yeast, hop, and malt flavors; with a well carbonated and crisp finis; with some light hop stickiness present in the mouthfeel. Nice standard medium body for the ABV. Really delicious overall, nice balancing act between the pale malt, spice, hops, and yeast. Nothing overpowers anything else. 3.9


Cheers, have a good night NBS.