New Beer Sunday (week 538)

Based on your "tang" description, it seems that, perhaps, wild yeasts were used in this brew, as they are in many of the Bruery's. My belief is that wild yeast beers get a pass on head dissipation, so far as the bubbles are near microscopic.
Best regards,
J-Rye

 

Two New German Pils beers Sunday.

Evenin' NBSers, with particular greetings to the pursuers of the perfect pils.

The weather around here for the last few days has been hot and humid and uncomfortable because of that combination. What makes SE PA bearable for me is that we typically do get a few days break between hot spells with lower humidity and more comfortable temperatures.

Wasn't around much for most of the day, what with a trip to the Gym, some shopping, and then helping to hang pictures in a local historical site that depends heavily on volunteer maintenance and those of us who get "drafted" by one of the volunteers.

Took my wife out to dinner this evening. There's a place up the road about 30-40 min. from here that has food we both enjoy and a draft beer list that I like because the owners know their beer and the beer list rotates steadily and often has beers I've not tried (even after building up an official count of almost 850 different ones). So tonight I got to try two new Pils beers, one brewed in Germany and one brewed here in the US, and both fresh on tap. My wife, being of a suspicous nature thought that was why I suggested we go out to dinner.

But I ask you, in all honesty, how many of us who like the Pils style could pass up an opportunity to try for the first time both the Rothaus Pils Tannen Zapfle and the Hill Farmstead Mary, both on tap? Fortunately I knew enough to order a meal without particularly strong flavors and to ask for the Rothaus first, then the Hill Farmstead. (I suppose I could have gotten them side-by-side, but I didn't want my wife to feel we'd come there just for the beer.... )

I did a brief review of both to log here on the site but since those beers are now finished, here are my thoughts about each of the two beers in the order in which I drank them:


Tannen Zapfle, Fresh, on tap.
Served in a shaker pint, the beer is a clear bright yellow with a 1/4 head. The nose picks up some bready malt with some hops in the background. The flavors begin with lightly sweet, bready malt that eventually fades to a slight grassy bitterness. The mouth feel is on the light side of medium and crisp with the persistent carbonation. Overall I think that this is quite possibly the best German brewed Pils I've tried to date.

Mary, Fresh, on tap.
Served in a shaker pint, the beer is a nice bright yellow color with a 1/4 layer of white head. The aroma is light and herbal with malt in the background. The flavor has some nice malt but the hops pop in to dominate the show early on. So there's a bit of grassy lemony character starting early and going on for most of the light, dry finish. The mouth feel is light side of medium and crisp with the persistent carbonation. Overall I liked this beer but really thought it isn't any better than some of the locally produced Pils beers.

On this particular evening when I were asked to choose which I liked the best by the assistant manager who was visiting our table, my answer was the Rothaus, mostly because the malt was the star of the show supported by the hops whereas with the Mary, the hops were the star of the show supported by the malt.

Cheers, all!

 

I once did some research on the the tastes of esters and how many and what kind can appear in beer. One of the compounds discussed was an ester that had two general groups of people able to smell it, and both smelled something different than the other. One group sensed it as floral, and nice, the other group sensed it as fecal, and unpleasant.

 

Finally relaxing on this georgeous day in CT. Time to check in w/ my 2nd family (you guys/gals!!!!). Almost missed out on today. Busted my ass for the last 12 hours gettin the house ready to go ... All done goes on the market next week!!! Anyone out there interested in moving to the middle of the woods in CT?? I guess I deserve this one after a day of bent mower blades and pressure washers with broken hoses.
Smell has the r normal farmhouse funk too it, taste is slightly tart and lemony? While saisons are not ever my first grab I do enjoy a good one which are few and far between out this way. Solid 4/5. Time to watch some of my TiVo crap I'll see ya next week

 

If only all of us were that lucky, Mary is far better than any of our local pils.

 

Well, The Local went and tapped a new keg, so I do get another NBS entry. A smooth and even Irish Red from Oregon: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22432/168969/ .

 

Well, look at it this way, you folks get more snow than we do. That ought to count for something....

But yes SE PA is indeed fortunate to have several brewers who like to do Pils and get them tasting pretty good.

 

I like the 9V Battery description, I can relate to that! I also liken it to Stomach Acid.

 

Ballast Point Even Keel

 

Dude not to be the NBS police but all here put some time into what you like about or don't like about your beer. And if your really into it a story about how you came about such beer. Or what you're days been like. WBAYDN is your gig for this post..just sayin

 

You too ,...wrong thread.

 

I noticed that after I posted. I had this thread mixed up with the "What are you Drinking Now" thread! My apologies!

 

Funny you say this...I had a Homefront IPA from, I wanna say, St Arnold's outta Texas. Same experience. Great cause, ok beer.

 

That's cool. Why don't you join us next time with a beer and a story. It can be some damn fun sharing stuff......

 

Well Hello NBS!!!
And congratulatins to @utopiajane . As I stated in another thread, rarely has somebody contributed so greatly to our noble cause in such a short span o'time as the esteemed Maria. Cheers to you!!!
School is out, so for we teachers that means getting caught up on all of the other things we have neglected in our lives and household... So I've been working for two damned days on the water lines to and near the house. Ugh! Thankfully I had a new beer to alleviate some of the sweaty frustration. I definitely recommend this one.

Bruery Terreux's Beret
They describe it as a "Imperial Sour Wit Ale brewed with spices and aged in oak barrels with raspberries."


It's quite good. The "Imperial" is the hint at the 9%.

Here's what I think:

3.93/5 rDev n/a
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured into Bruery Tulip

Colored between straw and amber. Frothy inch of white foam pushes upward with a strong pour and then quickly dissipated to a loose ring around the glass.
Smell is slightly sour citrus meets hints of tartness and then a pleasant yeasty funk comes through.
Taste is a melange of slightly sour, think Berliner Weisse, lemony notes and floral peachiness that gives way to raspberry tartness and a hint of barnyard funk in the backseat. It really does go back and forth between the lemony sour and the raspberry tart.
The finish is quite nice. It coats the tongue with a slick raspberry tartness that's ever so slightly slick & yet sticky. This is quite good. Will drink again on a nice hot day.

 

Oh, and sadly, while this one is an ace, it did not make it into my NBS BIF #2 box that is already heading east. But there's plenty of other goodies in there.

 

This was a good week for me. Have consistently managed to stay in touch with friends all week (particularly one new one I've met online recently, but several I've known for longer too) and haven't gotten bored or lonely at all. Got to have lunch and then see a play at the local college with a friend I graduated with, who was back in town visiting family (turns out her uncle was one of my teachers a few years back -- never knew that. XD) And tomorrow I'm going to be heading home to visit my own family, and also to get my car inspected because that's got to be done before the end of the month or I'll probably get pulled over and fined for it, and I definitely won't be able to afford that in the middle of summer when my work hours are at their lowest point.

Today I'm having the last new-to-me beer from the Devil's Backbone variety pack:


Trukker Pils, which I've been looking forward to ever since I realized it was in the box (...I like pilsners, and I hadn't ever seen this one for sale anywhere despite living one town over from the brewery.)

Interesting label. Looks like plain lined paper with the words written on, and the brewery logo as a "coffee stain" (or maybe a beer stain?) over to the side. I suppose this is the one they use for beers that they've brewed a lot (this one has been on the brewery's website as long as I can remember), but for whatever reason don't bottle often? Or maybe it's specific to this beer, as the other two variety-pack-only beers in the pack had their own labels.

First impression: looks nice -- golden-yellow, clear, shiny, lots of bubbles... yep, that looks like a pilsner all right! Smells pilsner-y as well -- smells blend together to the point where it's hard to tell them apart, but overall reminds me of some of the other pilsners I've tried. Taste was... initially a bit of a letdown. Well, at first not so much -- got some grassiness and breadiness -- but then for maybe a third of the glass the thing that stood out the most was hop bitterness. A little spiciness occasionally but mostly just bitter. But then... just before the halfway point suddenly I start tasting other things in there, a little at first but more as I drink more. A little sweet almost corn-like thing at first, then more bready malt coming in, and a little of the grassiness from the first sip again along with a little bit of spiciness occasionally, and the bitterness is still present but doesn't stand out nearly as much as it did early on. There's more of that sweet almost corn-like flavor here than in other pilsners I've tried, which is interesting. Pretty good!

At first I was thinking maybe I was catching something (I have had a scratchy throat on and off today...) and maybe my taste buds were affected by that, but now I'm wondering if maybe my fridge just had my beer a little bit too cold and it took a bit for things to get back to its ideal tastiness temperature from that too-cold state.

I still have one Nooner left in my fridge, so maybe I'll have to do another "drink both together and compare" kinda thing at some point.

And randomly, the name has me wondering about naming schemes of pilsners -- this one is "Trukker" and I've also seen another brewery's "Chukker" on store shelves before. Is the "__ukker" thing referencing the name of some older beer or something, like all the "__ator" doppelbocks tying back to Salvator? Or are "chukker" and "trukker" Czech words or derived from Czech words, maybe? I figure somebody around here might have an answer for this... XD

 

Good evening NBS. Hope everyone is enjoying themselves once again this week before more work related stress comes upon us. Not much going on here, work is crazy heavy recently. Here are today's new beers:

Really nice session IPA. New brewery in SE MI last month, with clearly readable bottle dating to boot. Aromas and flavors of grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, lemon zest, orange peel, and light pine; with a moderate amount of light caramel/honey/bready malt sweetness and floral/grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine/grassy bitterness on the finish; with a very smooth finish with light creaminess and hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Very well balanced bitterness with a very robust flavorful hop and malt profile. A really nice surprise overall. All around really nice and juicy citrus/tropical hop profile with a good sized malt backbone while still feeling like an IPA. Delicious. 3.9


Awesome English barleywine. Nice head retention and lacing, though it is still quite young(2.5 YO) Aromas and flavors of huge caramel, raisin, prune, fig, apple, date, brown sugar, molasses, brown bread, toffee, toast, leather, tobacco, red wine, oak, and light vanilla. Slight touch of spicy oak and herbal hop bitterness on the finish; with a great balanced between malt, yeast fruitiness, and wine barrel complexities. Low carbonation with a full body; with a very creamy mouthfeel with some slick/syrupy malt and slight tannic barrel notes. Very smooth sipper with restrained alcohol warmth. Just all around awesome complexity as expected for the harvest ale; with added red wine and lightly tannic barrel notes on top of it. 4.2


Excellence as expected. Aromas and flavors of big sour cherry, cranberry, lemon, green apple, raisin, plum, red wine, caramel, leather, vinegar, toasted oak, hay, straw, musty funk and mild oak/clove spice. Nice puckering fruity sour finish; with will solid amount of darker malt balance smoothing it out the acidity a bit. Smooth sipping with a lighter amount of carbonation than expected (though it is still only 5 months old); with a sizable acidic mouthfeel but no cloying or sour astringency. Great stuff, no complaints. I will have to pick up another and let it sit for 2 years and check it out then. The carbonation will definitely be huge and crisp at that point. 4.1


Cheers, have a good night NBS.

 

^^^WANT, ISO: Nonobrewery bacon brown ale
also ISO: chance to be a "minion" at said Baconfest!