New Beer Sunday (week 543)

Not just a new beer but a brand new brewery. Search Saison from Magnify Brewing in Fairfield NJ. Wow a really nice Saison. Dry light bodied nice hop finish. On tap at a local beer bar, It's nice to see the bars taking a shot with a new brewery. If Magnify's other beers are as good as this one the brewery should be fine.

 

Session Sunday
Good afternoon, BAs! Taking a break from a painting session in our bedroom, and keeping it light with new session beers today so the pain doesn't get too crazy Pics may follow if all turns out well.

In the meantime, the first was pre-lawnmowing this morning

This is totally what BMC could be if they made their focus quality over profits. I even think most of the BMC guzzlers would like it. For someone who typically avoids lagers, this is everything one could want in one with a nice mixed malt base with hops that are noticeable but balanced vs a 'triple hopped' gimmick. Quite tasty and refreshing while low in alcohol

Currently drinking FFF's Calumet Queen

I'm not a huge Kolsch fan but curious to try their version. I'm used to more flavor from the brewery though this is fairly true to the style. There are better examples out there, though, most of which are better values.
Cheers!

 

4.24/5 rDev +2.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured a rich deep gold with three finger head that slowly laced the tulip as it dissipated. Grainy aroma, some citrus and pine. Tastes very juicy, sweet and bitter...yum. IPA heavenly,,, very refreshing.

 

I feel the same way about the sessions. I have had some good ones (Sunshine Daydream, Boat), but I still miss that malt. I wouldn't say that I won't drink some that I have had again. I am done buying new ones though. I will take the extra 2% in abv for a better rounded beer.

 

Woooow just finished looking at the shake up in the top 250 after the recalc of ratings, pretty crazy.

Anyway....

New Beer Sunday today is Barrel Aged Bigfoot. The kids are napping so its time to bust out a big beer, and honestly is there anything better to drink on a 90 degree day than a barrel aged barleywine? come on now

Red ruby, burgundy color, clean and transparent. Finger thick off white head.
Aromas of burnt sugar, molasses, sticky dark fruits. Whisky notes, vanilla, some coconut. Still getting some citrusy/resinous faded hops.
Lots of toasty, burnt sugary malts up front in the taste. Tons of dark fruits, mostly raisin, some brighter berry notes too. Barrel adds nice bourbon touches on the rich malts and bittersweet dark fruits. Vanilla comes through w/ caramel to add nice sweetness. Dry oak, earthy spice on the finish.
Feel is pretty dry, fairly sticky though. Full bodied.
Overall this is very enjoyable, got about 6 months on it but its drinking very well. I have another bottle from this years batch that i will be aging out for a couple years probably. Its not the most complex BA barleywine you will ever taste, but great none the less because the base beer is amazing.

Enjoy the day everyone!

 

I love it! *chaos ensues*

 

Hello all!

My new beer for the day is Zoe, a red amber ale from the folks at Maine Brewing Co. Not gonna mince words - this is a great, great beer. This hoppy amber pours a reddish gold with a generous light tan head. The nose is all citrusy hops and beautifully so. Plenty of citrus hops forward on the first sip, but there's a rich malty bread flavor taking over big time at mid palate. Finish is clean and bitter, then with some sweet malt and citrusy hops hanging around in the aftertaste. This beer perfectly fills the niche between an IPA and a black IPA, and does it better than other very good attempts such as BR's Red Rocket. The only hoppy red amber I've enjoyed this much is Laurelwood's Red Elephant, which I had once on draft at PDX and haven't seen since.

Zoe was my first beer from MBC, and I just love everything about it, right down to the minimalist labeling. Big as the hops are, the malt somehow steals the show.

Cheers, everyone!

 

I'm normally a Stout guy but not when the temp is pushing triple digits. Today its either a light IPA ( think All Day IPA ) or even better a light summer ale. After a long thought process - at least 2 or 3 mins - I've decided to go with Crickethill's Jersey Summer Breakfast Ale. A perfect choice for this heat. Just the walk from the car to inside where the A/C lives makes me want a light brew and this one doesn't disappoint. Light and easy to drink but very tasty as well. Cheers

 

Good afternoon all great old and new NBS followers. It started off a little foggy this morning here in NH but was also cool enough that know my neighbor was gone on vacation and seeing his garage had a large covering of mold growing on the shaded end I took my power washer next door and did a number on the stuff on the garage. I'm hoping I got it done without being seen and will never admit to doing it when he gets home from the cape. It' s 86 now and the humidity is at 69% so that makes for a 97* heat index so nothing more to do than drink some beer.

Todays beer was picked up yesterday on a trip to Dover and Garrison City Beerworks. It is the DIPA Khaos this was the first chance I've had to try this great beer as I haven't happened to find it on tap when I was there.

As you can see from the picture it's another one of the great looking New England juice bombs.

This beer pours a wonderful cloudy orange-yellow color when poured slowly into my Garrison City snifter. A thin lacey white head formed on top and lasted longer than it took me to compose this picture on the seat of a antique bike in our front garden.
The aroma is of tropical fruits with some hints of butterscotch that lingers in your nose.
The taste it wonderful mix of tropical fruits with touch of butterscotch coming through here also. The level of bitterness blends well for this style of DIPA.
The mouthfeel of this beer is smooth maybe even what I would have to say is a little creamy for this style of beer. I don't get this type of mouthfeel in a lot of DIPA's except maybe from Trillium and Tree House.
This beer is what I have come to expect from this great little brewery tucked away in Dover, NH. I'm glad I got a couple of Crowlers of this to enjoy this week.

I'm going to go pour the rest of this crowler into my glass and find a cool spot in the shade to relax and enjoy it . I have a couple of beers left from my NBS BIF box from @strohme2 and I'm going to try to get back with one of them later on but they are both Big beers and not sure a hot day like this will do them justice. One is a 2012 Bolt Cutter from Founders that I'm dying to try. We'll have to see what the evening brings.

Cheers to all and stay out of the hot sun if you can.

 

One that I'll be sure to search out in Seattle in 2 weeks.

 

A New Jersey beer while watching some Sopranos on a lazy Sunday.


Review here: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/877/45831/

Good Sunday y'all.

 

Good afternoon NBS'ers! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this hot, humid weather. After spending hours on my roof yesterday cleaning gutters, I'm now suffering from one of the most painful sunburns I've ever had. Shoulda worn a shirt, I suppose. But that's why NBS exists, to help morons like me forget about the fact that although sunscreen is easily accessable, I opted to play my Man-Card and tough it out. Sunscreen? We don' need no stinkin' sunscreen!

Anyway, for this edition, I've returned with yet another sour concoction from our friends at The Bruery. These guys seem to always hit the mark when it comes to creating a sour beer that's also incredibly drinkable. My wife even liked this one, which shocked her nearly as much as it did me.

The Bruery Rueuze (Gueuze style-ale that's aged on oak)



BA Review

09/06/13 bottle. Served in a Tank 7 tulip at 48*F. Pours a light-medium golden and settles quite clear in the glass. Enormous amounts of carbonation bubbles fuel the ever-present head of white foam - 2 fingers' width in height initially, it has fizzed down to a dense 1/2 finger after only a minute or two.

Strong sour notes on the nose, as expected. There's a steady acidity on the aroma that ties in well with a plethora of sweet & tart fruits. All apparent to me are cherries, grapes, lemon, and maybe a slight hint of green apples. Very pleasant and well-balanced. The aroma on this actually made my mouth water.

Medium-light weight and presents a lively, carbonated, almost champaign-like mouthfeel. Immediately upon tasting, a wall of flavor is slammed onto the palate. The first distinct flavor I picked up was sour green apples, followed by lemon, blackberries, and a huge tart cherry character. Wow, lots of tart cherries. I may have made a face just now.

Great smooth finish, which was a pleasant surprise. Sometimes with these sour beers, an abrasive finish is almost expected. A touch of vinegar on the finish leads into a dry, tart aftertaste.

Overall, I found this beer to be excellent. It honestly exceeded my expectations, which I suppose it shouldn't have. I should know by now that The Bruery knows what they're doing, so it's no surprise that this one was another winner in my book. This beer presented a lot of complexity while still remaining simple enough for someone like me, who is new to sours, to be able to pick up on many different flavors and characteristics. I found the heaviest hitters in this particular beer to be green apples and cherries. There's a great balance between sweet & sour, and between tart acidity and dinkability.

Look: 4.5 | Smell: 4.5 | Taste: 4.25 | Feel: 4 | Overall: 4.25

Weighted score: 4.3/5 (rDev +7.2%)

 

Happy Sunday, BA! This is my first beer by SARA, and it is truly fantastic.

 

Sorry to all you NBS folks that I let down by not participating the past two Sundays. I was living it up in New York and trying to drink as much beer and visit as many breweries as is humanly possible.

I'll be posting a review later of Evil Twin's Mission Gose as part of a gose-fueled tasting effort I've dubbed "Not a Day Gose By," but for now I'm getting to one of the goodies that @cavedave sent me in the first of two boxes he sent me, Chatham Brewing Bourbon Barrel Brown.

3.73/5 rDev +1.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Bomber poured into a nonic imperial pint glass. Thanks to cavedave for this one.

Foamy, creamy cream-colored head forms a finger or two thicks and settles into a film across the top of the liquid. The liquid is brown with amber hues. Some clarity is visible despite the dark body. Very nice. 4.5

Smells caramel-like and pungent with oak and the mash smell from bourbon. Not particularly bourbon-like, but that's cool. Certainly retains the aroma of a brown, malt-heavy and a touch floral. 4

I'm getting a bit of tartness on the taste and feel, but I'm also getting a lot of delicious caramel, toffee, and bourbon and oak flavor. The tartness suggests some cherry even. The finish is chocolatey and cherry. I'd say there's a nice medley of flavors here, even though I also feel it's a bit off given the tartness that probably was not intended. 3.75

The body here is a bit thin and leaves a bit to be desired and there's the aforementioned tartness which prevent me from loving how this drinks. There's a potent rush of carbonation feel mid-palate that livens things up before a wet finish. It's decent in how it drinks but I'm not entirely enamored. 3

This was interesting in that I really had to scrutinize it just to decide whether I liked it or not. Ultimately, I think I do, but I'm not 100% sold.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

It's nice to compare my notes to Cavedave's and see that we coincided in many ways on taste, feel and aroma. We slightly diverged in terms of final opinion but that's part of the fun. Reading Dave's review, participating in NBS and the updates we're seeing today on BA are a big part of the fun of drinking beers for me. I want to share the experience and get a sense of the experiences of others and for this reason I feel reviews are important. I'm glad BA is seeking to encourage more reviews.

Cheers to all and see you a bit later with that gose... and perhaps one or two more before or after.

 

New Belgium Long Table (Farmhouse Ale) - BB date 11-22-15

Appearance - wonderful golden yellow color, clean and clear looking with a nice half finger of white head and a nice
amount of carbonation. No yeast sediment in the bottom of the glass.

Aroma - touch of grass, wet hay, fruit esters, Belgian funk

Taste - nice fruit esters that seem to resemble ripe pineapple, then you get a big slap of Belgian funk, wet hay, slight banana, horse blanket and a nice peppery/spicy finish. Not much going on in the way of hops but getting a slight bitter lemon flavor in the aftertaste along with this crackery sprite like taste and some bready malt.

Verdict - Nice beer, very true to the style but is it the best FH ale I've ever had? No, but at 6-pack prices it is a bargain and I will admit, it's better than a lot of the other "bargain" FH ales I've had in the past. Plus, I think this would pair really well with just about any kind of food but then again, I don't pair beer with food that often so don't quote me on that.

on a side note - I've been trying quite a few of these New Belgium 6-pack offerings lately and I still say Abbey is the best one so far. Either way, I enjoyed drinking this beer and that's the important thing.

Score - 88 out of 100

 

Can you tell us what you liked about it? What made it so good? Cheers!

 

Seventh Son killed it with this beer. Bought two and was going to trade one, but ended up drinking both.

 

Pilsner urquell, my first Czech beer.

 

Good Afternoon Everyone.

It's pushing 100 degrees here in PDX so I'm staying inside with the AC on high and The Open on low drinking an Unus from Ex Novo brewing out of Portland. Ex Novo is a nonprofit brewery that opened a year ago. For their one year anniversary they produced Unus a barrel aged aged saison with brettanomyces.


Pours a golden yellow with a 1/4" head that disappates quickly. Nose. Funky cheese not off putting but it scared me a little bit. Taste. Funky melon. Amazing balance between funk and fruit finishing the the tannins sucking your mouth dry. Would like more depth. Mouthfeel. While the head didn't stick around long this beer is nicely carbonated.

Look. 4.25. Smell 3.75. Taste 4.5. Feel 4.25. Overall 4.25