New Beer Sunday (week 545)

Only thing better than regular Sunday is New Beer Sunday.

I like Saisons... ALOT! So it is in my best interest to acquire as many Hill Farmstead Saisons as possible. There is a road by me name Clara.

Clara Grisette pours hazy, deep straw yellow with a fluffy 2.5 finger white head. Retention is excellent and there is webbed lacing that coats the glass. Aromas of citrus, lemon/lime, and floral notes. There a distinct musty wheat aroma and some grassy/earthy notes followed by hints of spice and funk.

A tart and citrusy start, with lemon zest and grapefruit peel. Floral, earthy hops along with wheat and some grassy notes fill in with a cracker like malt. Just a bit of spice and funk on the finish. Light and crisp with fantastic soft carbonation.

 

I just picked one of these up yesterday. Having read your thoughtful review, I'm now much more excited to crack it open!

Cheers!

 

This brew pours an opaque reddish/purple color when held up to the light. There is a one finger off white head and light lacing. The head dissipates quickly but some of it hangs around as a collar.

The smell is very malty, and yeasty, sweet and some lightly roasted malts. Nutty and fruity, plums and pears as well as brown sugar. The smell improves as the brew warms up.

The taste thankfully follows the nose with sweet malts dominating. They are followed by lightly roasted malts, yeast, nuts and fruits then finishing with brown sugar. There are some very light spicy hops on the backend but this is a malt forward brew.

Overall, a damn find Dubbel.

 

I have a bottle of that left and will be sharing it with the local beer sharing group. Cheers!

 

Let me be another to welcome you and from that post I think you picked up the gist of NBS from your "lurking". I added that beer to my want list from a posting here, and now I need to double-want it . Also nice of you to try to balance the earlier low reviews .

Been sitting on this one, since it's been hard to find a time to try it. This would make me think I should probably limit my times to a dessert closer.

 

Thanks everyone! Really enjoy the camaraderie of this thread and I'm grateful for the warm welcome. @cjgiant, I guess I just couldn't handle any more negative vibes this morning!

@TheDoctor, as for that barrel-aged Péché, it'll have to wait at least until I manage to piece my already-blown mind back together again

 

Sorry for the huge pic.

 

What's up, NBS players?

I couldn't not get one of each when I saw my shop had these...

So this is gonna be my NBS today...

All three brewed by Fish Brewing (...ewww! lol) in Washington.
I'm hoping this series is better than Ommegang's Game of Thrones beers - I felt like they were a little "meh."
These're all high abv - the Smaug stout is the lowest at 8.5, the pils is a 9.0, and the tripel weighs in at 9.5%.

Starting with the Smaug Stout. One of the best dragons of all time.

First impressions were strong on smokiness and bittersweet dark malt char, dry and rustic, but with enough dark cocoa and molasses sweetness to balance it out. Chili pepper heat featured was rather mild, like a mesquite, and most apparent on the finish.


Second pour was more of the same - smoke and char, bittersweet cocoa and coffee beneath - nice feel - full-bodied and smooth - a good imperial stout, has some chili heat but nothing that's gonna set anyone's tongue on fire. I dug it.

More Hobbitry to come... Cheers

 

Hello everyone at NBS!

My new beer for the day is Trillium's Fort Point Pale Ale. My god, by all that is holy on this New Beer Sunday, this is a great beer! Like psuedoSue, Fort Point is a pale in name only - you'd be hard pressed to find many IPAs that pack such intense flavor into a single bottle.

My bottle is fresh, a little over two weeks old. Fort Point pours a cloudy, almost syrupy- looking yellow/orange. This beer looks more like a mix of mango and pineapple juice than an ale. Seriously, if you had a box of overripe mangos and squeezed them into a tulip glass, that's what Fort Point looks like.

The smell is hugely floral and fruity, mango, pineapples, tangerine. Plenty of fruit on the palate too, but not as sweet as I expected from the nose. In fact there's a nice hop bitterness bringing everything in check. Just a little malt for support, a medium almost creamy mouthfeel.

If I lived in Boston, I can only imagine the money I'd be handing over to Trillium. Looking forward to trying more from these guys.

Cheers!

 

Good morning NBS crew - still thankful to be a newer contributor to this community!

Today I'm having Mikkeller's "Blackest Bourbon Aged Stout":



An imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels and ringing in at 17.12% ABV.



Black pour into oversized Waterford wine goblet with thick tan, almost brown head; good lacing and great cap as I drink. 4.25



Second pour into glass opens up and reveals:

Bourbony nose with a whisper of black licorice; more oaky notes as liquid warms. 3.75

Watching the birds on the feeders as I hand write my notes into tasting log. Can you see the humming birds buzzing each other? One is on the feeder, and the second is the blur with black pole behind her, directly below the red hummingbird finial:



Old oak and bourbon flavors up front, alcohol on the exhale; some chocolate and anise in the middle, with a wooden finish. Too much oak. 4.0

Tongue coating is drying and wooden; mouthfeel is hot alcohol and it feels like I've been sucking wood. 3.75

Overall, a good example of barrel aging overdone; oaky linger - this would have been better with more bourbon and less barrel staves. My impression has been that this brewer shoots for extremes, and if you like the flavor of wood as the overriding component of flavor, this one is for you. 4.0

 

For me... Just moved some more stuff from home to, well... home. Thing about being two individuals who each have one of the things they need: when you move in together, you now have two of everything, including things you only need one of. Add to that we each have our hoarding side (one of us a bit moreso ), and there are a lot of decisions to be made.

We are putting those decisions off for now and going to enjoy a new beer. I decided in my choice that this may be an opportunity to get out a beer I am not expecting to be a top notch brew. I have had a taster of this brew twice, one after I purchased (which was fine) and one from our local bartender who did not enjoy it and described it un-flatteringly. Either power of suggestion or a trouble with the keg/tap line, had to agree it wasn't tasty.

Also, this is a white wine barrel aged Belgian, so a parallel of sorts to @utopiajane's post above. This is Hardywood's Vinalia Urbana:

Description:


The pour rolls up the white foam quite well, and lasts throughout the pour with no real lacing. Quite cloudy orange-tinged yellow. The nose does have some wine notes to it, grape and a little wood. There is also a sugary sweetness in the nose as well.

Everything to this point is relatively positive. The taste is a bit of a letdown - but not bad. The taste is fruity and not as sweet as the nose indicated. The mid-taste just seems to go bland because of this. I get some of the flavor that reminds me of Brooklyn Local 1 (a fave of mine), but this beer falls a bit flat in this comparison (and yes, feel is not as effervescent as I'd like). I do get a little dry and woody impression late in the taste, but I think maybe the barrel took something away from this beer rather than adding to it.

Edit: my overall thought is that I'd be interested in the underlying Belgian Golden Ale before they jammed it in barrels. I don't know of a Hardywood offering I have access two that would have been the base. This definitely wasn't as bad as the one taster, but isn't worth a premium price, IMO.

Might have another beer later on (Tokkio?). Also might brew my first beer in 9 months - definitely would be an excuse for a "special" beer.

 

New American Wild Ale Sunday

Greetings NBSer's,
Another glorious day in SCMN. We've had a wonderful summer so far.
Good day with the misses so far too. After a pleasurable bike ride I'm ready for a tasty beer. And I have one courtesy of @beertunes and NBS BIF #2. Uno Bretto from Wander Brewing.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34416/178583/?ba=garymuchow

I have only 2 beers left from @beertunes. One will I get to soon. The others (a barrel aged RIS), I'll get to when the time is right. Hard to predict.
Best to all.

 

I just had to verify that a priority box from USPS filled with cans and labeled from home would work for me. Good to hear that it did.

 

Cheers fellow NBS folks. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends. Before I get onto today's new beer I must say I had a great sat night. I decided to treat myself - why ? Just because. Popped a Heady Topper followed by a KBS. Then I said WTF and has a Ten Fidy. After that I switched up to All Day so I wasn't a complete basket case today. Enjoyed them with some friends and overall twas a good night. But that was sat. Onto today.
We have a group of craft beer lovers at work and we are always discussing our fave brews and passing on our thoughts whenever we try something new or unusual. Its a lot of fun and we've all gained from it. Last week the brew that kept coming up that I hadn't tried was Oskar Blues Little Yella Pills. As usual they were dead on. Even though its not my fave style this was a very enjoyable summer beer. Probably wouldn't be my choice in the cold weather but its in the high 80s today. It was extremely refreshing and went down nicely with outstanding flavor. I love Dales Pale as well as Ten Fidy so I wasn't shocked. Excellent brewery and I prefer cans so its a great fit for me. That's all for this week. Cheers

 

Hello, NBS! It's a totally gorgeous day in Cleveland but instead of making the most of the outside I had to jump online to say high to all of my beloved beer brethren It's not really stout weather but it's nice enough I wish I could set up a campfire tonight! City ordinances prohibit that unfortunately, so I'm trying this beer instead.

I bought it on a recent trip to the in-laws in NY based on a shelf talker (damn them/mental reminder to self) flaunting a GABF Gold and a high rating on another beer review site. My tastes more align with those here, of course.
3.71/5 rDev -6.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
The smell is s'mores all the way. Makes me want a real one right now. Every bit of the milk chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow. Sadly the palate doesn't follow through. It loses everything but the chocolate and never picks up the roasted/hop notes one sees in a more typical stout. Moving on to something more summery...

 

I've never had that from the bottle but I've had it on draft several times, and thought it was solid. It hasn't been unusual for me to have 2-3 pints of it. Still, I find the name a bit ironic, as there's nothing really transcendent about it, it's just a decent PNW IPA. Maybe your bottle had some issues or wasn't so fresh?

CURRENT LISTENING: Colin Hay, "Transcendental Highway"

 

Happy Birthday...nice way to spend it...staying wet on the inside and out...I turn 50 in a couple of weeks...and I too am not afraid...live well and be well..as you are doing...Cheers!!

 

Sweet Sunday to all you NBS pontificators, posters and perusers

have not posted here in a long time (self-inflicted paranoia/delusional annoyment issues with time to adequately post, technical nature of posts and my lack of capacity to measure up in content and verbiage, elimination of music clips, some semblance of exclusivity and entitlement vibe as opposed to the ease and flow of WBAYDN (my perception...not saying it is accurate)...

but I am in therapy and I do feel I am making strides toward my happy zone of sanity...

but I digress

Saint Archer IPA (San Diego)...nothing amazing amidst the plethora of IPA's that proliferate the community...but a decent offering. Nice hoppy/piney bite, nicely balanced as it flows over and through the tongue, smooth and serviceable ABV%, lightly bitter aftertaste is not objectionable...worthy for poolside consumption but wouldn't seek it out again.

I appreciate you NBS'rs allowing me to psychologically spew and share in a cathartic manner on site....

Cheers to all...!!!

 

a massive favorite of mine....and my wife/daughter/mother in-law

so tasty (try the float config---vanilla ice cream dumped into the campfire....amazing!!)

cheers!!

 

'mornin Dave, and all fellow BAers.

Found myself in Seattle this weekend with the family, and managed to try "Manny's Pale Ale" by Georgetown Brewing Company on draft. A friend told me this was the number one selling craft beer on draft in the state of Washington. Sounds like a local legend to me! Love hearing about these types of things, so I gave it a whirl:



I must say drinking this beer was almost like being in a time warp. It had that nice, soupy, mid 90s West Coast Amber maltiness to it, with some citrus hops, not a whole lot of bitterness, but good flavor and aroma. Simply put, it was a "juicy" beer but one that I believe a lot of modern folks might find a bit dated...regardless, this beer was flowing like the Columbia River this weekend!