New Beer Sunday (week 548)

Finally trying this one. Very solid balanced ipa, not as malty as people are making it out to be though. Enough resinous hops there to balance it out well

 

A New Harvest Ale IPA: Troeg's Hop Knife

Evenin NBSers, with special greetings to all you hop bine huggers who are getting psyched up for the Harvest Ale season.

Well with picture perfect weather here today--warm, gentle breeze, low humidity, as well as plenty of activities with visiting family I wasn't at all sure I'd get in a new beer today. But the kids are in bed getting to sleep so it is suddenly quiet and there are no distractions.

Tonight's new beer is the Harvest IPA from Troeg's--Hop Knife--which celebrates the third season of the year for hops--the harvest.

As usual, my review of this beer is to be found here:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/694/127866/?ba=drtth

and is subject to change until I finish the beer.

So far I'm enjoying this one a lot for the complexity of its hop flavors with the bitterness kept under control by a malt backbone that supports but does not overwhelm the hop flavors. I'm quite glad that I have an entire case of this beer and am very much looking forward to experiencing how it changes over the next few weeks as I finish them one by one by one.

A big advantage of having friends who are vinyl collectors is that if you ask nicely and take good care of the recordings they are happy to have you borrow them. So on the player at the moment is a collection of songs by a fellow named Bobby Darin who was quite popular in the 60s for both his singing and some of the music he wrote.

One of those songs stood out as being just the right choice for this evening for three reasons: 1) the title and topic of the song; 2) the fact that it hit number 1 for Darin on both the US and the UK charts; and 3) the fact that it illustrates once again the fact that many people who don't think they like Opera actually do enjoy some once in a while when they are not all bound up by thinking it's for music snobs only. This song, done in English translation, comes to us from an Opera written in German by a composer named Kurt Weill, who also spent part of his career in Hollywood. Many of you will recognize this song as it has been done by many performers over the years.



Cheers, all!

 

Second new beer of the day as promised is a repeat of an earlier review for Moon Reaper by local Demented Brewing. This is billed as a wet hop harvest brown ale and while I love a good wet hop and a good brown I think I'd enjoy this more without talk of the wet hops. I don't pick up the wet hop flavor. I definitely get malts and nice strong roastiness. I like the beer and love it for those late September early October evenings I just feel since the malts are really the star any wet hopping gets lost. Again something I'd 100% get again simply a semantics issue.

 

Thank you. I think it means a couple of things:

1. I'm old.

2. I like beer. A lot. Actually, a lot lot.

Thanks again for the nice wishes.

 

Thanks. I'm a Bell's fan from a while ago - they do some pretty cool stuff.

 

Tomorrow marks the start of my 7th year of teaching, celebrating the end of summer with on last new beer, Boulevard Tell Tale Tart, cheers!
4.13/5 rDev +9.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

12 oz bottle poured into a tulip

A- A nice light ruby red with a two finger white head.

S- Tart, cherries, some lemons, stone fruits, mainly darker ones, some raisins, think of a Belgian dark ale with sour yeast.

T- Raisons, dark fruits, some caramel malts, lacto, sour cherries.

M- Smooth, medium body.

O- A nice sour, but not over the top. Would describe it as a sour version of DFH Raison D'Etre. Nicely done. (419 characters)

 

Personal opinion here. 8 is a good, solid beer. 10 is what I imagine the angels drink in heaven. That or unlimited amounts of whalez...

 

At least annual.

 

I'm back for another as I'm tired of this beer staring me in the face for the past three months. Going with Greenbush Axiom Belgian style tripel with orange zest and coriander. The bottle date is 4/20/15 and the abv. is 8.9%. Picked this up at the brewery shortly after its release and it has lived in the fridge since. Let's liberate this beer!

Pours a dark hazy gold with a big ring of white foam. The aroma is orange zest and coriander with a bit of bubblegum. The flavor is pretty much the same with a slight hint of clove in the finish. The feel is bubbly and slick.



All said this beer has held up well. It's refreshing citrus spin with a hint of spiciness make it quite drinkable for a beer almost 9 percent. I'll keep an eye out for it the next time around!

Here's the full review, I'm finished for today!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25937/170025/?ba=Prager62

 

Damn, it's been a tiring day of housework and Home Depot runs. Made me want to drink some refreshing suds. Had four beers today that were new to me. I'll share the last two.

I was happy when Arcadia Ales came back to my area. Their English inspired beers are normally quite nice and it's becoming harder to find US brewers who can routinely put good English inspired product out for distribution. They practice open fermentation and use Ringwood, but seem to be diligent enough that their use of Ringwood doesn't result in bad beer. When brewers successfully pull off Ringwood, the results can be pretty great. Anyway, Arcadia has made a return here, but it's not easy to find their beers. Not long ago, I went to one of the few stores that carry their six pack offerings and bought singles of whatever I haven't had before. I'm really happy that they are dating their bottles! This wasn't the case with whatever I bought some months ago.



Cheap Date. The bottle calls it a "session ale," which is sort of vague... and sort of not. It's light, VERY light. Lacking in flavor compared to some pale ales that have a lower ABV. There's a little bit of lemon (which I tend to dislike in beer). There is some noticeable hop bitterness present. My wife found it to be unpleasantly bitter, but I did not... my tolerance for bitter beer is different than hers. I didn't get any hints of diacetyl. Nothing off-putting about the beer (unless you are looking for malt), but it came and went without leaving much of an impression. Not sure what Arcadia was going for. I'd check, but their website is not behaving. If they wanted an easy drinker with very little malt presence, they succeeded. Those looking for a session IPA or a flavorful English pale would be disappointed.

The biggest issue is that it's called Cheap Date, and the graphic on the bottle looks anything but. A handsome young couple on their rented tandem bike, vacationing on Block Island. They even got their shoes dyed to match their shirts. They look high maintenance to me.



Rapunzel. The bottle calls it a "wheat India pale ale." Maybe because of the blonde-ness of the graphic, I was expecting something different. The beer looked and tasted like an ordinary amber ale with some odd hopping. I just glanced at "appearance" from reviews here and I wonder if I was subject to some mix-up. Weird.

The graphic on the bottle reminds me that I never took that vacation to the Poconos I always promised myself. These days, there must be some entrepreneurs that are constructing a beer glass tub.



Kind of a strike out evening from a brewery I really like.

Skip James to the rescue:

 

A lot has been going on in my life recently... good and bad. Recently lost the first long-term job I've ever had after working there for nearly a year, mostly because one of the managers there and I didn't get along (lately, getting to the point where even if I hadn't been fired I would've quit before too much longer -- working with her for any length of time just became unbearable.) On a more positive note, I've had two interviews for new jobs just in the past week, each within a day or two of putting in my application -- that certainly hasn't happened before. Not sure if it's the fact that I have nearly a year's worth of job experience now or if they recently lost a lot of employees or what, but for some reason a couple of the places I applied to were really quick to call me for an interview. Hopefully I'll hear back from them with a "you're hired" or similar before too much longer.

Anyway, here's my new beer of the day: another one from the New Belgium variety pack, and one I'd been wanting to try for a while now but for some reason just never picked up before.



1554 Black Lager.

Pours into the glass looking around the same color as a Coca-Cola or other dark-brown soda, but looks closer to black (with some dark red around the edges) once in the glass. Nice tan layer of foam on top -- not a huge amount, but what is there makes a pretty solid layer that takes a pretty long time to shrink away. And when it does, it looks just a tad different from a lot of New Belgium's beers -- still nice-looking, but the bubbles are a bit different. I wonder why.

Smells nice -- definitely a lot of the almost-coffee-like roastiness that many of the darker beers tend to have. Most noticeable when first poured and shortly after when the foam is thicker, but still present even after that's started to shrink away. Reminds me somewhat of their Portage porter, which I also liked, though it's not identical -- just a similar "coffee/roasty" sort of thing going on.

Taste is also really nice -- better than the smell, actually! There's still a lot of that roasty, almost-coffee-like thing going on, but it comes across as a little more chocolatey in the flavor compared to the smell, too. I think I may be picking up just a hint of something slightly fruity in there, too -- not really sure how to describe it, but there was a slightly sweet something in there along with the roastiness/chocolatiness on the second sip just now. I notice that the foam has left a really thick trail around the inside of the glass now that I've drank some -- like not even scattered trails, more like a solid wall of foam coating the opposite side of the glass with just a few holes in it here and there.

Third drink -- yeah, there's definitely a bit of a sweeter, almost fruity thing in there too. I think I may have just barely detected it in the smell this time, too, though it was pretty faint there compared to its more noticeable presence in the flavor. The roastiness is starting to border on almost charred-ness every now and then. Feels pretty nice -- definitely not the same "soft" bubbly feel as some of the other beers I've had from the same pack lately, but it's still easy to drink a good bit of this quickly if you want while at the same time feeling just substantial enough that smaller sips don't seem silly. Nice bit of chocolate-like flavor coming up in burps, too.

Interestingly, I'm not really noticing a lot of changes as I'm getting further down the glass. Aside from the fruity element being slightly more noticeable and the roastiness shifting slightly more toward char (both of which I figure might just be the effect of drinking half a glass in such a short time, more so than the beer warming up or anything), it doesn't seem like things are shifting around as much as some beers do.

Overall -- this is a pretty tasty beer, and it's too bad it's taken me this long to get around to trying it even though I know I've seen the six-packs on the shelves around here occasionally -- I should've picked one up months ago! It's been a while since I've had a beer in the "black, roasty, chocolatey" category, so this is definitely a nice change from the hoppy, yeasty, or bready type beers I've been drinking more of lately. Comes across as a stout/porter crossed with a lager, which is probably pretty much exactly what it is -- darker roasted malts like a stout/porter might use, but with a lager-like brewing process. Pretty nice choice for a fall variety pack -- light-bodied and low-alcohol enough that it's drinkable in the still-summer-like "late summer/early fall" times, but also with the dark roasty flavors that lend themselves more to cooler weather.

 

oh every once in awhile I feel the need to belong... here goes the attempt...


for someone who doesn't particularly care for or drink Belgians I have no frame of reference, fruit smell and notes similar to what I remember, the 1/6th wine and 1/6th whiskey notes with the pomegranate remind me of the Black Butte XXVI that I initially hated but warmed up to over time, big beers are my forte and the 10.9% is yummy, sweeter than I'm used to but not overwhelming, overall another quality wax sealed big bottle from a great brewery... I assume the overall 85 score is reflective of what it is 'supposed to be' and I'm freed of such constraints... life is too short and this beer is worthy

cheers NBSers!

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is have a good end to the weekend. Another usual work week coming up as usual. I need to keg my american red ale, I have head that the yeast I used (east coast ale) does not flocc out well, so I am going to cold crash it tonight.

Here are today's new beers!

This was a very good witbier. Impressive head retention and nice dense soapy lacing down the glass. Aromas and flavors of lemon, orange zest, pear, apple, coriander, clove, wheat, cracker, herbal, grass, and yeast earthiness. Light earthy herbal bitterness on the finish balanced the malt body very well. Medium carb/body; with a smooth finish and moderate wheat creaminess in the mouthfeel. Very enjoyable with plenty of flavor for the 4.6%. 3.78


Very nice English brown! Nice head retention and lacing as well. Aromas and flavors of big strawberry fruit, caramel, toffee, toast, brown sugar, brown bread, and light chocolate/nutty malts; with some light-moderate herbal hop flavor and fruity plum/pear English yeast. Light herbal bitterness and fruit tartness on the finish; with really nice balance between fruit and malt flavors all around. Well balanced malt/bitterness/tartness in flavors. No cloying sweetness or off notes. Medium carb/body; with a nice moderate creaminess in the mouthfeel. This was was really well done; and once again the English yeast compliments the strawberry fruit flavors wonderfully(same thing was with their Blueberry Stout I had on Friday). This was so delicious. 3.9


Very nice DIPA, this one is super dank and catty. Aromas and flavors of big mango, melon, peach, pineapple, grapefruit, lemon/orange peel, guava, berry, pepper, pine, light honey, bread, and herbal/grassy hop earthiness. Moderate amount of herbal/piney bitterness on the finish; with well balanced bitterness/sweetness overall. Not really all that aggressive for 95IBU, but I am fully aware that these types of hops don't give off that kind of character, like most PNW hops would do. Very smooth for the ABV; with some slight creaminess and moderate hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Very unique and delicious. This actually reminded me of Evil Twin Molotov Lite a ton(even though they do add mangos/orange peels and such to that one). 3.9
Flickr

Cheers! Have a good night NBS.

Haken addiction all damn weekend

 

I'm pretty late to this party, but oh well. Finally got around to sitting down and soaking in a new beer. Today's is a gem, Luscious from The Alchemist.






4.26/5 rDev -3%
look: 5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 16 ounce can into an oversized tulip.

Pours like motor oil, thick, black and viscous. Glugs out of the can. The head that forms is humongous in height and burly in its composition, appearing to have some real weight to it. The dark khaki color sets a gorgeous contrast to the pitch-black body which, despite it's color and opacity, still manages to show a relentlessly surging carbonation. As I take notes, the head recedes and rings of laces and a downward wall of lace develop. This is a beautiful sight to behold. 5

I took a few whiffs from the can and got some coconut notes. From the glass, coconut is either gone entirely or simply subdued, here by a deep, layered roastiness and bitter hop combination. It's like charred wood, I suppose, in that there's a smoky quality as well. Dark chocolate lends a note or two as do occasional hints of caramel and the coconut I noticed before. It's an assertive nose and more challenging than inviting. 4

I was bracing for something harsh given the roasty and bitter nose, but I'm greeted by a sweeter chocolatey and caramel flavor, light molasses and brown sugar, and a finish of plums/prunes and light, lingering smokiness. A slight taste of booze mixed with everything else develops a red wine-like flavor, which I enjoy. Overall, I like the medley and interplay of flavors. 4.25

There's a smooth velvety feel that introduces each sip and is pretty charming and really sets the tone for this beer. Sweet and bitter are in perfect balance, the booze is subtle and lends a vinous touch that adds dimension, as does the occasional roasty smokiness. I'd say the feel of this beer is the real star. 4.5

This is a standout for sure. As I gear up to drink a lot of RISes and barleywines and other beers of the higher ABV over the next several months, this has set a high bar for those that follow.

 

I taught for nearly nine years myself. The start of a new year was never something I looked forward to. Haha. Here's wishing you a good year, sir.

 

Damn @Prager62 Is that your "workshop"? Nice digs for beering.

 

Good Luck!!! Something better is out there for you.

 

Dude!!! Your description was so vivid and visceral. I want that beer now. Thanks for putting such prose to good use.

 

Cheers to you Good Sir. I just started my 16th. I wish I could tell you it gets easier, but it doesn't really. But, like I tell folks..."It's one of the hardest jobs that you'll love. It sucks the life out of you while it feeds your soul." Bless you for choosing to stick with it. We lose many a good teachers by the 7th year.