New Beer Sunday (week 549)

I'm hoping to get down there once beach season is over, during the summer there is just too much traffic heading in that direction to make it worthwhile.

 

Had this last year, finally decided to review it. Enjoyed it, seemed a little sweeter than Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest that I've been drinking the last couple of days.
Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen
Privatbrauerei Franz Inselkammer KG / Brauerei Aying
Märzen / Oktoberfest / 5.80% ABV
3.98/5 rDev +1.5% | rAvg: 3.92
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

500 ml bottle poured into a stein

Pours a burnt orange, copper color, no head retention, some lacing, clear, looks about a medium bodied beer. Smells of toasted bread, caramel, sweeter than other Marzens I've tasted, grain, wheat aroma, no alcohol on the nose, more caramel than toasted notes. A hit of caramel up front, leading into some grain, wheat flavors, some sweetness, finishes with a hint of spice, some bitterness. Mouthfeel, a slightly sticky finish on the palate, some carbonation, medium mouthfeel. Very enjoyable, grain, wheat, grass characteristics increase and a decrease on the sweetness as the beer warms, a solid offering from Ayinger.

Nice cap

 

Greetings All from the Great Northwest.

Today we are closing out the Blue Moon Summer Sampler with Cinnamon Horchata Ale.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/306/131839/#navigation

Better than I thought it would be, which is probably why it went last. Not sure I'd want a whole 12 pack of the stuff.

After a week of wild fire smoke hanging in the air, we had an epic dust storm yesterday followed by rain this morning and much cooler temperatures, only into the upper 60's.

There is definitely a change of season in the air. Might be time to go in search of some amber ales and Oktoberfests?

Until next time,

Happy Trails!

 

4.05/5 rDev +3.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

12oz bottle with a Best By date of 29 JAN 16 poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.

Pours a clear, orange with a generous two finger, fluffy head that dissipates slowly leaving behind a significant amount of lacing. Not sure how to describe this other than saying very active carbonation allowing itself to retain a very thick, fluffy head.

Lots of tropical citrus with maybe papaya leading the way on the nose with a bit of bready malts present as well.

Tastes exactly how the nose would lead you to believe with a decent amount of bitterness.

Not quite as effervescent on the feel as you would think be looking at it. Nice dry finish.

Overall, this is a solid offering. Worth a pick up and something I'll probably revisit from time to time when the mood strikes me.


Much better than expected.

 

A "Weyerbacher" lifeline pulling you back from the edge...

 

Yeah - it would be cans. I'm sure everyone here on BA will learn at some point about whatever treasures he brings back .

 

One more bomber share at my bro's. I picked up this bottle of Double Crook IPA at 350 Brewing in Tinley Park yesterday. The bottle date is 8/19/15 with an abv. of 11% and IBU's of 97. Let's go!

It pours a reddish gold with a finger of white foam. The aroma is pine and residual malt sweetness. It has a flavor profile of pine and malt sweetness in the finish. The feel is oily in the beginning with a bit of hop bite following.



Overall a decent enough beer, but it tastes more like a hoppy red ale than an IPA. Nothing stellar, but worth a shot at ten bucks. Link to review below......

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34112/187360/?ba=Prager62

 

Good evening NBs'ers! I was hoping to get to this one earlier in the day, but ended up working in the garage until about an hour ago. My brother's truck is down for the count, but we're slowly working our way to victory. Today, it was new brakes lines. Having decided to stay for dinner, I forced him to split this one with me, and therefore, help me rate it. So, this is my first joint-rated NBS post with my brother. Cheers, all, and happy Sunday!

Da bears - er, da beer!

Three Floyds Battle Priest





Da re...view

Bomber split betwen two New Belgium snifters. Pours an opaque, hazy golden color and settles about the same in the glass. A semi-aggressive pour yielded a finger head of dense, sticky white foam - almost cream-like in composition. Good carbonation. Moderate nose on this beer comprised of sweet grapes, grapefruit, pineapple, and kiwi. Strong bready malt as well. There are some notes of a wild ale (souring and yeasty notes) in the mix, but these are faint in comparison to the tropical fruit aromas I get. This one smells more like an IPA than anything, minus the hoppy/citrusy smells.

Medium weight with a very creamy mouthfeel. Feels very nice on the palate - not too carbonated, nice density, and just about perfet in terms of creaminess. Sweet, bready malt up front with loads of sweet - over-ripened - tropical fruit. Grapefruit, pineapple, kiwi, banana, mango. Everything's in there. There's a mustiness that engulfs the sweetness, however, adding a unique kind of basement funk to this beer. It has the initial character of a plain-and-simple OLD IPA, with a cloying malt sweetness and tons of ripe fruit. But looking past this, there is another layer of flavor to experience. It's not a full-fledged sour, and it's not a standard IPA.

The creaminess of this beer intensifies as it warms on the palate, and by the time you taste and swallow, it feels like a frothy, malty, fruity milkshake in your mouth. A moderate hoppy bitterness creeps in on the back end and intensifies on the aftertaste. This aftertaste is accompanied by the same rotten fruit seen throughout tasting.

Overall, this is a weird beer. Half IPA, half Wild Ale. They've taken an IPA, added brettanomyces, and aged it on oak. While I don't get any barrel-aged flavors, the rest is pretty obvious. Somewhat cloying in sweetness, but nothing close to a standard year old IIPA. This beer has something going for it..what that is, I'm not entirely sure. This one reminded me of the classic Hunter S. Thompson line, "too weird to live, too rare to die."

Da scores

look: 4.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.75

Weighted score: 3.71/5 (+ 1.4% rDev)

Overall, I liked it. I'd buy it again if I could find it locally. But I l ordered this one offline, so probably won't be getting a second.

 

I was out of town for a couple days and came back to a nice box from @FriedSlug with a couple of recent Wicked Weed releases. Tonight I'm trying Freak of Nature. Tons of citrus and earthy hops with just a touch of sweetness. Very nice beer. just need to get these guys to distribute down my way!





http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30581/90141/?ba=richj1970

 

New Stone Bomber Sunday (and my 1st NBS post!)

I thought I would celebrate my last free Sunday, before my Master's program reclaims my life, by making my first appearance in this community.

Bottled 6/13/15
The aroma screams sweet, sticky hops. The flavor screams orange juice. I don't find this to be anywhere near as bitter as the IBU (or the label) would suggest. The malt is sticky, as the nose suggested; almost honey-like. The bitterness and sweetness are so reminiscent of fresh orange juice; it even has that acidic, semi-dry finish. It actually reminds me more of Ruinination 2.0 than the original. I would like a little more carbonation to keep the syrupy texture in check, but overall this was worth the 6.49 I paid for the bomber. 3.96/5

Cheers!

 

Well, I've only read half of the 1st page, but I need to post.
I gots me a swell little package from New Jersey Beer Ambassador @SammyJaxxxx . While many wonderful containers were within (Sixpoint, Carton, and Forgotten Boardwalk were all well represented) I'm sucking on this interesting and spunky little Witbier right now from Forgotten Boardwalk, a brewery I had never heard of. So good on a hot late-summer day.

What the Butler Saw

Pours a hazy straw colored swirl of bubbles and lots of head. Lots and lots of frothy white head. Four fingers, pause, pour a little more, pause, finish the pour. Smells a bit sour of lemon and yeast. Taste is sour lemon, yeast, and a Gosey hint of salt. A little strong on the flavors to be judged like a characteristic Wit, but quite good. So I guess I'm scoring a little more on the enjoyment of this Gose leaning Wit on a hot summer day.

 

Hello, NBSers! Today, we're off to Michigan. First up, this excellent RDIPA from one of my favorite brewers.



4.19/5 rDev +2.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Look: beautiful garnet/brown, 2+ fingers of tan head. Gorgeous beer.

Smell: some hop fruit, some pine, but a bit thinner on the nose than I expected.

Taste: toffee/caramel flavors from the malt immediately, then a magnificent hop sledgehammer greets you with citrus, pine, and some ..... mango maybe? Most excellent.

Feel: creamy maltiness balances the hops, but there's this nice little tanginess on the swallow.

Overall: I love Founders, so I was REALLY excited to try this. It is a great example of the style, and just a really good beer.

 

New Beer Sunday: Duvel Triple Hop (Equinox)

Evenin NBSers with special greetings to all the hop bine huggers who like to explore unique hop combinations.

Well I manged to get back with a 2nd new beer for this Sunday. Tonight's new beer is the Duvel 2015 Triple Hop in which the Duvel brewers use a third hop along with their regular bill of two other hops. This is an interesting idea in that if one is familiar with regular Duvel the third hop produces noticable and interesting changes.

As usual my review is still in progress (and subject to change until I finish the beer). The review can be found here:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/222/163733/?ba=drtth

Since most of us are having summer weather to some degree, and all of us are enjoying an NBS, I thought some might also enjoy this performance by one of my musical heroes, Louis Armstrong.



Cheers, all!

PS--for those who looked at my earlier NBS beer post, the name of the Poet and more about the poem itself appears here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cremation_of_Sam_McGee

 

I hate to say this but this sounds like an upscale version of Wild Blue....

 

Back with another new one.

I was fortunate enough to have been in NJ this week on business and took advantage of an extra day in the city to visit Other Half during one of their cans releases where they were doing Green Diamonds and All Green Everything.

Cracked open Green Diamonds first, and just like the other ones I tried in the taproom, it is outstanding. Tons of tropical fruits and hops galore. Reminds me a lot of the Trillium beers in terms of style and flavor profiles.

Highly recommended.



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33510/107726/?ba=richj1970

 

Had that on cask a couple weeks ago and was surprised how good it was.....

 

#2, this complex stout, also from one of my favorite brewers, also from Michigan.



4.35/5 rDev +7.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Look: jet black with 2 fingers of tan head.

Smell: I'm getting a LOT of something that that doesn't quite fit with a stout - maybe the anise?

Taste: there's a lot to this beer, but the black pepper and cayenne jump forward - and then the molasses and maple bring everything back in line. So well executed.

Feel: stout smooth - with a wallop from the cayenne. Perfect.

Overall: Bell's is so great, and this beer is a great example why. There's a laundry list of ingredients, and they manage to make them work together. I wish I had a case of this instead of 2 bottles.

 

First ever new beer Sunday. Already intimidated by the posts above and positive I can't do one justice. Still, figured I'd log this.

Beer: Epic Big Bad Baptist
Acquisition: received in a trade months ago. A recent look is showing I've accumulated way more beer than I should have so I'm gonna try to spend the next few weeks/months drinking some of this off, special occasions or not.
Verdict: delicious
Details: poured from the bottle into one of my snifters. Did 3 1/3 bottle pours at a time. Wife didn't want any but liked the coffee nose. Speaking of, very coffee forward,nice balance of cacao. Very little whiskey to it, prob lost that edge over time which is fine. Beautiful brown lacing. A touch lite on the mouthfeel. Seemed a little easy to drink for the 13% abv but stiill a little boozy. Nicely walked line there.

 

So I'm back after the tasting event today with a few reviews. All reviews are from notes.

To start out Hailstorm Brewing/ 350 brewing collab Howdy Neighbor, a strawberry lemon kolsch.

Strawberry blonde pour. Heavy strawberry nose, slight lemon. Taste follows the nose closely. No crackery/bready notes common to kolsches, but still nice and clean. 3.75

Up next, Crown Brewing's Apricot Weiss.

Nice fruity apricot nose. Very heavy on the apricot. Taste is intense apricot at first, almost as if it were apricot juice. Slight coriander and wheat on the finish. 4

Then, New Oberpfalz/18th street collab, Imperial Rye IPA

Amber hued pour. Nice spice on the nose. Light pine tar and some dank hops. Taste is rye spice and pine hops. Slight citrus on the back end with a lingering piney hop. 3.9

Up next, Space Caravan IPA from Devil's Trumpet.

Nice Mango, peach, and tropical nose. Taste follows the nose with a bit of bitter pith. Nice and fruity. 3.85

Now onto, Tweak, coffee IPA from Burn'em.

Coffee nose is dominant. Light roast and some hidden tropical fruit. On the palate it is a nice balanced mix of orange and roast coffee. I do really like the balance on this beer. 4

And finally, Kuhnhenn DRIPA, Double Rice IPA.

Winner of the day here. Orange, grapefruit, and lime(?) nose. Taste follows the nose fairly closely. There is a revolving door of fruity hops that assault the tongue. The alcohol is definitely present. The rice gives it an almost sake like quality. Very interesting. The malt backbone to this is also very interesting, leading an almost wheat wine character to the beer. 4.25

Anyway, hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Sunday. I may be back one more time....Cheers!