New Beer Sunday (week 549)

Well, it's hot. I worked on the pool. Those of you who have one know that the pool is year-round work for the owner (who rarely gets to use it him/herself). Well, I'm getting in. I'm inspired. I just had a another beauty from @SammyJaxxxx ...Sixpoint's RESIN.
Now this is my kinda summer beer.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/10607/77299/

Dank, especially on the nose. Pine and grass in both the nose and flavor. Got to put some Peter Tosh on...or my Bunny Wailer.

 

Tried 2 new beers tonight. First one was 3 Floyds Dreadnaught. The review will be below. Now I'm onto a New Glarus Enigma was is amazing. Not sure if a review will come from that, but it might.



Poured into a tulip glass.

L: Poured a dark golden color with about a finger of white head that eventually disappeared. A bit darker than I expected for an IPA that was under a month old.

S: The smell yield straight grapefruit at first with a bit of pine coming through in the background. 3 Floyds hops their beers so much that I can't really smell much of anything other than hops. What I do smell is very pleasant though.

T: The taste, per usual follows the nose pretty well. Huge grapefruit notes, which is indeed different from the new school IPAs that have been taking over the world lately. There is a hint of pine with some of the malt in the background. This is pretty damn good. I've had better, but what I'm having now is definitely great.

F: The fact that this is 9.5% is mindblowing. Not a tinge of alcohol to speak of. It is medium bodied, with a moderate level of carbonation. Overall definitely an easy beer to drink.

Overall: This is a really nice beer. 3 Floyds is obviously highly regarded in the world of beer and with beers like this I can definitely see why. The grapefruit notes are very strong and the pine plays well with the malt in the background. I've only have 2 beers from 3 Floyds (this and ZD) and both have been top notch. I can't wait to try more from 3F!

 

I listened to Tosh all the way home from S. Jersey yesterday, a couple of hours on the NJ Tpke. It really helped me to deal with all of that uptight craziness going on all around me

 

First Oktoberfest of the season, Hofbrau...malty, sweet, easy drinker

 

Sorry to hear that @Homebrew

 

Unfortunately I must admit I tried a single of Wild Blue a few years back....just horrible. Basically alcohol with fake blueberry flavor added. I'm sure that brewery doesn't stoop THAT low......

 

Tosh is straight up. I'm tired and sinking into a mellow groove. So I think Bunny's Blackheart Man is what I need.

 

Hey could be worse. You could live in NE where pool season lasts 3 months of youre lucky.....all the work, chemicals and $ with a tiny season...

 

Visited with family back home over the weekend (and also got the oil -- and oil filter -- changed in my car in the process... turns out it was at least a couple months overdue for that. Whoops! Neither I or my dad could actually get the old filter off of the thing, though, so we ended up having to take it in to a mechanic.) Earlier today my sister and I went off to a nearby town to get lunch and also ended up checking out the grocery store there's beer selection... and it turned out they had way more than the grocery store she usually goes to, so we ended up buying a variety pack to take home.

She was nice enough to let me have one of each beer from the pack to take home with me, so here goes my first one:


Newcastle / Caledonian British Session IPA.

Unlike probably just about everybody on here, I haven't ever gotten around to trying Newcastle Brown despite it being everywhere (I'm scared of clear bottles. XD) So this one's actually my first from the brewery, and apparently it's also a collaboration with another brewery? Hmm, that's interesting. Anyway, on to the beer.

Pours a medium goldish color, but once in the glass it's a good bit darker -- sort of a dark gold, bordering on orange? Lots of little bubbles rising up from the bottom, and a decent little layer of foam on top that seems unwilling to shrink away entirely, instead stopping at the point of "coating on top of the beer and thicker ring around the edge of the glass." First smell is really unusual -- I can only assume this is some sort of hop variety I haven't stumbled across before. Sort of an odd grassy/flowery type smell? Almost bordered on "hair salon" smell at first, but after settling into the glass that element of it has vanished and it's more "planty." Though the hops come out first, there's also a definite sweeter malt type smell behind that, kinda reminds of a caramel/toffee sort of thing -- I suppose that'd explain the darker color. It's definitely darker in appearance than I expected a session IPA to be. I wonder if that's more of a "English IPA style" thing or specific to this beer.

Interestingly, the first thing to come in flavor-wise is definitely the malt, being really noticeable the moment the beer hits my tongue. And the malt flavors are actually really nice -- a biscuity and almost buttery toffee/caramel sort of thing. Surprised me a bit at first. After that it's those weird floral/almost-hair-salon-like hops in a quick burst (except they're actually not unpleasant, unlike their presence in every other beer that I picked up the "hair salon like" smell/flavor in before!), and then they fade away and leave a buttery/bready sort of thing as the aftertaste. Interestingly, the hops are most noticeable on the first sip, blending into the background a little more after that -- the flavors of the hops still pop in near the end, but they don't jump out at you as much as on the first sip, more of a "just enough bitter/hoppy to balance the rest" in the background while the malts are the primary flavor. Or maybe the yeast is contributing here too? I honestly don't know, I've never had a beer with flavors quite like this one before so I'm not sure what's coming from where.

Aftertaste is nice at first, but starts getting just slightly weird around halfway through the glass. A little bit of a lingering bitterness that builds up over time, but it's a pretty mild bitterness compared to... well, pretty much anything I've ever had with the term "IPA" on the label, and even some of the hoppier pale ales. Also an interesting mouthfeel here, it's pretty light (very easy to take big gulps for sure) but at the same time there's a bit of a lingering almost oily-ish thing to it. Smell shifts even more toward those nice malty things (and also butteriness) as time goes on, though it doesn't come across quite as sweet-smelling as it did at first, and more biscuity. I think the weirdness of the aftertaste after the halfway point or so is due to that weird hop flavor standing out more along with the lingering bready maltiness and that slight bit of bitter, but it almost seems like I'm getting used to it the more I drink, because it doesn't seem as odd at the "1/4 of a glass left" mark as it did halfway down. Now that the glass is empty, the lingering aftertaste is actually coming across as sort of a slightly-lemony bitter tea kind of thing more than the "hair salon/flowery" thing from before. Burps are definitely more along the lines of the malt flavors.

Somewhat mixed feelings toward this one, but I think that's at least in part because it's just so different from most of the beers I've had before, and pretty drastically different from the American session IPAs I've tried which were "lots of hops, no malt presence whatsoever" -- overall it was pretty good, and certainly interesting. I'd drink this one again. Heck, I could drink another one right now. If that "interesting maltiness combined with hops" thing this one had going on is any indication of what the English IPA style is like as a whole, I think I will definitely want to try more English-style IPAs in the future.

 

Nice review, I felt the exact same way.

 

My last one for today and my 500th since I started keeping track. Truth be told, it's probably that times five. I picked this up in Michigan last week in a mix six. It's a twelve ounce stubby bottle with a best by date of 01-10-16 and an abv. of 6%.

It pours a pale orange with minimal white foam. The aroma is nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon with a hint of squash. There are spice forward flavors of allspice, nutmeg, mild cinnamon, and pumpkin flesh. The mouthfeel is rather thin and flat.



Overall it's not a terrible beer, but more akin to a session pumpkin ale with half the spices, flavor, and abv. If you're not a fan of huge pumpkin beers, this is for you. I liked it as a nice change of pace to the spice forward high gravity top guns and would recommend it as an alternative.

Have a great week. The link to my review and score.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/429/150766/?ba=Prager62

 

New Stone Bomber Sunday (and my 2nd NBS post!)

Bottled 11/04/14

The aroma and the initial taste totally messed with my senses! The coffee and chocolate do a great job of disguising this as a dark beer. I am impressed with how well those flavors have held up considering the age. The more I drink it, though, the more it becomes apparent that the complexity and dark fruit flavors of a typical imperial stout are lacking. That being said, I wish I would have picked up more than one (the $9 bomber ticket is rough on a college student's budget). Even as an imperial blonde ale with coffee and chocolate, this is a most excellent brew. The sweet maltiness is spot on, and the coffee lingers with just enough bitter roastiness to leave you wanting more. The chocolate it compilmentary. The texture is not real heavy, but is defitnitely satisfying given the 9.7% abv. A great sipper for a warm summer evening! 4.36/5 Cheers!

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @cavedave for getting us rolling today. I finally kegged my American red w/ Galaxy and Falconers flight hops today after about 4 weeks in the primary. I decided to use the WLP008 east coast strain for a change of pace; and things turned out well. The strain is very bad at flocculating, so I had quite a bit of trub going on; but I am going to clarify with gelatin, so I am not too worried about the bits of yeast I got in there. Flavor notes from my gravity sample were nice: juicy candied citrus, peach, passion fruit, and mango; with robust caramel, toffee, and toasted biscuit malt sweetness with balanced bitterness. I will wait for the carbonated sample for the final verdict, but its very nice as it was. The strain of yeast is a bit less attenuative than cali ale yeast, and seems to be slightly estery but overall quite clean. I fermented cool at 62 and it finished in 2-3 days. A very fast fermentation. Ended at 1.020.

https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/falconers-galaxy-red-ale

Here are today's new beers:

A very nice Oktoberfest here. Aromas and flavors of honey, brown sugar, toasted biscuit, light nuttiness, and light-moderate herbal/grassy hops. Light balancing earthy/spicy bitterness on the finish. Very flavorful for 6%; with a bit above medium body, and a nice bready creaminess in the mouthfeel. Very clean lagering, minimal yeast presence. This had a very satisfying amount of bready malt complexity all around. Very robust and delicious! 3.88


This was very good overall. Aromas and flavors of grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, mango, lemon zest, orange peel, pine, brown sugar, cocoa, toasted bread, and light coffee with floral/grassy hop earthiness. Moderate amount of piney/roasted bitterness on the finish. Overall balanced between hop and malt flavors along with the bitterness. Medium carb/body; with a smooth finish and balanced creaminess and hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Has a very nice juicy-like hop flavors going on as well. The commercial description says it's supposed to remind me of Iniquity. Yea, kinda/sorta but not really. Iniquity is much more aggressively roasty and piney with the citrusy hops and such. This is much more gentle, but I liked the hop complexity and balance overall. Very smooth drinking for the ABV. 3.78


Brand new beer from Huyghe, so I had to buy it. This is a Belgian IPA. Bottled 5/21, which is really fresh as far as I've seen for imports around here. Used good care on cage removal here; the cork moved itself a little bit when I unscrewed it, but thankfully I still had to twist it a bit for it to pop off, loudly . Big dense and rocky head, plenty of streaming carbonation. Beautiful dense lacing. This is very nice! Aromas and flavors of lemon, grapefruit, orange zest, apricot, pear, apple, coriander, light banana/clove, pepper, honey, and toasted biscuit; with herbal/floral/grassy hop and yeast earthiness. Nice amount of peppery yeast spice and floral/grassy hop bitterness on the finish. Very nice complexity of citrus/earthy hop flavors with balanced yeast and bready malt. Very well carbonated and fairly crisp finish; with a touch of bready malt creaminess in the mouthfeel. Very minimal complaints overall. Delicious. 3.9


Cheers! Have a good night NBS

 

I don't know, but to me it sounds like your life is pretty good today. New awesome pup, mowing the lawn of a house that's been in your family for nearly a century, and a hoppy drink from Lawson's.

 

Great pic!!!

 

Great looking chiles!

 

Yeah Corey. I really wanted to like Tropper more. I mean, come on, it's Bruce Friggin' Dickenson. Freddy + Union Jack = awesome label, but....Meh.