New Beer Sunday (week 552)

Finished up my Oktoberfest tastings that I've been conducting the past two weeks. I've discovered I tend to like my O-fests, darker and sweeter. Final rankings of these 8.
Ayinger 4.35
New Glarus 4.32
Left Hand 4.21
Great Lakes 4.06
Sierra Nevada 3.94
Hacker-Pschorr 3.81
Paulaner 3.74
Odell 3.73

I am always on the look out for more of this style, so if you have any recommendations of those easily found in my area I would love to hear them. I am still looking for Leinies Big Eddy Uber Oktoberfest this year, last year I loved that one.

I shall return with a new beer momentarily.

 

Good afternoon to all my friends here, been a long morning otherwise i would've joined in earlier. Had to get the house spotless for another showing this afternoon. hopfully this time it sells (keep your fingers crossed for me everyone) anyway today i'm still on my local kick and trying this from another brewery here in CT. this is from there website
Charter Oak's Courageous Strong Ale
Recall the Charter was hidden in an Oak Tree that lived 1000 years and grew to 33 feet round.

This is a limited release American Strong Ale that is robust in character, taste, ABV, and shade. It will pour a rich deep brown with two fingers of tan foam and a wonderful, yet subtle piney aroma. This style is complex, yet well balanced and very drinkable; brewed with generous quantities of hops, and yet plenty of specialty malted barley. A Full mouth feel with plenty of flavor left on the pallet through the last drop in the pint glass. This is also the beginning of our single hops releases. The Courageous Strong Ale is hopped with generous quantities of Chinook. This ‘unofficial’ style is a fun one to brew and allowed us to be unconstrained with brewing creativity. It’s a real sipper!

Beer Stats

7.8%ABV; 86 IBU; 15 SRM

i think its great that there special series of beer has to dso with some of CT's history but man this one missed the mark. they nailed the description for LOOKS: but the aroma is bland almost infected smelling? IMO TASTE: nothing like a strong ale that i've had, lacking is the best word for it. some slight hop but isn't that supposed to not be there. correct me if i'm wrong. all in all i WON"T be trying this one again. CHEERS to y'all and hopefully i can get back before 8:30 when my HAWKS play tonite. if not see everyone next weekend.

 

Enjoyed the past week off with my parents visiting. Sad that it is ending today and it is back to work tomorrow. We'll be enjoying a campfire with hot dogs and s'mores this afternoon. I made some of my brown sugar apple pancakes for breakfast.

The only new beer that I will enjoy today is Wicked Weed's Recurrant. Color is a dirty brown amber with a soft off white head. Some spotty lacing and a bubbly color form on the glass. Aroma is rather tart with green apple and definatly currants that I remember as a child. Hints of a red wine linger.

Flavor is a punch of tartness right up front. Seems to be of sour berry and sour currant. Blends into a bit of woodiness and the red wine notes. It is complex and not just a tart AWA. Feel is light and finishes dry. A nice AWA complemented with the berries and wine barrel.



Enjoy the beautiful day. I'll see you next week.

 

I'm back with a new brew as promised my NBS crew, Southern Tier Choklat Oranj.
Pours a dark brown almost black with minimal head and quickly dissipating lacing. Smells like a liquefied version of one of those dark chocolate orange candies (Terrys) I believe they are called. Taste is similar to the smell, dark chocolate and orange dominate with a nice play of bitter from both chocolate and orange combined with a little sweetness from both as well. Feel is moderately heavy and coats your mouth well. I am enjoying this beer, seems like it would make a good dessert beer for sure.

 

Hello fellow New Beer Sunday Advocates.

I'm finally getting around to trying this Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest - Brauhaus Riegele Collaboration.

The beer Pours a golden bronze color with beige head. Tasting notes of Toasted caramel, roasted mixed nuts, brown bread and a rye like spiciness imparted from the hops.
Not cloyingly sweet like some American versions of the style, a tad hoppier than I think it should be for the style but an overall impressive beer.

4.25/5 overall grade.

 

It has been out for a while in WI. Bull Falls, Potosi, Metropolitan, and Upland were all very good. My guess is you will not see any of those in MN.

 

Helloooo Sunday Funday Friends!

Pretty easy going Sunday for me today. Maybe I'll mow the lawn, maybe I won't. Who knows. My girlfriend (who is an overnight pediatric oncology nurse) is sleeping on the couch, my wild puppy is sleeping on the floor next to her and I'm enjoying a nice cold beer! Crazy day here in the capital district.

So the puppy is now 12 weeks old. He now recognizes his name (Oliver) and has had his first successful days without peeing on the new hardwood floors. He still loves to get up at 3AM and 6AM to go out and sit on the lawn. He does this creep thing where he just stares off into the dark like he sees something...gives me the creeps. We've also discover that he loves:

Brooms.


And

Vanilla ice cream.


And all the while Oliver loves brooms and ice cream...I love Union Craft's Old Pro Gose. This could easily be my year round stand-by. I would stock the shelves of my fridge with this if it was local to me!



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29377/84258/?ba=zoober911

Delicious. Happy Funday Sunday everyone!

 

To @zoober911. That looks my little Lily that I lost a while back. Lily was 14 and one hell of a dog. We called her L'il Til with the red tipped tail. I will get another Lab, but now I have rescue Walker Hounds. Cheers.

 

My NBS entry this week is a Tripel that everyone is probably familiar with...


La Fin Du Monde

Unibroue
Tripel / 9.00% ABV

4.75/5 rDev +10.2% | Avg: 4.31
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

I am not really sure what to say that hasn't already been said about this beer. I read the 2014 Brewer's association guidlines for Belgian Tripels. I am pretty sure this is the beer they used as reference. This is the Tripel that all other Tripel's should be judged against. Good luck to those poor bastards.

 

Hello everyone. On this new beer Sunday I am going in a direction I rarely go - o e of these sourish kind of things.

Petrus Dubbel Bruin



Looks not so intimidating. Dark with not a ton of head. Nose is vinegar, sour cherries and a little musty. Taste is not nearly as puckering as other sourish genre beers I've had, so no battery licking feel here. Once my taste buds settle down from the light tartness, I have cherry, little vinegar (light), and bitterness that has the quality of cranberries.

Body is light and crisp while leaving just a thin film of tart sweetness.

Pretty fun this one actually.

 

Andechser Weissbier Hell, the bottle says this is a Super Premium Bavarian Ale. This is a nice brew, a pure white head a pale cloudy body, a aroma of cloves but a refreshing lemon taste. The body and mouth feel are light and the finish is dry. A very enjoyable ale to say the least.

 

Classy picture.

 

Good afternoon NBS! Decided to stay down south for the night and hit another brewery. Drove out to Lickinghole Creek farm brewery. Presumably they use farm ingredients in their beers (lol-auto correct fixed my typing to "farming residents" before I saw it - Soilent Green Brewers, anyone?)


I've enjoyed quite a few of their beers at home. They had 6 beers available, and in a minor disappointment, not some of the offerings I was hoping to find. As such, I decided to compare two beers I haven't had against their base. The photo shows the left to right as listed below (note we had two taster pours of each to get a second chance at initial thoughts):


Three Chopt Tripel base beer (not new):
Nice foamy head, lasting with good surface coverage.
Smell is sweet floral and honey, but backed with a somewhat herbal and lightly tart peach note - hard to describe.
Taste is a tad sweet, but enjoyable-sweet pear with added honey. There's a light herbal to woody countering flavor that never overtakes the sweetness. Feel is pretty much on point.

Darjeeling Tea Tripel:
This one looks almost as good as the base beer, and in the end has more lacing. It's cloudier and a shade darker.
Nose is similar, but with the herbal notes ratcheted up, and (shockingly) tea-like in nature. Better nose here.
The taste still starts honey sweet and maybe a tad grainy. The tea comes in early and lasts the rest of the taste. Not sure I could pick out the tea without a comparison, but it's fairly obvious with one. Feel is still on point.

Bourbon Barrel Three Chopt:
The beer has lost almost all of its visible carbonation. The barrel has added a considerable amount of brown color to the beer.
The nose is a of a light honey-bourbon, with the actual woody oak notes coming out.
Taste is also a honey-sweet opening that has hints of the barrel also. The bourbon and barrel notes grow throughout, but the sweetness carries throughout as well.

So I think I enjoyed the tea-added one slightly more than the other two. All seemed a little too sweet, and I adjusted my review of the original beer down a bit based on this new tasting.

Also want to note I was hoping to drink a beer this AM from a nice package from @WesMantooth but it is sitting at home. Thanks for the beer and I'll have to get too that one next week. Sure you guys will see the others this week on WBAYDN. Cheers all!

 

Don't be fooled by the look of innocence. Look awayyyy.

 

I'm back, and I messed up. I went grocery shopping, and absolutely meant to buy some Turkish Delight candy for this review, and guess what I forgot? Oh well, the beer has been opened and I'm not leaving the house now. I see this beer is no longer being brewed, and I bought it for $4 ... in other words, it may have been sitting on the shelf for a very long time, I cannot find a freshness date on it anywhere. I've been having a bad run here on NBS -- not a lot of beers I really like. I think this one may be different.

Look: In the Duvel glass the beer is a Tootsie Roll brown with a nice tan head that retains well -- leftovers on top consist of a thick film, however little or no lacing.

Aroma: Wow. The aroma is spectacular. Rose water, powdered sugar, and faint toffee and Tootsie Roll chocolate.

Taste: There is more of a flower-like taste in this. I mean seriously. I don't eat flowers, but if I did I imagine them to taste like this. At the center of the beer is a true brown ale quality to keep things from getting too crazy. There's some roasted malts and toasted bread going on in here. The finish is more bitter but the flavor of roses and orange peel linger. There's a musty kind of flavor in this -- must be the floral rose petals I'm tasting.

Mouthfeel: At 6% ABV, it's medium in body, slightly dry.

Overall: I really like it. It's just so weird, though. I generally like brown ales and this is an excellent take on it. As the beer warms, the aroma shifts toward the Tootsie Roll chocolate notes. I'll go review it now, It will be just above a 4.00 rating for sure. Oh, and this beer is brewed with coffee -- can't say that any coffee aroma or flavor came to mind.

 

Looking good.. plan to be joining later but I am making a plumbing mess in the house that I gotta fix...

Waiting on a part so I am just digging a Lost Nation Gone while I wait...

Nbs'n shortly

 

A crisp and chilly NBS to you, Obergruppenführers of Oktoberfest and Field Marshals of Märzens. I hope to find you all well and fully into your NBS rituals. It's a balmy 70 up in the hills of NWNJ. The sun is out, the windows are open, and there's a fair chance I'll be posting a double header of an NBS post. It's that time of year when summer dies, and my favorite part of the year is close at hand (the middle two weeks of October). I take my retest for the written portion of the Cicerone this Wednesday. Wish me luck, I just want it to be over, and for the doors to open for me. Fat chance in the sticks of NJ, but I can dream.

On with the show. As always, catch my beer blog and this review here

On the docket: Left Hand Brewing Co.’s Black Jack Porter


Poured into: Innis & Gunn stemmed tulip


S: Deep dark mahogany with orange and red highlights split the visual duty of the body, while a khaki colored head builds then recedes down to a small cap. Tiny bubbles lazily make their way to the top.


A: Rich, roasted dark malt doubled-down by subtle chocolate and coffee. Faint herbal notes show up too, giving some insurance from the hops. There’s also a small hit of heat from the alcohol, but nothing to get busted over.


T: Washes of coffee and chocolate deal a one-two combination in the beginning. Sweet malt and roast in the middle of the hand, with a small bite of astringency, alcohol and herbal hops round out this beauty. The boozy quality is a bit more apparent as this one warms up.


F: Smooth, velvety mouthfeel; likely due to the wheat used in this interpretation. Medium weight and a pleasant carbonation. The bubbles are enough to allow the beer to stay refreshing and not flat.


O: Pleasant, easy to drink American take on an English style. I’d argue that this is more a robust porter than an actual brown due to the roasted qualities. Regardless, it’s a delicious beer, one I’d bet on having again.

S: 4 A: 4.25 T: 4.25 F: 4 O: 4.25


Suggested food pairing: low-and-slow barbecue ribs, earthy Havarti cheese, chocolate or coffee flavored desserts

 

Hello, and Happy NBS!

Getting to be that time of year, so my new beer today is Festbier, a marzen/Oktoberfest from Victory.

Festbier pours nice copper amber into a shaker pint glass. The smell is malty, sweet, a hint of smoke? Nice malt and caramel flavor, a little nutty. Just a bit of hop bitterness at the finish to balance things out. Moderate and slightly grainy in the mouthfeel. Stands up well with a hearty lunch. Another solid effort from Victory.

Cheers!

 

Gorgeous pics. That last one reminds me of the Oregon coast.