New Beer Sunday (week 552)

Again, catch my review here on my blog

On the docket: 22 oz. Clown Shoes’ Rexx Imperial Red Ale aged in Bourbon Barrels


Poured into: Libbey Belgian stemmed-tulip


S: A bold and ferric red body supports a tightly clinging beige head of foam. Opaque with an almost purple highlight at the bottom. Bubbles soar to the top, and lacing already clings in regular but thin rings.


A: This king of a brew roars with spice and vanilla at the forefront, plus a trickle of higher alcohols and wood. The bourbon aroma is quite dominant. The hops seem to have retreated into the underbrush.


T: The barrels are certainly present (Heaven Hill and Four Roses) in the initial taste, but not so heavy that the beer is petrified. Notes of molasses, caramel, tangy spice from the rye, plus balancing hop bitterness comprises the full experience. The full clade of flavors and the IBU are more apparent as the beer warms up a bit.


F: Thick (I’d say medium +), full, oily. Decent carbonation, just enough to scrub your mouth and cause you to go back for more.


O: Disclaimer- I’m hit or miss with BBA style beers, regardless of base style. However, I truly enjoyed this one, and come on- who doesn’t like dinosaurs? Grab this one while it’s still around, lest it go extinct. When it comes to Clown Shoes, I “spare no expense.” Bonus points for recognizing that reference.


S: 3.75 A: 4 T: 4.25 F: 3.75 O: 4


Suggested food pairing: by itself, gamey meat such as venison, smoked cold cuts, earthy cheese, red velvet cakes or cupcakes, carrot cake

Suggested music pairing:

 

My second NB of this Sunday is one that I'm shocked I've actually been able to leave un-drank all week, as I've been excited to crack it open.

Wicked Weed Freak of Nature



Textbook beautiful pour. Slight haze, solid luxurious white foamy head, picture perfect lacing. Stunning.

Nose is full of citrus, a little earthy funk (not funky but something with a bit more earthy depth) and a savory herbal finish.

Taste immediately runs to citrus. Grapefruit, hint of mango and lemon zest. Following up is the earthy bitter that's duking it out with a touch of sweet malty depth.

Feel is slightly chalky, resiny, puckeringly bitter and punishing on the tongue as an aftertaste.

Brilliant!

 

Great review and that's one tasty beer! Had one earlier a few months ago, really tasty!

 

[ Wife in stealth-mode sneaks up on me (as usual) while I'm preparing my thoughtful NBS post. ]

Wife:“Oh my, are we doing that again?”
Me: [ heavy sigh ] “WE ARE, every Sunday IF I have a new beer.
Wife: "I thought you weren't buying anymore new beer."

: /

Me: "I wanted to tell everybody on NBS week #552 how truly excellent this little beer is. It was given to me by the legendary BA @jzeilinger in Columbus during our recent World Peace summit with @WesMantooth. We came up with some great WP ideas, but more importantly, Mr. Z told me that Total Eclipse Breakfast Stout from Maumee Bay Brewing in Toledo, reminded him of Founders Breakfast Stout. Honey, you’re shocked that he would say that, right?! RIGHT HONEY!? Tastes like FBS!? Can you imagine that!?

So, I’m gonna drink an FBS next just to see if he's full of sh–, er, uh I mean if he’s right. So far, I’d have to say HE'S RIGHT because this is freaking DELICIOUS! This beer is actually subtle on the coffee, but huge chocolate, milky, roasty, malty, and something else, something very sweet and Succubus-like!!! Damn!

Wanna try a sip?”

Wife:“That’s nice, and no thanks. Mind if I take a look at that drawing?”

[ This question has but one right answer. ]

Me: “I don’t mind at all Honey.”
Wife: “Oooo, nice mushroom! Wow. That’s a long one.”

[ Hmm. Sarcasm. ]

Me: “Uh, thanks Honey.”
Wife: “Should I assume this sketch is from more of your very "important meeting notes" at work?”

[ makes annoying finger quote mark gestures ]

Me: “They’re important.”

Wife: “YOU must be the little figure at the top diving into the beer, right?”
Me: “No Honey, I'm not, ...and really, why do you care?”
Wife: “Hmm. I don’t see a girl with BIG BOOBS standing on the "mushroom” like a couple weeks ago.”
Me: “Oh, you mean the evil Beer Succubus? It’s in there. You just gotta look really close.”

[ crickets ]

Wife: “And are more of your little Beer Advocate friends in there again?”
Me: “ALL of my New Beer Sunday friends are in there AND two BA’s who are foolishly making beer offerings to the dangerous Beer Succubus.”
Wife: “Which two are they?”
Me: “The Bros, Jas–, um, no, wait, I can’t say who. We...could probably get sued."

[ crickets ]

Wife: “But you're in there too I presume?”
Me: “Damn right."
Wife: “Let me guess, you’re with the big boobs girl too, wherever she is.”
Me: “Honey! 'She' is not a she! And anyway, c'mon! You’re my one and only big boobs girl!
Oh, I’m the one petting the dog.”

Wife: “There’s a dog? Okay, so who's diving into the beer?"
Me: "That could be any BA."

 

Good afternoon New Beer Sunday folks! It's a beautiful day for the last Sunday in summer of 2015 here in Ottawa, and I have decided to make it a day to try Stone's Thunderstruck IPA.



All in all a fair beer, but not great in this guy's opinion. Sure, I'll get some arguments, but hey to each our own.

look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75 3.64/5 rDev -11%

A: Pours a slightly hazy gold with about a finger's worth of head. Some slight lacing.

S: Hops, both citrus and piney, with a quick whiff of apricot that disappeared only to be replaced with an earthy tone, not quite onion but similar.

T: Bitter citrus, an almost grapefruit pithiness that is bordering on too harsh. Much like the nose, there is an earthy/onion-like element that comes in that spoils the parade a little too. On the redeeming side, there is a nice malt presence that seems to come in on the tail.

M: Medium bodied, medium to high carbonation and a slight stickiness.

O: A fair beer, but not a good beer to my palate. This beer was done in by the earthy/onion taste that became present as I drank it. I kept hoping it would go away, but it did not. I usually quite enjoy Stone beers, but this one is a bit of a miss for me.

Now...I got the damn song in my head...but not the version you all would think...(yeah I know it's been posted before)



Those crazy Finns.

 

Oh wow, a rare 3rd NBS. I just had to, because I need to ask a question.

I'm drinking Coney Island Hard Root Beer. When i had Not Your Fathers Root Beer, I gave it outstanding reviews, I loved it. I haven't consumed it since. And in fact, I started to feel rather ridiculous. I feel like I'm consuming a fad, a trend. It doesn't really feel like beer to me. It feels like root beer that has alcohol in it. So when i look back at my rating, and even what I rated Coney Island, I'm confused. I guess what I'm saying is that this isn't really beer to me. This is flavored alcoholic drink territory. But whatever I guess. You can't get any hint of malts. hops, or barley in these things.

Look: Cola brown with a fizzy head, you can even see the fizzy bubbles in the head. However, unlike NYFRB, this head actually stays around for a bit! No lacing though.

Aroma: Root Beer, Pepto Bismol.

Taste: Sassafras, Pepto Bismol ... Root Beer. Sugar. Lots of sugar.

Mouthfeel: Thin, carbonated, sugary.

Overall: I guess. If you've had one hard root beer, you've had them all. I will never, ever try this "style" again. Ever.

My rating is 3.99. But I do not even know what that means. I guess I need to edit Not Your Fathers Root Beer and rate it the same. They all taste the same to me, and it all tastes like Root Beer. Maybe I can add Barq's to the BA database. I'm sorry for being snarky. I just don't get this product anymore, and I do not know how to rate it.

I'll be back next week with maybe a Pumpkin frame of mind

 

Dang... MADE it finally!

Hey what's going on?!?

I had a plumbing issue and had some repair work, and as any of you know... what.. .a friggin MESS!! But it looks fixed now and we are ready for a reward.

Odd week, but some real good beer highlights, mostly Goose Island Migration week hit, and I got to sit outside in excellent weather and drink a bunch of Vanilla Rye and Proprietors Bourbon County. Man that was nice. Zwanze was this weekend but I skipped it as I had a game and other beers to put a dent in.

Right now also taking care of some my last Delaware beach goodies... so WHAT is new for our HERO today?!?!

Black Tie - Mispillion River Brewing


Mispillion River Brewing - Black Tie Black India Pale Ale by imbibehour, on Flickr

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Poured from the can into a Spiegelau IPA glass. UNDEAD August 24th 2015.

Great looking brew off the pour. Foams and cascadeds large and grand, huge amounts of frothy and very fine bubbles in the head, finishing with a uniform four fingers of espresso light to faint tan color. Big mountainous peaks and valleys of retention, clumps, lacing, Everest is hiding in here somewhere but manages to sit on a classic black walnut body with a good red hue.

Excellent aroma. Matches nicely with a mix of roast and hop, the hop angle going to wood and weed, a bit of pine and then some excellent powder cocoa dark chocolate. Mild notes of coffee as well, just like the bean got crushed, but also a tinge of very faint acridness. Luckily so far so good.

Palate manages to stick to the basics. More porter and roast character dominate but come with a little bit of bitterness. Mid palate hits with coffee and char like malt action, finishes lime astringent slightly but also keeping with some malty sweetness. Mouthfeel is pretty neutral and supportive like a basic porter, nothing expressively helping the palate but nothing harming or detrimental, it seems to just be there and getting out of the way of the solid flavors.

A good solid decent Black IPA is about all to be said.

look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | BA generated score : 4.09

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Cheers!

 

Well, it's shaping up to be another great NBS today! Made a beer run today; posted in PAPOYLH thread already.
Picked up a GF Green Bullet Triple IPA, best by 02/05/16.
Had to do the quick cool down method

Mickey's keepin' an eye on it.


Poured a deep golden orange hue with a finger and 1/2 worth of head, full of tiny bubbles. Tons of lacing.
Getting more malt than hops in the aroma, slightly hay like smell. Not getting much else, not sure why...?
Grassy hops up front and through to a bitter finish with a strong alcohol presence at the end.
Lingering bitterness with a nice dry malty sweetness that evens it out. Alcohol is hidden well enough.
Overall, a decent beer that didn't quite live up to my expectations; not to say it's 's a bad beer, because it's not. I was just expecting something else and got a grassy hop bomb. Plenty of alcohol in this bottle to warm you up. Quite a bit of biscuit like malt on the end. Was definitely worth the try though.
Cheers fellow NBS-ers!

 

Great white buffalo...great white buffalo

 

New American Amber/Red Ale Sunday (week 552)
Afternoon, y'all, rough morning but a beautiful day. Cleaning up in prep for bottling some beer here on the ridge in Mid Hud Val NY. This beer is called Dean Mahogany or something. Honestly folks are getting carried away with their long and multi word names of shit. How about Singlecut Hoppy Amber for this one? Considering it isn't all that great that's about all it deserves.

Hope you have a great American beer in your glass. Cheers!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30452/87897/?ba=cavedave



Listening to this gotta get that rhythm when you bottle, mon.

 

Happy Beautiful NBS. Well, watching the Giants often makes me want to vomit, but I drink anyway. So, a very delicious beer from Avery. Liliko'i Kepolo. Pours a light straw color. Aroma is of tropical fruit. This smells like juice. Taste is very similar. Passion fruit dominates, but doesn't make it too sweet. Nicely slander, although I don't get much of the traditional Belgian taste here. Great lowish ABV beer for a hot summer day. This one seems like a summer seasonal. Cheers!

 

Next up is from Schafly, their "TIPA" - The Tasmanian IPA.



Looks nice enough with a head that while it lasts, looks more frothy than foamy. Clear, bright and pale orange with that aforementioned head of white settling above.

Nose is aggressively dank from the start, with its nose clearing onion/rubber /menthol action.

Taste is everything I expected based on the nose. It's raw, dank, grassy, a touch grainy, and finally full of citrus once you battle through the initial violence.

Finish is dry, slightly sweet but mostly clean.

I don't want to get too excited, but oh my. This is spot on and powerful.

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers,

This week has seen rain, wind, sunshine, heat, and chill delivered to Washington’s second city. Right now the sun is shining, with clouds off to the north, and it’s 72 degrees, about 5 below what is predicted to be our high.

Yesterday was a good day for the two college football teams I follow, but a frustrating day for local beer. My Eagles won a hard fought game against Montana State that at first looked like a runaway win for the Eagles, then came to resemble a basketball game. My Huskies beat Utah State, which continues what has come to be the norm for the Huskies the last few years – they beat who they’re supposed to beat and lose to who they’re supposed to lose to.

On the local beer front, first I went to Bennedito’s Brewpub, to get a grunt filled with their El Dorado Single Hop Pale Ale. After watching the girl behind the counter hold the grunt under the tap and repeatedly pour out foam, doing her unwitting best to oxygenate the hell out of it, I was charged $10 for a 32oz fill of a session pale ale, which seemed rather excessive considering locally a fill of such size is rarely more than $7 unless it’s a really special beer. When I got home and took a good look at it, I saw that most of the neck of that grunt was beer-free as well, so not really even 32oz! Then I tried to go to Orlison’s Tap Room for the first time – though my 3rd attempt. Orlison posts no hours at their new Spokane tap room, but this time I took the trouble of looking on facebook , and it said they would open at noon. Well, I showed up at 12:30, plunked an hour’s worth of coin into a parking meter half a block away, and walked over to find they were closed, with no one there…

After that I gave up and went to one of Spokane’s true diamonds in the rough, the Park Inn, and watched the first half of the EWU game and had a much better time while drinking that PNW standby, Manny's.

Oh, and that pale ale from Bennedito’s? I’ve had it before, but this is the first time I’ve been able to do a proper review, so the rules of NBS are definitely being stretched:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/41582/187170/?ba=woemad

A decent session pale for accompanying food, but otherwise nothing terribly remarkable, and the fact that I paid $10 for a 32oz fill for such a beer left a bad taste in my mouth.

I’ve got several truly new beer options for later today, and I won’t be watching football for anything other than curiosity as to how my fantasy football team will fare until 6PM (and even then my QB will be facing my ‘hawks, so I will find myself rooting against…myself), so I’ll be back with another beer or three.

 

I had this last December in NYC, so that may be about how old the bottle is. I had it on tap and really enjoyed it as well. Very unique but rich, flavorful and I agree with you, highly floral. Had a chai quality.

 

Oxbow Barrel Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale

This one has been on my need-to-try list for quite some time. I'm a big fan of what Oxbow does. This is the most recent batch, graciously picked up for me in Maine by @fbc24! Let's get down to it...

A: Light golden yellow, a bit of haze. Pillowy white head. Moderate white retention collar, and minimal lacing.
S: Peach skin, oak, vanilla, dry hops, funk.
T: Slight tartness up-front with some nice funk. Citrus hops, vanilla and oak take over mid-palate and into the finish.
F: Bubbly, creamy on the palate.

This one is very nice, I'm enjoying this glass quite a bit with some football.



Cheers, BA!

 

This brew pours a rather clear copper color with a small off white head, some of which remains as a collar, decent carbonation and a little lacing.

The smell has a good amount of pumpkin in it along with some cardamom and anise. Maybe a touch of cinnamon. There is also a soapy, bubble gum like smell.

The taste does not have as much pumpkin in it as the smell but there is enough. The spices kind of drop off in the taste but the pumpkin and the roasted malts are present from start to finish. There is a typical crisp, clean almost cracker like lager finish. Overall I like this lager with pumpkin spices better than some of the pumpkin ales I have had.

 

Drinking Good Gourd from Cigar City Brewing. I've come to the conclusion pumpkin beers are not for me. Too much spice too most of them that just turns a beer into perfume. This should be my last. It's not bad as it's light on spice but it's super sweet and Belgian-like.



3.8/5 rDev -10.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Bomber poured into a snifter. Whether this is good or not, I'm hoping to never drink another pumpkin beer.

Good looking beer. Deep copper color with a cream-colored head. Sudsy and creamy head. Persists well. 4.5

It's not overly spiced, so that's awesome. Has a hint of some tartness and fruit. Caramel malt sweetness. Not a ton on the nose. 3.75

Interesting first sip. Seems like a Belgian Dubbel with the candi syrup flavor. Reminds me of a lollipop for the candied sweetness. Pumpkin appears subtly and imparts a vegetal, squash quality and some light spice creeps in that again, is understated. 3.75

Candy-like sweetness and feel, akin to sucking on a lollipop. This is a dessert drink if anything. Smooth but with a tickle of carbonation and spice that accentuate the sweetness at times and other times downplay it. 3.75

I appreciate that this isn't a spice bomb, but it seems a sweet, syrupy bomb in place of that.

 

love the new labelling!

 

Good afternoon NBS, hope everyone is having a great day on this beautiful Sunday. First up for is Grassroots Brother Soigné, a great beer sent to me by a great BA @bstyle, thanks!

4.49/5 rDev +2.7%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Big thanks to bstyle for this
750 ml bottle, 5/28/15, poured into a teku

A- A hazy bright orange with a pink tint and a large white head.

S- Citrus, some blood oranges, tart, funky, floral notes, earthy.

T- Limes, blood orange, hints of sour grapes, earthy funk, citrus rinds, sour, floral, nicely balanced.

M- Smooth, light to medium body, dry.

O- A well done Saison. It is sour but not to a point were it shouldn't be a Saison. First full beer I've tried from Grassroots and it is great, lives up to the HF hype.

Cheers!

 

It's been a good week here but I'm now on the cusp of what will be a total shit-storm next two months, travelling a week each in Chicago (@Vitacca Thursday is clear for me. @Hopgoddess312 @creepinjeeper any chance you can join the reindeer games this thursday?) Denver, Tampa (@jhartley how far are you from Tampa?) and Austin for work. We're opening up new stores in each market and when the stores you open are 45-65,000 square feet, it's a shit storm especially in my line of work: store maintenance!
Anyhow, spent a night in Denver (Thursday) and had a ton of fun! After 11:00 the details are fuzzy.
Since I came home I've been drinking stuff I brougt back, but this I saw today at my WF and figured I'd be a worth NBS addition.
I used to love Ninkasi but have been weary due to their lack of date stamping.
But this is a seasonal and this is the season, and the price is right, $6, so figured I'd pull the trigger.
While my experience with the style has really only dug in this season, I'm really liking this a lot. It may be lighter in color than the traditional German style, and may lack the nose of what you would come to expect from the Germans, it's not far behind. Maybe more of a muted Festbier...so maybe a Swiss version?
Anyhow, I'll enjoy finishing this off, much like the Steelers fans are watching them finish off the 49ers (this game was over in the first quarter).
Prost to you all and @Vitacca, I hope to see you on Thursday in Chicago. @Hopgoddess312 and @creepinjeeper and anyone else in the Chicago area, please BM me to join us!