New Beer Sunday (week 553)

Agreeed, definitely will be seeking out more Wicked Weed in the future, still have a bottle of Genius that I am very excited to try!

 

Did you get over to Flagstaff Brewing at all? Or Beaver Street? I used to spend a lot of time in downtown Flag, and sadly Mogollon Brewing is gone. But Flagstaff had a stout that was black as the night. And the surroundings are absolutely spectacular.

 

I had lunch and a couple of beers at Lumberyard on Thursday. The food was really good and the beer was above average. I bought some to go and I'm glad I did as the beer in Prescott was disappointing. Flagstaff is a fun and scenic city. I think I'll spend more time there next time around.

Back in Colorado now, which I consider my second home. I need to start working on making it my first!

 

Well Hellooooooooo NBS!!!
I'm on the late side, as usual, being on the left side of things and all. Many thanks to Dave for the esteemed start and goodwill that is so NBS.
We're still sweltering in the heat over here. But at least we gots ourselves one helluva eclipse show.
Stunning. I love this stuff. Took my little ones out to see it, and told 'em the last time I saw one of these I was in high school. Moses was 2 years ahead of me. HAHA That went over their heads. Anyhow, with a Harvest Moon, closer to the Earth than normal, combined with a full MONTY of a lunar eclipse...I had to break out a 2011 Eclipse EC 12 Impy Stout. I felt I had to go thematic.
To be honest, I've had a few different versions of Elijah Craig barrel Eclipse before...but not a 2011. So it counts for NBS...

It pours a beautiful black to burnished Spanish leather. Slight mocha colored foam gently rises and falls leaving a silky, lazy, bubbling tease of ovaltine colored lace. Smell is blissful. Sweet, with a hint of whiskey roast, leaning in the direction of cocoa powder and bozzy warmth. Taste is a total blend that waxes and wanes between chocolate, cocoa, mocha, smooth roasted whiskey barrel, sligh root beer, and ever so light coffee. It's really a sipper. Almost no heat in the mouth. Finish is deep and smooth, gently warm. I really do like these Eclipses...but don't pull the trigger anymore, due to pricing. These are the last I bought. I just can't justify $30 for these.

 

Sorry @kemoarps I know loss is inherent to your field, but... All the people who worked with my mom for her last few years were underpaid, underappreciated, and well...most of them were worth their weight in gold. You chose a very spiritually demanding job. I wish you the best. It's not a job where you can just clock out and leave your emotions there with your timecard.

 

...I had a slightly longer post written up here, but then my browser crashed and I lost the whole thing. So here's the super short version: earlier today I saw a guy pick up a 12-pack of Torpedo with one hand (using the handle hole on the side) and get really unlucky, causing bottles to tumble to the floor and several of them to shatter. Hadn't seen that happen before -- it was a little scary, what with the broken glass all over the place and all. Shortly after that, I found Sierra Nevada's fall pack on sale for $13.99 and grabbed the last one the store had to take with me during a visit back home, so I could share some new beers with my sister while I'm here.

Of course, since these beers were both split between the two of us, I feel like I may not have gotten quite as in-depth of an impression of them as I would from a full 12 ounces (though my sister did pour me slightly more than what she gave herself both times, since she'd already had that Guinness Extra Stout -- visible in empty-bottle form in the background -- a little while before we drank these. XD) I'll be taking home a bottle of each with me when I head back to my apartment, though, so that can always come later.


And here's the first of the new beers -- the Vienna lager. I've had a couple in this style before (Devil's Backbone has one that I've had many times now), so I had a general idea of what to expected -- flavors mostly coming from toasted malt, maybe a little sweet. As expected there were definitely some nice toasty malt flavors, mostly dry and biscuit/Triscuit-like. Also noticed a bit of a European-type hop spiciness on the end, which became more and more noticeable the more I drank; that was pretty interesting. A little bit different from what I was expecting (never really had much of that spicy hop thing come out in other Vienna lagers I've had, and others tended to be a bit sweeter also), but good.


Second was Tumbler, the brown ale which apparently used to be the brewery's regular fall seasonal beer in 6-packs but now is variety-pack-only. This one was really good -- lots of toasted/roasted malt flavors. Actually didn't come across as being all that sweet to me, despite being so malt-focused, which was interesting. Must be some hops in there keeping things well balanced, though I don't recall tasting anything that stood out to me as "hoppy," not even to the extent of the slight but gradually building spicy hop thing in the Vienna. After a couple sips I did start to pick up a bit of a smokiness in there, though, which was interesting and not really expected (though, as I found out after drinking all of my glass, the bottle actually does mention this little detail.) Just seemed to fit really well with this cooler, rainy weather we've been having here lately, and ended up being my favorite out of the two new beers I tried tonight.

We didn't get around to Flipside Red IPA tonight, but the plan currently is to split one of those sometime tomorrow.

 

I didn't get a lot of coffee the way I do with, say, Founders Breakfast Stout. It was fine. I'll have to try it again. Maybe it was my palate.

 

Yeah, I'd been kind of worried since I didn't see one until Sep. Maybe the bears dug up the nests earlier.

 

Yes! Next week @smakawhat will do the honors for us as I will be bringing you behind the scenes at the Old Forge Big Beer and Odd Ales Competition. YAY Smaka! And thank you for doing it. Now don't forget to put the thread up early enough for the morning people, . . . and to put the thread number in the title, . . .and make sure you have the right day. (Yes we are a group of humans. ) Happy Monday y'all.

 

From my perspective you picked the best of the lineup to try. While I like the regular, the port and the sherry versions, for me, this one is a cut above the others.

Good luck with the upcoming move.