New Beer Sunday (week 562)

Good morning BA and thank you @cavedave for getting us up and rolling this morning. I have an IPA from Saranac to try today. It's called West End IPA and it's made with a lot of hops.

Cascade-floral citrus and grapefruit
Centennial-floral citrus and lemon
Simcoe-fruity, pine and citrus
Columbus -peppery and citrus and
Chinook-spice and pine and grapefruit.

For malts it uses Pale which is a base malt, Munich for robust flavor and dark color, Crystal which adds color, sweetness and body and Victory which is roasted and biscuity.



Pours copper orange with a slight haze that clears. Has golden sunshine hues in it as well as coppery fire. Decadent creamy head of tan foam that falls leisurely as you drink. Nose is big citrus with lots of grapefruit and sweet lemon. Spice. Malty sugary scent. Floral and a little herbal grass. Light brown sugar. Biscuity . The mouthfeel is superb. Active moderate carbonation A touch of weight form the malt to show you enormous flavor but remains on the lighter side of the mouthfeel. Wonderfully complex with fruitiness and a superb bitterness. It appears gentle at first, then flourishes a bit and never dominates the finish. The biscuity flavor really accents the hop spice which becomes pine as it goes toward the finish. This beer actually presents all the ingredients I listed precisely as they appear in their descriptions. I have never had another beer that I can say has done that.

Outstanding and I think they have captured the spirit of the Winter IPA with the touch of wintry color and flavor from the choice of malts they used while skillfully presenting the definitive hop bomb.


Cheers everyone and Happy New American Winter IPA Sunday

Everlasting Love

 

This brew pours a mostly opaque amber color with a large head which dissipates to a smaller one fairly quickly however it leaves a large amount of lacing on the glass.

The smell is very fruity, tangerine, apricot, pears, maybe apple. There is also a grassy, grainy smell.

The taste follows the nose with the fruit dominating from beginning to end. There is a light biscuit malt backbone with a dry, champagne like finish. Sweet from beginning to end.

Overall, this is a fruit beer that I believe I can drink in a session without getting put off the sweetness.

 

I've been up since 4 a.m. in preparation for an early kickoff between Chelsea and Tottenham. I went with a new beer from a new brewery -- Kansas Territory Brewing.

Time Portal Breakfast Brown -- no ABV listed

I'll keep this short and simple since 100% of you will never see or drink this beer in your life.

It's a murky dark brown ale with no head retention or lacing. It smells of toasted bread, chocolate, and faint Tootsie Roll. The taste is a nice balance between chocolate malts and subtly bitter hops. It tastes like Moose Drool Jr.
I rated it 3.67 and that's about how I've rated the other two beers from this brewery from Washington, Kansas. Forgettable but worth the try.

 

@cavedave @utopiajane @JackHorzempa @drtth @microbrewlover

Good morning and a happy NBS to you as well. Today we get in touch with our sweeter side and I'm revisiting an old classic. So while this is not a "brand new" beer for me, it has been many years since I've had this one (so long that I cannot even remember).

For those of you who want to bring more full-bodied, malty, rich, and complex beers into your life, you should not want to pass this one up. Yes, people are looking for Scotch Ales, Barley Wines, Russian Imperials, etc. But this beer is a style all its down...

Its weird, because some people call this a doppelbock, but it clearly is not. But when you ferment out a lager beer to 14% ABV, and properly age it gracefully, you end up with a beer that's smooth as silk.

What's amazing about this is there is absolutely no alcohol burn in it at all. Its just layers and layers of complex malt and dynamic caramel, toasted, and almond flavors...a true delight.

For some reason, I really cannot think of a better beer for a cold Sunday than this one right now...the Christmas tree is up, and the lights are on...but I will be sipping this one as my family and I hang the ornaments on this sucker....

cheers!

 

Cheers @Sixpoint this is a personal favorite of mine. =)

 

Good Morning NBSers. My new Sunday morning beer is "Dragon's Milk Reserve" (2015) from New Holland Brewing Co., Holland, Michigan. Ringing in at 11% and this years Reserve is "with Coffee and Chocolate". I've been looking forward to opening this one all week.



Bottled 10-06-15:



Inky black pour with thick tight khaki to tan head; very little cap retention with pretty good lacing.

Roasted malt with a whiff of bourbon and chocolate; coffee notes appear as liquid warms.

Roasted malt and chocolate milk flavor to start; somewhat bittersweet, the roastiness merging nicely with the creamy chocolate; lite coffee roast middle and some bourbon undertone as well; bittersweet chocolate/ roasted malt finish.

Creamy almost full mouthfeel; moderate carbonation; the linger is a little drying.

Overall, the alcohol is well hidden, and there is no distracting wooden flavors; very well balanced with toasty chocolate
In the linger. For a bigger alcohol beer, the flavors were complimentary and subtle without the booziness. I like boozy, and wish this had a little more punch. Still, a most excellent morning quaffer, and one I would highly recommend.

Cheers and have a great Sunday!

 

Good morning New BSers! It's a typical summer day here in NW PA - cold, cloudy, and wet. Maybe I'll tune up the snow blower today in hopes of delaying any meaningful snowfall. @cavedave, thank you, sir, for starting the day's festivities early enough to be meaningful - I always enjoy you alliterative introductions. Well, Mrs Lizard and I survived another Thanksgiving with her brother and sister-in-law and their very extended family. Jim and Jan always host a fantastic food fest - the leftovers could probably feed a small country for several days. Jim, Jan and I are the only ones who drink beer other than BMC stuff although everyone other than Mrs Lizard and I drink copious amounts of wine. Alcohol consumption was down this year as was attendance - a lot of the younger adults have gotten married in the last couple of years and were spending the holiday with some other in-laws. Ah well - life moves on.

Today's brew is another of California's finest:



Undated bottle at 42 degrees into a snifter
$ 12.49 ($ 8.49 + $ 4 shipping) ($ 0.567/oz) from Craft Shack
Aroma starts very fruity on first snort then shifts to more of a pine resin odor which mostly fades by the end of the glass
Head average (4.5 cm, aggressive pour), light tan, creamy with a few rocks, diminishing to irregular four to eight mm ring and large frothy island
Lacing good – complete narrow rings with some stalactites and small islands of tiny to small bubbles
Body – medium orange, cloudy
Flavor – starts fruity and slightly bitter then the malt edges in but some bitterness remains; no alcohol, no diacetyl
Palate medium, slightly oily, lively carbonation

Appearance 4.5, Aroma 4, Flavor 4.5, Palate 4, Overall 4.25. Rating 4.28, avg 4.24, rDev +0.9%

I'm sure someone has tallied the top 250 beers by state. I would not be surprised if CA is well in the lead, not that CA brews inherently better beers than anyone else, but because they probably have more breweries per capita than any other state. Whatever, my experience with CA breweries has been pretty great overall, but that's probably due to my more selective nature when shipping costs are involved.

Prosit!

 

Good morning, all! A great weekend so far, with the huge Buckeye win and three bottles of BCBS in the bag. Not to mention a lot of great NBS posts already, and it's barely 8 a.m. What dedication! Thanks, @cavedave, for getting us off to a great start this morning.

I've been searching out some of the harder-to-find styles lately, and one of those that I don't see too often is Flanders Oud Bruin. From the style description, there seems to be some latitude as far as bitterness and tartness are concerned. I recently picked up a single of Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale, from Brouwerij Van Steenberge N.V., Ertvelde, Belgium. From the brewer's notes: "Brewed for Monk's Café in Philadelphia, but also available for retail purchase elsewhere. Oud Bruin in style; a traditional blend of young and old beers." My observations:

L - Clear, dark caramel-copper color with a fluffy light tan head. Lots of beautiful curtain lacing as the head recedes. Subsequent pour raises a glob of foam resembling the head of a root-beer float.





S - Malt, caramel, and a little funk predominate when this is cold. As it warms, some tart fruitiness starts to come through on the nose.

T/F - Again, the character develops as this warms a little from fridge temp. Very bitter at first, without much tartness at all. As it gets closer to cellar temp, the flavors begin to balance out. The bitterness is still present, but the sourness finally starts to assert itself. Sour apple, tart cherry, a touch of cider vinegar. Finishes bitter, with a hint of lingering sourness.

O - From the description of the Flanders Oud Bruin, this would seem to be at the more assertive end of the scale. There was quite a bit more bitterness in my sample than the description would indicate is typical for the style, and there is quite a bit of what I would describe as tartness rather than sourness. Had I sampled this with food, it might have mitigated the bitterness somewhat. Still, it is a very fine brew overall, and I actually enjoyed the interplay of the bitter and sour.

In conclusion, this is a style I will definitely visit again. There are a couple of other examples of this style available locally (NB Lips of Faith, Petrus Aged Red). I'm looking forward to comparing notes on these.

3.61/5 rDev -6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Santé!

 

Hey what's going on?!

Hi all. Ughh... what a week... phew...

As we all know it was Thanksgiving and my house got consumed by visiting in-laws. Great to see them and I of course made a ton of food and it was great, with the highlight for me being an almond browned butter haricots verts (basically green bean almandine) that was DECADENT!! Super rich and artery choking! Bird came out great as well.

Incredible warm weather as well for visiting, I was mowing my lawn yesterday. THat's a record for sure!!

However, nothing comes without a price. My 2 year old nephew, or as you call those guys the little germ factory... brought along some cold, and the day after Turkey feast, they left for Texas but gave me, my wife, and my wife's parents his cold!

Ugh... I've been fighting it all week, it's getting better but it is what it is, and I am totally stuffed up and congested.

So unfortunately... that means... no new beers for me today which really sucks cause I have some I would really like to dig into. My palate is totally compromised so there's just no point.

However, yesterday I did kill some time in Fells Point with the family. Happened to be outside Max's and killed some time checking out the harbor, and later Hampden for the lights.

Did have some new brews!! Union made an excellent Red called Foxy which I had at Bertha's. Excellent toasty and spicy notes real impressed with it, even with a bit of a cold going on. Definitely need to revist that one. But that's all I got for new brews, but NBS will have to wait another time.

Here's some pics for the week including Foxy, but new beers for Sunday will have to wait again another time. I'll certainly be checking in to see what everyone else is drinking for sure so Cheers!


Thanksgiving 2015 the main spread. It doesn't all fit in the picture by imbibehour, on Flickr


Hanging outside Max's Tap house in Fells Point by imbibehour, on Flickr


Union Craft Brewing - Foxy Red Ale at Bertha's by imbibehour, on Flickr

Enjoy!

 

Was impressed with the Irish Walker that I had from these guys last night, so I figured I would give this a whirl.

Just the tiniest bit of light brown foam from this pour. It was gone in a flash, leaving nothing but the black darkness of space sitting in my glass. The nose took me back to a time before I liked craft beer. A time when I thought that the bottle of Old Rasputin that I bought just for the high ABV "just might taste ok after all". Just like then, I got something I wasn't expecting. Something... that I really enjoyed. Some might say that this is too sweet, but it's perfect to start the day with. When that sweetness hits your lips, you know you have something special here. Without being an incredibly high ABV brew, it still has some nice warming qualities to it. Fitting for such a chilly morning. This, admittedly, is a little early for me, but I guess there really isn't a bad time to enjoy good beer.

Cheers!

 

Good morning, NBS. Went to bed early but had the tablet tuned to catch the end of Stanford-ND game. Glad I stayed awake for the last :30 of the game, although it was tough. Up this AM with a new coffee beer, thanks to @beergorrilla.


Also poured a V@S, courtesy of @5EKF, for the GF (we'll share both). The BP brew is not new to us though, but was an interesting contrast to the Short's (which can make it out of MI ).

Cup a Joe Coffee Creme Stout
This beer pours inky (to steal from @DoctorZombies, it worked here, too) dark, dark brown. The nose has coffee present but seems to lean more towards the chocolatey side - nibs and cocoa. There's a general coffeehouse impression with notes of cigarette smoke as well.

Taste/feel starts with medium to full boldness, creamy chocolate nib, cocoa, sweet coffee, a little ash. There's a light tang near the end. The colder the beer, the quicker the flavors seem to flee the scene. Even warmer, though, the flavors don't linger too long. Immediate end feel is quite light, given the vacuum of flavor, but a light chalkiness does build up.

This beer is on the sweeter side, especially compared to the Victory at Sea, which has a decently higher bitter bite. The vanilla in V@S tends to lend a sweetness, whereas the sweet notes in Cup a Joe seem integrated with the malt profile better. Wasn't trying a side-by-side, but just something I noticed between the two while enjoying on this rainy fall day.

Edit: noticed in description the use of espresso throughout the brewing process. This is a "flavor" I need to think about more, though my actual espresso experience is quite low.

I'll likely be back with another beer or two from some recent deliveries .

 

Smaka your table is beauteeful! =)

 

5.1% alcohol. Introduced in 2011.

3.27/5 rDev +3.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25

Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat has a thick, frothy, off-white head, a mostly clear, bubbly, gold-orange appearance, which gets a descending, gray cloud, once the caked sediment is swished loose and poured in. No lacing left behind. The aroma is of spiced pumpkin bread and spiced candle. Taste is of pumpkin pulp, subdued spices, white wheat bread, and just a touch of bitterness. Mouthfeel is medium and soft, and Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat finishes on the dry side.

RJT

 

Was very happy to have enjoyed a few days away from the office this week although I spent a fair amount of it driving - Tunica on Tuesday, Birmingham on Thursday, and Nashville on Saturday. Ready to settle in at home with a new beer.

Today's selection is Jolly Pumpkin's Ore de Calabaza. JP just started distributing in my area, so I'm slowly working my way through the offerings.

Aroma and flavors are dominated by lemon and pepper. Just enough funk and a pleasant mouthfeel. Very nice beer. Looking forward to trying more from Jolly Pumkpin.





http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/9897/18975/?ba=richj1970

 

Good morning NBS! And some great posts already.

I'm heading down to S. Jersey today to bring my son back to school. My plan is to check out some of the local beer shopping scene down there, and hopefully pick up some things I don't normally see up here. Wish me luck , and I'll be back later in the day with my 'score'. Be good, cheers!

 

gotta love out of town beer drives!

 

The post-Thanksgiving letdown. We had a wonderful holiday with my mother, my wife and I, and our two youngest children. However, we had bigger family attendance last year. In the interim, a daughter has moved and a sister and brother-in-law have become snowbirds. We missed having the daughter in Lancaster, CA, the daughter in Tampa, the son in Hong Kong, and the daughter in Phoenix. We still had a great time, and my 90 year old mother professed to liking the vegan Thanksgiving I prepared. The day after Thanksgiving I spent a few enjoyable hours with @SomethingClever at York River Landing, drinking a lot of dark and mysterious beers. Dave is a fun guy to be around, and he truly has unlimited capacity for beer. Today the two boys have returned to college, and my wife and I are enjoying the peace and quiet.

I picked this NBS beer up yesterday at the Kittery 7-11. There's a beer geek working there, and he has brought in some fantastic beers.

Founders Project PAM pours near black in a snifter. There is a small light tan head that leaves a little lace.
The first thing that strikes you in the aroma is how sweet it is. Followed by the aroma of roasted malt, with some earthiness at the end.
Maple syrup taste up front, then bourbon. Some pine notes, a little citrus, and a hint of chocolate.
Medium-bodied, smooth, and dangerous. It's nearly 11% ABV, and you would never guess this.
Well-done!

 

Good morning NBS, thanks to @cavedave for the kick off and the focus.
This has been a wonderful weekend with some hiking, a bit of work, and as with you all
some fine beer shared. Today is typical New England November, cold and bright.
I have the pleasure of trying a Mystic Brewing wild ale today. A very nice blended offering,
The body is quite nice, and with some time I would expect this the sour a bit. Quite enjoyable.
And to my friend @bowzer4birdie finally photos.
Cheers

De Varenne

Mystic Brewery
American Wild Ale / 6.50% ABV

3.81/5rDev n/a | Avg: 3.81
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Poured from a 375ML bottle into a large goblet.
A - Spring honey colored, deep yellow, single lonely bubbles wander to the surface.
They organize into a thin ring of white lace.
S - Orchard flowers, hints of citrus, sour notes in the best ways, and a refined grain element.
With a bit of warmth the yeast adds tangerine, and green tea to the aromatics.
T - Small bits of citrus, a sweet marmalade of orange and peach, nice clean malt base balances out the flavors. The house cultured yeast adds a sense of purpose without dominating.
M - A bit slick on the palate, slightly viscous, a weak level of carbonation has no way to clean up. The finish
is loaded with honey quality, and the linger is forever. All in all quite nice.
O - A wonderfully complex offering, the nose is its strongest attribute, the mouth feel is solid and the flavor
meanders across a wide range.
A very well executed wild ale from Mystic.

 

So been waiting over a week to have this one. Poured into a 16 oz snifter, not sure of its age. Pours near pitch black with a half inch Mocha head that settles very fast and leaves behind no lace to speak of. 4

Smell is very large alcohol, dark chocolate, vanilla, roasted coffee, and leather.4

Taste follows the nose, very pungent alcohol, with roasted coffee, vanilla extract, dark chocolate, and some dark fruit. 4

Mouthfeel is not even medium, missing some carbonation, dry as you would expect, and drinkability is good enough for 12%. 3.5

Overall I am let down by this, Biscotti Break blew me away and this underwhelmed me. Still good, but very high expectations.