New Beer Sunday (week 563)

Well it's that time of the year...

Firestone 19 - Anniversary Ale - Firestone Walker Brewing Co.


Firestone Walker Brewing Company - Anniversary Ale Nineteen (XIX) by imbibehour, on Flickr

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Poured from the bottle into a snifter glass.

Classic dark walnut out of the bottle and manages a real mahogany deep red, with rows of reddish brown edges along the sides. Barely a hint of head formation, thick bubbled tan collar, just a hint of a whispy top.

Aroma manages classic notes of yore. A crispy toffee and malt like character, like a peanut brittle aroma that comes through real nicely. The peanut brittle quality really hits and starts to dominate, with a nice controlled bit of oak and malt. Very nice and definitely a unique one on the Firestone realm for a change.

Palate goes a bit simpler but not disappointing. Prickly carbonation edge and a light bodied hit of faint char. Mid palate fills with a bit of roast but more of the crackling toffee quality hinted on the nose, but not much of a noticeable lingering flavor. Slightly watery but not too much, but doesn't quite manage the big oak, round, and silky character of barrel aging. Mid palate has mild chocolate notes, a bit of almost watered down cocoa nib, and an interesting prickly tight finish. A bit drying after awhile, and almost drying tannic and woody bark like aftertaste as well.

Overall solid, but the impression from the bouquet is that a real phenomenal beer is coming but instead you end up with just a solid blend. We'll see you again next year Firestone.

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | BA generated score: 4.06

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Well gotta say, really liked last years considerably more... but there's always more Firestone goodies to check out on!

 

So.... that last one left me wanting an improvement. Hopefully this does the trick.

Evil Twin Molotov Cocktail



Looks brownish orange and murky with a decent beige head and subtle lacing.

Nose is strong with grapefruit and everyone's favorite descriptor, car piss. The bitter is strong enough to irritate the nose in a peppery way.

Taste is harsh with alcohol and sweet. Get past that and it's harsh with alcohol and sweet. Some subtle underlying tastes include pine and little else. Body is syrupy and aftertaste is cloyingly sweet and bitter.

Not good, not bad but too interesting too write off as simply "meh".

 

Well friends another eventful Sunday for me here in CT. Had another showing on the house that seems impossible to sell ?? A couple drove all the way up here from central NJ to look at my house and drive back wtf??? Anyway while I was out I did some grocery shopping and came up with this for a mid afternoon snack. The beer I already had thanks to a quick little trade with @cosmickevbot

First off smell: beer- not much here I'm not picking anything up
Cuban: delicious I can pick up the pork and pickles
Looks: beer- spot on for style vigorous pour left a huge head dissipating rather quickly
Cuban: honestly looks like shit, nothing restaurant quality here but it's for MY BELLY
Taste: beer- typical milk stout, I've had a few 3 floyds beers and this is meh.....
Cuban: honestly can't judge a book by the cover, quite impressed with myself here, probably gonna make another in a few hours

Well friends thanks for joining me today and. I'll see ya next week / same shit same place NEW BEER

 

I picked up a case of these at my store, haven't tried it yet was waiting a little closer to holidays, now I'm gonna have to try it

 

Back with a saison with a head so out of control I thought it must be infected.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29573/92615/?ba=woemad

Not tasting infected, just mediocre.

How 'bout dem 'Hawks?

 

Good afternoon, NBS! I see some great beers already being had today, including two of my favorite German brews of all time courtesy of @Roguer and @laketang. Especially happy to see Schlenkerla Helles get some love, that beer is really something else.

My morning started off by throwing some chicken wings in the smoker in preparation for watching the Jets-Giants game. Homemade dry rub, then a good smoke with some apple wood for ~2 hrs, and finish them off with a quick direct grill on each side. Super easy and delicious!



Of course, with wings you gotta have beer, and my new beer for today is Tree House Bear.



A good friend of mine lives in CT, not far from Tree House Brewing Co., and I was fortunate to have him bring down some beers over Thanksgiving weekend for me to try.

Bear pours an almost opaque ruby-brown with a small tan head and good retention. The aroma is mild but opens up more as the beer warms, consisting of caramel, chocolate, toasted malts, and earthy hops. Some complexity comes through in the flavor, with chocolate, coffee, burnt bread, and more earthy hops. Good balance between the malt and hops. Medium bodied with a long, bitter finish.

Definitely recommend this one to anybody who is a fan of brown ales. Cheers!

4.25 / 4.00 / 4.25 / 3.75 / 4.00
Overall score = 4.09

 

That looks tasty. Is that a muffuleta (pretty sure I'm spelling that wrong)?

 

Greetings to my NBS brethren on a heckuva clear and mild early-December Sunday! I find myself a bit unsettled this weekend, having had a nice Thanksgiving, I've since spent the next week-and-a-half dealing with some job- and auto-related difficulties. I'd promised myself I would take a few days to recoup after all that transpired, and so I've been trying to do so this weekend.
It's tough to relax when your mind is on overdrive 24/7 trying to solve your own and others problems, but you have to do it. My first step in that direction was a lazy trip to the bottle shop yesterday with no agenda. Since I haven't been able to get there for 4 weeks, I had a nice long look at the whole store, and came home with 6 or 7 different things that struck my fancy.
I'm currently working on step 2, which involves quietly watching some football with the tv muted, while I casually surf the net, watch the sun playing on the trees and house outside my window, and drink one of yesterday's finds -- Jack's Abby Kiwi Rising:

I've looked for this beer for the last 2 years, but sometimes was lost amongst the plethora of seasonal offerings in Nov/Dec. Glad I finally managed to try it. Review here:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26520/75414/?ba=BodiesLexus
Not entirely my cup-of-tea, but a very well made beer nonetheless. Happy NBS to all, and now I must go figure out how the Jets tied it when I wasn't paying attention! WTF?

 

I think I'll be grabbing some of that on my next visit to Trader Joe's.

 

"It's got two kinds of pig,
ham and roast pork,
a slice of white cheese
'bout as long as your fork,
Throw on a pickle, Jack,
and if you're ever in New York
say "El Cubano",
that's a Cuban sandwich."

 

Nice. Inland Northwest isolated as my fair city is, there's actually a place in town that's just opened that has a Cuban sandwich as part of it's regular menu. I'll soon be hitting it...for science's sake, of course.

 

Happened upon a bottle shop yesterday that I know of but didn't think would have a beer selection that matches their wine, liquor and cigar selection.
But I saw this in the cooler and at first glance thought it was MOAS. It isn't but they did have it and of course I bought it as well. Anyhow, got to bs'ing with the beer buyer and come to find out Pelican just started distro to Cali...winning!
Now home on this wet, grey day in NorCal, watching the surprisingly exciting 49er game and enjoying this.

Pours a nice dark golden color with a dirty white head.
Nice crisp taste but not a DIPA flavor that I'm used to. I'm not able to tell you one hop profile over another, but this one isn't familiar to me...and that's okay.
The head, while rapidly dissipating, leaves a sticky coating of lacing with each enjoyable sip.
OT is starting so back to football, but glad to know Pelican is now in NorCal.
Enjoy your Sunday, your football and, most of all, your beer.

 

Greetings NBS friends! It's been another busy day around here with the holidays approaching. Going to relax for a while with this new beer I picked up in Michigan recently. It's nice to see Ballast Point just over the border now!
I'm going with Victory at Sea and pouring it into my twelve ounce snifter. Let's check it out!

Pours a dark thin brown with a generous amount of mocha colored foam. The aroma is rich dark roast coffee and nothing else. Can't detect any vanilla in all that roast. Flavor is very espresso-like with the slightest hint of vanilla trying to escape in the finish. The feel is thin and quite bitter.



Overall it's a good enough coffee beer, but I'm craving more vanilla. Great coffee flavor even for being on the bitter side. I think that's where more vanilla would have smoothed it out for me. I'll probably stick to buying the occasional single for the morning coffee beer. My rating was 4.02 / rDev -7.8%.

A beautiful sunrise to start the day, thought I'd share.



Some chili cheese dip on deck and more football. Have a great Sunday!



Last but not least, the review.......

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/199/48505/?ba=Prager62

 

I know a lot of BA's like this Gose a lot but it doesn't really work for me. I prefer my sea salt in potato chips rather than beer.

3.6/5 rDev -8.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

poured from 12 oz. can into snifter glass. The color is a hazy orange with virtually no head or lacing. The smell is faintly orange with a touch of coriander. It's not nearly as fragrant as I anticipated. The first flavor I tasted is the sea salt, followed by what tastes like orange soda and some pepper. I finishes with a lot of sourness. To me, the flavors, particularly the orange and sea salt, simply don't complement each other. This ale is very lightly carbonated and the low ABV makes it easy to drink. However, I have to say, the flavors just don't work for me.

 

The sun-worshippers were busy last night because it sure brought out the sun today. Just picked up the new release by MT and I am kinda dissapointed it just hit the shelves but has a can date of 11/16. Still fresh but when the brewery is 1 hr away and takes @3 weeks to hit the shelves that's dissapointing.

The beer pours out a crystal clear orange/yellow. I poured super aggressive and got about a finger worth of head but it quickly dissipated. The aroma is nice, real nice as its all hops. Tropical, citrus and a unique melon and lime aroma. I pickup that unique dank/onion like aroma I get from mosaic as well. Really enjoying the unique melon note. The taste follows the nose in hops with big notes of the melon, fruitty and tropical flavors. It's not "juicy" like a "New England" IPA buT more like fruit loops fruitty. Has a sweet finish with a medium plus bitterness. The sweetness is more like a hop sweetness and not malt. The beer finishes dry but also soft. The softness seems to come from a lack of carbonation which explains the lack of head and lacing. There is zero lacing and head retention.

Overall a really good IPA. The hops provide a nice fruity, tropical flavors and the bitterness and dry finish cuts the sweet hop flavor perfectly. Really drinkable and packs a punch of hops. Maybe my favorite hoppy beer from MT, but I've only had their distributed beers.

 

Aah, yes- I totally understand; the things I've done for science, myself...

 

Your post goes to 11.

 

I've had a few Cubanos in my day in places all over the globe and this one looks killer.

I appreciate the way they shut down AP. I may have a chance at making the playoffs in Fantasy now.

 

I never thought to say, type or think this...but Blaine Gabbert is bringing it!