New Beer Sunday (week 564)

Just had that one last year to; as part of a mix-a-six from Wegman's. Really strong coffee flavor. Wolaver's ceasing operations soon was a shock, sort of. How long can you keep up all organic ingredients before it becomes to pricey to produce? This was a good beer though.

 

Smaka that there is a beautiful fridge. =) Thanks for getting us going today. Cheers NBS!

I have two beers to taste today. One is called a Christmas Bock . I was trying to come up with little nomers for beer styles. This beers personality is . . . I had a good one yesterday for the pils and one for the weizenbock. Ok so I would say the helles bock embodies gentility and refinement but has a carefree spirit.

Mahrs Brau Christmas Bock

Happy Let's Drink all the Holiday Styles Sunday!



4.05/5 rDev +10.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

"The bock is designed to walk a fine line between blandness and too much color." - bjcp

This beer pours lighter than any other bock I have seen. A filmy light amber. Golden yellow with a slight haze.Short head of white creamy foam. Active carbonation.

Nose is mild and has just a bit of vienna malt sweetness on to show you light bread. No hops. Impeccable. No diacteyl, no fruity esters and only a faint hint of dms on the nose from the pils malt. That faint little scent really brings this nose into focus. This is a malty beer.

Taste is fantastic. Plenty of bread with only a mild toastiness. Endless malt without much hop flavor. Only a light kiss from pepper and spice. Light dms from pils malt provides the contrast in this beer. Shows you that delicate vienna malt sweetness, shows you a bit of bread and without introducing too much sweetness to the finish it makes your mouth water so that you can receive the bitterness that's coming. It's moderate but in no way harsh. It will also show you only a trace of the hop herbal and spice. Good carbonation provides a light bite.

Seductive and very enjoyable.

 

I was the DD last night so this AM I woke up ready to go, and I have a new beer! My first try of this beer, this brewery, and this style of beer. A bit different for me for sure, but very nice.



Best by 10/6/16
Pours dark brown, light orange/yellow highlights. Light tan head. Fades but doesn't completely disappear.
Faint roasted coffee and bakers chocolate in the nose. Both subdued. Smells roasts, but a light rather than deep dark roasted malt.
Taste is similar but it carries with it a mild bitterness. Wouldn't say there is much of any sweetness but there is a touch of milk chocolate, but offset by the bitter notes.
First impression of the feel is on the lighter side in the body dept. and DRY. wasn't expecting such dryness but now I see that goes along with this style of beer. Finish is pretty clean except for some lingering bitterness, but very palatable. Carbonation is on the lower side of medium.
I saw this for a decent price and in a six pack so thought I'd give it a try. It is a new style for me and it did not disappoint. A light bodied, flavorful stout without the complexities of a big RIS. Enjoyable on this Sunday AM.

4.2/5 rDev +2.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Have a great Sunday BA's.

 

As if on cue:
I was debating this beer yesterday, and NBS gives me some solid info (including some "banter" right off the bat), to help me decide. Will have my own new coffee beer posted in a few minutes (one I think quite a few people have had, so just throwing my hat in the ring).

 

Good morning New BSers! The fog is lifting here in NW PA and the horizontal visibility is about 0.5 miles. If it doesn't rain today I'll be trimming back bushes and trees and enjoying the heat wave - getting my self lubricated before firing up the chain saw, always a good idea! No sweat - I'm only eight miles from the nearest ER and trauma center and the neighbors will find me when they come out to complain about the noise. Joking, joking - the neighbors don't complain.

Today's beer is a revisit of a previous try. I had this back in 2012 at the insistence of an employee of Spec's 14623. I didn't particularly like it, rating it on my personal scale as "OK, but...". It's new because anything I tried before joining BEER ADVOCATE just doesn't exist except in my database. Therefore:



I can't find the receipt for this one so no price data but:

No price record.
Bomber bottled 03/03/15 at 42 degrees into snifter, allowed to warm to 50 degrees
Aroma of roasted malt, weakens throughout the glass
Head small (< two cm, aggressive pour), light brown, frothy, rapidly disappearing leaving no ring and no layer
Lacing - none
Body dark brown/black, opaque, slight effervescence
Flavor – roasted malt, slightly bitter, with a hint of hop aromatics; no alcohol, no diacetyl
Palate medium to full, creamy, soft carbonation

Appearance 3.5, Aroma 4, Flavor 4, Palate 4, Overall 4. Rating 3.97, Average 4.05, rDev -2.0%

The virtually instant disappearance of the head and the continued slow effervescence was something that struck me as unusual in a Russian Imperial Stout. The aroma was determined by horning the vapor of a half-snifter several times throughout the course of warming (my usual method). Way back in 2012 I wasn't as into RIS as I am currently so that probably accounts for my less than glowing rating. Now, if the price is reasonable (i.e. < $ 10/bomber), this would be something I'd buy again, but since I bought two last time...

 

@smakawhat @jhartley @JackHorzempa @cavedave @utopiajane

Good morning, BAs, and Happy New Beer Sunday.

As you probably noticed in your area, the Alpine Beers are starting to make the distribution rounds. Ever since being acquired by Green Flash, the expansion has gone national on a roll-out basis, wherever Green Flash is distributed.

I first had this beer almost 10 years ago, and have not had a fresh sample since. I did happen to have it on tap the other night in Manhattan, and was shocked by how much yeast there was in the beer. I didn't remember it being that way....

The bottle sample was not as turbid, but it definitely had a strong haze to it. The aroma was lots of lemon and bitter orange rind, and the taste was dry, sharp, and hoppy. Definitely more on the older west-coast style of IPAs, and not so much malt, flavor, and aroma. It was like drinking a hopsicle!

I think this beer would hit the spot for those looking for a raw, strong hop dose. If that's your thing, you may just find this in your area now that Green Flash is ramping up the distribution on this....

cheers

 

Happy New Flanders Oud Bruin Sunday, all, and thanks to @smakawhat for a great post out of the gate! I had been seeing numerous posts and hearing some good things about Brewery Ommegang's Rosetta, and I'd been dying to try it. I finally ran across it at a local bottle shop, so I picked up a single to sample and review. The commercial description reads thus:

"Ale aged on cherries. Traditional Belgian Kriek, pleasingly tart with a touch of sweetness. Brewed exclusively for Brewery Ommegang by Liefmans, a sister brewery, in Belgium."

Let's get to it. The sample was poured from 11.2-ounce bottle into a footed stange. (That's what I'd call it, anyway.) Stunning appearance, slightly hazy deep brownish-ruby color with a sticky, voluminous light tan head.



The aroma is tart cherries, with a touch of vinegary sourness and a tinge of yeast. These carry over to the palate, along with some light sweet maltiness. No hint of bitterness. Light body, tart, crisp, refreshing. In a word, exceptional.

4.64/5 rDev +14%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Santé!

 

I've been on the fence about this one, try or not try, now it gets moved into the try category. Thanks for the review

 

New Clown Shoes Sunday
Man, the National Weather Service was all over this possible strongest El Nino ever this winter. Seems to be good timing for pretty much everyone too. CA and FL get the rain they need, those of us who have had back to back brutal cold seasons get a reprive in our utilities and sanity, and we get to drink some beers on the deck for Christmas Speaking of on deck, besides the new beer for today is a Bengals - Steelers game that could wrap up the division and help push Pittsburgh out of the playoff picture. Which means my boys probably won't win this one. Banged up secondary and they have won 11 of last 13 on our turf. Not feeling it. Sorry non football fans. On to the beer.



3.91/5 rDev -9.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

$12 bomber poured into Duvel

It is a very dark walnut brown with more hints of black than red. A pretty average tan head that retracts very quickly.

The aromas are not very strong on this one. Certainly nothing bad, but nothing to make you take note either. It smells fairly sweet. Getting a lot of barleywine and scotch ale qualities. Toffee, dark fruit, caramel, some wood, and smokey, almost peat like malts.

I think the flavors seem to match the aroma, but taste much stronger than they smell. A lot of oak, some earthy peat moss, sour raisins and figs, carmalized brown sugar, caramel, just a kiss of dark roasted malts and chocolate for some bitterness, and a very, very subtle hint of bourbon. Alcohol is only noticeable in the aftertaste for me, and not too strong.

Body is a little thin, but not out of the norm for a barrel aged brew. A little bit syrupy.

Overall this is a very enjoyable beer. I would probably describe it as 40% barleywine, 40% scotch ale, 10% old ale, and 10% imperial stout. An interesting combo, but I liked Very Angry Beast a lot more.

 

Ok-I'll keep you in suspense no longer. Ok, ok... I am just really excited to try this beer as I've heard some good things about it. I also am confused by the BA database on this one, as it only has 23 hands and was added way back in November. I swear this has been around longer, but I couldn't find it on the retired list. However, an oak-aged version has 108 hads . Plus, there's a 10th anniversary version of it .

So, I FINALLY figure it out, and I stand by my statement that for Terrapin brewery, the list of beers is all f'd up. The beer is officially in the DB without the "wake n bake" qualifier. Before this, my GF informed me that I had this before - as it is in an old app I used to use. I figured maybe I only reviewed it there, as a vaguely recall having it on tap as I do this research. Turns out I reviewed it here, also: straight 4.25 with a review . So this is NOT a new beer to wake up with. Unfortunately, I st up all the pics and started my re-review, so I beg for the mercy of the court on violating the basic tenet of NEW Beer Sunday .

The beer, Terrapin [Wake 'n' Bake] Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout:


So, earlier, while doing all that research, my GF yells from upstairs, "This is good!!"
She rarely gives opinions without a prompt, especially from rooms away. Plus, she's not a big coffee stout fan.

The pour is a dark brown/mahogany, some light gets through at the edges. Head is nothing to write home about, but means a bare minimum of edge collection. The nose is wonderfully rich chocolate-coffee; deep-coffee with a little cream and a hint of sweetener. There's an impression of bakery goodies in there if I ignore the obvious focus on the coffee.


The taste isn't as overwhelmingly pleasant as the nose. It's merely very good . More standard coffee-like roasted notes, a light bite of astringency in place of the chocolate notes from the nose. The oatmeal chalkiness (this is what I get from oatmeal often) is there, but not as strong as I perceive in other oatmeal stouts. The beer is a little more bitter than I expected from the nose, and in the end seems a tad woody, specifically I get light hints of pine, smoke, and that oatmeal.

Again, mea culpa on the faux pas. I am going to request a merging of the brews, perhaps they should use the newer name as the de facto name with the old name as the alias. Cheers all, and I promise my next brew will actually be new!!

 

A Good December Beer Style- Barleywine!

Winter is about a week away but the weather sure feels like October to me.

So, I am deciding to follow the calendar instead of meteorology and drink a Barleywine.

I was gifted a New Glarus Barleywine a while back and I have patiently been cellaring it but I have reached the limits of my patience. First I would like to opine a bit about New Glarus Brewery. I have had quite a number of different brands of New Glarus beer and I have loved them all. New Glarus is a very high quality brewery!!

On the label of the beer I am drinking it says: “Our 2012 Barley Wine bridges continents of styles, a harmonious creation of Diploma Master Brewer Dan Carey. He personally chose the hop fields that were harvested for this powerful beast of a brew, Styrian Golding. Willamette, Columbia and Sterling with bold citrus and resin notes. All perfectly balanced with toasty graham cracker flavors of floor malted barley.”

Well that verbiage is enough to get me salivating. Let’s drink!!

@jRocco2021

Served in my Lucifer Chalice:

Appearance:

Golden amber in color with a one finger head.

Aroma:

The dominant smell is vinous/fruity aromas with some caramel malt as well.

Taste:

Lots of malty flavors here!! There are dark fruits (raisins, figs), some toffee & caramel and even some brown sugar. There is no heat from the high alcohol level. In the middle I am picking up a little bit of earthy/woody and the finish is sweet.

Mouthfeel

Full bodied beer with low carbonation.

Overall

This beer hits all of the marks for a fine English Barleywine. It is most definitely a sipper.

This is the only bottle of New Glarus Barleywine that I have consumed so I have no idea what this beer taste like fresh. My guess is that this beer benefitted from the several years of aging (2012 -> end of 2015).

Cheers to New Glarus Brewing for another excellent beer!

P.S. @zid, is this beer one the beers you will be drinking as part of your birthday month celebration of Barleywines?

 

New Holland's The Poet. I loved this label and had to have this beer BECAUSE of the label. I also happen to like the oatmeal stout. Cheers everyone!


Happy New I Gotta Have That Beer Because of the Label Sunday

Pours brown , good enough creamy head of khaki foam that refreshes with each tip. Opaque. Nose is malty with a roasty touch and the impression of coffee and cream. No hop scents, light chocolate as it warms. Taste is smooth and graceful but hearty with some flavor form those oats. Flavor form oats you say? Yes. Nutty in fact. Creamy mouthfeel with just enough hops bitter to finish it drier. You know that video game that used to say "Finish Him" ? The finish is very important in beer. Hops are like a mild stemmy herbal and those would be glacier and nugget. No astringency just a light slickness overall form the oats.

That's two and that's it for me! I need to go make some lunch Cheers BA's!



I cannot be - LEEV I ran out of disco songs.

 

Well I rarely go out and buy one glass for one beer, but Breckenridge Brewery are my favorite brewery so I felt that #properglassware for Twenty Five Imperial Vanilla Porter aged in rum barrels was warranted (I used to have a Vanilla Porter balloon glass but it broke, so I was due to replace that one anyway).

The weather here in Kansas is warm, cloudy, and rainy. Possible snow later but I doubt it. Good day to stay indoors and review beer

Okay, this is a weird one. My review may make some of you laugh. There are certain styles of beers that I really shouldn't talk about publicly, and anything aged in barrels is one of them, but as it stands this is my ONLY new beer today, so this will have to be the one.

This beer is 9.8% ABV and pours a perfect porter color: A dark chocolate color with ruby hues on the edges in the light. The head is a mocha color and it recedes to a wisp of foam with a nice collar leaving basically no lacing. The aroma immediately reminds me of cheesecake. There, I said it. I think this is my first rum barrel-aged beer, so I'm a bit of a green horn here, but yes -- loads of cream cheese, cheesecake, and slightly sour rum notes abound. Sweet vanilla hides in there, but just as I pull the glass away I smell it. The taste is much like the aroma at first -- all I can think about is cheesecake and cream cheese. But on the back end, the beer explains itself a little better. More charred grains and roasted malts emerge with subtle sweet vanilla coating it all. In fact as the beer warms, the vanilla becomes more apparent. The mouthfeel is exceptional. It's medium to light and almost silky smooth. Really good for a barrel aged porter, not thick, and not too thin (I think their normal vanilla porter is almost too watery).

Overall? I rated it 4.18 but there haven't been many reviews yet, so rDev seems pointless. I was skeptical at first but this one gets a lot better as it warms. All of the cheese aromas and notes were interesting to me, I don't think I've ever written the word "cheese" in any of the other 1,049 beers I've reviewed. If you like cheesecake or cream cheese, you will love this. Wow, it felt weird typing that. Cheers, and I look forward to the Delirium Noel tasting on Friday!

 

Glad you enjoyed this one! Jack fresh this beer was much hoppier which I think was the intention hence all the stuff about hops in the description. Still a great beer but I also enjoyed my last bottle recently and it was much improved in my opinion so you had it at an optimal time I think. Only wish NG would throw a few more malty beers like this one back into the thumbprint line up the last few years have been getting more and more sour centric, which isn't bad by any means but variety is the spice of life after all.

 

I’m having the 2015 Oskar Blues solo version. It has a thick, beige head, a dark-brown, almost black, appearance, and not much lacing left behind. The aroma is of either coconut cream pie or one of those felt, used car, hang-up deodorizers. Taste is of coconut, chocolate, medium-roasted malt, cream, and pie crust. Bitterness is low, and the mouthfeel is medium. Oskar Blues Death by Coconut finishes sweet and not the least bit boozy. RJT

 

Fremont Bellingham Beer Week #2.

interesting beer for sure, which Fremont always does at least that. i suspect i forgot about this one a bit too long as both the coconut & vanilla strike me as slightly artificial or maybe it's the coffee is slightly stale? really can't say i much taste actual coconut so maybe it's not the culprit, not sure. it's still pleasant but using my imagination i'm guessing it was probably at least a little brighter originally. been taking it very slow, so i think we're past the : "it's too cold" stage; maybe the second pour will reveal something different?

 

Let's get our Sunday Sour on! "Sang Rouge" (2013) from Cascade Brewing, Portland, OR:



Pours a ruby brown (24) with a darkish khaki head; cap disappeared rather quickly leaving better than spotty lace; excellent clarity looking up under cap.





Tart funky Brett/fruity nose; some earthiness like wet horse/blanket round out the aromas.

Sour (and not puckering) cherries with a very lite acidity is the first thing I taste; lite oak which really shows up more in the mouthfeel; the 8.5% gives it a little boozy fruitcake vibe, but mostly hidden within all the fruit/yeast /wood flavors; some barnyard but mostly tart cherries in the finish.

Mouthfeel has a dryness from the oak without being overly drying; moderate carbonation; sour ball cherry tongue coating.

Overall, so excellent and easy drinking for a sour; the cherry fruitcake flavors balance nicely with the complex earthy yeast flavors with subtle oak leaving a satisfying dry sour fruit linger.

Have a great Sunday!

 

Ten Fidy Imperial Stout
Look 4.5 Aroma 4.25 Taste 4.5 Feel 4.25 Overall 4.25

L - pours into a glass with a thick khaki head with a black body
S - caramel cocoa maple coffee toffee
T - malty caramel coffee toffee up front w slight bitterness at the tail end. Strong stout. I drank it really slow and the flavor changed over the duration. The warmer it got the smoother it got and the cocoa and coffee flavored became more pronounced.
F - 10% the brew really coats mouth with slight carbonation that gives it just the right kick
O - really good imperial stout. This is a beer to sip on and enjoy the flavor changes as the temperature of the beer changes. I really enjoyed this beer and drank it over a 45 min time frame. Cheers