New Beer Sunday (week 566)

Morning again BA. Thank @cavedave for getting us rolling this morning and a big HUZZAH for that introduction! I have had a wonderful Christmas week. This really is my favorite time of year. I bought myself a few new household gadgets that had broken or become obsolete over the year and I bought a few new clothes and some holiday foods. The only thing that is missing is the snow. Well here goes!





Cheers NBS'ers and I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Today I have Smistletoe from Smuttynose. I am not a big fan of the Christmas beer or what you would call the winter warmer so I was very happy to see that this beer is in a style I don't see very often. Biere de Garde.

Happy Meet You Under the Smistletoe Sunday



Pours a peachy color pinkish. The color can range form golden blonde to reddish brown so I guess that's ok. When I see a pink or off color beer I usually don't find myself attracted to it. slight haze. Head dissipated quickly.



The light does not show you the color that I wanted you to see but it's a little pinkish looking and not as hazy as I had first thought..





Nose has a dry musty scent malty and herbal. Clean nose with no diacetyl. There is what I would call a brisk neutral scent at first and then the fruitines starts to exhale gently with some spice as the beer warms.

Taste is very spicy. Soft sweet bread for malt. Fully fruity with a tartness in the middle. Crisp herbal and plenty of clean hop bitterness take over toward the finish with sweet herbs. Lingers like honey on a cracker or nectar from flowers. Syrupy sweet finish with lots of pepper that leaves a bit flat with all that spice sinking into the cloying sweetness. As I drank I found the sweetness tolerable but it is extremely sweet and definitely a slow sipper.

The bjcp says that this style of beer should have a cellar like or musty character form lagering which it does. It should lack the spicing and the tartness of the saison. I do not feel that it did. It should be rounder and fuller than the saison but this is where it went sweeter rather than rounder.

Have a great day everyone and CHEERS!

Funk 49

 

Happy NBS and Merry Christmas Day 3, and thanks to @cavedave and @utopiajane for getting NBS rolling this morning. The bar has been set quite high today.

My new beer for today is Marston's Oyster Stout, which I picked up for a style tick (English Stout). I'd seen it on the grocery store shelf for quite a while, then grabbed one when I finally realized what it was. The shelves were cleared soon after I bought this, so I'm glad I picked it up when I did. It's not an easy style to come by around these parts.

I rated the appearance of this quite high. The color is an opaque, deep ruby-brown, with a tan head that dissipates rather quickly leaving a thin foam cap. There is quite a bit of carbonation, which is difficult to see due to the dark color.


I poured this cold and found the aroma and taste very undistinguished. After it warmed to close to room temperature, the aroma became a little more complex and some of the malt character began to show through. This carried through to the palate, with some light roasted maltiness balanced by a pleasantly bitter finish. The mouthfeel was rather thin and watery, not what I was expecting based on the appearance.

Overall, it isn't bad. There aren't any big, bold flavors, and I didn't pick up anything on the nose or palate that would suggest that this had ever been within a nautical mile of an oyster. The aroma and flavor is more delicate than that of most of the stouts I'm familiar with. We'll see how it pairs with beef stew and American football later today. I have high hopes.

(Apropos of nothing: I was intrigued by the slogan on the bottle cap: "The Official Beer of England." Does Marston's have some sort of official standing? How does that come about? Maybe one of our UK BA's could shed some light on this.)

3.45/5 rDev +7.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5

Cheers!

 

Good morning all, I hope you were all as blessed as me and my family this Christmas. For my new beer I chose a different of a beer I really love originally. This Pours absolutely gorgeous, dark as dark can be, with a 2 inch brown head that coats the sides of the glass with lace. 4.75

Smell is expresso, peppermint, dark chocolate, and still has some vanilla. 4.5

Taste is follows perfectly, no surprises. I love it just has subtle hint of peppermint, really balanced and as tasty if not tastier than the original. 4.5

Mouthfeel is as large as just about any imperial stout I have had, perfect amount of life, maybe a touch dry, and it really goes down easy for 10% ABV.

Overall really excellent beer in all facets, can't wait to try the variants when they come. I am going to drink the original from growler I still have from my keg and see how they really stack up. 4.5

 

My Christmas Present Beer – Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

A friend gifted me a bottle of this beer as a present. I must confess I was not familiar with this beer.

I drank this beer first (and jotted down my impressions) and read more about it later in order to perform this write-up. As I drank this beer I was a bit taken aback about how BIG this beer was but upon reading the ‘story’ of this beer I understood it a bit more.

Firstly, this beer is brewed annually by Avery and on my bottle it lists: “Annual Release July 2015 Batch No. 13”. I didn’t read this part until after I popped the cap. Maybe this beer would have benefited from a few years of aging?

Below is a description of this beer from BA:

“Hop Variety: Bravo, Bullion, Sterling, Hersbrucker, Columbus, Styrian Goldings
Malt Variety: Two-row barley, Honey malt, Dark Aromatic, Pale wheat, Roasted wheat, Special B
Sugars: Dates, Molasses, Dark Belgian Candy Sugar, Colorado Honey, Raisins, Turbinado
OG: 1.135 ABV: 15-17% IBUs: 63 Color: Burgundy

The Beast is a seducer – accomodating, complicated, powerful, dark and created to last the ages. With a deep burgundy color and aromas of honey, nutmeg, mandarin orange and pineapple, this massive and challenging brew has flavors akin to a beautiful Carribean rum. Dates, plums, raisins and molasses are dominant in a rich vinous texture. Cellarable for 10+ years.

The Beast is the first installment of “The Demons of Ale” series.

Food pairing: Pineapple upside down cake pairs nicely with the sweet, rum-like flavors found in our Beast Grand Cru.

Batch 12 (2015): 17.2% ABV”

Well there you go, it states “Cellarable for 10+ years.” It looks like I should have cellared this beer.

Served in my Gulden Draak tulip glass:

Appearance:

It poured a cloudy, brown color with a thin off-white head.

Aroma:

The dominant smells are dark fruits: dates, prunes and raisins. There is also a very noticeable sweet smell as well.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose with dark fruit flavors. There is also a perceptible sweet taste. I am picking up booziness and there is very warming sensation from this beer. (I now know after the fact this is because of 17% ABV!!)


Mouthfeel

Medium bodied with sweet finish

Overall

There are enjoyable flavors in this beer but it is a tad too sweet for my palate and frankly I found the booziness to be off-putting.

For those of you who appreciate very high alcohol Belgian beers and sweetness is a quality you enjoy this is the beer for you.

It would be interesting to see how this beer would have evolved over 10 years of aging.

I hope that everybody had a very Merry Christmas!!

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet

 

Good morning all,
The grand kids and both our children spent Christmas and most of yesterday here, eating, drinking some, with us marveling at how fast little boys begin to become men. Maturity has visited these boys like a growth spurt. It was all very loud and I love quiet, but it was a great Christmas that will be remembered. I hope everyone else had a nice Christmas, day off, or simply a nice day.
Today's beer is Sierra Nevada Coffee Stout, lone survivor from a Christmas Day Winter 12-pack. It was behind the broccoli in the bottom of the fridge. Lucky me!
This beer is nearly opaque, really roasty and alive with a vibrant coffee personality. It sports a beautiful tan cap, all the way through, leaving gorgeous lacing, and is aromatic at a distance. This beer is surprisingly easy to drink considering its appearance. The roasty, coffee flavors just keep pumping away. This is the type of coffee stout that I could drink often. The real kicker is the absurd value offered by these Sierra Nevada beers. I could never imagine messing this one up with oak. It is a stand alone and delicious dark ale that would be awesome with beef stew. Very highly recommended.

That's Otis the Treeing Walker **** Hound after a day with two boys, 8 and 5.
My son played this song for me Christmas evening. I've always loved JJ Cale and have always considered him to be very under rated. This is an amazing tune that somehow I never encountered. Cheers all!

 

Well, another Christmas has come and gone, and now we're pointing toward the new year. This was a nice, relaxed Christmas, without some of the craziness that can occur. Three of our six children made it home; the grandsons stayed in California, unfortunately. We had a nice dinner at my mother's on Christmas Eve, the on Christmas Day we continued our new tradition of Chinese take-out.
What we didn't have was a white Christmas. In fact, other than some brief flurries, we've been snow-free so far. I recall a similar situation last year, and then we got hammered in January and February, So we'll see what Mother Nature has in store for us.

Today's beer is a gift from one of my coworkers, Hanssens Artisanaal Oude Gueuze. I haven't had many beers in this style, and found I rather enjoyed it.
It poured a slightly hazy gold color without any head.
It had a yeasty/funky aroma with some sweet fruit.
A sour apple and pear taste. Hint of vanilla.
I really enjoyed the mouthfeel, alternatingly sweet and tart. It was pleasantly tart.
Good beer.

 

And just like that, Christmas is over. I always get a little depressed after Christmas because it is my favorite holiday. It was awesome having a three day weekend. I wish Christmas fell on a Friday every year. This past week I bought way too much chocolate, candy, and beer. This upcoming week will be spent detoxing for sure.

I'm trying Breckenridge Brewery's Holidale today. It is an ale (American strong ale) aged in Whiskey barrels and comes in at 8.8% ABV.

Look: Bright, almost shiny mahogany, with a khaki head that disappears quickly leaving little or nothing behind, no lacing.

Aroma: Pretty pure whiskey and oak wood notes up front, but underneath there is an interesting sweet coconut aroma.

Taste: Like the aroma, everything at the beginning is whiskey and wood. Behind that the beer slowly reveals spicier notes like cinnamon. The coconut aroma is not obvious in the taste, but there is a sweet likeness to it if you really search for it.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, pretty smooth.

Overall: My scoring was kind of all over the place on this one. 3.96. It livens up a bit and seems to get really sweet as it warms. I have one more new Breckenridge bomber in my fridge, I'll contemplate drinking it today and sharing it here.

 

Great looking dog!

 

Good Holiday Sunday Morning, NBS crew!! Rise and shine! Who's Up for a new beer?? Might need a good Stout coffee to get you going, so let's get to it...


Evolution Rise Up Stout
The beer flows with a slight thickness from the bottle, near black and causes a rush to the head. The fizzing of the bubbles atop the beer foretell their short life. Each pour follows the same cycle.
Although you do have to get close, the nose does smell like Sunday mornings ought to, in my opinion. Deep roasted coffee leaning towards chocolate maltiness. I can't quite smell the newspaper, but that's probably a good thing.

This is the regular stout, not the RIS version I did last week. As such, the beer rolls and flows over the tongue a little easier, physically. But the roasted bitterness leaves little impressions on the taste buds. Not as much coffee presence in the taste, with a weak coffee bitterness lingering in the end, though (more sips bring a distinct woody drying note to the end for me as well). I recall the coffee integrating well with its bigger brother as a noticeable but not overpowering component, here it seems more like just another component of the beer.



This beer is more of a regular stout to me than a coffee-infused one, as the coffee doesn't seem to carry its weight. It is, as a stout, a decently bold roasty beer with a corresponding level of bitterness. Not too shabby as a stout, just ok as a coffee beer.

 

He's the most intelligent dog that has ever owned me. Christmas Eve, I heard Otis out in the back yard emitting an unusual howl. I walked back to the fence where he was staring upward. It was the last day of a waxing moon, and it was huge on the horizon. It was very elemental.

 

Happy post-Christmas NBS! A chill wind blows, but not a ********* in my part of the world.

I have a fridge full of leftovers for lunch, and a new beer to go with it: Sorry Not Sorry, a collaboration IPA brewed with peaches by Stone and Bale Breaker. Pours a nice peachy yellow from a bomber into a glass. The nose and flavor are everything you want in a good fruity IPA, though the peaches are subdued and give the beer a nice subtle fruitiness. Enjoying this one very much.

Cheers!

 

Did you reveal your thoughts on Breckenridge's latest decision, yet (and I missed it in a WBAYDN or some other thread)? I know you mentioned commenting on it and have seen you enjoy a many of their beers here and there. Just curious. Hopefully you'll continue to enjoy the beer you like from them, regardless!

 

Good Sunday Morning BA!!! Lol....y'all don't waste nary a moment getting started with NBS, do you? I'll post my new Sunday brew (Stone Enjoy By 12.25.15 IPA) a bit later, after I get sumpin' to eat! BTW.....plenty of snow falling here in El Paso, TX!!! Been falling all night, still falling now!!!

 

@Roguer...That Double Bastard Rye looks really, REALLY, GOOOD!!! I gotsta get me some!!!

 

Good morning my fellow NBSers's. I had this brew yesterday but it was such an unexpected treat I thought I'd share. The weather here in north Jersey has been amazing. 72 degrees on X mas eve and high 60's the other days. Stay like this all winter and I'd be a happy guy. So I'm at work yesterday on another gorgeous day without any plans for after work. I'm checking facebook and I see someone post a pic of a nice tulip with a dark stout in it. Then I see written under the pic " found CBS on tap, this is a good day " the post is stamped Warwick NY. Some people ask where it is but the OP won't answer. There's only 1 craft bar I can think of in that town - Eddies Roadhouse - so I check their site as well as beer menu's. Nothing on either site but I notice they haven't been updated in a few days so I call. The answer was music to my ears - " Oh yeah we have CBS on tap - come on up " is the answer I get. When my boss here's me reply - " OK - I'll see you when I get off work " he says - " we're slow - go ahead and leave now if you want " - Now that's a good boss.
On my way up I'm thinking back to the other CBS tapping's I've been to and what a zoo they were. I'm hoping that won't be the case here as they didn't announce it anywhere and nobody was talking about it. Sure enough, I get there and there's plenty of seats at the bar. I plop down and order one up. Wow - just as tasty as I remember it. Its one of my top 5 for good reason. Holy crap. Enjoyed some amazing food and several pours of CBS. I was about to leave when I noticed they had a Saison from Tired Hands on tap as well. You know, the old - one more - got me.
Was a great - and unexpected - afternoon. Cheers all

 

Its a very weird place to be. I'm mostly just disappointed. I don't care what anyone thinks of Breck Brew, the BA community seem to give them a "meh" rating. I don't care. We all like our favorite breweries for our own reasons. But like you said, I will not protest and stop buying their product: they still have the same staff and I'd expect the quality to not change. It's just weird having that stigma from now on.

 

Break out the shorts and lawn-darts, it's time for a very mild rendition of NBS. This NBS review brought to you by El Niño. As others have said, it's pretty temperate for the last week of December in NWNJ. Looks like @reds2harleys must live in relative proximity to me in order to take a trip to Warwick. Hey, @reds2harleys , where do you live? I'm in Stanhope (Sussex county).

Anyhoo...

Link to my review of some awesome beer straight out of Amsterdam is here. Enjoy!