New Beer Sunday (week 568)

Good afternoon all NBS followers and partakers. Thanks to @cavedave for getting us headed in the right direction on this very wet and dismal Sunday here in central NH. It was raining when I got up about 5 this morning and at times today the downpours have been torrential. I made a trip to MA yesterday to help out some family with a few things that just needed to get done. And was lucky enough to have enough time on the way home to stop at Trilliums new Brewery in Canton. The lines were fairly slow moving with only one person on the bottles only line but in the end it was worth the wait. So my new beer for this Sunday is Scaled Up from Trillium.

4.45/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Poured from a 750ml bottle. Poured the hazy yellow orange color into my glass. The nose had lots of citrus fruit aromas orange seems to be the strongest. The taste is also of citrus with many other tropical fruits in the mix here mango, papaya with a slight hint of bitterness from the hops in the very back of your mouth. Another good DIPA from Trillium.

I have a couple more new beers in the cooler in the garage so I hope to get back with another later on this afternoon. Cheers

 

Todaaayyyyyy i have one of those $11 bottle of beers from Prairie Artisan Ales.....Pirate Noir. This is their Noir imperial stout aged in rum barrels. I continue to buy these big expensive beers from Prairie because they are really good and worth it....in my opinion.

12% abv, 12 oz bottle, 6 months since bottling

Pours an oily black color, almost no head, just razor thin and a deep khaki color. Tons and tons of sticky alcohol legs, almost has that bourbon county coat the glass film when you swirl it. Some spotty head lacing too. The aroma has the barrel all over it, lots of dark fruits, chocolate covered raisins, rum soaked fruits, vanilla, coconut. It has this spicy apple type thing, lots of oak and spice. Flavor is more of the same, tons of barrel notes, rum rum rum, spicy apples, raisins, chocolate, vanilla. The mouthfeel is super creamy, silky body.

In some barrel aged beers the barrel simply adds subtle flavors and rounds out the beer. Not this one, the flavors the barrel imparts are the highlight of the beer....in a great way. I always have in my mind that a whiskey barrel is the best marriage for an imperial stout....this has me thinking differently. I absolutely love the fruits and spices that a rum barrel adds.

Im gunna take this and sit down to watch the rest of this football game. However, ill need something a bit lighter to pair with my pizza and wings coming later......for that....beer camp 2016 tropical ipa.

 

My third NBS beer is yet another high quality Vermont DIPA.


Notch Hopper Double IPA

Rock Art Brewery
American Double / Imperial IPA / 7.50% ABV

4.19/5 rDev +0.7% | Avg: 4.16
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

L- Pours a cloudy gold with a one inch frothy off-white head. Lacing is everywhere and clings to glass in huge patches.
S- The smell is big grapefruit mixed with resinous overtones.
T-Taste starts out with the huge grapefruit notes which subside into a resinous bitterness which lingers well after the finish. Malts are just enough to keep the bitterness from being overwhelming, but they play very little part in the overall taste profile.
F- The mouthfeel is medium and coats the tongue contributing to the persistence of the finishing dry bitterness.
O- This is another great Vermont DIPA. It's a very good alternative for those who can't or don't want to stand in line for the big boys. Really enjoyable.

 

Hey NBS folks......happy Sunday!

Just chillin' and doing some chores today and watching the winds howl and temps drop all day.....it was warm (almost 50) this morning, and I went out walking in my neighborhood a bit before the weather shit hit the fan.....ah well, such is January! Got about an inch of snow on the ground now and the wind is bitter cold!

I decided to try this new iteration of Shiner's yearly "birthday beers" - this one is # 107 - this brewery has a long history!

A hoppy pils with Noble hops, at a very affordable price, yes please!

This beer smells great, very bready and hops very prominent, with a foamy head and nice legs.....easy to drink and goes well with food - mine was with my lunch earlier, while I was taking food to my Mom (she had surgery recently, and I am cooking some healthy eats for her while she recovers!)....a solid pilsner, would buy again for sure!





Every now and again, I take a walk around my immediate area....and realize how lucky I am - I live in a State Park, adjacent to a State Wildlife Preserve, next to a 100 mile long National Heritage Trail, chock full of local history....this native statue about 1/4 mile from my house marks the Portage Path, an ancient 8.3 mile path that connected 2 major rivers in NE Ohio.....I love that I can see this statue from the lakeside / back of my house at this time of year!



Love this shot of my lake I took earlier - ominous winter sky for sure!!

 

Saw this beer arrive at a store and I waited around so that they could enter it into their system allowing me to buy one. Grocery stores use faux blackboard signs to create an impression of farmers' market freshness. Is Victory doing the same?

This is an example of a beer that I bought because of the brewer. I wouldn't purchase an agave grapefruit IPA by anyone, but I'll try a single 12oz of anything Victory puts out.

The beer is exceptionally pale and clear. It's pilsner malt. Due to the use of agave syrup, I suppose this wouldn't be an all-malt beer, but perhaps this depends on when and how the syrup was used. Carbonation is light and fizzy and the head disappears quickly.

The initial taste is of restrained citrusy hops. Grapefruit juice clearly shows up, but if I didn't know grapefruit was used, I wouldn't have thought anything odd about the beer... I would have assumed I was tasting simple hop influence. There is a sweetness that some would probably say was the agave, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just the malt.

The beer is quite refreshing. The 7% ABV is very dangerous.

This beer appears to be a tough sell. It's getting some negative comments here. The notion that someone would be unable to pick up the hops in this beer is very strange. I hope this is not an indication of the consumer need for bigger/faster. I think the BeerAdvocate consumer has certain expectations with a "grapefruit IPA," and these expectations wouldn't be met by this beer. It's not punchy, but it works very well for what it was aiming for. If Victory brought the ABV down, packaged it in cans with different artwork, and released it in the summer - it could be a strong seller outside of the "bigger/faster only" crowd.

 

Moving along to the west coast, I have a Deschutes offering in Jubelale



Drinking this well after the intended season but the head presents a magnanimous appearance as this massive frothy creature is more reminiscent of a slightly warmed root beer float head than anything I've seen on an actual beer. Giving it a few minutes to calm down, it leaves some disinterested lacing. All of this takes place atop a dark ruby beer.

Nose is generally sweet with fig, cherry and graham cracker before maybe the faintest hint of chocolate seeps in.

Taste falls in line with the nose but adds a fairly significant coffee taste as well as traveling the chocolate to dark chocolate.

Mouth feel begins very silky before this thin to medium bodied beer fades out dry and slightly chalky as an aggressive bitter aftertaste takes hold.

No complaints here. For a winter warmer, it's spot on and just fine.

 

I love this style and this one looks simply fantastic. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled to see if this thing gets distro south of the border.

 

What's happening NBS players. Started off pretty wet, grey, and humid, here on the island, almost 60. Now the temps are dropping and we will see 30's overnight. A pretty lazy Sunday and just keeping my ass inside and watching the playoff football games.

My new beer is yet another freshly bottled offering from Barrier Brewing, ny. This is their Suburb IPA, featuring the Motueka hop which comes in at 7.6%.

A nice amber/peach pour with major clarity and a soft pillow white head. The nose is zesty, hoppy, and even grassy but not terribly floral. The drinking starts of tangy with that zesty hop feel carrying right over from the nose. The hops turn to a spicy and slightly bitter finish. Definite citrus tones going on here. I get mostly lemon, lime, and orange. Like the nose I get a real grassy feel especially on the finish. The mouth feel is crisp and spicy. I really like how the spicy hops hit the back of my palate.

Overall, a solid and drinkable ipa. It really reminds me of GF Green Bullet but a bit dialed down of course. A solid 4 in my book.

 

That was a very good football game under nasty conditions. Congrats. Seahawks 10 Vikings 9.

 

Beau's has distro in Quebec, Ontario and New York. Last I head the farthest they distribute south is nyc. This beor was only released in their brewery in eastern Ontario 2 days ago, so I'm guessing it wont reach shelves in Quebec or NY for 3 weeks or so.

 

It's cold as hell today in Chicagoland. Just watched the Viqueens choke one away, getting ready to whip up some cornbread to go with some home made chili and finish cleaning up from yesterday's brew day. Enjoying MBC Mo while stuck inside. Cheers!

 

Had some time to photo this and review it while cooking dinner. Kiddos are busy playing xbox and wifey is de-cluttering the holiday tornado that rushed thru here over the past 2 weeks. I finally picked this one up.



Bottled 15329, November 25, 2015.
Pours dark brown with ruby and orangish highlights. Frothy light tan one finger head. Retains pretty well.
Wet, used coffee grounds heavy in the nose at first and then recedes to smooth vanilla undertones. But this screams coffee out of the gates.
And the first sip does just that. A lot of medium roast coffee backed with some semi sweet chocolate and toffee. More sweetness as it warms up and releases some creamy vanilla flavors. Slight coffee bitterness rounds it out, but this is all coffee through and through. I was hoping for something else to develop more than it did, light the vanilla or cocoa or caramel or roastiness
Lights side of medium body, low to medium carbonation. Not sticky, but maybe a light mouth coating. Fits the porter style vs. a coffee stout.
This is for coffee beer lovers. A lot of medium roasted coffee dominates. The vanilla does show up, but not nearly enough to stand up to the coffee. It's an excellent coffee porter for sure. Maybe too much coffee though for my liking.

 

New Berliner Weiss Sunday

Hello all! Cold (very cold) barely 10 degrees here in Milwaukee today (but sunny). Today's brew is from Perennial. An interesting brew - Pineapple with Kumquat Berliner Weiss. To be honest, I was pineappled out by end of 750 ml - I think It's a good brew, but would not have minded sharing it with someone. If you like tart brews and pineapple certainly worth getting. Paid about 12 bucks for it. Carbonation was a bit aggressive, but it didn't wreck it - It held together. I scored it a 3.79, slightly lower than the current average of 3.86. Here is the link:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25888/182528/?ba=jwc215

Cheers!

 

Just settling in waiting for the afternoon game to start while sipping on this Mollie Stone's find from yesterday.

As soon as I cracked the cap the pressure was evidenced by a loud hiss.
Even poured at a 45 degree angle the head raised in the glass faster than the beer itself did.
As I'd expect from the cherries, this poured a nice light red/pinkish color with a slightest hint of cherry and salt on the nose.
Also from the cherries but per the style, this gives you that nice lip smacking tartness you'd expect.
The aftertaste, while enjoyable, if I'm searching for a flavor, deep in the back of my palette, I'm getting Capt'n Crunch. Which is great because I love the cereal, I just hate the chewed up cheeks and gums you get after a bowl.
All in all an enjoyable beer and another win in the Modern Times assortment.

 

As I was looking through my fridge for a good addition to this thread, I quite quickly realized that nothing in it currently is "new" to me, so I went to my secondary location... the cellar! I happened to have a bottle of Berkshire Scotch Ale that I've been somewhat unintentionally aging since early last year, so I figured it was about time to crack it open to see what's going on with it.

Bottle says it was best before 7/14/15, but I'm of the mind that a scotch ale worth its salt can probably stay solid through another half-year of aging beyond that given period. Guess we'll find out, eh? No ABV is printed on the bottle, but BA says this is 7%, so we'll go with that. Berkshire typically makes very solid if unspectacular beer, so I'm expecting this to be somewhat of a style piece.

As you can see, the pour is a somewhat ruddy-looking and displays a hue not unlike a slightly-darker shade of burnished copper. Head retention is pretty minimal, as the white foam dies down after several minutes to a single-finger ring in my shaker pint-style glass. Smell seems to initially have that strange fruitiness I can often pick out in beer that's gone "past its prime," but luckily, as it warms from cellar temp to closer to room temp, this scent seems to disappear for the most part. Now I'm picking up mostly sticky toffee, dark caramel malts and peat smoke which rather appreciably rises to the fore if I inhale deeply. Slight spicy ethanol notes, reminiscent of a decent mainland single-malt scotch mingle with the other notes quite well, but are really only present if/when I give it a really good whiff.

On the tongue, it's really nice and round with a malty, satisfying flavor. Peat smoke lingers in the finish with each sip; tasty! Glad this hasn't "gone" too far. I don't think the accidental aging has particularly done anything to (or for) it, but it's quite enjoyable, smooth and a trusty example of a scotch ale. Definitely a style piece, and I'll never complain about that!

I'm staying inside today and doing laundry, playing video games (Disgaea 5 on PS4) and listening to excellent electronic music, because the view out my window looks like this... ew.


Recommended highly for fans of Berlin-style progressive electronic, modern synthwave and John Carpenter's soundtrack works... excellent cinematic and driving electro!

 

Back for another before I head to my brothers and wreck my pallet watching the second playoff game. Popping the cork on Angel's Trumpet from Adroit Theory Brewing that generous BA @jvgoor3786 sent before Christmas. It's a Mango IPA aged in Mezcal barrels with an abv. of 7.0%. I liked the last one from them that I reviewed, let's see what this one brings?

Pours a rather lively gold color with a giant four fingers of creamy white foam despite a conservative pour. The aroma is a mix of faint mango and malt. Flavor is tropical mango up front followed by slick malt and finally a slight kiss of tequila. The feel is slick and tingly with a slight bitterness finishing semi dry.



Overall a tasty beer with a nice balance between the mango and malt. The Mezcal barrel is there in the back, but perhaps could have spent more time in the barrel for a stronger presence? It's still a solid beer with nice flavor and mouthfeel. Glad I had the opportunity to try thanks to a generous member of our community. My score was 3.98 / rDev +2.6%.

Time to catch up on posts and walk over to my bro's. Enjoy game two! Here's my official two cents worth.....

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31535/187228/?ba=Prager62

 

I'll take Eddie Cochran

 

Me too.

 

New Herbed/Spiced Sunday!

Pretty nice day here in GJ, mid 30s, cloudy/sunny. Pretty tasty brew with some tunes.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1675/4773/?ba=Wasatch




Cheers!