New Beer Sunday (week 569)

Poured into a 16 oz snifter bottled on 12/17/15. Pours a dark brown, with a two inch light brown head that leaves behind streaks of lace. 4.25

Smell is coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, and chai. 4.25

Taste follows nicely leading with coffee, chocolate upfront with cinnamon, chai, and vanilla in the finish. 4.25

Body is almost medium, with a nice amount of life, maybe a little dry, and drinks easy. 4.25

Overall this is a very nice beer at an excellent price. Will have this on hand often for now on. 4.25

 

Oh! What a beautiful beer!

 

8.5% alcohol. Introduced in 1899. Brewed in England.

4.06/5 rDev +8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Old Tom has a thin, cream-colored head, some scattered lacing left on the glass, and an opaque, red-brown appearance, with noticeable tight bubble streams and tan chunks suspended throughout. The aroma is of dates, sweet fruit cake, strong, bready malt, and a touch of chocolate. Taste is the same, and the mouthfeel is high medium. Old Tom finishes on the wet side. Smooth, though.

RJT

 

No lemon? I thought that was kind of a turn off for me.

 

Wow! Fabulous photos and review. I had this dopplebock over the Christmas break, and you nailed it! Such a great beer, and an equally worthy write up. Thank you.

 

I do not know if my attempt to include a pic worked or not, but such is my lot after having been absent from NBS for so long.
For those who may not be aware of me, I am that weirdo who, when the rest of yinz are in line for the latest rare release, is scouring the bottle shops for everything that everyone else glossed over. I embrace the odd, the unusual & bizarre. It's what I do, but not (usually) in an Andrew Zimmern "Hey, look at me & what I am putting in my mouth now" kind of way. Instead, I opt for the sly & subtle approach, going about my business until others spy me and begin to point & laugh (generally) with some turning their heads out of shame and/or embarrassment.

My opening salvo for NBS #569 is a Lithuanian beauty that I picked up at World Market in DC, by the Friendship Heights station, during my recent foray to our nation's capitol. I really think that it is mislabeled as a "Double (Doppel) Bock" as it is more of a Maibock, but it brings some heat & packs a punch. I had made a pass through their limited beer selection & was headed to check-out when I saw this & it bigger brother sitting on a Clearance table. To the casual beer drinker, "Clearance" means "Do not touch!" but to me, it is the sweet singing of the Sirens as I steer my boozy ship onto the rocks. I can understand why it might be daunting, especially when a big red tag reading "9.5% Alc. By Vol." hangs around its neck, but you gotta move past that, people! How often do you get to drink Lithuanian beer in the U.S.? Right?!? A whopping few bucks later & I was out the door, a mixed six & two odd, obscure beers richer.

My review: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/12224/54908/

 

Good morning, NBSers! What a crazy ending(s) to the late game of football yesterday. Knocked out a few errands and watched a sorry Caps effort with a friend yesterday before settling in for the second half of that game. I have one more errand this weekend to run before settling in for more football and perhaps a UVa basketball game.

I'm sure no one has done this before (at least not more than 100 times), but this is how I started my day:


I was shocked to see they had this in my local grocery store, and they said they kept it under refrigeration the whole time. I mean, it looks almost exactly like one of those NE IPAs! Pour opaque without too much head (but look at that lacing)! It has a significant citrus nose - I'm getting orange, mainly. Taste follows the nose, with a nice tart note than doesn't quite get to sour. That said, I'm getting very little hop bitterness in this thing. Held up in my fridge nicely for a couple weeks, but it is well within its best by date. I could see this being a staple breakfast beverage, it goes down so easily and would pair well with eggs and bacon, pancakes, or cereal.

------------

Ok, now that my actual beer has started warming, onto the important things. This is a new beer I bought two of, and because the GF isn't big into coffee beers, I can open one of them without her. It's a new offering from Three Notch'd out of Charlottesville:


Jack's Java Espresso Stout - a "rich and hearty oatmeal stout finished with fresh ground espresso prepared specifically for this beer." Semi-sweet chocolate and roast coffee with smoothness is what I am supposed to find, according to the label on this 5.5%, 30 IBU beer. Let's see!

Pours short of black, with some head, but not much, and it fades fairly quickly, and settles in at about half of the upper right frame of the pic. Nose is dominated by coffee, but there is a hint that there may be some bitterness to this. On a cold beer, that held true. Cold was a smack of dark coffee, bitter and unsweetened, with an aggressive feel.

But this type of beer generally needs at least a little warmth, so we won't jump to conclusions. I just noticed my hands were cupping this beer to warm it much like a person would hold an actual cup o' joe to warm their hands. With some warmth, the coffee (and entire nose) seem to fade - though maybe I've just adjusted. I think I am starting to get some of the oats.

Mid-warmth is still bitter coffee, but starting to show is that rugged/chalky feel that I get from oatmeal stouts. The oat taste come to me as well. The carbonation level is fine, and each tip of the glass does thicken the tan head along the edge of the surface.

At the end of the first glass, there isn't much more change. This is a beer that seems to me to act more bitter than its 30 IBU might indicate. The coffee influence isn't as astringent as it was in the opening, but does feed the roasted bitterness pretty well.

Personally, I'd like a bit of malt sweetness (or some of that semi-sweet chocolate) to come through for a little balance. If you like your roasted coffee bitter stouts, you might find this beer enjoyable. I think it highlights the coffee and oats decently well, but it will likely end up a 3.6-3.8 for me.

 

Good morning New BSers! Maria, thank you for starting us off with you usual hyper-descriptive prose that makes me want to try a new beer, or quaff it again if it's an old friend. Unfortunately, I'm more of a KISS person, despite that minor in English many decades ago.
Well, so far, it's been a bitch of a weekend computer-wise as I try to write a syllabus for Tuesday's first class session which will be a lab. Since I was only hired at 1630 Friday to teach the class, after the previous two instructors quit within two weeks, this is kind of short notice since the semester starts Monday, but since it's a sensitivity holiday the actual classes won't start to Tuesday - oh boy! An extra 24 hours to prepare! Of course there're no textbooks yet, I don't know what equipment or supplies are available, I don't know what lecture or lab rooms we're using, all the forms I have to fill out won't upload, and I'm totally pumped! This is the kind of environment in which I thrive! My motto at die Uni was always "Can do"! Dog, it's good to be back in harness! The poor bastards in my class have no idea what's about to happen to them!
But I digress. Today's new brew is:



Unable to locate purchase records
Bomber bottled on 05/12/15 at 42 degrees into hand washed and dried JK snifter, allowed to warm to 50 degrees
Aroma of caramel
Head small (< 2 cm, aggressive pour), off white/light tan, frothy, rapidly diminishing to partial one mm ring with some short, stumpy legs, no layer
Lacing - none
Body brown, chill haze, slight effervescence
Flavor of caramel balanced by alcohol, slight diacetyl; no hops; followed by definite alcohol stomach burn
Palate full, almost creamy, soft carbonation

Appearance 4, Aroma 4.25, Flavor 4.25, Palate 4.25, Overall 4.25. Raring 4.24, Avg 4.17, rDev +1.7%

This, to my taste, is a very good take on an English barley wine. If I ever run across this again, I'll buy several. Odd because I don't particularly like barley wines in general.

Mrs Lizard has dragged her carcass from bed and has checked up on me. I was gone for a while showing her my beer data base, by BA rating database, and my ratings chart. She's really good at faking interest. I'm on to Stone's Chia IRS!

 

I didn't get any lemon personally.

 

Wicked Weed – Pernicious IPA

This is my first beer from Wicked Weed Brewing Co. I was lucky to be gifted this beer over the holidays.

I have heard and read lots of good things about Wicked Weed and I am real excited to be able to drink my first beer from them.

Below is a description of this beer from the Wicked Weed website:

“Pernicious is our flagship India Pale Ale boasting a silver medal at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. This massively dry-hopped ale has minimum malt complexity and a combination of juicy, tropical fruit-forward hops with heavy resinous American hops. Pernicious is the epitome of a West Coast IPA, made right here in the Southeast.”

Wow! They won a silver medal at the recent GABF; I am even more excited now!!

Served in my Spiegelau IPA glass:

Appearance:

The color is a crystal clear golden. It has a nice 1 finger white head.

Aroma:

A complex combination of dank, fruity, herbal and earthy aromas.

Taste:

The flavor follows a complex combination of dank, fruity, herbal and earthy flavors. There is a nice malt backbone that provides some balance to the bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium-then bodied with moderate carbonation level.

Overall:

I enjoyed drinking this beer. I am very glad that I had a chance to try it.


One aspect of this beer that I was not too thrilled about is the size of the bottle: 330 ml (11.2 ounces). I would have preferred the standard US size of 12 ounces.

Cheers to Wicked Weed.

@nc41

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, & thanks to @utopiajane for getting us underway,

The foggy gloom is slowly lightening as the sun makes its way up this morning. It’s in the low 30s at the moment, just a little above freezing. It’s an early NBS for me today because I filled in for someone at work on the dreaded graveyard shift and found myself having to decide whether to drink a beer or eat breakfast. Beer won.

Today I’m starting off (or finishing up – depends how you look at it) with a “Vanilla Cream Extra Stout” from that far off beer destination known as Bend, Oregon:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31004/99865/?ba=woemad

A little too sweet, a little too thin, a little too much vanilla, but having said all that, it's not bad. Just not something I’d want repeated pints of.

I’m going to attempt to stay up and watch the Seahawks, who kick off in less than three hours from now. Time will tell if I have any more beers today.

 

Mornin' y'all.

A couple of weeks ago I came to you with a brew from a well respected local brewery. I mentioned that, while I enjoyed it, it didn't blow me away, and I believe it was either @woemad (I also have been meaning to ask forever: is that handle at all related to the music festival that used to be put on out here? Because that would be super cool.) or @beertunes who made mention that for all the hype Reuben's gets, they sure seem to put out a lot of 'ok but not great' type brews. I think that's an absolutely fair assessment. I've had a fair number from them that have been among the best I've ever had within their style, I've also had a fair number from them that I felt were underwhelming and were just decent at best. I've only had one or two that I actually felt were actively not good. Point is, these guys get a lot of praise but not everything they touch is gold. Or something. I lost my train of thought.

Todays imbibatious offering is another of theirs that I ultimately come down on the 'it's interesting, it's clearly very well crafted, but ultimately it's more ok than great.' I think part of that though is because it's one that I'm having a hard time pinning down. It's billed as an IPA, but the subtext labels it a winter warmer india pale ale. And really... all the words on the main label are accurate descriptions of what it is. But I think part of where it can be a tricky one to really get around is that all of those words are also necessary in order to fully encompass what ends up in your glass. It feels like Voltron. Or Frankenstein. The torso is definitely that of an IPA. But the head is committedly a rye beer. And the limbs are those of a winter warmer. The skin reminds me almost more of a red (though admittedly I have a tenuous grasp on that style at best, and the lines can easily begin to blur).
Anyway, point is, it's a brew that's not so much 'all over the place' as it is a disparate hodge podge of similar-but-not-really strings of yarn that make one big yarn ball. But like a ball of yarn, it is tight and self contained.
Oh, yeah. What am I drinking? Reuben's Roasted Rye IPA. While I always appreciate alliteration (wink), I almost feel like they do themselves a disservice by emphasizing the IPA-side of things so heavily. People who are looking for a classic punch-o-hops are going to be confused and frightened by the heavy maltiness found here. Rye beer this is. There are hops, to be sure, but they are found more in the followthrough. It almost inverts the old IPA-itude of featuring the hops, and the malts are there to support and give balance/body/be the playground on which the hops run wild. Here it's the other way around: the hops provide the backbone, the context, the setting for the rye to slowly blossom.
I've spent many words and wasted much time -- not my own, as it cannot be wasted, for there is naught more valuable for me to be doing at 0700 on a sunday morning but to perfunctorily pontificate on a passion of... p-word for beer, but that of anyone foolhardy enough to venture this deep in my morasse of meandering musings, this thicket of thoughts -- to basically come to the same damn conclusion: this is an odd duck. A duck I enjoy, ultimately, but not one that knocks my socks off, and not one that is easily approached and cajoled into modern 'decent' society.

Point is: I dig it... for the most part. I like that I am drinking it, but I have a hard time fitting it into my mental schema. Eh, I'm probably overthinking things again.





Bonus: Check out what I got to (had to) use at work the last couple of nights! If I don't come out of this experience with a couple of super powers at the least.... well.

 

Happy NBS! Some thoughtful reviews already - bodes well for a day of tasty drinking...

Indoors again this am, although rain and clouds are starting to clear. Chilly (high 50s) day for north Florida forecast; somehow we will persevere this fall like weather...ok, stop snickering my more hardy northern BAs...

Terrapin Brewing Co., Athens, GA, "Cinnamon Roll'd W-n-B Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout"(2015). The "W-n-B" stands for "wake and bake". I've been so looking forward to trying this beer, given my fondness for "flavored" stouts, and cinnamon rolls devoured in airports across the country all these years:



Pours a deep black, with thick tan foam:





The cap retreated quickly; some clarity underneath cap; thick lacing left behind.

As I'm pouring, the roasted coffee aroma finds me before even a proper sniff. I'm getting excited...

Roasted coffee beans nose and some spice reminiscent of "pumpkin" ales...

Heavy cinnamon flavor followed by coffee; a little vanilla/sugary white icing; white bread, cinnamon and caramelized brown sugar; big cinnamon finish.

Powdery almost granular full mouthfeel; moderate carbonation; "pasty" keeps coming to mind...

Overall, the tongue coating and linger is all cinnamon and I thought the feel was heavy; it's hard to explain, but I get this gummy feeling I find odd... I know others have liked this beer quite a lot, but for me the cinnamon was cloying and I'm disappointed on several levels...

Oh well, perhaps I'll find something in my "cellar" more to my liking later today. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else is drinking today - cheers!

 

I like your description and the similes/metaphors you used. Also have had a few beers where I wonder why they label it IPA (including most recently a rye beer). I mean all of us have, and I know why, but...