New Beer Sunday (week 574)

Wow. You've created a new and higher bar for alternative alliterations. A good and challenging start to the day and the sharing of impressions that is what this thread is about.

Expecting to be back this evening with a report on "The Commodore" from Ballast Point, a stout I've not yet tried.

Enjoy!

 

An artful arrangement also!

 

Good morning to all the NBS faithful and welcome to any newcomers on this mid February Sunday here in central NH. Thanks to Dave for the great start as always. We were out and about here in NH yesterday enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. It was in the upper 50's most of the afternoon. I had the chance to try a couple of new beers yesterday in my travels and also brought home a couple more. I'm getting an early start here today as with this great weather we're going to get out and enjoy it for as long as possible today.
My New Beer for today is from Smuttlabs here in NH. It is the recently released The Stallion an Imperial Stout aged in red wine barrels.

4.31/5 rDev +4.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured a dark black color into my snifter glass. There was about a 1/2 inch head on top with an aggressive pour. The nose contained lots of different notes I found some chocolate and coffee overtones with a nice mellow red wine in the back. The taste was smooth showing the chocolate and coffee flavors with the nice red wine finish. The mouthfeel had the thickness that you expect from a high caliber stout. This is a better than average beer IMO. I had high hopes for this beer when I heard it was coming out Smuttlabs didn't disappoint with this one.

I hope you all take the time to enjoy a great beer at sometime today and also get out and enjoy all the wonderful things that nature puts out there for us to enjoy.

 

Good morning @cavedave and thanks for getting us started today . Happy New Beer Sunday everyone! I have happened upon a regional brewer that I am really starting to like a lot. Middle Ages in Syracuse. I bought a sixer from them called Beast Bitter and I almost had nothing to show for it because they disappeared that fast. Luckily I put one away. The first beer I tried from middle Ages was called Swallow Wit and it is a WITbier. That's was just enough puns for me to buy two sixers; that one and this one. Cheers!

You have to love a brewer who has for their photo a half naked man inside of a big mash tun wielding a paddle.



Happy New American Extra Strong Bitter Sunday

Beast is a beast indeed. Pours beautifully. Nice and clear with a coppery and orange hues on a beautiful golden body. Off white head that did not last too long. Appearance is outstanding.



Nose is vivacious with malt. Biscuity and caramel. Firm dry caramel , none of that soft sweet stuff. The hops twinkle like fuggles do and show you soft earthy, woody spice. There is good citric note to them that is not in the back. ANd that makes them smell fresh and tangy and even a bit like citrus zest. They also use cascade I think. Toasty malt is so crisp it's almost crunchy in there. I love it! As you drink the beer it simply takes over your mouth and your will to fight. It's abundant with malt. The hops are forward and keep forward until the very last moment in the swallow when you smile because it's the malt that finishes this beer medium dry.

Taste is like toast! Lightly buttered and bitter. So delicious. The finish and the balance is what kept this beer in my glass until literally there was no more beer. Hops give an expert bitterness that never gains speed or strength. Steadfast, although it's not really too gentle either. As all the flavor from malt fades, even the hop fruitiness fades off to tangerine pith but the bitter remains.

Outrageously good. I'll take a few big mugs of that! I also hear that this brewer is using a strain of yeast in this beer called ringwood. I would love to know if that yeast is in any way responsible for the flavor that this beer has. You just can't stop drinking it.

Spin some vinyl? OK

 

Hey NBS crew. I'm dropping in early with my one new beer for the day. Last new beer from my first real trade. Definitely the highlight of the trade for me. Cheers!



4.21/5 rDev +2.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours a near pitch black - no light gets through when held to sunlight. Thick, foamy, tan head forms with great retention after a gorgeous cascade in the glass. Significant spotty, at parts clumpy, lacing and no syrupy coating on the inside of the glass.

Nose is a bit mild - sweet lactose, malt and a hint of chocolate. A bit subdued but nice.

Flavor is on point. Great roasty malt profile, well rounded and balanced. No off notes, no hint of the significant ABV. This is relatively standard but truly well done and better than average for sure.

Feel is pretty great. Smooth, rich, velvety. Nice body, not too thin but not too thick, overly viscous/sticky/syrupy. Really a bit light but not lacking in depth at all. Incredibly easy and quick drinker here, unexpectedly so. Would definitely enjoy again.

 

Good morning New BSers! Thanks @cavedave for the artful alliteration of alcohol allied allusions! Another excellent opening, or should I just say the current average? You are a hard act to follow and I'm glad I don't have to.

Maria, how do you know that dude is only half-naked? Just wondering.

Well, some of yinz may know about the strip district in PGH. If not, it's the foodie paradise - restaurant food supply stores, ethnic foods, street vendors - actually, it's becoming somewhat of a cliche. Anyhoo, yesterday Mrs Lizard and I braved the late February 60 degree inferno and ventured into the mass of people vying for foodstuffs. Enrico Biscotti first stop - gotta buy mass quantities of biscotti to take to TX in a week and a half - everybody in my brother's family loves biscotti (except me), including the special peanut butter and bacon biscotti for the dogs. His Great Pyrenees absolutely love it and me as Uncle Bob, the Bringer of Biscotti. Then on to Pennsylvania Macaroni - we were # 401 in the cheese line but the meat line was so small no numbers were needed. Then off to Penseys Spices for some my sister in law can't get in San Antonio. Followed by a wasted stop at a kitchen store, we dragged ourselves several blocks back to the car and then to Church Brew Works for a late lunch/early supper (we call it "lupper"). I got to try three new brews (but that was yesterday so not going to show up here) at Church and we had a really good waitress (Thanks Carly!) who managed to smile and be civil throughout my wife's hesitant ordering and my cross examination about the volume of beer served versus ABV. This has become a ritual prior to journeying to Texas - gotta stock up on foodstuffs and go to Church.

Enough blathering about the past. Today's new beer is:



$ 7.25/22oz bomber ($ 0.329/oz) at Skinny’s Six Pack Shop, Oil City, PA
Bottle marked “Bottle Conditioned Dec 2015, (rest illegible)” at 42 degrees into a hand washed and dried JK snifter, allowed to warm to 50 degrees
Aroma of cacao strong and some roasted malt dragging behind; cacao lasts entire glass
Head small (One cm, aggressive pour), light brown, frothy, rapidly diminishing to two mm ring and partial thin layer
Lacing - none
Body dark brown/black, opaque
Flavor heavy cacao, no malt coming through in the taste, no hint of oak or marshmallow; no hops, no alcohol, no diacetyl
Palate medium, creamy, soft carbonation

Appearance 3.5, Aroma 3.5, Flavor 3.5, Palate 4, Overall 3.5. Rating 3.55, Avg 3.99, rDev -11%

Not a beer particularly to my palate - a little too sticky sweet and chocolatey for a beer. My personal mean for beer is 3.62, so this is below average for what I normally perfer to drink.

A brief word about Skinny's Six Pack Shop - This is relatively new (less than three years) and is slowly expanding in both volume and selection. When they started off they were primarily BMC/coolers and their first tasting was basically the same stuff. They have slowly expanded into higher quality brews (think Weyerbacher, Great Lakes, Smuttynose, Victory) and their tastings have expanded as well (Victory Sour Monkey). I stop periodically just to check them out and pick up a cheap sixer of something new - this week it was a sixer of Tropical Bitch and a bomber of Rocky Road. A little positive reinforcement can go a long way.

Cheers!

 

This beer pours a solid black with mocha colored sediment suspended in and lying on the bottom of the glass. There is a two finger head which dissipates into a nice collar and heavy lacing.

The smell is full of hops, chocolate, roasted malts and bitter coffee.

The taste follows the nose with the hops forward, backed up quickly by the roasted malts, bitter coffee, chocolate then finishing with more hops. The hop finish is only slightly dry. Some booze leaks through but not much. The feel is thick and bready. This is an American Stout that smells and tastes like an Imperial. Let this one warm up a bit before drinking and you will be rewarded with a better range of smells and flavors.

 

Great good morning to all of my friends,
The temp out is about 50, the fog is thick, and the birds are singing like it's just predawn. It's 9 AM, we're back from our walk, and today is going to be wonderful. Martha retired on Friday and will be with me closely from now on. Our goal is to continue to improve our property. I have projects that she has many more skills than I do to make things happen. My journals hopefully will come to life. We are fairly young and lucky in so many ways.
Today's beer is another of the Sierra Nevada IPA 12-pack, Ruthless Rye IPA. This is a gorgeous copper colored ale, with a very strong white capped and retending head, beading like beers I've had that I could never get enough of. Very rich and light on it's feet, this beer is a seemingly unpretentious brew that delivers very nicely indeed. It is strong, fine, well made and fun! I would buy this beer any time, and I love it.The malty smoky rye is a thrill.


Here are a couple of tunes that are a big piece of my life. I hope you guys will like these.

 

When I did this last week, I ended up not finding it as sweet as I expected and maybe even wanted given its name. I found it to be an okay basic stout that had cocoa or unsweetened chocolate. I actually thought it was a decent "regular" stout. As is often said, palates can be very interesting.

Writing up my review of a beer I definitely find less sweet/more bitter than this one, back in a few...

 

Good morning NBS, thanks to @cavedave for the morning kickoff. Love the writing and the reminder
to keep focused. Today we head north to Brattleboro to the Harris Hill ski jump. A great event with
qualifying rounds for professional jumpers. There is always a ton of fun to be had. The week was busy
with a fine show by Rhett Miller at the Iron Horse. Today's offering is from Oxbow Brewing, their Farmhouse Pale Ale.
barrel aged. One of the most enjoyable of this style I have ever had.
Cheers all

Barrel Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale

Oxbow Brewing Company
Saison / Farmhouse Ale / 6.50% ABV

4.06/5 rDev -5.1% | Avg: 4.28
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured form a bottle dated May 2015, into the modified tulip glass.
A - A fine color, late spring sun setting on a cloudless evening, Deep, yellow, a tireless stream of
mid sized spheres meander to the top. A ring of white accumulation in lieu of a froth top the pool.
S - Minerals like chalk, limestone start things off. Fruits like apricot, white peach, follow quickly. A sharpness
is next, suggesting a Ph shift to the sour side. With a rise in temperature, fresh French bread, with a bit of honey round out the wonderful experience.
T - Lemongrass, green apple skin, warm toasty cracker, more fruit skin reflects the bitterness blending with tart goodness. A tension exists between the barrel element and the wild/house yeast. A wonderful graininess acts as the canvas keeping them on display. No bosses here a true team at work.
M - Sweet tart start, mid feel is tight and narrow, ashen rine wash, fruit elements reduce the impact on the palate. Superbly dry finish. Mineral driven. The oak adds a little heft to keep things just a bit fuller. Nice touch.
O - A superbly crafted offering, the body, aromatics and complexity add up to a fine experience.
I appreciate the use of the barrel. There is no dominant feature on display and the makes this shine.
Cheers all

 

Olde Mecklenburg Copper Amber Ale (Alt)!

I received an Olde Mecklenberg Amber Ale as a gift. I am anxious to try this beer since there are not too many commercially brewed Alt beers.

On the back of the bottle label: “OMB Copper is an authentic Dusseldorf style “Altbier”. Alt means “old” in German, as in “old school”. So there are no crazy flavors or gimmicks with Copper – it’s just an amazing, easy-drinking beer that tastes like beer. We use expensive (but worth it) Bavarian hops and brew it is with the “Reinheitsgebot” German beer purity law to guarantee it. Once you drink this lagered ale, you’ll know why it’s the beer that put OMB on the beer-drinking map.”

Who doesn’t like “old school”!?!

Served in my Spiegelau Lager glass:

Appearance:

The beer is copper in color. It poured with a one finger high off white head that died down, leaving a thin layer of bubbles on the surface and a collar around the edge of the glass.

Aroma:

Moderate aromas of toasty-bready malts and spicy hops are present in the nose.

Taste:

The overall flavor is a malty along with flavors of spicy hops and some hints of caramel.

Mouthfeel:

It feels medium-bodied on the palate and has low-moderate carbonation. Some pleasant dryness is present in the finish.

Overall:

This beer is very enjoyable to drink. The balance of toasty-bready malt and spicy hops is quite appealing!! Germans have a good term to describe this beer which is süffig (which roughly translates to drinkable).

Cheers!

@nc41

 

Really loving this beer. It like an iced coffee in beer form. As usual @Sixpoint doesn't disappoint. cheers

 

Poured into a 16 oz snifter best before 7/24/16. Poured aggressive and got a 2 inch fluffy tan head, that left a some creamy lace behind. 4.75

Smell is roast coffee, vanilla beans, dark chocolate, and some toffee. 4.5

Taste follows very well, lots of dry coffee and vanilla bean, with some dark chocolate and leather in the lush and silky smooth finish. 4.5

Mouthfeel is so nice and creamy, medium feel, no carbonation and that is the point, and goes down like coffee milk. 4.5 Overall this is a damn fine nitro coffee beer, that really impressed me, excellent. 4.5

 

You beat me to it. I was going to reply to Maria's post with that question. Just goes to show that great minds think alike!?!

Cheers!

 

Good morning fellow beer enthusiasts. I'm now about 3 months into my hobby of craft beer drinking. I feel like I've done a good job getting educated by all you fine folks and a few local friends. I've really grown to love strong stouts and porters like V@S. Before this Guiness was my limited exposure which I still love. I finally got around to getting a 4 pack of Founders Imperial Stout. I chilled one and put the other 3 in my cellar inventory which is now about 30 bottles.







This beer was bottled 11/24/15 and pours jet black with a dark roasty brown head. Smells mostly of alcohol to me but as you get that first sip to your mouth you really get the roasted coffee, a dry dark chocolate taste, and the taste of alcohol. The dark chocolate taste stays with you long after the swallow. Still very easy going down for 10.5 % ABV and 75 IBU beer.
I've read many say how good this beer is 2-3 years old so I am looking forward to aging this one.

 

I spent yesterday watching hockey & drinking AIPAs, but after the last game finished, I was fatigued - bodily, mentally & even my palate was spent. I had one on-deck that I was really anxious to try & since CaveDave got us off to a really early start, I decided to (briefly) pick up where I left off. It is a real Bitch here at Chez Woody & the Steadman artwork of the label is appropriately riotous!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/199774/

And now, for the rest of the day: Bonne Nouvelle Bière d'Hiver Dimanche!

I associate Winter with Europe for some reason and since my (semi) second language is French, it seems appropriate. I was a Plankowner on the USS Normandy (CG-60) and following our commissioning & involvement in Gulf War I, we were frequently in France for port visits. I had four years of French in Middle/High school that I really didn't care about, but once I had the opportunity to apply it in real life, I became much more proficient. I still struggle with the spoken word, but I can read it fairly well. I will also tell you that my favorite time to visit Europe is in the winter. The tourists are gone, the airfare is lower, the beer still flows & the museums and attractions can be seen & visited in a fraction of the time spent in the summer, leaving more time to drink beer.

On that note, I depart this forum for the interim so that I may CANcentrate on the tasks at hand (beer & Hockey Day in America, centered on the State of Hockey). I will report back this evening.

 

Ok, so I am back in the scenario where I have a bunch of beer sitting outside the fridge because the fridge is full. Trying to drink a little less and countering it with some exercise. Need to actually use that gym membership here soon, but other facets of life have prevented me so far.

Hoping today's new beer is better than my last two. Both were fairly "local" imperial stout/porters. Neither bottle seemed right, and since the odds of actually having two bad bottles from different breweries bought at two different times from two different shops in a row is low, I have to wonder if either actually were. I get local grade inflation, but both of these beers were around 4 on a limited number of reviews, and I had them both below 3. I'm usually not that far off from the norm. I want to give these beers another chance, but at mid-high price points for specialty bombers, not sure I want to take the risk, either.

Anyhow, those "newish" beer stories aside, I am going with a more seasoned brewer for my first beer today. Unofficially, this beer could soon be "local" - but not quite like the others. As far as I can tell the Virginia Beach brewery has not opened yet (scheduled for sometime this year is the best I can find). This is Green Flash Cosmic Ristretto:


The beer looks really nice. While I was shooting photos, that fluffy tan head slowly diminished but never really left. During the tasting, the thick rim of head was constantly replenish. Lacing was in literal spots around the glass.


The nose is very strong on the coffee/espresso side, which is good considering the intent of the beer, IMO. There is a little malty sweetness behind this coffee, as if there were maybe a half packet or less of cane sugar added to the brewed drink. warmth brings this sweetness out a little more, even turning a little toward a light brown sugar.


Initially this beer was very espresso-forward. Coffee-like roastiness and bitterness. I actually think I get the grains themselves in the taste - as if I had thrown a couple malt grains in my mouth. The light roughness of the husk comes across in the feel, and the nutty/toasty/roasted flavor is cut slightly by the sugars produced during malting.

That sweetness does try to poke through the thick blanket of deep roasted coffee flavor early, but never quite makes it until the beer reaches a medium level of warmth. At this point, the flavor profile seems in nice balance, with the coffee bitterness still playing the main role, but cut by a malty sweetness that tickles the tongue just enough to keep it from submitting to death by java.

To me, not an overly complex beer, but it doesn't need to be. Wish the grainy feel weren't there, and wish the Belgian candi sugar didn't have to fight as much to be a part of the brew. However, overall I find the beer very enjoyable to sip on this AM.

 

Heller der fellers!


Beer #863 is Bim Bam Boom by Short's

$2.49 single bottled 1/7 and poured 2/21. Almost bought a couple of these but decided to just get one since it seemed to get quite a few negative reviews.

First off, I love the label. The brightness of the colors just looks great. As for the beer itself, well... I can see why it has some pretty iffy scores.This mostly smells like a typical stout with maybe the faintest amount of cayenne and especially orange. It smells pretty nice and all, but it's far from as intense as I was expecting.

First sip is much like the aroma in that it's quite disappointing, but certainly not bad. Thankfully, there's more orange and cayenne in the taste. The orange mostly comes off as a sort of tart/tangyness midway through and into the finish. Truthfully, there is very little going on otherwise that would suggest that this beer was infused with oranges.

In terms of cayenne, it's pretty much equally null. As it's going on there's a stupidly subtle almost scratchy feeling that's no doubt due to the cayenne, but damn is it subtle. Really, I'd pretty much call this a no-heat kind of beer.

The flavor as a whole is just alright. In a way, it tastes like a slightly infected stout because of that tartness, but not in a critical way. This has a pretty decent roasty stout base with a pleasant cacao presence, but I feel like Short's played it too safe on this one. They should have really went for it and at least added more orange to it. The more I'm drinking the more I'm liking the subtlety of the cayenne, but more orange would be nice.

On the whole, this is a decent beer. Let it warm up for the best experience/most flavor, but even then, don't expect too much.

3.79/5 (-1% rDev)