New Beer Sunday (week 575)

Thank you Maria for getting NBS off to a mouth-watering start.

I am going to my first opera today. Our niece is in graduate school at Boston University, studying opera, and she is one of the leads in Cosi fan tutti. This is about two sisters who are engaged to two brothers. The boys are going off to fight a war, and some old troublemaker tells them their betrothed will be unfaithful to them while they are away. So they come back in disguise and attempt to seduce the women, testing their fidelity. It sounds convoluted to me. I'm told it is a three and a half hour production, in Italian. I hope there's an intermission, and I hope there are English superscripts.

I picked this beer up yesterday, planning to drink it for breakfast.
It is a dark brown color with a tiny tan head.
The aroma is coffee and milk.
First taste is strong espresso, quickly followed by sweet milk. Almost like a latte.
It is a very smooth, tasty beer, and paired well with my hot dog.

 

It's Sunday & I want to open the presents! I wake up early, like a little kid at Christmas, on these occasions. I'm anxious to get started! I really dig this weekly forum & my absence hurt. I try to set things up in advance so that these Sundays have a theme. Usually, they also involve the furtherance of The CANQuest (tm), my misguided, ongoing attempt to drink & review EVERY CANned beer in existence & this week is no exception.

I am on a press junket next week, so I may not be able to participate, but I leave it up to you for my next NBS visit - a) Gluten-free beers; b) Peak Organics; c) Great Divide; d) something else; e) STFU & choose it myself. Your input is valued, but please provide it via a Conversation (site E-mail).

Happy Chicago(land) New Beer Sunday!

Most people know me as a die-hard Pittsburgh sports fan, having latched onto the Pirates in 1974 at the tender age of 9 y/o, but my secondary sports city is Chicago, especially since there is only a modicum of overlap. I root for the NFC Bears (I graduated from J. P. MCaskey H. S. & Virginia McCaskey still lives locally); the 'Hawks (with the greatest logo in sports) & the CHISOX, plus I try to get to the City of the Big Shoulders at least once a year. My last two visits were November 2014 and June 2015, so I am beginning to jones for a return. In fact, it's making me A Little Crazy.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22072/77606/?ba=woodychandler

Y'see, I met this Revolutionary chick named Rosa on my last visit and it's that old story of boy meets girl and ...

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22072/70644/?ba=woodychandler

I'll be back before we segue into Late Night to re-gale you with more tales of the Windy City (get it?).

 

what an amazing narrative and description Maria! Made me wipe the drool off my phone many times. I have come to believe after a long stint of tasting lots of DIPAs and IPAs that while a lot of those famous ones ( Heady, Double SOS, MBC dinner, Swish etc ) are complex and awesome, more often then not, I crave for joys of drinking a solid pale ale. I find it truly comparable to a dish where it's simple enough to enjoy each part of its flavor yet never overwhelming. Cheers!

 

Hope you have loads of fun watching the opera! I have never been to an opera myself and wondered if it will be as moving as it is to the opera lovers, especially most often it is in language that is foreign. But then, even English is a second language for me. Nothing like a common language of a good craft brew!
Cheers.

 

New RIS, American Made, Sunday!

Good morning from The Jersey Shore where a great beer is capping off another great week. The thermometer is forecast for a 60 degree reading today. I may head to the driving range later to knock some rust off the "swing". With that in mind, I started early this morning:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/user/beers/?ba=NiceTaps



What happened to the "NEW" in some NBS entries, I wonder?

All the best!

 

Yes, the Opera is long. But it is also widely regarded by many to be among the 10 best ever written. For me one key that opened a door to enjoying Opera was when I realized that the stories were almost incidental to the music and staging and that I should listen to the voices as being part of the instrumentation of the music and not worry that I didn't understand the words.

Hope you enjoy the production.

 

Yesterday's life lesson was "How to replace the heating element in your dryer" and after watching a YouTube video and spending $50 (I got off cheap, luckily) I succeeded. You can learn how to do just about anything on YouTube.

I'm dog tired after yesterday, but trying a new beer from Kona should perk me up. I like just about everything I've tried from Kona except their Koko Brown. I bought a 12 pack mixer this week and I was pretty happy with every beer, and today Castaway IPA gets the NBS call.

Look: The head is as rocky as sea foam, and I can assure you that it leaves spectacular lacing -- wicked foamy bands all the way down my nucleated Samuel Smiths glass.

Aroma: Sweet mango keeps popping through the mostly spicy aroma.

Taste: Where did the tropical fruits go? The taste is more cedar wood and spicy, peppery hops. Just a hint of fruit.

Mouthfeel: 6% ABV, pretty clean and dry.

Overall: Pretty good, I rated it 3.79, just a small positive rDev.

I will be back next Sunday with a beer I've seen on BA a lot and always wanted to try, so I can't wait for next weekend. Cheers!

And I'm sorry, but I had to post this: Literally one of my all-time favorite films, I've watched it at least 10 times.

 

Good morning friends,
I have a back and knee problem, so the hounds are out with Martha. It is strikingly beautiful out, going to end up being warm..and I am ambulatory, barely.
Today's beer is Sierra Nevada Hop Hunter. This one is beyond fresh, maybe made tomorrow, but damned it is so very tasty, yellow in the glass with a persisting white cap. The hop/malt/alcohol balance suits me well. The Sierra Nevada 12 packs are a wonder. I buy Sierra Nevada beers as a love for their commitment to the area. They really are all good. Martha drinks the Torpedoes; they just hurt me because I usually want more than two beers!



These tunes are easy to not give credit to, but we should. My sister in law said, "I don't do the Beach Boys", but these guys really sing. They are vocal masters.

 

With that Hop Hunter in your glass it sounds to me as though you are coping well. Having recently revisited the beer I'm thinking it's a prime candidate for my favorite IPA from Sierra Nevada.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Maria, did you try the Sue brewed in Florida, or the one made in Iowa? Some people say there is a difference, with the nod going to the a Iowa version. I've only tried the Iowa version, and it was world class. I remember it looking much more cloudy and unfiltered than your pic, though. Cheers!

 

I am very excited for BIFx3. The NBS BIFs are such a great display of everything that's great about this shared hobby and the community we've created in this corner of the infosphere. I highly recommend anyone on the fence about it take the plunge. You won't regret it (well at least until you look at your credit card bill/waist line...).


So that's new. Wasn't even the right bus I was running for!


I'm generally not a fan of 'Session' IPAs. I'm a grumpy old man. I've made peace with this. Mostly. It's one of the trends of late that just raises my hackles completely irrationally. Most of the time it feels like it's really just an APA that they wanted to have stand out from the crowd via (mis-)labeling. Or it's just a watered down shadow of something for which it's better suited. Or one time even it just tasted like grassy soap. No joke. Occasionally, however, a beer will come along that bucks this trend, and even this curmudgeonly old Ebeneezer has to let his guard down and admit that he's come across a damn tasty beer that's not overly filling and has a low enough alcohol content (relatively speaking, of course) that one could potentially enjoy a plethora of this potently potable production.

Overdub is one such beer.

It holds absolutely no sway over the final ratings, but there is something satisfyingly visceral about a textured can, such as the one boasted by this fine offer from Astoria's Fort George.
-Once it escapes said tactile delight the pour is a golden straw colour that belongs to prop glasses and movie sets. The head is large wet bubbles and settles to a sense and finds its comfort. Large lazy bubbles work their way northward over time.
-The nose promises long afternoons and so fresh and so clean clean an experience that it seems more than anything an anachronism in the winter doldrums of February. Juicy tropical fruit and citrus lead the way.
-Taste dials the juice back a touch, though maintains the fresh clean rating. Airy. Breezy. Like vaulted ceilings and exposed beams. Late afternoon in late summer with light filtering through the leaves. Over-wrought metaphors and descriptors that would encourage an eye roll from any middle school english teacher. WHY IS IT FEBRUARY IN AN APARTMENT IN THE CITY??!?!?
-Anyway, yeah I like it.


She does that skeptical/exasperated teenager look altogether too well.



Cheers everyone, hope you enjoy your sunday and the beverage with which you choose to greet the hour!

 

Like many of you, I love the anticipation that comes with beer trades. Checking the tracking numbers each day, gleefully opening the box, unwrapping the bubble wrap enclosed beverages... it's like Christmas, but with less booze and sliced ham. This particular bottle made the trip from Florida to Wisconsin curtesy of @Bprowell The trade took a little longer than each of us would have liked due to Wisconsin sometimes emulating a frozen hell, but this bottle was worth the wait.

Opened and shared this with a couple of friends for game night, including @robear . The moment you pull the cap off the bottle you know you're in for something interesting. That maple nose oozes out of the bottle reminiscent of a Looney Toons cartoon pie lifting characters off the ground through the physical forces of amazing aromas. Syrup covered pancakes all the way.

We pretty much all agreed that the midlevel ABV worked better than something in the imperial range. A huge ABV would have been distracting, and added unnecessary sweetness to a beer that's already well balanced. Interestingly, the coffee didn't seem all that strong in the taste. It was there, but certainly took a backseat to the maple. Similarly, the bacon wasn't at all overpowering either as you often find in "bacon" flavored brews. Overall, an outstanding balance from the tip of the tongue all the way to the backbone.

 

Maria, if you're doing that pairing for breakfast, can I please be invited? Pleeeease?

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to the inimitable @utopiajane for getting this hulk out of the harbor,

Out in the half-light (more like ¾ light at this point) there’s a tiny bit of pinkness to the east, but the sky is mostly assuming the slate gray color of “mostly cloudy.” Right now it’s 35, but it’s supposed to climb to the low 50s. Normally I'd just be stumbling out of bed right now, but I'm up early because I worked a graveyard shift Friday night/Saturday morning, then tried to power through, failed and crashed around 6PM, then fitfully awoke and crashed again throughout the night.

On the New Beer front, Monday I paid a long overdue visit to a local restaurant specializing in craft beer called The Blackbird. Located in an old dairy building on the northeast side of Riverfront Park, The Blackbird specializes in a kind of modern-southern fusion style of food. Everything seemed geared towards a contrast of sweet and salty. I popped in specifically to try Mount St. Humulous, a 3IPA from Bale Breaker, and accompanied it with Bacon Fat Popcorn(!) that was actually rather good, if quite greasy. How was the beer?

As Triple IPAs go, this was quite drinkable. Maybe not as easy to drink as a couple of the insidiously strong and don't taste like it ,draft-only, wake up in another state hop monsters Iron Goat has done, but in that ballpark. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31389/212915/?ba=woemad. A 12oz can of this would be awesome, Bale Breaker. Just sayin’.

Also on tap that day was a Black IPA from Paradise Creek, one that I’d thought I’d already had. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23312/168239/?ba=woemad. I see on BA we’re now calling this style the American Black Ale. Whatever you call it, it was very tasty. It reminds me more of a hoppy, robust stout than an IPA, but there’s still plenty of “Lupular Fallout” in this beer.

Not sure what I’ll be back with later on today, but I’ve plenty of choices. I’ve still a couple of winter warmers that need dispatching and a local coffee beer on deck as well, and even a Scottish Ale brewed by a Belgian brewery located in Idaho.

‘til then, cheers!

 

Hah! My first opera was "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in German with German subtitles, all 12 hours, more or less. After that, nothing else counts. But I can't complain - it was self-inflicted. But seriously, you must be very proud!