New Beer Sunday (week 576)

good late sunday afternoon. about 2 hours ago at the beer bistro in west loop Chicago


me and the boys threw a few (15) of these back, Founders dry hopped ipa nitro on tap 10 oz. pour
after the charge settled down in a few minutes, a nice orange hue, very dense active head that remained.
beautiful hop balance that had good citrus notesof grapefruit.leaves a touch of bitterness on tongue.

if you see this , by all means, try! cheers!

 

Swtiching it up a bit...

La Drôlesse - Brasserie Sancerroise


Brasserie Sancerroise - La Drôlesse by imbibehour, on Flickr

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Poured from the bottle into a Libbey style pilsner glass.

A mix of rust and slightly murky brown to orange for a body color. Manages a fleeting three finger very soapy pinhead bubbled head, that settles to a good half finger puck. A bit of fine carbonation, but the murkiness manages a bit of displeasure.

Manages a very solid clean caramel, and good mix of toasty malts. Pretty straightforward but gets the basics down nicely. Has a hint of slight crispy toffee note as well, if a faint bit of almost banana like sweetness.

For a lager there's quite a bit going on here. Clean but also some light toffee sweetness and hints of honey. Finishes with a bit of strong almost fruity estery yeast qualities of apple and banana. Great solid malt backbone with decent depth and an almost candy apple chewy quality.

Interesting take on a lager, certainly solid and decent if pretty straightforward.

look: 3.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | BA Generated Score: 3.96

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Howdy, all! Everybody seems to be drinking delicious beers and generally enjoying Sunday so far. I'm glad to be a small part of it. It was an absolutely beautiful day here in Montreal today. It definitely felt like spring and now due to it being March it feels a little more like it might stick. You never know, though.

For my beer today I am drinking my first beer from Funkwerks out of Fort Collins. I picked this one up while I was back there for a visit this last month and I have been really excited to try it.



An "Imperial" Saison that apparently came about due to the addition of a bunch of Munich Malt to a batch of their Saison with a bunch of Rakau hops.



It definitely has a much richer, thicker body than what I associate with a saison. The flavor is very fruity with a lot of spicy yeast notes (pizza dough clover, white pepper) and rich, smooth malt in the background. The fruit characters of the yeast and the hops seem to jive really well (at least to my palate) with lots of nectarine, orange and mango flavors.

The best part in my opinion, though, is the barely perceptible hint of tartness in the finish that only adds depth to the rich, fruity aroma and flavor of the beer.

Fancy diagonal shot:


All in all this is a very good beer and I throughly enjoyed it (although technically speaking I still can't use the Past tense, as I haven't quite finished it yet ).

I would be really curious to try the saison with just the extra hop addition (they might actually brew that for all I know). The malty body and heft of it was nice, but I really prefer a saison to be a little lighter and drier cause I feel like the body and the yeast kind of start to smother me after a while in beers like this one. Irregardless, this is a very good beer, I would recommend trying it if you like belgian-styles.

Have a great evening, everybody!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24075/75497/?ba=TheDoctor

I just this second realized that today is the three year anniversary of me making an account here instead of lurking in the virtual shadows! Huzzah! I have tons of fun here and hope to continue for a while.

 

Onto a Coastal Brewing Red Wine Barrel Midnight in the Garden Imp Stout. Damn, this is some brew.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26714/206966/?ba=cindyjeffsmith

 

sorry to hear about the drain pour!, I like pipeworks, but not everything! sounds like your fed up tho.cheers!

 

Good Evening NBSers and Thanks @cavedave for kicking things off. Thanks to @PatrickCT for hosting Crate Night yesterday and to all who participated. I personally had a blast well into the night. It was great to just sit down and relax and pull out loads of vinyl.... and drink loads of beers. Had a brief conversation with Patrick today and we will be doing it again soon. With possible prize(s) to be given out for various - well whatever we feel like awarding. Ill contribute some beer stuff.
Anyhow I received this from a case purchased by @HoppedChef84- Thank You. I know @NotAlcoholicJustAHobby just reviewed but hey I'm a gonna drink this!!
STONEFACE BREWING HOPULIZATION DIPA

Pours a nice burnished gold with a creamy lingering head that leaves a world- map like lacing. Paler in the color for DIPA

Aroma is an explosion of grapefruit and lemon/lime along with tropical scents of pineapple and mango with a hint of pine and weed and some alcohol.

Flavor follows with citrus and tropical fruits and a delicious dankness from the malts. Flavor of dry hopping lingers for minutes. There is just a hint of alcohol for me. Like many of these DIPA's I enjoy this more on the warmer side. too cold and the flavors are muted. As the beer warmed everything melded and the alcohol all but disappeared. Great brew.

Feel is creamy low carb that leaves that hoppy sensation and that wonderful signature soft water mouthfeel I love from all of Stoneface brews.

Fabtastic (yes- sp!) brew that - don't shoot me- reminds me a little of Sip o Sunshine in its hop profile but not quite as sweet in the malt bill. Gonna agree with NAJAH- a seeker. And its a shame its not more readily available. I do have one issue with Stoneface though: Distro is very nice hear now- all the basics are on the shelf their APA, IPA etc. Stuff is sitting in some locals.....please join in and DATE YOUR BOTTLES!!
And even with Crate Night I still gotta have my NOVS- Bob Welch was an underrated musician and songwriter. His hit album French Kiss. Thanks for listening and oh BIF #3 - my first I'm excited!. Have a great week, see you next time.

 

On to the third beer of NBS... glad to have friends to share with or I'd be dead by now, I'm pretty sure.



Singlecut's Heavy Boots of Lead has been a beer hyped up to me by staff at the local Craft Beer Cellar, who had somehow managed to have it on tap at various locations while I had never had the luck to stumble upon it. Very glad it's being bottled now so I can finally drink a glass!

A wispy, short-lasting dollop of tan foam tops off a pitch-black stout pour. Normal looking with very slight lace show. If swirled around slightly, suds seem to cling lightly to the glass for a few seconds and dissipate for the most part.

Nose is very interesting to me. From reviews I was expecting to be bombarded with heavy chocolate and roasty malt, but it actually feels very balanced upon first impression. There's a slightly green/vegetal scent kicking around (almost reminds me of green peppers for whatever reason) but I also do get a modest amount of dark chocolate with very slight suggestions of the vanilla bean. It's moderately earthy and dusty with a mild yeasty presence. A little roasted hazelnut and English toffee as well.

Flavor is fudgy and full of lots of deep chocolate notes. Leans sweet and sugary with a round palate consisting of roasty malts in the forefront followed by the rather refreshing taste of vanilla. No coffee was used in this beer but I still get some espresso flavors regardless, which works with the smooth mouthfeel. Lingering bitterness lasts through the finish. Earthy and lightly piney with a "charred pine needle" aspect poking through here and there.

Very nice beer here. Heavy and thick feel; very much befitting of the name and Black Sabbath reference... but we're listening to another kind of depressing music right now.

 

Yeah- in this day and age there are so many other beers to choose from that I would prefer not to take any more chances after the same issue has come up numerous times. Maybe you are getting fresher stuff closer to home. I could definitely see the appeal of their stuff if that flaw wasn't there.

 

youre stuff is awesome! but can you please tell us something about it? especially that one since it changes on hop/malt regularly....its what we do here. unless I missed something.....

 

freshness may be an issue! cheers!

 

I added my review!

Can, about a month old, purchased the day after EBF at the brewery.

Look: This beer pours pretty hazy, yellow, with a thick and super frothy head. The head lasts and lasts, slowly coating the side of my snifter as I sip and settling into a whispy ring around the glass.

Smell: Mostly tropical aroma including definitely hinting towards mango. A lot of citrus, zest and rind comes through as well. Slight dankness is there as well. Very inviting.

Taste: The flavor is more bitter, earthy, and lemon citrus. A bit of a change from what I was expecting from the aroma. I still get a bit of mango and there is a dank finish

Feel: Medium body, moderate carbonation. The carbonation remains active and keeps the head fairly stable.

Overall: Purchased two cans of each of their hoppy offerings. All are easy drinking, smooth, and crisp. Not as in your face as their two big name IPA producers, but a great drinking brew. I have had other Morph iterations, and this one was one of the best I have tried.

 

Added my review a few posts down!

 

Singlecut Does Anybody Remember Laughter IPA

Led Zeppelin beer? Yes, please. Even if it is named after a line from Stairway.

This pours hazy orange with a finger and a half of white head and soapy lacing. The nose has lemon, flowers, a little orange, a little pineapple and other tropical notes -- reminds me of a saison without the yeast or spice. There's a rye-like, peppery bitterness up front in the taste, with some watered-down citrus in the middle, and then more bitterness. It's 120-something IBUs, and you taste them. Medium bodied, with a prickly and fairly-dry mouthfeel. Pretty good stuff.

I didn't have any vinyl to spin yesterday, but I did watch Vinyl on HBO in celebration. The first episode has somebody playing Robert Plant.

 

Sweet now I'm gonna see if I can get some. Based on what you said I feel the same way- couple of the Morphs have been underwhelming but that one sounds pretty good. Thanks!

 

I DVR ed that. Cant wait to watch.

 

I am one lucky SOB.
Yet another gift from a customer (along with Trillium Free Rise!)


Not as hazy as some, but more hazy than most. Ruby red grapefruit leads the charge of citrus notes on the nose. Taste follows the nose pretty closely, which is a prerequisite for a world class beer. Finish of grapefruit rind, which is OK in my book. As for mouthfeel, very full feel. Overall, not quite the juice bomb of their counterparts in Monson, but still a very well done example of what has been recently referred to as a New England IPA. Big thanks to the donor!

 

Second new one tonight. This is Curlew's Toasted Porter from Chandeleur Brewing out of Gulfport, MS. These guys just started distributing up my way, so I thought I would give a few of their brews a try.

Overall, this is solid coconut porter / brown ale. I was looking for a bit more coconut, and would prefer Death by Coconut over it, but it's still a very nice beer.



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/39467/162366/?ba=richj1970

 

Edit: I'm two thirds through the Rhinegeist Mastodon BSDA and I feel I need to revise my enthusiastic comments slightly.

It took a turn downward as I started to pick up a slightly unpleasant medicinal taste. Reminds me of Sam Adams Thirteenth Hour, which I very much wanted to love, but couldn't. I like this better than SATH, but I probably won't purchase it again despite a fairly reasonable $9.99 price. Makes me appreciate some of the great American BSDAs from Brooklyn, North Coast, AleSmith, etc. The great authentic Belgian SDAs always go from delicious to better as I drink though them, leaving me wanting more, More, MORE! Not so with Mastodon.

Just noticed this beer has some great initial BA reviews, so it could just be me.

 

I believe if you look closely at the label there is a date stamped on it. On the bottle I had it was on the rt side of the label beneath the government warning. Mine was a little rubbed off, but I was able to read it. Not all of them are legible. I confirmed the placement on my bottle of APA which was actually readable.