New Beer Sunday (week 580)

Good morning @cavedave ! We did not get that much snow last night but I am ready for New Beer Sunday! I have a Tripel and I am waiting a little while to crack it open. I was just saying I haven't been cooking much lately because it was starting to get warmer. I mean I was thinking wildflowers were coming.

 

This brew pours a cloudy straw/golden color with a 1.5 finger head which hangs around as a collar and moderate lacing.
The smell is full of grapefruit, orange and pine. There is also lemon and other citrus flavors.
The taste follows the nose with the grapefruit and orange dominating followed by lemon, kiwi, tangelo; just loaded with citrus flavors. The underlying malt is sweet; it tastes like there might be some honey in there. The finish is slightly dry with pine resin remaining on the tongue after swallowing. It is really amazing how this beer can be so hoppy but not a palate shredder; it is actually very mild on the palate while being filled with hops. Wow.

 

Spring has officially sprung here in Kansas, so it will be a lot of lighter beers for me for the foreseeable future, except for this one bottle here. I'm finding it easier to tick Ballast Point by buying $3 single bottles instead of $16 six packs It felt amazing yesterday to mow my lawn for the first time this year, rake and bag leaves, cut up some old wood, and work in the warm sunshine.

Watermelon Dorado -- ABV 10%

It's pure copper colored with a very thick cream colored head that doesn't recede much at all as it leaves massive sheets of lacing. I smell just enough watermelon fruitiness to let me know its present, otherwise a good combination of malty sweetness and piny hops. The beer tastes much like the aroma, and I will admit it gets a bit thick. Sticky sweet watermelon emerges and is taken away by exremely bitter grapefruit rind and pine. The mouthfeel is that of mollasses. I have to drink it with a knife to cut through it. Very heavy.

Overall, about what I expected. I think if it was a bit thinner it would help. I neither hate it or love it. The watermelon is about right, but I don't think it pairs well with hops.

Looks good, smells good, tastes okay, feels awful. This one is a mixed bag.

3.49 rating +0.6 rDev

 

Morning everyone and Happy New Beer Sunday. I have to admit I wish we had gotten the snow the rest of you did but that's ok. Spring is lurking for a few days I guess. This one is called Tripel Witch and it's from Roosterfish Brewing. There was no date on the bottle and the abv is 9.5%. Cheers!

Happy New American Belgian Style Tripel



Pours hazy yellow with a fruity orange blush. Scant head of white bubbles that fell to a ring. Stream of effervescence. Nose is breaddy . Light dried herbal, sweet floral, soft light candi sugar,clove and spice. it's perfumey with honey. Taste is a good strong malty presence with sweet underpinnings. Citric fruitiness and spice with the clove sneaking out a bit too much which kept fullness from the flavors . It's soft in the middle and drinks sweetly with a little warmth from alcohol. I thought the alcohol was unmasked a bit too much in the finish. Bitterness was strong and there was a lingering dryness and bitterness in the aftertaste with some of that citrus fruitiness.

Have a great day everyone!

Timothy Wisdom and the Funk Hunters

 

My son's 7th birthday, so not much time for a big review. Many thanks @jzeilinger for this really impressive coffee stout, I personally love all the coffee stouts flooding the market. Pours almost completely black, with an a very attractive light brown head, that leaves behind wonderful sticky lace. 4.25

Smell is roasted coffee grounds, vanilla, dark chocolate, and some biscuity grain. 4.75 Taste follows really a huge roasted coffee bomb and that is not a complaint, vanilla and dark chocolate come in the roasty dry finish. 4.75

Mouthfeel is pretty hefty, moderate carbonation excellent, definitely dry, and for 10.5%ABV excellent drinkability. 4.75

Overall this was just world class, I do dig the coffee beers and this stands out with all the others. 4.75

 

Good morning New BSers! @cavedave - thanks for the always alliterative openings - be careful in the snow, it cBetion of Reveal Day, i.e. next Sunday! The non-IPAs are impatiently awaiting their turn, soon to be cooled to 42 degrees. Anyone not currently involved in BIF (Beer It Forward) would be well advised to consider joining - it's a fun several weeks of trying to figure out who your sender is and dropping clues for your target, not to mention the FANTASTIC selection of beers you will receive! Anyway...

Today's NBS entry is one from one of my favorite breweries - Terrapin!



I know, I know - another designer weird ingredient beer. Wrong! This is the winner of an internal employee brewing contest. Think about that for a moment - a brewery's internal contest among brewers, bottlers, sales people, i.e. beer devotees and geeks. Sounds like a possible winner to me.

Bomber for $ 7.98 ($ 0.362/oz) at State Line Liquors, Elkton, MD
Bottle dated 12.07.2016 at 42 degrees into hand washed and dried JK snifter
Aroma of yeast phenolics, fades throughout drinking time
Head large (Four cm, aggressive pour), off white, creamy, diminishing to irregular 10 to 14 mm lacy ring and heaped partial layer
Lacing excellent – wide band of tiny to small bubbles
Body medium yellow, slight haze, effervescent
Flavor odd. Some yeastiness but the peppercorns add a tartness, not unpleasant, just unusual. Any hops are voted down in the yeast/peppercorn alliance. No malt, no alcohol, no diacetyl.
Palate medium, more than watery but less than creamy, lively carbonation

Appearance 4.5, Aroma 3.5, Flavor 3.5, Palate 4, Overall 4. Rating 3.71, Avg 3.75, rDev -1.1%

Would I buy this again? Yepper. Would I buy a case of this? No - it's OK for an occasional one-and-done, but for a steady diet, not so much.

And by the way Maria, even though the weather's warming up a little, we still gots ta eat!

 

I made a mac and cheese this morning first thing. =)

 

Hey Cave Dave, come to the Dirty South - 75 and sunny today!!! I'll be celebrating with a new beer or two later. In the meantime, enjoying my coffee on the deck.

 

Hello NBS! I'm not a morning drinker, but I did open a new (for me) beer last night after midnight in the wake of Syracuse's defeat at the hands of dreaded NC. Does that count for NBS?

Assuming yes, my new beer is Otra Vez, a gose style ale from Sierra Nevada. Brewed with cactus and grapefruit, as per the lable. Pours an almost clear yellow with three fingers white head.

Don't know what cactus smells or tastes like, but the nose is tangy lemon. Taste is fresh, crisp and tangy. The grapefruit is there to add some sour, but not a bitter grapefruit rind taste as you get in some IPAs. There's a slight saltiness in the aftertaste that encourages the next sip. As you work your way through the glass, the saltiness gathers in the back of your throat like after a swim in the ocean. Yet the overall effect is refreshing.

This would be great hot weather beer, or great for lunch with a low 4.5 ABV you can reason with. According to my ticking notes I've tried only one other gose: Second Self from Atlanta. Gotta try more. Otra Vez is a nice beer.

Cheers!

 

No new beers this week that I ended up with interesting pictures worth sharing, and not really the most exciting week of drinking in the Angerhaus house. Just some crockpot cooking with a bit of tequila in it for flavor.

 

10.5% alcohol. Introduced in 2013. Brewed in Belgium.

4.44/5 rDev +12.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

This beer literally exploded out of the bottle, with just the slightest crack of the seal. I had to clean up a big mess on the office carpet. The appearance is amber-copper, with a thick, spongy, off-white head, racing bubbles (to say the least), and heavy lacing. The beer is semi-cloudy (sediment swished and poured). Aroma is of cellar mold, caramel, apples, spice apple cobbler, toffee, bubble gum, and odd hop oils. Taste is of all that, with a decently bold, yet not harsh, hop bitterness to balance out the sweetness. Mouthfeel is high medium (almost heavy), and Piraat Triple Hop finishes on the dry side. I'm upset that it exploded, because I lost about 2 ounces of the 11.2 ounces in the bottle.

RJT

 

Hill Farmstead Everett vs. Jack’s Robust Porter

Through fortuitous circumstances I was able to obtain some Hill Farmstead Everett. I figured that it would be appropriate to use this beer for a Battle of the Titans!!!

I should first caveat some aspects of this Battle Royale:

The Everett beer is fresh. My Robust Porter is non-fresh; it was bottled on 10/20/15 so about 5 months old now. IMO this beer peaked in mid-February but it is still drinking very nicely.

I should also point out that my homebrewed Robust Porter was intended to be a clone of Hill Farmstead Everett; I leveraged a recipe that was in the October 2013 issue of BYO magazine.

I enlisted my wife to help me so that I could drink these beers blind (not knowing which of the two beers I was drinking).

Test Number 1: Triangle Test



My wife poured the beers into three sample size glasses with two of the same beer being the same. The purpose of the triangle test is to see whether the taste tester can correctly identify the two beers that are the same. I did indeed note a difference after sniffing all three samples and taking one sip from each glass. My wife indicated that I did properly identify the two same beers. So, needless to say there was for me a recognizable/perceptible difference between the two beers (Everett vs. my homebrewed Robust Porter).

Test Number 2: Side-by-Side Taste Test



Served in my Spiegelau Stout/Porter glasses; I will refer to one beer as “A” and the other as “B”.

Appearance:

A: A deep brown color with a thin tan head.

B: The same

Aroma:

A: Dark malt flavors of cocoa, coffee and some sweetness to the nose as well.

B: Dark malt flavors of cocoa, coffee, and also a bit of licorice as well.

Taste:

A: The flavor follows the nose; dark malt flavors as detailed above.

B: The flavor follows the nose; dark malt flavors as detailed above.

Mouthfeel:

A: Medium body with a chewy mouthfeel; a semi-sweet finish.

B: Medium body with a silky mouthfeel; a semi-sweet finish.

Overall:

A: Excellent

B: Slightly more excellent.

So, it is now time for the big reveal!!

My wife informed me that A = my homebrewed Robust Porter and obviously B is the Hill Farmstead Everett.

So, I did not 100% replicate Everett but I would suggest that I got 95% ‘there’ which is as good as I am ever likely going to get with cloning a beer.

One thing I know with 100% certitude is that I did not brew with the same yeast strain as Shaun Hill since he uses a ‘house’ yeast. Also I know that I did not use the same brewing water. How closely I came to replicating the grain bill….?

Cheers to Shaun Hill (Hill Farmstead) for making OUTSTANDING beers!

Jack

@telejunkie[/USER] @rotsaruch @SFACRKnight

 

Evil Twin BA Biscotti Break

A real treat! Barrel presence is just right on this one, not overpowering. Really accentuates the flavors of the base beer.

Was lucky enough to pick up 2-3.

Rated 4.25

 

Ha! Our rating avg came out exactly the same. Though I didn't find the smell to have much, I loved the taste and feel. I recall having it on tap and getting 3 pours instead of trying another beer; that happens rarely. Of course, being out, I only rated it with no notes - so I can't compare particulars .

 

Mikellar brunch weasel
Imperial oat meal stout Brewed with civet cat coffee. 10.9% ABV
Good morning dear NBSers! Awesome start by the pillars and harbingers of this forum, as always. I decided to cross the Atlantic and splurge into this offering by Mikkeller. I am a big time coffee lover (roast and hand grind my beans) so it was ok to justify paying 10$ for a 12 oz bottle. After it is made with Vietnamese ca phe chon coffee, which is humane version of Kopi Luwak- world's most expensive coffee.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

Pouring in my snifter, I see a rich viscous obsidian black fluid hugging the glass and producing an evanescent tan head.
As I marvel at it, there it comes, the luring aroma of coffee. Mixed with the layers of roasty dark chocolate with sweet nutty notes in it. Maybe some dark fruit and even vanilla.
I have to clarify that she's not the best smelling coffee stout I have had.
Sipping it, roasty malts and intense coffee. Lots of dark dark chocolate. Coffee delivers in terms of not being bitter or burnt yet intense, which is hallmark of civet coffee. I taste dried prunes and almost a boozy liquor like (rum or sherry truffles) in the backend.
It has a very very smooth slick feel thanks to the oats. And the taste lingers and lingers like a sloth climbing a sequoia.
It is truly heavenly delight and absolutely worth it. I don't think I will buy this in big volumes (too many good and slightly more affordable stouts to try still) but certainly an occasional treat.
Cheers!

 

Awesome stuff Jack!! Loved the review and thanks to wives (other halfs) everywhere who facilitate blind tastings. I make mine help me all the time. Now, if there only some way you were to make Jack's Robust porter more easily available, it'd be a different story...

 

Great review, as always, Maria! I especially loved the last pic- impressions of a good time left on snow on the railing. just like the tibetian monk's sand mandala
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala , it suggests the impermanence of life. Marvel it while it is there and be happy when it melts and let it go Cheers

 

Morning NBS'ers. I didn't get any snow, but its a bitter 15 degrees out! Figured I would warm myself up from the inside out with this beauty. I'll move onto some of my NBS BIF #3 prizes a bit later!



4.74/5 rDev +5.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

Fresh Growlerette poured into a snifter. Provided to me by @MilesM123 , a gentleman and a scholar.

Look: Golden, hint of yellow brightening it up a bit, mostly clear, just a slight hoppy haze. Foamy white head quickly settles into thin cap and ring around the glass. Lacing for days clings effortlessly to the side of the glass as I sip and ponder.

Smell: Instant big wave of hoppy goodness the second I uncap the Growler. Bold and forward aroma, spicy hops, earthy, dank. A bit of sweetness comes through balancing all the earthy scents into one mouthwatering whiff.

Taste: Definitely following the nose, big earthy hops up front, pine, spice, floral, hint of citrus zest. Not juicy, big and bold earthy hop flavors. Dankness and desire would be two words I would use if I was only allowed to use two words.

Feel: A rich mouthfeel, you can tell your drinking a bold brew. Not heavy like a stout, but not at all light on the tongue. Moderate carbonation.

Overall: This has been one I have been trying to get my hands on for a while, I had really high expectations, and it met them, actually above and beyond them. Often I am underwhelmed by the highly rated IPA's I get from afar, but this brew was worth the wait. One of my local favorites is Second Fiddle, it is different than almost all of the big east coast hoppy brews with an original hop profile. This is very similar, and fits my flavor needs perfectly.

 

Enjoyed this post!