New Beer Sunday (week 580)

Happy NBS!!! Spring is really having some fun in WI. Yesterday it was non stop quick bursts of snow squalls passing through, then very sunny, over and over.... all day long. Temps were in the 30's and it was very windy. Today you ask? It will be in the mid 60s with a warm breeze. Well then, how about tomorrow? Get the winter coat back out because it is only going to be in the low 30s for a high. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



This is my first Modern Times beer courtesy of @Stillyman11 from the NBS BIF 3. He sent me a superb box with ALL new beer for me to enjoy. I'm pumped!

It has a pleasant aroma of rich, dark, coffee with both bitter and sweet aromas. Good roasted malt with a hint of bakers chocolate. Not quite as good as the nose, but enjoyable. Bitter malts and coffee flavor up front. I pick up some bakers chocolate in the middle. Finish is bitter with a big roasted malt flavor. It is medium bodied, smooth, somewhat creamy finish. This is not an imperial coffee stout but it still has a very good flavor and feel to it.

 

Maria, can you please join the next BIF and send us your home made food.

 

There's a dusting of snow here in NEOhio as well. Thankfully not 3" though it's only one degree above freezing right now. March went out like a lamb but then April decided to play mean tricks... so much for any yard work!
A friend tipped me off this was sitting at a local shop I hadn't visited before (Shoregate in Willowick) and I grabbed the last bottle they had. Needless to say I'll be back, my only issue is they don't offer 12oz bottles/cans as singles. Still a nice selection.



What a fantastic beer! Like I said in the "overall" this beer really nails the Belgian style, tons of black pepper all while keeping the hops turned up to 11.

4.37/5 rDev +3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
22oz bottle dated 2/26/16 poured into a FFF Teku glass
A: Dark orange, slightly hazy with a 1.5 finger head
S: Bold with pine/resin and tropical fruit from the hops backed up by nice Belgian yeast & black pepper notes
T: Bold freshly cracked black pepper initially, followed by a yeasty midpalate then the hops kick in on the finish
M: Fresh, crisp, balanced with no alcohol showing; somewhat spicy between the pepper & hop bitterness
O: Another one the folks at FFF knock out of the park. Nice to see how well they integrate the hops while keeping the Belgian yeast/style showing

 

Scale Tipper and Elevated are topnotch. Put the Southwest on the map with regards to hops. @ONovoMexicano did you sooo right. As for Project Dank...I've only heard great things, never had the pleasure.

 

Wow, they have really changed the label since I last had that beer.

 

Apple Blossom Brewing Company's HayRide Pumlkin Chocolate Porter
L - 4 pours a dark rich black body with a thick creamy lingering khaki head
S - 3.75 pumpkin banana coffe toffe
T - 4 pumpkin coffe toffe up front with dark chocolate after taste
F - 4.5 extremely smooth light feel with no carbonation
O - 4 this is a great Porter that I could enjoy again

 

Good day NBS crew! A lot of new beer choices to sample, but I'm going to start with one of the two growlers that our gracious host @cavedave sent in his two stellar NBS/BIF boxes. Dave has been keeping me busy with reviews the past few days, and today is no exception! Cracked the seal on Rushing Duck Brewing Co. Beanhead coffee porter. I believe the abv. is 5.7% and I'm poring this jug in my 13oz. stout/porter glass. Let's see what awaits us?

Pours a thin cola brown color leaving a finger of tan foam that settles to a thin ring. The carbonation appears to have held up very well. It's aroma is pure dark roast coffee with a touch of smoke. Flavor is once again dominated by bold dark roast coffee, some bitter dark chocolate, and smoke. The feel is thin, but nicely carbonated with a hint of bitterness.



A pretty solid coffee forward beer that tastes like cold pressed coffee. It lacks in complexity like some of the bigger porters and that would surely elevate this beer to the next level. Perhaps my palate is jaded from consuming too many coffee stouts? That aside it's a great beer to get your coffee fix and the abv. is low enough so you can enjoy multiple pours without the huge alcohol buzz. My score was 3.96 / rDev +1.8%.

Thank you once again Dave! I'll be back later with more goodies from my haul. Enjoy your Sunday, I'm stoked to once again watch baseball later tonight! After snow and cold yesterday, it feels more like spring once again. I'll drink to that!

I don't see a link to review anymore on the page with the reviews. Has the new format thrown me, or is it gone?

Edit: Found it!

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29800/85358/?ba=Prager62#review

 

I'd trade the farm for some of that grub.

I can fix that man. We'll talk when I get my $ right. Haha.

 

Hey NBSers,
Been a pretty boring week here in Montreal Did my first walk of the spring summer fall season hit 10km or 6.2 miles which for the first one felt pretty good. Other than that there hasn't been all that much going on around here.

My first beer today comes from Brasseurs Illimites in St-Eustache Quebec. Its a small city north of Montreal on the very outskirts of the Montreal Metro Area. This is their Simple Malt IPA Classique (English IPA) Simple malt is not the term I would equate with this beer as my review will state. All the same its average none the less. Cheers!

3.67/5 rDev +3.4%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

Appearance - This beer pours a dark amber red color with 2 fingers of off white head, The head stays and carbonation seems lively but There are chunks floating around in the beer and they dont look very nice. I get unfiltered but chunks like this are a no no regardless.

Aroma - Caramel, roasted nuts, toffee, brown sugar, molasses, some dark fruits, lemon, grapefruit, and floral hops. Like an English IPA should the malts hold up the hops but the aroma's just don't mesh the way they should in my mind, Its a good smell but not spectacular.

Taste - Buscuity malts hit my tongue first followed by caramel, toffee, molasses, some brown sugar, this is followed by tons of earthy floral hops and some light citrusy flavors, again a hint of lemon some grapefruit. The taste is less Complex than the nose and comes together in a slightly better way but still seems to be close in rating to the taste.

Feel - Medium light body, refreshing carbonation, really mild bitterness overall.

Overall - This is an average English IPA, They definitely got the setup right and the malts are the main factor supported by the hops. The problem for me is the flavors down stand out, Its in the range of what your would expect from a basic English IPA. Cheers!

★1,247 characters

 

Rushing Duck. Yum.

 

Happy Sunday nbs players. Hell of a day so far here on the island with the weather so far. Started out with a coating of snow, then rain, and now sunny and rather cold for April. On a better note baseball returns today and I'm hoping the mets can make another run and hopefully pull it out this year. Heading out to the north fork today. I have to hit a few wineries with the fiancé but I'll also get to stop into Greenport Harbor brewing which is always great.

My new beer today is of course thanks to the nbs bif #3 and the great @Prager62 . The beer is my second offering, of many that I've received, from Greenbush brewing. It is Cassius, a barrel aged ipa, that comes in with an 8.7% abv, and a bottle dating of 11/9/15.

The pour is a sort of amber but mostly brown and murky. Not very attractive on the pour at all. The nose is tame with notes of oak, sugars, and hops. Decently floral but subtle too. A smooth start on the drinking with lots of hoppy flavor upfront and sugars. A nice bitter finish with definite barrel tones. Oak, and rather oaky as hell. I really get a strong charred burnt barrel flavor the more I drink. The mouth feel is pretty full bodied and the abv really seems to drink much boozier than it really is. This brew really walks the line with more of a barley wine style.

Overall, a very unique and interesting beer and I don't really think that I have anything to compare it to. My scores are a bit all over the place from the mid 3's to a 4.

 

Never actually had this one, but I think you'll like the Big Gruesome better. Tasted like drinking a Tagalong Girl Scout cookie to me. Might just crack one open now.

 

Your review is pretty spot on! Some barrel aged Greenbush beers are a bit quirky as they throw all kinds of styles in barrels. Most work well, some are very different and at times difficult to describe like you stated. I totally agree with your comparison to a barleywine.

 

If you ever get a chance to go to Vietnam, buy some coffee there. Last summer I picked up a kg of kopi luwak for about $3 us$. The coffee there is incredible best I've had yet. (I'm a coffee junkee too)

 

Ok, so the GF wanted to go to Aslin and meet up with the friends that ditched us last week. Once again they were at 3 offerings, one of which was new. I understand they are obtaining larger scale equipment, might that be it I the background?


Well, the beer's in that shot, too. But here's a better shot of Orange Starfish, a 5.7% NE IPA:


Again, I must say the muddy look of a beer like this doesn't do it for me. Dirty brown-orange with high level of cloudiness. However, like most Aslin beers, fairly nice head and significant lacing.

Nose is orange and pineapple to me, and leans heavily on those juicy notes. There's a little indistinct "greenness" hiding in there, though.

Taste is a little more orange and ruby red grapefruit, switching out the pineapple I was getting in the nose for another citrus. The result isn't really tart-leaning at all. The beer veers ever so slightly to pith/pine for the ending. In some sips I get a little minty note near the end, also.

This beer grew I me as it warmed. I think it a tad cleaner in tastes than some of their beers. Juicy, yes, but with enough bitterness to keep it from seeming fructosey (huh?). It's feel is also a little more exciting than some of the softer to thicker offerings I've had, which I like.

Still hoping to knock out a BIF beer or two today, so probably nurse this one. Although it's not like I have many other options here today.

 

NBS meets BIF for me here and this is about as much of a whale as you're going to find... @garymuchow 's quad homebrew. I am willing to bet less than 100 people ever got their hands on a bottle. Hehe. Then again, I don't know how much this gentleman homebrews.

Anyhow, I can't do my usual database review and repost, so I'm just going to review it right here. Fancy that.

Pours a viscous dark caramel with blonde hues. Light head. An island of film sits atop the beer.

Aroma is brown sugar, raisin, floral yeast. Very true to style.

Yum. Tastes delicious. A big blast of raisin and fig right off the bat. Caramel and sweet bread complement this. Each sip is enveloped in a moderate floral flavor. Brown sugar lingers on my tongue. I get hints of booze, but they're well-hidden.

The body is excellent too. Rich and creamy with a light-handed yeast feel. Touches of booze. Sweet but restrained.

I'm really impressed. Blind, I'd say few would guess this a homebrew. What's even more impressive is that this is a quad, a style I suspect not a lot of folks are homebrewing with regularity.

Really great work, Gary!

 

You don't like milkshake beers? Haha. I don't love the look on most of these either. Not the end of the world though as long as they taste good.

 

Wow! That's an unreal price. You didn't forget some zeros there, didya? I would totally love to go to Vietnam one day. Love their food too.

 

New American IPA Sunday

Hello all! Beautiful day here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin! It's in the mid-forties and sunny now, but expected to reach the upper 60's later today. Today's selection is a GREAT IPA from Founder's - Mosaic Promise. As I said in my review, it showcases mosaic hops and golden promise malt well. It is very easy to drink and very refreshing. To me it is on the border of APA and IPA. It does have the bitter IPA-style finish. It's at 5.5% abv (lower end of IPA). I scored the appearance and aroma 4.5's, taste and mouthfeel 4.25's. I was back and forth between 4.25 and 4.5 overall, but decided to go with the higher. The result is a 4.38 - higher than 4.08. I very much recommend it and will look for it again in the future!

Here's the link:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/98383/?ba=jwc215#review

I'll be back in a few hours with another (I'm eyeing the Toppling Goliath X Hops Gold Pale Ale).

Cheers!

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @cavedave and his aliteration blizzard,

The weather this weekend has been spectacular. Sunny, with Friday and Saturday temperatures arcing north of 70. Earlier in the week I had myself a KBS, courtesy of @Ri0 and his box of awesomeness he used to devastate the local FedEx infrastructure. However, KBS is a beer I’ve already had once before, so that’s not the first new beer of the day, or the week. That honor belongs to something from @Ri0’s great home state of Wisconsin, a first of sorts. New Glarus is one of those names I see regularly on this site, but they don’t distribute to my corner of the country, so this was my first one:


http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/590/37586/?ba=woemad#review

I had it yesterday in the late afternoon before I started dinner, and it might be the best American made Hefeweizen I’ve ever had. This was no weak American pale wheat ale, but a taste of Bavaria, and I find myself wishing somebody local made something like this.

As it has become my tendency on Sunday mornings, I’m taking it slow. Got up, fired up the komputador, made coffee, checked out NBS and the NBS BIF threads, made breakfast, and am now finishing off the last of the coffee. When I hit NBS for reals today, at least one will be from @Ri0’s aforementioned box (and a couple of us might have conspired together and may present something we all received in common recently), but I might also hit up something that’s been on hand for a while and needs to be purged from the fridge.