New Beer Sunday (week 580)

Aaah, yes, I am. The hiding the alcohol comment was tongue-in-cheek, but, of course, sarcasm doesn't come across well when written.

 

Coffee IPAs are definitely different, think I might brew one later this month, should be fun. As far as the brunch burger, burger topped with fried egg, caramelized onions, and a maple bacon aioli.

 

Probably sage advice. Sadly, I have a long history of ignoring sage advice, so no guarantees I will follow it today.

 

Boat Beer bec

Destihl Here Gose Nothin' 4pks are a permanent residence all Spring and Summer long in my fridge. Westbrook Gose is really good but a little too salty IMO. The citrus kick of Destihl hits me just perfect!

 

This beer is courtesy of @beerloserLI and BIF NBS 3. I received a box of 17 beers mostly east coast stuff and all that are new to me. Trying to crush the IPAs first of course to get em fresh as possible.

Barrier Brewing Co, Oceanside New York
Money, American IPA at 7.3 ABV
500 ml bottle, pours a hazy orange with some floaters in there, a one finger head of sticky bubbles dissipates quickly leaving some lacing that sticks to the glass nicely. Tha aroma is "stanky" as the cool label says, and has some sweetness to it as well. Taste is fruity, orange, pineapple, with some malt backbone giving it a nice balance to the hop bitterness. Alcohol is hidden, overall an enjoyable well balance east coaster. Thanks Brian

 

Boat Beer became my official yard work beer ever since my East Coast buddy sent some this direction. Ain't nothing like a good session beer to keep in one hand all warm weather long!

 

Agreed! Maybe nex week

 

Between you and @cavedave, I am now fully resolved to try a coffee IPA at the first opportunity, and that breakfast burger sounds awesome! I may be opening up a separate window to research Maple Bacon Aioli right now...

 

Making me jealous with all this Rushing Duck goodness.

ISO: Larryi86 Coffee IPA.

 

So, you're a regular on that site? Damn, @cavedave, you're a complex guy. More layers than an onion, I swear...

 

Oh, alright, you've convinced me. What say you, @ONovoMexicano?

 

Good afternoon/early evening NBSers!

Doesn't pertain to NBS but I actually finally got a glass of a long-desired beer yesterday. Went to a great show last night (Sonata Arctica + local support including the fantastic Armory, a great MA power metal band) but also got to stop into Armsby Abbey to get some Hill Farmstead Double Citra on tap. Sadly a fairly small 10 oz pour for a $7 price tag which was a bit disappointing but... what a damn good beer! Glad I finally got to have it!

Anyway, back to today... this morning I happened to wake up at about 6, looked outside and saw a few inches of snow and some more coming down fairly steadily. I rolled my eyes at New England's trademark bipolar weather pattern behavior and went downstairs to the beer fridge to see what I had for beer. Nothing new to me... uh oh! So I slept for a few more hours, the snow disappeared (this kind of thing isn't even weird to me anymore) and eventually made a run to a local place to see if I could scope out anything to post in this week's edition. I found a couple... let's start with this one, Foolproof Queen of the Yahd Raspberry IPA.



I kind of did a double-take when I first saw this four-pack of tallboy cans on the shelf. A raspberry IPA? Foolproof's certainly been experimenting a bit lately, I guess, as they've also done a chocolate-oyster stout in cans as well somewhat recently. At about $10 for four, I decided to just take the chance and go all-in. Worst thing that could happen is I could lose ten bucks, right?

Nice crack as I pop open the can. Pours out a very hazy orange-ish color with a solid, retentive white head. Leaves quite nice lace as it dissipates. Solid appearance for sure.

Nose is actually pretty unique. I'm getting mild leafy hops, some sticky berry notes, maybe an herbal/mint component, some orange marmalade and biscuity malt. Raspberries aren't the first thing I think of here at all. Hmm... could this be a well-integrated fruit addition in an IPA that actually works with the base ingredients instead of powering through everything brutally?

On the tongue I'm hit with a very pleasing wash of bitterness, slight raspberry tartness, clean malt profile and mild chewy yeast with a very neutral approach. As suspected from the nose, hops are pretty old-school with a West Coast bent. Strikes me as being very Cascade forward. Berry addition adds just a touch of sweet-tart flavor that would probably not even be noticed had they not mentioned using raspberry purée on the label. Surprisingly, this all seems to work pretty well together. Not sure if something like this has really been done before, but I'd say this is probably the most conservative way to do it, and I must admit that Foolproof were right to not go overboard here, as an imbalance in fruit/hops could most certainly hurt this.

Feel is nice and oily-slick with a solid chewiness from the malt backbone. Very drinkable and pretty refreshing. Happy that the hop bill isn't overly-dry-hopped with new varietals or anything... this just seems to speak very well for itself and I'm pretty surprised at how good it is. Glad I have some more to drink... $10 well spent I'd say! Given that I really like the peanut butter version of their Raincloud robust porter and their Revery RIS as well, it seems as if Foolproof is improving quite a bit. I'm down with that. I can always use more good cans on shelves!

Pairing this beer with a classic Teutonic thrash metal album. Went through my CD shelves looking for something that I'd want to listen to while drinking this, and chose Kreator's Endless Pain due to perfect color-coordination with the goofy 80s as hell magenta utilized on the back cover and booklet.



Fucking gross! Thrash 'til death!

 

I took a couple pours of each to my brothers and he's a fan as well. Thanks from both of us!

 

Next week works. I was prepared to pay my penitence today but next week works. I lied to myself all last week saying I'd detox all of April but I think at the least I'll have to do NBSes. Sooo, yes. Yes, next week.

 

My wife and I are visiting our daughter and grandsons in Lancaster, CA. We haven't seen them in nine months, so it's great to see them. The boys grow so rapidly, it's scary. They are six and ten, and are interested in so many things.
I've been drinking some west coast beers. The first one is Space Dust from Elysian.
It's a gold color with a good sized white head that left some lace.
Mostly pine aroma, a little citrus. Strong malt backbone.
The taste followed the nose. Pine and a little grapefruit, caramel malt.
Smooth, not a hop bomb.
Oldest grandson wanted to be in the picture.

 

May might be a more realistic month for that, given the BIF we're working through (unless the reason for your detox is you've already knocked most of your stuff out, too bad there's no emoticon for stunned admiration). Counting the TG XHG (how's that for an acronym?) I'm working on right now (great beer, btw, of which more shall be heard soon), I've knocked out 6, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

 

Gonna be an NDIPAS for me as I'm on a roll with these DIPAs. Melvin 2x4 followed by Hi-Res. Probably shoulda done Sixpoint's first. This was a goodie sent to me by @garymuchow in our BIF.



3.65/5 rDev -11.4%
look: 5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Energy drink-looking can into an oversized tulip. Sixpoint knows how to stand out from the crowd. What they don't know how to do is put a damn brewed on date on their cans. Bastards.

Copper liquid with perfect clarity. Frothy head and plentiful lace. Great to look at. 5

Not a ton in the aroma but there is a light and seductive melon and floral aroma. I love melon and I'm getting it here. Want more though. Gimme some mo. Detect some booze too. Guess that comes with the territory on a ten fidy ABV DIPA. 3.75

Hmmm... Barleywine is that you? Pretty malt-forward and caramelly. Still getting that melon and floral bouquet flavor. Bitter and resinous flavors hit late. Seriously though, this tastes like an american barleywine. Lots of malt and caramel. 3.5

It's got the bitterness and resin of an IPA and some floralness and fruitiness. And it's also got a big caramel, bread and sweetness to it. If I tasted this blind I'd think American Barleywine more than DIPA but I guess it all depends what one is used to. 3.5

I'm in that camp that finds Sixpoint beers passable in general but never spectacular and I always puzzle at the buzz they have. I always attribute it to the marketing and presence they have, which is pretty on point.

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I will say I don't love Sixpoint much. As an ex-NYC resident that splits time there (wife and daughter are moving back in May so.....), I don't treat them as an NYC local and don't feel that homeristicness that I do for NM beers and many in NYC (Singlecut, OH, Grimm, Gun Hill). I think a big factor in this is that I once tried to visit their brewery in Redhook (talk about a trek), only to find it shuttered. No taproom? That's part of what drives the local support to me.

Anyway, they make some decent stuff. Jammer was good. Hi-Res was good but not great. I thank Gary for sending this as it nudged me to try it. Probably wouldn't have otherwise. Well done.