New Beer Sunday (week 581)

Final 2 of the night, both courtesy of @jhavs



Framinghammer from Jack's Abbey

Pitch black pour with off white head, reminiscent of a cappuccino head. Smell is of chocolate, leather, anise, bitter bakers chocolate...dang lots of good stuff. Taste follows the nose with a nice sharp cocoa flavor and an intermingled smokey character that finishes with a powdery chocolate, almost bitter quality. Mouthfeel is just right. Slight sweetness accentuates the finish.

As far as Baltic porters go, after this and Topless Wytch from Floyds, they are quickly becoming one of my favorite styles.


And now...


Vanilla BA Framinghammer

Pours a pitch black with a mocha colored head. Smell is bourbon, oak, vanilla, roast, leather, and cocoa. Taste follows. Bourbon and vanilla dominate as cocoa, tobacco, leather and anise come forward. Lingers with a sharp smokiness and bourbon heat. Mouthfeel is creamy and rounded but with enough bite from the barrel to tell that it's barrel aged and has some alcohol to it.

I've only had one other BA framinghammer before and I remember it as a very good experience. This one does not disappoint.

 

Pretty Things Grampus Hoppy Golden Double Mash

My first time trying this beer, and undoubtedly the last time I'll be able to. Spotted this on a trip to San Diego a few months back (why I'm bringing a PT beer from Cali to NY, I don't quite know) and decided I might as well pick it up while I can. Unfortunately it was goddawful. But hey, that's what trying new beers is all about. Cheers!


L: 4 Pours a slightly hazy dark burnt orange, kind of like homemade peach iced tea. The pour creates an ample off-white head with pretty good retention and lacing.

S: 3.25 Smells much like Bigfoot that’s had a tea-bag steeping in it for a month. Tight-knit caramel with loads of resinous American hops. A pretty hefty amount of ethanol with pungent grapefruit rind, piney tree sap and a mild earthiness. This beer almost has a tequila-like vegetal quality.

T: 2.5 Tea-like and hoppy, with less malt than the aroma lets one – a bit astringent with a biting tannic quality. Acidic and abrasive, like sucking on an old tea-bag. Makes one cringe – not a fan.

F: 3.25 Medium body with a mildly ashy mouthfeel and creamy medium carbonation.

Thoughts: 2.75 Not a fan in the least, though I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and believe it was probably a bit more put-together when it was younger. For this reason, I probably will not post this review. Still, it tastes like a weak barleywine dry-hopped with a stale tea-bag full of hops that have been dragged through the dirt.

 

One more from the NBS-BIF

Can't thank @BigRedDog Enough for what has been a long time want. I am so glad this beer didn't disappoint.


Here's my review
4.71/5 rDev +7.8%look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

Bottled Feb 16
A: Deep mahogany almost black with Some deep red highlights when held to the light. Viscous A finger of milk chocolate colored head. Looks like the beast it is. S: smells boozy. Behind the booze is coffee and dark roasted malt T: Dark roasted coffee, deep roasted malts, chocolate, leather tobacco. Tastes like an old money study. MF: Thick and big tasting. Almost chewy. Fills the mouth with roasty goodness O: This is a BIG beer that demands respect. It is a coffee stout but there is much more to it than coffee. Overall a top notch stout.

It is Sunday night. Nothing better on a Sunday night than Van

 

I had this one not too long ago and thought it was a great example of the style, IMO..................Cheers !!

 

Late to the party here, but enjoyed a new glarus Wisconsin belgian red tonight that I recieved as part of my nbs bif box.



This beer is liquid cherry, tons of fruit flavor, and picking up a bit of almond/vanilla and baking spice. Not at all sour, and not particularly sweet but still had a dessert like quality. Really interesting beer, enjoyed trying it!

 

I had their Brewer's reserve stout (I think it was Konrad's). Truly phenomal stuff. Loved it!

 

Well Hello Late Night NBS

A fond nod of gratitude for our gracious hostess Maria @utopiajane as always.
And a fist pump to the Beer Gods for the great work of @LehighAce06 and @beertunes for putting together our amazing NBS BIF #3.

This is our big reveal day. And there are still boxes landing, as well as in flight...me thinks. I already shared a few hoppy numbers from the generous hands of @Ozzylizard in the past few weeks. But today, ahh today, I took the leap o' faith to pop a big boy. Thankfully my brew buddy, and brewing buddy, @Efrainpaniagua took the plunge with me.

Weyerbacher's Blasphemy a Bourbon Barrel aged Quad

3.83/5 rDev -2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours a deep mahogany with hints of amber. An active and assertive foam leaps upward with a tan head that slowly recedes. Smells of bourbon, mainly bourbon, with dark fruit notes, hints of more subtle malts. Taste is even more bourbon. Bourbon really does take the driver's seat in this. As I search past the booze, I find date, raisin, fig, and slightly burnt molassess. Also, there's an herbal yeasty Belgian thang to give it some complexity. But it is a bit too bourbon forward. It does dominate the other flavors trying to com through. Mouthfeel is medium, yet warm from the booze. Overall, it's pretty good, but I'm wondering how this would be with a year or more on it. Would the booze be a more democratic dance partner? Well, I already popped the cork, so I may never know.

I thought this was pretty good, but my buddy liked it even better than me. Thanks again Ozzylizard.

 

Welcome to the party

 

Glad you like it. It's a little brewery in this little alpine town.

 

Amen. @Josholson666 decimated with his porch salvo. The verticals alone are worthy of serious consideration.

 

Hi, NBS Crew. Don't hang out here much. This beer merits it, because it reminds me of why I got into craft beer. It is a beer that is made, not manufactured. It tastes so natural, so pure, it's part cider and part beer and part barrel. But all goodness. Cheers

 

Rough day. Filled with good and bad. Had to put down our dear friend Lucy. I rescued her and her brother from the barrio that surrounds my school about 14 years ago. She was a beautiful mutt and my girls loved her dearly. We lost her brother just over a year ago. I know you know about the pure joy our canines bring to our lives. I've had a few dogs in my time, and every one lost hurts, but these two were like a fucking country song. I think I'll crack one more in her and her brother's honor. @Ozzylizard sent me an appropriate one.

 

Thanks a lot bro, Could have been way worse, Ended up just being a semi awkward night. Everyone except my brother's have already moved passed it and im sure they will soon! Take care!

 

Thanks again bud, Rough day is over now so it's about time to move on, Take Care!

 

Well I'm really enjoying this one.
Karbach Brewing's Three Legged Lab Imperial Stout

4.07/5 rDev -2.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Thanks to a traveling @Ozzylizard for finding this, taking it home, and sending it to me in the amazing NBS BIF #3.

Pours the color of burnished Spanish leather. Cordoba! Frothy mocha colored head pushes north with a rich array of loosely packed bubbles. But wow, the aroma that rises from said bubbles. Oh, I like this. I'm smelling a deep complex sweetness, that's kept in check with some nice char, earthy notes, and slight peat. This is smelling like more of a traditional Russian Imperial Stout, less sweet due to some peat, roast, and char. The taste follows suit. Subtle complex sweet that features bitter chocolate, caramel, and dates. But then there's the hints of charred coffee, wood, and even leather. And the earthy peatiness that retreats and alludes to oak. Finish is mildly sweet, a tad woody, and smokey. Mouthfeel is a tad lite for everything else that's going so right here. But I ain't complaining. This is one sold Imperial Stout.

 

Cheers NBS bredren and sistren!

This next installment of NBSin' from this individual is to pay homage to two Ohio brews billed by one @WesMantooth as the 'experimental' additions to his (first) box from NBS BIF #3. Spoiler alert: I would consider both of them to be great successes.

Blue Goose Cream Ale from Buckeye Lake has taught me that with the nice-weather-season fast approaching, I should probably become more familiar with this style. I chose it largely because it seemed like a good option as a breakfast beer (I know, I know... the KBS or FBS probably would have been better thematic ties, but I've had the FBS once before, and I've got special plans for that KBS... Also, yes, he sent both of those along as well...), and drank it not too long after waking up this evening.

-Pours a murky light yellow (the colour from the TV in the pic makes it look more golden/amber, but it was lighter than that held to neutral light). Minimal head was more watery than anything.
-Nose held an interesting and delicate balance of light flavours. Pillowy french bread, sweet bavarian cream, and a light sweet straw component lured me in.
-Flavours aren't quite as flighty, more grounded in the grainy ropes and yeast and Euro-esque hops.
-Body was rich and smoothe with just little nips of carbonation biting at the tongue like fish nibbling your toes in a cave in Southeast Asia.
I have to admit this beer overall exceeded my expectations and I am excited to see if some other examples can live up to the lofty initial experience imparted by this cream ale.

My friend returned from her trip (ironically to the islands I grew up in), and took her dog back, so a couple of hours after the Blue Goose I have turned my attention to Kitka, a Milk Stout brewed with chocolate and coconut by The Brew Kettle. Milk sugars unite these two brews so at least some thematacism carries the thread of this single post!

(I couldn't get the lighting to work quite right, especially with the faint font on the wrapper there, but it is a coconut macaroon chocolate that my mom gave me for Easter. Isn't she the best? I felt it was appropriate.)

-Kitka pours a dusty black, akin to the NBS brew I cracked this AM after work, though not as 'dirty' appearing (dirty is not intended in a pejorative sense here, in the slightest. Simply as a descriptor.). Next to no head, it's really more of just a thin veil stretches across the cap, like if a spider web were slightly more malleable. No lacing to speak of.
-Nose carried flavours I enjoyed, but in a more muted fashion than I would have preferred. Toasted coconut is the foremost note here, though there is certainly a light dusting of dry cocoa powder, and a sharp sweet of milk sugars.
-On the tongue, many of the same actors perform, but while the aroma offered the muffle of eavesdropping on the dress rehearsal from outside locked doors, the flavour offers the full stage. Toasted coconut husks are still the first to greet you, and really envelopes the remaining players, surrounding them and keeping the whole production tight and on focused. Dry cocoa powder and a light sweetness of coconut meat are peaked with sweet milk sugars rising through the toasted embrace like lumps under a blanket. That sounded dirtier than I intended.

Not one likely to launch a thousand ISO ships, but definitely one I would drink with some regularity were it available to me. Thank you once again Corey for sharing the bounty of Ohio with this lucky individual! I really enjoyed both of these experiments greatly and am really enjoying working through all the bottles and cans and growlers you sent along!




EDIT: I find it highly appropriate that this posts immediately after @2beerdogs in this WCLNNBSBIF#3NBS, my reliable Late Night NBS partner. Cheers!