New Beer Sunday (week 582)

I've not had all the Enjoy By iterations, but I've probably had a half dozen, and the 04.20.16 version was my least favorite. Is it a good beer? Absolutely. Is it a "fall back in your chair and say 'Oh. My. God.'" beer? No, not IMHO. It was certainly not "Devastatingly Dank" as prior versions were, again, IMHO. And that's okay.

 

First and probably only NBS entry for this week. This is the first time I've seen this beer in Vt stores. Seen it on here many times though.



Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti

Great Divide Brewing Company
American Double / Imperial Stout / 9.50% ABV

3.78/5 rDev -9.1% | Avg: 4.16
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Bottled 03/21/16

L-Pours a black with a 3 finger frothy mocha head. Lacing is good and rings the glass.
S-Dark chocolate with woody overtones from the oak. No Cayenne here. Tame overall.
T- Cocoa nibs up front. Not really sure how I missed the Cayenne in the nose, because it's certainly present here. Cayenne lingers on the tongue after the cocoa and bitterness fade. Not overwhelming, but strong enough. Maybe too strong for my personal taste. Not getting much vanilla from the oak in the flavor. I feel like the cayenne and oak are clashing.
F-Smooth and silky mouthfeel. Low carbonation and the mouthfeel is on the full side of medium.
O- I think I'd like this alot more with the cayenne toned down or absent. Otherwise it's a above average imperial stout.

 

Another entry to NBS, and another entry thanks to @Split73.

3.98/5 rDev +1.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

This beer pours very dark, with a thick brown head. The nose I get coffee notes. The taste is balanced. It has some hops in it. A very interesting balance between the malts and hops. Adelicious beer.

 

Today my girlfriend and I are celebrating 6 years together. The day has become a way to celebrate our strengths and focus on the weaknesses from the past year as a way to commit to working on and improving what we have together. Part of this past year including meeting one of her closest friends growing up, which happened to take us to Boston for a weekend -- Valentine's Day weekend, as it was, when it was blisteringly cold. Thankfully, my girlfriend loves me and was happy to spend a day visiting breweries, including the the requisite Trillium:



Not my first one from them, but possibly my favorite.

4.56/5 rDev +4.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
L — Pours jet black in proper Trillium 12 oz snifter with a tan head on a pretty normal pour. The head recedes into a thin layer on top before the first sip with a fair mass of bubbles in one section -- about 1/10th of the surface area of the top. Not a ton of lacing, but it leaves a solid film across the back of the glass.

S — Tons of coffee and lots of roasted malts. The coffee doesn’t come off as a brewed flavor though — more like freshly roasted beans and a bit of the just-ground-and-aromas-exploding note you get. I get ever-so-slight hints of stone fruit, like a very ripe plum, but it’s so subtle I’m nearly certain I’m imagining it. There are definitely some cocoa/chocolate notes that emerge with warmth. The coffee is incredibly smooth and goes really well with the roasted malts.

T — Holy smokes, amazing coffee flavor. It's incredibly smooth, almost with a slight milk-coffee flavor to it, kind of like with condensed milk as you get it a lot in Thailand and SE Asia in general. The roasted malts are an incredible support, but the coffee really shines in a delicious way.

F — Smooth just up and down and all over the place. Overall, pretty full, great for a stout.

O — This is a really delicious coffee stout. I would give the nod to Péché Mortel generally, but there are definitely cold winter mornings where the full feel and warmth of this stout would pull me towards it instead of the other PM.


I need to go back and read everyone's entries for today, but I hope you have all been enjoying a wonderful Sunday. Happy NBS BAs!

 

Exactly what I thought-

 

Sweet baby Jesus! That's a helluva long time to be working in a hospital. At the end of a day like that, I'd have given real consideration to just climbing into an unused bed there rather than bother with the trip home.

 

Getting a late start today. Weather finally cooperated, so I spent most of the day trying to catch up with some yard work, and now it's time to relax with a new beer.

Today's choice is Newburgh's Brown Ale which comes to me thanks to @TongoRad via the NBS BIF #3.

Brown ales are normally fairly hoo-hum with me, but this one is very well done. Nice mix of toasted bread, caramel, and molasses. This one brings a ton of flavor and body to the party despite being only 4.2%.

This is my first from Newburgh, and looks like I need to find more in the future!



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29419/83199/?ba=richj1970#review

 

As promised, after drinking Pseudo Sue in my hotel room this morning after landing at Akron-Canton I drove to R Shea in Akron. Also I didn't just do new beer Sunday but new drive-in Sunday: I stopped by Swensons for the first time and if you're in the area their burgers and onion rings can't be beat! I'm questioning how I've never eaten there before!

So it turns out I got to try seven new beers today as I got a flight of five of their beers and sampled a sixth, then brought home a 1/2 growler. Brief notes:
West Coast Citra IPA: Shows the hop well. Tons of tangerine
Polymer: Caramel/espresso stout on nitro; really tastes like a caramel Macchiato. A bit sweet, good caramel/espresso flavors. Would be a good intro to craft beer for a coffee lover. Super smooth mouthfeel
One Hot Blonde: A blonde with chipotle/mango. The aromas were mostly mango, the palate mostly chipotle. Not bad but my least favorite of the flight
Smoked porter: Typical for the style with plenty of smoke/cocoa notes
Belgian Tripel: Lemon drop candy with a bit of yeast; not a bad beer but I prefer those from Belgium

The one I ended up taking home a growler of: Akpov's Bock

(my new glass from last night and new 1/2 growler today)
I can't say I've ever considered myself a bock fan but this is fantastic. So pure it really shows the malts it's made from well. Nice wheat, caramel and just a hint of stone fruit. Very balanced and just a pleasure to drink. This is a great example of the style and is simple yet super tasty. R Shea has been open for only ~9 months and overall I very much enjoyed my visit and can't wait to see what else they brew.

 

Well, this one looks nice, smells okay with a somewhat faint tropical fruit on the nose, tastes more bitter than expected from the nose, Mouthfeel is good and overall not my favorite. Liked the Azzaca a tad better.

 

Hi NBS Buddies! Getting a late start, was helping a friend move. Got a new chicken coop and 6 more hens out of the deal, pain in the butt to move it though!

Having a nice hoppy brew from Trillium to start off. This is one of the few that I haven't tried. Got one of their others for my next post too!


BEER STATS
Reviews: 51
Ratings: 336
Avg: 4.27
pDev: 17.33%

And my review!

4.07/5 rDev -4.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Fresh bottle, poured into stemless wine glass.

Look: Yellow, bit of haze, not as hazy as a lot of Trillium hoppy brews, white frothy head, slowly settles into a ring around the glass, lots of lacing.

Smell: Big bursting whiff of tropical fruits, pineapple and mango up front, bright.

Taste: A bit different than what I was expecting. Pineapple, tropical, I get minimal bitterness and minimal malt backing.

Feel: Moderate level of carbonation, medium body. Pretty crisp, clean.

Overall: I like this, but not quite as much as many of the hoppy Trillium offerings. Luckily, all of theirs are great.

 

Hello, NBS friends. After a gorgeous Minnesota afternoon spent at the lake opening the camper .....



..... opening my NBS activities for the day with a Minnesota beer seemed like a wise choice .....



..... so I selected this DIPA from an iconic Minnesota brewer.

Summit has been brewing since 1986. Their EPA is their flagship beer, and it's very good (and available EVERYWHERE in Minnesota), but they do a lot of great stuff. Their Oatmeal Stout, which is only available on tap, is probably my favorite beer from them, but their Porter is also excellent, their Winter Warmer is very good, and their Marzen is fantastic.

This beer is the initial offering in their 30th Anniversary series of beers. A DIPA is an easy choice, but the hop varietals they chose (Mosaic, Citra, and a couple of New Zealand varietals), took this in a different direction. It pours a beautiful clear golden color with a couple of fingers of slightly off-white head. The aromas are solely the New Zealand hops, and the taste is the same. It's very good, but I'm left wondering if moving the malt bill forward a bit would've transformed this into a world-class beer. It's still very good, and worth acquiring.

Rated 3.96.

 

Whaddup NBS? Coming at you with a sour beer today which is probably the first sour I've had in a couple months. Needless to say it isn't really a style I buy much of...

4.09/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
This thing looks beautiful. A glowing grapefruit red color with a head that vanishes very quickly. On the nose I get watermelon, acid/tartness, and a little hint of blackberry. A chardonnay aroma is what is most noticeable to me. Taste is basically a tart/sour bomb. I realize I don't drink the style very often so maybe I can't pick up the blackberry nuances but it really is just a sour son of a bitch in my opinion. I honestly seem to be getting more citrus and lemon-like flavors than any dark fruits. The feel is of a very crisp fruit juice that is lightly carbonated. If any of you are familiar with kombucha then you would have an idea what this would taste like. All that being said it it quite enjoyable, I just wish there was more going on with the beer besides the enormous tartness. Cheers!

 

It's an amazing beer. Far too few of them reach eastern Washington. I generally never manage to find more than one.

 

That is one fantastic job on that review my friend. Very nice!!

 

#2, I've really grown to appreciate following an IPA/DIPA with a big stout. This is that, or at least close to that.



I grew up in South Bend, so this is as close to a "hometown brewer" as I have. I visited the brewery 18 months ago, loved it, so I brought this and some other stuff home.

Their flagship beer is their Thai.PA, which is excellent, and they're not afraid to get adventurous (the Double Thai.PA is a party in your mouth). This is a "by-the-numbers" BBA RIS - jet black with les than a finger of tan head, chocolate and toffee aromas combined with the bourbon, but for a 10.2% ABV beverage, this is a bit thin. I'd get it again, but I wouldn't stand in line for it.

Rated 4.19.

 

Thanks, man. Cheers.

 

Back again with another beer from @TongoRad 's BIF box. This one is Captain Lawrence's Hudson Valley Harvest Sour Strawberry.

Nice beer, but reads more like a saison than a sour. I wish the strawberry was more prominent in the nose, and the flavors more complex, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit...



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/12959/171640/?ba=richj1970#review

 

The cherry version I found to be quite enjoyable. I'm thinking blueberry might be a bit too dark a fruit for a Chardonnay Barrel.

 

Funny because this- so far has been one of my favorites of Trillium. To each his own!

 

Sounds delicious.

Yet another beer I also had recently!

And one I just had yesterday! Loved this.

Been curious about this beer. Never got the Ballantine but I've seen this in stores. Will give a try. Price is dirt cheap.