New Beer Sunday (week 584)

Well, for my next new beer, and in this case, a new brewery also. This is thanks to my last trade with @Split73.


And, to my review here.

4.49/5 rDev +12.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

This beer pours a amber color.
The head is minimal. There is carbination in the beer after pouring.
The nose is, well, for a word, delicious. It does have some sweetness, but not obnoxious. There seems to be a slight citrus aroma also.
This beer tastes, and here's my quote from first tasting it "well heloooo". It is smooth. Has a bit of booziness. Damn, it is delicious.

If you can get this beer, please do so. It is very good.

I do mean it. If you can get this beer from your friendly Michigan members, do so. This is very good.

 

Hey What's going on??

Here I am ... drinking beer... and browning short ribs... this is awesome.. with my new induction portable cook top to try out. Man has the rain been coming since Wednesday... no end in sight and it has been quite cool.

I got some wonderful brews from @JackHorzempa that I am starting to dig into. And then ironically picked up a canned offering from a local brewery that I often skip over.

How ironic that they just canned a Bohemian Pilsner... JUST LIKE SOMEONE ELSE DID??? (ok they bottled it)...

So what's the verdict?

Let's go to the tale of the tape. While not probably a fair comparison, that makes drinking half the fun!

What's new for our hero today? DOUBLE SHOT!!

Born Bohemian Pils | Denizens Brewing Co -= V.S. =- ZUMPA's BoPils!


Denizens Brewing Co. V.S. - ZUMPA's BoPils by imbibehour, on Flickr

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First Denizens...

Poured from the can into a Libbey style pilsner glass.

Frothy rich creamy forming head, bright white and easily makes controlled three fingers. Soapy retention sitting on a big yellow brass body with lots of fast and mixed slow rising carbonation. Plentiful and large, graceful out of the can.

Dough malts and a bit of bready action but also seems to sense more German on the angle. Muted spiced hop qualities, and then interestingly a sense of unbleached flour that dominates. Subtle, slightly odd but solid.

Palate manages at first some basics, but gets a little jarring. Mid palate washes a bit wet and a sense of some dough pils coming through but taken over by grainy and floury nearly chalky texture and flavors. Not quite a good clean finish, even a slight metallic twinge on the aftertaste which the herbal hops seem to emphasize slightly. Palate bounces between these flavors, with the good ones, and I wouldn't say bad but not the greatest taking turns with neither unfortunately leading.

An ok czech pilsner but seems to need some tweaking.

look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25 | BA Generated score 3.49

NOW... for the next brew... hypothetical since homebrews are not to be added to BA... BUHHHT... if I were to review one...





well... I am not going to...

...



ok well yeah twist my arm...



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Poured from the can into a Libbey style pilsner glass.

Pale amber body with chestnut colors of brown throughout, with an excellent hue towards the bottom of dark lemon. Minimal head creation, but a slow pour. Has a bit of creamy disposition but settles to a simple half finger soapy puck that keeps its form.

Aroma manages with the Vienna Malts a nice twist. Light toast and caramel sensing sweetness, a very faint hint of brown sugar. Sweetness and toast gives an added boost to the hop profile which has classic spiced but small herb tones, but also some creamy cake like aromas just nearly getting into cream and vanilla extract that take over. Diverse, slightly complex, and very different but pleasantly unexpected.

Palate really continues much of the surprises. Soft bodied almost mineral sensing qualities but with more depth. Muted caramel with a hint of doughy malt and almost vanilla like flavors. That creamy texture and flavor comes quite a bit on the finish. Nearly chewy body but not quite getting there. Malts take over with it's unique profile that the hop quality becomes and afterthought and not that much detectable, and some peppery carbonation and a hint of clean lager finishing.

Comes in like a sort of Vienna Lager hybrid, with a real distinct vanilla character (did you pour a bottle of extract in here

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That being said finally hypothetical non binding BA generated score disclaimer no hating....

look: 3.75| smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75 | BA Generated score : 3.913

The beer isn't reminding me of a Czech style lager, but does come off with a unique profile and flavor. Definitely unexpected, and if I had to chose between the two it's a clear choice.

Jack's take it...

on to the next brew(s), nice work Jack.

 

Is that a Frosted Stemware?

 

It's functioning as an adjunct in this case. The corn sugar is 100% fermentable by beer yeast (s. cerevisiae), so it should actually result in drying out the beer even more. It also contributes no body-building proteins, so the beer won't be as heavy as an all malt beer would.

 

I wasn't ready for the stout that would close out my BIF box, and while I have a few other new beers, none were chilled down for consumption . So I decided since I hadn't posted a review of this beer, I'd pop it while "in review mode" and compare notes with @garymuchow; so in a not-exactly-new beer comparison review...


Devil's Backbone Skull Crushing Ape:
Confirmed my thought that my recollections coincided with Gary's thoughts that the predominant dark bread to toast notes lean Schwartzbier. I do get the wheat (Weizen) with some warmth in the back of the taste. Carbonation adds to a spicy bitterness in my opinion. I do feel I get to experience the various components of the beer, and the 8% doesn't show, perhaps why I feel the "bock" part of the beer doesn't come out much.

 

I am Jealous of this. Most Beer Advocates want to trade for Rare and Obscure Commercial Beer. I just want to try @JackHorzempa's Homebrews.

 

My last Eclipse, this the Vanilla Bean variant. Expensive as they be, these are damn fine beers imo.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14936/107389/?ba=cindyjeffsmith#review

 

and I didn't even ask for them either... dude just sent em... he's CRAZY!!!

 

This beer is at its ripe point. I should've waited, but I usually don't wait when I buy a $30 dollar brew.

 

....I wish he were a Mind Reader! Cheers!

 

I almost missed "Commercial".

 

I had to put that out there. I've tasted a few Homebrews and they've been better than most in the Commercial Style.

 

NBS III or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Getting Framinghammered.



A: Pitch black with a thick mocha colored head which leaves behind a thick ring and nice lacing. 4.75
S: Cocoa, vanilla, malt, slight notes of bourbon. 4.25
T: Definite booziness here. A bit of sweetness that is almost honey like at times. There is a touch of bitterness present on the back end. There is definitely some room to improve here by getting the barrel aging to compliment the base more seemlessly and there are times when I would find this to be a touch too sweet, but overall its solid. 4.0
F: Thinner than I was expecting. Low carbonation. Pretty smooth drink though. 4.0
O: I can see myself getting this again soon. This is a hard hitting bourbon barrel aged beer that can be had at a decent price which is a huge plus. Give this a slightly thicker feel and integrate the barrel a touch better and this would be tough to beat; make no mistake though, these are minor nit-picking points on what is a very good beer. One last piece of advice: do not drink this from the bottle. This is a beautiful beer with a nice head and lacing that had remained from top to bottom for almost the entire glass. 4.25

Composite: 4.16 Average: 4.31 rDev: -3.5

Wrapping things up with a local offering here. Admittedly this has me eyeing another barrel aged baltic I have in my fridge, but it isn't new to me, and today is for new (that and another high abv offering is probably not wise at this point). It's been fun and I'd love to say I'll see you all next week, but I'll be celebrating my fiance's birthday. I am going to share a bottle from Trillium with her that has yet to be reviewed on BA (just three ratings too), so I'll try to pop in and post that.

Until next time, may all your beers be world class and remember: friends don't let friends drink bad beers.

 

Given descriptors like Asparin in the mouth and an "alright brew," I'm surprised you gave this an A-.

Excellent beer. Had it recently for the first time. Didn't score as high as you but still scored high and enjoyed it thoroughly.

 

Happy to settle down with a beer after another long day doing house stuff. Drinking local tonight. Tailgate Beer moved to Nashville about 2 years ago, and they have done a really nice job creating a unique, family-friendly brewpub in an old Moose Lodge and brewing up new offerings. They recently started canning two new local brews, one of which is this Grapefruit IPA. I'm happy to be the first on BA to review this one, which really impressed me:



look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Slightly hazy light golden amber color with a 1.5 finger white foamy head. Smell is big fresh grapefruit up front with a hint of orange and white bread. Not surprisingly, there is ruby red grapefruit at first taste, but this evolves to also show pine, grass, earth tones, and bread. Moderately bitter with a nice clean finish. Nice and dry. Definitely one of the better grapefruit IPAs I've had. This will be a great summer beer - looking forward to many cans of this in my future! Cheers.

 

I was finally able to get down to Tired Hands Brewing Company in Ardmore, PA with a handful of close friends to sample some beers at their Fermentaria location. While I was able to enjoy HopHands, Station, and Ceiling (all delicious), it was Pineal that stole the show for me. I purchased a 64 oz growler and brand new teku glass to enjoy my beer from as well!

Tired Hands Pineal
4.37/5 rDev +1.4%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25



I really loved this beer from start to finish. The beer itself is incredibly visually appealing, and had a nice grapefruit and pine aroma. There is tons of flavor in this beer, with citrus stealing the show, and a piney bitterness to finish. The mouthfeel was rich and creamy, making this one of the better IPAs I've had recently.

Cheers!

 

Drinking a Wisconsin goodies. This is Frampaars from O'so Brewing in collaboration with Funk Factory Guezeria.











And my thoughts:

4.03/5 rDev -13.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

750mL bottle poured into an oversized tulip.

Pours the color of a jam. Purple tinted. Settles int the glass a deep rose color with a white head dyed purple. Bits of purple are visible in the head and I'm happy to assume these are chunks of fruit. 4.5

Smells of funk. Yeasty floral notes. Light jammy and fruity notes play a supporting role. I like what I'm smelling other than that I want more fruit popping in my nose. I want that nose candy. 4

Initial sips had me a bit discouraged. Overwhelming floral notes had me feeling like I took a bite out of an iris and there's light vinegar. I keep drinking and the ship begins righting. A true red wine resemblance develops with berry notes, oak, dryness, peppery spice and tannins. Tart raspberry evolves and becomes bolder and more assertive. I come around to how this taste and really find myself enjoying it. 4

Tartness that reaches vinegary levels at times and a strong floral presence are my only objections here. It's got the tart, jammy fruit feel and the funk that I want, but these need to be more outspoken and not overshadowed by the vinegar and floral bouquet. I do appreciate the dryness and wine-like quality. 4


I come around to this. Initially I wasn't impressed and even a tad disappointed, but the key is to give this some time and let the beer open up.

 

I decided to cut down on my stock of IPAs in my fridge, though, as always, I reserve the right to be inconsistent.

For the second time in the last couple of weeks, I’m hitting an east coast DIPA and have been tremendously impressed and been reminded of my new neighbor Iron Goat’s Impaler DIPA, a Galaxy-hopped DIPA that has similar flavors, though a bit more bitterness, in the tradition of a PNW brewed beer. I said that last week about War Elephant; this week it’s Forgotten Boardwalk’s Pocket Trick:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/36798/210557/?ba=woemad#review

0% rDev. I almost never hit that for a beer with any amount of reviews. This is a great beer. I’ve no idea how old it is, but it is firing on all cylinders, so I’m thinking it’s pretty damn fresh still. Thanks, @SammyJaxxx!



Oh, I was a moron and forgot to post the pic of the C.R.E.A.M. I took the trouble of photographing earlier, so here it is for those interested