New Beer Sunday (week 586)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've read that pH has a big impact on head retention, so the higher the acidity, the poorer the head retention. So is its appearance simply a function of the style?

 

My wife is at an adult birthday party, so I'm sitting in the driveway watching the kids play and sipping on this extra from a previous trade.



Poured from a 16 oz can into a nonic pint glass. Pours a golden, light amber with about one finger white head, which dissipated quickly. It leaves slight, but better-than-expected lacing. The smell is amazing for a low ABV APA. Very strong citrus/orange aromas. The mouthfeel is medium to heavy carbonation, thin, clean and refreshing with a slightly bitter aftertaste. The taste is hoppy, bitter, and citrus, but less citrus than expected from the smell. Overall, this is a really good session beer I would easily drink all summer if only it was available here.

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Another pretty lazy Sunday for myself. The day started out pretty sunny and a bit cooler here on the island, but now it looks like we may be in for a few late showers. Got a ton of yard work done yesterday and this morning. I was hoping to do my first grill, of the year, with some London broil, but with the threatening rain it might be baked ziti inside.

My first new beer today is Live a Rich Life, a Belgian style double ipa, from Three Floyds brewing. The beer comes in at 9.5% and I'm pretty sure the bottle date was feb 16 but I managed to rub it off during the photo shoot. Of course, this beer comes thanks to the great @Prager62 and the nbs bif# 3 box. I'm down to two bottle left.

A beautiful pour with an amber golden color, no clarity, and a fast head. The nose is full of pungent hops, resin, and syrup sugars. A huge burst of spicy hops on the very first sip with a rather dry and bitter finish. The hops are really big and dank. The resin follow over from the nose with tones of citrus fruit, and bitter pine. Big candied fruit notes of lemon, apricot, apple, and orange. The Belgian yeast really seems to be drowned out by all the hops but does to add a nice spicy character to the finish. The mouth feel is pretty full bodied and pretty sticky. The flavor tones linger nicely after each sip.

Overall, I love this beer. Just pure hop juice. Almost everything I've had from these guys has been mind blowing. Zombie dust, wig splitter, and now this. My fiancé and I have been looking for cool state side vacation trips. We are doing Maine in August, but I may have to find a way to convince her to do Indiana. This is a borderline 5 for me,

 

I have also stared at this beer countless times, including yesterday, but have yet to pull the trigger, also because I'm not impressed with Chocolate Sombrero. You may have convinced me now.

 

It took my wife and I about eight hours to pull up our basement carpet that was glued to the concrete. We were both blister filled and incredibly sore the next day. If I ever meet the person who invented carpet glue, we're not sharing a beer. I feel for you - good luck.

 

On to my last new beer from the SN Beer Camp 2016 pack! This is Sweet Sunny South, probably the boldest creation in the entire pack with an intense adjunct ingredient list. Brewed as a Belgian-style rustic table beer with corn grits, tea leaves, peaches, papaya, guava and prickly pear fruit added, SSS features both Funky Buddha and Wicked Weed as collaborators (alongside a couple others I'm not familiar with). Since both are pretty well-known even outside the south for their inventive and boldly flavored beers, I'll definitely be interested to see where this one goes!



Pours a pale peach tea color with a slight bubbly head that leaves some wisps of delicate, off-pink foam in the glass. Mildly hazy with good retention to the head, though it seems to leave no lacing as it slowly slumps down to a single finger.

Nose is pretty unique and interesting, but not entirely what I expected. The Belgian saison yeast is for sure coming across in this one, lending some rustic funk to the proceedings right before some light notes of black tea, peach/apricot, honeydew melon and tropical fruit pop out. Seems to be smelling better the more I let it acclimate itself to being in a glass. I actually like the funkiness here and feel that it works well with the unique combination of fruit ingredients.

Flavor is light, snappy and refreshing with bright fruit, peach tea and slight herbal notes. Dry and effervescent with a mildly aggressive carbonation that pushes some of the lighter flavors around quite nicely. This is a pretty cool drink overall. I think it's the one that most lived up to my expectations, though it also pulled them in different directions that I didn't expect, which got me interested. Nice job, SN and co-conspirators!

Listening to some Louisiana sludge metal to fit with the southern theme going on here. Fits like a glove!

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you ever make the trip here, give me a holler. I'll be your tour guide around the region!

 

Happy New Beer Sunday
Weihenstephaner 1516 Kellerbier


3.72/5 rDev -7.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

11.2 oz bttl into BL Glass
3056 date code?
L- pours a hazy gold, with white fluffy head slowly dissipating, leaves a nice thin cap on beer
S- sweet malty aroma, with yeasty notes as well
T- complex dry, bitter, and lemony citrus on the tongue, followed by the sweet malt, with a spicy finish
F- medium bodied, feels full on the tongue, well carbonated
O- definitely an unique beer with smooth drinkabilty and complex taste

was definitely worth trying, however i wasn't blown away
Cheers

 

Good afternoon to all the NBS followers and thanks to Dave for the wonderful start. Well it looks like spring may have finally come to central NH as the Lilacs are finally in bloom here.

And we had a chance to put the finishing touches on our plant pot lady in the front garden.

So after finishing the yard work chores for today I'd decided it's time to devote the rest of my Sunday to drinking beer.
so my first pick for today's NBS is Equinox from Lagunitas. A pale oat ale.

This beer poured a slightly orange golden color into my snifter glass. There was a thin white head that disapted very quickly.
The nose is pleasant with some nice hop overtones followed by some earthy aromas.
The taste is smooth nice hops with some tropical fruits coming through. The is a certain sweetness in the back of the mouth that I will say comes from the malts used in this blend. The flavors do well to hide the 8.4 abv.
The mouth feel is smooth with nice carbonation.
I have come to avoid Lagunitas bombers as there is usually no date to be found on them. But have been in this store a couple of times lately I saw this was new to the shelf so I picked it up. I was glad I did as this was a much enjoyable beer. I may just have to make a stop back for another bottle.
I've got to go check on my smoker as I have a bunch of turkey thighs smoking for dinner. Hope you all get the chance to enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

 

#2, Mac & Jack's Black Cat Porter.



First, a note to bars/bartenders everywhere: a chilled mug (read: icy) is not the preferred method of serving a beer, IMHO.

Anywho, this was a nice Porter - toffee/espresso notes, some bitter chocolate. If it had been served at the proper temperature, it probably would've been better, but it still rated 3.75, so I'm a happy beer nerd.

BONUS PIC! Me and Mrs. O in front of the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.



I out kicked my coverage by 40 yards. Drink well, NBS friends.

 

wife came in with three of these from a 4 pk. the neighbor hated it , not suprising to me cause he's a bud light type drinker
so winner winner for me!


poured out like a tornado, I've had nitro ipa from founders on tap so I was prepared.
settled down to a slightly hazy amber with a white pillow head 3.75/5
some sweetness on my nose, citrus and some pungent notes. 3.5/5
I get the hop bite right away, an attack on the tongue., then some sweetness on the top of my mouth
with the next sip,third sip reveals a more balanced hop malt bitter/sweet taste. 3.75/5
medium chewy mouthfeel, creamy and the hop flavor goes right to the roof
of my mouth. 3.5/5
it's free so I won't complain much, the abv is 7.5 and I thought that was a tad high, but now I think
it's where it needs to be. I liked the founders on tap better, but who wouldn't! 3.62 overall.

cheers!

 

I canued that lake in 2011! the waterfall to the right was awesome!it's hard to see but there is a beach over there if you didn't go over there.

 

Happy New Saison Sunday!

Pretty nice day here on the Western Slope, did a nice hike at around 5200 ft., some sun, some thunder, few drops of rain. Having a very tasty brew, definitely for the price, worth checking out.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1146/48824/?ba=Wasatch#navigation

Cheers!

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @cavedave for getting us underway today,

It’s been a blustery past few days in the Republik of Spokanistan, but has remained sunny and somewhat unseasonably warm. Well, until today, which is quite a rainy day, so far. I’ve begun reading War & Peace, and am finding I quite enjoy it, but it’s not something to read when frequently interrupted. I think I’m going to read another book at work (depending on where I’m assigned for the day, I can sometimes get a lot of reading done, but it’s frequently fragmentary in nature) and save Tolstoy for when at home or somewhere I shan’t be disturbed.

As usual, I didn’t confine new beer experiences to today’s drinking.

Earlier in the week, I made myself a long overdue introduction to a classic:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/216/673/?ba=woemad#review

I think I’m a fan.

Last night I dispatched a DIPA from a brewery located in an area Seattleites call “the eastside.” In my part of Washington, we call everything east of the Cascades by that name:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19765/54350/?ba=woemad#review

I’m not a fan. It’s not bad, but nothing to get excited about. I think I’m done with Black Raven. Nothing I have had from them moves me far beyond the meh point.

Today I’m kicking off with a SS Yigacheffe from Carton, graciously supplied to me by @SammyJaxxx:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26817/133896/?ba=woemad#review


Am I a fan? Most def. This is an incredibly well-balanced beer. With the PNW as coffee crazy as it is, I hope to see regional brewers doing something along these lines (in Portland and Seattle, they might be already, but my neck of the woods is a little more provincial).

Back with more later.

 

The three floyds went down fast so I'm back with another new beer. This time a local.

The beer is American Brown Ale, from Blue Point brewery. It's #2 of their Brewers Stash release which is suppose to be local only. The beer comes in at 6%, 40 ibu, and a bottle date of 3/23/16.

A dark brown pour with fast carbonation and head. The nose is dirty with roasted oats and malt. The drinking starts with big time oats right up front. A smooth and malty finish follows. Lots of nice roasted tones of malt, coffee, chocolate, and caramel flow nicely. The mouth feel is on the moderate to lighter side.

Overall, a pretty straight forward beer. Nothing game changing but a good easy drinker for sure. 3.5/4 at best,

 

Ok, food is out of the way, as well as a quick trip to the grocer. Only thing on tap for rest of day is a quick preparation of the shrimp I bought later for dinner. So some music, and probably some lazy watching of the Players. And of course, seeing what you guys come up with for this thread !

My next beer (and a half) has been in the fridge a couple of weeks. It's sister is also in there, both from Brouwerij Kees and both dark beers. The first will be their Export Porter 1750. I believe @bluejacket74 reviewed this (and maybe the other) on NBS a few weeks back. I'll have to see how my review compares.


The pour is a little more inky than motor oily - to use those somewhat familiar descriptors. The khaki head didn't really build too much - what you see in that top right photo is about it. However, those big, somewhat soapy bubbles in the lower picture are still around as I type.

Although it isn't overly complex, the nose is right on the roasted malt notes I think I should be getting from a beer like this. Light coffee, powdered chocolate that grows a little as it warms, lightly charred wood. I will state it again to emphasize it, the chocolate notes grow and "smooth out" the more I sniff my beer.

But beer is for drinking, as Budweiser would tell us. First sip and I was thinking, "Ok - the weren't kidding about the export part of this." The GF took a couple sips as she never wants to miss a beer. Her opinion, "This is good, but a little more alcohol-ly than I'd like."

To be more review-like, I'd says there's a certain amount of heat to this, but it isn't entirely alcohol-like, as you can get in say a spirit-barrel aged beer. It's also not a spicy burn like a Mexican stout. It does last most of each sip, though, and overlays the other tastes to the point I do wish it was more subtle. Other than the heat, there is an oily feel that flows easy but has a medium to full heft to it.

Back to the flavors. Mainly dark to unsweetened chocolate, and a slightly smokey char note are dominant and not a surprise given the nose. There's an impression of alcohol-soaked dark fruit, or maybe a soaked dark bread with said fruit in it. I also get a very light sasparilla/root beer note and almost want to say a similarly light licorice - but none of those quite explain the flavor properly. This seems to come out as the alcohol warmth subsides, maybe fueling this little spicy note at the back of the taste.

A fairly bold beer, to be sure. You won't go searching for flavor in general - it's right there jumping at you. One might debate if this goes into the stout area - and I might be one of those, even knowing the lines can be quite blurry. (Edit: apparently the brewery and this site consider it a Russian Imperial Stout, interesting)

Side note: feeling the GF might not like this too much and selfishly wanting enough to do a decent review, I poured a beer she bought for her (Blue Point Spring Fling Ale). Though it had a little age on it (January), it actually wasn't that bad in the few sips I had. Staying copper (vs amber) maybe helped (me + hoppy amber usually = ), but I'd say the balance of the beer likely led more to my "this ain't that bad" impression (it did lean bitter).

 

Happy NBS, y'all! It's a certain someone's burfday today...so everyone, go wish @Shroud0fdoom a happy Spirit Journey Reformation Anniversary!

Anyhoo, onto the (pair of) beers! (Shout out to @Xenoreactive for hooking me up!)



First beer was Billy Half-Stack IPA by Singlecut.

Pours a semi-clear amber color before the dregs are poured in. The head is three fingers high and barely off-white in shade. Huge and pillowy in texture, the retention is impressive. And annoying. Rings of lacing also stick to the glass. This has one of the best heads I've ever seen on an IPA, period.

Just from the first whiff of the aroma, it's obvious Singlecut knows how to utilize Mosaic hops. Instead of providing tons of sweet onion, I instead pick up plenty of fresh tangerine, papaya, mango, grapefruit, and orange peel. There is a undercurrent of grass and pine, helping to balance out the citrus - and malt - sweetness. Speaking of malt, I do get a little bit of caramel. Bonus points for displaying a modicum of layered depth, as well.

The first flavor I taste are the citrusy Mosaic hops. I get no sweet onion, but I do pick up a nice pine flavor. Mostly, it's tangerine and grapefruit I'm getting. Malts gently sneak in around the middle with some biscuit, bread, and caramel. The finish returns to the subtle pine. In spite of that, bitterness is wonderfully restrained. All in all, a prime example of how to do a balanced IPA correctly.

While it's not perfectly soft, the full texture doesn't bite the palate harshly. It also leaves it without much effort, thanks to how dry it is. Carbonation is fairly assertive, but not harsh.

First one I've had from SInglecut, and it's a winner. It's not quite a world-beater, but I'll be damned if it isn't tasty as hell. Like I said, the balance is excellent, ergo the drinkability is excellent. I've got 3 more IPAs from these guys, and if this is any indication, all of them will kick ass.

4.01/5: Billy did well



Next one was also by Singlecut - Does Anybody Remember Laughter?

Pours a very turbid copper color. The head is two fingers high and eggshell in shade. Retention is excellent, aided by the thick, whipped cream-like texture. Thick rings of lacing stick to the glass. The haziness (save for a few floating particles) is quite aesthetically pleasing, all told.

The aroma is close to the classic west coast IPA ideal. I pick up plenty of piny hops (though it doesn't come across harshly), backed by a gentle hint of grapefruit, orange peel, and flowers. The Cascade hops really pop nicely once it opens up. Again, it's a textbook IPA at heart (at least going from the nose), so none of the elements stand out spectacularly. Still, they come together with impressive integration and refinement.

Does anybody remember how IPAs used to taste like? Like this, basically. A slight surge of pine sap opens it up, giving way to an assertive malt flavor (think caramel and toffee). I'm picking up gentle amounts of fruit esters near the middle, adding light cherry, peach, and apricot tones. An intense grassiness finishes it off, as does some grapefruit rind and green tea. Personally, this style of IPA doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to, and the chaotic nature doesn't help its cause. Still, the level of complexity in this IPA is pretty impressive.

Though it tastes like an old-school IPA, the feel is 100% new-school. It's soft, creamy, and full-bodied; all 3 of these aspects help to quash some of the lingering bitterness nicely. Drinkability isn't elite, but it's very good.

Think SN Torpedo with a rounder feel here. It's pretty good, but the integration of this isn't top-caliber. Glad to have tried it, but I won't go seeking this out again.

3.52/5: Not as impressive as the last IPA I had from these guys

 

Happy Sunday NBSer's,
Been an interesting week on my end Started up a second youtube channel for another hobby (slowly getting the beer chanenel up and running now at 11 reviews). Teaching myself photoshop so I can make some cool youtube thumbnails to entice an audience to check my videos out.

As for my beer today, It officially knocks louisiana off my state list. This is Bayou Teche Brewing's LA 31 Biere Pale. Cheers!


3.93/5 rDev +10.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Appearance - Good looking apa here. Pours a foggy deep golden amber color 3 fingers of foamy off white head and lively carbonation replenishing that head very well. almost couldn't ask for more.

Aroma - Aroma's of grapefruit, pineapple lemon rind and a hint of orange up front, followed closely by some sweet caramel malt and strong bready malt on the back end.

Taste - Grapefruit and orange and pineapple head up this beers flavor profile and are followed by salted caramel and some cracker malt on the back end. The malt and hops are balanced beautifully here. This beer really comes together.

Feel - Medium bodied and spritzy with a very crisp finish. Not bad for this style.

Overall - This was my first beer from this brewery or the state of Louisiana and I've gotta say I'm pretty impressed. I would love to try an IPA from them as this was superbly balanaced and drtinks super easy. Definitely worth the try!

★921 characters

 

Thanks to @Robertdrinkscraft for this trade extra, never saw it around here and glad to try this one!

Pours a deep opaque orange with a beautiful two finger head that retains well, supported by generous bubbles pushing up. The appearance is fantastic with a very heavy piney aroma that leaves you anxious to taste. Very sweet upfront malty with a fine bitterness follow up. Sweet sticky lacing all down the glass. At 11%, probably follow this one with a SNPA recovery beer! Cheers

 

Aloha NBS! Hope everyone has had a great weekend so far. My weekend has been a treat beer-wise as the Stone IRS finally hit the stores and the Sierra Nevada high altitude 4 pack is now at our local Costco and one of those 4 I'm currently drinking now...

Sierra Nevada Chocolate Chili Stout coming in at 8.2% alcohol and bottled 3/29/16.
The first thing I noticed when I went to enter my ratings was that there were only 21 reviews for this beer so I guess the 4 pack hasn't made it's way to most stores or it might be a Costco only type of deal? Either way I definitely recommend picking a pack up especially if you are a fan of BA Bigfoot which is one of the 4 beers and the pack costs $30. I cracked into the Six Rights DIPA from the pack yesterday and ended up rating it a 4.35 and the Chili Stout that I'm drinking now ended up breaking down like this:

4.23/5 rDev +8.7% look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
This pours really nicely. Quality head retention and pretty nice lacing for a stout that is only 8.2%. The aroma is quite subtle to me, some burnt wood and chocolate along with a very slight hint of chili spice in the background. The predominant flavor on the first sip is chocolate bitterness, licorice, roasted malt, dark fruit, coffee, and the chilies come in at the very end. The feel is just a tad too thin for me but I mostly enjoy BA Stouts and high ABV stouts so take that with a grain of salt. Overall this a great beer for what it is. People might be disappointed with the lack of chili / spice dominance but I think they did a great job and this is a really well balanced stout and another great offering from Sierra Nevada.