New Beer Sunday (week 597)

This is the closest I can come to Pilsner this morning.

Samuel Adams Downtime Pilsner



Pours a clean light yellow color with fluffy white head and some lacing. The aroma is a nice note of floral perfumed hops with some underlying mild malt. Hops are the thing here which sing in a clear tone.

Taste is good. Mild malts carry the melody with hops singing the high notes. Pleasant, refreshing flavor that finishes quick with very little hop aftertaste. The texture is mild to medium depending on your take, for me it's mild.

A very nice addition to the stable. Not a racing breed, more of a workhorse.

 

Tired Hands – Part Trois!!

A few months ago I reported on two different brands of Tired Hands beers in cans: HopHands & D2H3 Mosaic which are both APAs. Through fortuitous circumstances I have obtained my third brand of Tired Hands beers in cans: Alien Church.

Obtaining canned Tired Hands beers is not easy. They are released at the brewery once a week during the week (e.g., Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 pm) and lines start forming hours before release time. They often sell out by 6:00 pm. I am lucky that I know people and those people are generous!!

I have never had Tired Hands Alien Church on draft so this can is a new experience for me and I am quite excited to try it. Below is a description of this beer via the Tired Hands website:

“Alien Church:

Oat IPA. 7.0% Brewed with oats. Hopped with Mosaic, Citra, Chinook, Centennial and Columbus. One of our most otherworldly IPAs… Bow down before the ALien Church!

-Notes of blueberries, fresh orange slices, dank, deep pine, honeydew melons.”

Did you take note of the spelling of “ALien Church”? The part of “AL” is capitalized since that is a tribute to a craft beer aficionado named Al. Where the “Church” part came from I have no idea.

Let’s get down to brass tacks and drink some beer!!

Served in my Spiegelau IPA glass:

Appearance:

Pours a hazy straw color with a two finger white head.

Aroma:

Wow! A combination of dank and tropical fruits.

Taste:

The flavors follows the nose: a tasty combination of tropical fruit flavors along with some dank. Just enough malt to provide some balance.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with an off-dry finish.

Overall:

This is a tasty IPA. I enjoyed the combination of tropical fruit and dank in this beer.


I am typically not a fan of dank but for some reason the dank works well for me in this particular beer.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @mythaeus @SFACRKnight @RobH

 

utopiajane I wish I could write a review like yours which is creative, informative and downright entertaining.

 

A nice start for a NBS. Thanks!

Cheers!

 

Howdy, NBSers!

Thanks to @utopiajane for the kickoff. And I think you're right about the year of the pils ... we've had a couple new ones spring up suddenly down here in Texas, and while they haven't been particularly fantastic, it's cool seeing the style get some attention.

The weather hasn't been particularly fantastic, speaking of .... It feels like it’s been raining for three straight months here in the Brazos Valley. It hasn’t, but we seem to get something almost every other day or a good weekly dousing if we go more than 3-4 days in a row with nothing. It beats the tar out of the 2011 drought, that’s for sure, even if my golf game is suffering because of it.

I cracked open this one after the late shift earlier this morning:



Buford’s Roadside Wares, a Jester King/Arizona Wilderness collaboration

It’s labelled a “biere de garde” here on BA.com, and JK’s description does say the beer is “inspired by” that style, but virtually everything JK brews is farmhouse first, second and third and whatever else comes well after that. And that’s the case here -- Buford is tart, almost sour, with vinous qualities that bleed into the fingernail polish/remover range. There’s also a roaming hint of JK’s musty barn/old fuggle hop signature flavor. It does offer quite a bit of sweetness in the nose, but the aroma is generally very tart cherries or sour apples. I wouldn’t call it “sweet”, but the absence of any bitter dirt flavor or earthy flavor is noticeable for a JK brew. They typically are loaded with the stuff. This one isn't. More lemon than lemon peel kind of thing.

The one major addition in this beer is pecans, but not shockingly, they don’t show up in the aroma nor the flavor. There’s too much lemon tartness for a pecan to have a shot of adding to the flavor, though I don’t call it a bad thing -- as a “sour”, this is one of Jester King’s cleanest and best. I love their funky barn-must bombs, but this one tastes a bit more like a Jolly Pumpkin or Prairie Artisan beer … more tart, less funk and dirt.

The review:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24018/220094/?ba=Premo88#review
3.98 (-4.1% rDev)

Hope your Sunday goes well ...
Cheers!

 

Great review. I had Alien Church at their Fermentaria brewpub for the first time yesterday. In addition to the other-worldly appearance, the tropical notes are what stood out most to me -- pineapple and papaya -- along with a slightly watery backend I find in a lot of East Coast IPAs. I had the Sea of Green DIPA next. It looked and smelled quite similar, but the added malt and alcohol kicked it up a notch that hit my sweet spot.

 

Poured into a 16 oz snifter at near room temperature, bottled I think on 1/14/16. Pours a very dark mahogany with a 2 finger lite tan head that leaves some thin lines of lace. 4.5 Smell very tame, cocoa, lite coffee, some biscuit, and a hint of toffee. 3.5

Taste is much larger, roasty coffee, dark chocolate, vanilla, some oak, and toffee very nice! 4.5 Mouthfeel is medium, very creamy, moderate carbonation as it should be, a bit dry, and for 10.2% ABV it drinks way to easy. 4.25 Overall I was very surprised how mild the nose was, but after taking the first sip, I couldn't believe how tasty it was. Really a great stout, but it was harder to get stuff out of the smell than any stout I have ever had. Still giving it a 4.25

 

Pretty much every beer I post in WBAYDT is a new beer but I've never written here. I got the chance to try my first Tripel Karmeliet a few hours ago and I was completely blown away. Huge head (in typical Belgian fashion) with insanely long retention. Golden color and considerable carbonation (at least visually because you don't feel it when you drink the beer). The aroma is bubble-gummy and vanilla-ish. Flavor is similar and it intensifies as the liquid warms up. Mouthfeel is extremely smooth, and borders the kind of sensation that you get from nitro-treated brews. An amazing beer.

 

Had the privilege of having this on tap at the brew house the other week.....while its great from the bottle its absolutely stunning fresh on tap. A remarkable beer for being just an "ordinary" "old" beer style.

 

Prairie-Vous Francais on tap for me this fine sunday morning. This is a 3.9% farmhouse ale w/ brett brux and saaz hops.

Pours an almost white-ish color out of the bottle, but into the glass its just a very pale gold. Slight haze to it, and some carbonation bubbles rushing up the center of the glass. Fluffy as fluff can be white colored head, sits on top of the beer like a pillowy blanket.

The smell features some tart fruits, mainly lemon and subtler pear and apple. Funky yeast, certain grassy element and lots of that musty character. Touch of earthy, spicy hops as well.

On the taste the brett really comes forward the most. Chalky, musty, funky, a big dose of wet hay and some fresh grass clippings. Just a flash of tart fruits, again with the lemon.

Mouthfeel is extremely crisp and refreshing. The carbonation is almost spritzy, but not in an over carbonated type of way. Its palate cleansing in a great way. Keeps the beer light and begging you to go back for more.

Prairie really doesnt do anything wrong, everything they put out delivers. While the price is very high in comparison to other breweries, im not much bothered because they never miss. I was expecting a highly drinkable, refreshing, crushable beer....with enough flavor and complexity to make me think for a second or two.....this is it. Also, this beer really allows you to search through the brett yeast and pick out all the things it adds to a beer.

Cheers everyone and enjoy your day.

 

Hello everyone, hope everyone's day is going well. Getting yard work done and hoping the clouds don't burst before I finish!
BEER INFO:
SmackDab
Brewed by:
Barrier Brewing Company
New York, United States | website
Style: American Pale Lager
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 6.90%
Availability: Rotating


My review:

4.28/5 rDev +4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

500ml Bottle poured into a flute.

Look: Golden and hazy with a thick, big bubbled foamy head. The head slowly settles and rings my glass with a few islands of floating bubbles.

Smell: Grassy, earthy hops followed by a crackery malt aroma. Slight scent of lemon drop candy sweetness is there too.

Taste: The flavor has a background sweetness that mellows out the deep, bitter, and floral hop additions. Lemon zest and rind flavor mixed with fresh cut grass and biscuity malts. The sweetness is candy-like, but not overpowering.

Feel: Moderate level of carbonation, fairly light bodied, refreshing.

Overall: Very reminiscent of the hopped up Jack's Abbey lagers. Clean flavors meld together well. Overall an easier drinking version of a high IBU brew. The hop flavors and bitterness are balanced nicely with the crackery lager aspects, and the sweetness mellows everything together.

 

That Pils looks great. Unfortunately I do not have a new Pilsner today, but had one yesterday. Firestone walker pivo Pilsner, which was incredible. It was 4 weeks old and tasted great. That and summerfest are my two favorite pilsners.

Also tried Berkshire brewing company's Pilsner about a week ago. Solid, but not as good as SN or FW. Crisp and ol'factory pilsners are nice American versions. Never can find imports without dust on the bottles.

Pilsners are quickly becoming one of my favorite beer. Although on the homebrew front, they are tough to brew...

Hope to be back with a new beer post today.

Cheers

 

Awesome Brew!

Cheers!

 

I've had all of New Glarus' fruit beers and they always are killer. But I never associated Wisconsin as much of a IIPA state. That being said, I had the chance to travel there to visit family recently and of course that presented the opportunity to expand my New Glarus experiences.

New Glarus Scream IIPA
First of all what impressed me the most is this uses mostly Wisconsin grown hops and malts. I knew the state produced quite a few malts used by other brewers but never considered them a big hop producer. Regardless agriculture is huge in the state and the quality is always top notch and it certainly shows here, as do the skills of the brewer getting the most out of the quality ingredients.
It starts off with both citrus and tropical fruit but then as you sip those same flavors continue and earth and pepper are added all while keeping a nice malt backbone. Everything is very balanced as well, the 9% is hidden and the finish is long and crisp bringing it all home. Overall 4.36 rDev +0.9%, not that I'd expect anything less from New Glarus.
Cheers!

 

Rodenbach Alexander

Happy Sunday, BAs. Nursing this in an empty bar while my wife and daughter watch Angry Birds. May have one or two more before they get back.

Alexander pours a reddish brown with a wispy off-white head. It has a delicious aroma of sour cherries, vanilla, oak and sherry.

There's a creamy mouthfeel up front with much more of a juicy, fresh, sweet cherry taste than expected. This gives way to the strong tartness and oaken flavors of a traditional Grand Cru. There is a nice mix of the fresh cherry juice and tartness in the initial aftertaste, which then finishes dry. It's medium bodied.

The cherry sweetness is very different than any Flanders I've ever had. Glad to have tried it.