New Beer Sunday (week 597)

Thanks for the soundtrack for page 2 Clay!

 

Fair enough.

I did not taste the batch that you drank but Jean most definitely has the ability to brew a "drinkable Pilsner".

There has been some comments in the Mid-Atlantic forum about some inconsistency of beers from Tired Hands in the past few months. In all honesty I do not frequent the Tired Hands locations enough to have a reasoned comment on this aspect.

Cheers!

 

Good Interesting? I agree it is a bit different, and I really enjoyed it. Just havent convinced myself to buy more because those low abv brews really wear thin quick for me. Cans would probably help

 

Double Shot - Colombia El Novado from Tree House. Smooth and silky, with big coffee and dark chocolate flavors coming through. Very enjoyable

 

My day is finally calming down, so checking out a recent local release from Straight to Ale.

This is their 6th anniversary beer - a dark ale aged on sour cherries.

Getting lots of chocolate, cherry, and oak, but the mouthfeel is a little odd and the flavors are a little muddy. I'm glad they tried something different, but I really liked the 5th anniversary quad quite a bit more.



http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22655/231543/?ba=richj1970#review

 

Now it's New Brewery Sunday for me. I'm at Iron Goat Brewing (as threatened earlier), drinking a saison from Quartzite Brewing, out of far off (to most people, anyway) Chewelah, Washington (love Iron Goat's so-far continual inclusion of guest taps). Decent, very, clove-y, but it reminds me more of a tripel in flavor, despite it's relatively modest abv.

 

Hey to each his own that's what keeps it interesting. I will say that if definitely leans toward the old school type of IPA. Santilli is an excellent beer though I'm on the same page with that one. It has some unusual characteristics for an IPA -IMO too. Like that thick and creamy luscious head....

 

#2, headed to Wisconsin for one of the more underrated brewers we beer nerds are blessed with, IMHO.



I don't know what these guys do to operate such a magnificent barrel program, but they're doing something right. This pours jet black with a couple of fingers of tan head. The bourbon is prevalent on the nose, but the vanilla and cinnamon peek through, then shine on the taste - this is like a cinnamon bun with a shot of bourbon, wrapped in a vanilla bouquet. Simply magnificent.

Rated 4.50.

 

I read that lead in post and can easily go Wayne's World and declare myself unworthy. Beautiful kck off post @utopiajane !

Uneven but generally nice weekend wearher here in the kingdom. Some rain would actually be welcome. Can feel the hint of humidity creeping in today. Got much if the lawn mowed today. All of a sudden there is foot tall grass in splotches all over the castle grounds. Have most of our garden plants sitting on the patio, so sprinkiling away and I hear this buzzing sound. Took me a while to locate the hummingbird sipping from the water dripping off the patio table...pretty cool.

So whats in the glass, you wonder? Smuttynose Rocky Road. A milk stout in the Big Beer series. Well, it pours almost black with a pretty toffee colored two finger head. The head falls, somewhat slowly, into the typical stout "ring". Smell....ok sniff bigger...hmmm...not a lot going on besides chocolate... No marshmallow, no oak, no Amaretto them oak chips were allegedly soaked in. Lets see what it tastes like....big chocolate and bitterness a mild hint of sweetness. All right...let this bad boy warm up. The aroma doesnt change much at room temp, but the taste evolves some. The bitterness dials back, the chocolate remains big, but there is some vanilla sweetness faintly reminiscent of marshmallow. Feels a bit thin for a milk stout. To me...and if anybody says I said this I will claim plausible deniability...it needs a bit more sweetness. And maybe more vanilla to bring out to idea of a marshmallow...

I am hot and cold on Smuttynose. I am in that mode with this beer...it doesnt meet my expectations. I am feeling it was a 3.2 beer cold, but warm I can bump it to 3.5 or so. Not their best effort, in my humble opinion. It is an OK chocolate milk stout, but the Rocky Road part wasn't much more than the label art for me.

I might be back for a late night addition...in the meantime, cheers!

 

Greetings All from the Great Northwest.

Chiming in today with Son of Birdserker Session IPA. Rumored to be retired, but I bought it in a regional chain grocery store with a different label that pictured. I'm guessing it's more of a seasonal release and not really retired at all.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19765/132249/

A good session IPA, but not great. A little one dimensional, short of citrus aromas and flavors and a bit dry. But certainly a decent brew from the folks at Black Raven.

Blustery here today, where mowing and fertilizing were the orders of the day. Great to see all these beer pics with greenery in the background. Love this time of year.

Until next time,

Happy Trails!

 

New Beer Sunday: A Vienna Lager

Evenin' NBSers with special greetings to all you ardent appreciators of the virtues of Vienna Lagers. Special thanks to @utopiajane for getting the Ball started today.

Weather here started out as a rainy morning with clouds lasting throughout the day, even as the rain moved away and the local world began to dry out a bit. Life was a bit hectic here today with errands and fulfilling some social obligations.

This evening's new beer is a Vienna Lager from a small family owned brewery over in western PA in a small town called St. Marys. Recently (the last 4-5 years) this brewery has begun to step up their game from the Adjunct Lagers that kept them in business for most of their family-owned 144 years. One thing that distinguishes Straub's from any other brewery I've toured is the eternal tap where you can pour yourself a small glass of any of three of their beers. All that they ask is that you restrict yourself to two glasses and wash the glass when you've finished. This brewery is such a well established part of their local community that anyone wandering by can stop in for a quick beer from the eternal tap, no charge.

As usual my review, subject to change while finishing off the beer, can be found here:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/880/171226/?ba=drtth#review

I rather like this version of the Vienna Lager since for me it touches the right bases in an enjoyable way. The color is amber/copper, there is nice bready malt sweetness in the aromas and flavors and some earthy hops chime in as the finish begins. It is very drinkable and, unlike some Vienna Lager's I've tried, it isn't too sweet in the finish.

For this evening's music on the player I keyed on the name of the beer style. The Vienna lager was originally developed in Vienna and spread to other places, seeing a bit of a revival in recent years. So digging through some old vinyl I came upon an album of the music for which Vienna is most well known, the Waltzes of Johann Strauss, Jr. (Also known as "The Waltz King.") Most all of these waltzes have survived for many years and are still popular with many people.

One of the biggest modern promoters of the Waltz is a Dutchman by the name of Andre Rieu. So I was also listening to his rendition of one of the most famous of Strauss Waltzes, The Blue Danube. In the particular recording linked to below Rieu's concert stage is set up in front of one of the imperial palaces (in this case the summer palace) and through the windows of the palace behind the stage and inside the ballroom you can see scenes of folks in the palace ballroom waltzing in classical style to the music. (Actually. to this day the Viennese have the tradition of celebrating the New Year with several formal balls, each with lots of Waltzes and waltzing through out the evening.) In the video there are also some great shots of the lavish "summer place" interior. (As Mell Gibson might have said, "It's good to be the Emperor." )

Behind the palace there is a very large park and some formal gardens. The park has lots of walkways and lots of benches where you can just sit and relax or read on a Sunday afternoon. Something which I was able to do more than once while living in Vienna for a few months.

The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, Jr.

Cheers, all!

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @utopiajane for getting us started off this week. I finally broke out of my slump and got the motivation to ride my bike outside again. Ended up doing 54 miles yesterday and 33 miles today. Finally got the addiction back, so I should hopefully be back into doing it every day again, as long as it isn't raining. I definitely feel a lot better now, my ride buzz took 3 hours to go down, but I can still feel a little of it. Yesterday's ride was a bit too much for me, but today was perfect. Looking at another normal work week ahead. Next weekend is Memorial Day, so I plan on driving home to Ohio to visit. My sister moved back from Missouri last month, so I get to see the whole family again.

Today's new beers, tomorrow will be review 4300:

Very good IPA. Aromas and flavors of grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, mango, lemon/orange peel, and pine; with toasted bread/light caramel malts; and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine/rind bitterness; with balanced sticky/resin and creaminess in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing dryness; leading to an ever so slight bit of hop astringency near the end of the glass. Very smooth stuff. There was a washed out bottle code on the neck. The clumpy protein haze tells me this is at least 6 months old; but I still really enjoyed it. 3.78


Very nice imperial milk stout. Aromas and flavors of milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, toffee, vanilla, cream, toasted brown bread, and light nuttiness/dark fruits; with some light herbal hops. Light herbal/roast bitterness; with a nice creamy/silky medium-plus body mouthfeel, with slight chalky/bready roast notes. Slight roasted dryness. Nice bittersweet balanced flavor profile, minimal ABV warmth. Very smooth and nice complexity. 3.88


Omnipollo Aniara. Excellent pale ale! Seriously pale straw in color. Nice head retention and lacing. Aromas and flavors of big tart lemon, grapefruit, mango, pineapple, papaya, guava, citrus peel, and pine; with light honey/bready malts; and herbal/floral/grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine/herbal/citrus peel bitterness and lemon tartness; very crisp/dry finish; moderate hop stickiness, tart acidity, and slight grainy creaminess in the mouthfeel. No lingering hop or lemon astringency. Highly drinkable. Great mix of tropical/citrus hops and lemon character; hardly any malt there. 4.1


Cheers, have a good night NBS

 

Thanks to my first trade on BA...this was a great way to end the weekend.

 

How's it going everybody? Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday. This weekend I got word that I passed an exam for licensure in my profession. It involved months of studying at night and on weekends (which sadly meant not much NBS involvement or much BA involvement in general). The entire process was years in the making, and there have been several missteps along the way, but I'm relieved to say it's over with. Thanks to all of the great BAs on this site who unknowingly have helped me take my mind off studying and engaged me in fun beer conversation when I needed a break. This truly is an awesome community!

Alright, let's have a new beer! This beer is not one that is distributed in my state. I picked up a 6-pack of it at Capone's in Pennsylvania, which is an incredible place but I will save that discussion for another time.

Deschutes Black Butte Porter



I remember reading about this beer in The Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver. I could write my own review of it, but after taking a look back in the book, his description is so on point that I'm just going to leave his words here instead of mine.

"This porter is deep brown and has a complex aroma of hops, dark fruit, licorice, and coffee, with a hint of mint. The palate is soft, and bitterness is restrained as caramel and gentle coffee and chocolate flavors play through the middle, showing a flash of malt sweetness. It glides into a chalky dry finish, though it leaves a fruity impression, as if it had been sweeter." - Garrett Oliver, The Brewmaster's Table

Great stuff. Cheers!

 

Tried to post a review, but it timed out the moment I hit submit.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/43983/231544/?ba=woemad#review

 

Can you tell us a bit about what your new beer was like and whether or not you enjoyed it and why?

 

Well, one more tonight.

I found out about this brewery last year when I visited my friend in Key West. The first beer I had there Was from Zywiec Brewery, and it was damn good. So, when I saw this one in the liquor store, I had to get it.


It pours very dark, which is a trend for me today. There is a nose, but hard to describe. The taste is good. It's got a slight smoke. It also has a great malt feel, and flavor to it. Not bad at all, and a good closer (probably) to NBS.

 

Ok, one more "sour" for today, this one from Strangeways, and the last of the new beers from them that I bought before visiting the brewery a few weeks back. Still have some from that trip that may make it into NBS later.

This is O.T.I.S. (Oh, This Is Sour?) Cucumber Melon Sour


So there are two entries for this in the BA database, and the one with the better name is the newer one. The BA admins have not been good at combining duplicate listings that I have sent updates for, but I'll keep trying. I'll also use the older entry for my review. It is funny the same beer has a 4.11 avg on 54/11 ratings/reviews, and the duplicate has 3.58 on 6/1 (though that one review and its higher weight was around that avg).

Anyhow, this is a nice looking beer. A chill haze at best is the only thing that blurs the light gold window of this brew. A cloudy white topping prevents seeing the table through the beer veritcally, however.

The nose actually reminds me a little of some sour gose beers I have had in the past. A lime like sourness and a little bit of salted melon. Not sure where the saltiness comes from, I don't think it's in the ingredient list.

The beer isn't as sour or puckering as the bottle claims (bottles are lying to me today!), but does start with a lemon-limey tartness up front. The cucumber is definitely there, and grows with steadily until the taste ends. It strangely does add a "watering down" element to the beer that you might expect if you had a mostly tasteless water-filled vegetable to something. I get the impression of cucumber skin that adds the lightest vegetal note.

There is a nice level of carbonation that accentuates the sour notes up front. It is light but lasts into mid-taste to prevent that "watering down" from seeming too bland. Warmth also seems to help extend the tartness longer into the taste, and also brings a hint of melon in right behind that opening splash of citrus. I do sense a little saltiness in the ending, but I am sure that is more psychological at this point, and doesn't at all match what I thought I was getting in the nose.

I liked this beer. Decent amount of tartness, and the cucumber eventually seems more of an accent. The melon is hidden pretty well, however. Also, I popped a DuClaw beer for the GF, Quick Start My Heart, a strawberry milk stout:


Only had a couple sips, but my general impression is this seemed similar to Sweet Baby Jesus. The nose was amazingly strawberry dominated, much like the PB is in the comparison beer. The beer itself tasted similar to the base beer of SBJ to me, with the strawberry decently represented, a decent accent. The beer did seem a little bitter for a milk stout, and had a weird aftertaste that seemed like a clash of the two flavors.

 

I've found that I just don't get the love our Seattle brethren have shown to Black Raven, unless there's some massive difference between what they bottle and what's served from the tap.

 

#2 NBS for late "have to go back to shitty work" Sunday. This one of the last two from the BIF #3 box courtesy of @foundersasap: Who says you cant have breakfast for dessert?

Oddside Ales Hipster Brunch Stout. Aged in bourbon barrels with coffee, maple syrup and bacon.

Pours a dense dark chocolate with a coffee colored head that settles to a thin ring with nice "world map" lacing.

Aroma is of light sweet bourbon with a touch of oak and light coffee notes, milk chocolate and slight smokiness with a touch of alcohol.

Taste that seems to balance itself out with the barrel, dark chocolate malts and coffee. The maple syrup stops just short of being slightly cloying, though the interesting part of this beer that seems to tie it all together is the salinity of the bacon. There is a metallic taste that doesn't become off putting. I'm not sure if this is acidity of "bacon" or the reduction of the sugars from the Maple Syrup but it seems to originate from either. Tasty though and loads of lasting flavor. Nicely bitter too.

Body is nice. Not too viscous- though some stout lovers may be disappointed with this I like it. The carb is medium to low and there is a lip smacking sweetness left by the syrup. Finishes dry for the style with no hint of alcohol- but again with a slight metallic taste.

Not usually a fan of all these multiple flavored beers but I must say I did enjoy this. I think the lighter body and saltiness of the bacon really set this apart for me. Very enjoyable.
Have a fantastic night.