New Beer Sunday (week 594)

Work is going to keep me from beer drinking today, but I will be checking in on NBS so I can drink vicariously.
Cheers, all!

 

Mornin' @cavedave and all the rest of you NBSers.

While it's mostly running errands and ticking off things from the "honey do" list, I've also got a bit of work to finish off today before that first beer. However, all signs and forecasts point to today being a nice day here in SEPA with plenty of sunshine, warm dry air, and few if any clouds in the sky.

So I'm also expecting to be back with a new beer to report on. While I'm sure many have already tried it, the other day I realized, with a bit of a shock, that I'd not yet had the Victory Vital IPA. So that's what's in the fridge chilling even as we speak.

Cheers, all!

 

Good morning New BSers! @cavedave, thanks for the opening on this overcast Sunday! As usual, your alliterative allusions allow all to participate in today's festivities. My new brew is :



$ 12.75 (Including tax)/25.4 oz bottle ($ 0.503/oz) at Fairgrounds Wine & Spirits, Danbury, CT
Bottle dated L21_15141 at 42 degrees into a hand washed and dried JK snifter
Aroma – smells sweet, not noticing any yeast, kind of like candy syrup
Head – large (Maximum 5.7 cm, slow pour), off white, creamy with large rocks, diminishing to an irregular six to twelve mm lacy ring with drag marks and a heaped semicircular partial layer
Lacing – good. Some areas of complete wide bands of tiny to small bubbles, some areas of torn lacing of tiny to small bubbles
Body – orange, clear
Flavor – seems sugary and a little sweet for anything called an IPA, not finding any yeastiness, some hops coming through on the end. No malt, no alcohol, no diacetyl.
Palate medium, slightly syrupy, lively carbonation

I’ve had most of the Delirium brews from Huyghe and they all seem disappointing – maybe the frolicking pink elephant raises my expectations unrealistically. They look good in the glass but somehow manage to fall short on taste. This bottle opened with a loud “POP” with no foaming over.


Appearance 4, Aroma 3.5, Flavor 3.5, Palate 3.5, Overall 3.75 Rating 3.58. Avg 3.8. rDev -5

 

While I've not tried the Argentum yet, my experience with the Delirium beers I have tried has been much like yours. I'd not turn one down if offered, but there are others I'd prefer to buy instead. So I appreciate it that you've just saved me some money to spend on a different beer.

 

Glad to be of service!

 

Good morning @cavedave and to all! Happy New Beer Sunday. I have been up quite a while now and the whole time I felt like I was waiting for something. It just had to be that quote from Billy Carter. Over this summer I am trying beers that feature an addition of some kind and I am calling it "the Additional Summer." I am getting quite a list of styles actually and today I have Uinta's Hop Nosh Tangerine. Everyone is adding the fruit zest to the IPA. I notice a couple things right away. It's better than adding juice which can be precarious with too much sugar. Also it seems to give a whole fruit feeling to the flavor, everything from peel to pith. A few people and I cannot name the threads have said that adding fruit peel to the IPA tens to create a more one note impression. I think so too and that is because it drowns out the hops. The other thing you'll notice is that the brewers are really doing unique things with malt. For this beer Uinta is using munich and C40. Hops are galaxy and chinook.

The pour is a hazy honey orange and it clears well as you drink. Stream of bubbles and a thin white head that fell fast. The nose is headdy with tangerine. You can smell it from the skin to the pulp and it even looks like there's a little pulp in the glass at first. Galaxy have a light tropical scent. some herbal hop notes. Malt on this one is toasty and biscuity too with a honey like scent that is very captivating. Munich gives it a hearty depth to the scent. It also smells like juice. Very nice.

Drinks like juice too. Tangerine and citrus flavor with a tropical backing form the galaxy. The malt really keeps you interested. Soft dense grasses and a little floral. It does become a bit one note as the fruit peel takes over as the beer warms and soon much of that complexity form the hops is lost. The mouthfeel is delightful and lighter than the taste would let you think. It's balanced well and the chinook gives a solid bitterness. In fact the bitterness in this one had that threshold where it could taste like aspirin. Moderate carbonation. it lingers with a little pith and the toasty heartier malt flavor. For 7.3% there was not really any alcohol on the nose or the palate. Just a very light warmth. The malt even shows you graham cracker as the beer drinks so it's going for dry. It's not quite dry.

Cheers and Happy New American Citrus Peel Added IPA Sunday!



More Boogaloo?

 

OK, gotta ask, what is ebonovinism? A Google search only turns up this post.

 

Bibulousity of the brainpan exhibiting odd brilliance?

 

Exactly. He did that on purpose. Leave it to Dave to put on a word ya can't even google, and when you do it takes you straight here. . . to the beer.

 

Summer of Pilsners – 30th Anniversary Beer!

Summit Brewing Company is celebrating their 30th Anniversary this year. As part of this anniversary celebration they are periodically brewing special beers. Recently they released the second of these beers: Summit Keller Pils.

The term of “Keller” is a German word for Cellar; it essentially means that this beer is not filtered.

Below is a description of this beer from the Summit website:

“We’re celebrating 30 years of Summit by brewing four special beers that exemplify the spirit of Summit: grounded in tradition and quality but always looking forward with innovation and modern brewing approaches.

An unfiltered traditional German style dating all the way back to the Middle Ages, our 30thAnniversary Keller Pils is unlike any lager we’ve ever produced. We sourced a heritage German barley variety with a blend of traditional and modern German hops along with a Munich lager yeast from a private collection. Here’s to three, full-flavored decades of sharing quality brewing ingredients with quality beer lovers. Cheers!

Flavor Notes:

Malty-sweet, honey undertones, balanced hop bitterness with spicy and floral aromas with a hint of citrus.”

There is mention of “heritage German barley” in the above description. The malt they used was Weyermann Barke Pilsner Malt where the term of Barke refers to the specific barley variety. You can read more here: http://www.weyermann.de/fra/news.asp?go=ne&show=yes&idne=3502&umenue=yes&idmenue=&sprache

The beer’s specs:

Beer Specs:

{Limited Release}

Original Gravity: 12° Plato

Alcohol by Volume: 5.1%

Color, (deg. L.): Pale straw, 4° L

IBUs: 38

Malts Utilized: 100% Barke Pilsner heritage malt sourced from Weyermann Specialty Malts

Hops Utilized: A blend of traditional (Tettnang) and modern (Huell Melon) German varieties

Yeast: German lager

Established: 2016


This beer reads very intriguing but let’s see how this translates to the actual beer.

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

Straw colored with a big fluffy white head.

Aroma:

A distinctive sweetish Pilsner Malt aroma with a hint of herbal/spicy hop aroma.

Taste:

The flavor very much follows the nose. The slightly sweet and toasty Pilsner Malt flavor is noticeable along with hop flavors of herbal/spicy with just a tiny hint of citrus in the background. A firm bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with a pleasant crisp finish

Overall:

This beer is excellent! It is nicely balanced between the distinctive Pilsner Malt flavor and the hop flavors. I really think the Barke barley variety is a winner here!!

Cheers to Summit Brewing for crafting a wonderful Keller Pils to celebrate their 30th Anniversary.

@zid @rotsaruch @Crusader @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @Ranbot

 

Good morning to all. I hadn't planned on being home today but the weather on the island in Maine changed our minds and we came home on Friday instead of staying there until tomorrow and then heading to Vermont. The first 5 days were great as this picture from our camp site will attest.

We did make the trip out to Egg Rock to look for Puffins and for the first time in spite of the overcast and fog were successful.

I did find some great beers while I was there in Maine and will be back later to review at least one of them I brought home with me.

 

Malt has become very exciting. I am glad. This sounds like a wonderful pils. I don't think I have had the second hop that you mention. Thanks for the read. =) Cheers Jack!

 

Good Morning, NBS! Met up with friends of the GF yesterday, one of whom has been a good beer lover for many years now. They live in a slightly different part of our corner of the world, and do some beer trips in the opposite directions than do we. As such, we exchanged a couple of beers, and I got a couple from @WesMantooth's neck of the woods, a Cigar City stout I've been meaning to try (one that's not Hunahpu, which I am also hoping to try sometime), and a homebrew the maker talked up and talked down in the same meeting (it's getting a tad old, he warns).

I may not be able to get into any of them, as we have a fairly busy day today, but I might sneak in some time eventually. This AM is open for now until lunch, so I have time for a new beer that fit my mood for the morning:


New Belgium Tart Lychee (a Lips of Faith series beer):
Pours cloudy out of the glass, and I watched for fuzziness near the end - but didn't see any. Getting past the condensation on the glass doesn't show the beer to be any clearer than the photo indicates. The head grew nice and fluffy white on a medium pour at heaviest. Moderate leaning to heavy lacing as the head stays thick at the rim and in large islands across the surface.

Nose seems to have two notes that almost cancel each other out. The slightly more prominent is the tartness. I want to go with a tart tropical fruit, and to the best of my experience I am coming up with passion fruit. Then there is the sweeter note than can be picked out if I focus on it. I have never had lychee (though I believe I've had its syrup or something as an ingredient in food), so I can't say that is what I smell, but it is a light cotton candy like sugars sweetness. Combined it is an enjoyable smell - one I might generically call tropically floral.

The beer starts like generic lightly [citrus] fruited water at the very front. A light tingle of tartness on the front of the tongue foreshadows the blast I get as the beer passes to the back of my tongue. The tartness reminds me of the tartness of a grapefruit soda. Perhaps this is the influence of the sweet note (presumably the lychee). It's been a long time since I've had an Orangina, but that beverage comes to mind as well. The prickly carbonation reinforces a soda impression, though the bubbles feel smaller than your typical soda.

The tartness fades as I drink the glass down, though I can't be sure it isn't just my palate adjusting. This thing had a decent tart-sweet bite initially, but was not really nearing sour, and nothing about the initial notes seemed "funky." Nearer the end, as the tart faded, a mild level of woodiness was sensed. By the end, I'd say the impression turned to a mimosa to which someone had added an ice cube to keep it cold but which has since melted.

I have generally liked NB's straight sour offerings, and this was a nice beverage. I didn't expect it to stay too tart given what I knew (and looked up) about lychees. I'd be interested to know what someone who has experience with the key ingredient thinks of this.

 

So I have missed a few Sundays, sorry about that, but sometimes family has to be first. This pours at near room temperature a gorgeous mahogany with a 2 inch tan head that leaves behind wisps of lace, as it takes its time and settles into a thin layer of bubbles. 5 Smell is oaky, woody, dark fruit, brown sugar, vanilla, toffee, caramel, biscuit, and a hint of alcohol. 4.75

Taste follows perfectly oak, brown sugar, vanilla, toffee, caramel, chocolate, biscuit, and just a touch of warming alcohol tickles the back of the throat. 4.75

Mouthfeel is on the large side, moderate carbonation, very creamy, a little dry, and drinkability is insane for 12.5 % ABV. The 6 months in the oak barrel shows! 5

Overall this is as good a Barleywine as I have ever had........ 5 Many thanks @jzeilinger for this gem. Hard to put into words how good this was.

 

Thanks to @zid for the 750 saison thread, been wanting to expand into other styles and have had few of the saisons. I went to Costco and picked up a couple, the cashier said "just the wine"? You have to love the fancy bottles! The Saison DuPont, huge head of tiny bubbles, some foam, an aroma of sweet fruit, malt a bit funky. The taste is crisp and light a bit exciting on the tongue, sweet up front and bitter finish. Nice summer style I'll seek out again. Cheers

 

Saw this beer in Nebraska on our recent trip and had recalled seeing it on WBAYDN a few times, usually with praise. Though I didn't take any notes during my times having it, I do recall thinking it was a nice balance of malt and hops - with the latter having enough pop to take it towards that "excellent" overall rating you give it. I would've definitely bought more of it if I had the time to drink it that week.


In a non-sequitur, @utopiajane - sorry to hear your bottle from yesterday was essentially unsalvage-able .

 

Howdy! My new beer today is RauchPils, by Mikkeller. This supposedly is a Czech Pilsner, but as with many Mikkeller beers, the style ends up being only a starting point (if not completely beside the point!).

Pours from the bottle a HAZY gold/orange with plenty of slightly off-white head. Nose is a little bready, a bit smokey, and some lager yeast. Slightly floral.

Taste has lots of Pilsner malt and more smoke. Touch of lemon. There's some hops in the finish, but nothing about the beer is crisp and clean like you'd expect from a pils. Mouthfeel is full and satisfying. The hops, pilsner malt, and smoke blend nicely, lingering and covering the full palate. Delivers much bigger than the 4.6 ABV would suggest.

If you're scoring this beer based on style, you'd be within your rights to deduct some points. But experientially, and forgetting about style parameters, this is a very tasty, satisfying, and strangely balanced "smokey pils." Enjoyed it a lot.

Cheers!

 

I think you described it correctly- lychees are pretty floral and mildly fruity, so 'tropically floral' is spot on. They aren't sour, though- that's a quality of the beer itself. I thought that they were captured very nicely in this one.

 

Greetings friends,
This has been an insane week. I hope that collectively all of us can do some small things that add to better dialogue and understanding everywhere.
We're back from our 2 mile hike around the lake, and I can report that the dogs have their people out in force. Today the air is dry and cooler than the tropical sweat box of the last few days. It does look to be a hot Summer ahead. Beer (taste) time!
Today's beer is Don't be Mean to People: North Carolina Farmhouse Ale... The beer is a collaboration amongst a host of North Carolina brewers with proceeds advancing opposition to N.C. House Bill 2. I believe enough has been said politically about this legislation. The issue will now be resolved by the US Justice Department and Federal courts.
The beer pours a burnished gold with a lively bead, tossing a healthy, thick, rocky, and growing head. Distinctive Belgian aromatics, with a curious (maybe medicinal) and an inviting herbal melange, along with citrus notes, rich toasty malts, and a dominating "drink me" allure, all combine to produce genuine farmhouse ale olfactory character. Bone dry, with an underpinning of rich citrus and malt flavors, offering up some pear-like flavor and, again, very nice toasty malts.
This is a delicious beer which is perfect for the Summer heat, with fresh fruits, vegetables, and just damned drinking enjoyment!
There's Martha's breakfast featuring just picked Cherokee Purple tomatoes and real German brats.


This Paul Simon song (here performed by Simon AND Garfunkel) would have been nice for the 4th, but now it speaks more clearly than ever. The Girl from Ipanema performed by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto is a Bossa Nova jazz classic and simply makes me feel good. Good medicine for sure.