New Beer Sunday (week 604)

Those are gorgeous! Cheers! =)

 

Ya gotta love "sudsy head" and "long-lasting sloppy lacing".

 

Me too but this was a couple years ago. A blind tasting is in order and I love the pint can of the stuff. I think hops can smell woody. Maybe it's the yeast or a combination of the woody hop and something. ANd you are not the only one. I didn't read all the reviews, just enough to see oak, butter, and vanilla enough times to say well hmmm . . .

 

Jeez. I just realized that I already featured Fantome Dark White in my saison thread and forgot that I did. The marathon of that thread has worn me out. Couple that with being overworked and it's clear that I'm starting to slip. What's worse is that I've done the unforgivable... I've posted about a beer in NBS that isn't a new beer. It was "new" in my head when I drank it today. I don't expect forgiveness.

 

Well if it's new in your head,,, it's still new.

 

Switching up styles big time here, as I'm going with the Adroit Theory Cascadian called "Invisible Art".



First off, there was a pretty good chance is buy this based on style alone but the fact that they riff heavily on the lyrics from Aenema (Tool) on the label meant I wasn't about to not but it.

Looks dark as hell with a nice big frothy chocolate brown head, leaving behind quite a bit of lacing.

Nose has a ton of fun. Sweet, smokey, earthy and piney. Maybe even a hint of sesame lurking around.

Taste proves me right on the sesame, as it blends well with the smokiness, pine and a cloyingly sweet chocolate exit.

Very fun beer from a brewery firmly committed to promoting metal and industrial in everything they do.

 

Interesting animal...

Two Headed Calf - Sauterns Barrel Aged (Ghost 479) | Adroit Theory Brewing Company


Adroit Theory Brewing Company - Two Headed Calf Sauterns Barrel Aged (Ghost 479) by imbibehour, on Flickr

Poured from the bottle into a tulip glass.

Deep bright orange, fairly clear with a bit of a glow and brightness to it. Creamy one finger head, not much, but leaves a good white collar all the time and no lacing.

Interesting aroma. Honey suckle sweetness a mix of sucrose and grape it seems. Gets a bit simple syrup smelling though, a little bit of stone fruit in the mix as well. Very neat smelling brew.

Palate brings lots of surprises. Noticeably sweet but also with a very varied fruit flavor in the mid palate. Peaches and honey, apricots, lots of stone fruit character. Beeswax aroma on the swallow, with a noticeable sweetness of honey. Very low carbonation with soft malts and even some floral tones that come out in the end.

Doesn't seem to have much barrel tones, but has created some very neat flavors.

look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25 | BA Generated score: 4.15

Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. A pretty over-cast day here on the island with the impending threat of more rain tonight. Been on the couch pretty much all day switching back and forth between football and the mets. Looking forward to the late games too. I got into it pretty heavy yesterday in the city and I'm finally feeling clear enough to have a beer.

My new beer today is Backjump, an ipa, from LIC Beer Project. The brew checks in at 7% abv, 84 ibu's, and a canning date of 9/16/16.

A very pale straw/yellow color with a slight amber hew. Hazy with no clarity and a fast head. The nose is hoppy, citrus, and malts. Decently floral. The drinking starts with a big burst of citrus hops right to the dome. A rather clean but slightly bitter finish with a good amount of sweet malts. The citrus fruit notes really dominate my palate with flavors of lemon, orange, mango, peach, and grapefruit. The mouth feel is pretty moderate and juicy. A very clean feel to the brew with no real stick to it.

Overall, this is just excellent top notch ipa. It has balance but the hops just really shine. I will try and submit an actual review on this one but right now I'm right around a 4.5 and maybe slightly higher.

 

Three new beers up for today, NBS! So as not to spoil the surprise, I'll keep them secret until I pop them open. The first up is To Øl's Sur Mosaic, a dry-hopped sour ale. I've only had Sur Amarillo from this series before, so I'm definitely looking forward to cracking this. I'm not the biggest fan of Mosaic as a single hop addition as it seems to generally play better with others than by itself, but I sincerely hope this bucks that trend!



Pours a cloudy, ruddy-golden amber color with a somewhat thicker-than-expected bone-white head that settles down to a couple fingers in my glass over the course of a few minutes. Legs seem solid though, and the lace is more than adequate with some cobweb-like lattices building up as the foam fades.

Nose is surprisingly lackluster and dull... not only am I not really getting Mosaic, I'm not getting many hoppy notes at all. Or really anything for that matter. Very slight herbal notes and light sweet toffee. Wow, this really doesn't go anywhere at all. Highly disappointing. If I really sniff I can pick out some pineapple/fruit cocktail aspects, but overall this feels very boring.

Palate is similar with a brash, uniform bitterness and slight syrupy flavors combining with some very, very minor fruit cocktail elements. A tiny bit of mango appears over time, but there isn't any "sourness" to speak of. This is pretty much a straight-up boring IPA/XPA which seems weird to me because I know To Øl can to much better. Feel is medium with medium-high carbonation and a semi-dry finish. I'm not sure if it's Mosaic behaving exactly the way I have always known it to in the absence of supporting hops or something else, but this is one-dimensional as hell and was pretty expensive for a single 16 oz can ($7.50 or so). Probably avoid others in this series and pick up more of their Gose to Hollywood... now that was a cool beer!

Cheers! I'll be back soon with some more goodies!

EDIT: Alright, this does open up a bit when it warms to room temperature. I'm getting some more striking guava notes, bright lychee and catty/dank/pine that I know Mosaic can provide. I still have to work to single them out, but it's not as boring as I thought when pouring it from the can straight out of the fridge. Still think they forgot to kettle sour this, though... there isn't even a slight lactoacidic twang to it! What gives with that?

 

Wow! I would never have expected 2 Adroit Theory reviews on a single NBS, much less right after another!

 

Totally missed that one

 

Hello Sunday afternoon NBS compadres. It's a fairly sultry day for mid-September in North Jersey. I should be trying a new Oktoberfest but I'm not. I'm a big fan of Weyerbacher and whenever they come out with a new stout I'm excited. This is a peppered version of Sunday Morning Stout. The base stout is instantly recognizable but the pepper really adds to the alcohol heat. It's very good. Not BOMB! good but Stone Xocoveza good. I just wish there was better head and lacing retention. It looks flat.

I'm still having trouble cutting and pasting my review. I used to always do it but something in the program must have changed. Here's the summary:

Look: 4 Smell: 4.5 Taste: 4.5 Feel: 4.25 Overall: 4.25 rDev: -0.2%

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/392/241988/?ba=MacMalt#review

 

-great review, I just picked it up at LIC an hour ago

 

On a humid 85 degree day I am still not ready for Fall beers so this is a New Sour Sunday.
-LIC Beer Project's Gal Friday, a kettle sour at 4.1% abv (at the brewery).

The color and minimal effervescence in the image are accurate. This is very flavorful and refreshing with moderate tartness. The flavor is a bit floral. A sequence of these would have been welcome had I run here.

 

Great jobs, everyone, plus so many beers that I've never even heard of. We'll never run out of new ones, it seems...

I have something along those lines this afternoon- a rather new brewery down in South NJ, that I was turned on to by @italynstallyn44 in another thread. I spent yesterday visiting my son at school, delivering a bunch of important stuff like posters and frozen burritos , but was also able to make a few pit stops for beer along the way. This crowler is one I got on the way home today, and I can't wait to dig into it-

Tonewood Extra Pale Ale

Nose is gently fruity with a slight resinous backbone- a very pleasant blend of tangerine, melon, strawberries, apricot. It immediately kicks into a much higher gear on the palate- huge citrus and apricot dominate, while the finish is dry, powerfully bitter and long lasting. Still, it manages to stay bright, spry and agile as well. Mid palate is sweet for just a second, amplifying the fruity aspects. Halfway through the first glass, the flavors begin to morph in a slightly tropical direction, but still that strong resiny citrus peel bitterness prevails. If you're into this level of bitterness, this is a real pleasure to drink. Overall, it's very clean and extremely well made, and I can't wait to make another pit stop to see what else these guys can do. A- (4.25)

 

Oh, crap, it's the feared beer review autopilot syndrome (BRAS). 8 hours of bed rest and a minimum of 5 beers is a known cure.

 

Hello people! It's great to finally be back home relaxing with a 'real' beer after drinking swill at a grade school reunion last night, running a 5k in Chicago this morning and battling weekend traffic. A beautiful weekend in the weather department to get outside and enjoy what's left of these quality days. Enough banter let's move on to the beer!

Starting off with something that a very generous BA known @guinness77 sent me this summer. I've had it in the fridge since receiving it waiting for a fine day like this! Let's pop the crown on a 500ml bottle of Other Half / Holy Mountain By And By Brett fermented IPA with no visible bottle date and the abv. listed at 6.5%.

The bottle gushed upon opening and poured a very lively cloudy pale yellow with a mountain of dirty white sudsy foam. A very visible amount of sediment falls to the bottom and heavy lacing clings to the glass. The smell is liquid fruit salad with pineapple, mango, orange and peach. There are floral undertones along with a touch of brett funkiness. Flavor is slightly tart juicy fruit consisting of mango, pineapple, lemon zest and orange peel. A wonderful floral presence emerges as the fruit subsides, along with a slight bitterness. Other than some mild tartness, I'm not detecting much if any brett funk. The feel is thin and somewhat lively with a slightly bitter and semi dry finish.



When I see brett fermented beers I'm always curious as to what awaits me. They can run the gamut in the flavor department. This one let's the hops in the base beer shine and the brett is more of a sideshow just adding another level of complexity. A very flavorful and easy drinking beer that I'm grateful to have had the chance to try. My score is 4.43 / rDev +4.2%. Thank you Chuck for sending this!

Going to park it on the couch in the cave next, contemplate dinner and possibly another review. I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoys their new beer endeavors. Here's the link to the official scorecard......

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33510/242108/?ba=Prager62#review

 

Howdy NBSers! Just checking in to say howdy, might be back with a beer later. I want to ask our members who are participating in NBS BIF #4, Monkeys With Knives, to let me know if if you need info (addy's, preferences) for your target, or anybody that you might want to ninja box.

I've had a long couple days, and it's the end of Bellingham Beer Week, and I got the chance to hang out with Gunner, my 125 mastiff/Rottweiller nephew. Also had a visit from a fellow member of the NW forum, @vurt , yesterday as he visited my town, and left me a nice selection of offerings from a certain brewery on the Oregon coast. Thanks Vurt! I only got one review posted this week, but another has been submitted, hopefully to be posted tomorrow:

http://www.taptrail.com/wander-brewings-foeder-wǝn/