New Beer Sunday (week 604)

Today I got a chance to drink a highly sough after beer thanks to a colleague of mine. We swap beers quite often and this beer came back with him from Cal. He brought back 3 bottles, kept one for himself and gave two away. Now that's an advocate!
Pliny the Elder
Bottled 9/1/16, dam that's fresh!
Pours a clear gold with a small white head that disappeared almost immediately leaving a light cap. A little disappointing appearance wise. Tha aroma is very floral, piney, with a little sweet sugar here. Taste is grapefruit, orange tangerine, the hops hit hard upfront then the malt balances out the beer making it quite balanced, little dry and ending bitter but not offending. I'm glad I had the chance with this whale, these don't come along too often.

Hint: NBS BIF players, my target state brews this beer, that should narrow it down to a couple.

 

Thanks to @SammyJaxxxx 's generosity from a LIF this was my NB for the day!

Spent the weekend camping, dodging rain and hanging out with friends. Plenty of beer too, of course. Excited to come home to a nice NJ beer box.

This was my very first cloudy IPA experience so when it poured, it was a surprise!
Smell is sweet citrus, and some faint pine. Tastes is nothing like the nose. Bitter white grapefruit, florals and a pepper ending. Dry and astringent finish. This beer is so unbalanced and focuses on the 100% mosaic hops. Bitter and lovely!

 

Happy New Pumpkin Ale Sunday!

Did a nice little hike today, around 72, sunny. Also went over to Moab for a few days last week (100 miles or less drive time), had a great time, saw shit that I did not even know existed in other parts of the area, very cool. Having a pretty tasty brew from Boulevard, pretty much never a disappointment in this series.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/423/211725/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

I had just gotten back from Toppling Goliath on Friday where I had imperial golden nugget and sosus. Very similar in appearance, just amazingly hazy. I got grapefruit, passionfruits, and citrus in the nose. The mouth feel on this beer was truly fantastic. I saw some of the reviewers mention it being too bitter, but I did not find that to be the case. This has a similar profile to Julius or green in my opinion, but maybe not quite the same fruitiness as Julius. Just fantastic. ** I truly believe toppling goliath is making IPAs on this level as well imo! This most recent batch of Sosus and Imperial golden nugget are as good as any ipa or IIpa I've ever had. That being said, I'm looking forward to trying more Trillium, have DDH Melcher and DDH Scaled to look forward too!

 

I thought I had no NBS beer today and I was actually going to kick my Von Trapp run, but then company showed up with a variety pack. This may not be my favorite of there's but its not horrible.

 

Ha, finally remembered to have a new beer on NBS.

Picked up Starr Hill's Fall Pack, in part because I'll be going to their Oktoberfest celebration and they released one of the beers they'll have there in the sampler pack. Basketcase which is their take on a Helles lager.

It's primarily malts with a hint of lemon to it, both in flavor and taste. Light body, easy drinker. It won't blow you away but it certainly works for spending the afternoon watching football (though we have NCAA Div I womens soccer on as the NFL got a little boring).

 

Rodenbach Grand Cru.

My first "high end" Belgian.

 

Time for an interesting brew...

Tuberfest | Lagunitas Brewing Company


Lagunitas Brewing Company - Tuberfest by imbibehour, on Flickr

Poured from the bottle into a Libbey style pilsner glass.

Gorgeous chestnut and dark almond brown topped body color. Real nice clarity with an excellent aggressive but controlled off white head. Three fingers tall, clumpy and rocking with sheets of lace down the sides. Thick puck and collar as this marzen announces in appearance I am not fooling around.

Aroma takes a different turn. Lots of toasty grains more akin to brown ale. Subdued herbal hoppy qualities, but the grain just wont stop biting. Excellent toast aroma, but also missing much caramel and hinting noble hop presence. I am not sure of this angle, but I don't seem to mind.

Palate takes it somewhere else. First sip is a very dark tasting grain flavor, forgoing sweetness for almost dark roast in the mid palate. Subdued hop character as this grain forward brew takes hold to the forefront. Very big coating on the mouthfeel, but borderline syrupy without the caramel sweetness anticipated. Faint hints of citrus hop angles which don't seem to add much to the style.

An odd if different if somewhat pleasurable take on a marzen if I do say so myself.

look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75 | BA Generated Score: 3.88

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Cheers!

 

Eric the owner of Magnify has told me with a grin that he does not believe in balance, hop bombs away!

 

Good Evening NBS and Thank You Dave for the early Am kickoff. Once again a wonderful piece of Poetry to get us all excited about beer! Thank you Giants for opening the season 2-0. This hasn't happened in awhile and the "D" looks much improved from last year. If only we could get both sides to have productive games on the same day.......Baby steps.
Second week of new job starts tomorrow.I'm not super-excited. I guess that's a tell tale sign.
Todays beer is from Allagash a brewery I really enjoy.
Evora- Ale aged in brandy barrels. Bottled November 5, 2015.

Pours a golden straw color with quite a large fluffy white head with that rainbow like sheen that takes quite some time to settle with lots of rings of lacing settling to a thin ring.

Smell is of tropical fruits- pineapple and passionfruit, lemon/citrus, over ripe pear, oaked brandy, hay/grass and sweetness of raw or brown sugar mixed with some funky Brett.

Taste is sweet and fruity with lemony crispness and a slight oak character with a faint hint of brandy,crusty brown bread and a funky/Brett character. Not huge in any brandy on the taste- just enough.

Feel is medium bodied with good carbonation that even though slightly sweet finishes crisp and dry with lingering flavors.

Overall another beer from Allagash I really enjoyed. I love the fact they stick to their style. Always using either their house strain or something locally wild. Personally I never grow tired of drinking their beers and its a nice change of pace from all these super hoppy IPAs.
For NewOldVinylSunday I'm spinning Boom Town Rats, "I don't like Mondays"
Have a great week, thanks for all your new beers and of course Thank You for taking a minute to listen.

 

@Nic1985Ace Thanks for sharing! I was definitely one of those "inquiring minds." I have some Trillium in the fridge right now, left at my house by a friend who was visiting from Massachusetts, and I'm just not feeling them. The mouthfeel is my least favorite part of their beers, they seem to blow out my palate very quickly. But it's good to know you love that aspect of the beer you had because it confirms my (not so) sneaking suspicion that I'm in the minority here. I'll definitely give that beer another shot and see if I can pick out some similarities between Tree House Julius and Green since those are two beers I enjoyed a lot.

 

Alright, did my laundry and fair share of the dishes in the apartment so I think it's time to reward myself with a crazy new Wicked Weed offering. These guys have knocked basically everything out of the park at this point and are easily one of my favorite breweries at the moment, so let's see how they deal with a chile and chocolate-infused, bourbon barrel-aged imperial pumpkin ale!



BA Xibalba pours an austere dark brown color with some burnished copper highlights and a thin, lazily developing head that sinks to half a finger of off-white colored, loose bubbles around the rim of the glass. Carbonation seems to rise surprisingly animatedly, however, and the surface is mildly hazy like a witch's cauldron... this is already getting me into the Autumn spirit!

Nose is bourbon and chocolate forward, with some earthy and spicy notes; cinnamon and nutmeg and a little bit of clove/allspice in there as well. Not picking up much piquancy from the chiles in the nose, but perhaps they'll come across more heavily on the tongue. Sugary, coarse caramel and molasses also make an appearance here. Seems very rich, as expected. Booze forward with an almost rum-like note coming in right after the bourbon-soaked oak.

Flavor reminds me big time of Avery's PumpKYn from a few years back, which was also a darker-colored, bourbon barrel-aged pumpkin ale of fortified strength. Though this isn't as extreme in alcohol content, there are a lot of similarities ranging from the stiff tannic notes and rough-shod spice elements to the earthy and semi-sweet finish. Pumpkin pie this is not; instead, I think this comes across closer to a pumpkin stout than the more traditional lighter-colored pumpkin ale that graces the season. Not getting chiles at all, however. Cocoa powder, oak and sweet/spicy heady bourbon (almost rye whiskey-like, actually) really drive the palate, with a huge dose of sweet-leaning malt and bready aspects. Clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom notes hammer the palate towards the finish of each sip.

Feel is rich, thick and, yet, surprisingly lively and busy with a palate-massaging carbonation and playful sensibility. Drinks very easily for a strong, dark, barrel-aged pumpkin ale. I'm glad this is deeper in color than many pumpkin beers, as it affords the body so many nice, complex malt notes. I definitely wish they pushed the chile flavor more since it's advertised on the label. There's no real peppery pungency or capsaicin burn to speak of. Perhaps the barrel-aging robbed this element of the original brew (haven't had the non-BA Xibalba, I should add), but I'm also not sure how it would even add to this. There's a lot going on already and many breweries are already hopping aboard the "'tons of adjuncts' dark beer" train, so this honestly doesn't really miss out from lacking the chiles when all's said and done. Another great beer from WW, though it'll likely be the only bottle I get this year as it was quite expensive. Perhaps if I see regular Xibalba around I'll get a couple to see what it's like, but this is a (very delicious) one-and-done. Cheers! Back with another in a while!

Wasn't listening to any music when I posted my last entry in this thread a few hours ago, but now I'm listening to pre-release tracks from the new Thy Catafalque album, Meta. Fans of forward-thinking extreme metal should absolutely check this out. It just came out a few days ago on one of the absolute best metal labels going, Season of Mist. Similar to this beer, TC's new album is a mélange of influences and influences ranging from post-black metal to death/doom and progressive rock. Listen to it below! Oh, by the way... all of the instrumentation was done by ONE MAN! Talent doesn't even begin to describe what Mr. Tamás has... a sublime listen. Easily a top-ten album of 2016!

 

Huh. I'd love to try this one. Anyone see this in NJ?

 

Cheers! I've found Pliny to be the only "white whale" IPA to live up to my lofty expectations. Now I want one!

 

Maybe that's why Magnify's come so far, so fast!

 

I haven't seen it yet but if I do, I'll post!

 

Good evening BA, was supposed to be a washout today but only rained a little early on. So I set out to work on the addition I'm putting on the house. Finally sitting back relaxing, and trying a new beer. Evil Twin Even More Jesus. I've wanted to try this beer for quite some time now and one of my local stores finally managed to snag some from the distributor.



Pours deep and rich black with a finger of tan to cinnamon head. Foamy on top and a continuous addition of fine bubbles from below keep the head lasting and the lacing excellent.

Smell is roasty with raisin and prune and chocolate. The nose is really quite faint, present but not yelling across the table. I also pick up a little acidity on the nose, not acrid or tart like but acidic.

Taste is a little boozy, big on the dark fruit like dates and prunes. The roasty toasty chocolate comes through in the finish with malty sweetness and a lingering light bitterness. Again I pick up some of that acidity, perhaps the pH is a little low for me.

Mouthfeel is thick and rich though shy of creamy. It's a little sticky and the alcohol makes itself known.

Overall it's just missing out on great. It's good and I'd never complain about drinking it but the booziness and acidity pull it down a little. It's brother Aun Mas Café Jesus had a little more alcohol, hidden much better and the flavor and feel were much smoother.

 

Just a quick tip, it seems to be available in NJ at select stores. It's absolutely worth seeking out, though the price is pretty brutal. I paid ~$20 a four-pack of 12 oz bottles in Massachusetts; same price range as Double Dose and just as good though, FWIW.

 

Alright, I figured I owed this thread considering my last sin, so I'll deliver the goods in a big way.

This beer is Barrier Mars Zen (get it?). I've had tons of beers from Barrier, a NY brewery, but never this one. This is an Oktoberfest poured from a (Bierkraft RIP) growler into my 1 liter Paulaner Krug. This beer is putting dents in my desk.

This is a wonderful beer. This isn't anything like a sweeeeet American Oktoberfest. It's very dry. There's a nice melanoidin character that is giving this beer a roasted nut character rather than a baked bread character. It's clean and lip-smacking good. Dare I say that this is my favorite Oktoberfest so far this year (I've got a bunch of familiar ones and new ones still waiting for me in the basement). This beer makes me very happy.

Cheers.

@ecpho

 

I'm glad Gunner is a mix because he seems a little under weight to me as at his last visit to the vet Diesel weighed in at just over 230# maybe someday gunner will grow into a big dog!