New Beer Sunday (week 605)

Greetings, NBSers. In honor of the upcoming Ryder Cup this week in Minnesota, I'm breaking out The Masters beer glass and serving up a Grand Slam of beers from a fantastic Minnesota brewery, August Schell Brewing Company, the 2nd oldest family-owned brewery in the USA (Yuengling is the oldest), dating to 1860. First up, this excellent German Pilsner.



This pours a gorgeous hazy straw color with a couple of fingers of foamy (almost soapy) white head. The smell is lots of grain and bread - and a subtle lemongrass.

The taste is heavy bread flavors up front - and then the lemongrass jackhammers the back of your palate for a slightly bitter finish. Magnificent. The feel is "prickly," for lack of a better term, very effervescent and refreshing. I wish Schell's offered this year-round. Rated 4.24.

Next up, a very nice bock.



This is from the "Bock Pack" from this spring, so it has some whiskers on it, but it holds up well. The pour is a beautiful mahogany color with a couple of fingers of light tan head. The aroma is heavy caramel - but not overly sweet caramel.

The taste is a caramel sundae, just waves of delicious caramel goodness. The feel is creamy, inviting you to drink a couple or three bottles. Rated 4.29.

Batting 3rd, another bock, this one the Pre-Prohibition Style.



The pour reveals a beautiful copper color, brilliantly clear, with a slightly tan colored head. The aroma is caramel (like the Heirloom), but there's also toffee aromas.

The toffee really comes forward on the taste, and it melds well with the caramel flavors. The "base" bock from Schell's is great (it has to be, since it supports a big beer-soaked brawl known as Bock Fest), Heirloom is better, but this is no slouch. Rated 4.0.

Finally, this Schwarzbier - with cocoa nibs. I'm so excited, I can barely type.



This pours a deep brown/mahogany color with a couple of fingers of tan head. Beautiful beer. The aroma is smoky (duh), but the cocoa is present, which is good.

Where the cocoa really shines, though, is the taste. The base beer is good, but it's basically smoke ..... and not a lot else. The cocoa elevates this significantly, giving this a backbone with some sweetness (and CHOCOLATE!!!!!), which is most welcome. Well done by a great brewery. Rated 4.2.

I'm going to take a nap, my NBS peeps. Have a spectabulous Sunday.

 

I half expected a raised glass for Arnie with that opening.

 

Good evening, NBS. Typically spectacular kick off this morning from @utopiajane , and the many great posts that followed.

It is one of my favorite times of year Today was officially awesome in my estimation...high, blue sky with no humidity and temps around 70. Just a beauty. Not too much on the docket today, but got much done yesterday preparing to rehab the floors in the last two rooms that actually need it. Then the rest becomes voluntary...

So much to my surprise, I find Wicked Weed in a local bottle shop. So I grabbed a bottle of Brettaberry bottled on 7/01/2016, purchased by me three weeks ago, so it was not in the involuntary cellaring program here in the castle!



On the left are Ghost, the right habanero, picked today destined for some form of sauce or another. In the middle, Brettaberry. It is more pink than the picture shows, but I think the three months may have dulled the color a bit. The head is lightly tan, kind of dense, and actually persists for a long time at around half a finger. A little lacing.

Smell...mixed berry, slightly sweet biscuit, and you know what it actually reminds me of a mixed berry pie. The smell is not as potent, but it has the characteristics of a pie. That's cool.

Whoa...the sip was soda pop in the carbonation intensity. Not diggin' that. It calms down as it warms. There is a nice tartness, and the generic berry smell does resolve itself. Blueberry I get right away, then blackberries like the ones the birds eat in my back yard. Finally strawberry shows up and thankfully it is not overpowering. There is light malt under it all, and while I cant say pie, I can say it is like biscuit and jam without being overly sweet.

The beer shows very little brett character. It is tart enough, but minimally funky. I dont know how serious a knock that might be. Otherwise, it is a decent beer, nicely sour. I am feeling this landing around 3.8 - 3.9. I didn't like the candy soda initial hit, and I dont find much brett.

 

Pick a rhinovirus, any rhinovirus...

 

Watching a replay of the Virginia Tech - East Carolina game because we missed it yesterday. Bonus of watching it afterwards though, is that I can justify a good beer, sit and enjoy as I know they win easily.

Tonight it's the 2016 W00tstout. There's a cold front that came through, chilled off the area, so nice night for a stout. Damn this a deliciously complex beer with hits of chocolate, coffee, and bourbon, all three things I love in life rolled into beer. Can't ask for much more than that!

 

So I can do this, right? Update my own thoughts... This beer is quite warm now, and I am finding it more to my liking. The carbonation is still prickly but not startling. The head is still hanging in, and the foam coats the glass. Copiously coats the glass. There is a tea character peeking thru that I usually associate with raspberry, and a weak cider vinegar note has come late to the party. And the sweetness leans toward honey.just a little bit. Recommend letting this get to the fifty degree range, maybe warmer.

 

Hey NBSers, I went on a rather disappointing local beer run yesterday in anticipation of shipping for the BIF tomorrow. However, I didn't notice my Amazon order wasn't Prime, so my supplies are delayed for a couple days. On the plus side, I finally tried a great local brewery I was told was the best in town. I have to agree so far. (See my WBAYDN post from Rebel Kettle earlier.). No Rebel Kettle going out this BIF round, but there are some goodies from Lost Forty. This is the Big Dog of Arkansas breweries. You can buy their stuff anywhere and it's always packed at the brewery. Decent beer, especially the brewery-only stuff. This is their wet hop APA (which I accidentally entered into the database as an IPA, but can't figure out how to fix it ). Anyway, I entered this and did the first review. I hope it holds up until my target gets it!
Review is below.



Poured from a 12 ounce can into a nonic pint glass. This was a special canning on a one-time brew. It pours a light golden tan with a two-finger, white head, which quickly dissipated. There is decent lacing. The smell is fresh, earthy pine with lemon citrus. The taste follows the most almost exactly with some lingering bitterness. The mouthfeel is heavily carbonated yet the beer drinks very light. At 5.4% abv there is no alcohol taste. Overall this is a very good wet hop APA, and I'm glad they canned it.

 

Oh, your description! I so want this beer!
Cheers

 

Good Evening, NBS Late Night Edition.

Well, my day got really busy, but I'm popping in with a little beer I found at the local Trader Joe's. Sadly, it was a bit of a letdown. And, I couldn't find the brewery in the database.

Organic IPA from Green Fog Brewing, Ukiah, CA.

It started off looking beautiful. Brassy with a tinge of amber in the sunlight. White fluffy head. She really got my hopes up. But the nose didn't offer much. Just a tepid, general hop bitterness. Flavor was much the same. A mild malt base, with a lazy over aged hop taste. No bottle date, so I know not of it's "freshness." Mouthfeel was about right. But, all in all, not a great beer. I'm hoping to redeem the evening with something good. Hmm, maybe a Swami. I have one left for me. the other 2 are going in a box, prepping for their journey across the country for my first salvo to *#-&@"9#-&.(some-body).

 

Late night NBS ...


Revolver's High Brass American Blonde Ale



Revolver recently sold out to MillerCoors, but I'm doing my best not to hold that against them. It's not like they sold out to In-Bev.

High Brass is what American blonde ales are --safe and simple. It's yellow gold, clear, pushes up a decent 1/2-inch head of white foam that doesn't stick or lace, crystal clear and pretty but unremarkable. Smells like sour grain and donuts, the sweet biscuit malt taking over to the point of almost smelling like apricots. The taste is more earthy though neither bitter nor medicinal, offering at times some sweeter biscuit malt as it warms. Mouthfeel is near perfect, light-midweight, well carbonated and full. Overall, it's most noteworthy trait might be the 6% ABV, which I don't like because it makes it almost unsessionable (as in a 6-pack of this in one session would be too much for my candy ass) but for those who get their kicks by getting slammed, party on. A creamed corn flavor and aroma is hovering in the background but not really present ... maybe the hops are still a bit too fresh to allow that?

My numbers will be around 3.75 look, 3.75 smell, 3.5 taste, 4.5 feel, 3.75 overall. No major flaws helps it score decently.

Cheers!

 

Wanted something barrel aged to accompany my rewatching of Walking Dead's finale, so I finally opened my first Eclipse barrel aged, a 2014 Elijah Craig.

Poured into a stout snifter. Dark black/brown with thick creamy brown head that sticks around with healthy lacing. Exquisite smelling beer-sweet roasty chocolate with strong barrel presence. Tastes great too-bold sweet chocolate notes, backed by boozy barrel flavor that comes with a mild tang. Only complaint is the slight thin feel to it, but otherwise, this is an outstanding barrel aged stout.
L: 4.5 S: 5 T: 4.75 F: 4.5 O: 4.75
Total: 4.77

 

Ending my Sunday night with Heavy Seas' Treasure Fest for my new beer. Quite a tasty one indeed!

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Eric