New Beer Sunday (week 608)

Well Helloooo Late Night NBS!!!

I haven't read all the posts yet, but page 1 has already got me revved up.
Thanks as always to Dave for the alliterative commencement of our festivities.

And big thanks to the most generous Lorena @Hopgoddess312 for sending so much fermented goodness from the Midwest. First off, we have:

Broo Doo by 3 Floyds

4.21/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Pours sunburnt orange in hue. Puffy white head leaps upward, and settles to a finger or so. Nice, sticky lacing.
Smell is sweet citrus at first with a hint of sweet acidic pineapple. A bit of pine sap comes through as well.
Taste is much more complex. The citrus comes through more specifically as tangerine, the tropical notes are pineapple meets mango. But then a nice peach comes in as well. Juicy, wet, spot on ripe peach. Then a bit of green vegetal. And again a hint of pine going in the direction of dank. The malt comes through lite and sweet. Nothing is over the top.
Mouthfeel is full enough, finishes between creamy and slick.
A very well-rounded "wet" harvest IPA.

Also, enjoyed the hell out of this:

Sosus by Toppling Goliath (Wow, what beautiful label art!)

4.06/5 rDev -9.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

I must post a disclaimer. I tend to not love Mosaic heavy beers.
Having said this, I found this to be one of the best I've ever had.
In the nose, it started pretty assertively. I got hints of apricot, but mostly strong tropical notes, some pine, definite onion, and only a hint of cat you know.
But the flavor was much more complex. Definitely tropical, mango, pineapple, then orange, followed by onion. Then the onion backed off a bit and let a juiciness come through that was more orange, followed by a bit of grapefruit pith. The onion never disappeared. It just decided to hover just outside the spotlight.
Mouthfeel was spot on.

I happily shared these with a few fellow beer geeks. And we lifted our glass to you Lorena. Thanks so much...again.

 

@ONovoMexicano is an awesome, generous, and kind BA. I've missed him here lately. Hoping all is well.

 

Good evening everyone and happy LNNBS as I have grown accustomed to calling it being the west coast slacker that I am! I'd like to start off with a rebuttal to @cavedave 's inquiry on murky beers. I have no opposition to them. Used to be a fond lover of hefe and dunkle weiss biers as an "initiate" , still love saisons and other Belgian inspired beers, and as a homebrewer, have never rejected a beloved offspring of my love and hard work despite their appearances. In regards to the NE IPA craze? Why the hell not!? Beer should be fun and an expression and extension of the brewers vision. However, exclusivity is where you will lose me. No one is BETTER than anyone else, as long as you are giving it your all. I've had many "west coast" style beers made elsewhere that are equally or greater on my impressions, and vice versa. Alright...rant complete. Time for my NBS. The kiddo is asleep, and I must travel 300 miles east to the Grand Canyon state:

Arizona Wilderness Superstition Coffee Stout:. Made with vanilla beans. 6.8%abv
Canned 6-22 (thanks a lot for gifting this beer 3 months later than picked up, brother-in-law )



My third beer from AZ Wilderness, the first two being exceptionally amazing!

A: Pours a clean pitch black with deep hazel brown highlights when brought up to the light, with a nice tan foamy head that dissipated quickly into nothing but a distant memory.

A: Roasted malt, bitter dark chocolate, and faint traces of vanilla first, and a touch of coffee lingering in the background.

T: The same. Coffee must have completely subdued after 3 months in this gargantuan can, and serves only as an aftertaste.

F: Soooooooo thin and under carbonated. This is where this beer loses me, and I can only assume blame on my brother (just kidding...blame goes to the age). I can sense a memory of creamy goodness, but now... just a bitter watery mess.

O: I know this beer is good, and should not even judge it based on this tasting due to its age. However, that in itself says something about it. Maybe it should age better as some other coffee stouts do. Still have the utmost respect for AZ Wilderness, and can't wait to revisit this one.

Cheers everyone, and I will see you all soon!

 

OK...late night NBS from the east coast contingent. Let us see if we can break this streak of mediocrity, shall we?

Unearthed this specimen while moving the beer stash around the rennovations. Allagash Coolship Resurgam, a gueze which is a style I am not very familiar with. Bought at the brewery simply because it was there. The whole idea of spontaneous fermentation appeals to me and watching the coolship video clips is an enjoyment. It strikes me as something that lives deep in the primal roots of brewing...open the windows, let nature take things from there. OK...romanticizing a little there...I know it ain't that simple.

Oh, my...has the streak been broken! Is yummy an official term? the beer pours a straw-like color into the big tulip. A brief crest of lively bubbles that quickly falls to almost nothing. I get lemon on the nose and a crisp note of Granny Smith apple, that tart, fresh smell of sour apple. And the oak...it reminds me of walking the woods on a damp day. Delightfully funky and woody. Almost a mustiness to it, but pleasantly so if that makes sense. A little bit of bread and a vague spiciness. The nose digs this. The taste...woody and tannins, almost but not quite smoky to my palate. Hay-like green notes, lemon and the pithy bit of the rind, the apple note is there to me, nicely and assertively tart. Waves of flavor, yet amazingly balanced. The feel is light, dry, crisp. I would say almost like a champagne. The flavors just dance over the tongue, linger a little, and leave me ready for another sip. Delicate and ephemeral.

Feeling this will be a pretty high 4 score. This beer is worthy and righteous. My taste buds are well-pleased!

Cheers!

 

Damn I keep forgetting!

 

I would like to add something regarding the question of the day regarding the effect if appearance on taste. I think we have established there is a psychological impact. To that, I can add from a study we did to resolve a consumer complaint on cranberry juice. Watery/weak flavor was our number one complaint on the 800 number for years, so it was tackled by our sensory, operations, and various technical resources. What we found was a direct correlation between color and flavor rating. We made test products to the same exact specfications except for deliberately varying the color. Think of it as ranging from light to very dark red. With masking lights, the products were rated reasonably equal. With normal lighting, there was a "hump" where things were just right. Too light and guess what...the watery/weak descriptors showed up. But too dark? Artificial came up. Not a sensory guy, so cant explain it but I can relay the learning.

Another aspect is texture and mouthfeel. We have tried various versions of raw, unsweetened cranberry juice in the market for decades. Back when I was in QC, we ran it once or twice a year in gallon glass jugs...a real trip on a hotfill line. Only the real hardcore folks would buy it and there are few of them. The juice is an acid bomb in the true sense. Brix to acid ratio is around 4:1 and in orange juice it is a minimum of 10:1. Cranberry is also loaded with tannins and phenolics that are incredibly astringent. The overall impression of unsweetened, mostly clear cranberry juice for the vast majority is harshness. But if you add texture in the form of particulates or pulp, that sense of harshness goes away. Straight, whole ground fruit dilute to beverage strength with water produces an entirely different and much more palatable sensation, delivering the flavors while masking the harshness. The juice loses the rough edges and is much more palatable. The particulates change how the flavors present themselves and how they are perceived...all the same stuff is in there, but it tastes extremely different. Clarified grapefruit juice tastes nothing like grapefruit juice. The texture plays a role.

I know...hopefully no yeast involved, but I am thinkng of those murky, juicy, super-hoppy pale ales. If we can see the turbidity, then it implies a particulate or at least a conglomeration of big molecules. Obviously this is not pulp in a beer, but if you have macromolecules hanging out together they can be seen by the naked eye. Something is certainly in there causing the turbid look, and beyond the visual stimulus it may act to mask some of the harsher notes we would normally find in a super-hopped beer. Stone might be a temporarily bad word here, but thinking of the difference between a Ruination and a hazy offering from Trillium. Or say Heady, which I thought was intensely flavorful yet smooth and not in the least bit harsh. Ruination, while quite balnced, delivers with sledgehammer strikes. The cloudy hop bombs are smoother, silkier, and feel and taste different. I think there is definitely a difference in how we sense flavors in a beer that is cloudy that is more than a response to what we see.

Something to ponder...

 

My new beer for this week's NBS is an offering from a new local brewery I'd had yet to try anything from before I drank this. Pretty good indeed!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/44537/248831/?ba=neenerzig#review

Eric

 

bravo! Beautiful! =)

 

I recall buying this beer for a somewhat similar reason and enjoying it t the same level (and I checked - 4.56). This is another one I'd grab at least one of (maybe more depending on price).

So that would make 2 beers this week fit for...

That's why I keep reminding . Although there are no more Sundays left to do so, so memory caps on, non-WBAYDNers .

 

I don't remember the exact date, but those were less than a month old as of last night. They don't sit around in the store for more than a day, at least in NY . That shouldn't have made a ton of difference, imo. Maybe it was just a temperature thing.

 

Yeah they don't sit around here either although releases have hit distro inconsistently this is starting to become less of a problem. Didnt meanto insinuate that yours were old. I will say that from time to time the batches are still inconsistent. This comes form friends not just myself. I have one friend who won't drink it anymore. I think he's nuts but to beach his own.....