New Beer Sunday (week 610)

Sure, go for it. Hope it can help em out in some way.

 

Sadly, no books to date. However, plenty of published writings from reviews to articles to frivolous humor.

 

I had a similar experience with Iron Goat's Goatmeal a couple weeks ago. Prior to that, I'd never had a bad bottle from them, despite no bottling dates from them as well. Sufficiently disturbing that I didn't buy another for the box I sent to @gopens44.

 

Here's my pun and toast for the day! Too many illustrious and wordy BA's !

 

Sitting out on the screened in porch on a wonderful fall day. Just enough chill in the air to keep me cool on an otherwise brutal cycling ride this morning. Now, I'm inking up my Pelikan M205 with Iroshizuku Yama-Budo (my favorite ink), and sipping on a beer that I've seen plenty of photos of, but never thought I'd try. Fortunately, with their new brewery opened, I was finally able to get my grubby mitts on a can of the infamous...



Tree House's Julius.

Looks are sublime, as is the reputation for this beer. It pours a completely opaque orange, with a finger of white, tight-laced head. Lacing formation is fantastic, forming spiderweb after spiderweb around the edge of the snifter after each sip. While I hate to use the clique in describing this beer, I really cannot find better words - this beer looks like orange juice. Aroma notes are dripping with citrus and orange. A faint back bone of biscuit malts and pine resin hops support the otherwise Vitamin C-like aroma. Flavor notes are gorgeous, at least a second or so after a sip. Initial flavor notes include a sticky, bitter resin hop, before smoothing out into, you guessed it, citrus and orange hops. The after taste is a lingering, bitter pine resin that sticks around like sap on fingers. The beer really shines mid flavor profile, but otherwise is a bit bitter. Mouth feel is somewhere between strange and great. While the beer itself has a medium to medium-thick texture and consistency, an overwhelming amount of particulates invade and blast the tongue almost like drinking a fine sand - or flour. Otherwise, the mouth feel makes it fun to drink. Overall, it's a well performing beer with plenty going for it. While the initial and lingering flavor notes keep this beer from being an easy first timers IPA, it still is easy to drink. I can only imagine it would be slightly better if it were a few days fresher (it is a week old).

Score: 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.5 | 4.25 | 4.5 | BA Score: 4.54 | rDev: -2.2%

Bonus: Scoring explained with additional thoughts:

It's not often I feel compelled to justify my scoring of a beer, but with time and trying more beers, there are a few occasions. First off, I believe a 5 in any category is saying "a beer in this style could not get any better". While this beer is great, it still has room for improvement. For example, the head formation feels.. lacking. It is a world class IPA. I'd expect more head of a world class IPA. I poured aggressively as well. The aroma is great, and perhaps the closest to perfection this beer comes to in my opinion. I had to dock on the taste though. For one, I try very, very hard to drink a beer and judge it based on the style it represents, taking care to try and remove potential bias in form of preferring particular notes, or hype. The early and late bitter sticky does not bode well for a world class IPA. Mouth feel was the most difficult aspect for me due to the rumors of how they achieve the cloudy/opaque color. Regardless, I did not find this beer to be perfect in mouth feel. An IPA should be filling, with a hearty medium-thick consistency. While Julius is easy to drink, it still had a little bit of an abrasive feel with each sip. Call me sensitive, that's fine. I'm rated other high IPAs and Stouts low in mouth feel as well. Overall, it is a great beer, which is indisputable, but that's not to say its an example of perfection. I factor in the previous 4 catagories in the overall as well. Would I give this beer to someone who claims IPAs suck? Maybe, but there may be a few other (especially easier to obtain) things to give out to convert an IPA hater.

So there it is. My review and my review of my review for Treehouses's Julius. I hope you enjoyed, and if I upset you, woops. Now if someone wants to send me the other versions of Julius, I'd be happy to share my opinion on those



Cheers.

 

Something new and fun from Tyranena, especially around Halloween. Sailors Take Warning! has a nice reddish orange tint with a 1 finger white head. From the aroma you can tell this is a blonde ale with some adjuncts. It is malty with light grain with a pleasant fruit flavors of orange, cherry, and hints of agave. Flavor is nice and subtle with all of the flavors coming together. The tequila never really pronounces itself, which I prefer. Feel is lighter for a bigger beer and the 9% ABV is completely hidden. A nice change of pace beer to enjoy every now and then.

 

Good Afternoon NBSers
As mentioned earlier thanks to Dave and Jane for getting us going.
A lot of talk on BA recently is Big Breweries that are dealing with the stiff competition from smaller local Breweries. The one big brewer that seems to be bucking the trend is Founders (while not the same level as BBC, SN, NB, Stone, still quite large). I do not have statistics to prove this but going through the threads here on BA it definitely seems to be true. Staying relevant with some new beers and real solid old ones, this is one Brewery that is going strong.
My beer for NBS is one of the new ones:
New American Coffee Pale Ale Sunday
Founders Pale Joe


3.88/5 rDev -2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

12oz bottle into Nonic Pint
Bottled 8/18/16
L- hazy dark gold, real thin white head, turns into ring of lacing
S- straight coffee aroma
T- pale malt, followed by a medium-roast coffee with a slight fruitiness on the finish, going back to the coffee on the aftertaste
F- light-bodied, light carbo, very smooth drinking
O- a real solid beer, plenty of complexity on the taste even though the nose is all coffee, the one negative for me is the slightly watery light-bodied feel

Cheers!

 

Greetings and hails, NBS brethren! Today, I have three new brews to check out, all of which are under 6% ABV and none of which are hop-forward at all. Kind of a change of pace from the last few installments I've done here. Excited to crack into these!

First up is Brooklyn's Insulated Dark Lager. I know nothing about this beer other than that it's pretty much one of the first Brooklyn products I've bought into in a while. Their regular lineup just doesn't excite me, and their 750s are too pricey for the most part, even with my rather decent beer budget. Therefore, I'm definitely looking forward to this one... maybe it'll be a six pack purchase to complement my inevitable annual 4 pack (at the very least) of Black Chocolate Stout, which is, of course, an absolute staple!



So, I honestly wasn't sure whether this was going to fit more into the "schwarzbier" or "Euro dark lager" category, but the label does mention something about "citrus hops" which made me even more curious. Guess the only way to really find out is to drink and consider!

The pour on this one is very nice... it's austere and stoic looking in my pint glass. Deep brown with garnet highlights if held close to light. The head builds up to several fingers before settling to just about one finger after 5 minutes. Lacing is very sticky and consistent; looks very impressive overall. Retention after the initial foam washed away is very, very strong. Got a very good looking brew here!

In the nose I'm getting some brown bread, faint suggestions of dark caramel and biscuit maltiness, coffee grounds, molasses and treacle, with a bit of an English hop kick. Herbal and a bit woodsy with a light note of lemon candy buried underneath. A bit of dark chocolate as well. Solid, if unspectacular, nose on this one. Pretty much as expected; the only thing that's slightly unusual is the hop-kissed note that provides some leafy qualities.

Flavor is very rich and surprisingly roast-forward, with a solid light-medium body that balances nuttiness and even some slight smoke notes with baker's chocolate and a definite graininess. I get some of the hops here, too... apparently this one's hopped with Summit, Hallertau, Amarillo and Centennial, but honestly for whatever reason I can barely get any of the typical notes of those hops. Really reminds me of East Kent Goldings with that herbaceous and woody note. I guess Hallertau makes some sense as there's a certain thread running throughout the noble hop varietals that has always come off as herbal and floral to me. This is really complex and has such a nice, clean finish that I can definitely say I'll have no qualms with getting a sixer of it some time soon! Overall, I'd say this actually kind of falls between a schwarzbier and a Euro dark lager, by the by... some of the leafier and crisp hop notes remind me less of a traditional German schwarzbier, and there's a little less brown bread and deep cocoa here than the style typically seems to have.

The official Brooklyn Brewery description of this beer on their website says to enjoy this with a "sturdy cheddar" cheese, so I just cut up some Cabot Lamberton, which is their version of a nutty English cheddar with some tangy sharpness.

Been skipping between several albums while drinking and writing about this beer, but now I'm firmly entrenched in the deep, dark and hard-edged beats of MOD-COMM 81, which I just now stumbled upon on YouTube.



Be back soon with another new one...

 

The thing I consider is "do I want to drink this?" That seems like a knucklehead's simple comment, but I really think it's a very important question that isn't necessarily covered by anything else. "Would I buy this again" is another good question. Both of these questions can crack the armor of beers that might otherwise rate well (or vice versa).

I also think that rating to style is immensely problematic, but I can appreciate @cavedave 's angle that it's the least problematic of all the problematic approaches. Nonetheless, I can't really subscribe to it - and I say that as a person who is very interested and attached to the concept of styles (I'm not one who wants to do away with them at all).

Speaking of styles and "wanting to drink" something, last week I posted about Muhlen Kolsch. I was lucky to get two bottles of this beer. The one I had last week was my first, enjoyed in a stange as a first impression. The second one I put in a blind tasting with some of my favorite German and American kolsch beers. That way I could get a decent impression of the beer against others. Each approach left me with different impressions of drinking Muhlen Kolsch. I was very sad to discover that I picked Muhlen as my easy favorite in the group... I would have rather picked a beer I can buy in my neighborhood.

I hope to be back later today with a very special beer.

 

Happy New Wet, Hoppy, Fresh and Juicy Sunday!

Sadly, that wrapped up more quickly than I had anticipated. This is one of those instances in which The Bros. would be better served by allowing annual vintages as separate entries. Without them, I was constrained as far as what counts as "new".

I began with a purported swan song, the best of the lot:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/345/33012/?ba=woodychandler#review

and moved on to a single-hop version of the idea:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/63/249347/?ba=woodychandler#review

before coming full-circle and having the same brew as JackHortempza, which (sort-of) inspired this outing:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/133621/?ba=woodychandler#review

My next entry for today will encapsulate my successes, or lack thereof, with (e)Erie B.C.'s beers in anticipation of tomorrow's holiday celebration. See you this evening, once the sun sets & the mischief has had a chance to ramp up nicely!

 

Finally go my hands on Born Yesterday. Wow, this is a pretty good Session N.E. Style IPA , but unlike others, relatively low ABV. I happen to have Sip of Sunshine in my fridge also, I will do a back to back right after this.

No idea where the date stamp is, maybe on the case (which I don't have). I thoroughly inspected the bottle and the 6-pack carrier. I noticed JackHorzempa found the date... any help?
Yes, I would use the ever so popular, yet sometimes hated term JUICY. It really is. Sorry. Sweet grapefruit juice.
Photo speaks to the cloudiness.
Doesn't have that alcohol hit that the bigger IPAs have. I wonder how long this is going to be available. Definitely gotta pickup some more.

 

Interesting. I was worried that when I tagged that week old line, I would get heck for drinking an "old IPA". At least by Tree House standards. I just wanted to include it to try and be 100% transparent.

And thanks for the compliments. I love New Beer Sunday. Especially when I get to participate with a high caliber, world class beer! Make no mistake, I really enjoyed Julius, but I think we have some local offerings that are equally good (albeit, in different ways) to Julius. Thanks for your consideration and feedback. After all, I want to be a better beer reviewer (does that mean I get to drink more??)

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! A fog covered morning here in the City of Subdued Excitement, when I got to work at 7am, it was very thick and dense. It's eased a bit, but there's still a lot of moist hanging in the air. Hoping it lightens up by the time I have to go back to work, for the haunted beer garden tonight. We put over 800 folks through it last night, with the proceeds going to a local arts academy for youth. Not sure if I'll be dipping into the abundance of zymurgistic riches I currently have, thanks to NBS BIF#4, before clocking on later this afternoon, but wanted to pop in for a howdy anyway.

As to Dave's question, I consider "overall" to be a separate category from the other four. It's not uncommon for my overall score to be higher or lower than the scores of the other attributes would lead one to suspect. For example, an IPA might be typical for color/head, aroma, taste, and body, earning say 3.25-3.5 scores across the board, but that particular beer pushes my personal buttons, so the Overall might come out to a 4. Or, vice versa, that beer didn't push my buttons, and might get a 3.

This is my biggest problem with the current fad of American Orange Ales (AOA). They often don't taste like IPAs, smell like IPAs, or feel like IPAs, and they goddamn sure don't look like IPAs, but I might like a given beer. So, while it would score poorly in the 4 base categories, I might give it a nice number in the Overall.

I'm long on record as believing that not reviewing to style is pointless (if a brewery were to make a Pilsener, but release it as a "Golden Stout", how would you rate it?), and we must recognize that personally liking a given beer doesn't mean it's a "good" beer.

 

Happy NBS, everybody!

It is a slightly less cold, slightly drier, still cloudy day here in Montreal. I have been doing some stuff around the house, prepping for the upcoming week and watching some football. Now I hope to insert beer into that equation.

My beer today comes from a quick little IP trade that I did this last week with a guy visiting here from California. I am really excited to get to try these exotic West Coast beers that I never would have gotten any other way (this one and one from Modern Times). I think (and hope) that he is equally thrilled at the exotic QC beers he got out of the deal as well.

This is one from Beachwood Brewing out of Long Beach. It is an IPA dry hopped with Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin and Mosaic. Pretty excited to pop it.



This is a nice beer all around. It's a clear brassy color in my glass with a big gloppy head that sticks around to varying degrees to the dregs. It is pungent with a strong herbal (in two senses, wink. Wink) fruitiness and a noticeable toasty, almost sticky malt character. It is very drinkable and dry with a lingering hop shellac that gives your mouth some pleasant lingerin' lupulin tinglin'. Very enjoyable beer all in all.

This is the second West Coast IPA I have had in as many days that seems to be tending towards the fruitier style of IPAs that is big recently. They have both been very good. That said, I am definitely more of a fan of the thick, smooth, softly-but-barely-noticeably-malty, juice-like profiles with this type of hop profile (Trillium, Treehouse, etc.). If it came down to it, I adore West Coast IPAs. I love that they're balanced and super bitter. I love the NE ones as well (hell, it's pretty much a tie), but I think that I prefer the higher malt with the bitter-ass American hops and the soft juiciness with the new-fangled and Aussi hops. Just my (rambling) opinion. Either way, I'd never turn this one down

My official review is here.


Cheers!

 

I love your photos! They definitely capture the season. After reading the second post for this beer, I'm definitely going to see if I can pick some up somewhere! It sounds delicious!

 

I should add that I do not contribute beers reviews to this site, so when I answered cavedave, I was doing so from the point of view of my feelings towards a beer rather than an approach to the "overall" category in a formal review.