New Beer Sunday (week 614)

Good morning and thank you @cavedave for getting us up and at 'em today. The holiday is over but the festivities continue. My son is over and we have a few beers to taste and I made a ham. So a nice orange, honey and brown sugar glaze. I thought I would pair that with my turkey beer from yesterday the Ballantine Burton Ale and my beerZ for today.

Happy Two Beer Sunday!


First up is Snow and Tell .

oak aged scotch ale

caramel malt, magnum chinook and styrian golding



Paired with Ham with Honey Orange Glaze and Eggs.





Earthy caramel malt with soft spicy notes throughout. Subtle smokiness is in the background. Pours hazy hued and bubbly. Good tan head that falls well and lasts. A light fruity scent to dance with the smoke. Drinks softly but hearty. With crisp deep caramel. Brown sugar. Soft earth with a touch of sweetness in it. Bubbles are plentiful and that helps this beer to go down crisp and with plenty of malt flavor to last through a moderately bitter finish. The magnum is the bittering hop on this one and a clean, lasting bitterness. Full malt flavors with plummy dark fruit goes to the finish with such a light crisp sweetness. This was a very enjoyable wee heavy that was on the lower side for abv. The malt showed plenty of texture from bread to caramel and then a soft full mouthfeel. That is the best part of the wee heavy. It's not that it is so strong but that it is so soft. If you have imagined through the pilsner how the Germans felt about the land, you get the same impressions from this style. Sweet earth and smoke. The secondary malt flavors are where you find the complexity so the finish is malty. It's like a nice bit of burnt sweet bread crust at the swallow and only a hint of friendly warmth like a soft glow in this one. It finishes with all the malt flavors resounding quietly but fully.

Cheers and Happy New Oak Aged Scotch Ale Sunday

 

New Beer Sunday: A new Oatmeal Stout

Mornin' NBSers, with special greetings to all you seekers of silky smooth slightly sweet stouts and with thanks to @cavedave for the start up this morning.

Up early today with some beautiful but chilly sunny weather on the horizon. Fixing breakfast for family and some company who is probably still in his room sleeping. This is an old friend I've not seen in some time and who mumbled before heading off to his bed that he had a few surprises in his bag. At least two words I heard clearly were "gose" and "Stillwater." If it's what I suspect, I have a sneaking feeling I'll be back this evening with another new beer. If it really is the Wild Ale I think it is I've wanted to give that one a try for quite a while and probably will open it tonight so we can split it between the two of us.

Breakfast is going to be eggs scrambled with some hash browns, diced sweet peppers and caramelized onions and a batch of turkey sausage.

While fiddling around with the food I've been having a new stout as an appetizer. This morning's new beer is the Ohio City Oatmeal Stout from Great Lakes.

My review, mostly finished can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/73/8350/?ba=drtth#review

On the whole this is a fairly complex oatmeal stout with lots of nice flavors such as semi-sweet dark chocolate, some coffee, a bit of dark roast malt and a hint of bitterness that only really emerges at the end of the finish to contribute to the smooth dryness that invites another sip. It looks like a stout, tastes like a stout and is well worth repeating. Also given the 5.4% ABV there's no problem with having more than one. That's good, since the temptation when the glass is almost empty is to go pour another.

Well by the looks of things It's time to get the whole crew assembled for breakfast and a nice long chat to start the day.

Cheers, all!

 

Good morning @cavedave - great job with the actinic alliteration although I consider myself more of a terpene terrorist and a myrcene militant...

Well, a week has gone by and I haven't posted since last NBS. That means that everybody's beer portfolio has dropped in value. I just haven't felt like drinking in the past week, kind of depressed. A former employee of mine killed himself Wednesday - he was a pharmacist and had forged a script for his wife and kid for whatever reason rather than going to the ER; a co-worker turned him in. He lost his job, his pharmacy license, his family, and finally his life. Such a stupid decision.

Anyway, today's New Breakfast Beer. I picked this up back in August and it's been patiently waiting ever since:



$ 11.90 (Including tax)/22 oz bottle ($ 0.541/oz) at Central Market, Alamo Heights, TX
Undated bottle at 42 degrees into a hand washed and dried JK snifter, allowed to warm to 50 degrees
Aroma of dark chocolate and brown sugar with a hint of coffee
Head large, (Maximum six cm, aggressive pour), brown, frothy/creamy, slowly diminishing to a creamy three mm ring and layer
Lacing poor – just a few tiny drag islands
Body dark brown/black, opaque
Flavor – starts and stays bitter but not offensively so, somewhat expresso-flavored with chocolatey overtones. I’m not picking up any hints of oak barrels but the label just says “wooden barrels” so maybe pine or some other wood is contributing to that odd background taste. No hops, no alcohol, do diacetyl.

Palate full, creamy, soft carbonation

Not too bad considering the price point but not up to the widely distributed 12 ouncers like Narwhal, Founder’s Breakfast Stout, or Edmund Fitzgerald.

Appearance 3.75, Aroma 4, Flavor 3.75, Palate 4, Overall 3.5. Rating 3.79, rDev -5.5%

 

Sorry to hear about the cause of your recent silence. Even if the individual involved was not a close friend, such losses often force us, whether we like it or not, into rethinking some aspects of our lives and how we are living them.

 

Greetings friends,
Thank you Dave for another righteous start-up of a perfect Sunday tradition....also it sent me scrambling to my handy electronic marvel of Merriam Webster for true and further edification: Linalool is cool, more later.
I asked my son to bring a Steel String Shady Grove by on Thanksgiving. Brewed in Carrboro- Chatham County's Haight Ashbury- adjacent to Chapel Hill, this beer and brewery fly under the radar of big hype and gotta have. So...Steel String Brewery Shady Grove Fruited Sour Red 7% Batch #2 Carrboro, North Carolina.
This gorgeous looking sour red ale appears a luminescent purplish reddish to dark ruby red. Lighter different red/purple lingers on the edges, almost looking alive and with some actual purpose- like a palette with experimental colors made liquid, seeming to not really need a glass to contain it, a thing, alive, of its own.
Shady Grove pitches a quick whitish/pink-raspberry cap that blows a powerful fresh raspberry nose near and far (Raspberry Linalool Batman!) This is simply one of the best smelling beverages that I have ever encountered. The beer settles to bubbles dripping lace about the edges, urging a sip NOW. The taste is like an encapsulated film, an almost waxy essence, with its very existence some seeming brewing alchemical magic. It is tart, with all of that raspberry wrapped in, taunting and tantalizing at once. This is a sour that I could easily drink two in a sitting. It is nicely oaked, vinious, but light on its feet. Shady Grove is a really nice combo of light funk, real oak, with juicy raspberry perfectly captured by Pinot Noir from that oak! Nice. An easy light frame holds all of this together, amazingly. The alcohol is never noticeable. The tart little sips attempt to delay the finish, but to no avail. This delicious beer treads the line between beer and wine deftly and could be described as neither or both. I love this ethereal zephyr of a beer and will find some more soon.

This is Quicksilver's Shady Grove ( previously Quicksilver Messenger Service) from the album Shady Grove. This is seriously under-appreciated music from 60s and 70s San Francisco. Cheers and have a great Sunday!

 

That horrible. I can only imagine the person who turned him in feels awful too. I'll say a prayer for everyone involved.

 

It has been a long time since I have been this excited to try a new beer. We all know how good regular is and also how beautiful it is, so I am giddy to have gotten my hands on this giant can of greatness. I had to pour it into my all time favorite glass, at just a little cooler than room temperature, canned on 11/03/16 and weighing in at 12.9% ABV. I poured slowly down the center of the glass and got this massive 2 inch mocha head that takes its sweet time settling, and leaving some patches of lace along the way. 5 Smell is roasty coffee beans, dark chocolate, oaky vanilla, char, some tobacco, and a nice hit of bourbon in a subtle way and that is what I prefer. I want a beer that has hints of bourbon, not a great beer that had a shot of Jack poured into it. Awesome aroma. 5

Taste follows perfectly roasty coffee and dark chocolate upfront , followed by oaky vanilla, some char and mellow, yet tantalizing bourbon hits the back of your throat and warm the sole. 5

Mouthfeel is just as you would expect from Ten Fidy thick and robust the jump from 10.5% to 12.9% didn't thin it out at all and that is impressive, just as much life as regular Fidy moderate, maybe a little dry, and excellent drinkability. 5

Overall this beer was maybe even better than I was expecting. I loved how they kept this beer completely the same, aged it in bourbon which kicked up the ABV, but still had the same amount thickness and amazing retention as the original. This may be the best barrel aged stout I have ever had. This hopefully turn into BCBS and KBS and become a huge challenge to get your hands on. 5

 

Today will be consuming Pure Hoppiness by Alpine
Putting lights on the tree one needs to be lit

 

What is your favorite Rock Band?

Well if your name was Stephan Michel of Mahr’s Bräu it would seem that band would be Mastodon.

The US importer of Mahr’s Bräu beer is Shelton Brothers and below is the write-up on their website:

“Mahr’s Mastodon

Mahr's Bräu • Germany

Mahrs Bräu’s Stephan Michel is a rabid music fan, and occasional brewer to the stars. Having befriended American metalheads Mastodon, he found it easy to convince the band that they needed a serious beer to put their name on. Mastodon is just the thing–a chuggable but deliciously complex unfiltered classic Franconian keller/lager. You can slam to this one all night in the mosh pit without being called a wuss! Don’t forget the lederhosen.”

I personally do not own lederhosen but I do enjoy drinking (and brewing) Kellerbiers so my motto here is: Let’s drink!!

Served in my Spiegelau Lager glass:

Appearance:

Golden colored with a bit of haze accompanied with a BIG white head.

Aroma:

The predominant aroma is bready malt.

Taste:

The flavor very much follows the nose with bready malt being the dominant flavor. This beer is moderately bitter.

Mouthfeel:

Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. A dry-ish finish.

Overall:

This beer is very tasty. It has the quality of süffig (German for drinkable). I wish I had a second bottle of this beer.

I have one complaint and that is there is no bottle dating. I typically do not buy beer unless it has bottle (or can) dates but needless to say I made an exception here.

Cheers!

@zid @rotsaruch @RobH @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @Ranbot

 

Wow, that's just terrible to hear. One wrong decision turned into a worse decision. That's sad, I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

 

I hope this is a typo, and the hope is that it doesn't turn into another BCBS and KBS. Haven't seen it around here, yet, and while your review is the most glowing, it's not alone. Anxiously awaiting my chance - which I am sure will come in time.

Can't quite make out the name on the label... which beer is it?

 

BA Ten FIDY is better than KBS or BCBS in my opinion. I hope it continues to be easier to get than those beers.

 

Yes typo, damn. I don't want the challenge of getting these beers. It timed out and I can't fix it. Sorry amazing stuff.

 

Terrible news about your friend. I hope the family is ok

 

I am sorry for your loss. =(

 

Today, I am having a beer that quite a few have had in the past two weeks, the new DFH breakfast stout: Beer for Breakfast - a beer brewed with scrapple (typical DFH craziness), spices, maple, and coffee. Then they add coffee, as well, apparently.

Plus last week:
@SawDog505: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-613.466291/#post-5118638
@Prager62: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-613.466291/page-2#post-5119150

Although I read @Roguer's review earlier today, I did not re-read last weeks, but will compare after the fact:


The beer pours dark enough to be a black mirror, with a fairly deep tan head. As usual with morning stouts, I let this warm as I set up my post, and the head is still thick at the edges, and coves 95% of the surface.

Nose has a distinct coffee note, and actually reminds me a little of Xocoveza. Next I actually do start getting the smokey note, and it comes across as a bit porcine, which may be power of suggestion, but I get a salty, smokey sausage note. After noting it, it's about all I get, and even the coffee seems like I left it on the counter as I brought my plate to the kitchen nook. Not getting much maple - but there is a little bit if I take a lighter whiff.

Taste is a decent amount of, but still somehow light (not acrid), smoke, there is also a bit of saltiness I perceive - and the combination reminds me of Schlenkerla's Urbock (like a lighter version). This beer doesn't end there, though. The coffee that hides in front comes out by mid-taste and brings with it a bitterness to counter smoke/salt/spice of the opening notes. The ending doesn't bring a whole lot, and does just seem to fade to drinking the last of the cup of coffee that has sat while you ate, coupled with the last scraps of bacon from the breakfast plate. Very late, I note the maple at the back end that perks that up a tad.

Overall, I enjoyed this beer more with some chill on it. The flavors stuck out a little more, and there was some contrast. The flavors blended a little more as the beer warmed, but also lost some distinction. The coffee gained some traction and the smokiness faded a bit. I also noted a little tang, and thought it weird until I saw this actually is a milk stout (with lactose added) - according to the brewer's notes on this site (this note also indicated the base recipe for this was their Chicory Stout). I'm not sure I am liking this particular note - maybe one too many things attempted.

----

Comparing reviews:
Funny that @Roguer found the smokiness more in the back and I found it up front. However, as the beer warmed, I did find the flavors shifted a bit.

@Prager62 found a somewhat similar nose to me, but felt the coffee drowned out (like I did initially). However, he seemed to get a bit more sweetness than I did.

@SawDog505 seemed to like the balance that sorta follows what I got on a warmer beer (and I am fairly certain he likes to drink his stouts fairly warm, as he indicated in last week's review)

So, unsurprisingly, not a unanimous set of perceptions from the NBS crew on this beer, but quite a few similarities overall.

 

Cheers again you all. I was thinking about lunch and that ham and I decided it's a good day for a plain old sammich. So I am going to make apple, gruyere and ham toasted sandwich. This beer sounded like a good match and I think it really is sensational if not to style. uh oh.

Happy I smell caramel Sunday

Pours toasted orange , clear and with a luscious head that falls clinging in rings.


Lagunitas Tuberfest. - They don't say it's traditional in fact they tell you it's hoppy. They are using pacific nothwest idaho #7. Nose is caramel, apple skin but firm and not too bold and a light wood like cedar or pine. it is one of the most delectable fruity scents with a citrus backed hop that shows lots of spice and pepper. Drinks nutty, full and with lots of soft sweet caramel. That is not the oktoberfest but it sure is fully malty, a touch sweet and tastes really good. It's 7.5 percent .

It drinks like an IPA and it's a nice one let me tell you why. The hops are all over this beer and very strong into the finish but so is the malt with it's willfully strong and nutty caramel. it's a little toasty and hearty and breaddy. A wonderful crisp hop gives a cool bitterness to the finish that delights as it highlights the light cedar and citrus scent which has become like perfume under your nose. It's invigorating but modest. The caramel is decadence. A small effervescent bubble bites a little and then the hop finishes peppery and a bit of warming from the alcohol shows you woody earth. The hop is monumental and multifaceted.

They call it Tuberfest and I like it. Well done!

Cheers NBS!