New Beer Sunday (week 614)

Good early evening, NBS peeps. Nice enough day after a dreary start, sunny and chilly. Good day to wind down from the holiday hub-bub, clean up the house some, take a massive nap and watch football. The holiday was nice here - family and friends came and went. We are not renowned for precise event planning. We do buffet style feeding, not much on formalities. Essentially, after your first visit you know where everything is and eventually everybody's family.

To me there is always a "falling off" after an holiday celebration, but it is a bit of mixed feelings this year. We have a grandson arriving probably the first week of December, so that creates an anticipation as well as a bit of trepidation. There's a lot of thinking and pondering going on n my head...

But there's always beer, some of it courtesy of others, so tonight it is Black Duck Porter from Greenport Harbor Brewing Company courtesy of @cavedave who also got us off to a great start today.


Well, the picture pretty much tells the story. That pretty foam cap falls to chunky rafts that eventually drops to about an 1/8 inch layer. It really hangs in there nicely. The picture does not show how clear this beer is - very clear indeed.

The aroma is rich with chocolate, coffee, and I swear I smell some marshmallow sweetness and vanilla. A little caramel, maybe just a little on the overcooked side. Not super intense, but a very pleasant and nicely rounded aroma.

Kinda expected a bit of a jumble in the flavor department, but the taste is very tight and concise. There's "just enough" of what the aromas reveal. The sweetness is just a whisper and that highlights the darker notes of the coffee and chocolate. Just enough bitterness on the end to do the reset.

Clean feel - maybe a touch of chalkiness on the finish, but quite light and not overly carbonated. Mellow on the tongue. A refreshing porter? Yeah - I'm OK with it being a bit light on the body.

Enjoyable, refreshing and offsets the leftovers nicely. Feeling this coming in around a 3.8 or thereabouts on the BA-o-rometer.

 

Excellent review! And I agree with your take on the feel. Also those hops are a little different for a nice change. Cheers Phil!

 

Alright, time for my next entry into this week's NBS,,, a Wicked Weed offering I recently found that I haven't had yet. I have no doubt it'll be awesome; WW is easily one of the most consistent breweries I've had the pleasure of consuming beers from in quite a long time! So grateful we get their stuff around these parts!

Wicked Weed Tyrant (double red IPA)



Now THAT'S a red beer! Garnet-hued and bearing some awesome, sticky lace dripping down from a solid several finger head that ends up being a smallish ring of beige foam that lasts for the entirety of my glass.

The nose is huge waves of sticky, resinous and piney hops with some light tropical and grapefruit peel citrus elements that nestle in with a crystal-heavy malt profile. This seems like it's going to be very well-balanced and super versatile. I get a little bit of cocoa and some toffee-like notes with a sweet breadiness; almost like a liquid sticky bun loaded with spicy, pungent hops! Very excited to sip this.

Daaaaamn... now this is great! Hugely piney and surprisingly juicy with notes of orange, grapefruit and tangerine among a slight guava/mango element that comes out towards the finish of each sip. Slightly floral and intensely bitter on the palate. Some spruce and dank, grassy notes. A deluge of maltiness comes across too, just before collapsing beneath the weight of the lupulin presence here. Biscuity and chewy. I can definitely pick up a perfumey alcohol note here, and on the tongue it can be a bit sharp on the mid-palate, but this really only serves to enhance the immense flavors here. Feel is oily and medium-bodied, kind of leaning towards the lighter side of things though. Seems like an extremely clean fermentation with an immense dry-hop component. Carbonation is a bit sharper and helps highlight the hops. Reminds me of Founders' reDANKulous but perhaps even better (and I really liked that beer a lot!)... Wicked Weed just constantly slam-dunks, and they're showing no sign of stopping any time soon. Also, amazing label art! Foreboding and fantastical... kind of reminds me of something out of Diablo or a similar game. Could be the fact that my roommate's playing Diablo III in the other room that brings such a thought up, though. Who knows? I just know this is killer!



Got some excellent instrumental stoner-y rock jamming on in the background... sounds like a combination of Kyuss and Tool, plus perhaps some shades of Monkey3 and Ozric Tentacles here and there. Very enjoyable records... three long-form songs with multiple detours for groove, heaviness and, of course, spacey psychedelia! Cheers!

 

Jeez. From your description, that seems like it had a bit of bottle fermentation going on. Thin-ish body and that huge, ridiculous head definitely leads me to believe that's the case, anyway. Good luck on the next one, sir.

 

FWIW, I had the opposite reaction on Friday:
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Holy hell, man- why did I only pick up one of these?!!

Pure heaven in a glass for me- vibrantly full of pungrent floral/spicy noble hops, so sticky and resiny, and maybe even a funky somethingsomething coming on late in the finish; the malt and fruity esters shouting for attention as well (orange marmalade?, Major Grey'sChutney?...)- but through it all it is somehow this precise 5-point harmony singing like an angel's choir. I may be alone in this, but this is the best goddamn IPA I've had in a very long time!
____________________________________________________________________

...although, as you can see I didn't think that appreciation would be universal .

I did manage to get a few more bottles the next day, too. And after a bit more thought I think I have put a finger on the elements that created such a strong reaction on my part.

The first being that my buddy Dave used to get this same exact floral quality from extremely fresh Saaz hops grown on the west coast, and I could never figure out just how he did it; but working for a brewery would've given him access to much better ingredients than most other homebrewers. I always loved his IPAs because they stood apart from the other pine and citrus bombs, but still had an abundantly primal hop quality at the same time.

The other was a 7% English IPA that I once made using a full half-pound of fresh East Kent Goldings hops. It was kind of over the top, but there was nothing else like it at the time.

This beer brought those long lost flavor sensations right to the forefront for me. I still think it's well made and delicious regardless, and probably will grab a few more while they're available .

 

New Beer Sunday: A Wild Gose

Evenin' NBSers, with special greetings to those who have been glad to see the Gose revival.

Well, as I expected the special, for after dinner, the beer my friend pulled out of his travel bag this morning (so it could be chilled and settled a bit ) was the Stillwater Gose Gone Wild. IIRC this beer has been brewed twice and so far as we can sort it out circumstances suggest this undated bottle should be from the release late last year.

My review, still in progress 'till my half of the Bomber is finished, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22150/121506/?ba=drtth#review

On the whole I'm enjoying this beer which has a nice citric aroma and flavor, some very light mustiness, and a bit of salt. The light cracker-like sweetness from the malt comes into play, but only to soften rather than hide the tartness. A nice beer and an easy drinker.

My friend also brought with him some CDs which we've been listening to on the Player while sipping, chatting and discussing the beer, as well as the general state of the world today. Since he's a big fan of Country Music and plays a mean Banjo, himself, there's more than one take in his CDs on a particular Country Classic.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Cheers, all!

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the nice long holiday weekend. Thanks to @cavedave for getting us started off this week. Had a nice weekend of cellar pulls among other things. Time to get back to my normal review routine. I am fully stocked up on new beer after the weekend. Ended up with a full case of 12 ounce singles, plus 1.5 cases of bombers(and some draft meads). Kind of got carried away this morning at the Acme grocery store with the bombers haha. I will definitely have to return there soon. I got a ton of new Hoppin Frog, Columbus, and DuClaw stuff; among and other things. Can't wait to crack into the stash.

Other than that, ready for my work week to get super busy. I have a report to finish tomorrow, and then I am transitioning to a new vehicle program again. Hope I don't get too much anxiety over it. The new program is high on the complexity. Anyways, time for today's new beers:

Really nice white IPA! Fantastic head retention and dense lacing down the glass. Aromas and flavors of grapefruit, tangerine, pineapple, peach, apricot, mango, lemon/orange peel, peppercorn, and pine hops; with moderate wheat, cracker, light biscuity malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop/spice earthiness. Moderate pine/peppery/citrus rind bitterness on the finish. Medium bodied; balanced grainy wheat creaminess and sticky/resinous hops in the mouthfeel. Moderate increasing resin dryness, with no lingering hop astringency. Really impressed with this all around. Aromas were a bit weak; but the taste was very bold, had a lot of great vibrant hop flavor/complexity. Balanced between Noble and PNW varieties. The lemongrass flavor fit in really well with the hop combo. Nice malt backbone, but not overdone. Crisp and quite refreshing. Definitely feels very "West coast" on the resin/dry finish. I usually relate White IPA with having Belgian yeast, but the combo of hops and spice here makes it feel quite similar to what I would expect. 3.91


2015 vintage, been sitting on this for a bit. People seem to say it should be a lot longer, but whatever lol. This is outstanding! Aromas and flavors of big tart/sour cherry, cranberry, lemon, raisin, plum, red grape, green apple, caramel, brown sugar, and toasted brown bread; with lighter notes of nuttiness, toffee, pepper, leather, tobacco, vanilla, funk, red wine vinegar, and oak. Moderate fruity tartness and some light tannic/oaky spice on the finish. Medium-full bodied; lots of bready Munich malt creaminess, with a bit of slick/syrupy character in the mouthfeel. Balancing acidity and light tannins in the mouthfeel; touch of dryness. The aromas had me expecting more sourness; but at this ABV, I should have expected it. Still tons of complexity; not too funky, but it's got all the right flavors that should be in an Oud Bruin. Extremely well balanced. Insanely drinkable, zero ABV warmth @10.5%. According to the notes, this is a 100% Munich malt beer boiled for 12 hours; and then pitched with domestic yeast and Brett. Most of the sourness is probably coming from the cherry juice they add post-fermentation, considering the lack of any Lacto. 4.22


Heard infection talk about this, but I made sure this was a fresh(ish) shipment from a store I went to this weekend. That being said, this was pretty much mind blowing! Awesome head retention and dense lacing. Aromas and flavors of huge milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, maple, brown sugar, toffee, vanilla, bourbon, toasted oak, coconut, and light molasses/coffee. Touch of roast bitterness and bourbon/oak spice on the finish. Medium-full bodied; with an amazing creamy/silky and rich mouthfeel. Touch of chalky roast and tannic oak. Minimal dryness. For 7.5%, holy shit this is so rich and complex! You get a great presence of the bourbon barrels, but is neither tannic nor boozy. The sweeter side of the barrel notes is most prominent. Never cloyingly sweet, and so smooth. This is one of the best dessert beers I've ever had. 4.5


Cheers, have a good night NBS!

 

And now, tonight's main event (for me) .....



I've been chasing this for a while, and recently a guy I've traded with probably more than anyone sent this to me out of nowhere - he's a true beer nerd hero.

A lot of times, the anticipation of trying a "whale" is not met by the actual experience of the beer. Not in this case. It's apparent to me that the base Imperial Stout is excellent, which is important when other ingredients like cacao nibs and cinnamon sticks and ancho chiles are added to the mix because everything is in balance - jet black pour, a finger of mocha-colored head, heavy aromas of stone fruit and chocolate.

And then the cacao nibs hit, and you wonder if it'll be too sweet, and then the cinnamon sticks hit with a spiced ferocity - and then the heat from the ancho chiles pull everything back, announce their presence with their onions (Bill Raftery reference for you college hoops fans) hanging out.

And then the cacao nibs come back, faintly, at the back of the taste, to ease the chiles off the accelerator. I've been beer nerding awhile, and not experienced that. Truly incredible, and a truly world-class beer.

Rated 4.69.

 

Howdy again, I think I can manage one more beer as long as it's not crowler-sized . Here's one from Yards that I haven't seen before, and seems to be their take on an American IPA-

Rival IPA
I like the aroma- not over-saturated but clean and bright with lots of orange peel, pine needles, ripe peach and orange lollypops (for real). Again,the flavors are clean, bright and mostly citrusy, although that orange lollypop or popsickle quality is playing for keeps now, especially on the finish. There is a rich malty base as well as mouthfeel, but it's just barely adequate to contain a massive citrus peel bitterness. Pine flavors are there but just enough to keep things grounded- it's mostly fruit and candy. I like that they are playing with well-established qualities here, but somehow have managed to put their own stamp on them. Flavors manage to stay pleasant throughout A- (4.0).

 

Throwing my hat in the ring with a quick review. Thank You @cavedave for the awesome kickoff again.
Wiped out from the last few days and have to hit the ground running tomorrow am.
Mr Mistoffelees Passion fruit and Mango Wild Ale, Moondog Brewery Australia
Pours a 1/2" white head that dissipates quickly. Color is a nice Golden copper with zero head.
Aroma is of the fruits mango predominates with spicy yeast, oak, funk and some grassiness. There's also a wine like white grape character.
Taste follows with sour tropical and green apple, white pepper, some slight sweetness from malt, but with drying vanilla oak, grape. it's a nice blend of malts- something a little different route Balance the tart flavors.
Medium body and carbonation with a crisp dry finish.
Interesting beer that rose above my expectations although I'm a big fan of barrel aged sours- especially wine barrel aged. I'm assuming this is probably wine barrels due to the grape notes. It was a nice refreshing ending to a IPA soaked last couple of days. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and thanks for sharing all your holiday beers....and as always thanks for taking the time.

 

The one I had when it was first released was decent, but so overwhelmingly sweet that my brothers and I couldn't polish off the bottle together. It was the first beer featuring maple that I thought had too much. Almost always the other way around. I kind of wondred if they made any adjustments to it since about evryone agreed that it was diabetic coma inducing.

One of my brothers brought another bottle last night and it was definitely infected. Very sparkly/crisp feel. Almost like a cola. Also fairly sour.

 

I have VERY high tolerance for sweetness in beers, but according to what you stated; this was probably similar. I can drink bombers of Creme Brulee all year. This definitely blew me away personally, everyone has different tastes. Cheers!

 

I'm a bit late to NBS this week due to an unexpected visit to a new local Mexican place for an early dinner with our daughter before she heads back to school tomorrow. We are now getting to the tree decorating, which we always do the weekend after Thanksgiving, and this beer seemed most appropriate:

Christmas Bomb! - Prairie Artisan Ales


I enjoyed this but not quite as much as the regular Bomb, and I haven't had any other variants (yet)...
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

A great-looking, jet-black beer with a with a thick tan head that settled quickly into a wispy cap. Strong aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and cocoa announced what was to follow. This was a rich beer - great after dinner - a big chocolatey taste with a nice spicy mix of cinnamon, sugar, clove, nutmeg, and roasted malt. It was a bit too sweet and too heavy on the cinnamon for me, but I was left with a comforting warming on the finish with a bit of cinnamon spice in my throat. It made me want to start a fire and play some Bing Crosby tunes! Cheers!

 

I'm very grateful for your post. I haven't looked at anyone else's reviews of the beer. It seems to me that we might be more on the same page than you think. It seems like you were more enthusiastic for sure - but I really enjoyed the beer and my post probably made it seem like I didn't as much as I did. While I'm not going to grab more bottles, I still wished there was more left in the bomber. The whole time I was drinking it, I was also thinking of orange marmalade, but I said orange peel instead in my post because I thought marmalade would make it look like the beer was sweeter than it really was. Have you had Schlafly's AIPA? In a way, the Stone beer recalled it for me.

Cheers.

 

Awesome Brew!

Cheers!

 

I felt really odd complaining that it had too much maple. I can't begin to count the number of times I have been completely disappointed by maple beers. However, it was pretty close to drinking syrup for me. Of course I still liked that, but it was just too rich to drink much of it.

If you can drink Creme Brulee with no problem you definitely have a higher tolerance than me at least. I love it for about 3 -4 ozs.
Cheers!

 

That's nice to hear- glad that you got that much enjoyment from it.

I can see the comparison to the Schlafly beer, although if I remember it correctly this one is more intense. Brooklyn EIPA also comes to mind, but the way it was like 10 years ago; from what I've heard it's been tweaked and I really should acquaint myself with it as it is now.

 

Still sipping on a gem of a "holiday" stout new to me: Wicked Weed's "Milk & Cookies"



Sometimes offerings this time of year seem somewhat gimmicky, but I had high hopes for this most solid brewery, and its cookie theme:



I was not disappointed. The pour is a dark ruby to brown (24 to 30) with a creamy, fluffy khaki foam. The cap is long lasting, with clarity underneath. Lacing is moderately heavy. It's a pretty and inviting pour.

Cinnamon chocolate and spicy aromas waft out of the glass. This beer really smells like oatmeal raisin cookies fresh out of the oven!

Flavors of Chocolate, milk, cinnamon and short bread cookie dough to start with a little bitter chocolate, followed by vanilla. Milky sugary raisins in oatmeal cookies finish.

The body is not heavy, yet feels silky smooth and creamy with a lactose milky tongue coating. The feel is full and doughy on the one hand, but light and easy at the same time.

Overall this satisfies the holiday cookie theme - like a warm cookie, I want more! Better still, the cinnamon is just right and compliments the sugar cookie flavor. Excellent balance between spices and doughy malt base with chocolate, plus milk and oatmeal. Sorry I only bought one bottle yesterday in NC. This Stout is by far better presented than some of the other cinnamon laden holiday beers out there currently.

Cheers!

 

Love the Raftery pull.

 

Corey met his match for maple...Everybody mark your calendars. This is a day to go down in BA history.