New beer Sunday (week 617)

Perfectly palatable prose properly presented, Ms. Pint Pontiff.

 

Well,...

Much of what we know about flavor associations is via aromas (what we smell). For anybody who has been in a barn there is definite aroma of horses and their urine. The 'polite' term here would be "wet hay".

Cheers!

 

:-)

So you're basically saying that your wife has spent time on a farm or ranch and had some experience sniffing in the aromas in the horse barn?

 

For NBS, Lost Nation's Mosaic IPA. I found these locally and have been waiting to crack one.
-This pours a cloudy yellow-orange from the can. The carbonation is very fine and does not visibly persist. The aromas are lightly fruity, but the flavors provide a juicy pop! Orange, lemon and some pineapple are noted. This has a dry finish and is only moderately bitter, a "soft" IPA that is very easy to like.

 

Yup, when a child she would visit Uncle Emmet during the summer on his farm in Vermont. He had BIG Belgian draft horses. There is a story where one of the horses accidentally stepped on Uncle Emmet's foot and tried to get the horse's attention by punching the horse in the face. The horse was unaffected by the punch but poor Uncle Emmet broke his hand. Fortunately his foot sunk into the wet ground and so his foot was OK (not broken) but his hand had to be put in a cast.

Cheers!

 

New Belgium 1554

They used to call this one an ale but now they call it a lager. New Belgium saw flexibility since it's made with a lager yeast at ale temperatures. They originally went with the ale label because of Texas, but switched to lager because I guess they thought it was more appropriate. This should sound very familiar to folks here. I'm not a fan of the entire ale/lager divide, but I think they made the right call by marketing this one as a lager.

Speaking of which, 1554 is supposed to be a Belgian black lager - inspired by a rare beer from Belgium's past. Because of this, it's ghettoized in the Euro dark lager style on this site. If I had this blind, I'd swear it was a Schwarzbier. It drinks more like a Schwarzbier than a lot of other beers listed in the Schwarzbier style.

It has the clean quality of a lager combined with roasted malt, cocoa, nuts, and cola. The feel is a bit too prickly. This one was very enjoyable for me. Schwarzbiers are in low supply here and this beer could be a go-to. The only problem is that it's exactly the kind of beer that would sit around. New Belgium is new to my area. I suspect that I might never see it fresh again. I hate this aspect of the beer market. Thankfully it's bottle dated.

 

You just said "Belgian draft" and you weren't even talking about beer. System overload.

 

On a related matter, Shiner was introduced to SEPA a few years ago. One of my favorite Shiner beers is their Bohemian Black Lager and I was able to buy a case of this beer (and I thoroughly enjoyed drinking that case). I have not seen that beer (fresh or otherwise) in over two years. I guess it does not sell well so they stopped selling it?

Cheers!

 

I should add that when I drank this beer I didn't have any of the backstory or brewing process in mind. I read up on it after the fact. My impression could have been different if I did things in the reverse order.

 

Happy NBS and it seems we are off to a great start!

Back around Thanksgiving, my wife and I decided that this would be the year to take our girls on the Polar Express. The weather was unseasonably warm with green grass in the yard. We discussed the date to buy tickets and I declared that the weekend before Christmas would give us the best chance for a snow covered ground. Well fast forward to today, when we will ride the Polar Express in true character. After 3 weekends of snow fall, we have 20" of powder on the ground and it just so happens that the arctic air made it here with temps currently at -5 outside. This will be the true North Pole experience.

The train ride isn't until this afternoon, so I have time to enjoy a new beer. Evil Twin Michigan Maple Jesus was calling, so let us get to it!

I poured a 12oz bottle into snifter after letting it warm for 20 min. Color is a nice, dark black color with a thin tan head and no lacing. The smell has a nice and moderate bourbon aroma that blends with the maple syrup and creamy chocolate. I imagine a nice cup of hot cocoa with dark chocolate, marshmallows, maple, and some caramel. The taste is fantastic. It's a nice combination of maple barrel notes with strong cocoa and dark chocolate with caramel and marshmallow. The feel is very good. It's a heavy bodied beer with a very silky feel to it. The creaminess adds quite a bit to the beer's character. At $10 a bottle I would have easily bought 1-2 more if there was not a limit.

 

Right at zero degrees outside right now. I have a family event in a bit, but will be riding there with other family folks. Figured I earned a early stout after my run this morning. It was -5*F when I left, and -2*F when I got back. My Garmin says it was -6*F. Either way, my run resulted in some frozen whiskers.



Now that I've been inside for a while, I figure it's time to enjoy something delicious. Today's first New Beer....



Great Lake's Blackout Stout.

Pours black with a finger of khaki head foaming to the top. Head retention is fair. Tiny bubbles pop out of the abyss of black liquid to help feed a thin foamy ring around the edge of the glass. Lacing is non existent. Roasted and toasted malts both pop out of the aroma first, setting Blackout Stout up for a solid, but otherwise standard, stout aroma. Chocolate, with a smidge of caramel peek through the otherwise malt driven aroma. Flavor profile unlocks some more depth, with malt notes expanding on the roasted and toasted varieties by way of biscuit malts. Chocolate, caramel, and molasses are more pronounced in the flavor profile then aroma. Mouthfeel has a filling, slightly grainy texture, which gets more aggressive and filling as the beer warms. Thickness ranges from medium to medium-thick as the beer's temperature rises. Overall, Blackout makes for an excellent stout. It fits squarely between thin stouts and stouts that could be considered a meal, making this a pleasant stout to visit for hearty malt notes without the heart stopping thickness of other stouts.

Score: 4 | 4 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.25 | BA Score: 4.18 | rDev: -0.2%

 

I get cat piss from some single hop IPAs that use Simcoe or Moasic. My old neighbor in Pa had a male cat that they let piss in the house I guess, it smelled so bad I could get a whiff in my house, it was a townhouse. So as Jack says the taste does follow a framiliar smell. Now with most Brett beers I get sweaty socks, used jock straps, smelly gym lockers, I generally don't like them all that much.

 

Ah, the nostalgic aromas of lost gloried days!

 

I am guessing that Honeywell (Kim Cattrall’a character in Porky’s) would love those beers!?!

Cheers!

 

Greetings NBS Friends and Faithful.
Please allow me a bit of a cheat.
I was the recipient of a very interesting beer in NBS BIF #3 from a most generous BA among us. I finally shared it. Alas, this is a problem many of us face here. It was a large format bottle, so I had to hold off until the chance to share it came along. Well, it happened. And I must say, the wait was worth it.
Thanks, @Ozzylizard for keeping me in mind during your travels.

RU-55 Blend #6 from Jester King
4.2/5 rDev -1.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Thanks for keeping me in mind during your travels.

Pours a ruddy brown with a cap of 2 inches of loosely packed tan foam that slowly retreats to a mere ring.
Aromas of aging stone fruit notes meander toward sour apple, then leather, and finally a hint of red wine barrel.
Wow, flavor goes all over. Begins with sour plum, fortified red wine (akin to Porto), leather, oak, hints of maduro tobacco, and all throughout a smooth, subtle, deep earthy yeastiness. Finishes with a nice round tartness. So many good things going on here.
Mouthfeel is a bit on the fuller side. Great. And there's a mildly slick aspect too.
Overall, I don't rate this a 5, but I have nothing to recommend. This is such a deep, profound beer and I'd love to have it again.

 

Thanks for putting that on my radar. Mrs. 2beerdogs likes Oktoberfest beers that lean more malt forward. I'll look for trades next season and earn a few points.

 

Great start to the day's festivities. I will be back with a new beer late tonight. It s Christmas cantata day at the church, and while the morning singing was decent, not quite good enough to get us off the hook for a late afternoon rehearsal.

We are apparently gluttons for punishment. We dud the kitchen facelift and new floors in four rooms leaving one room with plaster work. Former colleague of mine does restoration work as a businees, and the skill level required was ovet my head. He had a window open up in his schedule, so work that was four weeks out started last week.

Before (which doesn't truly capture the poor condition of the plaster and ceiling). You can see the new flooring. With all that horsehair, there has to be a pony somewhere. Belgians are on the old buffet table



Almost after



Contractor is calling that the miracle wall, especially where it vaults above the stairwell. He almost gave up and tore it down, but a week of hanging precariously off a ladder later, smooth, secure, and beautiful preseving the 1860-ish character of the house.

And oh by the way that dining room furniture that wasnt supposed to arive until the end of next week? Yeah...another early surprise. We have been at the bottom of the hand me down food chain forever, high time to have our own after 34 years...

 

Uggh greatly in need of a beer right now but still need to drive into town so gonna hafta wait. Unbelievable storm that dumped 7 inches of frigid snow in about 4 hours yesterday that crippled our area driving-wise, and made my time at work truly awful, but at least it wasn't busy. Today it was busy and teemed cold rain and I got soaked to the bone despite my blue poncho. Went through three pairs of boots and four of gloves between yday and today, shoveled the center out, and my driveway twice, including in the dark last night after work, and I need a fucking beer, a new one, and by golly I shall be back in a while to join you all. End of rant. Save me a seat please?