New Beer Sunday (week 619)

I hope you can find the Spotted Cow Grand Cru. It was a fun beer to enjoy!

 

I'm not a huge cat fan, but I have to say "Awwwwww." They are adorable!
The beer sounds tasty, as well! Happy New Year!

 

Haven't tried writing with a fountain pen, but I do pair books with my beer Happy New Year!

 

Death by Rivertown. This beer is worth a try. see my review as well. One of the best beers i ever had

 

Please post your review here or provide a link.

Cheers!

 

Happy New Year to All,
The last few weeks I have been reading the forum, but not posting. I've tried some new beers, like the Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, and a few Winter Warmers, but unfortunately, I did not keep notes on these beers or drink them on a Sunday. The one thing I do remember is enjoying these beverages with friends.
Now that the holidays are over, I feel ready to get back on track with some serious beer sampling,
AND . . . brewing some myself! My husband gifted me a brew kit for Christmas and I've already begun an ale. You can bet I've been reading my heart out about the Art of Brewing.
Still drinking coffee this afternoon, but I'll raise my mug anyway to all of you! You are an inspiration to me!
Cheers!

 

Good Afternoon everyone, getting a little bit of a late start somehow my wife talked me into staying up until midnight i am usually in the bed by 9:30 or so. I am getting started with a new beer for me by Lynnwood Brewing Concern it is a Black IPA called Once You Go. I have been really impressed with the beers these guys are turning out and when I saw this I had to give it a go. It clocks in at 7% ABV and was canned on 12/21/2016, this thing has alot going on nice hoppy flavors amazing floral aroma it is the best of Hop On Top in a black IPA. It is brewed with Simcoe and Centennial hops and says the dark color is courtesy of Carafa malts. Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve and has a wonderful New Year. It has been a please to come here and learn from everyone and expand my beer knowlege!! Cheers!!

Appearance - Pours deep dark mahogany with light fluffy caramel colored head lasts quite awhile leaving lines of lacing all around the glass.

Aroma - The aroma on this is amazing, light floral notes combined with a definite hoppiness. I also seem to detect roasted malts and some sweet chocolate as well.

Taste - The first thing I notice are the hops, they are well balanced with the roasted malts again the sweetness from what seems to be chocolate. Lots of pine and grapefruit and there also seems to be a little vanilla crazy good flavors.

Feel - Medium body just the right amount of bitterness pretty dry finish.

Overall - I continue to be impressed with what these guys are putting out. Great flavors wonderful aroma might be the best black IPA I have tried.

 

Awesome! They seem to be right at home .

Love the Urbock - my favorite of all their brews, probably because the darker malts add a nice and interesting counter and balance to the smoke. I must say, I need to retry the Fastenbier, though. I'm guessing @TongoRad might weigh in as well .

 

Good afternoon and Happy New Year to all. Had many traditions to get done this morning the first being the undecorating of the house so things can get back to normal if you can call it normal. With that and the removal of last night snow fall taken care of I'm sitting down to enjoy Day #9 of my 12 Days of Xmas BIF box. So far all prior days had been new beers so I'm taking a chance on day 9 following the course. As per my usual routine I poured a small blind pour from the wrapped bottle labeled #9.

Okay the beer pours a fairly clear golden color. Slight tartness in the nose nothing overwhelming here. The blind taste says one thing Saison/Wild Ale very well done clean and crisp. I don't get any adjuncts here other than perhaps a little oak in the background.
Okay so now on the reveal.

Well I did pretty well today as I got the style right but having no real big clues to it's origin that's where I usually fall off in a blind tasting. Well this is Anian from De Garde a wild farmhouse ale.
The bottle says fruit added but I really don't find any fruit in the nose or in the taste. The mouthfeel is smooth with nice carbonation. In all this to me is a better than average beer in this style and very enjoyable. I would have to say to me this beer is in the 4.25 range. My thanks to my sender for these 12 DOX @Jwilford23.

 

Good Afternoon and Happy New Years
Thanks to Maria for starting us off, and thanks to Dave for being such a constant on this thread and BA overall.
Besides for the 1st Day of 2017 today is also the 8th and Final Day of Chanukah, The Festival of Lights.
And I have the perfect beer to celebrate. Brought to us by the Kosher Certified and the only Jewish oriented craft brewer, Shmaltz Brewing and its shticky proprietor Jeremy Cowan.
Chanukah, Hanukkah Pass the Beer
New for 2016, Golden Ale brewed with Cocoa Nibs. This beer is brewed with 8 malts, 8 hops, and 8% Abv. This is of course by design in order to celebrate the 8 Days of Chanukah.


3.99/5 rDev +2.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

12oz bottle into Nonic Pint
undecipherable date code
L- clear dark gold with nice fluffy white head, that sits quite nicely, really nice lacing
S- nice malty aroma with hints of chocolate
T- sweet malt light not too heavy, hints of the cocoa, plenty of fruity yeast esters on the linger, balanced hoppy finish, with cocoa making an appearance in the finish as well
F- smooth drinking, medium bodied with a nice creamy feel, no alcohol bite
Overall a great beer, smooth drinking like a great Blonde Ale, with some warming qualities perfect for the season.
Cheers and here is to a wonderful 2017!!

 

Happy New Year, NBS! I am enjoying the poetry of the last couple weeks to start off the show. Hopefully we see more of it in 2017.

I would agree that it shouldn't be all you review on NBS. My opinion only is similar to the old school room rule: unless you made enough for everyone . By that I mean, hopefully the bulk of your posts help others with beers they might have an opportunity to try at some point. Not that my opinion matters much.

And to "prove" how open I am to home brew reviews, I have my last home brew sent to me by the aforementioned @JackHorzempa. This one is a Dubbel, which I must admit is not a style that I tend to really go for. Let's see if Jack can change my mind:


This beer is a light copper, with a nice finger or more of head on a light, decanting pour. There is obvious clarity, but color doesn't appear to be the sole reason for me not being able clearly see my fingers behind the glass, so maybe there's a deceptively very light haze in there. You could convince me either way - though I'm leaning more and more towards clear the more I drink of it.

The nose has a nice baked dessert bread nose: a little sweetness from banana, some dark fruits or raisin and date, and some brown baking spices. I also get just a little pear as the beer warms. There is a definite Belgian yeast playing through it all.

The feel is medium to medium light, with a fairly high level of carbonation; that carbonation seems to be from small bubbles, though, as they buoy the tongue and cleanse the palate for the flavors to come.

The taste is what gets me, as it usually does with dubbels. The slightly sweet impression I get from the nose actually comes out as slightly bitter (an earthy bitterness) in the taste. This is my typical experience with dubbels, even though they are not typically very bitter beers to others. I think it's the cinnamon to nutmeg to peppery spice notes combining with the yeast that creates a taste my palate doesn't appreciate. This is far from saying it's off-putting.

So the initial flavor is a lightly toasted whole grain bread with a peppery taste/feel. As the carbonation fades, the esters from the yeast lead the rest of the yeast flavors. These flavors mingle for a short period before fading and allowing an earthy bitterness to conclude the sip. The crossover does appear to have a certain woody/earthy cinnamon spiced apple note to it.

This is another beer that our host, @utopiajane reviewed a while back, which I replayed after writing this review:


We seemed to have a decent amount of agreement. One thing she did note that I agree with is that this beer is fairly dry. The other thing she noted that I also did and added to my review above after the fact was the apple note in the transition. What I didn't get too much of in the flavor was the dark fruit, raisin or fig.

I slowly started appreciating this beer more and more as I sipped it down. I absolutely loved the nose, and found the taste portrayed nicely with a certain level of complexity. I am very glad to have gotten a chance to try it. Thanks again for all the beers you sent me to enjoy, Jack!!

 

Hop'lin IPA at the Forest City Gun Club:



Cheers from Savannah!

 

You really at a gun club with a bar???

 

In 2017 I am going to be more vigilant in trying many more local beers. With so many options on the shelf they can get lost...

Potosi Hopsmith pours a dark amber/copper colored with a 2 finger white head. Maintains a nice thin cap and there are swaths of lacing on my glass. Potent hop aroma dominated by big juicy citrus, grapefruit, and pine sap. The sweet malts come in with caramel and bread. Flavor is dank with grapefruit pith, pine sap and bit of earthy hops are mixed in as well. The balance of sweet malts keeps the bitter from over powering this beer. I get some caramel and honey soaked bread. Finish is all bitter. Medium body with some stickiness and abrasiveness. Carbonation is spot on for the style. Bitterness lingers for awhile. A nice dank, West Coast IIPA with a good malt backbone.

 

Happy New Year, NBSers and BAs in general! Had a great NYE with friends, beer, video games (Ultimate Chicken Horse is one of the best party games ever, check it out if you're a PC gamer with an interest in platforming and competitive level-building) and great electronic music. Going to a small gathering tonight as well where I'll be playing Game of Thrones Risk with friends and drinking yet more excellent beer (including Almanac White Label, Bruery Share This and Banded Horn Ghost Window that my buddy bought)...

...before that though I'll be cracking into a couple new beers I've had in the fridge for a couple days. Did some reviews for new ones on Friday night, but the ones I didn't get to are coming to the forefront now!

Starting off NBS today with a new double IPA from Singlecut Beersmiths out of NY. I've had a lot of experience with these guys, and especially so with their IPAs, so it'll be interesting to see how this one stands out from the crowd. The label on the can says that this features "an original combination of Euro, Aussie and PNW hops totalling 124 IBUs." Not sure any SC beers have flaunted using European hops before, so I'm intrigued. Perhaps it uses one of those newer varietals like Mandarina, Huell Melon or Hallertau Blanc? Another note before I begin; this is the first canned beer I've had from these guys... I actually had no idea they were canning, but this rolled off the packaging line on 12/9, so I guess that's a fairly recent development. Cool stuff, and the price was about what I expect for these guys (single 16 oz servings for 7-8 bucks; a tad bit expensive but I don't mind too much as they're usually pretty great).

Singlecut Beersmiths Workers Are Going Home IIPA (8.0% ABV)


Pours a nice, cloudy orange-caramel color with a solid head of off-white foam that laces quite well as it fades to a single finger ring in my (new!) glass. Hazy surface with only very slight light penetration. I do really like the color on this; it has a nice hue to it when held up to light and doesn't just look like a turbid mess.

Nose is tropical mango, orange slices, tangerine, light sticky floral notes and a deft caramel-ish malt underneath the lupulin. There's a little bit of pine here too, but I mostly get candied citrus fruits and bright, sweet tropical fruit. Pineapple chunks in syrup, some light red raspberry and even orchard fruits in there as well (though I have to really get in the glass to pick those up). No ethanol to speak of; very well hidden. One of my issues with some of these guys' bigger IPA style beers is that, even though they tend to be very juicy and hoppy, the alcohol isn't as well-masked as it probably could be. Doesn't seem like a problem with this one, though, which is nice.

On the tongue, I'm getting bready malts followed by tangerine peel, mango, passion fruit and dried berries. Though it's thick and chewy at first, it seems to transition to being rather astringent and dry with a coating bitterness and a surprisingly neutral flavor towards the finish. Some honeydew melon and candied oranges. Good carbonation. A bit of peach and/or apricot flavor in here as well. Nice stuff. Not my favorite of their brews, but very much solid.

I'll be back soonish with more! Cheers!

 

A new Texas-made beer from some of my Bohemian kin:

Stesti Bohemian Lager from a brewery in Lovelady (a brewery in Lovelady? )



I'm tempted to crack a joke about the 10 citizens of Lovelady getting together and building a brewery, but the interweb says Lovelady had 623 citizens in 2013, so I won't make that joke.

And their beer isn't a joke. Not concerning the amount of malt. This lager is super fruity, tasting of peach, apricot and sweet bread dough ... very malty. There's no hop bite and almost no hop flavor or character to speak of, perhaps only a slight earthy buildup in the aftertaste, but even that's a stretch. It reminds me of Weihenstephaner's Octoberfest or Stiegl Gold ... German imports chock full of light malt flavor with little to no hop flavor.

It's approaching flat on the carbonation level. Not completely, but it's very ale slick and missing that good crisp feel the best lagers generally have. It's disappointing but not a deal breaker ... the amount of carbonation is just enough to prick the tongue.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/46725/246570/?ba=Premo88#review
3.47 (+0.3% rDev)

Stesti recently began making a dark lager that I'll keep a lookout for. This one's not bad at all, but I wouldn't want to drink a version much older than this 2-month-old ... overall construction looks, smells and feels just a bit unsturdy.

@smakawhat : Pepper & Nutmeg look like they won the cat adoption lottery ... what a duo! Happy y'all got 'em and hope to see more appearances here on BA.com.

@Im4jojo : Bring some of those homebrews to the table! You got the blessing from the governor, so let's see what you got going on.

Is Maria the governor and Dave the president? Would @cavedave accept such a formal title?


Hope your Sundays are off and running and happy new year to all!

Cheers!