New Beer Sunday (week 619)

Happy new year NBS!!! Trying to get through a lot of beer today so starting off with low ABV sours. First up is Transient Imperial Peach Maigre, thanks @Zaphog, cheers!

4.44/5 rDev +3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Thank you Zaphog for this
500 ml poured into a tulip

A- A slightly hazy, very light golden straw color with a small white head.

S- Peaches, peach skins, apricots, tart lemons, some wheat, nice mild and balancing earthiness/funk.

T- Tart peaches, sour lemons, wheat, touch of lacto, peach skins, mild earthiness.

M- Smooth, crisp, light.

O- A fantastic peach Berliner. Super easy to drink. I will be seeking this out again!

 

Happy New Year everyone!

2016 was a very interesting year of beers for me. I decided to spend the year dedicated to drinking blind tastings. I did this most publicly with my saison thread, which was much more of an exploration than a blind tasting, but the blind tastings were a major component. I did make posts about my very indulgent Oktoberfest tastings, but I also did things like this with other styles throughout the year. I still have some blind barley wine tastings planned for the immediate future and I do plan on posting about these. Beyond that, I have a very different 2017 planned for myself. It's certainly a cliche, but I plan on drinking less this year. The reasons don't even need explanation because they are typical - health, money... and also time... which is the only non-BeerAdvocate-cliche part of this. I've stated these goals previously here and those plans failed, so I'm not making any promises, but I feel good about it. I'm not stopping, just cutting back. I will still buy new beers and save them for Sunday. Regardless, you might see less of me in this particular thread series.

I'd like to thank our hostess @utopiajane , for being especially kind to me throughout the past year.

Yesterday, I celebrated the year's close with Against the Grain 70K, a bourbon barrel aged milk stout. It's a very nice beer but one that I'll never purchase a bottle of again due to cost.

Today, I had two other bourbon barrel aged beers waiting for me.

The first one is Bell's Black Note.



I think Bell's makes great porters... among the best group of beers out there in 12oz bottles. I remember when they announced their 30th Anniversary stout and people were complaining that it wasn't a bourbon barrel aged stout, or a stout with vanilla, or a stout with etc. Once that beer was released, no one was complaining. Thank you Bell's for reminding people that a special stout doesn't need adulteration.

So here's an actual barrel aged stout. Truth be told, this isn't the first time Black Note liquid hit my tongue. I sampled this beer at a tasting years ago. I simply do not count two ounces of a beer had alongside twenty other beers as a real "had"... so this is my first real Black Note and thus eligible for the thread.

This beer appears to be the highest BeerAdvocate rated Bell's beer that you can get in a bottle in a store. For me, it's one of my least favorite of their bottled porters. The bourbon influence gives it a strong nuttiness. I feel like I'm the only one who interprets barrel aging like this. I can see the whole vanilla and coconut comparison, but what I really get the most of is unsalted mixed nuts or maybe a Brazil nut flavor. There is a bit too much alcohol heat for me. There's a bitter chocolate flavor (emphasis on the bitter) from the hops and malt. Carbonation is minimal. The feel is medium or slightly thin.

For me, this beer comes up short. It's lacking the richness that some similar beers possess, or the drinkability that others have. The right ratios of malt/hops/barrel/booze are just not there for me.

Cheers.

 

Great Lakes Blackout Stout. I don't understand how an Imperial Stout fan like myself has not known about this brew until this year, my loss. Blackout looks like any other Imperial Stout black with a brown creamy head. Complex aroma coffee, bittersweet chocolate, roasted malt. The taste is complex in the same way there is a lot going on but nothing stands out . An excellent beer by any standard. One of the best Imperial Stouts glad i found out about it.

 

I will! Got another week of fermenting, then bottling! Let's keep our fingers crossed!

 

I could do that. I definitely will not stop drinking and reviewing other people's brews. I actually didn't even think about reviewing my brew until now.

 

Congratulations on the new additions! Great review. High Point was one of the first micro breweries to open in New Jersey and because it concentrates on German style beers, it's not as well known as Kane, Carton, and some others. But they brew some really good stuff!

 

On to new beer #2 for today, a real surprise too!

20 Gauge IPA | Marsh Island Brewing


Marsh Island Brewing - 20 Gauge IPA by imbibehour, on Flickr

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Poured from the can into a Spiegelau IPA glass.

Beaming deep orange body color, with light amber and and faint lemon. Nice fine amounts of carbonation reach up to a real fluffy perfectly white head of three easy fingers. Very nice retention and not out of control, but gives some aggressive cling. Chunks of lace, a tiny island puck of a finger and whipped up fine swiss cheese bubbles. Great looking IPA.

Hop delicious tangerine orange abounds along with a touch of pine for the aroma. Some almost melon/pineapple sort of rind pith like action as well but very tiny, with a good dominant citrus hop front on the nose. Interesting malt angle that's a bit flour like with big bakery grains and very light. Hops however dominant and very nicely.

Oh boy this is a winner. First sip is real creamy tasting, lighter feel supported with just the right simple IPA malt backbone to add some sweetness. Then the hop flavors kick in the mid palate, juicy but not bombastic tangerine flavors, bright, fresh, all in the mid palate. A good pine simple bitterness, with mixing light vanilla sweetness hits on the finish, and light pine and faint mint aftertaste.

Impeccably balanced. Nice hop variety, and a good punch that isn't crazy, but intensely flavorful. This is a real winner from a new brewery to me, if you are in Maine or the area make sure you get some of this.

look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5 | BA Generated Score: 4.44

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I had another beer called Downrigger IPA as well from these guys, I certainly like this one much more so. Not many reviews from this brewery on here so is the secret out? Make sure you IPA fans get a taste of this one.

 

I always had my eye on Ramstein Winter Wheat, it was a highly rated beer on here in the Weizenbock category, and I am a HUGE fan of German beer styles. I also have some of their other beers which I found in a store around Parsippany. Looking forward to trying those too!

 

Just had to pick this up when I saw it this week. Still no sign of Tropical Torpedo though.
Pours clear amber with medium white head of mixed size bubbles.
On the nose is definitive orange peel that pretty much overpowers anything else.
This is my second bottle (with time off in between) and I can say the first few sips are disappointing. I don't know why but there is a flat taste at first. As I worked through the two glasses though things changed. The orange came alive mid-mouth, the finish is kind of IPA-like, but from the peel, not the hops.
At only 5.3% I was hoping for the new lawnmower king, but all in all, I think its kind of average. I probably won't rate it until the 6-pack is done because this beer seems to keep changing on me.

 

Happy New Year's to everyone. I hope that everybody finds this to be an even more spectacular NBS year as well!

My first NB of 2017 is courtesy of @st9647v3

Head High from Kane



I'm really stoked here, as I've been trying to get hold of Kane beer for a good little while, and this one is making the wait well worth.

Deep golden translucent hazy beer under a generous stark white, foamy head that leaves behind very decent lacing.

Nose pops with a tart, earthy, lemony fragrance that hides just a bit of crackery snap.

Taste has that lemony as well as a bit of grassy that rides in tandem with the crackery malt thing I got in the nose before it finishes with a dash of something along the lines of those fancy purplish Mediterranean olives.

Feel is mighty wet upfront with a good medium body and stays wet until a thoroughly dry finish.

 

Wow what a great idea pouring from a "blind" bottle. I gotta set myself up to do this sometime. Cheers.

 

I hope I don't.

(At least not more of the big drinking kind. )

Cheers!

 

Happy 2017 NBS friends. Here's to a year of good health, happiness, and peace! Maria, thank you for your inspiring opening remarks. They set a perfect tone for the day. Our kids returned to North Carolina, where they both live, this morning. I already miss having them home but I'm enjoying this Whale they brought me. I've wanted to try Lindley Park for a long time. The smell and taste are sublime with rich cocoa, raspberry, and caramel. It's a little thin in body for an "Imperial Stout" but it's still a true pleasure to drink. Here's my review:

4.46/5 rDev +4.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Bottle dated 8/3/2016. Poured into snifter glass. It pours almost jet black with walnut hues when held to the light, and a thin, mocha-colored head and lacing that dissipated quickly. It smells of rich cocoa, vanilla, molasses, and dark fruit. It's really aromatic. The taste is sublime: dark chocolate, raspberry, caramel, and a hint of brown sugar. The raspberry really comes to the fore as the glass warms. The flavors blend beautifully. For an "Imperial Stout," the mouth feel is a little thin. But the carbonation is light and the 10% ABV seems nowhere to be found. I've been wanting to try this for the long time and the smell and taste are amazing. If it were a little creamier, then it would be off the charts. Still, this is a must try for stout fanciers.

Thank you for your comradery and great reviews in 2016. I'm looking forward to spending my Sunday afternoons with you again this year. Cheers!

 

Well now you got me rooting against you and your quest for moderation (that I will also be embarking on) if that's your attitude . I think you could find a way to do a thread and have a level of control, maybe??

 

Back again with another new one... this time something my roommate opened at my behest ("so, you've had that in the fridge for a while, why don't we crack it?" ). He's a huge fan and I thought I'd weigh in with my own thoughts as well (hint: it's great).



This bottle's a few months old at this point, but it cracked open very nicely and appears in my glass with a bright orange-yellow sheen and a retentive, wheat-driven head of pure bone-white. No lace to speak of, but carbonation is very active and keeps the hazed surface afloat with aplomb. According to the label and some context clues, this is a gose based on a gin+tonic cocktail, featuring juniper, lemongrass, lemon peel and grains of paradise.

Nose definitely foreshadows some intense tartness with bright lemon verbena and lemon rind/peel. Underneath, I can sense some herbal and woodsy qualities from the juniper, along with pine resin/needles, bright orange peel and floral/slight piquant or green peppery notes from the grains of paradise.

On the tongue I get a nice, satisfying hit of acidic tartness; about the amount I expect from an Anderson Valley gose at this point (they make some of the best in the US and their flavorings are usually on-point). In addition, the piney and herbal qualities make themselves known as well. Lemon is a large element of the flavor profile, so if you don't like lemon or lemongrass-type flavors, this won't be up your alley whatsoever. Luckily, I enjoy the pucker, especially when combined with some solid woody herbal and saline qualities like this has towards the finish (like a true gose should). Very much not a winter beer, but I really like it... and it makes me pine (eh?... jokes!) for Summer days once more.

 

And I think you've seen my threads.

 

Down Down Down Extra Pale Ale by Bosie Brewing! Great pale, nice and dry.

 

Happy New Year/Beer Sunday to all! I called it an early night yesterday as I ran a 5k this morning. Thankfully it was at 10am which provided a few more degrees of warmth and sun. No wind was a bonus and the conditions allowed me to clock my best time since my knee injury and subsequent surgery. I didn't win my age group, but placed which was satisfying coupled with my time. Competition is tough around here! Enough small talk, let's move on to something big!

First up is a long time want that the very generous @Dragginballs76 provided along with the awesome Prairie glass in the last NBS/MWK BIF. Let's pop the cap on this bomber of Sexual Chocolate from Foothills Brewing Company. The label states 10th Anniversary February 2016 and the abv. is 9.6% with 75 IBU's. Let's see what awaits us?

Pours a oily looking dark brown leaving a generous two fingers plus of mocha colored foam despite a conservative pour. A small amount of lacing is left as it settles. The smell is heavy with dark fruits including figs, dates and raisins. Tobacco and leather follow along with some dark chocolate and roasted malt. Taste is once again dominated by dark fruit, tobacco, bakers chocolate and a hint of char in the finish. The feel is oily and slick to start with a semi dry finish.



A fine old school big stout that reminds me a bit of Stone RIS. It's bold and roasty like the highly coveted ones were before barrel aged madness became the new rage. I really enjoyed it! My score is 4.27 / rDev +4.4%.

Sharing the final pour with my bro that walked over to watch some football. Cheers for now gang, here's the official scorecard......

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/11036/35284/?ba=Prager62#review

 

Great 2017 NBS kickoff! No worries about the length. It was a great read!

Love me a Baltic Porter, so thanks for bringing one to my attention.