New Beer Sunday (week 624)

Happy Super Bowl LI New Beer Sunday (Week 624, MK II!

Say, what happened to my Porter picture? It seems to have disappeared! Well, let's try again.


I spent the day drinking coffee and watching the first overtime game in Super Bowl history play out, beginning with:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2372/263630/?ba=woodychandler#review


followed by: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2372/263631/?ba=woodychandler#review


then: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2372/263628/?ba=woodychandler#review


and finally, I had my fill of coffee for the day with this one:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2372/263629/?ba=woodychandler#review


I should be back next week with more nonsense.

 

My Sunday nightcap- Uncle Jacob's Stout. I'll preface this review by saying that I've enjoyed all of the BA Stouts I've had, but none have ever blown me away except for BCBS, Black Note and Mexican cake (admittedly, I have not tried many of the more coveted ones out there). Anyway, Uncle Jacob's was also quite the mind-blower and I'm already looking forward to trying it again.

Out of the bottle into a tulip. Pulled from the fridge and sat out about 30 minutes prior to pouring.

Appearance- motor-oil black, 1 finger head after vigorous pour, very little lacing, just a few tracks down the glass.

Smell- mostly dark chocolate and alcohol, a little coffee

Taste- starts with dark chocolate, then the alcohol comes in which yields slightly to more dark chocolate and coffee briefly. Finishes with some dark chocolate bitterness and a fairly intense alcohol burn.

Feel- full and creamy, this thing coats the mouth and sticks around for a while.

Overall- This was a very pleasant surprise and definitely worth the cost. A very nice sipper to enjoy over an hour or so

 

Randomly picked up a "Cervezas de México" variety pack at the store on the way home from work tonight, so I actually have some new beers for this week. I'll probably end up trying two out of three new-to-me beers in the pack before I head off to bed.



First up is Tecate Light. I am not normally a "light/lite" beer drinker, so I probably wouldn't have ever gone for a full pack of this normally (though I have had regular Tecate at Mexican places before and found it pleasant enough)... but this was in the pack alongside a couple of the standard lagers and also Dos Equis Ambar, so here it is in my glass.

When pouring it is just amazing how pale and clear this is -- looks more like a very pale cider than a beer, only just barely yellowish and crystal-clear. The smell is actually very cider-like as well (if I hadn't seen the bottle I would honestly think I was about to have a glass of hard cider, it's that similar) and definitely stronger than I would've expected for a light beer. Maybe Tecate's advertising about how "bold" their beer is might not be all talk after all, at least when comparing to others in the same category. It's perfectly clear, though the abundant rising bubbles block the view through the glass somewhat. The foam on top is also hanging out surprisingly long -- even now there's a thin but pretty dense cap of white sticking to the surface.

Now on to the big one -- how does it taste? Actually... not too bad! From what I remember, it's basically like a weaker version of the regular Tecate. Blows the only other light beer I've had so far (Bud Light) out of the water for sure. The flavor is not as cidery as the smell, though a little of that element is still present at first. It's a bit sweetish at first and then dries out, there's some graininess, and there's even a little bit of bready pale maltiness to it. It is, as the name would suggest, very light in mouthfeel... but as with the flavor, it doesn't come across quite as watery as a Bud Light. It's light enough to gulp down pretty fast, but there's still this feeling of "this is a beer, not just flavored water." I am noticing a bit of a funky wet-hay sort of thing in the smell now that I'm at the halfway point of the glass -- I guess the beer has warmed a bit beyond its ideal temperature now and that's not being muted by the cold. That's pretty unpleasant. I'll have to remember not to sniff before I drink the rest of the way down. Thankfully, the flavor seems to be mostly unaffected. I'm also noticing that it does not have the "tastes worse when drank in larger gulps" problem that Bud Light had for me. I guess the recurring theme here is "this is a lot better than Bud Light" -- honestly my only issue with it is that kinda gross wet-hay/a little bit metallic smell that's developing as it warms, but since that doesn't seem to be translating to the flavor much if at all I can forgive that one flaw.

Overall -- nothing spectacular, but I would not have guessed this to be a "light" beer if I had drank it without knowing ahead of time (I probably would've figured standard-strength AAL, and not a bad one at that.) Is this abnormally good for a light beer, or is Bud Light just abnormally crappy even for a light beer? Maybe it's a little of both. Either way, if I'm ever in a situation where somebody has a cooler full of nothing but light beers and Tecate Light is present, I know which one I'll be reaching for. Heck, it's even in a brown bottle so there's no skunk worries.

 

getting in at the tail end of NBS.

Enjoying a great DIPA from Burial and Other Half. I Left My Wallet in A Bed-Stuy Juice Bar.


Here's my review:

look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Poured from a can dated 12/31/16

A: Pours a hazy orange yellow. A finger and a half of white head. Good lacing
S: Orange candy, apricot, papaya, juicy fruit gum
T: Slight rind bitters and grapefruit. Plenty of sweet fruits and citrus.
MF: Alcohol is well hidden. Medium body good cabonation
O: this beer was a pleasure to drink. On the sweet side but nicely balanced. A great collar between 2 top notch brewers

 

MAPLE??!!?? Calling, Corey!!! @WesMantooth

 

Now on to cerveza numero dos...



Sol, which I've never actually seen sold on its own around here (only in the variety packs), oddly enough. I actually really like the bottle design of this one, with the name of the brewery in raised letters around the base of the neck and with a clear plastic "sticker"-type label rather than the standard paper. Poking around on the label I notice it's only slightly higher in alcohol than the Tecate Light (which was at a shockingly low 3.9% ABV -- that's legitimate British pub "session beer" territory, even lower than most light beers!), measuring in at 4.2%.

Appearance-wise it is perfectly clear, a darker yellow-golden color than the Tecate Light, but with less rising bubbles and a much thinner head of foam on top. Smell is faint, a sort of dusty graininess that's kind of appealing but I wish there was more there. Taste is also very light at first, almost has the faintest hint of sourness to it... but toward the end of the drink there's a stronger yeasty flavor mixing in with the graininess. Seems to be in a similar "weight class" flavor-wise as the Tecate Light, just with different flavors -- the yeast flavors coming in on the end rather than at the start, and less sweetness. Seems a little fuller-bodied than the Tecate Light as well. I am noticing just a tad of a similar funky smell around the halfway point of the glass here, but it's not as pronounced as with the Tecate Light, and blends better with the already-present dusty musty grain smell so it doesn't come as a shock when I take a sniff.

Overall it's not bad, but not spectacular either. It's kind of reminiscent of Corona, but with a yeastier character to it that makes it a bit more interesting. I would guess that corn is definitely the adjunct here, it actually reminds me slightly of a tortilla chip without the saltiness (freshly-cooked ones, like the big yellow ones they bring out at most Mexican restaurants.) It's surprisingly dry for a corn-based beer though -- there's none of that weird sweetness that I've noticed in other corn-adjunct beers (even some that I've liked, like PBR) at all, just dry corn-grain and yeast flavors. That and the yeast make this one a bit unique compared to others in its class -- it's a little disappointing that this isn't more widespread like Corona, Dos Equis, and Modelo. As I mentioned before I have never actually seen this beer for sale on its own, only in these variety packs. I'd consider ordering this at a Mexican place if I wasn't in the mood for a darker beer that day.

This variety pack is actually proving to be pretty interesting so far. I'm drinking two cheaper, lighter Mexican lagers back to back and finding that not only do they smell and taste different, the differences are actually huge! One's sweeter and almost cider-like at first, one's very dry with a mild but consistent yeasty-corn-chips flavor. Now I'm curious as to how the Dos Equis Lager Especial will compare, as that's the only one left in the pack that I haven't had previously (though I have had the Ambar a few times.) These two that I just had are very low in alcohol and I can't imagine the Dos Equis is much more than 5%, so maybe I'll go ahead and make it a Three-New-Beers Sunday.

 

Continuing on my New Brooklyn DIPA Sunday with Breakpoint Vert Mont


Here's my review:

4.45/5 rDev +4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

A: Deep yellow hazy with a fingers worth of white foam
S: Grapefruit juice and pine
T: Grapefruit rind, pine apricot and tangerine notes
MF: the Pine and rind flavors linger
The 8.1% is well hidden
O: A great DIPA that falls on the Pine/bitter side

 

...y finalmente, cerveza Méxicana numero tres.



Dos Equis Lager Especial. I'm actually a bit surprised that I've never gotten around to trying this one until now, considering how many Mexican beers I have tried thanks to the local Mexican restaurants. I have had the Dos Equis Ambar, but never its lighter cousin until today.

Appearance is similar to Sol, albeit with even less foam on top -- Sol at least formed a very thin head before shrinking to "one big island in the middle" status over the next minute or so, while this one shrank almost immediately after I finished pouring. Even less rising bubbles than Sol, too. The smell seems similar to Sol, it's got that dusty/musty grain thing going on but is fairly mild overall. Maybe a faint hint of something else in the background, I'm noticing another smell there but can't quite put my finger on it. Seems to be fuller-bodied than Sol, there's real malt in this one for sure. Taste is very mild at first and... oh! There's a bit of lemon in there, just for a second before the end! That must be what I was picking up just barely in the background of the smell, just a tiny hint of a lemon-lime sort of thing. Flavor seems to be similar to Sol but without the stronger yeasty flavor, and with a bit more maltiness and that tiny little zing of lemon mixed in. I've noticed that little lemon hint in a Mexican lager before, in Bohemia (which has much more malt flavor than any of the ones I've had tonight, so much that I don't think it's even categorized as an AAL but as a true Pilsner instead) actually, and I'd almost given up finding a beer with that flavor before blindly stumbling across it here tonight.

Cementing its place as the best of the three new beers I've had tonight, the smell doesn't seem to be developing any unpleasant funkiness at all, even now that I'm down to a third of a glass left and it's had some time to warm up some. It actually smells somewhat like fresh, clean water with just a hint of grainy malt and something else, maybe the faint lemon-lime thing -- I suppose the clean water comparison is appropriate considering that it very well could take on that role if you're in Mexico and aren't lucky enough to have the natives' level of resistance to some of the critters found in the actual water! I'd take this over a glass of water any day, even if the water came without the risk of a horrible diarrhea-y death -- and I say that as someone who has recently switched to mostly drinking plain water when I'm not drinking beer. Toward the end of the glass I'm noticing that I do indeed taste a significant amount of pale malt (almost pilsner-ish, but not quite there) in this, too. I'm guessing less corn is used in this compared to Sol, since that one had a much more noticeable corn-like flavor.

This is actually pretty nice -- probably my favorite standard Mexican adjunct lager so far, actually, and certainly in the running for favorite of the AAL style overall. The total absence of that weird offputting sweetness I get from even the better American examples of the style might just vault it up to the #1 spot, which would put it into "I'd honestly choose a six/twelve pack of this over other beers if I was in the mood for it at the time" territory that so far every other AAL has fallen a bit short of (PBR has come the closest, there've been times where I hovered around those $8 twelve-packs for a few minutes before deciding on something else.)

Even at the very bottom of the glass the smell has not gotten funky. Yep, we've got a winner here -- this is definitely the best of the three I've had tonight, and something I'd definitely like to have again sometime even after the variety pack is emptied out.

I'll have to have another one when I'm not already under the influence of two beers (I almost spelled influence as "influcne" before catching it... so yeah, I think even those two little 4%ish beers are having some effect) to fully form my opinion of course, but I have two more of these in the fridge and plan on reviewing one at some point so I'm sure it'll happen sooner or later.