New Beer Sunday (week 630)

Good afternoon and Happy New Barrel Aged Scottish Wee Heavy Sunday! Had a crazy week BA's. Ditched the Missus and the kiddos for a day to make the 5 1/2 hour drive up California's beautiful Central Coast for an interview for Morro Bay's water treatment plant. Nailed it! So now it's decision time, and a hard one at that. When it comes to lifestyle, it's a no brainier, but we've got it pretty damn good here too. Anyhoo, made it back to the homestead for a crazy St. Paddy's Day celebration in the Biergarage, complete with an authentic Leprechaun house destruction party, corned beef and cabbage, and my favorite... Scottish Eggs. Speaking of Scottish, it's time for my NBS courtesy of the one and only, the exceptional, @WesMantooth !

Thirsty Dog
Wulver Wee Heavy



Poured into this beautiful and dainty Thistle!!! . Yup, finally got one courtesy of another magnificent BA, @JayORear !



A: Crystal clear beautiful deep amber to copper red with an off white head that stays at the surface. Laces well.

A: Smells like vanilla and caramel was drizzled over freshly baked snickerdoodles ! A nice bourbon and wood presents itself as well. I could smell this all day long.

T: Wow. Everything I said above carries over with an added layer from the bourbon goodness. It's like drinking an adult version of the best cookies ever made. Seriously... Wow.

F: Smooth, surprisingly a little thinner than expected, but also has a mild creaminess and slick coating quality as well. Definitely on the sweeter side with a good amount of alcohol warmth.

O: My final of the trio at trial; Founders Backwoods Bastard, Central Waters Scotch Ale, and now Thirsty Dog Wulver. The winner is... Wulver! Granted this is not a side by side and just off of notes and memory, but this beer is Out...Friggin... Standing!!!

Cheers everyone, and a special thanks to Corey and J. I'll see you all soon!

 

FTFM

If it were a new style NE IPA my word choice might have been correct.

 

Good afternoon NBS!

Loving seeing all the BIF pictures, they're beautiful.

A return to pleasant weather this weekend here, over 60F yesterday and pretty close to it today. Made this week's pick nearly perfect for the season, Soft Serv by South Street, an ice cream flavored milk stout.
I have a love/hate relationship with South Street, most of their beers are fairly average, not spectacular but certainly ones I wouldn't turn down having. Then they go a little off the wall with some of their flavors, sometimes it works, sometimes it really doesn't. My wife, the non-beer drinker, however loves to go to their brewery as they serve some awesome mac n cheese and local coffee, which is her passion.
Soft Serv, fortunately, is one of their better beers. Smell wise, it doesn't promise much, with muted scents of vanilla, chocolate, and malts. Taste wise, though, it really delivers with a rich blend of chocolate, vanilla, and cream that is very reminiscent of a soft serv cone or melted ice cream. Lacks a hop bite, and at 9% it does not have an alcohol burn to it, adding to the illusion of melted ice cream.
As a side note, I do love their label designs. For a number of their beers, they have some of the best labels that easily stand out on the shelf.

 

Hulloo Zeeba Neighbas! greetings from a partly sunny Fourth Corner. Had a long past few days, but only a couple quick hours work this morning leaves the rest of my Sunday as a Funday! I worked my security gig at the local roller derby last night, always fun, and I'm gonna meet up with some buddies here in a bit for some beers, so this might be my last NBS post for the day. Or not.

Cracked open the first 16oz of the 290oz sent to me by @Grizzarky as part of NBS BIF #5, a tasty, if very murky, Plae Ale from Nashville TN: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/39925/271298/

 

I have Melcher Street at 0.02 down from Julius. Melcher's weakness is its look. Head retention and lacing is nearing world class, but still shy. Julius carried that part one 1/4 of a point better.

A quick glance shows the rest of my Treehouse ratings at 4.41 or lower (lower than both Trillium beers I've reviewed so far). While I enjoy Treehouse a great deal and their coffee offerings are still at the top of my "wants" list, the hop quality, presence, and feel of the Trillium beers has been better. I have about 5 more I get to review, so we'll see how the rest stack up. I have double dry hopped Congress Street (potentially next), but no regular.

Plus, I had some weird, flour-smelling burps after drinking the Treehouse beers. Maybe it was just me, but that doesn't bode well for them. Especially if I want to drink one or two cans on an outing with friends.

All in all, I tried 6 Treehouse beers and only 2 Trillium. Hopefully by the end of the week I can give a more accurate assessment about Trillium to compare them as breweries and not just beers.

 

Awesome! I'd love to see either a confirming or dissenting opinion. Maybe you'll bring it back up to a 90-rated beer . @Buck89's review is near the top of the review list, as well.

 

My brother in law traded for a few Pliney bottles a couple years back. One bottle we had right after he got it and the experience was underwhelming. The next bottle we had a week later and it blew my mind.

 

Good Afternoon NBSers, this morning I am getting started with one of three highly anticipated stouts from the generous BA @Ozzylizard I recieved during NBS WGNABP. Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S the Crusher. I have been wanting to try this one for awhile, it is an oatmeal imperial stout clocking in at 9.4% ABV but you would not know it from the taste. I have a feeling this one could sneak up on you quickly, amazingly smooth and wonderful flavors.

Appearance 4.25 - Pours jet black with nice thick mocha colored head that sticks around for several minutes before settling to a thin cap.

Aroma 4.5 - Wow this thing smells amazing, dark chocolate, vanilla, roasted malts, hints of coffee and molasses as well. I also swear I smell some banana.

Taste 4.5 - The flavors are very balanced. roasted malts, dark bitter chocolate, vanilla and coffee. There is only a slight hint of the alcohol.

Feel 4.75 - Full bodied, very creamy and smooth. There is a warming feel from the alcohol. I would say an almost perfect feel

Overall 4.51 - This is just an amazing beer, wonderful nose and flavors and so smooth. There is no sign of the 9.4% ABV other than a little warmth.

A big thanks again to @Ozzylizard for the chance to try this wonderful beer.

 

I ended up going higher on the taste by the time I got to the last sip. The way the pine and light citrus played with the malt notes just kept growing on me.

 

Feel was one of the biggest deciding factors for me, Trillium has better carbonation. DDH Congress St is a hop barrage, just tried it yesterday myself. Will rate the other can of it though since I like my second opinion.

 

Glad you enjoyed it! I was spoiled rotten with my PTE drinking last month, as the bottles were less than a week old. The highlight of the trip was Vinny himself passing out 90-minute old bottles to a bunch of homebrewing geeks listening to a hop lecture.

 

He has been admittedly tweaking each batch from a cinnamon and pepper standpoint. I can't recall which release that one was from, but a couple of the recent ones had much less cinnamon because they had a lot of comments about it being too strong (wasn't me). The original release had a ton of cinnamon and a lot of heat. The heat from the peppers has varied quite a bit too. They had some from a local farm in one of the batches that had no spice to them. From my experience with peppers, that would be a very hard variable to deal with.

 

Love some Scottish eggs and that fancy thistle!

 

Not sure on a proper food pairing, but I love cheese with sours. Especially Havarti and sharp white cheddar

 

"If its not Scottish its crrrraaaap!"

 

New Kentucky Common Sunday



Against the Grain Kamen Knuddeln

Excited to try this one as Kentucky Common is a new style to me.

I like the can art on this one -- but it exploded over with foam when I popped it open. It poured a dark, cola-like color with a large, fizzy, airy head that reminded me of soda. It was super quick to dissipate, then settled into a lasting quarter-finger cap.

It has a pretty dry, yeasty aroma. The carbon dioxide is noticeable at first, but after a while, dark fruit and a little sourness starts to show, too.

It reminds me of a brown ale at first -- dark bread, slightly nutty malts, a kiss of chocolate -- but then plum-skin tartness shines through, followed by a dry, moderately sour aftertaste.

It's medium to heavy bodied, and would almost have a creamy mouthfeel, if not for the strong carbonation cutting through.

This is darker, less sweet and more carbonated than what I had expected reading about the style, but it's still very enjoyable. As a "dark sour beer," I think they hit nail on the head. It's not a rarified sipper, but one I could enjoy sitting outside with and tossing a few back.

Thanks, @jdell15, for the chance to try this. Question though. Is this the Kamen the ATG guys are knuddlen?

 

Happy New Blended Pale Ale Sunday to everybody!

It is really nice here and the snow is melting fast (though not as fast as it fell). This weekend I am trying a barrel somethingorothered pale ale that is a collaboration between two great brewers here in Quebec. I might as well feature a gratuitous picture of its intricate label art.

Brouerie Sutton is a semi-new brewery/B&B (a BB&B, if you will) that was started by a former brewer at Brasserie Dunham, whose beers I have reviewed here before. Sutton brews all Brett classic styles. Dunham likes to do a bunch of barrel and blended stuff which honestly is pretty hit or miss in my opinion. But both excell at solid pale ales. Thus a blended pale ale that is "lightly passed"* through sauvignon blanc barrels is an intriguing idea.

*-whatever the hell that means



It is a pretty looking beer. Bright brass color (though the picture makes it look orange) with a fluffy head. The aroma has a nice malty sweetness to back up citrus hops and the brightness of the wine barrel. The flavor is similar with a little more Brett funk and a touch of sulphur (I assume it's their water since a few of their pale ales have it). It is drinkable and tasty.

This isn't the most amazing beer I've ever had but it is tasty and is an interesting melange of flavors. All of which are complimentary if not necessarily the first things that would pop into your mind.

Here is my review for the curious.

Cheers BA and I wish you all a great week!

 

Well, I dipped back into @Grizzarky's BIF box for one more, and, I'm less than impressed: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26/91358/ . Oh well, they can't all be winners.