New Beer Sunday (Week 642)

Thanks! Well, California has always been good at produce production, and I believe half of our countries fruit comes from our neighborhood alone ! When our housing development was built, every single home had at least one fruit tree on the property. My neighbors and I combined have apple, clementine, nectarine, fig and persimmon trees ...! Good times indeed. Cheers!

 

I remember trying to grow a wild, indigenous to North America hop about 20 years ago. Through a fluke, my brother and I found it at the Flagstaff Arboretum, bought it, took it back home to Fullerton, and planted it. Sadly, it needed higher elevation, and a little more seasonal variety. I'd like to find some again, and try to brew with it.

 

Hey Jim. As always, great pic. I've enjoyed a few of theirs, thanks to you. But it looks like they're finally trying to bump their best beer name off with this new one. But I do remember getting a kick outta Starchicken Shot Gun.
Good times, good times.

 

Thanks. It's hard to fathom that it's already been a year since we met there for lunch!

 

Awesome! I love Flagstaff, though it's been about 15 years since I've been back. Any idea of it's varietal parentage? I was on my third year of Cascade, Willamette, and Northern Brewer bines. Soil went bad. Stupid dog... and squirrels !

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I agree wholeheartedly. And as for your review, you can shed the reticence heretofore. Please bring back your palate every week. Well done.

 

The more I drink Mouteka hopped beers the more I'm liking the change of pace. Their truly is alot of lime flavors and aroma. Not tropical fruit bomb.I like it.

 

To add to @JackHorzempa 's post, these days, "old ales" are generally no longer beers that are aged for character. It's even a stretch to think of it as a modern style, since beers that get tagged as old ales exhibit an incredible range - from aged acidic beer, to beers that are interchangeable with modern barley wines, to modest ABV beers that resemble strong milds or Burton ale. Most American beers labeled old ale are simply strong ales (in my experience). It's important to note that Fuller's does not call their "Vintage Ale" an old ale, and the same is true (I believe) for the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp beer.

 

The arboretum staff said it was native to North America. I have no idea beyond that. I should do some research.

 

Exceptional beer. Not as good as abraxas. But still very good.

 

This is Hopfenstark's Boson de Higgs

The brewery is in Quebec, but this can appears to have been contract brewed in the US by Dorchester in Boston. I never heard of Dorchester before. It looks like they were added here last year, and their website mentions contract brewing right on the landing page.

You can see that this beer is called a "BerlinerRauchSaison." They are going for a hybrid here. The result tastes exactly like what you'd expect it to. It's a smokey wheat beer with a bit of lemon flavor. It's wonderful. It works because it doesn't taste anything like a beer made from disparate elements. What style would I put it in? Perhaps Lichtenhainer isn't a terrible fit. Oh wait, that's not a "style" here. It's listed here as a Berliner Weissbier. Historic Berliner Weissbier is a relatively good fit since Berliner Weisse was brewed with smoked malt in the first half of the 19th century. When people say that anything that seems new to beer probably isn't - they're not kidding. For anyone curious, I'd recommend this beer to lovers of smoked beer before lovers of Berliners. The smoke is a major player here... and that's great because the smoke is so smooth.

@TongoRad

 

Had a few new beers today on a visit to Scofflaw Brewing. This is a fairly new brewery in Atlanta(less than a year old), primarily IPAs at this point but some BA stouts and a few others coming out. Their brewmaster came from Russian River so hoping the sour program gets underway soon, I had Supplication for the first time earlier this week so really hoping they can put out something of that caliber.
Anyhow, back to the beer of today. I tried five IPAs and an Imperial Wheat beer today. To go options were limited but I did bring home a growler of Grapefruit Westside IPA and bottles of Maniac (BA Strong Ale).
The review is for the Grapefruit Westside

Pours a slightly hazy amber orange with a finger of white head that settled quickly.
Aromas of grapefruit, piney hops, and some malt.
Initial taste of sweet malt that turns to piney somewhat resinous hops and finishes with the Grapefruit. A little alcohol punch is present in the end too.
To be a new brewery these guys are doing it right, near impossible finding cans in distro now but they are in the process of doubling capacity. Looking forward to the release of BA Coffee Absentium hopefully next weekend.

 

Late on Sunday, but not too late!

This comes from a co-worker who (a BMC guy) I had given a couple of craft beers to over the last year.

He called me the other day, saying his SIL came back from Germany with a few bottles, and was leaving a couple on my deck. OK!!

This is a very smooth beer, with a bready/light malt profile. It had no over-powering flavor.. and I could appreciate the flavors more, if I had let it warm up a bit. Unfortunately, my wife couldn't wait, as she thought it best better to "NOT" temperature test it. She loved it.. and I thought it was definitely a very good beer.

 

This is Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale

No, I'm not drinking this for timely independent craft solidarity - That would be an oxymoron. I'm drinking this because it is yet another beer that's a 3 beer style hybrid (according to the brewer). In this case, a blend. The brewer has blended a Kolsch, Gose (w/ lime), and Berliner (w/ more lime).

It's classified here as a Gose, and I think that's a good fit. It feels like a modern US Gose (and nothing like a Kolsch). It has that earthy and strange stomach bile sensation I get from some other US Gose (I'm sorta not kidding, but not trying to be insulting). Having said that, for me, this beer is the most drinkable iteration of beers with that quality. This went down quick! Lime? Yeah, that's there too, but it's subtler than one might expect given the marketing.

So, what's a SeaQuench? I'm just guessing here, but perhaps the sea is for salt and the quench is for thirst quenching.

Cheers

 

Well Hello Late Night NBS!!!
Finally got around to popping one to share in tonight's festivities. Loved reading the entries thus far. Some really good new editions. I hope to see many returns. And the pics. Dear Lord. I must master that this summer. Growth mindset. Always gotta be learning new things.

We've had what I consider to be a beautiful spring day here in SoCal. Barely cracking into the 70's, glorious gray cumulus clouds, scattered periods of strong sun, and a brisk breeze to keep me smiling. As for my beer. Here we go.

Fort Point Beer Co. outta San Fransisco, CA. Park Hoppy Wheat Beer
3.78/5 rDev -6.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Pours a golden straw. Bursts upward with a fluffy white head. Had to slow the pour down. Fluffy foam clings to the rim after a minute or so and then sinks in the middle. Kind of a sunken caldera of foam.
Notes of pear, citrus, floral tropical notes akin to plumeria flowers. Overall, it's bright.
Flavor is a smooth ride of citrus notes, mainly floral lemon, gentle hints of pepper, tapering sweetness, and a nuanced bitterness that barely comes through at the end.
Mouthfeel is on the liter side, as expected. But there is a soft creaminess that comes through. Carbonation is lite.

For a category of beer that rarely inspires me, I found this one quite appealing.
Cheers All.

 

Thanks to you, I got to try me some Scofflaw!!! Basement is SOLID! I gotta look back at my notes. I don't think I wrote that one up. BOO ME!!!

 

Boulevard & Side Project - Show Me Sour

I'm continuing the theme of low ABV beers with a sour edge to them, but abandoning the theme of 3 style hybrids. Instead, we get a no-style beer. This is a "Let's just call it an American Wild and move on" beer. It's 4.3%, very dark brown, and aged in whiskey barrels. It's also brewed in collaboration with Cory King.

The resulting beer is not one with a sea of imitators. It's a very light beer - both in terms of body and flavor. The whiskey influence is nonexistent. It's lemony sour with a cola presence. Very drinkable.

 

That sounds right up my alley. I somewhat recently (within the last year) was given a crowler of Arizona Wilderness's Smoked Apple Gose and it was one of the most uniquely wonderful beers I've had. Smoked beers, you either love them or you hate them it seems. Luckily for me, I love them.