New Beer Sunday (Week 645)

There's something nice about waking up to a beautiful summer morning and having the place all to myself (well, the dogs are with me, but you know what I mean). After breakfast I am going to the practice range and work on my swing some more. Then we're heading to my sister's for a cookout. It will be crazy, with nine grandkids running around. I have been charged with the task of supplying the beer. There will be no craft drinkers besides me, so what do I bring? I think the solution will be some Sam Adams and some SNPA. That should please the beer drinkers.

Speaking of Sierra Nevada, today's new beer is Beer Camp Dry-Hopped Berliner-Style Weisse, a collaboration with Saint Arnold Brewing Company. It has an ABV of 4.2%.
It is a bright gold color with a faint haze. There is a small white head.
Tart fruit aroma. Grainy.
Tart lemon taste. A little grape. Bready background.
Light-bodied. Crisp and dry,
Good summer beer.

 

Great start, @cjgiant, and it is soooo hot here too. The acoustic quartet played last night and yday afternoon I had to practice the entire list in the only room in my house w/o AC, and I sweat through my clothes. Totally primal scene hitting drum skins with sweaty hands and drops flying.

Enough from me about the heat, though, since we all have the perfect antidote, and I will be back in a little while with one I hope will be delicious as well as refreshing to share with y'all. See ya then.

 

Cheers @cjgiant and I am ready to throw down this week here on NBS. I have a beer that I think could pass for the new style variation the New England or Northeast IPA.

You remember the old tv show soap. What a laugh. It ended with questions. IS there something wrong with my beer? Is this beer really a new style? Is anyone around here gonna make one of these? These and other questions will be answered this week on NBS!

Stillwater Nu Tropic

This week I have a beer that could be considered to be in the neipa style. The questions as to whether it's a good one will help us determine if that is a legitimate variation on the style or if something perhaps is not just different but wrong.

Stillwater Nu Tropic

Happy You're Beer Is Not Finished Sunday



Pours with a sweet haze, deliberate or not. Not completely opaque. Big head of cream colored foam that fell well.

Nose is mango and a fruity sweetness from passion fruit. Lightly herbal. Spice form hops, hop pepper and cracker malt. Drinks like a tradtional hop bomb IPA. Lots of fruit but not heavy from a bitter hop mouthfeel. It does however have an IPA strength bitterness. It's also light silky and juicy. The dominant citrus taste in the finish is grapefruit juice. A little abv also peppers the finish. The bitterness is strong but the body of the beer is soft. There is a little juicy sweetness. A light smooth touch from malt.

Light to drink and refreshing.

Does it meet the style in appearance. In this beer I had a range of stuff in it from small to pretty big chunks. In some beers the stuff falls out fine like four by the end of the glass. These were varying degrees of what I think is protein and fruit pulp. In the last pour I held back the last 2 ounces to see if there was sediment. 1st pour no sediment, 2nd big sediment. The last pour did have chunks in it. That is what these are called. Bigger than sea monkeys not as flakey as snow globes. Was darn delicious too.

The appearance was terrible by any standard with the big chunks in it.

 

All About the Benjamins!

Ben Franklin era beers that is since the 4th of July is just two days away!!

The brewers of Colonial America did not have a steady supply of beer ingredients (e.g., barley malt, hops,…) so they would be inventive and utilize other ingredients that were more readily available to them. As substitutes and/or augmentation for barley malt they would ingredients like pumpkin, parsnip, molasses,… As substitutes and/or augmentation for hops they would use other botanicals like yarrow, sweet gale, mugwort, spruce tips,…

So, today we are going to explore what fresh growth spruce tips provide to beer. Today’s tasting will be a 2 X 4 tasting: two beers in four glasses and my wife will be helping me.

One beer is a commercial beer: Blue Point Colonial Ale brewed with Golden Molasses & Spruce Tips.

On the bottle it lists: American Brown Ale 3.8% ABV. So in the Colonial times this would be referred to as a Small Beer since it is lower in alcohol.

There is an interesting story on the beer label:

“After being elected President, George Washington toured Long Island and stopped by hart’s Tavern in our brewery’s hometown of Patchogue for some oysters and a beer. In honor of the monumental meal, we brewed an American brown ale inspired by the era and George Washington’s own recipe. It proudly features two-row barley malted in NY and colonial ingredients like corn, oats, wheat, molasses and spruce tips which colonial brewers used to supplement hops. American history never tastes so good.”

The second beer we will be exploring today is my homebrewed Spruce Ale which was brewed using fresh growth spruce tips from my next door neighbor’s Blue Spruce tree. My beer is basically an APA where I used four ounces of freshly picked spruce tips (I picked them while the wort was boiling) as the end of boil addition. I have never brewed with spruce tips before so this is quite an exciting ‘experiment’.

The Blue Point beer served in Spiegelau IPA glasses and Jack’s Spruce Ale served in small tulip glasses:

Appearance

Blue Point: Dark Amber/Brown with an off-white head.

Jack’s Spruce Ale: Golden colored with a white head.

Aroma

Blue Point: Mostly malty (dark bready) but with just a tiny hint of sweetness.

Jack’s Spruce Ale: The predominant aroma is a unique/intriguing aroma from the spruce tips*.

Taste:

Blue Point: The flavor pretty much follows the nose with the malty flavors dominating. My wife reported “subtle flavors from the spruce tips”. I personally did not perceive the spruce until the very last sip; because the beer was warmed/opened up at that point?

Jack’s Spruce Ale: The flavor follows the nose with the unique/intriguing flavors provided by the spruce tips*.

Mouthfeel

Blue Point: A medium body and a medium-dry finish.

Jack’s Spruce Ale: A medium mouthfeel and an off-dry finish.

Overall

Blue Point: Very good. Despite its low ABV I consider this to be a hearty beer.

Jack’s Spruce Ale: My wife wrote down: “Very, very good!”



*So, I used the descriptor of spruce tip aroma/flavor since I personally am at a loss of words to use for a more ‘objective’ description. Last weekend I attended a friends party and I brought along a few bottles of this spruce ale and gave folks pieces of paper and a pen and requested them to write down the aromas/flavors they perceived, This was not done blind; I felt compelled to provide a ‘warning’ that is was a Spruce Ale they were tasting. Some of the feedback I got was: “evergreen” and “grapefruit pith”. For me this beer’s aroma/flavor is not exactly “piney” or “resiny” but something different altogether. In a nutshell it does not smell or taste like anything else that I have personally experienced. As I made mention above: an ‘exciting’ experiment!!

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @ @RobH @zid



Below is a photograph of my neighbor's Blue Spruce Tree:



And here are the fresh growth spruce tips I picked from the tree:

 

Mornin' NBSers, with thanks to you @cjgiant for the start today.

My story of "almost missing the boat" involves beer rather than our car and illustrates what for me has been one of the big benefits of joining into the discussions on this thread.

Triggered by the description of the Moder Times Fortunate Islands by @CanConPhilly in last week's NBS, I grabbed one for today off the shelf the very next morning. The shop where I bought the Blazing World that I decibed last week was the only place I'd seen any of them. On my first visit they had the Blazing World, the Fortunate Islands and the Black House Stout (also described last week by @CanConPhilly). When I got to the shop the Blazing World was all gone and the can of Fortunate Islands I picked up for tonight's new beer was the last one on the rack. Interestingly, there were still 3 of that stout left. I think that and the description we saw last week may be telling us something about the relative popularity of the three Modern Times beers that got to retail shelves around here.

Lots of chores and errands today but expect I'll be back this evening or late in the afternoon to talk about what I thought of the Fortunate Islands.

 

Jack,

For what it's worth I recently (just a few days ago) had another bottle of the Poor Richard's Tavern Spruce (doing some quality assurance to know that the Yard's Ales of the Revolution we intend to serve at our upcoming party on the porch would pass the freshness muster. :-) )

I've also had bits of spruce flavors over the years for several reasons (including finding and cutting down a Blue Spruce we were to use as a Christmas Tree one year). When cut down your own tree it's very difficult to not get some of the resin on yourself.

I still have found no words other than "spruce" to describe that flavor. For me evergreen doesn't get down in the weeds deep enough to deal with what is unique about the aroma/flavor of Spruce. I do think there's a subtle bit of resin in there, but it's way in the background and is, for me, different in it's own way from other pine resin's I've tasted.

So, I've been searching for the right words for quite a while now and I'm begining to believe the only way to get a sense of what spruce tastes like is to taste it for one's self.

 

Good morning New BSers! Well, it's starting off a lovely day here in tropical NW PA - steamy and warm, just the way I like it. Seriously, I love the heat and humidity! I have (re)discovered that getting old isn't for the weak - I can barely work four hours outside without stopping to rest. What I do is this - work four hours outside at my son's house cutting back the jungle in preparation to paint, pop a cheap beer, drive home, pop a Gatorade, work in my garage sorting and rearranging until I'm bored, then knock off for the night, followed by a Headhunter. My only home project this year is build a reloading bench but first I need a place for it, hence the sorting and rearranging.

Well, thanks @cjgiant for starting us off at a decent time and thanks Maria for your usual insightful take on a new beer. @JackHorzempa - I've also used blue spruce tips in a home brew and found they impart a unique flavor, not really a piney resin, but to me a little kinder gentler resinous quality. I didn't use molasses in mine, just barley, so that probably changed the perception a bit.

Well, this week's NBS entry is:



Purchased at Bierteck in Bamberg, DE. Exact price unknown but only a couple of Euros.
0.5 Liter flip-top bottle stored at 42 degrees and served at 42 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Dated 11.01.18.
Aroma – very distinct toasted malt. Lasts the entire beer.
Head – large (Maximum 5.3 cm, aggressive pour), light tan, low density, short retention time, diminishing to an irregular three to six mm ring and a rocky partial layer.
Lacing – poor. Just a few tiny islands.
Body – dark brown, clear.
Flavor – very toasted malt forward, just a touch of bitterness. No discreet hops flavor or aroma. No alcohol, no diacetyl.
Palate – medium, approaching creamy, soft carbonation.

An excellent beer! This is one of my suitcase beers which traveled from Bamberg to Nurnberg to Frankfurt to Toronto to home. Somehow I didn’t make it to Klosterbrau on my recent trip to Bamberg which was definitely my loss. Next trip I’ll split between Klosterbrau and Schlenkerla.

Appearance 4.5, Aroma 4.5, Flavor 5, Palate 4.5, Overall 4.5. Rating 4.7, rDev +17.8%.

 

Tom, the fresh growth tips are edible. Some folks will pick them and use them in their salads. I ate a few of the fresh growth tips before finally deciding to brew with them and I am incapable of describing their taste in objective terms. What I can report is that the flavors of eating the spruce tips were different from what they contributed to the beer. Spruce tips are an enigmatic 'vegetable'.

Cheers!

 

Indeed. Also, inner bark of spruce is a survival food, and one of the few edible flora avail. for gathering in winter.

 

I don't remember ever having them in a salad, but agree completely that for me their flavor profile remains indescribable. But it does make sense that the flavors of the fresh tips would change a bit when used in a salad rather than in brewing a beer.

In any event, my bottom line is that I'm one of those who enjoys a spruce beer once in a while so I'm just glad the Yard's version is so easily available that we can serve it at our upcoming party.

 

In my experience the 2 best beers to bring for non-craft drinkers are Sierra Nevada Summerfest or Anchor California Lager. In fact I have 2 friends who blame me for introducing them to California Lager because it costs them $$!

 

I have brewed a sahti with spruce tips and juniper berries that has some of the flavors of the BluePoint Colonial. Best wishes regarding brewing and tasting efforts. I will look for Jack's Spruce Ale.

 

Stillwater's Insetto is a dry, tart treat on this hot and humid morning. A rose colored can pour with a 1 cm foam cap immediately dissipates. The aroma is apple-earthy. The fruit flavors include grape, plum and some peach. This is quite tart, but also finishes dry. The flavors linger. This a a refreshing and interesting kettle sour.

 

Thanks for the great start @cjgiant. Should be back with a special brew for today's NBS.

Cheers!

 

I recently had a party and served Oberon and Summerfest. The Oberon was a huge hit among the non-craft drinkers in the group.