New Beer Sunday (Week 645)

This is here because of the new recipe. From my review.....

Clear gold. Film of lacing sticks around.
Slight funky wheaty hop scent. Slight lemon pepper smell. Herbal. Taste is herbaceous. Slight lemony orange hop that's very subtle. lemon pepper. Grassy. Herbal. Medium carbonation. Less carbonation than i remember. tang to it. I must say though it has an orange sweetness that reminds me of say the classic lagunitas profile. Not a mimic. But it triggers a lagunitas memory. Reminds me of this natural orange wine I had in upstate NY. But at the same time it is in no way orange-y. Kind of dry.

I like this new rendition more so than the memory of the original. It's very good

 

8.99 around here. Around the same as a 6 of Bud because it's the shore. More worth it. Love California lager.

 

Brunch brew . . .



Score 3.9
look: 3.75 | aroma: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Not quite blood red but it darn sure is red with a sustaining cream color cap and lacing.

Surprisingly complex aroma of orange and hops with neither dominating but both entwined seamlessly. The brewer lists nine different hop varieties in this brew and I can't identify a single one but the harmony of this scent is remarkable.

Taste is exceptional managing to be both simple and complex at the same time. Darned if I know how but it is. On entry there is a sense of body more than flavor with orange present but subdued then hops so mingled with orange they present a combined flavor that still show enough separate identity to recognize both are present. I think I can identify some citrus hop characteristics, some zest and perhaps tropical fruit presenting a firm but refreshing bitterness to the finish. The aftertaste has a mild nuttiness that I suspect comes from the grain bill. Not much, just enough to notice and it's nice.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

I did not notice any alcohol in the flavor and wouldn't have been aware it is 7.7% without reading the label. Also the 73 BU is apparent only in intensity of flavor and not bitterness. Remarkable brew, very rewarding.

 

Enjoying a lazy Sunday morning. Like most other places, it's already hot here, so this local kettle-soured beer is a nice accompaniment with breakfast:

Sweet Tart Sour, TailGate Beer, Nashville, TN


A nice-looking beer (although I think almost all beer looks nice). There was a hazy golden color with a frothy and generous white head. The foam settled at a brisk pace, leaving a few laces. Aromas of citrus zest, wheat, and a hint of that kettle-sour lactic acid scent. Not off-flavors or offensive, but definitely there. The beer tasted as billed, pleasingly tart but not overdone. I tasted mostly grapefruit, but other citrus notes were there. A fresh, kind of generic fruity tartness left my palate on the back. Not overly sweet, but I can see people identifying this with Sweet Tarts. Clean and dry on the finish. The feel was medium-bodied and not too thin, my favorite part of this brew. Very enjoyable! Cheers!

 

Happy New Beer Sunday to everyone. Today I am drinking a Quadrupel from La Trappe brewery. I have had most of the other well known quads (i.e. St. Bernarus, Rochefort, Westvletern, etc) so I am excited to see how this compares to them.



The apperance is lighter than other quads I have had and is a light brown to ruby red color.

The aroma is dark, ripe fruits, alcohol and maybe a bit of dark chocolate.

The taste is very sweet upfront, with notes of plums and other dark fruits. Following that comes a more peppery, spicey flavor that eventually gives away to a slightly alcoholic taste. I can feel a bit of warmth from the alcohol and the creaminess from the yeast does a decent job at balancing everything out.

Overall it's is a complex beer that is more peppery than other quads that I have had. I would have to say that it isn't my favorite from the "quad line up" but it's still an enjoyable beer and I'm glad to have the opportunity to finally try it out.

Hopefully everyone else is enjoying their Sunday and their new beer(s)!

 

Howdy, NBSers!

A box of goodies from the East Coast arrived Friday, just in time for this week's installment of Sunday fun, and a big thanks to @TongoRad for the collection of new beers. Here's one of them:


Port Jeff Brewing Company's Runaway Ferry, a smoked imperial IPA

Michael knows my love of the rauchbier, so he knows I'd find the idea of a smoked DIPA quite exciting. The fact that this particular brew turns out to be 95% American DIPA and 5% smoked beer is a bit disappointing, but at the same time, just seeing that a brewer is out there trying this kind of thing is very cool.

Runaway Ferry at first blush looks, smells, tastes and feels like 120 Minute. Super thick, super syrupy and super sweet and caramely up front with a big backbite of bitter hops in the aftertaste. If the label read "American barleywine", I'd buy it. As it warms, little bitty hints of smoked malt show up in both the aroma and taste. The aroma note is mainly toasted peaches, while the flavor note is more of a true smoked-malt taste, that slightly peaty, beechwood flavor of the good rauch. These smoked-malt notes are very faint, and I'm doing my damnedest to let this sucker warm up to see if that brings them out more.

Ironically, I keep reaching for the beer for another sip despite the fact that the caramel-mangoey American DIPA is possibly my least favorite style. Call it proof that Port Jeff makes a good beer, for they've got me quite satisfied with a brew that's nowhere near my alley, much less up it.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26967/77172/?ba=Premo88#review
3.49 (+6.1% rDev)

Thanks to Michael for letting me take a crack at this one! I'll be back with another later today.

Cheers!

 

Love that glass!!

 

Good morning, NBS crew! With most of this week taken up by packing, moving, then unpacking, I haven't had a whole lot of time to savor a beer. I'm finally caught up though, so I am allowing myself a day of rest (and of course, beer) as a reward.

One of the nicest features of my new place (besides a deck!) is a set of built-in shelves. You may have guessed what I used these shelves for...

Opens up to this...



Nice to have a dedicated space for them all now!

Anyhoo, somehow I've never managed to try Doom, so when I saw one today at my local, I had to snag it. Have always wanted to try this one.

Founders - Doom IIPA
12.4% abv - 4/27/17 (65 days old)

Purchased for $5.99 at Monde Market.

Pours a deep copper orange. Even with a conservative pour a massive head emerges, and lingers much longer than for a typical ipa.

Smell is overwhelming. The first things I get are orange, caramel, molasses, and vanilla. Bourbon is there but in the background.

Taste switches the priorities. All bourbon at first, then some vanilla and orange. Very pronounced alcohol harshness, which I personally dislike in an ipa.

Mouthfeel is on the fuller side of medium.

Overall, I feel like this was the wrong time to drink this. Presumably a good portion of the hop flavor has faded now at 2 months, but the bourbon has not yet had time to mellow. Thinking this would be a completely different experience at 6 months.

 

Besides the 3 you mentioned, I also saw Orderville bottles at Monde. $9 a bomber I believe. Was going to pick one up, but then remembered that @cjgiant and I got to try this during PBW...and it wasn't one of their better brews (although we were all tipsy at that point).

 

Proximity Mines At The Spawn another silly name (it a reference to a James Bond movie) for a very nice American Pale Ale from Twin Elephant. The grain bill has some oats in it giving this brew a nice soft mouth feel. The hops used are Southern Cross and Eldorado giving it a nice bitter flavor and finish. The brewery claims an English yeast is used so i guess this beer could be called an ESB. It pours a hazy gold color and is easy drinking at 5.5 % ABV. A nice refreshing summer beer.

 

Happy NBS! Enjoying a cold one at the Estabrook Beer Garden in Whitefish Bay WI with my brother in law (I have on the hat). Now this is what summer is to me.

It is clear and bright golden color with 2 finger white head and minimal lacing. The smell is rather neutral with some fruit notes, bit of yeast and lighter malt. Taste is light and refreshing with the hints of bread and light fruit notes with a slightly yeast aftertaste. All in all very nice and balanced beer, that was easy to enjoy in quantity.

 

Hey NBS-ites!
Another week, another awful cycle of pouring rain followed by heat and stifling humidity, followed by more rain, and so on. I keep telling myself that the whole summer probably won't be like this and then, BAM, it's July and I'm worried that it actually will.

Anyway, in the interest of willing it to be nicer out in a more constant way, I am going to start today with a mystery saison from Ontario that a buddy gave me this past week. I am a big saison fan and also a big fan of trying the exotic-seeming beers that are excluded by the draconian liquor system that exists here in Quebec. All of that to say that, luckily for me, even if it's bad I'll be happy.

***knock on wood***

Twenty Mile Farmhouse Ale from Bench Brewing Company out of Beamsville, Ontario.



Let's see if it's up to snuff.



This beer is a decent saison at first glance, whiff, taste and feel. However as it warms a little it gets some extra dough flavor, flabbiness and phenolic character. Though it it's neither bad nor filled with off flavors, it does get progressively less enjoyable and less easy-drinking with each sip.

Like I say, I am really happy to try this beer at all. It wasn't a drainpour, but it wasn't a beer I had to pace myself on, either. Also, it is now getting cloudy again so my voodoo may have backfired.

I would be into trying other things from Bench, but I wouldn't seek out this particular one in the future.

Here is my actual review if anyone cares.

Have a great Sunday and I might be back later on if I'm feeling frisky! We'll see...

Santé!

 

Awesome hidden glass grotto!

That is the main worry I had when I saw that beer start to show up on here. I am not a big enough bourbon fan to have it with everything. It is really well-suited to certain things to my tastes, I don't know that hoppiness is one of those things.

 

Nothing like peer pressure to get the rear in gear (thanks cjgiant...)...

As stated, today is for Mont des Cats (brewed by the brothers at Chimay with Chimay yeast) which is a quasi-franco-belgo trappiste coming in at 7.6% abv...



Poured into a Chimay goblet (Appropo, methinks) a nice dark brown/red - looks like the classic Chimary Red/Rouge with a hefty white head which does not dissipate - nice...



On the nose, classic Chimay yeast - dark stone fruits, belgian candi sugar, strong malt backbone....




On the mouth, similar to the nose with subtle sugar, malt and Chimay yeast up front, through the middle and back. ABV is non-existent which makes this variant an extremely drinkable Trappiste offering.






Damn - too much uploading and cut-paste for my liking...C'est la Vie!


Overall, an excellent representation of a Trappiste table beer - as one would expect.

Man, oh man, what a PITA (Pain In the A**) to get this done.

Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. Just a lovely hot summer day on the island with lots of sun and a subtle breeze. Waiting for my fiance to get back from the gym and then hitting the beach for the afternoon. Knock back a few more brews and throw my fat ass in the water. Got a nice london broil marinating for dinner so its going to be a nice relaxing day. I am one of the unlucky who has to work tomorrow but fuck that noise for now.

My new beer today is Battle Axe ipa, from Kelsen brewing in derry NH. The brew checks in at 7.2% abv with a 6/14/17 canning date. I love small brewers who aren't afraid to date.

An amber blonde color on the pour with good clarity and a fast white head. I get mostly tangy hops and white wine on the nose. A big rush of tangy, tropical, and bitter hops explode on the very first sip. A smooth and mellow flow with a nicely subtle bitter finish. Strong fruit notes of pear, apple, tangerine, and grapefruit. The mouth feel is moderate to full bodied with a pale malt presence. A slight white wine feel carries over from the nose but the mix of raw hop/fruit feel really lingers very nicely on the palate after every sip.

Overall, just surprisingly very good stuff. I think the 86 ba score is respectable but I'm a bit dumbfounded by the bros 80. It really reminds me of some of the stuff that Moustache brewing, on my local level, has been putting out. I'm in the low 4/4.3 range here. I only bought one can.