New Beer Sunday (Week 645)

Dipping the toe in the proverbial "dark side..." Notice the Vader bobblehead ?

Cheers...

 

Happy Once In A New Blue Moon Beer Sunday (Week 645)!

In the Law of Unintended Consequences, The Bottle Backlog here at Chez Woody is enabling me to conduct a buncha brewery horizontals (same brewery, different beers) & today (at least until I need to leave for 2nd shift) are as many Blue Moon offerings as I can get in safely & still do my job later.

I began by putting my Blue Belgian Pils on the Table:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/306/221564/?ba=woodychandler#review


Next, although it was not "new", per se, it was a new serving style (& boy, do I miss when we could differentiate as such on this site):
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/306/70089/?ba=woodychandler#review



and one more before I go from safe to questionable:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/306/271820/?ba=woodychandler#review



All right, kids, that's all that we have time for today! To paraphrase AnimalMother in "Full Metal Jacket": All others must WAIT!

 

I visited Green Bus Brewing's taproom yesterday for the first time. They have been open for a little while, but I've just never took the time to swing by. It's a very small brewery in the heart of downtown. They don't really distribute other than an occasional one off keg, so the only way to sample their stuff is onsite.

This is their Hot Spring IPA - a pepper spiced IPA. I'm guessing they use one of their other IPAs as a base but with the peppers dominating both flavor and aroma, it's tough to tell which one.

If you like spicy beers, this is a good one. If you are looking for a solid IPA, I would prefer their Hop Bus.



Poured from 32 oz growler.

A: Clear golden yellow with smallish head that dissipates quickly and no lacing. I think the lack of head might be partially due to a less than stellar growler seal.

S: Aroma is dominated by hot peppers - jalapeño, I suspect. Some faint citrus hops lingering in the back.

T: Again the peppers are the star of the show. Nice heat but not over the top. Subtle citrus notes but they are hard to pick out due to the peppers.

M: Medium body with fairly light carbonation.

O: Very nice spiced beer. I think there is a good IPA base underneath somewhere, but it's lost in the peppers.

 

First off I need to apologize to @lordofthewiens and @cjgiant for not posting on my favorite weekly thread, it has nothing to do with you two. My wife just got a new job and instead of working every other weekend in the ER, she is now working 4 days a week and no more weekends as a family Nurse Practitioner.

Back to talking about this amazing beer and glass sent to me by my brother from PA, Mr. @jzeilinger thanks as always! Poured near room temperature into a 13 oz Free Will long stim tulip, not sure when it was bottled. Pours a very attractive slick near black, with a gorgeous 2 plus finger light brown head that leaves some thin streaks of lace behind, as it slowly settles into a thin layer of khaki bubbles. 4.25. Smell is like s'mores, gram cracker, hersey bar, fluff, peanut, and some coffee grounds.4.5

Taste follows gram cracker, marshmallow, peanut, and expresso not as enjoyable ass the nose, but still very good! 4.25

Mouthfeel is a little bigger than medium, mild to moderate carbonation, maybe a little dry, and at 8.5% ABV drinks very easy. 4

Overall this is a very nice and different stout, maybe a tad thinner than I prefer, but it definitely lives up to the name and is a terrific dessert beer. 4.25

 

Gotta love their descriptions . When that first came out in cans, I must admit that I was disappointed that they chose that version (perhaps easier fruits to acquire?), as most of the others I have had seemed much better. I'd also check that canning date, because those fresh, especially when they were bottled, definitely was a "fruit-filled asteroid". Just my two cents. Cheers!

...!

 

What is up my New Beer Sunday Crew!

Long time no view, but whatever life continues. I'm here with 2015 Elijah Craig Barrel Aged Chessie from Union Brewing.



My day is going alright..idle as usual per Sunday. I figured I'd taste a brew for you guys! Enough of the chit-chat, time for the beer before me!

This thing pours per usual for a Barleywine. Nice Deep Amber Body with light Red Hues. Decent alcohol legs got me bones a jumping! Nice clap of off white foam for a head.

The Aroma? First hits with a buttery/caramel edge that I get from most Barrel Aged Barleys. So nothing new strapping my interest. Background of roasted grains with a chocolate vibe. Very decent.

Flavah Time! First hits with Caramel, toffee and a nice meld of Tobacco and chocolate. Splash of heat with a subtle bitterness that keeps it together.
Finishes on time and full. Aftertaste of tobacco and roasted grains.

Overall: This is a fine Barrel Aged Barleywine. An English style which I prefer to the overly Hopped American Version. This isn't reaching new horizons for my flavor threshold though. It's great in its own right but not really reaching full potential for a Barleywine. I dig it, yet not really reaching greatness factor for me. This brew is worthy!

Grade: B+

 

Are you actually seeing distribution there now, or was this a "test run" for them. They are in the process of moving forward on two new locations out here to further distribution, but was unaware of any other than your (and a few others) recent posts. Obviously, I'm a self admitting fan boy and excited to see them branch out, but bummed I'm losing some of my "sharing" power .

 

New to Virginia new beer Sunday



Another standing, slow bravo clap to Hop House Distro for bringing these guys here.

Modern Times Tetra City

Looked a bit better when I started, but getting used to TinyPic ® hasn't been the smoothest of transitions. It had a nice, billowing white head that leaves behind gentle lacing above a particularly effervescent golden and clear (save for tiny bubbles) body. Nose has a little sweet tropical fruit to it before a much more dominant pine gone onion gone vegetal thing creeps in, only to exit on a grapefruit note.

Taste is immediately tangerine, like for real. As the tangerine fun fades, I get some alcohol presence and just barely a hint of pine in the finish.

Medium bodied and wicked dry with not too much after taste, other than some alcohol bitterness.

Awfully nice to dig back into West Coast style IPAs, as I'm so much looking forward to more from these guys.

 

New Saison Sunday (Week 645)

Greetings fellow NBSers from on the ridge in Mid Hud Val, NY. Well, not as humid as yesterday, but still very warm. Am doing about nothing after a day of errands, waiting in a beer line (yes, I actually did, in the service of friends) and playing 8 hours of hand percussion yesterday. My plan is to continue to do nothing today, with the help of some good beer. Sorry to say this beer I am drinking now, from a brewer I idolize no less, is really not all that good. Rico Poivre, by Lawson's Finest Liquids is not hitting the spot. The irony here is I have now cracked a Sip Of Sunshine, a beer I love, also by Lawson's, and am chasing my sips of this mediocre saison with sips of delicious SOS.

It's not bad, don't get me wrong, it just is a muddled mess of flavors that don't really please. Worst of all is that it doesn't have the key ingredient ALL SAISONS MUST HAVE. It is not refreshing. I know the young folks today are fond of the word meh and I think I won't misuse it to describe this beer. Read the whole sad truth here.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17980/283433/?ba=cavedave#review



Hope you also have a Great American Beer in your glass. Cheers!

 

Good afternoon everyone thanks to @cjgiant for getting us started. My new beer for NBS is also poured into a new glass. My son has been on a 2 week trip all over Europe and he brought me this mug back from Switzerland and I love it!!! My new beer for today comes from Kent Falls Brewing in Kent, Connecticut it is called Juice Maker it is a mango brett IPA clocking in at 5.6%. Let me begin by saying although I do not get much mango in the nose or flavors it does have some light tasty citrus notes more like lemon zest and orange peel to me and is great beer on a day day. Hope everyone has a great day!!!

Appearance 3.75 - Pours a murky pale yellow color with thick light white head. Not much lacing at all.

Aroma 4 - The brett stands out and gives a light funk, very light fruit aroma maybe lemon with a touch of grass.

Taste 4 - Not really getting much mango, again the brett plays a huge part in the flavor with the lemon/citrus flavors playing second fiddle. There are some light hops flavors on the finish.

Feel 3.75 - Light bodied I would say clean and crisp but the funk stays on your tongue and make the finish pretty dry.

Overall 3.91 - A pretty easy drinking summertime beer with some solid flavors.

 

Alrighty then... Happy New American made Flanders Blonde Ale Sunday! After a long, exciting, and stressful week, yours truly is ready to sit on the throne (recliner, not toilet) in the Biergarage and relax... children and missus permitting, of course . The Lingenbrau's have some very exciting news to share, but it's just gonna have to wait until it becomes just a bit more finalized. So until then, let's pull out a beer that I'm very excited to try from one of my favorite breweries which happen to hail from one of my favorite places on Earth.

pFriem
Flanders Style Blonde Ale- Aged in Pinot Noir barrels for 18 months.





The simplicity and beauty of this breweries labels and bottles alone are enough to lull me in. But we all know it's what's on the inside that counts, and I have yet to be disappointed by these exceptional brewers out of Hood River, Oregon.

A: Wow, is this beautiful! Pours crystal clear bright yellow with tons of bubbles racing to the surface like it's from champagne. An airy light foamy head persists. Lacing is an understatement.

A: Full of sour notes, but well complimented by light touches of earthiness, grape must, and oak.

T: This is difficult to describe. In one word, delicious. Not nearly as puckering as I was expecting. Mild grape, light sweet biscuit malt, oak, tannin, and a touch of floral/spicy/earthy highlights.

F: This is perhaps the best feeling beer I've had next to Ale Apothecary's Sahalie. It's indescribably soft and velvety. It feels like the whole thing is made of liquid foam! A wonderful balance of lightly tart and sweet, little perceivable bitterness, dry finish, and just a hint of its 7.1% abv is noticed.

O: This exceeded my expectations by far and is another example and reassurance that I love pFriem.

Cheers everyone, and I will see you all soon!

After my official review, I gave this a rating of 4.47 with an rDev of +7.7%

 

Gunna hafta look for that, sounds great. I got to know Josh Pfriem some when he brewed at Chuckanut Brewery here in my town. He and his wife Annie are great folks, and they deserve every bit of praise and success they've gotten. Cheers!

 

Every time I go up to Oregon, I stock up on pFriem beers. One of my favorites, and I agree with you. They absolutely deserve the praise. Somehow, a couple made it down to a liquor shop down here. Naturally I snagged them up without hesitation. Cheers!

 

Here's one I don't believe I've ever seen here or on the What Beer Are You Drinking Now threads... so Belgian it even has the flag on the bottle.



Ichtegem's Grand Cru, Cuvée 2013. Flanders Red aged in oak barrels. This will be the first real example of the style I've ever had, though I have previously had (and enjoyed) an Oud Bruin and I'm told that there are some definite similarities between the two styles so I'm hopeful about this one. Actually, I'm noticing now that the back of the bottle does label it as an Oud Bruin -- I guess the lines between the two are blurry ones? "Oud" implies age so maybe that's the difference, whether it's an aged or fresh example of the style.

Color is a dark brown, with a decent layer of off-white foam that shrinks down to a thin coating (with lacing left behind in its wake) after a couple minutes. Shining my flashlight through makes it look bright red in color and reveals that it's a bit hazy, with occasional slow bubbles rising here and there. I'm still surprised to find a beer from 2013 on the shelves (and not just one, it seems they got an entire shipment of this beer from that year!), but even more surprised at what appears to be a best-by date printed on the cap -- May 2021. Holy crap.

The smell is a bit sour as expected, but also contains funkiness and something very much like fruit. Flavor starts off surprisingly sweet, then shifts toward a very noticeable sour and a bit of funk, and then again to a really nice medium-dark malt flavor, with the other flavors still hovering in the background all the while. There are definitely some similarities to the Oud Bruin I had a while back, though they're also different enough that I'd never mistake one of the two for the other -- just a "this tastes like it could be the same style of beer as this, or similar" kind of thing. I want to say that the fruity aspect of the smell reminds me of cherries, now that I think about it. Was this made with fruit or is that some sort of bizarre Belgian yeast-magic at work creating that flavor? The sourness is much more noticeable on a big gulp vs. a little sip -- starts to almost border on a chemical-y flavor, not bad but if it was any stronger it'd be a little odd. I imagine a nearly 7% ABV dark sour beer is probably intended more for sipping than gulps, though. The mouthfeel lends itself more to sips -- there's a light but audibly fizzy carbonation, and the feel of the beer itself is very substantial, definitely not thin or watery at all. Interestingly, at around the halfway point I find myself taking bigger drinks to get that big burst of sour, woody, funky flavors again. I think I'm really growing to like the Flanders style sour beers -- or rather, I've always liked them and having a second example is just making me realize that, since the first Oud Bruin I had was a "wow, this tastes so weird... but it's really good!" sort of thing for me. The foam is still leaving some nice trails behind -- the initial lacing from when it shrank is still there as a ring around the top of the glass, even. This is actually reminding me a good bit of some of the strong, oaky red wines that my sister likes -- might have to see if I can snag a couple bottles for her as a birthday present since her birthday's coming up in August. I think she may have actually had a Flanders Red before at some point, and I seem to remember her mentioning liking it, so that'd probably be a good present.

For a moment I thought I noticed just the tiniest hint of a leafy-bitter hop thing on the end -- maybe I'm mistaking something else for that, but it did seem like that's what it was. Pretty surprising for a 4-year-old bottle -- don't think this is generally a highly-hopped style, either. It's probably just me mistaking something else for a hint of hop-bitter, there's a lot going on in the flavor here and it's not a style I'm super familiar with.

Overall, very nice beer -- and very different from just about anything else on the shelves! Glad I picked this one up. I'll have to try to grab a few more in the future if they're still hanging out on the shelf the next time I go by that store -- apparently someone had special-ordered them (actually asked for a different but similar beer, but the store couldn't manage to get that one and this was the closest thing available), so I'm guessing that person might buy some but other people will be mostly scared off by the 2013 on the label. Joke's on them, though -- 4-year-old beer can be really good if it's a beer that's built to last!

...I almost kinda want to buy one and hold onto it until 2021 to see if that best-by date is accurate. That's a loooong time to wait, though, so maybe I won't even attempt that after all, heh.

 

Couldn't make last week's NBS, which is the first time in perhaps a year I missed reviewing at least one beer in NBS. So for my opening today I'm opting for one of the collaborations I was most excited to hear about in the Beer Camp pack this year. Time to see if it was worth picking up the pack over, or Ayinger opting to end their 100 year "no collaborations" streak.



Sierra Nevada + Ayinger's Beer Camp: Across the World Dunkle Weisse.

Pours dark brown with a finger of foamy, off-white head. Head retention is good, forming a nice pillowy top to the beer for a while before simmering down into a ring of foam. Lacing is minimal, but present as the beer disappears. Aroma is bready malt, with a pleasant dose of banana, and Belgian yeast spice in the background. Flavor profile is banana, and bread, with a little Belgian yeast spice right at the finish of the beer. Nice, easy-sipping flavor profile. Not very dynamic, just a steady showing of bready malts, with banana. Mouth feel is medium in thickness, with a filling, slightly grainy, fizzy texture. Overall, a stellar beer delivering a straight forward, no frills experience.

Score: 4.25 | 4.25 | 4 | 4 | 4.25 | BA Score: 4.13 | rDev: +4%

Personal Notes: The bready malts here are less-so than Ayinger's Celebrator, but as should be expected since it's a smaller beer. It is on the mild side of the German beer spectrum, but still a well-performing beer.

 

Greetings NBS faithful and @cjgiant for getting the festivities started. I'm having a difficult time wrapping my mind around the fact that Independence Day is upon us. June sure flew by and the concept of time sure seems faster when you're constantly on the go taking advantage of some beautiful summer weather. This weekend was no exception with a weekend trip to Ravinia in Illinois to see the Moody Blues Friday evening. I had the pleasure of meeting fellow BA @laketang and had a couple of beers with him. It's always fun to meet up with people from the site! It's been a day of catching up starting with mowing what's left of my water deprived lawn and house decorating with some red, white and blue for Tuesday. I'm thirsty, let's shift gears to a new beer!

A recently purchased bomber of Stone RuinTen with orange peel and vanilla bean is first up today. It's dated 05/26/17 with an abv. of 10.8% and I'm pouring this mystery liquid in a Stone pint glass for the occasion. Let's go.....

It pours a very clean and transparent dark gold leaving a small finger of creamy white foam behind. It slowly settles to a thin layer with a little lacing left in it's wake. The smell is vanilla, marshmallow and a bit of orange peel. Taste is orange peel, marshmallow, vanilla and wet cardboard in the finish. The feel is super creamy making this 10.8% beer way too drinkable.

I'm a fan of regular RuinTen but I don't think Stone did the beer any favors with the additions, namely the vanilla bean. It imparts a very odd marshmallow taste with some wet cardboard in the finish for my buds. The saving grace is the super creamy feel that makes this quite slammable and has you forgetting about taste. I'm good with trying another Stone experiment and will move on. My score is 3.52 / rDev-10.7%.

I'm off to light the grill next where I'll be cooking skirt steak for tacos later. Have yourselves a great Sunday of new beer adventures. I hope to be back later when things wind down around here. As always, the official scorecard.....

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/236034/?ba=Prager62#review

 

So I've been doing the Beer Camp 12 pack this weekend, and I already tried the other two IPA's and was impressed by them both (the White IPA with Yuzu and the Tree House East Coast meets West Coast). This one is intriguing

Pours a dark orange with about a 2 finger head nice lacing on the glass, what you would expect from a Cali IPA

Smell is tropical citrus. Lot of orange, grapefruit, lemon zest on it. It smells really good

Taste is fantastic. Not overly "dank" but it is just tropical goodness. Lots of tropical fruits right away, in the middle of the mouth you get the hops, and at the end a punch of bitterness with a very slight alcohol presence (but not too much). It just all goes together. Unbelievable that it's a double IPA it's crushable at 8.2% AbV.

Overall this is getting a 4.25/5 for me. This is just a fantastic IPA that I'm really glad I got to try. I would buy this year round if SN and Boneyard released it (just like the other 2 IPA's).

I've heard some shit talked on this set because you're not getting the IPA's at 2 days old (this was canned on April 29th) but it's fine. Don't be scared to get this set if you haven't tried it because eventually this stuff will be faded but right now no problems at all. Well worth the price, and it's fun to try these beers, and for a bonus they've all been good.

 

The faithful here appreciate you taking one for the team! I too once thought it a painful, but the culture grew on me where I don't think about it anymore. At least not as much.....