New Beer Sunday (Week 646)

Pilsner – Please!

Today’s beer will be Saint Benjamin Pilsner Prosim and thanks to a post by Jeff (@hopfenunmaltz) I know what this means: prosim is Czech for please.

Saint Benjamin is a relatively new brewery in Philadelphia and its name has an intriguing story:

“Patton began homebrewing in 2008, and soon after purchased the old firehouse that would inspire the name of Saint Benjamin Brewing Co.,...”

http://www.gridphilly.com/grid-maga...the-new-saint-benjamin-nanobrewery-plans.html

Benjamin Franklin was known for many things and one of those was he started Philadelphia’s first fire department. Why Tim Patton decided that Ben was worthy to be canonized I am still uncertain.

In my local paper of the Philadelphia Inquirer there was an article about a recent beer tasting of local beers: The 2017 Brewvitational.

http://www.philly.com/philly/column...tational-Champs-local-beers-philadelphia.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/column...eading-Terminal-rule-Brewvitational-2017.html

There were two categories of this Brewvitational:

· New beers of 2017

· Lagers in various styles

The taste testing was performed blind by “a dozen outstanding panelists from all corners of the beer industry, from brewers to a legendary craft beer distributor, consultants, and journalists — all of whom were savvy pros.”

Saint Benjamin was the winner of both of these categories!

From the article:

“1. Pilsner Prosim, Czech-style pilsner (4.2%), Saint Benjamin Brewing Co. The brewery's new German-made brewing system has paid off with brewer Andrew Foss' classically crisp Euro-style pilsner, which uses a traditional decoction method to achieve a slightly darker color without any added sweetness. Judges' comments: “Bright hoppy-liciousnness”; “Clean and malt-forward”; “Light and crushable.”

On the can it lists “Czech Style Pilsner: hopped with Czech saaz and brewed in the traditional decoction method, this unfiltered lager will be empty before you finish reading this. Alc. 4.2% ABV.

We folks in Southeastern PA are fortunate to have many local high quality Pilsners such as Neshaminy Creek Trauger Pils, Sly Fox Pikeland Pils, Stoudts Pils, Troegs Sunshine Pils, Victory Prima Pils,… Now we have one more Pilsner to add to the list.

But how does Saint Benjamin Pilsner Prosim taste?

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

Golden colored with a BIG fluffy white head which persists throughout the entire drinking experience.

Aroma:

A prominent bready Pilsner Malt aroma accompanied with a spicy/herbal hop aroma

Taste:

The flavor very much follows the nose. There is the rich, bready Pilsner Malt flavor very pleasantly balanced by the spicy/herbal hop flavor. There is a firm bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

A luscious mouthfeel: medium body with an off-dry finish.

Overall:

In one word: excellent! This beer is a very nicely balanced Pilsner beer.

For those of you who enjoy Session beers, this beer is only 4.2% ABV but there is a ton of flavor notwithstanding this modest alcohol amount.


@rotsaruch @nc41 @JimKal @Ranbot @sierranevadabill

 

Please tell us some more about your patients!

 

Cheers @lordofthewiens and thanks for getting us going this beautiful morning! Kids say the funniest things . I have a beer today that is in my relatively new tradition of The Additional Summer. It's a porter that has added plums! Cheers!

 

As some say, "It's a small world."

Pleased to see your comments about the Saint Benjamin Pils, since later today I'll be reporting on the Parley IPA from them. The beer is a summer offering and it doesn't yet have a month of can age.

So today we'll be getting the word out there about at least two of their beers.

 

Cheers everyone ! Today I have a big bomber of beer that I am going to just enjoy and it really is "bigger." Today I have a porter brewed with plums. Happy Additional Summer All the Time.

Urban Family Twilight Stone Fruited Porter

Pours a dark cola color brown with almost no head in the tasting glass. Opaque. Nose is chocolate and sweet plum. A bit of roasty cola. Very smooth. Supple malt with no bitter edges to it glides over the palate. Plums are sweet and rich and lengthen the mothfeel just long enough to taste their sweetness. A bit of their tartness too or maybe that is an illusion as this finishes with a delicate hop bitter that is stronger than it seemed. Chocolate and roasty notes are soft against the sweet plum. Hops are grassy with some spice. No alcohol on the palate. As you drink a slight tingle on the tongue from the abv. I think the tartness compliments the roast perfectly and this was smooth as silk. Fruity and full. You might say that adding fruit to a beer can take away from malt complexity if the fruit is too strong. This beer seemed not to be complex because the malt and fruit are so well married and it drinks so easily. But there is breadiness to the malt as well as a graceful caramel. Nutty flavor underlies and those plums are sweet and rich. A little cola roast flavor on sweet chocolate covered plums.

I loved the name of this beer. This is one of those beers that bridges a gap between wine drinkers and beer drinkers. It's very light tickle of acidity seemed off to some, I read the reviews. But not to me. I thought the bitter chocolate sweetened by plum was heavenly. The mouthfeel was literally silk. Big points for that and the fruit made it something special. This beer would age well in a barrel and it would go where the black IPA fared to tread as far as food pairing. Excellent and drank as lightly and dryly as a saison but rich and without bubble!

This was a very unique and outstanding beer. Delicate and in perfect balance yet robust and dark.

Happy New Fruited Porter Sunday!

 

Oh yes . . .



Score 4.06
look: 3.5 | aroma: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Attractive reddish brown color with small white cap.

Scent of tart cherries on a base of roasted malt. A noticeable tartness seems to rise up and cover all else.

Taste is a beautifully complex melange of tart, sour cherry, green apple and roasted malt on an oak base. This is another one that introduces with a burst of flavors that remain consistent through the finish then exiting gracefully in the aftertaste.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

A Flanders Red blended from young and old (18 months) ales that have been aged in oak barrels. This process produces a complex brew that is surprisingly fresh tasting.

 

That is one good looking beer and it's in a can!

 

Good morning New BSers! Thanks to @lordofthewiens for the hilarious start - bet those wouldn't have made the cut for Art Linkletter! Jack and Maria, yinz are a tough act to follow!

Well, today is starting out foggy here in NW PA. And foggy is the theme for today's New Breakfast Beer:




$ 7.94 (including tax)/750 mL cork and cage bottle ($ 0.313/oz) at Save On Beer, Mars, PA.
Bottled on 29 July 2016. Stored at 42 degrees and served at 45 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Aroma – Finally! I’ve finally found a beer that smells like leather! And some yeast.
Head – large (Maximum 6.5 cm, aggressive pour), tan, dense froth, good retention, slowly diminishing to an irregular three to five mm ring and some small hanging islands and a nearly complete layer.
Lacing – forms a single vertical sheet six mm wide and three mm high.
Body – Dark brown, opaque. NO red highlights around the edges. When pouring, the pour is brown and clear. Bottle conditioned.
Flavor – After spending nearly a year in the bottle, this seems rather muddled. There is a weak chocolate-ish background flavor with no discernible yeast phenolics. There are no distinct fruity flavors, only the dark background. Allowing it to warm in my mouth brings out the alcohol, surprising for being only 7.5% ABV. No hops, no malt, no diacetyl.
Palate – medium, thicker than water but not creamy or syrupy, lively carbonation.

Not really very representative of the usual Victory quality beers.

Appearance 3.75, Aroma 3.5, Flavor 3, Palate 3.25, Overall 3.25. Rating 3.24, rDev -13.8%.

Well, I must say, this was not very good. I'd like to blame it on the Victory/Southern Tier union, but looking back over my records (63 beers from Victory), I find that Victory is hit or miss for my evolving tastes. Since this was a limited brew (one time only), I figured I'd pick up a couple for the next NBS BIF, but now I won't. Share the wealth, not the misery.

 

T

That is looking awesome!

 

Defiance Green Plains IPA
6% ABV

Excellent opening by @lordofthewiens All I can say to that is that I studied teaching in college and children are very honest, sometimes they'll say things whether you want to hear them or not, mostly to comedic effect.

You know what's weird? I have reviewed more beers from Defiance Brewing on NBS than any other brewery. Here they have another new beer, and I'm rarely disappointed from their offerings, so hopes are high.

Look: A pretty hazy burnt orange body sits under a tight foamy cream crown. Lacing is excellent -- starts off as large horizontal foam bands and eventually breaks off into patches.

Aroma: Fresh evergreen trees galore up front, then a very nice sweet aroma comes in with notions of mango, apricot, and even pineapple. The aroma tails off with one more splash of fresh spicy hops.

Taste: It follows the aroma almost perfectly. Immediately I get very dry piny wood notes before a subtle fruity middle emerges with light apricot notes. The beer finishes really bitter and sharp with the spiciness of hops really emerging and even some slight grapefruit rind notes.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, slightly dry.

Overall: If the taste had just a little bit more fruit and a little less wood I'd rate this really high. As it is, I gave it a 4.28 rating. I like this beer a lot. I have 3 more to enjoy as Defiance only package their beer in 4-packs of pint cans. The brewery from Hays, Kansas did not disappoint once again.

 

Great start @lordofthewiens , really had me laughing and remembering many visits with my special needs son (have three boys, two are genius, the other not so much)whose honesty and lack of understanding of social situations led to many things of the type you remember. And much worse.

Will be out and about today but will certainly be back with a new beer. After all, why should today be any different than almost every Sunday for the last 8 years? Keep those recommends coming, already have the cleverly named Uncommon Crow from Allagash on my hope to try list.

 

Happy New Beer Sunday everyone. Today I am drinking "Zwickl" from Schwaben Bräu.



The appearance is a slightly hazy, golden orange with a slightly off white head.

The aroma is a bit sour, malty, sweet, slightly like bubblegum and slightly yeasty.

The taste is a mix of citrus, slight sourness, malt, creaminess from the yeast and a slight note of alcohol on the finish.

The mouthfeel is medium to slightly less than medium and it says on the bottle that the beer is unfiltered so the mouth feel reflects that (although the amount of yeast is much less than what you get in a Weißbier)

Overall it is an interesting beer. I haven't had that many Kellerbiers before so I always enjoying be able to try new ones. The beer has a lot of complexities in regards to aroma and flavor and is refreshing at the same time.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their New Beer Sunday and their new beer!

 

Nice start to another NBS @lordofthewiens. Will be back with a new brew, well, I last had it in Feb 2006, so it's been over 11 years, it's new again to me. later on today.

Cheers!

 

Hey what's going on?!

Pretty nice day today, going to probably enjoy it outside to a degree.. right now though I am thirsty..

what's new for our hero today?

Crystall Brett | Devils Backbone Brewing Company


Devils Backbone Brewing Company / Three Notch'd - Crystall Brett by imbibehour, on Flickr

--------------------

Poured from the bottle into a tulip glass. Boned March 8th 2017.

A mostly clear body color, with some very interesting colored appearance. Depending on how much light it appears anywhere from light copper orange, to deep lemon yellow entirely. Quite a neat effect actually. Head creation is a little more than a finger, white creamy bubbles that dissolve to a thin puck and basic collar.

Good nose. A malty sense but with light touches of farmhouse. Hints of light hop like herbality, a bit of sweet sage, some spicy mint quality a little too. A bit of sweet Belgian sugary quality that seems to pull more of the malt into a sweet direction almost caramel but not quite.

Palate is sharp. Sticky light sweet malt but big strong funk. Large peppery notes in the mid palate contrasted by malt sweetness. Large minty mid palate, and a good amount of hop herbal bitterness on the finish that really lingers. Faint touches of berried fruit, really nicely accented making it tart with the tangy brett action. Real nice contrasting and bold flavors.

This sort of reminds me of an amped up Biere de Garde in a way. Pretty solid.

Overall Rating: 4.00

--

 

Well after a great 10 days in NH/VT/MA we're back in central Florida and the current 100 degree heat index... I have quite a few "new beers" (shipped 3 boxes w/125 beers on Southwest for free) to try. As a inexperienced craft beer reviewer I default to your guys descriptions. This one received a 93 score with which I agree and really like it. Unfortunately it's a one-off gift, Trillium didn't have it in stock last week. Cheers!

 

Good Morning, NBS!! At least by the time I type this up, it will still be morning here. We discussed it and are not sure if we are in the Bible Belt or if we're too far north. I'm sure there's some technological tool out there that could provide the answer, but I'd have to learn how to use it.

We are always happy to grab some Prarie when we hit the Midwest, despite its cost. This trip, there were a few variants of Bomb! that the GF picked up at the store. I had Birthday Bomb! a couple days back and it seemed to have more of a cola aspect than either of these.

What are "these?" One, which I've had numerous times is regular Bomb! and I am comparing it, side-by-side to the Evil Twin collaboration Bible Belt version. The subtitle has the "Even More" tag in front of the ingredient list (coffee, vanilla, chiles, cacao nibs).


The pours are similar, with the Bible Belt having a bit more of a creamy ring that is also a tad bit deeper shade of tan/brown. Both collars grow and fade easily with any movement of the glass.

The nose on the Bible Belt has more coffee, and a slightly acrid/bitterness portrayed than the regular Bomb! that has a more chocolate brownie aspect to it. Bible Belt may show the alcohol a tad bit more.

The taste follows nose in relativity, and the Bomb! seems a tad drier and less silky. There's a tad more heat from the Bible Belt that seems to be from alcohol. The spice of the chile is subtle and takes time to build in back.

I had the Bible Belt as a winner initially, but as these warmed, my enjoyment evened out. The more coffee-like Bible Belt became a little hot, while the relatively sweeter Bomb! balanced a tad. Both were enjoyable, and generally close in flavor, combining them seemed unnecessary (@TongoRad).

Cheers, all!!

 

Awesome start to NBS by @lordofthewiens
I work in ER so my anecdotes are much more R rated and probably best kept for some other site. (Think foreign objects and wrong body orifices)
Some common mutilations of words come to my mind: High Anal Hernia (instead of hiatal), had a person who kept on calling he had bad blender (for bladder)
Anyways, here's my new beer.
Amager Bryghus (Denmark) collab with Prairie Artisanal Ales Farmhouse Saison: Tulsa Twister.
They named it because apparently one of the Danish Brewers slept through the hotel sirens/alarm for a Tornado warning while in Oklahoma.
Also, is calling it a "Farmhouse Saison" a little redundant?
Maybe @zid or @JackHorzempa could shed light on that.
It's 7.5% ABV beer that was probably a one time release in early 2016 and I had bought mine in June 2016 and cellared it.
It is a lovely looking beer, especially in the morning light. Robust carbonation keeps the head going incessantly.
Aromas of some barnyard funk, some tropical fruits and spices come through. Tasting it, I get a good balance of funk, spice, pineapple, peach with crackery malt in mid body and ending somewhat dry.
I almost felt a rounded mouthfeel as opposed to a bright crisp sharpness I had felt with Oxbow Crossfade yesterday.
Overall it was a delicious saison but I fell head over heals at Oxbow Crossfade (blended saison) and since I had it only yesterday, I feel the comparison was inevitable.

Cheers.
Here is a pic of the Crossfade, just for reference:

 

In general, have the beers in that collaboration pack held up? I realize it's only been 3-4 months. I recall finding most of the beers fairly well done when I went through it, as I have many DB collaboration packs.

Au contraire, we do want to hear from you. There are no rights or wrongs, but there is not trying. Please feel free to try out reviewing on this thread. We truly do want to hear your thoughts.

 

Howdy, NBSers!

Summertime is on full blast here in the Brazos Valley, both weatherwise and all-around in-generalwise. I worked three days around some vacation time this week, and over those 24 hours on the clock, I might've concentrated for six of them. Considering what lies ahead for me when they start kicking around the pigskin again, I'm enjoying every bit of this dead period.

And what better way to enjoy the summer than to dive into @TongoRad 's recent box of goodies and pull out a for-sure hit?





that's one mean-looking raccoon

Catskill Brewing hits one majestic home run with Eye Of Newt. As a burgeoning fan of the Flanders red, I knew I'd love this one and it doesn't disappoint. Loads of toasted cranberries, tart cherries, green apple, lemon, lemon peel and that vinous quality that somehow works perfectly with this style flow throughout the nose and flavor. The nose has more fingernail polish/remover in it than the flavor (especially as it warms), while the flavor is a bit cleaner lemon and something earthy, though neither nose nor flavor own the market on any of the notes. They permeate both, and there's plenty of my favorite note, the toasted cranberry/tart cherry note, in both.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/36467/238730/?ba=Premo88#review
4.58 (+3.4% rDev)

Fantastic brew and one that I probably underrate. It's arguably a 5 across the board ... yep, even as I sit here and allow a sip to linger, I'm running into a bit of that oak-wood finish in the aftertaste. So good!!!

After missing out in March, April *and* May then suffering through no opportunities in June, I finally made it over to the Continental Club in Austin to see McMurtry on Wednesday:


No Cornbread on bass, but the fill-in guy (Andrew? somebody?) did wonderfully. I'm pretty sure he usually plays with Jon Dee Graham when Jon Dee's in town (he wasn't this week), so he's a pro's pro.

Hope you're somewhere as cool as the Continental Club on Wednesday nights!

Cheers!