What beer are you drinking now? #1729

What a great evening with friends and family last night. My best friend since my second year of first grade on the left and me on the right, having a NEDIPA at The WHYM Craft Beer Cafe in Portsmouth NH. More great times ahead as tonight we will visit @lordofthewiens watering hole The York River Landing.

 

Morning BA's

We are just starting to get Tallgrass beers here; this one is pretty tasty!

 

Clown Shoes • Crasher in the Rye

 

I need to get me a few more bottles of this beaut. I had a bottle of this also last week and I thought it was awesome. Some background:

Het Nest is a tiny brewery from Turnhout, Belgium, a town known as the world capital of the playing cards manufacturing industry. As a result, Het Nest has adopted a playing card theme for most of its beers' names and labels. My first Het Nest beer was SchuppenAas (Ace of Spades), an amber ale with Brett, which was delicious. I'm not the biggest Imperial Stout fan but when I saw this Het Nest Dead Man's Hand at one if my local distributors, I simply had to give it a try. The label describes it as a Belgian/Russian Imperial Stout with spices and aged in wine barrels. It's named after a combination of playing cards (two black aces, two black 8s, and an unknown card) commonly known as "Dead Man's Hand", as it was apparently the hand that "Wild Bill" Hickok had when he was shot. As for the beer itself? Wow. Just wow. Amazing flavor. So complex. It's like mixing a stout and a Rodenbach. Full of coffee but also vinous notes, full of fruity aromas yet with an enjoyable burnt bitterness. Het Nest is quickly becoming one of my favorite non-lambic Belgian breweries.

 

Good morning BA, have a great Saturday! Not much planned for today. Should be a nice day.

My go-to Oatmeal stout. Flavors of dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, toasted oats, dark bread, and nutty malts; with light licorice/molasses notes and herbal/peppery hops. Light-moderate herbal/spicy hop and roast malt bitterness. Medium bodied; great creamy/silky and lightly sticky/chalky mouthfeel. Lightly increasing roasted dryness. This is always awesome. I still haven't updated my review for this, it needs to be done eventually.


Awesome Red DIPA again this year. A bit different from the original bomber batch I reviewed. Flavors of juicy grapefruit, tangerine, peach, pineapple, mango, melon, berry, lemon zest, orange peel, citrus rind, pepper, and pine hops; with moderate caramel, toasted bread, and light roasted malt balance; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine, citrus rind, grassy, spicy bitterness. Medium-full bodied; balanced creaminess and sticky/resinous hops in the mouthfeel. No hop astringency. Light-moderate increasing resinous dryness. Very smooth, minimal warming ABV. The malt character feels more pronounced than it was in the 750 batch. More caramel and creaminess; but I actually prefer it like this. Much more juicy feeling on hops. Will grab a 4 pack eventually, got this single for now. I have been buying insane amounts of Founders beer the last few weeks. Probably my #1 "Desert Island" brewery as a whole.


Amazing DIPA. Flavors of peach, apricot, pineapple, grapefruit, tangerine, papaya, passion fruit, mango, melon, lemon/orange peel, citrus rind, pine, and peppery hops; moderate cracker, biscuit, light honey malt balance; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Moderate pine/rind/spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium-plus bodied and moderately crisp; balanced sticky/resinous hops and grainy malt creaminess in the mouthfeel. Moderate increasing resin dryness after the finish; no hop astringency. Insanely drinkable for 9%, lightly warming finish. Amazingly vibrant and dank hops; great malt backbone without being sweet or heavy feeling. Wish we got Troegs up here. I got a pack in Ohio a couple weeks ago, and down to a single can already. I could probably justify a day trip to Toledo, but I have yet to do it.


This is tasting incredible after 2+ years! Flavors of big cinnamon, cardamom, clove, black pepper, ginger, and herbal black tea; with balanced dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, molasses, toffee, toasted dark bread, and light smoked/charred malts. Moderate roast/char and herbal/spice.peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium-full bodied; very creamy/silky with balanced sticky/chalky roast/spice notes in the mouthfeel. Increasingly drying roast, char, spice finish. Super smooth, minimal warming alcohol. Still really strong on the spices, but a bit more balanced with the base beer than when it was fresh. I loved it both then and now. I love chai spiced beers. This is still on the shelf around here, so I will be buying more soon before it's all gone.


Cheers

My favorite Power metal band of all time. Basically the prog version of power metal.


Still waiting on Time II after 5 years. The self titled is one of my favorite albums. Apparently they are releasing a new one this year, but not Time II. Have no idea what to expect.

 

Fuckin obnoxious ass bird that sounds like a glitching computer game cranked to 11 woke me up, again. Right outside my window. Got to the point I stood on the porch waiting for it to make its rounds to run it off--I could hear it at neighbors' houses, way louder than all the other songbirds--but it never came back this morning. Broke out the bb gun and shot a leftover case in the basement out of frustration (read: practice).

Hewwo! Acme Pest Contwol? Weww I have a pest I want contwolled.

...might as well hair-of-the-dog this scenario and help with the page count...this beer is way more West than East.

 

Dat glass

How I'd love to try a Vedett product but we don't get them here. I love the label design. It's so Euro 80's and I'm loving it!

 

Guinness at the Races!

 

Foggy and foamy AM starter. Barrier Tanto, an IPA

 

Breakfast with the baby in a new glass I acquired yesterday at a fun pub.


I was a little early for the Lagunitas pub to open, so I asked the host at the door if there was anything I could do while I waited. He had two fine suggestions: sit down inside; or stand outside in the fresh air.
I offered to move some pallets of beer around, or other more important task like taking out the garbage or sweeping up. I got the expected reaction: he laughed and said they had that covered.
Seconds later he he clearly had an idea and said so, asking if I had a car and telling me to wait. He walked away into the warehouse. A moment later he returned with a box labeled IPA and handed it to me and said he needed me to take the box and give it a good home. He said it was their Lager, but that it had been mispackaged in IPA boxes. Inside was 12 bombers of Lagunitas lager.
What a great start to a brewery visit!

THAT is the right celebrate song!

 

Since I worked half of second shift and all of third shift, this is appropriate this morning

I had to chuckle as I read through the first page of reviews. This is not a whale, it's a beer to drink. I find it equally funny that people who say this is undrinkable do not note the best before date clearly printed in yellow on the bottle.
P.S.
Coors is not fooling me, hence the #properglassware
Drink well today Advocates and enjoy your Saturday!

 

A wonderful ale!

 

7% alcohol. 40 IBU.

 

Weekend Morning Stout:


Almost exactly 5 months old. It seems to have lost a bit on what I recall was a better feel. Likely just me. Still nice to relax and sip it.

 

Haha, thanks man. I don't work from home as much as I used to, so get less chance to crack open a beer at 2pm mid-week. Weekends though I like to catch up!