New Beer Sunday (Week 660)

Even though Johnny Carson thought Dave Letterman was lame, I think your son is on to something; corn is not only food for thought, it's sometimes called maize......Good bad jokes pretend to be subtle. I'll stick with bologna!

 

Avery Coconut Porter, Solid! 3.95 overall.

Pours an effervescent ebony with a thumb of caramel colored head. Nice lacing & pretty good head retention

S: Toastyness, boozeyness, carob

T: Some toastyness, a little Bourbon, dryness & a little carob & just a little vanilla & coconut up front. Dryness, a hint of booze & a little dark rum as this warms & then plenty of toasty coconut, some oakyness also. Finishes oaky dry with toasty coconut & a little booze/barrel presence

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation, warming. Carbonation picks up a bit once warm, body thins a touch

Pretty coconutty, fairly complex, the booze isn't prevalent, but is felt

Here's my best take on a joke. The Best, Richard...Trigger warning kids...

 

Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest,Amber color medium carbonation. Aroma is malt,yeast,bread and an almost brown sugar smell. Taste is similar, a bit of a hop bitterness that lingers a while

 

Ha! Good call! Yessir! I guess this turned out better than I thought.

The mind of a 7 year old amazes me. Gonna admit something on here, and say he has autism but he's at the high end of the spectrum (easily manageable side of it), the fact that he kept at me today to get me to tell that joke tells me that he is quite an intuitive little guy. I am amazed every day I am with him - what he sees in this world, I'll never be able to see but I realize I don't have to, I'm just grateful that I'm his dad and that I have custody of him.

 

Too bad your schedule didn't allow for a visit to Bellingham. Woulda loved to have shown you a round. Another time perhaps.

 

How about a beer? On a (for Texas) cool day (low 70’s), this beer is righteous.



4.35/5 rDev +4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

The pour reveals a medium brown-colored beer, with the slightest tinges of red, very hazy, with a pillowy light tan head. I have never seen an IPA/DIPA like this - almost looks like a dubbel to me.

Aroma is just LOADED with spicy rye - but there’s a significant hop presence, too, with a dollop of passion fruit and resiny pine. I am officially now salivating.

The taste is split down the middle like the “I Love Lucy” episode where Ricky and Lucy put white (please tell me it was duct) tape down the middle of their apartment - on one side, there is this HUGE spicy, rye taste, and on the other side, there is this ginormous hop component filled with fruity, resiny hops. Magnificent.

This is exceptionally well-executed, IMHO.

 

Dark Horse/Three Floyds - Oil of Gladness

Big thanks to @Blackop555 for this one. I've been lookong forward to this since receiving it. Mostly because Ive never heard of a Black Barleywine. I was somewhat suspect of this being more of. Black IPA but I didnt find that to be the casr st all, great beer!


look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

A: dark brown, with a 1 finger off white cream colored head.

S: roasted malts, raisins, plums, black liquorice

T: earthy/piney hops are sharp up front but dont linger, a sweet plum/dark cherries take over, then a cocoa finish that leaves a lingering chocolate after taste. Faint notes of alcohol present.

M: rich full body, with a medium high carb. Feel is perfect for this beer.

O: A great high abv beer that doesnt quite fit the typical styles.

 

I hope all is well with you and your family!

 

What’s up BA? Hoping you are having a great Sunday. Getting a late start today.

I made a quick trip to Tuscaloosa yesterday for the Bama game, and spent today trying to play catch up around the house before heading back to work tomorrow.

My need beer comes from @Roguer ’s BIF box - Beer’d Dogs and Boats.

Notes below. This is an outstanding DIPA featuring Citra and Mosaic hops and one that would be a staple for me if I was it’s distribution area.





Poured from can dated 9/15/2017

A: Clear orange with one finger white head that settles reasonably quickly but leaves some nice lacing.

S: Pineapple, mango, passion fruit, and tangerines mixed with floral hops notes.

T: Nice punch of tropical citrus with pineapple, mango, passion fruit with hints of grapefruit rind. Alcohol is extremely well hidden.

M: Medium body and average carbonation. Soft texture and very easy drinking.

O: Citra and mosaic hops. What’s not to like? This is an outstanding DIPA and nicely executed.

 

Pours a very hazy yellow with a one inch sticky white head that leaves thick wall of lace as it slowly settles into a thin layer of white film. Weighing in at 7.77 % ABV and canned on 9/25/17. 4.25

Smell is coriander, orange peel, clove, toffee, hard apple candy, lemon drops, pine, and some grapefruit rind. 4

Taste follows coriander, clove, orange, toffee, pine, hard candy, lemon, and a subtle piney grapefruit finish. 4.25

Mouthfeel is on the larger side, plenty of prickly life, maybe a tad dry, and very drinkable. 4.25

Overall this is very nice, reminds me of a slightly tamer version of Flying Dog Raging Bitch. I will have no problem drinking the rest of these, a nice change of pace. 4

 

New Beer Sunday: An Oak-aged Vanilla Stout

Evenin’ NBSers with special salutations to you seekers of significantly strong stouts.

Well, after a few cool days, the weather here today was a bit warmer, cloudy and with temps near 70 (the cloudy is why the temps did not get up to around 80 as forecast). There have also been a few widely scattered showers that interrupted a few chores but not prevented their completion.

So this morning I peeked in and left a short joke. Now it’s time for the longer one. If you’ve ever worked in an organization where you were not the boss, I expect this one will resonate with a certain amount of truth.



One day a man is out for a bit of a walk in the fields when he sees a hot air balloon floating slowly along about 200 feet in the air. As the balloon drifts closer the man riding in the basket calls out to him, "Hello down there, do you happen to know where I am?"

The man on the ground thinks for a minute and calls back, "You're about 200 feet above the ground and floating South by SouthWest at about 3 miles per hour."

The man in the balloon replies, "You must be an engineer!" The guy on the ground, a bit surprised, says, "Now, how did you know that?" The fellow in the balloon says, "You've just given me a very detailed and precise answer that is totally unhelpful."

The man on the ground replies, "You must be a manager." The guy in the ballon calls back as he slowly drifts further away, "How did you know that?"

The Engineer replies, "You don't know how you got here. You don't know where you are. You don't know where you are going, and somehow you think it's my fault.".


Now on to this evening’s new beer, the Oak-Aged Vanilla World Wide Stout from Dogfish Head.

As usual my review, subject to revision until I finish the beer (and possibly with notes added from having the cellared bottles over the next few years), can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/64/268359/?ba=drtth#review

This is certainly a one a night beer that would also be perfect for sipping slowly on a cold night with a good book and an open fire.

There’s a lot going on in the aromas and flavors of this beer, especially as it warms, and there’s also quite a bit of complexity here this soon after bottling. Along with the vanilla there’s also some chocolate, dark fruit, licorice and some of the alcohol showing. For me the oak is not really showing much at all until the beer has warmed a lot but I won’t be surprised if it becomes more noticeable in future bottles with a bit of bottle age.

If my experience with the regular WWS holds this beer will improve in its complexity and the integration of flavors over the next few years. (And being of the curious sort I’ve put a few bottles in the basement to sit and wait patently for their turn at bat. )


Continuing my musical exploration of listening to Original Cast Recordings of American Musicals, tonight I’ve got Lenard Bernstein’s West Side Story on the player. Included in the original cast are Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert.

Tonight


Cheers, all!

 

Hermit Thrush Supah Phunk #6

Continuing with the 16oz cans, I think this brewery is new to my area. I know nothing about them.

This beer is advertised as a "sour saison." To me, it tastes like a gueuze... and a really nice one. Historic saisons are believed to be somewhat related to lambic, so I'm not claiming that this isn't a saison. It's actually much more enjoyable than the last gueuze I had from a traditional Belgian brewery because it's more balanced and deft.

The carbonation of this beer quickly dissipates. It is really well balanced for what it is (or isn't, considering I view it as essentially a lambic in everything but the name). Acid, earthiness, and malt are here for the party. This is a really interesting beer. I referenced the high price and marketing of this beer in @guinness77 's thread. @guinness77 , I forgot to tag you in the post for my second beer in this thread - an Interboro/Grimm pilsner.

 

I once got lost in the bookstore (according to my wife )

 

When we were first looking at possible day trips, I’ll admit I did check out where Billingham was. Seemed a little far north for this trip, but the way you talk about the scene there, I might take you up on the offer at a later date.



On to my next beer from @Lingenbrau. It is fresh hop season around here and we’ve had so many “fresh hop” versions of beers, it’s been a fun trip. It seems that the fresh hops we have had bring out the more floral and fruity aspects of the plant.

That would seem to hold true for Fort George Fresh IPA. This beer smelled awesomely floral and melon sweet from opening. Micro bubbles tickled my palate. The taste was muted until it warmed, when the mango, pineapple, and grapefruit came together for a mildly juicy, not very bitter, quite enjoyable quaff. This was a bit like a cleaner, clearer version of some low IBU IPAs I’ve gotten back home.

 

#2, I just enjoyed a DIPA that looked like a dubbel, now I’m enjoying a dubbel that looks like a stout. I love beer nerd logic.



4.09/5 rDev +8.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pour is nearly jet black, no leakage anywhere, with a frothy tan head. Aromas include stone fruit (heavy), some coffee, and the Belgian yeast.

The taste is an amalgamation of flavors: some coffee, more chocolate, a lot of dark fruit - and the savior, the funky Belgian yeast.

This is not a dubbell, this is not a stout. It is just a very good beer, IMHO.

 

Good evening, all, and Happy New Experimental Pale Ale Sunday! I'm spending a few days in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, visiting old friends and reminiscing about old times and such. Thinking back on my college years at tOSU reminds me of a story about a freshman at Harvard who was having a difficult time during his first day on campus. Struggling with an armload of books while trying to make sense of a campus map, he approached an upperclassman and asked in an exasperated voice, "Excuse me, sir. Could you please tell me where the library is at?" The upperclassman responded, "Here at Hahvahd, we nevah end a sentence with a preposition." The freshman asked, "Well, then, could you please tell me where the library is at, asshole?" I hope with every fiber of my being that this is a true story.

With that, I have chosen a hometown brew for today's festivities: Thunderlips, from Columbus Brewing Co. Tons of orange juicy deliciousness from start to finish. From the brewer's notes:

Say, I have an idea. How about a CBC-TG collab? Anybody?


4.35/5 (rDev +9%)
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Review here.

 

Coming back at ya with another new brew...

Stone's latest collab, this with Abnormal Beer Co. and homebrew competition winners, Paul Bischeri & Patrick Martinez... An 8.5% imperial stout, it features chocolate, vanilla, coffee, and strawberry, in an attempt to create a Neapolitan sundae of beer... Pours pitch black and produces a thick finger of dark foam; small motes of lace hung behind briefly on the glass... Aromas matching the ingredients all find their way to the nose, chocolate and coffee being at the fore, but perhaps no more so than many stouts would present anyway. The vanilla was more subtle, and the strawberry most faint. Much of the same can be said of the taste, although I was more aware of the berry elements on the finish. The drink was smooth and full-bodied, leaving a bit of stickiness in the corner of the mouth. The chocolate character was bittersweet, the sugars held in check by a bit of char and a drying finish... 8/25/17 bottling...

Cheers, folks...

 

Oh yeah, it's a five hour drive, under good conditions, from PDX. But, we're about 2 hours (depending on location and traffic) from Seatthole. Bolt Bus/Amtrak are the easy options.

 

My driving duties are done for the day, so let's not waste a second more and see what we have from the BIF box sent by @richj1970 -

Yellowhammer Barrel Aged Cherry Miracle Worker- a Belgian Tripel aged on cherries in red wine barrels.

Boy that's a mouthful! The beer, on the other hand, is more delicate than you'd expect. The cherry and wine barrel are subtle and well woven into the base beer, which is a Tripel first and foremost. This is my preference, to be able to appreciate the base beer while having the added extras function as accents.

So, yeah, it's strong and sweet at first, with the tell tale spicy yeast signature. But after a few sips it all comes into balance and focus, and feel drier on the palate. Also, normally one seems to expect a cherry flavor to be accompanied by a good dose of tartness, when you're getting the exact opposite here. So it's a touch jarring initially, but that quickly goes away as I'm starting to get a better read on things.

The nose has some cotton candy sweetness, spicy yeast, stone fruits (more plum than apricot), cookie dough, with the cherries and red wine/oak pulling up the rear. If it weren't for the sweetness here, I'd actually swear I'm smelling a Rose D'Anjou, as bright and affable as it is complex and vinous. A lot of the same flavors carry over, but the proportions change on the palate. Here the oak and red wine take the wheel, and really keep that sugar under control- a beautiful chorus of fruits (of which cherry is only there to add beautiful harmonies) and spices hit mid palate before finishing dry, toasty and vinous again. Some may dock points for not featuring the 'main ingredient' enough, but I can't see doing that myself seeing as how balanced and complementary everything works together. Very well done! A- (4.25)

Thanks again, Rich!

 

Well, what the hell? At 5;10/60 I'm finishing up yet another from @RedhawkPoke , a thoroughly enjoyable Pale Ale: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31393/167669/