New Beer Sunday (Week 661)

Isn't that nice we had the same beer. Cheers!

 

Now that's my kinda joke! Love the beer review, as always, too - Cheers!

 

A little background on that beer:
Poperinge is an area in Belgium near the French border that is known for hop growing (where the hops used in the beer are grown), and Hommel=Humulus=hops. At the risk of throwing a hand grenade into NBS, that beer came in #24 (Heady Topper came in at #25) on a 2013 list of the best IPAs as chosen by a group of beer industry folks:
https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nat...s-chosen-by-a-hopped-up-panel-of-beer-writers

 

Urban Family's Blind Tyger, a farmhouse ale with juniper berries - -hazy to cloudy yellow bottle pour with a 2 cm sticky foam cap. Aroma is lemony with sour-funk notes. The mouthfeel is wet with citrus, melon and and some bubblegum flavors. The tartness is minimal, but there is a farmhouse presence. I do not detect the juniper, but this is a refreshing and interesting brew. I hope to find more offerings from Urban Family (before my yearly Pacific NW trip).

 

A-A very dark black color with no head and lacing.
S-Coffee smells stands out.
T-The taste follows the smell with a nice coffee flavor.
M-A light bodied smooth drinking beer.
O-A nice morning beer with a gentle character.


J-Q: What is a man's idea of a balanced diet?
A: A beer in each hand!

 

Hopefully, when BA re-works the styles they lean heavily on the experience of those like @drtth, @cjgiant, @lordofthewiens, @utopiajane, @JackHorzempa, and others who are old-hands on BA, have a lot of beer knowledge, and surely would have some great input.

 

It is hoppy at least by Belgian standards. Thanks for the interesting link.

 

An Amber Kellerbier. My limited understanding is this style represents local ingredients, is lagered fairly quickly and kegged before clearing to pale, and thus presents best fresh, on tap; and bottled it loses some of its flavor - oh, well, I've got what I've got so let's dive in!

Brauerei C. A. Veltins, Meschede - Grevenstein, Germany "Grevensteiner Original (Naturtrubes-Landbier)":

Pours an amber/auburn color (12) with off white, four fingers of creamy, tight head; long lasting cap; heavy, clinging lace; good clarity. 4.75



Aromas of baked bread with very lite floral/spicy hops. 4.0

Bread, biscuit, cracker and grainy malt base; toasted white bread; hint of bitter, spicy hops. 4.25

Medium full body; moderate plus carbonation; slightly dry, leaning toward crisp, but still a bready mouthfeel. 4.0

Overall, a lovely bready yeasty finish; quite enjoyable from the bottle...makes me wonder how much better this style will taste when, hopefully, I can experience fresh on tap. 4.0

Prost!

 

A-A very inviting darkness color with a slight head and copious amount of lacing.
S-Very nice balance of Bourbon, cinnamon, cayenne and cocoa.
T-The taste follows the smell with a very flavorful bourbon accent, and a very nice balance of cinnamon, cayenne and cocoa.
M-A medium bodied, very smooth drinking and very tasty beer.
O-They did a very nice job with this beer as the balance of all the spices and bourbon combine in a very smooth manner.


J-A bee goes into a bar, It comes out 2 hours later buzzing

 

No one got hurt, seems like a simple harmless mistake! Interesting to see two NBS threads...

 

Good morning. Realizing I've had a bit of a hiatus in this particular thread, I must apologize. Especially since I've been sitting on some terrific beer. Travel hockey has taken me from this forum, but has also placed me in locales where I can grab beer as well.

Having picture posting issues, so....

Toppling Goliath Supa' Sumo

4.41/5 rDev -2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

One of the more nose bracingly powerful beers I've had in a while. Even having been decanted at a temperature normally too chilly to produce much aroma, this one has a ton of earthy, vegetal, wild onion smells wafting about. Taste has the same markers in it's blitzkrieg, but add in a hint of pine and orange peel to that earthy, veggie soup. A particularly mealy finish serves as proof of a malt bill that is minimally, struggling for attention, but in reality it is giving way a nice walkway for a spicy, slightly hot finish. After taste tries to lay a foundation of sweetness, but falls short as the earthy bitterness really takes root. This hazy beer is not for the unitiated, as it takes a real fan of today's IPAs to really appreciate every characteristic of this beer that has elements of earthy funk, citrus and onion.

 

Steamworks Kolsch

Confusingly, this isn't the Steamworks in Colorado, but rather, Canada. I had their pilsner years ago. They are supposedly the only steam powered brewery in Canada.

malts - Pilsner, Carapils, Wheat
hops - Magnum, Tettnang, Celeia

For a North American "Kolsch," if this beer is trying to emulate the Germans, then they are doing a pretty good job. It succeeds as imitation rather than distinction (which isn't a bad thing). In today's market, perhaps imitation is it's own distinction. It's a very pleasing to look at pale gold. When cold, there's some lemon flavor. As it warms (or as I got used to it), the noble hop character stops being simply a balancing act and comes out to the front slightly. I like some malt character in a Kolsch, and this beer doesn't really provide anything exceptional on that front (but it's a rare quality anyway).

Overall, my first impressions of this are that it's a really nice job... but if I get a second impression, I might change my mind. I had a Port City beer for NBS two weeks ago, and I liked it a lot so I decided to pick up a second bottle. I disliked the second bottle although much of my impression was the same. My mood and whatever else I drink on a given day can really change my like for something. Cheers.

 

Hope your Sunday is going well and there is a great beer in your glass.

Today’s new beer comes to me via the NBS BIF courtesy of @Roguer - Beer’d Roulette aged in port wine barrels.

Full disclosure, I enjoyed this on Friday night, but wanted to highlight it here today. He sent me some mystery beers yesterday, so I will be back later with at least one of them.

This is a very interesting stout. I was a little underwhelmed by the aroma, but the flavors are extremely complex. The wine barrel aging seems to have smoothed out the bitterness of the roasted malts.

Mouthfeel is spot on, and is very easy drinking for an 8.5% stout.

Highly recommended.





Poured from 22 oz bomber. Numbered 1537 of 1624.

A: Very dark brown almost black with one finger mocha head that settles to a thin cap and leaving some nice lacing.

S: Roasted malts, coffee, vanilla, and red wine. Fairly light aroma.

T: Bold roasted malts, coffee, vanilla, and sweet red wine. Some dark fruits. Bits of oak and tobacco from the barrel. Some real complexity here, but very smooth and easy drinking at the same time.

M: Full bodied with light carbonation. Alcohol is well hidden. Finish is fairly dry.

O: Excellent stout. So far everything I’ve tried from Beer’d has been a winner.

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! I was lucky enough to be visiting Boston the day a new Trillium collab IPA was released, so I'm super-excited to try this one. Never had a Trillium collab before...I hear the results tend to be mixed on these things.

Trillium - High Fashion
(Collab with Cloudwater Brewing)
DIPA - 9% abv
Canned 10/12/17 (10 days ago)
Score: 4.52 (rDev +1.6%)



L - vigorous pour leaves only a trace of a head, which disappears in a flash. Orange juice body. This looks like Sunny D! Better hide it from the kids.

S - orange, grapefruit, a hint of booze.

T - follows the nose. This is up there with Master of Oranges as the most orange-tasting beer ever. Moderate bitterness creeps in at the end.

F - very full body for an ipa. Only the tiniest hint of carbonation.

O - If you like your ipas to drink like adult orange juice, this beer fits the bill. Personally I love it, and am amazed at the end result here without any actual fruit added. This collab worked out!

 

Happy New Beer Saraunacday (Week 661), Part II!

This is turning into a much bigger & better celebration than I had envisioned! Old friends are surfacing & I am really digging on all of these Lagers. Yes, I am an unabashed, self-avowed, self-described hophead who craves AIPAs, DIPAs, TIPAs, EIPAs & all of the other variations on that lupulin-driven theme, but at the same time, I like drinking Lagers. It is the German heritage in me, borne of a mother with a maiden surname of Kirsch from the Alsace-Lorraine area & a paternal grandmother whose maiden surname was Fryburger. Nick Fury used to refer to Germans as "Lager Lappers" in the comic books of my youth, but I will lap a Lager with the best of them.

My second beer of the day was:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/291168/?ba=woodychandler#review


so I just kept up the trend & went with:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/265214/?ba=woodychandler#review


So many Lagers, so little time. Oh, wait! I have all day to run through these!

 

It is nice & I'd be curious to know how to score a CAN of my own! It isn't like yinz are next door to one another, 'n' 'at.

 

No harm done, love the enthusiasm and glad the mods didn’t decide to delete the work that went into your original review.

 

My first NBS entry today is a beer I picked up on a quick columbus day weekend trip into Ohio. It is my first by these brewers and my first from the great state of Indiana.



Space Station: Middle Finger

3 Floyds Brewing Co.
American Pale Ale (APA) / 6.00% ABV

3.98/5 rDev -4.6% | Score: 4.17
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Bottled 09-25-17

L- The beer pours a slightly hazy golden orange. The head is robust 2 and a half fingers of off white. The head recedes to a large island and the lacing is excellent.
S-The nose is dominated by a sweet citrus of moderate strength.
T-Like the nose the citrus is the dominant aspect. The sweetness in the nose is nicely balanced with a moderate piney bitterness.
F- The mouthfeel is slick and medium overall allowing the flavors to linger on the tongue long after the swallow.
O-The beer isn't overly complex or intense in flavor, but it is very drinkable and enjoyable. I'd happily purchase it again.