New Beer Sunday (Week 662)

New NEIPA Sunday (Week 662)
Greetings fellow NBSers from on the ridge in Mid Hud Val, NY.

Crappy weather with a flood watch and high wind warning through tomorrow. Glad I got to spend yday at a couple of great local breweries drinking some amazing brews. Rushing Duck opened their new much larger tap room, and what a turnout. It appears our best kept secret isn't a secret any more. Equilibrium is the other brewery I visited, and they already have a dedicated following made up of some of the most knowledgeable and generous folks in the beer community. Though the line gets long there is a bottle share area and it seriously is more like a party while you wait. Got today's beer at Equilibrium, called Fractal Ekuanot. Sorry, stock pic today, OTOH it saves you from my sucky photo skills.



It pours grapefruit juice with three fingers of thick off white foam. The glass gets wallpaper lace as the head kicks back. Excellent appearance for a NEIPA.

The aroma is an interesting combination of sweet citrus, bitter citrus pith, doughy sweet with crispier grain notes too, and faint but present scent of olives. Strange aroma, but by end of glass I have grown used to it.

The taste starts pleasantly doughy sweet, with sweet graperfruit and a general tropical taste joining in, followed by some righteous herbal bitter notes that get this "green" thing going on with them. Not olives, like the aroma hinted, more like green pepper flavor. Did my best to pick up the flavors my research on Ekuanot inidicated I might find, but no melon, no berry, and no papaya. It's a simple mix that somehow works with the bitter giving cover to the "vegetal" in a nice way.

Med. bodied for style, soft on palate, med./high carb. with a strange finish that succeeds despite its slightly green peppery herbal bitter linger.

Kinda liking this beer, but there is no doubt the same flavors of Ekuanot I disliked in other beers are present here as well. They are reined in nicely and this beer is kinda tasty. First time I can say that about a beer with this hop. YMMV

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

 

4 Fall Beers for Apple Picking… 2 New Carton, Shelter Island, Dupont

Uflaffen | Shelter Island Craft
4.5/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

This one-year old brewer calls this German IPA, which fits the style. It's one of the most exciting beers I have ever tasted out of 1000.

A: Hazy, opaque golden body that resolves into a cap and a bit of lace.
S: Orchard, fall fruits, ripening late season apples, hay, earth, fallen leaves, the sea, the fall beach.
T: On a Germanic, Munich malt backdrop rise all the flavors above via Bavarian hops... (Orchard, fall fruits, ripening late season apples, hay, earth, fallen leaves, the sea) resolving in a bitter, pungent, yeasty, cidery, drying finale.
F: Suitably bright and chalky. Clean, lean, cidery, cleansing finish. Great food beer.

I tried 8 of their beers in flights and settled on this one to take home with us. Great beer, great artisan brewer. Much to be said of a small batch, local, herbal, local ingredient, over infused craft brewer. A true confectioner, gardener and flower shop. Bravo.

Overall, this brewer packs its small batches with herbs, which are mostly native to Shelter Island, and seasonal. Fantastic tea-like brews to be found here along with good spirits, food, and craft.

Proud to be 2nd reviewer of this brew and this wonderful place.

NEW! Saison Dupont | Brasserie Dupont
4.4/5 rDev +5%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

a) Best looking beer in my tulip in a long time. Big rocky head over a cloudy golden body with champagne like bubbles.
s) As anticipated, fresh, yeasty, herbal, orchard, pear, apple. The financial ministers would be proud of this work.
t) Large herbal and orchard flowershop upfront, against tempering dry grain and tartness. Earth cellar, musty, chalky and fertile yeast, herbs in the finish.
f) Heaven. Clean, smooth and crisp. tickler.
o) One of the best beers in the world.

NEW! 07712 (Centennial) | Carton
4.2/5 rDev -1.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Enjoyed the newest of the O-Dub series. 07712 = Asbury Park.
a) Perfect sticky pour, lacing white spiderwebs over a persistent white head and a golden, clear body.
s) Big dank resins and tropical fruit over a core malt base.
t) Follows smell, Interesting see saw into dank, grassy, crisp finish.
f) Med bodied and carbonation - good feel, leaves you in a great balanced place.

NEW! Harvest 2017 EXP. #07270 | Carton
4.1/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
On Cask at the brewer, pleased to write brief review of this nutty, fecund, ample harvest ale.

a) Lots of lace and stickage coat my glass as the golden, clear liquid draws down.

s) spicy rye, bright hops, grassy and nutty texture.

t) follows smell - with elite, bright, fresh grassy, nutty, piney hop notes prevailing over the malt pale base.

f) Smooth, clean, good food beer. (I wish it was for sale - not so today on 10-28-17.)

o) Compared well with today's 07712 and Shipwreck Porter - all great 4+ beers.

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! Most of my reading these days is YA lit, due to teaching 13 year olds and all. Aimee Bender is one author I've been reading a lot of. Targeted to teenagers, yes, but I get a lot out of reading her work too.

Onto my first of several new beers today!

JC from Trillium - The Veil
Ddh DIPA - 8.5% abv
Canned 10/10/17 (19 days ago)
Score: 4.25 (+1.4% rDev)



L - 1.5 finger dirty white head slowly recedes from the center outwards, leaving lots of sticky lacing. Body is a muddy orange. Definitely not the prettiest looking ipa.

S - grapefruit, orange, pine, booze.

T - citrus at first. Piney in the middle. Some earthiness (dirt?) on the back end. Mildly bitter. There's a lot going on here!

F - Medium body and carb.

O - If I had tasted this blind, I wouldn't have guessed it was a ddh brew. Maybe the extra hop treatments have already faded at 3 weeks? Still, it's a smooth, delicious glass of juice.

 

Look into your local library to see if they offer loans of digital copies of books. The NYC library system has it, with a huge variety of books on offer. It's run through the Overdrive app/website, allowing you to "recommend" books that aren't available. My parents in Florida have the same system available, so hopefully it's an option for you as well!

I will try and get back here later on with a review or two, but as I have my girlfriend's aunt visiting, I may not be able to. Happy NBS everyone!

 

Happy New Beer Sunday everyone. Today I am drinking a Weizenbier from Schlössle:



The apperance is a hazy dark orange / light brown with an off-white head.

The aroma is a mix between citrus fruits, banana, clove, wheat and some creamy yeast.

The taste is quite herbal, peppery and citrusy at first. Afterwards the banana and cream flavor seems to dominate and balance out the pepper and citrus from before.

The mouth feel is quite full and heavy.

Overall it is a solid Weizen. It is extremely filling and I couldn't imagine drinking more than one or two of them. The flavor is consistent with typical Weizen flavors and is well balanced and enjoyable. Hopefully everyone is able to enjoy a new beer on this fine Sunday!

 

Howdy, NBSers!

A little cold snap came through the Brazos Valley late this week, even getting below my bougainvillea comfort-zone rule of 40 degrees at night, so I hauled in the boogies for a few hours after the late shifts Friday and Saturday just to be safe. I've had two of the bougainvilleas for going on three years, the third for two years, and I feel pot committed about their livelihood.

Earlier this morning after finishing the late shift, I cracked open one of several new beers I hauled back from Houston recently:


J.W. Lees Harvest Ale barleywine matured in Lagavulin whisky casks (2014 vintage)

Because I'm slow-witted and don't read closely enough, I'd always thought these J.W. Lees barrel-aged beers were stouts, so I'm not gonna lie: It was a bit disappointing learning this Lagavulin nectar was a barleywine. But with an open mind and willing heart, I poured this one ready for unsafe levels of malt, and that's mostly what I got. Off the pour you smell a ton of boozy alcohol ... sharp, stinging stuff that did have a slightly peaty/seawatery note of Lagavulin. But as soon as that disappeared, it was all caramel, dried peach/apricot and fruit cake. Only if you dig deep do you get some of that whisky sting.

The flavor was similar. The first sip had some whisky to it, but after that it was mostly sugary sweet malt syrup, caramel, toffee, fruitcake, peach and apricot. Occasionally a smoked-malt note creeps in, similar to a good rauchbier, but it flies away as quickly as it appears.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/178/25061/?ba=Premo88#review
3.9 (-1% rDev)

It's a good barleywine so far as I understand the style. As barrel-aged beers go, it's so-so at best. Lagavulin is a close friend of mine, so I was really hoping for a reunion, but there's very little Lagavulin character in this beer. The load of malt is so huge it would take pouring actual whisky into the beer to get it to produce some of that great peaty Islay seawater flavor.

Damn ... now I want some single-malt scotch. Maybe later this winter.

@lordofthewiens' great opening hits very close to home. As a lifelong English major geek, my house is one pile of books after another. I don't read as much as I'd like to, at least 10 but rarely more than 30 books a year, but I am always reading. Evelyn Waugh, Kurt Vonnegut and P.G. Wodehouse are favorites along with Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and I stick mostly to fiction, be it prose, verse or drama (I love reading plays). David Foster Wallace's _Infinite Jest_ is surely the best thing I've ever read, though Faulkner's _The Sound and the Fury_ and Cormac McCarthy's _Blood Meridian_ aren't far behind. Vonnegut's _Cat's Cradle_ as much as any other work made me want to be a novelist, and Hemingway's _The Sun Also Rises_ so fit that category for me that I used to read it once a year.

Hope everyone is doing well and gets a good one in their glass today (some of you already have, so good for you!).

Cheers!

 

DIPA collab between Other Half in Brooklyn and Bellwoods in Toronto...

9/28/17 canning... I'm assuming the "highballer" part is a reference to the mixed drink, which can take many forms, wherein a liquor is mixed with something non-alcoholic in a tall glass over ice... This particular 8.2% abv beer features the inclusion of pink guava, hibiscus and lime zest, and Citra and Kohatu hops...

Not bad - certainly zesty enough, with ample citrus, floral, and herbal components, it does indeed remind me of elements which may be present in a mixed drink... Moderately bitter, mildly sweet, and a medium-light-body with ample carbonation... Refreshing and crisp, tangy and bright... A nice beer, and one of maybe 3 beers I've had that sought to mimic some characteristics of a mixed drink, but maybe that's not quite what I'm usually looking for in a beer...

Not a strong new beer start for me, BA - kinda middling to be fair - but I feel like I'm poised to turn a corner in short order... Cheers...

 

Thanks for the tip! Depending on the weather, we'll either go due north and then cut across the UP or if it's snowy, east to MS and AL before heading north. However, the next drive down I'm planning to take more time and hit some breweries on the way south.

 

I am loathe to admit this. I read much less than in the past. I have been picking up, and putting down, Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin for the whole of this year. I'm not even half way through it. The irony of this is I am a preacher of reading, but I don't listen to my own sermon. I work with children on the mechanics of decoding at the lower levels, and how to read for depth as they move up in their abilities. I am so damn busy, as well as not making the right choices about prioritizing my time, that I read mainly news in quick snippets.
Thankfully, I do feel like I get some quality reading in from much of the NBS crew.
Great start @lordofthewiens

 

New beer #2.

Aslin - Computer Machine
IPA - 6.7% abv
Canned 10/3/17 (26 days ago)
Score: 3.82 (-7.1% rDev)



L - 1-finger offwhite head disappears in less than a minute, leaving no lacing. Medium orange body.

S - candied orange, booze. The nose is quite faint on this one.

T - blue cheese on the front. Was not expecting that! Some citrus. Barely any bitterness. Finishes dry.

F - Medium body and carb.

O - I haven't looked at the other reviews yet, but guessing this is a polarizing beer. I don't mind cheesy hops, so this works for me, but it's an odd duck.

 

My open heart surgery was six weeks ago and I have been on the fast track of recovery. I am very pleased at my progress. I'm walking, moving, and generally feeling pretty good. Since I am on a number of prescription drugs I have to limit the amount of alcohol I drink. I can have basically two beers a day. I guess that is better than none. And I have been really good at sticking to those restrictions.

But I wanted to introduce you to a brand new beer from Shipyard of Portland, Maine. This is their take on the New England IPA called Finder. Mine was canned on 10/12/17 so it is only a few weeks old and that makes it very new for New Beer Sunday. I did not have to add it to the BA database but I uploaded a photo to its page today. You're welcome.

It is 6.4 ABV and 55 IBU. Hazy, cloudy orange-amber pour. Big esters of grapefruit, tropical fruit, citrus, and a muted white bread character. Medium to full body yet smooth. The taste has the same characters suggested in the nose but the bitterness at the end is quite pungent and powerful. Feels bigger than 55 IBU. Cheers all.

 

Happy New Beer Sunday!
I'm trying a new beer from a brewery that has only recently hit distribution in my area.

Official review:
12oz bottle marked vintage 2017 poured into a Duvel glass at fridge temp, no ABV listed on bottle. The beer pours a medium reddish brown with thick, very light brown head and quite a bit of snow globe floaties. The head recedes slowly to a ring and thin cap with some nice lacing. The aroma is whiskey first with some vanilla, caramel and oak present as well. The taste is smooth burnt sugar and offsetting bitterness than melts away to flavors of oak, vanilla, caramel and whiskey. Very nice and unexpectedly complex flavors at this price point. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, lowly carbonated and mostly dry. The floaties are not the distraction I thought they might be. No noticeable booze in the aroma or taste. Very pleasant warmth while drinking.
Overall, excellent. Worth a try if you enjoy complex tastes over a beer that tastes like a boilermaker.

I can see now why Central Waters beers are a staple of WBAYDN. This won't be my last. Cheers!

 

Great thread, love reading it on a Sunday; Today, I've got nothing. I'm making some kind of crazy sausage, potato, cabbage soup my wife found somewhere. Supposed to be like a stuffed cabbage I suppose, and sucking down a Stone Enjoy By. Kickoff time, go Eagles.

 

I am teaching two calculus-based physics courses this year after a very long hiatus from that level so nearly all of my reading is not-so-fun. This brew is fun.

Saison Dupont Cuvee Dry Hopping 2016 (Brewer's Gold)
-hazy to cloudy amber bottle pour with 2cm of foam. There is some citrus and a touch of pepper in the nose. The flavor is delicate and complex. There is some lemon, some berry and the spice note is oaky even though this is not barrel-aged. The saison yeast flavor persists through a dry finish.
This is always a special brew and I will try the Brewer's Gold hop variety in a future brew session.

 

Happy New Beer Saraunacday (Week 662)!

I often hear/read the snarky comment, "How is/did that working/work out for you?" suggesting failure on the part of the person being questioned. In the case of my Happy New Beer Saraunacday (Week 661), it worked out swimmingly, thank you very much! I plowed through a backlog of bottles, concentrating on Lagers, before I ran out of steam & time. When I bowed out for the day, I had just begun the transition to Ales & so that is where I am picking up today.

As to one's reading habits, I have been an avid, literally lifelong reader as my parents tell me that I began reading road signs at age two & I am rarely seen without a book. I like the tactile feel of paper so I do not envision myself with a Kindle and my genre of choice is mystery/crime/noir/police procedural fiction. You may take note of my pseudo-Great Uncle Raymond woven into my avatar. My late Pops was the one who put me onto these types of books & he always had a paperback with some lurid damsel in distress in his lunchbox as he rode his bike to his factory job at ALCOA.

Currently, I am less involved with particular authors as I am with imprints. Hard Case Crime, Akashic Books' "Noir" series & SoHo Crime are my current go-tos with the latter bringing me Martin Limon's Sgts. Sueno & Bascomb, a series set on South Korea Army compounds in the 1970s. As a US Navy retiree, I find him to be a fascinating read. Hard Case Crime not only reprints long out-of-print books, but also gives current writers a chance & all with cover paintings commissioned specifically for that book! I would love to own an original. Finally, the Noir series is a collection of short stories, each set in a specific worldwide (!) locale & curated by a well-known author from that region. Cant' afford to travel? Pick up one of these volumes!

Speaking of picking up, as I said, I am picking up today where I left off a week ago, beginning with: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/264149/?ba=woodychandler#review


Straight outta Bizarro World, that one! Okay, kids, it's break time. I still have (at least) one more Saranac to go & then we shall see where the long, winding, strange, narrow trip down the path takes me.

 

Five Leaves Left (i) from Tired Hands...

Brewed with Mosaic hops and corn sugar and oats... 8% abv... Medium gold and opaque like juice; finger of white head left some lace lines behind... 10/04/17 canning... Immediate impression was sweet tea, then fruit, then fruity tea... Sweetness exceeds the bitterness, soft and smooth, medium-light feel... Decent, but not exceptional; far from my favorite vehicle for Mosaic hops, and the adjunct aspect might be dragging it down...

Damn, thought this was going to be the first stunner of the day...

Hey, at least the Vikes won...

 

Industrial Arts Wrench

Afternoon, BAs. Gotta be honest. Work and home life have gotten in the way of my drinking lately -- let alone reading. In my early 20s, I'd average a book a day. In recent years, I'll read a few books between Christmas and New Years, and then maybe a few more over the course of the entire year.

Anyhoo... Today's first new beer comes to me courtesy of @TongoRad. I've been lucky enough to try a few beers from Industrial Arts thanks to the generosity of several great Beer Advocates. Aside from a schwarzbier collaboration that I loved, I've found their IPAs to be more malty, earthy and English-style than I had expected.

Billed specifically as an NEIPA, Wrench is the one I've been most interested in trying. Let's see how it goes...

It pours coudy light orange with three fingers of near white head. The head leaves heavy, soapy lacing. Definitely looks the part.

Delicious aroma of peach skins, tangerines and white wine grapes.

White wine, melon and more peach skin show in the taste with a lingering moderate bitterness. There's also an herbal note, that lends a distant burnt toast character. Semi-dry finish.

Dense, fluffy mouthfeel with strong carbonation that adds a prickliness to the mix.

As far as hoppy beers go, this is best one I've had from these guys. Just a notch or two below Trillium in terms of what a NEIPA should be. Thanks again, Michael.

Go Eagles.

 

Good morning NBS! Nice intro as always. Can't say I'm much of a reader, probably haven't leisurely read a book in 5 years but I do love reading. I'll get back into it again eventually. I'm an all or nothing type of guy so I'll read a book in two days or just not read at all. Dunno how people can just read a few chapters a day. Anyway looks to be a lazy day of watching football and eating unhealthy food which is just fine by me. Oh yeah and drinking beer too!

Thanks goes to @SammyJaxxxx for sending this for the most recent NBS BIF. Long time want. On to the review!

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12oz bottle poured into a Teku glass. Bottled 2/11/16 so about a year and a half old.

Pours pitch black with a nice mocha colored head that is about a finger length. Some lacing and a little ring of foam lingers around the edge of the glass.

Aromas of sweet bourbon and vanilla. Maybe a hint of coffee. Surprisingly a really subtle nose. Not very inviting.

Taste has more going on. Roasted malt, vanilla bean, bourbon, lactose, chocolate, marshmallow, and a nice fudgy molasses type of flavor. Not as much coffee as I expected but it's still there in the background.

Feel is solid. Viscous, thick and chewy.

Overall a really nice beer! Would really like to try it fresh as I think it may have a bit more going on. Still an excellent offering.

4.33/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

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Cheers all!

 

It's so refreshing to run across shops that truly go out of their way to help out every customer not just their best. I was visiting a store near my parents (since they deserve the shout out it's Wine & Brew Emporium in Columbus, OH) that I stop by almost every time I'm in Columbus but by no means am I a regular. The only employee there sees me grabbing a few Jackie O's bottles and says "If you like Jackie O's, we have Champion Ground in, make sure to grab a bottle" and shows me where it is on a 'featured' rack right near the front door as opposed to the others where I was. Nothing behind the counter here, their best as soon as you walk in. Thanks, man - I totally would have missed this beauty otherwise.



This is everything Jackie O's does well in a bottle. Quality, locally roasted coffee, a well-made underlying stout and quality bourbon barrels. The only thing I didn't like about it was the lack of head. Overall pitch black but just the liquid is in the snifter, nothing on top. The nose jumps out immediately full of fresh espresso, vanilla, roasted malt, toffee and more. The flavors match in type, quality and intensity. Full-bodied but not boozy, it has to be to pack so much in. I've written my review and typed this whole post up and have well over half the bottle left it would be a disservice to the beer to not sip it so slowly and savor it. Well deserved of its overall high average (4.49). Jackie O's I applaud you for providing me nothing but satisfaction yet again.

Cheers!