New Beer Sunday (Week 663)

Don't forget about Sand City player. Callabo.

 

Good afternoon and happy New Bananas Sunday! Not only has it been bananas around home trying to clean up the fall season mess, but we decided to trek in the city instead of the forest this weekend.





But after fighting for some parking spots, and tirelessly shopping, it was time for a break. Breakside Brewery, that is.



Today's new beer for me was one I had to enter in the archives from the brewery who grace's the BA home page currently. This beer was the previous head brewers going away present to himself and the brewery. It was brewed with locally made chocolate, 400 lbs. of bananas, over $1,000 worth of pecans, and maple syrup aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels. It is phenomenal. Today's new beer for me...

Breakside Brewing-
Chunky Monkey



Chunky Monkey pours nearly black, but a deep roasted hazelnut brown beautifully shines in the light. A thin almost non-existent light tan head recedes but claims a nice foamy coastline around the glass.

As this was brewed with 400 lbs of banana, and quite a costly amount of pecans, they definitely strut around the nose. The Kentucky bourbon barrel aged maple syrup lends a nice and sweet balance to the roasted nuts, bitter chocolate, and coffee notes.

The flavor is wonderfully familiar and amazingly unique. All the same aromas come out wonderfully, while none overpower the other. The bourbon and oak are dialed back, the banana, chocolate, and nuts take front and center, and a sweet brown sugar and bitter roasted coffee seem to tie it all together.

The feel is a tad thin. Mild carbonation, a touch of booze, and a near perfect balance of sweet and bitter. The flavor of maple make me believe it's rich and syrupy, but it really is not.

This work of art fits somewhere in between an imperial brown ale and a stout. It's not an insanely rich beer, but blends notes from both families seamlessly. A real pleasure to drink, and a hell of a way for a brewer to leave his mark. Cheers!

My official review gives this a 4.45. No rDev.

 

Thanks! Yes, I plan to be here for 666, gods willing. Cheers!

 

Cool! Immediate refrigeration and not disturbing it may have been critical. Not sure how it drinks fresh but there is absolutely no indication that the ABV is 14.1%. Thus, it's dangerously delicious! Thanks again for making this possible.

 

Spending a dreary NBS in the shop with this little guy.

I haven't been imbibing much of late but this seemed like a perfect day to enjoy this
bottle that was given to me by none other than today's host back in June.

I have had a number of S'mores Stouts and this is the only one that has had a graham cracker character to it. I found that the spice built to a dominating level by the time I was into the second snifter but it is a good representation of of S'mores and has a rather enjoyable nose.

3.9/5 rDev -4.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

22 oz. bottle poured into a snifter.

It looks very deep brown with caramel brown edges along the glass. The tan head head is thick and foamy but settles down quick to just a ring with some slick lacing and a bit of swirling film on top. The head raises easily with a swish of the glass and leaves some thin brown coating on the glass.

The nose is strong and spicy, actually coming across as graham cracker. Along with a vanilla ice cream like note and a small underlying whiff of chocolate there is a pretty good likeness to s'mores. The taste closely resembles the nose and is dominated by the spicy character which builds to a tang at the finish. A little bit of alcohol taste but I don't get any bourbon flavor. Mouth feel is a little chalky with a medium body and is a little thinner than I'd like.

The spice was a bit much for me and it accumulated as I drank. Though all in all, still a nice treat.

Thanks to @cjgiant for the bottle, the fellowship and today's opening.

Cheers NBS!

 

Got one more new brew before swapping over to the stand-by beers in the fridge (Mocha Merlin and now Yuenling). This one was muled back on a bit of a whim from far away lands. While I've had some of this brewery's flagship hoppy beers, I'm excited to dive into something off the beaten path for a brewery powerhouse. Plus, I figured it's something I could split well with my pops. Onto beer.



Three Floyd's Robert the Bruce.

Pours a dark, deep burgundy with a finger of khaki head that retains fairly well. Good lacing starting from the very first sip. Aroma is malty, with sweet notes of caramel, and toffee smoothed out over oak. Toasted, biscuit, and earthen malts give it a solid foundation. Mouth feel is toffee, and caramel. It starts off just a tinge sweet, before the malts take over. Malts are caramel, biscuit, and toasted. Mouth feel is smooth, but not velvety. It looses that creamy feel to a touch of fizz. It has a medium thickness. Overall, a solid standard Scottish ale. Not overly sweet, nor is it dull.

Score: 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.75 | 4 | BA Score: 3.98 | rDev: +2.6%

 

One of my longest running bands I was in was named (Vlad and) The Impalers. That scene with him in his "garden" dipping bread in his victims blood was in one of album sleeves and on one of our t shirts. Good to see him getting some love in the brewing world too.

 

Happy NBS all. It just so happens that I bought today's beer on Friday and decided to wait until today to crack it, so I guess NBS at least partially has its hooks in me.

This week I've got a DIPA from Zero Gravity Brewery called Madonna. It clocks in at 8% ABV and a (these days) impressive 90 IBU. ZG is a brewery from Vermont that only recently started distributing to Massachusetts, and they have been a great addition. Their Green Street Lager is perhaps my favorite pilsner going right now, their single IPA (Conehead) is quite good, and they made a good Oktoberfest this year as well. Interestingly, they've stuck to 12 ounce six packs instead of going the 4 X 16 route, and their stuff is all very reasonably priced ($10 a six for everything but the DIPA) which is welcome in this area given how expensive things tend to be. Needless to say, I'm excited to try this one.



Out of the can it has a great nose that reminds me a lot of their single IPA in that it smells a lot like apricots, which is at least slightly off the beaten path from the more usual fruity smells. It pours a hazy, but not murky orange-y brown with a fluffy head that doesn't last that long and doesn't have much for legs. The taste is more of that apricot fruit flavor, but also a decent amount of the kind of sweet malt flavor I associate with older school DIPAs. It also has a fair amount of bitterness up front in the cheeks, but not nearly what one might expect from 90 IBUs. Just goes to show the gap there can be between measured and perceived bitterness. The aftertaste has less bitterness than I expected based on what came up front, and the fruit flavor veers a little towards a sort of over ripe stonefruit taste, but only a touch. Maybe just a hint of alcohol but that's the only indication of the ABV. Mouthfeel is more crisp than soft, would not be confused with a pure West Coast IPA.

Broadly speaking I'd put this in the Heady Topper category of beers that straddle the line between West Coast and NE style IPAs (which is my favorite spot on the spectrum). The fruity nose is all NE, but the bitterness and malt are more WC with the mouthfeel being somewhere in the middle. I like this beer but I'm not sure I love it. The finish is a bit round which, combined with the over ripe fruit note, doesn't make for the best aftertaste. So, not my favorite from Zero Gravity but not bad at all.

Cheers all! And I switched to using Imgur to post my images since I was having some problems with google, so if anyone can't see my picture I would appreciate it if they let me know.

 

Glad you enjoyed Tyler, thanks for the kind words! Love the old school AGE glass, I have that one too! Cheers!

 

I'm an old line ACC basketball fan, an ex college basketball player in a "lesser" conference, many moons ago. I hardly watch the games anymore. The league is insane and money is the main goal. I was a very good golfer, was completely addicted, but damned if it didn't rob time from my family and I rarely play these days. This is all part of maturing and finding what is most meaningful. I am not a veteran, but I have been in the social trenches all of my life. As a "partial" Quaker, I have learned that knowing others' shoes is endlessly instructive. On some Saturdays, I like to walk up to Guilford College, very close by and catch great live football from kids that are at the end of their playing days. This is real sport!

 

1st time with this very nice Stillwater There Goes the Day Time. Really dug this. Cheers!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22150/305192/?ba=cindyjeffsmith#review

 

If you get a chance to try Madonna on draft, DO IT. The cans are a pale comparison, honestly. I bought this last batch of cans and was so let down compared to prior experiences. I've had a pour from every batch of both can and draft of this beer and I probably won't buy cans again. Madonna on draft is so impossibly fruity and heavy but doesn't taste like malt at all.

I really like ZG but their cans are inconsistent at best. Many have that cardboard oxidization thing going on and very rarely do they compare to the drafts of the same beer. My favorite can is their Keller- maybe the 'cardboard' works with the style?

 

Happy New Pumpkin Ale Sunday!

I should have had this last week. Pretty nice day on the Western Slope, sunny, breezy, around 62 at the trailhead. Very tasty pumpkin ale, nice sweetness, definitely a nice purchase. Picked up some Asada Steak tacos, watching some NFL.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/132/74309/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Hey, I'm impressed with your 4.5. I'll look for this one. We get Against the Grain distro but I haven't seen this one yet.

 

Loved every bit of this post!
Well done Sir!

 

Thank goodness for NBS. It gives us beer guys something else to do!

 

I’ve never had an ipa quite like it before. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I still can’t believe how well it was put together. Cheers!

 

It's very coffee forward fresh with the barrel in the background and dangerously drinkable as well. There will be more!

 

Wow, that sounds so good! I like the taste of banana but have a weird allergy. Bananas make my throat itch. Oh well!