New Beer Sunday (Week 665)

The building itself is why the Mills River tour is better than the one in Chico. The Chico building has been expanded and added onto over the years so it's not as impressive as the one in Mills River. Expect for the Tap Room and gift shop Mills River is a machine. Water and grain enter at one end and kegged, bottled and canned beer come out the other.

 

Did you notice they re-purposed barrel staves for wall ornamentation in both the tap room and the tasting facility that is part of the guided tour? This is just one example of the attention to detail they expended on the architecture/construction of this facility. Before the tour even started the tour guide stated he could not answer the question on how much this facility costed to build; the Grossmans will not share this information.

Cheers!

 

Beer number 3 is not from the latest round of the NBS BIF, but round #5. @Harrison8 sent this in a thank you box. Martin Coffee Cowboy (have to add Sucks to the end for tonight game). It is a Scottish Ale Aged in Scotch barrels with coffee. It is a good beer, definitely if you enjoy smoky beers. The beer itself definitely doesn’t suck, just the team from Dallas that I have never liked!

4.06/5 rDev +2.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thank you Harrison8 for this
12 oz can poured into a tulip

A- A very dark brown, a little murky, with a two finger tan head.

S- Smoky, peat, toffee, roasted coffee, oak, some scotch.

T- Smoky, dark fruits, peat, some oak, touch of toffee, some roasted coffee, some scotch.

M- Smooth, medium to full body.

O- A solid barrel aged beer, just wish the toffee in the nose came out more in the taste to peatiness/smokiness of this beer. Coffee is also pretty mild in this beer, but I’m willing to give that a pass given the style.

This a great sipper for the cold weather, cheers!

 

Boon Vat 108 Mono Blend. Part of a 4-pack. I wonder if I can discern any credible differences from the other 3 vats in the box?

I picked up a box with 4 different vats. ~US $43. Best 12 20 2036. Lots of bubble action going on in this hazy orange coloured brew. Excellent head of foam, excellent lacing. Smells of vinous tartness, fruity, some Brett, woody. I love taking whiff after whiff. Great level of tartness. Vinous,fruity, Brett character mid palate, wood, just outstanding and quite the comfort Lambic. Light bodied with lively carbonation. So good. Brewed 02/15/2015, bottled 12/20/2016. Love that info and the beer.

 

Good afternoon NBS!

There aren't many beer drinkers in my family, so I have a couple of friends that I can hang out with here and there to enjoy beer with. Otherwise, I'm fortunate to have a wife who understands my beer hobby to the point that she will try to find good beers for me for my birthday and Christmas (she loves being able to look up Beer Advocate scores), and will go with me to releases, mostly because she loves checking out the food trucks and enjoying the social aspect of beer.

Anyways, getting in the nice holiday beer now as I'll be going dry for Thanksgiving. Have a relative visiting that is an alcoholic and refuses to get treatment for it, so I don't want to leave out any temptation for them. Ah well, just means a good bottle today

Today's offering is Brother's Craft Brewing Resolute, a barrel aged imperial Russian stout. Just released yesterday, they had a pretty smooth release. Put out numbered wristbands, called up people in lots of fifty, and actively ensured that there was no line jumping. Tons of beer to drink, including some awesome guest taps. Just a damned good release party.

Pours a deep black color with a light tan head that faded away to virtually nothing save for a tiny ring around the glass. Smell is roasted malts, bourbon, oak, and dark fruit. Taste is dark fruit at first, fades into some vanilla, bourbon, a little dark chocolate, and a hint of coffee towards the end. Medium to medium-heavy body, hint of alcohol throughout. Slightly sweet finish. Overall, very nice BA stout, like the dark fruit flavors.

 

Cheers, man. Glad you're enjoying it. I'm not a huge fan of smoke or peat, but I actually rather enjoyed that one. I think I still have one or two in the cellar too

 

New beer #4. Pissed that it took almost 2 months for this to hit shelves here (ugh @sierranevadabill ), but it's still a damn fine ipa.

Holiday Haze - Sierra Nevada
IPA - 6.5% abv
Bottled 9/26/17 (54 days ago)
Score: 3.93 (+0.3% rDev)



L - 2-finger offwhite head atop a yellow body. Looks like a typical SN IPA. Not seeing any Haze.

S - citrus hops, pine, some booze.

T - sweet orange at first. Very smooth middle. Very low bitterness.

F - Medium body and carb.

O - Not your typical SN IPA, apart from the appearance. It's lacking somewhat in flavor, but damn does this go down easy. A dangerous concoction.

 

Greetings NBS faithful and thank you to @cjgiant on setting the table for the Thanksgiving edition. The holiday has been hosted by my brother since our mother passed away years ago. The crowd ebbs and flows from year to year and is made up of macro drinkers, with my brother in law being the lone exception. My brother appreciates craft, but quite frankly is just interested in getting a cheap buzz on. To each their own, I'm not a zealot. I'll gladly share anything I have with anyone that wants a sample and let them decide for themselves. I'll answer any questions and leave it at that.

It's time for a beer now after a cold four mile run and some Christmas decorating. I'm leading off with something from a brewery I've posted here before. Any guesses? My Friday stop at my local store produced another fresh drop from 450 North Brewing of Columbus IN. It's a pint can of Crystal Vision DIPA with an abv. of 8.0%. The sticker on the plastic holder was stamped 11/01 and I'm serving this in a 12 oz. tulip for the unveiling.

Pours a moderately hazy yellow generating a small finger of creamy white foam that gradually falls revealing thick lacing. The smell is sweet mango, orange slice, pineapple and grapefruit. Taste is juicy mango, pineapple, orange slice, grapefruit and a little floral in the finish. The feel is incredibly soft to the point of cotton candy with a dry finish.

They may not be the best at the NE style yet, but their beer is pretty damn good. This one isn't a citrus fruit bomb, but it has enough to make it interesting and is super drinkable for an 8.0% beer. My score is 4.05 and I'll continue to support this brewery as long as they keep sending fresh beer up north.

Time to settle back and watch the second half of the Bears-Lions game. The Bears are once again in Christmas mode wrapping another gift for the opposition. Have a great day of new beer adventures! Here's the official verbiage......

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35021/312751/?ba=Prager62#review

 

An American style IPA from one of my favorite brewers here - "Na Terra Dos Xigantes" from Jakobsland Brewers, Santiago De Compostela, Spain:



Burst of pineapple aroma upon opening. Citrus and floral hops nose. Bitter lemon zest, pineapple, green grass, mango, and guava flavors. Almost juicy. Long light bitter citrus rind linger. 7.2% and 65 IBUs. Hops = Chinook, Centennial,Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo, and Hallertau Blanc. Great stuff! "This IPA was made for Giants."

 

So I forgot to answer the question. I have converted or incouraged many over the years friends and family into craft beer over the years. My bother, brother in-law, and father have been chugging NEDIPAs like it was a job lately, still working on turning them to the dark side. They are helping to keep the local IPAs fresh and that is good for everyone.

Pours a beautiful dark cloudy orange with a huge 3 plus finger stick white head that leaves thick webs of lace behind. 4.5

Smell is guava, papaya, apricot, tangerine, pine, and grapefruit rind. 4.25

Taste follows loads of tropical fruit start to finish, guava, papaya, apricot, and a piney grapefruit finish that is very well balanced. 4.25

Mouthfeel is a little bigger than medium, plenty of prickly carbonation, not dry at all, and incredible drinkability. 4.5

Overall this is a excellent beer and it was canned on 9/4/17, if I get a fresher can I will go back and adjust the score. Really a stellar beer either way. 4.25

 

Hey what's going on!?

Hope all is well, I've been a little absent and getting back into the beer drinking things a bit more of late. I was away for a bit after dealing with a few things.

I've been diagnosed with Lyme disease.

I am doing much better now, but for a bit there I wasn't sure about the course of action and I was avoiding drinking on my medication. After some consultation it turns out that it's ok, although I am drinking a bit less than usual.. but not much.

Man I got to tell you I really missed beer! I had lots of good stuff just waiting to dive into then I basically got slammed.

In the interim things are going well, and I am diving back into my little small stash. I was thinking I would be up to my personal 4000th "ish" review by now, but then I had more important things to take care of (like my physical well being for one).

That review I am eyeballing for something nice perhaps, but it all depends. Timing is working pretty good on that but we will see.

So enough chit chat, as I like to say LESS TALK MORE DRINK!!

So what's new for our hero today?

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Stillwater Artisinal Ales / Põhjala - Öörahu Stout


Stillwater Artisinal Ales / Põhjala - Öörahu Stout by imbibehour, on Flickr

Poured from the can into a snifter glass.

Near like inky pour out of the can, hitting with dark nearly midnight body with and extremely dark mocha head of about a finger. Big looks of dark cocoa powder on top, making a good solid finger and settling to a thin pencil collar, and an island centered bubbled top. Kind of a spacy scene as it still has some bubbles. Very aggressive and great looking stout.

Very nice simple aroma of dark cocoa powder mixing up, with even a chili like sensing heat. Thick malt an almost molasses in nature on the nose, flirts with coffee but doesn't quite get there. Has a faint touch of sour/spice character.

Palate is quite a bit jarring. First sip is a noticeably light body, but more so a very mineral and carbonated mouthfeel. The fizzy quality seems to bring out lots of bitterness of roast and large pine sappy hop amounts as well. There's a steely mineral quality to this as well, nearly ferous like while drinking. Prickly finish but not in a very fun way, but manages an excellent roast character but with a good deal of astringency.

Mouthfeel on this is quite a bit off, as the appearance really did seem to hint of a good bubbling mass. Unfortunately much of the solid flavors are just a bit all over the place and need to be brought down to earth.

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Sorry to hear, take care of yourself brother.

 

Thanks, things are going well so far.

 

I've had a few beers like that recently, and always wind up wondering who thought it would be a good idea to put coffee into it. Even though they're drinkable, they never totally 'work' as a combination.

 

Greetings all! Thankfully my family are generally very easy to be around so there is minimal drama to fear at holidays and gatherings (beyond just a general baseline hot-headed Italian vibe mixed with the Boston edge. An outsider might have a different read of the amount of drama...). Nobody else in the family is into craft beer but I did just get a chance to do a little beer bonding with my cousin's husband. He's normally a 100% Bud Lite guy, but in order to get to the bottom of some health issues he's trying a gluten free diet for a bit so I brought him a sampling of craft options. The winner was Lake Front's New Grist beer and honestly I thought they (surprisingly) all tasted at least half decent.

Anyway, there was a nice symbiosis between the BA forums and my beer shopping this week in that I just recently heard of Melvin Brewing (from Wyoming) since their brewer has been posting in some threads lately. And what do you know, they just showed up on our shelves. I don't know whether they are distributing or whether this is just a one time thing, but I was able to pick up their presumably flagship Melvin IPA which clocks in at 7.5% ABV.





It pours a fairly opaque amber with a huge and sturdy head that lasts and lasts. One of the more impressive heads on an IPA I can remember seeing. Leaves thick, clinging lacing for a good long while and never gives up completely. Aroma is a really interesting mix of old and new. Malt and honey sweetness but also a TON of hops. Definite dankness and resin, grapefruit rind, but also an undercurrent of some of the newer fruits. Not tropical, but maybe really earthy peach? Taste is huge from the sip to the swallow. Grapefruit rind followed by a good amount caramel malt, a little of that honey and peach, and then a nice dose of bitterness and a malty finish. Not crazy bitter but definitely more in line with IPAs circa 10 years ago than today. Mouthfeel is thick and chewy. Neither soft nor crisp, just very full. Carbonation seems on the heavier side of average and feels perfect for the beer.

One of the threads the Melvin guy showed up in concerned him confirming just how much (many? I can't quite tell whether 'hops' should be a mass or a count noun here) damn hops they use and I'd say this beer doesn't make that hard to believe at all. It doesn't quite leap out of the glass at you like an NE aroma, but it's still extremely aromatic and every mouthful is dripping with them. It's got a touch too much caramel malt for me but that's just a personal preference - I've always been more of a SN Pale Ale guy than a Celebration guy for instance.

If you like a ton of hops with a sturdy, older school malt backbone you'll probably think this is absolute heaven. Really well done beer. Cheers all!

 

It is a good beer, I feel the smoke/peat has a different combo with the Malta’s and the barrel making it more drinkable than other really smoky beer. It seems like a beer that would age nicely, I would definitely be playing with aging it longer if I had more!

 

Hope you feel OK and get rid of the disease !

 

Barrel Aged Bible Belt, a collaboration between Prairie and Evil Twin. Pours pitch black with no head at all and no lacing. Smells of whiskey, chocolate, vanilla and roasted malts. Tastes of whiskey, sweet milk chocolate, vanilla, coffee, pepper, dark malts, oak and caramel. Medium to heavy bodied, minimal carbonation and a creamy mouth feel. Slightly chalky finish.