New Beer Sunday (Week 667)

Cheers you jolly Giant! I'll be back with my beer in a little while. First I have to drink some beet stalk tea!

 

A good start to NBS, Craig! Drinking some "juice", back later with the review.
My two cents: Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia, Ohio State

 

No, it isn't snowing outside or even freezing (37 degrees) but trying to keep in sight an exuberant black puppy in the pre dawn darkness made me wish for a lighter background. Thus my theme for this morning . . .





Score 3.84
look: 3.5 | aroma: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Attractive light gold color with small white cap.

Aroma of slightly sweet floral scented malt.

Taste on entry is sweet malt with something almost like vanilla cream soda riding on top. Hops are present in sufficient amount to provide a counter balance but I don't get much hop flavor, rather more of a slightly bitter tingle. What I'm calling floral is actually a resinous impact from the Spruce tips but it's done with such a light hand the effect is more like breathing scented air in a high altitude Spruce forest.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

What a lovely, lighthearted drink with a feeling of crisp winter air in bright sunshine. The construct is not complex but everything fits together and the total package is something I could drink and share anytime of the year.

 

Good morning NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. I usually don't do morning reviews; but today is one of those days. Thanks to @cjgiant for the introduction. Last week was a treasure trove of new beer for me. Have a lot of stuff to get through now.

This was fantastic! Solid head retention and lacing on the glass for 15%. Flavors of huge caramel, brown sugar, toffee, vanilla, maple, raisin, plum, fig, date, pear, apricot, apple, bourbon, coconut, toasted oak, and brown bread; with light notes of molasses, chocolate, leather, tobacco, and pepper. Similar, but muted aromas. Light bourbon/oak tannin spiciness against sweetness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and fairly full bodied; with a very creamy, bready, silky malt mouthfeel. Slight slickness, stickiness, and oak tannins. Slightly increasing bourbon/oak tannin dryness, no cloying sweetness. Surprisingly clean and spot on for a lager of this magnitude. Not overly yeasty. Mildly increasing warmth of 15%, minimal booziness. Dangerously smooth sipper. Glad I seeked this one out. Pretty unique, but has a really outstanding balance between rich Munich malt and barrels; without being overly fruity/yeasty. Hits the Eisbock style perfectly. 4.25


Cheers, will be back much later on with more reviews NBS

 

Cheers you all! It hardly seems like winter around here. We have no snow and are looking at temps in the 50's. The closest we get to old man winter might just be in the name of a beer. Last month I did all dark beers. While I was buying my mix six I did pick up some beer that simply said winter ale. This is one of them. Saranac Winter Ale .

Happy New That Beer isn't a Quad Sunday



Pours a sweet honey amber color tinged with orange. fat head of foam that lasts and clings. Nose is surprising with citrus. Fruity with tropical notes. Drinks not quite pungent but very spicy. Has a strange treacle like back note that just does not belong there. Slick mouthfeel and bitter finish. This was not like the usual winter ale. If they had called it an IPA I might have liked it better. Spicy hops and faint grasses, gentle citrus. Just enough bitterness to finish it off.

Cheers you all and I think this beer will pair with my kale and pomegranate seed salad today!

 

As the sun finally has fully illuminated my world over here, I decided that it was a good time to start my day. Yesterday, after a morning of college football, I realized that watching Lane Kiffins shitty smirk as he is up big and seeing OK win the way they did, I was done with the sport for the rest of the day. I also decided that binging "The Punisher" on Netflix would probably be a better option. It was as awesome as advertised! I've always had a soft spot for comic book heroes, so I knew that I was going to really enjoy it. Good story with awesome action sequences and fight scenes!



Today I'm going to enjoy a few brews in between raking up a massive amount of leaves, multiple batches of laundry, and putting up the final touches of Xmas cheer around the house. It's a chilly one, so I'm going to have to get to sipping on something that could possibly be a bit warming before the day is done. I'm going to break in my new glass along with a beer sent by @beertunes


Global Mutt from Wander Brewing is the first beer I chose for this NBS. It's a Baltic Porter brewed with coffee beans, cocoa, & chocolate. The pour gives way to a creamy, mocha hued foam with a deep espresso colored liquid patiently waiting underneath. Light roasted coffee on the nose. This might be due to the fact that I already had a cup of joe, and I like it strong. Bitter chocolate hits the taste buds first. There is an underlying roasted malt that borderlines smoke. As this warms up a little the coffee comes around, but is very light. Sweet and bitter dance nicely together here. Extremely thin, even for the style, but really enjoyable.



On my final pour of this and then hitting the yard. Wish me luck!

 

Morning all just wanted to jump in and thank Mr. Giant for the excellent start to the day, and to all of us in general. Last week's themed day was so much fun.

And to share the disappointing rumor that they have run low on beer and they will not be filling crowlers at Hudson Valley Brewery today, on premise only is the scuttlebutt. I will be there saying farewell to a friend of mine, and friend of this thread, who reads but rarely if ever posts here, and always mentions to me how much he enjoys NBS. He's hitting the road for a while. Not gonna give his BA handle, but those who know can join me in raising a glass to Prof.Bill.

BUT I guess I won't be bringing back the beers I hoped to share here with you later, May have to revert to old bad habits and do reviews while I enjoy beers in the tap room. See y'all later in any event. Cheers!

 

Crazy Mountain Old Soul
Belgian-Style Golden Ale — 7.5% ABV

Crazy Mountain have some great label art, but not always good to photograph as the label wraps around, leaving out half of the “creature” on the bottle but I can tell you each of their beers feature a beast made up of three different animals. Old Soul is some kind of man-badger-eagle???

Full Disclosure: Yesterday I went full-bore into some heavy beers, and they sent me to bed feeling pretty damn tired. I just couldn’t feast on too many, and I intended to pop a 11.5 % ghost pepper stout today but I’m not sure that will happen, I might save that for next week. Let’s get to this beer:

3.82/5 rDev +9.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Poured into a cervoise glass.

Look: Clear golden body under an off-white head that recedes to a film and collar, with fairly decent random squiggles of lacing.

Aroma: Soft bubblegum notes (juniper berries?) as well as clove, banana, white pepper.

Taste: Opens up with very soft bubblegum then transitions into dry hay, light citric tanginess, and a bit more of a spicy hop, peppery finish.

Mouthfeel: Light and dry.

Overall: Taste and aroma are mostly the same, it’s pretty spicy overall, but in a white pepper kind of way.

Will I be back today? I still have two more new beers, actually three if you include my pepper bomber. I’ll see what I can manage as we continue to turn our house into Christmas Town. Cheers.

 

I would not want to meet a flying badger with opposable thumbs.

 

Looking like a late fall day here, with no snow in the immediate forecast.
Planning to watch the Patriots. I've made a vegan brisket for dinner. Lazy day.

My new beer is Holiday Haze IPA from the Sierra Nevada Snowpack. "Heavy with fruit-forward hop flavor, mild bitterness, and a smooth finish." The ABV is 6.5%.

In my small Smutty glass the beer is a hazy straw color. There is a small white head with some delicate lace.
Definitely fruit forward. Citrus and tropical fruit, some sweet malt.
Grapefruit and tropical fruit taste. Bready.
Lighter-bodied, nice bitter finish.



Group dog shot with a snifter of SN Coffee Stout.

 

Happy Post-Apocalyptic New LeinBelStarr Coup de Boule Sunday (Week 667)!

I may be a bit ambitious with my aspirations for today, but I have nothing else except bundling newspapers for recycling pick-up tomorrow & sifting through my Akashic Noir series for duplicates. I am trying to redd up my house & when I bought the entire series of books a few years ago, I wound up with a buncha dupes that I would like to take to NYC's Strand Bookstore for credit.

As to the Q about beers that I like that others take a pass on, here is a cut 'n' paste from a recent review: "I was really stoked when I saw this in the singles section at one of our local Giant Food Stores & so I snapped one up for drinking & review. Why was I excited? Well, I was at our local county homebrewers' club meeting on Tuesday night for a homebrewers' bracketology challenge in which teams had brewed concoctions made with ingredients chosen semi-randomly a couple months ago. Some were real oddballs and were getting voted out as my table lamented that the hoppier beers were the winners & then looked at me & wondered why I had voted for the oddballs. I like ALL beers on some level, even if they are just cold, wet & available on a hot, humid summer's day. I am also a self-described, self-avowed hophead, but I get the sentiment behind 21st Amendment's Blah Blah Blah IPA & so I was voting for new & unusual tastes, not just hops, hops & more hops. That is not to suggest that I think that this beer will taste unusual, just not super hoppy, if at all. I get excited easily. Dilly dilly!"

Onward! My first of the day:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/710/277978/?ba=woodychandler#review


Just like GEN MacArthur in the Philippines: "I shall return!"

 

So I have been waiting all weekend for this legend to finally get poured and as we all know a beer with this kind of hype around is very difficult to live up too that hype,well in my opinion, good lord it just may.

Poured just above room temperature and got this giant 3 plus finger brown head, with incredible retention, that leaves sticky icky stuff all over the glass as it settles into a thick ball of bubbles in the center of the glass. 5 Smell is strong roasted coffee, deep dark chocolate, vanilla bean, maple syrup, back strap molasses, pipe tobacco, and a nice hit of warming oaky Bourbon. 5

Taste follows so much flavor strong black coffee, dark chocolate, vanilla, tobacco, molasses, maple syrup, and Bourbon just lingers on the palate until the next sip and not overbearing but just in the best way possible. 5 Mouthfeel is big and chewy, moderate life as you would expect but it has such nice retention and lace that it stands out from many BA Stouts, yes a tad dry and that is perfectly normal, and at 11.7% ABV this thing is supposed to be sipped but it so tasty and balanced I am almost through the first 12 plus ounces and my entire body is warm and already feeling the effects of this incredible beer. In a happy place with 12 ounces to go. 5

Overall like I said you get a beer with this kind of legendary status and it is hard to live up to it, this guy goes above and beyond great, I can't think of a single thing I would change. Looks incredible, smells magnificent, tastes amazing, mouthfeel is about as big as it gets, and it is overall perfect! 5

 

A Northeasterner goes to Nevada?

I have had the pleasure of drinking a lot of different brands of the so called ‘NE’ style IPA with the majority being from my local brewery of Tired Hands but this is my first time drinking this sort of a beer brewed west of the Mississippi.

Thanks to the generosity of a friend I am drinking Revision Tahoe Haze IPA: on the front of the can it lists “Northeast-Style Hazy IPA”.

I am not familiar with Revision Brewing Company so I decided to educate myself via some web searching:

“Revision Brewing Company is a craft beer brewery located in Sparks, Nevada. Jeremy Warren and the first brewer that he hired at Knee Deep Brewing Company, Jeb Taylor, are combining their passion for brewing great, fresh beer at Revision Brewing Company. Warren and Taylor are best known for winning first place at the Bistro 12th Annual Double IPA Festival, where Knee Deep’s Hoptologist beat out Russian River’s Pliny the Elder.

Fans can definitely expect the duo to deliver the hop bombs that they are best known for. However, one can also expect style variety at Revision Brewing Company. Warren and Taylor are combining their expertise to produce delicious, non-hoppy seasonals, barrel-aged and sour offerings.”

Well, I have had beers from Knee Deep before and I have enjoyed drinking them so I am pretty excited about trying this Revision beer.

Some details that are provided on the can:

“Yum. That is all. Well okay, 66.66% Citra and 33.33% Mosaic, See? Yum.

Wave of orange and tangerine aromas hit the lake shore like sweet nectar. Dive in.

India Pale Ale – ABV 6.5% - IBUs: 30”

Well this decryption has me salivating. Time to drink!!

Served in my Gulden Draak Tulip glass:

Appearance:

Pours a very hazy golden yellow color with a BIG white head.

Aroma:

The dominant aroma that I am perceiving is tropical fruit aromas but there is some dank as well.

Taste:

The flavors follows the nose with mostly tropical fruit aromas but there is some dank there too. There is a low/moderate bitterness and this beer has some sweetness to it.

Mouthfeel:

A smooth body with an off-dry finish.

Overall:

This beer is very good!

I am not aware of any official style guidelines for the so called ‘NE’ style IPA but this beer has all of the features that I personally associate with this sort of beer: very fruity (juicy-like), low/moderate bitterness and a smooth mouthfeel.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @GreenKrusty101 @RobH

 

I don't feel like OSU deserves a playoff spot, they got throttled by an ok Iowa team and lost to Oklahoma. They just need to expand the playoffs to at least 8 teams so every power 5 winner gets in to at least have a real playoff.

 

Pours dark in color with a large fluffy tan head that sticks around for a while.
The aroma is a dry roast nuts light chocolate and black licorice.
The flavor is dry and roasty with a light sweet chocolate flavor. There's a faint cola in the background that stays through the finish.
The mouthfeel is creamy and full with unnoticeable carbonation. Fairly standard for an oatmeal stout.
This is a classic I had to try, but honestly there are better oatmeal stouts. I prefer rover truck from TG and it's cheaper and in a can.
4/5

 

I'll be opening mine later, now you're just getting me more excited than I already was.

 

Good morning New BSers! Well, it's a lovely morning here in NW PA - first we became frosted and later the Allegheny provided a thick shroud of fog - always a nice combination and only about a month late, although we've had a few other mornings like this earlier this year. Today's New Breakfast Beer is:



Received from @Dragginballs76 in NBS BIF #6 – thanks Michael!
16 oz can dated 8/31/17. Cellared and served at 50 degrees (Per can instructions) in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Aroma – An odd combination of coffee and yeast – not unpleasant, just odd. As it warms, the yeast recedes and the coffee takes over.
Head – Large (Maximum 4.3 cm, aggressive pour), off white, low density, fizzy, rapidly gone leaving a one to two mm partial ring fed by effervescence and a small island.
Lacing – None.
Body – Orange, opaque, short-lived effervescence.
Flavor – Again, odd. On first taste, the coffee is evident but is rapidly subdued by a mild saison-like fruity yeastiness. Actually, it’s necessary to take a sip every few minutes to remember the taste – it’s sort of peachy and very ephemeral. What you don’t taste are malt, alcohol, hops, or diacetyl.
Palate – Light, watery, soft carbonation.
Impression: The best description of this beer for me is “odd”. It certainly isn’t bad but on the other hand, I’m not going to drive to Asheville to pick up a case or two. Part of this is my limited tasting ability – upon looking it up I see “stone fruit” in a culinary term and doesn’t mean any specific fruit so peach may well be involved and I’m pretty sure cherries aren’t.

Appearance 3.75, Aroma 4, Flavor 4, Palate 3.75, Overall 4. Rating 3.96, rDev 3.1%.

For any of you can collectors out there - if you're trading for Burial cans, go for two of each - the art is different on the front and the other front!

 

OK, I wasn't going to jump in here without a new beer but c'mon! Seriously?!? LOOK AT THOSE PUPPY DOGS!!! It's like staring into the sun, looking at that picture too long ... makes your eyes water and forces you to squint.

As you were ...