New Beer Sunday (Week 671)

Cheers to you sir! may I say you are the beer advocate of the year. I think you are. Your reviews are tireless. Your descriptions accurate and your dedication is easy to see. Happy New Year to you!

 

Thanks Maria, you and a few others set the standard for reviews around here and I'm just following footsteps.

 

Three Philosophers has always been a favorite of mine, and one of the beers that made me realize beer didn't end at the Sam Adams Seasonal mix. I've never seen the BA version, but it looks great.

 

It was indeed a very good beer, I enjoyed it. I got it at Costco in a gift pack (3 bombers and a Game of Thrones glass) and it was well worth it. I may even go back and get a few more gifts packs as the price point was very decent.

 

I really enjoy Ommegang different offerings, and this was very good. I usually get them at Costco in a gift pack (with a free glass, this year it was the Game of Thrones glass, I guess they made too many), for a very decent price and after the holiday season they actually reduce the price as nobody buys them (I have no idea why!). So I may just go back and grab a few extra gift packs.

ps-I must admit that their prices are very good value and I am not sure why people don't buy them as much.

 

A-A nice golden hue with a generous head and some lacing.
A-Aroma has decent fruity hints with touches of clove, nutmeg and cinnamon
T-The taste follows the nose with abundant hints of fruit.
M-A light bodied sweet beer.
O-A well done easy drinking beer.

 

Happy New Year NBS,
Thanks to @cjgiant for the start today and to the co captain of the NBS ship @lordofthewiens
Both your efforts and talent in keeping us thinking is much appreciated.
Today's offering is a gift from a friend Mikkeller's Black Hole, a big stout made with vanilla, coffee, and honey. It is a big offering but on this yet again cold WMass morning one that I enjoy spending the time with. I want to recognize the comments made by @utopiajane this day. Your sentiments and all your writings/photos are much valued at this house. Thank You
To you all a healthy peaceful New Year

Black Hole

Mikkeller ApS
Russian Imperial Stout / 13.10% ABV

4.06/5 rDev +6.3% | Score: 3.82
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a bottle dated "best By 28/09/19" into the test glass
A - Pitch black, a thin off white cap slowly fades into a loose knit ring of froth. A slow twist of the glass coaxes e revival of the cap.
S - Dark char, vanilla, cigar wrap tobacco. fig, bakers chocolate, licorice. A rise in temperature releases Blackberry, some notes of tawny port and worn leather. The 13% alcohol lifts off the glass in fine fashion.
T - Dark fruits, bitter chocolate, and coffee a touch of honey are the initial flavors, dark roast grains, vanilla undertones without being sweet.
M - A bold move across the palate, bitter start then a chocolaty step is taken, quickly ushered out with deftness by the carbonation. The finish is pretty quick and surprisingly dry. I wonder if there was Champagne yeast involved? The alcohol evaporation has that special touch. A very slight linger on the tongue of semi sweet and hint of smoke to close the deal.
O - A bold offering that is not shy about the aromatics or the flavors. Coffee, honey, vanilla are listed but not any one stands in the fore, however they combine quite well. I like the lack of barrel and the clean lines this offering takes, although they be bold lines! A treat worth seeking out.

 

Van Trapp Trosten Lager a 6.0 ABV Schwarzbier. Schwarzbier is a style I don't see often and am not very familiar with. That may be because i don't look for them . I saw this one and decided to try it. I'm glad I did. This beer is black with a thick tan head. The aroma is toasted malt and smoke. The taste is also toasted malt and smoke with a nice hoppy bitterness, The mouthfeel is light and the finish is dry. I don't usually enjoy smoke flavor in beer { in anything for that matter} but the brewers hit a sweet spot in this beer and it enhances the beer. Is smoke a flavor that is found in most Schwarzbiers? Anyway this is a nice winter beer and i enjoyed it.

 

I'm totally with you on this Dave - too many spices ruin any beer.

 

Damn! It's not even 2018 and straubies has already released the newest alt? gotta head back to my dealer, er, distributor!

 

Kona Castaway ipa 6.8%. First trying anything from this brewery. Someone brought the mix pack over and no one drank it. Also drinking the Long board Lager and Its better than I expected. I like them both.

 

I know. I just like the way it sounds. It is oddly euphonious. Stuck sparge...I like saying it!

 

I don't usually write lyrics to blues songs because the lyrics don't really matter much as long as they hit certain themes and repeat certain pleasant sounding or harsh sounding words at the proper time, but I am DEFINITELY writing Stuck Sparge Blues

 

Thank you Craig for your typically excellent start to NBS.
It has been a very cold past several days, with high temperatures in the single digits/low teens, and there is no end in sight. If I did participate in First Night activities, I would be staying home tonight. However, my wife and I stopped going out for New Year's Eve a long time ago. We have a routine of preparing a nice meal (tonight it will be a spinach/sun-dried tomato quiche), toasting our marriage with champagne, and watching that quintessential New Year's movie, When Harry Met Sally.
My new beer for this last day of 2017 is barrel aged Ten Fidy from Oskar Blues. It was canned on 11/21/17 and says Embrace the Darkness on the bottom of the can.
It is a viscous black color with a modest tan head that quickly recedes to a halo.
Nice aroma of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and bourbon.
The taste follows the nose exactly. Coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and bourbon.
Thick in the mouth.
An all-star beer.





Happy New Year to all!

 

Good morning New BSers! I'm late today because I had a stuck sparge that got me up at 0300 today and messed up my nocturnal cycling. Well, another year grinds to a halt soon, and despite the wringing of hands and the bleeting of the sheeple, we still exist. As I look back, particularly on my booze expenditures, I find last year's resolution to reduce my spending failed - I'm up about a grand over 2016. I blame my local distributor - he also likes good beer and has massively increased our local options - people are now driving great distances on two-lane roads through the forests to buy beer from him. This may well begin a cascade effect in which we begin to get local distribution of stuff formally only available outside the state or in the Philly area - fingers crossed and wallet open... Maybe next time some CBS will make it here!

I'm really impressed by the opening salvo from @cjgiant and @utopiajane - thanks Craig and Maria for all your insights and (sometimes bordering on purple) prose in praise of beer. Being of the KISS school myself, I marvel at those of you who wax poetic on these pages.

On that note, today's New Breakfast Beer and New Beer Sunday selection, courtesy of @Dragginballs76 and NBS BIF #6, is:




Received from @Dragginballs76 in NBS BIF #6 – thanks Michael!
Bottled on 11/30/16. Stored at 42 degrees and served at 57 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Aroma – Initially cocoa and vanilla. The vanilla fades leaving some cocoa and roasted malt behind.
Head – Small (Maximum < one cm, aggressive pour), dense, brown, average retention, diminishing to a two mm ring fed by effervescence and a complete thin layer with rocks.
Lacing – Poor. Thin partial rings of tiny bubbles.
Body – Pours black but a light penetrates the edge showing it to be very dark brown, otherwise opaque. Some effervescence.
Flavor – Initially chocolate and hazelnut, like a hazelnut moche latte, with a bit of alcohol burn at the end. Well balanced. No distinct flavors or roasted malt, hops, alcohol, or diacetyl.
Palate – Full, almost creamy, soft carbonation.
Impression: A very smooth, low-key kind of imperial stout. The lack of lacing detracts from the appearance, but only marginally. The flavors do not scream out individually but instead present a blended, well-reasoned argument to your taste buds. Another delicious beer from Westbrook.
Appearance 3.75, Aroma 4, Flavor 4.25, Palate 4.25, Overall 4.25. Rating 4.16, rDev +2.7%.

Thanks again Michael. You have introduced me to many excellent Westbrook brews as well as other breweries via NBS and your ninja box. Anyone who has you as their shipper in future NBSs is incredibly lucky!

 

Thanks to @cjgiant for the great start to the last NBS of the year. Will be back with a new brew/brewery.

Cheers!

 

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