New Beer Sunday (Week 671)

Alpine Truck Trail APA, meh 3.57 overall: Read my review & you will know how I feel about these guys...

Pours an effervescent bronze with a ever-so slight chill-haze & 3 fingers of pillowy cream colored head. Nice lacing & head retention

S: Grainy, cereal notes, a little bready sweetness once warm

T: Follows the nose, some crackery notes, grassyness, a touch of grapefruit & pomelo. Leafy hops mix with a little lime as this warms, along with much dryness & a slight grainyness. Finishes dry, a little grainy with orange peel & lime, but with a little off-putting astringency

MF: Medium body, crisp carbonation, pretty good balance

A decent APA, but used to have much higher expectations from this brewery, Not going to mince words: I believe they have gone down hill since being acquired by Green Flash

 

Happy New Year everyone, wishing you all the best for next year. Brooklyn winter lager, appearance is almost completely black. Above average body, feels a little creamy and thick. Aroma is roasted malt,bread, pastry crust. There's a little coffee and chocolate in the aroma as well. Taste is identical, just slightly sweet as well as just a tad bit of hop bitterness. Really well balanced, easy to drink and very flavorful without. Going over the top. Or tasting fake and artifical. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this and would definitely try it again

 

Last 2017 greater Chicagoland sunset is in the books, however there is one last bit of unfinished business to attend to. It would have been better on 2017's first NBS but an unscrupulous purveyor pawned this off on an unsuspecting shopper just trying to please a beer geek. I certainly will not judge a beer that is a year past its enjoy by date as harshly as the people who sold it. Out with the old!

About a 12 carat gold color with a full white head. Reasonable citrus hop aroma and taste is there but I'm sure the nuances are gone. What is a bit disappointing is the lack malt foundation which I think is what separates the 3.75's from the 4.25s and 4.5s. Overall a good IPA. It survived its very long journey of marketing neglect.

 

Happy New Year all! I can't pretend to be overly excited about what 2018 holds so I'll just note that (a) at least 2017 is over and (b) we still have beer!

I was hoping to get a St. Bernardus Christmas Ale this weekend but they seem to have disappeared before I got off my butt to grab one. Thankfully, the shop owner pointed me towards Troegg's Mad Elf which he said was in roughly the same vein. The label describes it as a Belgian Ale with Cherries and Honey.

Unfortunately, I decided to update my computer today and it took so damn long that I opened, and finished, my beer before it was ready again. So I'll just give a rough overview of things as I remember them.




This was a delicious beer that hid its 11% ABV scarily well! I also appreciated that the Belgian yeast character was subtle. I often find that American versions of Belgian ales seem to double down on those stereotypical yeast flavors, and since I'm not a big fan of that flavor profile, that's not a plus for me.

The cherry flavor was noticeable but not too sweet, though I didn't really pick up on the honey. The cherry flavor complimented a familiar malty profile with a lot of dark fruit and brown bread. I don't know how this compares to St. Bernardus (there would be no shame in not quite living up to what that brewery offers!) but I thoroughly enjoyed this on its own terms.

 

It is ... and it's near impossible to get a good photo of with my dumb phone camera and worse photography skills. But at least you get the idea.

Why an octopus? Do they like coffee?

 

Nice glass, my girlfriend got me the same one for Christmas!

 

Good final afternoon of 2017, and happy New B-Bomb Sunday! This past week has been one for the books. Our first Holiday Season in new surroundings has been a roller coaster of emotions. A magical snow dusted Christmas Eve last weekend was the first time in 77 years Portland has seen a white Christmas. I considered it a remarkable welcoming, bringing so much joy to myself and the kids, yet couldn't help but miss the family I said goodbye to 4 months ago. We've been fortunate to have so many visitors in such short time, and are lucky enough to open our home yet again to one of the Frau's best friends and his family. One thing I cannot deny is that this is the season for sharing. Today, I'll do just that...

But first, of course, some pics from today's hike:







Ok, beer time.

Fremont Brewing Company
B-Bomb- Bourbon Abominable Winter Ale





Pouring from the bottle, B-Bomb pours like nothing I've seen before. Thick, coagulated looking and appropriately the color of dried blood. In the glass, it looks deep and brown. Not quite clear, but not exactly muddled either. A thin, tightly formed group of light tan bubbles hug the coastline, but nothing else.

With the crack of the cap, sweet bourbon fills the air. Vanilla and wood encapsulate chocolate, prunes, dates, fig, caramel, and tobacco.

This is sublime. There are so many familiarities to some of my favorite barrel aged beers, and subtle nuances that elevate the experience. As implied in the aroma, bourbon, wood, and vanilla are there, but the kicker is the chocolate and spice. As if malted chocolate balls were coated in nutmeg and cinnamon, and filled with toasted hazelnuts. Wonderfully executed.

Very smooth and sweet, B-Bomb’s complexity is matched perfectly by it's feel. A mild carbonation let's the flavors tingle it's receptors. The 13.0% abv is masked well, but still insists on flexing its muscles with a good amount of warmth. The creamy and sticky finish allow you to take your time and savor each sip.

Another outstanding offering from Fremont. I'm quickly led to believe they have one of the best barrel aging programs in the country. I hope this exceptional beverage can find its way into the hands of any who adore a well made barrel aged beer. I will be getting this and it's variations whenever I can from here on out.

After my official review, I gave B-Bomb a rating of 4.52, with an rDev of +2.3%.

Cheers everyone, and Happy New Year.

 

New beer #3. Also brought back from SF.

Altered Dankopotamus - Hop Dogma
IPA - 6.9% abv
Canned 12/8/17 (23 days ago)
Purchased for $4.49 in Oakland, CA
Score: 3.76 (-3.6% rDev)



L - 1.5 finger dirty white head atop a dark, dirty orange body.

S - citrus, pine, grass.

T - dank. So dank. All bud at first. Some citrus. Some meatiness. Very low bitterness. No detectable alcohol.

F - medium-full body. Smooth and creamy.

O - An aptly named brew. Also, the can art is hard to beat!

 

A busy but great day. I'm getting a late start to NBS due to work, a brew session with @mattflippin, and the Titans game. My thin skin does NOT like temps in the teens, so brewing at the edge of the garage at 18 degrees was interesting. We brewed a big imperial stout that will hopefully be drinking well next Christmas! Very happy with the overall brew day and this one should weigh in at 12% before getting hit with bourbon, vanilla, and who knows what else. Our faithful dog Sammy assisted as usual by cleaning up some of the spilled grains. She seems subdued in this pic which was NOT the case.


Now onto the beer. I was lucky enough to pick up a sixer of Willettized a few weeks ago. I loved High-Westified especially at their price-point. So how did this one hold up?


Proper glassware today - I forgot how much I like this glass. Beautiful looking beer - a dark and nearly opaque dark brown color with a thick tan head that stuck around forever. Seriously some of the best foam I've seen in a BA beer. Great aroma: everything was subtle on the nose with a good mix of coffee, chocolate, whiskey, and oak. The taste differed from the aroma - the rye was up front and prominent, even a bit hot. The coffee was restrained but there and roasty, balancing the chocolate notes well. The bitterness was there if you looked for it, but served it's purpose by balancing the malt and staying out of the way. Full-bodied and not overly sweet. The finish was slightly boozy. I liked this one but think the High-Westified was a touch better. Cheers and Happy New Year!

 

Nah, just a bit tipsy, maybe .

 

Next time in I will ask Dan or Nikki that question and find out why an octopus.

 

Did a little math (ouch), and my highest scoring beers of 2017 were as follows:
10. 5 beers tied with 4.39 (includes beers from @MacMalt and @WesMantooth).
7. Kane Vengeful Heart 4.42 (thanks, @MacMalt)
6. Fat Head Headhunter 4.44 (thanks, @WesMantooth)
5. Jackie O's Oil of Aphrodite 4.45 (thanks, @WesMantooth).
3 (tie). Jackie O's Cellar Cuvee 11 4.46(thanks again, @WesMantooth).
3 (tie). Columbus Bodhi 4.46 (thanks, @WesMantooth...again).
2. Dogfish Head Oak Aged Vanilla World Wide Stout 4.5
1. Weyerbacher Sunday Mole Stout 4.51 (thanks to @bl00)
Conclusions?
1. 2017 was a good year for beer.
2. It's never a bad idea to take part in an NBS BIF.
3. PA, OH and NJ are awesome states for craft beer.
4. I score less conservatively than some, but considerably more so than when I started reviewing in 2003.
5. The above-mentioned BAs (along with several others not mentioned) deserve reciprocity in 2018.

 

Hahaha ... cool. And tell them at least one Texan *LOVES* their work with the big stout. Chained to The Dead and Imperial Beanhead could go toe-to-toe with any other breweries' best 1-2 big-stout punch IMO.

All of the photos are fantastic as always ... I'll be staring at the one above for awhile.

Beer Santa's box of dark-malt presents is almost at an end but what a ride! Here's one of the last:


Tonewood's Revolution Porter, a coffee porter with cascade and centennial hops

After drinking the smoked porter from Forgotten Boardwalk, I immediately detect a different "twang" in Tonewood's tasty coffee porter. At first it reminds me of that rye-like twang in Guinness that isn't rye but kind of tastes like it to me. My bet is that the twang here in Revolution is the way the hops are bouncing around in all that dark malt and coffee. Oh ... and there's plenty coffee both in the aroma and flavor. In fact, about halfway into the glass I'm tasting mostly cold-brewed coffee with everything else riding in the back seat. That hop twang is coming off like a little mango in the aftertaste.

Side note: For 6.5% ABV, you'd fool yourself into thinking this is a session beer ... or at least something closer to 4.5%.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/46284/274349/?ba=Premo88#review
4.11 (+4.1% rDev)

Thanks again to @TongoRad for one heck of a Christmas present!

Cheers, NBSers!

 

Trappist Westvleteren 12 (XII)
Quadrupel - 10.2% ABV



This was bottled in August of 2006 so it is over 11 years old. Enjoying this on New Years Eve 2017. Have had this very limited before many moons ago and am looking forward to trying a bottle I set aside (and damn near forgot about). Bready malts (almost like walking into a bakery) and dark fruits (grapes, raisins, plums) fill the nose. The taste is fantastic as well. Sweet, malty, dark fruits, spices and warmth from the alcohol in the finish. Great beer to help ring in the new year.

 

Thanks! I swear this place is post card worthy in any direction. Cheers!

 

Just not my style Jeff. Hope we can have some more trades in the new year. You want the saison and abbey?

 

Here's a single vote for y'all bringing that homebrew to NBS when it's ready. And give Sammy some pets from me!

 

Jim, I still owe you player for that just incredible box you sent. I don't really save any spent bottles but I still have that 2010 bourbon county rare in the god damn box. Like a trophy. Going to put together a box for you for real.