New Beer Sunday (Week 671)

Happy New Years Eve American Impy Stout Sunday!

Pretty nice day on the Western Slope, around 49, partly sunny. Did a nice little hike, as usual. Having a pretty tasty brew from @colby600, my first from this brewery, nice touch of coconut in this one, nice sweetness, a very nice sipper. Picked up some marinated pork tacos, and got a bunch of free tamales, nice people, nice little taco stand. Watching some Criminal Intent./NFL.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/39889/175008/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Good Evening NBS
I don't pick up Victory beers as often as I should. I still remember Hop Wallop from back in the day. This is definitely a new style IPA and well done.

The review:
12oz bottle bb 4/28/18 poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass at fridge temp 8.3% ABV. The beer pours mostly bright orange amber with sticky off white head. The head recedes slowly to a nice cap and leaves a bit of lacing. The aroma is fruity with orange, grapefruit and even peach coming through. The taste is a little fruity up front giving over to big earthy bitterness. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, adequately carbonated and dry in the finish. Overall, very good. Nice job with a juicy, dank & bitter IPA.

I'm out for this week. Best wishes for the new year folks!

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the middle of the holiday weekend. Thanks to @cjgiant for getting us started off this morning. Hope everyone had a good holiday week, I took a week off reviewing like I always do every year, so I wasn't here last time. Work gives us the week off, so I go visit family. For Christmas I got some new bike gear, bunch of hot sauces/Penzy Spices, and a gift certificate to a new beer store in Middleburg Heights. I had a complete heyday when I went a few days ago. Huge selection, everything in a cooler, all singles. Got 9 mixed 6 packs of ONLY cans. Then today I got 2 wine case boxes of other things. I am set on new beers for a while now. 80% of it was Ohio locals. I hardly know where to start. Since I drove back home today, my usual Sunday errands will be postponed until tomorrow. Have a lot of empties to take back after the week long cellar stash drinking.

As far as this year's review stats, I went from 4924 to 6132 as of tonight. 1208 new beers. I did some revisits so the actual number is skewed on my list. Good thing I keep a log of all of my milestones in my profile, I wouldn't have been able to figure it out otherwise. I am not going to delete/redo the reviews from now on, just edit the text/score. I have already done so with quite a few recently. Still have some others to do later on.

New Beers:

Delicious Berliner! Flavors of big sour/tart/tangy cranberries, fruit skin, lemon, lime, peach, pear, red/green apple, and red grape; with moderate wheat, cracker, white bready malts; mild herbal/grassy hop, lacto funk, and yeasty earthiness. Similar/muted aromas. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tart/sourness, fruit tang, and light herbal/grassy/spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium-high carbonation, light-medium body, and moderate crisp/clean finishing. Balanced grainy malts, lactic acid, and fruit tang/tannins in the mouthfeel. Moderately increasing lactic/tangy/carbonated dryness, zero pucker. Super refreshing, went down so quickly. Really impressive balance of classic Berliner style flavors and authentic fruits; nice level of lactic acid, without being overpowering. 3.93


Delicious German pilsner! Great head retention/lasting lacing down the glass. Flavors of big lemon, orange peel, herbal, grassy, and peppery noble hops; with moderate cracker, white bread, biscuit dough malts. Similar/muted aromas. Light-moderate herbal, citrus peel, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium-high carbonation, light-medium body, and moderately crisp/clean finishing. Balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Moderate increasing bitter/carbonated dryness; no hop astringency. Perfectly clean lagering, no yeasty notes. Other than the weak aromas, this was spot stuff! Perfectly balanced pils malt and noble hop flavors. Super refreshing and very flavorful for 5%; never watery. Was past BB date by 1 month. 3.93


Outstanding sour! Aromas and flavors of big tart/sour raspberries, fruit skin/seeds, lemon, lime, green apple, red grape, white wine, hay, straw, grass, and oak; with some wheat, cracker, white bready malts; and light notes of oaken vanilla, leathery/musty funk, and pepper. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tartness, fruit tang, and light yeast/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Medium-high carbonation, light body, and moderately crisp/clean finishing. Balanced grainy malts, lactic acid, fruit tang, and light oak tannins in the mouthfeel. Moderate increasing lactic/tangy/carbonated dryness. Zero pucker. Super refreshing and highly drinkable. Not as jammy as I would have liked; but this has awesome well rounded Brett/Lacto complexity; great authentic raspberry fruit and oak presence; with a solid malt backbone to control the acidity. Really impressed. 4.15


Thanks to @RaulMondesi for this one, he sent me a gift box for Christmas. Wanted me to review this first, so here it is. Been wanting to try this for years. 10/19 dated. This is fantastic! Amazing lasting head retention and thick soapy lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of big tangerine, grapefruit, peach, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, mango, melon, berry, lemon zest, orange peel, and light pepper/pine hops; with moderate caramel, toasted bread, biscuit, and light nutty malt balance; with herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Very slight booze in the aromas as it warmed. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full body; nice bready creaminess and some hop stickiness in the mouthfeel. Slight resins, increasing bitter dryness; zero cloying malts or hop astringency. Insanely smooth, mildly increasing warmth of 10%. Dangerously drinkable. HUGE fan of this. Super juicy tropical/fruity/citrus hops; sizable malt backbone, but never overly sweet/heavy for the ABV. Nice adequate lingering hop dryness. Likely to be Simcoe, Amarillo, Centennial hops. Absolutely wonderful stuff. Love classic hop profiles, this hits the spot. 4.28


Cheers, have a good evening NBS!

 

Probably my last new beer of the year, big thanks to @smanson56! Enjoying some Trillium Red Broken Angel, very different than the base beers.
4.34/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Big thanks to smanson56 for this!
750 ml bottle poured into a tulip

A- A hazy orangish red with a two finger off white head.

S- Tart, pulms, raspberries, oak, fruit skins, touch of funk, very different than Broken Angel.

T- Sour, pulms, raspberries, fruit skins, oak, mild funk, touch of sweet pale malts.

M- Smooth, light to medium body.

O- A solid sour, worth seeking out. It is like night and day compraring this to regular Broken Angel, seems like the different yeast and the fruit turned this into a completely different beer.

 

Happy new beer! Haha! Tonight I am drinking oatmeal Yeti. I got it for my dad for Christmas and he wanted to share it with me.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/158/95746/?ba=PittBeerGirl#review

 

Greetings All from the Great Northwest were we have just seen the football season end as we know it. This is going to be the last appearance of the '12' glass until September.

Wintertide Ale. A nice caramel and spice flavored brown ale well suited for the winter months. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/291725/

So, we are off to January and leaving Seahawk football behind for the first time in several years. Going to be strange not having a rooting interest in the NFL playoffs. Maybe I'll root for Minnesota and JAX? It's the underdog in me.

Happy New Year All!

And Happy Trails!

 

Well hello, everybody, and Happy New Years eve! I have a nice fire going on this frigid frigid evening and am taking my first sips of the day.

I'm gonna need it, too. Somewhere around midday my wife and I decided it would be a great idea to supervise a bunch of 15 and 16 year olds, and #2 son happily obliged. Amazing what they can cook up in a short amount of time . I wanted to be up here anyway...


This is a bit of Wyoming goodness courtesy of @Bitterbill , Black Tooth 1314, a BBA Scotch Ale. And it's a real winner.

It has everything you expect and want in a beer like this: dark fruits, amber rum, nuts, bourbon and vanilla (naturally), oak, cola and a drizzle of butterscotch sauce. But it's put together with finesse and impeccable balance, and the barest warmth from alcohol. Body is medium full, and sort of slick with moderate carbonation. This is a real winner, and the perfect beverage for the moment. Solid A, 4.5

Thanks again, Bill!

 

NYNBS volume 3....From the Alchemist's Belgian line of beers...wait what?



Dubbel Twubbel

The Alchemist Brewery and Visitors Center
Belgian Dark Ale / 7.00% ABV

3.57/5 rDev 0% | Score: 4.01
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

L- The beer pours a deep, deep brown. The head is a towering 3 fingers of tan foam. Lacing is excellent.
S- Huh....What I'm getting is roasted malts which should not be prominent. I get hints of chocolate, but it seems devoid of the dark fruity esters I associate with Belgian dubbel's.
T- Unfortunately the taste follows the nose here. Roasted malts are at the forefront of the beer and cover up anything else present. Not bad tasting by any means, but not appropriate for the dubbel style. Dark fruit characteristics are again missing as in the nose.
F- Mouthfeel is on the lower side of medium. Carbonation is restrained.
O- Disappointing. I was led to believe I purchased a Dubbel and got a Porter instead. As a porter its a good beer, but it's completely miscategorized as a dubbel since it lacks yeast phenolics and dark fruit characteristics. I feel as if the beer was mislabeled and what i got was Pappy's Porter.

 

I appreciate the nod, but you don't owe me squat. I love sharing the fruits of my labor. We're fortunate to have some very generous down to earth people here. It's the gift that keeps on giving!

 

New Beer Sunday: Oak (but not Bourbon) Barrel Aged American Stout

Evenin’ NBSers with a heads up for seekers of stouts aged in Oak that didn’t hold Bourbon first. Also special thanks to @cjgiant for his thought provoking start to the thread this morning. I must confess I don’t have a top 3 beers list for the list since i’m too lazy to look at my reviews, etc. to see which of the many impressive beers i’ve tried this year would be candidates for the top 3.

The weather here today has been sub-zero (F) and expected to remain that way for days and days. Most of today was spent doing some grocery shopping and taking care of a few things around the house before watching the Eagles get shut out at home for the first time in years.

This Evening’s new beer is from Singlecut and is their 2016 Barrel aged version of Heavy Boots of Lead Imperial American Stout. This stout is a bit unusual in that the oak barrels were neutral and some whiskey cured maple syrup was blended in before bottling.

As usual my review, in progress until the second pour is finished, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30452/255016/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas and flavors on this one are filled with dark chocolate from the roasted malt while in the background there are vanilla and traces of oak. The maple syrup plays nicely with some sweetness from the malt and they both provide a gentle smoothing out of the dark roast bitterness from the malt.

Again this week I’m taking a pass on listening to an American Musical listening to explore some traditional New Year’s Eve music and some of the scenery from the land where it originated.

Auld Lang Syne

Also, for those who may be interested here’s a bit about the history of the words that come from a poem first written down by Robert Burns in 1788.

https://www.scotland.org/features/the-history-and-words-of-auld-lang-syne

Cheers all, and a very happy New Year!

 

Thanks Jack! I was thinking the annual Groundhog Alt.

 

No, my 1st response stands. I did the same while looking for it to rate it. Now, maybe later I may get a bit tipsy but not too much. Still need to let the pup out later.

 

Back with another that's probably the finale for new beer this year. Living a stone's throw from the Michigan border, I quickly discovered the goodness of Old Nation M-43 and longed for the day it's bigger brother Boss Tweed DIPA would hit distribution. Low and behold I found some in my travels yesterday. Let's check it out!

A pint can dated 12/21/17 with a listed abv. of 9.3% on the label that I'm pouring in a 12oz. tulip for the occasion. The look is a cloudy dark orange with a light brown tint. A finger of creamy white foam is present before settling to a thin cap with some sparse lacing. The smell is fresh squeezed orange/pineapple juice with some mango. Taste is juicy orange, mango, pineapple and floral. The feel is pillowy soft up front quickly shifting to slightly bitter and acidic.

Another fine hazy beer from Old Nation that can probably be described as M-43 on steroids. More juice, acidity, and bitterness. I'll purchase the occasional four pack in my travels, but little bro M-43 is more to my liking. My score is 4.33/rDev-2.7%.

It's been an honor sharing this platform with you fine people another year. Thank you @cjgiant and @lordofthewiens for doing the heavy lifting. Cheers to another year of new beer adventures! Here's the last of 2017 for me......

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/41783/280767/?ba=Prager62#review

 

I just knew you’d respond to my post. I am looking forward to all of your future responses to any of my posts in 2018. Happy New Year friend.

 

It's very cold. I've just walked the mile home from my childhood best friend's house.Three of us are 66 and were in the same first grade class. Scott is a world class musician, who still plays piano, saxaphone, still travels the world playing, sings, and tells jokes. He's moving to Spain. Steve and I have lived within miles of each other for years, remain great friends, and yet get together less than we ought. His wry sense of humor has been beyond inspiring. But this was a good night, even with Bob having left us this year. He was the fourth figure, or first. We miss him. The meal was wonderful, with very good Champagne and nice Rhone and Oregon wines. We had Duck Rabbit Milk Stout and Sierra Nevada Torpedo. I am an archivist/pack rat that saves and curates things. I carried along some photos that go back to 1968 and high school, and this lapse into time stopped us all for a while. It was and is a great night. Cheers All!

 

An all-star beer for sure, one of my top 5 from 2017. Happy New Year, and many thanks for all your NBS efforts!

 

Happy New Year, NBS friends. Mrs O, Ranger and I spent 10-1/2 hours driving from Dallas to St Louis today, on our way to South Bend tomorrow. We drove through a North Texas ice storm to start the trip (roughly the first 90 minutes of the trip) then cold that in Minnesota would’ve been considered “seasonably warm,” but in Oklahoma and Missouri is reason to hibernate. Here’s a pic of us near Pryor, OK, just after we cleared the “Dancing On Ice In A Car” portion of our trip .....



We may or may not have been a little stressed. Glad to be in a hotel now, enjoying a couple of beers. The first beer was new to me late last week, but I wanted to share it because I’m drinking it now and it is worthy of consideration .....



4.35/5 rDev -2.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

The pour is a milkshake thick grapefruit color, and as an earlier review states, there’s a greenish hue to this that looks a bit strange, all supporting a fluffy off-white head.

The aromas are multiple levels of citrus - oranges, pineapple, mango, but there’s also a slight herbal note, too.

The taste, though, is completely on point (and so is the rich, yet sprightly mouthfeel), with dank citrus flavors combined with a creamy component making this a pleasure to drink. Just don’t look at the green hue too much.

#2, this is truly new, been looking forward to trying it since I absolutely LOVED the base beer .....



4.44/5 rDev +3.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

The pour is onyx black, with a rich tan head. The nose initially is bourbon - from 5 feet away it’s bourbon. But the coffee and vanilla aromas present themselves, too.

The taste, though, has all flavors in balance, with the vanilla and coffee delivering rich notes to the bourbon and rye, and there’s a milk chocolate flavor that is really nice as well.

The mouthfeel is the only thing that gives away the 12% ABV, because the alcohol is completely masked (how is that possible?), but this beer has a LOT of body. Just a pleasure to drink, and measures up very well to the base beer.

 

I was just gifted this beer earlier today, even more stoked now after reading your words. Many thanks, and Happy New Year!

 

Both Powder Dreams and Finder were very interesting beers for me. My take on them is a bit different (particularly with Finder). Just my impression, but I felt that neither embodied the "juicy" fruitiness of similar beers and they ended up being much more enjoyable for it. I thought Finder was exceptionally bitter and lacking in any modern fruit qualities... it really felt like an old-school IPA (all the way) that was labeled a NEIPA. Powder Dreams was even more interesting. It's feel was super exaggerated but very enjoyable. Intensely soft, smooth, and creamy... but instead of the fruity taste cues of typical Modern IPAs, it was more toasty, earthy, and rich. I liked Powder Dreams a lot and was split on Finder (really liking it once, and not liking it another time). I have one more can of each and I think I'll have a better grasp of both when I polish those off. Personally, compared to the standard bearers of the NEIPA shift, I'm finding myself far more attracted to the modern IPAs that take certain cues from those beers but otherwise chart their own course (either intentionally or not).