New Beer Sunday (Week 675)

Good morning NBS, hope everyone enjoys the end of the weekend. Thanks to @cjgiant for starting us off this week again. Got another early morning review this week:

Glad I was able to find this one. Pricey bottle, but that has never stopped me before. This was awesome! Aromas and flavors of big dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, licorice, raisin, plum, prune, leather, tobacco, whiskey, toasted oak, smoke, charcoal, nuttiness, dark bread, herbal/floral/piney hops, and light coconut/vanilla. Light-moderate roast/char/herbal/pine bitterness and whiskey/oak tannin spiciness on the finish. Medium carbonation and full bodied. Creamy, silky, bready, grainy malt mouthfeel; some chalky roast, sticky hops, and whiskey/oak tannins. Light-moderate increasing hop/roast/char bitterness and tannic oak dryness, never acrid/astringent. Mildly increasing warmth of 14%, no barrel booze. Very smooth sipper. Been a long time since I had the XS imperial stout, but looking at my review 4 years ago it is definitely the base beer. Very unique profile, not like anything I've had before. Nice mix of fruitiness, whiskey barrel, and smokey/charred malts; with nice earthy hop presence. Still fits the base Russian imperial stout profile extremely well. Not any more impressive than the base beer, but really glad I gave it a shot. Was worth it IMO. Getting better as it warms up to room temp. 4.1


Cheers, be back much later on NBS

 

Holy crap I always love reading your reviews but reading that one, not particularly different in any way I can put my finger on, I actually had the feeling I was tasting the beer while you described it. Probably never gonna have a shot at trying this, but your review makes me hope I do get a shot. Cheers!

 

It's a dark and dreary day here at the homestead where I am cheerfully celebration another day of being alive. It's pleasant to wake up knowing the rent is paid, the beer fridge full and I don't have to be anywhere or obligated to do anything I don't wanna . . .






Score 3.9
look: 3.75 | aroma: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Deep amber gold color with white cap.

Fairly strong scent of sharp, piney hops. There's rich malt in the background but hops dominate.

Taste on entry is hop forward with malt trailing behind. The hops shine with sharp brilliance yet remain somehow restrained. At 97 IBU they could be stomping in like a herd of elephants but they don't, rather a solid but slowly cadenced march. Malt really can't compete with hops on this level yet they stand with a united front that shows they have stuff of their own. The 9.5 % doesn't present a trace of alcohol flavor which helps make this beer easily drinkable.

Full texture with a mouth filling profile. Not alot in the way of carbonation but it doesn't really need any.

Years ago one of my favorite restaurants featured a desert named 'Death by Chocolate' which was not much bigger than a large biscuit yet contained 2000 calories. That's what I was reminded of when first tasting this brew because it packs so much into this 12 oz can. These are not complex flavors but they are deep and heavy resulting in a strong brew with an easy drinking quality.

 

Good morning New BSers! Well, it's a foggy Sunday here in NW PA - the snow is gone except for the plowed piles which are diminishing rapidly. Sometime this winter Mrs. Lizard and I have to head to Buffalo for a wedding, so expect to find our obits sometime after that. Well, maybe not, but at least mine should appear after I do my beer shopping around town. Anniversaries are something we just give lip service to now - too many years have passed for most of them to be worth remembering. But NBS remains a high spot in my week!

Today's New Beer:




$ 15.56 (Including shipping)/750 mL capped bottle ($ 0.613/oz) from Tavour, Seattle, WA.
Undated bottle, stored at 42 degrees and served at 55 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 3.
Body – Light yellow, crystal clear, slight effervescence. There is some bottom sediment. Bottle conditioned. Second pour is very hazy.
Head – Average (Maximum 3.5 cm, aggressive pour), white, low density and rocky, rapidly diminishing to a one mm ring of bubbles and a center area if unconnected bubbles.
Lacing – None.
Pour – Nearly colorless with a hint of yellow, clear.
Aroma – 3.5 – Oaky and sour with a bit of grain.
Flavor – 4 – Lemon and oak with some Brettanomyces “funk”. There is a touch of the vinous, basically a white German wine from the river Main valley. It ends somewhat dry. No alcohol, no diacetyl.
Palate – 3 – Thin, watery, lively carbonation.

Impression and summation – 4 - Appearance and palate are as expected from a saison/farmhouse ale. The oak foeders are apparent on the nose, a nice touch. The flavor is mostly of oak and lemon with only a hint of those six, eight, and ten carbon acids associated with goats and Brettanomyces sp. Not really worth the price point, but I guess those foeders are expensive.

Rating 3.72, rDev – 10.1%.

Recently I've decided to pay more attention to style in terms of appearance, aroma, and palate when I review a brew. If it's essentially what most of the style looks/smells/feels like, it gets a "3", an average grade for an average showing. I've found that this lowers my overall rating (duh!) on beers I would have formerly rate much higher. Consider this my humble contribution to grade inflation.

 

Cheers you all and Happy New Beer Sunday! Thank you @cjgiant (Craig) for getting us started today. I have been making each Sunday with all of you for years now and I love to do it. To me New Beer Sunday is a little bit of finery, a touch of ceremony. It reminds us all that appreciating beer also coincides with appreciating each other. That lends itself to a little sentiment and over the years I have come to admire many of you not just for your reviews but for your wit, your prose and your constant presence. NBS is the place where in the face of any adversity or tribulation in life you can find a friend to console you, where you can share happiness too and find congratulations and hear someone remark "Nice to see you." I could not fathom a group of better company!

Happy Can You Fathom It Sunday!

Pours fiery sunshine yellow. In the dimmer light of the room it is true amber. Fat off white head that lasts and clings. Scent fruity, citrusy. Lemon peel. grapefruit musk and a sweet cracker. Flower petal & something tropical over the top. Dank piney spice. Drinks with small. Citrus, grapefruit prominent. Pine permeates but doesn't dominate. Soft middle succulent but not oily. Finishes impeccably. clean with a lasting firm bitter. Nothing outlasts the flavorless bitter except the grapefruit. Graceful cracker malt glides softly and swiftly over the palate.

 

Mornin' NBSers

As @cjgiant points out in his start for the morning. Many things come in cycles. The weather here today is apparently one of them. Today, we are expect lots of gentle rain (yet again) and cloudy skies with a high near 50. This also means that it's time to finish this second cup of coffee (part of another cycle) and get into the Sunday cycle of household chores and shopping, etc.

Very much looking forward to tonight's new beer which is planned to be the Troeg's Trogenator Dopplebock aged for a while in Bourbon Barrels. Having missed out on the first release of this BB aged beer I made sure to snag a bottle of the most recent release (another cycle). Since there's no football game tonight to distract me I decided that it was time to bring the cycle to a close by opening and describing this new beer.

Until this evening,

Cheers, all!

 

Battle of the ‘BIG BOYS’ Kellerbiers!

A few Sundays ago I discussed a new beer from Sierra Nevada branded as Southern Gothic Unfiltered Pils. I provided some background information on that beer in my post:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-672.554134/#post-5818032

Last week I purchased the Sam Adams variety pack of Craft Lagers Variety Pack.



One of the beers in the pack is a Kellerbier and since I had one bottle of Southern Gothic Unfiltered Pils left from my visit to Sierra Nevada Mills River, NC last November I figured a head-to-head taste off would be appropriate.

Below is some more information on the Sam Adams Kellerbier from their website:

“Samuel Adams

Kellerbier

Kellerbiers originated in German cellars when brewers couldn’t wait to taste the fruits of their labors, so they tapped young beers straight from barrels. Our version ages on oak chips for a refreshing juxtaposition of light unfiltered malts with an intriguing woodsy note.

STYLE

Kellerbier

AVAILABILITY

American Craft Lagers Variety Pack

HOP VARIETIES

Spalt-Spalter, Tettnang

MALT VARIETIES

Pale two-row malt, Melanoidin malt, Carafa Special 1

SPECIAL INGREDIENTS

Oak chips

COLOR

Amber and Hazy, SRM: 15

ALC. BY VOL/WT

5.0% ABV – 3.90% ABW

IBUs

30

So, let’s taste these two beers and see what we see.

Served in Firestone Walker Pivo Pils glasses:

Appearance:

Sierra Nevada: Pours straw colored with a slight touch of haze and a HUGE rocky white head.

Sam Adams: Golden amber with a BIG white head. There is some haze.

Aroma:

Sierra Nevada: A combination of mostly bready malt but there is a noticeable hop aroma of spicy/herbal and a bit of lemon as well.

Sam Adams: Mostly a sweet-ish caramel-like aroma. Perhaps a hint of woody?


Taste:

Sierra Nevada: The flavor is predominantly bready malt but there is some spicy/herbal hop flavor as well. There is a firm bitterness.

Sam Adams: The flavor sorta follows the nose with mostly a sweet-ish malty flavor. It is moderately bitter with some aspects of graininess.

Mouthfeel:

Sierra Nevada: Thin/medium body, moderate carbonation and a dry finish.

Sam Adams: Medium body with a dry-ish finish.

Overall:

Sierra Nevada: I think this beer is very good!

Sam Adams: OK/good. There was little to nothing in terms of hop aroma/flavor in this beer and the aspect of graininess was borderline harsh.



Needless to say but Sierra Nevada Southern Gothic was a clear winner for me. My wife was around while I was doing this tasting. When I was done my note taking I asked if she would like to taste both beers (which she did). I then said: you can finish the beer that you prefer and very quickly she grabbed the Sierra Nevada Southern Gothic and finished that beer. I was ‘stuck’ with the Sam Adams Kellerbier.

Cheers to Sierra Nevada for producing a tasty Kellerbier!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @BillManley @SierraTerrence @RobH

 

Thanks @cjgiant for the great start for this weeks NBS. Should be back with not a new brew, but with an oldie, but a goodie.

Cheers!

 

A little earlier than normal for me today as I have to work the evening shift later. In that vein I'll only have one entry today.



Firestone 20 - Anniversary Ale

Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
American Strong Ale / 13.00% ABV

4.5/5 rDev +2.3% | Score: 4.4
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

L- The beer pours a deep cola brown with a solid one finger tan head. The head recedes to leave a thin ring and spotty lacing along the sides of the glass.
S-An in glass swirl raises some fine oaky bourbon flowing over but never quite covering the chocolatey malt presence.
T- On the palate the chocolate presence is stronger than in the nose. Behind that follows the bourbon and oaky vanilla. Finish is just slightly boozy, but to be expected in the style and for a beer of this strength.
F- Carbonation is light. The mouthfeel is full with the flavors washing over the tongue and coating them. The slickness is a welcome delight with the combination of flavors and allows you to enjoy the beers complexity.
O- Perhaps the finest strong ale I've had to date. If you are lucky enough to find one I'd highly recommend you pick one up to enjoy on a cold night. It's fantastic.

 

A-The beer pours a very nice dark opaque color with a nice slight head and some nice lacing.

A-Aroma has resounding bourbon hints.

T-The taste follows the nose with an abundant pleasant bourbon flavor.

M-A full bodied silky soft very well balanced beer.

O-A very well done, well crafted beer.

 

Happy Multiple New Beers Sunday (Week 675)!

I was just thinking the other day about how glad I am to have this weekly forum. On any other day of the week, I now find myself asking, "SIDT?" Should I Drink That (now)? This past week, I have been on a CANcerted effort to eradicate some of the backlog, specifically CANned beers that I originally reviewed in bottle format, but which have now become available in CANs. My diligence has resulted in the creation of a LOT of space in the reefer for today's goodies. I may not get to them all, but I'll give it the ol' college try!

I never married, so I do not have a wedding anniversary. The last CANdidate was the beauteous Linda Lou, often alluded to in my reviews due to her (coarse) hair color - it was like rusty copper wire and many Deep Amber/Light Copper to Copper (SRM = > 13, < 17) beers are that shade. My birthday is upcoming at the end of next month, fittingly on a Sunday this year. The anniversary that I like is that of my retirement from the U.S. Navy, It happens every Hallowe'en & this year will be my 20th! I have been retired far longer than I was on active duty (15.25 years), taking early retirement under President Clinton. I blew it and forgot about CANned Beer Appreciation Day on 24 January, but you CAN bet that I will be partying on 01 Febrewary for Hula in the Coola Day. The idea there is that you fill the cooler with something that will prompt you to shimmy & shake the winter blues away, even if for just one day.

Speaking of frequent allusions, does anyone else remember/miss either/or Clove and Tropical Fruit Life Savers? The former were supposed to be an ersatz breath mint while the latter were just yummy, often evoked by the new Tropical IPAs. I am reading Mark Dawidziak's "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone (A Fifth-Dimension Guide to Life) in which one of the principal tenets is to NOT dwell in the past. Fair dinkum. I have retired to my hometown, which is no longer the same place that it was when I was growing up, but there are some aspects that I miss, like those CANdies. The corner store where I bought them still exists, though, a CANstant reminder of what was.

All of this has now inspired me as to my first beer for today! Shiner not only celebrates their birthday every year with a new beer, but they also produce enough of it so that everybody may join in the festivities without having to wait in line to do so.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/143/315726/?ba=woodychandler#review


Sadly, I was rather disappointed. YMMV. In the interim, I am going to dive into some CANs & report back later.

 

Good morning NBS and thanks to @cjgiant for the fabulous kick off. The anniversary theme is quite interesting. They do seem to pile up at certain times. Being keyed into them is the real fun. Today's offering is from Clown Shoes, the Breakfast Beast is a large bourbon barrel, coffee stout. The aromatics and flavors run in lock step, the feel is nicely dry in the finish. We are trip planning to go and meet #1 son in Japan in a few weeks and look forward to that becoming a future anniversary, In keeping with the theme today.

Cheers all

Breakfast Beast

Clown Shoes
American Double / Imperial Stout / 10.50% ABV

4.1/5 rDev -1.7% | Score: 4.17
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a 22 oz bottle dated 10/20/17 into the test glass,
A - Deep, dark and intriguing. A very thin mocha colored ring clings to the glasses interior.
S - Muted blend of coffee, vanilla, charred oak are the beginning, With a rise in temperature, bakers chocolate, some dark fruit, and hints of anise are added to the mix.
T - That dark fruit element is up front, fig and cocoa pudding, coffee, bourbon touch with vanilla, all in a narrow band. No sign of the 10% alcohol anywhere.
M - On the lite side of medium in body, Semi sweet start , palate response swings to dry almost immediately. This aspect I really enjoy. Linger has a hint of booze to it but a gentle hint.
O - A fine offering from Clown Shoes, the beast part is hidden well, as a total package this is best at or near room temp, allowing the aromatics to take wing. The body is relatively lite, and pleasant. Worth the effort to find for certain.

 

Good morning, NBS crew! I’m always excited to try a new Veil beer. They are my favorite brewery, after all. This one is a bit of a let down though. They can’t all be winners I guess.

Swimming Poolz - The Veil
TIPA with lactose - 11.5% abv
Canned 12/4/17 (55 days ago)
Rating: 3.59 (-12.7% rDev)



L - dense 1-finger head atop a dark orange body.

S - citrus, bread, a little pine, candy, booze.

T - sweet orange gumdrops to start, followed by harsh alcohol. Some sourness in the middle. The booze is not at all hidden in this one. Very sweet. Little detectable bitterness.

F - medium-full body.

O - this strikes me as the Veil’s attempt to do a Tired Hands-style milkshake beer. This is not far off from the recent orange creamsicle milkshake that Tired Hands did, except for higher alcohol which is not well hidden at all. One of my least favorite Veil beers.

 

Happy NBS BA’s great opening as usual @cjgiant
My new beer is a Russian Imperial Stout from Castle Island Brewing Co. in Norwood, Ma.
It’s called One and it clocks in at 11.5% abv.
It’s actually an anniversary beer of sorts from the brewery and it is retired, I feel lucky to have had it.

It pours jet black with a thin creamy disappearing head
The aroma is roasted nuts, coffee, and chocolate. Roasted almonds are the prevailing aroma
It has a medium fullness and a medium carbonation type of mouth feel
The roasted almond and nut taste is up front but not overwhelming, there is a slight bitterness and alcohol finish. It’s pretty smooth and balanced
Overall it’s a well made stout, tasty and easy drinking. I’d like to see them bring it back.

 

They are a great brewery!

Last night at The Sovereign here in DC, I tried a The Veil Belgian Quad style beer (who knew they were making them!), and they killed it!

 

That sounds awesome!

I just booked a trip down there (Richmond, not DC) for the end of March. All timed around the Veil’s weekly release. Although I will be hitting Triple Crossing, The Answer, and any others that @vabeerguy recommends too.

 

A-Pours a dark opaque color with a slight head and lacing.
A-Aroma has whiskey and cherry hints.
T-The taste follows the nose with nice whiskey and cherry flavor notes.
M-A full bodied well balanced beer that has a certain nice tartness due to the cherries.
O-A well done well balanced beer.