New Beer Sunday (Week 680)

But for some it's more awkward than others ! I never thought of myself as prudish but as I watched my kids grow into adulthood I'm reassessing. Despite efforts to the contrary, I think I am becoming my parents.

 

New Hummingly Sour Sunday

Long time no see NBS crew. I can’t tell you the last time I joined in. While I haven’t been reviewing many of the new beers I have had recently in general (they all seem to be consumed with company), mostly my time was filled with swim season. My wife is basically our coache’s right hand and we handle a little bit of everything including fundraising, the team’s app and social media, submitting results to the news, apparel orders, equipment, running meets, and chaperoning amongst many other tasks. As I type, she is working on their video for the banquet. Add photographer!

On top of the normal stuff, our senior son went to the state tournament in the breaststroke this year. After winning the event in our district (one of 4) he was seeded 12th out of the final 24. He finally ended up getting sick that week, so didn’t quite get the times he wanted, but he still put up his best time and qualified for the B heat in the finals with a 1:00.09. Ended up finishing 14th in the state officially, with the 12th best time in the finals.
While it was sad to see his high school career come to an end, especially since he got to swim with his brother this year, we are finally able to get back to some life outside of the pool now.

Back to the new brew. This is a beer that I waited on for awhile to send to @Bum4ever Hopefully his doesn’t have the same issue as mine. Even with a dumping of the bottle, this was the result.




3.93/5 rDev -8.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

A 2017 16.9 oz bottle

This review will be with the caveat that my bottle had virtually no carbonation. I know they had problems with this causing several delays in the release so it wasn’t a total surprise, but the cap basically fell off when I touched it.

It is a deep pinkish rose color. Even with dump of the bottle I only got a few soapy bubbles, but otherwise it looks like fruit punch.

It smells wonderful. Tart berries and oak with a slight acidic aroma.

It is puckering sour with a much stronger acidic vinegar flavor than I would have guessed. Lots of raspberry that takes over once you adjust to the sour bite up front. Then you get the wine notes with distinct grape flavor. It finishes with some lingering oak and light wheat.

It is not a real sharp beer overall, but it has its moments. Fairly crisp and dry finish. I think with normal carbonation my biggest thing would be that it has a fairly dry wine quality to it.

Due to the flatness this was pretty much like drinking a spiked punch at a wedding reception. The raspberry really shines though



Here’s some bling. He came up short in the 50 free (only his second time in the event) as far as the state tournament, but still got a 7th place out of it and took one of his relays to the podium that consisted of a freshman and sophomore.

 

Moving right along here nbs players.

My second, and final, new beer today is Great Ketch, ipl, from Grey Sail brewing. The brew checks in at 8% abv, has a 11/21/17 canning (a tad dated), and it features German Pilsner malt and Amarillo, Simcoe, galaxy, equinox, and Citra hops.

A straw blond color on the pour with murky clarity and a fluffy white head. The nose is all Pilsner with the malt. The drinking starts with a big clash between the two sides. The malt and hops are both very forward presenting a somewhat mixed flavor upfront. The flavor is a bit off-putting at times. A rather bitter flow and finish. A really mixed and somewhat sloppy flavor tones hit all over. I gets notes of citrus fruit, malt, grass, and even bitter pine. The mouth feel is on the light/moderate side. Light and fluffy but the malt bill really seems to dominate the flavors and feel.

Overall, not that impressed. The age could be a factor here. I didn’t realize it was so dated, when I purchased, since this hit the shelves with fresh batches of caps daughter.
Regardless, there are a bunch of better examples of the style out there. I’m in the 3.5 range here at best players,

 

Thanks for your great review. I have to look for this. Fegley's Insidious is a really good BA Stout. I haven't seen this one yet although we get good distro from Fegley's.

 

As advertised, my third and final new beer of the day...

Barrier's Suburb ft. Nelson Sauvin...

2/20 canning of Barrier's latest release in their Suburb IPA series, each of which features a particular hop... It's super-easy to love the pop hops like Citra, Mosaic, and Simcoe, but Nelson is one of the most elegant hops out there - turns beer into a fine wine...

Kinda knew I'd like this before I had it - and guess what? I wasn't wrong!

As anticipated, suggestions of white wine grapes, white grape must, tangy yeast, unripe melon, lime zest, grapefruit pith, and green vines all work their way through... Soft, light and fluffy-feeling, with ample tingles and tang... Mild sweetness dries out quickly with a tart pucker, the bitterness keeping it held well in check... A superior beer - possibly my favorite in the Suburb line...

Barrier and Springdale have been really good to me this weekend, but I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to a coupla new Gun Hill beers I tried on Friday, too...

Roll Call (EC 8) IPA and their E Pluribus Lupulin VII, Vox Populi DIPA...

Here's to great new beer in your glass, cheers...

 

New Beer Sunday: A New American Imperial Stout

Afternoon NBSers, with a “heads-up” for lovers of stouts with a Mexican influence.

Well the weather here today was indeed cloudy in the morning but then a lot of the clouds disappeared to leave us some sunshine.

Now I’ve finished yard work for the day and before dinner it’s time to relax with with the Big Ten basketball finals (My wife spent part of her growing up years in Ann Arbor so you can probably guess who she is rooting for). This afternoon’s new beer is the Sunday Mole Stout from Weyerbacher up in Easton Pa (which is also the home of Crayola Crayons).

As usual my review, subject to revision until the beer is finished, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/392/241988/?ba=drtth#review


On the whole the Aroma/Flavor profile of the stout is very intense with lots of coffee, dark chocolate and dark roasted malt. In the back ground it’s clear there’s some spiciness from the chili. Although there’s not much in the way of foam on this beer the alcohol is very well concealed and the aromas and flavors are fairly complex and the spicy warmth from the chili is very light and way in the background. (Which in my opinion is where it should be in a well made pot of Chili as well.) Definitely enjoying the complexity of this beer and think of it as a future repeat on a cold winter evening where I can test it out with a few different cheeses to see which pairing I like best.

Cheers, all!

 

First Goose Island beer I've picked up in a while. After trying Boulevard's Cabernet Cask - an imperial stout aged in wine barrels - my interest was piqued when I found something similar. Was it worth it? Let's find out.



Goose Island's Brasserie Noir.

Pours black with a couple fingernails width of khaki fizz on top. Head retention is close to null. Aroma is grape, red wine, and hearty roasted and toasted malts. Little bits of barrel, char, and caramel add to the complexity. Flavor profile carries a huge presence, hitting notes of roasted, toasted malts, caramel, grapes, and red wine. There is a tinge of charred barrel on the very back of the tongue as the flavor profile finishes. Mouth feel is thick, with a hearty, velvety, mildly grainy texture. Overall, a hearty stout with notes of red wine and barrel layered on top.

Score: 4 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.75 | BA Score: 4.47 | rDev: +1.1%

 

Well, folks, it's been a fairly interesting weekend here. The storm of the east coast in the northern-to-mid Atlantic brought 2 days of winds to our part of the world. While others had more to deal with, I am quite sure, we had a couple fallen trees (one of which landed fairly softly on our house, no real damage, thankfully) and a 24-hour power outage. Our neighbors up the street caught the brunt of the left snapped tree and ended up worse off than us with some roof damage (the upper left luckily landed on no cars directly). Our community pool also had the top half of a pine tree that decided to try to go for a dip. Guess we'll have a charge to replace ppol fence in the budget next year.


I am not sure if it is related, but my 14+ year old TV did not come back after the outage. The indication seems to be a fan, but I figured that was a good enough reason to finally upgrade. Getting that all set up and cat-proofed (m'f'ers like to chew thin power cords) took most of today. Finally time for a beer while watching golf.

This one is a collaboration between an Indiana brewery we've seen a few beers from (Central State) and Other Half (from which I have not had anything). I basically got the beer on the name recognition of these two, and assumed it was an IPA. It is actually a "dry hopped saison style ale." That'll work for my mood, if they pull it off. Let's see about this b offering.


The head was a fluffy white, but didn't really rise to the expectations or pure fluffiness of many a saison I have loved looking at. Being cloudy isn't a shock given the time and collaborator, but also isn't what I would look for. Actually, that pic is more opaque than what's in my glass and what seemed to be pouring out of it, but it's still highly hazed to just short of cloudy. Lacing is pretty decent back on the plus side.

Ahhh... the nose has make back into the saison range, in quite a few ways I like. I like a dry grass to hay aroma, with a little pepper spice it becomes quite good. I get these, but I think the dry hopping comes in with a decent dose of lemon citrus and to a lesser degree some grapefruit.

Taste starts dry to even slightly watery. Little unexpected with my eyes forcing my palate into certain preconceptions. I nice prickly carbonation adds a seltzerish note before a citrus pith, dry, brittle grass, and a little peppercorn spice start to come in. That feel dodges in and out - it's always light, even refreshing, but sometimes borders on being too thin. I think when I analyze slowly, it's the latter, just quaffing it as a drink, it's ok.

The back end it lightly pithy, lightly peppery, and quite dry. It's a nice, refreshing beer and I think I would quite enjoy this on the deck on a nice, warm spring afternoon. Being a collaboration from out of town, I doubt I'll get that chance (it also was fairly expensive, so it'd be debatable).

 

Not sure how the Zags benefit from moving to the Mountain West. It gets to totally dominate its conference, which has lots of similar small Catholic schools.

 

Well that was sure an interesting way to start the thread! I guess the plus side of those sorts of dreams is the feeling of relief you get when you wake up and realize that you don't have to actually worry about any of it. Hope everyone who lost power is getting back to normal. We were lucky here a few miles inland from Boston area but it sounds like many people got walloped.

In the Controversial Beer opinions thread we ended with a bit of a side discussion about the spicy yeasty flavor associated most closely with light Belgian ales like saisons and dubbels. While it is a taste that many people love with a proud and storied history, there are unfortunately those of us out there who just can't seem to fully warm to it. So with those thoughts fresh in my mind, I figured I might as well check out a beer that is particularly famous for those flavors this week: Saison DuPont which clocks in at a hefty 6.6% ABV.





It pours just slightly opaque with a color somewhere between straw and light honey. It is quite carbonated, to the point where I can hear it "fizzing" the way I normally think of soda sounding, and easily yields a huge and frothy head of tiny tightly packed bubbles. The head recedes fairly quickly to a stable 1/4 inch ring and continues to leave thick and fluffy lacing for much of the glass. There's also some very fine, dark brown, yeast (I assume) particles in suspension and on the bottom of the glass. They don't look unappealing in the slightest but perhaps i was supposed to be a little more careful with the bottom of the bottle. Overall it's a very handsome looking brew.

Nose is..... an awful lot of that spicy yeasty note! There's definitely clove, maybe some cinnamon, and there's also a sweetness that reminds me of apples that are sort of just on the edge of spoiling. It's a flavor I find difficult to describe that to me is pretty unique to itself. There's also a lot of lemon, floral notes, and grassiness. Despite the spoiled fruit smell I mentioned above, there's something very fresh and bright smelling about it too: like a meadow bristling with flowers or something.

Taste follows the nose with a very strong tingle on the tongue that I think is a combined result of the yeast spiciness and the carbonation. Perhaps only because I'm not fond of the flavor, that yeasty note kind of dominates, but I still get a fair bit of lemony citrus as well. It's crisp and lively in the mouth and finishes extremely dry leaving your mouth feeling primed and ready for the next sip. Even without this being quite up my alley you can just tell that this is a really well crafted beer.

So, do I like it? As usual, I'm in the awkward position of feeling like I'd like it a lot more if there wasn't so much of that yeasty flavor, which I realize is a bit like saying you'd enjoy IPAs more if they weren't so hoppy or brown ales if they weren't so malty

Cheers all!!!

 

Manayunk chocolate chip porter solid black color.. medium body, abive average carbonation which makes it feel a bit thin like overcarbonated soda. Aroma is dark chocolate, cocoa, mint,and a small amount of black coffee.. Taste is very identical to aroma, mint wasn't overpowering but was still there and the chocolate came off like dark versus milk. Overall this made me think I was drinking a girl scout mint thin cookie but it actually worked. Was not overly sweet and was a good novelty beer but definitely one after a meal is enough. It was the over carbonation which was the only serious knock against this beer

 

I still haven't had a single Surly beer... maybe they'll eventually come to Massachusetts... can't believe I had PseudoSue for the first time the other day but still haven't had Furious and its brethren.

Anyway, on to my second and final new beer for this week's NBS...


Captain Lawrence's Orbital Tilt (dry-hopped with Mosaic lupulin powder; canned 2/9/18)

This is only "new" to me in the sense that it utilizes a different type of lupulin powder than the last batch, but given that Mosaic and Citra are quite different hops, I hope this will come across different enough to feel "unique" to me. This was only $10 a six pack, which is pretty exciting in and of itself, however.

Pours a hazy (about 85% opaque) deep orange color (9-10 SRM) with a solidly-built collar of eggshell-white foam leaving behind spotty but intense, chunky lace. The surface is pretty much completely covered by bubbles, and swirling my glass rebuilds the head to a solid finger even after it originally seemed to have dissipated into an inconsistent state. Liking the color here combined with the overall hazed-but-not-milkshake overall look. Nice stuff.

This has that funky, stemmy, earthy raspberry/blackberry thing that Mosaic can give off in spades. Some light dankness, pine resin, light tropical fruit and ripe citrus peel as well. A touch more green onion than I'd prefer, but it's all good in the end. A bit earthy and soil-esque as well. Like most Mosaic-hopped beers, this kinda just charges forth on all cylinders without regard for balance. Sometimes I want that, sometimes I don't. Right now, it's fine but I can't imagine this being anywhere near as sessionable as the Citra variety was.

In all honesty, the flavor profile is kind of similar... it just has a lot going on... it's kind of tiring to the palate. I have this issue with a lot of Mosaic-focused beers, though. It starts off with a strong "green" element, grassy and piney, before delivering a shocking tropical passion fruit and mango-like layer to my tastebuds. Earthy spice, more pine and some slight raspberry notes come across in the transition to the finish, along with some chive and tangerine-like pulpiness.

Feel is heavier than expected for a <6% beer, but it also seems to dip its toes in the "NE IPA" side of things in a semi-subtle way. The carbonation is fairly balanced; pillowy and soft like the aforementioned trendy style tends to be.

Honestly, I love the base beer here... it is very well-dialed-in and perfectly suited to be a canvas for a rotating lupulin powder charge, and hopefully more brewers utilize cryo hops soon. The stated pilsner + oat blend is a very nice mix of clean, old-school maltiness and protein-heavy modernity, the likes of which seem almost imperative to feature in order to stand up to current hopping rates. I think I like the Citra version of this beer better, but that opinion also kinda comes from me liking Citra as a single-hop more than Mosaic. That said, I will gladly enjoy the other five cans of this. Perhaps this is a beer that's better to just drink than to overly consider.

 

Sorry to hear about the tree and the TV but it appears things are sufficiently under control for you to enjoy NBS!

 

Really ended up being mostly minor inconveniences. Having no power does suck, but not life threatening and no damage came from that alone. I did get to get in some reading, at least. Cheers!!

 

Oliver Brewing Co. (Baltimore) - Gates of Dawn
A-A dark amber color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has fruity hints
T-Taste follows the nose with a very fruity flavor
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A well balanced, well made beer

 

Some people think Gonzaga will never get their due because they are perceived as playing the bulk of their season against weaker competition, and think a change of conferences will get them more respect. Personally, I think a team rising to #7(?) in what was supposed to be a re-loading year is getting their respect, plus BYU is proving themselves enough of a competitor (who spoiled the nearly perfect season last year, after all?).

 

Ah, these reviews don't seem too, too different in many perceived aspects, but interestingly different in scores. Another reason reviews are so much better

 

I've enjoyed having some time to read through most everyone's reviews today, to learn about beer, and to expand the repertoire of words for describing the sights and sounds of beer. I'm realizing there are quite a number of fruits and herbs I should seek out this spring and summer to expand my understanding of smell and taste to make sense of all the new flavors being coaxed into beer these days.



First Drop by Upper Pass Beer Company
BA: 4.13
My score: 3.73, rDev of -9.7%

4
Pours a deep orange color with a frothy white head that recedes to a thin film and a ring, leaving fair lacing behind on the glass.

3.5
Tropical fruit – mainly mango – greets the nose. An expanded aroma of slight stone fruit or peach or apricot and tangerine are added to the mix. Additional warmth brings a slight dankness to it. A strong inhale pulls out some fresh, light malt notes.

3.75
Flavor follows closely to the aroma. I also get some resinous pine on the back of the sip. Light maltiness on the mid-tongue as well.

4
Light to medium body, resin, nicely carbonated. Some hop zing keeps the soft mouthfeel from falling into pillowy territory.

3.75
Well, this is a nice beer. I’m not overly impressed by it though. I wonder if my expectations got in the way? I purchased this at CBC in Waterbury, VT at the recommendation of one of the staff there, so I think I was expecting something really impressive. Instead, what I find is a nice beer that I would gladly drink multiple of. I can’t help but think of @augiecarton's differentiation between drinking beers and statement beers, and this is definitely in the former category, in a very nice way.

 

Need to know what you are drinking...your dreams seem better than mine....

Prairie Artisanals Pirate Noir

Bottle poured into chalice

Black motor oil in appearance topped by deep brown espresso pencil thin foam layer

Aroma of rum, spices, peppery, tobacco

Taste of rum , cocoa ,caramelized sugar

Velvety smooth

Delicious beer

 

Happy NBS. Enjoying a Good People Snake Handler. Cheers!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17282/50194/?ba=cindyjeffsmith#review