New Beer Sunday (Week 682)

Foreign Objects Fascination Street

Happy Sunday, BAs. This IPA pours a cloudy papaya-juice color with two fingers of near-white head that gets a little soupy at the top. It leaves nice lacing.

Clementines, wine grapes, white peach, some tropical notes and light white pepper show in the nose.

These elements all continue to the taste, where juicy, tropical notes really shine. A moderate, lightly-pithy citrus bitterness mixes with white wine impressions in the aftertaste.

It's medium bodied with solid carbonation. The mouthfeel here is perfectly adequate, but doesn't take a starring role.

The Citra and the Vic Secret hops really play off each other well in this one. It's my favorite of the five I've tried from these guys. Very enjoyable.

 

Mantis Toboggan a Brown Rye Ale From Twin Elephant Brewing. 2 things first I had to Google Mantis Toboggan to find out what it means 2ond I don't think I have ever drank a beer that calls itself a Brown Ale before. The brewery claims this brew has 4 types of Rye and British crystal malts. It's 5.9 % ABV.It pours a nice reddish Brown with a thin tan head. A very nice aroma of sweet malt and rye gets your attention. The taste is awesome lightly sweet malts and spice rye with hints of cocoa tea leaves and caraway. The mouthfeel is light and the finish is rye spice. An excellent beer and also a perfect match for corned beef.

 

New beer #4.

Vulpulin - Sly Fox
IPA - 6% abv
Canned 1/23/18 (54 days ago)
Purchased for $2.99 at Whole Foods
Score: 3.73 (-5.7% rDev)



L - 3-finger dense white head atop a translucent orange body.

S - floral. Some pine, some citrus, a little dankness.

T - very dank and floral. Citrus and pine in the background. My head shakes with each sip. Low on booze, no sweetness, moderate bitterness.

F - medium body and carb.

O - I give this beer much respect for being well crafted, and without flaws. However, I don’t enjoy this particular hop mix, as the dankness destroys all other flavors that might be present.

 

Iron Goat prefers to do a batch # when they do labels. They don't actually know the exact date they'll be bottled because they use an outside mobile bottler who more or less has a monopoly in the area, so bottling happens according to his schedule. They have plans to begin their own bottling soon, but no firm eta on that. Perhaps then, an actual date will be put on their labels.

 

Ok, moving on, sorta. New beer, still in a sour mood, though. I am pretty certain I have had a beer from Sweden, but unfortunately one cannot tell on this site easily for sure. If not, that tick will be had with this Swedish made beer in the German Gose style:


This beer has been in the bottle almost a year. The Swedish language has the ingredient details, two of which are easily discernible (koriander and salt). The English states there is also some rye in there. interesting.

The head of this beer expanded like a self-inflating raft. A time lapse of a storm cloud stopped just perfectly at the top of the glass again (though the full bottle was not in the glass). I decided to go sin decanting and got this pillars of creation in the glass that took forever to completely haze the contents. Unlike the AV gose from earlier, this head continues as a thin cap most of the pour.



Upon popping the bottle, I got a rush of tart apple with a little funk. Getting into the beer, that impression isn't changed, though the intensity isn't what I'd expect given that first waft. There's a little of the grain - can't say it's wheat or rye, maybe a little more of the latter, combining with the coriander to have a mildly earthy counter to the sour apple, wet wood funkiness. This has a little bit of a farmhouse feel to it.

A blast of lemon tartness first, which fades to Granny Smith apple, including some skin as my palate recovered. A barnyard funk comes in with a light earthy spiciness. Salt is present throughout, but isn't the interesting part of this beer. Not too heavily carbonated, but the combo of tart and light carbonation brings enough to the feel. A little more full than today's first beer.

This is an interesting take, and there's a somewhat Brett-like funk to this beer. It's not huge and loses early against the more abrasive lactic acid. The bottle specifically mentions lactobacillus, but if that's all that's in there, it's coming across differently that it ever has in the past for me. Regardless, the net effect is, as mentioned, a barnyard/farmhouse feel to this beer once the sour aspects let it come out.

A really enjoyable offering. This somehow came across as what I think might be a more classic gose with some new twists involved that aren't focused on fruit of more sourness. I like the outcome.

 

Good afternoon NBS!!! Got a few bad ass cans from Revolution this week from @bstyle! First one up is Café Deth, awesome stuff, I would compared to stuff like KBS and Java Cask.

4.61/5 rDev +5.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

Thank you bstyle for this
12 oz can, dated 11/2/17, poured into a teku

A- Black with a three finger mocha head.

S- Coffee, espresso, lots of chocolate, bourbon, some vanilla.

T- Chocolate, roasted coffee, bourbon, some vanilla, touch of dark fruits/alcohol.

M- Smooth, medium to full body.

O- A great barrel aged coffee stout, worth seeking out.

Cheers!

 

New beer #5.

Spring IPA - Peak Organic
Session IPA - 4.7% abv
Canned 2/16/18 (30 days ago)
Purchased for $2.49 at Monde Market
Score: 3.75 (-8.3% rDev)



L - 1/2 finger offwhite head atop a glowing yellow body.

S - citrus, floral, bread, some spicyness. The nose is all over the place.

T - vegetal hops at first. Cooked cabbage and broccoli. Cheese. Moderately dank. A small amount of citrus and pine. Low booze, low sweetness, low bitterness.

F - medium-light body with high carb.

O - If you dig Broccoli and Cheddar soup, I’m guessing you’ll love this beer. Impressive depth of flavor for a session beer. I just don’t dig any of these flavors.

 

Happy NBS from sunny southern WI. I've cleaned up the yard a bit in hopes the new grass shoots start to appear in a week or two. The daffodils and tulips have poked up from the ground.

This past week there were a number of new beers and breweries that showed up around here, so I choose a few interesting beers.

Central State Brewing Lazer Raptor is a cranberry and lime Gose. It pours a very bright scarlet rose color with a pillowy 2 finger white head. Retention is very good with spotty lacing all over my glass. Aroma is fresh lemons and limes with some cranberry juice and sea water from teh saline. The flavor is light with tart lemons and cranberry juice. The lime and salt hints are a nice touch for the tartness of the beer. Mouthfeel is clean, refreshing and finishes tart and salty. This was quite enjoyable and would be an excellent thirst quencher on a hot summer day.

 

Hello BA! Hope everyone had a good week and St. Patrick’s Day. I’m starting off my Sunday with a fun brew, and one I have never reviewed. Cheers everybody, and here’s to NBS!


First brew of the day is Ron Mexico by Russian River.
Bottled on 3/07/18. Poured from 510mL bottle into 20oz tulip glass. Minimal white head formation, with generous lacing considering the AbV.

Look: 4:25
Light amber in color, like a sunburnt yellow. Crystal clear.

Smell: 4.25
Really subtle smelling, yet notes are present. I get some citrus fruits, consisting of primarily orange and grapefruit. Smell so of baked bread also prevalent, coupled with earthy/floral tones. Smell is good, but very mild.

Taste: 4.5
Bread flavors up front. Roasted grains and flour prevalent in the beer. Butterscotch, molasses, green apple and lemon also compile in the flavor. Slight taste of figs and dates as well, most likely from the sweetness. Florally in taste as well, giving it a subtle earthy flavor. Back end slight with orange, papaya and grapefruit. Really outstanding flavors for such a low AbV beer. Low bitterness, very easy drinking. No astringent flavors, everything is blended well in my opinion.

Feel: 4.25
Light to medium in body, leaning more towards light. Low carbonation, giving a creamy feel.

Overall: 4.5
This is one of my favorite offerings from Russian River. For such a low alcohol beer, it beings a lot of flavor to the table. I like the bready earthy flavor to it. It is light, yet slightly creamy. Very enjoyable and easy drinking. Perfect for any time of the year. Cheers everyone!

Final BA Score: 4.40

 

I had the same beer last week along with Union Jack, and I liked the Luponic Distortion 009 just a bit more, but it was very close.

 

New English Porter Sunday

It's been in the low to upper 40's here in Minneapolis for the past week, and today is no different. There's still snow all over and the lakes are frozen. The trails are clear, however, and I was able to run outside yesterday for the first time since October. It felt great. Today is a rest day, and that means a couple afternoon beers. Beers at my favorite brewery, nonetheless. BA tells me it's the 132nd beer I've reviewed from Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery.

Pick 6 Porter is the beer. It's an English Porter named in honor of last month's Super Bowl which was held a half mile from the brewery, and which caused virtually no one to visit Downtown Minneapolis establishments. No one as in most bars and restaurants received far less traffic than normal due to regulars staying home assuming places would be packed, and out of state fans not flying in until a day or two before the game.

At 4.9% ABV this porter is sessionable. It's intentionally light with enough roasty things to make it interesting. There is a nice cocoa side, and some Graham cracker as is warms. It was served on CO2, and was good. I can see it being better on cask, and if I see it on one of Town Hall's engines I wouldn't hesitate to order it.

 

Sounds like a bad can. At least I can't imagine them wanting to taste like that.

 

New beer #2
I'm having an Indiana beer to celebrate my alma mater's win today. My wife and I are Purdue grads but my sister in law works for Butler and I have a niece attending Butler now. I would have been happy for them, but I'm happier for this group of seniors right now.

The review:
12oz bottled 2/28/18 poured into a 3F tulip pint glass at fridge temp no ABV listed on bottle. The beer pours bright straw yellow with a golden tint. The head is off white and persistent. The head maintains a film coating and covers the glass in lacing. The aroma is bready with a flowery noble hop presence. The taste is noble hop flavor (think kitchen herbs although I can't define one clearly) layered on crackery malts. There is a clear, clean bitterness through all phases on the palate. Mouthfeel is medium to thin bodied, adequately carbonated and dry in the finish. Overall, very good. I'm hesitant to say this would be representative of the style, but if you enjoy hoppier Pilsners, you would likely enjoy this one too.

Random note: 3F has always (to my memory) used yellow ink printed date codes that could be easily removed by unscrupulous shops. This bottle is etched and was easy to see in the store while room temperature, but impossible to see when cold with condensation.
Cheers!

 

Wife has her friends over for a dog charity meeting in the other room so I decided to hibernate in the kitchen with this.


4.63/5 rDev +7.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.75

Poured from 16oz can dated 1/10/18 to a diagonal cut snifter.
Dark to opaque topped with a dark brown head of multi sized bubbles that behave like a bubbling chocolate cauldron for a few minutes. Those bubbles spew forth aromas of chocolate, raisins, prunes, coffee.. on and on, lets say complex.
Sipping brings the chocolate to prominence in the front, fade to dried fruits, finish is caramel with a hit of plain sugar at the very end.
That beautiful head is all but gone part way through the drink.
Mouth feel borders on light syrup. I could probably do with more carbonation, but I think its appropriate per style.
I don't normally like overly sweet foods or beers, but the aroma and front-end complexity on this has me sold. A very good beer.

I don't quite understand the Jean Claude VonDamm references on the can, but it makes me smile because I have a friend that always called him Jean Claude Goddamn.

 

Ok, the last of the sour beers is on tap in a second. To chime in on our host's topic, I have taken about 2-3 years off of golf at this point. I used to play 3-5 times a week, and practice on 2 of the others (though occasionally those rounds would start as or become practice in and of themselves). I had gotten my handicap index down pretty low, though I wasn't overly consistent at scoring well. I was thinking I might try to get back into this year as a part of becoming more physically active overall. I might even go ahead and pay for lessons, since at this point I am near a clean slate (random forays indicate I can still keep it in the mid-95s, playing by all the rules of golf, albeit those rounds have been back up at the white tees).

Ok, other than a BCBS that @Lingenbrau gave me, this is the last beer I trudged home from Portland last trip. I forgot about it when I claimed the previous one from Ex Novo was the last. Funny, if I go to the brewery, both current and active lists state I have had 1 beer, 0 on this page from the brewery. Oh well.

Today's beer isn't from Portland, but we don't get beers from Jolly Pumpkin in NoVa, and I like their beers, so... here is Lucienaga The Firefly.



Ok, this is listed as a Belgian Pale Ale, but the label says "oak aged sour biere." I'm used to JP being funky, earthy sours I like, but didn't pay much attention to the actual style. This beer was brewed almost two years ago, so what do we have.

Well, the oxidized notes are what got me really thinking about posting that previous paragraph. There's a note of the inside of a rubber balloon - that combined rubber and that chalky substance that keeps the balloons from sticking to themselves. There is an interesting lemony-vegetal note behind this, but it's a bit of work to get to it. Some earthy spices also eventually come out.

The head retention and lacing on this thing are great, even if the cloudy amber orange body has a slightly unappealing aspect to it. It's not unlike some NE IPAs, though.

The taste has that same oxidized rubbery note, which is unfortunate. Again, forging through this, a punch of spice comes next. Grains of paradise and coriander are listed, and while I am not attuned enough to have figured those on my own, the former is pretty obvious once I'm clued in. There's a lemongrass accent on a tea-like base. The impression of the flavor is that of a still green lawn being mowed up along with the first falling leaves in fall. The spice is interestingly strong and saves some interest for me.

Ok, I do not believe that this beer is one that I just got shafted on by not checking dates. Maybe, but I don't think so. The oxidation is too much, and the funk of the sour yeast may not be helping. It's also possible, if somewhat oxymoronic, that the spice note may also accentuate the oxidized notes (early) while simultaneously saving the beer from them (in the end). This is a spiced hop tea of a beer that is earthy all around. Not overly enjoyable for me, but I will likely finish it - it has enough weirdness that I think I can see it through.

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @lordofthewiens for getting us going today.

March Madness is well underway in the city where Gonzaga plays their home games. Yesterday I went to a friend's house for a combination St. Patrick's Day feast and Gonzaga watching party. We were only partly successful. The host's AppleTV setup would not allow us to watch the game, but all of us present still gorged ourselves on Corned Beef & Veggies, Shepherd's Pie, and enough beer and Irish Whiskey that my triple vertical of The Abyss lived to fight another day. Last night's host, Mark, supplements his day job with work as a rep for a fledgling brewery in Moscow, Idaho, called Hunga Dunga, so a coffee stout and a cherry gose from them were on hand. The gose was decent without being spectacular, but the coffee stout was spot-on.

Before I left fo the party, I had myself my first bottle from Engine House No.9, in Tacoma, Carice:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4980/333700/?ba=woemad#review
From Batch #1! Had to add this to the database. Somewhere between a strong pale and an Oud Bruin in color, the label merely states it's a "Barrel Aged Belgian Style Ale With Red Currants." Descriptions on line from other people variously claim the base beer is a Belgian Strong Golden Ale, a Flanders Red, Belgian Strong Pale Ale, even a Dubbel. I classified it on BA as a Belgian Strong Pale, but whatever you choose to call it, It's delicious.

I'm a little lacking in desire to drink anything right now, but might be back later with a new beer for this Sunday.

 

Revision Brewing - Jewel Box NEIPA



Drank rom a 16 Oz can poured into a standard tulip glass. Third time drinking this beer.
Look: Pours thick murky bright yellow, with a finger of white head on an aggressive pour. Medium head retention, but fantastic lacing.
Smell: Very prominent in intensity as soon as you pop the can open. The actual smell though, is typical for the style and type of hops used — citrus notes are by far the dominating flavor.
Taste: Follows the nose and expectations of a 100% galaxy-hopped NEIPA. Juicy citrus notes dominate the taste. Medium bitterness for the style.
Feel: Medium to above-average for the style. Carbonation is about medium as well.
Overall: I consider myself to be a galaxy-*****, so I admit to my assessment being skewed by that, but I love this beer. I feel that it's a great representation of the style, and one of the best (if not the best) hazy IPAs made by Revision. Try this one if you get a chance, you won't regret it. Cheers!

Look: 4.25; Smell: 4.5; Taste: 4.5; Feel:4.25; Overall: 4.5.

 

Mikkellers Round Tower is up next.
No canning date which is a bummer. Poured from 16oz can into 20 oz Sauvin Glass.

Look: 4.25
Dark yellow in color. Moderate opacity. Huge amounts of “floaters” in the beer, with a hefty amount of sediment that settled. 1/2” head formation which dissipated rapidly, but left great amount of residual lacing.

Smell: 3.75
Earthy, grainy, and different. I smell grains, corn, wheat, and a earthy/vegetable smell. Oddly reminds me of carrots, potatoes and onions in a crock pot. Floral accents as well, with some lemons, orange, papaya and grapefruit.

Taste: 4
Again really unique. I pick up some fruit flavors, like tangerine, orange and papaya, but it is full of earthy florally flavors. Also has a corn meal taste to it. As strange as it sounds, it isn’t terrible. Moderate bitterness.

Feel: 4.25
Medium in terms of body and weight. Low carbonation, with a creamy feel. Pretty good feeling beer.

Overall: 4
I wasn’t sure what to expect. Never had anything like it before. It’s really grainy and earthy, and strongly reminds me of vegetables. It has a gritty taste to it. Despite that, it really isn’t terrible, just different. As always, I am grateful to have tried this! Cheers!

Final BA Score: 3.98

 

A beautiful sunny day, kids and wife are gone, and MSU is playing on the tube. Would be a perfect day except I have to work later tonight. I was able to sneak a beer in earlier today for NBS.

Even with the insider information from @Roguer ’s earlier NBS post of a large head on this beer I did it too.
Review-12 ounce can, packaged on 2/5/2018. Poured into wide mouth jar-glass. Even after a careful pour with previous knowledge of a big head, this beer has a fat 4 finger head. Beer looks a deep mahogany. The nose is nutty. I can't say for sure peanuts but full of chunky nut butter. Cracker malts and smaller whiffs of chocolate too. More nuttiness and chocolate on the taste, some smooth caramel too. Bitter finish which I'm assuming is from the nuts. I get a weird salinity at the finish too, it's not quite a deal breaker. Mouthfeel is medium to light bodied but where it should be for easy drinking. The nose is this beer's strongest point and it does it well. Ironic to say that nuts do not hurt the head retention in this case.
3.65