New Beer Sunday (Week 684)

Thanks for the intro, Dick. You and Craig have done a great job!

 

Brew Link Nuttercup Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter
American Porter - 6.5% ABV




4.69/5 rDev +18.1%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.75

12oz can poured into a snifter. No canning date anywhere on the packaging. Pours a dark brown color with off-white head. The nose is phenomenal, smelling exactly like a peanut butter cup with the perfect amount of chocolate and peanut butter. The taste starts out sweet with the peanut butter coming in mid-way through and lingering into the the finish along with the sweetness. I am even getting some saltiness in the finish from the peanuts as well. What makes this one great in my opinion is that there is enough bitterness in the finish to balance out the sweetness all the while not overpowering the chocolate and peanut flavors. I am a sucker for peanut butter cups, and this beer does a fantastic job of capturing that magic without coming across as being artificial.

 

Daily lager review. This time from Italy. Excellent German Pilsner. Fantastic head retention/soapy lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of lemon, cracker, white bread dough, and lightly toasted biscuit; with moderate herbal, floral, grassy, peppery hops. Light-moderate herbal, floral, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body, and moderate crisp finishing. Balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing lingering bitter dryness. Very flavorful/refreshing, 4.9%. Perfectly clean lagering. Perfectly balanced clean pils malts and earthy hop flavors. A little more citrusy than I expected on the hops, but spot on stuff! 4.03


Another Kane for the day courtesy of @MacMalt. Amazing APA! WOW. Fantastic lasting head retention and thick soapy lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of huge tangerine, grapefruit, peach, lemon, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, melon, guava, berry, citrus peel/zest, and light pepper/pine hops; with balanced wheat, white bread dough, light honeyed malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Very mild pine, zesty, herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body; creamy/bready/grainy malt mouthfeel, with light hop stickiness. Slightly increasing lingering bitter dryness. Insanely refreshing, amazing soft mouthfeel. Definitely NE style stuff. Extremely juicy, vibrant, and lightly dank hops; perfectly balanced pale/wheat malts. I could drink this all day. The Citra hop showcase is perfect. 4.38


Mystery beer! Better get out a snifter for this, judging by the warning. This was insane! DAMN. Amazing head retention/lacing on the glass. Dense thick oil pour. Aromas and flavors of huge milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, nutty dark roast coffee, cinnamon, chili pepper, caramel, toffee, vanilla, molasses, nuttiness, and toasted dark/brown bread; with light notes smoke, dark fruits, and herbal spice earthiness. Touch of booze in the aromas as it warmed, but not overwhelming. Very minimal roast and herbal spice bitterness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and VERY full body; with a very creamy, silky, velvety, slick, and rich mouthfeel that is insane! Minimal chalky roast, sticky spice, or dryness. Zero cloying sweetness. Very mildly increasing warming of alcohol. Holy shit this tastes just like Bomb!, but even thicker and less drying. The balance was downright perfect between everything. Killer beer! 4.43


Thanks for the warning Rob, I expected big, but not 15% big. This is even smoother than the Prairie at a higher ABV. One of the smoothest stouts I've ever had at this gravity.


Cheers, be back later NBS.

 

Greetings and happy Easter from Middle Tennessee! It's been a great day here that started with a slow recovery from yesterday, which included 2 brewery visits and a KBS vertical (15-18). Good quality time with family and now time to settle in with a new beer. I'm particularly enjoying seeing everyone's BIF beers today as I anxiously await a delivery next week...

Anyway, today's new beer is another local one, brewed in honor of our pro soccer team:

TennSC Hazy IPA, Tailgate Beer, Nashville, TN


It certainly looked like a NEIPA - bright golden and extremely hazy in the glass. A standard pour produced a one-finger white head that slowly settled. Big aroma right out of the can. Very tropical with tangerine, pineapple, and mango. The taste followed the nose closely. Huge fruity notes up front, and rounded out with some herbal dankness and a rising bitter finish. Dry, bready malt. A slight astringent quality on the finish. Soft mouthfeel with a slight carbonic bite. Outstanding beer. These guys don't get much love from the local beer geeks. Granted I'm biased, but this one represents the style well. Glad I picked up a 4-pk. Cheers!

 

Thanks for a great review. Lone Eagle is often overshadowed by its neighbor Conclave Brewing but it's been producing some great beer lately. @SammyJaxxxx knows how to pick 'em!

 

Glad you liked it!! I was nervous about sending the barrage glass as it would be a bit of a giveaway, but decided to anyways cause there's nothing wrong with some glassware

 

5 New 4+ Dark Styles. Happy Easter.

Sundae | Carton
4.4 rDev -0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Sampled at Carton tonight. Perfect for Easter weekend last beer of evening.
a) It pours a deep thick black with a firm tan head. Rings and laces nicely.
s) Nice. Cognac, strawberry, vanilla, leather, anise, chocolate, a bit of char to balance.
t) I find the oak and cognac first. Then it's a solid imperial with chocolate and strawberry, never too sweet, never cloying. Always complex. Lots of other complex nuances like wood smoke and licorice.
F) thick, mid weight, good mouth feel and body for heft and complexity. Finishes clean.
o) I suppose RIS with flavors becoming a core treat at Carton. As good as any RIS.

Trois Pistoles | Unibroue
4.3 rDev +0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
wow. As powerful as any Belgian, the Quebecoise beers of Unibroue are amazing and a great value.
A) Big frothy, pillowing tan head over a mahogony body hat lasts and laces.
S) Complex with fall and fallen orchard fruit pear, apple, spices, raisin and figs with sweet malts.
T) As with the aromas, and different facets with each sip. Smokey with angles of dark fruit and spices, flavored with cocoa and yeast. Evolving.
M) Medium body and moderate carbonation.
O) Overall, great.
Elemental | Renaissance (NZ)
4.1 rDev +3.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
While I hate to ship beer all the way from NZ to NYC, having dinner on Union St in park slope at Mark Simmons' NZ restaurant - Kiwiana. A must try.
a) As pretty and dark as Old Engine Oil with lasting head and lace.
s) Molasses, vanilla, chocolate predominate - great with the cheese course.
t) Follows smell with more fruitiness and smokiness.
f) mid body, low carbonation, wine like, great last beer of evening.
o) An English influence, hence comparisons to Fullers, Taddy, or Harviestoun.

Irish Blessing | Boulder Beer
4 rDev +4.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Slanté indeed. This packs the flavor of a much bigger stout.
a) Brown-black body with a tan, creamy 1 finger head that doesnt lace or last as much as I'd like.
s) Aromas of wood, charcoal, coffee, steamed milk, coffee grounds, earth, and roasted malt.
t) Follows smell but Bigger. Pepper, oak, whiskey, wood, vanilla, and all the above. If you like wood shop, you'll like this.
f) Too thin, porter like, dry, roasted, toasted finish.
o) Mineral, chalky, woody.

Kelso Chocolate Lager | Greenpoint
4 rDev +1.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25
I never met a black beer I did not like.
a) Pours an interesting garnet brown with a short tan head and not much lace or retention. If chocolate added, or perhaps its the sugar, that could deflate the head. Nice unusual color tho.
s) Lots of aroma that rises cocoa and smoke, grass, and sweet malt.
t) Follows smell, perhaps a tad too sweet, lots of cocoa, dark chocolate, hops, and mineral.
f) Light to mid weight low carbonation, easy drinking, sessionable.
o) I love a flight of these to tease out the differences.

 

NBS #2, this one courtesy of @swenny916's BIF box. This is my first beer from Mikerphone Brewing, and it's just great! First of all, check out the unique color. It just looks good. And the taste is even better. Big pineapple and a delicious blend of Motueka and Galaxy hops. I just pounded this bottle. Thanks, Jay! Here's my review:

4.23/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

I received this from @swenny916 in a BIF box. Poured from 750 ML bottle into Spiegelau IPA glass. The color is really unique: a murky, dirty orange that is almost brown, with over a finger of foamy, bright white head and soapy lacing. It's so attractive I almost don't want to drink it. The nose is also intriguing; not a lot of fruit but the hops are quite floral. Wow, this is delicious! The primary tastes are pineapple and lemon and the combination of Motueka (a favorite of mine) and Galaxy hops is delicate but highly flavorful and compliments the tropical taste perfectly. There's very little bitterness and a clean finish. This ale is medium-bodied with pleasant carbonation, and it's dangerously drinkable at 8.5% ABV. Overall, I like everything about this DIPA. The appearance is unusual and it's super flavorful. Basically, a fun beer to drink.

Please excuse my gushing but this is what NBS BIF is all about. Without it, I'd never get to enjoy this beer. Thanks, @beertunes for facilitating all this!

 

Happy Easter & Happy Anniversary to the awesome moderators of this thread! First beer up, 4 Hands City Museum Pisner ( with Tangerine & Ginger ). An easy drinker, but was hoping for more. 3.59 overall


Pours a hazed honey color with a thumb of fast falling beige colored head. Zero head retention & lacing
S: Citrus & pears
T: Follows the nose, a little green melon & dryness up front. Tangerine & dryness as this warms, I get a kiss of ginger as well, a little grassyness as well, Finishes dry with plenty of tangerine & just a little ginger zip
MF: Medium body, slight carbonation
Drinkable enough, very quenching, but nothing life-changing

 

Hoping you are enjoying your Easter Sunday. I’ve been busy catching up around the house, and now time for a new beer

This is Bearded Iris’s Mood Ring with Strawberries. Full disclosure that I rated this last week, but am sitting down to review today.



Poured from 16 oz can dated 3/21/2018.

A: Cloudy pale yellow with a distinct reddish tint. Smallish one finger white head with relatively short retention and moderate lacing.

S: Pineapple, mango, strawberries. Floral hops.

T: Ripe strawberry, pineapple juice, mangos.

M: Medium body with average carbonation. Soft, creamy mouthfeel.

O: Excellent DIPA. Sometimes adding additional flavors gets in the way, but it works here.

 

So of course, as I am on vacation in a different country, my phone decides to go berserk and not work in any way at all. So much so that the cost for all the replacement parts and a new phone would be nearly the same. And with it, went the pictures I took while tasting. So I apologize in advance to @Vidblain and everyone else for not having pictures of the taste =/

For those who don't remember, or aren't in the BIF, heres what we were dealing with:

That bomber with the gold wax was my mystery bottle. Given the region, i, as well as another in the current BIF round, thought this was probably one of Surly Brewing's Darkness variants.

We were very much wrong.

As I first poured, I was graced with a translucent caramel color...something I definitely didn't expect from a stout. Luckily, that means I was really going in blind.

Upon first smell, I knew this was a sour; one of the few dark sours I have encountered (that doesn't include sours with juicy dark fruits...as this one was obviously not that)

Instead, I was getting wine, oak, some sort of spice(and a healthy amount of it), and a bit of funk. I was damn EXCITED right now.

Tasting it, I could tell there weren't any juicy fruits in it...so either we were talking heavily aged tannic fruits (currants, grapes, etc)...but really with a lot of age so most of the 'juicy'-ness was gone completely. It also gave me some more of that spice note, which made me think of a Trappist recipe being given to a lambic producer. A thing of beauty.
Also, there is definitely a barrel aging going on here. I don't think its from a whiskey. I'm going to say its a port, but it could really be anything...I wouldn't call myself enough of an expert to be able to point that out. There was also a sort of an oil like viscosity, but only on your lips. Luckily it coated them and really let the flavors linger (seriously like a great wine)

Overall, A+++ would seek out and drink again, really anytime. It doesn't seem like a monster 15%-er (but I could be wrong about that and maybe its just really well hidden, though I do feel some of the alcohol bite)

Here would be a picture of the bottle.
It was a red wine barrel aged and finished in rye barrels Pentagram by Surly. Got the Brewery right!! Everything makes sense now. That spice? according to the bottle its tobacco. That bite? not from the alcohol, but from the rye
So excited I got to try this, and loveee tasting things blindly. Will try to do more of that!
Thanks again @Vidblain !!!!

 

Trying this very nice Lost Abbey Ex Cathedra. Happy NBS Easter. Cheers! Review below.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18149/280082/?ba=cindyjeffsmith#review

 

Witchblade - correct? I'll keep my eye out, man - I haven't been shopping comics much in many years now (as you can see, I'm mostly just collecting graphic novels now... I got tired of moving around boxes of comics, and my house just doesn't have enough space for 'em... too much beer).

I hope to hear that story... at DLD!

 

Woke up about five hours earlier than I'd intended, so thought I'd try and be productive and get some cleaning done etc, but feel like I'm moving in slow motion as the other side of having that extra time that was intended to be used sleeping... needed to be used for sleeping.
Last night's Heron Hunting Club was an absolute blast, though I'm sure it is partly responsible for my inability to sleep as well as I'd have liked.

April fools day seems like the perfect opportunity to open up the surprise mystery beer included in that NBS BIF #007 selection from @FlintB.

I opened and wrote my thoughts with the paper still wrapped around it, then once I'd gotten the 'review' out of the way I unwrapped it to see what it really was and compared my blind notes to what was promised on the label. Clarified a couple of things but I was pleasantly surprised to see how closely my thoughts tracked with their intentions.



Pour began with a murky reddish/copper/amber which I later realized was better described as 'rusty.' This picture shows more of a head than I remember, but obviously it was there. Even that faded away relatively easily, leaving not much behind.

The nose immediately gave away the presence of tart sour cherries. Further digging yielded some woodiness and spice, but the cherries are the headlining act here.
Upon unwrapping the package, this is confirmed, and the wood and spice fit in with the description of a barrel and of a rye base

Flavour builds on this theme of sour cherries, augmented with an intermittent sweet streak and again given notes of wood and spice. There's some flavour in there that is really reminiscent of... something, but I can't quite put my finger on it (nor on the other beers I've had that also exhibit this characteristic, though I know I have had some). There's a creaminess that carries in some vanilla, and seems to cut off the peak of tart acidity that it had previously been building towards, like triangles/pyramids with the peak shorn off.
Reading the ingredients the barreling is manifested by the woodiness and vanilla, though I don't catch any bourbon itself. The rye probably contributes the spiciness, and the cherries speak for themselves. The bit that surprised me the most, but that I can see now is probably the orange juice. That's probably responsible for the juicy/sweet currents that run through it at points, as well as contributing citrus acidity.

Carbonation peeks in just enough to give it some life, but does not focus on itself, and the finish refers back to the creamy notes and the cherries, with some more of that juicy sweetness intermittently interwoven.

Oh, yeah. What did it turn out to be?

Ol' Dirty Fashioned, by Transient. And I get to be the first person to review it here on BA.
Fun times.
Thanks Brian for yet another bit of Michigan deliciousness, and for once again coincidentally (?!?) finding something that bears strong resemblance to a personal favourite non-alcoholic food item that I frequently consume (the last beer I had from this box was orange/cranberry and reminded me of one of my goto beverages at work, while this carries a strong connotation to one of my preferred lunch components: a vanilla cherry yogurt).

I felt like I should, thematically, pair this with something from ODB, but I'm not feeling Wu-Tang today, and this song has been stuck in my head for the last couple of days.
Saw these guys live last week and forgot how much I love their stuff.



Hope y'all have some tasty beverages to enjoy as well, and cheers!!

 

Happy New American Porter Sunday!

Went on a nice little hike, sunny, slight breeze, around 68. Having a pretty tasty brew, surprised me. Really don't see much from BP around here. Picked up a couple of chicken tacos, watching some Voyager reruns, on season 6. Might be back with something else.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/199/200560/?ba=Wasatch#review

Cheers!

 

Greetings, NBS friends, and welcome to Round 1 of approximately 38 rounds of “NBS BIF #007 New Beer Reviews By Ovaltine” since I’ve received enough beers from @Buck89, @JBowenGeorgia, and @Ozzylizard to last me until approximately 2023.

Today’s offerings for your perusal will be a tribute to @JBowenGeorgia, who was my target in BIF #5, and Creature Comforts, a brewery from Athens, GA that is doing some phenomenal things, based on the data points I’ve accumulated thus far. First up, a dankity dank IPA already reviewed today by @Vidblain.



4.25/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

The pour is a hazy orange with LOADS of floaties (note: I love floaties) and a billowy off-white head. Dank hop notes on the nose, with tangerines and spicy passion fruit most prominent.

The taste is slightly bitter, with the dank citrus flavors dominating, both traditional (oranges) and exotic (passion fruit). The finish is dry, with a substantial feel.

This is a really well-executed IPA, IMHO, one that I would purchase regularly if it was available to me.

 

O'fallons king Louie toffee stout
Almost solid black color
Body.. above average body, carbonation seemed about medium but dissipated extremely fast
Aroma..malt,vanilla,toffee, and a little bit of coffee
Taste..similar to aroma, vanilla was strong on finish and lingered a while
Overall.. somewhat interesting but it went flat very fast for some reason which was unappealing. Flavor was a little weak, not something I would get again

 

More beer form my BIF from @y2kawakami.
3.73/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thank you y2kawakami for this
12 oz can poured into a teku

A- A hazy/murky copper color with two finger white head.

S- Pale malts, tropical fruits, papaya, passion fruit, hints of citrus and pine.

T- Pale malts, a little sweet, some tropical fruits, citrus, somewhat piney.

M- Smooth, light to medium body.

O- A decent session IPA, kind of more like an APA than an IPA.

Cheers!