New Beer Sunday (Week 685)

Good morning NBS, and thanks to @cjgiant for the fine start this week. It is a reluctant spring here in WMass. The sugaring is done, some bulbs are working their way skyward. As a cemetery trustee for our small town it is also the time when the weekends are busy with burials. This in many ways is fitting. Families have often waited for some time and are well adjusted to this stage. Nothing sad, just a sign of spring.
Today's offering is a gift from a dear friend. Treehouse brewing is about 30 miles from where I live, but I have not made any trips to any of their locations.
Impermanence is the name, and seemed fitting for this weekends offering.

A lush feel, lots of flavor depth, silky and not unlike a gooey fudge brownie.
We are off to Armsby Abby for a late brunch and maybe some stouts, it is Stoutfest weekend.
Cheers all


Impermanence

Tree House Brewing Company
Milk / Sweet Stout / 9.00% ABV

4.13/5 rDev -8.6% | Score: 4.52
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured from a 500 ml bottle into the test glass,
A - Impermeably dark, micro carbonation feeds a tight knit mocha colored froth. During the experience a thin ring rides to
surface down the glass.
S - Milk chocolate, cocoa powder, raisin, a touch of char, Vietnamese coffee, with the condensed milk.
T - The slightest hint of maple, cocoa powder, chocolate malts, fudge brownie, with that all important coffee ice cream
M - Smooth on the palate, carbonation is no match for the lactose, feel is slick and sweet.
O - A very nice milk stout, the body is rich and creamy. the flavors have depth, and the aromatics add to the experience

 

Came across this one yesterday while looking for a beer. So Mikkeller Resting Brew Face it is. Tons of fruit, a great big fluffy dense white head of foam. Extremely hazy but that’s the trend. Medium to full bodied , nice chewy finish, nicely bitter very well balanced. Its says it’s an ipa but blind I’m sure this would be a DIPA. I’m thinking it was like $5 for the can. Again I really hate to rate things it seems arbitrary to me but if I had to give it a number I’d say 4.5/ 4.6. Its certainly better than most of the competition. One thing imo that separates a really great beer from all the others is mouthfeel and finish. Nothing more disappointing than a fruity ipa that finishes thin and watery.

 

Nice start to @cjgiant for this weeks NBS. Will be back later on with a new brew.

Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! I’ve been looking forward to today since February. NBS BIF reveal day! This was the first BIF I’ve been a part of, and I found the whole thing addicting and exciting. Count me in as a permanent member going forward @beertunes .

Everything I drink today will be from the very generous box I received from @RedhawkPoke . Previous to this box, I’d only ever tried a small handful of OK beers (Prairie Bomb), but now I have a ton to try over the coming weeks. Starting with this crowler. My first ever from Roughtail!

Everything Rhymes with Orange - Roughtail
IPA - 7% abv
Crowlered 3/25 (14 days ago)
Score: 4.39 (+5.8% rDev)



L - 2-finger offwhite head stays in place for several minutes, cratering in from the center. Body is a gorgeous, radiant orange. I love how this one looks.

S - oranges, some caramel/sweet malt, a little pine.

T - definitely matches the name! Orange on top of orange on top of orange. Some bitter grapefruit rind. Pine. Very little malt coming through on the taste, which is fine with me. Not at all boozy, and only mildly bitter.

F - creamy, medium-full body with low carb.

O - I need to try more from this brewery. This beer is way up there in the NE IPA pantheon of amazingness.

 

MYSTERY CROWLER!!!!





Happy NBS and Happy Easter, BAs! This morning's mystery beer comes to me courtesy of the very generous BA @r0rschach as part of the 007 NBS BIF. Everything else he's sent me has been fantastic, so I'm excited to try this one.

John recommended that I lightly agitate the crowler before pouring it, so I was thinking maybe a hefe- or a NEIPA. As you can tell from the photos above, it's neither of those.

It pours a murky-looking purple color -- like the cup of water for cleaning your purple, water-color paint brushes in art class. It has a small, soupy purple-tinted head that leaves a lasting soupy crown and very light lacing.

Based solely on John's shake-it-up advice, I investigate the appearance much more closely than I otherwise would have. If you hold the glass at just the right angle in just the right light, you'll notice that there's also a metric shit ton of purple glitter in there.



The picture here makes it look like it just settled to the bottom. That's not the case. There's that much glitter suspended through the whole beer. The dark purple color of the liquid (and possibly lack of strobe lights and laser shows in my kitchen) obscures the glitter in most instances.

The concoction has a strong aroma of light sour apple, lemon, Concord grape jelly and green tea.

The taste is even more tart and sour than the nose -- but is also pretty sugary. Sour apple, pear, lemon, grape and some vanilla taffy mix up front, followed by some really earthy green tea in the aftertaste. The tartness is stronger than the sweetness, giving it a semi-dry feel.

It's medium bodied with just enough carbonation.

The overall impression here is of sweetened green iced tea with a big ole twist of lemon. It's clearly a sour ale. What particular variation, I wouldn't care to guess. I'm fairly certain this doesn't meet traditional BJCP style guidelines.

The crowler has no labeling at all, so the mystery would end right here if John hadn't included a second crowler in the BIF box -- a delicious Blueberry Lime Gose from the Collective Brewing Project.

That hint leads me to search through their beers now. There are no strong leads in the BA listings, but on their website is Peep This Collab: "Our Petite Golden Sour with lemon peel, vanilla, lactose sugar, butterfly pea flower, and edible glitter."

Apparently, this is a peeps candy-inspired beer! Couldn't beer more appropriate. Xristos anesti to my Greek Orthodox peeps -- and a huge thank you to John! He's left me with plenty of other new beers to try on a bunch of Sundays to come...

 

This still hasn’t shown up here from what I can tell. Dying to try it...even moreso now! Your taste description is exactly what I want in a stout.

 

I believe I will participate for the first time. A little early church and now watching Meet the Press. Boy--the state of politics (no matter which side you may or may not sit on) would encourage an early indulgence but will wait a little bit before starting-- plus I have to find something worthy.

Cheers

 

Yeti imperial stout jet black color with brown head
Body..creamy,above average,nice thick feel
Aroma...roasted malt,vanilla, earthy
Taste ..very similar,not so much coffee as char,smoke, and an earthy taste
Overall it was very good but used a lot more hops than most stouts I've had before

 

Good morning, NBSers! As Bruce Buffer would say - "Iiiiiiiiiiit's TIME!" I'm fairly psyched this morning because, 1) one of my favorite martial artists, Khabib Nurmagomedov, appears to have wrecked Al Iaquinta for the lightweight title yesterday evening. This is very okay with me. The guy is 26-0, yet people still bag on him. Fine, fine, he misses weight like it's a habit... but the guy has wrestled a bear! How can you not like that? 2) Much more importantly - I finally get to open my blind beers from the magnanimous, incredibly kind and generous @JBowenGeorgia

This is my first time in the NBS BIF (thought not my first BIF), and I had no idea who I'd be receiving beer from. We had an abundance of participants from Michigan, and then a few scattered BAs from a plethora of other states. Very cool, and quite exciting. I was definitely looking forward to ticking some new beers and breweries that are, as yet, unknown to me. What I was NOT expecting was a sender from Georgia... and for those brews he sent to be SO world-class. Well. I'm learning, rapidly. Well done, John, and thank you again!

I'm a bit hungover this morning, unfortunately, so I may not be drinking much until later, but... my first blind beer was marked as a breakfast beer... it's a little early for me, but twist my arm, John.



My first beer of the day is a can - a tallboy, in fact. On cracking the can, it was abundantly clear that I was dealing with some kind of stout or porter... I was definitely leaning towards stout. The nose had fairly strong hints of cinnamon, vanilla, and coffee. Well, well - this may literally be a breakfast beer. I poured this one in to a 16 ounce tulip - it's definitely a very deep brown, with a nice half inch beige/nut brown head. Quite attractive. It does not appear to be heavily carbonated (definitely in my wheel house here).

First taste impressions - beer is still quite cool, but there's a very strong cinnamon presence, along with a subtle coffee roast and light acidity. I think I'm getting a bit of vanilla as well. The mouth feel is quite rich, lightly carbonated, but decently thick and heavy for what I suspect is a non-barrel aged beer. Very nice! While cold, the beer has a slightly unpleasant lingering aftertaste, which seems to be dissipating as the beer warms. That cinnamon is terrific - I happen to LOVE cinnamon beers.

On that topic: several friends and I did a little blind tasting of cinnamon beers on Friday night. I wasn't sure of the participants (the beers, that is), honestly, and I was fairly drunk when we began... so it was interesting. Beers 1 & 3 were loaded with cinnamon, a faint pepper taste, and quite sweet. Beer 2 was something barrel-aged and excellent... but contained no cinnamon. It was my choice for best beer, though not really in keeping with the cinnamon theme. Shrug. Beer 4, sadly, was one of my favorites from 2016... and it had fallen off badly. Those of you hanging on to Cassian Sunset from that year may want to revisit immediately. This particular bottle had all kinds of green pepper and acidity. The cinnamon had fallen off badly as well. Quite sad. Perhaps poorly stored? No idea. Beers 1-3 were: Perennial Artisan Abraxas (2017), Cigar City Look to the Cookie, and Barrel Theory El Gato Diablo.

To make this story short - the can I am drinking is none of those beers. Based on can size and what I can see of the color, I'd guess something Burial... but I'm really not sure. I do love Burial, so I'd be fine with that... again, I just don't know! I suspect John will go with something more local, so I'm going to strike out Burial. Definitely blind here. So let's do a reveal.



As noted - I was pretty clueless.

Reveal is: Awaken, My Love by Creature Comforts. I think this is my fourth or fifth new Creature Comforts check-in from this box, and I've enjoyed every single one. Thanks again, John - fantastic box, and I really appreciate the insight in to the Georgia beer scene!

I'll be back later with my "not-breakfast beer". To all of you BAs in similar frigid areas - persevere, and drink good beer! Someone should make a shirt, eh? We're expecting more snow here later, so... beer is definitely in order.

Cheers, NBS!

 

Love the story. Thanks for posting the link.

 

I forgot my haul picture from @JBowenGeorgia - a tremendous selection of excellent beers, and very nice matching glassware! Thanks again, John!

 

NBS beer #1



Holy Cow

The Alchemist Brewery and Visitors Center
American IPA / 5.10% ABV

4.22/5 rDev +0.2% | Score: 4.21
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

L- The beer pours orange with a slight haze. The head is nearly 3 fingers of off white froth. Lacing is ample and lasting.
S- The nose is dank and weedy, bordering but not quite crossing into catty. There is a little pine beneath, but it's weak by comparison.
T- On the palate the beer is more balanced between the pine and the weed aspects. The malt presence is light and toasty and is merely a stage for the hops.
F- The mouthfeel is light and prickly from ample carbonation. It's perfect for a beer meant for session drinking.
O- This beer does exactly what it is meant to do. Its hoppy and flavorful without weighing the drinker down with a heavy mouthfeel and high ABV. If you like the flavors imparted by Columbus hops than you'll dig this session IPA.

 

Trippy looking. But pretty.

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers, and thanks to @cjgiant for getting us underway.

Last Sunday I had a peculiar case of beer ennui. Although I had had a couple new tasty beers the previous Monday while in my hometown visiting the parentals, including finally having something from a brewery I'd wanted to try for some time (Skookum), on Sunday I just wasn't interested in beer at all, so I simply didn't have one.

Today I'll start with a really great beer I had at Iron Goat yesterday afternoon, a rye IPA brewed in collaboration with Fort George called Bad Ryeligion:

Spicy and creamy due to the use of triticale (which I understand to be a kind of rye-wheat hybrid grain) and naked oats, both grown on farms in Ritzville, WA (about 60 miles sw of Spokane on I-90; Incidentally the town of one @RJLarse, a frequent contributor to this thread), this was utterly delicious. I sincerely hope it makes another appearance after it's gone.

Today (it's currently 44° and cloudy, but not rainy and blustery like most of the past week) is the day to unveil our NBS BIF #7 riches. The box I received from @beerloserLI this last Monday was so massive I actually injured my back while pulling them out of the box for a photo. It wasn't until Thursday evening that I felt encouraged enough to ease the amount of medication enough to where I felt I could drink alcohol again, so I haven't touched any of those beers yet. Here's a listing of all the loot, with photos to follow:
12oz Avery Tweak
16.9 Singlecut Heavy Boots of Leather
16oz Greenport Harbor Facing Infinity (my phone doesn't seem to have a key for the Infinity symbol)
16oz Greenport Harbor Naturally Juiced
2x12oz Grey Sail Captain's Daughter
16oz Captain Lawrence Tears of Green
12oz Cigar City. Jai Alai
16oz Barrier Money
16oz Barrier Suite
16.9oz Barrier Crowning Achievement
2x16oz Lawson's Sip of Sunshine
16oz Peekskill Eastern Standard
16oz Grimm Pulse Wave
16oz Grimm Dreamweapon
16oz Grimm Tesseract.


photo host

Clearly, I have work to do.

 

Switchback Ale

I have never seen this brewer’s product before, but this seems to be some old-school Vermont stuff. the label says: “developed as a flavor concept, not adhering to any style guidelines.” The label also says to mix the yeast back in.

This one is a hazy dark amber. The final pour was considerably more cloudy thanks to the stuff at the bottom of the bottle. It’s bready, toasty, and rich with melanoidins. There’s a slight bitterness but it’s more warming than off-putting. It goes down very easy. Pleasantly surprised with this one.

This beer feels more like toast than my last beer despite its name (Toast).

 

I've seen that one on the BA home page about half a million times. Good to finally hear what it tastes like. (Yeah, I could have read the article or looked it up, but whatever.)

You're killing it today. Cheers!

 

NBS and time for my mystery beer from BIF 007 thanks to @superspak



Taped up 16 oz can. Initially thinking DIPA, so I went with my Ruinten glass.

Dark brown with fluffy 3 finger mocha head that lasts and leaves moderate chunky lacing. It’s no DIPA, but has the look of a nice porter or stout.

Aroma of coconut, vanilla, and bourbon. Slightly sweet pastry. Possibly a BA porter?

Coconut, vanilla, bourbon, roasted malts, brown bread, and subtle sweetness like molasses. Tastes like a coconut BA porter.

Medium body with light carbonation. A touch thin for a stout. Sticking with the porter theme. A little alcohol heat that seems to be in excess of the ABV.

If the coconut had been stronger, I would have guessed BA Death By Coconut.

And the reveal... (Insert drum roll here)

Griffin Claw You Figure It Out (love the name for a mystery beer) - a coconut and vanilla milk stout.



The combination of the vanilla, lactose sweetness, and apparent alcohol read more bourbon to my palette. At 6% ABV while typical for a milk stout is more porter range so I guess my assumptions were reasonable.

A fun adventure for sure... Thanks Ian!

 

Good morning NBS! Yet again stoked to be taking part in my first NBS BIF and excited to see what @Bum4ever sent me blind! This is the first of two... I'll open the other later today.


The challenge I'm having as I type this is what type of glass to grab? My only hints were I love IPAs and sours, but I'll drink anything. I have no beers on my want list. Pick a proper pint? Twirl a tulip? Imbibe from an IPA glass? Sip from a stange? Decisions decisions... In the end I went with a trusty tulip as it fits most IPAs and sours well.

(BTW that basil olive oil behind my hand that was included in the box went really well with some pasta earlier in the week!)

Appearance: Bright orange, hazy, a healthy 1.5 finger head that lingers sits on top (4.5)

Smell: Definitely a sour! And a funky one at that. Yum. Some sour apple, a large dose of whey (if you've ever been in a cheese factory this is identical), hints of tropical fruit and malt as I inhale more deeply (4.25)
Taste: Oh man this is sour! This one was definitely brewed with care over a period of time and with some funky yeast strains. Mixed berries - I'm for sure getting blueberry & cherry, some sour apple, and tropical fruit. Whatever fermentation vessel this saw was fairly neutral in influence. As usual with sours a few yeasty notes and things I can't quite put my finger on towards the finish. Very tasty (4.5)
Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, crisp yet some lactose smoothness, mouthwateringly sour (4.25)
Overall: Very enjoyable, tasty sour that's got just about everything I enjoy in the style (4.5)

It feels kind of weird writing my review on here without the beer's page to reference but hopefully that makes me a bit more careful with the review. Most Sundays I write my review on the beer's page then copy it to here. Now time for the reveal:


Dionysus Berlinersfield (Berliner-style Weisse with strawberry)
Looking at the side label I got the recommended glass style correct! Interestingly I did not speficically mention strawberries anywhere above (I'm sure I would have been influenced to do so if I was looking at the bottle).
Plugging it into it's page mine is the first review, it's got three other ratings. Overall the beer is 3.96/5, I'm 4.42 rDev +11.6%. That being said the other scores are 4.21, 4.36 and 2.83 respectively so one definitely not in line with the rest. This is a great beer. Thanks Bum! I'll be back for more later, cheers!