New Beer Sunday (Week 685)

It was perfect timing for this BIF as Columbus Brewing just recently started distributing to GA.

 

Looks like the weather this week will be better this week to get the remaining box your way!

 

That Bodhi was via @WesMantooth I noticed it on your wants and he had sent an extra my way so I thought I'd spread the love.

 

Today's new beer was gifted to me by my good friend Dave (@SomethingClever). I've known Dave for five years (we met up through Beer Advocate), and he is one of the kindest people I've ever met. We meet up two or three times a year (Dave for some reason likes to visit this part of Maine), play some golf, drink some beer, and have a great time. So, from Dave, I'm drinking Bourbon County Brand Northwoods Stout. For those of you who may not know, this is a "stout aged in bourbon barrels with blueberry juice and almond extract added." It was bottled 10AUG17 and is 12.6% ABV.
In the snifter it was black in color with no head, just a few bubbles making their way to the surface.
The first thing that struck me about the aroma was how sweet it was. Fruity sweetness, but also some almond. Chocolate next, then bourbon and vanilla.
The taste followed the nose. Blueberries, chocolate, bourbon, vanilla. Almonds were there, but in the background.
A warming mouthfeel.
A nice beer just shy of the too sweet side.

 

New Secret Agent Sunday

My beer today is the blind beer from NBS BIF #007 and the 50 lb (second) box of beer from @kemoarps. It came dressed for spring here.

I am currently working my way through this. As you can see, it is an unfiltered/cloudy gold beer. There was a substantial amount of fairly frothy white foam on top initially, and it started to fizzle out into nothing pretty quickl.
There is definitely a citrus note to it. It’s an interesting fruit aroma that I have been sniffing over and over trying to pin down. I think it’s pineapple and lemon like with a little orange. It has a little sourness to it and a subtle dank hoppiness.

First taste is fairly tart, slightly puckering sour. Green apple Jolly Rancher like flavor and bite. Then it screams Gose with some saltines. There is a decent amount of citrus in the form of lemon, pineapple, and even mango maybe, but the sour overtone drowns it a bit.

I still swear this has an above normal hop profile. I get some of that dank that grassy green and the spicy mango. I may be confusing the slick resin feel with the salinity though. Otherwise, there is a lingering grain and coriander flavor with a touch of lactic acid.

It is soft bodied outside of the crisp bite up front and seems like a lower (4-5%) abv. I will finish it off and be back with the reveal.

 

Agreed. So far I’ve only tried 2 of their beers - this one and Norm’s Raggedy Ass IPA. Both were excellent!

 

That’s the best part about this. Beer is for sharing. That’s why I always include extra of some of my favorites. Even better when they hitch a free ride across the country.
Speaking of, @beertunes should have received a few bottles yesterday to share with the west coasters.

 

Nice!!! Thanks for sharing, and thanks @WesMantooth !

Weather is looking great after Tuesday-ish. I plan on sending off my final box to @akatz821 this week as well!

 

Thank you to @Dragginballs76 for this delicious crowler of Flava in your ear. I'd quite a bit of beer from Heist Brewery things to you. Amazing thing is that all of their beer taste different many times you can have one or two or more beer from breweries and they all taste basically the same but these ones are all unique. I'll be updating this later with I review. Drank this with some friends around 2 this morning.

 

Renegade Free to Roam APA
5.4% ABV




3.93/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured into a cervoise glass.

Look: A sort of pale, sunburnt golden straw body under a bubbly white head that leaves an airy collar and light film on top. Light spots of lacing.

Aroma: Really fragrant light pine and cedar, some tropical fruit notes - mostly pineapple.

Taste: The woody, pine flavors dominate up front while subtle apricot and pineapple emerge on the back end with a spicy hop finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium and dry.

Overall: Pulls no punches, it’s a solid APA with excellent label art.


Renegade seem to really push the envelope with their beers — they usually involve many flavors or adjuncts that catch the eye, but this one is just simple and straight forward which is what I like about it.

 

Thank you both! Paris-Roubaix race day is a bit of a holiday for me. Love that race. In fact, I'm trying hard to be in France to watch the Roubaix stage of the Tour this year. Hope to enjoy many new European beers when I visit!

And now that the race has concluded and my favorite rider won and my favorite USA rider landed in the top 10, I'm thinking it's time for a celebratory beer! Although I'm out of imports, or at least cold ones.

 

Cheers, dude! Draggin took good care of me planting over one hundred ounces of Heist Brewery's work on my porch. I loved every ounce of it. I honestly believe it's comparable to Treehouse, Trillium, and Foley, three of my favorite NE IPA producers.

 

Untold brewing east by northwest

4.23/5 rDev -0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

16 oz canned on 3.8.18, opened 4.7.18

Printed on the bottom, “ open other end”

Pours a deep clear copper, some carbonation, bubbly off white pencil thin foam layer, some lacings

Fragrant piney aroma on the pour, whiff of malts, whiff of citrus, tangerine

Taste is piney hops, bit of spiciness,

Hop nibble, lingers nicely, not a sharp hop bite

Local brewer

 

Opened my eyes to a brewery i never heard of before. Quite highly rated ipas if that Uber quench keeps it up it's going to beat treehouse

 

Earn Your Keep is a pale ale from West Kill Brewing, West Kill, (Catskill region) NY
The pale yellow can pour presents a 1/2 cm foam cap. The aroma is of clementines. The flavor is delicate and includes tangerine and raspberries. There is a bit of hop bitterness. This is a very pleasant, slightly juicy pale ale with a moderately dry finish.

 

Good morning! Late start for me today. Mrs. Z went to G’ville yesterday for a long planned girls weekend to include the annual Spring Arts Festival there. Junior is out camping with a bunch of friends. I was left at home with the dogs. I can’t complain as I attended the awesome monthly bottle share yesterday afternoon/evening at my nearby watering hole and sampled many new to me beers, ate some pizza then walked home.

On the subject of new beers, I look forward every year to Westbrook’s Anniversary beer release. I was hanging out with @rmank in Charleston SC in January and the bar had bottles for sale. I had already looked around town and couldn’t find any, so whoohoo, I got a couple of the “7th Anniversary”, bottles, a Chocolate & Sea Salt Imperial Stout, 9.5% ABV, bottled 11/27/17:

Pours black at 54 degrees with ruby edges; quick, fizzy brownish/tan top; no retention or ring; small spots of lace and very thin legs both upon swirl...a rather uninspired start...3.75



Chocolate fudge and caramel nose (the chocolate aroma turns out to be far more pronounced than the taste). 4.25



Chocolate fudge, lite bitter roast, caramel, cocoa nibs and semi sweet chocolate; somewhat salty on the finish. 4.0



Medium full minus body leaning thin; slick feeling; no warmth or astringency; lite carbonation. 3.75

Overall, I may be rating this beer on the high side given my infatuation with Westbrook; don’t get me wrong, this is a solid stout with a lite salted chocolate candy linger; but it’s a one trick pony (2 if you count the salt); perhaps my anticipation/enthusiasm got the better of me, but my expectations were sadly not met; I’m guessing this could be a great base for a barrel aged version!; there I go again, ramping up anticipation...for now, this beer overall gets...4.0

Cheers and have a great Sunday!

 

@RedhawkPoke mystery beer time!



L - trace hazelnut head atop a pitch black body. The head is gone in seconds. This must be a stout. Guessing barrel aged based on the head.

S - vanilla, hazelnut, good coffee, chocolate. Not getting any barrel effect on the nose, so my initial impression might be off.

T - oh my! Sweet vanilla, toffee, caramel, chocolate, coffee. A little pepper heat if I’m not mistaken. No booze at all so thinking non-BA adjunct stout.

F - full bodied, minimal carb.

O - I really dig this, but no idea what it is. My guess would be some sort of Roughtail stout, but I’m not going to look at the label until after I finish.