New Beer Sunday (Week 685)

Thanks for all the posts so far. Interesting stuff.

New Glory - Fresh Pils of Bel Air. Unfortunately the can was undated, though it's very fresh as it's one of the brewery's newest releases.



Look: Pours half-hazy golden yellow. Beautiful fluffy white head for the style, though bubbles aren't uniform. Head retention is medium for the style; great lacing left on the glass.

Smell: The nose on this is somewhat of a mixture between what you get from a typical pilsner, and hop overtones. Unfortunately the hop smell is mid enough, that I can't pick out distinct hops. I have to say that this combination is honestly really pleasant.

Taste: Actually pretty typical for pilsners — bitter, clean, light, crisp. You can tell that there are some extra hops in there, but the difference is mild.

Feel: The body is crisp and light, very drinkable. I could easily kill a pack of these in a row. Alcohol is not even close to being apparent. Carbonation is typical for the style

Overall: I don't typically drink pilsners, but I'm loving this one. So approachable and drinkable. The hops are present, but it's for sure a pilsner. I'm loving the development of New Glory too; glad to be drinking local. Cheers!

 

New beer for me this early afternoon, reviewed before I get into some baseball today.

Great Heights Brewing is a tiny "nano" brewery just north of where I live. They usually make IPA's. Both NEIPA and West Coast styles. The growler store I work at on most weekends is one of the few off premise places that will get Great Heights, so I am always looking forward to what is new coming from them.

This is their Wakefield IPA, and it is a tweener for the two IPA styles. Kind of like Yellow Rose, though a bit more subtle then that. Still a really well done IPA that I will be looking to come back to when I see it around town or at the brewery. Actually, I much prefer this to pretty much all NEIPA's that I have had made around Houston. As the subtle character draws me in to enjoy the hops that are being showcased better, and you know...there is actually good carbonation here. Sadly, that is not always a given with many NEIPA's being made in my area.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50326/334746/?ba=champ103#review

 

Happy Birthday!
40 isn't so bad. Wait until you hit 70.

 

That was fun, wasn't it?
See you next week.

 

New beer #3. After that first American Solera I’ve got to try the other one @RedhawkPoke .

Interplanetary Good Vibe Zone - American Solera
Sour Ale aged in wine barrels - 5.6% abv
Score: 4.28 (+5.7% rDev)



L - trace head atop a translucent yellow body.

S - white wine, tart overripe grapes, some citrus hops.

T - very tart to start. Grapes are prominent, as is the white wine. No bitterness, light sweetness, no booze.

F - light body with medium-high effervescent carb.

O - A sour beer for white wine lovers. I quite enjoy this.

 

Happy Birthday ! Have a great day! Hope all is well back where I grew up !

 

Happy birthday, man - and cheers to the great MN beer!

 

Happy Birthday!

 

So, I finished the rest of this beer. Here is the reveal and my official review.



3.38/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.75

From a 3/2 canned crowler

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 quickly. After the second pour, it was clear that it needed agitated more. There was a ton of chunky sediment in the bottom. Enough so that I strained it into another glass. It was a much more hazy/turbid beer the second half.

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.

I drank this one blind and it came across as a hoppy Gose to me. I am standing by that. I enjoyed it a lot, but it is not a typical ipa, and I rated it according to style otherwise.

This was an odd one. Both drinking and scoring wise. It shows a 0 rDev, but at the top of the listing it has me at -6.1

I still swear this is a Gose based beer. There is a noticeable salinity and a grainy wheat base. While it has a noticeable hop profile, nothing about it says IPA. Even NE style other than appearance. I would love some more info on it.

 

From Brewery Ommegang's Game of Thrones series Hand of the Queen an English Barleywine. I've had most of the beers in this series some were pretty good but none were outstanding. This is the best one I've had.. Poured into a sniffer it's amber brown color with a thick tan head. The aroma is malts and dried fruit. The flavor is about the same except the dried fruit is stronger and it's a bit sweet. The mouthfeel is not what I expected in a Barleywine it struck me as light. The finish is a little sweet. This brew is 10.7 ABV but it is hidden. Overall this is a nice beer on a cold but sunny afternoon in NJ.

 

Spindletap Hops Drop IPA

Ham is out of the oven. Time for another beer from @r0rschach while I wait to eat. Wasn't going to have an IPA today, but I'm intrigued by the @CanConPhilly Challenge.

This lovely brew pours a cloudy apricot-purée color with a finger-and-a-half of somewhat airy, off-white head. It lasts a good while and leaves nice lacing.

It has a fruity, creamy aroma with peach, mango and nectarines. There's a faint herbal note behind.

Totally unique tasting, in my experience. The creamy fruitiness from the nose carries over, but is overshadowed by strong herbs -- both fresh green and dried ones. They remind me mostly of cilantro and oregano, but with a little lemongrass, thyme and marjoram in the mix as well. The finish is quite bitter and slightly chalky.

The beer has a soft, medium bodied feel with a nice prickliness to it.

The herbs come on strong, but aren't too overpowering -- at least not with just one pint. This is a very enjoyable NEIPA that manages to stand out from the rest of the herd. Thanks, John, for the opportunity.

 

First up today is my blind beer from @y2kawakami.

Blind beer

A- Black with a fast fading mocha head

S- Milk chocolate, caramel, some lactose, dark fruits, some bourbon/oak

T- Chocolate, dark fruits, raisins, some bourbon, roasted malts, some cinnamon.

M- Smooth, creamy, medium to full body

O- A nice unique stout, pretty tasty and balanced

4/4.25/4.5/4.5/4.25

There was something that seemed familiar, and it the reason is that it is Bible Belt. I ended up with some lower numbers than when I first had it in 2014. Cheers!

 

Hi NBSers! Hope everyone is having a great Sunday so far. I'll start of with a nice brew and some Pics of my haul from the NBS BIF round #7 (The Spy Who Beered Me) which was aptly named. Tons of random Ninja boxes and LIF's flying beer halfway around the world this round.
My sender in the BIF was the always generous Sparkles (aka @FFFjunkie ) who destroyed my porch with a ton of beer, awesome Polish Sausages and a fantastic scarf to keep my tender neck meats warm.



And also thrown in there was this amazing bottle of scotch. Fantastic! My wife and I will sip on this week in the last of the Wood Stove Season!

Additionally, Dan (Sparkles) aka @FFFjunkie coerced his cohort @Dragginballs76 to push some beers my way including a few long time wants. Mike always send amazing boxes and the tandem of Dan and Mike nearly destroyed my porch and broke my postal workers back.


The first beer I am partaking in today comes in an awesome stubby bottle that caught my eye in a few WBAYDN posts. This one came during the BIF via @foundersasap ! I'd post all the other random boxes I received during the BIF but I don't think this NH bandwidth could handle it.

This Is an IPA like an IPA used to be. Not embarrassed by a little malty sweetness from Crystal malt, not shy about its bitterness. In fact, its got a nice balance of big malt flavors and big hop flavors.

The beer pours clear (scandalous!) light copper colored and starts with a foamy just off white head. The head settles and leaves a thin cover of small bubbled foam. A whispy collar leaves clingy lacing on the side of my glass.

Aroma is earthy pine resins, zesty citrus skin and rind followed by a slight caramel/toffee sweetness.

The flavor has deep hoppy earthy, resinous and sticky pine sap and needles. The bitterness is bold but balanced nicely by caramel sweetness and some amber malts.

Body is medium, a hint sticky with moderate carbonation. The bitterness bites your tongue a bit but it settles in after a few sips.

Overall a very tasty and well-made old school brew. Sometimes this is just what you need.

Thanks everyone!

 

Not only is this the first weekend in April but it is the start of New Hampshire Craft Beer Week, which began on Friday and runs until next Sunday. OK, so it's more like NH Craft Beer Ten Days.

To celebrate, I picked up a beer that was canned two days ago from Litherman's Limited in Concord, New Hampshire, not only to celebrate NH Craft Beer Week but also to celebrate this intriguing nano-brewery's second anniversary. This beer is so new that I had to add it to the BA database, and since it is only a one-off limited batch, I might be the only reviewer of this beer.

But it has an attractive amber pour with reddish tones when held to the light under a lovely, silky white head. Big aroma of tropical fruit, fruit, orange, pineapple, herbal, and a more muted sweet barley grain note. The taste starts with a burst of malt sweetness that quickly evolves into a tropical fruit and herbal delight with a lingering and biting bitterness to finish things off. Medium-full body.

 

Prairie Pe-Kan
Imperial Stout w/ vanilla and pecans - 11.5% ABV



4.76/5 rDev +17%
look: 4.25 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75

12oz bottle poured into a snifter. Tons of vanilla and pecan on the nose, smells great. The vanilla on the palate helps smooth this one out. Bittersweet chocolate, vanilla, pecans on the dessert-like palate. Not overly sweet. Very tasty beer! I'm in the with the smell, the vanilla and pecan notes are just spot on.

 

Good Afternoon BAs hope everyone is having a great day I know I am. In addition to trying a few great beers from @Harrison8 I was fortunate enough to find a long time want at a small comic convention in Florence this morning. I was able to pick up a Tomb of Dracula #10 at a very reasonable price (even the wife was happy).

Let's get started, I am getting started with 2 beers and doing a side by side of Piney River Brewing base imperial stout brewed with coffee and vanilla beans Raise A Ruckus and the same beer aged in bourbon barrels. They both clock in at 9.7% and both are great beers in their own right.The base beer is in the Victory snifter and the BBA version is in the Crane snifter. I preferred the BBA version a little more due to the feel, appearance and flavors. The base beer did not have as much lacing and less head retention for me, both beers had great flavors but just the added depth of the oak and bourbon I favored the BBA version. The feel was the biggest difference for me, the BBA version was much fuller and creamier. Both beers are very solid I lean towards BBA stouts anyway so I figure that is why I preferred it over the base beer. Thanks to Harrison for both of these beers, He also sent me the Rye whiskey barrel version which may get sampled here today as well.

Regular





Appearance 4 - Pours black with decent tan head settles to thin ring around the glass no lacing.



Aroma 4.25 - Roasted malts, vanilla, coffee, dark chocolate, very light sweet aroma.



Taste 4.25 - Roasted malts, coffee, nice bitter finish, vanilla. The flavors are very balanced and work really well together.



Feel 4 - Medium bodied well carbonated slightly dry bitter finish.



Overall 4.21- A really well done stout, the addition of coffee and vanilla beans shows through well in the aroma and taste.


BA





Appearance 4.25 - Pours black with nice tan head that settles to a thin ring. Spotty lacing all around the glass.



Aroma 4.25 - Huge oak and bourbon aroma, rich vanilla, not getting much coffee.



Taste 4.5 - Just like the aroma very smooth big oak, bourbon flavors, slightly richer sweeter vanilla aroma than the base beer. nice dark chocolate.



Feel 4.25 - Very smooth creamy velvet feel, warming feeling just a touch of dryness.



Overall 4.35- The BBA version of the base beer hides the coffee for me but the feel is great. Smooth warming, the flavor additions of the oak and bourbon are wonderful.

 

Ok, cracking open my mystery beer sent from @FFFjunkie . Bottle appears like the Genie style that Jester King uses so I guessed it would be wild/farmhouse/saison prior to opening.

Popped her open and gave it a pour into a mid size snifter that I received a few rounds ago in the NBS BIF. Pours an orange straw color, has a tiny little foam head with some bubbly islands that pop themselves out fast. A bit of haze but mostly clear with a careful pour.

The aroma has some sweetness, can almost feel the tartness as I inhale deeply, slight barnyard funk but overall not overpowering aroma. Smells light and refreshing, maybe a hint of light fleshed fruit.

The flavor has a nice crisp tartness up front, sweet, hint of stickiness that may be honey. Fruit is still perceivable but not huge. I think maybe along the lines of nectarine/peach/apricot but not a huge slap in the face of fruit. The background is a nice level of funk and a hint of something floral. As my first glass empties and it warms I start to get some citrus and there is either honey in here or I convinced my tastebuds to think there is honey.

I got to say that the blind beer rule in the BIF is a ton of fun. Really makes you think and gets rid of pre-conceptions or biases. I could see it be fun with a really complex beer, but also for a really well made traditional style.

I will fill my glass again and drink more before I remove the label and figure out what this is.