New Beer Sunday (Week 688)

Evaluating a NE IPA from one of the biggest of the biggest craft breweries.



Sam Adam's New England IPA.

Pours a foggy orange with a finger of white head. It looks picturesque. Aroma is orange, clementine, and papaya with a hearty biscuit malt backbone. Citrus isn't very loud in the aroma despite being a mainstay in the aroma. Flavor profile is orange, papaya, and biscuit malts. It has a lot of malty presence with a thin veil of citrus over the top. Mouth feel is soft, with a calcium-soft-velvety feel. It has a medium thickness. Overall, it's certainly a NE IPA, but the citrus notes are toned down keeping the imparted aromatics and flavors to a minimum.

Score: 4.25 | 4 | 3.75 | 4 | 4 | BA Score: 3.96 | rDev: +1.3%

 

Yes, the suburbs of Philly.

Cheers!

 

Firstly, thanks for running out to buy this beer and discuss it.

To the best of recollection this is the first time somebody did a 'side-by-side' tasting against what I reported. Pretty cool concept.

As to the comment of "the best NE IPAs have restained sweetness" I personally feel uncomfortable making 'judgements' like this. I suspect that there are some folks who have differing thoughts here and even might think that lots of "juicy"/sweetness is a better thing.

Needless to say but I personally share your thoughts of this beer being "over the top". This beer was/is indeed on the edge of being too much for my palate.

Permit me to further discuss a controversial topic: Maybe I (and you?) would enjoy this beer more after some age? I am considering conducting an 'experiment' with my three remaining cans of letting them sit for a period of time and periodically drink them. Maybe wait another month to drink can #4, and a period of a month for the remaining cans. Perhaps this IPA may be the exception of IPAs best being consumed fresh?

Cheers!

 

Congratulations! You'll have to get used to all of the sky. It is a panoramic mind shift from anywhere east in the trees. Maybe one day you'll have a view of The Great Wall of Mexico......Sorry. New Mexico is really very beautiful. The ball travels farther in that dry air!

I'm certain that your public speaking will be every bit as good as your writing. Cheers to you! After 20 years, my wife and I are back on the neighborhood association board- an old neighborhood out through the deep woods- and my MO in public speaking has always been, "just keep 'em laughing".

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @lordofthewiens for getting us started off this morning, and congratulations on the new housing purchase. Hope the move goes smoothly. NM seems like a pretty great place to move actually. No real serious natural disaster threats, and you only have to deal with the dry heat. Sounds awesome. I have grown accustomed to the snow and ice; but at least I can work from home if it gets too bad.

Been another typical weekend for me. Made another new beer haul yesterday at my favorite store. Been working my way through all of the macro lagers for fun in the last few weeks, and will have to hit the malt liquors soon(got some fresh Colt 45 today). Also got a lot of things I was looking for too. Having store friends is a nice thing. Finished up the laundry for the week, and hopefully will not be too busy. My 6700th review will be this week.

New Beers:

Very nice Berliner. Good head retention/lacing for the style. Aromas and flavors of lightly tart lemon, lime, citrus peel, tea, pear, melon, red/green apple, white grape, hay, straw, and grass; with some wheat, cracker, white bready malts; light pepper, lacto funk, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tartness; light herbal tea/citrus peel bitterness, and yeast spiciness on the finish. Medium carbonation, light-medium body, and moderately crisp/clean finishing. Balanced grainy malts, lactic acid, and spicy stickiness in the mouthfeel. Moderate increasing acidic dryness. No puckering sourness. Very flavorful/refreshing, 4%. Never overly lactic. Spot on style stuff. Really well balanced Lacto, lemon peel, and tea flavors; with a solid pale/wheat malt backbone against acidity. Would not mind picking up again as a summer beer. 3.88


Excellent sour. Solid head retention. Aromas and flavors big of lightly tart/tangy lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange, citrus peel, peach, pear, melon, red/green apple, white wine, hay, straw, grass, and oak; with moderate wheat, white bread, light honeyed malt balance; light vanilla, pepper, leathery/musty funk, white vinegar, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tartness; light fruit tang, and yeast/oak spiciness on the finish. Medium carbonation and light-medium body; grainy malts, fair amount of lactic acid; light stickiness and oak tannins in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing acidic/tangy fruit dryness, no pucker. Super drinkable, not overly lactic, 6.5%. Great balance of Brett/Lacto and yuzu fruit complexity; nice oak presence and pale/wheat malt backbone. Was expecting more acidity, but this was pleasing. They brewed a Speciation/Funk factory collab called "Forklifts Are for Mitches" with cranberries(which I have); and that is supposed to be enamel ripping sour. Looking forward to it. 4


Cheers, be back in a bit NBS.

 

Trying this very nice Westbrook 7th Anniversary. Cheers and happy NBS.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24134/314598/?ba=cindyjeffsmith#review

 

White Elm Abuelita Milk Stout, 6.1% ABV. Pours black with a half-finger of tan head. Nose is not much, malt, slight sweetness. Taste follows - not much, slight sweetness, slight bitterness. Excellent creamy mouthfeel, overall excellent.

 

Another new beer and a palate cleanser after the sweet Imperial Stout I reviewed earlier. I enjoy our local beer scene and I'm always looking which brewery will next make the leap to brewing really good beer. New Jersey is mostly known for Carton, Kane, and Magnify but lots of smaller brewers are also doing great work. This is Trolley Hopper, a 7% American IPA from Wet Ticket Brewing in Rahway, NJ, and it is a first rate NE style, fruity IPA. Up till now, Wet Ticket has been known mostly for its Kolsch but this is really good stuff! Here's my review:

4.24/5 rDev +2.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured from undated can into Spiegelau IPA glass. It pours a bright, tangerine orange color with almost two fingers of fluffy, bright white head with nice retention and long-lasting soapy lacing. It has a nice aroma of orange, lemon, grapefruit, honeydew melon, onion, and floral hops. It's quite fruity with lots of orange/tangerine, lemon, grapefruit, and subtle but noticeable vanilla. and a flavorful blend of Vic Secret, Citra, Mosaic, Columbus, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops that provides bitterness but without a strong bite. This ale has a rich, almost creamy, mouth feel with pleasant carbonation, and the 7% ABV gives it nice substance. Overall, I'm very impressed. For a single IPA this has big flavor and a terrific mouth feel. This is really a first rate New Jersey IPA. Wet Ticket is a brewery to watch!

 

I like your idea. Perhaps the balance will become more pleasing, since we both tried it relatively fresh.

 

Black Tooth Bomber Mountain Amber, 4.6% ABV. Pours pale red, with a one finger off-white head. Nose is malty. Taste is slightly sweet, bready, with light bitterness. Decent mouthfeel, overall very good.

 

Dave, you live in a wonderful area that has a lot of significance to me. My Mom's paternal ancestors were Irish immigrants who settled in Orange County in the 1830's. I've seen references to their living in Shawangunk and Walkill. I only know that they settled somewhere NW of Newburgh. My g-g-grandfather was apprenticed as a harness maker when he joined the 124th New York regiment in 1862 at the age of 16. Thankfully, he survived the Civil War or I wouldn't exist. I enjoy exploring Orange County and (as you know) its wonderful breweries, particularly Rushing Duck and Equilibrium. Cheers!

 

Greetings all, and congrats to the lordoftheweins on his new home purchase! I had a girlfriend years ago who went to school in Las Cruces and she always spoke of the place in hushed tones of reverence. Just don't ask anyone what makes those Hatch chilis any different from Annaheim peppers as people take that shit very seriously there

I'm hoping I can cheat a little bit this week. My wife and I went to the Azores last week and I was all set to post some interesting beers last Sunday, however, local wi-fi just didn't want to cooperate (and I was too cheap to pay for the international data!). So if the mods will allow it I'd like to post some pictures from last Sunday with what I can remember for tasting notes. I need to do some more careful searching but I believe 3 of these will be new additions to the database.



This beer is brewed exclusively by and for the restaurant at the Agriculture Association on Sao Miguel Island. I'm still not entirely sure what the deal with this place is but it appeared to be an expo center of sorts and the associated steak restaurant is really well regarded. This was a very interesting brew and I'm not sure what style of beer it was trying to be. It was very easy drinking, but also had a hefty, biscuity maltiness as well as a prominent, but sort of neutral, yeastiness. Very smooth and thick mouthfeel too. If pressed I'd say it was a little bit like Fat Tire maybe? I believe it was about 5% ABV.



This is a schwarzbier called Munich by Mello d'Abreu which until recently was the only brewery on the island of Sao Miguel. I don't have a lot of schwarzbier experience but I always enjoy them and this was no exception. Crisp, clean and darkly malty. I always can't help but be kind of surprised by how easy drinking schwarz's are despite the color. With my inexperience as a caveat, I think this is a really strong beer and any BA who likes the style would be happy to drink it. It certainly doesn't hurt that it costs one Euro!



This is a beer from mainland Portugal that I unfortunately remember very little about except for the fact that I didn't care for it all that much. It certainly wasn't bad, but it had a bit of a nutty quality that wasn't quite working for me. I believe it was an amber ale, which isn't a favorite style of mine so that could explain it. Or perhaps it just couldn't compete with the scenery.



This is, to my knowledge, the first craft brewery in the Azores, brewed right on Sao Migel island. The stout clocks in at 5.5% ABV and was quite good! For those who miss simple, moderate ABV stouts I think you'd be quite pleased with this. And the mouthfeel and richness was impressive for the ABV.



This is their porter and I didn't enjoy this one quite as much. It was pleasant enough to drink but tasted a bit more like a generic dark lager than it did a porter. Seemed a bit thin. Maybe they are planning to carve out their own niche for what an Azorean porter should taste like?

We also had the ever present Especiale from Melo D'Abreu (essentially an AAL) as well as Sangres (a Euro Pale Lager). The Especiale was light, refreshing and drinkable and I'm not much of an AAL fan so that's pretty decent praise. I really enjoyed the Sangres though and I've never had a Euro Pale Lager stateside that I thought was worth a damn. Definitely more malty, hoppy, and substantial than the Especiale (or any AAL really). These were on draft that day so no pictures that are worth much.

Cheers all! I need to check a bit more carefully into whether some of these exist in the database but will review and/or add these as necessary.

 

I usually find Russian Imperial Stouts a bit too bold for me, but I wanted to give this one a try. Cigar City is one of my favorite wide distro. breweries.



Bottled 9 months ago. Impressive head retention for an 11% beer. Big RIS aromatics. Dark chocolate, leather, wood, and cherry. Chocolate and caramel flavor, with a medium-to-full mouthfeel. Opens roasty and piney and transitions into fudge. It really opens up nicely mid-palate and finishes balanced. If I'm rating to style, this is excellent. It doesn't have the savoriness that turns me off to some RISs.

 

Buxton + Omnipollo's Yellow Belly.

Pours black with less than a finger of khaki foam. Head retention is okay. Aroma is caramel, toffee, molasses, and candied sugars. Toasted and roasted malts behind the sugary display up front. Flavor profile is caramel, toffee, molasses, dark chocolate, and cocoa. Roasted and toasted malts still play a big role behind, forming a huge, supportive base. Mouth feel is thick with a hearty, velvety texture. Overall, lots of sugary notes that are balanced out by bitter, balanced malts. It's a hearty, flavorful stout through and through.

Score: 4 | 4.25 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | BA Score: 4.41 | rDev: +0.9%

 

Trve Revengeance

Here’s my next sour porter. Trve calls it a “mixed culture porter.”

In another case of a brewer clearly not understanding when a line is crossed, this label features an image of Conan (the barbarian) that looks like it could have been a direct swipe from the old Savage Sword of Conan publication. People who know Conan know that this isn’t just a generic image of a “barbarian.”

Unlike the previous beers, this one is just 5.1%. If I had it blindfolded, I wouldn’t know it was a porter. The dominant taste is sour lemon/lime. Dominant is a misleading word choice because that implies a competition of flavors… but this beer is one note. It actually tastes like a Trve beer that I featured here in a past week, but that beer was an incredibly pale yellow saison.

These three beers were expensive, but the Trve beer is the one that just doesn’t seem worth the cost (once again). De Dolle Brouwers Stout was waaay better than this one for me. It was interesting, nuanced, and balanced. The acidic Trve beer is actually making me appreciate De Dolle Brouwers Stout and it’s herbal qualities much more.

Cheers.

 

A
A-A very nice amber color
A-Aroma has floral and hoppy hints
T-The taste follows the nose with abundant floral and hoppy flavors
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A very suave delicately balanced well made beer

 

Happy NBS!

Picked this one up at the brewery last week.

Pink Boots Cold Side IPA - Collaboration between 902 and NJBeerCo.

This is a fantastic brew! Really shocked at how good it is. Not sure of the hops in this one but I am getting big time berry notes from Mosaic.

The beer is pretty much Tropical fruits and berry notes wraped up in dank herbs.

Excellent!

 

Can you guess then which glass I am using in my NBS post?

 

Indeed. I too have a long family history in Orange County, and of course I am only 15 miles north of Orange here in Ulster County. My Great-Grandfather, who I was lucky enough to know well (he died at 103 in 1977) owned 40 acres in Howells and it ended to be a family summer retreat, so memories are strong of many people I love who have left this world. I am sure this perfect feeling of belonging here is partly that. But more it is a feeling of peace I get each time I look at the cliffs of Lost City and The Trapps, and see how I too am weathered, and settled, and have myself become a part of the harmony and history here..

 

Happy New American Impy Stout Sunday!

Pretty nice day on the Western Slope, mid 70s, windy, sunny. Did a nice little hike. Picked up some chicken tacos on the way home. Not having a new brew, but this one is very tasty, my last bottle as well. Watching some Next Generation reruns.

The Abyss 2016 (Scotch Barrel-Aged) | Deschutes Brewery

4.88/5 rDev +11.7%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

Revisit: 29 Apr 18
22 oz. Bomber
Black Wax/Capped
2016 Remarkably Limited Release
Bottled On: 12/09/16
ABV: 12.3%

Almost 1.5 years on this bottle.

Poured into a tulip a very nice dark brown/black color, very nice carbonation, with a very nice thick/creamy one-finger tan head, which leaves a pretty big oil slick, and leaves some pretty nice creamy sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, with some pretty nice chocolate/toffee, nice touch of vanilla, licorice, with a pretty nice dark fruit complex (cherries, figs, plums, dates), nice touch of scotch/oak. The taste is really nice, malty, with some nice chocolate/toffee notes, vanilla, licorice, with a pretty nice dark fruit complex (cherries, figs, plums, dates), pretty nice touch of scotch/oak. Full Body, ABV hidden very well, a nice complex brew, nice sweetness, nice little dry/bitter finish. Overall, a very tasty brew. Holding up very well.

22 oz. Bomber
Black Wax/Capped
2016 Remarkably Limited Release
Bottled On: 12/09/16
ABV: 12.3%

Poured into a goblet a very nice dark brown/black color, very nice carbonation, with a very nice thick/creamy one-finger tan head, which leaves a pretty big oil slick, and leaves some pretty nice creamy sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, with some pretty nice chocolate/toffee, nice touch of vanilla, some licorice, cherries, figs, plums, slight scotch/oak. The taste is really nice, malty, with some nice chocolate/toffee notes, vanilla, licorice, cherries, figs, plums, nice little touch of scotch/oak. Full Body, ABV hidden very well, a nice complex brew, nice sweetness, nice little dry/bitter finish. Overall, a very tasty brew. Glad to see the variants around here again this year.

Cheers!