New Beer Sunday (Week 691)

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! I know it’s only May, but the beer below deserves to be in the conversation for Beer of the Year. This brew is better than any Tired Hands, Tree House, Trillium, or Veil I’ve had this year. Given my fanboyism for these 4 breweries, that is saying a lot.

If you have any opportunity to acquire this beer, you need to jump on it.

Everyone Stands Beneath Their Own Dome of Heaven - Root + Branch
DIPA - 8% abv
Purchased for $6 at Threes’ Bottle Shop
Canned 5/2/18 (18 days ago)
Rating: 4.59 (-0.6% rDev)



L - 1.5 finger offwhite head appears low in density, but somehow manages to stay in place for many minutes. Body is a vibrant, sun-catching orange.

S - orange, pineapple, grapefruit, some tropical fruits. No trace of booze.

T - wow. This is so juicy. Pineapple on the front, then a blast of orange. Bitter grapefruit follows. Incredibly clean, smooth middle. Low bitterness, low sweetness, zero booziness.

F - thick, almost full bodied, creamy brew. Somehow they managed to keep the carb alive in this one too, which is a feat.

O - this is the juiciest ipa I’ve ever tasted. Ever. Beyond Trillium. Beyond TH. Not even a trace of booze. It’s all juice (attention @JackHorzempa ). Now I get the ratings. I wish I had managed to snag a 4-pack of this, rather than a single.

 

The BJCP would not 'specify' a detail such as this. Modern day malts are highly modified and consequently a single temperature infusion mash will achieve a proper conversion of starches to sugars. Some brewers may decide to do 'more' than a single temperature infusion mash for other reasons/beliefs.

Lagering times vary among brewers based upon a number of thought processes with sometimes it just being a matter of that is what I have always done and it 'works' for me. I am that sort of brewer - when I produce moderate gravity lagers (and Kolsch & Alt beers) my personal practice is to lager for something like 4-6 weeks. It is entirely possible I could achieve similar results with a lagering duration less than this but frankly I have never made the effort to find out. FWIW, for my homebrewed Kolsch which is still in the bottle conditioning phase right now I lagered that batch for 4 weeks.

Cheers!

 

Disappointed that the taste is weak, but I’m still picking one up based solely on your 2 pics. Wowza!

 

Cheers you all I'm back. Today I want to do what I like to call a follow up pairing within a meal and I am choosing to try and follow the kolsch I tasted earlier with the pilsner style. I am making an original dish to go with both beers and the idea is to match flavors not contrast them in food and beer pairing. My dish today features grapefruit as my citrus and the kolsch I had today with it's white wine like ester ( not pear) and sensual sticky resin is a perfect match in my opinion. The beer I have decide not to pair with my dish is this beer and I would like to tell you why and what beer I have decided should come after the kolsch in my meal today.

This is metric Pils by Industrial Arts Brewing



Handsome almost frosty pale yellow with a thick head of eggshell colored foam that dwindles lazily. Nose is sweet grasses and fresh herbs. cracker malt and light peppery spice. Drinks smoothly with a firm breaddy malt that does not show any brown on the bread crust. Firm malt and generous herbal hops. Creamy mouthfeel with just a few bubbles to finish it. Hops and malt finish almost evenly in this beer and it has an assertive and very clean bitterness. I am wondering if this beer used pale malts or a combination of malts because I perceive hints of lemon from these noble hops although there is no real lemon flavor. Just the suggestion of the lemon backing on these hops. Although I think this beer is very good and you can see that from my score, I am not going to pair this beer with my dish because frankly I do not want to combine lemon and grapefruit on my palate. Instead of this pilsner I will be following the kolsch with Ellicottville NEIPA Something Hazee. cheers and Happy Two Beer Sunday!

 

American maltster products, yes, but I was under the impression that most German maltsters (i.e. Weyerman, BestMalz) were still traditionally grown, unmodified products(?).

 

nota new brewery, Firestone Walker has been around for a bit. here is my review of their Velvet Merkin

Love the name

2017 edition

Bottle poured into teku glass

Brown liquid , thin taupe foam ring

Aroma of gentle bourbon, raisins, toffee, vanilla, espresso

Taste is bourbon without the alcohol burn, the oatmeal smooths it out

Light mouth feel

Good beer

 

A-Pours a nice amber color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has malty hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a malty flavor
M-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A decent try at an IPA

 

Wheat can be used in Kolsch, but I've never seen it labeled as such. Are you thinking of "wiess" (note the vowel order) which is sometimes used for an unfiltered Kolsch-type beer?

 

A dreary wet Sunday morning, wife off to Dad sit for her 98 year old father. Couldn't find anything called "Old Beer Sunday", so I guess I'll post it here. From deep in the crawl space a bottle of Sprecher Commando, (actually 5), dated 2013 if my 68 year old eyes don't deceive me. I think.
Color of a dirty penny. Aroma is peat, oak, caramel and ash. Taste follows. It has a great big boozy finish which is required here. I scored it 4.24
Compares favorably with CW's BA Scotch Ale. This goes down surprisingly easy for 11.9%. Enjoy your brews!

 

From my copy of the bjcp . If you "scroll" upward you will find a bit about wheat taste in the flavor but that is rare .

 

1879 Kulmbacher Export, the twelfth standalone from August Schell's Stag Series.

Technically I've tried this before (at this year's Bockfest), only it was aged on White Oak and dry-hopped, so was a very different animal than what was packaged for draught accounts and retail. Likewise, it was new to the database when I entered it. And it's Sunday.



L: Very dark ruby-red (dark brown to the naked eye) in color, topped with a darker tan head. Excellent clarity, and good lacing.

S: Nose is sweet and malt focused, heavy on the roast malt character, and with a complexity reminiscent of a very rich doppelbock. A bit richer and roastier than a classic Munich Dunkel. Notes of toffee.

T: Sweet, rich, and lightly tangy / bittersweet on the first sip. Roasty notes bring up the rear, and a more complex, lingering bitterness finishes the drink. A bit drier than it might taste like it will be at first, but still malt-focused, and with the hopping providing a sharp, subtle accent.

More toffee notes, and honey-like notes in the malt.

F: A bit strong, and very much Bock like in many respects, and with excellent overall drinkability. In fact this could easily stand in for a Bock in a blind tasting, just to fool your friends. ; )

O: This is an excellent dark lager by any stylistic designation, The complexity of the dark malts in particular makes it worth seeking out.

Hopefully, others will pick up the torch and offer more Kulmbacher Style Exports in the future, and August Schell has once again done the yeoman's work in bringing a fairly ancient style into the present day.

 

New beer #2.

Ethereal Haze - Other Half feat. Modern Times
IIPA - 9.2% abv
Purchased for $20/4 at Other Half
Canned 5/10/18 (10 days ago)
Score: 4.00 (-5.2% rDev)



L - 2-finger sparse yellowish head atop a gleaming orange body.

S - piney. Some citrus. Not a lot going on.

T - grapefruit and pine. Some dankness. Somewhat earthy middle. Mild bitterness, moderate sweetness, moderate booziness.

F - medium body and carb.

O - Not super impressive given the breweries involved. You’ve had this beer before. A boozy, dank, sweet almost-triple ipa.

 

Does this beer remind you of Juicy Fruit gum?

Have you tried BrewDogs Hazy Jane yet?

Cheers!

 

It does. And yes, I tried Hazy Jane and found it way too sweet. The Root + Branch manages to be “juice-like” without the sweetness, which I personally feel should be the exemplar for the NE IPA style.

 

Thanks Maria. If you look at the bottom of the "comments" section in your pic, you'll see exactly what I was talking about. Cheers.

 

Have you had M-43? I'd be interested in a comparison. I believe Old Nation made a beer that also beats all the greats you mentioned.