New Beer Sunday (Week 694)

Good morning NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @lordofthewiens for starting us off this morning. Will be a normal Sunday for me as usual. I made a very big new beer haul yesterday again. Mostly large format, not much 12 ounce singles left right now. I am coming up to 6900 written reviews this week.

Morning review:

2017 rum barrel edition apparently(but it's only 22% of the blend; 36% french oak/42% american oak). This was fantastic! Awesome lasting head retention and thick lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of big raisin, plum, fig, cherry, pear, red apple, red grape, peppercorn, clove, rum, toasted oak, and light banana; moderate caramel, brown sugar, and toasted brown bread malt balance; with lighter notes of oaken vanilla, herbal/floral/grassy hops, and yeast earthiness. Moderate peppery yeast, rum/oak tannin spiciness; and light herbal/grassy bitterness on the finish. Medium high carbonation, medium-plus body, and fairly crisp finishing. Balanced creamy/grainy malt, sticky hops/yeast, and oak tannins in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing spicy/tannic/carbonated dryness. Very smooth, zero warming 10.5%. Really loved this one, but not any more than the base Grand Reserve. Awesome balance of yeast complexity and malts/sugars as usual; the oak is VERY prominent, but not overwhelming. For 42 dollars, I'll take the base beer over it all year. Was a wonderful experience otherwise. 4.23


Cheers, be back much later on with more new beers as usual.

 

It's a grand and glorious morning, bright, shiny and relatively cool. Even the pollen count is low and I can breathe well enough to enjoy the scent of this . . .



Dark brown color with ruby red highlights.

Aroma of dark toasty malt and dark ripe Mission figs with a light lacing of licorice.

Taste is dark malt with a cola like richness that brings together the malt, figs, licorice elements into a well balanced whole. The finish brings a touch of sweetness that lingers in the aftertaste just long enough to offset the malt roastyness.

Light medium texture with balancing carbonation.

Overall it strikes me as a well balanced take on the style that is also well crafted. Sometimes these bigger beers can get unwieldy but this one sits with poise, grace and confidence.

 

Cheers you all and thanks to @lordofthewiens for getting us up and out of bed today!

Happy Here is my story and I am sticking to it Sunday!





The other day I was in my local Wegman's where I was greeted by a personable young fellow whose name escapes me. I asked him if there was anything new I should know about and before he could answer I saw him reach way back into his mind and almost wander off. So I snapped my fingers at him and said; "You are on the spot right now." He must have thought I was a big bitch but he did make a pretty good speech. After he meandered around the shelf beers trying to notice a reaction, he went to the cooler and brought me the beer I will try for you this week. I like him very much. This is Rohrbach's Hop Drop and it was delivered to my local Wegman's uber fresh at the insistence of the brewer.

Pours lemon yellow with a light haze. Fat creamy head that lasts and clings as it falls. No active carbonation in the beer. The haze gives it a soft candy like glow. Nose is a touch of sweetness and a catty hop. Green bell pepper. Grasses and lemon. Taste is smooth and silky. The hops offer a little bitterness to accent their herbal and give a touch sticky mouthfeel to a soft and very palatable malt. The bitterness does not strip the palate but leaves it open to the food. Finishes without any bite from bubbles just some softer carbonation to let it go down malty and expansive. The beer is crisp and creamy at the same time. If these ekuanot hops have a fruity flavor I am hard pressed to see it on this beer at first because of their sensational green pepper scent and then I notice melon. As it warms I began to notice more fruity type scents that I would say are tropical. The hop is also peppery. Both peppery as in herbal pepper and pepper as in white pepper. There is a mild floral. I love these complex hops. The citrus in them is very suggestable and you could say either lemon or lime. I was calling them equinox and that is now my mistake. These hops are so unique , so freshly vibrant with an uncommon flavor that I have been pairing them with all kinds of foods. This beer goes with fajitas, paprikash, chicken and dumplings, pepper steak and any dish that features green pepper. Move over Vienna lager there is now a new choice!

The dishes I am going to show you are all original Steamed Cod with Nectarine, Fried Cod with Eggplant Fried Rice and the Mexican Style Grilled Cheese. I won't bore you with every detail but please be advised this beer loves food!

 

Happy New Flying Dog Beer Sunday (Week 694)!

I know that I have done at least one other FDNBS brewery horizontal in the past, but in winnowing through the Tavour backlog, I realized that I had enough from Flying Dog to do justice to another FDNBS. I started shortly after Midnight (EDT), which is when this weekly thread should start, or at GMT Midnight (currently 2000, EDT), so many of yinz are going to need to catch up.

Speaking of catching up, yes, CANgratulations to @cjgiant & the WAS Caps, but that's just one as CANpared to PGH's five. I am already looking forward to the start of the 2018-'19 hockey season & not just at the NHL level, either. I also follow the HER Bears in the AHL & the Reading Royals in the ECHL. I CAN watch hockey at any level from street/floor/deck to peewee/mites on ice right up to the big boys. LOVE me some hockey!

I am also looking forward to this year's soccer/football World Cup & I am on the #ADOPTICELAND bandwagon. Yes, it actually exists & they did qualify.

Finally, what I have been doing while the You Snooze, You Lose set has been slacking:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/323109/?ba=woodychandler#review

&
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/329948/?ba=woodychandler#review


I leave you, for now, with a riddle: Q: What did the Mama Tomato say when her Baby Tomato fell behind & got stepped on by an elephant? A: Ketchup (Catch up, if yinz CAN, said The Woodman)!

 

New Beer Sunday: A Light Lager

Mornin’ NBSers with a special alert for those who enjoy a light lager once in a while. Also, a special thanks to today’s host, @lordofthewiens.

I'd say a bit about my golf game, but it's one of those sports activities I could never really get into simply because I'm (and always was) totally inept at it.

Today’s weather is expected to be cooler, with highs in the low 70s, cloudy, with possible showers late this afternoon. Seems like a good time to brighten things up a bit with a clean, crisp and refreshing beer.

This morning's new beer is the Michelob Ultra Pure Gold from Anheuser-Busch.

As usual my review, subject to revision until the beer is finished, can be found here.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29/331189/?ba=drtth#review


Not surprisingly, given the Brewery and style of this beer, the Ultra Pure Gold is not intensely flavored. That does not mean, however that it is flavorless. The aromas/flavors include some light bready malt and a touch of grassy hops. There’s a light sweetness here that slowly fades to reveal a bit of grassy bitterness from the hops. The ending is clean, crisp, dry and refreshing so that it would be very easy to drink more than one or to spend an entire evening with a few bottles of just this beer. On the whole this would be a refreshing light beer for a summer evening out with friends.

Cheers, all!

 

What is your favorite Summer (hot weather) beer?

The calendar says that summer is 11 days away but IMO Mother Nature is saying something different!

One of my favorite hot weather beers is a Kolsch. I was thinking to myself: Self, what is better than a Kolsch on a warm day like today? I responded with the answer: Three Kolsch Beers!!

So, luckily I have three Kolsch beers available for enjoyment plus a bit of a compare & contrast exercise.

Straub has decided just this year (January 2018) to produce year-round their Kolsch that they are now branding as Tight Lines Kolsch.

On the Straub website there is a story:

“A medal-winner at the 2016 World Beer Cup, Tight Lines Ale pays tribute to the thousands of miles of trout streams, lakes, and recreational waterways flowing through the PA Wilds™ region, and the people who enjoy them. Tight Lines Ale calls to mind popular places like Pine Creek, First Fork, Tionesta Creek, Cedar Run, East Branch of the Clarion, Slate Run, and Freeman Run— where generations of Fiercely Independent™ outdoor enthusiasts have fished, relaxed, and partied.

Tight Lines Ale also extends accolades to the past generations of leadership who had the foresight to ensure that these legendary streams were secured as public waters open to everyone for all time.

This Kölsch-style all-malt ale is Straub Brewery’s take on the classic style from the Cologne brewing tradition. Its light and refreshing profile nicely complements the renewing spirit of spring and early summer.”

Some beer details from the website:

TECHNICAL SPECS:

• Malt – German Pilsner, German Heritage Wheat Malt, and Carapils
• Hops – German Perle & Tettnang
• Yeast – Kolsch Ale Yeast
• Color – Straw
• ABV – 5%
• IBU’s – 25

Sierra Nevada decided to brew a Kolsch to be part of their Party Pack variety pack. From the Sierra Nevada website:

“Kölsch

A hoppy twist on the light and classic style.

From Cologne to California, Kölsch-style beers are a favorite around the world. These light-bodied beers share the expressive character of an ale with the crisp, clean finish commonly found in lager beers. For our stamp on the style, Kölsch has a blast of floral and citrusy American and European whole-cone hops. This beer contains wheat malt to maintain the legendary drinkability of a classic Kölsch but adds a nod to our American brewing heritage and our love of hop flavor.
Contains Wheat.

Overview

• Alcohol Content 5.0% by volume
• Beginning gravity 12° plato
• Ending Gravity 2.5° plato
• Bitterness Units 30

Ingredients

• Yeast Ale yeast
• Bittering Hops Magnum
• Finishing Hops Spalt Spalter, Loral™
• Malts Acidulated, Steffi Pilsner”

So, for this year’s version they decided to use some Loral hops as part of the aroma hops. Pretty interesting!

I do not have a website for Jack’s Homebrewery but below are some details for the beer I brewed. If I had a Marketing & Sales person as an employee I too would have an interesting story for this beer.

• Malt: Weyermann German Pilsner malt
• Hops: Tettnang Hops for bittering
• Yeast: Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast 2565)

Two beers served in my 0.4 liter Stange glasses and my Kolsch served in a FW Pivo Pils glass:

Appearance:

Straub Kölsch: Medium Straw colored with a white head.

Sierra Nevada Kolsch: Light straw colored with a white head.

Jack’s Kölsch: Medium straw colored with a HUGE white head.

Aroma:

Straub Kölsch: A delicate sweet-ish Pilsner Malt aroma.

Sierra Nevada Kolsch: The first aroma I am picking up is some citrus (lemony) but there is some bready (cracker-like) Pilsner malt in the background.

Jack’s Kölsch: A noticeable aroma of bready Pilsner Malt accompanied by a white wine aroma (akin to a Sauvignon Blanc wine from the Pacific Northwest).

Taste:

Sraub Kölsch: Flavors follows the nose with sweet-ish Pilsner Malt flavors with just a hint of floral.

Sierra Nevada Kolsch: Flavor follows the nose with a combination of citrus and bready flavors.

Jack’s Kölsch: Flavor follows the nose with the bready Pilsner Malt being prominent but nicely complemented by the subtle but very noticeable white wine flavor.

Mouthfeel

Straub Kölsch: Smooth mouthfeel with a dry-ish finish

Sierra Nevada Kolsch: Light/Medium bodied with a dry-ish finish.

Jack’s Kölsch: Medium bodied and enticingly crisp with a dry finish.

Overall

Straub Kölsch: A refreshing beer to drink on a warm/hot summer day. I can fully understand why this beer won a medal at the 2016 WBC.

Sierra Nevada Kolsch: Also a refreshing beer. I enjoyed the combination of citrus and bready flavors.

Jack’s Kölsch: Yup, very refreshing beer as well. This beer has drinkability, or as the Germans say: süffig!


I only wish that I had three hands so I could readily drink all of these beers at the same time

Cheers!

@rotsaruch @ecpho @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @Sixpoint @SierraTerence @JValm

 

The food looks great!

 

@TheGent sent me my breakfast coffee for today. Many thanks! Let’s dive in.
Very dark color, almost black. A heavy pour yields a half glass of dense, dark brown foam. Nice lacing. There is a burst of cinnamon on the nose followed by milk chocolate. First sip gives me a lot of milk chocolate and the cinnamon just kinda comes in to play afterward. Dark roast coffee from start to finish. Very smooth and slick on the tongue. Nice brew that I wouldn’t mind revisiting.


To touch on what @lordofthewiens opened up with, ive been golfing once this year so far. It was a charity scramble for AIDS awareness that went down last month. It turned out to be 41, windy, a bit rainy, and overall a horrible day. Too bad if you compared it to my golf game, the day looked beautiful. I will get back out to golf my regular 5-10 rounds a year, but today I’m going, with the wife, to watch the women stroke it at the Symetra tournament. Those ladies can play!
Cheers!

 

3 Floyd’s Dreadnaught


A-Pours a very nice light amber color with a generous head and lacing
A-Aroma has abundant hoppy hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a resonating hoppy flavor
M-A medium bodied excellently carbonated beer with a very nice bitterness
O-A very well balanced beer

 

Good morning New BSers! Thank you, @lordofthewiens, for today's start. My personal opinion is that golf is the ruination of a good walk, but in the distant past of my youth, I liked to attack the driving range to release frustrations and aggression. Today I only watch sport, in particular turtle sumo wrestling in the reflection in the Komodo Dragon picture in front of me - if I acknowledge that they're wrestling on the dock by looking directly at them, they both jump into the water - screw the mammal, he's only raised us from hatchlings and fed us every day! Oh well.

Today's New Breakfast Beer for New Beer Sunday is:



$ 14.67 (Including shipping)/capped and waxed bomber ($ 0.667/oz) from Tavour, Seattle, WA.
“12/19/17” stamped on label above barcode, so probably the bottling date. Stored at 42 degrees prior to consumption and served at 48 degrees in a hand-washed and hand-dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 4.25.
Body – Dark brown, opaque. When held to the light, minimal penetration occurs at the meniscus.
Head – Large (Maximum 4.8 cm, aggressive center pour), khaki, dense with a few surface rocks, good retention, diminishing to an irregular 0.9 to 1.7 cm lacy ring and a thin complete layer with rocks.
Lacing – Excellent - wide bands of mostly tiny bubbles, connected by thin columns.
First pour – Medium brown, clear.
Aroma – 3.75 – Chocolate and only chocolate. This disappears toward the end.
Flavor – 4 - Begins with a sweet chocolate and rapidly morphs into a semi-sweet chocolate as the hops kick in. The bitterness is minimal and addresses the initial sweetness well. Not detecting any caramel typically associated with a porter. Also, NO bourbon-ness in either the nose or taste. No oakiness. No alcohol (11% ABV), although a transient gastric warming does occur. No diacetyl, no dimethylsulfide.
Palate – 3.75 – Medium, creamy, soft carbonation.
Impression and summation – 4.25 – Overall, a very enjoyable chocolate porter that apparently wasted nine months in bourbon barrels. By the end of the bottle, as the temperature approached 60 degrees, some oaky vanillin began to appear, but this is about ten degrees above the preferred temperature to consume a porter, so… Had I been drinking constantly instead of intermingling drinking with analysis and typing, I would have totally missed the vanillin. Next time I’m in Sisters, I’ll stop in and try to try the base beer – Fivepine chocolate porter.
Rating 3.98, rDev +4.2%.

 

Howdy NBSers, so I thought I'd finally make a new post here, considering the effort I went to get this back. Packed this beer, checked in, and with the brewery's glass I might add. Brasserie du Vignoble, out of Riquewihr (Alsace) France has been brewing for 20 years now. This is their rendition of a smoked porter. Black Page #4
App: dark as night at first, but actually not completely opaque, a weird cross-over style between an Aecht smoked beer and a regular porter.
Aroma: smells like smoke, but with a bit more caramel malt around the edge, intriguing.
Taste: again, tastes as it smells, a little one-note for me, and a bit thin, but only 5% too so I can't really take it down a notch for not tasting as a heavy as the smell might hint at... a really intriguing combo of a Rauchbier style and a porter/stout.
Mouthfeel: Solid, but thin, and a little less carbonated than I'd like. Had been around for 3 months in the bottle however, so...
Overall: Glad I did this, the trouble of bringing it back with some fun new glass is nice, too - would encourage you all to check out this little craft place in Riquewihr if you're ever in Alsace doing some sampling for notable white wines... mostly what we drank while we were there. But glad I tried at least one craft brewer in town. They have a nice biergarten in the back too.
Cheers!

 

Good morning NBS
It's been a while since I've been able to post on a relaxed Sunday morning. I start nightshifts tonight, so taking it easy this morning. We have Fathead distribution here, but I had to pick this one up while out of town.

The review:
12oz bottled 4/11/18 (60 days ago) poured into a mug at fridge temp 4.9% ABV 24 IBU. The beer pours bright straw yellow with a steady nearly white head. This beer must not be filtered as I have a significant amount of tiny floaties. Head retention is average and some lacing is left behind. The aroma is yeasty and rather intense for a Helles style. The taste is floral and grassy hops over the top of a muted malt backbone. The mouthfeel is thin to medium bodied, adequately carbonated and dry in the finish. Overall, good. I'm still perplexed by the floaties and strong hop presence. If there were a helles/pilsner/kellerbier hybrid class, this would be a contender. Very enjoyable still, just not easily rated to style.

I had originally thought I might compare the Starlight to my last Alpenflo and curiosity won out.

I couldn't capture much of the differences with the camera, but the Alpenflo is a shade darker, holds less head and is brighter. The Starlight has a more noticeable aroma (although I'm not crazy about yeasty smells in lagers, so not sure that's a plus). The Alpenflo definitely has more malt and malt complexity from front to back. Alpenflo has more body and feel.

You won't go wrong with either of these beers. Drink what's fresh and in hand. I have another new beer that I'm quite excited about. I'm be back. Cheers!

 

Thanks for the great start to this weeks NBS @lordofthewiens.

Cheers!

 

Looks a little slow on NBS right at the moment. I put my Helles mugs in the fridge, drank a cup of water and brought out my big gun. @GreenBayBA and @scream might drink this one like Old Milwaukee tallboys, but I was super excited to see these singles on the shelf at my local bottle shop.

The review:
12oz bottled March 2018 poured into a Duvel glass at just above fridge temp, no ABV listed on label. The beer pours pitch black with minimal khaki colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and leaves barely any lacing. The aroma is lovely with bourbon, coffee, chocolate and vanilla working in and out of each sniff. The taste is dark roasted malt, coffee and dark chocolate up front rolling into bourbon and oak on the finish. Mouthfeel is full to medium bodied, lowly carbonated and mostly dry in the finish. The bitterness seems to come from the coffee and roast malt and the balance is perfect. Overall, outstanding. Fantastic beer with little to no hype. Recommended.

This is the first Brewer's Reserve beer outside the core 4 to make it to shelves here in southern Indiana. I sincerely hope it's not the last. I really appreciate a balanced barrel aged beer and it seems with CW, they are always available at an outstanding value. Cheers all & enjoy the new beer in your glass today!

 

Good morning, NBS crew! Very glad to have a relaxing Sunday at home after last Sunday’s 6+ hours in line. This is one of the beers acquired from that line, and so far it’s my 2nd favorite from that 7-can release. (Only Void Retrospective being #1. I doubt anything will beat that one.)

High Tripper - Tired Hands
IPA - 6.66% abv
Canned 5/31/18 (10 days ago)
Purchased for $20/4 at Tired Hands
Score: 4.33 (-0.5% rDev)



L - massive, 3.5 finger pillowy offwhite head atop an opaque, burnt yellow body.

S - grapefruit, melon, papaya, herb, pine. The nose on this is quite lovely.

T - bitter grapefruit pith, with a sprinkle of sugar on top. The tropical fruits are present but the grapefruit is prominent. Mild dankness. Somewhat dirty middle. Moderate bitterness. Low sweetness. Moderate booziness.

F - medium body with above-average carb.

O - this strikes me as much more West Coast than usual for Tired Hands. Bitterness is more prominent, and the booze is more noticeable than in any other TH I’ve had recently. Still, all the elements work well together, and this is a pleasure to drink. Closest comparable: Foreign Objects’ Green Galaxy.

 

Poured into a can shaped pint, canned on 6/6/18. Pours a very clear and attractive orange yellow, with a massive 2 finger sticky white head, that leaves a thick wall of lace as it slowly settles into a thin layer of bubbles. 4.5

Smell is guava, apricot, peach, mango, and a hint of piney grapefruit. 4.25

Taste follows tropical front to back with a little grapefruit bitterness, loaded with mango and the other tropical flavors are in a supporting roll. 4.5

Mouthfeel is a solid medium, plenty of life, maybe a tad dry and not complaining, and goes down very easy but has a ton of flavor for 5.3%. 4.5

Overall this is an excellent APA that is sessionable, but loaded with big tropical flavor. Well done and keep your eye on this little brewery, they are about to explode! 4.25