New Beer Sunday (Week 696)

Been a fun weekend between celebrating a friend qualifying for Ironman World Championships, another friend getting married, having one of my best friends back in town, and starting up my next project on the car. Not to mention some great World Cup matches. Time to sit back, turn out the rest of the world, and tune into a beer. This bottle landed to me via @TheHopsman .



Kros Strain's Hopstreaker.

Pours an opaque orange that seems to glow within the glass. Head formation is a finger of snow-white foam with fair retention. Aroma is tangerine, mango and orange, and biscuit and nutted malts. Flavor profile is tangerine, mango, orange, papaya, lemongrass, and lemon zest. There is a hint of biscuit and nutted malts. Despite a full list of citrus notes, it isn't heavy or jam packed with tongue twisting notes. Mouth feel is a light fizziness that when combined with a modest chalky feeling doesn't come off super refreshing. It has a medium thickness. Overall, lots of notes, but well controlled and tempered. The label reads "pale ale", and while it is quite hoppy for a pale ale, the malts shine through well.

Score: 4 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4 | 4.25 | BA Score: 4.21 | rDev: 0% (only one other rating)

Personal notes: I believed this beer to be mis-labeled on the bottle, after all it says "pale ale". I was anticipating a super hoppy "pale ale" more akin to a NE IPA. I was pleasantly surprised that the label was correct.

Finished this just in time to watch some Atlanta United FC vs. Portland Timbers. Quite a change from World Cup play.

Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday, New Beer Samplers and commentators. First and foremost, congratulations @lordofthewiens on your imminent retirement. I know you can look back with satisfaction and deserved pride on a career of providing the best care possible to your patients. You merit our accolades and best wishes!

On to beer. It finally seems like June here in North Jersey - hot and muggy. I've been waiting for the right weather to try Barn Beer from Plan Bee Farm Brewery up in @cavedave's stomping grounds, Poughkeepsie, NY, in the Hudson Valley. I'll start by saying that Wild Ales and I have an uneasy relationship at best. At times the sourness can be overwhelming. My daughter really likes sours but my palate isn't very sophisticated when it comes to this style. But I really, really enjoyed this offering. The wild yeast is toned down and the flavors are delicate and blend really well. The tart lemon is balanced by some honey at the end. What's remarkable is the feel. It's both crisp and creamy at the same time. Here's my full review:

4.29/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Poured from undated 12.7 oz. bottle into tulip glass. It pours a hazy, golden-straw color with a large, long-lasting, fluffy, bright white head and copious lacing. It's a pretty pour. The fragrant nose features fresh lemon, brett yeast, coriander, clove, and pepper. Upfront, the flavors include tart lemon, oak, and wild yeast. But as the glass warms, I also begin to taste some sweet honey at the end. There is also subtle coriander, clove, and peppercorn. The flavors are all measured and delicate. Unlike many Wild Ales, Barn Beer doesn't overwhelm with sourness. The mouth feel is wonderful: it manages to be both crisp and creamy. As expected, the carbonation is lively and it's highly drinkable at 5.5% ABV. Overall, I'm very impressed! Barn Beer is highly flavorful and fun to drink without being overly sour. In fact, it's a great ale with which to introduce someone to the world of sours. Barn Beer should be enjoyed outdoors on warm, sunny, late spring or early summer day with a plate of cheese and fresh strawberries.

I hope you're all enjoying your new beer(s) today. The reviews are great. I'll be back soon with a stout.

 

Poured into a 13 oz Free Will Teku glass, canned on 6/14/18. Pours a very hazy yellow with a massive 2 plus finger sticky white head that leaves loads of thin wisps of lace as it slowly settles into a thick layer of bubbles. 4.5

Smell is guava, passionfruit, pineapple, tangerine, and some mild grapefruit bitterness.4.25

Taste follows tropical front too back, guava, passionfruit with some grapefruit in the balanced finish. 4.25

Mouthfeel is bigger than medium, plenty of life but a little soft as it should be, not dry but sticky from the insane amount of hops, and at 7% goes down easy, but drinks bigger. 4.5

Overall this is a tremendous NEIPA, that probably should get a bigger and better grade, but with all the hype around this place I sadly was hoping for more.4.25

 

Here's my brood on Father's Day. Owen in front of me is eight and Sylvan in front of Martha is eleven. Will is thirty three and Lauren is thirty six. James and Lauren were born two days apart thirty six years ago. Our neighbor took this photo after a long hot hike. Without a doubt, in an eventful life, my children are the greatest pleasure I might have ever imagined. Cheers @lordoftheweins, congratulations, and cheers to all

 

Maybe I should have waited to drink my can, I ended up trading my other 3 cans!

 

New beer #6.

Lingonparon - Other Half
Pear and Lingonberry Berliner - 5% abv
Canned 6/19/18 (6 days ago)
Purchased for $18/4 at Other Half
Score: 3.97 (-3.5% rDev)



L - 1-finger bright white head atop a translucent pinkish purple body.

S - salt, mixed berries, brown sugar.

T - salted berries. There is pear in here but not detecting much of it. No bitterness. Low sweetness. No booziness.

F - light bodied with high carb.

O - An enjoyable hot-weather berliner, but overpriced for what it is. Not a lot of fruit added to this. The salt is the most prominent ingredient.

 

Zipline + Boulevard's Getting Down.

Pours a foggy straw color with a finger of white foam. Head retention is fair. Aroma is citrus and lactose. It smells heavy, the humid air in the heart of a rainforest, but carries notes of an orange tree patch on a diary farm. Flavor profile is orange, tangerine, and mango. The flavor profile is a bit thinner than the aroma would imply. While 8.5% isn't super high alcohol for a DIPA, it does make its presence known. Mouth feel is medium-thick with a velvety, fizzy texture that is soft and welcoming. Overall, good hop notes although the aroma feels a bit top heavy when compared with the flavor profile.

Score: 4.25 | 4 | 4.25 | 4 | 4 | BA Score: 4.12 | rDev: 0%

 

Congrats to @lordofthewiens on his retirement. I sort of tried that for a few years after I got out of the Military, but was too young & later not flush with cash, so we shall call it a work hiatus. When you are truly ready I am sure it is a sweet deal.

Fist beer up a local New Providence Philospher King IPA, weighing in at 6.0 ABV & 70 IBUs 3.71 overall

Canned 05/18/2018, pours golden with one finger of beige colored head. Alright head retention & lacing

S: Some citrus & grassy notes

T: Tangerine, green melon, and grassyness up front, plus a littl dryness. Grapefruit peel, dryness, slight white grape & bready presence. Crisp finish, tangerine & pink grapefruit also on show

MF: Medium body, firm carbonation good balance

A pleasant IPA, I do like their draft products better & presume it would be the case with this one. Drinkable enough

 

Cheers, @lordofthewiens, and congrats on your wonderful family and your impending retirement. I’m not quite to that landmark in a person’s life, but I can see it in the distance - and it is coming into focus very quickly.

I have a single beer today because Mrs O and I are meeting a former boss for both of us for dinner. If I have any mentors in my work career, he is one of two.

The beer is courtesy of @bl00, and is part of the never ending beer orgy otherwise known as NBS BIF #007. He’s the 5th person that’s sent me beer in this magnificent BIF (the others are @Buck89 , @JBowenGeorgia , @jhavs , and ozzylizard). I am overwhelmed by the generosity of these wonderful beer nerds.

PS: the glassware is from another beer nerd extraordinaire @beerloserLI and BIF #4, IIRC.In case you can’t tell, I am a strong advocate for BIF participation.

I present for your perusal this offering from Diamondback Brewing out of Baltimore.



4.42/5 rDev +3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

My first beer from these guys, I popped the top, poured, got BLASTED by the pithy citrusy hop aromas, quickly poured it and saw the very hazy golden color and scads of floaties and all I could think was, “this is a Heady clone.”

I really dislike thinking that way, the “beer comparator” line of thinking, but the taste did nothing but tighten that linkage in my mind - the pity citrus notes are dominant, but there’s a depth of flavor that keeps the bitterness right on the edge between “too bitter” and “perfectly bitter.”

This lands on the “perfectly bitter” side of the line, IMHO. I think it is world-class in the “old school NEIPA” category, if that makes sense (Heady, Focal, SoS, MBC stuff, etc).

 

Now up Upper Pass Cloud Drop, I was lucky enough that to store I was able to grab Focal Banger from just got some of this in.

4.39/5 rDev +1.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

16 oz can, dated 6/20/18

A- A hazy/murky copper/amber with a two finger white head

S- Tropical fruits, some stone fruits, sweet oranges, citrus.

T- Oranges, citrus rind, some citrus zest, tropical fruits, resin, some pine, touch of caramel malts.

M- Smooth, medium body

O- A good DIPA with a classic bitterness and great fruit notes.

Cheers!

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @lordofthewiens for getting us started off this morning. Normal weekend as usual. Made a new beer haul yesterday again and got a lot of stuff I was looking for. Packed up 2 boxes to ship out from recent trades this evening. Going to be a busy week for me. I have a bunch of assembly plant data tables that need urgent updating, because we are missing a whole new powertrain; so basically we can't build any of those until it's fixed. I got about 75% of that done on Friday. Got my usual laundry done for the week, along with a grocery run and bottle return trip.

Awesome German pils! Great head retention and spotty lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of big cracker, white bread dough, toasted biscuit, and light honey/nutty malts; with a fair amount of herbal, grassy, peppery noble hops. Light-moderate herbal, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body, and moderately crisp/clean finishing. Balanced bready/grainy malts and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing bitter dryness. Very flavorful/refreshing, 5%. Perfectly clean lagering, no fruitiness. Very impressive. I'm glad they actually went traditional, instead of their usual American over hopping of lagers I've had in the past. Very clean and nicely rich pale/Munich malts, with nice noble hop presence/balance. Would buy again. 4.1


Thanks @RaulMondesi, your box is ready to go! Wow, fantastic! Great head retention and dense lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of huge tangerine, orange juice, grapefruit, lemon, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, strawberry, mango, melon, and citrus zest hops; with moderate wheat, white bread dough malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Absolutely zero bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body; very creamy/silky/grainy malts in the mouthfeel. Minimal dryness, no cloying sweetness. Zero warming 6.5%. Almost refreshingly drinkable. Well damn, this is just about the softest NEIPA I've ever had. Drinks like a fruit smoothie. Super juicy Simcoe/Amarillo hop showcase; with perfect oat/spelt/malt balance. The aromas were better than the flavors in this case. The orange juice vibrancy was wonderful. I'd say they might be worth the price point . 4.27


Cheers, be back later NBS.

 

Good Afternoon and Thanks @lordofthewiens for the wake up and wonderful story. Speaking of family Im just back from Lenox Western Mass visiting my daughter who will be teaching theatre there for the summer. Beautiful area. Of course I had to visit a liquor store and low and behold there was a top notch selection of craft brews. Some of those Western Mass beers that are hard to come by plus many others. Decent pricing as well. Picked this one because - well not sure why except its Pipeworks and fruited IPAs always underwhelm me so I gambled with: Pipeworks Wongo Mongo IPA with pineapple juice.
Pours a slightly hazy straw yellow color with an off white 2" head, fluffy in nature that lasts quite sometime leaving some nice "world map" lacing.
Smells of yup, you guessed it pineapple, but in a gentle way. Nice sweet citrus peeks in with grapefruit notes, some mildly fruity hops and clean pale malts as well.
Taste follows with the pineapple- but not acidic in any way. A nice wave of fruits possibly a small dose of Mosaic and something lemon/citrus possibly Centennial, though Im no expert on identifying hops. Nice clean taste with soft bitterness. Pretty tasty.
Lightly coats the tongue, medium light body, crisp and dry with a lingering finish with the nice bitterness.
Overall one better fruited IPAs Ive tried.
The fruit doesnt take over and there is a nice balance to this brew. Definitely an easy drinking summer IPA. Will satisfy your thirst. Just under 10$ so in line with most bombers. I would buy again for a hot summer day. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and your week. Peace

 

I guess you don't get credit for a review on a retired beer.

Happy NBS!

Cheers!

 

Ah mes amis... time for another new beer!



Poured from the can into a teku style glass as suggested.

Grapefruit orange body color, with more of a hint of ruby red tone, and some opaque appearances Fleeting but good creamy touch of two finger head, that hits with snap fizz and settles quickly to a bubbled collar.

Real nice aroma. Juiced touches of peach, and larger strawberry character and salt. Fruity tangy qualities, with a hint of brine to match. Extremely clean and light bodied sensing on the nose. Big strawberry action on this.

Palate seem to go a little different direction. Neutral mouthfeel and flavor on first sip. A decent depth of wheat chew, but fairly neutral. Aftertaste brings strangely the bulk of really good quality. Large bakery and crusty salt action on the finish. A real bursting strawberry juice quality on the finish too, nearly gets down right jammy.

Very interesting gose, but has some very odd neutrality on first sips. The awards seem to await in the end making it worthy of a solid brew.

look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4 | BA Generated: 3.96

Cheers!

 

Good evening NBSers! While my children are not old enough to share a beer with, they have probably visited more breweries than any of my friends. Brewery visits are a part of our family vacations. Last week I was lucky enough to watch them play frisbee in the field at one brewery, have a family game of UNO at another, and a family game of Apples to Apples at a third. I assured them that someday they would look back on these trips fondly.

Today I'm having a brew @larryi86 sent me in the last round of the NBS BIF:



Wisdom's Hour from Victory, and barrel aged sour ale.

It pours a very dark reddish brown, with tiny bubbles forming a head that dissipates and regenerates quickly. The nose is funky, earthy, and woody with a hint of red berry. Huge red wine character on the palate. Juicy and dry, with a long slightly tart and bitter finish.

This is the kind of complex brew that I struggle to describe but enjoy slowly unpacking. Thank you Larry!

 

Thirsty Dog Wulver in Sherry Barrels, not bad, but expected more, 3.45 overall

Pours a chill-hazed chestnut with a sliver of tan head. Stays pretty hazy, no head retention, about the same on lacing

S: Figs, leafy hops

T: Follows the nose, some peaty notes. Dryness, figs, raisins, black currants as this warms, a touch of cakeyness, a little more peatyness; a touch of booze & barrel dryness. Finishes a little dry with toffee, & faint peat notes

MF: Light/medium body, assertive carbonation. Body thickens a touch once warm, still over gassed

At $ 20 a bottle 750 mL bottle, this is a dissapointment. Had higher hopes

 

Thanks to my TH guy, I had to change my original plans for this evening's NBS. I had a BFM Biere de Champagne all set and chillin' in the fridge. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at all and may still get to it tonight. Cheers!



Moderate pour yields 3/4 inch white head over a hazier than normal pilsener with some lacing. Nose of cracker and ever so slight citrus. Taste of cracker, a bit of sweetness, and a semi dry/crisp finish. In other words, not crisp enough for the style as the sweetness holds back its "crisp" potential. Good feel and overall, something I wouldn't turn down if offered, but not exactly true to the style. Cheers!

3.85/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

 

Looks like I get to be the first written review, as usual. Very nice session (milkshake?) sour. Great head retention/lacing for the style. Aromas and flavors of juicy/lightly tart peaches, fruit skin, apricot, lemon, lime, orange, pear, red/green apple, white grape, hay, straw, and grass; with moderate vanilla, cream, wheat, cracker, white bready malts; light lacto funk, and yeast earthiness. Light fruity/lactic tartness on the finish. Medium-high carbonation, medium body, and fairly crisp/clean finishing. Creamy/grainy wheat/lactose, and light acidity/tangy fruit in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing tart/tangy fruit dryness, no puckering. Very flavorful/refreshing, 4.5%. Not watery at all. Nicely balanced Lacto and fruit flavors; with a perfectly balanced malt/lactose backing against acidity. This tastes a lot like the Odd Side Fruitsicles, which I enjoy a lot. Would buy this again. Did not expect lactose initially, but it worked well. Great summer beer. 3.9


Very nice fruit IPA. Nice head retention/lacing on the glass. Flavors of big juicy ruby red grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, peach, pineapple, passion fruit, mango, melon, white grape/wine, berry, citrus peel/zest, light pepper, and pine hops; with moderate toasted biscuit, light caramel malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Similar/muted aromas. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/zest, herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish, Medium-plus carbonation and medium body; balanced bready/grainy malt and sticky hops in the mouthfeel. Slight resins. Light-moderate increasing bitter/carbonated dryness, no hop astringency. Very smooth and pretty refreshing for 6.6%. Pretty old on the can(8/17), but very tasty stuff. Friend gave it to me for free. Galaxy and Nelson hops. Juicy and lightly dank hops/fruit; nice bready malt backbone, with minimal residual sweetness. Held up well. Really enjoyable. 3.88


Cheers, be back soon NBS.

 

New Beer Sunday (Week 696)
Greetings fellow NBSers from back home on the ridge in Mid Hud Val, NY. Hot day driving north, very relaxed now with the aid of this crazy beer that wants to be a Margarita. Not what I expected but now I think of it what is it possible to expect of this strange idea that, in the beer store, I really thought could produce something tasty. Tasty it is, refreshing it isn't.

Pours a rather unappetizing looking tannish gold, with a finger of white, quick to leave, foam.

Full aroma that does smell like a Margarita right down to the lime and Cointreau. I even imagine I can smell the tequila.

Full flavored taste that veers away from the aroma. Thought I smelled lime, but here no lime, citrus notes instead that are less distinct, but very tasty, with thick sugar syrup spicy alcohol kick to it also. Nice sour yeast bite with a slight hint of salt completes blend.

Highly viscous, not all that refreshing like a gose ought to be, low carb. that works well. Very resinous and the finsih is a thick linger that does taste like a Margarita.

I liked all the features of this beer, but am not as happy about the mix of them as I'd hoped. Worth a shot for the uniqueness, tasty for what it is, but not a winner this time for Chris.

Hope you have a Great American Beer in your glass. Cheers!