New Beer Sunday (Week 697)

Good morning NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @cjgiant for the introduction this week. Another normal weekend, aside from the 100+ heat index. Another normal Sunday with bottle returns, laundry, and a grocery run later on. Made another new beer haul yesterday as usual. My 7000th review will be later in the week. It was either going to be Dark Lord or Utopias; but probably Dark Lord, since I've been wanting to try it for a good 7 years now. Rather age the Utopias for longer.

Morning review:

This was fantastic as expected. Dense oil pour, decent head retention, minimal lacing. Flavors of huge dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, molasses, toffee, brown sugar, vanilla, fudge, toasted oak, red grape/wine, raisin, prune, fig, date, and dark/brown bread; with lighter notes of licorice, leather, tobacco, smoke, char, and herbal/grassy hops. Very mild herbal/grassy hop and roast/char bitterness on the finish. Light-medium carbonation and huge full body; with a very creamy, silky, velvety, and rich mouthfeel that is fantastic. Light slickness, sticky hops, chalky roast, wine/oak tannins, and increasing dryness. No cloying sweetness. Mildly warming 12%, no barrel booze at all. Dangerously smooth sipping. Perfect balance of the rich base beer malt complexity and red wine barrels. Not overwhelming on the barrel as far as the dark fruits/tannins go. I felt the Cognac Jesus was far more tannic on the barrels. Still not as amazing as the base beer, but nothing really has been at all lately. 4.25


Cheers, be back later on

Just rediscovered this band yesterday, been listening all last night. New album is absolutely sick. Amazing riffing and progressions.

 

Cheers you all and Happy Hotter Than Hell Sunday. You all know how I am allergic to cheap beer right? Well, I am also allergic to cheap laundry detergent. For over a month now I have suffered strange breakouts; the worst of which is on my face. Turns out it's the laundry soap. Soooo once everything I own has been rewashed I should be fine. It's hotter than hell and I have been up since 2 am. "Might as well make a nice pizza;" I thought, before the temperature reaches 100. So there I am contemplating my face and making a pizza when the single strand of cheese I spilled onto the stone started to burn and set the smoke alarm off. Damn stone is going to live in the closet for now.

St. Bernardus Wit





When I read the brewers description of this beer I had to laugh a little at all the people who say only us beer snobs talk that way. It is obvious that they really like this beer and I did too. Pours pale straw color yellow with a frothy head of white foam that lasts and clings. Wheat is breaddy and firm. It almost crackles. There is light fruit from apple and just a light fragrance from orange peel. Hops are fresh and herbal but show only a light mouthfeel and a hint of bitter. Earthy with coriander and peppery. This is a fragrant beer. Apple skin and pepper are a great combination. Bubbly sharp, crisp. Dry and refreshing. because many people think of the wit as having a lot of banana which this one did not they might overlook these two great pairings. Buffalo wings and pizza!

 

Happy New 4th Hands of July Beer Sunday (Week 697)!

@cjgiant asks what's been happening this week/weekend. In my case, not a lot. 8=(

I am unemployed (again), but this time because I am now primarily a day-to-day substitute teacher & school is out for the summer. However, I am CANtinuing to look for work as a) a requirement of UC benefits & b) I'd like to land a full-time, steady gig again. Sears called me for an interview on Monday so I took the bus out, made my interview on time & they begin by telling me that it would pay $7.50/hour! 8={} They CAN't go outta business fast enough.

On Tuesday, I was over in York Haven, PA at Jeff Lebo's Brew Mountain Eco-Inn House of CANs for an on-camera interview for an upcoming documentary. Yes, Bro. Woody of the Order of Disorder really is THAT famous!

Wednesday saw me in Harrisburg & Hershey, the latter for a quarterly visit to HER Medical Center due to high levels of BPA. It's something in my blood produced by my prostate. A surgically invasive biopsy in March proved benign, but it is still being monitored. I noodled around some of my beer haunts in Harrisburg afterward before heading home on the train.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday were big nothings. Well, that's not entirely true. I have been drinking, reviewing & rating beers. Copiously. The backlog demands my attention & is getting it. In spades.

As to the weather, well, let's go to Airman Adrian Cronauer channeling Roosevelt T. Roosevelt: "It's hot! Real hot! Damn hot! My shorts is the hottest place going! Doing a little crotch-pot cookin' richere!" How do I know that it's hot? I don't have A/C & several CANs have blown as a result. They were all micros, but it is a phenomenon known only to & by The CANQuest (tm) as I have not seen it happen with bottles (except some homebrew).

Okay, today's brewery of choice is 4 Hands from St. Louis, MO, where I hear that it is also hot. Hot enough to cook a Cardinal or two, like last night. I never had a beef with them until the MLB Central Division realignment took place & now the Bucs can't get past them! I wish the Pirates would be back in a division with the Phillies & the Mets. Sigh.

Onward! I am going to post this so as not to lose it. The opening salvo may take a while as it CANsists of a rare side-by-side, back-to-back, head-to-head Bottle vs. CAN CANpeition with the bottle being a bomber! Phew.

I think that I will make like the Depression-era crowd later & go to the movies to get in some A/C! "Sicario: Day of the Soldado" looks like today's pic pick. And now, like Arnold S. in "Terminator", I'll be back!

 

Morning all!

Was planning on hitting the power line trail going east this morning, after hitting it west yesterday, but I took a fall and my left knee is not cooperating. Sorry to hear our fearless leader, @cjgiant, also is under the weather. My injury, unlike his summer cold, is one I think will benefit from some beer, so, instead of a long walk, I think a short drive is in order, to the beer store, since the only new beers in the house are ones promised to my tasting group. Actually put the A/C on y'day, and have again today, the heat has pushed this old green hippy past my limit. Will see y'all in a bit, save a seat for me in the virtual saloon.

 

New Beer Sunday: A Hefeweizen

Mornin’ NBSers with a special signal to seekers of a domestic Hefeweizen-style beer that would work well for a traditional Bavarian breakfast with Weisswurst, a large soft pretzel (which are easily found in SE PA) and lots of mustard. Also a special thanks to @cjgiant for signaling the slow start of a suitable Sunday streaming session. Sorry to hear about the miserable cold.

Today’s weather here is going to be hot and hazy with a temperature near 98 and a “feels like” of 105. Good chance of setting a record today.

This morning’s new beer is the Trail Angel Weiss from Devil’s Backbone.

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

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18539/114272/?ba=drtth#review


Not surprisingly, given the style of the beer, there’s banana and clove with some wheat and bready malt sweetness with a bit of earthy character from the hops. I thought it nicely drinkable and one I'd repeat even though it's not the best example I've ever had. One of the things that helped me enjoy this beer and that I liked about it is that the the banana from the yeast is noticeable but does not dominate the aroma/flavor profile as it does with some Hefeweizens.

Cheers, all!

 

Keep on living for the day, new beer's, new experiences...

Sunrise over my backyard

The Other One by Tilted Barn
4.5/5 rDev +1.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Can poured into a teku

Hazy orange, some carbonation, pencil thin off white foam cap, some lacings

Aroma is citrus, orange rinds, mango, tropical fruits, whiff of dank

Citrus hops over malts on the taste

Smooth almost creamy, hop nibble

Rhode Island’s version of treehouse

Good beer

 

Poured ice cold on a very hot morning bottled 5/22/18 and got a massive 3 finger sticky white head that just covers the sides of the glass with beautiful thin lace. An attractive clear yellow orange. 4.5

Smell is papaya, earthy lovely hops, tangerine, Mellon, and some grapefruit rind. 4

Taste follows nice balance between tropical and bitter, really a cross of West and East Coast IPA, just a real enjoyable IPA. 4.25

Mouthfeel is a solid medium, with plenty of life, a tad dry, and drinks bigger than its 7% billing. 4.25

Overall another excellent beer from this brewery, just honestly sick of the price point and think 16 oz cans at $20 a wack and I will always have love for you. 4.25

 

I promised myself, when it was the dead of winter and miserably COLD, when summer made its appearance and it was HOT, I would not complain. So I won't. I would just make the observation that it was a difficult round of golf yesterday. I may have to start riding and not walking.

This beer was given to me by a co-worker. It is Stout Rullquin, a collaboration between Brasserie Artisanale de Rulles and Gueuzerie Tilquin. The beer "is obtained from a blending of 7/8 of Rulles Brune and 1/8 of 1 year old lambics, which has been matured for 8 months in oak barrels. Unfiltered and unpasteurized, this beer is refermented for 6 months in the bottle." The ABV is 7.0% and it is best before 22/03/2026.

In my teku the beer was dark brown in color with a modest tan head. The head retained well and there was a bit of lace.
The predominant aromas for me were cherry, chocolate, and caramel.
Tart cherry taste, followed by caramel and cocoa. A little bit of oak snuck in, and there was some funkiness.
A smooth, enjoyable beer.

 

Sorry to hear about your URI - this year they seem to be hanging on and on and on and...

 

Just hoppin' along . . .



Clear deep golden color with white cap and good lacing.

Aroma of bright, shiney piney hops with some herbal tones.

Taste of clean piney hops with a surprising kick of something like pineapple or tropical fruit that's very well comingled with the underlying malt. Not an array of flavors but enough to tell me this is a complex brew. I neither scent nor taste the alcohol and didn't realize it was 8% until I read the description after the review.

Medium full texture with balancing carbonation.

Whew, of course I was expecting hop flavors but these come across as rather sophisticated in the way they blend together weaving in and out like the strands of a rope with each contributing without competing. A very competent beer that's easy to drink.

 

It's been a busy week for me with work and getting ready for a much needed vacation. Finishing up some things around the house before heading to the city to catch a flight to Dublin. A couple nights there before flying to Brussels, renting a car and doing a bit of a road trip, Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, Munich, Dusseldorf, and a few stops in between. My wife agreed to one designated brewery day for me so I'll finally get to try Cantillon, there will be many new beers on the trip but that's my only planned stop. I semi-ruined an anniversary trip for her last fall on a NE road trip by hitting a brewery in every major city we stopped in, I'm not doing that again. This will be my first time leaving the country so I'm a bit nervous about that.
Anyhow, enjoying this sipper before cutting the grass. It's going to be a jungle when I get home in two weeks.

Dark brown pour with a finger of tan head.
Smell is bourbon, chocolate, roasted malts, vanilla.
Taste follows, chocolate, barrel, roast malt, toffee, and caramel.
A bit thin to me but overall a tasty BA stout. Alcohol is fairly well hidden, just a touch of heat on the tongue.
Hoping to get another new one in at the airport, if not cheers until next week.

 

The AC has been cranking in the office so I have had to cough up every morning, but so far I have not had the misfortune of coming down with a summer cold! I hope you feel better soon @cjgiant!

Last night I was at a party where someone had come back with a stash of Vermont beer, by misfortune I had drank quite a bit of beer during the day (I know, I know, not a misfortune, but I wish I had not drank during the day so that I could have drank more Vermont beers! ), so I only had three Vermont beers!

So to get the juicy toxicity out of my body I went out for a walk this morning, and it worked, with the weather in the nineties and the humidity way up there I came back loosing a few pounds of liquids.

So to make a long story short, I am currently getting both my morning coffee and hydration with this beautifully balanced 14% ABV!



A-Pours a very nice opaque color with a nice tan head and lacing
A-Aroma has very nice coffee and bourbon hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a nicely balanced silky coffee and bourbon flavor
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer where the silky flavor is enhanced as the beer warms up
O-A very nicely balanced silky bourbon barrel aged stout

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! This really feels like a day to drink new lagers, berliners, and the like, but I have too many good ipas in my fridge right now that are ever-so-slowly dying. Mostly thanks to @larryi86 sharing his Vermont haul with me. So starting with one from Larry. First time I’ve ever used this glass with the liquid it was meant to hold. Thanks for checking off one of my highest wants Larry!

Pavement - Foam
DIPA - 8.2% abv
Canned 6/21/18 (9 days ago)
Score: 4.35 (-1.4% rDev)



L - 1/2 finger offwhite head rapidly bubbles away to nothing. Body is an opaque medium yellow.

S - lemon, orange, pineapple, pine, mango, melon. Yes please!

T - orange and lemon to start, with a thin, dank wrapper. Dirty, earthy middle. A hint of cheesy funk. Pine. Medium bitteness. No sweetness. Low booziness.

F - medium body with minimal carb.

O - quite a complex beast of an ipa. This would definitely stand out in a blind tasting, and would probably be polarizing. I personally like the interplay of flavors here. It’s not just juice.

 

Checking out this beer from Connecticut Valley Brewing (formerly Pioneer Brewing)...

Trailblazer DIPA (8% abv), canned 5/22...

Aromas and flavors are predictably citric, as advertised, with orange at the fore... Sometimes too orange a brew is a detractor for me, but I found this beer very enjoyable... It presents a moderately bitter and only mildly sweet taste profile, with a dank undertone that supports the solid malt body... Impressions of mango and cantaloupe are accompanied by something of a pine-like shellac... Medium-full-bodied, smooth, and soft... Good stuff...

Cheers...

 

Nice start to this weeks NBS to @cjgiant. Will be back later on with a new brew.

Cheers!

 

Citra-Hero, another new brew to me in Revolutions "Hero" series, IMHO, the best so far.
Pours a clear Orange, with a very pale orangish head, nice lacing.
Grapefruit rind and tangerine aromas.
Flavor has some grapefruit, but not overpowering, a little sweetness to balance the hops.
Well carbonated, medium bodied. Nice looking can too.
Very nice brew from Revolution.