New Beer Sunday (Week 699)

Hello New Beer Sunday!!!

Home after a long, and crazy day at work. Enjoying a pizza, and trying to enjoy Star Wars Episode 8. The only problem is my tv keeps popping in and out. It is getting old, and it might be about shot. Not too big of a deal, since I don't use it much, but still, it stinks.

But, better yet, there's beer, and a new one, and a strong one, and a good one, all rolled into one.


Whiskey Chip from Moose Lake Brewing, clocking in at 12% ABV.

Really rich, and delicious. So much going on with this beer, that I cover in my review.

4.31/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Pours pitch black with a thick, 3 finger, very dark brown head. The retention isn't the best. No lacing on the glass.
The nose is really rich with barrel notes. It also has chocolate, vanilla, caramel, on the nose. Quite rich.
Taste - Is deep, and rich. Chocolate caramel, vanilla, and on the backside a nice mellow burn from the alcohol. There's barrel notes mixed in.
The body is deep, as to be expected, though, I'd expect thicker, with a 12% ABV.
This is a rich, deep, beer. Well done Moose Lake Brewing.

A 12% is one and done with me. See you all next Sunday.

 

I had my first "Brut" IPA today. I had read a bit about the style and thought it was right up my ally, and I did enjoy it a lot.

Great Heights Brut-Y Pellets, 6.5% ABV. Mosaic and Citra hopped.

Pours a crystal clear yellow, with a lot of berry like aroma. The berry and tropical fruits carry over in the flavor. Really crisp and effervescent, that finishes supper dry. Which I love. Initially I was thinking the ABV would be lower, but maybe that is just Great Heights interpretation. All in all, I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to more breweries picking this style up. My full review below:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50326/358170/?ba=champ103#review



Another new one I had from Great Heights today is the Mr. Wilhelm Berliner Weiss at 3.8% ABV. This is from a growler.

Pours a light chilled haze with a pale yellow/orange color. A small white head forms and recedes to a ring that sticks around. Aroma is of lemon rind, toasted grains. Flavor is tart and acidic. Lemon rind again, with a nice grainy malt character. Tartness lingers, and has a lot of effervescent carbonation. Which all makes me want to keep coming back. A really nice example of the style without any fruit or other additives. This reminds me of Saint Arnold Boiler Room, which was on of the first regularly available Berliner Weiss in Texas (outside of a few one off releases at that point). Again, a very nice offering from Great Heights. Full review below:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50326/349235/?ba=champ103#review

 

I believe I did send that, that was one I picked up just to have a non Creature Comforts beer in that box.

 

My third beer of the night is another from @colby600

Hudson Valley Honey/Lemon Silhouette



4.42/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Poured from a 12 ounce can. Pours a thick yellow color with hardly any head to speak of. Smell is sour grapefruit. Taste is a tart orange, very nice. It's a smooth beer and a nice sour. I don't see the IPA at all, but it's a real good mimosa-style beer.

 

Hey all, I have a classic to review for tonight, Samuel Smith Imperial Stout. Picked it up for cheap at a local grocery chain that’s downsizing it’s beer selection and selling a bunch of stuff for half off.

Before the beer, I’ll address @cjgiant’s topic- I’m 43 and have been slowly but steadily gaining weight since my early 30’s because, while I eat pretty healthily, I wasn’t exercising regularly and I drink plenty of beer. Anyway, I recently passed the 200 lb mark, and that spurred me to action. So, for the last 3 months or so, I’ve been trying to excercise every day, count my calories and not drink beer during the week. I’ve had varying amounts of success sticking to it throughout the week, but I have managed to lose 10 pounds in that time.

Now it’s time to put 1 of those lbs back on



Here’s my BA review-



Cheers and happy NBS!

 

Sam Peckinpah approved of the pic.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24300/315604/



Moderate pour yields a more than inviting one inch brown head over a nearly black body with some lacing. Nose of roasted (slightly smokey, like chilpotle?) malt, cocoa, coffee, and vanilla. Taste mirrors nose with chocolate fudge flavors dominating over vanilla, coffee, and chili (which builds in your throat over time.) Me likey! Very nice feel and overall, another chocolate bomb from the minds of the evil one and his thumpin' friends.
Cheers!

4.33/5 rDev +1.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

 

Oh, exercise...
I've been blessed with enough of a metabolism that I can get away with not being as intentional as I should on that front, but not such a one that it really works out in the end. I've never been able to get myself to consistently visit a gym or anything similar, so I've tried to build in activities elsewhere that can replicate even a small facsimile. Biking to work. Lots of hiking. Playing basketball. That kind of thing. But my bike became a victim of the heat we've been having this summer, and I sold my car, so my hiking is left to the availability and schedules of friends who share a similar interest. And while I'll take beer breaks from time to time, I haven't in some time. Which is to say I've been kind of letting myself go of late. The absolute barrage of Michigan beer that @FlintB has gifted me hasn't helped

So you might say it's plum crazy of me to drink TWO beers on this hot as hell sunday of chores and the like. But that's the reality of the situation. It's ungodly hot out, but I've not taken advantage of the sun for the most part, opting to finally, FINALLY take advantage of the fact that I have the apartment to myself to do some of the things that have been needing to be done for a while. And then later, it will be arranging walk throughs to try and find a new place. I hate moving, but sometimes it's necessary.

Plums. That's the unifying theme here. I've got two plum based sours on hand that I am going to side by side. The last time I was in The City of Subdued Excitement, I was able to meet up with our very own @beertunes and we ended up over at Wander, one of his favourite local breweries. They had just crafted their Plum Bob, which is a sour aged on plums, and won a bronze medal at the Washington Beer Awards this year. I'm not sure what separates this from their Plum Millie, which is also a plum aged sour, but there we are. Definitely different names anyway. I had a glass at the brewery, so this one isn't new per se, but it is newly reviewed (had to add it to the site!), and its companion in comparison IS a new one for me.
Plum Ardent is from Transient, and I received it from the aforementioned @FlintB as part of his deluge of Michigan potables. It is listed as a barrel fermented farmhouse ale, and is one in a line of Ardents, presumably the one fermented on plums (deductive reasoning!).
So for this side by side, I took in each one individually, then poured a bit of the remaining from each and tried them truly side by side.



On the initial pour, I had the Wander as slightly lighter and more pink/orange whereas the Transient was more purple/deeper shade in general. Well, pouring them side by side looks almost identical. Somewhere in the later darker shades of sunset. Where they definitely diverge though is in their head. Ardent is more prolific in both its initial accumulation and remaining proliferation of wet white bubbles. Bob, on the other hand starts small and settles in eventually to just a thin ring and wispy scattering across the cap.




After the colour of the liquid, divergence begins to truly assert itself. Wander is all subtlety and subdued character while the Transient jumps feet first into heavy deep woods. I had to dig and gently coax out the flavours from the Plum Bob and was rewarded with a gentle tart/earthy balance. Digging gave me some spiciness, reminding me of a liqueur minus the alcohol, while Ardent was immediately heavy sap and wood with some earthiness. But really the core of this is fir sap. Like splitting green firewood with a hint of reduced/concentrated juices catching the tail end.



Tongue continues these themes. Ardent brings forth that seem deep woods theme: sticky fir sap coursing through woody earthiness that culimnates and blossoms into an almost vinous tart note with syrupy stone fruit sweetness that never really says 'plum' but with the knowledge of the name can be identified as such. Finishes with the same creamy yogurt-esque note that I caught in their Ol' Dirty Fashioned (which was the mystery beer Brian sent for this round of BIF). Bob in comparison carries forward the theme of subtlety and understatement. It feels like a pyramid composed of different flavour profiles: the base is the groundswell of tart promise, but before it can begin to reach culmination in the sharp peak so often found at the end of that, the tart fades out and the meaty plum note fades in. As that carries the momentum forward and upward, it too is never able to reach either of its seeming peaks: neither sweet plum juice nor tart sour plum, but instead a planed off cap that has some of the same almost-creamy yogurt-esque notes, though again like the rest of it this is less pronounced and more subtle here. There's some of the same spicy woodiness, but again, this is more pronounced on the tongue.



Both of these brews have a strong carbonation presence, though I think the distinction between aggressive vs assertive is applicable here. Ardent is more tart in the finish, committing fully to the sappy woody vein, while the lingering impression from Bob is a residual plum juiciness, the strongest expression from either of them of the fruit which unites them in this comparison. Both are more on the dry side, and neither exerts much alcohol until I go to stand up to take this final picture.
I enjoyed both, though they are very different from one another, despite the superficial similarities.

(the tomatoes and nasturtium have just gone apeshit this summer... the sunflowers as well, though they still refuse to flower. Hopefully before I move!! Hell, I've even managed to finally keep basil alive!)
Had to crack into one of the jars of plums my mom canned last summer from our plum trees (or at least the plums that the squirrels haven't stolen. Porter needs to go on a vacation again and ensure their population control!)

In the spirit of side by side, I'm offering two songs which are competing for space in my head at the moment.



Cheers y'all!!

 

Final beer of the night comes from @cdJensen

Great Notion Double Stack



4.5/5 rDev -0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Poured from a 16 ounce can. Pours black with just about half a finger of brown head. Smell is huge on the maple syrup. It's strong enough I can smell it while it sits on the table. Also a bit of coffee which doesn't come out as much in the taste for me. Beer is chocolate on the front end but all syrup on the back. It's a full mouth feel with the syrup lingering for quite some time after. A nice sweet stout.

 

I’ve got one more new one for today, Lagunitas Super Cluster-



I saw someone on BA describe it as a Waldo-light, and I think that’s pretty accurate. I also think it’s a good thing, because while I like Waldo’s, it’s intensity gets to be a bit too much by the end of 12 oz, IMO.

4.26/5 rDev +3.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25

Bottled 6/19/18 and reviewed today

Look- golden orange liquid with a white head and islands of spotty lacing; there's also a bunch of small white floaties, giving the beer a snow-globe appearance

Aroma- orange, dank weed, a little floral and grassy, and a little honey-like bready note

Taste- bursting with peach, orange, guava, and dank weed, along with slightly sweet bread and then moderate grapefruit pith bitterness towards the end

Feel- medium-light bodied, medium carbed, slightly bitter finish

Overall- Smells good and tastes great, with nice tropical, citrus and weedy notes, along with some bitterness and slightly sweet bready malt. It's also a snow globe beer, and I"m guessing the "super cluster" of floaties inspired the name of the beer.

 

Not from me, but I've had several of their beers!

 

Cheers homes!

 

We've also had trucks take down entire bridges. Fuckin' Canadians

 

Glad you're breathing alright again... asthma's no fun. Also no bueno on the teethes. My job at the hospital is the first time I've had dental insurance since I was a kid and was taken care of by the state of Washington, and well.... let's just say the last year or two has been a lot of compensating for the intervening time...

 

Well Hello Late Night NBS
I have been busier than hungry beaver in a toothpick factory. Finally, I'm home and ready to drink a beer with you fine folks. Lucky for me a friend, who up and decided to move to the NW tip of Oregon a few months ago, came back with this fine offering from a brewery I had not heard of. This is IPA from Buoy Beer Company in Astoria, Oregon.

Poured from a 12 oz can stamped BATCH 849 DOB 06/11/18.
Color is golden and orange.Opaque but not hazy. Reminds me of a few of the darker colors of bands of a sunset image on an OP shirt I had as a kid. Deep, sinking sunset right before it goes down. Still bright, but burnished. Sandy white head fluffs up almost 2 inches high. Then sinks to a scattered foam top.
Smell is initially citrusy. Rich orange, a hint of pithiness leaning toward grapefruit, a hint of pepper, and an ever so slight pine note with a dash of dank notes.
Taste begins with a slightly sweet blend of bready malt, orange zest, an earthy, somewhat dry, and gently piney note. The flavors really do come together.
Mouthfeel may be a tad fuller than is typical of style (APA?) but I really like this part. Carbonation is moderate.
Overall, I like this one. Not a standout, but reminds me of some of the smaller batches of APA's and IPA's I used to find more of traveling the PNW10-15 years ago, but with a little more citrus.
Thanks, Brother Steve.

3.78/5 rDev -2.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

 

Happy New Against the Saugatuck Grain Beer Sunday (Week 699), Part Trois!

I moved into AtG-land at about the same time that I got the news from my friend that he will NOT be visiting next week, after all. 8={} I am of two minds: 1) I am irritated since I had made plans & done a good bit of preparation but 2) it frees me up to participate in NBS & all of my dishes are clean, including the crock pots, which had been soaking since their last use. My late Pops used to cook in crock pots pretty regularly, but after his passing nearly 17 years ago, they mostly sat unused. I have been motivated, lately, to do more cooking in them, but they are a pain to clean.

I beCAN the seCANd phase of the day with a CANlaboration:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26850/257986/?ba=woodychandler#review

followed by:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26850/171157/?ba=woodychandler#review

and then:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26850/335943/?ba=woodychandler#review

but by now, I had reached my upper limit. I close here for this week, but I shall return next Sunday for more madness.