New Beer Sunday (Week 711)

Its okay, I forget ALL the time...

 

It is our homestate hero

 

Many thanks to @2beerdogs for this opportunity!

What a fantastic fruited Berliner!



My humble review




Cheers all!

 

I've been sipping on this one while catching up on the thread. Mystery beer #2 from @CanConPhilly

As I opened the can I was smacked in the face by resinous Citra cones! From reading @Vidblain mystery review recommendation from Matt and this being a dessert beer I thought I may have spoiled my surprise. Nope! Definitely something different here.
Pours a turbid dull orange with two fingers of white head that dissipated fairly quick.
Smell is pungent, sticky Citra.(no meat, sorry Matt). Orange and mango dominate the fruit aspect.
Taste is similar with the oily Citra hops dominating and lingering in the aftertaste. Being a citra ***** I'm enjoying this. There is a bit of sweetness with hints of vanilla. An underlying sweet fruitiness that escapes me.
Full bodied, slick and creamy feel.
Overall an excellent beer!
Knowing who sent it I have to say it is a Tired Hands milkshake but can't pin down which one. That texture and underlying sweetness are ones I have only experienced from TH.
The reveal:

This may be my favorite milkshake beer I've had. Thank you for another excellent beer Matt!

 

Sorry about the unbelievably shitty pic! Went to a little gathering at a friend's place and tried some rather intriguing stuff. This is a 2013 3 Floyds Barrel Aged Alpha Klaus with Black Currant. It was unwaxed and unnumbered and it may actually never have been released to the public. There's another one called Cassis that seems to have been waxed and released, not sure what the difference is. This one had only had 32 checkins on untappd before, last one in 2015.

Poured with little head, appropriate to style, light carbonation on sipping but seems to have held up pretty well. There's a sweet, almost decadent porter here with a pleasant, slightly thicker body than most in the style, which I always appreciate as my preference leans toward big imperial stouts. There's also a really tart fruit note that's pretty unusual in this type of beer but quite nice. The two are pretty well in balance and I've never had anything quite like it. A real curiosity and I very much enjoyed it!

 

Oh man I frigging love that beer! The only thing that keeps Berliners from being my favorite style is the low ABV and they fixed that problem with this one plus it's just delicious. I've been hanging on to another bottle and was considering getting it out this week. @2beerdogs may actually have been the source on mine as well, now that I think about it. Cheers!

 

Hmmm, will have to go grab some of this recent batch. I've had several previous batches and the dankness/weedy aspects were always complimentary to tropical aspects not the 'lead actor'.

Is the brewery Snake River Brewing?

 

That's a damn nice start!

 

I must say, you really surprised me with this one. I found it rather intriguing, to be hit by a mystery beer that I was totally mystified by. I enjoy the experience, thoroughly - and it was a damn fine beer. Thank you again, Larry!

Like, Molten Mirrors and Chevalier Bertrand territory? Hmmmmm! I have a bottle still in my basement... - may have to enjoy one this coming week!

 

Glad you like it.

 

May have been...but truth be told, I don't remember. Let's just say, I hope I was.

 

Holy Shizzle... That's a WHOLE SH&T Ton of BEER!!! @r0rschach !!!

 

Hey there, evening NBS!

I'm not a frequenter of the late night NBS posts, but I've determined (at this point) that I'm going to take a day off tomorrow. You only live once, and I just had my ten year anniversary at my current employer - plus, one of my coworkers just retired after forty years with the company. Why be responsible all of your life???

Anyway.

I wanted to share some thoughts with some of my NBS friends - specifically @FlintB, and a few of my other friends who were engaged in our little NBS war. If readers aren't familiar, I'll encourage you to read up on what transpired in NBS #8. I'll take full responsibility for my part in escalation of things.

What I realized, during our war, is that I've become a little more comfortable than I should be with my beer laurels. I've ticked a lot of beers. I've become pretty comfortable with a cellar full of stuff. I decided that I didn't really want that anymore, that I was happier as a bit of a hungry newbie, and that I didn't want to be Smaug, sitting on a trove of golden whalez. The analogy breaks down there, obviously. I like to think that I have quite a few friends here on BA, and I want to see those friends try some of those beers that may not always make it to wider distro. I don't see the value of sitting on beer anymore, and I'd rather just empty my cellar than have whalez gathering dust.

So, I'm doing my best to let go of beers that I love. I'm trying really hard to give to my friends and empty my cellar out to people I want to share with. It's a challenge, because as beer-chasers, we're inured to the the hoarding instinct - we collect stuff for years, and we pick things up just because of their trade value. It's a bit of a hostile, competitive, challenging environment, to be sure. And I don't want to play those games anymore. I don't like chasing beer deliveries. I don't like standing in line for hours for releases. So I'm working on giving away those bottles and cans.... because, why not? Many of my friends - @FlintB, @Bum4ever, @FFFjunkie, @Dragginballs76, and many others - give up whalez and difficult to find beers in every single round of NBS, Cans Cans, Rookies, Newbies, and all of the other BIFs on this site.

And you know what? It feels great. It's tremendously satisfying to give one of your very good friends a great bottle of beer and see them check it in. Rather than letting that bottle just age and possibly waste away in your basement, it's so much more satisfying to send it along to a friend.

I challenge all of you to do so. Send something to a friend, just randomly - you don't even need to wait for the next round of a BIF. Just help a friend tick a wish list item. Send something to a familiar stranger. Make a new friend. These things always come around. And even if they don't, you'll have the satisfaction of being the bigger person who was willing to take a chance.

TLDR.

Cheers, guys - NBS #8's war was a very fun experience. Again, I hope there were no bad feelings in the end - I hope that we've all become closer friends, and I hope that it is completely understood that anything that was exchanged was sent with the best of intentions. I hope we all can be even better friends now - and I hope that we can all meet up some time in the future for a real BA share.

I'm going to check in another beer now... we'll see if I'm totally tapped out on words...

 

Speaking of - this has been a wish list item of mine for a while now.

@larryi86 sent me a can of Alien Church during NBS #8, and I just don't know what to say. It's tremendously well-balanced, exhibiting lots of rich, malty characteristics, with plenty of haziness and sweet notes. It's a very clean-drinking beer - easy to drink and pleasant with a a very nice, clean finish. I finally see why it gets so much hype, and I really appreciate the chance to try it.

Thank you, Larry - I'm really enjoying this beer!

That's it for me today, NBS. Hope you all have a fantastic week to come. See you next Sunday!

 

One more for tonight that I picked up earlier today while getting a bottle of Salted Caramel Crown Royal for my wife, she's not a drinker so that bottle will last her a year.
I've enjoyed the recent distro of these Hubbard's Cave IPAs and am surprised that I don't see them getting much love from the Chicago area guys.

Pours a cloudy amber orange with a finger if white head.
Lots of peach and white grape on the nose. Hints of blueberry and herbs.
Taste follows pretty closely.
Medium bodied with good carb levels. Slight alcohol presence.
Overall a good beer but I liked the One Hop Citra better.

 

Now it's Late Night NBS!
Glory be BIF #8!!!
Another Michigan gem from @superspak .
Boss Tweed DIPA from Old Nation.

Pours a hazy, can we say muddy, orange to apricot color. Frothy white head leaps up, slowly retreats, and leaves moderate lacing.
Smell is an abundant cascade of tropical and citrus. Juicy mango, pineapple, and some sweet tangerine start off. Juicy!
Flavor is much of the same. Begins very juicy, but then it moves into a drier, earthy bitterness. Really moves smoothly from one component to another. Eventually there's a warm onion note on the finish.
Mouthfeel is fluffy, active, and really carries it all so well.
Beauty of a beer.

4.16/5 rDev -6.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

 

This one comes ffrom @bl00 in the BIF. South County Intervals IPA with Ekuanot. Pours with a good finger of pale white head, quickly dissipating to the tiny ring of bubbles shown. As I poured, I was hit with a big waft of pure cannabis. Ekuanot, as always, is hella dank and earthy. Beer is slightly hazy, dark straw color. Taste is floral, herbacious, not quite spicy but like a leafy vegetable. Definitely not my favorite hop but very bold and different. There's a surprisingly sweet maltiness underneath the hop burn too. I always enjoy beers that highlight a single hop and I've only had one that did so for Ekuanot before so this was cool. Thanks @bl00!

 

Wagner Valley Brewing Company's Sled Dog Doppelbock is my NBS beer for this edition. It is quite tasty. Cheers all!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/611/2890/?ba=neenerzig#review

Eric

 

Glad you liked it! That was one of the only 'wants' of yours that I had access to... and even then only because @FlintB sent it to me as part of the NBS BIF#007! I debated keeping it for myself since he sent it along, but I figured I got to try a bunch of other Speciation bottles he sent along and that one was specifically on your wants, so... there's the Forward part of Beer it Forward, yeah?

 

I say never hold back in art. I often have lots and lots of stuff and then lots and lots of nothing. And why wait. =)