New Beer Sunday (Week 714)

Thanks @lordofthewiens for the great start to this weeks NBS. Sorry to hear about your foot. Get Well!

Cheers!

 

New Wild Ale Sunday (Week 714)
Goood Morning all you grateful gueze guzzlers and laidback lovers of luscious lambic, Happy New Beer Sunday from on the ridge in Mid Hud Val, NY. Beautifully brisk and blessedly dry day after some nutty wind and rain.

Funny that hurt legs is the under theme today, and I wish @lordofthewiens a quick recovery from his injury. At my old age I also worry about injury, and today especially, as that storm y'day pulled a branch down from one of the big maples that now is half off and half resting on the roof, which made a loud banging at times. Hate going on the roof.

Only time I ever broke anything and needed crutches was just before my High School graduation, and that broken ankle excused me from the lineup and climb to the stage. It allowed me to see with perfect view from the audience the prank my friend played on the Prinicipal with a mannequin hand. Classic. Amazing to have skiied steeps and bumps as hard as I did for as many years as I did and my only broken bone was from a fall walking down the street.

Today's beer will be first I have had for three days. I'm preparing to take a month off starting Dec. 17, kinda easing into it. This was supposed to be shared with a friend at his recent wedding reception, but instead it is here to be enjoyed by me today. Thanks go out again for the wonderful generosity of @Premo88. Jester King Spon '17, 3 year blend. Can't wait.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24018/341923/?ba=cavedave#review
from review- This is a beer with layers of flavor that reveal during the course of the sip. Very full flavored, It starts spicy and puckery, but quickly some very rich tones of earthy funk join in. This rich blend of woodsy flavors is joined by rotted peach, lemon limey funk, spicy grain notes, some doughy tart notes, and finally the sip ends with earthy spice winning out. Along the way I taste some vinous qualities. Complex, delicious.

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

 

Something for this bright and beautiful morning . . .




Clear light golden color with white cap and lacing.

Aroma of sweet caramel malt with floral, spicy hops.

Expecting rich malt I was greeted instead by firm, sharp, bright, floral, spicy hops which were joined mid palate by an almost honeyed caramel malt. The malt is rich but that's more than offset by the hops. Together these flavors blend well producing a very pleasing balance that holds to the finish. After the beer warms a bit the malt takes a tentative step forward yet remains firmly in step behind the advancing hops.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

Overall this is a very pleasing beer made in the Pilsner style.

 

Alrighty. A new one, and perhaps my new (recent?) fave from New Belgium. I've not really liked NB in the past, save for their Lips of Faith series, and I had started to view them as my "Dogfish head of the Rockies" (as in, didn't dig their style). But this one, I like.
NB Voodoo Ranger Black Imperial IPA (10%)
A big bold, bittersweet beer that may not be for a lot of people, but...
L - appearance hints but doesn't give away the weight, more dark brown than black
A - Things get interesting, a bit herbal (fernet?) meets nuts and hops. Good, I'm intrigued.
T - Good balance, enough hop/malt balance that it seems both IPA'ish and imperial-ish for the sweetness. Carries its alcohol well, balanced, not boozy. Sneaks up on ya.
F - Great carbonation, not overly so, but not velvety like other 10% beers - hops bite, then back off on mouthfeel.
O - again, an interesting beer but you have to be a fan of the black IPA/Cascadian dark ale style. As someone recently posted on one of these BA feeds, black IPAs can "smell weird." But I like weird, and I am weird. I'm a fan. Will review separately, after I ponder more...but somewhere in the low 4s for me.

 

Got one new beer for the day...

Maple Barrel-Aged Brigadeiro from Springdale...

This is a barrel-aged take on Brigadeiro, their oatmeal "breakfast stout" featuring coffee and lactose, named as a nod to a traditional Brazilian chocolate candy...

...and aged 27% in barrels containing maple syrup and 73% in bourbon barrels (per their website)... The bottle and their website make no mention of chocolate being used in the brewing process, but since that was part of the base beer, it is safe to assume it was used here as well... Their website lists a 9.5% abv, but the bottle reads 8.5%, so I'm assuming it's the latter not the former...

Thick-looking black pour produces a fat dark head on top that gradually settles and slims into a faint collar... Aromas of chocolate and coffee are accented lightly with maple and bourbon - vanilla and wood impressions being noted... Not overly sweet, there are mellow cocoa and espresso flavors, with light woody tannins around the edge and a bit of vanilla running through... It is like a refined, elegant candy liquified into a beer... Body is medium-weight, smooth and lightly creamy, bittersweet, with a drying char - thinner than the base beer, but not much to its detriment...

Despite the barrel-aging, I didn't enjoy this any more than the base beer - the feel was slightly less satisfying, but the maple and bourbon elements balanced the product out evenly...

Around $14 at my local bottle shop...

See ya over in WBAYDN - here's to new beer in your glass, cheers...

 

Cheers to your health and speedy recovery! I'll raise a new beer to you!

Butler Flats Lighthouse by Trillium

4.45/5 rDev +3.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Canned 10.1.18, opened 10.26.18, poured into a pint glass

Hazy orange , thick two finger frothy white foam cap, some lacings

Aroma of orange peel, apricot, pineapple

Taste of orange , hint of sweetness

Smooth mouthfeel, no hop bite,

Really good beer

 

New state Sunday!
NBS, my first brews from Wyoming! I was at the grocery yesterday and these were on the “limited arrival” spot by their growler station. I grabbed the 2x4, hesitated for a second and just then the beer guy walked by, noticiced, and said “No, you want both!” Made my day and here we are.

The nose on this is amazing. Packed with fresh hops. Tropical fruit, earthy/herbal, citrus, a touch dank. The palate is much drier, dank and earthy along with some caramel, orange peel and pine. Full-bodied, almost but not quite boozy.

This one is wetter. Tropical fruit, citrus and pine on the nose with the palate matching the adding caramel and earth/herbs on the palate. Also full-bodied with hidden booze.
Both very well made DIPAs and glad we got them this far east!

 

Poured into a 16 oz Snulip glass not sure when it was canned. Pours near pitch black with a 2 finger light brown head, that leaves thin wisps of lace behind with excellent retention for 9% ABV and poured near room temperature. 4.5

Smell pumpkin, vanilla bean, cinnamon, dark chocolate, nutmeg, and roasty coffee. 4.5

Taste follows really well balanced pumpkin stands out most, with everything in the nose lending a hand, not over the top at all. 4.5

Mouthfeel is a big medium, gentle carbonation almost creamy, not really dry, and at 9% ABV drinks way to easy! 4.5

Overall this is as good as any pumpkin beer as I have ever had, really a treat that I need to try and get more of. 4.5

 

@lordofthewiens I feel your pain as I am currently limping around with a broken toe in what was actually a beer accident. A pint of beer fell about 8 feet into my bare foot. Onto the beer. Sharing a pint with my daughter of Cinnamon + Brown Sugar from Greenport Harbor in part of their local to locals series. I poured the glass on the right first and as you can see there is a major difference in the appearance. The review is based on the right glass. Pours black with a two finger dark tan head that settles to a ring pretty quickly and left spotty lacing. There are a lot of tan floaties. Smell is rather mild with cinnamon, coffee and lightly roasted malts. Tastes of lightly roasted malts, coffee, bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder and very mild cinnamon and brown sugar flavors. Medium bodied, lightly carbonated, dry mouth feel with an astringent quality. For something brewed with cinnamon and brown sugar the very mild presence of both in the taste left me disappointed.

 

Lamplighter Oktoberfest

Happy Sunday, BAs. This morning’s new beer is my 27th different Oktoberfest of the season, and one I was surprised to see wasn’t in the system yet.

It pours a beautifully clear caramel-amber color with a thin finger of light tan head. It has decent effervescence and leavesthick rings of lacing.

Dark bread and toasted caramel malt stand out in the aroma. There’s a hint of roasted nuts behind.

The taste follows the nose. It’s malt-forward in the Marzen-substyle, but more bready, toasty and nutty than sweet. It has an almost dry finish.

The beer’s medium bodied with low carbonation and easy-drinking smoothness in the feel.

I generally don’t like this “big” of a malt profile in an Oktoberfest, especially when it approaches nutty tasting; keep everything refined, well-balanced and drinkable, not in-your-face. But for whatever reason, this is sort of working for me today. I’m enjoying it and would purchase again. 9/11/18 canned on date.

 

Having a lighter beer before heading to my six year old's birthday party, maybe I should have a couple of big beers to calm the nerves a bit before being surrounded by a bunch of crazy little ones running around.
This was from @CanConPhilly BIF box.

Pours a mostly clear golden color with two fingers of loosely formed white head.
Smells light and refreshing, grape and peach are the primary things I'm getting.
Taste follows, white grape/wine, some peach, a bit of wheat coming through.
Light bodied, well carbed, dry finish.
Overall a refreshing ale that I could see crushing during the summer months.

 

New Beer AND Brewery Sunday

Canned on 10/10 and brought to me by a generous work colleague.

4.36/5 rDev -4.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.25

Appearance: Hazy and opaque golden amber color. A big, frothy, white head that settles down but still leaves a finger as I drink. Some lacing along the edge the glass.



Smell: The aroma of this beer stands out to me. Huge aromas of citrus including grapefruit and orange, stone and tropical fruit including mango and a lot of guava. Bready/doughy.

Taste: Very much follows the nose. Tons of tropical fruit and citrus.

Mouthfeel: Very soft mouthfeel with some lingering dryness.

Overall: This is an excellent NEIPA. Super soft mouthfeel. Low bitterness. Huge nose and very nice flavor to it. You drink a lot of these beers that seem to be lacking in one aspect or another

 

New beer #2 is courtesy @FlintB ’s massive BIF attack. I believe this was in the 3rd of the 5 boxes Brian hit me with.

Apricot Nothing But the Funk - Brewery Vivant
American Wild - 7.2% abv
Vintage 2017
Score: 4.31 (+0.5% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24678/314766/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Pretty sure this is my first apricot sour. Crazy head on this one. It still hasn’t receded. Pleasingly tart, and whatever barrel this was in imparts lots of secondary flavors. So happy I have several different variants of this to try in the coming months. Thanks again Brian!

 

Those were my feelings exactly. Homestyle just kicks ass and the trim tab was good but just couldn’t measure up

 

Fat Orange Cat - All Cats Are Gray In The Dark

Aren't all cats black in the dark? Continuing with my beer mash-up theme, this is supposed to be a "white stout." Funnily enough, just like the smokey / tart blend in my previous post, a "pale stout" was a real thing in the past (when the term wasn't so exclusively linked to porter). I doubt this beer has anything in common with such beers from the past though.

On untappd, this beer is categorized as a "stout - white." I don't use untappd. Is that really a category there? On BeerAdvcoate, this is listed as an "American Stout." I can see why it would be classified as such, but if I was entering it into the database, I would put it in the "herb and spice beer" category, because that's what it tastes like to me. Having said that, I don't know what's in this beer. I guess people are OK with classifying this as a stout though.

The head and lacing are really great. It's a copper color. Should I deduct points for this not being white? Relatively clear. It tastes like an orange creamsicle without the intense sugary sweetness and some bitterness instead. I'm getting vanilla, orange peel, ginger, cocoa, and some coffee. Not at all bad. Not one I'd buy again. And not something I'd call a stout.

 

Interesting style for sure. My local brewery just put out a "blonde stout" and while I am interested to try it I am highly skeptical it will seem like a stout. Good review!

 

Yeah, I definitely liked it more than you... but I also consider it a one and done, so that's also saying something...

 

Watching the Eagles in London hopefully not blowing another game at the end. Instead of my morning [ish] cold brewed coffee I decided to have an early lunch and some coffee beers instead. First up was Harpoon Dunkin' Coffee Porter and it was just okay, glad I got a single vs. a sixer. It gets better as it warms but it's pretty muted overall and not much going on.

Now I am drinking a Flying Dog Kujo Cold Brew Coffee Porter and this is my idea of a coffee beer! If you enjoy such things and have access to it I highly recommend it.