New Beer Sunday (Week 714)

Unfortunately I was working at the house and got tangled up with a Milwaukee Hole Hawg. They are nasty torque monster drills. I’ve used them for a long time and this is the first time I’ve had one try to rip my fingers off.

Honestly I was just tired and lacking in judgement. Drill bit got stuck and I tried pulling the bit out while spinning it. My glove bound up around the shaft while it was spinning and that was all she wrote.

I will say though that the pain of resetting my finger was worse than the accident....My God it was awful.

 

Lots of Fantome this week.... I've been assembling some various shelf 'turds' that tend to linger around here. All of them will tick various new styles for me or beers on the "Beers of Fame" list. You all are making me eager for that tasting....

 

New beer #8. My last one until next weekend. Thanks @FlintB !

Your Mom on French Toast - Pigeon Hill
Imperial Stout - 11.5% abv
Score: 4.2 (-1.4% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34314/192078/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Does this ever taste like french toast with syrup. Wonderful nose, but body doesn’t live up to the smell and taste. Still, this is a delight to finally try.

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. And thank you, @lordofthewiens for hosting today. I'm glad you're on the mend. When I was a boy, breaking an arm seemed to be a regular occurrence for me. I did it three times. It's a terrible experience and I hope you're fully-recovered soon.

My first review today is Elephant Boss, an Imperial New England IPA brewed collaboratively by Newburgh Brewing Company and Rushing Duck. These brewers collaborated last year on a phenomenal BA Stout blend called Greetings from Duckburgh. This offering is a combination of Rushing Duck's War Elephant DIPA and Newburgh's Giga Boss. It was canned on 10/25 so it's only three days' old. It's very, very good with both tart and sweet citrus and just a hint of lactose. It's single-hopped with Galaxy and surprisingly delicate. Despite its 8.5% ABV the first can went down very fast! Here's my full review:

4.36/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Canned on 10/25/2018. Reviewed three days after canning. Poured into Rushing Duck Belgian glass. It pours an opaque golden-tangerine color with a foamy, bright-white cap and long-lasting creamy lacing. The aroma bursts from the can when popped: lemon, tangerine, grapefruit, pine needles, and floral hops. The taste is sensational! It opens with a combination of tart lemon and grapefruit and sweeter tangerine. There is also just a hint of lactose/vanilla at mid-sip. The heavy dose of Galaxy hops provides lots of additional flavor with the same bitter finish as War Elephant. As the glass warms there is a bitter of pepper in the after taste. This ale is well-carbonated and easy to drink despite its 8.5% ABV. Overall, this is a delicious Imperial New England IPA. The fruit and hops are well-balanced and the mouth feel is exceptional.

I hope everyone is enjoying his/her new beer(s) today. As always, I'm really enjoying your reviews.

 

Even if you liked the Schlenkerla better, I'm still quite jealous looking at your Spezial picture. Prost.

 

Back into more hops and then I'll be out for a short run with my roommate. This is a brewery I've been longing to try since I first joined this board, and @jhavs made that very thing possible this past week. Cheers to good people and good beer.



Hill Farmstead's Society & Solitude #7.

Pours an orange with a transparency that strikes a good balance between dark and murky, and white-opaque. Head formation is a finger and a half after an easy pour. Head foam is dense in formation, and white in color with good retention. Aroma is big notes of papaya, mango, pineapple, and guava in a tropical fruit blend. It comes off natural, which is great. Light wheat and doughy bread malt notes linger behind, while allowing the hops to play in the sunlight. Flavor profile is mango, papaya, pineapple, guava, and a little melon rind. The tropical fruit smoothie from the aroma was just doubled in concentration. Despite big tropical fruit notes, none come off as fragile or artificial. Thick doughy bread and wheat malts form a solid foundation, although the balance tips cleanly towards hops. Mouth feel is light velvety and finishes with a touch of grainy, bordering on a chalky, texture. It has a medium-thick consistency bolstering the presence of each sip. Overall, just superb. Every bit as good and notable as the big-name 16oz NE IPA canners in the Northeast.

Score: 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.5 | 4.75 | BA Score: 4.65 | rDev: +6.4%

Personal story: I was spending time with family yesterday and for the first time, I got my dad to say he enjoyed an IPA, without any prying or trickery on my part ("hey, try this" while hiding the 'IPA' text on the can). It was Crane's Guava Milkshake, a beer I recently reviewed and enjoyed (in fact, I had it on tap with him again). Sure, it uses lactose to bolster mouth feel and sweeten it up, but it was the first time I got him to openly admit an IPA was 'good'. I'll take my points where I can get them. Perhaps the milkshake IPAs aren't that bad after all. Although I don't see him abandoning his English Dark Milds for Milkshake IPAs anytime soon.

 

Finally home from work and breaking into this one for NBS beer #1



Light

The Alchemist Brewery and Visitors Center
German Pilsner / 5.50% ABV

4.21/5 rDev -1.6% | Score: 4.28
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

L-The beer pours a clear straw with a 3 finger white head. The head recedes to a thin film with central island. Legs of lacing are strewn around the glass.
S-The nose is strong on yeast phenols and straw. A bit of grassy hops round out a classic pilsner.
T-Taste up front is bready pilsner malt followed by a medium grassy hop presence. No DMS that I can detect.
F-Mouthfeel overall is on the lighter side of medium. Carbonation is likewise on the lighter side of medium.
O-A really well executed lager from a brewery known for their ales. Executed almost flawlessly aside from being lower side of the bitterness scale. If you like Pilsners, you'll love this one. Recommended

 

I love the can art!

 

Good evening NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Nothing new for me one again. The recent BIFs have been keeping me busy on reviews, but thankfully was able to get some more new things yesterday locally. Shaved off my head this morning because it was getting thick and annoying again. Rather be bald honestly.

Beer:

New brewery locally. This was fantastic! Solid head retention/minimal lacing. Aromas and flavors of huge sour/tart/tangy passion fruit, mango, melon, fruit skin, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, peach, apricot, pear, pineapple, green apple, berries, white wine, hay, straw, and grass; with moderate wheat, white bread malt balance; light pepper/lacto funk, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tart/sourness, fruit tang, and light spiciness on the finish. Medium carbonation, light-medium body, and fairly crisp finishing. Balanced creamy/grainy wheat, lactic acid, fruit tang, and light tannins in the mouthfeel. Light-moderate increasing acidic/tangy dryness, minimal puckering sourness. Very smooth, pretty refreshing, 5.6%. Reminds me of the the Mikkeller SD Passion Pool a ton. Extremely juicy/jammy fruit and balanced Lacto complexity; with a solid pale/wheat malt backbone against acidity. Would definitely buy again. Amazing style example. 4.2


Milkshake NEIPA. This was fantastic! Great head retention/lacing on the glass. Aromas and flavors of huge juicy peaches, pineapple, apricot, fruit skin, grapefruit, orange juice, lemon, passion fruit, mango, melon, berries, citrus peel/zest, and light pepper/pine hops; with moderate vanilla, cream, wheat, cracker, biscuit dough malt balance; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Mild pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, grassy, spicy bitterness; and fruit tang/tartness on the finish. Medium carbonation/body. Creamy, silky, grainy wheat/lactose; light sticky hops and fruit tang in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering bitter dryness. Very smooth/soft, 6%. Feels like a lot of Simcoe. Extremely juicy hops/fruit, with light dankness; balanced lactose and wheat/oat/malt backbone. Not overly sweet sweet from lingering dryness. They nailed the style as expected. Will get the new ones as they keep coming in. 4.2


Cheers

 

Shorts pan galactic gargle blaster. It's a Belgian style dipa. Has Belgian phenols, some spicy piney dry hops. Nice amber color. I'm not a huge Belgian guy, but a single of this isn't bad. Shorts always keeps it interesting and usually it doesn't work for me. This one strangely does.

 

I kind of feel bad liking all these injury posts. I'm also amazed at how many injures seem to be caused by dogs on leash. It seems fairly common. I've never regularly walked big dogs, so I had no idea.

 

Holy shit! Truth

 

Those do have serious torque. Caught a few bruises myself on this tools. Milwaukee makes great tools though.

 

Back with my 2nd NB.
Jenny Said, Single Cut.


4.02 rDev -0.5%
Poured from an undated can to a Nonic glass.
Orange gold, mild carbonation visible in body, quick fad on a reasonable head, some lacing.
Pineapple, pepper and over-ripe apple dominate the aroma.
Front end is same as aroma, fades to a rather sweet, alcohol finish.
Kind of syrupy, but the carbonation ipushes the alcohol effect at the end.
Good flavor is kind of spoiled by the alcohol finish (IMO).

You know, her life was saved by rock 'n' roll.

 

I wouldn’t use any others ....!

 

Good afternoon NBS and thanks @lordofthewiens for the start. I also suffered and ankle incident on Christmas Eve last year, rolled it out, turned it around and fractured the ankle in 3 places and the Tibia a few inches up. I was most struck at the importance of this part of the body for balance, I climb for work and for fun. It has been a long year.
Mend quickly,
Today's offering is from our dear friends at Brick and Feather in Turners Falls Ma. They are celebrating year number 3 in business and I value deeply the breath of the offerings they do so very well. That said I love this new release of an English Mild Ale. At 4%, full of flavor and feels great on the palate.
Cheers to Lawrence and his team.

A Small Group Of Reasonable People

Brick & Feather Brewery
English Pale Mild Ale / 4.00% ABV

4.19/5 rDev 0% | Score: 4.19
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured from a can dated 1/23/18 into the pint glass
A - Mahogany colored, nice clarity , steady carbonation rises to feed a resilient off white cap.
S - Earthy hops supported by delightful light roast grains, some walnut, and the slightest hint of cocoa powder
T - Dark wheat toast, just a touch of brown sugar and light molasses, autumnal in many aspects
M - Medium in body, well carbonated, start is semi sweet, then a quick shift to a dryer feel, the balance of hop bite and malts is near perfect.
O - What a delight to enjoy, enough heft in the body, flavors abound focused on a lightly roast malt profile, the hop use is well played. All in all a real treat of a beer from Brick and Feather.

 

My big Treeing Walker **** Hound Otis (a hybrid of English Foxhounds) is a wonderfully sweet and gentle dog. But he is very strong and has unbelievable four leg torque. He's like a horse or a goat in many ways and sometimes gets spooked. He's amazed by shadows, jets, and celestial things that I can only imagine. The full moon is a clarion call to his soul. He is a very cool animal.

 

Good afternoon, all, and Happy New Dessert Beer Sunday! I recently picked up a bottle of Frank's Sweet Ginger Rajili Hot Sauce. I opened it to taste it, then stuck it in the fridge and promptly forgot about it. As I was whipping up a batch of game-day wings this afternoon, I found the sauce and mixed it with some original Frank's to toss with the (oven-fried) wings. In a word, delicious. No sides, thank you, just the chicken for me:



Now it's time for a dessert beer: Southern Tier Crème Brûlée. I saw floor displays of this at several bottle shops while I was on vacation, but oddly enough no one had the prices on them. One day I just decided to grab one, damn the consequences. It was almost $20 for the four-pack. I figured at that price it ought to be pretty good, right? Well, guess what? It is. I knew it as soon as I popped the cap and aromas of caramel and vanilla seemed to fill the kitchen. Deep dark brown in color, with highlights of caramel-sauce hue and a modest tan head that left some spotty lacing. This has an aroma that I could never get tired of. (Yankee Candle, take a memo.) The caramel and vanilla are prominent on the palate as well, with some roasty bitterness and a little sweetness lingering on the aftertaste. This didn't seem to me to be overly sweet, and certainly not cloying. In addition, there doesn't seem to be much alcohol warmth for such a big beer. Dangerously deceptive and decadent. I'll leave it at that.



Review pending.