New Beer Sunday (Week 715)

While on a business trip[ last week, my hosts took me to Founders brewery in Grand Rapids. Started talking about beers, styles, favorites. We agreed that a trade was in order. I sent some Trillium, Other Half and treehouse to my Michigan hosts. They responded with a care package which included M-43 from Old Nation. My review is below

4.5/5 rDev +1.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Canned on 10.5.18, poured on 11.3.18
16 oz can poured into a teku glass
Hazy orange yellow liquid, two finger white foam , solid lacings, recedes in 5 minutes to a solid white foam layer
Aroma of mango, pineapple, grapefruit, whiff of peppery spice
Mango and pineapple on the taste
Hop taste, no bite, lingers across the tongue
Good beer, repeatable

 

Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass with a solid finger of light brown head that leaves plenty of thin wisps of lace behind as it slowly settles into a thin layer of khaki bubbles. 4.75

Smell is vanilla bean, cocoa nibs, toffee, maybe a hint of maple, a hint of cinnamon, and a healthy shot of dry strong coffee. 4.5

Taste follows vanilla, coffee, and cinnamon start with some cocoa, toffee, and maple thrown in. 4.5

Mouthfeel is a big medium, moderate gentle carbonation, maybe a little dry, and at 8.2% ABV so amazingly approachable. 4.75

Overall another amazing stout from Definitive, you are probably my favorite Maine Brewery with world class Stouts and IPAs! 4.5

 

This is my first NBS so please be gentle...

Beer: Big Shanty Graham Cracker Stout by Burnt Hickory Brewing in Kennesaw, GA. I don't recall the age off the top of my head and didn't write it down but this was recent; no more than a couple months old

Look: A dark beer but not as jet black as most of the stouts I am used to drinking. No light passes through the beer but as you swirl the beer in the cup it seems more dark brown than black in places. Good lacing and around a 1/4inch of head.

Aroma: I really like the smell of this beer. I am getting chocolate, graham crackers, slight spices (mostly nutmeg and cinnamon I think). Maybe a bit of caramel and vanilla as well.

Flavor: Flavor follows the aroma for the most part. Chocolate malts, graham cracker and a tiny bit of spices, and caramel. There is a nice complexity going on here I have a hard time describing but I really enjoy this. Delicious!

Mouthfeel: Medium carbonation, medium thickness. It isn't a thin beer by any stretch of the imagination but it isn't super chewy like some other stouts are.

Overall: This was a pleasant beer to drink and I really enjoyed it. This would be the perfect base beer to spend some time in bourbon barrels.

My Score:
4.34/5 rDev +3.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28606/80646/

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Thanks for that. I'd heard of this beer before from others who had similar reports.

 

Good morning New BSers! Thanks, @cjgiant, for starting today's thread.
Well, it's yet another rainy/cloudy/chilly day here in NW PA, the same as my last few days in Bamberg. There are entirely too many leaves still on the trees - we need a hard frost and a few dry days so I can rake leaves and burn off the garden, along with all the branches I've accumulated over the entirely-too-short summer.

Today's New Beer is:



For me, this is one of those mythical beers I've heard about but never thought I'd see, let alone taste.

Received from @Bum4ever in NBS BIF #8. Cork & cage 12.7 oz bottle. Blend # 55, season 16/17, bottled 30 Oct 17, BB 26 Oct 37. Opens with a resounding “POP” and an initial burst of thiols. Reviewed 11/4/18.
Stored at 42 degrees and served at 45 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 50 degrees.
Appearance – 4.25.
Body – Light amber, slight (non-chill) haze.
Head – Large (Maximum 4.3 cm, controlled center pour), off-white, medium density, fizzy, rapidly gone leaving a two mm ring and no layer.
Lacing – None.
First pour – Light yellow, clear.
Aroma – 4 – After the initial burst of what smelled suspiciously like butanethiol, the nose shifts to more gentle aromas of organic acids and vague fruity esters.
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins very dry with organic acids, predominantly acetic but there seems to be a hint of tannic as well. Unfortunately, this is over quickly, leaving only faint stomach burn, ambiguous in source since the alcohol level is too low to cause it and the pH of the stomach is too low to be affected by the pH of the brew. No alcohol (6.5% ABV), no malt, no hops, no diacetyl, no dimethylsulfide.
Palate – 4 – Light, watery, lively carbonation.
Impression and interpretation – 4.5 – An excellent lambic, a real treat for my taste buds.
Rating 4.32, rDev -1.8%.

Thanks Josh! I really enjoyed this one!

 

It's new, it's Sunday, what else would I be doing . . .




Rich hazy gold color with white cap.

Intense aroma of floral, citrusy hops with grapefruit and orange flowers.

Bright hop flavors bringing out grapefruit, orange zest, then something richer like ripe honeydew melon without the melon sweetness. Hops are sharp enough to offset these flavors without intruding. Just before the finish hops show more bitterness but not unpleasantly so.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

I get the hazy, forward hop without bitterness taste profile. I even see why people like the style, so much in fact that copycats abound. I can't say whether this one is purebred or a feral cousin but it is a flavorful, complex, balanced brew that's a joy to drink.

 

New Beer Sunday: American Pale Ale (APA)

Mornin’ NBSers with an alert for wet hop beer lovers. Also a special thanks to @cjgiant for the start today.

The weather here today is supposed to be pretty nice, for November. Mostly sunny with temperatures in the mid 50s.

This morning’s new beer is the Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale and is an APA that uses Colorado grown ingredients (at least the malt and the hops, if not the yeast ).

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

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/158/26233/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas and flavors here are focused on the hops with their clean, fresh grapefruit zest with some grassy and flowery character. The malt and it’s sweetness stay way in the background and recede more quickly than the bitterness which moves towards the back of the palate and slowly disappears in a dry ending. An enjoyable APA worth having again.

Cheers, all!

 

Happy Birthday to…

In this case the Happy Birthday is to some Cool Dude named Mike Lorenz. I personally do not know Mike Lorenz but some person(s) at Tired Hands do (the owner Jean Broillet?). From a web search I discovered that Mike is a jazz guitarist who hails from Bethlehem, PA.

The beer is branded Happy Birthday Mike Lorenz and on the bottom of the can is the message “Love U Jazz Man”.

On the can label it details: “All the Cool Hops IPA”. As a homebrewer I have my thoughts about what are the ‘cool hops’ but I wonder what the folks at Tired Hands think here. Well, from the BA posted description for this beer:

“Notes / Commercial Description:

Brewed with fluffy malted oats and raw white wheat, hopped and dry-hopped intensely with all the Cool Dude (just like Mike) hops...Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe! Bright notes of Mandarin orange, Mango lassi, lemon custard, blueberry preserves and ruby red grapefruit.”

Well there you go! The ‘cool hops’ are: Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe! I am a BIG fan of four of those hops; Nelson Sauvin is not so cool for my palate since it would seem I am not a fan of gooseberry flavors. Still 4 out of 5 is pretty darn good IMO.

Mike, I have no idea when your birthday occurred but Happy Birthday to you!

Served in my Gulden Draak tulip glass:

Appearance:

Pours a hazy yellow with a BIG fluffy white head.

Aroma:

Wow! There are lots of tropical fruits and some citrus as well.

Taste:

Wow! There are lots of different flavors here. Yup, tropical fruits and citrus to follow the nose but there is more…a bit of herbal, a tiny bit of earthy and even some dank in the background.

Mouthfeel:

A nice soft/creamy body with a strong aspect of ‘juicy’ accompanied by an off-dry finish.

Overall:

In one word: EXCELLENT! There are a lot of flavors here which work extremely well together.

This is absolutely the best Birthday Beer I have ever had!

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @mythaeus @RobH @Hoppsbabo @chipawayboy @SFACRKnight

P.S. There are sketches of the face of Mike Lorenz on the can label but unfortunately they got ‘washed out’ but the flash during the photograph

 

Nice review and welcome to NBS
Cheers

 

Good morning NBS and thanks to @cjgiant for the kick off today, This is the clock shift that messes the most with me, to compound that, tonight we are going to see Thurston Moore and his band for a late show, tomorrow will be a slow start!
Today's offering is from the Alchemist, a bitter, slightly roasty stout. hops are strong with this one, that said a fine brew that needs some roasted meat to go with it.
Cheers all

Beelzebub

The Alchemist Brewery and Visitors Center
American Imperial Stout / 8.00% ABV

3.9/5 rDev -6% | Score: 4.15
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a 16 oz can purchased 2 days ago at the brewery, into the test glass
A - Chalkboard colored backdrop, easily conceals the active carbonation. A loose knit froth of mocha covers the surface.
S - Floral nose from that Citra dry hopping, notes of roast malts, bakers chocolate, broad leaf tobacco, are in the mix.
T - Pine , mixed with cocoa, a bit of smoke, hints of coffee, molasses as well.
M - Starts out a touch sweet, then a bulldozer of bitterness muscles its way across the palate, linger is resinous, and pine driven. That's a bold feel , muscular. The body is medium to heavy , not slick and very dry in the finish.
O - I understand where prior reviews ponder why this is not a black IPA, the feel keeps this in the stout camp for me. The hop element is consistent with the Alchemist lure for sure. A big Stout as advertised.

 

Happy New @jkblr Beer Box Sunday (Week 715)!

Much like @cjgiant , I have mostly stopped trading since a) I have plenty to drink as it is & b) it has become impossible to keep up with all of the CANned beer releases. That said, several/many Sundays ago, @jkblr checked in one that just sounded so good that I felt CANpelled to reach out. This must have been late-August since he wanted Oktoberfests & strangely enough, they were VERY slow to appear this year. I finally amassed enough of them, plus a Crowler from my CKW2G gig, to leave me proud of my acCANplishments & so I shipped. We had agreed that I would ship first since he was cherry & wanted to dissect my box for clues & ideas. His showed up this week & I was flabbergasted by some of the CANtents!

I may not get to all/many of them since I have to bug out in ~ 1.5 hours for my shift & then, I am heading to the Greek Annunciation Orthodox Church for their annual Food Fest. The latter is in its 60th year & I have been going for as long as I can remember. I missed some between the Navy & being a student at Pitt, but in 1989, I showed up in dress blues before getting on a plane to NORVA.

I was not much of a Daredevil fan as a kid since I only liked the early Wally Wood issues, but when Bill Sienkiewicz took over in the early-1980s, they became very adult in nature. I … DDBC? NOT Marvel's DD?!? Never mind! 8=(

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30626/199278/?ba=woodychandler#review


I just got notification that my presence is not required today. So be it!

 

Glad you made it back safe and sound, from the looks of the pictures you had a great time.

 

That was a great first-time review. Hope you enjoyed yourself and will be back again!

 

Citra is the coolest of the cool...

 

Thanks to @cjgiant for the great start to NBS this week. Should be back with a new brew later on.

Cheers!

 

Flying dog kujo
..very dark brown almost black color
. Just above Medium body with medium light carbonation
..aroma is malt,espresso, fresh black coffee,roasted malts and coffee beans
...taste comes off as black coffee first followed by a nice mix of malts and espresso
...overall it seemed a little rough if that makes any sense but still a very flavorful enjoyable beer