New Beer Sunday (Week 717)

Long time, no see NBS! It's been a while. I've been playing a bit too much Red Dead Redemption 2 lately so I decided to take a bit of a "break" and write up a quick review for this fantastic pastry stout that I just picked up over the weekend!

Medovik by Kane Brewing Company (Ocean Township, NJ) and Melovino Meadery (Vauxhall, NJ) is a "Russian Honey Cake Inspired Imperial Stout", which is brewed with honey, graham cracker & lactose conditioned on cinnamon and vanilla beans.

Wow, that's a mouthful! These kind of beers tend to be just that though. Anyway, onto the review:



========

Poured from a 750ml bottle into a tulip glass. Bottle purchased directly from the brewery in Ocean Township, NJ.

A: pours a jet black color, completely opaque with a khaki-colored head, which slowly settles into a thin lacing around the glass. 4/5

S: roasted malts, a bit of sugary graham crackers and vanilla. subtle cinnamon and alcohol. 4.25/5

T: quite sweet from start to finish, but that is to be expected for an imperial stout that is evoking the flavors of medovik (russian honey cake). honey sweetness hits first, balanced out by some roasted malt bitterness, which adds a bit of coffee/chocolate/mocha character. Finishes with some vanilla bean and lactose sweetness. Cinnamon is more of an aftertaste, adding just a hint of spiciness to round it all out. a delightful beer. 4.5/5

M: full mouthfeel, somehow thinner than i was expecting for a 9% imperial stout but that is a good thing. good mouthfeel for the strength and sweetness of the beer. 4.25/5

O: this is a really decadent imperial stout. this would go great after dinner with dessert or as a brunch beer. highly recommended. 4.5/5


========

I'm debating doing another review or two if RDR2 does not come 'a callin' again. We'll see. If not, cheers everyone!!

 

Moving right along here NBS players.

My second and final new beer today is Juice Bomb, a northeastern ipa, from Sloop brewing co. It's also my first beer from this brewery. The brew checks in at 6.5% abv, a 10/16/18, canning date, and no indication of the hop profile.

A murky pour with an off-yellow/vanilla color to it. The nose is full of tropical fruits. The drinking hits hop forward upfront with all those citrus fruit notes carrying right over from the nose. A juice and creamy flow that finishes ever so subtle on the bitter. Big flavor notes of lemon, orange, lime, melon, and grapefruit. The mouth feel is moderate and yes juicy but also with a nice sort of creamy feel to it too. This is really easy to drink and packed with flavor.

Overall, a pretty nice beer. Very much in the nesipa category but it really delivers for that style. I'm again in the low 4's here players.

 

Cool glass.

 

I agree with you here!

My two favorite craft brewed Hefeweizens are the ones from Live Oak and Straubs.

Cheers!

 

I have two 12oz cans of Happoshu that I'm not going to drink.

 

Thank you to @thebeers for this very tasty Trillium brew, Butler Flats Lighthouse DIPA!

4.38/5 rDev +1.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Thank you thebeers for this
16 oz can, dated 10/1/18, poured into a tulip

A- A hazy golden orange with a two finger white head

S- Tropical fruits, some mango, dank, citrus.

T- Mango, melons, tropical fruits, citrus, piney, some resin, a little dank.

M- Smooth, medium body, slightly creamy.

O- A very nice and easy to drink DIPA. Another great IPA from Trillium.

Cheers!

 

Hell yeah! I love single hop beers!

Dammit.

Sounds good though. Thanks for your notes. Aside from a few disappointing beers when Decadent first came to Missouri, I've been pretty impressed with their stuff.

 

New Porter Sunday

I've had this beer a couple times in the past with a less than clear mindset. This, right now, is the first time I sat down with it, and my thoughts.

Scary, my thoughts.

Porters are up there in my favorite styles. I like them all but prefer the big, chewier ones. This guy fits the bill.

Transient - Henry



Henry is a dapper looking dandy. It's as dark as you'll get out of a porter, nearly black, and sucking up the light. The pour produces a cascade effect with the mocha tinted head. The foam is dense, settling to a thick one finger cap of pure silk. It leaves behind chunky sheet lacing on the way down. A beer doesn't get a whole lot better looking than this guy. (4.5)

The nose is as rich and decadent as the looks. There's a solid dose of roast off the bat and when combined with the bittersweet chocolate that's present provides a nice bitterness. Macerated blackberries brings a touch of sweet and fruit while a whisper of strong, black coffee runs the edges. A sturdy pine driven hoppiness cleans it all up. This is a stout porter. It brings about the depth. This falls in line with the Founder's porters of the world as opposed to the Eddy Fitz's. Big and bold. (4.25)

Moderate roast and that bittersweet chocolate get things moving again while an abundance of pine wraps itself around the entirety. Those macerated blackberries add a flash of sweetness in the middle that's quickly overtaken by the assertive roast and pine bitterness. Some strong coffee here, some char there. A touch of lime peel adds some brightness, from the hop profile. This is a punch in the mouth of a porter. (4.25)

The body is as plush and luxurious as you would expect. It's a couple notches about moderate in weight with a soft, slow moving carbonation that keeps this beer lingering. The roast and pine bitterness grows with each drink and eventually becomes a little taxing toward the end of 16 ounces. Even though that bitterness builds it's still a fairly easy beer to put away. (4)

Henry is a big, bold, badass porter. It shows off a ton of depth. It's nuanced like a sledgehammer. It's good to see this beer canned and will be in my fridge from time to time as it's released. (4.25)

4.24/5 rDev +2.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

 

New beer #7. @JBowenGeorgia I think you gave this to me during your trip? I hope so, since I don’t remember buying this...

D2H3 Hallertau Blanc - Tired Hands
APA - 5% abv
Canned 10/24/18 (25 days ago)
Score: 4 (-2.2% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28383/379215/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
Not the best Tired Hands single hop, but not the worst either. Mosaic and Galaxy blow this away. I get a lot of vegetal flavors from Hallertau, so not my favorite. But the veggies are mellow, and there’s still enough citrus here to make this worthwhile.

 

Other Half All Citra Everything

Next new beer this Sunday comes courtesy of the generous @CanConPhilly.

It pours a cloudy pale yellow with two-and-a-half fingers of near-white head that seems airy from the side of the glass, but dense and foamy from the top. There’s lots of sloppy, soapy lacing.

Orange flesh, grapefruit and weedy dankness, with some green onion and cat piss, stand out in the aroma. I like it!

Orange citrus shows up front in the taste, again with some weedy, jungley, oniony qualities to it, which prevent it from seeming too sweet — although a little orange juice sweetness does build in the aftertaste.

It has a medium-bodied, slick mouthfeel with modest carbonation.

Another very solid NEIPA from Other Half. Thanks, Matt.

 

My next, and probably last, new beer for this Sunday is Luscious from the Alchemist. I’m pretty sure this beer made its way to me from @FlintB in the ninja stout box he destroyed my porch with in the rookies BIF.



The beer pours a beautiful slick black color with a billowing head of mocha colored foam which hangs around forever. The aroma is smoke, chocolate, burnt sugar, toasty malts, and some hop bitterness. Taste is an elegant mix of all the flavors in the nose, finishing with just a slight hop bitterness, kind of like a yeti, which yields to a sweet finish of chocolate and roasty malts. So after it warms the taste starts with bitter dark chocolate then melds to burnt, smoky sugars, then hops, then sweet chocolate and roasty malts. Mouthfeel is full, sick, teetering on the edge of chewy. Overall this is great. I’m being spoiled with my beer choices today. Thanks Brian!

 

New BA Old Ale Sunday (Week 717)
Greetings fellow NBSers from on the ridge in Mid Hud Val, NY. Well, my longggg driveway is clear. Def. miss having the help of my two boys, who now are men, especially for a big dump of wet snow. Funny it started as dry and fluffy, but as it started really dumping it got warm enough to drop ice and rain mixed in with it. Oh, joy. I would rather shovel four feet of fluffy snow than one foot of wet snow.

Ready for a beer, and this is one that comes highly recommended by beer drinkers I trust more than any others, you all. It has warmed a bit as I wrote this, which is good as it was definitely too cold to give a good show of aroma, but now its bouquet is sneaking from the glass and finding my nose.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/77260/?ba=cavedave#review

Synopsis: Very well done beer. If you are expecting a barrel bomb, a maple bomb, or a booze bomb you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a complex and delicious old ale with barrel character, thick body, light hints of maple, and an amazing drinkability, this is your jam.

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

 

Happy Sunday, New Beer Samplers and commentators. Thanksgiving Week is one of my favorite times of the year and it's exciting to spend the first holiday in our new "downsized" house. Our son arrived from North Carolina this afternoon bearing some home brewed coffee porter that we'll sample later this week. Our daughter will arrive on Wednesday. We'll have company for dinner on Thanksgiving and our traditional Black Friday bottle share to which I always look forward. The kids and I will probably hit a local brewery or two before they return to NC.

Today, I'm drinking Lawson's Hopzilla, a DIPA I received from @jhavs in a ninja box associated with the NBS BIF. All the Lawson's IPAs have been outstanding and Hopzilla is no exception. It's danker than the others with big, bold, tropical fruit flavors and a solid sweet malt base. It's fresh and really, really good. Thanks, Jon! Here's my full review:

4.35/5 rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

I received a can from the generous @jhavs. Canned on 10/16/2018 and poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass. It pours a slightly cloudy, pretty honey-amber color with two full fingers of long-lasting fluffy, bright white head and copious lacing. It's a very attractive pour. On the nose there is sweet malt, mango, orange, lemon, resinous pine, and light floral hops. It's very dank and opens with a solid base of sweet bready malt, along with sweet tropical fruit and citrus: mango, orange, and lemon. The sweetness is balanced by dank onion and a blast of bitter, fairly biting, Summit, Amarillo, Centennial, and Cascadian hops. The tastes blend and balance each other very nicely. This ale has a rich, viscous, creamy mouth feel with moderate carbonation, and the 8.7% ABV gives it nice substance. Overall, this is a tremendous DIPA with big, bold flavors and a superb mouth feel. It's not quite as bitter as its name implies but it's super flavorful and enjoyable to drink.

I hope you're all enjoying your new beer(s) today as much as I am. As always, the reviews are a highlight of my week. Cheers, all!

 

Poured into a 13 oz Teku glass canned on 11/08/18. Pours a very attractive hazy yellow, with a finger and a half of white head, that leaves tiny little bubbles of lace as it slowly settles.4.25

Smell is papaya, guava, passionfruit, pineapple, and a little grapefruit rind. 4

Taste follows tropical front to back, a little bitterness in the back end but papaya and guava are most dominant. 4

Mouthfeel is bigger than medium, soft on the palate, not dry but a tad sticky, and goes down easy at 8.2%. 4.25

Overall this is excellent, but Foam is so good that I actually was expecting more. 4

 

Kent Falls does one called Anachronism, although they may take a bit of liberties by crossing over into the farmhouse realm as well. I reviewed it on New Beer Sunday (Week 682) and loved it.

 

I think either yourself or @thisischuck01 bought the four pack. I traded the Into the Big Wide Canyon With Jerry for the can I brought back with whomever bought them.

 

Que the Beatles (paraphrasing), “He’s leaving home, after living at home, for 22 years...he’s leaving home...bye, bye.” Jr. Z is moving out the end of this month to live with some grad school buddies. He and I spent this morning unloading my U-Haul trailer into storage, then taking a load of furniture to his new house...bittersweet...beer me.

Melvin IPA, Melvin Brewing, Alpine WY. I see my BA bar mates from west of the Mississippi post this beer all the time, and now it has made distro to FL and I did not hesitate to grab a six pack.

Pours a deep gold, clear liquid with a ton of suspended particles; huge fluffy off white foam with an admittedly aggressive pour leaves a long lasting cap, and heavy lacing. 4.5



Pine cones, grapefruit and lemongrass nose. 4.0



Bitter pine, grapefruit, and lemongrass hops; semi sweet malt base; earthy hop flavors in the finish. 4.25

Medium lite body, moderate carbonation; lite sticky feel. 4.25

Overall, a very tasty IPA (canned 10/15/18); there is a dry earthy hop linger; the malt sweetness balanced the hop bitterness well and I want to drink more as I like the clean, easy body/light sticky feel. 4.25

I will gladly buy/imbibe more as a good counterpoint to my citrusy Jai Alai addiction. Both are 7.5% and fit well in my wheelhouse of balcony beer consumption. Cheers friends!

 

Hey, NBS, happy Sunday. Hope my fellow Americans have a nice holiday this week. I'm excited today to be trying something new in my favorite style.



STS Pils, brewed by Russian River. Bottled 10/21, 5.35%.

Typical pour produces an overabundant head of frothy white foam. I have to wait several minutes for it to die down enough to fit the remainder of the bottle into the glass. Bright gold in color, leaves average lacing.

Smells of fresh grassy hay. Taste follows along the same lines, with strong Nobel hop spice and a white toasty bread backbone. The flavor is overall quite clean, with a slightly heavier yeastiness than most pils. Refreshing, and it pairs well with food.

It's a touch on the watery side, and the high carbonation dies out before I'm done with the glass. Should I ever have it again, I'll pour more carefully.

Overall, a decent pils, but overly expensive for what it is.

Cheers!

 

Good afternoon. Giants won and I have a ridiculous schedule next week. Work everyday including 8am to close on Thanksgiving and another double on Saturday. Im not happy about it.
Agree on the group tasting- that would be cool.
Had the opportunity to get my hands on some Beer'd- pretty happy about that.
First off:
One Thing Led to Another DDH IPA with Citra, Mosaic and yes! Idaho7.
Pours a beautiful golden hue with a nice foam cap that winds down and leaves some decent lacing. Clarity is really nice. A beautiful looking brew.
Aroma is awesome! Lots of dank with pineapple, papaya, tangerine, peach, grapefruit, mary jane floral notes, grassiness and pine.
Big mouth filling flavor of tropicals, lots of fresh cut orange, bitter grapefruit and pine resin rounded out by a soft malt base. This is really good.
Feel is pleasantly crisp and clean with a medium to light drinking body. The carbonation is snappy and consistent throughout and lets all these flavors sing across your tongue with no heaviness. No alcohol shows at all.
My first brew from Beer'd and I am seriously digging this. This beer has the whole package- the clarity, aroma and taste make me want to drink this all day.....and it does go down quick for 7%. I have 3 more from Beer'd and I am excited to try them. The "anti-NEIPA". All the flavors and no haze. Love it. Idaho 7 is really on my radar as well.
Will be making a trip to Stonington soon.