New Beer Sunday (Week 718)

I really enjoy these late night starts. More of a night owl when it comes to drinking beer. But, I hope to be back here again later this morning with something else new.

Truly New Beer Sunday, as I just added this beer to the database as an American Wild Ale. It’s also my first beer from Carolina Bauernhaus. Brought this one home with me from a business trip to Atlanta. Have another beer of theirs in the fridge for NBS “tomorrow,” hopefully.

Thanks for the late night kickoff @lordofthewiens

Carolina Bauernhaus

Evening Vent

Wild India Pale Ale with Peaches





Appearance: This beer pours an opaque golden amber color and retains a quarter finger bone white head. It’s dirty. Tons of sediment. Although, I did not pour carefully. No visible carbonation. Overall, and sediment aside, the color of the beer is attractive and mimics many New England IPA or Hoppy Sour Ales that I’ve had before. As I approach the end of the bottle and dump the remaining contents in my glass, I get a murky, sludge-like, gray, liquid.

Smell: The aroma on this beer is an absolute delightful. A combination of citrusy grapefruit and piney hops, with a definitive juicy and tart fresh peach juice aroma. These bright tropical and stone fruit aromas are complemented by a saison-like spiciness and earthy, barnyard, plastic Brett aroma. As the beer warms it takes on a pleasant grainy, wheat-like, crackery aroma. You have to dig deep for the barnyard. It’s an undertone. Let me elaborate on the “barnyard” and note that this beer has a mild aroma of manure. Horse manure’s not that bad. I don’t even mind the word “manure.” Ya know it’s “newer,” which is good and a “ma” in front of it. The combo of the acidic, spicy and earthy notes are my favorite in a wild ale. I could bury my nose in this glass forever.

Taste: Upfront this beer has a prominent fresh, sweet peach juice flavor. Peach gummy ring. From there on out it’s strange. At first I want to say it’s a bad thing. I feel like the beer dries out at the speed of light. A phenomenon on my palate that detracts from the drinking experience. But after sipping on this for a long time I think it could just be a new flavor that I cannot pinpoint. It reminds me of that dry, powdery flavor that you get from a mango sometimes. Similar to fresh papaya as well. Like the flavor of some tropical fruit with which I’m unfamiliar. Is it OK for me to be inconclusive here? This is one case where I really wish there were other reviews that could perhaps provide some insight into my experience. As I approach the end of the bottle, dumping the remaining contents into my glass, the beer takes on a more acidic flavor. It doesn’t pop for me. It’s a bit dense and heavy with the tropical fruit sweetness.

Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel is super soft. No bitterness. No lactic acidity that would ordinarily hit you in the jowls. Super low carbonation. It feels like they tried to make a New England IPA mouthfeel. I wish the beer, as a fruited Wild ale, had more of an effervescent mouthfeel. Not loving this aspect. Also getting a subtle tingle in my throat, which I assume is from the yeast.

Overall: Here’s my impression of this beer. Amazing aroma. Great appearance. Flavor is perplexing and mouthfeel falls flat,
literally and figuratively. This beer drinks like they tried to brew something that looks and feels like a hazy/juicy/opaque New England IPA, but then overlayed some funky Brett notes without cohesion. I don’t really know what to say about this one. It just falls flat for me. Definitely one of those experiences where I wish I knew, despite the lengthy description on the label, what the brewer intended. Most times we’re rating without that information, especially when trying a brewery for the first time, but I’ve got to rate this against other Wild IPA’s/Sour IPA’s etc and I’m just being honest about the way I feel. Still perplexed and unsatisfied with my review, but I’ve been at it far too long, and my gut is my gut on this one.

3.64/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

 

Thanks for the start. I am definitely grateful for family; it was my baby girl's first Thanksgiving. Hope everyone had something to celebrate and be thankful for.

Here's an Inu Island Ale Lilikoi Gose:



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

Crowler from 11/18/2018

A: Pours an opaque, peach juice color. Head is minimal.

A: Smells like ripe lilikoi and mango

T: Starts off with a ripe fruit juice flavor. Then, I pick up a hint of the sea salt. It finishes up with a slight hint of fermented fruit with a little more lilikoi to finish off the sip.

M: Medium carbonated mouth is picked up about a second into the sip

O: Damn this is refreshingly good. I guess this falls under a category of a fruited gose. Very enjoyable, not overly salty/briny as a gose. I like what these guys are putting out.

 

Sunday is not now, It's tomorrow.

Good Story

This is a premature start for reasons I'm unsure of.

 

What time is it there right now, homie?

 

10:12pm homie. Would you prefer I wait two more hours next time so it is 12:00am HST before I share what beer I'm drinking? Or is it ok since its Sunday for every other state except mine?

 

I don't think anyone else would care, homie. If the thread is started, go ahead and start posting!

 

I've been sitting on this beer for some time now, and now that work is done for the week, I'm going to drink a bottle:


Sierra Nevada's Winter Warmer Lager from the Snowpack

This one fits firmly in the no bells, no whistles side of the winter warmer spectrum — it's all malt, yeast and hops and no ginger, clove or cinammon. Nothing wassail about it, and like some other of the American-made winter warmers I've tried, it's got a steady dull earthiness to it that isn't particularly tasty and isn't particularly not tasty. There's some great "lighter" dark-malt flavors of fruit cake and an occasional blast of caramely bread malt that sweetens it, which I love, but that steady dull earthiness always restores its dominance. It's hard for me to describe that earthy note. It's like one of those building earthy flavors I can see @TongoRad digging after pouring two 12 oz. bottles into one glass and sipping on it until the final third is room temperature. Speaking of, I may do that with my other two bottles.

In fact, I'm halfway into this first bottle now and have lingered myself, and that caramel bread malt note is growing and growing until it's reminding me of Old Fred, the German-brewed amber lager from Zoller-Hof ... or Fuller's ESB. It's never as malty sweet as those beers, but it's reminding me of them.

The review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/377802/?ba=Premo88#review
3.93 (+4.2% rDev)

I got off the late shift early this morning thanks to some wild wacky stuff over at Kyle Field:


We definitely did not make deadline. And it wasn't because I wasted time reading @lordofthewiens great open.

Hope your Sundays go well!
Cheers!

 

No it's not. Sorry you missed the memo that this is how it is now on alternate weeks. Thanks for your concern.

 

I have not had this particular beer from these guys but the ones I have had were hit and miss.If they hit they are great but when they miss they miss hard. It makes it even harder since most of the bottles I have seen have been over $25 due to that a few friends usually share them cause we never know what we are going to get.

 

I haven’t had that beer, but the thing that always jumps out to me when I see it is that that label says Winter Warmer Lager. On their website, they call it Winter Warmer Lager but the picture of it says Winter Warmer Ale on the label and the ingredient list claims “ale yeast” (to use their words). Was there some sort of process change at the last minute or was it just a name change (or mixup)? No idea. Out of curiosity, I’m going to tag @SierraTerence even though I don’t expect him to be answering questions today.

 

This one was around $15 or $16. Hopefully the second bottle that I have from them is a “hit!” It has good ratings here, but only 4 in total.

 

A popular beer from Colorado (and Savannah, GA too?)

I am a member of the American Homebrewers Association and every year they take a poll of the members asking what our favorite commercial beers are. This year the results were published in the July/August 2018 issue of Zymurgy (the AHA magazine). A beer that came in at number 10 is WeldWerks Juicy Bits. Also, in this issue Neil Fisher of WeldWerks Brewing provided a clone recipe for homebrewing a 5 gallon batch of Juicy Bits. WeldWerks beers are only available in Colorado so I figured if I wanted to drink a Juicy Bits beer I will need to brew my own.

The recipe that Neil provided was quite involved so for my version of this beer I decided to make a few simplifications: I decided to use Pilsner and Pale 2-row as my ‘base’ barley malts (as per the recipe) but simplify the number of other grains in the grain bill. I used the same hop varieties as detailed in the recipe but used a simpler hopping schedule. This beer features the hop varieties of Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado. I used the same yeast strain as specified in the recipe: Wyeast London Ale III (1318).

Now, if I had a WeldWerks Juicy Bits I would conduct a side-by-side taste test to see how close my version came to the mark but… As good fortune would have it I ‘discovered’ a beer in Savannah, GA of Two Tides Sixfoot which is brewed using Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops. Below is a description of this beer from the Two Tides beer menu at their brewpub:

“Sixfoot: Our flagship IPA. IPA brewed with Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops atop a bed of 2-row, oats and wheat. Lush with tropical and stone fruit flavors and aromas.”

As ‘luck’ would have it the grain bill of Sixfoot is very similar to what I chose to brew my version of Juicy Bits – I used Pilsner/2-row, flaked oats and wheat malt.

When my wife first tasted my batch of beer she exclaimed “This beer is mighty” so I think I will call it Jack’s Mighty IPA.

So, how similar is the beer I brewed to Two Tides Sixfoot IPA? Let’s find out.

Served in my Gulden Draak tulip glass & my Spiegelau IPA glass:

Appearance:

Jack’s Mighty IPA: A hazy Golden color with a fluffy white head.

Two Tides Sixfoot: Pours a hazy pale yellow color with a fluffy white head.

Aroma:

Jack’s Mighty IPA: A vibrant aroma of tropical fruit accompanied by some citrus. This beer smells “juicy”.

Two Tides Sixfoot: A more subdued aroma profile in comparison. There is mostly tropical fruit but a tiny bit of dank in the background.

Taste:

Jack’s Mighty IPA: The flavor follows the nose with a pleasing combination of tropical fruit and citrus. There is low/moderate bitterness.

Two Tides Sixfoot: An intriguing combination of flavors: mostly tropical fruit but there is some citrus and also a hint of dankness. There is low/moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Jack’s Mighty IPA: A soft mouthfeel, an off-dry finish with a quality of “juicy”.

Two Tides Sixfoot: A soft mouthfeel accompanied with an off-dry finish.

Overall:

Jack’s Mighty IPA: Very good.

Two Tides Sixfoot: Very good.

The two beers are very similar. The Jack’s Mighty IPA had a more vivid hop aroma while the flavor profile of Two Tides Sixfoot was a bit more complex with some dank in the background.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @chipawayboy @RobH @SFACRKnight @Tarheel4985 @Hoppsbabo

 

I did that!

And I still found it pretty much the same as you did. It was perhaps too gentle with the malt and fruitcake flavors. There was improvement as I went along, but it still only wound up in the B+ (3.8) range for me.

 

A-Pours a very dark brown with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has caramel and toffee hints with a slight hint of coffee
T-The taste follows the nose with toffee and caramel flavors a slight coffee flavor
M-A light bodied moderately carbonated beer
O-A nice coffee flavored Brown ale

 

Happy Loads of New (Mainly) Lager Beers Sunday (Week 718)!

Area code 718 is mainly Brooklyn, but I have nothing from there this week. Instead, I have a buncha Lagers to run through, having been inspired by others over the past couple/few weeks.

My Thanksgiving has been rather uneventful, beginning at 1530 on F, 16 November and not ending until 0800 on M, 27 November. It is a LOT of time off & all without pay so I have been delving into my backlog in the interim.

My uncle & I went to a local diner on Thanksgiving & we both ordered the Holiday Special which not only included turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, but also ham and 1/2 of a roast duck! I felt like I was back in the Navy! It was a LOT of food & I took half of it home for later. I spent Black Friday scoring the Vanilla & Orange BCBS variants as well as having some regular on draft before watching part of the Phil Mickelson/Tiger Woods head-to-head challenge. I'm off from my CKW2G gig again today so I will be delving deeply into my stash, beginning with:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22512/57660/?ba=woodychandler#review


I'll report back later, once I have made the significant inroads for which I am aiming. Until then, Prosit!

 

A-Pours a very dark brown with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has nice malt hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a nice malt flavor
M-A light bodied moderately carbonated beer
O-A nice Porter

 

Poured into a 13 oz Free Will as it is a Beer from them, thanks for this awesome beer and glass @jzeilinger . Pours a beautiful mahogany with a 2 plus finger stick off white head that leaves thin lines of lace all over the glass, with excellent retention and poured mildly chilled, not IPA temp. 4.5

Smell is ginger bread, vanilla, hazelnut, a little hint of spicy peppers, and cinnamon. 4.25

Taste follows ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, start out with some mild spicy pepper and hazelnut in the balanced finish. 425

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, gentle carbonation, not really dry, and goes down extremely easy at 12.5% ABV with know alcohol detected in flavor. 4.75

Overall another excellent imperial brown ale from Free Will. Highly recommend this one if you get the chance. 4.25

 

Jack, you always provide great reviews, but that was stellar!