New Beer Sunday (Week 735)

Alright, now I"m back with a beer I've been holding on to for a while, and really the linchpin to this whole day's endeavours.
@2beerdogs sent me home with a bunch of tasty Southern California goodness after I spent an evening drinking with him a little while back when I was in California, and I've made my way through most of his generosity, but had been holding off on this one, specifically because I wanted to do it on NBS, and specifically because I had a journey in mind with it (because I'm all about transitions and synergy and connections and all that bullshit). That journey initially was the Foeder Phor as well as an earlier entry in Wander's Foeder series, and then transitioning after this one to a blackberry sour from Urban Family. I subbed the Garden Path brew for the Foeder Thawree since it carried the cherry theme (while the other didn't), and I'm still debating the direction to go after this one as I could still whip out that Urban Family blackberry sour, or might go de Garde direction instead. Or both! Who knows. Anyway, long winded way of saying that I've been hanging onto this one for a little while with great anticipation just waiting for a Sunday where I coudl spend the whole day drinking cherries and blackberries and barrels, and that day has finally come.

The Wanderer from Bruery Terreux (aka The Bruery)


Pour was much lighter than I'd expected given the influences listed on the label. Wine barrels, cherries, blackberries, dark ales.... I was imagining something closer to the Foeder Phor I enjoyed earlier, but this is much more of a lighter copper brown. Massive massive head initially that settles in stages ultimately giving up altogether. No lacing.

Nose, admittedly, does not get things off on a great start. Harsh pulpy wood dominates. Reminds me of splitting wet evergreen rounds into firewood in my parents front yard. Sap and green wood. A meek attempts from cherry to exist is quickly quashed by the pulpy wood.

Thankfully, that initial cautionary characterization does not carry through to the rest of the brew. The first sip starts off somewhat tart, and the second wave comes on quite sour, leading to slight pucker. So, it's like that? (I dig this). Rich earthy cherry which has been the theme today chimes in and then blackberry bramble asserts itself a little more forcefully. I really like blackberries, guys (and gals). There's wood present throughout it all, but it is not the dominant force it was on the nose. I can certainly parse out the wine barrels, but the bourbon barrels are a little tougher to nail down, as I think that whole 15% component gets a little washed away by the sour and the wine barrel and fruits.

There's a fair amount going on here, and I'm really enjoying it. Bigly sour with more expression from the blackberries and wine barrels than the cherry or bourbon barrels. Thanks Derek for sending me home with it!!

 

Good afternoon and happy New Blend Sunday, BAs. Wife is on spring break, took the kids to the coast for the weekend, so I'm in trouble. Unfortunately, nothing else fun to report except that the only two teams I picked in March Madness happened to be underdogs, home teams, and are playing each other tonight! Kind of torn between who to root for. My current home, Oregon, or my history including where both my kids were born, Irvine? Either way, should be fun. Anyhoo, it's beer time....

Upright Brewing
Ives Blend Number Four- Blegian style Lambic





I've used the term "shimmer" before when describing a beers appearance, but this might be the new pedigree of such. Little specks floating around radiate and reflect like glitter floating around the brass yellowish body. The endless supply of tiny shining bubbles only enhance the beauty. Unfortunately, they don't hold up much of a cap as the bubbles above pop one by one as they surface.

As expected from the masters of funk and barrel, Ives 4 is bringing with oak, acidity, and farmhouse goodness. The usual lemon and lime citrus is absent allowing more of a simple vinegar to get comfortable. Herbal, dried grass and a burned mushroom earthiness pave the way for the long lasting oak and grape skin finish.

Initially, white wine elements dominate with green grape skins and heavily tannic oak. The oak tastes both new and old oddly enough, but exactly as the style would imply. Imagine a virgin oak barreled influence combined with that funky, musty old barnyard siding. Wonderful. A hint of butter and white pepper, grapefruit, zest, and then finally that freshly milled wheat and pilsner blend of liquid bread.

Tart, but not at all puckering. Just right in fact, to be quenchable without being poundable. The most unique combination of oily and spritzy, sweet, sour, and dry. If that tartness wasn't there, I'd almost say this is velvety smooth.

It is no secret that I am an Upright fan. They keep producing beers like this, and that will never change. These beers are in their wheelhouse, and I'm pretty sure they know it. Every single one is a true treat, and I'm glad I'm a recipient.

After my official review, I gave Ives Blend 4 a rating of 4.18. No rDev, but compared to Blends 1-3 of 3.95, 4.06, and 4.26, I'd say I'm right there in the middle.

Now off to Occidental for one of my most highly anticipated annual offerings!

Cheers.

 

Odell Wolf Picker Experimental IPA, 4.02 overall ( 5.5% ABV )

Pours an effervescent gold with 3+ fingers of pearl colored head. Very good head retention & lacing

S: Pears, preaches, grassyness

T: Follows the nose, a little dryness & passionfruit as well up front. Dryness builds as this warms, along with grassyness, pears & a little tropical fruityness. Finishes with dryness, mango & papaya

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation. nice balance

Easy drinker, delivers plenty of flavor, glad I purchased this sixpack

 

New Beer Sunday: American Wild Ale

Evenin’ NBSers with a heads up for folks who enjoy wild ales that are a riff on already successful beers.

This evening’s new beer is called Funky Monks and is from Weyerbacher up in Easton, PA. The beer is a riff on one of their long term flagships, a Tripel called Merry Monks. (So this beer is one of a family of monks just as my earlier beer from Victory was one of a family of monkeys. )

My review, subject to revision until the beer is finished, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/392/313028/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas/flavors show lots of green orchard fruits, banana and what seems like a bit of white wine grape. The tartness works well with the fruits and there’s just enough malt sweetness that the tartness does not pucker. Definitely enjoyed this beer and will probably looking for a few more.

Watching a bit of basketball this evening so no music on the player.

Cheers, all!

 

Absolutely awesome gift of a stein! @thebeers

I’m glad to see somebody review this beer on here. I’ve wanted to try it for years now but even though ATG has had distro to me for as long as I’ve been drinking, I’ve never seen it.

You’re definitely right about the hard to tell where the history starts and ends with this one, but I’m glad you enjoyed it!

 

Good afternoon, NBS, having Firestone Walker's Luponic Distortion 12 while the chicken finished up on the grill.

12 oz can dated 2/13/2019 poured into a teku glass.
L: Pours a golden color with about 2.5 fingers of white foamy head. Nice lacing remains as the head fades. 4.25
S: Hints of honey dew, orange and melon. 3.75
T: Same flavors as the nose but with some strawberry, lemon, and lime coming through as well with light bitterness. 4.0
F: Light body with medium carbonation and a nice finish. 4.0
Overall 4.0 from me with a 3.96 from BA.
A really good beer and it's hard to beat the price at $11 a six pack on this one.

 

Excellent milkshake IPA. Great fluffy head retention/spotty foamy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big juicy/lightly tart/tangy strawberries, fruit skin/seeds, mandarin orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honey melon, guava, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/zest, and light peppercorn/pine hops; with moderate vanilla, cream, wheat, cracker, white bread dough malt sweetness; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, floral, grassy, peppery bitterness; and light fruit tang/tartness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; very creamy, silky, bready malts/lactose; some sticky hops; light resins/rinds, and fruit tang in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering bitter/tart dryness; no cloying/astringency. Very smooth, nicely soft, minimal warming 7.5%. Feels like a lot of Mosaic/Citra. Very juicy/jammy hops/fruit, with some dank/earthy notes; with a great balancing vanilla, lactose, and wheat/oat/malt backbone. Light residual sweetness with lingering dryness. A bit more bitter/drying than expected, but no real complaints otherwise. Did not prefer over the base beer. 4


Cheers

 

Love the graphics and raised ink on this.

Poured into a Yeti after a run on the river.
A - a straw gold color, fluffy white rocky head
Aroma - smooth slightly sweet pineapple, orange, melon, and some light pine bitterness
T - follows the aroma with smooth tropical fruit and light pine
F - medium sticky body
O - Very good, but I prefer the bitter and classic west coast taste of plain old Mosaic

 

I love your reviews because of details like this. Paints such a vivid picture.

Cheers!

 

Industrial Arts Spring Landscape

Industrial Arts is calling this 6.7% ABV spring seasonal lager a “pale honey bock.” Brewed with New York ingredients: Pilsner, Munich and Vienna malts, Cascade and Glacier hops, and Hudson Valley honey. Their seasonal NY lager “Landscape” series are easily the Industrial Arts beers that I gravitate towards the most in their lineup. In my experience, breweries that make NEIPAs that keep their lights on don’t necessarily make nice lagers… but Industrial Arts manages this.

This beer is a clear rich gold. Nice head. This is a clean beer. It’s much brighter than the unfiltered Einbecker Bock - I mean this in terms of taste… but it’s also obviously the case in brewing terms with the appearance. It doesn’t feel compromised for using NY ingredients. It goes down very well, but it also feels like you’re drinking a 6.7% beer (there’s no off-putting alcohol, but it also isn’t “hidden”). It starts a bit sweet and morphs into a nice, dry, bitter finish. Knowing that there’s honey in the process successfully plants the notion that there’s a honey element in the flavor. Definitely more cohesive than jumbled, I can easily transition to another can of this if I had one.

I’m a bit surprised by how relatively down the center this one is. What a refreshing concept. I’d be shocked if Chief (the brewer) wasn’t thinking of Maibocks when this was designed. It's classified as a German Bock here to avoid specifics, but it could easily go in the Heller Bock category. Is there a large enough audience for this beer? Of the four beers I featured today (so far), it’s certainly one of the more successful ones, but it’s not an even playing field… especially since my first Bock seemed too damaged and this one is hot off the press. The unfiltered Einbecker was my favorite, but this beer is admirably sure-handed and impressive. I’d like another down the road.

I gotta wonder if these "Landscape" seasonals are returning in the same form next year or if they are one-offs. Anybody know?

Cheers @cavedave

 

A little late in the game on this one as we've had this in stock for well over a month.



12 oz. can.
Moderate pour yields a one inch white head over a hazy light to medium golden body with some fleeting lacing. The head dissipates rather quickly on this one. Nose of subdued tropical fruit and subdued citrus. Taste mirrors nose but with a little more oomph with a nice smooth, gentle finish Real nice feel and overall, this could be a session beer for me. Cheers to Bell's for this one!

 

#2, I’ve been sitting on this for a few months. I have no more will power.





4.75/5 rDev +1.1%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75

I love beer, in all its varieties, shapes, colors, and aromas, but there are a few beers that the anticipation of trying them is nearly as intoxicating (pun intended) as actually trying them.

If you’re a Midwesterner, I’m talking Zombie Dust, circa 2013. Or King Sue, circa 2016. If you’re from the magnificent East Coast, Heady. Or Tree House stuff. You know these beers.

The whales.

This beer is one of those for me.

It pours black, with a subtle amount of mahogany at the very fringes of the beer. The head is dense, a compact dark tan color.

The barrel is very forward on the nose, but not obtrusively. It provides space for the vanilla, and also dark chocolate and stone fruit. Just a menagerie of aromas.

The taste also features the barrel, but there’s an almost instantaneous transition to the vanilla, and then an equally transparent transition to the dark chocolate and and stone fruit flavors that yield a cherry flavor at the very end of the taste that is ..... exquisite.

My expectations for this beer were supremely high. It exceeded them with room to spare. The tippity top of world-class, IMHO.

PS: the label suggests ribeyes, Mrs O chose T-Bones. The education process continues .....

 

Nice. @thebeers

 

Thanks man! It's always a learning experience and a fine tuning of expressions. Glad you enjoy them.

I've always been a firm believer in saying whatever you're getting. Some might get pine needles and grapefruit, while others get hot dogs and brussel sprouts. One might be more in line with a style, but the fact is neither is wrong!

Cheers.

 

Howdy everybody, it's great to be back after a bit of a break. If you'll allow the indulgence, I may as well start with some offerings that my son and I shared last night in a session that started with our Orval Day contribution and continued on for a couple more afterwards (we're also feeling a bit celebratory because he was recently accepted into the PhD program in biochemistry at UConn, where he'll be starting this upcoming fall semester. Yay!).


It was his first time with the Orval, and he totally dug it. Fate may have been on my side because we had a 3-month old sample, so the funk was subdued, but in the end he put in the request for more beers like this one. I think I can live with that .

The Cider we split on. It's got a nice brisk tartness to complement the demi-sec approach, full-on rich apple flavor, and seductive musky funk hiding around every curve. #1 Son found it too tart, and even made the same face he made as a toddler when he ate something he didn't like. Needless to say, I happily finished the can myself.

And the Heavy Trommel (Black Lager) finished with absolutely rave reviews from both of us- deeply roasty in flavor with no rough edges, silky smooth, with a dry finish and just the right kiss of bitterness. A must-get, if you see it.

And tonight I may as well keep the Maibock thing going:

KC Bier Co, from Kansas City, with much appreciation to @Harrison8 for the opportunity.

The aroma is spot-on; rich and bready, with just the tiniest amount of toastiness at the edges, hints of white raisins, a big wet kiss of spicy aroma hops, and a faint fresh breeze of white corn (likely DMS).

Wow, the first few sips are perfect- big, muscular but lean malt, those raisiny melanoidins asserting themselves nicely, malty start but dry finish, and a crisp smack of hop bitterness that makes you want to take another sip immediately. Deeper into the glass a nicer interplay between the spiciness of the hops and white raisin quality develops. And the malt still pops as the end approaches, while nothing ever steps out of line. I don't think I could ask for much more from a Mai Bock, except maybe another bottle . Just beautiful, super solid A (4.5), and thanks again Harrison!

 

I’ve only had one, but it was a terriffic beer.

 

Got it . Unusual that the file was so large from your phone (18.4Mb). Larger than I usually get from my camera , on "Fine", without editing (10-14+Mb) . ( For anything to be uploaded to BA database, I reduce it to "Basic", so am starting with a file that is 2-3Mb.)
Then, after I got it to size, & a small enough file, everything froze , & crashed , the first three times I hit the "Upload Photo" button. Maybe the photo is cursed?

Might be something going on with BA today. It took 7? tries for my post. Forgot to add the rating & link to review. Edit> Oops Missing apostrophe >Edit > first edit disappears >Edit > apostrophe disappears> do both > Oops an "n" missing > edit > first two edits disappear > Edit > "n" disappears....etc etc , 'til I did all four at once .

 

Awesome NEDIPA. Great rocky head retention/thick foamy lacing. Aromas and flavors of big tangerine, orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, guava, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/rind, wood, mint, peppercorn, and pine hops; with moderate wheat, cracker, biscuit dough malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light-moderate pine, citrus peel/rind, herbal, woody, floral, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; very creamy, bready grainy wheat/oats; some sticky hops and resins/rinds in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering resin dryness, no cloying/astringency. Very smooth, nicely soft, minimal warming 8.6%. Awesome Mosaic, Pacific Jade, Citra, Summit, and Galaxy profile. Extremely juicy, vibrant, dank, and earthy balanced hop complexity; with a great balancing wheat/oat/malt backbone. Light residual sweetness with lingering resin dryness. Well made style example, but a bit more resinous/drying than expected. 4.1


Cheers

 

I took a chance on this one my 3rd entry for the day:
Lupified DIPA, Badsons Beer Co.
Pours a semi clear gold with an off white head that is creamy and leaves some decent lacing.
Aroma is muted. But what I barely smell is rotting tropical fruits.
Taste is also muted and weird. It tastes like a beer that was rushed and not quite finished. Im getting canned peaches, and sweetness with not alot of dimension. Not going to waste alot of time on this one.
Feel is thick, slightly syrupy, although there is carbonation. Bitter but thick as well.
I thought I checked the date which was a label on the plastic snap connector but maybe I screwed up. From what I have here not recommended. Very close to drainpour which is rare for me.
Also states "hand made" always a dangerous thing to see with craft beers.

 

A couple from Oxbow are next. First, this fruited saison;
the next one will be opened after The Walking Dead.



500 ml. bottle.
Upon opening, a slight gusher, caught in the nick of time. Moderate pour yields a 1/2 inch off white head over a body with the color of pink grapefruit, but maybe a tad darker. Sticky lacing with half a dozen 1/4 inch gobs of head floating on the surface. Nose of berries and the pinot noir grapes. Taste mirrors nose very nicely with the slightest bit of grape tannins on the finish. Flavors of cherries, strawberries, and raspberries are all prevalent with a touch of sour grapes as it warms. Nice feel and overall, a solid saison from Oxbow. Cheers!