New Beer Sunday (Week 737)

Looking for a simple Sunday beer for watching a ball game,its a Warsteiner Pils. I see it everywhere, and I wasn’t inspired by the old ipas on the shelf so why not?. It has a nov 19 best by date,so I’m assuming at worst it’s 4 months old, but it’s just a guess. Tremendous pour, beautiful head that it retains till the end, nicely spicy on the nose. What can you say when a very nice Pils comes your way, just a very well done simple Pils with absolutely no flaws at all. There’s a really nice hop bite on the finish that I completely dig. Medium body, and there’s some texture here too. Ice cold in my Pils glass it scratches an itch I much prefer over middling ipas. A simple beer very well done.

 

Next up is another from @kemoarps (as was the first one too!). Finishing up my West Coast craving with this Blimey That’s Bitter! from Reuben’s Brews




4.13/5 rDev -4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Golden with a little effervescent haze, this left about an inch of stark white head. Nose is piney, veggie and honey in equal parts. Taste is tongue scrapingly bitter pine, a touch of honey and another blast of damn bitter but this wave contains some undeniable heat, not unlike that mouthwash burn. Medium bodied and little aftertaste.

 

Your description is very vivid, however does NOT make me want to drink this. You have a way with words Matt.

 

Just had a coconut iced coffee earlier to get myself in the right mindset for this one



I've had regular Icing on the Cake before, and it was quite good (and very sweet/decadent), so I'm expecting this one to be great as well. Pours as a nearly pitch-black liquid into my glass... some brown tones can be seen as it pours, but once it's in my glass, it's impenetrably inky. Just the way I like my big stouts (this bad boy is 11.5%!). Nice fluffy head of medium-khaki foam that leaves behind excellent lace and has great legs to boot. Liking this one upon first impression, but as I mentioned, I expected nothing less.

The nose is definitely big on chocolate and vanilla, with the coconut surprisingly dialed back. This is both good and bad, in my opinion. I've had some coconut stouts that literally smell exactly like suntan lotion, and that's not a great thing, but I might like it to be pushed ever so slightly more toward prominence. The label here says that the coffee they used is known for its jammy fruit flavors (raspberry/blackberry are the notes mentioned), but I really just get a medium roastiness from its addition here. In other words, this is a little more on the mild side for a big stout, but depending on how it drinks that could be a good thing to keep it from being haranguing on the palate.

A little more coconut on the tongue, but you can tell they didn't go heavy-handed with it in this variant. I mostly get the imperial milk stout base with light notes of coffee and a big helping of vanilla/lactose toward the end, keeping it smooth and easy-to-sip despite its hefty strength. Some light burn from the ethanol here, but the finish really does tame it quite well. I get a little bit of earthiness and grassy hops in this beer, as well, for whatever reason. Another aspect that keeps it quite drinkable, I suppose. I looked up some reviews for this and it seems like pretty much everyone else noticed the lack of coconut as well, so I feel kind of vindicated in a sense. I'm interested in how this would taste with that element pushed a bit more, like I mentioned, but this is certainly a nice sipper. Cheers!

 

Dat glass bro! Where get?

 

Home know enjoying a nice pilsner from Stickman thanks to @thebeers

4.01/5 rDev +5.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Thank you thebeers for this
16 oz can poured into a pint glass

A- A clear golden straw with a two finger white head.

S- Biscuits, pilsner malts, a little earthy spice.

T- Pilsner malts, biscuits, hints of citrus, nice touch of slightly earthy hops, very nice balance of flavors.

M- Smooth, light to medium body.

O- A very nice pilsner that is on the same level as a lot of the other pilsners that I love from PA.

Cheers!

 

I received a little gift box this week from fellow NW forum regular @vurt , and this tasty IPA from New Mexico was in it: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30492/161092/

 

Glad you're enjoying them! Nice glass, too

 

Good review. You cant win em all. And Im very curious to see what you think of the rest of their lineup. The beers are distributed I believe in RI, Conn, Mass And Japan believe it or not. I reduce this beer down to make a "syrup" for a chicken and waffle dish thereby enhancing the adjuncts. Cheers!

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. A beauty of a day here on the island as the spring temps seem to be finally settling in. A rather busy Sunday, for myself, helping the in-laws move heavy shit around. My reward is beer and food.

My new beer today is Andrea Doria, imperial porter aged in whiskey barrels, from Destination Unknown brewing. The brew checks in at 9% abv and no canning date but reasonably fresh since it just hit.

A slick black color on the pour with a thin head of brown bubbles. The nose is full of malt. The drinking hits mellow and dry on the initial sips. Nice notes of roasted chocolate malt with a balenced barrel approach. Smooth on the flow and a building bitter on the finish. The whiskey/booze flavor seems to be the more prominent barrel flavor with additional notes of dry oak. The base is not drowned out at all and offer flavors of cocoa, brown sugar, smoke, and burnt toast. Rather full bodied with not much stick. Soft alcohol burn but still very drinkable for the abv. No pronounced cola or chalky notes.

Overall, pretty good stuff. I’m in the low 4s here but will be revisiting the next few days,

 

Great review! Thats exactly how I feel about that brew. I think sticking to your guns can be a very tough thing to do these days so I give the brewers major props for that. And when I say that I mean theyve never strayed far from their beers being malt forward, as you stated earlier. With all the haze and pilsner malts around these parts I give them credit. Cheers!

 

Greetings all! Thanks to our host for kicking us off but I must confess that I'm an example of folks from the Northeast who aren't as interested in college sports as the rest of the country. I'll hope for exciting wins and minimal gambling losses amongst those of you who are invested

So, I've yet to have a Brut IPA that I particularly liked and, maybe more interestingly, I've never even had one that fully seemed to fit the descriptions often given here when the style first reared its head. Word in the dedicated thread is that Ommegang makes one of the best exemplars of the style so that's what I've got here today. 6.3% ABV.





Nose: lots of crackery malt and a big burst of lemony/grassy/spicy hops upon opening the bottle.

Look: wowza. A HUGE frothy white head of tiny bubbles arises that actually seems to be a kooky mashup of champagne and beer foam. I don't know how well the picture shows it, but there's also a vicious vortex of bubbles that violently leap from the bottom of the glass for several minutes. The beer starts off a clear yellow/gold but somehow gets a bit hazy as time and the bubbles go on.

Taste: follows the nose though the malt is much less present. Lemon and grassy spice dominate and there's a moderate bitterness both upfront and on the back end. The finish is
largely dry as advertised but I find that there's an unpleasant, lingering sour note as well that I can't quite put my finger on.

Feel: Very crisp, thin, and carbonated as advertised. Almost sharp.

Overall: Hmmm, I still don't love this. It's definitely the first time I've had a Brut IPA that came across fully as advertised, but it doesn't really work for me nevertheless. I can definitely see why people like it because it's an interesting departure, but it's too thin and crisp for my liking, not to mention the aftertaste. I also think the hops might benefit from more of a piney or a fruity note to complement the lemon/spice.

Ah well, looks like I'll have to throw Brut IPAs into the bin with Belgian, fruited, and sour IPAs as style variations that don't quite work for me. Cheers all!

 

Hey NBS BAs. Thanks @cjgiant for starting us off. Congrats on the team. I'm still hanging my head on the UCONN Women's loss Friday.
Today I have yet another Tree House beer, I Have Promises To Keep.

4.38/5 rDev -1.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Poured from a 16oz can dated 3/1/19 to a Nonic.
Yellow/orange haze, frothy head of micro bubbles fades mid-session.
Aroma is orange, mango.
The taste is the best thing about this beer, nice citrus, but with a hop bite and some malt. At 7.9 ABV you can sense the alcohol but it doesn't distract.
Mouthfeel is creamy like all TH beers.
Overall a good beer. Not the best from TH, but better than many NEIPAs out there.

I have to take an aside here. I love NEIPAs and I especially love Tree House beers. I have never tried a heads up tasting of two of their NEIPAs together, but.... I am starting to feel the differences are very subtle. Kind of reminds me of when Homer Simpson did a Duff tour and the showed one pipe going into three, each bottling a different beer. Years ago on a thread here about beers from a given brewer tasting alike, I posted a screen shot of that Simpson gag. I did not add text, figured the picture spoke for itself. I'm still mad that a moderator removed it. Reason given "Unrelated to thread". WTF?

 

Surly Todd The Axe Man, 7.2% ABV. Pours cloudy orange, with a one finger white head. Nose is fruit. Flavor is fruit and some pine, with only slight bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel, overall outstanding. Though I'm not much of an IPA fan, I like this.

In the background, supper simmers. World's easiest meal, salsa chicken. Throw in chicken breasts, salsa, and any other veggies or spices you may want. In this case we used pineapple salsa and added black beans and corn. We eat it in burrito shells, with cheese and sour cream. Any leftovers become a pasta dish later in the week.

 

Free Will - DC Hiraeth

This is my last saison of the day.

It is a slightly hazy amber. Light carbonation. Very dry finish. Heavy oak flavor. Slightly tart. Fruity underneath the oak - apples, melon, peach.

This isn’t doing it for me. It feels thrown together even if it isn’t.

 

Good afternoon to all the NBS followers and thanks to @cjgiant for the great send off.
This is one of the first spring like weekends we've had here in central NH temperatures in the low 60's. We were able to get out and start some yard work mostly clean-up of fallen branches and such from all the wind we've had this winter. I did manage to get the new Thule rack and hardware mounted on the significant others Rav4 so she can get ready for kayaking in the near future. I'll tackle the trailer hitch and bike rack next weekend.
My new beer for this Sunday comes via the NBS BIF #9 and my very generous sender @Ozzylizard and it is Pribana from 5 Stones Artisan Brewery.

3.85/5 rDev 0% | Score: 3.84
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Moved from my beer cooler to the fridge about 30 minutes before opening. Walk-in temp is about 47 degrees this time of year. I'll assume the beer to be about 45 degrees when opened.
This beer pours a nice reddish color with little to no head.
The nose is cherries and perhaps a little bit of funk.
The taste is cherries and not as tart as I expected from this type of beer. I am assuming this was supposed to be a sour type rustic ale.
The mouthfeel is smooth very little carbonation in this bottle.
Overall I enjoyed this beer very good cherry flavor not as tart I like my cherry beers. I'd like to try another bottle of this beer to see if it has the same flavor and mouthfeel.
Thanks for sharing this Bob it was enjoyable beer!

 

New Tax Season Sunday


4.04/5 rDev +2.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

From a 12 oz can with a 3/6/19 stamp

It looks great. A slightly reddish hued black with a huge, frothy tan head.

Smells like peanut brittle, fudgey chocolate, and sweet oats.

It tastes like chocolate covered peanut shells, toffee, and molasses, with a light roasted grain and oats in the end.

The feel is probably the best part. It has enough body that it doesn’t come across watery/thin, especially with the creamy, flaky oats feel, but it isn’t a big, heavy, chewy imp stout that you fight to get through.

This is one you could easily drink a few of before realizing it is still an 8% beer. The peanut aroma is a lot stronger than the flavor and made me think it was going to be over done, but it is actually pretty balanced in the flavor.

 

Ha! That's such a good reference and I've thought of that scene myself at times in similar situations. As for the deletion, despite the reasoning given, my guess is that it had more to do with their strict "no memes" policy. I've had two Simpsons pictures deleted myself