New Beer Sunday (Week 741)

For Cinco de Mayo, I will dine on tacos at my favorite taco place, taco's el Gordo

Played golf with my youngest yesterday rather than refereeing a soccer game. Needed some post game refreshments, headed to The Anchor on his recommendation. They had a rotating tap from a brewer thatI had never had , Farnham's Ale

Chasing the Comet by Farnham Ale

4.4/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

ON tap at The Anchor in Duxbury, Ma, pours a hazy golden yellow with a one finger white foam cap, quickly recedes

A double IPA featuring the Comet hop.

Citrusy grapefruit aroma

juicy grapefruit and tangerine flavor, hint of grassiness, tastes good!

Clean finish, medium sudsing

Good new beer , repeatable

 

New Beer Sunday: Berliner Weisse

Mornin’ NBSers and an alert for those looking to try "a peach of a beer." Also a thanks to @cjgiant for his start up this morning.

Today’s weather is supposed to be rainy, with an occasional thunderstorm and cooler temperatures. The high is expected to be near 60, which is 10-20 degrees cooler than what we’ve seen the last 3 days or so. Unfortunately this will probably put a bit of a damper on some of the planned celebrations.

This morning’s new beer is the Bellini Weisse from Flying Dog. According to the brewery, this is a “Berliner style brewed with peach puree, and finished with peach natural flavor.”

My review, in progress until I finish the beer, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/396459/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas/flavors of this beer are mostly about the flavor of the peaches nicely complimented by some tartness and some wheat in the background. A drinkable, enjoyable summer refresher of a beer and one I’ll probably be having a few more of before the summer temperatures and humidity have come and gone.

Cheers, all!

 

A-Pours a dark color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has coffee hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a generous coffee flavor
M-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A good Stout

 

Starting out with tasty stuff, should have a Gose from Kettlehead aged in tequila barrels a little later. Poured into a 16 oz Nordic pint glass not sure when it was canned, but definetly fresh. Pours a hazy yellow orange with a fairly small white head that leaves thin barbed wire lace behind. 4.25

Smell is papaya, pineapple, tangerine, and just a little white grapefruit rind. 4.25

Taste follows maybe a little bolder and more tropical papaya, pineapple, mandarin, and a little grapefruit really well balanced. 4.5

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, a tad sticky but not dry, soft on the palate as it should be, and at 8.3% ABV insanely approachable. 4.75

Overall this just proves that every great brewery has a little New England in them. I have had many of the greats in the style and this one would more than hold its own with them. Well done! 4.5

 

Good day New BSers! It's yet another rainy day here in NW PA but that's the norm until we get three days in a row without rain and the state gov't declares a drought. Tuesday the delivery guys are bringing in a swamp boat at low tide to deliver our new refrigerator. Then the old one becomes my new beer reefer.
@cjgiant - thanks for starting today's thread. I'll be celebrating Cinco de Mayo by doing laundry and finishing a set of shelves that I'm rehabing for my son. Yee-haw! Let the good times roll!
Today's New Beer Sunday entry is from NBS BIF#9 and @jdell15.



Received from @jdell15 in NBS BIF #9. Reviewed 5/5/19. Thanks Jacob!
Marked on the base of the neck in microscopic green printing “25481?D3?A3 (above) 17351 (above) 296?10”. Stored at 42 degrees and served at 60 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Dark brown, translucent.
Body – Dark brown/black, opaque.
Head – Tiny (Maximum one cm, aggressive center pour), brown, high density, fizzy, gone in five seconds leaving neither crown nor cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 3 – I’ve been sniffing this intermittently for several minutes and, other than a bit of dampness, cannot detect any aroma.
Flavor – 3.5 - Begins mostly sweet with no identifiable flavor. In the middle, a burst of alcohol comes through. Ends slightly acrid with tons of alcohol, some licorice, and yes, Oreo tops and bottoms. No hops, no dimethylsulfide, no diacetyl.
Palate – 3.25 - Full, almost creamy, fizzy. By the end the fizziness has degraded to merely lively carbonation.
Impression and interpretation – 3 - Loses 0.25 point for needing a microfiche reader and a secret decoder ring to translate the neck cipher. It does end tasting like Oreos – the bread part of the sandwich, not the crème filling. Some diacetyl would have enhanced the flavor. Overall, a very mediocre brown booze bomb from Prairie Artisan.

 

Added to my wants based on your review. It sounds lovely! I assume you have an Arizona trading partner, eh?

 

A-Pours a hazy darkish color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has slight malt hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a very light malt flavor
M-A light bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A decent dark kolsch

 

A-Pours a dark color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has caramel, malt and molasses hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a nicely balanced caramel, malt and molasses flavor
M-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A good Mexican style dark lager

 

A blind side-by-side tasting!

I am firm believer that the best way to assess a beer is via a blind tasting. This is the way that beer judges evaluate beers at beer competitions like the Great American Beer Festival – the only thing they know is the beer style.

I have a friend in Michigan that is an accomplished homebrewer and I was fortunate that he generously sent me a number of his homebrewed beers to enjoy. Among those beer he sent me two versions of his Bitter Ale with the details of:

“ESB c: Extra Special Bitter WLP013

ESB 1028 Same recipe as above but with a different yeast (Wyeast 1028)”

So, essentially the same beers from a recipe perspective but fermented with two different White Labs yeast strains of WLP013 and Wyeast 1028. Below are some descriptions of these two different yeast strains from the yeast vendors’ websites:

“WLP013 London Ale Yeast

Oak ester character makes this yeast well-suited for classic British beer styles such as pales and bitters, or dark malty beers like brown ales and porters. Medium flocculation characteristics allow attenuation up to 75% leaving beer dry while adding malt complexity and pushing hop bitterness. If you love WLP001 California Ale Yeast®, give this strain a try as it has more character.”

And:

STRAIN: 1028: London Ale™

Species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A rich mineral profile that is bold and crisp with some fruitiness. Often used for higher gravity ales and when a high level of attenuation is desired.”

According to the Mr. Malty website these two strains are equivalent but are they really?

http://www.mrmalty.com/white-labs.php

I enlisted my wife to help me so that I could drink these beers blind (not knowing which of the two beers I was drinking).

Test Number 1: Triangle Test

My wife poured the beers into three sample size glasses with two of glasses containing the same beer. The purpose of the triangle test is to see whether the taste tester can correctly identify the two beers that are the same. I did indeed note a difference after sniffing all three samples and that is all it took – no tasting even necessary. My wife indicated that I did properly identify the two same beers. So, needless to say there was for me a recognizable/perceptible difference between the two beers (WLP013 vs. Wyeast 1028).



Unfortunately I forgot to take a photograph of these small sampler glasses when they were filled with beer. Imagine these three glasses all half filled with beer.

Test Number 2: Side-by-Side Taste Test

Served in my Nonic Pint glasses; I will refer to one beer as “A” and the other as “B”.

Appearance:

A: A pretty copper color with just a thin wisp of white head.

B: Ditto

Aroma:

A: A notable fruity aroma that is reminiscent of a wine-like smell to me. There is a malty (toffee-like) aroma as well.

B: The aroma was predominantly malty (toffee-like) but there was a subtle aspect of earthiness as well.

Taste:

A: Follows the nose with a combination of fruity but also malty.

B: Follows the nose with malt flavors being front and center but in the background some earthiness.

Mouthfeel:

A: Lightly carbonated, medium bodied with an off-dry finish.

B: Ditto

Overall:

A: This is a very good beer. I really enjoyed the combination of fruity and malty flavors!!

B: This is also a very good beer but notably different in that it mostly featured the malty flavors but with enough earthiness to make things intriguing.

Now is time for the big reveal (drum roll please):

· A is the beer fermented with WLP013

· B is the beer fermented with Wyeast 1028

As I mentioned my wife was the proctor for the tasting evaluation so it would only be fair to let her take a few sips as well. She stated that she could indeed taste a difference between these beers and expressed a preference for B (Wyeast 1028). As good fortune would have it I personally preferred A (WLP013) so I finished drinking that beer while I gave here the B beer to drink. We were both happy ‘campers’ here!!

It is always interesting to me how experiences can often remind you of times gone by. These two beers very much reminded me of my Pub days while visiting Great Britain (London, Cambridge,…).

Cheers!

@RobH @rotsaruch @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @premierpro @meefmoff

 

My beer today comes to me by way of the generous BA @Orca_Whale

Beer: Morning Wood
Brewery: Funky Buddha (Oakland Park, Florida)
ABV: 13%

Pouring this from a 22 oz. bottle into a snulip glass, this beer pours out as black as night and forms a pinky worth of tightly packed, peanut butter fudge colored bubbles to rest on top as a crown.

The nose brings a plethora of different layers; creamy coffee, semi sweet chocolate, maple sweetness, burnt brown sugar and slightly toasted coconut on the backend, all resting on top of a smokey/salty base. The barrel is detectable through some very slight dry oak notes.

The taste comes in with sweet maple before melding into slightly roasty, creamy coffee notes. The smokey/salty layers are still present, tangling with brown sugar and semisweet chocolate. It makes me think of coating maple bacon strips with brown sugar, putting them in the oven, and then pulling them out and drizzling them with chocolate, all while you are enjoying your morning coffee. The barrel is very slightly present, offering just a touch of dry oak and a kiss of dark fruit at the very end. If you weren’t searching for it, you might not even guess it was there.

The mouthfeel is medium bodied and well carbonated. The carbonation is low-low medium, allowing the drink to shine. It’s very smooth and drinkable, hardly any warmth from the bourbon barrels. It does offer a touch of dry oak, but almost none of the 13% ABV is showing through. It’s dangerous.

Overall, I’d say the balance and plethora of layers and the way they mix are the winners here. Nothing is trying to take away from the other, just all tangling perfectly to create an amazing drinking experience.


Thanks Bill, this has been on my wishlist for quite a while and it didn’t disappoint!

Cheers NBS, I can’t wait to see what you bring to the share!

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! @Franfab dropped a bunch of fresh hops on me a few days ago, including this beer that got added to my wants as soon as I heard about it. Even just looking at the can makes me salivate!

Neon Green Relish - Hop Butcher
DIPA - 7.5% abv
Score: 4.23 (-4.3% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/40359/393116/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
I am very much love/hate on this one. I love how it looks. The smell, though, is a huge disappointment. All I get is a dull dirt smell, with no citrus or tropical aromas. The beginning of the sip is awesome, with tropical fruits teaming up with that trademark sabro coconut taste (love it!), but soon after, everything gets coated in dirty, bitter hops, which for me detracts a little. I adore the body on this though. Milkshake-level thick, and perhaps the best ipa body I’ve experienced. Overall, I’m still not sold on Sabro, and wonder what this would be like if, say, Galaxy was used instead. But really enjoying it nonetheless. Thanks again Frank! Based on this one, I want to try every Hop Butcher ipa, since they are at least different and approaching greatness.

 

Perhaps we should just categorize it as a Tasty IPA!

Cheers!

 

No my buddy visited his brother and he was very happy to find this juice bomb in the desert. Cheers

 

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

Cheers!

 

Good morning NBS! The BA Twitter account recently posted a link to the Beers of Fame page and it reminded me I’ve only had 86/250 and there are quite a few on that list readily available that for whatever reason I haven’t had despite 10 years on this site. Here’s 87.



11.2oz bottle poured into a chalice
A: Mahogany with a lingering two-finger head
S: Caramel, dates, Belgian yeast
T: Matches the nose adding cherry and brown sugar
M: Full bodied, smooth
O: Very well made and a great example of the style

Overall 4.25 across the board for me. I just put a Rodenbach Grand Cru in the fridge so stay tuned for #88.

 

Greenport Harbor - Light Work

Today I am going for quantity over quality and my theme for today is "local beer." Expect as many locals as I can get to in more of a rapid fire than contemplative approach. First I am going to hit three different beers from Greenport Harbor.

They call this 4.8% beer a “hoppy anytime ale.” That makes it sound like it’s going to be a “session IPA.” The beer itself feels more like an intersection between a modern hoppy blonde that's made for easy drinking and a trendy crafty “lager.”

It’s a hazy gold. Smells of lemon and grain. Pilsner malt. Taste is the same with a hoppy bitterness and a doughy character. This goes down very easy. Nice but not a future repeat buy.

Cheers.