New Beer Sunday (Week 742)

Stress! The only sport I really stress out over is golf. I am absolutely horrible at it and I haven’t gotten any better at. I’ve given up at trying. The only redeeming quality about golf is you can have a few beers. That ain’t worth the stress though. I’ll sit at the clubhouse bar while you hit.

Grabbed this new beer at my local for the size of the can only. To be honest, I’d love to see more 8 ouncers of high abv beers.



8 ounce can, no date observed anywhere but I know this is fairly fresh.

Pours a deep, dark brown mahogany with rusty red highlights. Minimal khaki head that leaves rather quickly, but has a remaining ring around the interior. Spotty lacing.
Nose of caramel, toffee, butterscotch (not an off flavor here). A lot of barrel in the nose.
Caramel, toffee, sweet malts, nuttiness, oak barrel, hints of vanilla and smooth bourbon. No hint of booze or heat. Slightly sticky with some lingering sweetness.
Overall, first off I enjoy the format. This beer is tasty with a nice barrel/bourbon complement.
4.2 rDev +3.2%

Happy Mother’s Day all you mothers!

 

Happy Mother’s Day, NBSers. I miss mine frequently, but she layed a concrete foundation while raising me to become a good parent as well. That’s all we can really ask of the generations that preceded us. I’m not stressing right now so we will save that topic for another day.

Big thanks to @Bitterbill for this bottle. Always have loved Big Bad Baptist and all the variants. This one after a couple years is no exception.

Pours a slick oil black with little to no head retention or lacing. Nose is roasted coffee, chocolate, and coconut. Taste follows with bourbon, spice, dark stone fruit, leather and smoke. Mouthfeel is moderate, overall the 4.25 range and a great variation on an old friend. Hope to get ahold of a fresh bottle in the future to compare.

These two got baths in the last couple days but still dont care about beer. Goodest fur kids they can be and their mom loves them very much. Cheers BA fam.



We watched Tag for date night while the boy stayed at my sister in law’s with his cousin. Really good movie. Great theme song choice and a blast from the past.

 

Not long after midnight, after cleaning up from our rock and roll jam session and sending people on their way; it was time to crack open this beautiful new-to-me beer.

Double Sunshine Ruby Red Grapefruit by Lawson's Finest Liquids



Since "regular" Double Sunshine is tied for my #1 rated beer; you better-believe I was psyched to get this into a glass!

I sat comfortably in my music room and slowly enjoyed this delicious brew. I took notes on paper rather than going into the office. Now, after some sleep, I've entered the review. Here's my take on this new beer.

A - Hazy golden-orange with a 2-finger pillowy-white head and great lace.
S - Pink grapefruit flesh, mild-moderately dank, biscuit drizzled with honey, floral.
T - Orange candy, grapefruit flesh and zest, plentiful pine, lightly toasted bread with honey, grassy and herbal spice, pepper, gooey hop bud goodness that isn't as dank as the smell indicated. Finishes with a pleasant West Coast bitterness while retaining some grapefruit/orange fruit and malt sweetness for perfect balance. Tastes great!
M - Medium-full body and light-medium carbonation. Substantial, resinous, gooey, lightly prickly, dries nicely.
O - A fantastic beer that is similar to regular Double Sunshine. The main differences are the hazy look, a modest increase in aroma dankness, and a subtle shift towards grapefruit from the more orange-centric aroma and flavors of Double Sunshine; although the orange is still present. I like this a lot and rate it very highly (4.55); just not quite as high as the original (4.78).

Going to see my 89-year-old Mom and 91-year-old Dad for lunch on this Mother's Day. They're both doing well and still driving and enjoying life. They are teetotalers though so my second beer of the day will be later this afternoon.

 

Good day New BSers! It's raining, although yesterday's scheduled downpour didn't occur until LATE last night so I was able to get some more yard work done. Mrs Lizard and I went to the PGH area last evening for Thai - too bad it's a 1.5 hour drive down by interstate or we'd go frequently.

Thanks for starting today's thread @lordofthewiens! Stress is just another survival mechanism which, if it slides into paranoia and high blood pressure, can lead to your early demise. My biggest stressors are whether I'll get to where I need to be when I need to be there (overcompensation for being chronically late in my misspent youth) and which beer to drink and review for NBS. Yep, it's a rough life.

Speaking of NBS reviews, today's New Breakfast Beer and NBS BIF #9 entree, received from @jdell15, is:



Received from @jdell15 in NBS BIF #9. Reviewed 5/12/19. Thanks Jacob!
Marked on the shoulder in white printing “07NOV2020”. Stored at 42 degrees and served at 57 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 60 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Light amber, clear.
Body – Red-amber, hazy. A precipitate forms.
Head – Large (Maximum 7.5 cm, aggressive center pour), tan, dense, fizzy. Settles into a medium density head of shorter than average duration. Diminishing to a four mm crown and a thin, rocky, complete cap.
Lacing – None. Not surprising for an 11.2% ABV brew.
Aroma – 4.25 – Sweet “dark fruits”, yeast phenolics. At the end, is that a hint of cherry?
Flavor – 4 – Begins slightly sweet beneath a caramel/date shroud. Ends just a bit sour with a tannic acid twang. Alcohol is in the background the whole way through, subtly noticeable. No hops, no bourbon, no dimethylsulfide, no diacetyl.
Palate – 3.25 - Full, almost creamy, fizzy.
Impression and interpretation – 4 - The fizziness makes it difficult to hold in my mouth and really enumerate the flavors. When I do, the alcohol numbs my oral cavity. While bourbon is not detected up front, it is noticeable on the post-swallow exhale. If this were less fizzy, it would greatly improve the palate and increase the level of more subtle flavors.
Rating 3.99, rDev-6.1%.

 

Amen to that!

 

A-Pours a golden color with a generous head and lacing
A-Aroma has floral and malt hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a floral and malt flavor
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A good Saison

 

New Beer Sunday: Leipzig Gose

Mornin’ NBSers with a special thanks to @lordofthewiens for his start up today and an alert for possible fans of a barrel aged gose.

Never took up golf or serious athletic competition so those sorts of stressors don't cause me a problem. I'm also lucky enough to have a gift for coping with stress that mostly switches off the anxiety and sense of pressure until after the crisis has been dealt with and passed. I can then think about what could have happened, the possible seriousness of what has just taken place, or reflect on my own stupidity and incompetence in dealing with the situation.

The weather here today is expected to be much like last Sunday’s, cloudy, and rainy throughout the day with a possible thunderstorm. The high temperature is expected to be in the low to mid 60s depending on whether you want the real temperature or the “feels like” temperature.

This morning’s new beer is the Boulevard Tequila Barrel Lime Gose.

My review, in progress until the beer is finished, can be found here:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/423/281572/?ba=drtth#review


The aromas/flavors of this beer are mostly about the light lime and it’s gentle tartness. In the background there’s also a bit of tequila, oak, salt and vanilla. This is a light, clean, crisp, drinkable and refreshing beer that I’ll be looking to have again. It seems a good choice for a hot summer’s afternoon or to have in the cooler when having a BBQ or party on the porch.

Cheers, all!

 

Good morning NBS
I was hoping to find this beer from Fat Heads in my local bottle shop this month and I'm glad I did...

The review:
12oz bottled 04/15/19 (27 days ago) poured into a chalice at fridge temp 9% ABV. The beer pours mostly bright in a medium brown color with ruby highlights. The head was minimal (a half inch) on a fairly hard pour and recedes to a thin ring and island of tiny bubbles. No lacing to speak of. The aroma is faint with dark fruit and candi sugar. The taste is burnt sugar caramel up front with dark fruit coming through in the middle before a peppery, moderately bitter finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a dry finish. The ABV is not noticeable in the taste or aroma. Overall, very good. Not as complex or nuanced as some Belgian examples, but technically solid quite enjoyable.

Fat Heads is one of very few breweries that has never let me down. I buy their products on faith every time something new makes it here.

Cheers all and enjoy the new beer in your glass today!

 

A Casita Cerveceria & Tripple Crossing collaboration.

A-Pours a hazy chestnut color with a generous head and lacing
A-Aroma has caramel, toasted malts, chocolate and floral hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a very nicely balanced caramel, toasted malts, chocolate and floral flavors
M-A medium bodied very well carbonated beer
O-A very well balanced Munich Dunkel Lager

 

It is ‘new’ but is it improved?

Firstly, Happy Mother’s Day everybody!

Now, back the question posed above. There was a period of time a number of years ago where it was common for marketers of household products to use the moniker of “new and improved” to sell their products like laundry detergent, toothpaste, dish detergent, you name it. Which brings us to today’s beer of Victory Prima Pils. The brewers of Victory Prima Pils are not exactly ‘talking up’ the “new and improved” aspect of their reformulated Prima Pils but they are not being secretive either. Below is some discussion by Ron Barchet (formerly a co-owner of Victory prior to the sale of the brewery to Artisanal Beverage Ventures):

“Barchet noticed that he wasn’t able to drink the same quantity of Prima as he used to—by the third beer, his palate felt a little tired. He and the brewing team decided that dropping the beer’s bitterness level ever so slightly—from 50 bitterness units to about 45—might do the trick. Victory’s brewers also changed their process to incorporate Prima’s hops at a different point in the brewing process—almost entirely in the hopback rather than the brew kettle—which gives the beer more hop aroma with less hop bitterness.

“We’re really happy with how it came out. It’s a little more of a modern take based on where taste buds are and where the market is,” Barchet says. “We felt that if Prima was going to carry on, we need to get it a little more modern.”

“But there will be no massive announcement of the change, no “New Recipe!” label splashed across six-packs. Victory isn’t trying to hide the change, Barchet says, but they’re also not trying to scare away long-time Prima Pils drinkers. It’s a delicate, calculated risk to take with a venerated beer: in making changes that aim to improve the recipe, there’s a chance some of its steady customers might now like the change. Barchet, for his part, is confident in the new Prima, and he says that as a long-time fan himself.

“I don’t think people will necessarily be able to pick out the change,” he says. “I hope they just think ‘Wow, this is a good batch. This is a Prima batch I really like.’”

https://thetakeout.com/how-often-do-breweries-change-a-beer-recipe-1833330451

Well, in the past I have been a fan of Prima Pils but will this ‘new’ version be something I enjoy too (or even more)? Let’s find out.

Served in my Polish Pilsner glass:

Appearance:

Straw yellow colored with a BIG rocky white head.

Aroma:

The first impression is bready Pilsner Malt aroma but there is notable hops aromas of spicy/herbal with a hint of lemon.

Taste:

The flavor follows the nose. There is an enjoyable combination of bready Pilsner malt flavor and spicy/herbal hop flavor. There is a moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel:

Light bodied with a pleasant dry finish.

Overall:

This beer is pretty good. I really enjoyed the balance of bready Pilsner Malt and spicy/herbal hop flavors. The body is lighter than my memory of the ‘old’ Prima Pils.

Now, the million dollar question: is this version ‘better’ than the previous version? While I enjoyed the aroma/flavor of this new version I found the ‘lightening’ of the body to be a step backwards.

To use an analogy of the sub-style of Session IPA, this beer ‘feels’ like a Session Pilsner to me. I am personally not a fan of the Session IPA sub-style since those beers are too watery for my preference/palate.

Cheers!

@rotsaruch @KOP_Beer_OUtlet @RobH @nc41 @telejunkie @Ranbot @FBarber @Jacobier10 @scottakelly @THANATOPIS @tzieser @zid @ESHBG @Kadonnay @Houser @invertalon @NeroFiddled

 

Stress! Who needs it?

Even more bible by evil twin and prairie

4.27/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

bottle poured into a snifter

jet black motor oil, one finger creamy brown foam cap, recedes to a thin layer

aroma of roasted malts, coffee, chocolate, licorice, tobacco

taste is roast malts , chocolate, coffee,

smooth mouthfeel, low sudsing, has slight coffee bitterness after taste

good beer

 

Thanks for that. Helpful to know.

A couple of questions.

Now that you've had a few of these did you find your impressions changing across bottles?

Do you have a sense of how long it has been since you last had the older version?

 

Today’s first New Beer on this Sunday comes to me by way of the generous BA @Orca_Whale

Beer: Last Buffalo in the Park
Brewery: Funky Buddha (Oakland Park, FL)
ABV: 11%

Pouring this from a 22 oz. bottle into a snulip glass, this beer pours out like a dark brewed coffee, with little wood like highlights running throughout. It forms a thin crown of bubbles that are khaki in color and dissipate quickly.

The nose carries a stinging bourbon before even putting my nose to it. Putting my nose into it brings it with a more toned definition. There is freshly cut coconut mixing with brown sugar and that warming bourbon with a kiss of dark fruit. They achieved a very natural coconut; no suntan lotion smell.

The taste brings in the brown sugar just tangling with freshly toasted coconut all the way through. Slight milk chocolate, but just as an accent. It’s almost like a coconut pie drizzled with some chocolate. The bourbon is there with some dark fruit accents, but they didn’t let this stray too far away from what the base is.

The mouthfeel is smooth and doesn’t have a bourbon burn to it, just a nice, balanced warmness to let you know it’s there along with a dryness from the barrels. I would call it medium bodied.

Overall, this didn’t stray far from the base at all (despite the almost double ABV) but did add a new dimension to it with a few nice layers. After having this and Morning Wood last week it makes me wonder how long they age these in barrels. I would guess minimal aging (3-5 months) just because the way they are more accenting than anything. Which isn’t a bad thing to me, but just doesn’t morph the beer like you’d guess.

Cheers NBS, happy Mother’s Day and can wait to see what you bring to the share!

 

No, these beers drank consistently the same for my palate.

Just a month+ ago. I had two draft pints of the 'old' Victory Prima Pils on two separate drinking occasions.

Cheers!

 

A-Pours a hazy amber color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has mango and malt hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a mango and malt flavor
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A good IPA

 

Wow nice to see the thread in full swing. No work, no musicians to sing to, it's raining too hard to go out mushroom picking (so far, anyway), and that gives me a chance to join in my favorite Sunday pastime, drinking fine, new beer, and enjoying fine people doing the same. Am off to shop. Hopefully some great new beers will be in the fridge at my favorite local.

Love the idea of discussing stress, because I get it big time when I have to try and sing my lyrics to musicians. It's crippling, and makes my off key horror of a singing voice sound even worse. Happened just last Sunday, lol

I love the definition of stress given me by a long ago friend, Mr. Hubbs (of carrying the VW engine down the hill fame), RIP, who told me "Stress is the emotion caused by resisting the urge to smack the s*** out of some f****** asshole who desperately deserves it."

See ya inna bit.

 

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

Cheers!

 

Sixpoint ruby jammer
..cloudy red grapefruit color
..medium light body and carbonation
...aroma is red grapefruit and tangerine followed by some malt and yeast with citrus peel
..taste is tangerine and grapefruit followed by some citrus peel. Almost no alcohol, has a wine cooler feel about it where it's not very strong in any way. Leaves a lasting grapefruit peel bitterness aftertaste that lingersclosest gas station open near me