New Beer Sunday (Week 751)

You should know me well enough now to know what music I listen to. Closest I get to punk is Metalcore, Deathcore, and Crossover Thrash

 

Yup. I'm aware. Still, might want to check out some insane bass riffs. Freeman has been killing it since a teenager in Op Ivy then Rancid. As a fan of musical talent, I think anyone would agree despite musical preferences. Cheers

 

The Civil Life - Vienna Lager

Continuing from The Angel & The Sword is this Vienna lager from The Civil Life. It is made with “Bavarian lager yeast,” Vienna malt, German Pils, Caramunich, and Carafa malts, and Hallertau hops.

Despite the ingredient difference, this feels a lot like a cleaner version of The Angel & The Sword. It looks like that beer but just much clearer. It’s also dry, but not quite as rich. This one is toasty and heavy with melanoidins. Perhaps the similarities are an indication of the impact of process over ingredients. Very nice.

@FBarber

 

Congrats on the quitting smoking! Did that in 2001 (mostly-I'll smoke a good cigar about 2-4 times a year, generally when my Dad, my brother and his father-in-law are all in the same place and are mutually poor influences on one another) and have not regretted it. Driving to Idaho once a week to buy a carton of smokes was an idiotic waste of money and gas. Plus, I didn't stink from cigarettes and my palate was much improved.

 

No matter to what degree proper English is used, or to whom it's directed, I believe we are subject to the truth of Shaw's observation that the only problem with communication is the illusion it has occurred.

 

Can't remember my score for it but I seem to remember liking it, like I tend to do for all Block 15 beers that come my way.

 

Good evening NBS
Late night entry after a 6 hour drive from northeast Indiana to our home in southwest Indiana. Great visit with mom & dad, my grandparents, sister and baby sister's family (BIL,1 & 2 year old nephews). An Indiana beer...

The review:
12oz canned 6/12/19 (one month ago) poured into a tulip glass at fridge temp 8.5% ABV 20 IBU. The beer pours bright medium brown in color with ruby highlights and short lived light brown head. The head fizzles away to a pencil thin ring and a few stray miniature bubbles. The aroma is rich with cocoa, red grapes and a touch of alcohol. The taste is some cola and cocoa like the base Deduction, with red wine, slight oak and some earthy notes. Little bitterness, but not sweet. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a dry finish. Overall, good. I don't feel the wine barrel adds as much depth to the base dubbel that the bourbon barrel edition. Worth a try and enjoyable, but not a huge step away from base Deduction at twice the price.

This is the 5th dubbel I've reviewed from Taxman. I'm lucky to have the variety, if nothing else. Most of their beers are good to excellent and their pricing is fantastic.

@cjgiant, on the subject of closed closed breweries, we have one here, but it's significant. Other than a brewpub pizza place, Tinman brewing was the first brewery to package beer here in Evansville since Evansville brewery closed in the 90s. They had a great hook: ordinary beer does not compute. Billboards all over town for a month before they opened. I bought a 4 pack of 16 ounce cans (probably 10 years ago, way ahead of the curve) of every one of their base beers as soon as they were available. The beer was not good. They actually expanded and opened a second facility in Kokomo, that must produce decent beer because they continue while the original space here has reopened 3 times and failed every time. They sold to a private equity firm last year.

All that said, we have 4 breweries still in operation here in the 4th largest metro area in Indiana. Sadly, I would close all four if the price of nationally distributed craft could drop a quarter a six pack. It's that bad. I keep hoping someone gets it right. Taxman is 2 hours away and the only Hoosier brewery south of Indy that I support at all.

 

Hello New Beer Sunday!!!

Another stupid long work weekend in the books, and gearing up fo a more insane work week this coming week. By the time it's done, I'll have been at work around 74 hours next week.

I am so looking forward to this September. We're not going to have the restaurant open on Sunday anymore. It's just not worth it, because we're not making money on Sunday, and also, I just can't do 7 days a week there anymore.

That does mean I can enjoy New Beer Sunday more, and just get some much needed time to rest. It also means a road trip the first Sunday, to the north shore to fill up some growlers at a brewery, come October, will no longer be able to fill growlers anymore. Might as well get one final use out of them from their intended source.

Now to the question of the day. @MNAle mentioned one that closed that focused on politics. I actually liked going there, because some friends live close to where said brewery was. I didn't agree with said politics, but I did have a good time there picking up some beer to share. Though, if I knew all the crazy issues going on, I probably would have never gone there. I would have just stuck with Flat Earth/St. Paul Brewing which isn't too much farther from them.

Locally, to me, in my central Minnesota home, there was a brewery that closed - Urban Lodge. Their reason for closing was due to being sold, because the owner had some health issues, and needed to get out. Too bad, because their beer was quite good. The place is now a Mexican restaurant. The brewing equipment is still there. Hopefully they will start making beer again.

Quite a few years ago there was O'Hara's brewpub, and it was later McCans Brewpub. Both closed, for different reasons, though, their beer was sub par. Later on Lupine Brewing opened up there, but moved to Delano, MN. Now the equipment that was in that building, has been moved to the newest local brewery - Pantown Brewing, just a few blocks away, and they are producing some good stuff. I do go there often, and I think I've added all of their brews to this site.

We are also the home of Granite City Brewpub. If you've got a Granite City in your area, it started in St. Cloud, MN - The Granite City. It's still going strong here.

But, enough local history, on to the beer.



It is from another local - Beaver Island Brewing in St. Cloud. We've got a 750ml growler full of Common Roots. It's a California Common beer, and it clocks in at 4.8%.

I haven't had too many of this style, so I really don't know how it fits into it. It's going down pretty easy, on this hot, humid day. There's a bit of caramel to it. There's also a decent hop to it.

I'm liking it, and I'm surprised. I haven't been too big on Beaver Island. Some of their beers have been total misses with me. I stopped in to pick up some growlers last night to take to a bonfire at a friend's place. They now have 20 beers on tap. I was shocked. I had their Rox beer last night for the first time, and was quite impressed.

I think I'll be going to Beaver Island a bit more often.

Review:

3.67/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Pours a fairly clear amberish color when poured from the 750ml growler. I didn't intend to have an aggressive pour - the growler was filled to the top - , but it poured a 4 finger, off white head. The head retention is decent, and there's some lacing on the glass as the head dissipates.
The nose has just a slight caramel aroma. Very slight aroma. Not much else there.
Taste - There's an interesting hop bitterness there, that I wasn't expecting. There's a caramel sweetness also that is mixed into it.
The body is lighter, but not watery.
Decent lower ABV beer. good for a hot day. Somewhat refreshing.


Ok, I'll see if I can pull another beer off after this growler. I'm almost done, so I'll know in a bit.

 

Greetings, fellow NBSers on this (for me) New Barleywine Sunday,


Pretty nice day here in Spokanistan. We're still getting the odd, random 20 minute bout of rain (usually when I've left the windows down on my car) that isn't predicted, and instead of the predicted 90°, it was a (to me) much more reasonable 82° today.

Haven't been doing much beer drinking this past week, but I did check out a bar/pizzeria yesterday after a friend and former co-worker invited me to lunch to catch up. New to me while there was Juicy IPA from Ninkasi, which looked like a hazy and was pleasant to drink but was otherwise not particularly memorable. Much more fun was playing with her dog Zeke afterwards at my friend's nearby house, a Great Dane-German Shepherd mix that immediately found a home in the pantheon of coolest dogs I have known.

Today, I'm hitting a bourbon barrel aged barleywine courtesy of @ovaltine:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22072/72933/?ba=woemad#review
This is delicious now, but I think it would be amazing on a cold night after dinner by a fire. Man, I wish something like this was brewed locally!

 

3.7/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

Canned: ?
Look is almost clear, with little head, and virtually no lacing. Smell is of light berry, fruits light malts. Taste is fairly flat for the style. I'm getting a little stone fruit, and little else. MF is light, almost watery. Very little bitterness or carbonation. I'm not sure what to think about this one. It has little flavor, and is borderline boring. I have no idea how old it is, so maybe that's the issue here. Another negative, and the reason I'll most likely never revisit New Trail.. I had no idea what the ABV is. I shouldn't have to look that info up online.

A note I did not put in the review. I was visiting my brother in another town. When I looked for beers to take with me (he drinks BMC), I did not bother taking NT, because I did not know how strong it is.

 

My question is:

How is it possible to have a Belgian-style dubble aged in moscatel barrels?

 

Their Abbey Series always impresses me. This one was no exception. Now that you mention it, not many Block 15 beers I can think of that have disappointed. Cheers!

 

La Cumbre - Project Dank
7.5% ABV IPA
Canned 06/05



Pours clear golden yellow with sticky white lacing (4.5)

The nose is dank weed, melon, doughy malt, and tangerine (4.25)

The taste is similar. Orange, tangerine, melon, honey, dough, and dank bitterness (4.25)

The mouthfeel is medium+ for the style (4.25)

Overall, an excellent West Coast IPA (4.5) - 4.32/5

 

I even text with proper grammar and punctuation. I'm on a quest at work to end the misuse of the reflexive pronoun.

 

Too evil for my liking!
Cheers!!!!!

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30437/384825/



16 oz. can.
Moderate to vigorous pour yields 1/2 inch light tan head over a dark brown, near black body with minimal lacing. Nose of dark roasted malt, coffee, and brown sugar. Taste of buckets of brown sugar and "coffee light & sweet." Yikes! Way too sweet for me! Nice feel and overall, I won't be finishing this cup of brown sugar. Cheers?

 

Pipeworks Select Schwarzbier

I'm doing some Late Night NBS tonight and I'm really enjoying this lager. It's an opaque black. Nice head. Smells of cocoa. Sticky body. Tastes of unsweetened chocolate, roast, char. There's a slight tangy and fruity character that provides interest and a little balance. Finish is bitter. The high ABV (6.3) is felt but doesn't take away from things. Sure to please folks who like a big but recognizable Schwarzbier. This one doesn't pull its punches. I like the can label.

 

Howdy NBS. Been a while since I posted, and now that I am sitting down enjoying the second beverage courtesy of @Ice_Cream_And_IPAs , figured I would jot my ramblings down.

Alvarado Street, Burial, and Other Half - Just Cool It

L: Pours light straw yellow in appearance with perfectly clear appearance. No head from the pour with bar-none lacing.
S: Grainy with hints of lemon, black pepper and coriander.
T: Strong typical Southern Hemisphere flavors, being forward with an earthy dankness. Tons of citrus with grainy foundation. Simple and easy taste-wise with more orange and citrus flavor the more I drink it.
F: Light in weight, seemingly heavier in body. Low carbonation for what it is, nice feel and smooth to drink with crisp finish.
O: I am enjoying it, and it is tasting splendid on this warm day. Somewhat high standards going into it given the collab between Alvarado Street, Burial and Other Half, and it came out on top. Not sure what an Italian-style New Zealand pilsner is, but I would drink again.

3.91/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Alvarado Street & Burial Brewing - Juice Fatigue



Looking at the hop roster of this beer, with big names like Simcoe, Centennial, and Columbus, I know this will have a strong hoppy OG flavor, something that I have been missing in the midst of NEIPAs. Anyways, I am excited to try this brew out. Let's get it started.
L: Pours a straw yellow in color with minimal head formation on the pour. Moderate amounts of lacing left on the glass, with a foamy ring that persists around the perimeter. It has an unfiltered appearance, and most certainly is not completely transparent.
S: Simple and straight forward- grass, lemon and grapefruit with semi-sweet bready malt undertones.
T: Really delicious. Citrus up front with a dank and earthy finish with plenty of citrus flavor that carries over. Malt flavor is detected but not as prominent as the aroma would lend. These classic hops implemented really sine through, making this a delicious beverage.
F: Medium in body and in weight, with moderate carbonation for the style. No booze presence, perfect fizzle on the tongue. All around great feel.
O: It is refreshing, bold, and tasty. The hop profile really compliments the rest of the beer and the malt presence is not over bearing. Truth be told, I would easily drink this again, and if given the opportunity, I would buy more. Tasting exceptionally well after a day in the hot sun.
4.29/5 rDev +1.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Cheers NBS

 

In from work and finally able to post a couple NBS beers. Enjoyed this one courtesy of @Buck89 when I got in from work last night(technically Sunday).

Bearded Iris Rat-A-Tat
Poured dark brown/black with a finger of mocha head.
Definitely getting barrel on the nose, if I didn't know better I would have sworn apple brandy barrels(20 year Pappy and 13 year Family Reserve). Roasty, chocolatey, some fruitiness.
Taste follows with the bourbon and rye spiciness from the barrels. As it warmed chocolate and fruit(Green apple? Cherry?) came forward but still getting lots of oaky vanilla and spicy barrel notes.
Medium body with good carb levels.
Overall this was an excellent beer, barrel notes were pretty prominent but I feel if you are aging in(and advertising) Pappy barrels then the barrel should shine.

 

Enjoying this one from @Coronaeus tonight. Harry Porter and the Bourbon Barrel Aged Vanilla Bean.

Pours dark brown with two fingers of khaki head.
Smells of chocolate, caramel, roasty malt, light barrel presence.
Taste follows chocolate, caramel, vanilla, oaky bourbon, roasty malts, coffee.
Medium to full body, smooth and creamy.
Overall a great BA porter, well balanced.

 

That’s awesome