New Beer Sunday (Week 762)

I was just in there yesterday, and they're still getting all of the beer from the mothership. They're planning to start brewing here in about two weeks, and all of the beers brewed here will stay local, like some beers are Big Lake only. You should be able to get Antsy, though not in the Big Lake taproom currently.

 

Evangelion IX: Matarael (Ghost 763)



A-Pours a yellow golden color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has pleasant citrus hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a pleasant citrus flavor
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A good IPA

 

Here's the second brew of the day, which was given to me for my birthday on Thursday by the two people who were helping me teach a week-long class in Chicago. So very nice of them!

Deschutes - Black Butte XXX (30th Birthday Reserve)



Had this near Pittsburgh, PA from a 22oz bottled on 2018-06-14. My overall rating is 4.34

A - Opaque very-dark brown with a 1-finger tan head and decent lace.

S - Cocoa, semi-dark chocolate, molasses, some black licorice, medium roasted grain with a hint of char. Bourbon and rum barrels?

T - Medium-heavy roasted grain, caramel, molasses, dark chocolate, bourbon, marshmallow (vanilla), dried fig, dried cherry, salt, oak, earthy spice, some whiskey heat and sweetness. Finishes with some residual semi-dark chocolate sweetness, moderating roasted-grain bitterness. It increases in complexity as it warms.

M - Medium-heavy body and light-medium carbonation. Smooth. Finishes more dry than sticky.

O - A delicious, Imperial Porter. Well-worth seeking out!

 

Awesome. It’s great when NBS has beers like this since it usually leans so heavily towards new craft.

 

Thanks for the revue. I had to put on some NRBQ after reading, but I wish I could open that HFS beer to go with it.

 

Time to give another chance to a style I really have a lot of misgivings with... but in the interest of being open-minded (or trying to be, anyway), I will try this...



A peach/apricot milkshake IPA from one of the foremost producers of the style, Captain Lawrence. They also have a series called Smoothie Dreams, and I don't really get what the difference is between that series and Soft Swerve, but CL has this issue at times. They do another series called Powder Dreams that utilizes Cryo hops, but also another IPA series called Tears of Green that's like... just revolving hops? They're just doing way too many concurrent series; it's insanely confusing and not intuitive whatsoever. Anyway, this pours as an opaque, peach-juice colored pale ale with a thick head that quickly dissipates down to about a half-finger, leaving behind some awesome lacing. This is definitely nice looking, I will give them that!

The nose has that funky apricot/pit fruit smell to it that you might love or hate, plus I can definitely pick up the vanilla elements and a bit of earthy and grassy-neutral hops. Hmm... I had an extremely bad milkshake IPA yesterday at an outdoor Oktoberfest-ish event in Boston, so I'm giving this a chance to once again redeem the style for me somewhat. There's a slight plastic-y note and... otherwise not a ton going on. Shrug... I still don't really get it. Honestly, Central Waters' Strawberry Shoppe is the best beer I've had in this sub-style because it got the Mosaic hop character to meld very well with the fruit and lactose stuff going on. Doesn't seem like much is going to happen with this one...

The flavor profile is basically just peaches'n'cream but a bit muted and ineffectual. Slight biting bitterness toward the finish. Excellent structure, honestly... it's just the right amount of carbonation, and the vanilla/lactose rounds everything out quite well, but there isn't a lot to bite into here. It doesn't go hard enough in the fruit direction, or the hops are really overcompensating... or... something? I don't know what the issue is, but it really consistently seems like this style is not worth the effort it seems to take to make when the end result isn't spectacular 90% of the time. Still not understanding why people care about milkshake IPAs.

 

Fingers crossed for PA for property tax abatement. It's wrong that people can be taxed out of their homes, which they've owned for years but no longer have the corresponding income to keep up with the increases.

 

I had last year's Winter Landscape and really enjoyed it but haven't had one of this series since then. It's about a 6 hour drive for me to the brewery, which I've only done once but it was well-worth the trip. I stocked up. Considering another trip for sure.

 

None of this makes sense, a 0 IBU IPA From Hardywood Park with Mosaic and Wai-Iti Lupulin powder.

L: Pours a slightly off orange with a big pillowly, slowly fading head. The head leaves some nice lacing around the glass. 4/5
S: Hints of lemon and orange peel, lemon, and sweet malts. 3.75/5
T: Sweet fruit and hops with a large amount of malt flavor. 3.5/5
F: Medium-high carbonation with a nice smooth creamy mouthfeel. 4/5
O: Slightly better than average DIPA, that seems to be missing something on the nose and the taste. 3.75/5 for a BA generated 3.72

 

Good Sunday afternoon, New Beer Samplers and commentators. It's another sunny, mild weekend in North Jersey I intended to review a heavy, blended Stout today but it's still a tad warm for that so I'm instead trying a new-to-me Märzen: Copper Legend from Jack's Abby Brewing. It's color is a light honey-amber and the taste is on the drier side. There's the obligatory toasted brown bread and caramel, for sure, but it doesn't dominate the flavor profile. One other feature is a fairly high level of carbonation. I enjoyed it but not as much as some of the other Märzens I've been drinking this season. For example, I really like this year's batch of Great Lakes Oktoberfest and some of our locals have been outstanding. Here's my full review:

3.85/5 rDev +1.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Canned on 8/20/2019. Poured into a seidel glass. It pours a hazy, bright honey-amber color with a thin, milk-white head and film of lacing. On the nose there is bready malt, caramel, nuts, and whiffs of butter and spice. It it opens fairly dry; the toasted brown bread and caramel are evident but it's not overly sweet. In fact, the notes of pepper and spice dominate mid-palate. Although not bitter, I can taste the hops at the finish. This Märzen is medium-bodied and well-carbonated with an appropriate 5.7% ABV. Overall, Copper Legend will please those who don't like sweet, bready, Märzens. The dry taste and effervescent feel is ideal on an early autumn afternoon.

I hope you're all enjoying your new beer(s) today. I always enjoy reading the reviews. Cheers, NBS!

 

New to me beer #1...probably not new to you



Sierra Nevada / Bitburger - Oktoberfest (2019)

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
German Märzen / Oktoberfest | 6% ABV

3.92/5 rDev +0.3% | Average: 3.91
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

L- The beer pours a beautiful clear dark amber. The head is two fingers of tan that recedes to a thin film and ring. Lacing is spotty.
S-Light malt sweetness is the strongest element, followed closely by a balancing earthy bitterness.
T-Taste like the nose leans just slightly sweet, but not overly so. Earthy hop presence can be detected early in the sip, but lose the battle. They struck a really good balance here.
F-Mouthfeel overall is on the lighter side of medium. Carbonation is also on the lighter side of medium. The beer finishes just slightly dry.
O- A well balanced, light, and drinkable Oktoberfest. It's well worth the purchase. Recommended.

 

Thank you. He has fit in seamlessly and is just a sweetheart.

 

Alright, two more today! The second-to-last on my end is the continuation of a generally-great series of fruited sours from Banded Brewing out of Maine.



Maine is well known for their blueberries, so this is exciting to me. I have really enjoyed most of the Charms & Hexes series, especially the passion fruit/guava one and the blood orange from earlier this year. Let's see how this brewery does with local fruit!

Pours a pale reddish color with a blush wine-like overtone to the hue. Deft head that builds quietly and slowly but also recedes rather quickly to a tiny quarter-finger on top of the hazy beer below. Not much to the pour, but this series has never been gorgeous other than the coloration of the beers themselves (which obviously vary depending on the fruit addition).

The nose is slightly funky and almost... savory? I actually pick up a smoky note here, too... like a Lichtenhainer weiss or something? So interesting. It's a light note, but the blueberries themselves aren't prominent whatsoever, so maybe my brain is filling in the space. I never noticed this before with this series, but the ingredients list (which is, of course, something I wish more breweries partook in) states that there is lemon juice AND lemon zest added here. Perhaps something about that aspect is doing something weird here, but... hmm. I can't say I dislike how this smells, but it's not as "blueberry" as expected. However, it could also be because the blueberries are lowbush blueberries (the official state fruit of Maine, for the record) or something that they seem so different to me when compared to the typical stemmy, grassy note I typically pick up from this fruit in beer.

The flavor profile is similarly odd. It's by far not as sour as most other C&H entries, and the bready graininess seems oddly prominent, but the lemon zest acts as an acidic balance and helps things along. Sure there's some tartness but... also some smokiness? So I wasn't wrong with my noticing that element in the nose. Could this have some Brett going on? Most C&H beers I've had have been pretty pure and untainted by wild yeast, but if these are wild blueberries, I suppose it's possible this got incidentally/accidentally inoculated with some airborne Brett. Brettanomyces lambicus is a funky and smoky strain of Brett, so... look I'm not saying definitively that this has a Brett infection going on, but there's a lot of circumstantial evidence pointing to it being possible (maybe even probable), and I consider myself very good at tasting beer at this point. If you're looking for a blueberry sour that represents the generic blueberry flavor you think about when you think of the fruit, you could do much better than this. However, this beer is quite interesting in its own right. It's just... not a clean beer. I'm almost certain something is up here. Hmmm...

 

My choir director's son lives in Wyoming and attended a wedding over the weekend. The ceremony was held outdoors at a beautiful mountain resort and in the middle of festivities . . . they got their first snowfall of the year.

It's still in the 90s around here.




Lightly hazy golden color with good cap and lacing.

Slightly tart vinous aroma of spiced plum. I definitely get the plum.

Taste at first is more tart than in the scent yet it quickly resolves into a plummy roundness that emphasizes the fruit. Spicy coriander adds an edge yet tartness continues to sing the high notes all the way through. I don't really taste salt and wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been listed on the label.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

Overall it's a tartly refreshing brew that has a degree of complexity.

 

Good later afternoon, NBS. I'm back with another beer that's been reviewed earlier today. This one comes to you via me by way of @VABA who graciously gifted me a bottle to try. The GF says she's seen some chatter on the groups she follows that people aren't impressed with Bell's Double Two Hearted Ale. I sort of figure it's gonna be hard to improve on the original, but let's dig in and see what initial impressions are:


An amber body with burnt orange shading to it. The pours were small, but a modest head still formed on the lighter pour. A solid sheet of it sticks to the glass as I drink, as well.

Nose has some sweetness countered by a mostly pine hop note. A couple more sniffs shows a sweet citrus note in there as well. The alcohol isn't entirely hidden here, resulting in a little bit of a Pine Sol effect, but not an off-putting one.

Taste starts as expected, an opening sweet malt, though the citrus is easily more evident in the taste. The beer is medium bodied and a little sticky. The alcohol adds some tingle through the middle when the pine starts to take over. A resinous ending comes with a little mint numbness (possibly aided by the ABV).

Well, this is mostly what I expected it to be - similar to the original but amped up on sweetness and booze and likely feel. The bitterness was a bit of a surprise, as I sort of figured it might be less noticeable against the extra malt. It came through nicely, however. Even with that, though, I believe I am in the camp that would prefer the single Two Hearted - especially if I were going for two or more.

The GF says it's pretty tasty, but I will tell you on her scale of similar sounding plaudits, this isn't the most glowing of her reviews. She would give it a "good enough to get again" but not as high as "have to get whenever found." She also wanted to thank @VABA for the opportunity. Cheers!

Edit: I just looked up my review of Two Hearted. It's three years old and scored significantly lower than what I have thought about the beer more recently. Once Bell's returns to Virginia I'll have to revisit that review.

 

Happy Sunday NBS players. A sunny, warm, and beauty of a day here on the island. Worked most of the day but now I’m catching up on nfl Sunday and cracking some beers.

My new beer today is Start To Fall, an Oktoberfest, from Moustache brewing. The brew checks in at 5.9% abv and has no canning date.

A semi-dark copper/ amber color on the pour. Murky clarity and a fast white head of bubbles. The nose is rather pungent with malt. The initial sips hit with lots of bready malts upfront. I get a definite stringent and semi-dirty note on the flow and the finish is a bit light. Notes of caramel, toast, brown sugar, and grains. The mouth feel is light-moderate. It drinks dry but that rather stringent flavor is rather off-putting and it doesn’t have that clean flavor pop.

Overall, one of the poorer examples I have had this year. Gonna score it in the 3 range at best,

 

Not a great example of the style but goes well with football.


3.53/5 rDev -4.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

An average pour from a 16-oz. can produced a finger of light tan soapy-creamy foam with short retention and no lace. Deep dark reddish brown, semi-opaque and cloudy.

Bready malt, both sweet and toasted greet the nose with faint old world hops and a Scotch Ale smell. Toasted wheat and a general grainy smell in the back, these follow to the taste.

Caramel malt 1st then some roasted flavor with fresh-ripe and baked stone fruit and a slight fake butter taste. Hops are mild, some bitterness comes from toasted wheat. Semi-sweet and mildly bitter, multiple malt flavors compete and dominate the taste. The finish is quick and neutral with a short spicy/bitter aftertaste.

Light body despite the color and maltiness, plenty of carbonation throughout. Alcohol is well hidden, a faint astringency haunts the body. Almost smooth, a bit grainy and course.

States Marzen on the label, smells of Scotch Ale, looks like a cloudy Dunkel Lager/Brown Ale and has bitterness like a Dark Wheat Ale. I can't give this beer true to style points yet I enjoyed it because I like Scotch Ales and darker beers. The butter taste does not belong.

 

Good afternoon, all, and Happy New New Glarus Spotted Cow Sunday! My new Spotted Cow for today is Spotted Cow Grand Cru, a farmhouse ale that the brewer calls an imperial version of its flagship Spotted Cow. This raised the question in my mind as to whether the flagship beer is actually a cream ale, as it is classified on BA. Here's a look at it:



Very similar in appearance to its big brother, the only perceptible difference being that it is a bit lighter in color. The brewer's notes state: "Brewed with flaked barley and the finest Wisconsin malts." It is bottle conditioned, giving it a slightly hazy appearance. The taste is fruity and a little sweet. Light to medium in body, with a little fruity sweetness carrying over to the finish. There isn't a hint of yeast funk anywhere, as far as I can tell. Is it a cream ale? I'll leave that to the experts. Now on to the imperial version, Spotted Cow Grand Cru:



From the brewer's notes:

4.13/5 (rDev +3%)
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Review here.