New Beer Sunday (Week 764)

Marnin' and happy New Cold-Brew Sunday, BAs. Slow weekend with nothing planned.

Chapman Crafted
Slow Riser- Red Ale with Coffee





Not as "Red" as I was expecting, actually quite a light amber color with some cloudiness to it. (Disclaimer*: I did pour some in a clear glass.) There is virtually zero foam to rise, perhaps intentional and suits the name perfectly. Needless to say, no foam, no lacing.

I'll sum up the aroma pretty quickly here: light roasted coffee grounds and a plain toasted bagel.

Coffee is the centerpiece, but by no means an intense brew at all. Subtle all around in fact, with the supporting rolls of bread and light caramel to round things out.

As indicated by the appearance, carbonation is almost non-existent. Seems like the nitro didn't exactly infuse, which is fine, considering it's a coffee brew. Light and watery feel, very well balanced, and disappears in a flash.

But that disappearing act isn't exactly indicative of simply being delicious demanding sip after sip. I'm noticing I'm just trying to get through it, but still enjoying it at the same time. Weird. This here is what I'll call a "light breakfast" beer. Not a heavy coffee presence not a rich and filling body. More of an easy, light roast kick-starter for a morning that I need to get shit done.

I gave Slow Riser a rating of 3.7 with an rDev of -5.6%. Cheers!

 

Guinness Extra Stout

Pours an almost black color with a foamy, bigger beige head.

Smells of old, stale hops and scorched malts among a drop of caramel.

Has a very light body with a present, slightly metallic carbonation, creating a short refreshment.

Tastes of toasty malts, water, a metallic carbonation and earthy bakers chocolate. Turns a tad creamier then, with equally more burned malts and toffee adding to the noteable carbonation. Finishes with a glimpse of dried hops, a little bit of licorice and cold ashes.

Quite light with a nice toasty malt foundation to it, which doesn‘t bring too much depth to the palate.

 

White Elm Casual Friday Imperial Stout, 12.5% ABV. Pours black and thick like oil, with a slight brown head. Nose is chocolate, coconut, and vanilla. Taste is strong sweet chocolate, coconut, burnt malt, with moderate bitterness. Mouthfeel is smooth and thick, with decent carbonation. Overall outstanding.

4.31/5 rDev +3.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

On a cool fall day, our first snow is melting off, high in the 40s. We're grilling lunch (burgers) and supper (steaks) today though, and right now we're cheering for the Vikings (to lose). This beer is real decent, but BA would be incredible. I'm really liking what White Elm has been doing.

 

Packer fan?

 

Have to be as I'm originally from Wisconsin.

 

NBS beer #1



The Space in Between-Blood Orange

Lawson's Finest Liquids
American IPA | 5% ABV

3.9/5 rDev 0% | Average: 3.9
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

canned 08-18-19

L-The beer pours clear and golden. There are some remains in the can which would cloud up the beer if I added them. The head is two fingers of bright white bubbles. The head recedes to a thin film, leaving spots of lacing.
S-The nose is ripe with blood orange. It has that sweet quality that you know is not going to translate to the palate.
T-As suspected the beer is not nearly as sweet as the nose. There is a juicy blood orange presence, but it's muted a tad by a lingering pithy bitterness of mild intensity.
F-Mouthfeel overall is on the lighter side of medium. Carbonation is also on the lighter side of medium. The beer finishes slightly dry.
O- An enjoyable fruited ale. It's better than the original in my opinion. That one lacked something. The blood orange fills that void somewhat. Worth a pickup if you like blood orange.

 

For my 2nd new brew of the day, have to thank @Brutaltruth for Wooden Cask Thin Blue Line Reserve Barrel Aged Coffee Stout: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/47598/425343/?ba=bluejacket74#review




I thought it was a solid overall brew, more barrel than coffee for me but I liked it. Definitely want to hit up their taproom one of these days! I'll be back on here in a while with another new beer, cheers!

 

Oktöberfest isn't over until @PatrickCT says so. Which is a false statement because it's already over, but what does he know? He's Irish and probably Canadian. But I'm still gonna enjoy this one from Connecticut regardless. NBSx2:

Firefly Hollow
Oktöberfest- Märzen style lager





A beautiful Märzen. Stunning clarity through a copper orange and brass highlighted body, with a proud white foam above. A lack of lacing is arguably the only fault, appearance wise.

One can only hope that this style rings true to the aromas of freshly baked bread and freshly cut dried grass. This is just that with an added later of pressed red apples.

The flavor mirrors those notes with apples leading the way into a spiced bread and grassy finish. There's a sudden and quickly dissipating well water mineral/ metallic aftertaste.

A little light feeling in both body and carbonation which makes this go down quickly. The subtle spiciness and creeping, yet still low bitterness balance out the initial sweetness.

This is a pretty good Märzen. The aroma and appearance take the cake, but you would hear no complaints from me if given the opportunity to hoist a couple hundred rounds of this during the festivities.

After my official review I gave Firefly Hollow's version of an O'Fest a rating of 3.95 with an rDev of -0.5%. Prost!

 

A-Pours a beautiful golden color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has floral, honey and rose hip hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a very well balanced floral, honey and rose hip flavors
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A great very well balanced Belgian Saison

 

Cheers to everyone!

Carton Nitro Basic Coffee

Imperial Cream Ale with Coffee and Autumnal Spices

The can suggests a starting temperature of 46F. I mixed a 37F can from my fridge with a cellar temp can ~55F.





Look: A beautifully bright, medium amber color. A lush, off white, densely packed foam tops the beer. No visible carbonation. A lot of lacing, accentuated by the sunlight on this perfect Fall day.



Smell: The Fall spices show nicely. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, clove, vanilla, cardamom, mace and orange zest are included in the beer. Not a great amount of coffee on the nose, but it’s present. Pumpkin bread.

Taste: The coffee really comes through on the flavor. It’s a little woody and nutty. Very smooth. Zero bitterness. You can guess the types of spices they use here, but no single one jumps out. There is some vanilla sweetness and spicyness but everything presents as one. It’s a bit bready. Pumpkin bread. Some of the Carton Coffee beers can be very sweet. This one dials it back a touch.

Feel: It’s a Nitro beer that is creamy, smooth and medium bodied. Semi-sweet up front and on the finish.

Overall: A welcomed addition to the Coffee lineup. Mostly because it’s 8% instead of 12%, but also due to the Fall spices. My interest in pumpkin beers has started to wane over the past year. I still like them, but I’m moving away from the in your face pumpkin spice. This beer offers a nice supplement.

The weather today is simply perfect. Cool in the shade and warm in the sun. Not much turning of the foliage yet, but a couple red accents evoke feelings of the season. In a very relaxed state of mind right now.







4.15/5 rDev -2.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

 

I don't have a bucket list, per se, there's more of a general feeling for what I'll be able to do once the kids are on their own. I'm hoping that in about 5 years I can take an early semi-retirement, move someplace less expensive, and see the world a little bit more. High on that list would be visiting Alaska and even Machu Picchu while I still have the ability and knees for it.

Today's beer seems to fit in with the holiday season:

Allagash Haunted House

Man is this luscious! Right off the bat the feel is this beer's calling card, velvety smooth and rich, with enough of a lean muscular frame and pop from the hops to keep it from getting overly bogged down. Coming from Allagash I can see expecting this porter (cuz that's what it really is ) to have a Belgian slant- but what's that old saying? "Trust the tale not the teller..." or something like that? So, yeah, to me this one's feeling English all the way.

Lots of dark chocolate and caramel dominate, but there's a very fruity undercurrent as well (dates, dried figs, browning apple) and a good complement of dried flowers and spice from the hops. And all of these elements manage to dovetail quite nicely with one another, and nothing gets out of hand. An absolutely splendid beer and real pleasure to drink, high A- (4.35).

 

For my last new beer of the day, had some BrewDog USA Zombie Cake Praline Chocolate Porter: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16315/379834/?ba=bluejacket74#review




I liked it, worth picking up especially if you're into sweeter tasting porters. I'll probably finish up my posting on WBAYDN but I'll be back later today and tomorrow morning to check out everyone else's new brews!

 

Happy New Beer Sunday!
I'm on the last few years in my career before retirement. I have a constantly changing list of places I'd like to visit, which is too fluid to call a bucket list. For now, I'm just hanging on by the skin of my teeth, keeping all my commitments sorted out.
Even with cooler evenings it is still summer-like here. I had to haul out my extension ladder and replace some security lights on the house. Wrestling the ladder was pretty hot work, so I was in the mood for something refreshing.

Left Hand Brewing Flamingo Dreams Nitro
Magnificent looking fruited ale. Hazy red with abundant pink head. Smells great, too. I can't help comparing raspberry ales to Founder's Rübæus and this is much less intense in flavor and feel. I would like to try Flamingo Dreams on CO2. With nitro it suited me very well this afternoon.

3.73/5 rDev -3.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

 

#2 from my deep south largesse...

SweetWater 420 Extra Pale Ale
IBU: 39
ABV: 5.4%



Look is amber-yellow, slightly hazy (perhaps chill haze) topped by a tall, thick, creamy white head. The head recedes very slowly, leaving behind thick lacing. Well carbonated.

Aroma is tropical fruit, citrus, floral, very inviting.

Taste is like the aroma, tropical fruit, nicely bitter, citrus, grapefruit, apricot, solid grainy malt, herbal, some spice. Very well-done combination and well balanced.

Mouth feel is medium with good carbonation tingling the tongue.

Overall, a skillfully made, enjoyable, refreshing pale ale with a lot going in the flavor to keep it interesting.

(And, as is typical for classic APAs, underrated on this site.)

L: 3.75 | S: 3.75 | T: 4.0 | F: 3.75 | O: 4.0 | BA rating of: 3.90

 

Good afternoon NBS, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the weekend once again. Thanks to @lordofthewiens for today's introduction. This was a pretty wild and crazy weekend. I went over to my old college friends house on Friday night to play some DDR/Rhythm video games. Then I stayed up all night and one of my my other friends was feeling suicidal, and came over to hang out. We ended up going out to the bar around noon to play pool for 4 hours. Then went to Parkers Hilltop brewery for dinner. Got into an unfortunate Pedestrian accident when we left, 2 HS teens ran directly in front of my car without looking anywhere. Both of them were okay in the end, with no major injuries. Aside from the shitty incident, probably the best weekend I've had in 3 years.

Beer:

Mikkeller SD Pardon Art Jargon. Fantastic NEDIPA. Lasting rocky head retention/thick foamy lacing. Aromas and flavors of huge tangerine, orange juice, red grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, pear, pineapple, apricot, passion fruit, papaya, mango, honeydew melon, coconut, guava, blueberry, gooseberry, citrus peel/zest, and light peppercorn/pine hops; with moderate wheat, cracker, white bread dough, biscuit, and light honey/toasted malts; and herbal, floral, grassy hop earthiness. Light pine, citrus peel/zest, herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; very creamy/bready/grainy malts, some sticky hops, and light resins/rinds in the mouthfeel. Lightly increasing lingering bitter dryness; no cloying/astringency. Super smooth/soft, minimal warming 8.1%. Fantastic Citra, Mosaic, Cashmere profile. Extremely juicy, vibrant, and fairly dank/earthy hops; with a nice sized wheat/oat/malt backbone. Light residual sweetness with lingering resin dryness. Spot on style, loved the hop profile as expected. 4.23


Cheers

 

Allagash - Haunted House

Allagash is implying that this is in some way an extension of their “House Beer,” but in the form of a hoppy porter. This beer is a success. The head is wonderful and leaves a creamy body to the beer. There’s a bitter dark chocolate quality, a touch of coffee, and a complex fruity architecture to the whole thing. So far, this is the most satisfying beer I’ve featured today. I don’t know if we’ll see this in cans again next year, but it should become a repeat fall seasonal for Allagash. Killer beer.

My post echos @TongoRad ’s take on it. I wrote my post before reading his.

 

Two Roads Ok2berfest.

3.68/5 rDev -1.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

A light pour from a 16-oz. can (PKG14AUG19) is all that's needed for a fat finger of off-white foam with a hint of orange, long retention and irregular blotches of lace. Cloudy and semi-opaque pale-orange color with orange-amber highlights.

Smells of bready malt, wheat and sweet malt with faint herbal hops and IPL-like fruitiness.

Light taste of balanced malt and juice; apple, orange and lemon. Toasted malt and wheat are noticeable along with caramel sweetness. Semi-sweet with low bitterness throughout.
The finish is short and mild; the sweet, bitter and citrus flavors linger briefly.

Light body with strong carbonation, smooth easy drinker with hidden alcohol.
This is not a Marzen as stated on the label. This is a N.E. style Festbier at best.
Imperial Lager-like, enjoyable as is.