New Beer Sunday (Week 767)

There are no immediate plans to step down. Our host today likely was unaware that the tradition of the thread has it historically being kicked off by one of the core hosts. A little shake up on occasion never hurt anyone

Will be back with a new beer in a little while.

 

Thanks for taking one for the team. I saw that one and thought to maself, "Ah, Hell No!" And you confirmed it for me. I'm all for the adventurous spirit of trying out SOME wacky ideas, but Jaegermeister?!?!? I'm out.

 

Happy NBFWS! (New Break From Working Sundays)

 

Agreed about the hurting no one, thanks for the note.
Cheers

 

I managed to get a new beer, kinda by default I guess. It was destined for a BIF box but the can was badly dented and I was afraid to stress the can.

So a new brewery and beer to me from Sycamore Brewing and their Wet Wet hopped ipa. They use Michigan Crystal and Chinook hops and it’s about 34 days old and a 6.5 abv. Turbulent, pours nice, creamy head, nose is fruit, with Chinook I was expecting a pine forest. Not bracingly bitter, but it’s not a NEIPA juice bomb, so it’s balanced, and nicely bitter. Chinook hops is one of my favorites and I was expecting more pine, more dank, earthy, I’m not familiar with Crystal so perhaps that’s the dominate hop. Well worth a try, and it’s actually a fairly well done beer, I’d buy it again, and I’d experiment with their beers. A 3.75 kinda beer, the finish knocks it down a bit, finishes a bit sourish at its death which throws me a bit. I really harp on how a beer finishes with a score, this beer is very nice at the start and mid palate, it carries everything nicely. Just that last note is a bit off, it’s minor, but it’s still a thing.

 

A-Pours a hazy light brown color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has pumpkin hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a pumpkin flavor
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A decent pumpkin ale

 

Reuben's Brews take on the Oktoberfest theme (brewery photo used with permission).




Clear golden color with good cap and lacing.

Aroma of sweet malt with floral, spicy hops.

Taste is cleanly, richly malty in a restrained way that approaches elegance. Hops are spicy with floral overtones and present in just the right amount to balance the malt. Complex and delicious.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

Very nice surprise here, much more substance than our usual fest/oktoberfest beers.

 

Happy Sunday, NBS crew! @Orca_Whale sent me this wishlist beer as part of the Savages BIF. One of my oldest wants, so beyond excited to crack it open.

Atrial Rubicite - Jester King
BA raspberry sour - 5.5% abv
Vintage 2019
Score: 4.53 (-1.9% rDev)



Review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24018/94634/?ba=CanConPhilly#review

Synopsis:
This beer captures the essence of a raspberry more than any other. This isn’t an extract or an artificially sweetened addition. It’s just tons of real, slightly-rotting, tasty-AF tart raspberry flesh. Moderately sour, with a very present oak barrel. Pours like blood too, so seasonally appropriate. Thanks again Bill!

 

Yesterday was a beautiful day, so my wife and I went to our Farmers Market in downtown Las Cruces. We had a great time wandering around, then enjoyed a beer at Little Toad Creek and watched people walk by. On the way home we stopped at one of the markets and found a supply of Tofurky (for those of you who don't know, Tofurky is a stuffed vegan roast popular over the holidays). Our next stop was my local beer store and they had some Celebration waiting for me, as well as a couple Clown Shoes offerings I haven't tried yet. I am always amazed at how many Clown Shoe beers make their way to this part of the country, and am happy to see them.
My New Beer for today is Apple Baron from Clown Shoes. It is a Wee Heavy aged in apple brandy barrels. This one was canned 8/26/19 and is 11% ABV.
A pretty color, I think I would call it a pinkish copper color. An inconsequential head and no lace.
Aroma of booze, caramel, and fruit.
The taste is best described as eating a caramel apple and taking sips of brandy.
Boozy, a thinner mouthfeel than I thought there would be.
I liked it.

 

Funny read...But Cabrini Green?!? OOOfa

 

A-Pours a light amber golden color with a slight head and lacing
A-Aroma has malt and lemongrass hints
T-The taste follows the nose with a pleasant malt and lemongrass flavor
M-A light bodied well carbonated beer
O-A good Lager

 

Save space for another beer today...

 

Poured into a 16 oz can shaped pint glass, canned on 10/21/19. Pours a very attractive dark brown with a 2 plus finger sticky dark tan head that leaves thin streaks of lace, with solid retention. 4

Smell is chai, cinnamon, vanilla bean, cocoa nibs, and some coffee grounds. 4.25

Taste immediately the chai, cinnamon, hit the palate, with cocoa, vanilla, and expresso in the really nice and warming finish. 4.25

Mouthfeel is bigger than average, plenty of carbonation, a tad dry, and at 6.5% drinks a little bigger in body and flavor for me. 4

Overall this is really nice, I will try and score another 4 pack really a nice beer on a cool day. 4

 

Surly Barrel-Aged Darkness 2016


Pours pitch black with almost no head to speak of at all.


Smells of milk chocolate, spicy oak barrel, toasted grains and molasses. Provides a light, pleasant burn in my nostrils, together with some char and boozy pralines.


Exhibits a fuller, smooth body, with a light touch of carbonation during the finish.


Tastes of bakers chocolate, getting an immediate push from the warming, spicy and toasty bourbon barrel, adding an interplay of glazed caramel and roasted malts to the flavors. Turns sweeter then, with caramel, spicy molasses and a prevailing, balancing barrel appearance, adding even more roast and char. Finishes heavier on the spices, backed up by a solid sweetness with a late booze dryness and calming earth.


This drinks great after three years, creamy and complex with a nice portion of roast, implying a feeling of darkness in a great fashion.

 

Gotta get out for some final leaf raking before the snow flies, but first, some lunch and a beer.

Considering that most (well, it seems like most) brewers during the last 15+ years have been consumed first by the WCIPA-IBU chase and then the NEIPA-turbid-juice-zero-bitterness chase and have been cranking out a "new" (i.e. slightly tweaked with a new name) beer every few days for the tickers, finding a brewer focusing on classic English ales is a real treat.

I discovered Machine House Brewery when making my shopping list for my last trip to the West Coast.

I only bought 4 of their beers, 2 each of the Golden Ale and the Dark Mild. I also intended to buy a couple bottles of their Best Bitter, but the store I went to was out, and I didn't have time to search. I substituted an ESB (not quite the same) from Ferment, and last week I picked up a MN-brewed ESB, so today is English ale day.

Machine House Brewery Dark Mild Ale
IBU: 20
ABV: 3.7%



500ml bottle to an Imperial pint nonic.

Aroma of dark fruits, earthiness, light roastiness, coffee; very English. Ample carbonation (visible with the back-light).

Deep, dark brown, glowing ruby from a back-light. 1/2 inch thick, very creamy, slightly tan head (looks almost like a nitro beer head) that has very good retention, leaving thick sheets of lacing as it recedes.

Taste is roasted malts, coffee, nuts, bread / biscuit, earthy hops. Just as you would expect from an English Dark Mild. No bitterness. Excellent flavor, very porter-like. The finish is dry, very dry, so dry it nearly turned to dust on the back of my throat. The aftertaste is roasted malts.

Body is thin, but with good contribution from the carbonation.

Overall, a good, but not great, English Mild. This is an easy-drinking beer (as a Mild is supposed to be), no bitterness, that has especially top notch flavor. With the low ABV and great flavor, this could be a beer for an evening at the pub, if not for the desert dryness. The very dry finish is what holds this beer back, for me.

I will likely be buying this again just to give it another shot. Otherwise, too much of an arid dry porter for me.

L: 4.25 | S: 3.75 | T:3.75 | F: 3.5 | O: 3.75 | BA rating of: 3.76

 

Now that all the rugrats are gone, time for me to enjoy a beer in silence thanks to @EMH73 ! This is both a new beer and new brewery tick for me.



sour batch pineapple galaxy cream from graves point brewing

appearance is a very pleasant opaque bright yellow orange color with stark white billowing head. The nose is the shining star of this beer. Huge pineapple aroma with some acidity behind it. Other citrus fruits like orange and lemon float in the background. The taste follows with a big pineapple hit up front, slightly acidic. Some lemon and lime zest come in behind. The galaxy hop addition adds some nice tropical fruit hints. Mouthfeel is pretty creamy and medium plus bodied. Overall I really like this beer and my and my introduction to this brewery, I’m in the 4.5 range here. Thanks again Evan!

 

New for me today is the California Pale Ale (CAPA) from Fifty Fifty. Poured from a 32 oz Growler from Premium Draught in Houston.



Pours a gorgeous copper/yellow/orange color with a bit of haze. A dense egg white head forms with excellent retention and sticky lace all the way down the glass. Fruity hops in the nose, from orange zest to grapefruit and melon. Though still some biscuit malts in there to balance. Taste follows suit, with a great bursting fruity flavor. Orange, lemon, grapefruit, melon. Biscuit and caramel malts are substantial with a nice bitterness lingering to round everything out. Crisp and super clean. This is like a fruitier version of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and I like it a lot. Great balance, and very moreish.

Perfect for this lazy Sunday afternoon. While I listen to some Jimmy Smith and start The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (one of my favorite author's but I have not read this one which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize).

Overall score is 4.19
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/14936/90265/?ba=champ103#review

I also have cans of Donner Party Porter and Totality Imperial Stout from Fifty Fifty that I will get to later today.