New Beer Sunday (Week 767)

Good evening NBS
I've come to enjoy this thread as much as any here, but household responsibilities and parenting teenagers requires most of my daylight hours. I'm sneaking one in here close to the bell after missing NBS last week.

The review:
12oz can stamped CANNED 10/11/19 (23 days ago) poured into a tulip pint glass at fridge temp 5.5% ABV. The beer pours dark brown with chestnut highlights and mocha colored head. The head recedes to a thin ring and leaves a little lacing. The aroma is huge with sweetened, fresh ground, fresh brewed coffee and a hint of dark chocolate. The taste is semisweet cream & sugar coffee with dark chocolate notes and a firm, roasty mildly bitter finish. The mouthfeel is medium to thin bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, outstanding. It's always a concern for me when lactose and chocolate get involved, but this beer is brilliant. Not too sweet or too bitter. Aroma to die for and tastes great. Recommended.

I'll always jump at the chance to try a beer that's rated #1 in it's style. This one did not disappoint. Cheers all!

 

After a few weeks hiatus, I have a new beer to both drink and the time to write up a little post.

Tonight, I’m enjoying Devil’s Right Hand - The Father, a barrel aged imperial stout by Parsons Brewing Company of Picton Ontario. This is a blended BA stout with half the beer aged in Jack Daniel’s barrels and half in Woodford Reserve barrels. This is my first beer from Parsons, a brewery in the heart of the Prince Edward County wine region.



After fighting the very sticky wax to get an opener under the edge of the crown, the bottle popped with an unexpected hiss of strong carbonation. First thoughts, this will be a little too bubbly for my tastes with this style.

Pours a deep viscous black with a generous and slowly diminishing head.

Aromas are pleasant. Vanilla, bourbon and wood take charge, with some roasted grains and a little fig or prune following up.

Taste follows in line. Bourbon barrel jumps up first, but fights with the carbonation to really make its presence felt. Vanilla, milk chocolate and some Christmas pudding fruits peak through. A dry oaky note hits once the sip is swallowed. This woody dryness begins to dominate more and more as the beer warms.

Body is thin for style and the effervescence noted on popping the crown is certainly present in too great a fashion.

Overall this is enjoyable. It is a little over carbonated to my taste and the woody finish is too prominent. Otherwise, I’m happy and will certainly try other beers from Parsons when I have a chance.

 

Hah! I thought for sure that was a planned-by-the-committee, NBS-sanctioned open. Good to see/hear nobody got hurt. Another Jabberwocky for me and I dang sure won't be feeling no pain.

 

Next up -
Anything that says Brooklyn I will probably buy. But when its Finback...
Fugetta about it.
Kinda Brooklyn DDH IPA w/ Citra and Nelson! Yummmmmm
Pours a hazy yellow with a 1/2" creamy white head that leaves lots of wonderful lacing.
Aroma is luscious! From across the room - crushed pineapple, fresh pine needles, passionfruit, tangerine, grapefruit, kiwi, white grape, fresh cut grass. Amazing.
Taste follows with a full explosion of flavor - tropical, citrus, fuzzy fruits, wine like white grape, pale malts. The flavor lasts for minutes. Lots of juiciness and hop oils on the tongue. Delicious.
Feel is creamy, medium body, dry but slightly oily finish. Alcohol not present in the 8%.
Damn I drink a shitload of IPAs but this beer is just stellar. Boat loads of lasting flavor and an aroma that just knocks you out. I have some great beers in my fridge right now. This stands out as one of the of best.

 

We need to get an NBS bottle share with you as participant/caterer. Congrats!

 

I bought this beer weeks ago with the intention of drinking it in that tighter time frame. Well, fresh hops got in the way of that plan, and while that means the synergy is not quite as perfectly lined up as it otherwise could be (y'all know I get overly excited about getting all them ducks lined up juuuuuuust so), and we all know the only time an IPA is any good is the day before it was canned, I still felt like now was a good time to crack into it.
I'm not a big fan of the IPA -meta currently en vogue, an umbrella under which this certainly seems to fall. But the GF and I are both born in early/mid October. And I've been to Chapman when I got to spend a couple of enjoyable hours with LNNBS frequenter and all around excellent dude Derek (@2beerdogs) down in LA*, so it all lined up.


(this is what the sunset from my roof looked like tonight. Look familiar @Roguer ?)

Chapman Crafted Ales: Zodiac Series: Libra

The pour was a pale chalky yellow like pureed banana. Think a chalky banana creme pie. Fuzzy white head that settles back into the realm of mild-galaxy and a thin ring around the glass.

Nose starts to lean into that current meta I allude to above. Bruised beach-fruits and the green side of the spectrum for each of the classic IPA-axes. Lime as opposed to grapefruit, young papaya as opposed to mango, maybe some light honeydew as opposed to cantaloupe. Some mildly creamy element (but again to the banana analogy as opposed to like dairy-based cream).

Flavour follows the same suit as above. Green sides of the various bine-representations. High notes. The whole second half is a big oily/earthy deep bitterness.

A lot of the hazies and/or the dry-hopped IPAs that I've tried have this chalky powdery thing going on (I think it's literally the powdered nectar/whatever it's called found within the hop cone that has not fully dissolved into suspension. I find it really distracting and unpleasant. In the same way that a lot of people love cookie dough, whereas I'd rather cook it into it's final form as actual cookies. I digress. Libra here gives every indication it's going to follow in the footsteps of its brethren, but then curbs those impulses and integrates its components smoothly and enjoyably instead. It still leans towards the thin and sharp/green bitter as mentioned multiple times, but I noticed and would like to appreciate that it does that bit really well.
Like I said, ultimately this is quite well crafted, it's just not a manifestation of the style that is within my preferred profile.




(I mean it's too perfect, right?)

 

Sorry for your loss. Yoda looks like a pretty cool dude.